Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

I grew up not really liking anything pumpkin. Not sure why, but I have had a hankering for it ever since, about a year ago, classmates of mine made a tofu pumpkin pie. I may post that recipe in the future, but for now, pumpkin bars. These are quite probably the most moist cake-like bars I have ever had (hmm did that make sense?). Especially now, during the fall season and Halloween, I think these are more than appropriate.

Ingredients

2 cups Flour

1 1/2 cups Sugar

2 tsp Baking Powder

2 tsp Cinnamon

1 tsp Baking Soda

1/4 tsp Salt

4 beaten Eggs

1 15 ounce can of Pumpkin

3/4 cup Oil

For the Frosting:

4 ounces Cream Cheese at room temperature

1/4 cup Butter at room temperature

1 tsp Vanilla

~ 2 1/2 cups Powdered Sugar - add more to thicken, up to 3 cups of powdered sugar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix all the dry ingredients well.

Add the wet and stir in well.

Pour into an un-greased 9x13 pan. If you want them thinner, feel free to put them in a bigger pan, but keep in mind they rise up when they are baking. Although, you should keep an eye on it in the oven so it doesn't over cook.

Bake for 25 min or until a toothpick can be inserted in the center and come out dry.

Let cool completely.

As for the frosting, just blend the butter, cream cheese, and vanilla. Add the powdered sugar.

Spread on the bars. You can add either about 1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips, walnuts or even cocoa powder sprinkled on the top. Or, eat it without the chocolate and nuts. Keep in mind, if you choose to sprinkle cocoa powder on the top, you should wait to do it just before serving because the powder eventually soaks into the frosting.

Enjoy

Banana Bread

I don't have anything against banana bread, but I always feel like there is something missing. Don't get me wrong, this was a good recipe; it was a very yummy, moist (I can't stand that word but I could not think of any other word to take it's place), but typical banana bread. I debated whether or not to add spices, chocolate and other exciting ingredients but only went as far as walnuts. I only put nuts in half to accommodate my family's liking. If any of you have suggestions of your favorite banana bread I would love to hear them. I am positive I will be posting more banana bread recipes, each with their own variation, but for now, I think basic is best in order to build up.

*This makes two loaves and was adapted from Simply Recipes

Ingredients
5-6 Very Ripe Bananas Smashed in a bowl
2/3 cups Melted Butter
1 cup Sugar
1 cup Brown Sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp Vanilla
2 tsp Baking Soda
Pinch of Salt
3 cups Flour
1 cup Walnuts (optional, very optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
To the smashed bananas add the butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla- mix well.
Stir in the baking soda, salt, and flour.
Pour into two greased 4x8 loaf pans and bake for 1 hour. Let it cool, and eat (I like it kind of warm still with a tall glass of milk, yum!)

Perfect Pizza Crust

For some time now I have been craving homemade pizza. Although, I had a problem; I didn't have a recipe for crust. Well, I think I may have found it. :) I have kind of been obsessed with this blog called The Amateur Gourmet. Adam Roberts, the writer, takes a different angle to the whole "blogging world" and I love it. He has some great ideas, like this (haha). Anywho, he posted a friends recipe for some pizza crust that was exactly what I was looking for, sweet, and fluffy. Some leave the crust behind when they eat pizza but I practically save the crust for last, I think it's the best part. In the recipe you can use wheat flour, half wheat half white, or all white. I just used all white flour and it was great.

We topped our pizza with fresh basil, fresh tomatoes, mozzarella, and kalamata olives. We just used whatever pizza sauce that was in the fridge but you could easily make your own (that may have to be a different post).

Perfect Pizza Crust

 For best results, make 2 pizza's from this recipe... otherwise one pizza is too thick and the dough doesn't cook all the way through.

Ingredients

1 Tbs Yeast
1 cup luke-warm tap water
~ 3/4 cup brown sugar
3 1/2 cups Flour
1 tsp Salt
2 Tbs Olive oil
~ 2 tsp Finely Chopped Rosemary (optional but SO good)

Directions

Dissolve the yeast in the cup of warm water with a couple Tbs of Brown sugar, set aside.
In your Kitchen-Aide (with dough hook) mix the flour, sugar, salt and rosemary well.
Add the foamy yeast sugar water to the flour mixture along with the olive oil and mix until it forms one smooth lump on the dough hook. *You can knead it by hand if you don't have a mixer, it just gets kind of messy.
Add a few Tbs of water if needed to make it more sticky (most likely you will need to).
Cover the dough with a cloth or wet paper towel and let it sit and rise for about 2 hours or until it is about double in size.

I cheated because it was late and we were hungry so I put the dough in a warm spot in the house and it was done rising in about 40 min. Keep in mind that if it's too warm it will dry out the dough and won't rise too much so it is always easier to play it safe!

When it's done rising, roll out and top your pizzas and bake at 425 degrees for about 15 min. (If you have a pizza stone, use it)

Caramel

Oh my, I don't know how I didn't know about this. This is heaven. I think I will be making this caramel all the time. It is so easy and I probably will make more than one at a time so I have some on hand whenever I need it (aka: whenever I want it, so I can stick my finger in it and lick it off). This picture is the result of my mom's first try. I never had it growing up so I assume it was her first. We put it on apples and it was perfect. My mom is making a cookie that has this as the filling along with coconut that I may be posting later. I am in love.

All you do is take a can of this


(**just a note, I have tried other brands and Eagle Brand is by far the best**) and peel the paper off and simmer it, unopened, in a pot, for 2.5 hours. Easy peasy. Just make sure it is covered by at least an inch or more of water and let it go. Take a look at it every now and again to make sure the water level is still above the can. After the 2.5 hours let it cool completely before opening. If I were you I would do a few cans at a time, no joke, you will regret it if you don't!
I think that the word simmer is pretty vague so my mom said hers was slightly boiling; just in case you weren't exactly sure on how much of a boil it should be. How easy is that!? I think most of last night I was thinking of what I could do with this delicious stuff. Perfect for the lovely fall, almost winter weather, we have been having. Yum.

Lemon Drop Cupcakes with Meringue Buttercream Frosting

The world is currently in a craze for cupcakes. I thought I would join in. Last Christmas break my husband and I escaped to San Jose, California to visit my brothers family and just to get away from the cold for a while. We stopped by Santana Row to window shop and found this little cupcake shop called Kara's Cupcakes and had a Meyer Lemony Lemon cupcake for breakfast (breakfast of champions). Well, the cupcake was to die for! The frosting that they topped the delicate cake with was one of the best frostings I have ever tasted. I'm not even sure how they got it so light and fluffy but it was so good. Here is a picture of it... yes it was so good it was picture worthy.


Well, I attempted a lemon cupcake a few days ago and it turned out pretty good. I would definitely say worth making again and maybe again. I changed a Martha Stewart recipe and combined a different frosting to get the texture I wanted. Here she goes.

Lemon Drop Cupcakes with Meringue Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose Flour
1 Tbs Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1 cup (2 sticks) Unsalted Butter, room temperature
2 cups Sugar
4 large Eggs, room temperature
2 tsp Lemon juice
1 tsp Vanilla
1 cup Buttermilk ( I just put a Tbs of lemon in a cup of milk and let sit until curdled to create the buttermilk)
~2 cup Lemon Curd

Directions

Sift together the dry ingredients. Cream butter and sugar until pale yellow adding eggs one at a time until just mixed. Add vanilla and lemon juice. Alternate adding the dry ingredients (three times) with the milk (two times) until just mixed.
Spoon batter 3/4 the way full into lined cupcake tins. Add one Tbs of the lemon curd to the top center of each cupcake. It will drop to the center of the cupcake while baking.
Bake at 325 degrees for about 25 minutes.
Cool completely before frosting.

Meringue Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups Sugar
5 large Egg Whites
2 cups Unsalted Butter, cut into pieces (next time I make this I am going to decrease the butter to one cup just to see and taste the difference)
1 tsp Vanilla extract

In a double boiler whisk egg whites and sugar with an electric mixer until they are very warm (about 3 minutes).
Remove from heat and continue whisking until it has completely cooled (about 10 min).
Begin adding the butter (continue using the whisk attachment) a little at a time and it may look curdled but just keep mixing, it will smooth out. 
Beat with the paddle attachment on low for a few minutes to release any air pockets Add vanilla and you are done!

Decorate as you wish :)