Leftover Egg Whites = Meringues!

I know I left you on a cliffhanger with that last post, everybody wondering what was going to happen to those egg whites.

Well I'll leave you in the dark no longer! When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, when life gives you egg whites...make meringues!

I had four egg whites remaining...Exactly the amount my favorite chocolate chip meringue recipe called for.I think it was fate. This recipe I've used before on Passover, since it's wheat free!

Tip of the Day: When baking anything, including meringues, make sure you let your oven heat up completely before putting your cake or cookies in. Newer ovens will beep when hot, and for older version give it 10 to 15 minutes before starting.

Revisiting Shortbread Bars

Those of you who have been around a while (hey mom!) might remember this recipe. It was delicious and rich and satisfying. And I swore I would never make it again.
Without a food processor that is. Hi again!
That's because the secret behind this recipe is to freeze the dough and then grate it into the pan before baking. It makes it light and fluffy and oh-so yummy. But at my first attempt, there was no lovely food processor present, and, well, it was messy and exhausting.

But I tried again! And this time, since I know my raspberry addiction isn't necessarily contagious...with blackberry!

Look at all the little dough pieces. And the lack of effort. The combination is exhilarating.
The results were good. And much easier. This is really a pretty simple recipe (not too many ingredients) but it does call for some thinking ahead with the dough freezing.

Mmm that's alot of butter. I feel like Paula Deen. More butter y'all.
The only secret here was to make sure to freeze the pieces in sizes that will fit inside the tube of your food processor. Though the original recipe (here) calls for you to freeze it in two pieces - half for the top of the bars and half for the bottom - I did it in four instead.
Overall these are a great bar and I'd recommend them to anyone - anyone with a food processor that is.

Side note: this recipe calls for four egg yolks, which leaves me with, of course, four egg whites.
Hmmmmm what to do, what to do? Stay tuned to find out!

Recipe: (from Recipezaar)

1 cup (2 sticks) butter
2 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup blackberry or raspberry jam

Cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add in egg yolks and beat until well mixed.
Pour in the sugar, flour, baking powder and salt.
Turn the dough out onto a surface and form into two balls.
Wrap in saran wrap and freeze for two hours or overnight.
(Here is where you would make sure your pieces are food-processor sized).
Grate one of the balls and lightly press into a greased 8 inch square pan.
Spread the jam on top until 1/2 inch from side.
Top with remaining grated dough.
Bake on 350 F for 30 to 40 minutes or until light golden brown.
Cool in pan.

Chewy Brown Sugar Bars

I don't like nuts. Peanuts, almonds, cashews, pistachios. I don't like 'em. Peanut butter -now that's another story. Can't get enough of it - creamy of course. It's just something about the texture of nuts - it's weird, not like anything else - that I can't take. Which may sound weird, considering I've been known to enjoy a piece of tofu now and that, but it is what it is. That said, I'm constantly coming across recipes with chopped nuts - and finding ways to innovate.

These were originally called Brown Sugar and Honey Pecan Bars (recipe here), but of course I lost the pecans. So they became Chewy Brown Sugar Bars. With rice krispies!

For this recipe, I used something I rarely bring out for baked goods. This baby:

For the base of this cookie, I pulsed together the flour, sugar and salt, and then added the butter to create a very crumbly mix. It could probably be done without the food processor, but with alot more work.

Anyway, after I pressed the mixture into the bottom of a 9x13" pan, and baked it for 20 minutes. While that was baking, I made the top part, by melting butter and adding in salt, brown sugar and honey, and let it simmer for one minute. After removing it from the heat, I added cream, vanilla, and where I should have mixed in pecans, rice krispies.

(Here is normally where I would show you pictures of those steps. But I was actually on the phone when they occurred, and while I can manage to multitask enough to bake and talk at the same time, I can't quite bake, talk and photograph.)
After you spread the mixture on top of the base, it bakes for another 18 minutes. Then let it cool to room temperature, and stick it in the fridge to firm up.

After I left it in the fridge for a while, I pulled it out to cut into bars.


I even had to take a break it the middle it was tough. I used a big chef's knife to cut through it easily. And of course I had to taste the corner. It was good - like nothing really I've made before. The top was chewy and had a nutty-brown sugar/honey taste. I liked the two different layers - the cookie bottom and the chewy top. I think that they actually got chewier as time went by - there was definitely a noticeable change in the texture after a day.

Tip of the Day: Brown sugar is always measured as a "packed" cup - which means you press the sugar down into the cup with your fingers to make sure it's as full as possible.

Recipe: (from Cookie Madness)

Crust:
1 cup flour
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbsps cold butter, diced

Filling:
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
3 tbsps honey
1 tbsp whipping cream
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup rice krispies (or coarsely chopped pecans)

Crust:

Mix flour, brown sugar and salt.

Add butter and mix until coarse crumbs.

Press into the bottom of an 8 inch foil lined pan and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

Filling:

In a saucepan, melt the butter, and stir in the sugar, salt and honey. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and cream. Stir in rice krispies or pecans.

Pour over crust and bake for another 18 minutes. Remove and let cool for an hour on a rack before refrigerating until firm. Cut into bars.

Raspberry Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting

I'm not really one for creating my own recipes - I prefer to follow the instructions of others, tweaking things here and there - usually if I've run out of the proper ingredients, but still.
But I thought I would make an attempt at creating my own raspberry cupcakes.
Well, creating might be a strong word, since I really just took a basic cupcake recipe, and mixed in some melted seedless raspberry jam (recipe at the end of the post).
I mixed up the cupcake batter in my mixer (yes, I finally used it since the move!), and stuck the jam in the microwave until it was pourable.
Best part of this recipe? Pink batter! I'm not such a pink girl myself, but seeing it in the bowl of my mixer was pretty exciting. I don't usually bake with food colorings, but maybe now I should reconsider.
After the jam was completely incorporated into the batter, I used a cookie scoop to fill the cupcake liners. I put about two scoops into every cup. Not that they were each even.
It made 24 cupcakes, which unfortunately I had to bake them separately in my teeny oven. And lengthways. But I'm not complaining.
They baked up decidedly less pink, but still cute. And almost all even. Score one for the cookie scoop.
After this, I didn't quite have the time to make my own frosting, so I went with the store-bought stuff from a can. Not great, but not bad either. Plus I like having it around afterward to eat with honey-wheat pretzels.

But wait. Why did I pick cupcakes to make, this auspicious evening?
Because of this:
That's right, I am now the proud owner of a Chefmate 24-count cupcake carrier. Heaven.

The bottom layer is an actual muffin pan, and on top is balanced a plastic tray that is locked into place when you snap the dome lid on top.

Here are the last two cupcakes in my new favorite toy. I see alot more cupcakes and muffins in my future.
Anyway, back to the cupcakes. When they initially came out, I thought the texture was a bit strange - a little sticky - but the taste was good. After my second cupcake though, it was growing on me and by my last, I was a big fan.

They were a little heavier than normal cupcakes, but the taste was sweet and satisfying.

Tip of the Day: Make sure to purchase large, not small, medium or jumbo eggs for baking. Most recipes, unless otherwise specified, are calibrated for that size.

Recipe:

2 cups flour
1.5 cups sugar
2.5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup shortening, softened
3/4 cup milk
1 tbsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups raspberry jam

Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer.
Beat in shortening, milk, vanilla and eggs.
Heat the jam in the microwave until it is pourable.
Gradually mix into the batter until it is imperceptible.
Pour batter evenly into 24 muffins cups.
Bake at 350 F for 22 to 24 minutes.

Cinnamon Bun Muffins

I've been reading Joy the Baker's website for a few months, and she has some great-looking recipes. I made her low-fat oatmeal muffins once, and when I saw this recipe for cinnamon bun muffins, I immediately wanted to try them.

But, well, if you came here looking for me to crash and burn once again...you're in the right place. This recipe is basically a cinnamon bun - yeast included - with a little less waiting and dough working. And baked in muffin tins. Sounds good so far, no?

I rarely work with yeast, since what little experience I have with it, has proven that yeast dough products deteriorate quickly. While they're good the first day, by the second day the drop off is significantly noticeable.

Anyway, I didn't let that stop me, and I set out to create these muffins. I was a little concerned working with the yeast, and mixing it with warm milk to "activate it." Since I really haven't worked with it much, I had no idea if it was doing the right thing, but I went ahead anyway.
Here's the dough, waiting patiently to expand.

At this point, you're probably assuming that something with the yeast went horribly wrong, and they either blew up to three time their size or sat in the muffin tin as hard little balls - but that simply isn't the case.

Instead it was the streusel, the innocent little mixture of butter, brown sugar and cinnamon, that turned my muffins into disasters.
I patiently followed the directions that said to press the streusel mixture down into the batter...
But, when I snuck a peak about halfway through the baking process the mixture had melted and spread all over the muffin tin, and was barely inside them at all.

Not easily discouraged, I let them finish anyway, and when they were cool I mixed up the icing and drizzled it on top. Since the tin was already such a mess I figured I might as well ice them in there anyway.

And yes, I ate one first.

Of course we ate every muffin, and they weren't bad, but something definitely went wrong. The next day, they were a lot drier, but after a quick zap in the microwave, they are certainly improved.
Moral of the story? Who knows. Sometimes with my disasters, it is clear what went wrong, but there are also times like these, where I'm just not sure what I didn't do.
One thing is for sure - in my house - even the mistakes get eaten.

Tip of the Day: Your yeast is working if it starts to bubble in the warm water after a couple minutes. Be patient!

Recipe: (from Joy the Baker)

Dough:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
4 tsp active dry or rapid rise yeast
2/3 cup warm milk
3 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg

Filling:

2 tbsp butter, softened
2/3 cup brown sugar
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch ground cardamom

Icing:

1 cup powdered sugar
1-2 tbsp milk or cream

Combine flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Combine yeast and warm milk, in a cup.

Pour the milk, oil, vanilla and egg into the flour mixture and stir until smooth.

Divide batter into 12 greased cupcake tins.

Mix together the butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and cardamom in a small bowl.

Sprinkle over the muffin tins and press down in to the dough.

Place the pan in a cold oven, turn it to 350F, and bake for twenty minutes.

Remove from the oven and let cool before topping with the icing.