A few posts back, I spoke of my friend, Daniela, who hails from Mexico. She has introduced me to some knock-your-socks-off Mexican recipes, like Calabaza en Tacha and Tres Leches Cake. Problem is, when she makes treats as such, it's usually from ingredients her parents brought from home and I can't get locally. Boo.

Daniela brought her kiddies over the other day for a playdate and thoughtfully brought along 2 bags of piloncillo granulado. Piloncillo is basically Mexico's version of brown sugar, but it's very hard in texture with a much stronger molasses flavor than the brown sugar used in the US or Canada. It's also most often sold in cone or block form. This stuff is so versatile and so good!

My intention was to make the pound cake and crush the piloncillo pellets into the batter so as it bakes, it will leave each bite with a lovely punch of flavor.

When I realized it was too tedious to cut all these pellets into pieces (and waaaay too hard to crush with my bare hands), I pulled out the food processor, thinking I was smart and saving some time. Uh….no. Those little buggers actually broke the blade off! *Sigh*.

Not to be defeated, I decided to melt the pellets down to a syrup like they do when making Tacha and just add it to the batter for an all over unique flavor.

Bingo.

It was amazing! I made a sauce with the last bit of syrup that was left in the pan. It was OVER THE TOP delicious! It's a bit like Sticky Toffee Pudding, but without the use of dates.

I love happy accidents.

My food processor does not.

Recipe adapted and slightly modified from Martha Stewart

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature

3 cups sifted all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

2 ¼ cups brown sugar, packed

5 large eggs

¾ cup buttermilk

¾ cup of piloncillo syrup (You can substitute 1 cup dark brown sugar and 3 teaspoons molasses to get a comparable flavor of the piloncillo)

Preheat oven to 325 F. Grease and flour two 8x4 loaf pans. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add eggs, one at a time until well combined. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt. Alternate flour mixture and buttermilk to egg mixture and blend well. Fold in piloncillo syrup.

Pour into prepared pans.

Bake for about an hour. Cool 10 minutes then turn out onto rack to cool completely.

Serve with fresh fruit and whipped cream or for a richer treat, drizzle with piloncillo toffee sauce.

To make piloncillo toffee sauce, boil the remainder of piloncillo to a paste.

Mix 1 cup paste, 1 cup heavy cream and 3 tablespoons butter. Whisk until fully incorporated and thick.

Happy Baking!

BOSTON CREAM CUPCAKES

I do a lot of volunteer work at my daughter's school. In a few weeks, the parent council board is throwing an end-of-the-school-year BBQ - a perfect time and way to sell up any purchased food items that have accumulated over the last few months.

As we went through the items we have to sell, we noticed one box of popcorn out six had just expired. We weren't sure if they were okay to sell, so we opened a few bags; some were stale, some could fine. Since we couldn't expect parents or kiddies to buy a possibly passable bag, I got to take them home and get creative. YAY!

14 bags of popcorn from the box were good to go. The others I fed to the birds, mainly to annoy the neighbor behind me who HATES when I feed the 'wildlife' and is not afraid to tell me so. Ppphhttt to you.

What can I make with 14 bags of popcorn besides eat it? I hit the internet and found this gem. Oh, and it's a delicious gem.

It's sweet. It's chocolatey. It's gooey. It's heaven. It's like the BEST popcorn you will ever eat! This is a lock-your-doors-close-the-blinds-and-hide-from-your-husband-and-children kind of snack.

Feel free to indulge.

I so did.

GERMAN CHOCOLATE POPCORN

Recipe adapted from Cookies and Cups

5 cups popcorn - if popping yourself via microwave or stovetop method, be SURE to take out any unpopped kernels.

2 cups light brown sugar

½ cup light corn syrup

12 tablespoon (¾ cups) butter, cubed

4 Tablespoons water

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups sweetened coconut flakes, toasted

4 oz (½ cup) semi-sweet chocolate

1 package Girl Scout Samoa Cookies, Keebler Coconut Dreams, or if you live in Canada, No Name Caramel Chocolate Cookies

Preheat your oven to 200° Place popcorn in large bowl; set aside. Chop cookies into bite-sized pieces and set those aside as well.

Line counter a few sheets of wax paper so you can spread you popcorn onto it when mixing the caramel. You don't have to do this, but it makes it easier.

To make the caramel, combine the butter, brown sugar, water and corn syrup in a medium saucepan. Whisk ingredients to together and bring to a boil.

Boil without stirring for approximately 5 minutes until candy thermometer reads 250°.  If you don't have a candy thermometer, 5 minutes is just about the right amount of time.

Remove from heat and immediately whisk in your baking soda and vanilla. Caramel will get lighter and bubble.

Pour caramel over popcorn and stir until it's all coated.

Pour popcorn onto waxed paper and sprinkle toasted coconut on top of popcorn evenly. Leave your wax paper out, you will need it again!   

In a large roasting pan or baking sheet bake your popcorn in oven for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes.

Spread popcorn onto the wax paper and sprinkle chopped cookies evenly over top.

Melt chocolate in microwave in 30 second intervals until melted, stirring each time.

Drizzle melted chocolate on top of cookies and popcorn.  Let the chocolate set and break apart.

Store in airtight container for 3-4 days.

Happy Baking!

Funny thing about me. First sign of great weather and I suddenly have this need to eat healthy. It's weird really. I'm pulling out the whole wheat flour, using recipes that call for fruits and/or vegetables, substituting butter for applesauce. Okay, perhaps I'm going a bit far there, but you get the idea.

This is one on my most favorite feel good recipes. My daughter loves it and I don't ever feel guilty about giving it to her anytime of day.

Or eating half the loaf myself. Oops.

CARROT ZUCCHINI BANANA BREAD

Heat oven to 325º degrees.

Mix flour, salt, and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside. Either by hand or with electric mixer, mix butter and sugars until thoroughly blended.

Mix in egg, yolk, and vanilla.

Add dry ingredients; mix until just combined. Stir in chips. I used both semi and milk chocolate chips because my semi-sweet chips were seriously starting to bloom, so I threw them in. (When a white coating appears on the surface of any chocolate, it's called bloom.)

I have to disagree with this next step. However, I did both my own way and CI's way to show the outcome. They taste the same, but presentation is a whole other ballgame....

CI's TECHNIQUE:

Form scant ¼ cup dough into ball. Holding dough ball using fingertips of both hands, pull into two equal halves. Rotate halves ninety degrees and, with jagged surfaces exposed, join halves together at their base, again forming a single cookie, being careful not to smooth dough uneven surface. Place formed dough onto one of two parchment paper-lined cookie sheets, about nine dough balls per sheet. Smaller cookie sheets can be used, but fewer cookies can be baked at one time and baking time may need to be adjusted.

MY TECHNIQUE:

Use an ice cream scoop.

Today is Sunday. It's gloomy, rainy, and cold. A PERFECT time to bake!

A few posts back, I told you the story of the 10,000 Chips Ahoy cookies I have in my possession. Thankfully, I'm down to about 4,000 cookies now, but for a cookie addict like myself, that's still 4,000 too many! Since they're individual wrapped, they won't go stale anytime soon, but I would like to use them up before I lose all self control.

Today, I was hankering for a good brownie. A brownie that has all the bells and whistles - moist, chewy, chocolaty, sweet, salty and peanutty. I started sifting through my cookbooks as well as the internet, but I didn't find one that said, "I'm it Baby. Make me yours!"

So I took matters into my own hands and created what I think are Ultimate Brownies.

Oh yes ladies and gentleman, these are ultimate. It has everything Mama is craving today. Throw on some Barry White, dim the lights, and close the blinds.

It's brownie time.

ULTIMATE BROWNIES

½ cup butter, melted

½ cup cocoa powder

1 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

3 eggs

¾ cup flour

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ cup peanut butter

¼ cup dulce de leche sauce

1 teaspoon instant coffee granules

½ teaspoon cinnamon

½ cup mini white chocolate chips

12 chocolate chip cookies – I used Chips Ahoy

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with foil cupcake wrappers. Place a chocolate chip cookie in the bottom of each; set aside.

Combine flour, salt, sugar, cocoa powder, cinnamon, and coffee granules into a bowl and mix well. Add eggs, melted butter, and vanilla. Mix well. Add peanut butter and dulce de leche into flour mixture and mix well. Add white chocolate chips. 

Divide mix into 12 muffin cups.

Bake for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Do not over bake.

Yield: 12 brownie cups.

Happy Baking!