Saturday, December 17, 2011

Peppermint Patties




I think powdered sugar just might be the messiest ingredient ever... it's 10x worse even than flour.

After I made these, my kitchen looked like a war zone... that had been snowed on ;)

But, if you like peppermint, these are totally worth it.  Technically, there's no baking here, but you won't judge me, will you?

Once again, I'm a recipe thief.  Or at least borrower.  I got this recipe from here.  


I'll have a small adjustment or 2 for you as we get on, but nothing major.



Here's what you need:

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
5 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon peppermint extract
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips.  (I only had roughly 2 cups (one bag), and was able to cover all of my patties.  It was a bit of a stretch at the very end, but it worked.  I don't think you *really* need that 3rd cup, if you don't have it laying around)
3 tablespoons shortening

And I'm going to say that you want some parchment paper, foil, or plastic wrap.  It doesn't matter which... it's just something to put your patties on that will be easy to peel them off of.

And here's what you'll do:

In a large mixing bowl, put condensed milk, 2 cups of powdered sugar and peppermint extract.  Mix on medium speed (with your paddle attachment, if you have one.  If you don't, I'm sure your regular mixer is fine.)
Once everything is incorporated, add the rest of the powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time.  By the end, your dough should be 'stiff but pliable'. 


Here's where I'm going to differ a bit from the original recipe. 
It said to roll 3/4" balls of dough.  That's what I did, and they ended up being HUGE.  You almost can't eat a whole one because they're so rich.  I'd do about half that.  So, here I'm gonna say "Do as I say, not as I do..."  the pictures are going to be off, because I made them big. 


Then, you're going to flatten it in your hand.  Don't leave it there long though.  And I'm talking within a matter of a few seconds... long enough for me to take this next picture, was long enough for the dough to get meltyish and stick to my hand.  You don't want that.  Flatten and get it off of your hand onto your plate as fast as you can.


See how big that ended up?  Yikes.  I should have known at that point.

Anyways, I put mine on plates.  That was fine, but if you can, I'd put them on parchment paper, foil or plastic wrap, because it'll be easier to get them off here in a few steps.

Once you've done this with all of your dough, put them into the freezer.  The original recipe says "no more than 30 min".  I have no idea why, or what would happen if they were in there longer, but basically they just need to be in there long enough to cool and hold their shape.

While your dough is in the freezer, it's time to melt your chocolate. 

Again, the recipe said to melt it in the microwave, but I've already told you how I feel about melting chocolate in the microwave. 

I ALWAYS use a double boiler.  The one thing I'll say about a double boiler, though, that I didn't think to mention before is that you have to be SUPER careful not to get *any* water into your chocolate.  I don't know why, but one drop of water will seriously seize that whole pot of chocolate up and make it completely unusable. 


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Sidebar:

Ok... curiosity got the better of me, and I didn't want to leave you hanging, so I went and looked it up.  Here's what happens:  Chocolate is a mixture of fat (from cocoa butter) and dry sugar and cocoa particles.  When water gets in there it reacts with the dry stuff, and they all start to stick together.  What you end up with is a MESS.  It's gritty and lumpy, and not fun, I promise you.  It's completely unusable for dipping at this point.  To read up on this, and what you can use your chocolate for if it seizes, go here.

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Once your chocolate is melted, it's time to add the shortening.  I thought this tip was pretty cool.  The shortening will thin out the chocolate and make it shinier too.  That would work for lots of candy-making... or even cake balls... anything you wanted to cover in chocolate.  That little bit of shortening makes the chocolate way easier to work with.  


Anyways, work the shortening through until it's melted into the chocolate. 

At this point, you can start pulling your patties out of the freezer.  I had mine just on plates, so had to pull them off with a spatula.  That was a pain and some of them smooshed a little bit (not that you can tell from the final product, though).  You can do the same, or just peel them off of whatever you put them on.

Then, grab a fork and set a patty on the tines.  You can dunk the patty into the chocolate this way. 



You may even have to flip the patty in the chocolate to make sure that it's covered... and then use the fork to lift it out onto your baking sheet or whatever you're cooling them on.  I covered this with parchment paper too, though again, you could use foil or plastic wrap.  Just whatever makes it easy to peel them off at the end.


Don't worry if you feel like the chocolate's getting everywhere... I got better at dunking and getting them to the baking sheet very quickly, and they ended up looking much cleaner/better the more I did.  Not that it's the looks that always count.  They're yummy, and really, that's all most people care about.

Keep going until you've covered them all in chocolate.  They'll cool just fine on your counter, but if you want to speed up the process, you can put them into the fridge or freezer for a bit.


Anyways, this was a fun seasonal treat to make, and easier than I thought they'd be.  If *I* can do it, you can do it!

Friday, December 16, 2011

Cheesy Garlic Bread... Um... Muffins?

Ok, so inspiration for today's post comes from a lot of places... and I'm not sure I can name them all... but I'll try.

I love monkey bread... You know, the bread that you make for breakfast?  Cinnamon and sugar, and you pull it apart and eat it?  Awesome.  I'm a little obsessed.

Fast forward, and I'm trying to think of new and different things to do with monkey bread.  I found a recipe for garlic bread done monkey style and loved it.  And THEN... this geniusness.

Pepperoni Pizza Monkey Bread

Pizza, all wrapped up in neat little pull-apart bites... *and* you get to dunk it.  Cool.

I took it one step farther, and thought it'd be fun to make them individualized.  I *think* I saw this idea somewhere once upon a time for regular monkey bread, so I can't even take all the credit... I just put all these ideas together.  I don't remember where I saw the little muffin things originally, though.  Wish I did.

Anyways, I always start out any italian bread thingy with this breadstick recipe.  We love it... so I use it for bread sticks, or garlic bread, and even pizza crust.  Why fix what's not broken, right?

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Directions for the dough...

Ingredients:

1 package active dry yeast (or 2 1/4 teaspoons, if you're getting yours from a jar)
4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
2 tablespoons unsalted butter,softened
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon fine salt
1/4 cup warm water
1 1/4 plus 2 tablespoons warm water






To start the dough, sprinkle yeast over 1/4 cup warm water in your mixing bowl.  Let it sit for about 5 min, until foamy.


Add in flour, butter, sugar, salt, and 1 1/4 + 2 tbs warm water, and mix for about 5 minutes.


Then knead for about 8 min.  If you're lazy like me, though, you can just let the dough hook on your mixer do this part, if you've got one.

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Dough Accomplished

I always let my dough rise in my oven... I preheat it to about 150 and then turn it off before I put the bowl in... it's perfect.  Warm, and away from any potential drafts or disaster my house/family/pets might throw its way.  While it's rising, for this recipe, I cubed my mozzarella cheese into 1/4 in cubes.  Also, it's time to make some garlic butter... about 2 tablespoons butter and some minced garlic or garlic powder, whatever you happen to have on hand.  I'll leave the measurements up to you... it's all about how garlicky you want to get.



After about an hour, that's what it looks like.  Awesome dougheyness.

Punch down the dough, and here's the fun part...
Pull out a piece a little larger than a super ball.



Wrap it around a cube of cheese, making sure to seal the dough all around.  I left out the pepperoni, because my husband doesn't always like it... but you could put that, or whatever your favorite bite-sized topping might be, if you wanted.


Then dunk the whole ball into your garlic butter.



Put the ball into a section in your muffin tin.   Each section should fit 3 dough balls perfectly.



Back into the oven to rise for a while.



Then, I pulled the dough out and preheated the oven to 350.

I had a few cheese squared left when I'd run out of dough, so I just put those on top of the 'muffins' and put the whole thing in to bake.

Bake for about 15 minutes at 350, and viola!  Personal cheesy bread muffins.  


Pull apart and dunk in marinara sauce for some yummy pizza goodness!







Wednesday, December 14, 2011

And now, for something completely different...

I don't know what I'm doing...

This whole baking thing is incredibly new to me.  I was never much of a cook, let alone a baker.

What I DO know, though, is that since I've started TRYING, I'm really enjoying myself.


It all started when I got a Kitchenaid Stand Mixer for a wedding gift.  It's gorgeous.  I can't say enough about it.  I was particularly excited about the dough hook.  I love fresh bread.  I've found lots of ways to wrap dinner up in fresh bread dough, for something a little unique.  Maybe a post on that later.

Anyways, I wanted to see what my mixer can do, so I've been trying out lots of new stuff.  Eventually, my husband started asking me to make stuff to take to his monthly 'carry-in' lunch, rather than just buying something at the store. 

That brings me to today's post.  I made these cookies, and he came home saying that several people had asked for the recipe.  I was so excited.  What a compliment!

I'll be honest, I didn't make up the recipe myself.  I'm new to this, remember?  And I'm not too proud to give credit where credit's due.  I got the recipe here.  I don't feel bad for passing it along, though, because if you read through her post, she grabbed it from somewhere else too :D  Isn't that what's so great about the internet?  I'd never know how to do *any* of this without the internet... but now, I've got a million and one resources right at my fingertips.

When I sent these in to work with my husband, I called them Double Chocolate Fudge Cookies:


Seriously, how yummy do they look?  And they're pretty easy.  I mean, if *I* can do it, so can you.

Here's what you need: 

Nonstick vegetable spray or parchment paper
1 1/2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips (about 9 ounces), divided
3 large egg whites, room temperature
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, divided
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt




Preheat your oven to 350. 

The first step is to melt 1 cup of your chocolate chips.  The girl I took the recipe from melted them in the microwave, but I've got some horror stories for you about melting chocolate in the microwave, so I always use a double boiler.  I don't have a fancy one, I just use 2 pots on the stove.

If you decide to melt your chocolate in the microwave, use a glass bowl, and it should take about 2 minutes.  Don't forget, though, to stop and stir 2 or 3 times.  That's where my horror stories come in.  YIKES.

Ok, back to it:  Double Boiler.





See how beautiful that is?  And no worries about burning/clumping.  That's what I've had happen in the microwave.

Anyways, at this point, you're going to remove your chocolate from whatever heat source you've used and let it begin to cool a bit.

With an electric mixer (Did I mention I love my Kitchenaid?), beat the egg whites to soft peaks.  
  Sorry the picture's not so great.  I don't have great light in my kitchen, and am trying to figure out the best way to take pictures that show the best.  You know what soft peaks look like, though, right?

At this point, beat in 1 cup powdered sugar, until your mixture looks a bit like marshmallow cream.  

In a separate bowl, whisk together 1 cup powdered sugar, your cocoa powder, cornstarch, and salt until just blended.

On low speed, mix your dry ingredients into your egg meringue mixture.  





Stir in the melted chocolate, which should be about lukewarm by now.  Once that's blended, add in 1/2 cup chocolate chips.  At this point, your dough will be very stiff.



Place 1/2 cup powdered sugar in a small bowl.

Take about 1 tablespoon of the dough, roll into a ball, and then roll in the powdered sugar until it's thickly coated.







Place on cookie sheet.  Repeat with the rest of the dough, spacing the balls about 2 inches apart.

Bake in oven for roughly 10 minutes, until cookies are puffed out and tops have cracked. 

This pic is worth posting again.  So yummy.



Cool cookie sheets on racks for 10 minutes, then move the cookies to the racks.

Makes about 18 cookies, depending on how big you've ended up making them.  The first time I made them, the sizes varied a bit, and I ended up with 15 or so.  The second time I made them, I was really specific about how much dough I used each time, and came up with exactly 18, which is what the original recipe said it should be. 

These turn out fudgy inside, and the meringue gives them a crunchy outside that's reminiscent of the crispy outer part of a brownie, which is my absolute favorite part. 

I'm working on ways to make this recipe my own.  I'm thinking variations on a theme... what could I do differently?  I figure you could do anything to them that you'd do to a brownie... add nuts (my guys wouldn't eat them, but some people might like them that way.)... Or caramel sauce... Or my favorite idea right now would be to add a drop or 2 of peppermint oil and roll them in crushed candy canes.  Seasonal cookies!

What would you do?