YumSugar

52 Weeks of Baking: Week 52 - Gooey Banana Cupcakes

YumSugar — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 05:01:38 -0800

This year I decided that I would have a New Year's resolution that I could stick to. I thought about it for a while and eventually landed on baking. So with my trusty mixer and collection of pans, I set off on a 52 week baking adventure. It's been a fun journey and there have been some ups and downs, but we've finally arrived at week 52.

This week I had a bunch of bananas slowly rotting on my counter. Normally, I would turn this sort of thing into a loaf or two of banana bread. However, I wanted to end this series on a more spectacular note, and plain old banana bread just wouldn't cut it. So I brainstormed and came up with Banana Cupcakes with a Dulce de Leche filling and Chocolate Buttercream frosting. They came together quickly, and were a real treat to my sweet tooth. To get the recipe, read more

Note: If you don't like dulce de leche, then try your own variation with peanut butter, chocolate or simply omit.

Gooey Banana Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream
A recipe in progress by YumSugar

Makes 18

Cupcakes
3 overripe bananas plus 1 more for decoration
splash of milk (optional)
2 3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
2 sticks of butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
dulce de leche filling, recipe follows
chocolate buttercream, recipe follows

Preheat oven to 350F.
In a food processor, puree bananas until smooth. Depending on your bananas, you may need to add a splash of mixture so that the consistency is nice and smooth. Set aside.
In a medium-sized bowl, whisk or sift flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together. Set aside.
In a mixer or large bowl, cream butter and sugars together until well mixed, and airy.
Add eggs, one at a time, making sure each egg is fully incorporated before proceeding.
Stir in vanilla, followed by banana puree.
Line a cupcake tin with cupcake liners. Scoop an even amount of dough into each cup. I filled them to the top and had enough for 19 cupcakes.
Bake for about 16 minutes. A wooden skewer inserted in the middle willl come out clean and tops are a light brown in color.
Remove cupcakes from oven and cool in tins for two minutes. Transfer to cooling rack.
When cupcakes are completely cooled, cut a cone shape from the center. Set aside.
Spoon enough dulce de leche to fill the cavity you have created.
Top with cone piece, to create a nearly seamless look. Repeat with remaining cupcakes.
Spoon some frosting on top of each cupcake, spread out with a spatula.
Top each cupcake with a thin slice of banana.

For filling:
1 14 oz-can sweetened condensed milk

Fill the bottom of a double boiler (or pan if using bowl/pan method), halfway with water. Bring to boil and then reduce heat to medium. Pour milk into the top of the double boiler (or bowl if using/bowl/pan method). Heat until milk has thickened and has become a dark caramel color. This will take about 2 hours. Every 30 minutes give it a stir and replenish water on bottom if necessary. When finished, remove from heat and cool completely.

For frosting:
1 stick of butter
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk

In a small bowl or mixer, cream butter.
Mix in cocoa powder (you can add more or less depending on taste).
Mix in vanilla.
Mix in half of powdered sugar, followed by half of the milk.
Mix in the rest of the powdered sugar. Blend well. Add the rest of the milk and mix completely. If your frosting is too thin, add more sugar (or cocoa depending on taste). If it is too thick, add more milk.

Print recipe with images | without images

View 23 Photos ›

52 Weeks of Baking: Mocha-Cappuccino Marbled Coffee Cake

YumSugar — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 09:18:31 -0800

This week, with all of the gingerbread and holiday baking, I thought it would be nice to make a simple cake to pair with coffee. Many folks have friends and family staying at their house this season and a coffee cake is something that whips up quickly and is perfect to have on hand. It works as a simple breakfast, and is delightful with an afternoon cup of tea. This particular recipe is a coffee-chocolate swirl, although I thought the coffee flavor could be heightened. The crumb is nice and moist, but be careful, there's a small window between perfect and overdone. To get the recipe, read more.

Mocha-Cappuccino Marbled Coffee Cake
From Coffee Cakes: Simple, Sweet and Savory by Lou Seibert Pappas

12 Tbsp (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp instant coffee powder dissolved in 2 Tbsp hot water
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups sour cream
2 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted

Preheat over to 350F.
Butter and flour a 10-inch Bundt or tube pan.
In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar with a wooden spoon or an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and mix in the vanilla and dissolved coffee until blended.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir to blend.
Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture alternately with the sour cream in 2 increments, beating until thick and smooth.
Spoon one-third of the batter into a small bowl and stir in the chocolate.
Spoon 4 heaping tablespoons of the coffee batter into the pan, spacing them apart, then spoon some chocolate batter by the tablespoon into the spaces. Repeat until all the batter is used.
With a knife, swirl through the mixture once to marble the batters. [Note: I felt once was not enough and would do it at least 2 times depending on how deep you are able to swirl the batter.]
Bake for 55 minutes to 1 hour, or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then unmold right side up on a wire rack and let cool completely.
Cut into slices to serve.

Print recipe with images | without images

View 18 Photos ›

52 Weeks of Baking: Gingerbread

YumSugar — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 13:31:31 -0800

CasaSugar and I recently got into a debate over who could make the best gingerbread house. I hadn't actually made one from scratch ever, and was about 10 years old when I last put one together. However neither of these things stopped me from talking up how great my house would be. I had the best plans and great ideas; only problem was I didn't have a recipe and didn't know where to begin. So I did some research, rolled up my sleeves, and started mixing. The recipe I found - from Bon Appétit - actually makes way more gingerbread than necessary for one house. With all the leftover dough I decided to make a few gingerbread men. Only problem was, I didn't actually have a gingerbread-man cutter. So I used a knife and freestyled.

The end result was a gingerbread man with one arm larger than the other. I fixed that problem by piping on an icing cast. His neck also received a hairline fracture because I moved it to the cooling rack before it was ready. I covered this up by piping a little tie on him. And since he had a tie, I felt he needed a cellphone, too. No matter what you end up doing, just have a good time. I'm going to share details on my house later this week, and now I'm off to invest in a good gingerbread-man cookie cutter!

To get the gingerbread recipe I used, read more.

Gingerbread (for House or Men)
From Bon Appetit, 2000

For Gingerbread
6 3/4 cups all purpose flour
4 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 1/2 cups solid vegetable shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
3/4 cup robust (dark) molasses

For Icing
4 large egg whites
7 to 7 1/2 cups powdered white sugar

Sift flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and cardamom into medium bowl.
Using electric mixer, beat shortening in large bowl until fluffy.
Add sugar and beat to blend. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Add molasses and beat on high speed until well blended.
Add dry ingredients in 4 additions, beating at low speed until dough forms.
Divide dough into 6 equal pieces [this is perfect for a house, and a good idea for cookies]. Flatten each piece into rectangle. Wrap each in plastic and refrigerate until firm enough to roll, at least 6 hours. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Keep refrigerated.)
When dough is ready, preheat oven to 350°F.
Roll out 1 dough piece (keep remaining dough refrigerated) between two 15-inch-long sheets of parchment to scant 1/4-inch rectangle, turning over dough and parchment occasionally. If parchment wrinkles, peel off, smooth wrinkle and reposition parchment over dough; continue to roll out dough to required thickness.
Cut into desired shapes. The easiest way is to remove the excess dough from the bottom parchment paper and slide the entire parchment paper sheet (with cut-out cookies) onto baking sheet.I didn't have a cookie cutter, so I free-styled.
Bake until dry looking, firm to touch in center and just beginning to darken around edges, about 13 minutes. Note: this is the perfect time for house pieces, which you want to be a bit dryer, for individual cookies, start checking around 9 minutes.
Slide parchment with gingerbread onto rack and cool completely. Rinse baking sheet under cold water to cool; wipe dry. Continue with rest of dough/cookies.
While cookies are cooling, make icing. Using electric mixer, beat egg whites in medium bowl until very foamy, about 1 minute. Add 1/2 cup powdered sugar. Beat until well blended. Add remaining cups sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, beating until well blended after each addition and scraping down sides of bowl occasionally.
Beat icing at high speed until very thick and stiff, about 5 minutes.
Place icing into pastry bag with a small round pastry tip.
Use icing to decorate cookies or adhere gingerbread house pieces together.

Note: If concerned about salmonella, use egg white powder instead of egg whites.

Print recipe with images | without images

View 17 Photos ›

52 Weeks of Baking: Experiments in Phyllo

YumSugar — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 16:02:31 -0700

I thought about skipping out on this week's 52 weeks of baking (I'm actually making cupcakes for Jimmy's birthday tomorrow, and I thought I'd double-up and have two for next week). However, 51 weeks of baking just doesn't have quite the same ring to it, so I ponied up and took the time between Top Model (secret vice) and Lost (not-so secret vice) to head to my kitchen and see what I could whip up.I contemplated making crackers, cookies, or muffins, but Molly's on vacation (and I know she'd be sad to miss out on the in-office treats), so I decided to try some phyllo dough experiments instead. Earlier in the week I had been inspired by these beautiful herbed phyllo breadsticks (I'm not the only one, this post is from over a year ago, and yet it's appearing on a bunch of blogs now) and wanted to see if I could make something similar. I ended up with a few different phyllo "breadsticks" and one "tomato pie."

To check out what I did, read more

No real recipes this time, this was just me playing around with phyllo dough (which, for those of you who don't know, is paper-thin sheets of pastry dough that can be found in the freezer section of your supermarket). My first experiment was to take one sheet of dough, lay it open on a flat surface, brush melted butter on half (lengthwise), spread out some fresh basil (on the half with butter), scatter some parmesan cheese on top of that, fold the other half on top and then roll it up into a tube. I then baked the tubes in the oven at 375 for about 5 minutes on each side.

I did several variations of that general concept, one with cinnamon, sugar and nutmeg and one with cheese, salt and pepper and a few others with basil. The overall taste was light, salty, and crunchy - they'd make for a great quick snack. However I would only serve these at an outdoor party (so many crumbs! the phyllo dough is so flaky) and I wouldn't use basil again, it does that over-cooked black coloring that is blech!-looking.

I also ended up folding some phyllo dough into a ramekin, filling it with a mixture of tomatoes (which I should have fully de-seeded and salted to let some of the water drain out first), basil, parmesan cheese, and salt; and then topping it with more phyllo and brushing that with butter and sprinkling with garlic powder. I called the result "study for tomato pie" because it wasn't good enough to be a real pie, but definitely had the outline/prospects to become one.

When I was done with those few experiments, it was time for Lost to begin, so I closed down the kitchen and took my flaky snacks to the living room.

Have you ever worked with phyllo dough?
Tell me about it in the comments!

View 8 Photos ›