I Want S'more...

I went to Houston last weekend to visit a few of my besties.  A friend who lives in BR joined me for the ride.  The trip from BR to Houston isn't long but it sure was nice to have someone along for the drive.  When we arrived in town, we stopped at the Chocolate Bar.  They have anything and everything you can imagine made with chocolate, dipped in chocolate, filled with chocolate ... you get the idea.  I got chocolate nutter butter ice cream.  It was ridiculously good.  Nutter butters were ground up and then swirled in dark chocoalte ice cream. I plan on recreating it soon. If I ever remember to freeze the Cuisinart.

We also all bought a few treats to bring back with us. I bought chocolate covered nutter butters (What's that?  You think I have a small obsession with chocolate and peanut butter?  I dunno.)  And my friend bought chocolate dipped s'mores. Well, on the way home she realized that her s'mores were in fact chocolate dipped rice krispies ... yummy, but a disappointing revelation.

So, I did what any good friend would do.  I made some for her once we got back in town, only I added peanut butter (surprised?). I used reduced fat graham crackers, reduced fat peanut butter, and dark chocolate.  Because I only make healthy treats.  Because I am such a good friend. I did put marshmallow fluff in there as well, but that is mostly air anyway, so it doesn't count.  I had a few strawberries that were about to go bad, so I dipped them in chocolate.  If we still had the food pyramid, I think I would have covered every level.

Enjoy.  I know I did.  Ah, I mean my friend did. 

QA/QC Part II

I saw Joanne Chang on Throwdown with Bobby Flay a long time ago and have been a little obsessed with Flour Bakery ever since.   She is kinda of my hero.  Read her bio on Amazon and see if you can figure out why.  

Anyway, when I went to Boston a few months ago, I insisted we visit Flour Bakery. After seeing Bobby Flay lose to her, I knew I needed to taste these sticky buns. Mmm.  Also, while we were there, I bought the Flour Bakery cookbook (I love to buy books as souvenirs.  Anyone else?  Or am I the only nerd here?). I have steadily been making my way through the recipes ever since getting back home.  This past weekend, I tried out the cheddar and scallion scone recipe.  Confession: I ordered a sticky bun my first time in line.  But then I went back for the cookbook ... and bought a cheddar-scallion scone.  For a snack.  I didn't want to get low blood sugar as we trekked across Boston.  That's the only reason.  I promise.  

The scone was delicious.  I knew it was a recipe I had to try once I got home. I just needed an opportunity to try the recipe, where I could guarantee I wouldn't end up with all of the scones at my house! Well, my niece is being christened this weekend and my family and I are getting together afterwards for breakfast.  Perfect.  And since I like to try out recipes beforehand, I made a batch this past weekend.

I added reduced fat breakfast sausage to the recipe.  I liked the addition.  I think they would also be really good with chorizo or bacon.  Of course, they are delicious plain as well. Next time, I will not turn my oven quite so high.  I used the recommended temperature, but I think it was too hot since the butter ran out and the scones didn't rise as high as I think they were supposed to.  

So, once again, I highly recommend going Flour Bakery if you are ever in Boston and buying Flour Bakery's cookbook and making anything and everything out of it!

Quality Control, Part I

The best part about receiving a new order is coming up with ideas and flavors and eventually making a test batch (that's really the best part).  I am making cupcakes, two separate "cocktail cupcake" flavors to be exact, for a lingerie shower in a couple of weeks. One flavor, I am simply adding little flair to a recipe I have used before (leaving that one a surprise, so you'll have to wait for it...).  But the other flavor, I had never tried before.  When that happens, I rely on my quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) team to make sure I have the best cupcake possible.  The team is made up of 100% volunteers.  Yet, they always there when I need them to taste cupcakes, cakes, cookies, etc.  Who knew a girl could get so lucky? Ok, so maybe, it isn't so hard to find these volunteers.  Especially when they are made up of my family and friends.  And love sweets.  

For this particular cocktail cupcakes, I made white russian cupcakes.  I found a lot of recipes online, but they mostly used yellow cake for the cupcake.  I wanted chocolate.  For variation really.  Plus, I think kahlua screams chocolate.  Anyway, I guess these cupcakes should really be called "tan russian" or "dirty russian." I've heard it both ways.  

To make the cupcakes, I doctored the cupcake recipe from my Flour Bakery cookbook (favorite. Buy it here.  Now.), added a kahlua/vodka ganache, and topped everything off with a kahlua flavored buttercream.  I wouldn't say these cupcakes really make you think "white russian" when you take that first bite, but you definitely taste the alcohol and they are simply delicious.  Seriously.  Don't just take my word for it, most my QC/QA team ranked them as their #1 and #2 cupcakes of all time (the #2 people are still dreaming of the guinness and bailey's cupcakes).  I may add a little more of the cocktail aspect of the cupcake for the shower.  I'll let you know what happens.

Thanks to all who volunteered this week ... Kristy, Brooke*, Andrew, Sandy, Denny and Bill!

*Special thanks to Brooke for taking pictures, as always, of the finished product!