Baking Adventure #23

Alright, alright... I will write another blog post! You don't have to be so cruel... hehe. Just playing. But really, I am SO sorry for taking a month "off" of blogging. Baking has still occurred but life has just gotten in the way lately... imagine that?!

See below for evidence of MUCHO baking-o that happened:

AND NOW FOR THE MAIN EVENT!!!

This week's baking adventure actually occurred.... ohhhhhh about 2 weeks or so ago. *Bad Ashley* My dad is ruler of the roost and has arguably a larger sweet tooth than myself (combined, we are dangerous in a bakery or candy shoppe or FUDGE shoppe in Helen, GA that shall remain nameless to keep all those involved safe... just playing. Or am I?). Anyways, my grandmother was an amazing cook and BAKER and even though she has passed, her legacy lives on.... as do my dad's memories of the delicious pies she used to make. For a few months now, my dad has been requesting three in particular said pies: Coconut Cream, Banana Cream, and Chocolate Cream. As you saw in the slideshow above, I conquered the Coconut Cream pie and the Chocolate Cream Pie will come soon... me thinks. Which then leaves pie request #3...

BANANA CREAM PIE

Even though the pie order listed above doesn't reflect it, the Banana Cream Pie was my first stab at his requests. I found the recipe on Delish.com (shocker!) and altered it slightly. You'll find out shortly how it was altered... aka I cheated. Whenever looking for recipes, I'm mostly drawn to the simple ones with minimal ingredients but maximum taste and reviews.

First things first, per usual. PREP the ingredients. Otherwise you'll be running around the kitchen like a chicken with your head cut off... much like I did when making the Cinnamon Raisin Bread for the SECOND time.

After prepping the ingredients, whisk the milk, corn starch, sugar, and salt until dissolved. Allow the mixture to thicken and boil while making sure to stir constantly. (You'll see in a bit that I kind of neglected this part of the instructions and had some of the custard stick to the bottom and then make it a little lumpy... Hey! It still tasted good though!)

While the custard is beginning to boil (or before if you don't want to be a rebel like me), dice up 3 of the 4 bananas.

And divide in half, as you will be making two layers of 'nanners (or dice up 1.5 bananas at a time so you have an EXACT measurement if you're an anal mathematics nerd like me).

Next it's time to take the pre-separated and whisked egg yolks and add some of the hot milk to them SLOWLY, VERY SLOWLY, WHISKING THE ENTIRE TIME so that you temper the egg yolks before adding them back into the saucepan of hot milk. (Tempering keeps the yolks from curdling people... you don't want scrambled eggs in your pie do you? Yea, me neither.) Keep stirring the quasi-custard until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon thickly (Think pudding consistency).

Once you reach the consistency you want, then remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the butter and vanilla extract (I don't feel the need to spend oodles of $$$ on vanilla beans just yet).

[I must apologize for the lack of pictures during this process but everything happens so quickly and unfortunately, I do not have a third arm or sous chef/photographer to help. Any volunteers?]

Transfer the custard to a medium bowl and press plastic wrap down onto the top of the custard (so it's actually touching it all over) and place in the fridge to cool. While the custard is cooling, arrange half of the bananas you cut earlier in the bottom of the cooled pie. [Where did this miraculous pie crust come from? This is where I cheated (yet again). I bought it pre-made in the Frozen foods section of the grocery.]

Then, once the custard has chilled and set some in the fridge, layer half of the custard on top of the first layer of bananas.

Add another layer of bananas and then a second layer of custard. Place plastic wrap around the top of the custard again and place back in the fridge to cool completely (a few hours or overnight if you wish).

When ready to serve, make the homemade whipped cream. (I whipped it a little stiffer than normal.) Pile on top of the cooled custard pie and then layer the last sliced banana on top...

Admire for 2.5 seconds before diving into a big slice of Banana Cream Pie goodness!

I did warn you it was a big slice right???

Ok, ok... this may have been a few slices. hehe.

I hope you all can forgive me for being away for so long! I have also been trying to diet a little (it is bathing suit season afterall), so the baking has been less experimental as of late... gotta avoid sugar intake as much as possible. Until next time my friends! Thanks for hanging in there while I was away!

Baking Adventure #18

Hey hey hey! Sorry to have missed you last week, but the weekend was too busy for baking. SAD... I know. :-( HOWEVER, this weekend more than made up for it. This week's baking adventure came about as a request from my one and only repeat customer (thus far...). He has purchased Snickerdoodles in the past and has more faith in my baking than I do! This week's baking adventure is...

BANANA BREAD (or 'Nanner Bread as I like to call it!)

My friend is a huge fan of this bread, but he prefers it without nuts... [I don't discriminate personally]. After his request was placed, I set out to find the PERFECT recipe so as not to disappoint a paying customer. Upon referencing my usual sources, I stumbled upon this recipe from a bakery in Boston called Flour Bakery + Cafe. Bobby Flay did a THROWDOWN with the owner of this bakery for her Sticky Buns, so after reading all of the praises on the reviews tab for the recipe, I knew I had found THE perfect banana bread. [Although, if you know me well enough by now, you know I have to tweak it just a smidge to give it that extra Pint-Size Baker lovin']

First things first was PREP.

[Additional "tweak" ingredients not pictured.]

Then came separating the dry and wet ingredients...

This recipe was beyond simple to make in terms of steps. The most difficult step was maintaining the endurance to whisk the eggs and sugar together for 10 minutes straight by hand (sure, I could've pulled out the hand-mixer, but what's the fun in that???).

Once the eggs and sugar were creamed together, it was time to add the smashed bananas, sour cream (couldn't find creme fraiche at my standard grocery), and vanilla extract. [Oh, I forgot to mention! My paying customer requested TWO loaves, so everything was doubled to compensate.]

Then it was time to blend the dry ingredients in with the wet ingredients.

Pour the batter into the wax paper-lined loaf pans.

And bake in the oven for about an hour at 350 degrees.

Once the Banana Bread loaves were cool, I delivered them to the customer and he was beyond ecstatic! [If you're his friend on facebook, you will see him bragging about having the "goods" when no one else does. haha!]

The End.

Or was it? Yea, not so much... My paying customer bragged SO much about the bread that my parents were giving me the stink-eye when they realized they didn't have any waiting at home for them. And so it was back to the grocery to pick up some more 'nanners and make them their own loaf as well! See? I told you, this weekend MORE than made up for the lack of baking last weekend. 3 loaves of Banana Bread + Lunch cooked for the week = a sleepy Pint-Size Baker.

Thanks to Food Network for posting the AMAZING recipe from Flour Bakery + Cafe on their website and thanks to Flour for sharing it! If I ever get to visit Boston like I'm hoping, I fully plan on going there and trying the real thing for myself!

Until next time peeps, have a wonderful week! This one is going to be a busy one with Easter on Sunday but have no fear, baking will ensue and it's sure not to disappoint!

Baking Adventure #13

Lucky #13?

For this week's baking adventure I wanted to do something creative, something a little challenging if you will. At first I stumbled upon this Better Than Banana Cream Pie Cupcakerecipe. It sounded delicious and definitely a little challenging, but I'm not a huge fan of whipped cream (see frosting portion of recipe) and it didn't quit provide the type of challenge I was looking for. You see, I wanted to learn a new technique. So then I continued researching cupcake recipes while bookmarking the Banana Cream Pie one. I came across one for a Chocolate Chip Cupcake with Chocolate Chip Frosting. This is one I had been eyeing for a few months now, but never actually gave in and made it... Then, it HIT me! One of my dad's favorite flavors of ice cream is Bruster's Banana Chocolate Chip... What if I combined the two recipes and then transformed into my own and made a Banana + Chocolate Chip concoction?!... [Spoken in an English accent] BY GEORGE I THINK I'VE GOT IT! This week's baking adventure then came to life:

BANANA CHOCO CHIP CUPCAKES

I began this recipe just like any other by taking a trip to the grocery and prepping everything before beginning. (This is a great technique so you don't get half way through and realize you screwed up... STAY TUNED, the Pint-Size Baker = minor FAIL on this adventure)

After prepping the ingredients, including mashing two bananas, I began referencing the Better Than Banana Cream Pie Cupcake recipe for the base of my cupcake.

However, I made a few slight changes:

1. Instead of buying light brown sugar, I used the dark brown already on hand.
2. Added 1/4 tsp of banana extract
3. Substituted 1/4 c semi-sweet chocolate chips for walnuts
4. Salted butter instead of unsalted (I have NEVER used unsalted butter.)
5. Halved the recipe entirely... well almost...

Once the dry ingredients and wet ingredients were combined in their respective bowls I began combining 1/3 at a time... then all of a sudden I felt like I got hit in the head with a ton of bricks and an overwhelmed sense of anger and frustration hit me... I had halved every single ingredient up until the eggs and vanilla. UGH! So either I was going to have to dump the 1/3 of dry and wet ingredients combined out and start over OR I was going to have to figure out how to double the rest of the ingredients and make the normal batch. The latter was my first choice until I realized I had only bought enough bananas to make half a batch...

To the trash can we went! But not before taking a sad face picture:

And back to the drawing board with the wet ingredients and adding another 1/3 of dry ingredients back to its bowl. (This is where my mathematical brain came in great handy!) I must confess though that I was a little (read: a lot) irritated at myself for making such a stupid mistake and thank goodness no one else was around to see how upset at myself I was... However, that was when I turned on some good cooking music (country) and went to town. Eventually the bad mood fell by the wayside, and the baking was back in business!

(Note: This is a thicker than normal batter.)

The cupcake pans were lined and batter filled.

While the cupcakes cooled, it was time to start on the frosting.

Otherwise known as: THE CHALLENGE. This frosting was different from my norm in that it was buttercream made from scratch. I referenced this Basic Buttercream recipe as my base and went to town. If anyone has made buttercream before or anyone does it more than once in a lifetime, I commend you! This was NOT an easy feat. Leave it to me to not read how long you actually have to beat the butter and sugar until it becomes the wonder known as buttercream frosting! But boy is it worth it!

Lessons learned from making buttercream frosting:

1. 1980s hand-mixer motors aren't cut out for 30+ minutes of use. Seriously thought it was going to catch fire.
2. Read directions prior to beginning. LUCKILY, I only made half the batch (yes, I remembered to half EVERYTHING this time) so it only took about 25 minutes to get the buttercream frosting just right.

Once the Basic Buttercream Frosting was to the consistency it needed to be, I substituted banana extract for the vanilla and spread on top of the cooled cupcakes. To get a little creative, I made a quick chocolate ganache. (Recipe: melt 1/4 c semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1/4 c heavy whipping cream in the microwave on high for about 30 seconds. Remove and stir until creamy.) Then poured the ganache on top of the frosted cupcakes and VOILA!

There you have it! Banana Choco Chip Cupcakes! Hope you enjoyed this week's installment of the Pint-Size Baking Adventures. Be sure to leave any questions below as this recipe was certainly an experiment!