On the Twelfth Day of Christmas, My True Love Gave to Me...

As you can see, I've been cracking open Dorie Greenspan's Baking from My Home to Yours more frequently as of late; and instead of just sighing at the beautiful pictures, I've been more motivated to try recipes out.



For Christmas dessert, I made this Brownie Cake with a caramel topping. The cake was really a no-brainer and it ended up tasting just like a brownie leaning more toward the cake-end of the brownie spectrum. The caramel was exciting for me; I've only made caramel once or twice before and each time I forget how to do it.



More notably, I forget how boring it is to sit there and wait and wait and wait and wait and wait for the caramel to change colors slightly while worrying that you'll miss it and that it will burn and everything will be ruined forever. That may be an exaggeration, but that's how I felt watching the caramel for seven minutes without blinking once. In the end, the waiting paid off and the caramel was salty and sweet and the brownie cake paired with it perfectly.


Caramel-Peanut-Topped Brownie Cake
Makes about 12 servings

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoon butter, cut into 8 pieces
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
3 large eggs
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoon light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2/3 cups heavy cream
2 tablespoon unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup salted peanuts

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350F. Butter an 8-inch spring-form pan, dust the insides with flour, tap out the excess, line the bottom of the pan with a parchment paper. Place the springform pan on a baking sheet.

To make the cake, combine the flour, salt and baking soda in a small bowl. Whisk together to mix and set aside. Add the butter and chocolate to a heatproof bowl and set over simmering water. Heat, stirring occasionally, until the ingredients are melted - do not let them get so hot that the butter separates. Remove the bowl from heat and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugars till well-blended. Whisk in the corn syrup, followed by the vanilla. Add in the melted butter and chocolate mixture, and whisk till combined. Gently whisk in the dry ingredients, mixing only until they are incorporated. The batter should be thick, smooth and shiny. Pour it into the prepared pan and jiggle the pan a little to even out the batter.

Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a thin knife inserted in the middle comes out almost clean. Transfer rack to a pan to cool for 15 minutes, then run a knife gently between the pan and the cake and carefully remove the sides of the springform pan. The cake may have puffed up during baking, but don't be concerned if it develops a crater in the center while cooling. Allow to cool to room temperature. When the cake is completely cool, invert it, remove the base and peel off the parchment paper. Wash and dry the pan, place the cake back into the clean pan, right side up, and fasten sides.

To make the topping: combine the sugar, water and corn syrup in a heavy, medium-sized pan, stirring just to combine the ingredients. Place the pan over medium high heat. Heat, without stirring, till the caramel turns amber (5-10 minutes). As the sugar is caramelizing, wipe down any splatters on the sides of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in cold water. To test the color of the caramel, drop a bit onto a white plate. Don't be timid about the color - if it's too pale, it won't have much flavor.

Lower the heat a bit, stand back and add the cream and butter. When the sputters are less vehement, stir to calm down the caramel and dissolve any lumps. Stir in the peanuts and pour the mixture into a 1-quart Pyrex measuring cup or other heat-proof bowl.

You will have more caramel than you need, but you want to get all the peanuts onto the cake, so spoon out all the peanuts out of the hot caramel and onto the cake. Pour or spoon over enough caramel to cover all the nuts, drizzling a little over the edges of the cake for presentation. Allow the topping to set at room temperature, about 20 minutes, before serving. Keep the leftover caramel at room temperature and save for another use.

Spectacular Contraption

On top of being allergic to milk, which excludes a lot of extraneous ingredients from cookies, my boyfriend tends to like only certain types of cookies. A few days ago, I was really getting the urge to bake, so I asked him what he would want that would be new and different. He suggested a combination of peanut butter cookies and snickerdoodles.



Now, if you read faithfully (ha), you'll remember the last time I made peanut butter cookies, I didn't really like them, but the recipient said they were good and I decided I just didn't like peanut butter cookies. After making a different recipe from a book that has yet to steer me wrong, I realized that I do actually like peanut butter cookies, just not Martha's.



The most important aspect of this recipe is timing; you want to pull the cookies out a little bit before they actually look ready, but not too early because then they'll be extra crumbly and fall apart.


Peanutdoodles
Makes 2 dozen if you don't eat half of the dough

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar (preferably superfine)
1/2 cup light brown sugar (preferably unrefined)
1 egg
1 cup peanut butter, crunchy or chewy
Pinch of salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons sugar

Sift the flour and baking soda together. In a separate bowl, beat the butter and sugars until soft and creamy. Combine the egg, flour mixture, peanut butter, and salt. Add the butter and sugar mixture until smooth.

Wrap the dough in foil or parchment and refrigerate for at least two hours. Meanwhile, make the cinnamon-sugar topping; combine ground cinnamon and sugar together in a small bowl with a fork. If you run out, make more in the same ratio. Remove from the refrigerator and preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Shape the dough into 1 1/4-inch balls and roll completely in cinnamon sugar mixture before placing at least two inches apart on baking sheets. Flatten slightly with a fork and use fork to make classic criss-cross patter. Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden.

Chewy and Egg-Free

In case you haven't noticed yet, some of my favorite things in cookies include oatmeal, peanut butter, and nuts in general. So, when I stumbled across these Peanut Butter-Oatmeal cookies, I began salivating immediately. Not only do they contain all three of my favorite cookie ingredients, they're also vegan, which is a field of baking that I have been wanting more experience in. Also, I bought a big thing of soy milk and vegan butter to make gb's frosting and now I need to use all of it up as quickly as possible.



I added butterscotch chips to mine because those are my favorite chips, and these cookies were going to be just for me. (Don't worry, I ended up sharing a couple of them.) Unfortunately, the butterscotch was a little more sugary than I remembered and ended up being the lower point of the cookies.



Overall, these cookies were so good. It was my first experience of baking without eggs (with one exception of some brownies), and I was quite impressed. I definitely recommend these if you want a small batch of thick and chewy cookies.



Gigantoid Crunchy Peanut Butter-Oatmeal Cookies
Makes about 1 dozen large cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups rolled oats
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoons salt
3/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup natural crunchy peanut butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup vanilla soy milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate or butterscotch chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees; lightly grease two cookies sheets. Stir together the flour, oats, baking powder, and salt in a medium mixing bowl. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the oil, peanut butter, sugars, soy milk, and vanilla.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix. Stir in chips, if using. The dough should be extremely difficult and moist. Pack a 1/3-cup measuring cup with dough, pop out and roll into a firm ball. Flatten just barely on a prepared cookie sheet, spacing the dough balls well apart.

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until cookies have puffed a bit and are lightly-browned. Allow to cool for at least two minutes before moving off the cookie sheet.

Supercalichocalicious

One of the gifts that I received for my birthday was a book of cookie recipes (Cookies by Jill Snider). It is my favorite kind of cookbook - filled with pictures and alterations and easy-to-read instructions. Plus, lots of the cookies seem to include nuts and oatmeal, both of which I really enjoy in cookies.



The other day, I really had a cookie itch and as I rarely get those and have thousands of books filled with cookie recipes, I decided to finally put one to use. So I went through Cookies and finally settled on a cookie that I already had all the ingredients for onhand and that sounded like they would be quite tasty.



I settled on Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies, for obvious reasons. What else can you ask for in a cookie? There are only two things I would change about this recipe if I made it again: I would use extra peanuts and old-fashioned oatmeal.



Speaking of peanut butter, my grandma gave me this really cool device for measuring peanut butter, crisco, and other sticky things that are not particularly enjoyable to clean out of measuring cups. I highly recommend it, but I don't know what it's called.



Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
Makes about 4 dozen cookies

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs'
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups quick-cooking rolled oats
1 1/2 cups chocolate-covered peanuts, chopped (I substituted 1 1/4 cup of chocolate chips and 2/3 cup chopped unsalted peanuts)
1/2 cup crisp rice cereal

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter, peanut butter, and both sugars until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and mix.

On low speed, gradually add flour mixture, beating until blended. With a wooden spoon, stir in oats, chocolate (and) peanuts, and cereal.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls about two inches apart on cookie sheet. Press flat with a fork dipped in flour (I forgot to do this on the first batch and the second batch, I just pressed it down with my fingers; honestly, I preferred the ones that weren't pressed flat.)

Bake in preheated oven for 11 to 13 minutes or until crisp and golden. Cool for 5 minutes on sheet before transferring to a rack to cool completely.