The Waiting Game Results

Since there wasn’t really a clear winner on guessing the specific details of Baby O’s birth (even when I stretched it a bit and gave people points for being close), I decided to use Random.org to pick a winner.

True Random Number Generator Min: Max: Result: 6 Powered by RANDOM.ORG

The result is #6, Tracy, who said:

Baby O will be born on May 23rd

Baby O will be born at 9:34 pm

Baby O will be 19&1/2 ” long

Baby O will have hazel eyes

Baby O will have reddish brown hair

I forgot weight baby O is going to weigh 6 lbs 9 oz

Tracy also happens to be my mom!

Baby O’s Chocolate Truffle Cookies

By time you read this Baby O will probably have been born!  At nearly 43 weeks, it’s finally time!  I made up this recipe this morning to take as a gift for the nurses attending our birth/our midwife and also as a thank you to my lovely mother in law who is watching Charlie for the next couple of days.

I’m calling these chocolate truffle cookies (thanks, B) because the center really is soft and melty just like a truffle. The outer edges have a brownie texture.   Mmmm…
Creating the recipe wasn’t exactly rocket science.  It’s pretty much yet another variation of the chocolate chip cookie (kind of).  Rocket science or not, I’m still proud of them ’cause they’re delicious.  B says they’re the best cookie he’s had in awhile!

Baby O’s Chocolate Truffle Cookies

• 1 C unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened
• 1/2 C sugar
• 3/4 C light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbs vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp salt (I use sea salt)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 C all purpose flour
• 1/2 C organic f-t cocoa
• 2 1/2 C chopped chocolate or chocolate chips (about 16 oz)
  *don’t be shy with the chocolate and go for something dark!

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and line a cookie sheet with a silicone mat.
2. Cream butter and sugars together.
3. Add eggs one at a time and mix well.  Add vanilla.
4. Stir cocoa, flour, salt, and baking soda together using a whisk to get any clumps out.  You could probably also sift the flour and cocoa together if you felt so inclined.  I’ll probably always stick with the whisk.
5. Add dry mixture to butter mixture.  I do this about 1/2 C at a time incorporating as I go.
6. Stir in chopped chocolate or chips.
7. Drop by tablespoonful onto cookie sheet and bake for about 14 minutes.  Let cool a minute or two on pan, otherwise they might smoosh up when you try to move them.  Then finish cooling on wire rack.

Update:  Baby O is here!  He was born on June 17th, 43 weeks on the dot.  He weighed 9 lbs, 6 oz and is 21 inches long!  He’s perfect in every way!

Rice Pudding Revisited

You may remember this post where I listed some successful and not so successful recipes I had made recently.  I also mention that Nigella Lawson’s rice pudding is phenomenal.  This is now my “go to” rice pudding recipe.  It’s easy, thick, creamy, and delicious!

I’ve noticed a pattern with my sweet treat making lately.  I’m revisiting a lot, as well as making things I previously might have thought to be kind of ho-hum.  Rice pudding is both of those things.
I’ve made it before, but when I find a new fabulous recipe I must share.  Who cares if I end up with two recipes for the same thing on my blog?  I’m offering options, folks!  Make them both and pick your favorite!
Rice pudding is also something that even a few years ago I probably wouldn’t have bothered with.  Kind of like the snickerdoodles, why would you have a “plain” pudding when you could have chocolate or butterscotch?  Because it’s heavenly, that’s why.

You may notice that this particular rice pudding looks a little darker than others.  That is because the rice is coated in caramel before adding the milk.  Brilliant and tasty!

Rice Pudding
adapted from Nigella Bites, Nigella Lawson

• 1/4 C Arborio Rice
• 2 3/4 C Milk (I use 1%, original recipe calls for whole)
• 2 tbs Unsalted Butter, divided
• 2 -3 tbs Vanilla Sugar, divided

1. Warm the milk in a large measuring cup in the microwave (what I do) or on the stove top in a pan with a lip.
2. In a saucepan, melt 1 (heaping) tbs of butter with 1 tbs of the vanilla sugar.  When it is all caramelly and pretty add the rice and coat.
3. Begin adding the milk to the rice, just a bit at a time. Cook over medium heat, being careful not to burn the rice.   As the milk is absorbed, add more milk and continue cooking the rice.
4. Nigella says to begin checking the rice after about 20 minutes, but be prepared to go for a full 35.  I have to stir for a full 35 minutes every time.
5. Once the rice is cooked and the milk has been absorbed, take the rice pudding off the heat and add the remaining tablespoon of butter along with another tbs of vanilla sugar (or 2, depending on your taste).
6. You can top with cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, fresh fruit, anything you want!  Yum!

This rice pudding thickens pretty quickly upon standing/cooling a few minutes.  I took these photos when it was still very burn your tongue off hot, so it looks a little thinner than it really is.

The recipe in  the book says this makes enough for one serving.  I find it’s perfect for two dessert sized servings.  I think I’d only eat all of it if I were having it as a meal by itself!

Also, for anyone that’s interested, making vanilla sugar is super easy and more than worth the minute amount of effort it takes.

Vanilla Sugar

• 1 Vanilla Bean (go for the organic, fair-trade)
• sugar

1. Split a vanilla bean pod lengthwise.  Place in a jar and pour sugar around pod.  (I keep mine in a jam sized canning jar.)  Cover and periodically give the jar a good shake.  Done.  Easy, right?

P.S.  If you’re wondering, no baby yet!  We’re 42 weeks along today.  Yes, that’s right, 42 weeks.

200th Post: 2nd Anniversary Cake

So here’s the deal, I promise not to pretend to know anything about cake decorating if you promise not to judge too harshly!

I present to you CKC’s 200th Post:  Our 2nd Anniversary Cake:

Chocolate Cake, Raspberry Filling, & Vanilla Bean Buttercream.

Taaa Daaa!!!

I’ll be the first to admit that this is not the most professional looking cake (Dear Santa, someone needs Wilton cake decor classes!), but I will tell you it tastes gooooood good good!
See all the little black dots in the frosting? That my friends is not my inability to effectively execute a crumb coat, but rather vanilla bean seeds in vanilla bean buttercream.  It’s ok to swoon.

The cake is Hershey’s “Perfectly Chocolate” Chocolate Cake (but I use Green & Black’s cocoa).  I made mine in 8″ pans instead of 9″ pans and the layers overflowed a bit, but nothing I couldn’t work with.

Raspberry Whipped Cream Filling:

• 1 1/2 C fresh raspberries
• 1 pint heavy cream
• 5 tbs powdered sugar

1. Mix until peaks form.  Keep in refrigerator until needed.

Vanilla Bean Buttercream:

• 1 1/2 C unsalted butter, softened (3 sticks)
• 2 lbs powdered sugar
• 1 vanilla bean pod, split and scraped
• 1/2 C milk

1. Cream butter with vanilla bean.  Add sugar a bit at a time and mix well.
2. Slowly add milk to desired consistency.

Directions:

1. Bake cake as directed and let cool.
   I baked mine the day before and let it sit on the counter (covered) overnight.  I also replaced the boiling water in the recipe with coffee.
2. Place one layer of cake on cake stand.  Spread a generous amount of the raspberry filling evenly on cake leaving a border of about and inch or so all the way around.  Place second layer of cake on top.  Put the cake in the refrigerator for a bit so all the filling doesn’t smoosh out while it’s being frosted.
3. Make a thin crumb coat on cake with buttercream.  Place back in the refrigerator for a few minutes and then do a second layer of frosting.
4. After frosting is “dry” (you can touch it lightly without getting frosting on your fingers), smooth and decorate as desired.
   Keep covered at room temp.

You will likely have some left over raspberry filling.  I mixed strawberries, canteloupe, and extra raspberries with the left over filling to make a fruit salad to go with our dinner the next night.  Mmmm!

P.S.  B gave me a subscription to Cook’s Illustrated for our anniversary.  Yay! 

Oh and speaking of my husband, take a look at this:

The Classy Individuals are now on iTunes.
Check ‘em out.
Tell your friends!

Snickerdoodles

After reading Annie’s post about Snickerdoodles, it occurred to me that I had never had one.  Ever. After mentioning this to B, he admitted he had never had one either.  Madness!  I knew we had to try them!

It’s not that I never had the opportunity to try a snickerdoodle cookie, I remember them being a childhood favorite of a close friend.  It’s just I thought they seemed, well, lame.  Cinnamon and sugar?  I mean, c’mon!  Who would take that when you could have chocolate chip!?!?
What a narrow-minded fool I’ve been!  These cookies are amazing!  They were especially good just out of the oven. Oh my my.
Please head over to Annie’s Eats for the recipe.

I grabbed the Sweet Melissa Baking Book from the library the other day and noticed that she includes a snickerdoodles recipe.  I’m hoping we’ll be sampling those soon!

PS  No Baby Yet!
Feel free to continue to play The Waiting Game!  If you guessed once and your date has passed (everyone’s has at this point), feel free to guess a new date (but I’m making you keep your guesses for the other details)!

Cloverleaf Rolls

Recently there was a great mystery puzzling me in the kitchen.  Every time I put something in the oven I come back to find it up 50-100 degrees from where I think I set it.

My dad had knee surgery a couple of weeks ago.  He now has a brand new one!  Needless to say, he’s having a little trouble getting around relearning how to walk and all.  B and I decided to go over and see what we could do to help out.  B made mac n’ cheese.  I made peanut butter cookies and these dinner rolls.  Then B helped dad with the mowing of the lawn while my (still) very pregnant self hung out with the dogs and read a book.

These rolls not only fed us, but they helped me solve the mystery!  My unborn child is sabotaging my baking.  True story.
When I put the rolls in the oven that morning, I have to tell you they were perfect!  The dough was heavenly! A few minutes later,  I could smell them.  I knew it was too soon and nearly began to panic.  So I walk over to the oven and it’s 75°F higher than it should be.  I’m furious. I turn the oven back down, shut the door, stand up straight, and oh!  My belly hits the knob that controls oven temp.
Oh baby O!

The sides were a tad dark, but the rolls were mostly ok. 

Cloverleaf Dinner Rolls:
Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook
Makes 24 rolls

• 4-1/4 to 4-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1 cup milk
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup butter
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 beaten eggs

Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl stir together 2 cups of the flour and the yeast. In a medium saucepan heat and stir milk, sugar, butter, and salt just until warm (120 degree F to 130 degree F) and butter almost melts. Add milk mixture to dry mixture along with eggs. Beat with an electric mixer on low to medium speed for 30 seconds, scraping sides of bowl constantly. Beat on high speed 3 minutes. Using a wooden spoon, stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can.
2. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in enough remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic (6 to 8 minutes total). Shape the dough into a ball. Place in a lightly greased bowl; turn once. Cover; let rise in a warm place until double (about 1 hour).
3. Punch dough down. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide dough in half. Cover; let rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, lightly grease muffin cups.
4. Divide each portion of dough into 36 pieces. Shape each piece into a ball, pulling edges under to make a smooth top. Place 3 balls in each muffin cup, smooth sides up. Cover and let rise in a warm place until nearly double in size (about 30 minutes).
In an attempt to make my dough balls as even as possible I cut each dough portion in half, then in half again (4 pieces now), then in thirds (12 pieces now). Then I tore each piece into three balls, equaling 36.  Repeat with second dough portion.
5. Bake in a 375 degree F oven for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden. Immediately remove rolls from pans. Cool on wire racks.

The Better Homes and Gardens website also has directions for other roll shapes as well as nutrition information.

PB Cookies Revisited

I believe a good peanut butter cookie is hard to come by.  As I said in this post, I’m picky.  I said I like them more on the crisp side, but that really isn’t true.  The peanut butter cookie I crave is more on the tender side, almost like a good shortbread.
This peanut butter cookie recipe is still the best I know.  I tweaked it a bit this time, replacing 1/2 the shortening with butter.  The results are still amazing and now have the added bonus of a little butter flavor.

The new recipe looks like this:

Peanut Butter Cookies
Approx. 4 dozen cookies.

• 1 C peanut butter (I use creamy)
• 3/4 C light brown sugar
• 3/4 C sugar
• 1/4 C shortening
• 1/4 C unsalted butter, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 3/4 C flour
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 egg
• 3 tbs milk

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Mix peanut butter, both sugars, shortening, vanilla, and milk.
2. Beat in the egg.
3. Add flour and baking soda. Mix.
4. Drop by spoonful (I use a teaspoon-sized scoop) onto ungreased cookie sheet. Press with fork in a criss-cross shape.  Feel free to sprinkle a pinch of extra sugar over the fork-pressed cookies.  I don’t sprinkle the sugar because there is already a lot of sugar in there.  I don’t think they need it on top as well.
5. Bake at 375°F for 7 minutes. It is very important not to over-bake these cookies! If baked for the right amount of time, they will melt in your mouth (kind of in the manner of the most magnificent shortbread). Over-bake them and they are a bit too chewy; really over-bake them and they are like rocks. They may not seem completely done. Don’t fret, they are fine.  Let cool for a couple of minutes on the pan before transferring to a rack to cool completely.

Yet another tasty variation of the PB cookie can be found here.

More Strawberry Rhubarb

…and this is just as delicious as the pie!

I’ve decided to pamper myself today.  I’m eating some of this and watching Jimmy Sterwart movies all day.  Oh yes indeed.
This is Dorie Greenspan’s Strawberry Rhubarb Double Oatmeal Crisp.  When I first read the name of this recipe, I thought “double crisp” meant it would have double the crisp on top.  *drool*  To my delight, the name really means crisp both on top and on bottom!  The bottom crisp sort of serves as a crust, allowing you to scoop semi-neat squares out with a spatula.

A couple of notes on the recipe:

• I did not have any candied ginger around so I added a little extra oatmeal and a tad more ground ginger to the crisp.
• I also added a few more walnuts, because I just don’t feel 1/2 C is enough! 

We had our crisp with french vanilla ice cream.  It also makes a very tasty breakfast!

Don’t forget there’s still time to play The Waiting Game!  I’ll take entries right up until the birth (provided no one cheats)!
I’m secretly starting to wonder if Baby O will stay in there forever given all the yummy food he’s constantly being supplied with!  We’ve been having a lot of amazing dinners lately (thanks B!).  To be honest, I’m not sure I’d be in a hurry to leave that comfy womb either!

World Peace Revisited

These are my favorite cookie. They are one of the few cookies I’ve had where the cookie itself is as tasty as the raw dough (IMO)! 
I’ve recently tried a couple of things to switch ‘em up.  A couple of months ago I added some nibs to the dough.  While I enjoyed the taste, the texture was a bit like having eggshells in the dough (note this is an eggless cookie).

As pictured here, I tried adding some finely shredded coconut to the dough.  YUM!  I think the original recipe is still best, but the coconut is indeed very good.
Next I plan to make a World Peace Cookie inspired ice cream.  Ohhhhh yeah…

In other news, LOOK at this:

*image found here

This is Kitchenaid’s 90th anniversary stand mixer in candy apple red.  This is a tilt head mixer, but the bowl is a 5 qt (due to it’s new shape) instead of 4.5 quarts like the artisan.  I’m beside myself.  I hope they make that glass bowl seperately to fit my artisan!

P.S.  Unfortunately some folks have already lost, but there’s still time to play The Waiting Game!  Win Cookies!
I’m not sure if this will help your guessing, but here are a few more hints:

• I’m 39 weeks along today.
• This is my first pregnancy.  First pregnancies have a tendency to be “overdue”.
• Although my EDD is May 27, I believe my real due date is actually closer to June 2nd (our second wedding anniversary)!  I know a difference of six days doesn’t seem like much, but knowing that just might help you win some cookies!

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie: Oh My My!

As previously posted, B and I were given some rhubarb on Mothers Day.  I’m not sure I’ve ever had strawberry rhubarb pie even though it is my own mother’s favorite!  (She’s more into eating them than baking them I guess. )
I looked at a bunch of recipes and decided to use a filling recipe found on Good Things Catered (thanks Katie) with Dorie’s good for almost anything pie crust.

I made the crust a single crust at a time since my food processor is on the smaller side.  No big deal.  I baked the pie an extra ten minutes at the end without the foil to help the crust brown a little bit, making a total baking time of 80 minutes.  I also had every intention of making a lattice crust but ran out of time and skipped it.  It was pretty anyway. 

The pie turned out perfectly!  I was afraid that it would be runny with all those strawberries in there, but it wasn’t at all.  It was very pretty coming out of the oven but I did not photograph it because we had guests.  Although it doesn’t need it, I think it might be perfect with some homemade vanilla ice cream.  Mmmm!

P.S.  Don’t forget to play The Waiting Game!
…and if you do decide to play, make sure you include an email address when filling out the comments form.  I can’t send your cookies if I’m unable to contact you!