Cinnamon Sugar "Doughnut" Holes

Like a ROCK! Ooohhh, like a rock.

These were supposed to be Scrumptious Cinnamon Breakfast Bites (aka doughnut holes), and I don't know what went wrong, but something did go wrong. The pictures from the original post at Oh My! Sugar High looked appetizing, and I didn't deliberately change anything in the recipe, so I don't know what the issue was. I'm willing to lay the blame on myself, because who knows what happened in this morass of baking failure.

The sacrificial lambs

Ingredients:
1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup crisp rice cereal, coarsely crushed
2 tablespoons plus 1/2 cup sugar, divided
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter-flavored shortening
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup butter, melted

Steps:

Mix the flour, cereal, 2 tblsp sugar, baking powder and salt. It's a lot of flour. I double-checked my measurements a million times to make sure it wasn't supposed to be 1/3 cup flour or something.

Cut in the shortening until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs, then stir in the milk. I bought a pack of shortening just for this recipe, and look what it got me. A bunch of unused shortening sitting in a cabinet and inedible doughnut holes.

Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Mix the cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl and drop each ball first into the melted butter and then into the cinnamon sugar combo. Do not try to be smart and mix the cinnamon and sugar with the butter so that you can skip a dunking step. You will end up feeling very, very stupid, and you'll waste 1/4 cup of butter.

Bad idea, executed poorly.

When it comes time to bake, you have a couple of options to not do. You could pile them all into a greased 8-9 inch pan as in the linked example, or put them on a cookie sheet as the linkee suggested. I went with the cookie sheet, or whatever it is this thing is called, and baked those suckers at 425 F for about 15 minutes

As I might have mentioned, they turned out horrible. The taste consisted of floury flour with a hint of shortening, and the texture was, as also previously mentioned, rock-like. I kept them in the fridge for weeks, feeling guilty and choking one down every few days, before I gave up and threw them out.

Don't do it. Save yourself.

* I made these on Oct. 31 of last year. Don't expect miracles of timely reporting from me.

Chewy Brownie Cookies

Chewy Brownie Cookies

I like drinking Godiva liquor with mint ice cream over the rocks. It's like the Grasshopper's younger, eager cousin, who wants to please you, but doesn't have the right tools handy. Like a blender. One night G was making me this drink, and he secretly put in a tiny amount of whiskey, thinking he could acclimate me over time to stronger drinks. I took a sip and immediately made a face. "Did you put something else in this?"

He was stunned. "I put in the smallest amount possible of whiskey. I can't believe you noticed that."*

"I have a very sensitive palette."

Notice I didn't say mature, refined, or adventurous. Just sensitive. I can't handle spicy foods, because I notice even the smallest amount, and a "dash" of black pepper has been known to ruin steak for me. All of this is a roundabout way of saying that I'm never baking with shortening again. This is the second recipe I tried with it, and I was on the fence after the first disaster. That had a lot of other things going wrong, though, and I bought all this stupid shortening, and a commenter on this new recipe who had tried it both ways, butter and shortening, said there was no taste difference, just a better appearance with shortening. So I stayed true to the original recipe, used shortening, and ended up with brownie cookies that tasted off to me and my sensitive tongue.

I'm not too disappointed, since I didn't spend a lot of time on these, and G liked them, but I do want to try these again with butter. They're so close to being really good, and I'll gladly sacrifice appearance for taste, especially since my cell phone camera can't tell the difference anyway. All I want for Christmas/Hanukkah/New Year's/my birthday is a real camera. And photography lessons. And black paint for the second bedroom. And a new kitchen floor. And new kitchen counters. I'll move on now.

The Ingredients:
2/3 cup shortening (I'll be trying out butter the next go-round)
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon water (not needed if using butter)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup baking cocoa
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I used about 1/2 cup of semisweet Godiva and 1 1/2 cup of milk chocolate Hershey's)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (I left these out)

The Process, Illustrated:

1) Leave out the shortening/butter and eggs for a while so they come to room temp, and then preheat the oven to 375 F.

2) Cream the shortening, sugar, water and vanilla (or the butter and vanilla) in a big mixing bowl. I didn't want to bother cleaning my hand mixer after this was over, so I did this all with a wooden spoon. The shortening was soft, but my arm still got a workout.

Proof 

3) Beat the eggs into the mixture.

4) In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, cocoa, salt, and baking soda. I like to mix the cocoa with the salt and baking soda first, so you can tell by the color that everything's evenly mixed, and then mix in the flour. Otherwise you may end up under-mixing the salt and baking soda since they'll get lost in the flour (goes my line of thought). But I'm obsessive.

5) Little by little, add the dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Beat (or stir vigorously) until blended. Don't over-blend. (Does it annoy anyone else when you see recipe instructions like "Don't over-bake"? Who's out there deliberately over-baking their cookies? Maybe if I had a transparent oven door that would be easier to control. Or if I knew how much time resulted in over-baking. Or maybe if you TOLD me the right amount of baking time.)

6) Stir the chocolate chips into the mixture, and if you're using nuts, now's the time.

Chip chip cheerio

7) The original recipe says to "drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets." I probably followed that in general, but I was using a regular spoon to scoop so I don't know the exact size. I made 22 cookies, and the recipe says it would make 18. Take from that what you will. I also used parchment paper, because I loathe doing the dishes. Putting away dishes, though? I'm a champ.

Batch numero uno

8) Bake at 375 F for 7-9 minutes. Don't over-bake. Let them cool on the sheet for a couple of minutes, then move them onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Can you tell which cookie I toothpick tested? I'm a pro.

Short version

Ingredients:
2/3 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon water (not needed if using butter in place of shortening)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup baking cocoa
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

1) Leave out the shortening/butter and eggs for a while so they come to room temp, and then preheat the oven to 375 F.
2) Cream the shortening, sugar, water and vanilla (or the butter and vanilla) in a big mixing bowl.
3) Beat the eggs into the mixture.
4) In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, cocoa, salt, and baking soda.
5) Little by little, add the dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Beat (or stir vigorously) until blended. Don't over-blend.
6) Stir the chocolate chips into the mixture, and if you're using nuts, now's the time.
7) Scoop onto a cookie sheet, either ungreased or with parchment paper.
8) Bake at 375 F for 7-9 minutes. Let them cool on the sheet for a couple of minutes, then move them onto a wire rack to cool completely.

*Really. He still brings this up, months later.

Mini S'mores Pies

"Oh yeah, that's like a chocolate bomb. That's gonna be good." - G

They were. And I made it up myself! Look at me, experimenting. I used bits of other recipes, and it was born out of a desire to use up my stores of marshmallows and graham crackers, but I'm still proud of myself.

Mini S'mores Pie

To make the crust, I halved this recipe, and to make the chocolate, I went back to the S'mores truffle recipe and three-quartered it (instructions below are already halved and three-quartered):

Mini S'mores Pies (makes 7-9)

Crust:
3/4 cup finely ground cinnamon graham cracker crumbs (or use regular graham crackers and add some cinnamon) (or be lazy and use a pre-made crust, who am I, the pie crust Nazi?)
2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons white sugar
3 tablespoons butter, melted

Filling:

1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup heavy cream, approx.
1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chips (9 oz.) I've made these with milk and dark chocolate. Go with whatever you have or prefer, they'll be delicious either way.
40 mini marshmallows, approx.
About 2 graham crackers, some finely crushed, and some broken in medium-sized bits

1) Mix graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and melted butter until well blended. The mixture will be crumbly and it will seem like you haven't used enough butter or anything sticky, but it'll work out. I used a wooden spoon, and that was sufficient.

Mixed to the max

2) Press mixture into 7-9 muffin tin spaces. Only make 7 if you want a thicker or higher crust. I made 9, but the sides weren't thick enough and burnt a little bit. If you go with 7, you won't need as much chocolate.

3) Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 7 minutes. Let cool.

Chillin.

4) Melt butter in a small or medium saucepan, then whisk in the cream and bring it to a boil.

5) Place the chocolate chips in a bowl and pour the boiling butter-cream over it. Stir until all of the chocolate's melted and smooth. If there are still lumps, place the bowl over a pot of water on a low boil and stir until they're gone.

6) While the mixture is still liquidy, pour a thin layer into the graham cracker crusts, still in the muffin tin.

7) Place four or five mini marshmallows in the chocolate, and pour a thicker layer of chocolate over them so the marshmallows are covered.

Progress, from left to right.

8) Sprinkle some graham cracker crumbs over the pies and stick some larger bits on top in a charmingly haphazard fashion.

Crumb explosion in aisle 1!

9) To set the chocolate, stick in either the fridge or the freezer for at least an hour. They keep well, travel well, and taste delicious cold. In my opinion, the marshmallows taste much better right after being in the cold. They get more substantial, in a way.

I still have s'mores materials left over, so my next move is a S'mores candy bar. I need a chocolate thermometer to figure out tempering, but that's gotta be easy... If I make these mini pies again, and I will, as G has already dumped the Cinnamon S'mores Truffle in favor of these, I would use more marshmallows. I want the cross-section to show almost a complete marshmallow layer. I also want to try baking it, so that the marshmallows will melt.

Mmmm. Pies.

So delicious.

Cinnamon S'mores Truffles

"I'm sorry, I didn't hear anything you just said, I was focusing on the truffle."

This is how many were left today.

I had a recipe for S'mores truffles already, but Chrome gave me a malware warning when I went back to the website, so I went looking for another version and landed on this one. AMAZING. I've been pushing these on everyone I know/meet. The recipe says it makes 24, and I made 47 with the same ingredients, so don't get too hung up on a specific number. No matter how many you make, they will be gone quickly.

This is how many I made. Plus one that mysteriously went missing.

I made them Friday afternoon. Friday night, G and I ate a lot of them, maybe 2/3 of a plate. Saturday morning, G went to work, and I sent out a distress email to some friends to help me eat the rest. Home all day with a fridge full of truffles? Prognosis (of me not eating all of them): Negative. My old roommates and their new roommate came by and loved them, G's visiting friend and his girlfriend came by and loved them, G loved another, I loved some more of them, and I ended up sick to my stomach. WARNING: Don't eat more than two or three of these within a few hours. Definitely don't spend all day at home eating them. They're extremely rich. You need willpower. Willpower or an iron stomach. G voted these his favorite so far, and he looooved those mudslide balls.

OK, it's baking time. You need this stuff:

12 oz. chocolate, 1/2 cup heavy cream, approx. 50 mini-marshmallows, 6-7 graham cracker sheets, 2 tbsp butter, 1 pan, 1 whisk.

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan. I went with the gigantic and only pan we had, and I would strongly suggest sticking with something smaller. Less chocolate will be wasted in the end since there's a smaller surface area for the remnants to stick to. Whisk in the cream and bring it to a boil.

Remove the pan from heat and stir in the chocolate chips until everything's melted. I want to try this with baker's chocolate instead of chocolate chips next time - that might help the chocolate be more moldable and less melt-all-over-your-hands-able.

Oh, the smells.

Don't eat this yet. Or do. What do I care.

Chill the saucepan in the fridge for an hour or so, until the chocolate is solid and roll-able. This is another reason why a smaller saucepan would be helpful. We lost an entire shelf in the fridge, and I had this monster sitting there for a week. It's a long story. TIP: don't worry about keeping it in there too long. A couple of minutes out of the fridge and the chocolate will be fine and melt-y. If you have it in there a while, remember to keep it covered so it doesn't desiccate. (Bonus tip courtesy of G, who kindly covered my chocolate for me).

Cold, mold-y chocolate. Moldy in a good way.

While you're waiting for the chocolate to look like this, break out some cinnamon graham crackers. Obviously you can use whatever kind of graham cracker you want, or buy the crumbs pre-crushed, whatever you feel like. I like cinnamon. I went with 7 sheets, and it ended up being almost exactly 1 cup of crumbs. I ended up with a lot left over, so it might depend on how heavily you crumb up your final balls. Stick the sheets in a plastic bag, and mash 'em up with a rolling pin. Or crush them with your bare hands and reenact your favorite beer can-crushing or strangulation movie scene. Then move the crumbs into a small bowl or Tupperware container.

Moldy in the fake-bad way.

Please excuse the Mold Monster on the plastic bag. My lunch keeps getting stolen at work, so when a coworker was browsing the MoMA store and saw these thief-deterrent bags with fake mold on them, she bought them for me.

More like a Measuring Monster, am I right? Measusaurus.

Poke your cooling chocolate. Does it smush at all? Leave it in for longer. If it's stiff, take it out. Now comes the PIA part. The original recipe contains these directions: "roll into 24 balls, stuffing a mini marshmallow into the center of each." Seems easy enough. Gloss over-able. But I started to do it, and I realized that I don't know how to roll a mini-marshmallow into the center of a ball. I can roll chocolate into a ball, and I can place mini-marshmallows next to those balls of chocolate, but that's it. Am I supposed to cut a hole in the chocolate and stuff the marshmallow inside? No. Let's take a look at some of the mess this caused before I show my solutions:

I licked one finger clean before I realized this should be recorded as a warning/enticement/reminder to try different chocolate. I didn't take a picture every successive time I needed to wash off my hands, but it got much worse than this. For future attempts, I'm going to make sure I carve out all of my chocolate first so I don't have to keep washing my hands to get more pieces.

I looked like this for an hour before realizing it.

What worked for me was to cut out slices with a spoon and wrap them around the marshmallows, mushing the chocolate together at the joints. This gets messy, so it's best to keep the pieces large in order to minimize the mess. Easier to cut off the extras than try to join many small pieces.

My first slice. Way too small.

Bigger is better.

This thickness is pretty good.

Even thinner shavings like this are great.

Wrap a chocolate strip around the marshmallow, and stick two smaller pieces on each end.

 Smooth down the edges.

This was my most perfectly formed truffle, and it used double, thin layers.

If you end up with a couple that have bald spots, don't worry about it. You can hide that once they've hardened a bit. I did worry about it, and I ended up in the bizarre situation of trying to wipe melted chocolate off of my fingers and onto the melted truffle chocolate. This made the situation worse, always. I gave up and popped them in the fridge, and I smoothed some chocolate over the patches when there was less risk of causing structural damage. This is also a good time to make them more spherical, if that worries you. Do not try that on the first go-round, when everything's melting and making a mess.

Balding. It's hard to see, but it's there.

Another successful Hair Club for Truffles member.

 Double truffle!

Once you've used up all the chocolate, stick the truffles in the fridge to harden up a little. Take them out, roll them in the crumbs, and put them back in the fridge to finish solidifying. My kitchen was hot, and this process was time-consuming, which made me paranoid about melting. I was constantly moving completed balls into the fridge, but my hands were chocolate-y. My left foot got a unique workout that day.

You're done! If you get impatient, you can do what I did:

Spoon S'mores Truffle

It's a pale imitation of the real thing, which is SO GOOD. The printable version of the recipe is here.

 I tried making a graham cracker cabin for the remaining truffle to live in, with a graham cracker bed and marshmallow pillow. Melted marshmallow joint-work, of course. Not my best idea.

On October 14th, I'm donating baked goods to a work fundraiser for breast cancer research. If I can figure out a way to transport a ton of these truffles on the subway without them melting or getting crushed, I'm throwing out the pink cupcakes idea. I'm totally winning this fundraiser.

For the future: I want to try adding cinnamon and graham cracker bits to the chocolate.

Next project: Thin Mint Truffles.

Lazy Links

I have 3 posts left to bring over from Tumblr, but the thought of redoing all of those pictures makes me shiver. For now, these links:

Frankenpizza Puffs, where I substitute ingredients willy-nilly, and don't learn my lesson:

Hurricane Irene Tableau, my attempt to stave off boredom while a hurricane trapped me in my apartment:

Cupcake Warzone, my first descent into cupcake madness. There were many cupcakes decorated, but Cookie Monster was the best: