Mickey Mouse (Trademarked) Waffles!

Yes, you can use this recipe for any kind of waffle--not just Mickey-shaped ones. (And yes, Mickey is probably trademarked). But after getting a Mickey Mouse waffle iron for Christmas I just had to test it out!

Again, the Internet gave me recipe options since I didn't have a normal waffle recipe memorized. With no buttermilk, I just searched other ingredients until I came across a recipe on Tasteofhome.com for "Fluffy Waffles." Sounded good to me!

Since I never have dairy milk around the house, I used lite coconut milk instead, halved the recipe (doing the best I could to "halve" an egg) and stuck with my go-to whole wheat pastry flour. I didn't bother with the Cinnamon Cream syrup in the original recipe either since 1) I can't digest cream, and 2) I love my waffles with pure maple syrup or soy whipped cream if I top them at all.

Ingredients

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 Tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 and 1/2 eggs, separated (use two yolks and just don't pour in all the whites)
1 cup lite coconut milk
1/8 cup (2 Tablespoons) canola oil plus extra for greasing

Directions

1.) Plug in your waffle maker and grease with canola oil (using a pastry brush or a paper towel) until it is evenly coated. Allow the waffle iron to come to full heat.

2.) In a medium-sized bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt, stirring lightly to combine. In another bowl, combine the egg yolks, coconut milk, and oil. Slowly add the wet and dry ingredients together in the larger bowl and stir until just combined.

3.) Stir the egg whites briefly in another bowl or cup, then add them in to the batter and stir everything just to combine. Once your waffle iron is at full heat, use an ice cream scoop or other large spoon to drop the batter onto the lower plate of the iron and allow to spread to all corners (or ears) of the mold.

4.) Close the waffle iron and allow to cook approximately 4-5 minutes, depending on the intensity of your iron. Mine came out pretty nicely at 5 minutes, though the first one was a little off, as per usual with waffles and pancakes. Serve with butter and maple syrup, and be sure to eat while still crisp!

These waffles can also be stored in the freezer to toast later in a toaster (challenging but possible if you stick them in twice, once on the face side and once for the ears). Or you can toast them in the oven set to about 250 degrees for a few minutes until warm again.

Yay for fun, delicious, holiday-time breakfasts!

Fudgy Brownie Pie

I'm not a big chocolate person. There, I said it. While some people would jump for joy to discover little cocoa morsels when they bite into a seemingly innocent biscotti, I am much more likely to jump for joy upon discovering a little almond crunch or chewy cranberry. I like fruit and nuts. And I do like chocolate--the idea of chocolate at least. A little treat to reward yourself. A rich, decadent, creamy delight. But it was never really my favorite dessert. It was always just a little too bitter or a little too dry for me to request over such flavors as vanilla, almond, brown sugar--nutty and sweet or fruit jammy or peanut buttery even. In fact, I can forgive chocolate's bitterness if paired with something else like peanut butter or fruit (mmm, dark chocolate dipped strawberries...). And I've even gotten used to the bitter notes found in dark chocolate since I can't really eat much milk chocolate. But, for me, it's all just "okay."

Needless to say, I don't make brownies very often. I have posted exactly two brownie recipes on this blog and neither came into being because I was actually craving brownies (one came from a recipe that fell out of my cookbook and the other was for a children's program at work). Still, if someone asked me to make a baked good with chocolate I would not make a chocolate cookie or cake.

I'd make fudgy brownies.

For me, if you're going to have chocolate in a baked good, it needs to be moist. And if you're going to make a baked good at the end of a long workday, it needs to be easy.

After a quick search for brownie recipes online I came across one that mostly fit the bill: Fudgy Brownie Recipe. It already sounded like it could work. But was it easy to make? Seven main ingredients and the most work was melting the butter over a double boiler. I figured I could live with that (And I opted for melting butter in the microwave instead).

My adaptations, of course, always come into play, however. I reduced the butter just a tad, from 10 Tablespoons in the original recipe to 8 (an even stick), kept the sugar at just 1 cup and the cocoa powder at 3/4 cup. This was easier to me and (hopefully) helped make up for the cut in butter. I also wanted to use a pie tin because 1) I had an intriguing idea to add whipped topping to my brownies and 2) I do not currently own a brownie pan.

I was warned in the original recipe that these could be a little bitter. But with fudgy insides and a whipped topping idea to help add flavor contrast, I was hopeful it would at least get eaten when I brought it to the office for a coworker's birthday. Here's my final version of Fudgy Brownie Pie.

Ingredients

8 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour (my always go-to, but regular flour probably works fine)

Directions

1.) Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. In a microwave-safe bowl (such as glass) combine the butter, sugar, cocoa powder, and salt. Then heat in the microwave approximately 1 minute or until butter is almost melted.

2.) Stir the ingredients until the butter is no longer visible and then set the bowl aside to cool about 6-8 minutes. Once the bowl is cool but not cold, add the vanilla and then the eggs one at a time, stirring vigorously after each.

3.) Fold in the flour and stir gently until the flour is no longer visible. Then stir vigorously again about 40 times before pouring into an empty pie tin.

4.) Bake for approximately 20 minutes until a toothpick tested in the center comes out almost clean. You want it to have a little batter stuck to it so you know that it's moist. Though I personally didn't even test with a toothpick at all, not wanting to poke holes in my perfect little brownie pie. I just took it out at 20 minutes since it looked and smelled right.

5.) Cool pie in the fridge overnight, then top with whipped topping (I use a non-hydrogenated brand from Whole Foods: Truwhip) and shaved chocolate or chocolate sprinkles.

Since this pie was for a birthday, I couldn't exactly taste test it in advance (who all would dare cut into a celebratory treat before the birthday girl?). But I felt confident enough from my batter testing (and who all would resist licking the bowl of any baked good batter?) that the flavor at least wouldn't disappoint. After my coworker had the first piece and dubbed it "really good" (whew!) and "fudgy" (success!) I allowed myself a slice. And for a baker who's "not a big chocolate person" I sure wolfed my piece down. The center was, in fact, thickly fudgy (perfect for me, but if you worry about undercooking you can leave the pie in the oven an extra five minutes or so), not too bitter, and paired nicely with the whipped cream on top (I only had a dollop to avoid lactose issues).

I may not be a chocolate fanatic, but when my baking experiments turn out delicious for all I tend to jump for joy....

Brown Butter Walnut Pie

Ah pie.

Oh yeah, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Okay, so for me Thanksgiving dinner has nothing to do with turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, or gravy. Sure, they're okay. And stuffing can be quite tasty. But truth be told, I could live without it.

And yes, I really am talking about the dinner part of Thanksgiving and not the family let's-all-come-and-be-thankful part. So I'm not leading up to an obvious "All I need for Thanksgiving dinner is togetherness." Of course I need my family. But this is a food blog after all.

So just give me some pie.

"There's a happy feeling nothing in the world can buy when they pass around the coffee and the pumpkin pie...." It's so true they put it in a Christmas carol ("Sleigh Ride," composed by Leroy Anderson with lyrics by Mitchell Parish).

I've raved about pie before, and posted several versions of pumpkin pies (here and here) as well. So I'll leave pumpkin out of it for a minute (though that is a Thanksgiving staple not to be missed).

But I always make two different kinds of pies for Thanksgiving. Typically, pumpkin and then pecan. It's a southern thing and I'm originally from Texas. Besides, pecans plus sugar plus pie crust equal divinity that few foods can reach (if you're from the south, you know what I'm talking about).

However, holidays don't always go according to plan. Such as this year when my mom ordered our first ever "deep fried" turkey from a restaurant that shall remain nameless that undercooked our turkey and threw in "time saving" sides that we had to buy extra ingredients for and assemble ourselves.... But that's another story. Even before all that, I was scrambling on the day before Thanksgiving to take care of all my errands and responsibilities for the week including the making of the two Thanksgiving pies to bring to dinner the next day. I'd had everything I needed for pumpkin pie well in advance, but then my eggs went bad and I forgot to buy pecans. Not a complete disaster--my mom met up with me Wednesday night to deliver a few groceries including those quite necessary eggs. The only problem? She forgot the pecans too.

Exhausted by the end of the day, I decided I would just make a pumpkin pie, and perhaps come to Thanksgiving a little early to make a pecan pie at my mom's house first thing in the morning. And then I had an inspiration. Why not try something just a little different? That's what this baking blog is all about, and it's been quite a while since I've done some real experimenting.

I remembered seeing (and saving) an article on "Yahoo! Shine" earlier in the week for Brown Butter Walnut Pie, a concoction described with "earthy walnuts" that "replace pecans in this version of the classic pie." I knew I had walnuts. I love "earthy walnuts" and have often used them for toppings on frozen yogurt. The question was, would my family go for such a drastic switch?

It couldn't hurt to try.

My first change in the original Yahoo recipe was cutting the amount of ingredients in half (Six eggs? 13 Tablespoons of butter? That's a little too rich for my blood and certainly too much for my pie shells). I changed the amount of butter to a more comfortable 5 Tablespoons and then replaced the "whole walnut halves" with what I had on hand--chopped walnuts and tiny pieces of walnut topping. The cook time also had to be adjusted since I was making it at the same time as the pumpkin pie, which was already in a 350 degree oven instead of one at 375. No problem, I would just cook it for longer. Well, longer than the halved recipe would equal, which ended up being about the same length of time as the original recipe anyway (though I was just waiting until the pie started smelling really good).

Ingredients:

5 Tablespoons unsalted butter
Less than 1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup dark corn syrup
1/2 + 1/4 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 + 1/8 teaspoons sea salt
3 eggs
2 cup pack of chopped walnuts
3/4 cup walnut topping (tiny pieces)
1 pie shell

Directions:

1.) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large glass bowl, melt your butter and set it aside to cool slightly before adding in the brown sugar, corn syrup, vanilla, and salt.

2.) Slowly beat in the eggs and keep stirring to avoid curdling the butter. Then fold in both the chopped walnuts and the walnut topping (basically, whatever walnut pieces you can find).

3.) Pour the filling into your pie shell and bake for approximately 42 minutes or until the walnuts begin to brown but not burn.

Was the recipe a success? Let's just say no one asked me to make a pecan pie too. While the words "experiment" scared the family just a little ahead of time, everyone who tried the pie complimented it, and my own taste buds immediately told me that this new holiday recipe was a keeper.

Now pass around the coffee and we can all do that togetherness thing. I'm thankful for experiments that turn out well and wonderful family willing to eat the end results.  =)