Belly of the Beest

Tiny little pudding balls in tight formation. I bet Brigadier General Gomes would be proud!

So this recipe is a representation of my life coming full circle in some ways…. How can such cute little pudding balls represent something so powerful you ask? Easy! Here’s the story:

Kathy (my sister) and I went down to Brazil to work on some stories and get married to our dear husbands in 2005, but before the dear husbands arrived we had several weeks to explore Brazil and eat lots and lots of desserts–like chocolate cake for breakfast type of exploring. We came across a wonderful, mysterious, delightful dessert at a roadside café. They were perfectly round and firm, but tasted like pudding and were covered in chocolate sprinkles. We devoured them before we had time to think about what they were and how we could get them again. We dubbed them “poojeem” and looked for them, but they got lost in the sea of desserts we had in Brazil.

Since we never bothered to ask what they were called we declared them lost to memory. I hadn’t really thought about them much until the birth of baby Rose. You see, as I sat feeding Rose, my mind would wander and I began reflecting on all the wonderful things that had come before Rose and all the wonderful things that would come after. Mixed amid the memories were these tasty treats. And it just so happens that the Jan/Feb issue of Saveur had a recipe for them! I saw the photo of the little pudding balls and I squealed! I had found the lost treats!

I made these as a Valentine’s Day dessert, but you could make them for anything really. They are a perfect dessert for parties because you can scale the size of each pudding ball based on the number of guests. The article says there are now millions of iterations of the recipe, but the classic is hard to beat. Oh, and the REAL name of the dessert is Brigadeiros (Brazilian Fudge Balls) They are so named because, according to Saveur, they were the most beloved treat of a Brazilian Air Force Brigadier general named Eduardo Gomes. Wikipedia makes no mention of his beloved chocolates, but I suppose it might have been a matter of national security at some point. You can’t take a brigadier general seriously while he is eating tiny pudding balls, now can you?

I hope they become your most beloved treat too. Easy to make and so fun to eat!

This recipe makes about 2 dozen large brigadieros, but again, they can be resized to fit your preference! I used heart shaped sprinkles in honor of Valentine’s Day, but the original recipe calls for chocolate sprinkles.

Recipe taken from Saveur

4 tbsp. unsalted butter

2 tbsp heavy cream

2 14oz cans sweetened condensed milk

3 oz semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted

1 cup chocolate sprinkles

1. Bring butter, cream and milk to a boil in a 4 qt saucepan over medium heat. Add chocolate and cocoa powder, and reduce heat to low; cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is the consistency of dense, fudgy batter, about 16 minutes. Transfer to a bowl; let cool. Chill until set, at least 4 hours. *Note from Beth: four hours was not enough time for my little brigadieros, but I had to go with it because they were for dessert the day I made them. When I make these again I will allow more time for chilling.
2. Using a tablespoon, portion out fudge and roll into balls. Roll each ball in chocolate sprinkles until evenly coated. Chill until ready to serve.

Here are the two types of sprinkles I used for the Brigadeiros.

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Pistachio Meringues with Rose Cream

Pistachio Meringues with Rose Cream

This is the first time I have made meringues and they were surprisingly easy to make! They don’t take much hands on time, but you have to be able to give them 4 hours in the oven! They sound like they are very fussy little cookies to make, but they honestly aren’t. I mixed up a couple of the measurements because I’m not used to working in ml and grams. We have a kitchen scale, I’m just not very quick with it yet. And to top it off, the power went out at our house during the last hour of baking time, but the meringues came out unscathed and delicious.  I will post the rest of the dinner party photos tomorrow, but I wanted to showcase these in a separate post since I took some photos while I was making them. Now without further delay, the recipe. I found it here. 

Chopped Pistachios

Before you start:

An impeccably clean mixing bowl is critical for success.  Any oil inside can slow the expansion of the egg whites.  To be sure you bowl is clean, simply swirl around a little white vinegar and rinse out with warm water.  Be sure to dry the bowl completely before using.

Eggs whip up best when they are at room temperature.  Get your eggs out and separate a few hours before you intend to whip them.  Keep egg whites in an airtight container on the counter until ready.

If you don’t have superfine sugar, put granulated sugar in a food processor or grinder for 30 seconds to make it much finer.

Don’t skip the step of leaving them in the oven for at least an hour after you turn it off.  This will dry them out sufficiently.  As a side note, I have been known to forget mine and leave them overnight.  They were perfectly light and crispy in the morning.

If you are not sure where to find rose water, check where the cocktail mixers are kept.

The ingredients:

For the meringues:

• 200 ml egg whites (6 large eggs)
• 200 ml superfine sugar / 190g
• 200 ml confectioners’ sugar / 110g
• ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
• pinch of salt
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla
• ½ cup chopped pistachios (medium fine)

For the rose cream:

• 4 oz. mascarpone cheese at room temperature
• 5 tablespoon rose water (no that is NOT a typo, you need 5 tbsps of rose water. It seems like a lot, but that’s what you need!)
• 4 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
• 6 ounces heavy whipping cream

Mixing the pistachios into the meringue

The method:

For the meringues:

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees.
2. Line baking sheets with parchment.
3. Sift sugars and salt together.
4. Place egg whites and cream of tartar in a very clean bowl.
5. Mix on medium low speed with whisk attachment until frothy.
6. Turn speed up to medium high and mix until soft peaks form.
7. Turn speed up to high and with mixer still running gradually (slowly) add in sugars.
8. Beat on high speed until stiff, glossy peaks form.
9. Add vanilla and ? cup of the pistachios reserving remainder for sprinkling on top.
10. Mix on high for 10 seconds.
11. Put batter in piping bag and pipe into disks or kisses on the parchment.  Leave 1-2 inches of space between meringues.
12. Sprinkle chopped pistachios on top.
13. Bake for about 3 hours.  Turn off oven, but leave meringues for another hour.
14. Store in an airtight container until ready to serve.

For the rose cream:

1. Place mascarpone, rose water, and sugar in a bowl.  Mix on medium until smooth.
2. Place whipping cream into a chilled metal bowl and beat on high until stiff peaks form.
3. Gently fold whipping cream into mascarpone mixture.
4. Keep chilled until ready to serve.

Pistachio Meringues before going into the oven

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Chewy Orange-Almond Cookies

The recipe for these light little cookies came into my inbox at just the right moment! I had told my sister-in-law that I would make a dessert for her son’s baptism and I had originally planned to make my sugar cookies  and cut them out in the shape of crosses and then decorate them with his name and the date, that kind of thing. But it seemed like a lot of work and I have made those cookies so many times, I didn’t want people to get sick of them! So when Martha Stewart’s daily cookie email came, I knew I had to make these instead.

shredded orange with almond and flour

They are light, fragrant and tasty! I encourage everyone to make these at least once a year. They would be perfect for Easter, baptisms, baby showers, wedding showers, or even just an everyday cookie. They freeze beautifully so they are great to have on hand for lunches or a last minute dessert!

Make sure you whip the eggs long enough or your cookies will spread.

I have translated the recipe here because the one I have the link to doesn’t really tell you how to measure the flour properly. That is the one draw back to Martha Stewart recipes, you have to read them carefully before you start baking or you’ll find yourself yelling in the kitchen, “What the hell am I supposed to do with the ¼ cup flour? Eat it? throw it away? And what with the egg whites, Martha? When do I add those?!”

I don’t think her copy editors get paid enough or something, but there are frequently mistakes in her recipes so if you do end up subscribing to her daily cookie email or any of her holiday newsletters, proceed with caution. The recipes are delicious, but need to be proofread! Here is the link if you want to see the original.

Chewy orange almond cookies

And now, the recipe!

Ingredients

• 4 1/2 ounces sliced almonds, about 1 1/4 cups
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• Zest of 2 oranges, finely grated, about 4 tablespoons
• 1 teaspoon anise seeds, crushed
• 3 large white eggs, room temperature
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons confectioners’ sugar

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, and set aside.
2. In a food processor, blend 3 1/2 ounces almonds (about 1 cup) with a 1/2 cup of the sugar until almonds are finely ground. Transfer almond mixture to a medium bowl. Stir in flour, orange zest, and crushed anise seeds.
3. Using an electric mixer, whisk egg whites, salt, and remaining 1/4 cup sugar to soft glossy peaks. Fold egg-white mixture into dry ingredients until just blended.
4. Spoon level tablespoons of batter 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Using remaining 3/4 ounce almonds, arrange 3 sliced almonds on each cookie. Sift confectioners’ sugar over cookies. Bake until cookies are lightly browned along edges, about 12 minutes. Cool slightly before removing from sheets with a spatula.

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Liz's giant chocolate chip cookies!

This post, along with the last two, is kind of a series: the cake in the cake pops was used in the cookie monster cupcakes and the chocolate chip cookies used for the cupcakes made me really want more chocolate chip cookies, which lead me to ask a friend for her amazing version of the most basic cookie.

This recipe is from my friend Liz, who also happens to be a talented photographer, check out her work here! Her chocolate chip cookies are the best cookies I have ever eaten. I finally asked for the recipe and made them for Easter this year, mine were good, close to Liz’s cookies, but not quite right. I think I need to practice more. Mine were just a tiny bit flat.  The key with these cookies seems to be pulling them out of the oven at just the right moment. The first pan was a little too soon, second pan a little too late and the third pan was just about right. Maybe Liz can offer some trouble shooting tips if she has time between taking care of her two cute kids, packing for a cross country move and various photo shoots this month….We cookie fiends can only hope she has time for us.

Liz’s recipe, as stated by Liz via email.

“It’s my dad’s recipe — a bit of a twist on the old tried and true Nestle recipe on the back of a bag of chocolate chips.”

Preheat oven to 375.

You have to mix things together in this order or they won’t turn out. And you have to mix everything by hand.  This is the only recipe I have memorized!

3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 stick melted butter
2 cups flour (give or take)
3/4 cup (give or take) chocolate chips
1/3 cup toffee chips (these are hard to find in Chicago.  You really want the kind that does not have chocolate on them – just Heath toffee bits.  Sometimes they have them at Jewel or Dominick’s around the holidays, but I have a hard time finding them elsewhere).
1/3 cup finely chopped pecans

I often make them without the toffee or pecans and they are definitely still yummy.

Place them several inches apart on a cookie sheet.  I make mine big, so the balls on the sheet will be about the size of an egg.  You can obviously make them as big or small as you want.  :)

Bake for around 12-14 minutes.  The key is to take them out right as the edges start to brown but while the center is still a little soft. That way they will be perfect once they cool.

Immediately take them off the sheet and place them on a wire rack to cool.

They are best served warm with cold milk and good company.

Another tip:  Use a single sheet, flat, non-stick cookie sheet with sides, not the kind that has the air pocket in between two sheets — they will run all over the place and be a deflated, crunchy mess.

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Joey's smash cake. His mouth is made out of crushed oreo pie crust.

My nephew had his first birthday in April and I was in charge of making his smash cake and the cupcakes for the rest of the guests. His mom picked a cookie monster theme so I came up with these cupcakes and they were delicious! The recipe is the same as the base for the cake pops and the frosting pretty basic so these can easily be adapted for any kind of cake or cupcake you may need.

I dyed the frosting with gel dye because the color is more vibrant and doesn’t thin out the frosting. The cookies are the standard cookie recipe off the back of the Nestle’s chocolate chip bag so they are straight forward too. I guess you could use store bought cookies for these, but home made just tastes so much better.

Cookie Monster cupcakes!

These were really easy to make and look so cute! I can’t wait to make cakes for our baby!

Here’s the cake recipe again:

Dark Chocolate Cake — I made a double batch and had enough for a small 4 inch cake and 48 cupcakes. A single batch will get you the small 4 inch cake and 18 cupcakes. Or if you want to make a traditional cake it will yield two 9-inch rounds or three 8-inch rounds.

2 cups white sugar

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans, or three 8-inch round baking pans.

Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large mixer bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer for 2 minutes. Mix in boiling water – the batter will be quite thin. Pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes on a wire rack, then tap the cakes out of the pans. Cool completely before frosting.

Frosting recipe:

2 sticks of butter, softened

1 bag of powder sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp milk (as needed)

Cream the butter and slowly add the sugar. The frosting should be fairly stiff because you need the hair to stand up. Frosting these takes awhile so it might be a good idea to bake the cupcakes the night before and then frost them in the morning.

Other items you will need:

Chocolate chip cookies

chocolate chips (for the pupils of the eyes)

White chocolate disks (for the eyes–you can buy these at Michaels)

Oreo cookie pie crust or oreos for the mouth on the cake. I bought the pie crust because I hate oreos and didn’t want a whole bag left PLUS if you buy that you don’t have to worry about the white part getting in with the cookie bits!

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Kathy eating a cake pop at the bowling alley

Cake pops have been all the rage for a long time now, maybe they have already reached their peak and are now considered somewhat blasé. I, however, just made them for the first time in February. They were a birthday/Valentine’s Day treat and they were delicious!

Cake pops are very condensed balls of cake with the frosting inside and dunked in chocolate. I would say these are for special occasions only because they are truly a pain to make. You bake the cake, crumble it up, put the “frosting” in, freeze them with the sticks inserted and THEN you dunk them in chocolate and let them cool. They aren’t hard to make, but they certainly take a little pre-planning and are easier to make if you bake the cake/make the batter the night before so that they have plenty of time to solidify.

An entire army of cake pops!

Bottom line: I would make them again, but only if I could share them with others! A little goes a long way.

Here’s the recipe! I found it here:

Cake Ball Mix

What you need
1 batch Dark Chocolate Cake (the recipe is at the bottom)
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 cups confectioner’s sugar
4 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon milk (or more, as necessary)

Bake the cake and let it cool completely on a rack. This is a very moist cake, which is ideal for this recipe. It’s best to let it cool overnight at least. When it is completely cool, break the cake into a large bowl. Crumble it with forks or your fingers until it is in fine crumbs.

In a separate bowl, whip the cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and milk together until smooth. Pour into the cake crumbs and mix with a spoon. Then continue mixing with your fingers, kneading and mixing until fully incorporated into the cake. Check to see if it will roll into a ball. It should: this makes a very malleable, easy-to-handle cake mixture. But if it needs a little extra moisture, add milk a spoonful at a time.

When the mix is completely done, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm. (See what I mean about this taking a lot of time??) This will make several dozen cake pops.

Cake pops in the freezer

Making Cake Pops

What you need
Lollipop sticks (found at Michael’s, JoAnn’s, or other craft stores)
12 ounces white chocolate bark
Colored sugars, candies, and other decorative sprinkles

How to make the balls
Prepare two large baking sheets by covering with wax paper or parchment. Take a bit of the cake mixture and roll it into a smooth ball. If you want to use the lollipop sticks, stick one into the end of each ball, pointing upward, as you put the ball back down on the sheet. Repeat until you’ve used up all the mixture. As each sheet fills up, put it in the freezer so that the balls harden.

How to decorate the cake pops
Melt chocolate or white chocolate in a double boiler on the stove. Dip each ball into the chocolate until covered. Make sure you get the chocolate coating all the way to the stick or the cake might fall off when inverted. As you dip them you should decorate them with sugar, coconut, sprinkles, little candies, whatever. If you wait until you are done dipping all the cake pops the chocolate will have hardened and it will be too late.

Don’t refrigerate these; it will cause the coating to weep or melt. They can be frozen, however.

Dark Chocolate Cake
makes two 9-inch round cakes or three 8-inch round cakes

2 cups white sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans, or three 8-inch round baking pans.

Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large mixer bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer for 2 minutes. Mix in boiling water – the batter will be quite thin. Pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes on a wire rack, then tap the cakes out of the pans. Cool completely before frosting.

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Chocolate Dipped Tres Leches Macaroons

On our way back from Nebraska this summer Nick and I stopped in Iowa City for a snack. We ended up getting a delicious lunch and ended the meal with a giant coconut macaroon. Nick had never had one before and after he devoured the better half of a cookie the size of his face; he declared this cookie was the king of all cookies and had to be made for Christmas. And so it must be.

I found this recipe  on the interwebs and it is a delicious and decadent cookie. It is a caricature of the relatively light cookie we ate in Iowa City, but it is a perfect addition to the cookie repertoire.

On the original post, these cookies are the size of ice cream scoops so I scaled these down and only made a half batch. If you want giant cookies, double the amounts I have posted and bust out your ice cream scoop. And I’m talking about the modern scoop, not the quaint, dainty ice cream scoop of the 1950s. No, in the original post each cookie is at least 3 oz of coconut tres leches goodness.  I used a large measuring spoon to make mine.

Enjoy!

Coconut Macaroon Cookies (this makes half of the original recipe which can be found on this blog.)

2   14 ozs. bags of sweetened coconut flakes

1  14 ozs. cans of sweetened condensed milk

1/8   cup sour cream

1 Tablespoons heavy cream (or whatever milk you have on hand if you don’t want to buy it)

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla

Gather all the ingredients and place the contents of 1 ½ bags in the mixer or bowl.

Add the condensed milk, cream, sour cream, vanilla and mix at low speed or mix by hand until well blended.

Add the final ½ bag of coconut and combine well, for about 30 seconds.

Scape the bowl and re-stir by hand.

Get your ice cream scoop or your Tablespoon and scoop a cookie. Pack the coconut lightly and gently fold the excess batter into the scoop and press down.

Place the cookies about an inch apart on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake at 325 for 15-18 minutes. Let them cool and if you want, dip them in semi-sweet or dark chocolate! I got about 48 cookies out of this recipe.

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My gingerbread house!

So you have your pieces baked, now you put together your house. Start by filling the pastry bags with royal icing and make sure you use a tip that is wide so you have enough frosting to put your pieces together.  Once the icing is in the bag, twist the end of the bag so that you can apply pressure without worrying about icing coming out of the wrong end of the bag.

Now, step by step here is how you put the house together. I did not take pictures of this part because I was holding the pieces together while the frosting dried.

1.     Lightly mark with pencil where you want your house to sit on the base.

2.     Start with the back and one sidepiece of your house. Pipe icing along the bottom edges and along the side where the pieces will meet and place them over the pencil marks you have made. Hold them together for several seconds while the icing sets.

3.     Pipe icing along the edge of the sidepiece where the front piece will meet it and along the bottom side of the front piece. Again let it set, and then repeat this with the other sidepiece. Pipe icing on the side where two pieces of gingerbread come together and on the side where gingerbread meets the base.

I used a lot of icing for this part because I didn’t want the pieces to fall apart. Now you have to leave your base overnight so it can set. You can put the roof on the next day. If you still want to decorate after you put your base together you can make some of the landscape pieces for your yard! I made pine trees out of sugar cones. You use a leaf tip and green icing. Start the tree with a row of “leaves” at the base of the cone and continue working your way up to the top of the cone. Let the icing dry and then place it in the yard when you are ready. You can make different sizes by breaking the cones at different heights.

For the rest of the yard pieces: I used licorice root for the wood pile, red hots on the roof, pretzels for the Super sign, raisinettes for the path to the front door, snowcaps for the path in the back, cotton candy for the smoke coming out of the chimney and frosting for the rest. To make the little birds I piped two circles on wax paper and added a little beak then let them set overnight. You can put them on the trees or wherever the icing is still soft.

This post more than any other makes me seem a bit crazy. I guess projects like these are appealing because the work you put in is fleeting, like monks making sand mosaics, only way less spiritual and significant. I plan to save this house and use it for as many Christmases as possible. Then, when it is moldy or whatever happens to something with this much sugar in it, I will toss it and maybe make another. This one is not nearly as magical as the one at my Granny’s house–or maybe my eyes are too old to think so–but it is nice and I enjoy looking at it when I come home. I just wish the bird’s beaks didn’t look so deformed, and the snowman looks a little melty, oh well. There’s always next time.

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Gingerbread dough ingredients

When I was growing up we only saw my grandparents at Christmas and for about two weeks each summer. So visiting them during the winter was almost as exciting as actually going to visit Santa. We would pack up our favorite distractions for the 9-hour car ride through frigid Iowa and arrive mid-afternoon in Lincoln, Nebraska. There was almost always snow and the house smelled like cookies ALL the time.

Christmas was awesome at Granny’s house because it was unfamiliar enough to be special, but we were there enough to feel like it was home, you know? Okay, now to the point, Granny was a classy lady so all her decorations were classy. One in particular stands large in my mind: her gingerbread house. It was amazing. I spent a lot of time standing in front of it imagining what the inside of the house might look like and admiring all the little details. There were tiny blue birds on the trees, there was a woodpile, a pond and a lamppost that I can’t quite picture, but I know it was there. All the simple, but incredible, details made the house appealing. Granny somehow kept it fresh and had the same house for many years but somehow we never took a picture of the house so all I have are my little Beth brain memories.

Why do I write so much about the house? Because last Christmas we made simple graham cracker houses with our nephews and they were cute, but it made me remember the bigger gingerbread house. So this year I decided to try my hand at making a real gingerbread house.

I got some books out from the library and made elaborate plans for the house. I cut the template and eventually ended up with a scaled back version of the original house I planned. While searching for gingerbread houses online I came across a lot of bloggers who fuss over the dough, the icing, the architectural integrity of the house, blah blah blah. It is baking, not architecture. So this is a house that is by no means perfect, but was perfectly fun to make and is in no way stressful. I am so tired of reading/hearing about self-imposed stress during the holidays. Christmas cards have you stressed? Why write them? Don’t like to bake so much? Don’t. Hate shopping for so many people? I am surprised you have enough friends to make shopping stressful, Mr. Crankypants. But I digress.

I LOVE Christmas and all the work/fun that goes into it. Soooo if you are inclined to do something fun and fleeting this year, make a gingerbread house. Though I have to say, they are more fun if you give yourself a few days to make it because you have to let the pieces dry before you can put the house together properly and it is really fun to come up with all the landscaping so I didn’t want to rush that part. So this is going to be a two-part post. This first one is just about how to make the dough and the icing. The second will be about putting the house together and decorating it.

For the house pattern I used this: It is simple and is easy to modify.

Gingerbread Dough: I found this made more than enough for the house and even enough to remake one side of the roof.  You see, after I baked all the pieces and was setting them on cooling racks to harden overnight I noticed they were covered in flour. So I started to brush off the pieces over the sink, which was full of water to do dishes. Smart, yes? I ended up dropping one half of the roof into the sink, fishing it out and throwing it back in the oven to dry it out. It did not work at all. So, point being, you have lots of dough left over if you need it. And the leftovers make great cookies!

Lay out the patterns on parchment paper.

Here are the steps you follow when making a gingerbread house:

1.     Find a pattern to follow and cut it out on poster board so you have a good guide when cutting the pieces out of dough.

2.     Bake the dough and let it sit overnight in the frig.

3.     Buy candies and things to decorate your house and yard. Also, find a base for your house. Either cardboard or a plate depending on your plans.

4.     Cut out and bake the pieces of your house. Let them cool and harden overnight.

5.     Build the four walls of your house. Let them solidify overnight.

6.     Put on the roof and add the details to the house and landscaping!

7.     Enjoy! And just a note, if you want to have your house illuminated from the inside with lights, plan accordingly and put the lights in the base of the house before you put the roof on or it will be too late.

Here's the dough dolled out with the patterns layed on top.

Now the recipes:

Gingerbread Dough

Soften the butter before hand and it helps if you had a stand mixer to make this dough.

Cream until light and fluffy:

1 Cup butter

¾ Cup firmly packed brown sugar

Add and blend on low speed:

¾ cup molasses

Sift, add, and blend until all the flour is absorbed:

5 ¼ C all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp ground ginger

½ tsp ground cloves

1 tsp salt

Add and blend:

¾ C cold water

Spread the dough out on a sheet pan, cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate it until you’re ready to roll it out (ideally overnight; three hours minimum.) You have to do this because the dough is soft when it is at room temperature and very hard to work with. It will keep for about three days in the frig.

Here's the dough chilling in the refrigerator.

When you are ready to work with the dough, take out about a third of it and roll it out on a floured piece of parchment paper to be about a ¼ of an inch thick, sounds precise, but just eyeball it. Keep in mind that the dough is going to be holding up other pieces of dough so thick is good.  Place your templates on the dough and use a floured pizza wheel or a paring knife to cut the pieces out. When you have the pieces cut transfer them (parchment paper and all) to a baking sheet. Space the pieces about an inch apart and try to bake pieces of about the same size on the same baking sheet since the pieces bake at different rates.

Bake the pieces for about 20-25 minutes at 350.  This sounds like a long time, but remember you are building with these, not eating them. If you want, you can create texture on the pieces, like brick or a thatched pattern on the roof.

The link I provided for the pattern is very basic, so I cut out windows and an extra door. You can just draw on your windows and doors, but I wanted to make windows out of melted candy so I cut out spaces for them.

Royal Icing. This is your glue, this recipe does not taste awesome, but it dries quickly and holds really well. I only made 1/3 of this recipe at a time because it does dry out so quickly and you don’t need a ton of it when you are piecing the house together. So I used a 1/3 to get the 4 sidepieces in place on the board, a 1/3 to decorate the house and some of the yard and the final 1/3 finished up the yard.

Recipe:

5 ¼ C powdered sugar

1 Tbsp and 1 ½ tsp cream of tartar

½ C egg whites.

Sift the sugar and add the egg whites and cream of tartar to the sugar mixture. Combine the ingredients with a hand mixer on low speed, and then beat them on high for two to five minutes until they’re snow-white and fluffy. I dyed and transferred my frosting directly into decorating bags so they wouldn’t dry out.

After each piece had dried overnight, I decorated the windows, doors, etc before gluing them together because I thought it would be easier to decorate a flat surface instead of a vertical one. I think I was right.

Here are the baked pieces with crushed candy windows.

One final note: if you want to make candy windows it is very simple.

1.     Crush hard candies (I used those yellow butterscotches) while still in their wrapper with a hammer. Yes, a hammer. You can do some elaborate bullshit like this, but seriously, just use the hammer. When you have crushed your candies set them aside in a bowl. Try to make the pieces all the same size so they melt at the same rate.

2.     When the pieces of gingerbread that you want to have candy windows are about 5 minutes from done, take them out of the oven and add the crushed candy pieces until they fill the space you have created for the window. Put them back in the oven and watch them. When the candy is melted, pull the pieces out of the oven.

If you want to add a candy lake crush green and blue jolly ranchers, place the uniform pieces on parchment paper and bake at 350 until they are melted. This will take maybe two minutes. Remove from the over and let it cool. Then break the thin sheet of candy into the shape you want.

This all sounds ludicrously complicated, but I hope the photos make it seem less insane. I guess this project, like any craft project, is a million times easier if you have all the pieces at your house.

Whew. Long post. Tomorrow’s will be shorter and have more pictures.

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A polar bear fudgesicle

Fudgesicles taste like my childhood. They made rare appearances in our house growing up, but when they did, they were not around very long. I still can’t explain why I loved them so much. The smooth texture, the creamy pudding…I guess it comes down to the fact that I love pudding in all forms. So when it is frozen into a convenient summer treat, I can’t resist.

This recipe was our first attempt at using an ice cream maker. I have wanted an ice cream maker since I bought Nigella Lawson’s “Forever Summer” a couple years ago, but hadn’t been able to locate a cheap one that still worked. My mom finally found one this summer, thanks Mom!

I am usually not one to buy single purpose kitchen appliances, but my love of frozen desserts overwhelmed my desire for less clutter in the kitchen. It makes ice cream, frozen yogurt and frozen drinks. I have no intention of making frozen drinks, but ice cream and frozen yogurt? Check and check!

So we started with the simplest recipe we could find in the ice cream machine’s manual to make sure it worked. It works perfectly and the next recipe will likely be a chocolate cherry ice cream. I have wanted to make ice cream out of this divine chocolate milk I found at Whole Foods.  Seriously, I’m not using that word to be pretentious. This milk is ambrosia. It is from a local dairy in Indiana and the cows are grass-fed. It is perfect in chocolate form as well as in its natural form. I will keep you posted, but for now, here is the fudgesicle recipe. I included one for people with an ice cream maker and one for those that don’t.

Also, I would like to thank Kathy Rooney and Martin Seay for the popsicle molds! They are “Zoo Pops,” and remind me of those plastic animals made from molten wax at the zoo. Do you remember those? The Mold-a-Ramas were the best part of any trip to the zoo or museum. For a few quarters you got to watch the crazy 1950s looking machine make you  a polar bear, a dinosaur, or a dolphin. They smelled so strange, but that waxy smell? That’s knowledge.

Anyway, these popsicles look like those molds, but thankfully have pudding inside, not melted wax. If you don’t have molds just pour the pudding into a freezer safe container and you’re set!

Recipe with the ice cream maker

3 cups of milk (we used 2%)

2 4 oz boxes of instant chocolate pudding

Mix the two ingredients together until blended, then pour into the ice cream maker’s bowl. Turn on the machine and 20-25 minutes later you have fudgesicles!

Recipe without the ice cream maker

1 (4 1/2 oz.) pkg. instant chocolate pudding
2 1/2 c. milk

Mix well, then pour into a freezer safe container then freeze for at least 4 hours.

I guess the main benefit in the ice cream maker is nearly instant gratification.

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