Chocolate and Dulce de Leche Cupcakes

My sister's coworker and friend, Alecia, is one of those crazy, super awesome, totally inspiring marathon runners and she'll be running in the huge Chicago 10/10/10 marathon tomorrow. It's over 20 miles long, goes through several neighborhoods around the city and will draw over a million spectators in addition to the runners, so once you're in it, a million people will see you if you stop. As her "I did it!" treat, she asked for cupcakes, and not just any cupcakes. She wanted chocolate, dulce de leche, and crunch, so after a bit of going back and forth, I came up with this:



It's a chocolate snack cake filled with creamy dulce de leche covered with a dark chocolate and whipped honey ganache frosting and topped with an almond praline shard and a sprinkle of black Hawaiian salt to cut through all the sweetness and deepen the chocolate flavor. And if anyone recognizes the colors of the box, it's from Victoria's Secret. This box has really gotten around! It's pretty, the perfect size for giving blankets, carrying birthday cakes, and to store exactly 25 cupcakes. I really hope she likes how it came out. Good luck Alecia!



Also, a quick reminder, enter the giveaway before midnight tonight for your chance to get something really cool from CSN Stores with the $45 GC that's being given away. Good luck!




Chocolate Yogurt Snack Cakes
Recipe from The Sweet Life in Paris by David Lebovitz
Makes 12 individual cakes

I'm including the snack cake recipe because it was the only new recipe I had tried, the frosting and the filling were variations of things I'd done in the past and I like how desserts can be a culmination of various different components that all start from the simple and can be built up as high as you like. This is the base, the level you take it to is up to you.

7 ounces (200g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup (125ml) unflavored vegetable oil, divided
1/2 cup (125ml) plain, whole-milk yogurt
1 cup (200g) sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 cups (180g) flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a muffin tin with 12 indentations with paper cupcake liners, or lightly butter them.
2. In a heatproof bowl set over simmering water, melt the chocolate with 1/4 cup (60ml) of the oil. Once melted and smooth, remove from heat.
3. In another bowl, mix together the remaining 1/4 cup (65ml) of oil with the yogurt, sugar, eggs, and vanilla and almond extracts.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add the yogurt mixture. Stir lightly a couple of time, then add the melted chocolate, and stir until just smooth.
5. Divide the batter into the muffin tins and bake for 25 minutes, or until they feel barely set in the middle.
6. Remove from oven and cool before serving.

Pork Shoulder Braised in Cider and a Giveaway

There is quite a bit going on, so this will be an event filled post to make up for the short downtime around here. There's an update on the blogging challenge, dutch ovens have finally found a purpose in my kitchen, and there's an awesome giveaway too!

First things first: I'm sorry guys, but it looks like I didn't make it very far in the FoodBuzz Blogging contest, but it was definitely a lot of fun trying and I have discovered a lot of great blogs through this challenge. Plus it was really great to see all my friends supporting me. Thanks guys! I may not have gone all the way, but if I promised you a cookie, you'll get it. A promise is a promise :D

Next up is the contest! The nice folks over the amazingly-all-inclusive CSN Stores have contacted me about hosting a giveaway for a $45 gift card good at any of their stores, and by George do they cover everything your little heart could desire! Right now though is the perfect time and weather for slow cooking and to get you to the dutch oven of your dreams, the instructions on how to enter can be found at the end of this post.



This past weekend I got together with a friend and her family and we went to a pumpkin patch and apple orchard, just a short drive away from their house. As a treat I thought I'd make pulled pork sandwiches. I bought my dutch oven a month ago and while I would have LOVED to get my hands on a lovely Le Creuset, I just don't have that kind of cash and I didn't have your advantage of the gift card, but it was still the perfect thing for making a moist, flavorful pork shoulder that basically fell apart without any work at all. Infused with apple cider and caramelized onions, it barely needed any dressing up:

We piled it on top of Hawaiian bread buns and topped it off with some BBQ sauce, but Joys daughter preferred to just steal the meat from her mom's sandwich instead. Followed by a fried pound cake topped with honeyed mascarpone and blueberries that Joy whipped up, it made for a yummy dinner.

And now back to the contest. There are two ways to enter:
1. Leave a comment on this post telling me about your favorite dutch oven recipe. I just started experimenting so I need your ideas :D
2. Become a follower of my blog and leave a comment telling me that you are.

Voting will close at midnight CST this Saturday(10/9).

The giveaway is now closed. I will tally up the entries and post the winner in the next day or two. Thank you everyone who participated!

That's it, easy, right? I wish you all luck and I can't wait to see your ideas.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, this giveaway is only for US readers. I'm sorry but that was their restriction, though I might do something later to include everyone so you don't feel left out.


Oh yeah, let's not forget about that recipe!



Cider-Braised Pork Shoulder with Caramelized Onions
From Gourmet, December 2001

1 (3- to 4-lb) bone-in fresh pork shoulder half
2 garlic cloves, cut into slivers
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 lb onions (5 or 6 medium), halved lengthwise, then cut lengthwise into 1/4-inch-thick slices
3/4 cup unfiltered apple cider

Preheat oven to 325°F.

Score fat and any skin on pork in a crosshatch pattern. Make slits all over meat with a small sharp knife and insert a garlic sliver in each slit. Pat pork dry and season with salt and pepper.

Heat oil in a 4 to 5 quart ovenproof heavy pot over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then brown meat on all sides, turning occasionally with the aid of tongs and a carving fork, about 8 minutes. Transfer pork to a plate.

Add onions to pot and sauté over moderately high heat, stirring occasionally, until softened and starting to turn golden, about 5 minutes. Add 3/4 teaspoon salt and sauté, stirring occasionally, until onions are golden and caramelized, 8 to 10 minutes more.

Stir in cider and return pork to pot. Cover pot with a tight-fitting lid (I also put a sheet of foil between the lid and the pot for an extra sealed fit) and braise pork in middle of oven until very tender, 2 1/2 to 3 hours. I turned the pork every half hour to make sure that it was cooked evenly, but that wasn't in the instructions, so you could probably skip that step.

Transfer pork to a serving dish with the aid of tongs and carving fork. Boil cooking juices with onions until mixture is reduced to about 2 cups, 2 to 3 minutes, then season with salt and pepper and serve with pork.

Ukrainian Honey Cake

Every couple of months I'll roll up my sleeves and step into the kitchen and try to recreate the Ukrainian honey cake recipe from my mothers childhood that she still talks about. It's hard because I don't know what it's supposed to taste like and all my mom recalls is that it had strong coffee in the recipe, so I'll putter around, trying out different proportions, adding a spice here and there, hoping I'll come close. I'll wrap it up and take it to my parent's house, make a pot of tea and hold my breath as my mom tries a slice. So far I've come close, and I've gotten some good recipes in place, but the perfect one still alludes me.



Round two of the FoodBuzz Challenge is to write about a classic dish, and there's nothing more classic then a slice of honey cake and a cup of tea with maybe a spoonful of jam to sweeten things up a bit more. So here's my hat in the ring once again and hopefully this time it will also trigger a memory and recover a lost recipe. Wish me luck and don't forget to vote :D

Ukrainian Honey Cake
my recipe...for now

1.5 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup strong coffee
1 Tbsp vegetable oil

Icing:

1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp honey

Preheat oven to 350F. Sift flour, soda, baking powder, spices, and salt together into a bowl. Whip the eggs until thick and light, about 5 minutes, gradually adding the sugar. Beat in honey, coffee, and oil. Add the dry ingredients and beat on low until combined. Pour into a greased and floured bundt pan and bake ~ 30min, until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool a few minutes and unmold.

Mix together all the icing ingredients until it forms a thin paste and drizzle over the cake to give it that honey tea with lemon flavor.

Cross your fingers and hope you got it right this time :D

Blue Moon spiked Orange Creamsicle Ice Cream

You know the days when about halfway through you know that you would have been better off not leaving the house, or your bed for that matter? I'm having that kind of a week. I have a wedding cake order for this Saturday and being the good and responsible person that I am (HA!) I've broken it down into steps so that I can tackle it after work and not end up staying up all night to finish it at the last minute...which is basically what I've done every other time. Monday I made a list and went grocery shopping, so far so good. On Tuesday I cleaned and organized the kitchen, did all the laundry (may not be directly relevant, but still needed to be done), and settled in at the dining room table to watch a movie and make the sugar decorations for the cake. About halfway through the movie I got that prickly goosebumpy feeling on the back of my neck. There's a wonderful short story in Joanne Harris's "Jigs & Reels" about a woman who discovers that whenever she cooks from the cookbook her mother-in-law gave her, her kitchen becomes possessed. The more complicated the recipe, the more severe the effect. Well, it felt very much like that story. All the lights in the dining room and the adjoining kitchen got really really bright, like they were about to explode, and just as I moved out from under the chandelier to avoid the inevitable shattered light bulbs, all the lights got really really dim. Then they started flickering. By now my imagination started getting a little out of hand as my mind began spinning through the vast catalog of horror films I've seen in my lifetime and I became aware of quiet swearing coming from the kitchen. Then there was a loud pop and everything got back to normal.

Now I should probably tell you that while I like watching horror films, while Halloween is my favorite holiday, and while my sense of humor does sometimes lean towards the morbid...I'm extremely "uncomfortable" in realistically supernatural situations. Or the dark. I don't like the dark. I feel I'm perfectly justified in that though since I grew up in Russia and they don't exactly sugar-coat or Disneyfy the children's bed time stories. There are always wolves and monsters under the bed that will eat your feet if they're not properly tucked in, and I hate having my feet tucked in. There are creepy nursery rhymes that are always sung in low deep and scary voices that replay in your mind and haunt you as you close your eyes and try to fall asleep. And there are furry hats left on the piano that in the dark look like a black cat that's staring at you waiting for you to drop your guard before it will jump and eat you. Okay, that last one may have just been me, but I stayed up all night watching the "cat" making sure it wasn't up to anything and let me tell you, my parent's found a fairly terrified and sleep deprived toddler the next morning.

So to relieve the tension and bring my nerves back to normal, I did what most people do in this day and age: I updated my facebook status. Yep. Said something about how my upstairs neighbors are trying to create their very own Frankenstein. And I guess it helped because I was able to settle down, turn the movie back on and finish up my work. But apparently that wasn't it. Yesterday I came home with the daunting task of baking 15 cakes (9 batches) and when I went to defrost the butter in the microwave I noticed that it was dead. Uh oh. The microwave is on the same circuit as the KitchenAid mixer. Crap crap crap crap crap. Fine, I've been meaning to rearrange my tiny cramped kitchen anyways, right? And the middle of the counter is totally the best place for the mixer. So half an hour later I had rearranged (and cleaned under) half of my kitchen appliances, and somehow managed to knock off a corner chunk of my marble top island. Sigh. The rest of the baking went off okay and I now have a fridge full of saran wrapped layers waiting to be filled and frosted. I tell you, days like that require ice cream.



I made this ice cream at the request of one of my friends, who wanted it for her husband's birthday (same party as that Peanut Butter Banana cake I told you about a few days back). We were just bouncing ideas off of each other and this is what I came up with. The base for it is David Lebovitz's Orange Ice Cream, but I adjusted the amounts and added a reduction of a Blue Moon beer. It cake out tasting of an Orange Creamsicle with the beer flavor on the back end. In other words, pretty damn good, and just what was needed to keep the kitchen gremlins at bay.



Blue Moon and Orange Creamsicle Ice Cream
adapted from The Perfect Scoop
Yields about 1 Quart

2/3 cup sugar
Grated zest of 3 large juice oranges
1 1/4 cups freshly squeezed orange juice (those same 3 oranges)
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 bottle of Blue Moon Belgian White beer

1. Pour the beer into a small saucepan and gently simmer over medium heat until reduced down to half a cup, stirring occasionally. Pour into a container and chill completely in the fridge.
2. Pulverize sugar and orange zest in blender or food processor. It will look like moist sand and smell intoxicating.
3. Add orange juice, sour cream, cream, and the beer reduction and blend until the sugar is completely dissolved.
4. Chill the mixture in the refrigerator for several hours and then process in ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions.

The Hard Questions...and a Monster Cookie

I just looked and was shocked to see that I have been contributing to this here blog for almost two and a half years. It's funny because it feels like forever and no time at all, both at once. While I'm still not a rock-star churning out Martha Stewart worthy recipes and photos, I am able to say that I'm learning and that over the years this little space of the web has seen a lot of improvement. Though I do NOT encourage you to look that far back at my posts...too scary.

A while ago, when I finally decided to pour more time, love and dedication to this blog, I joined a little community known as FoodBuzz. It was a great place to meet other like-minded cooks and bakers out there, find out what was going on in the foodie world, and get inspired by all the wonderful recipes freely shared among the members. Oh, and maybe earn a few pennies to pay for the few cups of coffee my friends and relatives can't stop me from buying. Apparently I'm not very sane or reasonable when I'm hyped up on caffeine, but this way I can always argue that I earned it.

A few weeks ago, I got an email from FoodBuzz talking about a blogging contest they were organizing for their members, and throwing caution to the wind, I tossed my name into the hat and signed up. Well, the contest is now in full swing (see my little widget on the right?) and the time has come for the very first round, which asks the following question:

What defines you as a food blogger and why should you be the next food blog star?

I believe that the answer to both those questions is curiosity and a willingness to always keep learning. I read cookbooks, food blogs, cooking magazines, and old note cards stained with oil with the same enthusiasm some people devote to fiction. Remember the Harry Potter craze? Like that. I look for ingredients or recipes I haven't seen or tried yet and I can't wait to get into the kitchen and give them a go. In the kitchen, I hover just to the side of not just my mother, but mothers, grandmothers and aunts of all my friends, pestering them with questions and sneaking in a spoon (or if I'm not watched, a finger) into the pot. I love tradition and I love innovation, and I'm always excited when I can meld the two together into something both comforting and new. But most of all I love coming here and sharing what I learned with all of you. In the beginning it was just a place where I could keep track of my own experiments, just meant to be seen by me, but over time I've discovered that I try harder and I write better when I'm trying to share my creations with someone who shares my passion for cooking.

Through my blog I am able to extend a virtual invitation to a new or an old friend to come in, sit down, and chat for a bit over a cup of tea and a treat. I only share the very best recipes I find and through my blog there are no judgments, suggestions and ideas flow freely, adaptations are encouraged, and even when things don't go right there are friendly words of support offered. It would be a wonderful thing to reach out and share my findings with and maybe learn something new from even more people.

So if you like what you see, take a minute and please vote for me via that widget on the right that says FoodBuzz Contest, the one with a picture of me drinking a BOWL of coffee (best day ever!). Voting starts on 9/20, so please come back then. I'm sure I'll have something fun to offer then anyways.

Oh...and since I'm not really above bribery, especially when I know first hand what people are willing to do for cookies, I'd like to share with you my newly discovered, just in time to be perfected for Halloween, favorite cookie ever:



This recipe also comes from Sophistimom's Bake Sale ideas and it was probably the easiest and the most fun cookie I've ever made. Even forming the huge burger-like patties and slapping them onto a cookie sheet was satisfying! And when I finally scraped up the very last of the batter for the last cookie, the chocolate chips sticking out of it looked like eyes. Doesn't it look cute up there with it's head cocked to the side? I think that top cookie is flirting with you, he's saying "please vote for me, won't you?".

And because I still have marshmallows and because I am who I am, I just had to play with it and give my monster some teeth, paws and a cape



Monster Cookies, a.k.a. Eat It Before It Eats You Cookie
via Sophistimom
Note: I would highly recommend you use the scale and weigh everything out instead of using cups. For one, the peanut butter is so much easier to deal with when you just pile it onto a piece of wax paper then trying to coax it into and then out of a cup. And two, um...you can skip the sifting of the flour step if you just weigh it :D

1 cup (100g) sifted flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
6 cups (480g) quick oats
1 1/2 sticks (172g) butter
2 cups (400g) brown sugar
1 cup (190g) granulated sugar
1 pound (450g) peanut butter
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup (170g) semi sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and oats. Set aside.
2. Cream the butter and sugars together in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add in peanut butter and mix until smooth, about 2-3 minutes. Add in eggs, one at a time, incorporating well after each addition.
3. Slowly add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture, and mix until well incorporated. Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold in chocolate chips.
4. Use a large ice cream scoop or your hands to form balls of dough the size of a baseball. Place 6 on a cookie sheet, and press down slightly with your hands. Bake for 15 minutes, or until slightly brown around the edges, and not fully set in the middle. I made some of mine a bit bigger and they needed an extra minute, so use your judgment.

They will be puffy when you take them out but they will deflate as they cool. Let them cool a bit on the cookie sheets before you transfer them to a cooling rack or they might break. Stack them up really high with a small slip of wax paper or parchment between each cookie to keep them from sticking to each other. It will look impressive, I promise.