Tastes certainly do change over the years. When I was a kid going out to the ice cream parlor meant that I was going to get Bubble Gum Ice Cream. I mostly just wanted the gum. The frozen solid gum that I would cover in my saliva and then spit out into a napkin. And when I was done with my treasure hunt for gum, I would wrap it up in the napkin to eat later. Of course by the time I got it home to eat, the paper napkin had stuck to all the gum. So there I was eating licked, paper covered gum balls. Mmm. Yummy. And eat them I would, paper and all. Of course logic would have told me to buy a bag of gum balls and then get a different ice cream flavor. But what is logic to a little kid.

Now back in those days they didn’t offer Bubble Gum Ice Cream at the store. So when my mom brought home ice cream she usually brought home Neapolitan. More bang for your buck. Not only were you getting ice cream, but you were getting vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate all rolled into one. Strawberry was my favorite so my mother could always tell when I was sneaking ice cream as there was a large dent in just the strawberry section. A cleaver six year old I was not.

But now that I am older I prefer many, many ice cream flavors over Neapolitan, but I still like the concept. So while strolling through the vast amount of Southern cookbooks I have, I found a recipe for pound cake. Now there are a lot of recipes for pound cake, but this was the kind that you started with a cold oven. I have never used that method and wanted to give it a try. Not sure if it is the batter or the cooking method, but this makes for one really dense pound cake.
I replaced most of the cream cheese with mascarpone cheese, as I wanted to take the tang away as I was using other flavors. You don’t have to use the pink food coloring for the strawberry batter, but it’s nice for effect and all.

I hope those of you celebrating it had a  nice Thanksgiving! We are having a pretty low key one. Complete with Neapolitan Pound Cake Sundaes. To do that, you just top a slice of pound cake with vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, and a little heated up strawberry jam. Good stuff.

Neapolitan Pound Cake

3 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
5 oz, mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
1 ½ cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 tsp vanilla extract, divided
6 eggs
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup powdered sugar
3 cups cake flour
pinch of salt
6 TBSP strawberry jam
3 TBSP unsweetened cocoa powder
4-5 drops neon pink food coloring

Spray a 16-x-4-x-4 ½ -inch loaf pan with baking spray. Set aside. DO NOT preheat oven.

Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment  (or a bowl and a hand mixer) on medium-high speed, cream together cheeses and butter. Add 2 tsp vanilla and beat for 30 seconds.

In a medium bowl sift together the granulated and powdered sugars.

While beating add two of the eggs. Scrap down the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add 1 cup sugar  mixture. Beat until combined. Add 1 cup flour plus pinch of salt. Beat until combined.
Repeat until all of the eggs, sugars, and flour are used.

Divide the batter equally between three bowls. In one bowl combine the batter with 6 TBSP strawberry jam and the drops of pink food coloring. In another bowl combine the batter with the unsweetened cocoa powder. And the third bowl combine the remaining 1 tsp vanilla extract to the batter.

Using three disposable piping bags (or just scoop with a spoon if you don’t have) fill each one with a different batter. Using a random pattern, just pipe a little vanilla, then strawberry, then chocolate batter into the prepared pan. Keep doing this until all of the batter has been used.

Take a butter knife or wooden skewer and mix the batter together to form swirls in the batter.

Place in oven. Turn oven on to 295F. Bake for 2 hours.

Serves 20.

Adapted from Mrs. Wilkes Boarding House Cookbook

Fall is in full swing around these parts and I am loving it. About the only thing I am not big on these days is Halloween. I mean, it’s alright. But we don’t have kids so it’s not all that fun. It is however the only time of year that Crazy Cocker Spaniel wishes we had kids (see here).

I like when the kids come by, the little kids. The one waddling in their costume and trying their hardest get the words “Trick or Treat” out while their parents stand there next to them beaming with delight. Those kids are cute. What isn’t cute are the teenagers.

Now, I will be the first to admit that I Trick or Treated in my teen years…pretty far up into them too (hangs head in shame) BUT, I at least put some effort into it. I did full out costumes, full out. Now a days they don’t even try. A couple of them will have a mask, but they don’t wear it, they just have it in there hand and sort of flash it at you. Then mumble out a half hearted “Trick or Treat” while rolling their eyes at you. Special.

And the crappy thing is that you have to give them candy. Because if you don’t those bastards come back later and either smash your pumpkins or egg your house. Again, special.

But the Halloween stuff is all out and I do like purchasing the candy. And I especially love that caramels are on sale (which I totally stock up on). When I had my Open House a few years back, my friend E came and brought some homemade caramel corn. It was awesome (as is she), and everyone at the party asked for the recipe. Hers had peanuts in it, but I thought it would be fun to play with the idea of caramel apples. So I did. Her recipe has been changed a little. I used both granulated and brown sugar and used Lyle’s Golden Syrup instead. If you can’t find it, then use corn syrup, but really, the Lyle’s is the way to go. It gives it a more caramel flavor. I can find it at all of my local grocery stores, so you can probably find it if you look.

As you can expect, it’s highly addictive.

Caramel Apple-Caramel Corn

3 bags plain (not buttered) microwavable popcorn (about 16-18 cups depending on how much pops), popped

1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar, tightly packed
½ cup Lyle’s Golden Syrup (if can’t find, use corn syrup, but I like Lyle’s way better…you can buy it on Amazon.com)
½ tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp baking soda

14 oz bag of caramels (unwrapped…because plastic doesn’t taste that good), chopped into fourths (yep, kind of a pain in the butt, but yummy)
12 oz dried apples, chopped into bit size pieces

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
Preheat oven to 200F.

Divide the popcorn evenly between to large bowls. Unless you have a really big bowl, but I do not. So I used my stock pot and a large bowl. Evenly divide up apple piece and caramel pieces and toss with popcorn. Set aside.

In a large saucepan bring sugars, syrup, salt, and butter to a boil, over high heat. Boil until all the ingredients has dissolved and it is boiling away at you.

Add vanilla extract and baking soda and stir quickly. Be warned, it’s going to bubble up and get mad at you.

Divide the caramel evenly between the two bowls (or if you are using one bowl, just dump it all in) and mix thoroughly.

Spread out evenly onto prepared baking sheets and place in oven for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Your caramels will melt, but will firm back up as they cool, don’t panic. Enjoy.

If you don’t want to do the baking method, and you own a candy thermometer, you can skip the oven step by brining the caramel mixture up to 300F while it is boiling (right before you add the vanilla and baking soda). This method allows for the caramel bits to stay their shape better.

…well except certain clothing, shoe, and handbag items.

Today’s lesson is that this is a free website. I don’t even have advertisements because I feel it takes away from the quality of the site. And trust me, I have thought about putting ads up on this site, I get the traffic for it. And I get bugged almost daily for someone to advertise something. But I like how sites that don’t advertise look more than I do ones that do have it. Not that I think there is anything wrong with those sites that have advertisements. Making a buck or two is certainly understandable.

That being said, I run a free site. Free. I bring this up because time to time, since this is a free site and I don’t have an editor to hire to edit my work, I forget something. A dash of salt, how many chocolate chips, things like that. Or worse. Which is why I say to you the first thing they teach you in home economics class…read through the whole recipe first. I type out the recipes half the time right before I go to bed. I forget things. Oops.

Now if I were to say, write a cookbook, that would be a different story. Those recipes are checked and rechecked before they go out to publish. In a way, you are my recipe testers. Aren’t you lucky.

Here is one to test out at home kids. I have been on a huge hot chocolate kick now that the weather has shifted to flannel sheet mode. The actual cake itself does not have a strong hot chocolate flavor, but once you add the glaze on top, it is more than enough hot chocolate flavor. Don’t panic if when you slice into it and don’t see the marshmallows, they kind of disappear. Only the ones right on top sort of stuck around, and those didn’t really stay in marshmallow shape. But when you bite into the cake you can taste them, and that is all that matters.

The end result is definitely sticky, the glaze doesn’t harden as much like other glazes, so I find it best to eat it the day of. If you don’t want to eat it the day of, don’t glaze them. They should freeze nicely. I wouldn’t know as I gave the other two of mine away. That’s why I like to make mini loaves all the time…easier to give away.

Hot Chocolate Loaf Cake with Marshmallows and Cocoa Glaze

 Hot Chocolate Loaf Cake:

10 TBSP unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 ¼  cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
½ cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup sweetened hot chocolate mix (powdered)
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp baking powder
½ cup milk chocolate chips
1 cup mini marshmallows and an additional 1 ½ cups for the topping

Preheat oven to 350F.
Spray three 6-x-3 ½ inch mini loaf pans with baking spray or butter and flour them.

Using a stand mixer (or a large bowl and a hand held electric mixer) with the paddle attachment on medium speed, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Add eggs/egg yolk, one at a time. Beat for 1 minute after each addition. Scape down the sides of the bowl and the bottom of the bowl after each addition.

Sift together the hot chocolate mix, cocoa powder, flour, salt, and baking powder in a small bowl.

In another small bowl mix together the buttermilk and vanilla extract.

Alternating, starting with the dry ingredients first, in thirds to the butter mixture. So dry, buttermilk, dry, buttermilk, dry. Mix until just combined.

Remove from mixer. Fold in chocolate chips and marshmallows using a spatula. Mix in any extra flour that might have not made it into the batter.

Divided batter evenly among the three loaves, going about 2/3 of the way up. I find this is about 4 large scoops with the regular size ice cream scoop.

Place loaves on a baking sheet and place in center rack.

Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a wooden skewer or cake tester comes out clean (might have a little marshmallow, but that’s fine).

Let cool for 5 minutes, then remove from pans and finish cooling on a wire rack.

Glaze when cool (see instructions below).

Hot Chocolate Glaze

2 cups powdered sugar (sifted)
1/3 cup sweetened hot chocolate mix (powdered)
1 TBSP unsweetened cocoa powder
¼ cup hot milk

In a medium bowl, add the hot milk and cocoa powder. Whisk until cocoa granules have dissolved. Add powdered sugar and cocoa powder and whisk until glaze is smooth and shiny. If too thick, you can add more milk.

To top the cake:
Place a baking sheet under the wire rack where loaves are. Place a bowl under the loaf you are going to glaze. This will catch any extra glaze and you can use again for the second glazing.

Pour glaze over loaf. Add a sprinkling of marshmallows (about ½ per each loaf). Press them into the glaze so they stick a little. Do this to all of the loaves. With remaining glaze, go back over with another coating of glaze over the top of the marshmallows.

This is a sticky cake. I like it best the day of.

…in the United States and Newfoundland”.

Though the official start to the NHL 09/10 season started on Thursday (Flames beat the Canucks 5-3, just saying) in the hearts of a lot of people, myself included, the start of the season is the first Hockey Night In Canada. And folks, would be tonight.

In order to honour our beloved HNIC,  tortured Leafs fan Ivonne (Cream Puffs in Venice), Mary (The Sour Dough), and myself (Peabody…in case you forgot) decided that we would hold a potluck. We are all foodies. And we all love hockey. I mean LOVE hockey. It’s nice to have two people how not only share my adoration of food, but hockey. So a potluck just seemed right.

Now granted we live no where near each other but since we are such big fans of hockey we thought we would give it a virtual go. Mary is in charge of appetizers. Ivonne is in charge of the main course. And I, I am in charge of dessert.

Now there are two games, in case you didn’t know. One at 7 pm(4pm my time) and 10pm (7pm my time). And if you are wondering, yes, kids get to stay up to watch the late game. It’s just what you do. But since you are watching 6 hours of hockey (may seem a lot to you, but not really) you don’t want to have to miss out on the game by making some complicated dessert. I figured the best thing to do was to make something that could be made ahead of time for the most part. I chose to make Chocolate-Peanut Butter Peanut Brownies and shape them like little pucks. I know, I’m a nerd. So be it.
They are topped with some store bought ice cream (or homemade…knock yourself out) and some Peanut Butter Dulce de Leche sauce. The sauce can be made ahead of time and reheated, but since it doesn’t take any real time to make it, you can make it between games no problem. Or intermission if you just can’t wait for dessert.

As usual, I am hopeful for my two teams, the Flames and the Flyers to go far this year, and for the Flames to win the Stanley Cup. They both have wins under their belts already so that is a good sign. Or so I tell myself.

Feel free to head on over to both Ivonne and Mary’s to see what I will be virtually eating tonight as I watch the games. Though I must admit I will be watching the Flyers game instead of the Leaf/Caps game. But I will check in with it. But I will sure as heck be watching the battle of Alberta at 10pm! Go Flames! 

 Hockey Puck Chocolate-Peanut Butter Peanut Brownies with Peanut Butter Dulce de Leche Sauce

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Peanut Brownies

4 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped finely
¾ cup unsalted butter
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
½ cup brown sugar, lightly packed
½ cup peanut butter (I used Jif)
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup unsalted peanuts, coarsely chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 350F.

Spray a 9-x-13-inch pan with baking spray, or butter and flour it.

Using a double boiler, melt together the unsweetened chocolate and butter. When both are melted, remove from boiler and whisk together to blend chocolate and butter fully. Whisk in brown sugar and peanut butter until fully incorporated. Set aside.

Using a stand mixer (or a large bowl and an electric hand mixer) with the whisk attachment on medium speed, whisk together the eggs and granulated sugar until eggs become pale in color, about 2 minutes.

Add the vanilla and beat for another 30 seconds.

With mixer turned off, pour chocolate/peanut butter mixture into the mixing bowl. Mix together on medium speed until chocolate/peanut butter mixture and egg mixture are fully incorporated.

Remove bowl from mixer. Add flour and stir using a wooden spoon. You could keep it in the mixer, but I find if you do this step by hand you tend not to over mix. You want to make sure the flour is fully incorporated but not over mixed. Fold in chopped peanuts if using.

Pour into prepared 9-x-13-inch pan and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a wooden skewer or sharp knife comes out with a few fudgy crumbles stuck to it.

Cool on a wire rack. Once cool, flip brownies over onto a cutting board, carefully. Using a round cookie cutter, cut out pucks. Or if you are going to be boring and not make pucks, just cut them into squares.

Peanut Butter Dulce de Leche Sauce:

½ cup Dulce de Leche (I bought mine, you can make yours)
1/3 cup peanut butter
¼ -1/3 cup heavy cream (depending on how thick you want your sauce)

In a small saucepan, over medium-low heat, heat together peanut butter, Dulce de Leche, and ¼ cup heavy cream, whisking the whole time until all the ingredients are fully combined and sauce is smooth. If sauce is too thick, add more cream. Heat until warm, but not hot (don’t want all the ice cream to melt).

To make Hockey Puck Sundaes:

Place one hockey puck shaped brownie on plate. Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Add another brownie puck on top of that. Squish down a little to make a sandwich. Top again with a scoop of ice cream and top with Peanut Butter Dulce de Leche sauce.

Whatever you do, don’t throw away the extra bits of brownie. Just throw that in a bowl and cover with sauce and ice cream and eat.