Cabin in the City

Books, cats and midwestern charm.

Baking

by Leave a Comment

Easy Wins: Chocolate Ganache Tart

Filed Under: Make Tagged With: , ,

The Great American Baking Resolution continues! And thank goodness because without it, I’d never post here. I have some stitching projects underway – more on those later! – and they’ve been eating up a lot of my laying around time.

This month, invigorated by new seasons (!!!) of The Great British Baking Show on Netflix, I decided to make a chocolate ganache tart. For some reason, I was under the impression that a) ganache was difficult to make and b) I had never made it before. I was wrong on both counts, but that’s OK! An easy win is still a win.

To make this tart, you’ll need the following for the crust:

  • 1½ cups shortbread cookie crumbs (you could also use graham crackers, gingersnaps, Nilla wafers, etc.)
  • 6 tbsp. butter, melted
  • ¼ cup sugar
  • Dash of salt

And the ganache:

  • 8  oz. heavy whipping cream
  • 12 oz. dark or semi-sweet chocolate
  • 4 tbsp. butter, softened
  • ¼ tsp. vanilla extract

Begin by making the crust. This is your standard crumb crust that you’d use for ice box pies, cheesecakes and the like. You’ll start by grinding up your cookies until they’re relatively fine – by fine I mean more like sand and less like powder. If you have a food processor, now’s the time to bust it out! If not, some elbow grease works too. Once you have finely crushed cookies, mix in the melted butter, sugar and salt. Press this into a 9″ tart pan. I used the bottom of a measuring cup to press the crumbs in firmly and evenly. Bake at 350°F for 8-10 minutes. Let it cool.

To prepare the ganache, start by chopping the chocolate and butter into small pieces – I’d say about the size of a chocolate chip. Put aside while you heat the cream. Heat the cream in a saucepan on medium-low heat until hot (almost simmering). Then pour over the chocolate and butter. Let this sit for a couple minutes, then whisk together. The chocolate and butter should melt pretty easily and you’ll end up with a rich, chocolate mix. Pour this into the cool tart shell. You can let this firm up by letting it set overnight at room temperature or pop it it in the fridge for 2-3 hours. I like the latter. And when I say 2-3 hours, I mean it. You’ll see in these photos that the ganache is a touch soft – that’s what an hour and 45 minutes gets you.

To finish it all off, I sprinkled with some sea salt and drizzled with a little caramel sauce. But some fresh whipped cream and berries would be nice too. You do you!

Overall, this is a simple dessert – a good recipe for home bakers like myself – but it sounds impressive as hell. It’s the sort of dessert that sounds like it can win friends and influence people. So I recommend whipping one up for your next dinner party, visit to your in-laws or charity bake sale. 🙂

by Leave a Comment

Darn Good Almond Poppy Seed Cake

Filed Under: Make Tagged With: , ,

Best dessert of your life – go! For a sweet-lover like myself, you might think it’d be hard to choose between the tiramisus, the French silk pies and the eclairs of the world. But you’re wrong here. My heart belongs to one dessert and one alone: Delicately Delicious’s almond poppy seed cake. I don’t know how this bakery does it, but they make the lightest, fluffiest whisper of a cake, and I can’t get enough.

I also literally cannot get it enough. I never get to the bakery on time for a slice. What’s a girl to do? Turns out a girl just makes it her damn self.

And that turned out to be quite the task, but one totally suited for my Great American Baking Resolution. It seems the world doesn’t really make this kind of cake. The internet let out an exasperated did you mean lemon poppy seed cake? every time I searched. Or Pinterest would cough up some halfhearted pound cake recipe. Not what I was looking for.

So I decided that not only would I have to make the cake myself, I’d have to create a recipe too. So I returned to Pinterest, pinned the recipe that looked most like what I wanted and went from there. What did I start with? A very pretty looking lemon poppy seed cake recipe that inconveniently used the metric system – horror of horrors to an American that’s not in the mood to use math.

What I ended up with was risky: inexact conversions, subtracting ingredients, substituting others, a higher baking temperature. Would it ever turn out?!

YES!

This wonderful, sweet cake turned out beautifully. Not quite as good as its professionally produced sister, but so, so, so close, especially for just winging it. And close enough that I consider this a real success 9/10 for sure. The cake is light and moist, just they way I wanted it. And it’s all topped off with Swiss meringue buttercream and some toasted almonds.

Now let’s get baking. Here’s what you’ll need for the cake:

  • 3 cups flour
  • 1½ cups sugar
  • 15 tbsp. butter, softened
  • 1 cup + 2 tbsp. buttermilk
  • 5 egg whites
  • 4½ tsp. baking powder
  • ½ tsp. salt
  • 1 tbsp. almond extract
  • 3 tbsp. poppy seeds

Start by mixing the flour, baking powder, salt and poppy seeds in a bowl and set aside. In another bowl mix your buttermilk and egg whites together. Set these aside for the moment.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until creamy and pale. Add your almond extract. Now alternate adding your dry ingredients and your wet until you have a nice, creamy batter. Don’t forget to scrape down the sides of your bowl as you alternate to make sure every bit gets blended in.

Divide the batter between 3 8″-cake pans. Be sure that your pans are greased and lined with parchment or waxed paper on the bottom. Pop into a 325°F oven for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool briefly in the pans and then remove and cool on a wire rack.

And for the frosting:

  • 8 egg whites
  • 2½ cups sugar
  • 3 cups butter
  • 2 tsp. vanilla extract

To make the frosting, place a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water on the stove making sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water. Whisk the egg whites and sugar together until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is about 160°F.

When that mixture has hit temperature, pour it into the bowl of your mixer and beat until room temperature using the whisk attachment.  The mix should form soft peaks (this will take about 6-10 minutes). Then switch to your paddle attachment and gradually add in tablespoons of butter until the mix is creamy and frosting-y. Finally add your vanilla extract and you’re done!

I let my cakes cool overnight before frosting. I definitely recommend letting these cakes cool for a few hours. A touch of heat on that Swiss meringue frosting and it’s as good as butter. As for the actual frosting of the cake – I’m no professional. Just swipe it on there and smooth it out, though you could definitely use this frosting with a piping bag for some nice swirls and what-have-you.

She’s a beaut of a cake, and it’s a real shame that I didn’t take a picture of it sliced like a good blogger, but you live and you learn. Now I’ve gotta run and think about what my March baking challenge will be. I was thinking ganache in some way, shape or form. What do you think?

by Leave a Comment

My Strange Tradition: Groundhog Day Cupcakes

Filed Under: Make Tagged With: , ,

Happy Groundhog Day, all! We might be getting six more weeks of winter, but that’s OK because I brought treats: my signature groundhog cupcakes.

I know what you’re thinking.  No one celebrates Groundhog Day, idiot. Yeah, well that’s sort of the point. It’s an underrated and goofy holiday, why not give it a little love? That’s what I thought when I started making these silly things ten years ago. TEN. That is an absurdly long time for something so wonderfully stupid.

Thing is, I almost didn’t make these cupcakes this year. Well, I wasn’t planning on it until I got a super sweet text from one of my oldest friends reminiscing about their cute little faces. I can’t resist nostalgia, so I decided I had to whip up a batch (sorry you can’t enjoy them, Molly!).

Here’s the lowdown on the recipe. It’s from Cupcakes! from the Cake Doctor, a book I picked up at a church book fair back in high school. This book spurned my then-not-yet-passé interest in cupcakes. And the cute themes sparked a short-lived interest in cake decorating. Although I’ve only made probably four recipes out of this whole book, it somehow developed into some sort of totem for me. It’s my Midwest mom cupcake book, my silly high school baking cookbook, a book I used in college for my demonstrative speech in COMM 101 and a book that started my favorite absurd tradition. And it makes cupcakes super simple because every recipe starts with a cake mix (that’s what the Cake Doctor does – it’s her thing).

Here’s what you’ll need for the cake:

  • 1 package German chocolate cake mix
  • 1¼ cups buttermilk
  • 1/3 cup oil
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 tsp. vanilla extract

And the frosting:

  • 4 cups powdered sugar
  • ½ cup butter, softened
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1 tbsp. cocoa powder
  • 3-4 tbsp. milk

And the decorations:

  • Chocolate jimmies
  • Shaved almonds
  • Chocolate chips – mini brown M&M’s work too
  • Mini chocolate chips

Making the cake is easy breezy. Just mix together all the ingredients with an electric mixer or stand mixer for about three minutes – stopping halfway to scrap down the bowl. Then fill your cupcake liners ¾-full. I like to use a disher or ice cream scoop to make portioning easy, but a spoon does just fine too. Bake at 350°F for 22-24 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean. Remove from the pans and let cool.

The frosting is just as easy. Simply beat your softened butter with an electric mixer until it gets nice and soft. Then add in your powdered sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla and about three tablespoons of milk. Beat this together until combined. If the frosting looks too stiff and powdery, add in more milk a little at a time until it gets that nice frosting consistency. If you find the frosting is too runny, just add in a little powder sugar at a time until it firms up.

Then comes the best part: the decorating. To start, just frost the cupcakes as usual with an offset spatula. This does not need to be too finicky – I wouldn’t even bust out a pastry bag for this. Roll the frosted cupcake in the chocolate jimmies. Word to the wise: don’t frost all your cupcakes first. This frosting has a tendency to dry a bit as it sits, so if you wait too long you’ll lose all that sticking power.

Once you’ve got that done, I’d recommend grabbing a pastry bag with a wide, round tip. A zip-top bag with the corner snipped off works just as good – no need to get too futzy if you don’t have to. Fill this with the rest of your frosting and pipe a round dollop of frosting on each cupcake for the groundhog head. I’d say the head should be somewhere between the size of a quarter and a poker chip. Once the heads are finished, insert two almond ears into each along with a chocolate chip or M&M nose and little chocolate eyes. With that – you’re all done and you have a little repetition of groundhogs (which is what the internet tells me is the name for a group of them – that or coterie).

I realize writing this on Groundhog Day doesn’t give you much time to whip these up for your Groundhog Day movie night, but I’ll say that this recipe is good any day of the year.

Happy Groundhog Day and big thanks to my friend Molly!

by Leave a Comment

The Great American Baking Resolution

Filed Under: Life Tagged With: ,

As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been making resolutions galore this year – cutting out soda (thanks to my dentist for that one), eating less fried food (sorry, Culver’s) and exercising more than never. These are going alright so far (could still be exercising more than once a week).

But not all resolutions or goals need to be boring or difficult or no fun like the ones I listed above. I decided to set a fun goal for myself as well. Inspired by The Great American Baking Show (and the original of course!), I decided to try a new baking skill or recipe every month. I figure if those bakers can try their hands at Battenburg cakes and petit fours, I can give those more challenging desserts a try.

One new recipe a month isn’t overly ambitious, but there’s nothing wrong with an achievable goal. The way I see it, by 2018, I’ll be confident making 12 new recipes. That’s bound to be more than if I just winged it all year, right?

I started this weekend with eclairs. I’m not confident enough in my execution to show off some sort of tutorial, but I was confident enough with the result to bring those (slightly misshapen) beauties to work. It was a good sweet to start with since it challenged me to make two things I’ve never attempted: pâte à choux and crème patisserie. I had always assumed those things would be ultra-complicated, but it turns out they’re really not too difficult. It was a good recipe to launch me into a sweet 2017.

I don’t have my 11 other recipes quite sorted out yet, but I’m planning on French macarons and another type of pastry to really keep me on my toes. If you have any suggestions for what I should bake next, I’d love to hear them!

by Leave a Comment

O Pioneers [Molasses Cookies]!

Filed Under: Make Tagged With: , , , , ,

When it comes to Christmas cookies, I don’t mess around. In fact, every year I take a whole day off from work just to get some baking done. It’s just so much more enjoyable when you have the whole day to make eight batches of award-winning cream cheese pillows.

This year, I started my Christmas bake-athon with the old timiest recipe I have and one of my family’s most loved cookies: pioneer molasses cookies. These cookies are simple – no fanciness or flourish here – just a good, hard working cookie that makes the holidays complete.

Now, why are these the old timiest? Well, the original recipe – a favorite of my grandma’s – calls for melted lard. Lard. So that tells you something about the era. But this 1930s original also just isn’t really like recipes of today, mostly because the original calls for a whopping six cups of flour, and also because it has no sugar (outside of the molasses). None. But it’s still a good cookie and a solid option for when you want to make something simple and not too sweet – and also something that makes you feel homesick for another time.

Here’s what you’ll need to make these old fashioned faves:

  • 3 cups flour
  • 10 tbsp. butter, softened
  • ½ cup molasses
  • ½ cup boiling water
  • ½ tsp. baking soda
  • ½ tsp. salt

And for the frosting:

  • 2⅔ cups powdered sugar
  • 3-4 tbsp. water
  • 1½ tsp. vanilla extract
  • Red and green food color

To make these, start by creaming the butter and molasses. Then alternate adding dry ingredients with the hot water. This should form a good, albeit sticky, dough pretty readily. Once it’s mixed, chill for at least an hour.

When you’re ready, flour your chilled dough lightly and roll out to ¼” thick. You can use cookie cutters here, though I prefer just to slice these into rectangles with a pizza cutter. Like I said, these cookies are pretty simple and rustic, so I think a simple shape works well. Bake for 12 minutes at 375°F. Cool on a wire rack or brown paper.

To complete these, I recommend a simple frosting. Simply mix the ingredients above – bear in mind you may have to add a little more water or sugar to get the right spreading consistency. Once you’re satisfied with this basic frosting, split the batch in two and color with red and green. Then frost your cooled cookies.

They aren’t the most Pinterest-ready cookies out there, but the sight of these red and green squares always brings me a lot of joy this time of year.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays!

by Leave a Comment

Berry Pickin’

Filed Under: Make Tagged With: , ,

This summer, I planted a raspberry bush in our yard and, man, was I excited. I envisioned going out in the morning and picking handfuls of berries and making jams, sauces, desserts, the whole bit. My vision was lacking in the reality department, though. Turns out that a single, year-old raspberry bush isn’t going to produce more than a couple berries a day.

Berry_3

This weekend, though I did get to fulfill my dreams of picking all the berries I could ever need. Michael and I headed up to his family’s place near the Wisconsin Dells for a quick getaway. While hiking the trails on their property, we came across bramble after bramble of wild blackberry bushes – a tremendous treat. We spent the afternoon loading up a box of these tiny, sweet berries to take home where I had a plan in store.

The grand plan: muffins. It’s nothing fancy, but these berries were small and sweet – just about the size of blueberries – that they seemed destined to end up in a muffin tin. So I took these berries to share with my mom and we whipped up a quick batch.

Berry_1

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar + extra for dusting
  • 1/3 cup melted butter
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • Zest of one lime
  • 1 1/2 cups blackberries

Berry_2

I love a good muffin recipe because they are easy-peasy. I just mixed all the ingredients (with the exception of the berries) together until just combined. Then I gently stirred in the berries and the lime zest and called it a day. The lime zest I think makes these pop a bit, but if you don’t have lime on hand, no biggie! You can toss in a little vanilla and cinnamon (about a teaspoon of each) to add a nice, comforting flavor.

TIP: If you have larger berries, especially the storebought variety, yout might want to give them a quick dusting with flour. This will prevent them from sinking to the bottom of your muffins.

When you’re all set with the muffins, dish them into muffin tins and sprinkle the top with a little coarse or granulated sugar. It gives it a little bit of a crunch. Toss these in the oven at 400°F for 18-20 minutes.

Berry_4And that’s all she wrote for this one, folks! Now get out there while the wild blackberry picking is still good! If you’re in southern or central Wisconsin, you might be able to nab a few. Lucky northerners might have another week or two.

by 1 Comment

Prize-Winning Cream Cheese Pillows

Filed Under: Make Tagged With: , , ,

Here it is, like I promised, the recipe for my favorite Christmas cookie and award-winning confection: cream cheese pillows.

My mom has been making these forever. The recipe is a favorite from her collection of Wisconsin Electric Company cookbooks. You can find it in the 1968 edition, and if you’re curious, the whole set is available in PDF form online – pretty rad.

Cream Cheese Pillows

To make these you’ll need:

  • 1 cup flour
  • 3 oz. cream cheese
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • Jam
  • Cinnamon sugar

To start, cream softened butter and cream cheese together. Once those are blended, mix in the flour. Once you’ve got a nice dough, wrap it in wax paper and chill for a half hour (or more). And you read that right – there’s zero sugar in this dough. It’s surprising, I know, but these get all their sweetness from the jam and cinnamon sugar later.

Cream Cheese Pillows

Once your dough is chilled, dust with a little flour and roll it out to about ¼” thick. Then you’ll cut out circles. I used this little cordial glass to get the right size – about 1 ½”.

Then you want to break out that jam. I used a few tablespoons of black raspberry jam stirred up with about a teaspoon of water just to make it smoother consistency. Spoon the tiniest drop into the center of your circles. You seriously don’t want more than just a pony bead-sized amount, otherwise it will seep out all over the place.

Cream Cheese Pillows

Next, you’ll wet the outside of each circle with a little bit of water. You could use a little pastry brush if you want, but your finger will do the job just fine. Then crimp each half circle together with a fork. You can dip the fork in a little flour if needed to prevent it from sticking. They’ll end up looking like awesome little cookie calzones.

Cream Cheese Pillows

Then pop them into the oven at 375ºF for 13-14 minutes or until the edges are slightly golden. As soon you take them out of the oven, toss them in a bowl full of cinnamon sugar. Then place on a rack (or paper bag) to cool.

CCP_2

Like I said, these were a hit. Give them a try and let me know what you think!

 

 

by Leave a Comment

Milwaukee Cookie Takedown

Filed Under: Adventure Tagged With: ,

It’s finally here (or was here): the Milwaukee Cookie Takedown! I’ve been baking all week in preparation and at last legions of folks got to sample my (and twenty other people’s) best cookies.

Milwaukee Cookie Takedown

As I announced via the ol’ Instagram, I made my favorite Christmas cookie: cream cheese pillows. These are so tasty and delicious and I never get sick of them (and don’t worry – I’ll share the recipe very soon!). I was hoping that the judges and the audience would feel the same way.

Milwaukee Cookie Takedown

The event was super chill and I got this sick participation certificate which I will display proudly. It did heat up, however, when the judges began deliberating and the audience votes were tallied. All the bakers were called up to the stage and the winners were going to be announced, and like a 14-year-old beauty queen, my heart was pounding. The judges’ announced their winners and some of them were some awesome cookies (I’m looking at you, Gouda Girls). Then they moved on to people’s choice, and I got second place! And I was thrilled! Like how awesome.

Milwaukee Cookie Takedown

I got to take home a super cool Cuisinart food processor, a set of mixing bowls, a microplane, and niftily little knife. I had to share the glory a little with my mom since this was her recipe, so I of course thanked her in my acceptance speech. So obviously was an amazing night, and I may have carried that food processor to the car like it was the Stanley Cup.

So thanks to the Takedowns for the awesome night and the amazing people that voted for me! You all deserve high fives.

 

by Leave a Comment

Coming Soon: Milwaukee Cookie Takedown

Filed Under: Adventure Tagged With: , ,

I’ve got an announcement for you all: I’m participating in this year’s Milwaukee Cookie Takedown! Oooooh.

I came across the call for bakers a few weeks ago and thought I can be competitive about non-competitive things, so I knew I had to get in on this action. All I have to do is bake 250 Christmas cookies, haul them to Turner, imbibe in some festive drinks and hope I win some sweet prizes.

Milwaukee Cookie Takedown

The Takedown is at 7:00PM Sunday, December 14 at Turner Hall if you all are interested in insane amounts of cookies and holiday spirits (and who isn’t?). Hope to see you there!

P.S. I’ll be back later this week with my recipe for this mystery cookie. I don’t want to go giving it away before the big competition now.