TwD: Expresso Cheesecake Brownies

This week's pick by Melissa of Life in a Peanut Shell is....Expresso Cheesecake Brownies! Sound overloaded and completely rich??? It is...and then some. I have to say that this sort of brownie is right up my mom's alley. She downs at least one French press of coffee a day and has always had a weakness for cheesecake that leaves me with a stomach ache. I can eat copious amounts of almost any confection...cheesecake being on the limited edition list. So while I enjoyed these, I leave the real yay or nay to my mom, who enjoyed them muchly. We both agreed with other TWD bakers in thinking the brownie a little dry. However, the second day the brownie wasn't as dry, and was a nice, solid base for the cheesecake. Quite a structural piece. I love the marbled top. It seems so promising. I cut one row of brownies while the brownies were still warm, and the cheesecake cut much better - after cooling, they stuck to the knife and I ended up eating an entire brownie top while "cleaning the knife."

TwD: Applesauce Spice Bars

Thanks to Karen of Something Sweet by Karen for the pick this week! These bars are definitely a little taste of fall.

These were very moist and even better the next day. I scraped the bowl after the batter went in the pan...and after the glaze went on. Brown sugar, butter, and cream! Did burn my tongue a bit though. These were so moist that little chunky bits of raisin and pecan and apple fell out through the cooling rack. More treats for the cook! It's like the crunchy bits of fried food - it's the best part and it doesn't count if no one sees you snag it.

TwD: Brownie Buttons

So I've been M.I.A. lately, mostly because I've been busy getting out of MIA...moving. Ah moving. The excitement of an adventure and a move to the next big thing, and the sadness of leaving behind good friends and good times. Mostly I'm excited, though moving can be a bit tiring. Which is one reason why this week's recipe chosen by Jayma of Two Scientists Experimenting in the Kitchen was perfect. It was easy, miniature, and yummy. I thought the brownies were a bit dry but Mom and Sister loved them. I skipped the orange zest (for lack thereof) and am thinking it might have helped after reading Jayma's blog. I also skipped the white chocolate topping (for the same reason as the orange zest) and replaced is with a German chocolate-esque caramel coconut glaze. Some of the brownies got crowned with an almond, and after trying both, they all got stuck with one. These little addictive brownies were too poppable to stay around long. Thankfully, I only made half a recipe that gave me 12 little brownie buttons.

Oh, and I love the name Brownie Buttons. I think Dorie must have fun with the names sometimes.

Coconut Topping

2 Tablespoons butter

2 Tablespoons light brown sugar

1 Tablespoon milk

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1/3 cup sweetened coconut

Heat butter, sugar, milk, and vanilla over medium-low heat until boiling. Stir frequently and boil rapidly. The color will appear lighter. Add the coconut and continue to boil until it returns to a rapid, frothy boil. Continue to boil until it thickens slightly. Spread over cooled brownie buttons. The topping with hardened slightly after cooling, but will remain gooey.

TwD: HONEY PEACH ICE CREAM

This ice cream rocks! Thanks to Tommi at Brown Interior for this week's awesome pick! Just in time for the summertime heat down here in Miami. I used good ol' Georgia peaches and clover honey. I love ice cream but have rarely made my own. My family makes it every July 4th, whipping out the ice cream machine and boxes of rock salt once a year to make a monstrous tub of homemade vanilla ice cream. A few times additional flavors have been added to match our favorites of the summer, toasted coconut and peaches are the ones I remember. We always try to eat as much as possible the first day - through brain freeze and all - when it's still sitting in the ice cream maker. After it hits the freezer, it's never as good.
I'm definitely looking forward to the ice cream in a couple of weeks! Yet, the large machine, the rock salt, the noise and monitoring so it doesn't catch, is quite an undertaking. I'm going to start searching for a lovely, little, hassle-free ice cream maker. In the meantime, I took a cue from Clothide's Chocolate and Zucchini for those sans ice cream makers. I made the recipe as directed, and then put it in the freezer, stirring about every hour or so. The ice cream will begin to freeze from the outside in, so the periodic stirring allows it to freeze more evenly. And it worked! The texture wasn't weird at all. Just creamy dreamy.

I'm surprised I liked the honey taste as much as I did. I'm more of a purist when it comes to fruit ice creams. This was divine though. I halved the recipe and boiled all the peaches in the honey (because I didn't read far enough ahead in the recipe). Next time (and there will definitely be a next time), I'll try just half in the honey and half added plain later. I'm hoping this will allow the peaches to stand alone in taste and mingle with the honey.

TwD: PARISIAN APPLE TARTLET

Thanks to Jessica of My Baking Heart for picking the Parisian Apple Tartlet. This recipe is ultra-easy, and just as yummy! Check out Jessica's blog for the recipe.
Dorie's inspiration for this tartlet is from the Parisian bakeries, and the individual sweets people exit carrying and munching. I'm mentally filing it for any showers or teas in the future. I used Pepperridge Farm puff pastry and am already planning to try out mini tartlets with pears, peaches, and plums. The apples were great though I think I overloaded the pastry. Before baking, the apple pieces made a flower shape that fell apart in the oven so that afterward it looked more like a mini replica of Stone Henge. Edible historic sites...I'm sure there's a blog out there somewhere for it.

TwD: CINNAMON SQUARES

When I first saw that we were making Cinnamon Squares, I didn't think it would have chocolate. I thought it was an entire chocolate-free month! I love chocolate, but this chocolate and cinnamon duo was a bit much for me. The cake was yummy, though a little dry. I left it in the oven and thought I turned it off, when really I had left it cooking  somewhere between 30 and 45 minutes longer. Ooopsy. The icing was yummy, ummm, it's melted chocolate and butter stirred together. What's better than melted chocolate? Chocolate with butter! It sounds like a Paula Deen recipe. 
After putting half the batter in the pan, you layer with a cinnamon, sugar, and instant expresso mix, sprinkle with chocolate chips, and then add the other half of the batter. In the picture in the cookbook, Dorie's Cinnamon Squares have a lovely, playful wavy line through the middle. My chips went AWOL and all over the place. But still good. I opted for a piece with sour cream, as suggested in the Playing Around Section. I don't know, I really thought I was going to like this one, but it was all a little much. I would love to try the cinnamon bread sans chocolate as a more breakfast/brunch item. 

I gave most of the squares away to my co-worker for picking me up from the oral surgeon's. She shared them with the rest of the office who apparently loved them. I've still got a few in the freezer that I'm planning to pull out in a few weeks and try again. Perhaps when I'm craving something chocolate and over-the-top. Thanks to Tracey of Tracey's Culinary Adventures for this week's pick! 

MIDNIGHT MUSHY PEAS

A few things conspired together this week to leave me in the kitchen on a Friday night, making mushy peas. 

(Now I've never made mushy peas before, and though I have traveled to and in the UK, I've never had them. I'm not sure how this is possible because it's the kind of simple dish that I jump at on a menu, especially served with a nice fish and chips.)

First, I'm reading James Joyce's Dubliners. In one of the chapters, The Gallants, a man feasts on "a plate of hot grocer's peas, seasoned with pepper and vinegar...He ate his food greedily and found it so good that he made a note of the shop mentally." This always happens to me - I read something that starts a craving! But who knows what hot grocer's peas are? An annotation in Dubliners says that grocer's peas are large, pale processed peas, closer to pease pudding than to fresh peas. Pease pudding (or pottage) is, as it turns out, a thicker pea mash, and the ancestor of boiled peas. Regardless, I read "hot grocer's peas" and thought...mashed up green peas...yum.

Secondly, this morning I had four wisdom teeth yanked out of my head. Since I got IV sedation, I couldn't eat this morning and didn't want to eat after the surgery...until about 10pm. That's when I thought...mushy peas would be perfect! I can't really open my mouth that much and can't chew at all. I related this to my boyfriend, who inquired what in the world mushy peas were. My explanation was somewhere along the lines of - it's a British dish of mashed up green peas with salt, pepper, milk, and butter. Oh, he replied, baby food. Nooooo. So much better. And so much more complicated.

Researching on the good ol' internet, I found two basic camps for mushy peas. One in which frozen and/or canned marrowfat peas are acceptable. One in which only dried marrowfat peas are used. This latter group seems much more the purist, and I like that. Baking soda is added to the soaking process. This is what breaks up the peas. I vow to try the long version one day. But tonight, I took the easy way and made a single serving of mushy peas broken up with a potato masher. (I used English peas because that's what was in the freezer.) 

MIDNIGHT MUSHY PEAS

1/2 cup frozen English peas

pinch of salt

pinch of sugar

pinch of black pepper

1 Tbs milk

1/2 Tbs butter 

1. Boil the peas until they are done done.
2. Season to taste.
3. Add the milk and butter.
4. Mash mash. Until the done done peas are broken up and the milk and butter are absorbed.

I will definitely be making the longer, more Britishly correct version soon with dried Marrowfats peas and baking soda.