fey_cooks

I made this recipe the other night and it came out fairly well - will definitely be trying again - but not until I have more bowls because I really didn't like the way the food processor handled this one.

I subbed out some eggnog coffee for the espresso and added a bit of rum to the frosting.

I still need to find a way to make this a little creamier

Toasted Almonds
Olive Oil
Honey

Grind almonds until they begin to ball up (this means they are releasing oil) - I like my small food processor for this as I am not making a large quantity of nut butter.
Add a bit of olive oil until you reach the consistency you want
Add honey for flavor - and because it helps a bit to make it more spreadable

Next time I want to try drizzling marinara over the top and sprinkling with mozzarella and parmigiana cheese.

Frozen Spinach
Sour Cream
Cream Cheese
Onion
Cherry tomatoes
Garlic Powder
Pillsbury canned bread sticks

Pre-heat 350

Mix Everything but bread sticks together in your food processor

Take each long strip of dough and lay it out (don't separate into two but leave each long strip as a long strip.)
Take a bit of your spinach mix and place along the length of the roll and then simply roll it up into a coil shaped pun (kind of like a cinnamon bun)

Bake 25 min

Next time I make this I want to try adding several things: Fresh Sage, Boiled Eggs, Shallots, walnuts, and Celery.

Autumn Cornbread made with only 1/4 cup of brown sugar (unless you like your stuffing really sweet)
2 eggs beaten
1 caramelized onion
2 cups chicken broth
3 cloves of garlic (best sweated with the onions - towards the end so they don't burn)
Rosemary
Parsley
Dried Sage

Pre-heat your oven to 350
Tear up the cornbread and then mix with all other ingredients
Bake in oven for 30 minutes

Next time I want to try adding a bit of cilantro

Honey
Dijon Mustard
Worcestershire Sauce
Curry
Chicken

Mix the first 4 together, baste your chicken and let sit for at least 2 hrs

Pre-heat to 350 and bake for 30 minutes

The first time I made this it came out with a perfect texture but my pan was too small so it wouldn't cook evenly and was raw in the middle. The second time it was a little denser than I wanted it to be (because of the eggs?)... halving the recipe worked best but I want to try adding another egg or two to see if that gives me a better rise and a looser crumb.
Failing that I suppose I will just have to buy a bunt pan.

Cream Cheese Pound Cake Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
3 cups sugar
6 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1/8 teaspoon salt

You will need a largish pan (like a full sized bundt pan) for this as it makes a lot of batter.

Pre-heat your oven to 350

Beat the butter and cream cheese together (as usual, I used my food processor)
Add sugar and cream, then add eggs 1 by 1
Add vanilla
Then add flour (if doing this in the food processor I would do it in 1/2 cup batches)
Add Salt

Grease pan and pour batter in - bake for roughly 1 hr

Caramel Glaze:

1/4 cup heavy cream
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup butter

On medium low to low heat, melt your butter and add brown sugar, stir until it thickens into a thick syrup and the sugar is completely incorporated.
In your food processor blend everything else and then add the caramel you just made on the stove. Blend just until it comes together.

Spread over your cake

Fried Apples:

4 apples
Cloves
Nutmeg
Brown Sugar
Butter
Rum Extract

Peel apples (Pick your favorite - I prefer red delicious)
Cut your apples into slices or chunks (I prefer chunks)
par-boil for 5 minutes in apple cider
Melt butter and saute cloves, nutmeg, rum extract and brown sugar to get the butter evenly spiced
Add your apples and toss to coat evenly in your spiced butter - let fry for about 3 minutes then flip and let go for another five minutes. When they're tender they're ready.

Take them out and put aside to top your cake as you serve

This recipe is a slightly altered form of the original to be found here Willow Bird Baking

The use of acidulated water is a quick and easy way to slow (not stop, but drastically slow) the oxidization process that leads to the the browning of fruits and vegetables.
It's easy to make simply mix the following (choose one) and add vegetables or fruits.

3/8 tbs vinegar to 1 cup water.
3/4 tbs lemon or lime juice to 1 cup of water
1/8 cup of wine to 1 cup of water

For Apples I prefer Apple Cider Vinegar

You can also cook vegetables and fruits in acidulated water to avoid browning brought on by the cooking process.

Next time I want to use more butter in the streusel and toast the pecans
For the muffins themselves, I want to play more with adding more spice to the batter. I want to see what changing up the baking powder ratio and adding a bit of baking soda will do for the texture.

For the Streusel:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 tsp. ground allspice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp clove
1/8 cup pecans
5 tbsp cold unsalted butter

Put everything together into the food processor until it crumbs together

For the muffins:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. ground allspice
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup light brown sugar
8 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 large eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
Apple Cider


Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Mix all of your wet ingredients together in food processor then set aside
mix all of your dry ingredients together in food processor then pour the wet over the dry and mix just until it comes together.

Pour into prepared muffin tins and top with streusel

Bake for 20 minutes

Next time I think I want to try adding bacon bits & cream cheese

Dough

2 ½ cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sour cream
1 large egg and 1 large yolk, beaten
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
½ teaspoon salt

1. Put all ingredients in food processor then spin it just until it comes together.
Put in a greased bowl and cover with saran wrap, put in fridge while you make the your filling.

Filling

3 cups potatoes
1 caramelized onions
3 tablespoons sour cream
1 ½ tablespoons Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
Salt and pepper to taste

1.) Make mashed potatoes in your usual way
2.) Mix everything else together in Food Processor
3.) Mix with mashed potatoes

To Assemble

Butter
chives
sage
Rosemary

1. Roll your dough out (put flour on your rolling surface and on your hands or rolling pin)
2. Cut out circles large enough to fill with adequate amounts of filling.
3. Put a dollop of filling on one side of circle and fold over to form a half circle and seal.
4. bring a pot of water to boil (needs to be large enough to comfortably hold all of your pierogi.
5. Boil pierogi until they float (five minutes at the most)
6. Melt your butter in a frying pan on medium heat and add herbs, let herbs saute for a moment so that the flavor gets pulled up into your butter.
7. Add Pierogi and let fry on each side for about 2 minutes (Until golden brown)

Serve
Melt butter on medium heat, throw your herbs in there so that the butter sucks up the flavor while melting.
2.)

I tried it with the molasses this time and loved it but I want to taste it on its own one more time before I declare it finished (I only had a tiny bite as I went on to use this as the base for my Autumn Cornbread Stuffing for minerva_fan's potluck for work.)

1/2 cup butter melted
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 tbs molasses

Pre-heat 375
Mix all in your food processor and bake for 30 min

*This tastes best as cornbread muffins - but then maybe that's just because I really dig the extra crust ratio.

1 can pinto beans
1/2 cup of elbow noodles
Garlic
Onion
Beef Broth
Thyme
Bay leaf
Olive Oil

Sweat garlic and onions in olive oil
add 4 cups of water to two beef bullion cubes (or 4 cups beef broth) & Bay
Add noodles and cook for 5 minutes
Add pinto beans & Thyme and cook on high for another 5 minutes
simmer for 15 minutes

Serve

Potatoes
Bacon Bits (You can use facon bits if you want to keep the dish vegetarian)
Butter
Garlic
Onion
Salt & Pepper

Cut and boil potatoes until fork tender
drain potatoes
dice onion and garlic and add to potatoes
Melt butter in frying pan on med
Add potatoes and onion/garlic w bacon bits
Saute until browned
Sprinkle salt and pepper over and give it one last toss

Serve

For the cake:

1 1/3 cups chocolate chips (I prefer Hershey or Nestle)
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 tsp salt
5 eggs
4 tsp flour
2 sticks unsalted butter

Pre-heat to 425

Give sugar and salt a whirl in your food processor
Then (with processor still going) open your feed tube and break each egg into the processor one at a time.
Put butter in Microwave to melt (45 seconds) then pour into the blender - what butter hasn't melted should be soft enough to blend right in.
Melt your chocolate chips in the microwave (Comment if you need me to explain how to do that)
Add your egg batter to your melted chocolate and give it a good stir to incorporate as best you can.
Add flour one tsp at time
Pour into well greased ramekins (Or muffin tins if you don't have ramekins)

Bake for 9 minutes

For the Cream:

Cloves
Nutmeg
Ginger
Molasses (Remember to use this sparingly because it has a very strong flavor.)
Brown Sugar
Your favorite brand of whipped cream

You know, normally I am not a big fan of pre-packaged foods - especially in desserts... but until I have a chance to break out my new hand held mixer and see if a solid whipped cream can be made with these ingredients that will hold up to the heat of my lava cakes - I'm going with this.

Next time I think I want to try adding Rotel tomatoes, corn, lettuce, and sour cream

1 can Black Beans
1 can Chili Beans
Flour Tortillas
Your favorite cheese for Mexican/Tex Mex cuisine (I use a Colby/monterey jack Jack combo)
Ground Meat (I prefer Beef) shredded
Taco Seasonings

Pre-heat oven to 350

Sweat your onions and then add your ground meat and taco seasonings
Cut your tortilla into layers that will fit into your pan
Place your first tortilla to line the bottom of pan
Take a basting brush and baste a bit of the chili bean sauce over the bottom tortilla
Drain the beans and mix them together over the first layer of tortilla
Add layer of tortilla
Layer your Meat and shredded cheese
Top with a layer of tortilla
Bake for 30 min

Next time I'll add a bit of butter, cinnamon and a touch of nutmeg.

2 Sweet Potatoes
Basil
Brown Sugar
Chicken Broth

Peel and cut your potatoes the way you would with white potatoes
Throw enough broth into a pot to cover your potatoes
Boil for 20 minutes
Drain just a little of the broth into a bowl and then strain your potatoes
Mash potatoes and then add reserved broth
Mix in basil & Brown Sugar

Ok, so there are no ginger snaps in this dish - but they're coming in next time (I came up with this at the last minute and didn't have any.)

1 salmon blank
3 tbs butter
1 tsp molasses

Pre-heat oven to 350

If Frozen bake salmon 10 minutes
Paint butter mix over salmon (once you paint just dump any extra over the top)
Tuck into the oven and bake for another 15 minutes
Serve

We blew out a tire on Friday, and the two nicest police officers stopped and gave us a hand with our tire... by way of showing our appreciation I made these and sent them over to the police station to say thank you.
Officer Hooker says they're addictive.

Next time I think I'll add a little mint extract to turn it up a notch, and I'll add a bit of real bourbon...

1 complete pkg mint Oreos
1 pkg phily cream cheese
1/2 cup Powdered Sugar
2 tbs Vanilla Extract

Separate your Oreos into 3 parts (each cookie and then the cream middle)
Beat your cream cheese in your food processor
add separated cookies (I did this in two batches) and let the food processor pulverize the cookies.
Add sugar and vanilla
Take your dough and put it into the fridge for half an hour
Form dough into balls and place on well greased cookie sheet
Put freezer for 30 minutes
Pour a pkg of chocolate chips into a microwave safe container (I use my glass measuring cup because it's nice and deep)
Line a pan with waxed paper (yes, this is a necessary component - normally I just grease the pan but I learned that with this treat, that wasn't enough to keep the chocolate in the next step from sticking.)
Form your Oreo dough into balls and then dip into chocolate until covered.
Put into fridge to sit overnight.

Dish inspired by the original Oreo Bon Bon recipe over at Bakerella

I made pumpkin cupcakes the other day, and as usual attempted to put it together in the food processor. Yeah, that was probably a mistake because smoke started pouring out of my food processor, the air was scented with the overwhelming scent of burnt engine and my food processor stopped working...

I took everything out and finished it in the bowl - the cupcakes came out amazing. I took everything out and tried my blade again and it started turning happily away and so I assumed that it was just a matter of it not being able to process the pumpkin and that everything was fine... yeah, not so much.

I went to make Oreo bonbons last night and threw some cream cheese in my food processor (I've thrown cream cheese through the food processor for years with no trouble) the blades of the processor hit the soft cheese and stopped... it would no longer cut through even the easiest of ingredients. In short? My baby, the one piece of equipment (other then a fridge and stove) that I can not get by without in my kitchen was toast.

Luckily our money situation is fairly decent right now and I could turn to minerva_fan and send her out to buy me a new one while I finished dinner (OK, really I just wanted to stick around and see the episode of Next Iron Chef I missed last week... that and the blood bath that promised to be the Cake challenge show that came after.)

She came back with something so beautiful that the Skies opened and I heard angels singing...
I know have the mazaradi of Food Processors. It mocks my old processor the way the cheerleaders used to mock that poor girl who never made the team but kept trying out every year... (yeah I know it's not nice - but when you're as cool as this processor you can afford to be a little bitchy.)

It has a large cup capacity, more processing power, timed modes, options for chopping, grating, slicing and dough... with a dough blade. I am so in love with this thing...

I did it - I finally did it!
I have been on a quest for pumpkin cupcakes that actually tasted like cupcakes, not muffins or bread but, light as air - melt in your mouth cupcakes. And I finally did it with a little help from one of my favorite blogs The Way the Cookie Crumbles who did a wonderful pumpkin cupcake comparison, one of which the cupcakes I made last night.

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature (take butter out an hour before using)
1 cup firmly packed dark-brown sugar
⅓ cup granulated sugar
2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
½ cup buttermilk mixed with 1 teaspoon vanilla
1¼ cups canned solid-pack pumpkin

Pre-heat to 350

Cream the sugars and the butter
Add eggs 1 at a time and beat into your sugars
Add all dry goods and combine into butter/egg mix
Add vanilla and Buttermilk
Mix together
Add Pumpkin and stir

Dump into a cupcake pan (well greased, with or without cupcake tins) and bake for 20 min

I frosted mine with pilbury cream cheese frosting - but I'm working on the right frosting for this cupcake.

Changes to be made: I want to try adding spiced nuts to the mix

I finally found the perfect pancake recipe, no flipping required in these great hybrid muffin/pancakes. If you've got mini muffin tins - use them... if not, try this and let me know how it works in the larger muffin cups.


1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 egg
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
2 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips

Pre-heat oven to 350
Put flour in food processor and give it a spin (maybe I'm imagining it but it seems to me that this produces a similar effect as sifting.)
Add the rest of the dry ingredients then give it another spin to get all of these incorperated well.
Add the wet ingredients one by one and spin after each in order to incoperate them into your dry.
Reserve just a bit of your chocolate chips before adding them into your batter.
Pour the batter from the food processor into a smaller cup
Use the cup to pour into your mini muffin tins (this makes it easier then scooping)
Bake for 12 minutes and serve.

You can dip these in melted butter or syrup - but frankly they don't need it.

Credit for the orginal concept and recipie go to: Bakerella