Coffee Ice Cream with Chocolate Ganache Swirl

When I started making Baked Explorations' recipe for Coffee Ice Cream, I realized I've been making a baking mistake for years.  Years!  Throughout all of the espresso flavored things I've made, I've been using Ground Espresso and not Instant Espresso powder.  So instead of dissolving away into a rich coffee flavor and leaving a smooth texture behind, mine has has grinds and flecks of espresso in my baked goods.  Oops!  Well, I had started this recipe when I figured that out, so perhaps this is the last coffee flavored thing I will make the wrong way.  But to tell you the truth, it didn't negatively affect the outcome because this ice cream was absolutely delicious.  So rich and creamy, full of coffee flavor.  It might not be a good idea to have a large serving of this shortly before bed though, because you might be up for a while.


I kept the recipe the same as it was written in the Baked Explorations book with two substitutions.  One being the espresso powder (oops) and the other being 1 tablespoon of Bailey's with Caramel instead of Kahlua - Delicious change by the way!  To see the complete recipe, visit Karen's Cookies, Cakes and More.


I also made a few additions to make things a little more interesting.  I prepared a small batch of chocolate ganache and swirled it into the ice cream at the last minute to create a chocolate fudgey swirl throughout the ice cream.  My husband wanted to add caramel sauce (he absolutely loves with Caramel Frappucino's and Caramel Macchiato's) but since I was getting a little lazy at this point, we just swirled in store bought caramel sauce.  These two additions made the ice cream out of this world!

Chocolate Ganache from Martha Stewart
Ingredients:
4 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, room temperature


In a medium sauce pan, heat the heavy cream until just simmering.  Pour over the chocolate and let stand for 30 seconds. Stir until smooth.  Whisk in butter until completely incorporated.  Let cool until desired consistency.  If adding this to ice cream, cool until room temperature before adding to the ice cream.  

Visit Club Baked's website to see how the other bakers did with this recipe!

Cars Lightning McQueen Cake for a 4th Birthday

Back in February, we were asked to make a cake for a cousin celebrating this FOURTH birthday.  Last year, we made this Cars cake for his third:

This year for his fourth birthday, he requested the same theme.  We knew we had to make the cake much different than last year (who wants the same cake two years in a row?) and we wanted to top what we did last year.  This is what we came up with...

What do you think?  Do you like this year's Lightning McQueen cake better, or do you prefer last year's Cars cake?

Cupcake and Dessert Towers & the Mission: Small Business Grant

Wow, you all are doing such awesome things with your The Smart Baker Cupcake and Treat Towers!  Check out the latest pictures sent to us by customers of their dessert displays by visiting the gallery.

Also, if you have a spare moment we'd so appreciate you voting for us for the Mission: Small Business grant!

Click here or click the image above to visit the Mission: Small Business website and vote for The Smart Baker.  We need 250 votes to be considered for the grant, and we need your help to get there!  Thank you!

Crock Pot Banana Nut Oatmeal

I start out almost every morning with a bowl of oatmeal.  Instead of throwing a packet of instant oatmeal in the microwave, I made one gigantic batch of my own homemade flavored oatmeal in the crock pot and freeze it in individual servings.  It has the convenience of instant oatmeal, but the flavor and nutrition of homemade.  So far, I've made two different flavors: Apple Pie Oatmeal and now this Banana Nut Oatmeal.  


What other flavor ideas sound good for a batch of Crock Pot oatmeal?  

Crock Pot Banana Nut Oatmeal
Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 2 cups old fashioned oats
• 2 bananas, sliced
• 1/4 cup nuts (I used walnuts this time)
• 3 Tbsp brown sugar (optional - I sometimes leave this out and add more Truvia when serving)
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 6 ounces yogurt (Optional - I sometimes use Greek Vanilla, and sometimes leave it out)

In the bowl of your crock pot combine milk, water, oats, banana, nuts, sugar, cinnamon and salt.  Cook on low for 1 - 2 hours, stirring occasionally, until it reaches the desired consistency.   Stir in the yogurt and let cool slightly.


Scoop 1/2 cup servings into silicone muffin pans and set in the freezer for several hours until the oatmeal is fully frozen.  Remove from the silicone muffin pan and store in airtight zippy bag or plastic container.  


When ready to serve, remove from the freezer and defrost.  Add milk, microwave and stir until smooth.  Serve with Truvia.
When I remember, I take it out of the freezer and place in the fridge overnight.  When I don't remember (most of the time) I microwave for 30 seconds, then stir with a spoon before adding milk. 

Honey Nut Bars

No, I haven't given up blogging!  It's been quite a while since my last post, but I'm still here.  We've just had a lot going on over here.  A weekend trip to NY for a dear friend's wedding, getting sick with the flu (who gets the flu this time of year??) and demolishing our entire downstairs floor.  That's right.  Due to "improper installation," our tiles were popping up all throughout the lower floor of our home.  That meant the kitchen, pantry, living room, bathroom, dining room, and front hallway were all affected.  During the tile removal, cleaning and new tile reinstallation process, we were actually without an oven for a few weeks (gaspppp!).

Yep, that's me with a demo hammer.  And no, I have no idea what I'm doing.  

It was a long, tiring, dusty process, but it is finally over and we are getting back to normal.  So more blog posts will be soon to come!    

For now, I'll share this recipe for Honey Nut Bars.  I made these in honor of a friend's new apiary.  She's a bee-mom now!  So we brought her these honey-ful goodies for dessert.  I had my doubts about these cookies, but they were received very well.  The bottom layer is a buttery, shortbread cookie.  It's piled high with sticky honey coated mixed nuts.

Honey Nut Bars, adapted from Epicurious

makes about 20 squares

Ingredients for the Crust:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 stick (1/2 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1 large egg, lightly beaten

Ingredients for the Nut Topping:

1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon mild honey

1/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1 tablespoon heavy cream

8 ounces nuts (I used a combination of whole almonds and chopped brazil nuts)

To bake the crust:
Grease a 9-inch square baking pan and line with parchment.  

Pulse together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and butter in a food processor until the mixture resembles pea-size butter lumps. Add egg and pulse until a crumbly dough forms.

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Press dough evenly onto bottom (but not up sides) of baking pan and bake in middle of oven until edges are golden and begin to pull away from sides of pan, 15 to 20 minutes. Cool in pan on rack.

Make topping:
Bring honey, brown sugar, and salt to a boil in a 2-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved, then boil, without stirring, 2 minutes. Add butter and cream and boil, stirring, 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in all nuts until completely coated.

Pour nut mixture over pastry crust, spreading evenly, and bake in middle of oven until topping is caramelized and bubbling, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool completely in pan on a rack. Lift dessert out of pan using foil overhang and cut into squares.

Easter Dessert Round-Up

Easter is right around the corner (one week from today!).  It has always been a time for our family to get together.  I've picked out some of my favorite Easter pop creations.  Seriously, peoples creativity and skills with cake pops and cookie pops shock me!  It is like ART.  Here are some Easter treats on a stick that people of all ages will enjoy.  


I'm sure you know of Bakerella's cake pops.  The woman is a genius.  Her Easter cake pops are SO adorable I might hesitate for a minute before eating it (but who can resist for more than a minute?)

To see how Bakerella created these adorable confections, visit her blog: She takes you step-by-step through the creation of her Easter Bunny and Easter Egg cake pops, her Spring Chickens, and her Sheep cake pops.

Stylishly Sweet makes some absolutely adorable cake pops, too.  I really love her little accents with the ribbon and tags.  Simple addition yet over the top cute.  The pictures on her Flickr are seriously impressive!

All About You has some goofy bunnies that I think are just hilarious.  The young guests at your Easter get together would really like these ones.

Speaking of seriously impressive, Baking 911's Tulip Cake Pops look so real, it is hard to imagine biting into one!  These are absolutely gorgeous (and must require a lot of patience to make so perfect).  

Don't feel like making Cake Pops?  I've been seeing Cookie pops floating around on the internet for a while, and these Easter Cookie Pops have got to be amongst the best I've seen.  Baking 911's Easter Basket Cookie Pops are simply stunning.  

Cake Journal takes you step by step with lots of photos for how to make these Bunny Cookie Lollipops.  I love those step-by-step photo tutorials - I'm such a visual person, these how-to's make it so straightforward.

If Cake Pops and Cookie Pops are not your thing, you could always try some Rice Krispies Treat pops.  

Hungry Happenings made some Easter themed chicky rice crispy treats and put them on a stick because everything is more fun on a stick!

And where better to put all of these adorable Easter treats on a stick?  On your The Smart Baker Cake Pop Stand of course!  Now through Easter, we're offering a $5 discount on Round and Square Cake Pop stands. Just enter CakePop5 at check-out to receive the discount!

...and if you're feeling lazy but still want a fancy pop display, you can buy doughnut holes and call it a day. :)

Red Velvet Goodies Galore!

After seeing that Red Velvet Whoopie Pies was up next on the baking list for Club Baked, it must have put Red Velvet on my mind.  Both of these Red Velvet cookies were quick to whip up and tasted great - Nice variations on the traditional Red Velvet Cake.  

First up, is the Red Velvet Whoopie Pies from Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented.  Before making them, I did a quick search to see how other people fared with this recipe and I saw nothing but glowing reviews.  I was nervous to do whoopie pies again because in the past, my one and only attempted ended in super flat pies that spread into each other.  Utterly inedible!  So this time, I was cautious and made this recipe exactly as the book stated.  The result?  FAR better than my last attempt!  These were a cinch to put together, and baked up exactly as they were supposed to.  I used two different fillings: Buttercream frosting and Cream Cheese frosting.  I haven't sampled a Cream Cheese one yet, but the Buttercream filled whoopie pies are delicious.  These would be adorable Easter treats if tinted with pastel colors!  I omitted the walnut topping on the filling, but I think these would be adorable with Sprinkles.  For the recipe, visit Andrea of Nummy Kitchen and visit Club Baked to see how the other bakers' pies came out.  

Next up is Red Velvet White Chocolate Chip Cookies.  If the Whoopie Pies were easy, these were even easier.  This is a simple drop cookie.  Not fussy at all, but makes quite a unique, pretty little cookie.  I'd definitely make this recipe again.  Unlike other drop cookies I've made, these dried out after a couple of days, so these are best eaten within a day or two... but that probably won't be a problem. :)

Red Velvet White Chocolate Chip Cookies, adapted from The Curvy Carrot

Ingredients:

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened, room temp

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup light brown sugar firmly packaged

2 large eggs, room temp

2 teaspoons vanilla

3 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

2/3 cup cocoa powder, unsweetened

Red food coloring gel

1/2 to 1 cup white chocolate chips (to taste)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

In the bowl of your standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and both sugars on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

Add the food coloring gel until you reach the desired color.  Remember, it will get darker when the cocoa powder gets mixed in.

Reduce the mixer speed to medium-low and add eggs and vanilla, mixing until combined.

Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder, mixing until thoroughly combined.  

Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in the white chocolate chips until incorporated.

Using a cookie dough scoop, drop the dough about two inches apart from one another.  

Bake until slightly golden and crisp around the edges, about 10-12 minutes.