February 11, 2017–Homemade pizza topped with soppressata, basil, fresh mozzarella and parmesan cheese
Cookie Box
January 16, 2017–So I was getting almost daily harassment for baking goods for ‘those people’ from my FRAMLY. I decided to send them a little package of cookies. It took me the entire MLK weekend to bake, package, and ship but I think the lucky recipients were happy.
Lemon Cookies, Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, Gingerbread Cookies, Peanut Butter Cookies, and Quadruple Chocolate Chip Cookies
Good Eats
December 20, 2016–For those of you that don’t like pecans—this could be a game changer! If you will be in the greater Dallas/Fort Worth area in the next 24-36 hours there may be some left. ABSOLUTELY LAST PICTURE FOR THE YEAR–You can blame this one on Alton Brown and his show Good Eats 🙂
Crust made with crushed pecans and bourbon
Filled with crushed spiced pecans
Filling contains bourbon, vanilla beans, etc
Topped with whole spiced pecans
Pumpkin Gingersnap Cheese Cake
December 6, 2016–“Just when I thought I was out… they pull me back in.”
I thought I was done for the year then requests from near and far started arriving to my inbox.
“Can you make me a banana nut cake with banana cream frosting?”–20 plus year friend and Colonel in the Army living in the DC area
“Come up with some deliciousness featuring hot chocolate.”–long time friend and Texas Judge living in Houston
“Doesn’t this Pumpkin Gingersnap Cheese Cake look good?!?!”–my Deputy, my Secretary and another employee
Since I have to see the people who work for me everyday I decided to satisfy their request. That being said, this is it for the remainder of the year. Travel and holidays will restrict my baking. Oh, wait. I did promise to make a Bourbon Pecan Pie for Christmas….
Savory
December 4, 2016–So although I made A LOT of desserts this weekend; actually the words “a lot” don’t describe how many sweets were produced in my kitchen over the past 48 hours, I also made some savory items for a holiday party I had at my house. Mini-chicken and beef empanadas. Pretty tasty and just the right size.
Insomnia=QCCC
December 1, 2016–What do you do when you can’t sleep?
You bake, of course!
Quadruple Chocolate Chip Cookies (QCCC). Chocolate cookies made with cocoa and espresso (1), melted semi-sweet chocolate (2), mini-semi-sweet chocolate chips (3) and white chocolate chips (4). Oooooo, I still have some of the salted bourbon caramel sauce left. Think I’ll bring that so people can drizzle some on top.
Idle Hands II
November 29, 2016–No sure if everyone picked up on the fact that yesterday’s Post said ‘Part 1’. Well here is Part 2. The recipe from the November 2015 edition of Southern Living. Their recipe only used lady fingers but I couldn’t find enough so I substituted. Once the substitution started I couldn’t stop resulting in the addition of cocoa, the espresso cream, espresso beans…instead of me talking just look at the pictures.
Pumpkin-Espresso Tiramisù
I started with a base layer of lady fingers. Since I didn’t have enough lady fingers for the side I alternated with Pepperidge Farm Milano Dark Chocolate cookies. The cookies were of course soaked in espresso coffee mixed with Brandy, Kahula, and Bailey’s Irish Cream.
I then poured a mixture of cream cheese, canned pumpkin, heavy cream, and vanilla bean paste on top
I then put another layer of espresso soaked Pepperidge Farm Milano Dark Chocolate cookies and topped those with some more of the cream cheese pumpkin mixture. I then dusted the top with cocoa powder.
The next layer consisted of a whipped cream espresso mixture dusted with freshly grated nutmeg. I know that ‘freshly grated nutmeg’ is a given but some people like to use the pre-grated stuff so I wanted to ensure the laymen understood. 🙂
I finally sprinkled the top with crushed chocolate covered espresso beans that I picked up from Trader Joe’s.
Although it took more than a day to make it was worth every…last…bite!!!
Idle Hands I…
November 28, 2016–…in this case ‘are NOT the devil’s workshop’ but they did produce a devilish good dessert.
Pumpkin Roll with Bourbon Cream Cheese filling
Pumpkin cake with ginger, cloves, freshly grated nutmeg, and cinnamon.
I spread a thin layer of pumpkin cream cheese frosting (PCCF) then bourbon cream cheese filling with drizzles of PCCF.
Roll tightly, slice thinly and serve with bourbon cream cheese and pumpkin cream cheese frosting and salted caramel bourbon sauce!
Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie Cupcakes w/Buttered Pecan Frosting
November 21, 2016–I’ll forgo my usual loquacious description of the dessert I made and let the pictures speak for themselves. It is for adults only!
I am unsure of where/how I came upon this recipe but it was definitely worth the effort.
You start by making the batter for chocolate cupcakes that besides the normal ingredients also contains a FULL CUP OF BOURBON!! You now have a blank canvas of goodness. But like any great artist, why stop there?!?!
You then cut a small hole in the top of each cupcake and remove the center. You can use the scrapes to crumble on top of ice cream or just nosh on while you continue to assemble the cupcakes :-O. You can’t leave the hole so you add a Bourbon butter pecan frosting (pecans were toasted w/bourbon & vanilla then mixed w/brown sugar, powder sugar, cinnamon & heavy cream).
Admittedly this looks a little sloppy so you should cover it with some Bourbon Buttered Pecan Frosting!
The recipe called for toping the whole thing with a whole pecan. I went a step further and added maple Bourbon bacon. Why? Because EVERYTHING tastes better with bacon and you can NEVER have enough Bourbon!
I present to you Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie Cupcakes w/Buttered Pecan Frosting topped with Bourbon Buttered Pecans and Bourbon Maple Bacon. I told you it was for ADULTS ONLY!
Challenge Accepted
October 3, 2016–On Friday one of my friends sends me a text out of the blue with the following message, “So no pumpkin creations to share? You’re slipping! 😝” I will not mention any names but she knows who she is!!!!
If she was saying these ‘harsh’ words I had to wonder, “ How many others thought the same?” I couldn’t let my reputation be tarnished so after a quick internet search, off to the local grocery store to buy the ingredients to make a fall dessert.
As I was making it, I realized that it could also serve as a halloween cake (add some marshmallow ghosts, candied skeletons and spiders, etc). As I type I realize that I could have also left the cake completely orange, covered a banana, pineapple or some other cylindrical fruit with the chocolate, put the fruit in the middle and it would have looked like a pumpkin!
The cake batter has the pumpkin my friend wanted; turned it chocolate with cocoa. Icing is cream cheese, cocoa, heavy cream, confectioners sugar, etc and A LOT of orange food coloring. If you didn’t know it takes a lot to turn something brown, orange but I wanted the cocoa flavor in the icing so….
Finally topped the whole thing with bittersweet chocolate mixed with some Grand Marnier. Did I spell it right this time? You know who you are 🙂
NOTE: I have no idea what the final product tastes like. I will leave that for my office mates. That being said, the batter, frosting, and chocolate glaze all tasted good separately.
DISCLAIMER: I am not responsible for, and expressly disclaim all liability for damages of any kind to yourself or computer (ie. damaging your screen and/or getting sick from licking your screen to see if you can taste the cake). I am not responsible for any weight gained due to you eating items to substitute for the that fact that you can’t eat this cake. Finally, I am not responsible for you being upset that you cannot taste the cake.
Enjoy the remainder of your Sunday.
