things to try

The search is on for the perfect whoopie pie. It needs to be nice and chocolaty and not cloyingly sweet. A harmonious balance of chocolate and vanilla that must freeze well and stand up to an 8-hour car ride. That's not too much to ask for, is it?

The plan is to make these for our wedding, either as a dessert option or just as favors to put at each place setting, individually wrapped and tied with a pretty bow (and maybe these super adorable miniature lobster buoys). I thought it would be fitting - along with lobsters, clam chowder, and blueberries, these just scream Maine to me.

For this trial I used a recipe from Gourmet for the chocolate cake part, and Rose Levy Beranbaum's mousseline buttercream for the filling (the Gourmet recipe called for a marshmallow fluff filling and I'm not really interested in that). I used my 1 1/2 T scoop to portion both the cakes and the filling which gave me 36 cakes (18 when assembled) and filling for 15. They're really good, and at first I thought the filling may be too sweet, but that might have been due to too much sampling on my part. I just had a day-old pie and it was delicious.

I will keep testing recipes though and possibly go even smaller, using my 2 tsp scoop.

» Gourmet's Whoopie Pies
» Piece of Cake: Rose Levy Beranbaum's Whoopie Pies
» The Way the Cookie Crumbles: A comparison of four vanilla frostings

Our ancient gas oven has decided it no longer wants to light. I discovered this as I was trying to bake a loaf of bread and had to resort to using the toaster oven to bake it.

So, what to do with the chicken I'd intended to roast? I've been meaning to try cooking a whole bird in the crock pot, so here was my incentive. I generously salted the chicken then lightly browned it on both sides before sticking it in the pot. I grabbed a few sprigs of rosemary and thyme from the garden and put them underneath, inside, and on top. I topped it with a few pats of butter for good measure and plenty of pepper. I would have put some onion in there too but I was fresh out. I set the crock pot to high and left for work.

When I came home from work the house smelled amazing. The chicken was done and falling off the bone. Unfortunately, we wouldn't be eating for a few more hours (I get home fairy early) so I ended up turning it off, taking all the meat off the bones, and making gravy with the juices. When Matt got home I tossed some of the chicken pieces into the gravy to reheat.

Next time I'll salt the chicken a day ahead like I would if I were roasting it. I would probably skip the browning step also and cook it on low so it's not done way early. I might also try adding some vegetables during the last couple hours. Maybe apples and butternut squash? The possibilities are endless.

» Recipe for Honey-Vanilla Yogurt Cake

Last night I got the pasta machine out and was determined to turn out a successful batch of fettucini. All I hear is that it's so easy to make, so it was bugging me that my only pasta-making attempt was a failure.

Well, it turns out that it really is easy. All you need is some patience and a bowl of extra flour handy.

I used the pasta recipe from my Better Homes & Gardens cookbook (substituting whole wheat flour), which is different than the other recipes I've seen because in addition to eggs the wet ingredients include water and olive oil. I misread the recipe though, and used the full amount of flour in the dough, instead of saving 1/3 cup of it to sprinkle the work surface with. My dough ended up being very dry, but I just added a little more water and it seemed to turn out just fine.

Next time I make pasta for just the two of us, I'll make 1/2 a recipe. There is so much leftover. I'll also try it with white whole wheat flour.

For the sauce I cooked up an eggplant marinara, because I had half of a huge eggplant sitting in the fridge, waiting to be used for something.

Served with a crunchy green salad, and a lovely Francis Coppola Rosso Shiraz, it all ended up being a very tasty, meatless Sunday dinner.


» Recipe for Fresh Whole Wheat Pasta with Eggplant Marinara

This meal was very similar to this one, with brined pork and a butternut squash risotto. Instead of doing a brine I made a dry rub with salt and brown sugar. It had pretty much the same effect and resulted in perfectly juicy meat.

Including apples in the meal was a given - apples and pork go so well together. I had some parsnips in the fridge so I decided to include them too. The risotto was ok. I'm not sure I'm a risotto fan. I think it would have been so much better if I had just made some rice or israeli couscous, then roasted the parsnips and apples with a rosemary balsamic dressing.


» Recipe for Pork with Parsnip & Apple Risotto

We have all this beer in the fridge, and while it's not bad, we just don't prefer pumpkin ales. I figure it's a good excuse to experiment with more beer bread flavors. To the basic recipebasic recipe I added cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and raisins. I also substituted brown sugar for the white sugar and added quite a bit more to make a sweeter loaf and counteract the bitterness of the beer a little. I was pleasantly surprised with the result. Sweet, but not too sweet, with warm spices and chewy raisins scattered throughout. This would be good with some oats added also. I would cut back the flour to 2 cups then add about 1 1/2 cups rolled oats. I might double the amount of raisins too.

This bread is especially good toasted and buttered.

Edit (9/24/08): Text message from my younger brother (who was here yesterday to mow the lawn), "I had a little piece of your bread oh my god." It seems to get better every day.


» Recipe for Raisin Spice Beer Bread

My second attempt at this cake was better, but still not perfect. I used whole milk yogurt, which was extremely rich, resulting in a very moist cake. I made all of the changes I wrote about last timelast time, except that I decided not to add any spices to the batter. I don't think it needed it. I still don't really like the almond flavoring, even though I put half the amount in and mixed it with vanilla extract. I would leave it out altogether next time. Maybe replace part of the flour with finely ground almonds.

I don't know if I would use whole milk yogurt again. I'll probably try lowfat next time. Or buttermilk. I haven't really been loving cakes made with yogurt, although it's probably good for this recipe, because the dense cake stands up to the apples.

The layer of apples between the two batter layers was probably unnecessary. It seems that the batter under the apples didn't rise at all. Putting all the apples on top seems to be the best approach. Also, letting the apple slices macerate in the cinnamon sugar while mixing up the batter created a wonderful apple-cinnamon syrup that I drizzled over the cake before baking it.

I ended up baking it for just over an hour. At 45 minutes the center was still gooey.


» Recipe for Almond Apple Cake: Attempt #2

This is the third year in a row that I've made an apple-inspired cake for my mom's birthday. Two years ago it was an applesauce spice cake. The cake was dry and tasteless, and the frosting was way too sweet. Last year it was a velvet spice cake with an apple-raisin filling and seafoam icing. The icing didn't hold up and slid off the cake - even in the fridge. The filling was good but it wasn't the right consistency for a cake with icing that needed to be refrigerated.

I don't seem to have much success with cakes. They always leave something to be desired. I thought this one was going to be different. It looked and smelled so good, but it turned out to be slightly overdone and dry. I even took it out a couple minutes early.

It's surprising that my family still lets me bring dessert.

I really think this could be a great cake though. I have plenty of apples left so I'm going to give it another shot this week, with a few changes:

• Full-fat yogurt, for starters. I think that's why I haven't really liked the yogurt cakes I've made. Fat-free yogurt just doesn't have the same effect. That should help with the moisture. Substituting buttermilk would probably work well also. I love buttermilk-based cakes.
  
  
• More apples. I used four apples in this one because they were pretty small, but I still think it could use even more. I would also toss them in a little cinnamon-sugar mixture before layering them on the cake, and instead of putting all the apple slices on top, I would put half of them between two layers of batter.
  
  
• Less almond extract. I'm not a huge fan of almond extract. It tastes a bit fake and overpowering to me. I remember thinking that when I made the Honey-Almond Yogurt CakeHoney-Almond Yogurt Cake, but this recipe called for half the amount so I didn't think cutting back on it would be necessary. It might be good with 1/2 tsp vanilla extract and 1/4 tsp almond extract. Real Amaretto would be even better, but I didn't have any on hand.
  
  
• Add some spices to the batter. Some cinnamon, a pinch of cloves, a sprinkling of nutmeg. Nutmeg makes everything better.
  
  
• Adjust the baking time. One hour was way too long. The bottom and sides of the cake got too dark and tough. Maybe 45 minutes would do it.

» Recipe for Almond Apple Cake

Matt loves lasagna with a passion, and I rarely make it because not only is it so time-consuming, but even an 8"x8" dish is way too much for 2 people. I can only stand eating leftovers for so long. I decided to try making a bunch of 2-3 serving mini lasagne to keep in the freezer for nights when I don't feel like cooking.

This version has eggplant and broccoli hidden in the sauce (because I like to force my love for vegetables on others). I found the tiniest eggplants at the farmer's market today - 3 of them, about 1" by 3", all attached to the same vine. I was thinking about peeling them first, but then I decided that the purple flecks of skin would look pretty in the sauce.

I think next time I will make enough noodles to have one more layer on top, then top it with more sauce and cheese. I think that if I make 4 instead of 5 pans I'll have enough sauce and cheese. Then I would need 8 noodles to make 3 layers.


» Recipe for Mini Lasagne

Here's another yogurt cake recipe that looks good. I haven't been baking much lately because I'm trying to drop a few pounds (not to mention the oven is on the fritz), but eventually I will have to try this one.

» Susan's Easy Orange Yogurt Cake