Maple bourbon pecan pie

Sorry, I know I've been MIA for...oh, six months. Had a lot happen in the last year, the biggest thing being that I'm dating someone who is wonderful. So there's that.

I don't have the time right now to do the entries I used to. But we're going to try something new: I'm just going to take a photo (probably Instagram) of what I made and post the link to the recipe. If I can ever get the time in to start writing a lot again, I will. But for now, there's this.

Maple bourbon pecan pie

Crust: Joy of Cooking's pate brisee

Filling: Food Network Magazine 

Candy galore: Maple cashew fudge, buckeyes and candy Thanksgiving pilgrim hats

I think we've talked about how I'm a Food Network junkie before. I'm sure I have. And I've been lucky enough to meet a few of my favorites in the last couple months. I told you I saw Bobby Flay a while ago, but a few weeks ago, I got to see Alton Brown speak as well. And he is way funnier and more personable than I thought he would be. Plus, besides being super informative, he dropped a few sci-fi restaurants, working Yoda into the presentation, and the Matrix as well. So naturally, when I got up to him to have him sign my book, I asked what his favorite sci-fi movie was. "2001: A Space Odyssey." Whodathunk?

My third Food Network star? Aarón Sánchez. He just opened a restaurant in, of all places, Leawood. First place outside of NYC and he picks KC. And I got an exclusive interview with him! He was super friendly and down-to-earth. My stories (I wrote two: one for web and one for print) about him are online at the Kansas City Business Journal.

I seem to have a thing for making these little bites once a year, but they're SO good. They're buckeyes, and it's Smitten Kitchen's recipe. Imagine the wonderfulness of the inside of a peanut butter cup, rolled in a ball, then with just a thin layer of chocolate. I tell you, they're to die for.

So these don't technically count as baking as much as creating, I suppose. But they're Thanksgiving hats! I found them just browsing around Thanksgiving recipes, and they're so easy: fudge cookies, miniature peanut butter cups, some frosting and a sprinkle. Cute little desserts for not much work. Not a bad change of pace!

And what is the fall/moving into winter without some maple? Remember my love affair with the flavor? Well, this maple fudge from Joy of Cooking just reinforces it. Aunt Betty actually made most of this while I put together the hat treats, but this is better than the batch we made last year. This batch has cashews mixed in...and I may hoard it for myself!

My favorite flavors: Rhubarb crumble bars, maple creme brulee and peanut butter cup cookies

The more blog posts I write, the more I realize I watch a lot of movies. And TV, but that happens in spurts. My latest TV obsession? Community. Seriously, if you haven't seen it, watch it now. Over the weekend, I watched the entire 25-episode first season in about 30 hours. The episodes are only 21 minutes or so, so that makes it a little less bad. The show is hysterical, and the second season just came out on DVD, so I wanted to rewatch the first. Also, Donald Glover, who plays Troy in the show, is coming to KU in a couple weeks and I've got tickets to go see him with my friend Jon. So that merits watching the whole season and being a lazy bum, right? I'm going with yes.

Trader Joe's came to town a couple months ago; I actually covered it for work. The last time I was there, I found these little tiny peanut butter cups, and I love my peanut butter. So I made some plain ol' cookies, brown sugar only, with the cups in it. I had to use them, you see, or I would have kept snacking on them!

I visited Grandma a couple weekends ago. We watched seven movies in three days, I believe. Lots of Jimmy Stewart and Humphrey Bogart. After all, she's 90 and is familiar with those movies, and I have some sort of love affair with old, innocent movies. I also try to bake something for her every time I go, even if she hasn't seen some of the desserts before. This time I went with maple creme brulee. In the process, I managed to shatter a glass bowl of hers. Go me! But the brulee ended up excellent. It's a Joy of Cooking recipe.

Oh hi, my name is Brenna, and I love rhubarb. But it's kind of an abusive relationship on my end. I am so happy to see it when it comes out in May-ish, but then after a few token desserts, I drop it. Like that. And don't appreciate it for the summer months it's around. I saw rhubarb in the store the other day and knew I had to make at least one more dessert before it was all gone again, so I made Martha Stewart's rhubarb crumb bars. I will definitely make these again — next year, when the rhubarb comes out again. Pretty soon it's out of season!

Daring Bakers' challenge: Maple mousse in an edible container

The April 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Evelyne of the blogCheap Ethnic Eatz. Evelyne chose to challenge everyone to make a maple mousse in an edible container. Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 27th to May 27th at http://thedaringkitchen.com!

Anyone who knows me well, especially who's around me during the fall season, knows my love of all things maple. I blame my stepmom Cathie, who is Canadian and introduced me to the wonderfulness of maple candy. So, I was excited when I saw this challenge. I have to admit, it was a little bit strange, this mousse. It has gelatin in it, and I think Aunt Betty and I weren't paying enough attention to it, and it got weirdly chunky at times. We had to whisk frantically for a bit, then it was fine.

The edible container was made of walnuts, you know, for the maple-walnut flavor combo. Definitely interesting to take a bite of it. I think the mousse was definitely cute when it's piped inside. All in all, I want to try mousse again, and concentrate on it more.

2010 baking goals recap

So back in August, I gave myself some goals. I'm one of those kinds of people who really struggles without a constant in my life. For the last 17 years, I'd had school there to pace my life, with homework to come home to and breaks to plan vacations for. I knew that when I left school, I would get really bored really quickly without some goals. I wrote this post to give myself eight baking goals to complete before the end of the year. Granted, I'm a little late writing about it, but here, in pictures, are my seven of eight goals. I failed on one...whatever.


1. Macarons. I actually made these a couple times, once with Aunt Betty and once at Mom's in Michigan. I got reallllly tired of egg whites by the end of this goal. Maybe this year I will experiment more with flavors, but for now, I'm happy not beating egg whites.

2. Jayhawk cake pops. This is the goal I failed on. I only recently perfected just plain old cake pops, so shapes are coming soon.


3. Fondant-covered cake. Okay, so it's only a fondant bow, but it was still covered on top with the fondant bow. This cake was for Grandma's 90th birthday party, and she loved it. I will try more fondant work later, but this bow dyed my fingers pink for about a week, so I will go for a different color next time.


4. Maple leaf candies. While these aren't leaf-shaped, this maple fudge ended up tasting exactly like those leaf candies I love...like pure maple-y sugar.


5. Marshmallows. I've made these a couple times now. This first time was just for fun, and the second to give as gifts with Grandma's famous hot chocolate mix. Perhaps I should try some flavored ones soon.


6. Buche de noel. This tasty French tradition is something Aunt Betty and I tackled, and it was so worth it. It's my first jelly roll-style cake, and I know I will be making plenty more. Giant Swiss roll, anyone?


7. Doughnuts. I've actually made three styles now: apple cider, chocolate glazed and maple glazed. What I've learned? Oil is very temperamental.


8. Frosted sugar cookies. I gave this to myself as only a partial goal, but then it became a Daring Bakers' challenge, so that was perfect. Aunt Betty and I made the cookies and did the icing all in one day, and that took a LONG time. Not doing it again any time soon.

So seven of eight isn't too shabby. Coming in the next couple days: my new baking goals for this year.

The last of holiday baking: Cookie dough truffles, chocolate spice cupcakes, a gingerbread house and a maple nutmeg tart

It's funny how fast the holidays fly by. There's a month of build-up, of Christmas trees, decorations, holiday music and then suddenly Christmas is here and gone. Then everyone asks how the holidays went, and this year I'm not really sure how to answer. Last Monday I got a call from my mom that I'd been expecting for a while, but was still shocking: my Grandma Hofmeister died after battling Alzheimer's for years. That same night, my Grandma Hawley (the one I baked 90th birthday treats for) went to the hospital. It was a bad day for grandmas. Strangely enough, these two less-than-happy events led to me seeing more family during the holidays than I have in years. On my mom's side, cousins, aunts, uncles and other extended family. On dad's side, I spent a bunch of time at the house, more than I would have been able to previously. Funny how those things work out. And it also meant I've spent more time at home with my parents and grandmother in the last month or so than probably the last whole year. So, I guess the holidays teach us there is good and bad, but you just have to try to see the good.


I had a couple baking dates in the weeks before the holidays, the first with a couple of my friends from work, Sarah and Christy. We decorated sugar cookies, I made cookie dough truffles and Sarah made healthy(ish) buckeyes. It was nice to spend time with them, and watch Sarah's son create masterpieces on his easel. Plus, I made these truffles, which while crazy good, were suuuper rich. Somehow my friend Nick managed to eat four at work that night. I'm not quite sure how.


Another treat I brought into work were these chocolate spice cupcakes a la Martha Stewart. The icing was my own creation, a swiss meringue buttercream that I added a few spices to (nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger). It had a really subtle flavor but made the cupcakes really tasty. On top were Christmas light cupcake toppers from Bake it Pretty, which were also rings. I ordered them a while ago and was so excited to use them! These disappeared pretty fast at work, and a small crowd gathered when I brought them in :)


The day after Grandma died, I was supposed to bake with Aunt Betty. I wasn't sure we would still bake, but it turned out we both needed a stress reliever, so we kept our date. It was actually incredibly therapeutic, although I'm sure baking is anything but that for some people. But Aunt Betty is one of the easiest people to talk to in my family, and it was nice to be around someone else who was sad Grandma was gone, but also knew it was for the best and that Grandma was better off where she was now. Funny enough, we'd both done stress baking the night before to calm down. Mine was homemade marshmallows, to go with my Grandma Hawley's classic hot chocolate for some Christmas gifts.


Hers was the gingerbread dough we used to make this gingerbread house. No kits for us, although that led to a fairly lopsided house. We called it the tornado house, because parts of it looked like it had gone through a fairly substantial storm (notice the roof that looks caved in). Non-kit gingerbread doesn't always bake through right and create perfect corners, so we had to do some patching with royal icing. It was fun though, even though by the time we got to decorating, we were fairly tired.


Last on the list for that day was this maple nutmeg tart, which I'd had bookmarked on Smitten Kitchen for a while. The crust turned out perfectly, and I honestly wish the filling had been far more maple-y, considering that's my favorite fall flavor. Now I just want to make a bunch more tarts, but need some fillings! Suggestions, anyone?

Double maple, the last week of Halloween baking and 5 of 8 goals met

Okay. I admit it. I'm not a fan of Halloween. Well, not quite, but I don't go quite as all-out as everyone else does. I mean, I do on the baking end (obviously). But I didn't even go out for Halloween this weekend. I think it has something to do with how my mom made all my costumes, so store-bought ones don't really measure up. Here I am as an Indian (I look so serious!).


I've been quite the variety of Disney leading ladies, including Ariel, Jasmine and Esmerelda (from the Hunchback). Dorothy was another, and a witch...and I'm sure my mom can document the rest of the years with pictures. But I'm not a fan of going to the store and buying one, and I'm not really creative enough to come up with my own cheap option. So this Halloween I celebrated by watching the first half of Rocky Horror Picture Show (really, all I care about is the Time Warp). And by baking. Of course.


I think I mentioned once already how maple is one of my absolute favorite flavors. After this week, I might be mapled out, which I thought I'd never say. But first, I tried maple creme brulee from Joy of Cooking. It was my first creme brulee, but it's basically a custard, which I'd made before for an ice cream base. This is one of the only desserts ever that I didn't share — it was that good, once I figured out how to work my kitchen torch to caramelize the sugar.

I actually spent a lot of time thumbing through my Joy of Cooking last week. I tend to go in cycles, baking from online recipes, then switching to cookbooks. I thought I hadn't given this one enough love lately. I felt in a cookie mood later that week, and ended up making the chocolate oatmeal bars. Very chocolatey.


Then came a baking day at Aunt Betty's, which we all know means hours of baking for some different desserts. First, we made a Boston Creme Pie (also from Joy of Cooking) for my friend Tim's birthday. Never mind that his birthday was a couple weeks ago, I said I'd make him one, so we did. It's surprisingly simple; two layers of yellow cake with a creme in between and a chocolate on top. He so kindly modeled it for me :)

Then, another maple dessert. And another Joy of Cooking recipe. Maple fudge. It ended up being less fudgy and more candy-y, a lot like those maple leaf candies. So I'm counting it as a completed goal, because it really had the same texture. It was really good, but it's pretty much like eating solid sugar. I will need to wait a while to make it again.

Then Aunt Betty and I made my Uncle David's birthday cake, a Black Forest torte.(totally go look at this recipe; it's worth it to all you journalists just for the epic spelling error in the third paragraph of preparation). It's basically a bunch of cinnamon cookie-type things (they reminded me of churros), whipped cream in the middle and cherries, pecans and chocolate on top. The cream softens the cookies and it makes for an excellent 12 (yes 12!) layer cake. I didn't do too much on this, just helped form the cookies.


Then, the official Halloween cupcakes. I got these black cat cupcake toppers and cupcake liners a while ago from Bake It Pretty and was saving them. I made plain ol' yellow cake with sprinkles for funfetti and plain ol' orange frosting. I had to take a picture of them with my black kitty, who proceeded to lick two of the cupcakes, which were then thrown away. Silly kitty. Oh well, at least he's cute! Also, I've posted these over at Mommy's Kitchen with a bunch of other tasty Halloween desserts.

Daring Bakers' Challenge: doughnuts!

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.


You might remember, but when I came up with my baking goals, doughnuts were on the list. Since then, I've made them. Twice. This challenge was my third. They're not hard, per se, but getting the frying right has proven to be pretty testy. All three times I've been at Aunt Betty's, and thank goodness, or I would have failed miserably. First was regular doughnuts with a chocolate glaze and sprinkles. Good, but the oil was too hot. Second was apple cider doughnuts, heavy enough to weigh you down but oh-so-good.


Anyway, I thought it was funny when this Daring Baker challenge came out, because I'd just made some doughnuts. But it can never hurt to try to perfect them! So for these doughnuts, we went with a basic yeast dough for light, yummy doughnuts. I used my doughnut cutter I bought while visiting Mary in NYC last fall. It makes slightly bigger doughnuts than most places call for, but it's super easy to use!


Like I said earlier, the frying part is a lot harder than it looks. The temperature of the oil jumps all over the place, and too hot and they get a lot heavier. These, though, were our best attempt yet. They were light and fluffy and wonderful. We put a maple glaze on top — maple is easily my favorite fall flavor! A few Halloween sprinkles, and we had a great fall treat. At like 4 p.m. Which seems like a weird time for doughnuts, but whatever.


So I'm curious now to see what our next challenge is, and if it will be something else I've recently made or something totally outside of my comfort zone. I might have to actually make these some time for a morning treat!

My baking goal: eight new desserts by the end of 2010

This will be my first semester not in school since...well, since I was in kindergarten. Needless to say, it's going to be weird, just as it has been for probably everyone before me. I have no doubt, though, that I will not miss the homework. Especially after last semester, which almost killed me. Nope, I have a personal goal of continuing to read nonfiction throughout my life, but the key is to find well-written nonfiction. It's difficult. But I digress. The real issue I think I'm going to have is not having long term projects to work on. I'm better when I know where I'm headed and what I need to do.

So one way I will fix that is giving myself baking goals. I figure writing about said goals will help me keep to them. So here are eight (well, seven solid ones and an eighth iffy one) goals for me to achieve by the end of the year. December 31. Not too tough, right? Well, I hope not. Some of these things are affected by weather (macarons and humidity don't get along well, so those will be set aside for a bit until Kansas decides to calm down weather-wise). But I'm hopeful.


1. Macarons — The French version, not the American, which is full of (nasty nasty) coconut. They're delicate cookies that are piped and then sandwiched around a filling. I've tried them at Dean and Deluca, and they were pretty tasty. They have a crunchy exterior but the inside of the cookie is soft. I think they'll take a bit of work, and some experimentation with flavor. I'm not big on fruit+chocolate in dessert (this macaron was raspberry with chocolate filling). I think these will be accomplished with the help of Aunt Betty. Edit: Goal met in August. Click here to see the macarons I made.

2. Jayhawk cake pops — I've been practicing cake pops lately just to get a feel for them, but I think I want to make some that look like Jayhawks for football tailgating soon. I hope to base them off of these Sesame Street Big Bird ones...but this will take some practice. I'd just like to know I can decorate these to look like something rather than a sphere covered in sprinkles.

3. Fondant-covered cake — Which leads me here. My cake experience in the last year has mostly been with the ice cream variety, but all that Ace of Cakes I watch (and Food Network Challenge, and etc., and you get the idea) makes me want to try out this smooth finish for cakes. I know it's a lot harder than people make it look, so this might take some practice. I would like to make this a goal for football tailgating too. Maybe a Jayhawk head? Or maybe an easier shape, like a football. Whatever. There are some amazing cake decorators out there though, so I have quite a bit of places to pull tips from. Edit: Okay, I didn't cover a cake completely, but I made a bow out of fondant for my grandma's 90th birthday cake. I plan to work with it more, but for now, this is it. Click here to see the cake.

4. Maple leaf candies — My stepmom is from Canada, and in my multiple visits up north, got hooked on maple leaf candies like these. This stuff is addictive, probably because it's pretty much just sugar. What's not to like? I tried making these once in high school and failed miserably, so now, with my well-stocked kitchen and slightly increased knowledge, I want to try making them again. Especially because one maple leaf at the store costs $4. Sheesh! Edit: Goal met in October. It was technically maple fudge, and not leaf-shaped, but it tasted the same. I think it counts. Click here to see it.

5. Marshmallows — Yup, homemade marshmallows! Another candy-like item I want to try, specifically after seeing this Etsy site Mia Mallows. Mango marshmallows, lime marshmallows, pineapple, peppermint, peanut butter, etc. I think I will start with plain ones like Alton Brown makes in this recipe. This might wait till later on when it starts getting cold so I can put them in my grandma's homemade hot chocolate. Mmmm. Edit: Goal met in August. Click here to see my first homemade marshmallows.

6. Buche de Noel — Another holiday item, basically a giant swiss roll made to look like a log. I actually had it in my high school French class because it's another traditional French dessert, like macarons. I've been wanting to make a roll-up cake for a while, so a holiday one seems like a good goal to have. Edit: Goal met in December. Click here for my Christmas Buche de Noel.

7. Doughnuts — When I visited Mary in New York last year, I got a doughnut cutter. I have yet to use it. I think that's a little ridiculous, so doughnuts of some sort (likely cake, and possibly these devil's food ones) are on the list. Edit: Goal met in September...twice. Click here for my chocolate glazed doughnuts and here for my apple cider ones.

8. Frosted sugar cookies (my partial goal) — Okay, frosted cookies seem pretty basic, right? The kind I'm talking are iced with royal icing and decorated impeccably, a skill I'm not sure I can master in a few months. So I'm setting a goal to try royal icing and start experimenting, and improve. Take a look at some of these amazing cookies others have made (and I hope I can someday make): margaritas, princesses, beer and hot dogs, popcorn, animal crackers and many many more. So you can see why this is long term rather than instantaneous, yes? Edit: Goal met in September for my first Daring Bakers' Challenge. Click here for my fall-themed cookies.

I've also signed up for something called the Daring Baker challenge, a monthly challenge where bloggers around the country make the exact same recipe of some really difficult/obscure dessert and see how they all end up. I'm not approved yet, though, so hopefully I can actually do it!

So those are my baking goals. I have a couple other minor things in there I want to do, like some vegan baking, but that is what I'm trying next week :) So hopefully this keeps me busy, at least for a while!