So I’m spending Friday night in the kitchen (I did also manage to complete my system dynamics homework somehow) and I’m making Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting.  Next thing I know; it’s 10 pm, my apartment smells delicious and I have eaten caramel sauce for dinner (read = not a good idea, maybe my mom was right about that balanced meal thing).

Aside from a minor stomachache, this cake was a great learning experience for me.

1.  Caramel sauce is easier than you would think to make.  I don’t own a candy thermometer, so one of the reasons this cake appealed to me is because it didn’t call for one.  Just make sure to watch the sauce because it does change color quickly.

2.  Cakes can be stubborn.  They don’t always want to get out of bed in the morning and have scheduled all their classes after 1 pm accordingly…I’m still talking about cakes here people.  Every so often you get pieces stuck in the pan…just pull them out and pop them back in.  No one will know after you ice it, unless you tell all in a blog post.

(see..can’t tell which part stuck to the pan)

3.  When something calls for using a fine sieve and you don’t have one, just use two bowls and pour out what you need.  I got some brown butter bits in my frosting, but no one could tell.

4.    Decorating cakes is hard.  I knew this already, but I had never actually “decorated” a cake. Not only did I decorate a cake, but I made it themed for Valentine’s Day.  Totally not my style.  I don’t consider V-Day important because we don’t get off from work/school, so it’s clearly not a real holiday.  My first attempt wasn’t awesome but it was recognizable, and I was pleased.

5.    Without fail, both children and adults will cut into the decorated part of the cake first.  There is something about destroying the design that is so satisfying.

6.    Specific to this cake:
-It’s dense.  A small piece goes a long way.
-I also recommend making the frosting a day ahead of time.  The taste was dramatically better the second day.  It also might be easier to just frost the cake ahead of time because the frosting does get hard in the fridge.  For those of us that don’t have microwaves to warm things up, it’s just plain easier.
-Have plenty of friends to help you finish this because there is no way one person can physically eat this by themselves.

(Recipes from Pinch My Salt)

Caramel Cake

•    10 Tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
•    1 1/4 Cups granulated sugar
•    1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
•    1/3 Cup Caramel Syrup (see recipe below)
•    2 eggs, at room temperature
•    splash vanilla extract
•    2 Cups all-purpose flour
•    1/2 teaspoon baking powder
•    1 cup milk, at room temperature

1.    Preheat oven to 350F
2.    Butter one tall (2 – 2.5 inch deep) 9-inch cake pan.
3.    In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth. Add sugar and salt & cream until light and fluffy.
4.    Slowly pour room temperature caramel syrup into bowl. Scrape down bowl and increase speed. Add eggs/vanilla extract a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down bowl again, beat mixture until light and uniform.
5.    Sift flour and baking powder.
6.    Turn mixer to lowest speed, and add one third of the dry ingredients. When incorporated, add half of the milk, a little at a time. Add another third of the dry ingredients, then the other half of the milk and finish with the dry ingredients. {This is called the dry, wet, dry, wet, dry method in cake making. It is often employed when there is a high proportion of liquid in the batter.}
7.    Take off mixer and by hand, use a spatula to do a few last folds, making sure batter is uniform. Turn batter into prepared cake pan.
8.    Place cake pan on cookie sheet or 1/2 sheet pan. Set first timer for 30 minutes, rotate pan and set timer for another 15-20 minutes. Your own oven will set the pace. Bake until sides pull away from the pan and skewer inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool cake completely before icing it. Cake will keep for three days outside of the refrigerator.

Caramel Syrup

•    2 cups sugar
•    1/2 cup water
•    1 cup water (for “stopping” the caramelization process)

1.    In a small stainless steel saucepan, with tall sides, mix water and sugar until mixture feels like wet sand. Brush down any stray sugar crystals with wet pastry brush. Turn on heat to highest flame. Cook until smoking slightly: dark amber.
2.    When color is achieved, very carefully pour in one cup of water. Caramel will jump and sputter about! It is very dangerous, so have long sleeves on and be prepared to step back.
3.    Whisk over medium heat until it has reduced slightly and feels sticky between two fingers. {Obviously wait for it to cool on a spoon before touching it.}

Caramelized Butter Frosting

•    12 tablespoons unsalted butter
•    1 pound confectioner’s sugar, sifted
•    4-6 tablespoons heavy cream
•    2 teaspoons vanilla extract
•    2-4 tablespoons caramel syrup
•    Kosher or sea salt to taste

1.    Cook butter until brown. Pour through a fine meshed sieve into a heatproof bowl, set aside to cool.
2.    Pour cooled brown butter into mixer bowl.
3.    In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, add confectioner’s sugar a little at a time. When mixture looks too chunky to take any more, add a bit of cream and or caramel syrup. Repeat until mixture looks smooth and all confectioner’s sugar has been incorporated. Add salt to taste.  Note: Caramelized butter frosting will keep in fridge for up to a month.

It usually involves cooking.

And dancing.

And the Mamma Mia Soundtrack.

Luckily, my dark secrets usually involve a redeeming aspect.

Like muffins.

Like Apple-Cinnamony-Oatmeal Goodness Muffins.

Last weekend my friend and I went apple-picking on a glorious New England fall day.  Where we acquired apples

Lots of them

This left me with an excellent problem of how to use all the apples.  I  knew I wanted to incorporate them into some type of bread or muffin, but I wasn’t too fond of the recipes I could find online.  A lot of them also called for ingredients I didn’t have in my cupboard, and I wasn’t about to leave my Mamma Mia dance session to run to the store.

So I improvised. They don’t teach us that in business school.  Actually, we did go over improvisational techniques in my leadership class, I retract my last statement.  Regardless, I need to cook with apples more frequently.

Apple Cinnamony Oatmeal Muffins

• 1 1/2 c. oatmeal (I never use quick-oats)
• 3/4 c. packed dark brown sugar
• 1 1/2 c. all purpose flour
• 1 tspn baking soda
• 1 1/2 tspn baking powder
• 1 tspn cinnamon
• 1/2 tspn salt
• 1 tspn vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp melted butter
• 1/3 c skim milk
• 1 egg
• 1 cup fat free Greek yogurt
• 2 cups chopped apples

1. Pre-heat oven to 400ºF
2. Mix flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a bowl and set aside.
3. Combine milk, vanilla, yogurt and egg.  Whisk until blended.  Add the slightly cooled melted butter.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.
5. Stir in the chopped apples.
6. Spoon batter into muffin pans and bake for approximately 16-20 minutes.

Another show that has garnered great praise in my family is America’s Test Kitchen.  It is fantastic.  (I also highly recommend their cookbook).  For those unfamiliar with ATK, they do more than just cook.  They test and they explain.  For example, in the following recipe, the butter is melted.  They explained this created a chewier cookie than creaming the butter and then showed the crispy creamed butter cookie.  The cook books also provide information such as the preferred brand of peanut butter to use in cookies.  It removes a lot of the guesswork and adds some science.  I love it.  I’m such a nerd.

I saw these cookies on the show and new I had to make them right away.  Less than 24 hours after the show right away.  The result?  They were delicious.  They were decadant.  They have become an instant favorite.

Then I had second thoughts about sharing the recipe.  I wanted to keep them all to myself.  Bake them as gifts and have others be jealous when they tasted the rich flavor.  I would smile to myself as I said, “oh no, I couldn’t possibly share my signature recipe.”

Then I got mischevious.  What if I posted the recipe but provided wrong measurements for the ingredients?  No one would ever be able to duplicate the recipe to the same level of awesome and the cookies would be mine.

Then I got really mischevious.  What if I posted the recipe, but then told people I thought about typing it incorrecly.  They would assume the right one was then posted for sure.  I could have my cookies and eat them too.

I am a cookie genius.  So with that, I leave you with the recipe and let you decide how accurate it is…..

Although I suppose you could just look it up online.  Darn you internets, my evil cookie domination plan has been foiled!

Brown Sugar Cookies
From America’s Test Kitchen

• 14 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1/4 c granulated sugar
• 2 c packed dark brown sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour + 2 tbsp
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract

1. Brown 10 tbsp of the butter in a skillet (~2-3 minutes) over medium-high heat.  Add the remaining 4 tbsp and set aside to let cool ~15 minutes
2. Preheat oven to 350 °F
3. In a shallow bowl, mix the granulated sugar and 1/4 cup of the db sugar in a bowl.  Set aside.
4. Whisk the dry ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.
5. Add the remaining db sugar to a bowl and add the salt.  Stir in the melted butter mixture.  Add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla and stir.  Add the dry ingredients and mix until combined.
6. Pull the dough out of the bowl and put on the counter.  Cut into 24 equal portions.  Shape the pieces into balls and roll them in the white/brown sugar mixture.
7. Bake 12-14 minutes.  Let sit on the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.  Do not overcook or they shall not be chewy and delicious.

1. I’m in California; which right there would be enough for an awesome summer, but there is more awesomeness, so keep reading
2. My summer internship was pretty cool (I’m working at VMware on Mobile Virtualization)
3. Unlike NY and Boston, I haven’t seen rain more than once in weeks and I think I might have blocked out forgotten what humidity is like
4. My house is huge and has a kick-ass kitchen
5. I live with 4 really nice med-students, some of whom have a bottomless stomach

That last point is key.  I’m able to bake up a storm knowing whatever is produced will be gone in less than four days.  Unlike living by myself where I can’t blame anyone else for eating the last cookie (or the entire batch), now I can just say it was one of the roommates. Living in denial is fantastic.

So as a final course to the dinner I made last week, I chose peach cobbler.  An obvious decision given peaches are in season right now and EVERYWHERE.

Now normally, cobblers and other peach related desserts are made with yellow peaches.  They are sweeter and have that traditional peachy goodness.  I decided to make this cobbler with a mix of yellow and white.  I enjoyed it because each bite produced a slightly different flavor.

Although I will be honest, it received mixed reviews.  Some people liked the less sweet peach mix and others wanted more of the familiar peach flavor.  Regardless of which peaches you chose, the crust part is delicious.  I preferred my cobbler warm served with vanilla ice cream.

Peach Cobbler

Adapted from Martha Stewart

• 15 ripe peaches, sliced (about 2.5 quarts)
• Scant 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons dark-brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 large egg
• 2/3 cup cold heavy cream

1. Preheat oven to 375°.  Mix peaches, cornstarch, dark-brown sugar, and cinnamon in a large bowl.  Pour mixture into an 8.5 x 11.5 inch baking dish
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, 1/4 cup granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt. Using whatever means you like (I used my hands) mix in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal
3. Whisk together egg and cream and to dry ingredients; mixing until dough just comes together.  Ok, here Martha says to roll into a log and make disks.  Instead, I tore bits and pieces and scatter them to cover the pan.  I liked the nooks an crannies it produced, as you can see in the pictures above.
4. Sprinkle with remaining 1 tablespoon granulated sugar.  Bake until golden brown, about 45 minutes.

Well a couple of weeks ago my roommates and I went to Costco and I picked up a giant crate of strawberries.  Since it was Costco, there were enough strawberries to feed a small army (or in my case a house full of people).  I did manage to stash a couple of them away in the freezer for future use luckily.  Unfreezing berries for cooking always yields mushy results, which are fantastic for baking.  When I initially froze the strawberries I had no future plans and thought I would hold on to them until I found something delicious to make.  Well luckily, that something found me.  While in Whole Foods last week I decided to buy a magazine but unfortunately they were out of Us Weekly, so I picked up Whole Living instead (I’m joking…Whole Foods doesn’t even sell Us Weekly).

Anyway, I found this recipe for Strawberry Muffins and

I just knew they had to be made.

I think they’ve gone over well with the aforementioned army known as my roommates.  More than have of them were gone in less than 24 hours and the remainder within 48.

I like this recipe for a couple of reasons.  The first being, I modified it a bunch and the muffins were still delicious.  Secondly, it does not produce an overly sweet muffin.  The cake part is wholesome and the strawberries are the sweet parts of the muffin.  As a result, these are good for breakfast on the run.

Strawberry Muffins

Adapted from Whole Living

• 2 cups sliced strawberries
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup non-fat plain yogurt
• 1/4 cup  vegetable oil
• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Toss together strawberries and 1/3 cup sugar, lightly mash the berries and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, combine the yogurt, oil, egg, and vanilla.
3. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the buttermilk mixture and the berry mixture (with juice). Fold just until combined and divide among 12 muffins.
4. Bake about 17 minutes. Cool 5 minutes in the pan, then transfer muffins to a wire rack to cool completely.