Sno Caps in Austin

A Girl and Her Kitchen is expanding! Welcome to the first installment of my guest blog series….A Girl’s Friend and Their Kitchen! This first entry comes from Ms. Elle Boogie in Austin, Texas. She and the hubs go way back. Boogie just relocated to Austin from LA to go to culinary school, which only makes this entry even more fun! We hope she comes back again with all the fun facts and recipes she learns in class!

It's pouring rain here in Austin and I have the day off work, so I thought why not put my (budding) culinary skills to work, pastry style. Well actually, cookie style. Now, I've never baked cookies before, but I've eaten plenty and think I know what it takes to make one oh so delicious. And as I perused the isles of Dollar Tree (more like HOLLER Tree; that place is awesome!!), I came across my inspiration. SNO CAPS!! It's hard to outdo semi-sweet chocolate drops covered in crunchy little candy sprinkles, but I was out to try. So I grabbed a couple of boxes and headed to the market for all the necessary ingredients for creating my little masterpieces. Since I've always been a huge fan of those Entenmann's Toffee cookies, once I saw the bags of Heath toffee bits I knew I had to have them! Finally made it home and began working my cookie making magic. The result was yummy, sticky, gooey deliciousness! Prep and cooking takes less than 30 minutes and well worth the mess!! Happy baking, y'all!

Not for Passover Noodle Kugel

This shiksa made a booboo on Passover and brought noodle kugel to dinner. I like to think it is rather endearing of me and thank god for forgiving in-laws. Apparently the fact that pasta dough is not leavened doesn’t matter. It’s still on the ‘do not invite to Passover dinner’ list. Most of the folks at Passover dinner this year could not in fact explain to me why pasta is not allowed aside from just knowing its just not. So, with that new information in hand, next year I will volunteer to make something more Passover appropriate and while I will likely be the butt of a few family jokes for eternity (though I’m not sure this tops my mother in law’s gefilte fish-matzo ball soup accident) at least I made my mark in a very A Girl and Her Kitchen way.

My religious faux pas aside, this turned out to be hands down the best kugel I have ever in my entire Jewish food eating life tasted.  I’m not sure there is a kugel out there better than this here dish. Now I had previously thought kugel was a noodle pudding. Obviously my recent Passover experience proves that wrong. Apparently a kugel is a casserole (which can also be made with matzo which most normal Passover cooks do for the holiday…ooppss). Duly noted.

If you have not had the pleasure of making or eating kugel, you are missing out. It’s a sweet or savory dish (I like sweet) made of (in my house) wide egg noodles, slightly sweet eggy custard doted with mild cheese, melted butter, and perfectly seasoned with lemon zest and nutmeg. It is baked until it is golden with a light sweet and crunchy crust around the edges and the custard has set. It is in a word divine. You must get on this right away, just don’t bring it to anyone’s house for Passover.  Though truth be told, while I am not naming names, a significant number of the husband’s family and friends gleefully met me out by the car where I doled out heaping helpings of my black market Passover unfriendly dish all of whom have been asking for the recipe ever since :).

Not Your Mom’s Banana Muffins

When we were really lucky, hadn’t recently sent my mom screaming toward the nearest psych ward with our incessant sibling wars, my little brother and I would periodically wake up to my mom’s homemade banana muffins before school. This was a serious treat folks. Not that pop tarts, toaster strudels, or those freaky Ovaltine breakfast ‘shakes’ we usually had weren’t the bees knees, but homemade banana muffins piping hot from the oven are serious drool worthy eats.

Now bananas and I have a rather contentious relationship. I actually quite adore the lovely yellow fruit. Sprinkled over any cereal, pancakes, with peanut butter and honey…any way you slice it, I am a fan. But I can’t help but feel the banana doesn’t quite love me back, or at least has a mean streak. I buy them in these big gorgeous bunches, hang them on high in my nifty wire hanging fruit baskets and then before I’ve made too big of a dent, the darn things are brown and spotty already. I am NOT one of those over-ripe banana lovers. In fact, there is a small window of time that the banana is in my favor when it’s not really green anymore with a good yellow hue and no sign of brown. I just can’t seem to eat them fast enough. I know, I know...there is always the 'don't buy so many option' or the 'put them in the frige once they are ripe to your liking' way of doing it, but I just can't seem to get my act together on this one. Enter the banana muffin.

Those deep dark brown dead bananas are perfect for muffins and breads. Their sugars are ripe for baking! So I took my mom’s recipe and played with it, coming up with what I think is quite a superb specimen of banana muffin glory. Not that mom's aren't fantastic, but I think mine do quite well with the hungry folks in my house.

Not Your Mom’s Banana Muffins
(A Girl and Her Kitchen)

½ cup butter (unsalted and room temp)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs (room temp)
¼ cup whole milk
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups whole wheat flour (can sub all purpose flour)
1 tsp baking powder
¾ tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips (optional)
1 cup toasted coconut flakes (optional)
Brown sugar (for sprinkling)

Preheat oven to 375º

In a bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon.

In a second bowl, mash together bananas, milk and vanilla.

In a third bowl, cream butter and sugar using medium speed of an electric mixer (or use your super duper KitchenAid mixer). Add eggs one at a time and beat well. Add half the flour mixture and mix to combine. Add the banana, milk, vanilla mixture. Mix well. Add in the rest of the flour mixture and mix well.

Using a wooden spoon, fold in the chocolate chips and toasted coconut.

Spoon the batter into cupcake tins filling them 4/5 full (I use an ice cream scoop). Sprinkle each with a bit of brown sugar.

Bake for 20 minutes (if making mini muffins, bake for 15 minutes). They are cooked through when a small knife or toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean (save for some melted chocolate :). Enjoy!

Blue Cupcakes a la NYC's Magnolia Bakery

When I lived in NYC, getting to Magnolia Bakery was a major treat. Interestingly enough, I’m not one of those sugar addicts. I don’t actually like icing to be honest and I never ask for a birthday cake made of anything other than ice cream, but Magnolia Bakery is the rare place that makes a cupcake I actually crave. So when my friend decided to throw a BLUE themed birthday party, I figured Magnolia cupcakes with a major color flare would be right up her alley. That and the fact that these little devils are probably 99% sugar and butter and let's be honest, something with that much sugar and butter has to be good.

Magnolia's Vanilla Cupcake

Cupcakes:
• 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Icing:
• Vanilla Buttercream, recipe follows

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 (1/2 cup-12 capacity) muffin tins with cupcake papers. In a small bowl, combine the flours. Set aside.

In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not over beat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended.  (Add a few drops of food coloring at this point ot change the hue of the batter. Check out the crazy blue I got!)

Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about 3/4 full. (I made both mini and regualr size cupcakes)

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.
Cool the cupcakes in tins for 15 minutes.

Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing.

Vanilla Buttercream
The vanilla buttercream used at the bakery is technically not a buttercream but actually an old-fashioned confectioners' sugar and butter frosting. Be sure to beat the icing for the amount of time called for in the recipe to achieve the desired creamy texture.

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 6 to 8 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Add 4 cups of the sugar and then the milk and vanilla. On the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat until smooth and creamy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition (about 2 minutes), until the icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency. You may not need to add all of the sugar. If desired, add a few drops of food coloring and mix thoroughly. (Use and store the icing at room temperature because icing will set if chilled.) Icing can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Yield: enough for 2 dozen cupcakes or 1 (9-inch) layer cake