Friday, March 13, 2009

Pecan snowballs (otherwise known as Mexican Wedding Cookies)


These are one of my favorite holiday cookies. They should be sweet, crumbly, and melt in your mouth. I know it doesn't make much sense to post about holiday cookies in March, but I can't help it if my cravings don't always follow the seasons! It's not my fault if they look like miniature snowmen.

I've eaten many different versions of these cookies, so I was curious to try Martha's version. Her recipe is very simple.

Ingredients:

1 cup (3 1/4 oz) pecans
2 cups powdered sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and place oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

Grind the pecans and 1/4 cup powdered sugar in a good processor until the nuts are finely ground.



Whisk together the sugar-nut mixture, flour, and salt in a large bowl.



Using the paddle attachment of your stand mixture, cream the butter and 3/4 cup powdered sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add the vanilla and almond extracts and beat until combined.

Add the flour-nut mixture and beat on low speed until everything starts to hold together.

Roll small pieces of dough into 1/2 - 3/4 inch balls and place them 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake the cookies until they are lightly browned on the bottom but still light on top, approximately 10-12 minutes. Rotate the baking sheets (top to bottom and front to back) halfway through baking. The cookies may flatten slightly while baking.

Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool.
After the cookies have cooled completely, toss the cookies with 1 cup powdered sugar in a large bowl. Make sure the cookies are completely covered with sugar.

Enjoy!

Friday, March 6, 2009

Perfect Popovers (Part Deux)



Remember my first attempt at making popovers? To summarize: they were a minor disaster. Popovers should not deflate after you take them out of the oven!

I was determined to try to make these again. For my second attempt, I used the popover recipe from Martha's web site, which is slightly different than the one in her book. I had high hopes for this recipe, for a number of reasons. First, it uses fewer eggs. This is a good thing, because I thought my first batch of popovers tasted much too eggy. Second, the instructions involve baking the popovers at high heat for 15 minutes, and then lowering the temperature while continuing to bake the popovers for an additional 20 minutes. I've seen other popover recipes that employ this technique, so I thought there must be something to it.



I didn't take photos of the mixing and preparation steps this time, since everything looked pretty similar to my first popover post. In case you've forgotten, this is what a popover pan looks like. You can try to make popovers with a muffin pan, but they won't turn out as well.



I mixed the ingredients together, blah blah blah, and poured the batter into the popover tin.



After 35 minutes in the oven, I removed the popovers from the oven, slit them with a sharp knife to let the air escape, and removed them from the pan. And they didn't deflate! Woohoo!




Look, perfect popovers! They're light, fluffy, and golden brown, just like they should be!



Popovers should be very airy (almost hollow) on the inside, and these were no exception.





I am ridiculously happy with the way these turned out. With the right recipe and proper technique, these are actually very easy to make. They have very few ingredients, and most of them are things you probably already have in your pantry (well, except for the popover tin). If you've had trouble making these in the past, I highly recommend this recipe. Traditionally, popovers were eaten with butter and jam, but I think popovers make a great alternative to regular bread. They are a tasty accompaniment to winter soups or stews (or pretty much anything else).

Perfect Popovers (makes 6)

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon table salt
2 large eggs
1 1/4 cups whole milk
Instructions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Liberally spray popover tin with non-stick cooking spray, and then lightly coat with flour.

Whisk together the flour and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, and butter. Pour the egg mixture over the flour mixture and fold together until the entire mixture is just blended. It's OK if there are a few small lumps of flour left in the batter.

Evenly distribute the batter between the 6 popover cups.

Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce the temperature for 350 degrees and bake until the popovers are puffy and well-browned on top, approximately 20 minutes. Warning: if you take them out of the oven too early, they will deflate. Remove tin from the oven and immediately remove popovers onto a wire cooling rack. Use a sharp knife to cut a small slit in the sides of each popover (this prevents them from getting soggy or deflating). Serve immediately.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberry Buttercream



I've been a bad, bad blogger. I don't have a good excuse why I stopped blogging in November. I made tons of baked goodies for the holidays, and the backlog for my blog kept growing. But I'm back! Even better, I've realized that I can publish recipes as long as I write my own text. Whee!

I love cupcakes, and I also love the combination of chocolate and raspberry. Martha Stewart has a great, easy recipe for one-bowl chocolate cupcakes, but I didn't want to do the typical thing with chocolate frosting. I found Martha's recipe for strawberry buttercream, and I decided to adapt it to raspberry buttercream. It turned out wonderfully!

Cupcake Ingredients:

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (NOT dutch-process)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup warm water
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, sift together all of the dry ingredients (cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt).




Add the eggs, water, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla extract. Mix everything together by hand until the batter is smooth, approximately 3 minutes.



Pour the batter evenly into the cups of a regular muffin tin lined with paper liners (if you don't have paper liners, butter the tins so your muffins won't stick). Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffins comes out with only a few crumbs attached.



Let the muffins cool completely on a wire rack before you frost them. This is what the muffins looked like when I took them out of the oven:



Now it's time to make the buttercream! This is an unusual buttercream recipe, because it calls for egg whites instead of egg yolks. It's very good though.

Raspberry Meringue Buttercream Ingredients:

4 large egg whites
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into tablespoons
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups (12 ounces) raspberry jam

Instructions:

First, puree the raspberry jam in a food processor until it is completely smooth. If the jam has seeds, make sure the seeds have been pulverized.

Combine the egg whites and sugar in the bowl of your electric mixer. Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and whisk constantly, until the sugar completely dissolves and the mixture is warm to the touch.


Attach the bowl to your stand mixer (with the whisk attachment) and beat on high speed until stiff peaks appear. Continue beating until the mixture is fluffy and has cooled. This should take approximately 5-6 minutes.

Remove the whisk attachment from your mixer, and add the paddle attachment. Turn the mixer on medium-low speed and slowly add the butter, one tablespoon at a time, beating well. After all of the butter is incorporated, add the vanilla extract. Turn the speed to low and beat for 2 additional minutes.

Add the pureed raspberry jam to the mixture, and combine with a spatula until smooth.

Now you have raspberry meringue buttercream! You can use a spatula or knife to spread the frosting on top of the cupcakes, but I wanted to do something a little more decorative.
I cut a corner off of a large ziploc bag and attached a star-shaped decorative icing tip. I filled the bag with the buttercream and iced my cupcakes with some simple stars and lines.

These cupcakes were very pretty, and also very tasty. I love the color of the raspberry buttercream. Yum!