Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

I don't know why these little cakes are called whoopie pies.  Maybe for the same reason cow patt---   Never mind.  Anyway, whatever they're called, I love them.  Perfect little individual cakes for when you want a treat.

I made these for a Halloween party and they were a big hit.  The only real change I made was to substitute a little whole wheat flour in for the white and an adjustment for salted butter.  For 12 cakes, here's what I used:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature

1 cup packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs room temperature, lightly beaten

1 cup canned pure pumpkin puree

2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 1/4 teaspoon salt

1⅔ 1⅓ cups flour

⅓ cup white whole wheat flour

 

Filling

4 ounces cream cheese, chilled

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened

3 tablespoons maple syrup

1 cup powdered sugar

A few pinches salt

Heat oven to 350.° Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In a standing mixer with whisk attachment, mix together butter and brown sugar until smooth. Add eggs, pumpkin puree, spices, vanilla, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using a spatula, fold in the flour. Using an ice cream-style batter scoop, drop batter by heaping tablespoons, 12 to a sheet and evenly spaced. Bake until springy to the touch, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool completely. 

 

For the filling, cream together the cream cheese and butter. Add syrup, sugar, salt, and vanilla (see discussion below); mix on low speed until blended, then beat on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Spread the flat side of 12 cakes with the cream cheese frosting. Top each with another cake.

  

I was irritated to find there were some errors in the recipe.  For one, the ingredients called for maple syrup in the filling, but the directions mention vanilla.  So then you have to wonder whether they'd swapped maple syrup in place of vanilla in a standard recipe and forgot to remove it from the directions, or if they'd simply forgotten to include the vanilla in the ingredient list.  It's really up to you whether you want to include it or not; I did not.  

The bigger irritation was that the directions called for using an ice cream scoop with "generous" scoops-- that would give you about four giant cakes.  I initially followed their directions, but of course ran out of batter immediately and then had to start redistributing the batter to get the right number of cakes.  But because the batter contains baking soda, it had started to rise immediately and I deflated some of those air bubbles while I was redistributing the batter.  I don't know what they were thinking. I modified the directions to use the appropriate amount of batter per placement.

Conclusion:  These were delicious!  Very rich and perhaps a bit sweet.  I would be inclined to slightly reduce the sugar in the cake part.  They don't keep too well as the filling soaks into the cake, but that also made them easier to eat-- the cake doesn't squish the filling out with each bite.  And they probably freeze okay. 

Recipe:  Pumpkin Whoopie Pies via PBS Food

Cream cheese walnut scones

 Comfort food for a lazy morning.  But to keep things sensible, I halved the original recipe.

For four scones, here's what I used:

    1½ 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
    3/4 cup (minus 1 heaping tablespoon) white whole wheat flour
    1 heaping tablespoon coffee flour
    3/4 teaspoon baking powder
    1/4 teaspoon baking soda
    1/4 teaspoon salt
    1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
    2 tablespoons granulated sugar
    4 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
    2½ ounces cream cheese, chilled and cut into small pieces
    1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons buttermilk, chilled
    1/2 large egg, cold
    1/2 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped

Cream Cheese Frosting
    1½ ounces cream cheese, softened
    1/2 cup powdered sugar (confectioners' sugar)
    1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
    1/2 to 1 tablespoon milk

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  Lightly grease a baking sheet.  (Tip:  Chill the bowl and any utensils you will be using in the refrigerator before making the scones.)  In a mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and sugar; whisk together to mix.  With a pastry blender or two knives, cut chilled butter and chilled cream cheese into the flour mixture until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  In a small bowl, stir the chilled buttermilk and cold egg together.  Add the liquid mixture and walnuts to the flour mixture; stir just until mixed.  The dough will be stiff and slightly sticky.  If necessary, turn the mixture onto a lightly floured board and knead gently until the flour is combined.  Do not over-knead as this will make a tougher scone.  On a lightly floured surface, shape and pat the dough into a circle or rectangle about 3/4 inch thick.  Cut into wedges, squares or circles with a floured knife and place them 2 inches apart on the baking sheet.  (Tip:  dip the edges of the cutter in flour to prevent the dough from sticking.  Do not pat the edges of the scone down; instead leave the cuts as sharp as possible to allow the scones to rise in layers.)  Bake 12 to 20 minutes or until the scones are lightly browned (depending on the size of your scones).  A good check is to use an instant digital thermometer to test your scones.  The temperature of the scones should be at 200 degrees F. when done.  Remove scones from baking sheets and cool on wire racks.

I used half whole wheat flour and some coffee flour, which should have sucked up more moisture, and yet the dough was pretty wet.  They weren’t going to be “flaky”.  Then I baked them 10 minutes too long, but surprisingly they were fine.  I guess because they were too wet.

I was undecided on the cinnamon, whether to add it or not.  There's something to be said for not flavoring everything and just letting the basic ingredients shine.  They were fine with it, and I'm sure they'd be fine without, perhaps with a more prominent walnut flavor.

Conclusion:  These were delicious, but they were more like muffins. They were almost like little iced cakes, but not that sweet.

Recipe:   Frosted Cream Cheese Walnut Scones via What's Cooking America

Vanilla Cornmeal Wreath Cookies

I made these cookies many years ago and found them less than exciting, but thought they had promise.  The original recipe has you coating corn flakes in egg white and applying them to the surface of the cookies in a leaf pattern.  I didn't find this to be a good addition for a number of reasons.  For one, corn flakes always taste like breakfast cereal, and that's not a flavor I want in cookies.  Second, when the cookies were fresh, the corn flakes were tough and unpleasant, although they crisped up after a couple days.  Lastly, it was a process that was extremely time-consuming.  The flakes were a nice touch as far as appearance, but the cookies are a bit dry and I had decided they needed a bit of frosting, which would further make the topping unnecessary.

For 17 3½-inch cookies, here's what I used:

1⅛ cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon anise extract, optional
1 large egg, room temperature

Sift together the flour, cornmeal, and baking powder. In a mixing bowl, beat the butter with a handheld electric mixer until smooth. Add the sugar, vanilla, and anise (if using) to the butter and continue beating until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes more. Add the egg (one at a time if doubling the recipe) to the butter mixture and mix until incorporated, about 30 seconds. Stir the flour-cornmeal mixture into the wet ingredients with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula; it will be a stiff dough. To make dough easier to handle, chill until firm. Divide the dough into 17, 1-inch balls. Make a hole in the center of each ball with the tip of a wooden spoon and work each piece of dough into a doughnut shape with a 1-inch hole and about 2 inches wide. Use scissors to snip 1/2-inch long angled cuts, about 1/2-inch apart around the outside ring of each cookie. Arrange cookies on greased cookie sheets about 1 inch apart. (Optional: freeze cookies on the sheet until firm, about 10 minutes.) Bake at 350F until just golden around the edges, about 14 to 18 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool. Frost and decorate.

Frosting
1/4 cup butter, softened
2½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar

Cream together the butter and vanilla. Slowly beat in the powdered sugar until smooth and very fluffy.  Add green gel coloring and use a large star tip to decorate cookies, immediately sprinkling each with red nonpareils. Allow frosting to dry until firm.

A ridiculous number of the nonpareils fell off while I was sprinkling them on (I had frosted all the cookies and then added the sprinkles-- the frosting had already started to dry), until I finally placed each cookie in a small bowl so I could collect and salvage the deserters.

I over baked the cookies slightly, getting them a little too brown around the edges.  They were a little drier than I would have liked, but I think a minute or two less time in the oven would have fixed that.  I had to be a little stingy with the frosting and barely had enough as it was-- they could have used just a tiny bit more, both for flavor and appearance. 

Conclusion:  It still needs tweaking, mostly just on the bake time, but I was pretty happy with the results.  (I discovered chopped peanuts would be a good addition, either in the cookie or sprinkled on top of the frosting.)  The frosting not only adds moisture and sweetness to what is otherwise a somewhat dull cookie, but also provides a buttery richness to the corn flavor.  While it will never be the most exciting cookie on the plate, the subtle flavor and texture is a nice contrast to the outspoken fruits, nuts, jams, and chocolates of a traditional holiday cookie assortment.

Recipe:  Cornmeal Wreaths via Food Network

Chocolate Peppermint Sugar Cookies

I typically give stink eye to anything not home made at Christmas, but occasionally we all have to take short cuts.  I saw these sugar cookies, plain and awaiting decoration, in the store and, upon investigating the ingredients, didn't see anything too offensive.  I was supposed to be bringing cookies to pickle ball and decided to fix these up for the occasion.

I melted about 1/2 cup of milk chocolate and unsweetened chocolate together and spread that on the bottom of the cookies.  Then I frosted the tops with peppermint buttercream, sprinkled them with crushed peppermint candies and let that dry, then dragged stripes of chocolate across the top.  

I was worried about the frosting tasting like mouthwash, so I added the extract very slowly, 1/4 teaspoon at a time.  It was too mild, too mild, too mild... and then suddenly mouthwash.  Aaagh!  I frosted the cookies anyway and let them sit out overnight, hoping that would evaporate some of the mint flavor.  It did.  The next day, they were pleasantly minty and no mouthwash.  (I think there's an option for "mint" extract in the store that might be more mild than peppermint.)  The open air, plus being eaten with the cookie rather than off a spoon probably both contributed to the improved flavor.

I also discovered there's an art to getting chocolate just the right consistency to get a thin stream:  if it's too cool OR too warm, it clumps.  Weird.

After all that, pickle ball got rained out.  More cookies for me.

Frosting
1/4 cup butter, softened
5/8 teaspoon peppermint extract
1 cup powdered sugar
1-2 tablespoons heavy cream 

Cream together the butter and extract until light and fluffy. Slowly beat in the powdered sugar until smooth and very fluffy.  Add in heavy cream, a little at a time, until the desired spreading consistency is achieved.

Conclusion:   These still tasted a little commercial (what is it they do to factory cookies to make them taste that way??), but overall they tasted good and I really liked how they looked.  They were fairly large cookies and were a bit too rich to eat one all at once, so I had to break mine in half whenever I indulged.

April ABC challenge: Meringue-topped Coffee Cake

 

This month's challenge is coffee. That takes me back to a little place in Charlottesville, Virginia called Sunshine Bakery. They used to have this coffee-flavored cake that was so good! I've never had anything like it before or since, and 30+ years later, I still crave that cake. For one thing, outside of panaderias, I never see coffee-flavored cake. (And trying to look up recipes for one gets you a lot of plain breakfast cakes with streusel topping.) But it also had the most unique texture -- firmer than normal, with really large air holes for a cake, almost like an English muffin. It would probably be considered inferior by a trained pastry chef, but it was delightful. It also had a whipped coffee (perhaps mocha) frosting, not too sweet. Unfortunately, that bakery is long gone, and with it the elusive recipe. Alas.

For this recipe, I halved the original, which called for an 8" x 8" baking pan. I used a pan slightly smaller than an 8" x 4", so the cake was taller, but was done in the same time.  Here's what I used:

1/3 cup milk, warmed
1 tablespoon instant coffee granules
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/8 cup light-brown sugar
1/2 egg plus 1 yolk, beaten
3/4 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 1/16 teaspoon salt

Topping
1 egg white
1/4 cup plus 1/2 teaspoon superfine sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 tablespoon sweetened, shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 325F; grease and line a 7.25" x 3.5" loaf pan. Dissolve coffee granules in milk; cool. In a bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in egg. Fold in flour and cinnamon alternately with coffee-flavored milk. Turn out batter into prepared pan.

To make topping, whisk egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually whisk in 1/4 cup of sugar; spread over batter. In a bowl, mix remaining 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, cinnamon, and coconut; sprinkle over the meringue. Bake 50 to 55 minutes, or until a fine skewer inserted into the center comes out clean and meringue is crisp. Cool in pan 5 minutes, then carefully remove and cool on a wire rack. 

This rose really weirdly -- only on one side. My oven is about 25 degrees hotter from back to front, but it's hard to believe it made that much of a difference across a 4-inch pan! Perhaps it had something to do with how the meringue attached to the pan.  (Was one side greased more than the other?) It also rose a LOT, rising well above the top of the pan, but sunk back down a bit as it cooled. And yet there was no noticeable difference in the crumb from one side to the other. Odd.

This cake was actually was more like a "coffee cake" than a dessert -- mild in flavor and sweetness.  The coffee flavor wasn't detectable, surprisingly -- it tasted more of cinnamon and molasses, even though it contained neither.  The coffee probably added a complexity to the overall flavor. I'd want to at least double the coffee quantity. The meringue was a nice touch, but the coconut topping was unnecessary -- probably more for appearance than anything else. To make this more rich, it could be nicely decadent with a dark chocolate ganache drizzle.

Conclusion:  The cake was very light and fluffy while warm, but firmed up and became more dense and moist the next day. (The recipe directs this to be eaten the same day it's made, probably due to the meringue, but I liked it better the second day and the meringue was fine.) I'd be inclined to leave off the coconut topping mixture entirely and perhaps serve this with a whipped coffee frosting instead of the meringue, particularly in the fall because of its warm spice flavors.

Recipe:  "Meringue-Topped Cake" from A Gourmet's Guide to Coffee & Tea by Leslie Mackley

International Talk Like a Pirate Day! Ya-hoy! Buttered Rum Cupcakes on rough seas

 

Things have been a tad rough lately, right?  Nothing like a little pandemic to make life more difficult.  Fun cupcakes to the rescue!  

I've been wanting to make these for Speak Like a Pirate Day for years.  I guess I thought they'd be complicated and time consuming, but they really weren't. In fact, since the recipe uses a packaged biscuit, they're easier than most baked items.  The only tricky part was making sure you didn't over cook the syrup.

The original recipe said it made 18; I cut the original down to one third.  Here's what I used:

Butter-Rum Sauce
1 tablespoon butter
5⅓ teaspoons heavy cream
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons Lyle's golden corn syrup
1 tablespoon spiced rum
1/6 teaspoon vanilla extract

Rum Ball Cupcakes
1 16.3-ounce can ready-made buttermilk biscuits (non-flaky)
1/6 cup butter-rum sauce
1/3 teaspoon cinnamon
1/6 teaspoon nutmeg
1/6 cup spiced rum

Butter-Rum Ocean Frosting
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon butter-rum sauce
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2/3 drops black food coloring
5 drops blue food coloring plus 1⅔ more drops

For the butter-rum sauce, heat the butter, cream, brown sugar, and golden syrup in a saucepan over medium high heat, stirring frequently, until the butter is melted and the ingredients are combined. Bring the sauce to a boil, then lower the heat so that the mixture retains a slow but constant boil. Allow the mixture to simmer for 10 minutes, stirring every minute. The mixture should be thicker at the end. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the rum and the vanilla extract until completely blended, but be careful as the mixture will likely spatter a bit. Set the sauce aside to cool to room temperature.

For the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In a medium-sized bowl, mix 1/6 cup of the butter-rum sauce with the cinnamon, nutmeg, and rum in a large bowl until well blended.  Cut the biscuits into eighths and place them in the rum marinade, gently tossing them in the mixture with your hands to ensure that they are evenly coated.  Allow them to soak in the mixture for 5 minutes, tossing with your hands every minute or so to prevent them from getting too stuck to one another.  Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners. Fill each of the cupcake liners about 3/4 full with the rum balls.  Spoon any sauce left at the bottom of the bowl over each of the cupcakes before placing the pan in the oven to bake for 30 minutes, or until the cupcakes are golden brown.

For the frosting, mix together the butter, butter-rum sauce, and powdered sugar with an electric mixer until a smooth frosting forms.  Remove 1/3 of the frosting and set it aside.  Add the black food coloring, and the 5 drops of blue food coloring to the larger amount of frosting and mix until combined.  Add the remaining 1/3 frosting back in and stir until partially blended, so that there are still a few lighter streaks in the frosting. Add the remaining blue food coloring, placing each drop over a different area of the frosting, and stir with a large spoon or spatula a few times until there are bright blue streaks throughout.

Remove the cupcakes from the pan and allow to cool to room temperature before frosting.  Drizzle a little of the remaining butter-rum sauce over each one.  Then, using a spatula, smear the frosting on top of the cupcake to create an ocean wave.  For decoration, cut out sail and boat shapes from brown and white paper and attach them to the cupcakes using a toothpick.

 

I used Pillsbury Grands Southern Homestyle Buttermilk biscuits, "fluffy".  Cutting into them was a sensual joy, all soft and springy.  It was a 16.3-ounce package, and I thought I was making 6 cupcakes (one-third of 18 for the original recipe) but ended up with 10.  I probably could have done 9, but that would have been it.  They were a little browner than I would have liked at 30 minutes; I wish I'd checked a few minutes sooner.

The biscuit part was rather tough.  That might have been from being overbaked, or it might be the constraint of the muffin cup, or it might just be the product.  The butter-rum sauce is delicious-- that could be used in soooo many ways. (Some more adult than others.  Hint hint nudge nudge.)

Conclusion:  These were tasty, but they tasted pretty much like Pillsbury cinnamon rolls, which are so much easier!  (But not as cute.)  The prepared biscuits have such a distinctive taste that I couldn't get past it.  I ate them for breakfast with coffee.  I found dribbling them with the syrup before frosting made them too sweet, so I left that off.  Otherwise, the quantities were just about perfect.

Recipe:  Buttered Rum Cupcakes via Adventures in Cooking