Whoopie Pies Round 2

Last weekend I attempted to perfect the Whoopie Pie recipe that I tried out in January.
Wow!  They were amazingly rich!   I will have to make them smaller and use less filling next time.  I compared this recipe with one that my mother had used and made a modification in the amount of flour.  The texture was perfect - so moist!  I also added espresso powder and baked a for a little less time than the last ones.  I made the same marshmallow filling, but was going for a darker color.  The filling ended up being a pretty raspberry pink, but was not what I had wanted as far as color.

So, in the next round of whoopie pies I am going to try a different filling recipe and do some food color experimenting.   I may also try the recipe that my mother had used - it uses coffee rather than espresso powder, so they may not be as rich.  There is only one way to find out!

Last night I made Pistachio Gelato!  The difficult part of the recipe was finding pistachio cream/paste.  I found the recipe almost 2 months ago, and last weekend found the pistachio cream at Williams Sonoma.  We had checked at specialty food stores, Central Market, and an Italian market; I was about to order off of Amazon when a quick trip in to WS produced the little green jar of gold.
The recipe was not complicated and the result was delicious!  I did not take a picture for two reasons; 1. I had two people eagerly awaiting their surprise dessert, and 2. it just looked like green ice cream in white bowls.  I will have to think about the photo staging for the next batch.

As we have a birthday coming up in our household, there will be chocolate cake in the near future.
I also have 1 more Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe to try out, along with a few other Test Kitchen Trials.
So many things I want to make, but only so many taste testers!

Whoopie Pie with Marshmallow Filling

Chocolate Hearts

We had our family Valentines Dinner tonight.

The new dessert I tried out was very rich and delicious!
Dark Chocolate-Cherry Ganache Bars.
The first layer is a chocolate shortbread, the second cherry preserves, and the top is a chocolate ganache.  It was much easier to cut the remaining bars in to squares, but I was able to cut out 3 hearts for our dessert.

I made us each personalized Valentine place-mats, sprinkled the table with paper hearts, and had pink roses for Little C.

Happy Valentines Day!

Dark Chocolate-Cherry Ganache Hearts 

Valentine Table

Valentine Project

Valentine fun in the Test Kitchen.

Little C and I made her Valentine Pretzels over the weekend.

We just melted white morsels, dipped the pretzels and decorated with sprinkles.

We had lots of fun with this project and took several pictures for the scrapbook!

Valentine Pretzels

Valentine Pretzels

Quest For The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie - #3

I tried out another CCC recipe - just took them out of the oven.

Based on my quick sample, they are really good, but not quite as good as recipe #2.

I made them the old fashioned way - did not use the Kitchen Aid, but mixed them by hand.

The butter was melted for this recipe, so it was easier to stir by hand.

It was a toss up between Valentine Sugar Cookies and CCC's tonite and I opted for the CCC's.

You can't go wrong with CCC's - they always hit the spot; and I didn't have the time or patience to ice cookies before I made dinner. :)

Update on the Pot Roast - it was incredible!  I made hot roast beef sandwiches with leftovers one night, and I have beef enchiladas in the oven right now.  I did not end up making the new vegetable side recipe on the pot roast night as we already had a ton of food with the pot roast and vegetables, and baked acorn squash.  I made the new side recipe the next night and it was surprisingly good - sauteed zucchini, peas, and tortellini.

Happy Weekend!

Hot Chocolate

Oh Yummy!  Brownies to spice up your life!
I made my sea salt brownies, but used Chipotle Sea Salt.
The batch of brownies turned out extra good and moist, which I needed after those new mediocre recipes!
The Chipotle Sea Salt was just on the top and is very good with the rich chocolate.
Each bite is a surprise because you never know if it is going to have a little heat or not!
Thanks to Mr. Sweet Brownie Queen for the idea!

A Week Of New Recipes

Trying out new recipes can be fun and exciting, or extremely disappointing!

I have tried out several new recipes this week and about half have been "keepers" and the other have need some test kitchen work.

Not pictured was Sunday night's dinner, a Skillet Gnocchi.  I used Sweet Potato Gnocchi, white kidney beans, diced tomatoes, chard and mozzarella & Parmesan cheeses.  It was delicious!  Let me know if you want the recipe.  Healthy and Yummy!

Then Monday I made the Hearty Potato Soup in Italian Bread Bowls.  The soup was good, but needs something else to give it some kick - 1 it was a slow cooker recipe that I think would have been better stove top, and 2 it needs more flavor.  The bread recipe turned out well and I will keep that one.  Both were from a Southern Living email I received.  I don't think it was directly a SL recipe, and I don't always have good luck with those.  I did make a slow cooker BBQ chicken from one of the last SL issues and it was incredible.  I was going to make an Italian Pot Roast today from a similar SL email and the more I looked at the recipe, the more I decided it didn't look that good, so I am making my own Pot Roast recipe and it smells wonderful!  (I am new to the slow cooker world, so this is fun for me to try out the good recipes).

For dessert Monday, I made vanilla cupcakes which were supposed to be the "perfect vanilla cake".  I disagree.  They looked good, but the texture was all wrong.  They called for cake flour so I thought they would be fluffy, but it was the opposite!  So, now I have a second quest for the best.  I will be trying out several vanilla cake recipes to see if I can find a good one.  Vanilla/White Cake is a tough one, but I determined!   At least I have my wonderful chocolate cake recipe and chocolate is always better anyway!  The icing I used is my new favorite one from several months ago and it was great!

I am off to finish dinner which includes a new vegetable dish - how did all these new recipes surface at once!?  It is from the same email that the Italian Pot Roast was in, but it has potential.

Tonight's dessert gets it's own posting! :)

Potato Soup in a Bread Bowl

Vanilla Cupcake with Pink Vanilla Frosting

What Is Your Favorite Dessert

I added a poll to the blog.
Please vote :)
Thanks!

Birthday Album

Below are a few pages of the album that I put together for a new client.
The album was a 50th birthday present and was a really neat idea.
Friends and family were asked to write letters and send them along with any photos.
The letters were from friends new and old.
I used the party invitations, random photos over her lifetime, letters and photos from friends to make an album that I am sure she will cherish.

The pages are not close-up for obvious reasons, but you can get an idea of how the album looked.

Birthday Album Cover

Birthday Album Page 1

Birthday Album Letters

Birthday Album Letters and Photos

Birthday Album Letters and Photos 2

A-Tisket A-Tasket, A Cake For My Picnic Basket

There will not be any picnics on this rainy day, but this is the cupcake we always took on picnics growing up.   They are originally called Black Bottom Cups, but I don't like that - sounds burnt.

Imagine, chocolate cake wrapped around a cream cheese and chocolate chip center.  Delicious!!!
You don't have to imagine it, I will be happy to bake them for you!

Picnic Cakes, A.K.A. Black Bottom Cups

Picnic Cakes