Green Velvet Donuts w/O'Reilly's White Chocolate Irish Cream Icing

I recently received two Wilton Donut pans and being St.Patrick's Day is right around the corner I figured I would adapt their recipe and make a take on the ever-popular red Velvet themed holiday we just exited and try a stab at green velvet.  I used the six-cavity donut pan, yet you could easily do this with the 12-cavity pan and get miniature versions.  The Wilton Juniper Green food coloring is

To my surprise these pans are super easy to use, the donut batter was done in a flash and it seemed I no sooner put the donuts in the oven that they were coming out.  No heating of oil, then waiting for the oil to cool down before you scoop it back up and put it away - easy peasy!  The one thing that does make this recipe ten times easier is putting the batter into a 16" disposable piping bag, snipping the tip off and piping the batter right into the donut round - voila!

Icing this with a simple mixture of  1/4 c. O'Reilly's White Chocolate Irish Cream and 1 c. powdered sugar, stirred together with a fork.

2 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
2 tbsp. mayonnaise
3/4 c. sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. buttermilk
1 tbsp. Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder.
1 tsp. Wilton Juniper Green food coloring
2 c. AP flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prep your baking pans with spray, I use Bak-klene.  In a microwave-safe medium bowl, melt the butter then add the mayonnaise, sugar and egg - whisking to combine.  Add baking powder, baking soda, salt and vanilla - mix again.  Pour in the buttermilk and stir, followed by the cocoa powder.  Stir in the green food coloring and whisk gently to thoroughly combine.  Lastly, add the all-purpose flour and slowly mix together to incorporate all of the ingredients.

Let batter rest for five minutes, then place into a large piping bag.  Snip the tip off leaving a 1/2" opening, and twist the upper part of the bag to move the batter down.  Using the palm of your hand on the top part of the bag, squeeze the batter out and into the round sections of the pan - portioning out the batter between the 12 rounds.

Place into the pans into the oven and bake for 12-14 minutes.  Remove from oven and let donuts rest in pans for five minutes, then invert them onto a cooling rack to completely cool.  When cool, you can make the glaze and invert the tops of the donuts into the glaze, swirling it around and placing back onto cooling rack for glaze to set and harden.  Enjoy!

Moroccan Beef Stew

2 medium onions, sliced
4 garlic cloves, sliced
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. ground tumeric
1 tbsp. paprika (I used smoked paprika)
1 tsp. cayenne
1 tsp. dried mint
1 tsp. ground black pepper
2 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. ginger (ground or fresh in tube)
1 - 14. oz diced tomatoes
1 1/2  c. water
1 boneless chuck roast - 4-6 lbs.
1 - 14 oz. can chickpeas
1 lb carrots, peeled & cut into chunks
butternut squash, peeled & cut into chunks
2 cups couscous
1/4 cup honey

In a 5-6 qt. Dutch oven toss onions, garlic and all the spices together with the tomatoes and water - stir to combine.  Place roast in with mixture and cook covered on simmer for 3 hours.

Remove lid  and use a fork to test the done-ness by placing fork into roast and twisting - meat should easily pull away.  If not, place cover back on and simmer for another half hour - then test again.  Once meat is done, remove from Dutch oven and place onto plate and tent with foil to allow to rest.

Add chickpeas, carrots, squash and honey to pot and place pot onto stovetop to cook uncovered for 15-20 minutes, until vegetables are fork tender.  Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper to taste.  Take roast and pull into large chunks, placing it back into pot to marry with sauce and vegetables.  Set aside.

Prepare couscous according to directions.  When done, mound into large, shallow serving bowl or platter.  Spoon meat and vegetables on top followed by some of the liquid.  Place remaining liquid into a pitcher and serve alongside to pour over individual servings.

Guinness Extra Stout Chocolate Cake with Guinness Extra Stout Buttercream

This recipe should technically be made in 3 or 4 - 8" round cake pans, depending on your desire yet I made them in my recent obsession - 6" round cake pans.  With this said, I did have an additional cake layer which we all basically devoured while the actual cake was chilling so we could cut it - and then devour that.  What I love about this recipe is that you can actually taste a hint of the stout throughout the cake as opposed to recipes where the stout gets completely lost.  I'm sure the thought of stout icing seems a bit odd, yet stout actually has a caramelly flavor when it hits the back of your pallate so it lends itself nicely and gives a beautiful color to the buttercream.  No vanilla in this recipe, since stout is the star here.  This cake is very delicate, so you need to chill them in order to handle it well.  With that said, invert them onto a cooling rack or countertop that has a sheet of plastic wrap on it so then you can wrap each layer and have the ability to handle it much better.  Chill the layers fully before frosting.

Cake:
1 cup unsalted butter or butter-flavor shortening, room temperature
2 cups sugar
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs
3/4 c. sour cream
3/4 c. Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa powder
1 c. Guinness Extra Stout
2 c. cake flour

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar together - scraping the bowl if necessary to completely combine.  Add baking soda, salt and eggs - one at a time, followed by the sour cream.  Scrape the bowl again to make sure your ingredients are thoroughly combined.  Add cocoa powder and mix on low to incorporate.  Slowly pour in the Guinness Extra Stout, being careful not to splash.  Finally add the cake flour and mix until ingredients are combined well.

Divide between desired amount of round cake pans that have been prepped with baking spray to ensure easy release.    Bake in an oven that has been preheated to 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes, checking the cakes after 25 minutes with a toothpick inserted in the middle coming out clean to ensure they are done.  Remove from the oven and allow to rest in pans for ten minutes, then invert the layers onto cooling racks.  Chill completely before frosting.

Frosting:

2 cups sugar
1/2 c. Guinness Extra Stout
2 whole eggs + 2 egg whites
1 lb (4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 c. (1 stick) regular shortening, room temperature

Place sugar and water into a medium (4 qt.) saucepan and bring to boil, cook until a candy thermometer reaches softball stage (235-240 degrees).  Remove from heat and set aside.  In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment beat 2 whole eggs and 2 egg whites, then slowly pour in the hot syrup.  Once all the syrup is added, set timer and allow mixture to whip for ten minutes.  Pour syrup into a pitcher to cool.  You will want to refrigerate the syrup for at least four hours, or overnight - you can also leave it on the counter to cool as well.  Once syrup has cooled, take a spoon and remove the foam that has risen to the top (there is no need to get every ounce of it, just the majority).

Place clean bowl back in the mixer and add the butter and shortening with whisk attachment.  Beat on high speed, stopping 2 or 3 times to scrape the bowl - ingredients should be light in color and have a whipped texture.  Add the vanilla bean paste and slowly pour in the syrup.  Place mixer on low and edge up to medium high until all of the ingredients are incorporated and the icing looks fluffy.

Lodge Cast Iron Cookbook

I just received my copy of the Lodge Cast Iron cookbook, of which I was a contributor.  The recipe they featured of the several I submitted is my Lemon Lavender Pound Cakes using the Lodge Drop Biscuit Pan.  I am so honored to have been a part of this project.  The photography is amazing as well - thank you Lodge!

Meat Lovers Pizza Pasta

I have a child that rarely, if ever let's me get a true combo pizza as she doesn't like most of the vegetables ever offered aside from black olives.  So, for the last many years have had to settle for always getting a meat-lover's special.  I, like most other people enjoy pizza and say I could eat it everyday - yet not really quite sure this is true.  But I have come up with a way to eat it in an interesting way - as a pasta dish.  I had my daughter literally make this while I instructed her to see how it would turn out.  You can easily add whatever you want to this - if she wasn't around there would have been onions and green peppers in mine.  Regardless, this turned out really well - I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

1 lb. Italian sausage
1/2 package thick-cut pepperoni
6 slices Canadian Bacon, quartered
1 4 oz. can sliced black olives
1 12 oz. jar desired pizza sauce
1 12 oz. can beef broth
1/2 c. shredded Parmesan cheese
2 c. shredded Mozzarella
1/2 lb. spaghetti, broken into quarters and cooked

Fry sausage in a 3-4 qt. saucier or pan until almost done, then add pepperoni, Canadian and black olives, cooking until the pepperoni turns color and begins to shrink.  Add pizza sauce and beef broth, stirring to mix together.  Bring to simmer and simmer for five minutes.  Add cooked spaghetti and bring back to simmer - cooking for five more minutes.  Remove from heat, stir in Parmesan and 1 CUP of shredded Mozzarella - mixing to incorporate.  Top with remaining cup of shredded Mozzarella and place under the broiler for 3-4 minutes.  Remove from oven, place back on stovetop or counter to let rest for ten minutes - serve.

Shades of Love Cake

Shaded or gradual tones as seen in the world of fashion and textiles for centuries, here fashioned into a cake.  This version is done in pink in honor of Valentine's Day.  This recipe is fashioned for two, with leftovers for later....

Out of the ordinary tools for this project are Williams-Sonoma 6" cake pans and I originally used Americolor colors (first photot) since I became accustomed to them with my cookie decorating vendor, but tried it using Wilton colors (second photo) which are much more readily accessible at most craft/party stores and it also worked out fine.  As you can see from the two photos, the color range is completely up to you.  I used a Wilton 1M tip to decorate this, yet when I was at the store discovered that my tip is different from the tip sold in stores now - I purchased one and simply bent the prongs inward to create a closed-star.

As with frosting any cake, refrigerating it so it is completely chilled will ensure a much easier frosting experience.  For this cake, I suggest refrigeration before you do the crumb coat and before you pipe the final layer.  I use one, 9.5 c container of my Vanilla-Bean Buttercream frosting, which I then tint as needed.  This will make a four-layer cake.

CAKE RECIPE
1 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla bean paste
2 cup cake flour
food colors desired (see note above)

Prepare 4, 6" round cake pans by spraying them with Bak-klene or butter/flour - preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar together - then add eggs one a time until incorporated, followed by the buttermilk.  Add baking powder, soda, salt and vanilla bean paste - stirring to combine.  Add cake flour and mix until batter begins to look creamy.

Divide batter evenly into three bowls, AND one prepared cake pan (this will be your uncolored layer).  To the first bowl add a tiny amount of desired color and stir to combine with a fork.  Scrape into one of the prepared pans - set aside.  In the second bowl, add a larger amount of color so your next batch is more vibrant, stirring with a fork to incorporate.  Scrape into one of the prepared pans - set aside.  In the third bowl add a larger amount of the color, adding more if necessary - so it is a level darker than the last, stirring with a fork to combine well.  Scrape into one of the prepared pans - set aside.

Place prepared pans into preheated oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, until tester comes out clean.  You may need to move pans around if your oven has hot spots.  Remove from oven and let cool for 15 minutes, then invert cakes out onto rack to cool completely.  Wrap with plastic wrap and place into refrigerator to chill fully.  Remove from refrigerator when you are ready to ice layers together and put on crumb coat.

Leprechaun Bread

In honor of St.Patrick's Day, I had this great idea to make colored version and to call it Leprechan bread. I used my grandmother's heirloom recipe for bread, splitting the dough in half and using my moss green food coloring in one of the halves. Letting them raise separately, then rolling each half our flat like pie crust dough. I then laid the green on top of the white and rolled it up like a cinnamon roll. I placed it in the pan and let it rise for 30 minutes.

Here is the recipe: Dough recipe