I am thankful for...

... the love of my friends and family, a roof over my head, the amazing experiences of the last 3 years in college... and butter, flour, sugar, eggs, vanilla.... You get the idea. I was very excited to head home for Thanksgiving, and I wanted to make sure my contributions to the holiday feast were extra special. I don't get a chance to make big desserts because I'm only serving a few people, but this was the perfect opportunity to try something fun.


I have been working at Extraordinary Desserts in San Diego for about 3 months now, and I am more in love with it now than I was when I was only a frequent customer ;) Long story short, I have found my nirvana - and now it sends me a paycheck! One of the most delicious things I've ever eaten in my extensive experience is Extraordinary's Chocolate Croissant Bread Pudding. It's an irresistible combination of crisp, buttery croissant, velvety melted chocolate and smooth custard that blends in every bite. Do I have your attention yet? Because of its popularity, Karen Krasne (the owner of Extraordinary Desserts) published it in an article in the San Diego Reader. I jumped at the chance to replicate it at home for family and friends, and I think I did a pretty good job of recreating the magic. For the ultimate impact, warm up the bread pudding in the oven (or serve straight out of it) and serve with some fresh whipped cream and/or ice cream. 


A few notes: This recipe serves a LOT - feel free to cut down the recipe as long as you use smaller dishes in proportion. In terms of the chocolate, Karen Krasne swears by Valrhona 61 percent. However, Valrhona is probably the most expensive you could buy, so judge by your budget. Trader Joe's has fantastic dark chocolate Pound Plus bars, or you can use Scharffen Berger or Ghirardelli. Just make sure it's around 60% cacao. Also, the recipe calls for 10 croissants, but if you have large croissants don't use all 10. You want to make sure each of the croissant layers is not too thick - the top layer shouldn't be more than a couple of cubes thick (to avoid too much dry croissant on the top).


Chocolate Croissant Bread Pudding
From Extraordinary Desserts (in the San Diego Reader)
4 C heavy cream

• ¾ C lowfat milk
• 1 whole vanilla bean or 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 12 egg yolks (you can freeze egg whites for use later - like in French macarons!)
• 1 C granulated sugar
• 
  
• 10 medium/large croissants, cut into 2˝ pieces
• 2 C coarsely chopped bittersweet chocolate 
• 
  

Directions: To make the crème brûlée custard, heat cream, milk, and vanilla in a medium saucepan to almost — but not quite — a boil. In a separate bowl, whisk egg yolks with granulated sugar until smooth. Carefully stir the hot cream mixture into the egg mixture and then whisk until smooth. Strain the mixture by pouring it through a strainer lined with cheesecloth into a separate bowl. Let cool.

Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Place one and a half cups of the crème brûlée mixture in the bottom of a heavy oval baking dish. Layer the croissant pieces on top of the crème brûlée mixture. Sprinkle the chopped chocolate on top of the croissant pieces. Add another layer of croissant pieces followed by one cup crème brûlée mixture poured on top. Place the remaining croissant pieces on top and cover with the remaining crème brûlée. Bake for 50 minutes. Serve hot or warm.  








And now, on to the PIE! Call me old-fashioned, but I don't think it's Thanksgiving without at least one pie. While I wanted to honor the timeless pumpkin tradition, I found a recipe that seemed to be a great compromise between creativity and the old stand-by. This apple butter pumpkin pie with streusel topping is a fantastic melding of two fall flavors, without tasting too much like one or the other. It's not dramatically different from the traditional recipe but I liked that there was a subtle variation in taste added by the apple butter. Also, the butter makes the filling incredibly creamy (much more than with pumpkin alone) and the center just melts in your mouth. The crisp crust and crunchy streusel topping with pecans makes an excellent contrast to the filling - an essential element to any great pie!


A note about the streusel: I used about 1/3 of the recipe for the topping because I didn't want to have a super thick layer of sugar on top. This part is up to you based on your personal taste!




Apple Butter Pumpkin Pie 
with Pecan Streusel Topping
From Tidy Mom


1 uncooked pie crust (I like the Pillsbury sold rolled up and frozen - you thaw it and press it into your own pie pan)


Filling:
1 C canned pumpkin
1 C apple butter
1/4 C packed dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
3 eggs, beaten
1 C evaporated milk


Topping:
3 Tbsp butter
1/2 C flour
1/2 C packed dark brown sugar
1/2 C chopped pecans

Directions: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Take frozen pie dough out to thaw for about 15 minutes so it doesn't crack when you unroll it. Combine ingredients for filling in a large bowl in the order given. Press pie dough into 8' pie pan, and fold over extra on the edges to crimp into the edge of the crust. Place foil on top of the dough and add ceramic pie weights or beans (to keep the crust from bubbling). Bake the crust for 10-12 minutes, until lightly browned. Remove and let cool. Meanwhile, make the streusel topping. Combine flour and sugar, then cut in cold butter using a pastry cutter or two forks. Stir in chopped pecans and set aside.

Pour filling into the cooled pie crust and bake for about 35 minutes. Add streusel topping and baking for an additional 15-20 minutes. If the edge of the crust starts getting too brown, make a foil shield around the edge during the last part of baking! Remove from the oven and let cool for at least 1 hour.

Peanut Butter Cup(cakes)

I've always maintained that the most genius combination of flavors ever discovered is peanut butter and chocolate. Some may call it unsophisticated - but I call it delicious! This last week, I was lucky enough to receive a little sis in my sorority, and lucky for me (and her), her favorite candy is Reese's peanut butter cups. What better project for me to undertake than to recreate it in cupcake form?

The peanut butter cupcake comes from a previous recipe I used from Martha Stewart, and it is just plain fantastic. It gets dry and crumbly if you bake it just a little too long, so make sure you bake them just until the top of the cupcake springs back to the touch. Also, be sure to use homogenized peanut butter (not the kind that has the oil separated on top) because otherwise it will separate in the batter too.

As for the frosting, I found a recipe for a dark chocolate ganache frosting that is absolutely divine. It hardens to a ganache texture when it cools because there is so much chocolate in it, so if you're looking for a soft creamy frosting this isn't it. However, it tastes like the inside of a truffle - and that on top of a peanut butter cupcake is hard to beat.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes
See my PB&J Cupcake post!

Chocolate Ganache Frosting
From How Sweet It Is


For ganache:

12 oz. milk or dark chocolate  (I can only use dark!)
1/2 cup heavy cream

4 tbsp butter

1 tsp vanilla

For frosting:

1/2 cup butter

3-4 cups powdered sugar

Directions: In the top of a double boiler, melt the chocolate almost completely, stirring often. Remove from the heat and stir until fully melted.  Gradually add the heavy cream and stir to incorporate into the chocolate until smooth. Allow to cool to touch, about 30 min. When cooled, gently stir in softened butter 1 tbsp at a time.  Stir in vanilla.  

Allow to cool for a few hours. Whip butter in bowl of a stand mixer, then add chocolate ganache.  If it's too thick, slowly reheat in the microwave until it's smooth.  Slowly mix the two on low speed. Gradually add powdered sugar until desired consistency is reached.

Foodie tourism

In between classes and work, I've had the chance to do a little bit of foodie vacationing and soul restoring :) There is nothing that makes me happier than taking some time off from my busy life and having a new food "experience." I'm always trying to get better at baking and food photography, so I love the chance to experiment.

I couldn't pass up the opportunity to celebrate San Diego Beer Week with a chocolate and beer tasting at Stone Brewery in Escondido. Renowned beer expert and the brewery's beverage manager"Dr." Bill Sysak created a five-course tasting menu with three truffles and two beers per course. Needless to say, it was an exercise in decadence - and self-restraint! I was definitely there for the chocolate, and to sip some beers and learn more about the different types of brews.



Three local chocolatiers  - Eclipse Chocolat, Chuao Chocolatier and Guanni Chocolates - provided the exceptional sweets. There was everything from pumpkin spice with muscovado sugar to cognac to pink peppercorns, and while I didn't love all of them, it was amazing to see the little works of art that these chocolatiers were creating in each truffle.

The town of Julian, about 30 minutes northeast of San Diego, is a historic gold mining town known for its amazing apple pie. Of course, we had to check it out for ourselves - and were not disappointed! Julian Pie Company is the place to be, and we picked out two warm slices with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. 

The pie company was very casual and luckily made up in taste what it lacked in decor. We stood in line and ordered our pies from the counter, picked it up at a window on a paper plate on a plastic tray, and ate on stools at the countertop along the window. I would have liked to sit at a table, but I was soon distracted by the holy grail of San Diego pies.

The Original Apple was a flawless blend of crisp, buttery and flaky crust
with warm, gooey, spicy apple filling. 

The Apple Mountain Berry was a combination of raspberry, strawberries,
boysenberries and apples topped with a streusel cinnamon sugar crumble. 

Heaven? I think so...

Layers

I've always loved the creative potential of layered bar cookies, and have previously experimented with different combinations of flavors, textures and colors with very delicious results. When I saw Trader Joe's new cranberry apple butter the other day, along with the first appearance of fresh cranberries in the produce aisle, the wheels in my head started turning and I knew it was only a matter of time before I was pulling a cranberry layer bar out of the oven! 


I decided to go with a classic shortbread crust for the bottom layer, and then a simple ribbon of cranberry apple butter in the center. Through some negotiation with my cupboard, the top layer became a fudgy but very light white chocolate-cranberry blondie. I had some doubts about the finished product, but it is hands-down the best thing I've made in months. If you're looking for a wintery dessert full of tart flavor balanced by white chocolate sweetness, don't miss this one :)


Cranberry White Chocolate Bars
1. Make shortbread dough, press into 8" square pan (prepared with parchment or nonstick spray) and prick all over with a fork. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the dough is slightly browned on the edges.
2. Spread a substantial layer of Trader Joe's cranberry apple butter on top of the shortbread (it will take almost the whole jar).
3. Spread the blondie batter on top, stretching to cover the entire top surface. 
4. Spread fresh or frozen cranberries on very top, press down slightly to set them.
5. Bake at 375 degrees for about 30-40 minutes, or until the top layer has puffed up, is slightly browned and the center is set.


Whole Wheat Shortbread
Adapted from Cate's World Kitchen

1 C whole wheat flour
3 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp powdered sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 C (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and chilled
1 egg yolk, lightly beaten


Directions: Toss the sugars, salt, and flour together in a medium bowl. Use a pastry cutter or forks to blend in the butter until the mixture looks like coarse meal. Stir the egg yolk in and mix with a fork just until combined (the dough will be crumbly), then press into the prepared pan. 


White Chocolate Blondies
Adapted from Everything Nice


1/4 C butter
3/4 C white chocolate chips
1/2 C sugar
1/4 C brown sugar
1 C whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs

Directions: Melt butter in microwave safe bowl. Stir in white chocolate chips until melted and smooth. Combine the sugar, brown sugar, flour, baking powder and salt. Beat the eggs until combined, then add in dry ingredients and the white chocolate mixture. Mix until just combined.

Dynamic duo

There comes a time every few weeks when I feel very adventurous. Like, have a mocha instead of a cappuccino, go out on a Tuesday, be a rebel and skip class kind of feeling. Frightening, I know. It was one of those days recently, and I decided to run a little kitchen experiment combining two fantastic flavors of the season that are rarely seen together in the wild - maple muffins and pumpkin cheesecake! 

The result, while not perfect, was inspiring enough to call it a success. My biggest mistake, which is easy to do with a stand mixer, was to let the liquid ingredients in the muffin batter whisk for too long. Don't be tempted to whisk for the heck of it - it will dry out the batter a lot and make for a so-so result. Also, don't skimp on the maple extract. Without it, you won't get the same maple flavor in the muffin. It won't be bad, but just not maple. 

Because these have cheesecake in them, be sure to refrigerate them after they cool. However, as a rule, refrigerating dries out baked goods. Moral of the story? Eat them all right out of the oven.

Maple Pumpkin Cheesecake Duo Muffins

1. Make the following recipes for Maple Muffins and Pumpkin Cheesecake and have both ready with the oven preheated to 450 degrees.

2. Prepare the muffin tin with paper liners or nonstick spray. Fill each 1/3 full of muffin batter, then add a large dollop of cheesecake. Top with more muffin batter until the molds are about 3/4 full (can be a little more).

3. Bake until the tops of the muffins spring back to the touch, about 10-15 minutes.

Maple Muffins

From Healthy Food for Living

2 C whole wheat pastry flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

2 eggs

1 egg white

1/2 C pure maple syrup

1 tsp maple extract

1 C milk

1/3 C unsweetened applesauce

Directions: Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and soda, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside. Whisk together eggs and egg white, then add maple syrup, maple extract, milk and applesauce. Whisk until smooth, but NO LONGER. Stir in dry ingredients until just combined. 

Pumpkin Cheesecake

From Good Life Eats

4 oz. cream cheese
1/8 C granulated sugar
1/4 C brown sugar
1/8 C whipping cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

7 oz. pumpkin puree
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp cloves
pinch of cardamom

Directions: Beat together cream cheese, sugars, cream and vanilla until smooth. Add the pumpkin puree, cinnamon, allspice, cloves and cardamom. Blend until smooth.