Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake

Wow! This is only my 3rd pumpkin dessert post on my blog. That's less than one a year! It's not that I'm anti-pumpkin. That would be silly! It's just one of those seasonal foods that I forget to use! Like blackberries! (Mental note to self: use blackberries!)

 

Do you ever find yourself at the end of a fruit or veggie season and think, "Oh, whoops! I'll remember to use that ingredient NEXT year...yeah..."? If not then you are a super multi-user of produce (or you have a garden.)

 

Well, I was glad to make a pumpkin dessert just in time for fall. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any pumpkin pie spice at Whole Foods and was about to go home and mix my own spices when I found their winter spice blend. One whiff of this blend and I was in love. I quickly added it to my items to buy and then brought it triumphantly home and made my room mate smell it. He agreed...it smells like the holidays! It was the perfect blend of spices to add to this pumpkin chocolate chip bundt cake.

I must admit that I found this recipe to be quite dense. The amount of ingredients it calls for kept surprising me. THREE cups of flour and TWO cups of sugar?! But seeing I haven't baked with pumpkin in a while, I figured this was the norm.

 

The bundt cake was nice and soft. It doesn't pack a mighty pumpkin flavor so the chocolate chips and spice were a nice pairing to make it more enjoyable. My addition to this recipe is the drizzling of icing on top. It looked rather bare without it.

And WITH the icing it makes the bundt cake look irresistible, don't you think?

 

So, besides baking with pumpkin last week, I also got this cute new boot.

I guess I was running too quickly because I tore my plantar fascia sprinting down 5th Ave at a 5:50 per mile pace. So for now, instead of "the messy chef" you can call me the "hop-a-long chef."

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake (adapted from Barbara Bakes)

Ingredients for cake:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (or use a winter spice blend or make up your own spice blend)

2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup butter, soften

2 cups granulated sugar

3 large eggs

1 can (16 ounce) pumpkin (Erika's Extras: It's worth it to buy the better brand so as to get a better pumpkin flavor)

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (Erika's Extras: I used semi-sweet. I suggest that or dark chocolate.)

Ingredients for glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
1-3 tablespoons of heavy whipping cream

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease a full size bundt pan.
In a medium bowl, stir the flour, spices, salt, baking soda, and baking powder and set aside.

In a large bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and the sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time mixing well after each addition. Add the pumpkin and mix until combine. Add the dry ingredients mixing just until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Bake 50-60 minutes or until a long thin toothpick or thin knife comes out clean.

Cool in pans 5 minutes on a wire rack. After 5 minutes invert onto wire rack. Let cool completely before adding the icing.

 

To make the glaze, sift the powdered sugar into a medium to small bowl. Stir in a tablespoon of heavy whipping cream. Add more cream to get the thickness of glaze that you desire. 

Bake well and prosper!

Homemade Donuts!

In an effort to keep pushing myself in the kitchen with recipes I'm not familiar with, I decided to fry something. That something ended up being donuts.

I thought I had enough time to make them before meeting friends for brunch, but I didn't realize the dough needed to rise again after cutting the shapes of the donuts. But my friends had no issues coming to my place and eating fresh donuts and THEN going for brunch. Imagine that.

These cute, doughy donuts brightened up my kitchen. They were so cute! I don't know why, but my room mate agreed that yes, they WERE cute! And just think, they then got to swim in hot oil and become delicious donuts.

I glazed a couple and handed  them over to my friends.

My room mate loved how fluffy they were so I made him model the donut. :)

I also used different toppings for some of the donuts. Creating different glazes made the making of the donuts even more fun!

If you have 3 hours on your hands, try this recipe. As long as you've worked with yeast before you'll have no problem making your own homemade donuts.

Homemade Donuts (adapted from allrecipes.com)

1/2 cup warm water (100 to 115 degrees F)

2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
1 teaspoon white sugar
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable shortening
1/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2eggs
4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 quarts vegetable oil for frying
1 tablespoon warm water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
Directions

1. Pour 1/2 cup of warm water into a small bowl, and stir in the yeast and 1 teaspoon of sugar. (Erika's Extras: Stir right away with a fork.) Allow the yeast mixture to stand until it forms a creamy foam layer on top, 5 to 10 minutes.
2. While yeast is sitting, place milk and vegetable shortening into a small saucepan over medium-low heat and cook until the shortening has melted and the milk has tiny bubbles around the edge. Remove from heat.
3. Place 1/4 cup of sugar and the salt into the work bowl of a large stand mixer and pour the milk and shortening into the bowl. Mix on low speed just to dissolve sugar; and allow mixture to stand until warm.
4. Beat in the yeast mixture, eggs, and 1 cup of flour on low speed until smooth. Gradually beat in remaining flour to make a soft dough. (Erika's Extras: I felt that 4 cups of flour was a tad too much so add a little at a time with the last cup of flour. It's ok to not use it all if it doesn't seem like it needs it.)
5. Continue beating the dough on low speed until dough leaves the sides of the bowl, 2 to 3 minutes. (Erika's Extras: This happened after the 3rd cup of flour.)
6. Turn the dough out onto a well-floured work surface and knead until smooth and elastic, 2 or 3 more minutes.
7. Form the dough into a ball and place into a large greased bowl. Grease the top of the dough, and cover the bowl with waxed paper. Set the bowl into a warm place; let the dough rise until doubled in size, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
8. Punch down the dough and roll out on a floured work surface to 1/2 inch thick. Cut doughnuts out of the dough with a 3 1/2-inch round doughnut cutter with a 1-inch smaller cutter in the center. Let the doughnuts rise on the work surface until very light and fluffy, 40 minutes to 1 hour.
9. Heat oil in a deep-fryer or large saucepan to 350 degrees F.
10. Gently pick up and drop the doughnuts into the hot oil, working in small batches of 2 or 3 at a time, and cook until the doughnuts are light golden brown, turning once, about 2 minutes. (Erika's Extras: I used a metal spatula to gently drop the donuts into the oil thus helping not to spill oil on myself/the counter.)
11. Drain the doughnuts on paper towels to absorb oil.
12. In a bowl, mix 1 tablespoon of warm water and vanilla extract, and stir in the confectioners' sugar to make a glaze. Spread a thin layer of glaze over the warm doughnuts. (Erika's Extras: I had to add more water to this glaze, but it worked very well. I also used a tiny bit of milk in a different batch which created a richer glaze.)

Bake well and prosper!

All Runners Are Crazy

Do you like my inspirational poster? Anyone can run a marathon...if they are crazy enough.

Well, I was crazy enough and ran the NYC Marathon on Sunday for the 2nd year in a row. It was still the most fun I've ever had in Brooklyn.

I was also crazy enough to try to recreate the colors of the ING NYC Marathon for cookie decorating. The colors are orange and blue.

I got the orange color well.

It even made a pretty mess on my counter.

My blue however... Well, I tried to make it more of a navy blue and it just turned black. Ah well. Halloween year round is nice... 

Cookie Bonbons (from I Am Baker)

Ingredients for Cookies

1 stick unsalted butter
1/2 cup powder sugar
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 lemon zested as finely as possible
1/8 tsp salt
2 tablespoons milk
1 2/3 cup whole wheat flour

Preheat oven to 325

In bowl combine butter and powder sugar on medium speed. Add almond extract, lemon zest, and salt. Combine. Add mix and reduce speed to low. Add milk. Slowly add flour and mix until dough comes together. (about 2 min)

Roll out dough into two logs, about 12 inches long. Then cut 12 one inch pieces from each log. Roll each piece into a dome. Place domes on prepared baking sheet spaced about 1 1/2 inches apart.

Bake until firm, about 25 minutes.

Cookies Glaze
3 cups powder sugar
1/4 cup hot water
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 tablespoon canola oil
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
(optional) 1 tsp vanilla

In a bowl stir powder sugar, water, corn syrup, oil and extract(s). Stir until smooth.
After you have cooled bonbon cookies on wire rack that has been placed over a parchment lined baking sheet, pour half of the glaze mixture over the bonbons. Let sit at least 15 minutes, then pour remaining glaze.

Cookie Frosting (from I Am Baker)

•1 cup Confectioners Sugar (powder sugar)

•1 Tablespoon Milk
•1 drop Lemon Juice (fresh or processed)
•1 Tablespoon Light Corn Syrup

Combine powder sugar, corn syrup, and lemon juice in a bowl.

******This next step is important!******
If you need a thicker frosting, say for outlining your cookies, add LESS milk. Just a drop at a time.
If you have already outlined your cookies and need a to fill in or ’spill’ your cookies, you can add more milk (as much as you would need) to make your frosting very runny.
If you are using food coloring, be sure to use LESS milk. Most food colorings are liquid and can make your frosting more runny. If you are using a gel food coloring, your milk quantity can remain the same.
If you want to add different flavors, you can add drops of vanilla extract, almond extract, lemon, etc. to flavor your frosting.
If you want more SHINE, use more corn syrup and less milk.
This frosting will stay good for days in the fridge.

Erika's Extra: These are not super sweet cookies. They seem to be perfect for tea time.

PS Here's what I got for running 26.2 miles:

It's so shiny.

Aw. My medal and me.

Wait a second...maybe it's a foil wrapped around chocolate!

Mmmmm....medal.

Congratulations to everyone who ran the marathon. These cookies are for you!

Bake well and prosper!

They're Creepy and They're Cookies

Oh yes I did. I DID make Addams Family Cookies. But the real question is “why?”

Well, the TONYs were on this past Sunday and The Addams Family musical didn’t get many nominations, so I figured I’d help ease the blow by making “They’re Creepy and They’re Cookies” in the musical’s honor for the TONY party I went to. Also, I haven’t made sugar cookies/decorated sugar cookies since 8th grade. It was time to experiment and experiment I did! Check out my cookie lab. Muhahahaha!
I had to use a rolling pin! I think the last time I used a rolling pin was for this recipe, I'm a Sell Out, which was back in February!
And look how cool the black food coloring looks when first being mixed. Nice marble effect for a little bit.

I had to use a lot of the black food coloring paste to match the pitch black of most of the Family’s hair. I used these cartoon images of the cast of characters (which are based off the original cartoon) to create the Family: http://www.theaddamsfamilymusical.com/family.php

And, um, yeah....that was pretty messy.

I cut all the characters and letters by hand and then decorated them as closely as I could to their cartoon counterparts.

Now, without further ado, may I introduce to you *drum roll* the Addams Family!
And their extended family. (Yes, that’s Cousin Itt/It, Uncle Fester, Lurch the butler, Grandma, and Thing.)And yes, that is "Snap Snap" written on cookies.Altogether now *singing* The Addams Family - do do do do *snap* *snap* do do do do *snap* *snap* do do do do, do do do do, do do do do *snap* *snap*

PS I saw the show and I LOVED Nathan Lane as Gomez and what do you know....he turned out to be my favorite cookie!

PPS These sugar cookies and the icing were REALLY yummy, which is hard to come by with decorated sugar cookies. Enjoy!

PPPS Thanks to Michael, my neighbor upstairs, for frosting Cousin It and Thing. :)

Sugar Cookies (found on the food network: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/sugar-cookies-recipe/index.html)

Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon milk
Powdered sugar, for rolling out dough

Directions
Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. Place butter and sugar in large bowl of electric stand mixer and beat until light in color. Add egg and milk and beat to combine. Put mixer on low speed, gradually add flour, and beat until mixture pulls away from the side of the bowl. Divide the dough in half, wrap in waxed paper, and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Sprinkle surface where you will roll out dough with powdered sugar. Remove 1 wrapped pack of dough from refrigerator at a time, sprinkle rolling pin with powdered sugar, and roll out dough to 1/4-inch thick. Move the dough around and check underneath frequently to make sure it is not sticking. If dough has warmed during rolling, place cold cookie sheet on top for 10 minutes to chill. Cut into desired shape, place at least 1-inch apart on greased baking sheet, parchment, or silicone baking mat, and bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until cookies are just beginning to turn brown around the edges, rotating cookie sheet halfway through baking time. Let sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes after removal from oven and then move to complete cooling on wire rack. Serve as is or ice as desired. Store in airtight container for up to 1 week.

Erika's Extra: If the dough seems too cold and stiff to roll out, feel free to warm it up a little by rolling it/kneading it with your hands.

Sugar Cookie Frosting (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Sugar-Cookie-Frosting/Detail.aspx)

Ingredients
4 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup shortening
5 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
food coloring

Directions
In a large bowl, cream together the confectioners' sugar and shortening until smooth. Gradually mix in the milk and vanilla with an electric mixer until smooth and stiff, about 5 minutes. Color with food coloring if desired.

Bake well and prosper!