pear-champagne cupcakes

i found this recipe through the lovely and talented lexa. it's perfect for if you need an excuse to drink most of a bottle of cheap sparkling wine alone in your jammies.

and for your mother's birthday.


cake ingredients:

• 2 3/4 cups flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup softened butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 pears
• 1 cup sparkling wine (j. roget "champange" in this case)

frosting ingredients:

• 1/4 cup softened butter (no, seriously, if it's not really softened it will be gross)
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 3 cups confectioners sugar
• splash "champagne"
  

prep work:

• preheat to 350*
• peel & quarter pears
• grate them in the food processor, ohmygod, not by hand
• combine flour, salt & baking powder

actual cooking:

• beat together sugar & butter
• beat in eggs one at a time
• add dry mixture
• add vanilla & "champagne"
• add pear
• distribute into lined muffin tins-- they won't rise much, so feel free to fill them a bit more than usual
• bake until a toothpick comes out cleanish (lexa says 12-15 minutes, my experience was more like 25)
• beat together frosting ingredients
• frost
• use leftover frosting to take a funny picture of any brave soul you can convince to eat frosting at nine am to star on your blog (thanks, pop)
• have four beers and forget to take a picture of, oh, i dunno, your mom blowing out her birthday candle or ANYTHING
  

perfect bownies with a side of my words

mimi gave me a brownie pan that has a removable bottom AND a grid that settles into your batter and bakes up 12 perfectly-shaped, pre-cut brownies.

i'm not gonna lie to you, interwebs, i made fun of her. i poked fun of my grandmother. i did it. because everybody likes the middle pieces best! and i have a knife! and geez, they're only brownies!

but, interwebs, i am contrite. take a good hard look at that brownie (on a pedestal, just where it belongs) and tell me it isn't worth the multi-step process. have you ever seen such a beauty??

ingredients:

• 4 ounces unsweetened, semisweet or bittersweet chocolate (that's 2/3 cups chips)
• 1 1/2 sticks of butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup flour

prep:

• spray all the parts of your gorgeous new chicago metallic brownie pan with oil/baking spray
• preheat oven to 350*

actual cooking:

• nuke butter and chocolate for 2 minutes until butter is melted
• stir until chocolate is melted

• add sugar & combine

• add eggs & vanilla
• combine

• add flour
• combine

• assemble pan with bottom

• pour in batter
• tap it gently on the counter

• lower in the grid

• bake for 35 minutes
• cool briefly in the pan
• remove grid gently
• transfer pan bottom to a wire rack to cool completely

thank you, thank you, thank you, mimi!

madeleines

last weekend my uncle jim gave me a madeleine pan. the week before, the miminator gave me a miniture madeleine pan. there's something about me that just insists that you give me the baking tools you don't use anymore. it's how i've become the proud owner of lots and lots of neat things, like antique lab & bunny cake molds, a few extra muffin tins and a checkerboard cake kit.

j is fond of madeleines. "fond" might be a staggering understatement. j left for a new job in another city this morning. yesterday, i made 8 dozen 3" madeleines and two dozen minis. i filled a 2.5 gallon bag with the full-sized cakelettes (the minis require more discipline than i generally exercise) and this morning he drove away with it half full. fond. in order to make so damn many, i had to quadruple the recipe-- i think i need to buy another madeleine pan.

ingredients:

• 2 cups unsalted butter, melted
• 4 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 12 eggs
• 2 2/3 cups sugar
• 4 tsp vanilla

prep:

• melt the butter
• preheat to 375*

actual cooking:

• combine flour, baking powder & salt
• beat eggs & sugar at medium-high until tripled in volume (eh, 6-7 minutes)
• sift a 1/2 cup or so of the flour mix over the eggs and fold it in
• gently, slowly fold in the rest of the flour mix
• add about 1/4 cup of the egg/flour mix to the cooled melted butter & whisk
• gently fold the butter mixture into the rest of the batter
• chill for an hour
• grease your mold (i used baking spray)

• drop rounded tablespoons of batter into the mold (i piped mine in, as i do with anything that doesn't all go in one pan)
  

• bake for 11-12 minutes
• drop pan from a couple inches onto your counter to loosen madeleines
• cool un-scalloped side down on a rack
• present the little darlings elegantly on a tray or impressively in a giant zippy bag
  

best of luck, j.

(and thanks for taking care of him, uncles jim & frank!)

(and for the madeleine pan! i hope there were some left after he was alone in a car with them for 5 hours.)

creamcicle cupcakes

over the weekend i read that (seriously.) "brownies are the new cupcake." determined to prove them wrong, i whipped up a quick batch of blitz cupcakes that bill swears tasted EXACTLY like a creamcicle.

ingredients:

• 1 cup butter (softened)
• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup plus 1 tbs milk
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp orange extract
• 2 bricks light cream cheese
• 2 cups confectioners sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• (1 tsp "white-white")

prep:

• preheat oven to 375*

actual cooking:

• combine flour, salt, sugar & baking powder in a mixing bowl
• beat in 1/2 cup butter (VERY soft), milk & orange extract
• divide batter between 18 cupcakes
• bake for 15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean
• beat together remaining butter & cream cheese until light
• slowly add confectioners sugar, vanilla & color if desired
• allow cupcakes to cool and then frost by filling a pastry bag with frosting and cutting the tip at about 1/2 inch wide, swirl frosting from the outside in
• garnish with orange zest if you're not running behind (i ALWAYS am)

i also baked my daddy's birthday present over the weekend: 6 kinds of shortbread. i'll post a basic recipe, the chocolate-raspberry filled recipe and the lime-rum recipe.

AND i've ordered some rose extract, orange blossom water and culinary lavender from jr mushrooms & specialties.

trendy wine-glass pumpkin pie

for this fathers' day dessert, i was going for the trendy shot-glass dessert thing, but shot glasses? they are TINY. i bought a bunch (12) of 8-ounce wineglasses instead.

(i got them at homegoods, along with 2 picture frames for a total of $30. who should be without, right? SO WHAT if i'm about to start storing kitchen wares under the bed??)

bill's dad is fond of pumpkin pie, but pie crust remains my sworn enemy, so i might be making these a lot in the future.

ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups canned pumpkin (sucks, that's like a can and a half)
• 2 cups milk
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 4 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp pumpkin pie seasoning
• ginger cookies (we used trader joe's triple ginger cookies... mmm)

prep:

• wash & dry your glasses, bowls, ramekins, whatever. you need them on the ready.

actual cooking:

• combine ingredients in a large saucepan
• bring to a boil, constantly stirring
• boil until thickened (ummm, i dunno, a little while? at LEAST two minutes to activate the corn starch situation)
• pour/measure/ladle into your dishes pretty much right away
• garnish with cookies
• chill at least 1 hour, serve

i got 8 5ish-ounce servings. recipe found at cooks.com.

blueberry crumb bars

these easy bar cookies (er... bar pies?) were a big hit with my brothers on fathers' day. we had them for dessert, but leftovers made nice breakfasts. you'll need a half-sheet cake pan to make this size (a double crust, 1.5 times filling). i found them at allrecipes.com.

crumb ingredients:

• 2 cups butter or shortening
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 6 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 eggs
• pinch salt
• pinch cinnamon

filling ingredients:

• 4 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tbs cornstarch

prep:

• preheat oven to 375*
• line a half-sheet pan with foil & grease

actual cooking:

• combine dry crumb ingredients in a bowl
• work in fat as for pie crust
• add eggs (mixture will remain crumbly)
• combine blues, sugar & cornstarch in a bowl
• spread 1/2 crumb mixture in pan
• spread filling in pan
• cover with the other half of the crumb mixture
• bake for 45 minutes
• allow to cool completely before removing from pan

i'm never making a real pie again!