Basic Brownies

Looking back to some of my original posts -- and the memories that far precede blogging, I really think I've come a long way.

For example, just last night an old memory came flooding back. I was dining at Fat Head's -- a Pittsburgh fave -- with M and his brothers. Don't ask me why, but the topic of olive oil came up. The general consensus was it makes just about everything taste better.

Or does it? That's when I remembered a time when EVOO failed me. Or rather, I probably failed my EVOO.

In college, I was making brownies from a box one night. Nothing fancy. Mix ingredients together, pour into a baking dish, put in the oven and I was home free.

When the timer went off, the smell of fresh baked chocolate wafted through our old college house. Yum! I called the roommates to the kitchen for a treat.

But when I pulled the brownies from the oven, they were still really gooey.

"Maybe they aren't done yet?" my roommate suggested.

I was about to put them back in when she noticed the olive oil sitting out on the counter.

"Um.... What kind of oil did you use?" she asked.

"I used this," I said, grabbing the EVOO. "And I swear, I measured everything perfectly. I was even eye level with the bottom of the meniscus!" I automatically started justifying. I was so used to my mom and sister always questioning my cooking antics.

You'd have to know my roommate. She's the sweetest girl and I know she didn't want to hurt my feelings. She tried to get me to throw them away, but I insisted we try them first. She refused.

Smart girl. She knew they'd be totally disgusting. I wasn't so convinced. So I cut off a corner and took a great big bite. Holy gross!

In the end, I learned EVOO ≠ canola oil. What a sad, sad waste of olive oil.

P.S. M loves the edges, so we're now the proud owners of the Baker's Edge brownie pan. And so far, I have yet to screw those up!

The Bunny Cake

The Bunny cake has been a long tradition in our family. He's made an appearance at every Easter I can remember.

But one year, he almost didn't make it. I was probably around 12 or 13 years old when my mom gave me the job of making the bunny cake. ME! What an honor.

I was only using a box cake mix, so it should have been a piece of cake (groan). Anyway, I added the eggs, water, oil and started mixing. And mixing. And mixing. Ten minutes later I thought my arm was going to fall off. I had no choice but to ask my younger sister what went wrong.

She took one look at the unopened box of cake mix and pointed out exactly what went wrong. I forgot to add the mix. So terrible to be corrected by an 8-year-old.

In the end, the bunny made it to the table and was enjoyed by all. But my mom never, ever asked me to make him again. Until this year...

She's really starting to show faith in me. She believes I'm FINALLY outgrowing my Domestically Deficient title. Thus, she turned over the bunny cake pan.

I didn't want to disappoint and decided to go all out with a homemade burnt almond torte cake. I made everything from scratch.

There were a few bumps in the road --

1. I put too much batter in the pan and it started to overflow.
2. I spilled flour everywhere (including on my brand new black sneakers). Such a pain to clean up.
3. The icing called for emulsified shorting -- Does anybody even know what that is? Or where you can buy it? I never did figure that out. Apparently Crisco works as a decent substitute.
   
4. Despite greasing and flouring the pan, the cake got stuck.
   
5. And the almonds -- yikes. The recipe I used to toast them essentially cemented them to the pan. Roughly a third of them flew all over the kitchen as M and I tried to scrape them off. They were EVERYWHERE. Good thing I made extra!

But in the end, the bunny was served. And he was a huge hit. All was right in our home on Easter Sunday.

PS Take a vote -- Do you think he's holding the Easter egg in front of him or popping out of an egg? That is a question we've pondered for years.

About that Pie

I mentioned the peach pie I made for our Fourth of July weekend festivities. It was only the second fruit pie I ever tackled and it was a big hit.

The first one, however, didn't go exactly according to plan. I accidentally purchased all white peaches instead of orange peaches. I didn't really know there was a difference and just picked up what looked like a peach to me. [Side note: I recently went to the store to purchase an orange for a muffin recipe and instead came home with a small, brightly colored grapefruit. I thought it could have happened to anyone. Fiance assured me it wouldn't.]

Back to the peaches. I got home and started pealing them before I realized my mistake. I forged on anyway, figuring if the pie bombed, it would just be another domestically deficient tale to tell. Turns out the white peaches actually were okay. My mom even said it was the best peach pie she'd ever had.

Last weekend, I made what I now refer to as my peach pie again, but this time I combined half orange peaches and half white. It was by far the best out of three. I highly recommend surprising your pie eating friends with a lovely peach blend.

Baking Day

Half a dozen hours and dozens of cookies later – I can honestly say the baking experiment was a success.

I did have the help of a more experienced baker – which was great. Not only did I learn a few things, but it also helps keep the whole experience enjoyable when you have some company in the kitchen. Definitely recommend baking with friends.

We made four different recipes: pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, chocolate krinkles, chocolate toffee crunchies and peanut butter cup cookies. You can find all of these recipes in the comments section after “Calling All Cookie Recipes.”

The pumpkin chocolate chip cookies make a delicious seasonal treat and were the clear favorite among our volunteer taste testing crew. But out of 10 taste-testers, each cookie earned at least one first place ranking. And so far everybody has agreed that all four recipes are worth the calories!

For all of you novice bakers considering giving one (or all) of these recipes a shot, the good news is that none of them were difficult to make. If I can do it, anybody can… especially when armed with the right equipment.

Tools of the Trade:

First, I’m definitely registering for a KitchenAid stand mixer. My more experienced counterpart brought one with her and once we got the right attachment on there, it was perfect for mixing the dough. Definitely easier than using a hand mixer or worse – a whisk. (Side note: Can you even mix cookie dough with a whisk?)

Second, have you heard of the push up measuring cup? I was introduced to the Metric Wonder Cup this weekend and discovered it’s awesome for measuring sticky ingredients (the pumpkin and peanut butter in our case). I also heard it’s great for Crisco. And it’s easy to use.

Third, we tried a baking stone, Silpat and greased cookie sheet to see which worked the best.

As it turned out, the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies didn’t stick to any of our baking trays and the chocolate krinkles stuck to all of them. Still, I think a baking stone is a great investment if you’re also going to use it to bake pizzas and other things. The Silpat really works and definitely protects the cookie sheet. You can also probably salvage cookie sheets that have lost their non-stick coating by using a Silpat. But don't count out the good old fashion cookie sheet. A good quality tray with a little Pam also produced quite a tasty cookie.

Hands down the best part of the day? Enjoying the end products of our labor!

Calling all Cookie Recipes

My friend (& coworker) recently eloped, and we decided to welcome her back to work in style. This involved a fully decorated cube complete with a display of delicious cookies.

As I plopped the pre-made, pre-cut blobs of chocolate chip cookie dough (with caramel in the center) onto the baking stone the night before, I decided the next time there’s an occasion for cookies, I want to actually make them.

Does anybody have any great cookie or other desert recipe they’d be willing to share? If so, please leave the recipe in the comments section below or email it domestically.deficient@gmail.com.

Next weekend: cookie baking! I’m going to try a few new recipes in preparation for the rapidly approaching holiday season. Maybe I can actually contribute something edible to Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner this year. Stay tuned for a full report on my baking escapade.