apple tart.

The fourth of July is not complete without apples. Specifically apples baked with lots of sugar, flour and butter. Last year, Carolyn and I made a delicious apple pie inspired by our lady Ina. Unfortunately this year we had to celebrate this fun holiday in different states. Thus, no apple pie collaboration. Separately, however, this is what I came up with: an apple tart that slightly resembles a chrysanthemum.Check out the recipe [here]. I might suggest using a smidge less cream cheese and a few more apples. Serve it up with a dollop of vanilla bean ice cream. It will make your tummy smile...even if it isn't on the fourth of July.

banana bread with nutella swirl.

My favorite way to enjoy a banana has always been in bread form. My grandmother used to make it for us all the time. It's one of the things that I distinctly remember about visiting her when I was younger. She still makes it now and then and it's just as delicious as ever.

So what could be better than a slice of warm banana bread with a square of butter melting on top, you ask? Oh yes, you're right, banana bread with nutella swirl! 

Consider yourself warned. You will eat more than one piece. Find some people to share this with...fast.  

Banana Bread with Nutella Swirl
Adapted from Sugar Plum

2 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups mashed ripe banana
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1/2 cup Nutella

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 9-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.

In a medium mixing bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In a large mixing bowl, using a mixer on medium speed, beat together banana, butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla until creamy and well combined - about 2 minutes. Beat in eggs until well combined. Reduce mixer speed to low and beat in flour mixture until just combined. Divide 1/2 of of the batter into a medium bowl; stir in Nutella until combined.

Alternate spoonfuls of batter into loaf pan until all of the batter is used up. Swirl batter gently with a knife. Bake 1 hour or until well risen, deep golden brown, and a toothpick inserted into bread comes out with moist crumbs attached.

have your cake. eat it too.

strawberry buttermilk cake &

basic buttercream frosting with chopped pecans.

This recipe was found on pinterest (shocker. right?). I was browsing boards as I do, a lot of the time and spotted this delicious little cake. It looked too good and too easy to pass up. One of my favorite things about reading recipes is realizing I have everything I need to make the recipe without having to go to the store. As I was getting out the ingredients I quickly realized I was missing a very key ingredient...buttermilk. Strawberry buttermilk cake without the buttermilk? That would not go well. Without a panic, I remembered a little trick my mama taught me. Mix 1 cup milk (I used soy milk) with 1 tbs. of vinegar and let it sit for 5 minutes. Watch the time & make sure it doesn't get too sour. That my friends is what we call DIY buttermilk.

This was a tasty little cake that I would definitely make again. The frosting isn't imperative but let's be honest, who doesn't like a little extra sweetness?

Enjoy this cake.

cake recipe || buttercream frosting recipe {halved}

february love.

I know it was a few days ago but I hope you had a dee-light-full valentine's day!

I spent mine with this girl.

Baking this cake.

It was a lovely way to spend a sweet day. 



Dear [Future] Birthday Girl

Remember that year you were 21? A lot of great things happened that year. You lived with two girls who became your best friends. You did a lot of baking, eating of baked goods, crafts and studying. In the fall, pancake Saturday's became tradition at our house. When our bellies were full of fluff, we would head to the football tailgates. It was always a thrill to enter Doak Campbell Stadium and cheer along with the 80,000+ fans rocking it out. That year, the Noles had their best season in the four years you were at Florida State. You did a lot of growing up that year and learned to appreciate the little things in life. You looked forward to Tuesday and Thursday afternoon re-runs of Sex and the City with Carolyn as you ate lunch, roommate outings to Costco and dinners at Red Elephant.

In the spring, the reality of graduating became really exciting but kind of frightening. You experienced a lot of Tallahassee that semester and are still regretting not getting that hot dog at the Springtime festival. Hard work paid off. You got all A’s and as a result danced up the isle at graduation. A week later, you got to proudly watch your brother graduate from college too. Above all else, your trust in the Lord’s plan was strengthened as you began to see him work all things together and provide you a job in Alabama.

Moving was hard. Really, really hard but you were embraced by a great community in Alabama and began some awesome friendships. You became so aware of God’s goodness. Especially on your birthday. You had wonderful friends and family make you feel loved from nearby and miles away. Your sweet mother sent you five cards. For real, five cards! You got to share your birthday celebration with you awesome new friend, Winnie, who is just one day older than you, go to a Navy jazz band concert in the park, and delight in a banana cream cheese cake with friends and [new] family.

You felt so blessed.

21 was an awesome year. Definitely one for the books.

Fruit Pizza

[yields 2 pizzas]

crust:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup Crisco

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 3/4 cups flour

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

filling:

16oz cream cheese
[room temperature]
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons milk
Assorted fresh fruit:
       strawberries, bananas,
       blueberries, kiwis, peaches

Chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 400°. Cream butter and shortening together, add sugar. Beat in eggs. Stir in dry ingredients. Grease two pizza pans or tart pans [12″], spread dough on pans and bake at 400° for 8 to 10 minutes. Cool completely. Cream together all ingredients for filling and spread on cooled crusts. Top with fresh cut up fruit and pecans.



Match Made in Heaven

This I know to be true; these three  four pairs are meant to be together.

1. Chocolate & Milk
2. Peanut Butter & Jelly
3. White Chocolate & Macadamia Nuts
4. Me & Ryan Gosling

A couple of weeks ago I had a white chocolate mini kit-kat and it was surprisingly tasty. You could say my hankering to bake with white chocolate began there. Usually when making cookies, I stick with chocolate chip because you can never go wrong with a chocolate chip cookie. Sometimes though, life calls you out of your comfy baking corner and when that happens, you just go with it. This simple recipe for white chocolate macadamia nut cookies is divine. Alert your taste buds, this is going to be a sweet treat.

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

   
 adapted from Betty Crocker
 makes 2 dozen small cookies

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 cup packed light or dark brown sugar
2 Tablespoons milk
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8  teaspoon salt
1/2 coarsely chopped macadamia nuts
1 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  In a medium saucepan melt the butter, stirring the butter until browned bits appear in the bottom of the pan. This may take about 5 minutes.  Once the butter is browned, remove pan from heat and set aside to cool a bit while you measure out the dry ingredients and set them aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer add the brown sugar and slightly cooled butter.  Beat on medium speed for about 2 minutes.  Add egg and beat for one minute more.  Add milk and vanilla extract and beat to incorporate. 

Add the dry ingredients all at once.  With either the stand mixer on low, or by hand with a spatula, incorporate the dry ingredients until just mixed in.  Fold in the chopped nuts and white chocolate chips.
Scoop two teaspoon sized balls onto a lined baking sheet.  Bake for 9-11 minutes or until cookies are browning.  Remove from oven and let rest of the baking sheet for 3 minutes before removing to a cooling rack.

And there ya have it. Enjoy!

sweet and unexpected.

I had an unexpected visit from a best friend last weekend. Think about this, you are driving down the road to doctor's appointment, ice cold diet coke in the cup holder, America's top forty on the radio, and you just got three green lights in a row. All of the sudden, you hear this loud noise coming from the back left tire and your car starts to shake violently. Dun..dun...dun, flat tire. To make matters worse, the violent shaking caused the diet coke you were sipping to spill on your shirt and because you had to get out and assess the situation, you missed hearing the #1 song in America. While waiting on triple A to come your rescue, you call your doctor an explain that you won't be making it to the appointment because you ran into some unexpected car trouble. Bad day.

In this hypothetical flat tire extravaganza, unexpected = unfortunate, sad, and annoying.

On the other side of the spectrum...

Friend coming to visit unexpectedly = pure happiness. It was a weekend full of laughter, reminiscing, baking, sight seeing, and discovery. You get the point. It was awesome.  

Fourth of July has always been one of my favorite holidays because there aren't any real expectations. No one has to cook a turkey and stuff it or buy a gift for someone. Unless of course, your mom hates hamburgers and her birthday is on the fourth of July. Then do it. Let's face it though, the expectations for this holiday are few. This fourth of July weekend was no exception and it was really great. It was complete with friends, minor league baseball, cornhole, fireworks, delicious food and apple pie.

Ohh, the apple pie. Carolyn and I were challenged via twitter by her brother and his new wife (remember this?) to an apple pie bake off. Determined to prove our baking skills and patriotism could outshine these newlyweds, we got to work. The competition proved to be pretty fierce. This was our pride and joy:

 

This apple pie was quite delicious. It oozed winners. However, our pie was in Alabama and their pie was in Florida so after we got a few trash talking tweets out of the way, we called it a draw.

This weekend truly was one for the books. It also came with the reminder of how blessed we are to live in a free nation that allows us to worship, to celebrate, to love, to bake, to enjoy friendships, and to appreciate the countless blessings of life.

The recipe for our pie: Barefoot Contessa

4 pounds Granny Smith apples, peeled, quartered, and cored

Zest of 1 lemon
Zest of 1 orange
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed orange juice
1/2 cup sugar, plus 1 teaspoon to sprinkle on top
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water for egg wash

Perfect Pie Crust
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) very cold unsalted butter
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1/3 cup very cold vegetable shortening
6 to 8 tablespoons (about 1/2 cup) ice water
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Cut each apple quarter in thirds crosswise and combine in a bowl with the zests, juices, sugar, flour, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice.

Roll out half the pie dough and drape it over the pie pan to extend about 1/2 inch over the rim. Don’t stretch the dough; if it’s too small, just put it back on the board and re-roll it.

Fill the pie with the apple mixture. Brush the edge of the bottom pie crust with the egg wash so the top crust will adhere. Top with the second crust and trim the edges to about 1 inch over the rim. Tuck the edge of the top crust under the edge of the bottom crust and crimp the two together with your fingers or a fork. Brush the entire top crust with the egg wash, sprinkle with 1 teaspoon sugar, and cut four or five slits.

Place the pie on a sheet pan and bake for 1 to 1 1/4 hours, or until the crust is browned and the juices begin to bubble out. Serve warm.

Perfect Pie Crust
Dice the butter and return it to the refrigerator while you prepare the flour mixture. Place the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse a few times to mix. Add the butter and shortening. Pulse 8 to 12 times, until the butter is the size of peas. With the machine running, pour the ice water down the feed tube and pulse the machine until the dough begins to form a ball. Dump out on a floured board and roll into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Cut the dough in half. Roll each piece on a well-floured board into a circle, rolling from the center to the edge, turning and flouring the dough to make sure it doesn’t stick to the board. Fold the dough in half, place in a pie pan, and unfold to fit the pan. Repeat with the top crust.

Be Exceptional. Bake a Brownie.

If you ever find yourself spending most of the afternoon thinking about brownies
(I never do this), but if you should, this is what you should do.

You should bake brownies. Not just any brownies though. You bake exceptional brownies with peanut butter and pretzels. Then you eat. You break all the rules and you eat a really big piece that takes more of a rectangle shape than a square. Enjoy every bite and forget about those hydrogenated oils and the fact that its 11:00 and Oprah says not to eat after 8:00. You rule your life. Eat the brownie.

Nothing accents a brownie better than a glass of milk. So after you finish cutting that large chocolaty piece of goo, pour yourself a glass. You deserve it.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Brownies
adapted from Martha Stewart

For the Brownie:
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon instant coffee (optional)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon  salt
coarse sea salt for topping

For the Peanut Butter Filling:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup powdered sugar
3/4 cup smooth peanut butter, I prefer natural peanut butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
large handful of pretzel sticks

Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Grease an 8×8-inch baking pan. Line with parchment paper so that it overhangs on two sides and grease the parchment paper as well. Boil two inches of water in a medium saucepan. 

Combine butter, unsweetened chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate and coffee powder in a heat proof bowl and place over the simmering water.  Stir until chocolate and butter are melted.  Use a pot holder to remove the bowl from the double boiler and let mixture cool slightly.  Stir in the vanilla extract.

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk granulated sugar into the chocolate and butter mixture.  Make sure the chocolate mixture isn’t too hot and whisk the eggs in the mixture one at a time. Fold in the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture and spoon into prepared pan.

To make the Peanut Butter Filling, whisk together peanut butter, melted butter, powdered sugar, salt and vanilla extract until smooth. Pour the peanut butter mixture on top of the brownie batter and use a butter knife to swirl the two together. 

Arrange pretzel sticks on top of the brownie batter. Top with a few sprinkles of coarse sea salt.  Bake for 40 to 45 minutes.