Pumpkin-Basil Brownies

Awhile ago, I came across a recipe on Some The Wiser for Basil Brownies that sounded delicious.  I was going to make them, but then I ended up making Cinnamon Brownies instead. Today, I finally got around to making some Basil Brownies!  In the process, I compared 3 different brownie recipes : 2 of mine, and 1 from Some the Wiser.  Then, I created my own. (The new creation is in red pen).  Pumpkin was a necessary ingredient, because I just opened the first can of pumpkin this season...it's time to start putting pumpkin in everything!

Pumpkin-Basil Brownies

3.5 oz 85% cocoa chocolate bar

13 tbsp butter

1 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder

1/3 c pumpkin

pinch of sea salt

scant tsp vanilla

2 eggs

scant 1 1/2 c white sugar

1 1/4 c white flour

3/4 c fresh basil 

1/4 c mini chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350. Break the chocolate bar into pieces, put into a microwave-safe bowl with the butter, and microwave 2-3 minutes until mostly melted.  Stir until melted completely.  Add the cocoa powder, pumpkin, salt, and vanilla, mix well.  Incorporate the eggs.  Mix in the sugar, then the flour.  Put the basil in a food processor and chop finely, then add to the batter.   Add the chocolate chips.  Grease a 9x9 pan, then pour in the batter.  Bake for 30 minutes.  A toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean.  

Cinnamon Brownies

Cinnamon Brownies with Coffee Ice Cream

Cinnamon Brownies

(preheat oven to 350)

1/4 c butter, melted

1/4 c vegetable oil

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 c white sugar

1/3 c cocoa powder

1/2 c flour

2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 c cashews, crushed

pour the batter into a 9x9 pan

bake for 20-25 minutes

Chocolate Coffee Cake

It doesn't make any sense to me when foods are named according to ingredients they don't contain.  Like coffee cake.  I suppose you are supposed to eat it with coffee, but if it doesn't have coffee in it, it shouldn't be called coffee cake.  It's so misleading.

I've been craving chocolate cake lately.  I was going to make a Chocolate - Guinness Cake, but then I decided to use coffee instead of Guinness. So I made a small pot of coffee, used 1 cup of it in the cake, and used the remaining scant 1/2 cup to make the icing.

Chocolate - Coffee Cake

2 1/8 c flour

2 c white sugar

3/4 c cocoa

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 c veg oil

1 tbsp vanilla

1 c coffee

3 eggs

Mix the dry ingredients in a mixer on low speed, and whisk together the wet ingredients in a 2c glass measuring cup.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix.  Grease and flour two 8.5 inch round cake pans.  Divide the batter evenly between the two pans and bake for 40 minutes at 350.

Let the cakes cool in the pans for a few minutes, then turn them out onto wire racks.  When they are cool, cover the top of one with glaze, sprinkle on some mini chocolate chips, add the second cake, and then add the rest of the glaze on top.  

Chocolate -Coffee - Cream Cheese Glaze

1/2 c coffee

2 oz cream cheese

1 tbsp cocoa

2 tbsp brown sugar

confectioners sugar

Rye-Pumpkin Truffles

And by Rye, I mean Rye Whiskey.  

So last Friday night I was killing time and had the bright idea to put some Smooth Ambler Old Scout Rye Whiskey in some truffles.  I hadn't made any truffles in awhile, and I had been craving them.  I figured all the alcohol would cook out and I would be left with some delicious whiskey-tasting truffles.  

I combined 1/2 cup of the whiskey with a giant spoonful of pumpkin and 3.5 oz of 60% dark chocolate.  I cooked it for awhile in a small saucepan, poured the mixture into a glass measuring cup, and stuck it in the 

fridge to cool.  I didn't get around to taking it out of the fridge until this evening.  

The ganache was super soft, but I formed it into rough balls, laid them on wax paper, and stuck them in the freezer to harden.  I got a little taste from the ganache clinging to the sides of the cup, and it was super delicious.  

While the ganache was hardening in the freezer, I melted 3.5 oz of 72% dark chocolate.  Then I dropped the ganache balls in one at a time, turned them til coated, and dropped them on a new sheet of wax paper.  I had to make the coated truffles in batches because the ganache got soft pretty quick and it would melt into the cup of coating chocolate if it wasn't hard enough.  I ended up needing to melt a second 3.5 oz of the 72% to coat all of the truffles.  (although that left me with quite a bit of leftover coating at the end)

Once the first batch of truffles was hardened, I had a taste-test.  At first, it was super delicious.  Chocolate and whiskey, yum.  But then...I was slammed with a big, overpowering alcohol-ness.  Apparently, the alcohol DID NOT cook out of the ganache.  Apparently, it was condensed instead.  Wow that was strong.  These truffles are not for children.  Unfortunately, the taste of alcohol is so potent, the truffles aren't actually as epic-ly delicious as I had hoped.  They don't taste like whiskey, they taste like alcohol.  I guess I should have cooked the ganache longer...

Loaded S'more Dip

I had all the ingredients for s'mores...but no fire to roast marshmallows over.  I don't really like marshmallows, and so the thought of eating a s'more made in the microwave was ridiculously unappealing.  I thought about trying to toast the marshmallows in my toaster oven, but that sounded potentially very messy.  So the ingredients just sat for awhile.  

Then I came across this recipe for S'more Crack Dip

Problem Solved. 

Loaded S'more Dip

5 oz large marshmallows

5.8 oz dark chocolate 

3 tbsp milk

2 tbsp heavy cream

1 tsp cinnamon

1 large spoonful of crunchy peanut butter

As usual, all amounts are approximate due to my inability to measure things.

The chocolate is exact...it was 4 bars of Hershey's Special Dark, 1.45 oz each.

Put all the ingredients in a small saucepan on medium heat and stir til melty and delicious.

Dip graham cracker pieces into the molten goodness and eat up.  

Try not to burn yourself...

Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes with Mint Icing

The Cupcakes

2 1/8 c flour

2 c sugar

3/4 c cocoa

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

3 eggs

1 c Guinness

1/2 c vegetable oil

1 tbsp vanilla

Put cupcake wrappers into the cupcake pan, pour the batter into each cup about 3/4 full.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes

The Icing

Big handful of mint leaves

c 1/2 c plain yogurt

confectioners sugar

c 1/4 c heavy cream

Put the mint in a food process and chop well.  Add the yogurt, mix it up.  Add confectioner's sugar to taste.  If your icing is too thin, add heavy cream and whisk until it thickens.

The inspiration behind using mint for the icing today:

This plant is taking over my windowsill.  And I thought I'd have trouble keeping it alive...I do wish it would put more effort into growing big leaves and less effort into growing long stems...I found a stem that was about 3 ft long the other day.  I keep breaking off the really long ones but it doesn't seem to deter the plant from continuing to reach out.

Chocolate Guinness Cake with Pumpkin & Cream Cheese Icing

For the last...too many years to count, I was able to honestly say that I did not have a sweet tooth.  I'm starting to think that I can no longer say that.  I used to be addicted to salty snacks, like Triscuits. (I think I was eating 2+ boxes a week for awhile) But then one day I discovered that the excessive salt in my diet was causing painful leg cramps when I ran.  So I weaned myself off of salty snacks.  Actually, I think I quit cold-turkey.  Ever since, I have used less and less salt in my food.  Now, I think the only time I use salt while cooking is when I salt the pasta water.

For awhile after quitting the salty snacks, I just didn't snack.  But recently, I have started craving snacks again.  And this time I'm craving cookies and cake.  It's such a weird feeling, after all the years where I could look at a cookie or piece of cake and be genuinely disinterested.  I still don't have a huge love of sugar, and won't eat things that are too sweet.  But I love to have some cookies or a piece of not overly-sweetened cake in the evening.  The Chocolate Cake I made a few weeks ago was probably one of my all-time favorite desserts that I have made.  Last night, as I ate my last 2 delectable Chocolate Cream Cheese Cookies, I realized that I would have to make another batch of cookies today.  But then today came, and I decided I wanted to make another chocolate cake.  The fact that there is no milk in my fridge wasn't a problem...I wanted to use Guinness this time. I also had some little 50mL bottles of Bailey's that someone gave me, so I threw one of those in too.

The Cake

2 1/8 c flour

2 c sugar

3/4 c cocoa

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

3 eggs

1 c Guinness

50mL Bailey's Irish Cream Liqueur 

1/2 c vegetable oil

1 tbsp vanilla

grease and flour 2 8.5 inch round cake pans

bake at 350 for 40 minutes or so

let cool in pans for a little while, then transfer to wire racks

when the cakes are cool, spread icing on top of one cake, place the other cake on top, and then cover with remaining icing

The Icing

4 oz cream cheese

1/2 c pumpkin

1+ c confectioner's sugar

I used a fork to mix the icing.  It came out with cream cheese lumps, which are rather unsightly, but don't bother me.  If you want a smoother icing I suggest you use an electric mixer.

Photo Evidence

Chocolate Cream Cheese Cookies

The Cream Cheese Cookies I made on Sunday were so delicious, I just had to whip up another batch!  This time, I added some cocoa powder...can't ever have too much chocolate!

Chocolate Cream Cheese Cookies

4 tbsp butter

2 oz cream cheese

1/2 c brown sugar

1/4 c sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1+ tsp ginger powder

3/4 tsp vanilla

2+ tsp cocoa powder

1 egg

1/2 c wheat flour

1 c flour

handful of craisins

handful of mini chocolate chips

bake @ 375 for 10-12 minutes

These cookies hold their shape very well while baking.  The tops may look slightly under-done when you take them out, but they will firm up the rest of the way while cooling on a wire rack.  You don't want to over-bake the cookies, or the bottoms will burn.

I received a bottle of Smooth Ambler Old Scout Rye Whiskey for my birthday.  Cracked open that bottle this evening and tried it with the cookies.  Perfect match. 

Chocolate Cake with Cherry-Guinness Topping

I bought some fresh cherries at Kroger the other day.  So when I was thinking about what kind of cake to make for my friend and I's double birthday party, I thought about Black Forest Cake.  Yum.  I found  cake recipe online somewhere and made the chocolate cake part, then I made a cherry sauce out of the fresh cherries and some Guinness.  I don't like whipped cream, so I omitted that part of the Black Forest Cake ensemble.

THE CAKE

2 1/8 c flour

2 c white sugar

3/4 c cocoa

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

3 eggs

1 c milk

1/2 c veg oil

1 tbsp vanilla

mix together the dry ingredients, then add the wet

grease and flour a 9x13 pan

bake 350 for 45 min

THE TOPPING

2-3 cups fresh cherries, pitted

3/4 c Guinness

spoonful of corn starch

large spoonful of sugar

throw it all in a pot and bring to a boil, cook until thickened

cherry blood...all over my kitchen

I put on an apron to save the white dress I was wearing...but somehow nothing ended up on the apron.

This cake was super-awesomely delicious.  Best Birthday Cake I ever made myself.  

Also, the only so far, but that's beside the point.

It was so delicious, I had some for dinner last night. Before I ate my real dinner.  

I couldn't wait til after for dessert.

Mint-Guinness Cake

The things I do when I've been entertaining myself too many evenings in a row and need to get off the couch and do something.  (Something other than cleaning...I should do that someday...)

Anyway, I ended up feeling the need to bake this evening, even though I was not even remotely attracted to the idea of eating anything that I might make.  But I decided that I wanted to make some sort of a cake. With mint.  I'm only slightly obsessed with the mint plant I bought not too long ago.  I don't have any milk and didn't feel like wasting gas on a trip to the grocery store, so I needed a cake recipe that didn't call for milk.  So, I went with a spin-off of my olive oil beer cake.  I made a Mint-Guinness cake.  With olive oil. 

2 eggs

1/4 c brown sugar

1/2 c white sugar

1/2 c Guinness

1/2 c olive oil

1/4 tsp salt

1+ tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp peppermint extract

small handful of mint leaves, chopped

1/2 c wheat flour

1 scant c flour

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

I didn't do anything fancy for the topping of the slice pictured above.  I will probably melt some dark chocolate to make a glaze for the rest of the cake later.  The topping above was just some chocolate that had seized on me awhile ago, and I had stashed in the cupboard to try to save someday.  I melted it with a bit of water and it came out...tolerable. You can definitely tell that the chocolate isn't tempered. 

I haven't quite decided if this cake is actually good or not.  I might just be pretending to like it because I don't want the ingredients to go to waste.  It is certainly interesting-tasting.