Gooey Cinnamon Squares

 

So you should probably prepare yourself to be bombarded with Smitten Kitchen Cookbook recipes for a while. This was another one that I let Alex choose, and I was secretly glad he did. I really wanted to try these, but managed to talk myself out of it due to the incredibly large amounts of butter, sugar and um...butter. But when he asked for them, I oh-so-kindly relented and then made him my sous-chef.

 

The recipe, according to Smitten Kitchen, is a combination of snickerdoodles and St. Louis gooey butter cake. Now, I've only had gooey butter cake once, and it was a Paula Deen recipe that someone brought to a party. It was TERRIBLE. Too much powdered sugar, too much butter, all just coating your mouth. Ick. So, needless to say, I was a bit hesitant, but I trust SK. I love snickerdoodles and I love butter...so, how could it be bad?

 

Oh. My. It's good. You know you're biting into something that will kill your diet in one fell swoop, but you don't care. I do recommend cutting it into little squares, because it's so rich, but otherwise, it's just perfect as written. When you let it sit for a few hours, or even chill in the fridge, the layers become more defined, and you're left with a buttery cake layer topped with a creamy sweet custard that meld together perfectly. YUM.

 

So it uses a lot of butter. So what? YOLO, right?

 

Gooey Cinnamon Squares

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

 

Ingredients:

Cookie base:

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup (150 grams) sugar

1 large egg

1/4 cup (60 ml) whole milk

1 1/2 cup (188 grams) all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

 

Gooey layer:

1/4 cup (60 ml) light corn syrup (or honey. I was worried honey would change the flavor, but it doesn't at all)

1/4 cup (60 ml) whole milk

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup (170 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup (200 grams) sugar

1 large egg

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup (125 grams) all-purpose flour

 

Topping:

2 tablespoons sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

 

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line a 9x13 inch baking pan with parchment paper with a 2-inch overhang.

 

To make the cookie base:

In a large bowl, combine the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or a bowl with a hand-held mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium high speed until pale and creamy.

 

Add the egg, mixing until incorporated. Add the flour mixture in two additions, alternating with the milk, and mix just until combined. Spread batter into the bottom of the prepared baking pan.

 

To make the gooey layer:

In a small bowl, whisk together the corn syrup, milk, and vanilla. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or a bowl with a hand-held mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium high speed until pale and creamy.

 

Add the egg, mixing until incorporated, followed by the salt. Add the flour in three additions, alternating with the milk mixture, starting and ending with the flour. Spread the batter evenly over the cookie base in the baking dish.

 

To make the topping:

In a small bowl, combine the sugar and ground cinnamon to make the topping. Sprinkle evenly over the batter. Bake until top is golden brown, 25-30 minutes. The gooey layer won't set until the squares have cooled completely.

 

Let cool, then slice into 2-inch squares. Store in an air-tight container at room temperature.



A Sweet Father's Day

 

Wait...are you going to tell me that not everyone celebrates Father's Day with caramelized bananas and buttery pastry? No? Oh...well then y'all are missing out. 

I think that there might be some unwritten rule about not buying your wife kitchen appliances or cookbooks for major holidays, but Alex knows I am the exception to that rule. He picked up on my heavily dropped hints and gifted me with my very own copy of the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook for Mother's Day, and I'm in love. Serious hard-core food porn love. I want to make EVERYTHING in there, immediately. So in honor of Father's Day, I let him pick his dessert choice. 

RUN, do not walk, straight to your kitchen and make this. It's stupid-easy and knock-your-socks-off delicious. The bananas soak up all the dark caramelized sugar and drip down into the pastry while it bakes in the oven. As Deb of SK says, don't even think about serving this without vanilla ice cream.

Butterscotch Banana Tarte Tatin

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen Cookbook 

Ingredients:All-purpose flour, for work surface

1 sheet frozen puff-pastry dough, thawed in the refrigerator for 1 day

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/2 cup packed dark-brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon sea salt flakes

5 large ripe (but not speckled) bananas, peeled, halved lengthwise

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tbsp bourbon or Scotch (optional)

Vanilla ice cream, for serving

Instructions: 

For this recipe, you’ll need a 9-inch heavy skillet. Preheat your oven to 400°F. Roll out your puff pastry on a floured surface to a 9-inch circle, and trim if necessary. Place the pastry between two pieces of wax paper and transfer to the fridge until needed.

Melt the butter in the skillet over medium-high heat. Stir in the sugar, salt, and cinnamon or nutmeg (if using). Cook, stirring frequently to make sure the sugar doesn’t burn, until the mixture turns medium amber, about 3 minutes.

Arrange the bananas in the skillet, overlapping them slightly. Cook, without stirring, for 3 minutes. Drizzle the vanilla and the alcohol of your choice (if using) over the bananas, and cook until most of the liquor has evaporated and the liquid has thickened, about 1-2 minutes. Remove the bananas from heat.

Place the pastry round on top of the bananas, and transfer it to the oven. Bake until the pastry is golden brown and puffed, about 25 minutes. Remove the tarte from the oven, and carefully invert the tart onto a serving plate.

 

Green Eggs and No Ham

This recipe is another one from my gluten-free days. Those days were HARD and I was a very hungry and cranky lady. I ate a lot of eggs and popcorn.

 

But I did discover some great new recipes that will definitely make it into our full-time rotation. This takes egg salad to a whole new level - combined with avocado, spices and perfectly boiled eggs, it's a scrumptious and filling lunch that even Eli loved. It's also mayo-free, which I loved. 

 

 

Avo-Egg Salad
Adapted from Two Peas and their Pod

Ingredients:
2 hard boiled eggs, chopped
2 hard boiled egg whites, chopped
2 small avocados, pitted and peeled
1 tablespoon plain Greek yogurt
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons chopped green onion
1/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions:
In a medium bowl, combine the hard boiled eggs and egg whites, avocado, Greek yogurt, lemon juice, green onion, and mustard. Mash with a fork. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Serve in a sandwich, on crackers, salad or just eat it straight out of the bowl like I did.

Mean Mommy?

This dairy free business is HARD. But, to make it even harder, I have now reduced my gluten intake, too...moving from gluten-lite to gluten-free over the next week. So far, no difference in my skin, but I'm ever hopeful. Sigh.

 

Curing a sweet tooth when you're off dairy and gluten is an exercise in frustration. "Oooooh...cookies! Oh, right..." (incidentally, Oreos do not contain any actual dairy. Gross or awesome? You decide). "Score! Froyo!....DAMMIT."

 

So where else do I turn, but Pinterest. This banana "ice cream" has been out there for a while, but I haven't ever been able to make it because we go through bananas at an alarming rate in this house. The kiddo would happily eat a banana for every meal if we let him, and for this dessert concoction, the bananas have to be just past edible-ripe. But our bananas never make it that far. So...mommy had to be sneaky and hide bananas. Mean? Maybe...but I got some dessert out of it at least. 

 

It's really really good! You can dress it up however you prefer, but I like it with just a bit of peanut butter and a few chocolate chips (non-dairy, of course).

 

 

 

Banana Ice Cream

Ingredients:

1-2 ripe bananas

Optional additions: peanut butter, nuts, chocolate chips

 

Instructions:

Slice bananas and lay them flat on a tray/plate to freeze slightly - just about an hour. Any longer, and they won't blend smoothly.

 

Put sliced frozen bananas into your food processer and blend until smooth. Blend in your optional additions and top with chocolate chips.

 

Keep it all to yourself and enjoy!





Who moved my cheese?

Dear Readers, I ask for your strength during this trying time. I've decided to give up dairy for a little while, in order to see if it has any effect on my skin. This decision was not made lightly, as I love ADORE all things dairy, especially cheese, but I need to figure this out. I've suffered from eczema since I was a baby, but in the past 2 years, it's gotten progressively worse. No skin ointment, pill, or moisturizer seems to make any difference, so I decided to look inwards, instead of piling things on outward. Apparently, dairy can be the biggest trigger of eczema outbreaks! You should have seen my face when I read that. Sad Beth. But, if it works, I'm willing to try almost anything. Therefore, the next series of recipes will be mainly dairy-free.

I ventured into the online blogosphere of veganism and some parts of it are scary. "Cheese" sauce made from cashews and yeast? "Milk" from soaked almonds? It was too much. So I started with baby steps, and will taste-test my way through this. I think you'll enjoy my first attempt!

What better place to start with than chocolate? I knew this recipe would be good, as I'd attempted something similar a few years ago as part of the Daring Bakers (I really miss having time for that group!). This was whizzed together quickly with some leftover silken tofu and a stash of incredibly indulgent dark chocolate morsels imported from San Francisco, via mother-in-law. The end result was amazingly rich, incredibly decadent and very very satisfying.

Silken Chocolate Tofu Mousse
Adapted from Food.com

Ingredients:
6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips (Generic brands are typically dairy-free, but Nestles and Hersheys are not, so read the labels!)

1 (10 ounce) package firm silken tofu                                                          

1 -2 tablespoon brown sugar or 1 -2 tablespoon honey or 1 -2 tablespoon brown rice syrup, to taste   (I used a splash of vanilla instead)

1 dash nutmeg (I omitted)

1 banana, thinly sliced (optional)

Instructions:
Melt the chocolate chips in a small saucepan or double boiler with a tablespoon of water over medium heat. Or, if you're lazy like me, melt them in a heatproof bowl in the microwave, in 45-second spurts, stirring after each round.

Transfer the melted chocolate to the container of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Add the tofu and process until smooth. Add the brown sugar, honey, or rice syrup to taste, and sprinkle in the nutmeg. Process again until velvety smooth. Stir in the sliced banana, if desired.

Divide the pudding among 6 dessert cups and chill until needed

Hidden Vegetables

 

Serving pancakes for dinner is incredibly indulgent. It's my guilty little trick for when I didn't plan a meal for a particular night, or I don't really feel like cooking anything elaborate. Normally, I'll use the world's best pancake recipe (courtesy of Mark Bittman), but with a growing toddler, I needed a way to lessen my Mommy guilt over serving pancakes instead of a well-rounded dinner. 

You might have seen that I'm a bit of a stalker fan of Smitten Kitchen's food blog. I found this recipe in her archives and, as you can guess, rushed to make them. You know how really really good zucchini bread can taste spicy, sweet and wholesome in the same mouthful? That's how these pancakes taste. You are eating pancakes for dinner (or breakfast!) but you're also eating GREEN VEGETABLES! It's a revelation!

I always double this recipe, so that I can flash-freeze the leftovers and have an easy breakfast for the little dude throughout the week. 

Zucchini Bread Pancakes

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen  

Ingredients: 

2 large eggs
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons light brown, dark brown or granulated sugar
1/4 cup buttermilk or 2 tablespoons each of milk and plain yogurt, whisked until smooth
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups shredded zucchini (from about 1 1/2 medium zucchini)
1 cup all-purpose flour (half of this can be swapped with a whole wheat flour. Make them even healthier, right?)
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground or freshly grated nutmeg
Butter or oil, for coating skillet 

Instructions: 

In a large bowl, combine eggs, olive oil, sugar, buttermilk and vanilla until smooth. Stir in zucchini shreds. In a smaller bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir dry ingredients into zucchini batter, mixing until just combined.

I practice the Alton Brown method of pancake-storage: Place pancakes on a plate and cover with a clean dishcloth to keep warm. It makes for easy taste-testing access while you're cooking more!

Heat a large, heavy skillet over medium heat. Once hot, melt a pat of butter in pan and swirl it around until it sizzles. Scoop scant 1/4-cup dollops of batter in pan so the puddles do not touch. Cook until bubbles appear on the surface, about 2 to 3 minutes. Flip pancakes and cook another minute or two, until golden underneath. Serve warm.

To flash freeze leftovers: Arrange pancakes in a single layer on a cookie sheet, and place into the freezer for an hour. Once they are frozen, remove pancakes and store them in the freezer in a tightly sealed bag. The flash process will ensure that they don't stick together!

 

Dust it off

Sometimes, the best new recipes are old ones. I received a Southern Living slow-cooker cookbook from my friend many years ago, but never really made anything from it. While the recipes all sounded delicious, they were pretty intricate, which defeated the purpose of slow-cookers! However, I decided to dust it off last month and take another look. I am *SO* glad I did, because I found this gem of a recipe.

It's one of those "throw everything in the pot" recipes that makes slow-cookers a working parent's dream. The sweetness of the coconut milk is absorbed by the vegetables and chickpeas, and the cilantro and curry balance everything out. Serve over rice, and you've got yourself an exotic and healthy dinner.

Chickpeas in Curried Coconut Broth
Adapted from Southern Living Cookbook

Ingredients:
2 teaspoons canola oil 

1 1/2 cups chopped onion       

2 garlic cloves, minced        

2 cans chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained                

2 (14.5-ounce) cans no-salt-added diced tomatoes, undrained                

1 (13.5-ounce) can light coconut milk

1 tablespoon curry powder

2 tablespoons chopped pickled jalapeño pepper

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

6 cups hot cooked basmati rice (any kind of rice will do!)

 

Instructions:

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add onion and garlic; sauté 5 minutes or until onion is tender. (I have skipped this step the last two times and there was no difference in the final outcome. The onions cook perfectly if you throw them into the slow-cooker as-is).

 

Place onion mixture, chickpeas, and next 5 ingredients (through salt) in a 3 1/2-quart electric slow cooker; stir well. Cover and cook on LOW for 6 to 8 hours. Stir in cilantro. Serve over rice.

Kitchen Shame

 

We all have kitchen shames. I know we do.

One of my big ones is that I can not properly boil and peel an egg. I wind up with a shredded egg, shell covered counter, and an increasingly frustrated toddler who was promised an egg 5 minutes ago (eternity in toddler-time).

Another one is that I buy large bags of frozen tilapia fillets. Like the skimpy probably-farmed-in-horrible-conditions fillets that cost $8.99 for 20 servings. It's cheap, it keeps for a long time, and it's a really easy dinner when I am meal planning. I know some foodies are gasping in horror at the grossness of this, but hey - I've got a family that likes to eat every day! The nerve.

One of my favorite ways to cook them is also shamefully easy.You can do it while the fillets are still frozen, if you like, but I prefer to defrost them in a bowl of water beforehand. This recipe even includes vegetables, so you pretty much have a well-balanced meal within 25 minutes. Ain't no shame in that, right?

Easy Tilapia
Adapted from Allrecipes 

Ingredients:
4 (4 ounce) fillets tilapia

2-3 tsp butter
Old Bay, to taste (if you don't have Old Bay, you're missing out! But you can use Seasoned Salt instead)
Garlic powder, to taste
1 lemon, sliced
1 package frozen vegetables (I like broccoli or cauliflower)

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees F). Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.

Place the tilapia fillets in the bottom of the baking dish and dot with butter. Season with Old Bay seasoning and garlic. Top each one with a slice or two of lemon. Arrange the frozen mixed vegetables around the fish, and season lightly with salt and pepper.
 
Cover the dish and bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until vegetables are tender and fish flakes easily with a fork.

Toddler Approved...sort of

Trying to get a toddler to eat vegetables can sometimes be like herding drunk cats covered in motor oil. He'll scarf down broccoli one day, and then fling it across the table with a loud "NO!" the next. This Pinterest (what else?!) inspired recipe was a big hit...for one day. He picked at it the next day, pulling out and eating the tomatoes, his favorite. But overall, we really enjoyed it. It's a great way to use summer-fresh veggies, and makes a delicious side dish.

Vegetable Tian
Adapted from For the Love of Cooking

Ingredients:
2 TBS olive oil (divided)
1 large sweet yellow onion cut in half and sliced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1-2 russet potatoes, unpeeled and sliced 1/4 thick
1 zucchini, sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 yellow squash, sliced 1/4 inch thick
3 large Roma tomatoes, sliced 1/4 inch thick
Sea salt, freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
Dried thyme, to taste
1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Coat a baking dish with olive oil cooking spray. Heat 1 TBS of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add the onions and saute until translucent, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another 60 seconds. Spread the onion mixture on the bottom of the greased baking dish.

Layer potatoes, zucchini, squash and tomatoes alternately in the dish on top of the onions, fitting them tightly into a spiral, making only one layer. (I didn't have a round dish, so I just did rows in a rectangular dish. Still tasty!) Season with sea salt, black pepper and dried thyme, to taste. Drizzle the last tablespoon of olive oil over the top.

Cover the dish with tin foil and bake for 35 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender. Uncover and sprinkle the Parmesan cheese on top and bake for another 25-30 minutes or until browned. Enjoy.

Back...with CAKE!

So, I took a step back because I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue blogging. However, I miss it! I try new recipes every week, and I miss sharing them with people...so Brina's Kitchen is back!

I have a slew of new recipes and pics to share, and a bunch of recipes that I didn't capture on film, but I know you'll love them anyways.

I'll start as far back as December 2012, when we celebrated Eli's 2nd birthday. I can't believe it, but my little munchkin is growing up - and we have the bins of outgrown clothes to prove it! Eli loves (okay, is obsessed with) trucks and constructions, so we made that the theme of the party. I used Pinterest for inspiration, and was immediately struck with this construction tape striped cake. I don't know why I do this to myself, but once I see a cake challenge, I can't resist.

I found the blog, Fredellicious, and the blogger had kindly put together a step-by-step tutorial. It wasn't hard, per say, but just time consuming. If you're going to attempt this, I *HIGHLY* recommend that you make your cakes from scratch. Fredellicious warned me, but I didn't listen. Box mix cakes are just too soft and fluffy, and they broke often during the construction phase. There were many bad words muttered in Brina's kitchen.

You can use any favorite cake recipes you have in your recipe books, but I've included two of my favorites.

Basically, you bake a yellow cake and a black (dark chocolate) cake, carve them into rings, and then put them back together like a puzzle.

 

When all is said and done (and frosted), the inside of your cake looks like this awesome construction tape stripe. Which, of course is totally lost on the 2-year old guests who were running around, pounding stickers and cake into my carpet. Heathens.

 

 

Construction Cake Layers

Chocolate Cake - adapted from Hershey's

This is the recipe on the back of every can of Hershey's cocoa. It's amazing.

 

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar

1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa (I used Special Dark Cocoa for the black shade)                       
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder                        

1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2  eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup boiling water

 

Instructions: Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.

Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.


Yellow Cake
Adapted from Crumbly Cookies and Cook's Illustrated
This is a white cake recipe that will need yellow food gel

Ingredients:
Nonstick cooking spray
2¼ cups cake flour (9 ounces), plus more for dusting the pans
1 cup whole milk, at room temperature
6 large egg whites (¾ cup), at room temperature
2 teaspoons almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1¾ cups granulated sugar (12¼ ounces)
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon table salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1½ sticks), softened but still cool

Instructions:
Set oven rack in middle position. (If oven is too small to cook both layers on a single rack, set racks in upper-middle and lower-middle positions.) Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two 9-inch round cake pans with nonstick cooking spray; line the bottoms with parchment or waxed paper rounds. Spray the paper rounds, dust the pans with flour, and invert pans and rap sharply to remove excess flour.

Pour milk, egg whites, and extracts into 2-cup glass measure, and mix with fork until blended.
Mix cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in bowl of electric mixer at slow speed. Add butter; continue beating at slow speed until mixture resembles moist crumbs, with no powdery streaks remaining.

Add all but ½ cup of milk mixture to crumbs and beat at medium speed (or high speed if using handheld mixer) for 1½ minutes. Add remaining ½ cup of milk mixture and beat 30 seconds more. Stop mixer and scrape sides of bowl. Return mixer to medium (or high) speed and beat 20 seconds longer.

Divide batter evenly between two prepared cake pans; using rubber spatula, spread batter to pan walls and smooth tops. Arrange pans at least 3 inches from the oven walls and 3 inches apart. (If oven is small, place pans on separate racks in staggered fashion to allow for air circulation.) Bake until thin skewer or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 23 to 25 minutes.

Let cakes rest in pans for 3 minutes. Loosen from sides of pans with a knife, if necessary, and invert onto wire racks. Reinvert onto additional wire racks. Let cool completely, about 1½ hours.

Follow the rest of the instructions on Fredellicious's tutorial for the stripes. These can be done in any color! Use the white cake recipe with food color gel and have fun!