Brown Butter Rice Crispie Treats

I'm very happy about this dessert. Rice crispie treats have always been one of my guilty pleasures. They are so so bad for you but they taste so good. Somehow just three simple ingredients create something that is so much better than the ingredints by themselves. It must be the butter that elevates the marshmallows and rice crispie treats to new heights. So, why not try these treats with brown butter instead? So yummy. The brown butter gives these a smoky and deep taste, almost like caramel. It just brings them to a whole new level. The great part is it only takes an extra 5 minutes to brown the butter. The rest is as simple as melting the marshmallows and mixing with the cereal. It's so quick and easy, 10 minutes tops. I think I almost feel a little guilty posting this recipe. It's a bit of a cop out of a recipe. Three ingredients and a microwave? Not my usual style. But trust me, these taste so good you'll be happy I took the time. I got this recipe off the back of my marshamallow bag. The only changes I made were to use salted butter, brown the butter (obv), and cut down the rice crispies by half. I hope you brown some butter next time you make rice crispie treats.

Brown Butter Rice Crispie Treats

4 tbl salted butter
10 ounces mini marshmallows (1 bag)
8 ounces rice crisp cereal (about 4 cups or 1 small box)

Spray a 9x9" pan with non-stick spray and set aside.

Set a saucepan over medium heat and add the butter. Cook, stirring constantly, until the butter turns a medium to deep brown color, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, in a large microwave-proof bowl, heat the marshmallows in the microwave for 1 minute. Stir and heat for another minute. Add the brown butter and mix until combined.

In another large bowl measure the rice crispie treats. Using a rubber scraper, pour the marshamallow mixture over the cereal, scraping as much of the mixture out as possible. Mix until combined. Drop the mixture into the pre-sprayed pan. Using your hands (it is easiest if you use your non-stick spray on your hands as well) pat down the mixture until it is flat and firm. Let cool, empty onto a flat surface, and cut into 16 squares.

Whole Wheat Ceasar Salad Pizza

Drunken nights downtown in sleezy bars produce weird food cravings. Never in my normal state of mind would I wander into a shady looking pizza place downtown in the city at two in the morning looking to curb my major pizza craving. Normally the fact that said pizza place is overly bright for a place open at two a.m. and serving various meat-topped pizzas under what looks like an inactive warmer while looking quite filthy would turn me off to a restaraunt. But...I'm only human. And while drunk at two a.m. nothing ever tasted so good as the ginormous ceasar salad topped pizza slice I ordered.

It had everything going for it. There wasn't too much sauce or cheese on it. The ceasar salad was slightly wilted from the oven and the dressing, which was probably bottled, just tasted sooo right on a pizza. The crust was thin and slightly greasy, airy, and crunchy all at the same time. I was in love. Naturally, I had to recreate this amazing pizza. And I decided to go with whole wheat. I have to say everything else about this pizza is perfect. The whole wheat variation isn't a keeper, at least not the way I made it. Therefore, I have changed the recipe again to include a mix of whole wheat and white flour. While using whole wheat flour is a bit healthier, it is sooo not worth ruining a spectacular pizza like this. I think that mixing with white flour would still provide a little higher nutrition but retain that pizza-dough taste we all love.

Make this pizza in just 10 easy steps:

1) Make the dough, let rise, divide in half, freeze one, let the other rise a second time

2) Preheat the oven and stretch the dough to size

3) Top with sauce

4) Top with cheeses

5) Bake until golden brown

6) Top with ceasar salad and eat!

Whole Wheat Ceasar Salad Pizza

½ cup warm water (about 110°)
2 ¼ tsp instant yeast (1 envelope)
1 ¼ cups water, at room temperature
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 cups bread flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 ½ tsp salt
nonstick spray
1/2 cup crushed tomatoes with basil
1 cup shredded monterey jack cheese
1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese, plus more for topping
4 cups ceasar salad (recipe follows)

Measure the warm water into a 2-cup liquid measuring cup. Sprinkle in the yeast and let stand until the yeast dissolves and swells, about 5 minutes. Add the room temperature water and oil and stir to combine.

Place the flour, whole wheat flour, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the bread hook attachment. Briefly combine the dry ingredients at low speed. Slowly add the liquid ingredients and continue to mix at low speed until a cohesive mass forms. Knead at medium-low speed until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Form the dough into a ball, put it in a large bowl sprayed with nonstick spray, and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in a dark place until doubled in size, about 1 ½ to 2 hours. Press the dough to deflate it.

Heat the oven to 500° for at least 30 minutes. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Divide the dough into two equal pieces. Form both pieces of dough into smooth, round balls. Cover one with plastic wrap, place in a large zip-loc bag, and freeze. Cover the other with a damp cloth. Let the dough relax for at least 10 minutes but no more than 30 minutes.

Shape the dough and transfer to a large cookie sheet dusted with cornmeal or sprayed with non-stick spray. Top with sauce and both cheeses. Bake until the crust edges brown and cheese is golden brown in spots, about 8 to 12 minutes. Let cool and top with ceasar salad and more parmesan cheese.

Ceasar Salad

1/8 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice (from about 1/2-1 lemon)

1 1/2 tsp dijon mustard

1 tbl anchovy paste

2 garlic cloves, grated

1 tsp worcestershire sauce

1/2 cup olive oil

4 cups shredded romaine lettuce

1 medium tomato, chopped finely and seeds removed

Whisk first five ingredients together in a large bowl. Slowly whisk in olive oil. Add lettuce and tomato and toss to coat.

Pizza dough adapted from Annie's Eats, Ceasar vinaigrette adapted from Epicurious

Berry Charlotte

This was really a labor of love but sooooo worth the effort!! Between my two year old daughter and nursing school, I don't have nearly enough time to make things like this on a regular basis, although I wish I did! Maybe now that this semster (phew!) is over in a couple weeks, I will have more time to focus on baking. It seems like there's always a never-ending list of things to do, and I never get a moment to truly relax. Last night was the first time in a long time that I was able to focus on NOTHING. It was great.

Easter was a huge fiasco. Dinner was planned, but at the last minute canceled due to a bad stomach virus that's been going around. I began to feel nauseated as well and so I spent the night at my parent's house without my daughter. It was wonderful to relax all night on the couch without having to think about ANYTHING except resting.

So...the charlotte. It is just so spectacular looking. I love it!! It's one of those desserts that just looks so much like spring and very elegant. It looks like someone should be pouring tea in the background. I just think it is so pretty. And it is a very light kind of dessert as well. Whipped mousse filling and light ladyfingers. It's definitly not an everyday dessert. It would have been just perfect for Easter dinner. But I think any springtime occassion would be just as fitting.

Vanilla Ladyfingers

These are very finicky. If you are not prepared for a little trial and error, a failed attempt or two, and a lot of labor than do not attempt to make these, go out and buy a package of lady fingers, no one will blame you. They are frustrating. Hopefully my explanations will save you from a lot of the mistakes that I made on the first go-round. Also, if you do not own a stand mixer or hand mixer then definitly do not attempt this unless you are planning on body building. Seriously. If you are going to make these yourself, they are best done in advance (day or two) before you plan on serving the charlotte. As I said, they take a while to make and assemble.

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
4 eggs, seperated
1/2 cup superfine sugar seperated
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Before starting it is important to get allof your supplies ready since the airy batter will quickly become deflated. I learned this the hard way. You will need:
-2 baking sheets fitted with parchment paper or nonstick mats, the parchment paper will brown the cookies more
-pastry bag fitted with a large circular tip, the easiest way to prepare this is to place it inside a large glass with the sides folded over the top of the glass
-measure the height of your springform pan and form the ladyfingers to this height

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Sift together the flour and salt twice. If the flour is not sifted enough it will be too heavy when added to the eggs and will deflate the mixture.

Using a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or a handheld mixer beat the egg yolks and 1/4 cup of the sugar together on medium-high speed until thick enough that the mixture forms ribbons. In another bowl beat the egg whites until stiff. Add the rest of the sugar and beat until glossy and stiff, being careful not to overbeat.

Sift the flour and salt mixture on top of the egg yolks. Do not skip the sifting! Add 1/4 of the egg whites on top of this and gently fold everything together until combined. Add the vanilla extract and the rest of the egg whites and fold in until combined. Be careful not to overmix or the mixture will become deflated and runny.

Spoon the mixture into the pastry bag and pipe out ladyfingers onto prepared baking sheets. My springform pan ended up being 2 1/2" high so this was the length I piped the cookies. Save enough batter to pipe out a base for the charlotte. To make this, trace your springform pan onto the parchment paper and, beginning in the middle, pipe the base in a spiral pattern until about 1/2" from the edge of the circle. Remember, you can always cut the base to size but cannot add more!

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until firm to the touch.

*Note: this recipe made just about the exact amount I needed. I got over 24  2 1/2" ladyfingers and one 8" base.



Assembling the Ladyfingers

What a fiasco this was for me. Albeit a fun fiasco since kitchen fiascos are some of my favorite sort. I think I have come up with a pretty fool-proof method for assembling these tricky cookies. If anyone has some more tips or knows of an easier (or just different) way please comment and share :)

Hopefully, you did not make the same mistake that I made by piping my ladyfinger base too small. If you have, there is an easy solution for this. Line the sides of the springform pan with a double layer of aluminum foil until the pan is fitted to your needs. (It took me a lot of trial and error to come up with this solution!)

Place the base down and arrange the ladyfngers, bottom side facing in, along the inside of the pan. This can be very tricky to do since the ladyfingers are not flat on the bottom. They want to slip and slide and fall all over the place. If you run into this problem, use some royal icing to "glue" the ladyfingers to the base. This worked miracles for me!

Allow to set if using royal icing. Save any leftover ladyfingers incase you need a replacement for a broken one. 

Berry Mousse

1 cup mixed berries (I used blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries)

1 tbl plain gelatin powder

1/4 cup water

2 cups heavy cream

6 tbl sugar

Puree the berries in a food processor until smooth. Strain through a mesh seive to remove all seeds. You should have a little less than a cup of puree.

In a seperate bowl, mix the water and gelatin together and mix with the berry puree.

In another bowl, beat the cream and sugar with a handheld mixer until stiff peaks form. Fold in the berry gelatin mixture gently until completely mixed.

Spoon into the charlotte mold and refrigerate for 4 hours. When set, carefully remove the sides of the springform pan (and aluminum foil, if using) and decorate with a ribbon, flowers, and fresh berries. Enjoy!

*Note: I have to add, that this is one of those desserts that is best the next day. After the mousse has had a chance to soften the cookies it is absolutely amazing!

Ladyfingers adapted from The Ultimate Cookie Book, Mousse adapted from The New York Dessert Scene



Malted Pancakes

"We are young, we run free, keep our teeth nice and clean. We go out, see the sites, we're alriiiiiiight..."

Oh, how I wish you had smell-o-vision right now because the smell of these malted pancakes baking is like Christmas morning. Really. Think butter browning in a pan with warm, fuzzy pancakes sizzling away...ok, maybe not fuzzy. Fuzzy? That's how I feel, warm and fuzzy.

Now that we've got that straightened out. These pancakes are delicious. They might just be the best pancakes I have ever had. This is most likely due to the inclusion of a generous heap of malted milk powder in the batter. It's not detectable once baked (unknowing eaters will not be any wiser of your secret ingredient) but it gives the pancakes a warm, nutty, yummy taste. I think adding milk chocolate chips to the batter would also be wonderful. Or maybe even crushed up malted milk balls, which I will experiment with on another rainy morning. Ahhh, I think the only good thing about cold, rainy Massachusetts spring mornings is the food. Pancakes and warm toasty home? Win.

Malted Pancakes

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup malt powder
1 tbl firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 large egg, at room temp
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
3 tbl salted butter, melted and at room temp
maple syrup and butter for cooking/serving

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, malt powder, sugar, baking soda, and baking powder. In a seperate bowl, whisk the eggs and buttermilk together. Slowly add the butter (make sure the eggs do not cook with the heat of the butter, this is why it must be at room temp-if eggs curdle, strain mixture to remove clumps) and whisk in.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the buttermilk mixture into it. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet until just combined, some lumps will remain.

Preheat a skillet over medium heat. Add a generous lump of butter and let melt. Add pancake batter, 1/4 cup at a time to create medium sized pancakes. Cook until bubbles appear at the surface of the pancake, about 3 minutes, then flip to the other side to continue cooking, about 1 minute. Serve warm with butter and maple syrup.

Adapted from Baked Explorations

Homemade Whole Wheat Animal Cookies (Vegan)

I don't know about you, but I absolutely despise myself after giving my daughter a big handful of animal crackers. Acutally, I have never given my daughter a handful of animal crackers, but I'm sure that if I ever did, I would absoutely despise myself. What do they consist of? Flour, sugar, and shortening? And...a handful of other unknown ingredients of unknown origin that number in the teens and extend a quarter of the way up the box? On a scale of 1-10 they rank a 0 on nutritional value. Healthy snack? I think not!! That is why a little lightbulb went on inside my head when I spied these cool "Noah's Ark" tiny cookie cutters at the craft store. Homemade animal cookies? Whole wheat homemade animal cookies? Now these are a snack I can sort of get behind. I know what I'm putting in and it sure is't hydrogenated oils or some other mystery ingedient. They don't taste bad either, and I'm pretty sure if I swapped out the sugar for some pulverized chicken they would make excellent dog treats for my little pug Gizmo...

 

These are definitly worth a try if you have young children. They are adorable and your kids won't know the difference...that is if they ever knew what an animal cracker was to begin with...

Homemade Whole Wheat Animal Cookies (Vegan)

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

pinch of salt

1/2 cup organic vegan butter (like Earth Balance) or shortening

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and cover a baking sheet in parchment paper. In a large bowl whisk together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment cream together the vegan butter, brown sugar, and vanilla on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and slowly add the flour mixture at low speed until a dough ball forms. Add a few drops of water if the dough is too dry or does not come together.

Gather the dough and form into a ball. Roll out onto a work surface dusted with whole wheat flour to about 1/8" thickness. Use floured cokie cutters to cut out shapes and place on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper. Continue reforming and rolling out dough until it is gone. Bake for 5-10 minute or until the cookies are firm to the touch.

Vanilla Royal Icing

1 tbl meringue powder

2 tbl warm water

 1 1/3 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat all ingredients in a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment at medium speed until peaks form. Use to ice cookies, preferrably with a pastry bag fitted with a very small tip.

Cookies adapted from The Ultimate Cookie Book, Icing adapted from Wilton

Spicy Curry Veggies

 

This is one of my staple meals. It is quick, easy, healthy, and so so tasty. Seeing that I am on a diet just about 24/7, I always feel a slight bit guilty after eating this. And then I remember that there is absolutely no added fat or oil (in the vegetable portion, at least). If I want to feel completely guiltless I opt out of the crust on the potatoes, or I opt out of the potatoes altogeter in exchange for some spicy curry tofu (recipe to come for potatoes and tofu). This is a crowd pleaser. Don't be fooled by the term curry. This is so flavorful that everyone can enjoy it, without feeling like a heavy Indian curry. It's more of my own take on curry if we all lived in my little world.

Anyways, back to the food. I make this meal extra super easy by pre-washing and cutting a few pounds of the veggies and storing them in a zip-lock bag until I'm ready to use them. I add some grated ginger and grated garlic and shake. As it sits in the fridge the vegetables take on an extra layer of flavor that gives this dish even more wow-factor. I love it!!

Spicy Curry Veggies

This recipe is written as an individual portion since that is how I am used to preparing it. If prepared this way it will allow for up to 5 individual portions to be made on 5 seperate occasions (it is so easy and quick I never make one big batch and leave the leftovers in the fridge as I would for any other meal). Feel free to multiply the marinade portion for your needs if you wish to prepare all the veggies at once.

2 medium zuchinni or green squash
2 large red peppers
1 pound sliced baby bell mushrooms
1 square inch piece of fresh ginger
4 large cloves garlic
1/4 cup water
1 tbl light soy sauce
1 tsp hot sauce
1 tsp red curry powder

Rinse and chop all veggies into equal size pieces (about 1 inch). Place in a large zip-lock bag. Grate ginger and garlic using the small holes of a box grater. Add to the zip-lock bag. Close the bag, leaving some air in and shake vigorously until the garlic and ginger are evenly dispersed. Put in the fridge to use for another day or use immediatly as directed below (note: the longer it sits, the more flavorful the veggies get).

Combine 2 cups veggies, water, soy sauce, curry powder, and hot sauce in a small heavy bottomed skillet over medium-high heat. Let simmer uncovered until almost all the liquid has evaporated and the veggies are tender, about 10 minutes. Eat!

Mini Pixie Stix Cupcakes

I have been thinking about these cupcakes for months. The idea for Pixie Stix cupcakes has been swimming around in my head since last Halloween. I've just been unable to shake it from my mind. Finally, after having bought about three bags of Pixie Stix around October, I decided to bring it to life. Any vanilla cake base will do (I adapted one from my Baked cookbook) baked in mini-cupcake pans. Any vanilla frosting will also do (I used a cream cheese frosting). I tested out many different ideas, all to no avail. I substituted Pixie Stix for the sugar in two different buttercream methods (a typical sugar, butter, cream and a stovetop frosting made with flour). They did not come out well. The problem is that the Pixie Stix are extremely tart and when each flavor stands on its own in a frosting it loses all of its distinctive flavor. It just did not taste like I had hoped! Two things that I have thought about but did not try yet: Pixie Stix meringue frosting and substituting Pixie Stix for the sugar in the cupcake recipe. I highly doubt either would be successful based on my other experiences. I finally settled on a plain vanilla cream cheese frosting dusted in Pixie Stix and a Pixie Stix simple syrup to flavor and add moisture to the cakes. Win! Totally yummy and not overpowering at all.

For the simple syrup: mix two parts Pixie Stix sugar with one part water in a pan and bring to a boil. Brush over cupcakes. Simple. Some things to remember: 1 pixie stick=1/2 tsp, 6 pixie stix=1 tbl. You can see how this could get tedious...1 bag=approximately 28 of each flavor...so about 1/4 cup of each flavor per bag. This is plenty for the simple syrup alone.

P.S. You might want to tint the frosting and/or cupcakes, especially if these are for kids!!