KK – 2, Egg Whites – 0

Remember when I told you about my victory over egg whites?  Well I needed yolks only for the Paula Deen Black Bottomed Banana Cream (Creme) Tart recipe I blogged about recently and so I ended up with a cup of egg whites with no home (so sad…).

A great use for leftover egg whites is merengue or macaroons of some kind.  Unfortunately, most merengue cookies take a couple hours of bake time and resting time.  I wanted something quick and dirty as it was already getting late and I hate to throw out perfectly good anything, never mind those jerk egg whites.  I wouldn’t want to give them the satisfaction.

Of course, I turned to the internet to find  a recipe that would work for the amount of egg whites I had, plus it had to contain only ingredients I had on hand (i.e. no lemon or orange zest, like most I found seemed to want), and it had to be an hour or less from whipping time to being in my mouth.  Well I found it.

Here’s another egg white victory for you:

Coconut Macaroons

Booyah!

The recipe was courtesy of Italian Dessert Recipes and can be found here.  The only thing I did differently was to replace the 1/3 cup of granulated sugar with icing sugar.  I thought it would be lighter, and I think I made the right choice.  These are crispy where they need to be, chewy on the inside, and wonderfully coconutty.

TAKE THAT EGG WHITES

You have been so patient

So I left you hanging on the “Paula Deen Black Bottomed Banana Cream (Creme) Tart“.  Well, your wait is over!  Here it is:

Can I just tell you that this is possibly the best thing (in my opinion anyway) that I’ve ever made?  I am a sucker (as you know, for magazines, but also) for banana cream (ugh, creme) anything.

THIS WAS AWESOME.  I will be making it again and again.  Not only was it delicious but it looked pretty good too – don’t you think? And that custard, that I didn’t believe would ever turn to custard?  It was the best part – light flavour, that let the bananas stand out, and the ganache was just the right contrast of bitter to the sweet.  The whipped cream with the light graham crust tied the whole thing together.  Yay for Paula Deen!

Let’s review, can you see the black bottom-ness of it?  That’s the layer of chocolate ganache:

At first I thought the crust was too crumbly – and it was quite crumbly, but it worked, you know?

I sliced it at work so the pics were on my little camera, but boy oh boy am I ever glad I got pictures of the inside!

So now my self-imposed magazine-baking stand-off is over!  And because I have all the faith in Paula Deen in the world following this huge success, I will absolutely be trying more from her Best Desserts 2010.  There are 125 recipes…what shall I choose next?

P.S.  Remember my work frenemy, PDF?  He even liked it.  My usual security guard, @rockox_selinger wasn’t around to guard the goodies so PDF managed to snaggle himself a piece.  Grrrr.

A Sucker Born Every Minute

I am a sucker for food magazines.  How is this even possible?  I don’t even know when it started, but I hoard them like a squirrel with nuts.  You would think that the internet (which is my preferred source of recipes) would have replaced this ridiculous addiction, but unfortunately, my check-out line compulsions continue.

And you know what?  I almost never make any of the recipes in them.  What is THAT all about.

This past week the Blond and I were at Galen’s picking up a few emergency items (Draino – I apparently shed in the Spring, and whipping cream – how do you run out of that) and while we patiently waited in the longest line (oh, did I mention that I always pick the longest line so I have more time to read the magazines?  See?  I have a problem and I need help!), the Food Network Magazine caught my eye.

Let’s think about this.  Ok?  The Food Network.  Like, on TV.  Has a magazine.  Let it work its way through your head.  Are we going backwards with technology?  Nonetheless, I was drawn to it, why?  Because it had the most gorgeous cinnamon rolls on the cover.  No joke, they looked perfect in every way.  I sent the Blond to grab it for me immediately (he is so well trained, he also knew to grab Martha and a Clean Eating while he was at the rack – two other favourites of mine).

I’ve been home alone this weekend (as I mentioned previously, the ECBF has been home visiting family) and I thought, no problem, I can whip up these rolls – easy.  I was going to break my streak of buying but not baking.  I had all the ingredients lined up last night to get the dough ready for this morning, and you know what?  I didn’t even make it.

Un-inspired.  The streak continues.

Where do you get your recipe inspiration from?  I suppose it comes from a variety of places for me, but not magazines.  The magazine never seems to have the right recipe for the right time.  Until now.  I can’t write a blog post about a magazine recipe and not actually make a magazine recipe – right?  So here it is:

I give you, Paula Deen’s Black-Bottom Banana Cream Tart.

I dug through some old magazines til I found the one I wanted,  Paula Deen’s Best Desserts, August 2010.  I picked it up when I was visiting my mom in Florida.  I love banana cream anything.  Although I would probably call it Banana Creme but whatever.  They can do whatever they want in the South.

I switched up the recipe a little bit but the original can’t even be found on the internet (maybe magazine recipes do serve a purpose).  I didn’t have enough chocolate crumbs so I mixed chocolate and graham, and I did a little variation on the ganache layer.  But see? That’s the black bottom part – the chocolate sitting at the bottom of the tart.  I didn’t have a tart pan with removable bottom, so I used a cheesecake pan instead.  The cream (ahem, creme) custard filling was the most amazing part.  I stirred the heck out of that stuff, for 15  minutes, finally thinking Paula was snapped to suggest it would eventually thicken, but sure enough, it thickened to the most amazing texture.  Way to go Paula!

The black bottom:

Now this is what we’re going to call a “teaser post” – because I will post the rest of the details about this dessert later!  Oh no she didn’t.  OH YES I DID.

Do you believe in magic?

I may or may not.  The “magic” to which I am referring is baking in the oven as I type this.

You’ve previously read about my good friend Florence here.  She is so thoughtful.  She found a recipe online that was relevant to the series of posts I have been doing about “Impossible Pie” – and she forwarded the link to me.  I am in the process of putting this recipe to the test, and my initial reaction is…well…not good.

I’ve  made some weird things in my day.  Some I blog about, some I don’t.  The interesting thing about this post is that I’m writing it before I know what the outcome of this recipe will be.  I’m also choosing not to post the link to the recipe until (and unless) I know the cake is going to be a success.

While we’re waiting for the results of this experiment, can we talk about beating egg whites for a sec?  I have, my entire baking career (which, as you know, has not been very long) absolutely despised the beating of egg whites.  So much so, in fact, that I have, until very recently, boycotted any recipe featuring such a method.  The ECBF loves him some Tweed Squares (and I’ll be posting more about those later, not to worry), so for the purpose of making them I had to become familiar with the egg white process.  For some reason, every time I have tried to attempt “stiff white peaks” I ended up with limp soggy foam.  Gross, right?  This includes the times I’ve made Tweed Squares, which may explain their high failure rate.  But then, a few months ago, I was determined to make a merengue work (which, as you know, requires mucho mucho beating of eggs) and I don’t know if it is the result of my super-duper deluxe KitchenAid Professional Series 6000 mixer, or what, but I finally had the ‘ah-ha’ moment of stiff white peaks.  And I have ever since that day (cue the angels singing).  

Doesn’t it feel good to accomplish something?  Overcome a nasty beast of a project that’s been biting you in the rear for so long?  

The 6000 is a lot of things to me – beautiful kitchen decor (it sits proudly next to my coffee maker), multi-functional kitchen tool (no explanation necessary), white noise machine (drowns out even the loudest Wii game being played in the basement) and therapeutic facilitator (set it to whip and watch – seriously, it’s like taking valium).  Now I can add “egg white beater” to the list of things this bad boy can accomplish.  Thank you KitchenAid.

TAKE THAT EGG WHITES.

Back to the task at hand.  This “magical” cake is a little bit more complicated than the aforementioned Impossible Pie – it requires several steps, but ultimately, the batter all goes together and in one place – your 8×8 square cake pan.  Well my batter was basically egg juice.  I can’t really explain it any other way.  I realize the end result is supposed to be a delightful custard filling with a topping and crust (a la Impossible Pie), but I really just do not see how it will be possible with what my “batter” looked like.  Believe me, you don’t want to see a picture of it.

(Through the magic of the internet (see what I did there?) we have now jumped in time to an hour later and the cake is out of the oven).

The cake looks…interesting.  All I can really see is the top, while the cake cools.  I suppose it’s safe to show you a picture now:

Now on to the true test – the taste test:

No.

Just.  No.

I must have done something wrong.  But this is so very very wrong.  There are no words to describe the assault this cake has made on my taste buds.  Ick?  No – “ick” is not even close to what happened.  I actually ran to the garbage bin to spit it out.  I’ve never spit out anything.  Ever.  Cake is like french fries – even the bad ones are still edible.  Not this time.  Not this cake.  Not magical, not one bit.

But a valuable lesson has been learned here – you absolutely can not believe everything you read on the internet.

When Time Management Goes Wrong

This post really doesn’t have anything to do with time management, but I was at the gym today and I was reminded of a horrifying ‘tastrophe that happened to me a couple years ago, and since I’ve been posting about my ‘tastrophes lately, I thought I better share it with all of you.  It only applies to time management in that, because I didn’t have time, my personal management went out the window.  You’ll see what I mean in a moment.

I sometimes teach a class at the gym at 6:30 in the evening.  This means I pack my gym bag in the morning and bring it with me to the office.  I usually work til about 5:45 and then I leave, drive the 15 minute drive, and I have about 15 minutes to change once I get there so I can be in my class, ready to go, for 15 minutes before the class starts.  This way I can help new people get set up, answer questions, but most importantly, visit with my regular participants (I love that part).  Typically, I carefully fold my work clothes and put them in a plastic bag inside my gym bag to take home at the end of the class, that way they don’t get caught up in my shoes or water bottle or anything that’s loose in my gym bag.  I’ve been doing this for years, I have it down to a science.  Or so I thought.

A couple years ago I was teaching such a class – but I was delayed at the office slightly, and unable to leave until closer to 6, so I really had to rush to get to the gym.  I only had about 5 minutes to change, and I was flustered about this (as I sometimes get, no big deal).  I (let’s say, carelessly) shoved all my work clothes into my gym bag, grabbed my shoes and ran in my sock feet to the class room.  I rushed into the class, ready to go, and was setting up my mic when the ‘tastrophe struck.

Because we use a cordless microphone to teach, I wear a neoprene mic-belt around my waist to house the transmitter portion of the microphone.  A wire goes up the back of my shirt to the headset.  I was busy doing my introductions to the class and yammering away about how flustered I was that I wasn’t able to get the mic-belt done up.  It is a simple little clip that connects both ends around your waist and I could not get it to fasten.  Anyway, I am babbling on and on to the class about whatever, trying to multi-task my introductions with my mic-belt set-up, and they are looking at me with…I don’t even know how to describe the expression: horror?  I can tell you that there was a man in the front row that looked amused, and several women who were trying to get my attention by doing the wide-eyed, “um KK, take a look down” signal. Thanks for that, ladies.

When I did finally look down I could clearly see where I had gone wrong.  So very very wrong.  Instead of trying to do up my mic-belt around my waist, I was desperately trying to attach my pink lace bra around my waist.  I had even shoved the transmitter into one pathetically pink-laced cup.

Gah.

Bra-tastrophe?

Mic-tastrophe?

Doesn’t matter, it was both.

The ECBF reminds me that the internet is forever.  But because I’m two years out from this particular ‘tastrophe, I think I’m ok to talk about it now.  I found this therapeutic.  Thanks for listening.

Pizza Part II

I mentioned last week about this focaccia bread recipe I fell in love with.  Well we were having pizza night on Sunday and I thought it was time to try another Wheat Belly recipe.

I’ve tried gluten-free crusts before and let me tell you, what a pain they are.  We’ve been fancy with the shredded zucchini crust, we’ve tried the brown rice flour crust – but they’re always time consuming and there is no pay off with the taste.  Cardboard, really.  Well, the zucchini one was good but it took forever and involved grating pounds of zucchini.

The Wheat Belly pizza crust (recipe I), is awesome.  And easy.  If you have what you need (and I did, because I’d made the focaccia bread recipe and conveniently had just enough of everything I needed left over – how fortuitous!), it’s easy as … well.. pie?

The guys had their regular pizza crust and I had this.  I kept it pretty simple, artichoke hearts, tomato sauce, cheese, pepperoni, and onion.  Yum.

The Blond and the Brunette won’t eat pizza with anything on it.  They want cheese.  Just cheese.  I don’t remember a time when I only wanted cheese pizzas, but I’m sure at one time I did.  Now there are so many exciting things to put on pizza – my personal favourite being BBQ Chicken pizza.  There is no way they would even touch it, never mind taste it.  What are some of your favourite pizza toppings?

Biscoff Spread Cookies

Sugar Plum has posted several times about Biscoff spread and I’ve been trying to get my hands on some for over a year now.  So many recipes are out there calling for this stuff and they all look SO GOOD.  Because it isn’t something that we can get up here, on a recent trip to LV, we were on the lookout for it.

If you haven’t flown Delta, you may never have tasted the delicious shortbread-y, cinnamon-y cookies they serve, called Biscoff cookies.  To think that you could turn a cookie into a spreadable butter?  Seriously, what will those scientists come up with next?  Information generally can be found on the Biscoff website, but I was saddened to discover that our good friends at Wikipedia had absolutely nothing to say about it at all.  We may be in a small fight with Wikipedia over what is clearly a hole in their breadth of material.

Back to the Biscoff.  I finally brought a jar up from the pantry this morning for the boys to have a taste.  I put a little bit on Wasa toast for the Blond for breakfast and the others tried it on a spoon.  Everyone agreed it tasted awesome.  Plans are in the works for a Biscoff and jelly sandwich for lunches tomorrow.  This plan depends heavily on a late-night run to 7-11 to pick up bread.  I digress.  I have been absolutely aching to bake something with this stuff and have looked at about a trillion Biscoff recipes to try to pick just the right one.  Because I have so few jars of this stuff, I really have to ration it.

There’s a great website with the 25 best Biscoff recipes.  I highly recommend a peruse before settling on your very own Biscoff masterpiece.  I had competing votes coming from all sides on this one.  The BECBF (Brother of the East Coast Boyfriend) wanted something with marshmallow fluff, the Blond wanted something with peanut butter, and the Brunette wanted cookies.  In the end I settled on a variation of the recipe I found through my new favourite blogger, The Domestic Rebel: Deep Dish Biscoff Peanut Butter Chip Cookies.  I’ve mentioned in a previous post that she’s definitely a kindred spirit, having also been trapped in a TJ Maxx change room with a dress that was hell bent on taking her life.

I’m sorry – did you say deep dish cookies?  Umm… sign me up.

For this purpose you’re going to need your muffin top pan.  It’s appropriately named because these cookies are no friend to your muffin-top reduction plan.

I hate to say this but the guys all think this recipe is tough competition for my May Long cookies.  It is chewy and moist but crumbly and sugar-y all at the same time.  I didn’t have many peanut butter chips in the pantry so I swapped with some butterscotch, but the contrast of salty and sweet is so perfect in this recipe.  Truly a nice light flavour, combined with the texture – really a great cookie overall.  I also did some minor swapping with the sugars.  I stayed true to the recipe except for the replacement of 1/4 cup of brown sugar for 1/4 cup of coconut sugar (I’m trying to use it up, if you recall from this previous post), and  I used slightly more biscoff spread, and slightly less butter, and because I only had one cup of peanut butter chips, the rest called for were butterscotch.

The Blond wanted whipped cream with his, which is exactly how I served them, with a little dusting of dark chocolate on top – just for contrast.

I strongly recommend this recipe.  Get on it.