Oatmeal Cream Pies

I pinned this recipe over a year ago.  I was interested in it because I really love to make traditionally store bought desserts from scratch.  I thought that I'd make these for my brother in law who LOVES Oatmeal Cream Pies.  They were the premier item in many a care package that I've sent to him when he was away from home.

I didn't actually make these for my BIL.  Not that I'm not willing to, but he's not here.  Maybe if he comes to visit me, I'll make them for him.  That's not a bribe.

I made these for CA's bake sale (along with the Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Popcorn Bars we talked about yesterday).

The cookie part is made from butter, brown sugar, regular sugar, molasses, vanilla, eggs, flour, cinnamon and oatmeal.  You know... regular old oatmeal cookie stuff.

What I like about the cookie is that it's nice and thin but it stays perfectly chewy when it's baked and you know I'm partial to chewy cookies.

The filling is made up of a powdered sugar, vanilla, a little salt water, marshmallow fluff (YUM) and shortening (YUCK).  I hate shortening.  It tastes like absolutely nothing but it leaves a disgusting film in your mouth.  I'll be perfectly honest that this filling tastes nasty by itself.  To me it just tastes like shortening.  However, pair this filling with a couple of cookies and it tastes EXACTLY like an oatmeal cream pie.

Despite the filling that you shouldn't eat solo (which makes me sad because I love eating some filling solo), these are pretty awesome and compete with the small Deborah's.

You can find the recipe over at Craving Chronicles.  I followed it exactly and so should you.

Enjoy!
Julie

PS ~ I'll be taking a break for a few days because I'll be having house guests for the next couple of weeks.  It means that I'll be cooking and baking more than usual, but it also means that I won't have time to write.  I promise there will be some awesome stuff coming your way once my hostessing duties are over.

Chocolate Chip and Peanut Butter Popcorn Bars

CA had a bake sale at work and he signed me up to contribute.  I don't know what the sale was for, I didn't ask any questions.  I'll take any opportunity to bake something.  I would have preferred if the bake sale didn't fall during the worst work week ever but I can't control timing.  Therefore, you get pictures that are horribly lit because I was baking at 10:00 pm.  It couldn't be helped.

I like these bars in theory.

The base is a chocolate chip cookie.

The 2nd layer is marshmallows.

The 3rd layer is peanut butter popcorn.

The 4th and final layer is chocolate drizzle.

These should be awesome.

They're OK.

I have no issues with the base layer.  The chocolate chip cookie recipe is standard... butter, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour, baking powder, chocolate chips...  the usual.

On top of the cookie goes marshmallows which get put in the oven until puffed and melty, but not brown.  I don't know why I couldn't brown them but the instructions were pretty clear and, miraculously, I followed them.  At this point, I still have no issues with this recipe.

What I have issues with is the part of the bar that I thought I would like the most, the peanut butter popcorn.  That should be super delicious, right?

You melt butter, corn syrup and peanut butter together and mix it with popped popcorn.  The result is chewy.  I expected something like caramel corn, just peanut buttery, where the popcorn would still be crunchy but this results in popcorn that was wet and chewy.  I really wanted it to be better.

On top of the popcorn goes melted chocolate.  I have no issues with melted chocolate.

All of that cools for a while until it's set up enough to cut it into bars.

It's too bad... this recipe has promise but I can't get over chewy popcorn.  It reminds me of pre-made sandwiches and soggy bread which activates my gag reflex.

I just reconfirmed with CA his opinion of these bars.  He says they're tasty.  He doesn't know what else to say.

Me either.

Enjoy!
Julie

PS - here's the recipe just in case.

Baking Bouchon - Recipe 45: Paris - New York

The name of this recipe is weird.  I don't like it when I can't tell what something is by the name of it because then when I tell other people what I made I have to make something up.  I ended up calling these peanut butter cream filled pastries which is boring. 

There is nothing boring about these.  In fact, they're freaking amazing.

Apparently this name is a play on a famous French pastry, Paris-Brest, which commemorates a  famous bike race in Paris.  The pastry dough is piped in the shape of a circle which is supposed to represent the tire of a bicycle.  Typically, it's filled with praline pastry cream but this recipe puts a twist on that and is filled with peanut butter pastry cream... hence the reference to New York because peanut butter comes from New York (which is totally not true but maybe Parisians think that's true because they don't know of anywhere else in the United States where peanuts actually come from like Alabama where I used to work in the nuthouse... aka peanut processing facility, but that's a story for another day).

They start with pate a choux - which is what cream puffs are made of.  I've made this dough before and it was still pretty easy.  Flour, sugar, water and butter get cooked together, then eggs are whipped in until the dough is smooth and sticky.  The whole things gets refrigerated, then piped into circles/tires.

This version also gets sprinkled with salted peanuts before it's baked which looks beautiful in the picture in the cookbook.  In reality, they all fall off when you slice the pastries in half to fill them.

Let's talk for a few minutes about the peanut butter pastry cream that fills the pastries.

If dreams were made of peanut butter, they would taste like this.

OK, that was dramatic but if you think I loved diplomat cream, this stuff is diplomat cream on steroids.

To make this heavenly concoction, you make diplomat cream (which is pastry cream lightened with whipped cream), add creamy peanut butter, a little salt and buttercream frosting. 

See?  I told you.

I really wish I could feed this stuff to you via the Internet.  Once they figure out how to do that, you all are going to love this blog a lot more.

So, we've got a light and puffy little ring of pastry.  It's sliced in half, filled with peanut butter deliciousness, sprinkled with salted peanuts, topped with the lid of the pastry and sprinkled with powdered sugar.

Now, please enjoy an unnecessary number of pictures of these round delights...

Did you notice my new cake stand?  My mom got it for me for my birthday, I love it!

You should know that I took these to work and was told that they are the best treats I've ever brought in.  I agree that these are in the top 5 and worth as much work, if not more, than it took to make them.  CA was a big fan as well.  So everyone is happy and I'm in a peanut butter coma because I ate all the leftover cream by squirting it out of the pastry bag directly into my mouth, and I don't regret one single bite.

Enjoy!
Julie

Baking Bouchon - Recipe 44: Chocolate Glazed Diplomats

I do my best to photograph the ingredients of all the recipes I make for you.  Generally, they look like this...

But before that happens, there's this...

I generally just throw everything on the counter, then organize it for you to fool you into thinking that I'm organized while I'm baking.  You've probably seen through this rouse by now considering I get distracted and burn things at least 25% of the time.

Anyway, I made doughnuts again.  Actually, I made doughnuts, diplomat cream and chocolate glaze again.  There was really nothing new in this recipe so you can just click here and here and here and we'll call it a day.

Bye.

I kid.

Link #2 will remind you of my love affair with diplomat cream (essentially pastry cream lightened with whipped cream) and I remain steadfastly loyal to my beloved diplomat cream (at least for today, tomorrow holds untold joys of peanut butter  and pastry cream which you're going to have to wait to discover).

So, the doughnut dough came together well again this time... no issues, which was cool.  Because these doughnuts were destined to be filled, they are fried up sans holes.  I made them a little smaller than the directions called for so I'd have more to share at work.

I'm still not 100% comfortable with frying and I definitely burned the first batch of doughnuts but I eventually got the hang of the timing (which was far less than the cookbook said - so I blame Thomas Keller for the first burnt batch) and the subsequent batches came out much better.

You can see the progression from cripsy and too dark to golden fried in the photo.  You can also spot the doughnuts that I rerolled in an effort to have as many doughnuts as possible... they're not perfectly round, but they taste just the same.

Once the doughnuts cool they get stuffed with diplomat cream.  I may have been a little aggressive with the amount of cream I piped into each doughnut (do I have to remind you how good this stuff is?).  There were some small explosions including one that resulted in diplomat cream launching itself into my hair.  Don't worry, I picked it out and ate it.  I'm aware that that's gross, but I did it.

After stuffing comes glazing and I still can't make Thomas Keller's chocolate glaze recipe because I can't find Neutral Glaze... honestly I can't figure out what it is so I've ignored it and continue with the Alton Brown Chocolate Glaze recipe which I'm very pleased with.

So these little jokers are tasty and I don't even really care about doughnuts.  As much as I adore diplomat cream, I think I like the sugared doughnuts better.  Call me boring.


CA liked them too as did my coworkers and his coworkers.  Unfortunately I made them on the same day I made another treat which was pretty darn amazing and I think these guys got overshadowed by those guys but you'll have to wait until tomorrow to hear about that.  Have patience (I don't, but you should).

Enjoy!
Julie

Baking Bouchon: Recipe 43 - Gingerbread

CA doesn't like gingerbread, or so he says.  What he actually doesn't like are gingerbread cookies.

I love gingerbread cookies - especially the soft ones that are shaped like chunky people with royal icing and buttons made out of red hots.

I love red hots... and hot tamales... and all cinnamon flavored candy

I don't think either of us have ever actually had gingerbread (the cake) and we were both pleasantly surprised.

The recipe makes two loaves of gingerbread.  As much ginger as is in the cake (over a tablespoon) there is an unexpectedly aggressive amount of molasses in here (over a cup).  There is also a ton of dark brown sugar which is just sugar with molasses which is extra aggressive.

This is one of the easiest cake recipes I've made so far in this cookbook.  There weren't any crazy instructions and I didn't even have to refrigerate the batter overnight so there was instant gratification which I'm a big fan of.  CA tells me at least once a day that I have no patience and he's right.

The other thing I liked about this recipe is the addition of lemon zest.  I tasted the batter before and after adding the zest (are you surprised?) and I really liked the way it made the flavors just a little bit brighter.

I should really invest in matching loaf pans.  I have no idea why I have two sizes but it bothers me that they don't match when I make more than one loaf of something.  Not just because they don't match, but because I have to bake them for different lengths of time.  I don't need another thing to keep track of when I'm baking considering I'm usually multitasking.

CA actually liked the gingerbread which was very surprising.  He doesn't only dislike gingerbread cookies but just about every baked good with warm spices in it... like spice cake.  This is kind of like spice cake so I'm still confused about why he doesn't hate it.

I also got a lot of compliments on this when I brought it to work.

I liked it too except that I have an issue with how it looks.  There's nothing wrong with the way it looks except that it looks like chocolate cake and when you eat something that looks like chocolate cake and doesn't taste like chocolate cake it's very confusing.

It also looks like pumpernickel but it doesn't taste like that either.

Enjoy!
Julie

Vanilla and Salted Caramel Whoopie Pies

Remember when I made Salted Caramel Frosting?  Of course you do, it was only a few days ago.  Well, somehow I managed not to eat every morsel of leftover frosting in my fridge and use it for another recipe.  I know you're proud of me.  I'm proud of me too.

I didn't want to make any more cake so I opted for whoopie pies (which are really just little cake sandwiches).  Everyone loves whoopie pies AND I've had this whoopie pie pan for months and haven't used it yet.  CA saw it and asked, "Is that new?"  I just said, "No, I've had it for a while."  ;)

Lucky for you, a whoopie pie pan is not required to make these.  In fact, the cakes didn't even spread out enough to touch the sides of the pan so feel free to just scoop them out and bake them on a cookie sheet.  You're welcome.

I opted for a pretty simple vanilla sandwich base so as not to compete with the salted caramel frosting.  It's so good you don't want to mix it with anything too crazy.

Truthfully the frosting was probably a little bit too soft to use in a whoopie pie.  I probably should have added some powdered sugar to it to stiffen it up because it shot right out the side of the whoopie pie when I bit in it.  That, of course, didn't stop me from scooping up the fugitive frosting and smearing it right back on my pie.

We don't waste frosting around here, it's the rules.



Renegade frosting aside, I'm very pleased with my choice.  These whoopie pies were super tasty and CA's coworkers gobbled them up right quick like.

Vanilla and Salted Caramel Whoopie Pies
Adapted from King Arthur Flour

Ingredients:
1 cup Sugar
2/3 cup (11 T) Butter, at room temperature
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
1 T Vanilla Extract
1/4 tsp Almond Extract
2 Eggs
3 cups All Purpose Flour
2/3 cup Milk

2 cups Salted Caramel Frosting

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 400°F.   Lightly grease two baking sheets or line them with parchment paper.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the sugar and butter together until creamy.  Add the baking powder, salt, vanilla and almond extract and beat until combined.  Add the eggs and beat until just combined.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl.  Add the flour and milk alternately, beginning with about 1 cup of the flour and 1/3 cup of the milk. Beat well after each addition. The final batter should be fairly thick and fluffy.

Scoop the batter onto the prepared baking sheets in heaping tablespoonfuls.  Leave about 2" between each scoop.

Bake the cakes for 7 to 8 minutes, or until they're springy to the touch and feel set. Remove them from the oven and allow them to cool completely before filling.

Spread the flat side of half the completely cooled cakes with a heaping tablespoon of the frosting.  Top with the remaining cakes, flat side towards the filling.

Enjoy!

Julie

Eggplant Parmesan (and my new present!)

Is it weird that on my birthday I opened a box and saw the Le Creuset label on the box inside the box and about jumped up and squealed?

CA has it so easy.  All he has to do is buy me something for my kitchen and I'm happy.  Screw diamonds, I want cast iron.

Introducing my brand new Le Creuset Signature Deep Skillet in Flame.  Have I told you I'm obsessed with orange?

Obviously, I had to find something to make in my new skillet immediately and I had this eggplant lying around.  Truth be told neither CA or I like eggplant.  Sometimes we like it in restaurants but every time I make it it turns out gross and soggy and wet which is frustrating because I want to like eggplant.  I keep thinking that if I cook it just right we'll have an eggplant revelation like I did with mushrooms a couple of years ago (I used to hate mushrooms and made it my 2011 goal to like them.  I forced myself to order them in every restaurant we went to until I figured out that they're supposed to taste like dirt.)

Anyway, the one way I have made eggplant before that we liked was to make it into eggplant parmesan... because you could bread and fry a tire and it would taste good.

Eggplants are full of water and in some recipes it's important to get that water out of the eggplant so you don't get a big ole' soggy mess.  You do this by slicing them, covering them in salt and letting them sit for a while.  The salt draws the moisture out of the eggplant which yields a firmer veggie when all is said and done.

I came up with a pretty traditional breading for the eggplant but with a small twist... I not only used whole wheat bread crumbs but ground up saltine crackers in the breading. If you've read this blog for five minutes you'll know that I did this because the saltines were taking up space in my pantry.  I love getting rid of stuff in my pantry.

All practicality aside, I liked the combo of bread and cracker.  The saltines are nice and salty so you don't have to add much additional salt to the recipe to have a well seasoned round of eggplant.




For simplicity's sake, I topped these golden rounds with jarred tomato sauce (don't judge me, sometimes I have other things to do) and of course some cheese.  I went with a combo of mozzarella for the melty/creamy effect and parmesan for the sharp/salty effect. 

Overall this was a good, satisfying, vegetarian meal and still the only way I know how to make eggplant that CA and I don't hate.

Eggplant Parmesan
Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 Large Eggplant, cut into eight 1/2" slices
Salt

1/2 cup All Purpose Flour
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Pepper
1/4 tsp Garlic Powder

2 Eggs, lightly beaten

2 Slices Whole Wheat Bread, toasted and ground (about 3/4 cup)
15 Saltine Crackers, ground (about 1/2 cup)
1/4 tsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp Oregano
1/4 tsp Pepper
1/4 tsp Red Pepper Flakes

1/4 cup Olive Oil

2 cups Tomato Sauce
1 cup shredded Mozzarella
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan

Instructions:
Lay the eggplant slices out on a paper towel and generously salt one side.  Flip the slices over and salt the other side.  Let them sit for 1/2 hour until you see water sitting on the surface of the slices.  Rinse and dry the slices.

Combine the flour, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper and 1/4 tsp garlic powder in a small bowl.

Lightly beat the eggs in another small bowl.

Combine the bread crumbs, saltine crumbs, 1/4 tsp garlic powder, oregano, 1/4 tsp pepper and red pepper flakes in a third small bowl.

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.  Place a baking rack on top of a sheet pan.

Heat the oil in a cast iron skillet over medium high heat.  Dip the slices first in the flour mixture, followed by the eggs and then the bread crumb mixture making sure both sides are coated.  Lay the slice into the hot oil and cook until brown (about 3 minutes).  Flip over and cook the other side until brown (an additional 3 minutes).

Once both sides are cooked, place the eggplant slice on the baking rack and put the baking rack in the oven.  Repeat cooking process until all the slices are cooked.  Bake the slices for 20 minutes in the oven to ensure they are cooked through.

Lay a one slice of eggplant on each of four plates.  Top with 1/4 cup of tomato sauce and sprinkle with both cheeses.  Top with another eggplant slice and another 1/4 cup of tomato sauce.  Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top of each stack.

Enjoy!
Julie