Salted Caramel Peanut Butter Brownies

Salted Caramel Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies.  Try saying that three times fast!  If you can, I think you've earned your brownie!

Well, I guess it's only appropriate to wish the interwebs a happy Valentine's Day!  I mean, once again I am alone on Valentines Day, but only romantically.  Seriously boys, when I are you going to realize that I can bake?  Yeesh!  However, I am not alone.  I have wonderful friends here in Seattle and family back in Michigan who I know love me and they should know I love them right back.  That, and I just polished off a box of conversation hearts (and a bowl of vegetarian chili and some middle eastern flat bread and… oh, I should probably stop talking now) so I got some loving words from them.

While today is technically V-Day, I celebrated yesterday with the girlfriends.  Christine, Julie, Katrina and I had a girls day extravaganza in honor of the blessed holiday.  It started off with a walk around Green Lake and a picnic in one of the parking lots.  Next we drove on up Aurora to a unique nail salon (appropriately titled Glamour Nails) and had a three hour long manicure.  With our polished fingers and toes we trotted on over to my place where we decorated red velvet cup cakes (check back for that post later) and Julie & Katrina cooked a delicious and light dinner.  To complete the picture, we closed off the evening by watching Twilight.  All in all, it was the perfect day and definitely the perfect Valentine's Day.

However, these brownies are in no way connected to Valentine's Day.  In fact, I made them a few weeks ago for a game night that I had.  It was right after I accepted my new job (of which I just completed my first week today!), most of 'the group' was in town and we pretty much hung out all day.  After playing some 3 on 3 football with 5 people, it was as interesting as it sounds, we didn't want to stop hanging out and decided to have a game night that evening.  Being that I am who I am, I made brownies to make the people happy.  Of course they were, but they were a little rich to be paired with the soft white wines were were drinking.  Don't take this as a bad thing though, they were do delicious and the caramel perfectly melted into the brownies. 

So if you're single today, make a pan and polish the whole thing off without worrying about anyone knowing.  If you're attached, make this for your significant other and chances are, you'll make their day.

Caramel Pecan Layer Cake

Very slowly, but surely, I have been settling into Seattle.  I dropped my family off at the airport yesterday (a tremendously sad event) and have been trying to do things to fill my days since.  Being unemployed, the job hunt always continues, but you can't do that all the time!  My new roommate Rachel and I took a stroll around Green Lake... but don't ask me to tell what district it's in, I'm just getting a hang of that stuff!  But then we went to this wonderful vegetarian restaurant "Cafe Flora."  It is decorated so serenely; the center of one room has a small rock garden/waterfall complete with a bonsai tree while the walls are lined with bamboo.  The other room, which features the bar, was a little more lively.  But both sides serve their wonderful food.  Now, you're talking to someone who would ask to eat at Seva (an Ann Arbor vegetarian restaurant) every chance they got.  So it means a lot when I say this place was better than Seva!  The didn't have as wide of a range of dishes, but everything they make they appears to be made perfectly.  I personally got the black bean burger with caramelized onions with a side of yam fries.  I would give it a 4.5 out of 5 stars.  The only reason it doesn't get five stars is because I have yet to eat something so good it literally knocks me off my seat.  But the burger... it has the perfect balance of flavor and spice.  It was spicy enough for me, but not so spicy that the flavors of the black beans and onions couldn't shine through.  I'm exited to go back and try other dishes.

But you're not here for  restaurant review... maybe you are... but the point of this post is cake!  Lots of cake for a wonderful person - my Grandma!  As I was moving (erm... now moved) to Seattle, I wouldn't be able to celebrate my Grandma's birthday on her actual birthday, so we surprised her with a party a month before hand!  As seen in a previous post, I made her cards, my sister gave her a book and a bookmark that she made and my mom presented her with a wind spinner she bought from the Ann Arbor Art Fair.  It was so nice to see someone so surprised and happy!  In my opinion, one of the best parts was the cake I also surprised her with.

It's from my new cookbook "More from Magnolia" (looking back, it's ironic because I now live in Magnolia) that I purchased from the Magnolia Bakery in New York City when I was there in early July.  I flipped though all the recipes and my mom and I decided a Caramel Pecan Layer Cake would be the best one for her.  She, and my mom, love caramel.  And toasted pecans.  And cake.  And cake in layers.  Obviously, there were no objections.  The cake was easy to make and better yet you had to make the frosting beforehand!

Caramel Pecan Layer Cake
Adapted from: More from Magnolia

Cake:

• 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
• 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened at room temperture
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs, at room tempture
• 1 cup milk
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Icing:

• 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 5 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
• 1 1/2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons dark corn syrup
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Garnish:

• 2 cups coarsely chopped toasted pecans

Directions:

1. Toast the pecans, place on a baking sheet in a 350-degree oven for 15 minutes... or until your whole house smells like pecans.  Keep oven at 350-degrees.
2. Line two 10-inch spring form baking pans and grease.
3. In a small bowl, combine the flours then set aside.  In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth.  
4. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy (3+ minutes).  Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Add the dry ingredients, beat until all the ingredients are incorporated... but take caution to NOT over beat (this will create gluten and make the cake tough).  Scrape down batter into the bowl, making sure all the ingredients are incorporated.
5. Divide the batter among the prepared pans and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of the cake.  Let the layers cools in the pans for one hour.
6. When the layers have cooled completely, ice the cake (recipe below).

Caramel Frosting Directions:

1. In a large bowl, on the medium speed on an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth.  
2. Add the sugars and beat on low speed for 2 minutes.  
3. Add the milk, syrup, and vanilla, and beat until smooth and creamy, 3-5 minutes.  Store covered, at room temperature, overnight or up to 2 days.

Chocolate Caramel Cookies (aka Milk Dud Cookies)

Sorry I haven't been on-top of my blogging!  What's even even worse is that I have been cooking at lot of very healthy things and haven't documented them!  I made some roasted chickpeas (a wonderful snack), some vegetable soup (complete with purple potatoes), browned butter chocolate chip cookies with toasted coconut (for Jessi's farewell snack fest), and a simple pasta dish (for a quick dinner).  Sadly, school has been getting in the way of cooking and more importantly not taking photographs!  I think the biggest reason I've been falling behind is… THE OLYMPICS!  I can't even being to describe how much I LOVE the Winter Olympics.  I can honestly say I love it  more than the Summer Olympics… the snow, the skiing, the figuring skating… and seeing  Russia dominate everyone in hockey (don't worry, I'm still cheering for the USA).  Mainly, the Winter Olympics really make me miss ski racing… it makes me want to run a GS course again.

I have made a lot of desserts in my day (obviously) but all my housemates said that these were the BEST that I have ever made.  The flavor also reminded me of Milk Duds (hence the name).  They are amazing straight out of the oven because the caramel is so gooey, but you can also zap them in the microwave for 5 seconds to get the caramel all gooey again.

Ingredients:

Chocolate Cookie Recipe Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1 bag of caramels, unwrap

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Whisk dry flour, salt and baking powder in bowl and set aside.
3. Mix butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and cocoa in mixer. Gradually add flour mixture, and mix until smooth.
4. Wrap dough ball in plastic and chill for at least one hour.
5. Roll out cookie dough on floured counter. Cut into roughly 1 1/2 – 2 inch diameter circles or squares (the shape and precision of the cut section doesn’t really matter since you will be wrapping it around the caramel anyway), brushing extra deposits of flour off the top.
6. Roll the dough around an unwrapped caramel.  Roll the dough back and forth in your hands until it forms a smooth ball.
7. Bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet (or silpat) for 10-12 minutes until the cookies are firm.
8. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Caramel Corn

Oh my, this is addicting.  Usually when I bake something, I'll try one... maybe two little bits of whatever I made.  This time around I started off by taking one bite to make sure it was done... then I just had to take another taste.  Once it was out of the oven and cooled... a few more pieces found their way into my mouth.  Eventually, I had to practically lock it up, throw it in the ocean, and pray it doesn't pull a Harry Houdini.  In actuality, I just ran over (quickly) to the guys house with a full tupperware and I plan on dropping some off at my mom's office.

This is so easy to make and is such a crowd pleaser - set it out at your next party!

Caramel Corn
Adapted from Annie's East's

Ingredients:

• 1 cup popcorn kernels, unpopped
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• ½ cup light corn syrup
• 2 cups packed light brown sugar
• 1 tsp. kosher salt
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Pop popcorn using your preferred method (I always, and only, use the stove-top method).  Place the popped popcorn in two large bowls.  Make sure there is enough room in your bowls for tossing the popcorn.
2. Preheat the oven to 250° F.  Meanwhile, to make the caramel, melt the butter in a 2-quart saucepan set over medium heat.  Once the butter is melted, mix in the corn syrup, brown sugar and salt.  Increase the heat to medium-high and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring frequently.
3. Once the mixture reaches a boil, let the mixture continue to boil for 5 more minutes without stirring.  Remove the mixture from the heat, stir in the baking soda and vanilla extract.  The mixture will bubble up and become frothy.  Pour the caramel sauce over the popcorn in the bowl(s) and toss to coat thoroughly.
4. Spread the popcorn evenly onto two large baking sheets lined with parchment paper.  If there are any caramel clumps left, they will redistribute during baking.  Bake for 40-50 minutes, removing from the oven to toss/stir every 10 minutes.  After 40 minutes, test a cooled piece of popcorn.  If it is not completely crispy (i.e. still slightly mushy when you bite it), bake for 10 minutes more.
5. Remove the baking sheets to a wire rack and allow popcorn to cool completely before breaking apart for serving or packaging.