Pum is King

 

It’s pretty accepted around here that Southern Tier is the best widely-available pumpkin beer out there.   A lot of breweries whip up something special for the October month and many of those one-offs are delicious but it’s nothing like waiting for Pumking to come out every year, and the first one of the season is always an indication that fall is truly here.

So, logically, I put it into some cupcakes.  Clearly this was not so I could drink the rest…

 

This recipe comes out so spongy and delicious, maybe it’s because it uses a box cake mix – GASP!  The icing calls for 4 C. Confectioner’s sugar (holy shit!) but I put in about half of that.  I like to be able to taste the cream cheese in the icing before my teeth start throbbing.  In the interest of time, I did not make the topping, however it looked amazing.  Thank you Snappy Gourmet for posting the recipe!

 

Ingredients

• Cake:
• 1 (18.25oz) yellow cake mix
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 3/4 cup pumpkin ale
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• Frosting:
• 2 (8oz) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• Streusel:
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts (such as walnuts or pecans)
• 1/4 brown sugar (or granulated sugar)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 muffin pans with 24 paper liners.
2. Add cake mix to large mixing bowl. Add pumpkin, beer, eggs, and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Stir or whisk until just combined. Spoon batter evenly into prepared pans.
3. Bake cupcakes for about 19-23 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into middle comes out clean. Cool completely.
4. Meanwhile, prepare streusel but mixing together flour, nuts, brown sugar, and 1 teaspoon cinnamon in small bowl. Cut in 6 tablespoons butter with pastry blender or knives until mixture is crumbly. Spread out on a large baking sheet that has been lined with parchment paper or silpat (or aluminum foil).
5. Bake streusel at 350 degrees F for about 20-30 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes or so, or until desired crunchiness. Cool completely.
6. For frosting, beat together cream cheese and 1/2 cup butter with electric mixer on medium speed until well combined. Beat in vanilla. Slowly beat in powdered sugar until desired sweetness and consistency.
7. To assemble, frost cooled cupcakes as desired and top with streusel crumbles. Store cupcakes in fridge but let sit at room temperature a few minutes before serving for best results.

Coffee Goddess

Occasionally I actually come up with something on my own and don’t steal it from Tastespotting.  I swear, it happens!  It happened just the other night in fact when my boyfriend brought home a bottle of Espresso Vodka.

“Do you have anything we could mix with this?”

Ha.  Who does he think he’s talking to?

I laid out two kinds of Kahlua, Amaretto Cream, Jameson, Coffee Liqueur, Godiva Cappuccino Liqueur, Two flavors of sugar-free DaVinci syrups, and two bottles of Bailey’s.

You were saying?

I present to you, my very own:

Coffee Goddess

• 2.5 oz. Espresso Vodka
• 1 oz. Godiva Cappuccino Liqueur
• 1/2 oz. DaVinci sugar-free chocolate syrup
• 1/2 oz. Heavy Cream

Shake into a shaker with ice, strain and serve into a dark chocolate-crusted rim.

Cheers!

Les Pommes!

Ok so Oven Lesson #1:  Clean your oven regularly (see previous post).  Oven Lesson #2: Don’t mistake the oven ‘cancel’ button for the timer ‘cancel’ button.

“I wonder why it’s not browning on top”.  I stared into the oven at 7 minute intervals, each revealing the same result as the last.  Something just wasn’t adding up here.  It should have been black for as long as I had had it in the oven.

Then it hit me.  I had turned the oven off a looong time ago, thinking it was the timer.  There was no telling how long that cake had sat in there and at what temperature.  This is when veteran baking experience comes in handy.  Just knowing when something is ‘done’.  Hey maybe mine didn’t look exactly like the picture of the one before it, and yea maybe I added some cinnamon thus making the cake less French, but, obviously at this point I’m just glad it was edible.  Even better than edible.  It was so tart and sweet, with a spongy buttery cake holding it all together.  Plus, my favorite:

IT HAD BOOZE IN IT

Cool thing about this recipe (besides the fact it clearly survives fuck-ups) is that it’s so simple.  I had all the ingredients on hand save for the Honeycrisp apples.

It is a Dorie Greenspan recipe but I found it here:

Oh, autumn.  How I love thee.

Fire in the Hole

You know that awkward moment when you’re making your boyfriend a cheesecake and your oven catches on fire?  No?

Let’s just tell this story backwards: the cheesecake is fine.  It’s like the honey badger of cakes.  Surrounded by fire?  Pumpkin cheesecake don’t care, pumpkin cheesecake don’t give a shit!

We were watching Evil Dead in preparation to see the corresponding musical, and at about the same scene where the fog starts to creep through the forest (yes you’re right; that is about half of the movie) I started to smell something aflame.  Then the smoke started pouring out of the oven, filling my tiny kitchen with a dense fog.  I did not even have to open the oven before I saw the flames reaching up from the bottom of the oven, trying to steal my dessert!

I removed the cheesecake, mid-bake, from the oven and took the next two hours to run the self-clean operation all whilst trying to breathe and clear the air.  I then baked it a second time for what I thought was to be the remaining time, expecting disaster.

Nope.

Just creamy, delicious goodness.

Pumpkin Praline Cheesecake
Adapted from 20 Something Cupcakes

Larger-than-Life Praline Cheesecake

{via Rebecca Rather}

Ginger Crust:

• 2 cups crushed gingersnap cookies (about 40 cookies)
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Pumpkin Filling:

• 3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 (15-ounce) can pure pumpkin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger {instead of using these 3 spices, I used 1 1/2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice}

Praline Topping:

• 1 cup pecans {I used 1 1/2 cups}
• 1/2 cup firmly packed golden brown sugar
• 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

To make the crust: Line the bottom of a 9- or 10-inch springform pan with parchment paper and coat with cooking spray or Baker’s Joy. In a large bowl, stir together the crushed gingersnaps with the melted butter, sugar, and cinnamon. Press into the bottom of the prepared pan.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

{You can also put a big pot of water on the stove to boil. You will need it boiling by the time you’re done with the filling}

To make the filling: Using a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese in a large bowl on medium-high speed about 1 minute, until fluffy. Add the sugar and beat until smooth, about 1 minute. Add the eggs one at a time, beating on medium-high for 20 seconds after each addition. Add the vanilla, pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger; beat on medium speed about 1 minute, until incorporated.

Pour the filling over the crust. Put the springform pan into a larger baking pan and set it on the center rack of the oven. Pour enough boiling water into the larger pan to reach halfway up the sides of the springform pan. Bake about 1 hour, until the filling is set and golden brown on top. Cool the cheesecake on a rack about 3o minutes, then chill for several hours or overnight. Remove the cheesecake from the springform pan and set it on a serving plate.

To make the praline topping: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Arrange the pecans on a baking sheet in a single layer and toast them for 7 to 9 minutes, until golden brown and aromatic. Coarsely chop the nuts.

Stir together the brown sugar, cream, and butter in a saucepan set over medium heat. Boil the mixture for about 1 1/2 minutes, adjusting the heat to make sure it does not boil over. Do not stir. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vanilla, salt, and pecans. Cool the topping at least 15 minutes before pouring over the top of the chilled cheesecake. Serve immediately, or cover and chill until ready to serve. The cheesecake will keep, well wrapped, in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days.

 

Needa ‘Rita

The thing I love most about margaritas is that lime complements so many other fruits, making it easy to throw in strawberries, peaches, or even watermelon to create something fresh and delicious.

We stopped at the Hills Market Farmers Market Saturday and picked up some of these babies:

They don't always come from a can.

I had high hopes to make peach ice cream, but I confess I did not want to wait two hours to eat the peaches.  I made them into something more instantly gratifying  I do have to thank my domestic partner for peeling said peaches for me, since I want to barf every time I touch peach fuzz.  My mom and her dad were the same way; apparently there’s an icky peach fuzz touchy gene?

Ye-auh!  These peaches were literally falling off of the pit they were so juicy.  Please enjoy my favorite (after trying several) recipe for peach margaritas, courtesy of We Are Not Martha:

• 3 peaches peeled and sliced
• 2 T fresh lime juice
• 1 C tequila
• 1/2 C triple sec (orange cointreau)
• 3 T honey
• 3 C ice  (I use closer to 4)

2 and you are SET.

Dopplerockin’ Chili

I know what you are thinking:  Chili?!  In April?!  Well, for us Ohioans, it can be 30 degrees on any given day out of nowhere, so we always need to have a chili recipe handy.  This particular one I created on a day while I was drinking a Great Lakes Conway’s Irish Ale and dumped some into the chili I had been making to thin it out a bit.  After a couple more times of tweaking, I came up with a recipe that I find is almost perfect (not to mention pairs splendidly with beer).  The best part?  It only requires one pot.  That’s right, lazy… boozy….chili. 

I have been loving GLBC’s The Dopplerock since they tapped it at the local bar in mid-March.  It’s a great representation of the style, rich in flavor, and just a tad sweet.  A perfect companion for this recipe.

Kris’ Dopplerockin’ Chili

• 1/2 yellow onion, diced
• 1 – 1.5 lb 93/7 ground turkey
• 1 can (15 oz) Hunt’s Seasoned Diced Tomatoes for Chili
• 1 can (15 oz) Spicy chili beans (do not drain)
• 2/3 C. Great Lakes Dopplerock beer
• 1 t. Italian seasoning
• 1 t. Penzy’s Southwest seasoning (or similar, if you have it)
• 1 T. Chipotle pepper flakes (or red pepper flakes)
• 1 T. Chili powder
• Hot sauce, to taste

Directions:

In a tall stock pot, combine ground turkey and onions and cook until the turkey is crumbled and browned on medium-high heat.  Drain.  Combine chili powder to meat and mix.  Then add chili beans and tomato sauce, and mix well.  Add all of the spices and hot sauce.  Sometimes I add a bit more chili powder, and sometimes a little less red pepper flakes.  This is the point where you should taste your chili to tweak the spices.  If you want a little more heat on the back end, add more pepper flakes.  More heat on the front, add more hot sauce.  If you want more flavor, add more chili powder.  If you prefer it to have a more soup-like consistency add more beer.  Everyone likes their chili a certain way.

After you are satisfied with the heat and flavor, add the beer and stir.  Taste again.  Surprising how you can taste that beer on top of all the other flavors, huh?  Return pot to low heat and simmer for at least 30 minutes.  This will blend the flavors together beautifully.

Serve with your favorite toppings:  cheese, sour cream, and I highly recommend a sliced avocado.  And of course, a Dopplerock!

Cheers!

Stuffed.

A friend of mine was feeling a little bummed lately.  She wanted to join some kind of club or some kind of ongoing social event in which she could meet some new people without seeming so conspicuous.  I rattled off a couple things, but then had a better idea:  Why don’t we start our own club?

How about a club in which we take turns hosting a themed potluck and game night?  So, voila!  The Dinner and Things club was born!  It is literally that; a delicious dinner prepared within the parameters of that host’s chosen theme, and a hilarious game of Things immediately following a couple alcoholic beverages.  We started in February and have only gotten more interest each month.  February’s theme was “Indian”.  My SO made something with squash that was totally tasty, and I did an Indian take on the cupcake, making some Chai Spiced Cupcakes with Candied Oranges.

March’s event was so fun.  The theme was “Stuffed”.  As you can expect, we had some stuffed peppers, and stuffed mushrooms but the creativity of the group was quite impressive.  One of our members made a stuffed sirloin with Gorgonzola and spinach and sun-dried tomatoes.  I don’t even eat beef but holy crap, I had to try a piece of that. 

We also had deconstructed Reuben cups with homemade Thousand Island dressing, as well as lobster and chicken ravioli with cream sauce made in-house.  My sister brought turkey meatballs that she had stuffed with string cheese.  MMM!  To keep with my cupcake idea, I made some Pop-Tarts Cupcakes.  They came out great, and were so colorful and fun that I hardly wanted to eat one.  The base of the cupcake was vanilla, with a vanilla icing, and a blueberry Pop-Tart hidden inside.  We washed our fare down with the Great Lakes Doppelrock.  The rumors are true; it does very much rock.

April’s theme has been chosen:  “Margarita”.  Think I will be thumbing through a copy of Booze Cakes for inspiration on that one!

Looking Good in Green

I got inspired to make some Irish-themed cupcakes with some of the blogs I’ve seen cranking out cute images of green sparkles and leprechauns.  Usually my go-to is to run into Homegoods or one of the Kroger Marketplaces for little shakers full of colored sugar and sprinkles shaped like clovers and whatever else is fitting for the season.  Homegoods – Easter explosion.  Kroger Marketplace – Pastels threw up.  WTH?!  Did I miss St. Patrick’s Day?  It’s only March 11!

I had to grab a couple things from here, and a couple things from there, but I think that the end result is kind of festive, no?   The only things I changed here, were to use a Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter instead of a stout (I think the chocolate flavors are more present) and I used Irish Cream flavored syrup instead of alcohol (just what I had on hand).  I also took the suggestion to cut the frosting with half cream cheese instead of using all butter.  They turned out fantastic.  Melt-in-your-mouth delicious!!!  I made my boyfriend take them to work so I wouldn’t eat any more!

Chocolate Stout Cupcakes with Irish Cream Frosting
Inspired (and reposted) by The Culinary Chronicles

Makes 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

Cupcakes:
1 Cup Stout Beer
1 Cup Unsalted Butter
¾ Cup Quality Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
2 Cups All Purpose Flour
2 Cups Granulated Sugar
1½  Teaspoons Baking Soda
¾ Teaspoon Salt
2 Large Eggs
⅔ Cup Sour Cream

Irish Cream Buttercream:
4 to 5 Cups Confections Sugar
2 Cups Unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 to 5 Tablespoons Irish Cream Liqueur

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cupcake cups with paper liners.

Prepare the cupcakes: Put the butter with the stout beer in a sauce pan over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Whisk in cocoa powder until smooth. Cool slightly.

In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. In a mixer bowl, beat the eggs and the sour cream together. Add the beer/butter/cocoa mixture and beat to combine. Add the flour mixture and beat briefly just to combine. Using a rubber spatula, fold the batter until completely combined, making sure to incorporate little pockets of flour on the bottom so that the batter is of equal consistency everywhere.

Fill the cupcake liners about 2/3 of the way if you want flatter cupcakes and 3/4 if you want domed. Bake for about 17 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool completely to room temperature.

Prepare the frosting: In a large mixer bowl, whip the butter for several minutes until very light and fluffy. Slowly add about half of the powdered sugar a few spoonfuls at a time until incorporated. Slowly drizzle the Irish Cream and whip until combined. Add the rest of the powdered sugar until your desired consistency has been achieved.

Assemble: Fill a pastry bag and pipe buttercream on top of cooled cupcakes. Garnish with sprinkles or other adornments. Enjoy!

 

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, everyone!

Mardi Gras!

It has been so rainy and disgusting here, it’s been difficult to find the inspiration to cook let alone the inspiration to get out of my car twice to go get food at the grocery.  I needed a little push – a little something that screamed “theme party!” in order to get me off my ass and into the kitchen.  I have been eating so badly lately.  I’m talking pizza for 3 out of 7 nights and the other four are filed under “Beer and leftovers”.  My Google Adwords suggestions are giving me Weight Watchers information and links to anti-depression websites.  Gah!  Someone save me!

What’s that you say?  Mardi Gras is this week?  YAY!  Theme Party!  I have such fond memories of the amazing food and beverages (more of the latter) that I was so fortunate to try during my trips to New Orleans, that I decided to try to bring a little of it to rain-soaked Ohio.

It can’t be coincidence that Draft Magazine posted a link to a recipe that not only screamed NOLA but also incorporated a full bottle of Abita Amber.  Yes, please.  And if you know me at all, you know I will jump at the chance to make fancy drinks into which I can throw a maraschino cherry.

Which brings me to my appetizer, or should I say appertif:  Hurricanes.

It seems a tad ironic to drink a culturally iconic beverage in celebration of said culture when the namesake has caused so much devastation to it… but oh, man are they delicious.

Found the recipe here, and it suited my tastes quite nicely.

Traditional Hurricane
2 ounces light rum
2 ounces dark rum
2 ounces passion fruit juice
1 ounce orange juice
half a lime, juiced
1 tablespoon grenadine

Shake all ingredients together with ice. Strain into lamp-shade-style glasses. Garnish with a maraschino cherry and lemon and lime wedges.  And I ain’t got no lamp-shade glasses because this isn’t a tiki blog.  But I do have a very nice set of Stone Levitation glasses that will work just fine.

Next!  Let me just throw a couple ingredients out there real quick, and see how it grabs ya.  Sausage, Beer, Okra, Vidalia Onion, Eggs.  Are you still with me?  If so:

Okra, Andouille and Vidalia Casserole
From my friends at Draft Magazine

Ingredients:

• 1 pound fresh okra, cut in 1/4-inch pieces
• 2 links andouille sausage, diced medium (I used 4.  I love meat.)
• 1 vidalia onion, sliced thin
• 4 slices white bread, cubed and toasted in a warm oven (I used a sliced french bread loaf)
• 12 ounces Abita Amber
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 4 eggs
• 1 tablespoon thyme
• salt and pepper

Instructions:

• Preheat an oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, beer and cream; set aside (this recipe did not specify when to add spices, this is where I added them).

• In a skillet over medium heat, sauté the andouille and onions until the onions begin to caramelize; remove to a large bowl and reserve. In the same pan, quickly sauté the okra, 2 to 3 minutes.

• Add the okra and the toasted bread cubes to the andouille and toss. Add the egg mixture; toss to coat the bread, sausage and vegetables well. Pour the mixture into a casserole dish, bake for 25 minutes and serve.

I had some people over, and this was gone in ten minutes.  I would have taken a picture, but it was gone in TEN MINUTES.  And yes, we all wore beads whilst we were eating.  Why do I have enough beads to supply a dinner party of people with beads – Oh… memories….

SHRAMP!

Sometimes I don’t have a recipe for the meal that I have created in my mind so I have to borrow from several in order to get the outcome that I want.  The other day, I was just craving lemon, feta cheese, tomatoes, and seafood.

I found a recipe for Linguine with Shrimp and Lemon Oil – which sounded really good, but not exactly what I had in mind.  I altered it a bit, combined it with another recipe for roasted grape tomatoes and a new dish was born.  In fact, it was even still delicious cold on the second day, and heated up on the third.  Impressive!  I call it:

Lemon Garlic Shrimp Linguine with Feta and Roasted Tomatoes
Adapted from The Food Network

Ingredients

For the lemon oil:

• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 lemon, zested

For the pasta:

• 1 pound linguine pasta
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 shallots, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 16 ounces frozen shrimp
• 1/4 cup lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
• 1 lemon, zested
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 container fat free feta cheese crumbles

Directions

For the lemon oil:

Combine the olive oil and the lemon zest in a small bowl and reserve.

For the pasta:

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain pasta, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid.

Meanwhile, in a large, heavy skillet warm the olive oil over medium heat. Add the shallots and garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Add the shrimp and cook until pink, about 5 minutes. Add the cooked linguine, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt, and pepper. Toss to combine. Using a mesh sieve, strain the lemon zest out of the reserved lemon olive oil and add the oil to the pasta. The zest can be discarded. Add some of the cooking water to desired consistency. Add the feta cheese and roasted tomatoes (recipe below) to the pasta and toss to combine. Serve immediately.

For the tomatoes:

Ingredients

• 4 cups grape tomatoes
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a medium bowl add the grape tomatoes and 3 garlic cloves. Drizzle with 3 tablespoons of olive oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper.

In a 9 by 13-inch glass baking dish, place the tomatoes and garlic cloves, ensuring they are in just 1 layer. Roast for 20 minutes, and then stir. Add 2 to 3 tablespoons of hot water, if too dry in appearance. Return to the oven and cook for 20 to 30 more minutes.

When ready, the tomatoes will have begun to shrivel and the liquid in the dish should have thickened.  Mix into pasta and serve.