Owl Brownie Pops {Tutorial}

I really like making brownie and cake pops.  They allow you to be artistic and children, young and old, get a kick out of them.  I tried doing these for church on day, but I just didn't finish in time.  They ended up accompanying me to a Kinect Dance Party with the girls.  Whooo wants one?!

Since I did this late in the evening I didn't have natural light for photography so the pictures came out even more amateur.

I made the brownies earlier in the day, for a candidate (yes, we've had a lot of those it seems).  I saved all the "inside" brownies, the ones that weren't corners for the pops.  I removed the crusty tops of the brownies.  I think the pops taste better this way.  Then to help with the molding, I put the brownies in the microwave for 10-15 seconds.  This melts the chocolate chips inside the brownies which makes a great "glue".

Now squish the brownies between your hands and form an oval or egg shape.  Feel free to wear gloves as it can be messy. 

Next, pull out the lollipop sticks for the number of brownie pops you will need.  I had longer sticks and I chose to cut them in half. 

I also took an empty egg carton and poked small holes in it with the edge of a knife to hold the pops while they dried.  Styrofoam works better, but I didn't have any on hand.  Someday soon I'll have the hubby make a piece of wood into my stand but until then...

Melt your coating in coffee mugs or microwave safe bowls.  Most people use candy coats by Wilton.  Some people choose chocolate, but if you don't want it to melt easily then you must temper the chocolate.  That takes time.  Instead of these options I went the cheapest route and bought vanilla and chocolate almond bark.  Almost all my plastic spatulas are stained with various food coloring.  So don't be alarmed if you see pink.  I also tried coloring the white bark with a gel color which works great.  Alas, I thought it was too dark so I added water based white color, forgetting that water and chocolate do not like each other.  It seized and that was the end of attempting that.

Now that every thing is ready, dip one of you lollipop sticks in a chocolate and poke it gently into your brownie egg.  I let them dry on the plate for a few before I placed them upright in the egg carton. 

Next was the ears.  I used chocolate morsels attached with chocolate to the tops of all the pops.  I recommend after this popping them in the freezer for around 15 minutes.  With the chocolate bark I did this and with the vanilla bark ones I did not.  Since milk chocolate has a low melting point, the ears melted upon contact with the hot bark, resulting in saggy ear syndrome. 

 After removal from the freezer, begin dipping the owls in warm coating.  Let the excess drip for a few moments from the edge of the ears.  Place upright in the carton to set.

Now that they are dry, you can add the details!  For the white owls I tried to add chocolate bark bellies by melting some bark in a plastic baggie and cutting the tip off to pipe the details.  That didn't turn out with the precision that I desired. 









So I pulled out some MMF, rolled it out, and cut it with the large side of a piping tip.  I stretched it into an oval and cut one side off.  Then I added it just like you normally would with a cake.  I used the other side of the tip for the eyes.  The beak was a triangle I made with my fingers.  For the eye dots use a food coloring marker.  The I used a straw I cut length wise to put the details on the bellies.  Tada! 

The girls loved them.  We all ate more than we wanted, but I think we burned it off dancing so it was okay.

This also could easily be transformed for Easter bunnies or spring chicks.

Many thanks to Bakerella who is far more advanced than myself in this art.  I probably got the idea from some of her sister bakers at some point too, although I couldn't find a tutorial when I was looking.

Tangy Lemon Bars {Recipe}

This morning Marion from Sweetopia.net partnered with the TomKatStudio had a lovely post on a blue and yellow themed Easter Brunch.  I love dessert tables for special gatherings.  Guests are always charmed by them.  So if you are thinking of doing something similar for your Easter or Passover celebrations why not throw in some Tangy Lemon Bars to balance out those sweet sugar cookies?  These are our deparment chair's favorite (in case you have him on your committee and need to take them with you to the next meeting).

Recipe:  (for a 9x13 pan)

Shortbread

Preheat oven to 350 degress F

2 cups of unbleached flour (can be replaced with bleached or for more whole grains equal parts of wheat and unbleached flour)

1 1/2 sticks of cold unsalted butter (or Passover margarine or even cold vegetable shortening if you have a dairy allergy)
1/2 cup of packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt

Cut butter in 1/2 inch (small) pieces and blend flour, butter, sugar, and salt with a pastry fork (see the dirty one pictured to the side) or a food processor until the mixture resembles crumbled bagged soil or is pea sized.  Place in a pan lined with aluminum foil that overhangs the edges.  Press with a spatula into the pan.  Bake around 20 minutes until the color is golden brown.  While that is baking, make filling.

Lemon Filling
8 eggs (organic or natural eggs taste better!)
1 1/2 cups of sugar (some like them with 2 cups or with only 1 cup, I lean toward less)
1 1/2 cups of lemon juice
2/3 cup of flour (see above comments)
1 teaspoon of lemon zest or real lemon extract
1/2 teaspoon of cardamom (optional but is what makes them original)

Whisk together and pore on hot shorbread.  Reduce oven temperature to 300F.  Pop large bubbles on the top with the whisk or a toothpick .  Cook in oven for 30-40 minutes until center is set when you lightly jiggle the pan (my oven can be moody).  Cool in pan until you can touch the side of it.  Cut with a clean blade or a plastic knife. Remove from pan using the overhanging aluminum foil.  Arrange on a lovely dish.  Refridgerate and right before serving sprinkle with powdered sugar.  

Golden Brown



Pop these bubbles.



See what happens when you don't pop the bubbles.





Hope you feel inspired!  Have a delicious day!

Hungary for Mousse...bars

I meant to write so much more last week, but life got in the way.  This last week has been rough.  Meetings.  Discrimination.  Decisions.  Will I have the courage to stand up to it?  What's right is rarely popular.  I have never been a popular person as it is so it shouldn't be foreign to me.  But fear ripples through my viens, weakening my resolve.  I believe you must give credit where credit is due and not doing so would be plagerism--at least when it comes to writing papers.  Oh that I might have the cunning of a lioness and the voice of her roaring, golden maned mate.  I pray to do what is right.

I needed something to distract me and clear the soot from my soul.  So I baked.  I've long desired to try these Hungarian Mousse Bars from Epicurious.com.  Before you say it's too much work, just know they're divine.  Plus, you have me giving you tips!

I used Silpat rather than wax paper.  In hindsight, I'd rather have used the paper.  The delicate cakes are difficult to remove the heavy Silpat from.  If you mess up like I did, just mash it back down in the empty spots.  I also didn't have apricot jelly so I subed black raspberry.  Good decision.

One pan was Silpat, the other was this.  Both work equally well.

Jam layer in back, ganache layer in front.

 It's important to make sure you have STIFF peaks everytime the recipe says for stability.



Stiff peaks on the egg whites.



Stiff peaks on the whipped cream.

    
 

Several reviews stated that the mousse didn't set properly.  I had no problems.  I set the mousse bowl inside a bowl full of ice as suggested, however, I sprinkled a generous amount salt on the ice.  It acts as a cataylst for the reaction.  When I felt it was on th slow side still, I popped it in the fridge for about 5-10 minutes.  (My husband claimed this really did nothing.)

Set mousse.

Mousse spread across cake and jam layer.

Personally, I don't feel geletin is necessary for the whipped cream layer either.

They were very delicate when assembled so we (hubby helped) flipped them onto the bottom of another pan and pealed the wax paper off that way.  If you want them to look like the picture on Epicurious, you need to either use smaller pans or cut the cake layers in half and stack them on each other first, then proceed with the rest of assembly.

Melts in your mouth, not in your hand.  Well, a bit on your fingers.

Everyone who ate them, loved them.  I hope you do too! 

Spring! Celebrated with Chocolate Sugar Cookies

 Oh I love the warmer weather!  The flowers are scratching their way through winter's decay into the honey lit mornings.  The breeze carries the bouquet of hycinth mingled with fresh rain drops.  New life can be seen exploring, tasting the first rich green clovers of the season.  Spring brings new beginnings.  Also, new experimentations with sugar cookie recipes. 

Sweet baby bunny early in the morning!  Captured with Iphone.



Here was the first attempt with that!  Chocolate sugar cookies...with disco dust!  I won't post the recipe yet.  One, because I didn't write it down and I'm not sure I remember it.  Two, it needs another tweek or two. 

See how fun they look! 

I found a delightful place to order the disco dust offline, for cheap.  I've loved the possibilites with it since I first saw it on Marion's blog, Sweetopia.net.  She has lovely tutorials on how to use it.  The only things that bother me about it are: 1. It will get EVERYWHERE.  It ended up on a shirt and pants of my husband's and they weren't even in the room at the time.  2. It doesn't come off the cookie easily in the areas where you don't want it.  I wanted to preserve as much of the excess dust too and since it gets everywhere it was a bit of a lost cause.  That being said, I LOVE it. 

I put it on cakes and cupcakes first.  See... 

Just a shimmer!  I had to.  I'd just bought it!

Don't think you can tell well in the pic but it's sprinkled all over.

There are so many possibilities with sugar cookies.  I'm going to try several different flavors too.  Keep checking back to see how they turn out and to get the recipes yourself!

Alfajores--Cookies from Across the Globe {How-To}

Alfajores, delicious little sandwhich cookies.

Many moons ago, I stumbled upon a blog with decedant desserts that began my obsession with French pastries.  Flagrantedelicia has a blog with pictures to boot that will make you fall in love with desserts from all over the world.  Her (and practically every other dessert blog) with make you green with envy with frame worthy photos posted all over.  It's a lovely place to visit when you are gloomy or so full of joy that you simply must share a dessert to express yourself.

Lately, I've been a mixture of the two.  The weather here has been cold and rainy and just plain depressing.  Like a record blizzard on the tiny abode known as my heart, the decisions ahead of me weigh heavily.  If the sun doesn't come out soon and melt the white blankets, the roof might cave in.  And who wants to go out in the cold?  I mean, besides crazy Northerners.  I'm a Southerner through and through.  Cold weather, snow--it's an excuse to stay in, snuggle, and relish in your depression.  Then, within hours, I remember the thousands of blessings I have.  How dare I hide under my down comforter and green velvet duvet?  I have a job, the most perfect husband God ever made (for me), and a little talent that allows me to share blips of happiness with tons of people known as dessert.  With that thought, I can hear rhythmic pattters of melting snow outside the window.  It's time to make cookies. 

Let's see if there is a reason to pawn 50 something cookies on someone...

This week at the lab, our department has been hosting several canidates for a new professor position.  We do our best to swoon the individuals with how lovely our university is, how cool our town is, and how interesting our research is.  It's quite facinating really.  Putting so many socially awkward individuals in the same room is really a hoot.  Don't take it as an insult.  It's just how many scientifically minded individuals are.  Give us a break!  We spend hours, days, decades completely focused on our work.  Trying to convince everyone in our perspective communities how important our research is.  So, after getting an email from the department about a free lunch to meet with one of the canidates for the grad students, I offered to make cookies. 

Honestly, I don't think anyone cares if I make cookies because most of us are "watching our diets", but if I keep them at home, I'll devore them all.  They really are a unique treat.  Now that I've forced you to read a page's worth of unnecessry insight into my messy head.  Here you go. 

Alfajores are a Spanish or Latin American treat.  As I said, I first saw them on this blog.  Aren't her pictures and posts exquisite?  Two crispy cookie biscuits sandwiching dulce de leche or caramel filling then covered in chocolate.  Yes, please!  I knew then I had to attempt them sometime.  I scoured various recipes across the web (they're aren't many) and blended them all together to get my own.  Some people have said these cookies are involved and too difficult.  Personally, they are easier than decorated sugar cookies.  I also included even the ugly pictures of them because I think it's important to know that no one is perfect, not every cookie is perfect, and it's a learning process.  It's easy to forget that when you look at other food blogs.

Dulce de Leche Filling
Ingredients:
1-2 cans of (fat-free) sweetened condensed milk

Directions:
Heat oven to 425 degrees F
Pour contents of the cans into a deep pie plate, cake pan, or casserole dish.  Cover with aluminum foil, crinkled high on the sides/top of the plate.  Place inside a large broiler pan and pour hot water into it until it reaches half of the pie plate sides.  Aluminum foil should not be touching the water.  Place in oven.  Cook for 80 minutes, checking for and adding more water to the larger pan as needed about every 20 minutes.  Cook for the full 80 minutes or until there is a lovely golden brown color in the dulce de leche.

OR you can boil the whole can in simmering water for 2 hours, unopened.  YOU CANNOT LET THE WATER IN EITHER SCENARIO EVAPORATE COMPLETELY!  The result is yucky, burned milk.

Can be made a couple days ahead if necessary and kept refridgerated. 

Alfajor Cookie
Ingredients:
1 cup of wheat flour
1 cup of all purpose bleached flour (or white)
1 cup of cornstarch
1 teaspoon of baking powder

1 cup of butter
2/3 cup of sugar (I'm going to try it later with just a smidge less sugar to see if that works too)
1 egg and 2 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon of lemon extract or lemon zest
1 Tablespoon of vanilla extract

Directions:
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.  Meanwile, sift all dry ingredients together.  When butter mixture is fluffly, add eggs, yolks, and flavorings one at a time, fully incorporating into mixture before adding the next ingredient.  Next, slowly add the flour mixture into butter mixture.  Mix well.

Take two pieces of wax paper and lay on your counter.  Place half of the dough onto each piece and cover with another piece of wax paper.  Roll out the dough and refridgerate until firm, about an hour, or longer if you like.  This saves a mess on the counter, reduces your contact with the dough and is just easier.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Then take a small round cookie cutter, about 1.5inches across and cut out cookies and place on either parchment covered cookie sheets or silpat covered cookie sheets.  Re-roll the unused dough between the wax paper and refridgerate or flash freeze each time.  The dough should be firm at all times.  If it isn't, stick the cookie sheet in the fridge/freezer until it is.  It keeps the cookies looking perfect.

Bake in preheated oven for 8-10 minutes, just as the edges begin to brown. The bottoms look like the pic on the right.  Under cooking makes a VERY delicate cookie.  But still tasty.

Let them cool at least 5 minutes on the sheet then move to a cookie rack until fully cooled.  Then add dollops of filling to two similarly sized cookies and lightly press.

I then refrigerated them again because as the filling warms the cookies slide on one another.  Then I melted some white chocolate or semisweet chocolate over a double broiler on the stove and dipped the cookies in them.  My chocolate was not tempered to save time and effort.  I tried to cover them competely in chocolate but the result was an ugly cookie as seen lelow and at the bottom.  I'll try finding a better way to do it so they look perfect.the ones with lots of filling over flowing I surrounded in sweet flaked coconut.  Others I just dusted powdered sugar on, which is also customary.  I even tried some fancy pictures like the other blogs, but since I have such a simple camera...





The ugly ones.  I was FORCED to eat them.  :)




I'm happy to say they were devored.  Even the grad students from across the globe loved them.  Success!
I'm making more for church now!