Chocolate Buttermilk Pielets

Hautelook.com is quite possibly the most evil site ever. I think the Devil created it to make us all poor. Every day at 11 o'clock new specials come out on clothes and homegoods and beauty products. When my friend first told me about this site I was not impressed. I could have cared less cause let's be honest, I'm not much of a girly girl. A few weeks ago I decided to give it another try. Every day my cart has something in it by 11:03. By 11:15 you have to decide if you want it and if you don't buy it right then, you lose it. I'm always scrambling to decide do I need it, do I want it? Will this make me look better!?!?! I get anxiety daily from this stupid website. My anxiety overtook me today and I ended up spending $45, sadness. Meanwhile, I bought a groupon yesterday for bikram yoga classes. I don't know what I was thinking. YEA, I totally want to stay in one pose for 5 minutes straight in 105 degree heat with men wearing tight little yoga shorts...

Maybe I will feel better about all this if I have one of these little pies today when I get home. I have a few left surprisingly. When I was trying to come up with these I wanted to use the last of my buttermilk and figured I could do it with buttermilk pies. I made them bite-sized since I was taking them to a birthday party. Every person I said those words to has almost recoiled in disgust. Maybe it's because it's more of a southern treat but buttermilk is not as bad as you think. At least there were only a few left so the name didn't get the best of them! These were so tasty and almost like a brownie in a little phyllo shell.     

Yield
~ 1 9" deep dish pie or about 50 mini pies
You can half the recipe to make 25 mini pies which is what I did. The recipe below is for the full serving though.

1 cup sugar
4 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup buttermilk
 3 eggs
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

9" deep dish pie shell
OR
half a package of defrosted phyllo dough

If you are making the full size pie, get your frozen pie shell out to thaw or make your homemade version. If you are making the phyllo shells make sure your dough is thawed completely so it does not break. Unroll the dough and cut a strip off the pile of phyllo layers at a time, about 3 inches long. You will then have a pile of sheets about 10 inches by 3 inches. Take a layer and place on an oiled surface, such as a cookie sheet. Then spray it with vegetable/canola oil. Take another layer of dough and repeat until you have 8 layers of phyllo dough with spray between each layer. Then cut your strip into thirds and stuff each square into the mini cupcake tin spaces. They should look like the picture above.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix eggs, sugar, and flour together in a bowl, then add in the melted butter. Next add in the cocoa powder. Last pour in buttermilk and vanilla and mix. If you are making a full pie, next you can just pour the mixture into the pie shell. Place in oven and bake 60 minutes or until center is only slightly jiggly. If you are doing the minis, pour a tablespoon of filling into each phyllo shell you have made. Place them in the oven and bake for 20 minutes or so.

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Dorothy

Dorothyyyyyyyyyy? Dooooooooooorothy! That's all I can think about when I look at the weather forecast today. When I was little I remember every time the winds started picking up as a storm was beginning to move through. You could hear the leaves and branches swaying and my dad would be in the door way with his head popped out saying Dorothyyyyyyy? Memories. Then he would usually make us come inside where I would continue on to make my sister play tornado with me in the back room in our basement (as I mentioned in my first post). Those were the days.

Don't you just love weather in Maryland too? Last week we were concerned about having a snow storm, this week it's severe weather! How fun is that!? I'm excited at least, I'm kind of hoping a big old cell starts pouring on me in the middle of my run today. Actually, that happened once and it was pretty scary considering the bike trail runs along the power lines.... Sadly though (sadly to me, happily for most non morbid weather weirdos), I don't think we'll be getting any tornadoes here. North Carolina and Virginia have a better chance but it always seems to be that way.

See that yellow line between the green and yellow shaded area? That's us and normally it wouldn't be too promising but this is the first severe weather of the year in our area! and THAT get's me pumped even if it will be slightly to our south. Our best bet today is the winds. There's a potential for gusts up to 50 mph which is the whole reason I started thinking about Wizard of Oz. The winds alone as shown below will even get to around 25 mph. (the plot is in knots) One of my favorite plots to look at are winds when a front moves through. For some reason seeing such a sharp change in winds is so neat. It's even better when you drive through one. The first time I ever realized how sharp of a temperature gradient/front I had driven through was senior year of college. One minute it was sunny and 70 degrees. Next thing I know I'm driving into this torrential downpour and it's hailing, travel a total of 10 miles, and the temperature dropped to 48. It was still one of the coolest experiences I've had with weather. Nerd alert!

Anyway, wind wind wind. Don't blow away tonight if you're going out. I know I am a smidge worried about it since I'm going to Annapolis for the Annapolis Restaurant Week. Hopefully I make it without my dress blowing up or those residents will get quite the show.

Blackberry Scones

Yesterday my day began by getting in my car at 5:45 AM to go to work. I turned on my Margaritaville radio only to find out it was National Margarita Day. Terrible timing to find this out. Obviously having a margarita at this time would be frowned upon. Plus it's a Wednesday AND it's Ash Wednesday, definitely not a party day. My party consisted of going to the gym after work only to end up in severe pain today andddd making blackberry scones. It all started because of buttermilk.

Many times you buy something for one recipe then you have a bunch leftover and you're like what the heck am I supposed to do with the rest of this? You couldn't possibly just waste it, especially if you're a cheap skate like me. That was me yesterday with leftover buttermilk from frying up some shrimp. I started thinking about what I could make. Scones sounded good and blackberries were on sale this week so it was my obvious choice. Also, since the weather has been so nice 60+ degrees! it made me want something summery aka berries.

I actually had never even had a scone before yesterday. This might make you question my recipe but I can tell you when I brought them into work they were gone within 30 minutes. Last night, I had my taste tester try them with me. After my first bite I was like "Is this what they're supposed to taste like!?" The response was yes. I had no idea they were more of a biscuit type thing.When I went to get them this morning, said taste tester had obviously taken another one out of the box after I went to bed.

Blackberry Scones
Yield ~12 scones

2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup butter, cut into small pieces
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
3/4 cup buttermilk plus another ~1/4 cup
1 cup blackberries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Cut in the butter in small pieces. Mix this together until mixture is crumbly, you may need to get your hands dirty for this. In another bowl, mix the egg, buttermilk, and vanilla. Next throw your blackberries in the powder bowl to coat them. This helps to keep them from mashing too much and running in the dough. You could even freeze them so that they are more firm. Next make a hole in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the buttermilk mixture. Carefully fold the ingredients together so that the berries stay as intact as possible. If the dough is too dry add in more buttermilk a tbs at a time.

Once dough is all mixed together, sprinkle some flour on your counter top or cutting board. Place dough on there and begin to spread out. You want it to be about 1 inch thick. Once mine was spread out it was about a 10x10 inch square. I then cut it into 3 strips and cut 4 triangles out of each strip. Place triangles on a greased cookie sheet. Next brush them with a little buttermilk and sprinkle some sugar on top. Put them in the oven for 16 minutes or until slightly golden on top.

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King's Cake Cupcakes

"Fun-sized Snickers? Who’s this fun for? Not me. I need six or seven of these babies in a row to start having fun." - Jeff Carlin

Fat Tuesday was yesterday and unfortunately I didn't have any of these minis left to get fat with. Maybe that quote could help explain why. Maybe if a total of 5 girls hadn't eaten them all Saturday I'd have some left but I might be the most guilty party of them all. And what's worse, you put Nala in danger. Just kidding, but what is worse is now I have to think of something to give up for Lent. I could probably think of some really great ones but I'm too selfish to give them up. For example, Diet Coke or SUGAR in it's entirety which would include... cupcakes.

Cupcakes are kind of my thing. I guess you could say I got started on this baking kick with cake. I don't even know how many flavors of cupcakes I've made by now but it's more than I can count. These ones were pretty amazing though and definitely a welcome break from my frequent chocolate overload. This cake batter is great too. It's such an easy way to doctor up a basic cake mix for a more made from scratch approach. Plus, it's a fun way of incorporating the King's Cake taste into cupcakes.

King's Cake Cupcakes

Yield ~50 mini cupcakes ~20-24 regular cupcakes

For Cake:

1 package golden butter cake mix

1 package vanilla pudding mix (3.9 oz)

1 cup sour cream

1 cup oil

1/2 cup water

2 tbs buttermilk powder

4 eggs

1 tbs vanilla

For cinnamon sugar layer:

1/2 tbs cinnamon

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tbs butter 

For frosting:

1/2 cup butter (room temperature)

2 cups powdered sugar

2 ounces cream cheese

1 tsp cinnamon

dash of cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together cake mix, pudding mix, and buttermilk powder so there are no clumps. Add in the sour cream, oil, water, eggs, and vanilla. Stir together until completely mixed. In a separate bowl melt the 1 tbs butter then add in the brown sugar and cinnamon to make the middle layer of the cupcake. Next fill cupcake liners about 1/3 of the way with batter, then sprinkle a layer of the cinnamon sugar layer as shown below, then fill up to about 2/3 of the way with more batter. Place them in the oven and bake for about 14 minutes. Check on them at this time to see if they're done, they may need a couple more minutes. Take them out and set to cool.

Meanwhile, take your butter and cream cheese and mix them together in a bowl. Next add in your powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time. After that, add in the cinnamon and any cream you may need to get your desired consistency. Then spread or pipe onto your cupcakes, whichever you prefer.

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Muffuletta Pizza

Busted. At least that's what my forecast did. At least I can say I told you so. That it would bust along with most of the other meteorologists. Sorry, Justin Berk but I didn't really have #faithintheflakes. That dumb system just HAD to go farther south and bring snow to North Carolina. What the heck, they aren't supposed to get snow. We are, and we're notorious for snow on President's Day Weekend. Oh well, better luck next year. On to my next topic of discussion. Food, as usual.

THE sandwich to have in New Orleans is a muffuletta. Well, that and a po' boy. I decided to make a nice little twist on this typical sandwich and turn it into a pizza. Pizza is always good and it's even better when you throw some variations in. I present you with Muffuletta pizza!

Muffuletta Pizza

Yield ~1 large pizza

Paul's Pizza Dough (recipe below)

Olive Salad (You can make this but also can find this in the olive aisle at your grocery store- what I did)

Salami ~10 slices

Ham ~8 slices

Provolone cheese ~ 10 slices

Olive Oil

Preheat your oven to 500 degrees. Roll out your pizza dough and place on your pizza stone or baking pan. (Store bought dough works too) Brush the soon to be crust region with some olive oil. Spread out a layer of olive salad on the dough first. Next make a layer of salami, then a layer of ham, and finish it up with a layer of provolone cheese. Place the pizza in the oven on a rack about 2/3 of the way up in the oven. Bake for about 10 minutes, then check on pizza. You may need another 5 minutes more though if you like your pizza a little crispier.

Paul's Pizza Dough

Yield ~ dough for 1 large pizza

1 3/4 cups flour (possibly another 1/4 cup if it seems too sticky)

1 cup slightly warm water

1/2 packet yeast (5/16 oz size)

1 tsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

Mix yeast and water together. Let sit and become frothy for about 5 minutes or until it looks foamy. Next add in flour, olive oil, and salt. Mix together until becomes dough consistency. If it seems too sticky you can add in a little more flour until it seems more like pizza dough. I ended up using just a dash more than 1 3/4 cup flour. Roll dough into ball as pictured below and place in a bowl to rise for an hour at room temperature. After an hour or so punch it back down and create a ball like this again. Place it back into the bowl to rise for another few hours. By this time it will look like the second picture on the right below. Punch it back down again to a ball and begin to roll out into your pizza dough.

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Pralines

Pralines. Some will yell at you if you say it like I do. PRAY-leens. Last night I was told it was PRAH-leens. Either way, they still taste the same which is heavenly. Thank God I know how to make them now so I don't have to go back to New Orleans just to get some. This will save me a lot of money but it will not save me any room in my jeans. These things are pure sugar with a little bit of extra stuff added in. They are truly a New Orleans treat though so you should try them out.

They were a hit at my party last night except for the one person who said he might become diabetic from them. Really?! First of all, if someone invites you to a party with tons of food they made themselves don't criticize the goods. Second of all, if I haven't gone diabetic yet I'm pretty sure he won't considering I'm the biggest sugar freak ever. I had 3 of them last night... along with 5 mini cupcakes. Weekends are for overindulgence. At least that's what I tell myself so I feel better when I do this kind of thing. 

They had their own little setup with the King Cake cupcakes and Muffuletta pizza which are coming later this week! Side note: Diet Coke has nothing to do with Mardi Gras but I'm slightly addicted to it so it's everywhere in my house. It slips into pictures occasionally.

 

Pralines

Yield ~20

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup light cream

2 tbs butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup pecans (whole or chopped)

Place sugar, brown sugar, and light cream in a pot on medium heat. Whisk occasionally until sugar starts dissolving. Turn heat up to bring mixture to a boil, the temperature needs to reach 235 degrees (soft ball stage). Once it does, take it off the heat and add in the butter and vanilla. Do not mix, but let it sit for a few minutes. After that, pour in the pecans and whisk the mixture together. Quickly, take spoonfuls of the mixture and place them on a sheet of wax paper so they can spread out and cool. You want to make sure that you do this as speedy as possible though so that the candy doesn't start crystallizing. Within 5 minutes mine had started to do so. Once finished, let cool then EAT. It's so good, the sugar just melts in your mouth.

Here is what your mixture will look like right around the time it's reaching 235 degrees.

 

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