Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Winner is served.

Well, my little Pillsbury groupies, in case you did not hear, the winner of the 2010 bake-off was announced. Big congrats to Sue Compton for her “Mini Ice Cream Cookie Cups.” They do look really yummy. However, this throws a bit of a wrench into our situation.

You see, our dear friend Jenny Tang had astutely observed that there had been a certain trend in P-bury winners. While history has favored sweet/dessert recipes, the last 14 years or so had suggested a new oscillating pattern.

UNTIL THIS YEAR! Now we’ve had 2 sweet winners in a row. Who knows what the committee will be looking for in 2012? I suppose we should factor in economic forces. It’s been a rough couple of years. The world is looking for a delicious, small way to treat themselves. Forget stay-cations, the real trend is baking up a batch of brownies with your kids. Pillsbury has always pulled at the heart-strings of America, knowing along with the likes of Hallmark and LoLcats, just what our sappy hearts yearn for. These are probably amazing days for Pillsbury. In fact, take a look at this analysis:

Ok, to be honest, I thought that the above chart would reveal something amazing. For the most part, it seems that when unemployment is on the decline sweet recipes tend to reign, which of course goes against my hypothesis above. Really there doesn't seem to be any tie to what kind of recipe wins and the state of our economic health. Now my faith is restored in the Pillsbury bake-off. Perhaps it really is about who has the best-tasting, best-looking food. Conspiracy theories be damned! Back to the kitchen!

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Osh Kosh Ganache!

Alright, let’s leave the gimmicks at the door today. All you get in this entry is some good old fashioned bake-off straight-talk.

About a week ago, I was reading a recipe in Cook’s Illustrated for these insane chocolate cupcakes. Long story short, Claire and I baked these suckers up, complete with chocolate ganache filling. I started to wonder, what else could you fill with such a lovely concoction? How about Pillsbury Crescent Rolls?

I decided to make a peanut butter ganache, and add chocolate chips. So over a double-boiler I combined pb, heavy cream, powdered sugar and semi-sweet chocolate chips. I popped open the roll of crescents, and got to filling. The crescent rolls weren’t really shaped nicely for stuffing, so I tried a couple options – rectangular little spring rolls, and triangular purses (complete with a rose on top using the extra dough).

For a final touch I sprinkled a mixture of sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon on top, and sent them into the 375 oven.
Now let me discuss the results. My exact words upon taking a bite of one of the still warm spring rolls were “HOLY F*CK!” They were, and are delicious! Oh golly, I guess there’s not much to dislike. I’m quite pleased with the texture, too. Could this be a winning submission? I plan on taking some into the office tomorrow to get outside opinions, but hopes are high that others are just as pleased as I.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

The Phyllo is Risen, Indeed

Has it really been so long? We've missed you, too! Let's travel back in time, all the way to Easter. All of a sudden, it was 80 degrees, the tree buds were fairly popping out, and Matt pulled out the yellow-striped linen shirt that is the true sign of the season (as well as a sign of lack of ironing skills/effort). I baked a plain old Pills cake, smoothing the batter onto a cookie sheet in anticipation of cutting it into fun-themed shapes and colorful frosting decoration. But ah -- foiled! -- the frosting was chocolate, and while much more delicious, did not abide by food coloring. In case you're in a bind for time though, here's a handy tip: the cake only took about 15 minutes to bake up nice and golden.

But that was just a preamble, testing the water with a toe, or, if you will, dipping a finger in the flour. (You know, instead of a "green thumb," I would suggest that Rachel, Tracey, and I have "buttered thumbs.") The real show would be with dinner, and it turned out to be just as much of a snap.

The picture on the box made it all look so simple, and happily, it was. Classy but unassuming, the general aura of the phyllo dough box seemed to say, "Oh, how about some napoleons? Or just a little baklava? That sounds nice." Sure, why not? Mr. Chef helped brush the butter onto the dough, Rachel pared away the edges and layered the sheets, and I cooked down some a big pack of Chinatown strawberries into jam. Things hummed along, and we learned that cookie cutters cannot compete with phyllo, but that's just fine. Triangles are great, thanks.

The warmth and butter and sugar created a sort of hazy hang-over halo of happy fatigue. Maybe that's why I thought it didn't matter much that the wand-mixer flung bits of chocolatey cream, spackling us with dessert. We laughed and rolled our eyes, and bundled it up to go to Melanie's place. She treated us to a perfect feast, and we found many ways to construct and consume our phyllo-strawberry-chocolate-cream towers, perhaps falling victim to their namesake's ambition, but only with happy, delicious ends.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Brownie Points

Another shout-out to Cook's Illustrated, the wonderful magazine the churns out perfect, easy-to-follow recipes. I'm so sorry to now cannibalize them, but this recipe needs to reach the world. Matt and I made these scrumptious brown sugar cookies the other night, without much exertion, just perhaps a few extra dirty bowls. That is no price at all to pay for these chewy caramel delights. I apologize for sounding like poorly written magazine copy. Here's the recipe (I made a half-batch to reduce the possibility of us eating 50 of them at once):
http://www.bigoven.com/162655-Brown-Sugar-Cookies---Cooks-Illustrated-recipe.html