Failed Experiments Part II: Banana Muffies

I did not set out to make Banana Muffin Tops (or "muffies" as the bakery/cafe/restaurant Panera likes to call them) on the morning of Sunday, March 11. But I was on a runner's high from having gotten a good jog in for the first time in weeks (56 days to be exact, but who's counting?) and I was energized to bake on my one full day off. I started with pancake batter because my dad always wants pancakes for breakfast on Sunday. Then I assessed what ingredients I had around the house and what I could throw together without even glancing at a recipe.

That's right, I attempted to make a baked good recipe-free.

This is a big deal for me. I love to experiment but I need to have some kind of foundation for my experimentation. I need order for things to make sense. Baking is a science and science needs to be exact so that other scientists can later repeat the process (that's what the scientific method--question, research, hypothesis, experiment, data, conclusion--is all about). But I figured, "What the hey? After all the baking I've done, I can probably throw something together with proper proportions from memory, right?"

You may think now is the time to shake your head sadly or just laugh in my face. You may be expecting a photo of exploded banana muffin batter to come next....  But unlike my truffle failure, this baking experiment turned out with the perfect shape and texture (see the picture above). It was in flavor, however, that I failed.

And I wouldn't even call it a failure--just not quite the success I was going for. Cutting perhaps a bit too far back on oil and sugar, the taste of these muffins was just "all right."  Though they smelled delicious both in the oven and when my mom sliced one in half and grilled it on the stove. So if you attempt to make this healthier version of a banana muffin tops (or regular banana muffins if you don't have "muffin top" pans or cups), you might want to remind your taste testers to butter them, jam them up, or even add a little frosting on top to give just a little extra moisture (as well as sugar or fat--because that is what makes things taste good) to an almost successful experiment.

Ingredients:


1 and 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour sifted
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 pinches of salt
3 small bananas, ripe and mashed
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup fat-free milk
2 Tablespoons canola oil
1 egg
1 egg white

Directions:


1). Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with muffin top paper liners or grease a regular muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray.

2). In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, combine the bananas, sugar, milks, oil, and eggs.

3). Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until everything is well combined but not overmixed. Lumps are definitely okay.

4). Pour the batter evenly into the muffin cups and bake for about 10 minutes (a little longer if you're making muffins instead of muffin tops) until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffie comes out clean.

If I attempt this recipe again, I will likely add a little more oil, a little more brown sugar and perhaps experiment with the kind of dairy I use as well. In theory, these muffins can be made with just buttermilk, just milk (fat-free probably isn't the best option, though), or even yogurt or sour cream. Perhaps two eggs would be better than one egg white (that one was leftover from the pancake batter's egg yolk). And if the bananas I chose to use had been just a touch riper, the muffies probably would have been a little sweeter and more moist too.

So here's to hoping my next recipe is an absolute knockout! Want a preview of coming blog attractions? Well, I do have plans for a fun St. Patrick's Day cookie treat (hopefully I'll have time to post it during the actual month of St. Patrick's Day). And I also just bought myself a donut pan this very evening. I'm imagining a donut with bacon. You just can't fail with bacon. I can't wait to try it out and share!

Failed Experiments Part I: Chocolate Truffles

In baking, as in life, things don't always turn out as planned. I wish I could say all my experiments were heavenly, mouth-watering, over the moon successes. But I do live on Earth, my optimism occasionally grounded by the cold, hard realities that whole wheat can be dry as dirt, the only good substitute for sugar is sugar, and chocolate will never be fat free. So I guess I shouldn't be surprised that my attempt to replace "heavier" ingredients (like heavy cream) with "lighter" ones (like fat-free half and half) resulted in a Valentine's Day treat only slightly more deflated than my lofty aspiration to make baked goods that are healthy (My dreams will rise again--my chocolate truffles...will not). It's a good thing I made some Valentine backups this year, including homemade chocolate shapes (also found in my December post here),

more Chocolate Peanut Butter Hearts and even some chocolate cupcakes from a box, topped with cherry frosting and dotted with Dove Dark Chocolate & Cherry Swirl Heart-Shaped Promises (candies that are truly divine just on their own). The cupcakes turned out great:

Too bad I don't have a recipe to share, but I might work on coming up with my own from-scratch version with real cherries in the frosting too!

So yes, I made all these treats the night before Valentine's Day to have something to share with family, coworkers, and friends, as well as something chocolately to post here for V-Day as promised (I do acknowledge that I'm almost a month late--refer back to my "things don't always turn out as planned" opening). With such a smorgasbord of chocolate to offer, I guess it's okay that my first-ever attempt at Chocolate Truffles ended up looking like...this:

See, I wasn't kidding about the deflation.

If you're curious what not to do to make chocolate truffles (they're supposed to be round) follow my recipe below that was (rather poorly) adapted from Williams-Sonoma's Chocolate Truffles recipe. Visit their website if you want to know what to actually do in order to make truffles the correct (and, of course, more fattening) way.

Flat N' Low-Fat Chocolate Truffles


Ingredients:

4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
8 ounces milk chocolate chips
1/4 cup fat-free half and half
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Directions:


1.) Pour the half and half into a small pot over medium heat. Let it warm, then lower the heat and add the chocolate chips and butter. Stir until all the chocolate is melted and smooth.

2). Remove the mixture from heat and let cool at least 15 mintues. Stir in the vanilla extract and then pour into a large paper bowl. Refrigerate overnight.

3). At this point you're supposed to be able to scoop the chocolate mixture into the shape of gumballs. Every time I tried to do this the chocolate fell apart into a not-quite-liquid, not-quite-solid lump. And it got my hands extremely messy. So I let the chocolate chill another day.

4). Try to get a ball-ish shape out of the chocolate using a spoon or rolling them with the palms of your hands. Then roll them in the cocoa powder until they're fully coated.

5). Place the "truffles" in the freezer in an attempt to get them to keep some sort of shape (they probably won't). Roll them in cocoa powder if you can. Eat if you dare.

The good news is that the flavor of the truffles will actually be rather tasty (I can't eat much milk chocolate because of the dairy but I did try one bite). The texture is the biggest issue, and I know it's because I didn't use full-fat cream. But hey, just because we live on Earth doesn't mean we can't be optimists too. I'll take this as a learning experience and think such positive thoughts as how all the best inventions were created through trial and error and many failed attempts. The important thing is that you try. You stay open to experimentation. You don't stay deflated for long.

Next up, my only-sort-of failed experiment with banana muffin tops (But I promise I'll return to more delicious successes soon!).

Chocolate Peanut Butter Hearts

Ah, love is in the air. Or at least, candy is. Any grocery store you step into has been lined with pink, red, and white heart-shaped chocolates, conversation hearts, and more since the end of Christmas. But, yes, it is now officially February. The month of the valentine.

That's not exactly why I chose to make heart-shaped chocolate cookies with little white and pink raspberry HERSHEY'S HUGS in the center. I woke up at 3:30 in the morning on Saturday unable to go back to sleep. So decided to do some 4:00 a.m. baking, the results of which I could bring in to work (I work all day at the public library on Saturdays). I had also bought the HUGS a few weeks ago, waiting until there was enough time for a new baking project that I could share with my coworkers there. It's been a while. Ever since I got my second job at a college library in mid-January, I haven't had as much time to bake for the public library, so maybe this was a little valentine to them, a "hug" with each cookie brought in that Saturday morning and quite gone by Saturday afternoon.

The good thing was, Chocolate Peanut Butter Hearts are so easy to make that it wasn't an overwhelming task for a slightly groggy librarian to undertake at 4:00 a.m. I basically enhanced my Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookie Bites recipe (combining it with my Peanut Butter Thumbprints recipe), pressed the dough into a heart-shaped cookie cutter:

...and then added the HUGS after baking.

To re-create:

Ingredients:

1 cup chocolate peanut butter spread (I use Sunland brand)
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
16-18 HERSHEY'S HUGS (white chocolate wrapped in milk chocolate--I used the seasonal Valentine's Day "raspberry" flavor)

Directions:

1.) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl, combine the chocolate peanut butter spread, sugar and egg, stirring with a fork until all ingredients are well incorporated.

2.) Use your fingers to keep the dough together and form small 1-inch balls by rolling the dough in the palms of your hands. Set on a baking sheet lined with parchment (NOT wax) paper and press a small, heart-shaped cookie cutter around each ball until they become heart-shaped themselves. Remove excess dough from the sides of the cookie cutter and flatten the hearts slightly before baking.

3.) Bake approximately 10 minutes (keep an eye on them so they don't over bake) until the edges of the cookies just begin to harden. Remove from the oven and immediately press a chocolate HUG into the center of each cookie. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 more minutes, then carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. The hugs might melt a little. That's okay. They taste delicious in "puddle" form too.

Am I cheating by basically remaking the same cookie I've already made and re-blogging the results with only a slight variation? Well, the cookies still received so many compliments, the pictures look awesome (pink and white stripes can be quite fashionable!) and I did promise to blog about something chocolately for Valentine's Day. There will be more chocolate, of course, since Valentine's Day is still over a week away and I'll need to make more treats for my family and friends then. But I'm just grateful that I finally had time to bake something again. Even if it was at 4:00 in the morning. I guess that shows just how much I love to bake, and how much I love the people I'm bake for.

Eggnog Cheesecake

 

What to do with all that leftover holiday eggnog? Well, actually, if you still have Christmas eggnog this late into January, you might want to smell it first.... I, however, ended up with three quarts of Silk Nog (soy eggnog) left after my Eggnog Cupcakes experiment, and they still weren't expiring until February. I didn't think my family would drink that much soy eggnog in less than a month, especially when all our Christmas decorations have long since been put away (um, last week...) and the carton itself is decked in its own seasonal holiday scarf. Still, there was a very appealing recipe for Eggnog Cheesecake on the side of the carton that kept calling to me every time I opened the fridge and spied the still un-drunk Silk Nog cartons. And where else was I going to find a recipe that specifically asked for three-fourths of a cup of Silk Nog?

I altered the original recipe only slightly, making my own homemade graham cracker crust, utilizing a lighter cream cheese (it has less fat and is also slightly easier on my dairy-challenged stomach) and substituting light rum for dark (we were out of dark rum, but I can also justify this one with the fact that it keeps the cheesecake looking more light golden. While cookies should generally be baked to a golden brown, cheese generally shouldn't...).

Thus, with such substitutions in place, my first ever Eggnog Cheesecake was born!

Ingredients:

For the crust:
1 and 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs (place graham crackers in a plastic baggie and hammer the heck out of them! Or roll them over with a rolling pin. Or whip out the food processor. It's okay to be vicious here, so have fun with it).
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted

For the filling:
16 oz. (2 packages, 8 oz. each) reduced fat cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons whole wheat pastry flour (any flour will do)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 Tablespoons light rum
3/4 cup Silk Nog (soy eggnog)
2 eggs


Directions:


1.) Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, butter, and sugar. Press the mixture flat into the bottom of a 9-inch cake pan that's been greased with nonstick cooking spray.

2.) In another bowl (or you could just rinse out the first one like I did), beat the cream cheese, sugar, flour, salt, and nutmeg together until well combined (An electric mixer works best, though I used a fork and my weakling arms to work on building muscle). Beat in the rum and soy eggnog, then the eggs.

3.) Pour the mixture on top of the crust and bake for about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let the cheesecake cool to room temperature.

4.) Refrigerate overnight, then serve cold the next day. There may be cracks. One slice might fall apart on the plate. But I think it all contributes to a nice rustic look. This cheesecake isn't hoity toity. But it does look decent, removes easily enough from the pan, and tastes absolutely delicious when combined with that graham cracker crunch.

If you really want it to look as fancy and crack-free as possible, you can try baking the cheesecake in a hot water bath as I did for my Creme Brulee (a dessert that truly is hoity toity no matter how rustic you try to dress it down). In the end, however, your guests, family, friends, or whoever you're serving will not remember what Eggnog Cheesecake looked like. They will remember what it tasted like. Rum. Oh yeah, and eggnog. But...rum.

Guilt-Free Creme Brulee!

And the winner is...Creme Brulee! If you don't know which "contest" I'm referring to, check out my first post of the year here, wherein I issued a New Year's challenge for outside ideas/inspiration in selecting my first treat to bake/blog for 2012. Thank you to Elizabeth of Library Eliza's blog for the idea to try my first ever Creme Brulee recipe! Knowing me, I wanted to make it healthier (and edible, given my own lactose intolerance), so my first thought was to experiment with substituting fat-free half and half for heavy cream. Be warned, this substitution does not always work! In coffee? Sure! In pie? Sometimes! In whipped toppings? I wouldn't bet on it. Kind of like with soy products, it takes a little experimentation and taste testing before sharing such a drastic substitution goodie with friends. But I wasn't going for "tastes exactly like Creme Brulee in richness and texture"--I was more leaning toward "tastes delicious and as reminiscent of Creme Brulee as possible." This is where I believe I have succeeded.

Thank you also to Visual Recipes and CD Kitchen for giving me recipe proportions to start with (how else was I to know what temperature to set the oven on the first try?), from which I made my own adaptations into the easy and Guilt-Free Creme Brulee recipe below!

Ingredients:

5 egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 Tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups fat-free half and half
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Brown sugar for sprinkling

Directions:

1.) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the egg yolks, sugar, vanilla, and half and half. Add the nutmeg and continue to whisk until well-combined. (Note: to separate the egg yolks from the egg whites I pass the egg back and forth between the two halves of the egg shell until the whites have dripped off into a separate bowl.  Then later I make a healthy egg white omelet!).

2.) Pour the Creme Brulee mixture into six small ramekins (see below) that have been placed in a large roasting pan (I happened to have a collection of ramekins on hand from a children's library program similar to the one I blogged about here, only we made mini pumpkin pies as seen in the third photo here on our library's district-wide blog: hendersonlibraries.blogspot.com). To make this step even easier, I used a disposable foil roasting pan from the grocery store instead of having to dig out a true piece of heavy metal....

3.) Fill the roasting pan with hot water (tap water is fine--it doesn't have to be boiling) until the ramekins are halfway submerged. This will make a steam bath! Place the entire roasting pan in the oven and bake approximately 40 minutes, or until the tops of the Creme Brulees just begin to turn brown.

4.) Remove the roasting pan from the oven and allow the Creme Brulees to cool to room temperature before removing from the water, drying off each ramekin and placing them in the fridge. Refrigerate at least one hour (though overnight is best).

5.) Once the ramekins are chilled, place them on a sturdy baking sheet and turn on your oven's broiler. Sprinkle a thin layer of brown sugar over the tops. Move an oven rack to the highest spot it will go and place the baking sheet on that rack in order to brown the tops with the fire (if you are the fortunate owner of a kitchen torch--I am not--use that instead. I'd image it's much easier. One of my Creme Brulees did catch on fire when my non-sturdy baking sheet bent in the oven's heat and pushed the ramekin a little too close to the flames...). Serve either chilled or at room temperature.

And you're done! What a simple way to make an elegant, and (somewhat?) healthy dessert! The top might not be as hard as a traditional Creme Brulee that you have to crack (I suspect the kitchen torch might help with this), but the flavor is spot on! My addition of nutmeg also gave this treat a more wintery feel and gave the custard part of the brulee more of a "French Toast"-batter look (I tend to add cinnamon to my French Toast). Which means you could even have it for breakfast! What--that's not weird...I had one for breakfast....

So if you're really looking to try something new in 2012, look no further! You won't have to worry about breaking any resolutions here!

And one final thank you to those who read or commented on my contest idea! Now that I have inspiration, I'm ready for all the baking that 2012 brings! Including some great goodies for Valentine's Day coming up in February. If you work where I work, be warned. There is going to be chocolate.

Happy New Year (Help Me!)

I've got an itch. Four days into 2012, and I have yet to bake anything! Well, that's not entirely true. I made a lemon cake on the night of Jan. 2 for my brother's birthday on Jan. 3, practicing my frosting and decorating skills (I need more practice, but it's fun!). The cake came from a box mix, however, since I didn't have time to make one from scratch. Now I've got nothing against box mixes--and the Dr. Oetker brand one I used happens to be more natural, less processed, and even organic (from Whole Foods Market). But if I've followed the directions according to the package, that leaves little room for experimentation and no recipe that I can post here (It would be a very short blog: Ingredients: On box. Directions: On box).

Part of the problem is that, aside from my brother's birthday, it feels like there's no upcoming occasions for which to bake right now. Christmas has ended. Fall spices and gourds have come and gone. Valentine's Day is still over a month away. I'm sure my family, friends and coworkers are tired of holiday treats by now (maybe?) and have started embracing the New Year's theme of healthy eating and resolutions. If that's the case, good for them! I fully support healthy eating, trying to incorporate whole grains and less saturated fat and no hydrogenated oils or high fructose corn syrup in all my baking attempts. So I guess the real problem is that I need help determining my next baking project. If I don't have a fall bake sale or a Christmas dinner to cook for, how am I supposed to choose a new treat from the infinite number of possibilities out there? I need inspiration!

Should it be cookies or cakes or pies? Include chocolate, fruit, or nuts? For my first recipe of the year...I'm going to let YOU decide! Send me ideas to pick from and I'll experiment my heart out! Maybe you want to see me make biscotti or scones. If you're my coworker and you crave something with icing or without peanut butter, let me know! (I'll likely be bringing extras in to work still...). Or perhaps you'd like me to invent the first ever healthy chocolate cake (I can try!). January is always a time for something new, so I'm willing to look outside my traditional staples of AllRecipes.com and the cookbooks on my shelf to get input from new, fun, exciting sources that only you can provide!

If I get any responses to this post (I'm putting it out on Facebook as well), I'll choose the one that I have the most ingredients for, and do my best to create and blog about it before the month is over. If I don't get any responses (le sigh) I'll just post my own doodles of baked goods like these...

 

...until inspiration chooses to strike me randomly.

Then come February it will be time for chocolate again. A twist on chocolate, perhaps. Maybe that healthy chocolate cake?

I just hope my own resolution to regularly exercise will help me keep my resolution to not gain weight in the face of my resolution to actually blog (and thus bake) even more this year!

Either way, 2012 is going to smell amazing!  Yes, I do love saying that phrase.

For the Love of Chocolate!

What better time of year to make chocolate treats than during the holidays? (Okay, well Valentine's Day might be a good time to bring this one back, especially considering how I love the whole idea of girls making homemade chocolate for the boys they like as they do in Japan).

But anyway, what I love about making your own chocolate is that you can totally control what goes in it, and (if you use chocolate chips for melting), it's so completely fast and easy!

I actually made these Peanut Butter Cups and S'mores Pops in November (shh, don't tell anyone I'm that behind on my blogging!) but the Chocolate-Dipped Strawberries and the Fun Chocolate Shapes were this month at least! As we reach the end of 2011, it's the perfect time for a few final indulges before January rolls around and we all start dieting again!

Peanut Butter Cups

Ingredients:

1 bag (about 12 oz.) dark or milk chocolate chips (your preference--I like Ghirardelli 60% Cacao chips since they're easier on my stomach than milk or semisweet chips, plus they have more antioxidants! Note: chocolate over 60% Cacao will be better for you, but taste extremely bitter)
1 jar (about 15 oz.) creamy peanut butter
Mini cupcake liners and a mini cupcake pan


Directions:

1.) Fill a mini cupcake pan with paper liners. Empty the chocolate chips into a large, microwave-safe bowl and microwave for approximately 90 seconds, stirring after 30 second intervals until the chips are melted and smooth.

2.) Immediately pour about 1/2 to 1 Tablespoon of chocolate into the bottom of each cupcake liner. Then, using a teaspoon or other small spoon, drop a dollop of peanut butter into the center of each liner (the amount of peanut butter you want is up to you!). Pour another 1/2 to 1 Tablespoon of chocolate in each cupcake liner so that the peanut butter is completely covered. Twist your spoon to drizzle the chocolate into swirly designs on the tops. You may end up with extra chocolate and peanut butter leftover to do with as you please--it all depends on how many candies you have the desire (and energy) to make.

3.) Refrigerate approximately 30-45 minutes, then remove from fridge and let come to room temperature. Congratulations, you now have delicious homemade "Reese's"! Remove the paper liners and eat the cups up or share them with friends and loved ones! There's no wrong way to eat a Reese's so there's certainly no wrong way to nibble, bite, inhale, and devour these babies!

 

S'mores Pops


Ingredients:
1 bag (about 12 oz.) chocolate chips
1 bag (about 16 oz.) marshmallows (regular or large, not the minis)
Graham crackers of your choice
Bamboo sticks or other small wooden skewers

Directions:

1.) Crush as many graham crackers as you like into small pieces using a food processor or by sealing them in a plastic baggie and running a rolling pin (or a mallet) over them. Place into a bowl and set aside. Empty the chocolate chips into a large, microwave-safe bowl and microwave for approximately 90 seconds, stirring after 30 second intervals until the chips are melted and smooth.

2.) Skewer marshmallows at the end of your wooden sticks and dip immediately into the chocolate until the marshmallows are thoroughly coated. Quickly dip into the bowl of graham cracker crumbs. Let the pops sit out at room temperature until the chocolate has hardened (I found this worked easiest by pushing the skewers through the bottom of a paper cup turned upside-down, and taping the cup to the countertop so it wouldn't topple over).

3.) Eat plain, or light on fire first for a true campfire S'more experience! (Please do not eat while the fire is still going--wait until it burns itself out or else blow out the flame before consumption!) There's nothing quite like the taste of charred marshmallow (I'm serious here--it's SO good!

Chocolate-Dipped Strawberries

Ingredients:
1 bag (about 12 oz.) dark or white chocolate chips
1 container large strawberries (I found long-stem strawberries at Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market).
Parchment paper


Directions:

1.) Empty the chocolate chips into a large, microwave-safe bowl and microwave for approximately 90 seconds, stirring after 30 second intervals until the chips are melted and smooth. Immediately dip the strawberries deep into the bowl until thoroughly coated. Remove from the chocolate and let sit on the parchment paper until the chocolate hardens.

2.) Eat immediately, or refrigerate to eat later! With luck these will last in the fridge at least a few days, though they taste best (obviously) when they're fresh!

Fun Chocolate Shapes!

Ingredients:
 
1 bag (about 12 oz.) chocolate chips
Maldon sea salt (a nice flaky salt, or a nice sea salt works best, though any salt will do. For a good explanation of salts, check out this blog!)
Small cookie cutters of your choice
Parchment paper



Directions:

1.) Place cookie cutters upside-down on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Empty the chocolate chips into a large, microwave-safe bowl and microwave for approximately 90 seconds, stirring after 30 second intervals until the chips are melted and smooth.

2.) Immediately pour the chocolate into the cookie cutter molds and let sit. Sprinkle with salt (this makes for such a nice salty-sweet contrast!). As carefully as you can (the chocolate will want to escape the molds) transfer the baking sheet to the fridge and let the candies completely harden.

3). When ready to eat, remove the chocolates from the fridge and allow them to come to room temperature before attempting to push them out of the cookie cutter molds. Some will pop out easily while others may require a little more pushing. Yes, you will get chocolate on your fingers. It's delicious.

That's all there is to it! Now you can have your own homemade chocolates any time you want! Even though it's still technically December (for one more day) I've noticed that all the grocery stores are already decked in Valentine's Day displays....  So I guess it's not too early to start practicing your chocolatier skills too. It's certainly never too early for chocolate. So with that, I wish you a happy end to 2011, and a very sweet New Year! More treats to come in 2012!