Chocolate Malt Cake

Carrie Zinnecker Desserts 0 Comments

In general people should be modest about their accomplishments.  Modesty will not be a character trait of mine today because this is one of the best looking cakes I have ever made!  It was also pretty great in the flavor department.  I didn’t find this cake to be too overwhelming in malt flavor despite the use of a good amount of malt powder and chopped Whoppers.

The cake wasn’t too chocolately, but had a subtle chocolate flavor and wasn’t too sweet.  It had a good texture on its own, but with the frosting it was perfect.  I love this frosting.  This is a recipe I will keep in the “Favorites” folder.  I will definitely make it again and try pairing with other cakes.  I got the recipe from cookiemadness who got it from Chowhound.  One day people will be getting recipes from my blog…one day.

I took the advice of cookiemadness and used the Chocolate Malt Frosting recipe she’d posted from Dorie Greenspan.  The ingredients seem normal enough, but the way the frosting comes together is interesting but it works incredibly well.  The brown sugar adds a depth of flavor that compliments the cake.  You can find the cake recipe on Chowhound (linked above) and here is the frosting.

Malted Chocolate Frosting (adapted from a Dorie Greenspan recipe)

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/4 cup malted milk powder (such as Carnation, Ovaltine or Horlick’s)
1 tablespoon unsweetened natural cocoa powder
1/4 cup boiling water
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted, butter, at room temperature
Pinch of salt
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar

Melt chocolate and half of the brown sugar together in a heat-proof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water or in top of a double boiler. Let cool slightly.

Stir remaining brown sugar, malted milk powder, cocoa powder and boiling water together in a small bowl or glass measuring cup.

Beat butter in bowl of a standing mixer. When creamy, beat in melted chocolate, followed by malted milk powder mixture. Beat in vanilla. Stir in the powdered sugar; beat until it is well mixed.

Chill mixture for 30 minute to hour or until it is good and cold. Return bowl to stand mixer and beat chilled icing until it becomes light and fluffy.

Mom’s Three-Layer Bars

Carrie Zinnecker Desserts 0 Comments

I love this dessert.  It’s rich, delicious and easy.  The combination of the shortbread-like crust, sweet pecan and coconut filling and creamy frosting bring back great memories for me.  My mom still makes these as well as a truly decadent chocolate mint brownie at Christmas.  They keep really well in the freezer for weeks so you can make a batch and just take a few out at a time.  There aren’t any secret tricks to this recipe.  Just make sure that you let the bars cool completely before frosting them.  I also put them in the fridge for an hour or so before cutting them.

1st Layer

½ pound butter slightly softened and cut into 1-inch pieces

½ cup sugar

2 cups AP flour

½ cup cornstartch

pinch of salt

Blend all ingredients with a pastry blender in a large bowl until butter is in pebble sized pieces.  Press into a 12×16 pan.  A jelly roll pan works well, but a 9×13 is ok.

Bake @ 350 for 15 minutes.  Let cool.

2nd Layer

4 large eggs at room temp

2 cups brown sugar

4 tablespoons AP flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups chopped pecans

2 cups shredded coconut

Mix eggs and sugar.  Add flour, baking powder and vanilla.  Stir in pecans and coconut.  Pour over first layer. 

Bake @ 300 for 15-20 minutes.  Cool to room temperature.

3rd Layer

1 stick softened butter 

8 oz. softened cream cheese

4 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Beat butter and cream cheese in a stand mixer.  Add in vanilla.  Add sugar one cup at a time, scrape sides of the bowl as needed.  Spread onto cooled bars.  Cut into squares.  These bars may be frozen between layers of wax paper.

Tropical Carrot Cake

Carrie Zinnecker Desserts 0 Comments

Courtesy of The Pastry Queen

Cake

1 cup macadamia nuts, toasted and coarsely chopped

3 cups flour

3 cups sugar

1 tablespoon baking soda

1 teaspooon salt

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 1/2 cups shredded  coconut

4 eggs

2 tablespoons vanilla

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups shredded carrots

1 1/2 cups crushed pineapple, drained

1/2 cup sweetened cream of coconut

In a large bowl stir together flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, coconuts and nuts.

In a seperate bowl whisk eggs, oil, vanilla, carrots, pineapple and cream of coconut.

Pour egg mixture into flour and stir until combined.  

Pour batter into three 9-inch cake pans that have been greased, floured and lined with parchment.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.  Cool for 5-10 minutes then invert onto cooling racks.  

Cool completely then frost with cream cheese frosting.

Super Simple Cream Cheese Frosting

1 stick of softened butter

8 ounces softened cream cheese

1 pound of powdered sugar

Cream butter and cream cheese.  Scrape down sides of the bowl.  Add a teaspoon on vanilla is you’d like to.  Add sugar and mix until smooth.

Cake Catastrophe

Carrie Zinnecker Desserts 0 Comments

I’ve had a tropical carrot cake recipe marked with a bright pink sticky note in my Pastry Queen cookbook for weeks now.  I bought the ingredients a week ago.  It was time to just buckle down and bake the cake already! I was really excited about this cake so I postponed grading 5th grade math papers and decided that there was no time like the present.  I kinda like carrot cake, but this recipe just sounded so much better than regular old carrot cake.  It has macadamia nuts, cream of coconut, lots of pineapple and is smothered in a coconut cream cheese frosting.  

I needed 3 9-inch cake pans, but I only have two 9-inch pans…I should have seen fate trying to stop me!  I buttered and floured the two 9-inchers and one 8-inch pan.  The batter came together easily and beautifully.  When I filled the cake pans I didn’t think anything was off…the batter in each pan looked fine.  I baked the cakes for 20 minutes then checked on them, and rotated the pans in the oven.  5 minutes later I took the 8-inch cake out as the “tester inserted in the center came out clean.”  10 more mintes (we’re at 35 now, the max time in the recipe) and the cakes looked done on the outside edges and on top, but the tester inserted in the center was covered in batter goo.  5 more minutes…goo…5 more minutes…goo is gone!  45 minutes in all ladies and gentelmen…keep this in mind.

 I’d been letting the 8 inch cake cool, so I decided to take it out of the pan.  It had fallen in the center…crater cake.  Ok.  No problem.  It doesn’t have to be pretty to be tasty.  The other cakes sunk a bit, but not too much.  I take them out of the pans and peel the parchment from the bottoms.  One cake was fine.  The other cake, however, upon removal of the parchment revealed a center of completely uncooked cake batter.  I cannot explain this.  It will forever be a mystery to me.  Obviously I didn’t bake it enough, but the outer edges were on the brink of burning…it just doesn’t add up.  I will not be bringing this cake to share with my wonderful co-workers.  I hate to waste food.  I had to do something.  Of course, some of the cake had to be thrown away, but some could be saved…

I decide to make the best of the situation.  I made a simple cream cheese frosting.  I put the OK cake on a platter.  It had developed quite a deep Manicouagan-like crater by this time, so I filled part of it with frosting, then used pieces of the half-baked cake placed in the center to make it even.  I inverted this onto another platter.  Ta-da!  It looked like a mediocre, even cake layer.  I frosted the cake and was fairly pleased with the looks of it.  

Maybe this cake wasn’t appealing to the eye, but it tasted delicious.  Moist, dense and full of carrot, pineapple and macadmia in every bite.  I like the plain frosting with this cake since the cake itself has so much flavor.  I didn’t try the coconut cream cheese frosting this time.  I think it would have competed too much with the cake.  I will defintitely make this cake again.  To redeem myself and to share its greatness with the world.

My New Favorite Loaded Chocolate Cookie

Carrie Zinnecker Desserts 0 Comments

Milk chocolate chips and Oreo cookie chunks in a cookie…pure genius.  These cookies came out like the perfect combination of brownie and chocolate cookie.  The outer edges were crunchy, the exterior slightly crispy and the interior wonderfully rich and soft.  The texture was also quite harmonious.  The cookie itself is soft, the chocolate chips were creamy and the oreo chunks provided just the right amount of soft yet crunchy contrast.  This is the kind of cookie I want to bake, keep a few, and give the rest away because I would otherwise eat them all!  Oh, and these cookies truly require a tall glass of ice cold milk.  I have no complaints about these cookies.  Sinfully delicious.  Chilling the dough really helps, so don’t skip that step.  Here is the recipe.  I tripled the recipe from cookiemadness and used milk chocolate bars for the melted chocolate and milk chocolate chips instead of the chunks.  Enjoy!

Milk Chocolate Oreo Chunk Cookies

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
4 ounces milk chocolate — divided use (2 ounces coarsely chopped and 2 ounces cut into 1/4-inch chunks)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 Oreos (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Stir flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt together in a bowl; set aside.
Melt 2 ounces milk chocolate with the butter in a small heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water; let cool slightly.

Beat together sugar and egg until light. Beat in vanilla and melted chocolate mixture. Add flour mixture and stir until mixed. Stir in Oreos and remaining milk chocolate chunks. NOTE: at this point, I chilled the dough for 30 minutes.

Using a 1 1/2-inch ice cream scoop or a tablespoon, drop dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart. Bake until cookies are flat and surfaces crack, about 15 minutes (cookies should be soft). Let cool on parchment on wire racks. Cookies can be stored between layers of parchment in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days.

Makes about 13-15 depending on how big. I got 13, but some of mine were very large.

Jam & Cream Cheese Streusel Bars

Carrie Zinnecker Desserts 2 Comments

I love having a reason to make a dessert, so when we planned a get together with some friends this past weekend I ran to the cookbook shelf in search of deliciousness.  I got the Magnolia Bakery book and began looking for a recipe that I could make without having to go to the store.  I found a recipe for Apricot Cream Cheese Streusel Bars.  It called for a jar of apricot jam…I will never have apricot jam in my house because I am not a big fan of apricots.  I did have 3 jars of homemade jam my friend Carrie had given me; strawberry rhubarb, strawberry blueberry and plain blueberry.  I’d already made a good dent in the blueberry so I decided to use the strawberry blueberry.  I did everything else according to the recipe.  These are so very yummy, but good gosh, the butter usage is incredible!  I’m going to look for a way to lighten these a bit.  I found the crust to be a bit thick and at times it crumbled.  So maybe I could use less crust.  Also, the streusel was delicious but overwhelmed me…I would use less of that also.  The filling…I didn’t think there was quite enough of it!  I like jam bars because the tartness of the fruit filling counters the sweetness of the cookie component.  I also like the idea of the cream cheese filling, but it was barely noticeable.  I will try these again soon with the changes and fill you in.  I know you’ll be waiting by your computer constantly refreshing this site to read about the outcome of my recipe tampering.  I’ll go ahead and tell you, I wouldn’t hold my breath.  However, I promise to have it done in a weeks time!  Here is the original recipe.  Of course, any jam will do.

Apricot Cream Cheese Streusel Bars from More From Magnolia Cookbook

Crust

1 cup butter, slightly softened and cut into 1 inch pieces

2 cups all purpose flour

Cream Cheese Filling

1/2 pound cream cheese softened

1/3 cup sugar

1 large egg at room temperature

1 t vanilla

Filling

3/4 cup apricot jam

Streusel Topping

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

3/4 cup butter, slightly softened cut in 1 inch pieces

Preheat oven to 350

Crust

In a large bowl beat together butter and flour on medium speed until crumbly and well combined.  Pat the mixture evenly and firmly into a 13 x 9 pan.  Bake for 15 minutes.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.

Filling

Beat together cream cheese and sugar until smooth.  Add the egg and vanilla and beat until well combined.  Set aside.

Streusel Topping

Mix together the flour and powdered sugar.  Using a pastry blender or two knives, cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Set aside.

Assembly

Spread the cream cheese filling on the cooled crust about 1/4 inch from the edges.  Gently spread the jam over the cream cheese.  Sprinkle the streusel over the entire top.  Bake for 35 minutes.  Cool to room temperature before cutting.