Sweet Potato Waffles

This week at the grocery store, I had it in my head to grab some sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes are great, healthy vegetables year round, but in the fall they are especially fitting. Upon returning home and putting my groceries away, I realized I already had sweet potatoes waiting to be cooked.. oh well, good thing sweet potatoes are a versatile ingredient that can be used in baking too! Happy accident. The idea of a sweet potato cake was a little too similar to the cakes I've been producing the past few weeks and I wanted something different. Sweet potato waffles were the perfect solution! The kids will think they are eating a sweet and delectable dessert-y breakfast when in fact, they'll be ingesting lots of healthy goodness like vitamin A, dietary fiber (an average sized sweet potato contains about 3 g), and antioxidants such as beta-carotene. Sweet potatoes are also anti-inflammatories and surprisingly, help regulate blood sugar levels.

Have them hot and crispy with sliced bananas and powdered sugar or drizzled with maple syrup and pecans... They're delightful!

Sweet Potato Waffles

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 T baking soda
1/2 t salt
2 eggs, large
3 T melted butter, cooled
2 T oil
1 t vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup milk
1 baked sweet potato
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 t pumpkin pie spice

Mash the baked sweet potato together with the light brown sugar and pumpkin pie spice and set aside. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, blend the buttermilk, milk, eggs, oil, vanilla, and cooled butter. Combine the wet ingredients with the sweet potato mixture and then add the dry ingredients. Heat up your waffle iron, make the waffles, and enjoy!

Homemade is better than Storebought...

Always.. isn't it? Homemade cake.. homemade cookies... homemade burgers... homemade pancakes... As long as you've got a good basic recipe and a little creativity, you can make customized, delicious, better-than-storebought food.
One very unusual day, I found myself running out of vanilla extract, an otherwise absolute staple in my pantry! Usually when I am half-way through a bottle, I make sure to grab another one on my next trip to the grocery store just to make sure I never run out... I don't know what happened this time. I guess everything happens for a reason because it led to this experiment which I am so excited about! I decided to finally try my hand at making vanilla extract at home!
Expensive as it can be, vanilla extract, aside from flour, butter, and sugar, is an indispensible  ingredient in baking. It's mellow, floral notes enhance the other flavors of your baked goods. It's kind of like what salt does when you add it to foods. It enhances the flavor of just about anything baked. The bonus - it's incredibly easy to make yourself.

All you need is some alcohol like vodka or light rum and some vanilla beans. There are all different kinds and grades of vanilla beans out there. Vanilla beans come from Madagascar, Tahiti, and Mexico to name a few. Each, with its own distinct taste can be used in various types of desserts. When buying vanilla beans, the grade is very important. Grade A is the purest quality and Grade C is the least. Grades are predominantly dependent upon the length of the bean. When using vanilla beans, try to get Grade A beans for optimal flavor.
I purchased an assortment of vanilla beans from beanilla.com. The service was great and the beans arrived within a few days. They had so many different types of beans too, which was great for my experiment.
I used a 3:1 ratio of beans to cups of alcohol - three beans to one cup of alcohol. Make sure you slice the vanilla bean lengthwise before adding it to the alcohol to release the beans into the extract. I used an airtight container to seal the extract and I periodically shake the bottle to redistribute the vanilla beans. The extract changed color within a couple of days to a beautiful bourbon shade. Just remember the longer you keep it "brewing," the deeper, more complex flavor your extract will have. I plan to keep mine brewing for around two months. After this, strain the liquid and voila! You now have vanilla extract. Homemade, cheaper, and no doubt yummier than the store brands. In two months or so, I'll be blogging the results of this exciting experiment.. Stay tuned...!

Apple Pie Cupcakes

Last week I mentioned that my two favorite flavors of fall are pumpkin and apple. Well, after opening one of those giant 32oz cans of pumpkin and making use of all the delicious goodness inside, I'm ready to move on to the wonderful world of apples! (This doesn't mean I'm done with pumpkins, by any stretch!)
I wanted to bring a bunch of cupcakes to a dear friend of mine who did a huge favor for me this week. She has two young kids, so an apple cupcake is a healthier, more acceptable flavor for them, which works well for me. After spending some time thinking about what flavors could meld well with apples and drawing inspiration from this idea, I decided I definitely wanted the flavors of this cupcake to echo those of a warm, buttery apple pie. I didn't just want apple pie filling in a vanilla cupcake, though. I wanted you to feel like you were eating apple pie in cupcake form - crispy, flaky crust and all.
My base was to be a brown butter cupcake. If you haven't already, you really need to brown butter in your kitchen. The nutty, buttery aroma fills your house. It's butter, only taken up 10 notches... The brown butter cupcake is like a toasted vanilla cupcake, which, in this case, reflected the crust of an apple pie. For the filling, I made a traditional apple pie filling and cut out a substantial chunk of the cupcake to fill it up. What did I do with the cut-outs, you are wondering? Dunno.. They seemed to disappear as I was cutting them.. :-)

After having discovered Biscoff spread a few weeks ago, I knew I wanted to incorporate this flavor into these cupcakes. So I made a Biscoff buttercream to top off my apple pie cupcakes with. Biscoff, in case you are not aware, is a European cookie. It's cinnamon-y and caramel-y and crunchy and satisfying. If you've ever flown Delta, you'll know that it's the in-flight cookie of choice. Biscoff spread is a molten, spreadable cookie-in-a-jar. Think Nutella, only different... in a good way. You have to try it. You can find it near the peanut butter and other spreadable goodies in your local grocery store. Try it, and let me know what you think.

My cupcake taster this time around was my hubbie. I had cut one of the finished cupcakes in half to photograph for this post earlier in the day so there were two halves sitting on the plate waiting for him. My hubbie said he would probably only have one half. He's not too big on sweets, especially apple pie. He'd rather have a beer than dessert... the thought is incomprehensible, especially as my husband! But to his credit, he always makes sure he tastes my creations and gives me his 100% honest critique on them. *LOVE* Ok, enough about him. I turned away from him for a minute and when I turned back, the plate was empty. He gave me a grin and said "that was the best cupcake you've ever made." He is not one to give compliments easily. He tells it like it is. *LOVE x 2*

Apple Pie Cupcakes with Biscoff Buttercream

Brown Butter Cupcakes:

1 1/2 cups AP flour

1/2 t baking soda

1/2 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter (heated to brown butter point)

1 1/2 t vanilla

1/2 cup milk

Apple Pie Filling:

2 T and 1/2 T butter, unsalted and separate

1 T flour

3 apples (any kind), small dice

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

2 t Apple pie spice

Biscoff Buttercream:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, unsalted 

3-4 cups confectioners sugar

4 T Biscoff spread

1/4 cup milk, cream, or half and half

pinch of salt

1 t vanilla extract  

Preheat your oven to 350F. Combine flour, baking powder, and baking soda in a bowl. Cream the eggs and sugar in a mixer until thick and pale.  On low, add the butter, salt, and vanilla until combined. Then add the milk. Once incorporated, add the dry ingredients until just combined.

Bake in lined cupcake wrappers for 20 - 22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out crumb-free. While the cupcakes are baking, make the apple pie filling. In a saute pan on medium heat, melt the 2 T of butter. Once the butter is melted, add in the diced apple and sugars and cook for about 5 minutes or until the apples begin to soften. Then sprinkle the apple pie spice on the mixture as well as the flour. Toss and cooke for another 5 minutes. Turn off the stove and add the remaining 1/2 T of butter. Combine well. Set aside to cool completely.

To make the buttercream: Beat the butter for a few minutes until light and airy. Add the salt and vanilla and then the powdered sugar a cup at a time, reducing to 1/2 cup at a time to determine the consistency you desire. Blend in the Biscoff  buttercream until well incorporated. At this point you can adjust the consistency of your buttercream with the milk/cream/half and half.

To assemble the cupcakes: Take a cupcake and gently cut out the center with a knife in the shape of a cone. You can take out as much or as little as you'd like based on how much filling you want in your cupcakes. Then add about a tablespoon (more or less depending on the size of the hole) of apple pie filling to the cupcake. Frost as desired.

Pumpkin love...

(Amended: *Recipe included, below*)

Two things come to mind when I come upon fall - apples and pumpkins... Aside from how beautiful each is in their own right, I absolutely LOVE baking with them, as you probably figured by now. Apple and pumpkin pies, breads, cakes... Mmmmm, just the thought. Well, I've eagerly started fall baking for this year and am bringing to you, this week, an absolutely heartwarming pumpkin cupcake. It's warm and cozy especially with a warm beverage - a hot latte, steaming mug of hot chocolate, or a comforting cup of tea.
The cupcake is a ginger pumpkin cupcake with little nuggets of crystallized ginger suspended throughout. I've topped it with a delicious spiced cream cheese buttercream - it's a buttercream because I've significantly cut back on the amount of cream cheese added to the frosting, so it's just got a hint of cream cheesiness. It's my new favorite cream cheese frosting! It's spiced with cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. I've topped the cupcake with a hit of butterscotch. Together, these flavors round out the season! It's a taste of Autumn in each bite..

Pumpkin Ginger Cupcakes & Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting

(Adapted from Elinor Klivans' cupcakes!)

Cakes:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

4 T unsalted butter, melted and cooled

4 T canola or vegetable oil

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup sugar

1 cup canned pumpkin

3 large eggs, room temperature

1/4 cup crystallized ginger, small dice

Frosting:

1 stick unsalted butter

1/4 tsp salt

3 oz cream cheese, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla

3 cups powdered sugar

2 T milk or cream

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

Set oven to 325F. Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and ginger in a bowl. Using an electric or handheld mixer, blend the butter, oil, vanilla, sugar, and pumpkin until the mixture is fully combined. Add the eggs and crystallized ginger. Once incorporated, slowly add the dry ingredients until just combined.

Fill each cupcake liner with 1/4 cup of batter and place in the center of the oven for about 22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean.

While the cupcakes are baking, make the frosting. Beat the butter and cream cheese until smooth and uniform. Add the salt, vanilla, spices, and 3 cups of powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time. Adust the consistency of the frosting with the milk or cream. Beat for 2 minutes.

When the cupcakes come out of the oven, leave them to cool completely. Then frost them with the frosting.

Changing Seasons...

Even though there is nearly a month left of summer once school begins, I am always quick to jump in to all things Autumn! Blooming Spring flowers are optimistic - a sign of rebirth and renewal. Summer sun is relaxing and lazy. Warming up near a fireplace during the first snow of Winter is cozy and homey... But my heart belongs to Autumn. Leaves turning warm colors of brown, orange, and fiery red warm my heart amid the cooler temperatures. My two favorite holidays - Halloween and Thanksgiving - make Autumn my favorite time of year. Pumpkin picking, hayrides with my husband and kids, and seeing my daughter near the top of an apple tree trying to find the largest, prettiest, reddest apple in the orchard are memories I look back on dearly.
Which is why this week, I wanted to create a cake in the spirit of Fall. The base was an orange-flavored cake with decadent chocolate buttercream. I covered the cake with a homemade chocolate fondant and decorated with flowers and leaves in warm colors.

Since my children are so into baking and this blog, I like to display their works whenever possible. They get such a rush from it and it certainly doesn't do any harm to their confidence... Earlier this week, they made peanut butter play dough and, using some rainbow jimmies, molded some beautiful and edible pieces! They spent nearly two hours working away at this dough, taking little nibbles here and there and enjoying a mellow weekend. Happy Autumn everyone!