Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

Two great things are happening right now…pre-season hockey is about to start(you know you are excited, well at least Ivonne is) and Halloween candy can be found everywhere.

Oh evil, evil Halloween candy, how I love you so. Bags and bags of my favorite candies conveniently miniaturized for my candy eating pleasure. Only problem is, I have no problem throwing back 6 mini Snickers only to be horrified by reading the nutrition label. Why is it that I would never sit down and eat 3 Snickers bars in a row but I eat 6 mini ones that are the equivalent of 3 Snickers bars! Oh my.

I go through phases when it comes to buying Halloween candy. On years when I am dieting of course we hand out candy that I don’t really want to eat…which it is pretty hard to find a candy I don’t really like. In recent years, I have been buying candy that my husband likes to eat. In the last 3 years we have had 2 whole trick-o-treaters. Two. . So we just buy what he will eat so that he can put them in his lunch.

Now I must shamefully admit that I was one of those people that trick-o-treated all the way up until I was a senior in high school. But I will admit that at least I would go all out with my costume(not like what they come as now a days…in street clothes and a mask…that they are usually holding in their hand). I’ve been a fish aquarium, 7-UP can(that was part of a 6 pack), Dasher(one of Santa’s reindeer) with my other friends as the 8 other reindeer and our Jewish friend L as Santa Claus.

So why would a 17 year old go out and trick-o-treat?

I just could not give up the idea of free candy. Lots and lots of free candy! I almost always filled up my pillowcase(screw that little plastic pumpkin crap) all the way up to the top. I would come home and dump my candy on the floor. My parents would do their “safety inspection” aka stealing the candy they wanted. This always led to a struggle. You see, both my mother and I love Mounds and Almond Joys…and well, other people must not because I hardly ever got any. It got to the point that as I go older I would pick them out before we got home and I would hide them in the planter and go get them later :P! Sharing is not one of my strong points.

So with all this Halloween candy around I decided to make a tribute to the most fought over candy in our household(well my parents household…my hubby wouldn’t touch those…fine by me!)…the Almond Joy…in quick bread form. This is a coconut bread base with chocolate chips and almonds. I would have used milk chocolate but I was out of it thanks to the Daring Bakers Milk Chocolate Caramel Tart. Plus, I like the semisweet better. This is called bread…but in all reality is probably more cake like than bread.

Perhaps as Halloween gets closer more and more candy conversions will be happening on my blog.

Almond Joy Bread

4 eggs
2 cups sugar
¾  cup canola oil
¼ cup melted unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp coconut extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup sweetened coconut
½ cup raw almonds, chopped
1 cup chocolate chips

Combine the first 6 ingredients into the bowl of an electric mixer. Using the paddle attachment,  beat ingredients on medium speed for 2 minutes.
In a separate bowl, sift and combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
Starting with the flour mixture alternate flour, buttermilk, flour, buttermilk and flour…in that order. Mix until just combined, like you would if you were making muffins.
Fold in coconut, chocolate chips and almonds.
Pour into two loaf pans or 8 mini loaf pans that have been greased and floured. Bake at 350F for 1 hours(minis take only about 10 minutes less).
Remove from oven and place on rack to dry. While cakes are still warm, poke several holes in the top of the cake with a wooden skewers. Drizzle Coconut Glaze(recipe follows) into the holes. Finish glazing cake by taking a pastry brush and brushing on remaining glaze(as much or as little as you would like). When cake is completely cool, drizzle chocolate ganache over cake(I used a piping bag).

Coconut Glaze

1 cup sugar
½ cup water
1 TBSP unsalted butter
1 tsp coconut extract

Place ingredients into a small saucepan. Bring to a boil. Allow to boil for about a minute. Turn heat off but leave saucepan on burner. Glaze cake as instructed above.

Chocolate Ganache
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
¾ cup heavy cream

Place chocolate into a bowl.
Place cream in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
Once cream has boiled pour over chocolate. Let sit for 3 minutes.
Stir with whisk until smooth and glossy.

When you are a teacher there are all sorts of inspirational stories they throw your way. The two frogs one has been told in many forms, but this is the one I always used:
There were once two frogs. These two frogs were very good friends but in being so they were very competitive. One day they decided to have a jumping contest to see who could jump the farthest over the fence. The first frog went first, clearing the fence but landing in a bucket of cream. Unable to tell his friend not to jump, the second frog jumped and found himself in the same situation.
So there they were, two frogs in  a bucket of cream. Both tried to jump to freedom, but the sides of the bucket were steep and no foundation was to be had on the surface of the liquid.
Seeing little chance of escape, the first frog soon despaired and stopped jumping. After a short while he sunk to the bottom of the bucket and drowned.
The second frog also saw no likelihood of success, but he never stopped trying. Even though each jump seemed to reach the same inadequate height, he kept on struggling. Eventually, his persistent efforts churned some cream into butter. From the now hardened surface of the cream, he managed to leap out of the bucket.
These cupcakes were my frogs. When first I decided to try these I attempted to bake the key lime pie into the middle of the cupcake. That so did not work and  left me over cooked cupcakes with goo in the middle. Back the the drawing board. I partially baked the second batch and midway threw tried to add the filling. Again no go. Determined to figure out something,  I ended up settling on making a “no bake” version for the center of the cupcake. Because I chose to do mini cupcakes I had to pipe my filling in, but if you make the larger version you can either pipe or use the cone method. These were sweet and tangy and tasty. If you don’t want to make the filling you could just add more lime juice to your cream cheese frosting.
So what did we learn:
Those who don’t give up and persevere may be in for a pleasant surprise! Or…don’t drink cream out of buckets…there might be a dead frog in there.

Key Lime Pie Cupcakes

Mom’s Favorite White Cake

2-1/4 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1-1/2 cups sugar
4 egg whites
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup milk
zest of 6 key limes or 1 large lime

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour cupcake pans(or use liners).
Combine flour, baking powder and salt in medium bowl; set aside.
Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add egg whites, two at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla; beat until blended. Add lime zest. With electric mixer at low speed, add flour mixture alternately with milk, beating well after each addition. Pour batter evenly into prepared pan.
3.Bake 20-22 minutes(for full size cupcakes) and 15 minutes(for mini) or until wooden toothpick inserted into centers comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in pan on wire rack 10 minutes. Remove from pan and allow to cool completely on rack.

Source: Adapted from the Editors of Easy Home Cooking Magazine

Key Lime Pie “Filling”

6 oz cream cheese softened
5 oz key lime juice
7 oz sweetened condensed milk

Place all ingredients in a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on low for 30 seconds. Increase speed to medium and blend for 2 minutes. Place in a seperate bowl and place in fridge for 2 hours.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1/4 cup butter
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, room temperature
1 pound confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2 TBSp key lime juice
PREPARATION:
Directions for cream cheese frosting
Combine all ingredients in large mixing bowl; beat well until smooth. Makes enough cream cheese frosting for 24 cupcakes.

To assemble:
Take key lime pie filling and place into a pastry bag fitted with a small tip. Take tip and place into cupcake squeeze filling into cupcake. If you make large cupcakes, use the cone method.
Frost cupcake and sprinkle with crushed graham crackers.

 This is my entry for new cupcake monthly event called Cupcake Hero started by one of the Daring Bakers over at the Quirky Cupcake. This month’s theme is lime. If you would like to learn more then head on over there.

Oh the pressure, oh the pressure, oh the pressure.
You see the Super Soup Challenge is under way again(this is year two) over at the newly remodeled(looks fantastic) Running with Tweezers.
Why the pressure? Well, you see, my roasted onion and Gorgonzola soup won last year. I was “souper” surprised when I won and even better was the prize( a lovely soup cookbook). So now, I had to figure out what to make for this year. I decided that just like last year, I would stick with simple flavors, I find that best with soup. I wanted something comforting(as this contest is a tribute to Tami’s mother), yet this time I wanted to use some ingredients that were in season.
Corn. Corn is one of the few Summer ingredients I am not allergic to and more importantly I love! But what to do to make it special? I have sauted, roasted, boiled and baked corn but I had never smoked corn. I had tasted smoked corn before so I knew it was tasty, so I decided to give it a shot. Other than my neighbors hating me for making the whole apartment complex smell like smoked corn and setting off the smoke alarm once, my experiment turned out beautifully.
Pureeing half of the soup gives it a velvety touch but still holds some heartiness. You could puree all of the soup or none of the soup and still have a delicious end result. I chose some maple smoked bacon to compliment the smokiness of the corn, they go very well together.
And there you have it, my entry for this years soup challenge. Hopefully I have lived up to the pressure. I’m not sure if it is a winner, but it is definitely a keeper!

Smoked Corn Soup

sprig of rosemary
sprig of sage
4 ears corn on the cob
3 TBSP unsalted butter
¼ cup sweet onion, small dice
¼ cup celery, small dice
32 ounces of chicken stock(or veggie stock is you are a vegetarian)
salt and pepper to taste
1 TBSP Dijon mustard
1 cup heavy cream
bacon(for garnish) again, if you are vegetarian, leave that out

Take sprigs and place them in cheesecloth, making a bouquet garni.
Shuck the husks and smoke corn over hickory chips(I used a blend that someone gave me that has hickory and maple) in a stove top smoker for 8-10 minutes. Set aside.
Melt butter in a large pot. Add onions and celery, cook(over medium heat) until onions are translucent, about 5 minutes.
After corn has been smoked, cut kernels from the cob and throw into pan. Saute for 1 minute.
Add the stock and bouquet garni. Bring to a boil. Simmer for 30 minutes. When 30 minutes are up, taste soup. Add salt and pepper to taste. I like to do this after the soup has cooked awhile, in case the chicken stock became salty while it reduced. Remove bouquet garni and discard.
Take half of the batch of soup and place into a blender. Blend on puree. Puree until it is smooth with very little kernels left showing.
Add pureed portion of soup back into the pot. Add mustard and heavy cream and bring heat up to medium for 3 minutes.
Serve in bowls and add as much bacon to the top if you would like. If you are doing the vegetarian version of this you might want to add some fresh chopped chives.

Make about 4-6 servings depending on how big of a bowl of soup you like.

When I first started teaching they handed me a binder and said make sure to teach all the things that are in bold and get to as many as the others if you can. That was it. Other than some sound advice from my team leader, “don’t leave marks”…and he didn’t mean on the furniture(he of course was joking), I was pretty much on my own to do whatever I wanted. Since I had great discipline( I even won an award for it) they pretty much left me alone, leaving the occasional “let me know if you need anything” note left in my teacher mailbox. My first three years of teaching were like this….and my kids flourished. We didn’t waste time learning how to take tests. We didn’t take “practice” tests. We didn’t spend time on learning study skills…we just learned.
Some days we even wasted some teaching time having fun(which is highly frowned upon now a days). We will take Thanksgiving  for example. Now, I taught the older kids and my first 5 years I taught in an highly urban area(which most people know as the ghetto). I had these hats. Turkey hats. Originally it started out as just a project where we were helping out the 1st graders. But I of course made a hat and wore it and the next thing you know kids are coming up to me asking if they can make hats. Of course they want to make hats, they act old, but they are still kids. So it became my tradition to make these stupid hats with the kids. I would give a big pep talk about who is brave enough to wear these, blah, blah, blah…that always seem to work because even my gang bangers would wear them. Then we would watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. We would eat popcorn, pretzel sticks, strawberry ice cream, buttered toast and jelly beans while we watched it(because that is what Charlie Brown and Snoopy prepared…in case you were wondering). It had absolutely no redeeming educational quality whatsoever. And those kids loved it. It stuck with them. I had kids, who now have kids, that sent photos of their kid in the turkey hat. Now that was cool(even though it did make me feel old ).
Now over the years I have had to sit in many a staff meeting and take Myer Briggs test, and Kiersey Temperament Tests and I even had to learn what color I am(orange for primary with green as my secondary…for those whoever had to take that test). All of this so we could understand better ourselves as individuals. And yet they no longer want us to teach as individuals. They want us to teach the same way, the same method, use the same discipline model and so on. It truly is a backwards system. With the main ones suffering our the children.
So that was just a rant and had nothing to do with my muffin! Except that I did not go to a school that repressed my creativity and so I can do weird things now….like make Pumpkin Chocolate Covered Raisin Muffins. I like pumpkin muffins with chocolate chips. I like pumpkin muffins with raisins. So why not make them with chocolate covered raisins? I made mine with Glossettes(the Canadian version of Raisinets…but seem less waxy to me for some reason). I must say they pretty much tasted like I expected, which was good. Always nice when one of my experiments turns out well.
Oh and in case you are wondering, even though I do not teach anymore, I still wear my turkey hat each Thanksgiving…it wouldn’t be the same without it.

Pumpkin Chocolate Covered Raisin Muffins

1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
½ cup tightly packed brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½  tsp ground ginger
½  tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
¼  tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup pumpkin
4 oz unsalted butter, melted
1 cup chocolate covered raisins(or more if you like)

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugars, spices, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

3. In another bowl, mix together the eggs, pumpkin, and unsalted butter. .

4. Combine the wet and dry ingredients and mix until the dry ingredients are moistened. Do not over mix. Fold in the chocolate covered raisins.

5. Scoop batter into greased or paper cup lined muffin cups. Bake for about 20- 22 minutes or until puffed and springy to the touch. Cool then remove from cups. Makes 12 muffins.