Peanut butter cookies

The last few recipes have been a bit, ummmm, ambitious. Maybe it's time for a slightly easier recipe? Or maybe a really easy recipe? How about one that's so easy that the hubs managed to make it. Oh yes. That easy.

Flourless peanut butter cookies
1 C peanut butter
1 C sugar
1 egg

Combine the three above ingredients in a bowl. We used natural, chunky peanut butter, which I really think made the cookies so incredible! Preheat the oven to 350. Drop the dough on to a lined cookie sheet (lined with parchment paper) by the teaspoon-ful. Then flatten with a fork. Optional step: sprinkle with Demerara sugar before baking. Bake for 10 minutes.

Try not to eat the entire batch before they've even cooled. Yes, they're that good!

Yellow cake

What good is a frosting recipe without an amazing cake to go with it? Well, here's the perfect cake to compliment a rich buttercream frosting.

To make this cake, you'll need a mixer, 2 9" cake pans, parchment paper, and the following ingredients:

2.5 C + 2 Tbsp flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 sticks butter at room temperature
2 C sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten and at room temperature
3 egg yolks at room temperature
1 C milk
2 tsp vanilla

Prepare cake pans by flouring, buttering, and lining with parchment paper. I normally use 2 9" pans for this recipe, though it says you can also use 3 8" pans. But of course, I don't have 8" pans. In fact, I really only have 1 9" pan. Good thing springform pans can be used to make cakes too :) Now for the good stuff!

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside.

Beat butter on high until it's light yellow and sticks to the sides of the bowl. This should take about a minute.

Add the sugar in a steady stream, beating on high until mixture is light and fluffy. This should take about 3 minutes.

Reduce the speed to medium. Add the beaten eggs in small increments (about the volume of one egg at a time), allowing the egg to be incorporated between each addition. Now add the egg yolks one at a time, again allowing for it to be incorporated between additions. The mixture should have increased greatly in volume by the end of this step.

Since it's summer here and we don't have air conditioning, this is when I turned on the oven. It's important to minimize the time that there's something at 350F in my house. Did you catch that temperature? Preheat the oven to 350.

Now, find the dry ingredients that you set aside. Reduce speed to low. Add the dry ingredients in 4 additions, alternating with the milk, which should be added in 3 additions. So, that's flour + milk + flour + milk + flour + milk + flour. End with the flour.

Now, add the vanilla.

Pour in to the prepared pans and bake for ~35 minutes. They will be very dark on top, so don't be concerned if they're not "golden brown". The cake should spring back when lightly pressed in the center when they're done. Just be careful to not burn your hand. Steam comes out when you press it -- shocker, I know!

And you're done! Top with the buttercream frosting from here, and you're good to go! I like to melt some strawberry jam as a glaze between the layers.

Enjoy!

Buttercream frosting

I've always had this problem with cake frosting. I want it rich and creamy, but not too sweet. When you make the easy buttercream frosting, you mix butter, vanilla, and way more powdered sugar than I can even comprehend putting in my mouth. And it's just way too sweet. So, I always try to cut down the powdered sugar I put in, which changes the texture of the frosting. It never manages to hold its shape quite right, since the powdered sugar is what stabilizes it. I've heard rumblings of this buttercream frosting that's made with eggs. The eggs stabilize it instead of the sugar. Sounds promising, right? Or course, fear of the technique had me running for the hills. I finally decided to bite the bullet and give it a shot, though. And the result was INCREDIBLE!!.



Yeah, I'm pretty proud of that!

And now for the part you're all waiting for -- how to make the magic happen :)

The recipe is from cookingforengineers.com.

You'll need 4 eggs, 4 sticks of butter, 1 cup of sugar, 2 tsp. vanilla, and 1/2 tsp. salt. And a metal bowl, and a saucepan with which to make a double boiler. Yup, that's where this whole process gets scary. And a thermometer.

Crack the eggs in to the metal bowl.

Add the sugar and vanilla extract and whisk until combined.

Now set up your double boiler. You want the water hot but not boiling in the saucepan. Make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn't hit the water. Got that? You need to cook the eggs until they hit 160 ˆ F. Whisk constantly as you cook to stop the egg proteins from forming scrambled eggs. I don't think you want that look in your frosting.

Once you're reached 160, remove from heat and beat on medium-high for 5 minutes. It should turn light and fluffy by the end of the 5 minutes. And it should have cooled down. You don't want to melt the butter when you add it.

Reduce the speed to low and begin adding the butter, 2 Tbsp. at a time. Wait a few seconds in between additions. Keep on going until you've added all the butter.

Keep the mixer running until the frosting is smooth. Just wait for it. It'll happen. Really.

And you're done! This recipe makes enough to frost the 9in. 2-layer cake shown above. With a little extra for hubs to eat while I was working.

Trust me, it was worth the effort.