Whoopie Pies

I've been seeing recipes for Whoopie Pies for years, but have never had one. I happened to have some marshmallow creme, and I've been saving this America's Test Kitchen whoopie pie recipe. So I figured it was time to finally try them - having marshmallow creme on hand had to be a sign!

They were really quick to put together, and the frosting is addicting! It's nice and light and all butter (no margarine or shortening). I hope this isn't insulting to whoopie pie lovers, but the texture and flavors reminded me of like a chocolate zinger or fudge brownie round, except this was really good. It's like what the junk food would want to be. They were so light and tender, and they look so homey. I don't know how they'd travel, but these seem like they'd be great summer or picnic desserts. The kids would love them, and any adults who have a sweet tooth :-)

Espresso Brownies & Candied Walnuts

These are some fantastic brownies. Usually I like really dark, rich brownies - anything cake-like is not going to work. I've loved all of Maida Heatter's brownies that I've tried. And they usually have ended up rich and fudgy and perfect :-) I've had her Espresso Brownies marked since I got the cookbook(Maida Heatter's Best Dessert Book Ever), and now I finally got around to making them.

These aren't like any of her other brownies that I've tried. They are dark and light and tender, really beautiful! They're much more grown-up brownies. The only drawback is that they're so light it's really easy to just keep eating. They make a jelly roll pan's worth, and they're best the day of making. They're definitely a new favorite!















And because they look a little unphotogenic by themselves, I'm tacking on these Candied Espresso Walnuts here. We've been loving these - making about two batches a week. I've used Penzey's ceylon cinnamon, which I like, it's nice and bright. They're not the prettiest, but they're so easy to make, and too easy to eat!

TWD Coffee Ice Cream Tart

This tart sounds amazing.

And I'm hoping to try again this summer - coffee, chocolate, and almond is a favorite combination.

This go around, things just didn't seem to be working for me. I don't have a tart pan, so I figured I'd just sub a pie pan, but I couldn't find it. So I figured a muffin tin would be fine. As I was putting the sugar cannister back on the shelf, it slipped and fell on the bottle of vanilla and the glass butter dish, which then shattered. I had the food processor open with the crust dough at this point, so then I was imagining shards of glass in my crust. I figured I'd bake them off anyway just for show, and just threw the muffin tin in the freezer. Then the three year old opened the freezer to sneak a popsicle, and the muffin tin fell out along with a glad plastic container of some soup that then shattered plastic onto the muffin crusts. Amazingly, the crusts stayed in the tin (and none of the stuff hit the kid on the head). I still baked them off, added the chocolate here and a little praline frozen yogurt.

I'm definitely going to have to try this one again, because it sounds like something we'd love.

Thanks to Jessica of Domestic Deep Thought of the Day for this week's pick!

Pecan Powder Puffs

These are one of my dad's favorite cookies, and we'd always have them at Christmas. The recipe is very similar, except the nuts are much finer in Dorie's version. I was a little rushed, so they only chilled about a half hour, and they still held together and baked well. These were really nice and tender, they're great little cookies!

Thanks to Tianne of Buttercream Barbie for this week's pick!

TWD Citrus Sunshine Muffins

These were really nice muffins! I had to make some substitutions. Somehow I only had 1/2c of ap flour in house, so I decided to make a half batch and subbed white whole wheat for the other 1/2 c. Then I had purchased currants, but I think they got used for someone's oatmeal, so I subbed craisins in. These were really nice muffins, though. Even with the whole wheat, they had a great texture, very fine, and we always like craisins. I love Dorie's muffins, I think it's the butter :-)

Thanks to Lauryn for this week's pick!

Maple Syrup Snow Candy

I just finished reading Little House in the Big Woods with the kids, so when we got snow last week, we tried making maple syrup candy. Our approach kind of ended up being like Ma's earlier Christmas candy with the molasses, only using the maple syrup like Grandma during the sugar snow.

The Joy of Cooking said to bring maple syrup to 230-233 to turn it to sugar, which took about thirty minutes. While I was getting the syrup going, the kids went out and packed the cake pans with snow. When it got to 233, I took it off the heat and whisked it until it thickened some. Then, even though Laura and Mary get to pour the syrup on their snow, I decided I'd do the pouring.
















I was afraid if I poured too much in one spot, it would melt through the snow, so I ended up with lots of little strings. The syrup doesn't end up melting it, though, so next time I'd try making more little quarter-sized pours to make for easier eating. It turned out very soft and sticky. The little bits of syrup that were left in the pan did turn into maple sugar. If we do it again, it'd be fun to get little saucers for sugar like from the book - it'd be a little neater kid-eating, too!















The best picture I got of the actual candy - pretty unappealing, hm? It did taste much better than it looks :-)

TWD Chocolate Pots de Creme

I was very last-minute with this week's TWD, and being distracted I missed skimming the foam. And then the plastic wrap melted in the oven (why did I follow the recipe there?!). And yes, this photo is the best I could do.
Due to the melted plastic, we're not eating all of these, but I scraped the top off of one, and it was pretty incredible. For all the cream, it still felt light. Very chocolaty. These were very nice, and I'll have to try them again sans plastic wrap :-)

Thanks to Christine of Black Cat Cooking for this week's pick!