Root Beer Float Cupcake

The Youth Group at my church hosted a Mother/Daughter 50's night in our Coffee Shop and asked me to cater the event. I stayed with the 50's food theme and decided to create a Root Beer Float cupcake.  Cupcakes seem to be EVERYWHERE these days, so I figured I'd be all trendy and current since that's how I roll for once.  I figured I wasn't the first person in the world to come up with the idea and after a quick Google search discovered I was about the millionth person.  Almost every single recipe I read (close to 30) involved using root beer in the cake batter and going with a vanilla butter cream frosting.  That just wasn't for me, so I went in another direction and came up with this recipe.

I used the Wilton Muffin pan to make the "jumbo" size cupcake.  These tins were about 1/3" deeper than other jumbo pans in the baking pan aisle.  I found these at my local Super Center in the cake decorating section.  Since they were bigger than usual, it used more batter.  I think I was able to get around 22 cupcakes from one box.  I did not line the tins, opting to use Baker's Joy with great results. 

About 8 years ago I saw at trick on TV for kicking up cake mixes and have been doing this trick ever since and have not been disappointed.  I use a Super Moist cake mix, add an extra egg, vanilla, and use milk instead of water.  Of course you don't have to make this in a muffin tin, and could use 9x13 or cake rounds, I just like the idea of cupcakes.

The frosting was my favorite cream cheese butter cream into which I added root beer concentrate.  I've always seen Root Beer concentrate by the extracts in the baking aisle and pondered who in the world would use that and for what?  Now. I. Know.  I had never used this concentrate and was a little afraid of the word "concentrate" so I went the, "it's easier to add to than take away" rule for cooking.  What I discovered was that it took a considerable amount more than I thought to achieve the root beer flavor.  I would guess it was triple what my expectations were, so much for being afraid of a word.

I piped the frosting on using a pastry bag with no tip, because I wanted the wide stream of frosting that, again is super popular in the baking world.  I was going to add a bendy straw, but decided that coffee stir sticks would look more elegant.  I couldn't find root beer barrel hard candy to save my life, that was my first choice in garnishing this cup cake, so I went with cola jellies instead. 

All in all I think the end result was visually appealing and, if I do say so myself, tasted really good.  It truly tasted like a root beer float.

White Cake:

1 box White Moist Deluxe Cake Mix (Duncan Hines is my favorite)

1 1/4 cups Milk

4 eggs

1 Tablespoon Vanilla

2 Tablespoons Canola Oil (or vegetable)

In a stand mixer, add the cake mix and remaining ingredients.  Mix on low speed until combined, then on high for two minutes.  Bake according to package directions for the pan you are using.

Root Beer Butter Cream:

1 stick Butter (room temp)

8 oz Cream Cheese (room temp)

1 Tablespoon Root Beer Concentrate

1 Tablespoon Vanilla

2 lbs. Confection Sugar

In a stand mixer add first two ingredients and Cream the butter and cream cheese together until smooth, adding both extracts, blending together completely.  Slowly add the confectioners sugar, blending to incorporate until desired consistency is achieved.  Pipe or frost onto cooled cupcakes.

Note: Taste your frosting and keep adding concentrate until you reach the flavor level you want.  Like I said, earlier, I used more than I thought I would.

Oh, one more thing.  I took the picture of the cupcake with my camera phone, in an empty cabinet.  Not too shappy, huh?

Lemon Pie

 My Mom got a craving for lemon pie over Labor Day and asked if I could make her one.  Of course I told her I would be happy to make her a lemon pie, the whole time my brain was scrambling to figure out how in the world I was going to make a lemon pie.  I had never made nor seen anyone make a lemon pie filling before.  I spent about three hours researching the internet and my Mom's cookbook collection and came up with a recipe, the combination of many, which we all liked very much.  I didn't use fresh lemon juice or add lemon zest, however I think that would up the lemon flavor considerably.  That's my next tweek, fresh lemon juice and lemon zest.

   This lemon pie is the perfect combination of tart and sweet.  I opt for whipped cream topping instead of meringe, however you could easily make a meringue.  I'll give you the recipe for whipped cream and meringe topping.  Before we go any further, I have to say this is the easiest pie in the world to make.  If you can stir you can make this pie.  Take some time to get your ingredients set up and this will come together lickity split. 

Let's get started

Pre-baked 9" Pie crust
4 egg yolks (save the egg whites if you are making the meringue)
1/3 cup corn starch plush 1 tablespoon
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 Tablespoons butter
1/2 cup lemon juice

You will need one medium sauce pan, one small bowl, and one medium size bowl.  In the sauce pan, place one cup of water, and the sugar together.  In the small bowl, place the cornstarch and 1/2 cup water, whisking until smooth, set that aside.  Now in the large bowl, add the lemon juice and eggs, whisking until smooth.  

Turn the heat to medium and stir the sugar and water together until it comes to a boil.  Pour in the slurry (that's the cornstarch and water mixture) and stir.  Pay attention to this because it will get really, really thick.  Once it comes to a thick gel, take it off the heat.  Now, in the large bowl, with the egg and lemon juice in it.  Slowly add about half of the hot gel.  Make sure you are stirring the mixture while you are slowly stirring the yolk and juice.  Add that back into the sauce pan and turn the heat back up to medium.  Bring this back to a boil, add the butter and stir until the butter disolves.

Pour the lemon filling into the pie crust.  If you are adding the whipped cream, you will want to cool the pie completely, at least one hour, then spread the whipped cream on top before serving.  Follow the directions for meringue, below. 

Crust:
I use Pillsbury pie crust.  It's what I grew up eating and I can't really make it better than that, I've tried and I just like it better.  If you like to make your own or want to try a totally from scratch pie, I really good crust recipe is here. 

To make the crust with no filling is called blind baking.  Once you place your crust in the pie pan, bake it in a 450 oven for 10-12 minutes.  Make sure you poke holes in the crust, all over, before baking.  Or, place some tin foil in the pie pan and add about two cups of rice or dried beans.  You can keep the beans/rice in a jar and use them over and over.  The foil acts only as a holder for the beans or rice, which give weight to the crust helping it not shrink.

Whipped Cream:
One pint of whipped cream
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla

Add all to a stand mixture or large bowl.  Whip/mix until it is thick and creamy.  It should take about three to five minutes.  You know it's ready when you lift the whisk or beater out of the cream and it holds a peak.

Meringue
4 egg whites
1 pinch cream of tartar

2 tablespoons sugar


Place egg whites and cream of tartar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form and then gradually add sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form, approximately 1 to 2 minutes.  Spread on filled pie, making sure to cover the edges.  Bake in a 400 degree oven until the meringue is golden brown.

  

Icebox Pie

I knew it had been a while since I last posted, but didn't know it had been three months, yikes.  Pie.  Doesn't that work open the floodgate of memories for you, I know it  does for me.  I've always been a pie kind of guy, well actually I'm a desserts kind of guy.  Cream pies are among my top favorite desserts.  As a child my family and I drove my small town to "the big city" of Joplin, MO every Friday night it for dinner and shopping around at the mall.  We hardly ever bought anything, just walked around.  Dinner was always Wyatt's Cafeteria which was in the mall.  My standard meal: chicken fried vealette, cream gravy, mashed potatoes, cream gravy, broccoli, chocolate milk, white roll, and apple pie.  This wasn't just an ordinary apple pie though.  This apple pie was drenched in this decadent cinnamon sauce and served warm.  My favorite part was the crust.  Wyatt's is long gone, but my dreams about eating one more slice of that pie are still very present.  Sad the cafeteria style restaurant is no more prevalent that it is.

I can't remember when or where I came across the recipe for Icebox pie.  All I know is it's the quickest, most simple to prepare, yet full of flavor pie ever.  It just screams summertime.  It's refreshing, tangy, not too sweet, but sweet enough.  The good thing about the recipe list is that you can make it as guilt free as you like.  You can get reduced fat sweetened condensed milk, sugar-free cool-whip and reduced sugar juice concentrates now which will help if you need to cut down on calories.  I usually go with the full fat version.  The other added bonus is that any juice concentrate works just fine.  You can even use the frozen daiquiri mixes with great results.  When it comes to the crust, I usually go with the Nilla or shortbread pre-made crust because the graham crust is completely expected.

Here is all you need to make this wonderful pie:

1 16 oz container Whipped Topping (I use Cool-Whip)
1 14 oz can frozen juice concentrate (I used Pink Lemonade for this one)
1 14 oz can Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 ready made Shortbread pie crust.

In a medium bowl add the milk and concentrate, mix until combined. Add whipped topping and stir until completely combined.  You'll need to be careful if your whipped topping is still frozen because it takes a while for it to get incorporated.  Who wants lumpy pie?  I usually have more filling than I have room, feel free to grab a spoon and eat the remaining filling.

Pour the topping into the prepared crust.  Use the little plastic dome as the cover and secure.  Place in the freezer at least one hour before, I usually let it set up overnight.  Take it out about 30 minutes before ready to serve.  I like to use a can of whipped cream and kind of jazz up the top with little dollops around the outside edge.

Dark Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

I love muffins!  I can't really put my finger on exactly why, but I love muffins.  Mini-muffins, regular, jumbo, even muffin tops...yes, yes, yes, and yes.  It probably has to do with my love for cake, which I would rather have over any other dessert.  Muffins are universally appreciated, I think, and everyone has their favorite.  Blueberry muffins are the rock star of Muffin world.  I have a good blueberry muffin recipe that I really like, but don't make often because I seldom have blueberries just lying around and the frozen berries get watery and mushy.  Now Bananas...bananas I have lying around and almost invariable have 3-4 that ripen to the point that my kids will walk away from them.  This comes in handy because I happen have a good banana bread recipe that uses 3-4 small bananas (equals 1 1/2 cups).  I've never made an entire loaf of banana bread with this recipe, only mini-loaves and these babies which are really good if you like the flavor or oranges and bananas mixed in.

For this recipe I fell on my standard banana bread recipe, adding the vanilla glaze and the dark chocolate chips. I think the dark chocolate chips add a great bitter-sweetness to the bread which isn't really that sweet.  The glaze really does add that subtle sweet touch that is so good.  It was perfect, to my taste, and gave the muffin a shiny and pretty look to it.  If you have a mini-loaf pan and want to use it go ahead, if you want to make it in a bread loaf pan, be my guest.  The world is your oyster  muffin.  If you ever wonder where our muffin originated, here's a pretty interesting little read.  Well, even if you haven't it's still pretty interesting.

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup butter, room temp

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups banana (about 3-4 medium)

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 tablespoon vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda (I don't level off)

1 teaspoon salt

8 oz Dark Chocolate Chips (I used Hershey's Special Dark brand)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray muffin compartments with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.  This batch made 19 regular size muffins.  Remember to add water the the empty compartments of your muffin tin, to keep the oven karma on your side.

In the Bowl of a stand mixer, add sugar and butter. Turn on medium and mix until combined, two-three minutes. Add eggs one at a time, mixing until completely combined. Add bananas, buttermilk, vanilla and beat until smooth. Add remaining ingredients and mix until smooth.  You could do this by hand, but when you have a stand mixer and a dishwasher...yeah, I know, "why not?"

Fill each muffin compartment 3/4 full. Bake 18-20 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. Cool five minutes, then remove to a cooling rack. When completely cool, dip in glaze and return to rack. Store in an airtight container.  I use a large spring loaded scoop and it fill the compartment perfectly.  It's kind of a heaping scoop.

Vanilla Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 Tablespoons milk

Add milk to a small bowl. Slowly add powdered sugar until thick and smooth.  Dip cooled muffin tops in glaze and place on a cooling rack.

Notes:

• I don't mash the bananas, I let my mixer to the work. I just add them somewhat broken up, and I have never had any trouble with the breads not turning out.
• When I dip the breads, I just hold them upside down and dip straight down into the glaze. I will hold the bread over the bowl until it stops dripping then turn upright.
• I put parchment paper under the cooling rack so it will catch the remaining glaze the drips down.
• I have a large Pampered Chef spring-loaded scoop that I use to fill the compartments of the loaf pan. It takes two scoops to fill one compartment, I can get exactly 8 mini loaves out of this batch.
• Don't have buttermilk?  Don't worry.  In a liquid measuring cup add 1 1/2 teaspoons white vinegar, then pour in regular milk to 1/2 cup line, stir and let sit for a minute or two. This will acidulate the milk and  make buttermilk. One tablespoon+1 cup milk=1 cup buttermilk.

Old Country Green Beans

I can remember eating my Grandmother's green beans as a kid and wondering how in the world she was able to get them to taste so delicious.  I never found out her secret, other than it involved vinegar, and have wished a thousand times I could eat one more bowl.  When Kendra and I got married, which in a matter of days will be 14 years ago, I was given this cookbook which has become one of my favorite cookbooks--cherished if you will.  In this cookbook I read about a formula for making green beans.  While I have added one more ingredient as well as changing up the cooking process and time, it is basically the same recipe as posted in Thelma's cookbook.

These green beans are simply wonderful.  They will take you back to your childhood because they are old fashioned green beans, full of flavor, and as most old fashioned recipes are, full of love.  The ingredient list couldn't be more simple: bacon, green beans, pepper.  What makes these beans really stand out is the process or steps to cooking the green beans.  The length of time also has something to do with it as well.  I have never made these green beans and not received a ton of compliments.  Usually the conversation goes something like this: "These green beans are divine!" "Thanks, they are pretty good.  They remind me of my grandmother's green beans."  "I need the recipe."  "OK, are you ready?"  That's the gist of it.

There are just a few things to remember to get guaranteed results every time, we'll go over those in the notes section at the end of the recipe.  If you remember the formula/ratio, whatever you want to call it you will be just fine and you, too will get a ton of compliments.

Green Beans

5 (14 oz) cans Green beans
7 strips bacon, diced
1 tablespoon black pepper

Heat a 3 quart stock pot to medium high heat.  Add diced bacon and cook over medium high heat until the bacon is crisp and dark brown.  While the bacon is cooking in the pot, open the cans of green beans...DO NOT DRAIN THE JUICE.

When the bacon has reached the dark brown color, like the photo to the right, pour just the juice from the cans into the stock pot.  Be careful because the steam will scald you (lesson learned the hard way).  Stir the juice and bacon bits together until the wonderful brown bits are all removed form the bottom of the pot.  Reduce heat to medium and bring the juice to a rolling boil.  Add the drained green beans, black pepper, and reduce heat to medium.  Cook for one hour or until ready to serve.  Sit back and take the compliments.

Notes:

• You don't have to make 5 cans of green beans.  Again this is a ratio.  I usually add one strip of bacon to one can of green beans. If you like a lot of bacon you can do two strips, I find that it gets pretty greasy though.
• Cooking the bacon to the point that it is almost burned is key.  You want the bacon to be a good crisp, dark brown.
• When I'm in a hurry, I will leave the pot on medium high heat and let the beans boil rapidly until I'm ready to serve. 
• The very top picture of this post is of our dinner last night.  I put the beans on first, then the potatoes, and while the mini-meat loaves were cooking (which is a SUPER fast way to cook meatloaf) I let those beans boil away.  It took about 25 minutes for the meatloaf to cook and that was a perfect amount of time for the beans to cook.

Pecan Bars

My catering life has come back to haunt me this month with three events in one month!  Fortunately for me I enjoy all aspects of catering, with exception to the clean up, especially building the menu.  Tracking down recipes for menus is such fun, I really enjoy it.  Over the years I have come to learn what goes with what and what will keep, etc.  It just kind of comes to you after you do it for a while.  The evolution of this love for cooking has brought me to discover ways to make things simple and yet very tasty at the same time which was not always the case for me.  Kendra and I once made chocolate Truffles for valentines day and sold almost 1,000 of those suckers!  I still do not want to see a chocolate truffle and it's been almost 7 years!

Today I had the privilege of making desserts for the area minister's luncheon at church.  I was asked to bring cookies, different types of cookies.  I knew immediately that I was going to make these cookies.  I wasn't really keen on baking two other batches of cookies, so I decided on bar cookies instead.  Much easier and just as good.  I made Dolce Bars, which the recipe will be coming soon it's on my list--promise, for those who don't like chocolate or nuts, but do have a sweet tooth.  These bars are topped with a browned butter frosting that is just to die for.  I would eat cardboard if it had this frosting atop it.  I've always had in my head: something chocolate, something not, something nutty, something not as a rule of thumb for catering to groups.  The dolce bars helped mark two of those off the list.  So what about something nutty?  Pecans. Yes.  That's nutty and universally popular with every nut lover I know.  But that led to the problem.  I'm not very proficient at making pecan bars and believe me I've tried.  Today.  Today is the day that I can safely say I no longer have no pecan bar in my arsenal because I have these.

These pecan bars couldn't be any easier and  I would challenge anyone to find one that tasted better, as arrogant as that sounds. They hit all the nerves that a pecan bar should hit being buttery, gooey, nutty, somewhat salty, somewhat sweet, and delicious.  The ingredient list is short and the preparation is perfect for beginning cooks or children who are wanting to learn how to cook.  I hope you agree that these are great, too.

Pecan Bars

Crust:

One box Yellow Cake mix

1 stick butter 

1 egg

Filling:

3/4 cup finely chopped pecans

One can sweetened condensed milk

1 tablespoon vanilla

One bag toffee bits (readily available in most stores by they chocolate chips)

One egg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Prepare a 15x10 jellyroll pan by spraying with non-stick cooking spray very generously, set aside.

In a medium bowl, add ingredients for crust mixture and stir to combine.  No need for a mixer a wooden spoon will do just fine.  When well combined dollop onto the jelly roll pan and press to cover the pan.  Buttering your fingers or dipping in water will help your fingers not stick to the dough.  

In another medium bowl (or rinse out the one you just used) combine all the ingredients for the filling making sure to combine them well.  Pour over the crust mixture and spread evenly.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the edges are lightly golden brown.  Remove from oven and cool before slicing.  You can dust with powdered sugar if you want but I didn't.  

Note:  I think I'm going to try these in a somewhat smaller size pan, not that they are bad as they are, but to see how the crust/filling turns out thicker.  I also think these would be unbelievable made in a mini-muffin pan like you would make pecan tassies.  

Meatballs

Have you ever had a craving for something from your childhood, or not so recent past, and gone on a quest to discover that same taste?  It happens to me all the time and most recently involved some meatballs I ate as a child that came back from my past with a powerful craving.  As a child I ate these mostly at church suppers, but the flavor is something that stuck with me.  There are a couple of sites I trust on the net, of course I had 250 cookbooks at home that I could rummage through, the net is usually faster.  I remembered reading a recipe on the Pioneer Woman's blog about barbecue meatballs and thought they looked similar.  I also know about porcupine meatballs which involve rice, that was not my goal.  I would up going back to Pioneer Woman and using recipe as the base from which I created my recipe.  With fingers crossed I set out to make them, and happily discovered a great old friend.
I guess before I go any further I should warn you that these aren't the type of meatballs you would put over pasta, or in a pasta sauce.  They aren't that kind of meatball.  It would be better for you to think of these as teeny tiny meatloaves in a savory, tangy, sweet sauce.  I think they should be served with scrumptious mashed potatoes and green beans, and some great french or garlic bread, but you could do whatever you feel like doing.  We take a lot of food to friends who are in need, and I think I'm going to keep these babies up my sleeve and pull them out when called upon to take food to a friend in need.
The hardest thing about these is browning them in the skillet before you put them in the pan, for real.  Unless, of course, if you have a problem touching raw meat, then it will be a little yucky and painful for a while.  I use our stand mixer to whip the meat mixture into shape, then I go in with an ice cream scoop to make the round shapes.  I have to do that or I would not have uniform meatballs, it's just me.  I found that setting up a station in which I scooped the meat, rolled in flour then placed in the pan to brown, followed by placing them in the 9x13 worked great.  It kept the mess to a minimum.  These can be made the night before, placed in the fridge and baked the next day...if time is something that isn't always on your side.

Meatballs:
2 pounds ground beef  (or any combination of ground meat you like)
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup milk
1/2 onion, finely chopped (pulverize it)
2 cloves of garlic minced
1 teaspoon Kosher Salt ( I used Jane's Krazy Mixed UP salt)
2 teaspoons black pepper
1 large egg
1 cup flour (for dredging)

In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the hook attachment, add all ingredients and mix on low speed until combined, then on medium for 3-4 minutes until smooth and combined.  Using a large spring loaded scoop, scoop meat and roll into round balls, roll in flour and place on a cookie sheet.  Continue scooping and rolling until all the meat has been used.

Preheat a large skillet over medium heat.  Add two tablespoons of butter and two tablespoons of olive oil.  Add meatballs and brown on all sides, no need to cook all the way through.  Place browned meatballs in a 9x13 pan sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.

Sauce:
2 cups ketchup
4 Tablespoons sugar
4 Tablespoons brown sugar
6 Tablespoons vinegar
4 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 onion, very finely chopped
1 tablespoon pepper.

Place all ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir until combined.

Pour sauce over meatballs, cover with aluminum foil and bake in a preheated 350 over for 30-45 minutes.

No photographs, sorry.