the miracle of cream cheese frosting or "why i'm not a scientist"

I've been working on finding or developing a great carrot cake recipe, and as anyone will tell you, the only reason for eating carrot cake is the cream cheese frosting. Cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, vanilla - what could be easier, right? Except that most of the ones I've experimented with have yielded a gloppy, if tasty, frosting that practically drips off the cake, even after refrigerating. Fine if you're spreading it on a cake and eating it out of the pan, but hardly professional-looking. Adding more powdered sugar may or may not have the desired thickening effect, but then all you taste is sugar.

So I turned to Google. A number of searches yielded little new info, but finally I hit upon this post on how to make perfect cream cheese frosting from How to Eat a Cupcake. Interesting: it suggests that cold cream cheese, not softened or room temp, is the way to go. Even more interesting: a comment from a reader about the method used at their bakery. Rather than creaming the cream cheese and butter, then adding the powdered sugar, Pinky said they cream the butter and the sifted powdered sugar, then add the cream cheese, in chunks. Beat, and add vanilla to taste. The end result is thick enough to pipe, which is exactly what I want. Best yet, it's not so sickly sweet that you can't taste the cream cheese, and you can use full-fat cream cheese, Neufchatel, or a mix.

I don't know how to explain it scientifically, but it works like a dream and tastes great. I took advice from the post and used cold cream cheese, and mine was smooth and lovely. Pinky broke down their proportions into home baking amounts, and here's the lowdown:

Pinky's Bakery's Cream Cheese Frosting

1 1/2 cups butter (3 sticks)

4 cups (16 ounces) powdered sugar, sifted after measuring

12 ounces cream cheese (full-fat, Neufchatel, or a mix)

vanilla to taste - about 1 teaspoon

Cream the butter and powdered sugar. Add the cream cheese, a chunk at a time, beating after each addition. (I didn't go crazy with the beating - just enough to work it in.) Add vanilla to taste. I actually added just a little more sugar to mine - maybe a few more ounces - to lighten it. I didn't want to risk using milk, cream, or sour cream to thin it. Delicious, and great with carrot cake!

no knead pain d'epi

+ - hopefully to be upgraded once I practice more.

I have been filling some of my extra "free" time by baking. With a more flexible schedule, I thought now might be a good time to try some new bread recipes. June gloom has kept temps nice and cool, so I don't have to worry about heating up the house with the oven on. I started exploring my Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day book, and I chose the most basic boule recipe first, figuring once I got the hang of it, I could try something more complicated. Many of the later recipes build on the basic, so it made sense to master that one first.

It's not as easy as the pictures made it look!

Most of the doughs in this book rely on a slow, cold rise. You quickly mix up some basic ingredients - flour, yeast, salt, water, etc. - and let them rise at room temperature for a couple of hours. Then you move the mixture to the fridge where it sits for up to a week. Each time you want bread, you sprinkle the surface of the dough with flour, grab a melon- or grapefruit-sized hunk of dough, and shape, proof, and bake it. Easy, right? Not so much.

First, they use the "scoop and sweep" method of measuring flour. Fine, but I've gotten really used to weighing my flour, so I didn't have a good confidence level that I'd used the right amount. Depending on how you measure it, a cup of flour can vary in weight by 2-3 ounces, easily! Given that a cup of flour only weighs 4-4.5 ounces, that's a pretty big swing.

So I wasn't sure whether my dough was an appropriate texture or whether it was too wet. It rose fine, so I knew the yeast was happy, but I had such trouble working with it - think globs of gluey dough stuck to my fingers - that I wasn't sure if the dough wasn't the right consistency, if my inexperience was the problem, or both. I defimitely had difficulty at the "cloaking" stage; my dough never turned into a neat ball with a smooth outer layer. I also had issues shaping it into the pain d'epi, though I'm sure that would improve with experience and if the dough were less wet. No matter what I tried, I could not slide the dough off the peel, into the oven, without ruining its shape. Parchment was the obvious answer, but it's only oven safe up to about 425F, and the bread bakes at 450F. The biggest issue was the taste. It definitely was good, but it wasn't quite what I was aiming for. I'm not sure how to qualify what I didn't like, but it wasn't quite the taste and texture of the artisan breads I'm used to buying. It tasted yeastier to me. That said, Josh and the family liked it a lot and happily ate it up with butter and honey or with stinky cheese.

I've read a lot of comments on their blog and elsewhere with home bakers raving about Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes, so I think I probably need to keep working at this before I render an opinion. I may work from this King Arthur post to figure out how I can better approximate the amount of flour, allowing for differences in weather, of course. Developing the taste and texture that appeals to me may just take patience and practice, so I will have to give that a go!

Pain d'Epi (Wheat Stalk Bread)

(makes four 1-pound loaves)

3 cups lukewarm water

1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast (2 packets)

1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt

6 1/2 cups bread flour (or 7 cups all-all purpose flour), measured with the "scoop and sweep" method

whole wheat flour for the pizza peel

I am going to give you the basic directions, but given the trouble I've had, I recommend reading the full instructions straight from the horse's mouth (aka cookbook).

Mix water, yeast, and salt. Mix in the flour. I used my heavy-duty Kitchen Aid with the dough hook. There's no need to knead. Cover with a lid, but not airtight, and let it rise at room temperature until it begins to collapse or flattens on top, about two hours. At that point, mine had hit the top of the lid, so I don't know if it should have collapsed (more). You can let it go longer, up to 5 hours. Although you can bake the dough at this point, it's easier to work with cold, so they recommend putting it in the fridge for at least 3 hours, or overnight.

When you're ready to bake, you basically do as follows. Sprinkle your pizza peel liberally with whole wheat flour (which yielded burnt flour - and the dough still stuck - yuck). Sprinkle the surface of the dough with flour, then reach in and pull out a grapefruit-sized glob. It'll weigh about a pound. Use a serrated knife to cut it off. Add a little more flour so the dough won't stick to your hands (mine was hopeless at this point), and stretch the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, giving it a quarter-turn after each stretch. Gradually elongate it into a baguette shape, tapering the ends to points. (uh huh)

Let the dough rest on the pizza peel for 30 minutes. It doesn't need to be covered, and you may not see much rise depending on how old the dough is. Do not slash it yet.

Twenty minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 450F with a baking stone on the middle rack. Place an empty broiler tray on a lower rack - you're going to throw hot water in to create steam.

Just before baking, dust the top of the bread liberally with flour. Using sharp kitchen shears, cut from the top, into the dough, at a 45-degree angle, stopping 1/4" from the bottom. Fold each cut piece over to the side, alternating sides with each cut. Repeat until you reach the end of the loaf.

With a quick forward jerking motion of the wrist and a little magic, slide the loaf onto the baking stone. Quickly pour 1 cup of hot tap water into the broiler tray, then quickly shut the oven to trap the steam. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until the crust is deeply browned and firm to the touch. Cool it completely (yes, wait!) before breaking off the wheat-stalk shapes. Eat with good, sweet butter.

The rest of the dough can stay in the fridge for 14 days and you can bake yourself a loaf whenever you want. Place the lid on top, but don't seal it airtight.

Good luck!

getting closer to apple season!

There are actual apples on our tree now - lots of them! They are still tiny (the size of a small plum), but they have lots of promise for the fall. I plan to make (and freeze) LOTS of pink applesauce!

an old favorite: peanut butter-hershey kiss cookies

My sister and brother-in-law called, last minute, to say they were coming to town for the day (from northern CA!). We persuaded them to stay overnight and hang out a little longer, which was great. In an effort to keep the kids sane (read: distract them) the afternoon before Mer and Pax arrived, we decided to make peanut butter-Hershey Kiss cookies, which are one of her favorites. Bonus fact: my parents were coming over for brunch the next day, and these are totally my mom's favorites. The kids measured and ran the mixer, and I steadfastly ignored spilled flour. They actually did a great job!

The pb cookie recipe is from Joy of Cooking. I have a million-year-old, two-volume, paperback edition, but I don't think the recipe ever changes. With all the pb recipes I have tried, these are tried and true. They also work well just as plain pb cookies, and I press them down either with a fork, in a cross-hatch pattern, or using a potato masher, which makes a pretty pattern. But the best way is to bake them, then remove them from the oven and immediately press a Kiss into the center of each cookie.

Peanut Butter-Hershey Kiss Cookies

1 1/2 cups (6 3/8 ounces) flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/3 cup (5 1/3 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) sugar, plus more for rolling cookies

1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 cup peanut butter, smooth! or chunky :-(

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 bag Hershey's kisses (I just use milk chocolate; presumably, you could use any flavor you think would nicely accompany peanut butter)

Preheat oven to 350F. (I know pb cookies are usually 375, but that's usually too hot for me.) Line cookie sheets with parchment or a silpat.

Whisk together flour and baking soda. In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar, and brown sugar until well blended. Beat in egg, peanut butter, and vanilla. Stir in the flour mixture until blended.

Here's where we went into assembly line-mode. I scooped the dough, handed each scoop to the Wub, who shaped it into 1-inch balls, and she handed it to Boy-o, who rolled each ball in sugar. Josh helped him arrange them about 2 inches apart on the cookie sheets.

If you are going to add Hershey Kisses, just pop the trays in the oven at this point. If you're going chocolate-free (and why would you?), press each ball flat with a fork or potato masher. Bake, one sheet at a time, about 10 to 12 minutes, erring on the side of slightly underbaking. I usually check them after 8 or 9 minutes. You want them to be starting to get firm on the tops and very light golden brown. Remove from the oven and, if adding Kisses, immediately press an unwrapped (do I have to say that?) Kiss into the center of each cookie. Let them stand briefly, then remove to a rack to cool.

Try to control yourself and do not eat the entire batch in one sitting.

hotcakes bakes!

Have I mentioned that I'm unemployed? I learned earlier this year that my company planned to move its headquarters and would be laying off most of the employees (surprise!), and my time came two weeks ago. I just started my job search and I'm contemplating what would be a good next move, but in the meantime, while I've got a lot of free time, I'm going to be interning one morning a week at a great local bakery, Hotcakes Bakes!

It would be great if all interviews went so easily. I walked in today, with no appointment, and asked to speak to the owner. I had prepared a pitch in my head, but I didn't get very far; I explained that I'm in job transition and I'd like to work there, and I asked if they ever accept interns. She said yes and asked when I'd like to start and how often I'd like to work. Whoohoo! She basically said they'll take any help they can get, so apparently it's not too discerning a process. Some of the interns are pastry students, and one is an attorney who comes in on Fridays because she likes to. I'll be assisting the head baker with whatever she needs, and I was told we'd start with cupcakes and go from there. I'm supposed to show up at 8, which seems incredibly civilized for a bakery, in a white t-shirt and jeans. Supposedly, it's pretty different from home baking.

To celebrate, I brought home four mini-cupcakes for dessert, all different flavors, and cut them up to taste. Boy-o abandoned his dinner immediately and peppered me with questions: "I'm done with dinnow; can I have my cupcakes now? Can I have another one? Can I look in the box?" Later, he was teary when going to bed, so I reminded him of all the fun things we did tonight and that we had cupcakes. He perked up just long enough to say, "No, Mommy, they were mini-cupcakes!"

Let's hope volunteering has free-sample perks!

ETA: By the way, a few notes on what I'm hoping to get from this experiment:

- Actual baking tips from professional bakers! I always want to improve my mad skillz.

- A sense of baking in a commercial setting: does it take the joy out of baking for fun?

- Although I generally prefer team work environments, baking is typically something I do alone. When you bake with other people, is it fun and collaborative? do you get to take ownership of any little part of it? do I want to be able to take credit for more individual work?

- Do I have any entreprenurial strengths or desires? Enough to start my own business?

chocolate-dipped chocolate chip shortbread fingers

I haven't been reading Coconut & Lime very long, and I can't remember what recipe first introduced me to Rachel's blog. Though she clearly has lots of baking experience, it's actually some of her savory recipes that have interested me most, and I've got them on my "to do" list. A few weeks ago, in honor of her 5-year blogoversary, Rachel posted a contest: readers could either create a recipe with coconut and lime (not going to go over well with the "allergic" husband) or bake one of her recipes and post it to their blogs. The due date is tomorrow, 6/15, and when did I spot the contest? Tonight. So, quick like a bunny, I whipped up some Chocolate-Dipped Chocolate Chip Shortbread Fingers. Based on her picture, I thought they could also be called shortbread cigars (cute, right?).

As Rachel says, they are extremely easy to prep, shape, bake, and dip. The cookies themselves are just as light and buttery as shortbread oughta be. I haven't tasted the dipped ones yet, so I can't speak to the taste with the added chocolate, but what could be bad?

Here's one odd thing. I read the instructions and thought since shortbread is usually flat (not rounded like a cigar), I might prefer the cookies shaped into 3" x 1/2" logs and then pressed flat. My cookies spread a little, but not a lot, but even with the oven preheated, they took WAY longer than 8-10 minutes to even see a hint of color on the bottom. I stopped keeping track, but I checked them about every 60 seconds after the initial buzzer, and I'm guessing they were in there nearly 13 minutes. After the first tray, I had enough dough left for about five more cookies, and I decided to do those following the instructions to the letter. They did take longer - maybe 11 1/2 minutes - but the rounded cookies took color on the bottom much faster (and darker) than their flat brethren. Weird! Wonder if it had to do with the oven continuing to heat, or with fewer interruptions to check doneness (meaning fewer drops in temperature), or with the actual shape of the cookie. The end result is that the rolled cookies are slightly taller and not quite as wide, though they did flatten a little as well. You could go either way with it.

Chocolate-Dipped Chocolate Chip Shortbread (modified slightly from original)
1 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup (2 ounces) powdered sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
pinch of salt
2 cups (8 1/2 ounces) flour
1/2 cup mini-chocolate chips
1/2 cup semisweet or bittersweet chocolate

Cream butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and salt. Add flour, one cup at a time, until a soft dough forms. Stir in 1/2 cup mini-chocolate chips. Refrigerate dough for about 20 minutes or until firm. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350F.

Line a baking sheet with a silpat or parchment paper. I used a silpat. Measure about a tablespoon of dough and roll it between your hands until it is about three inches long. I placed the cookie cigar down and pressed it flat until it was about 1/2" wide and approximately as tall. Place cookies about 1/2" apart on the sheet. You'll want to handle these as little as possible, particularly if you have hot hands like I do tonight. Bake until they are just starting to get lightly golden brown on the bottom, 8-10 minutes, or however long it takes. Keep checking them briefly every 60-90 seconds. Remove from the oven, let sit for a few minutes, and then transfer to a wire rack.

While the cookies cool, melt the remaining 1/2 cup chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl. I don't particularly like the taste of mini-chocolate chips, so I opted to use better chocolate for the dipping but stuck to mini-chips for the batter because they would work better within the cookie. When the cookies are cool, dip about 1/3 of the cookie into the chocolate. Be gentle! They are really fragile. I broke at least four. Place them back on the wire rack, or on parchment, to dry. Store in a tupperware. The original recipe says to store in a single layer, but if the chocolate is dry, I'm assuming you could stack them with waxed paper in between layers.

One more note: since I was planning on flattened cookies, I wondered if it would be easier to roll out some of the dough, cut it to the right size, and transfer it to the cookie sheet. In a word, no. Perhaps if it had firmed up longer in the fridge, but although the dough rolled out and cut fine, it was too soft to be transferred to the cookie sheet intact.

These are the rolled cigar-style cookies.
Next to each other, they don't look that different. On the rounded one, you can see more clearly where it spread. However, I like the height it has.

mascarpone-filled cake with berries

Does anyone subscribe to the weekly Epicurious Recipe Flash? I always scan the highlights for interesting ideas, and recently, they featured 30 can't-live-without cake recipes. When my mother-in-law asked me to make dessert for a Memorial Day family dinner, I thought it was a great chance to try something new, fresh, and light, and the perfect excuse to make a cake since we'd have a decent-sized group. I scanned all the recipes and the Mascarpone-Filled Cake with Sherried Berries jumped out at me. I immediately discarded the notion of sherry, first because there would be kids eating it, and second because I typically hate alcohol in sweets (no rum-filled chocolates or Grand Marnier-laced oranges for me, thanks). But I figured that would be an easy substitution. The cake was described as "light-as-can-be," and it had good reviews, so it seemed like a good bet.

The recipe makes a two-layer cake which is filled with mascarpone cream, sprinkled with powdered sugar, and heaped with macerated berries. (And hey, I learned a new word! I thought macerated effectively meant mashed, but it turns out to have a very specific cooking definition:

1. To make soft by soaking or steeping in a liquid.
2. To separate into constituents by soaking.)

It was delicious! I thought it sort of resembled a fancy strawberry shortcake, probably because of the layers of fruit and cake. The cake was light and delicate and tasty on its own. The mascarpone was combined with whipped cream and sugar for a sweet filling, slightly denser than whipped cream alone would have been, so it held up nicely as a filling. (Mascarpone is thick, smooth and sticky in consistency, almost like cream cheese.) And the sweetened berries on top were perfect to ensure it wasn't dry (some of the juices ran into the cake or down the sides). Altogether, it was a perfect summer dessert as long as you have access to keep it in a fridge until serving time! It also came together relatively quickly and easily. Here's how.

Mascarpone-Filled Cake with Sherried Berries

Cake
2 cups (8 ounces) sifted cake flour (not self-rising; sift before measuring)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 cup well-shaken buttermilk

Berries
1/2 cup Fino (dry) Sherry (I used water and just made simple syryp with 1:1 water and sugar)
juice of 1/2 lemon

1/2 cup sugar
4 cups mixed berries, cut if large (I used abut half strawberries and the rest blueberries and raspberries)

zest of a lemon

Cream
8 ounces (1 cup) mascarpone
1 cup chilled heavy cream
1/4 cup (1 3/4 ounces) sugar

Garnish
confectioners sugar

Directions

Make cake

Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Butter a 9-inch round cake pan (2 inches deep will work, but 1 1/2 is too small; if you only have 1 1/2" deep pans, I'd probably divide the batter into two pans). Line bottom(s) with a round of parchment paper, then butter parchment.

Sift flour first, and then measure flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and whisk them around a bit (so you don't have to bother sifting a second time).

Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. With mixer at low speed, beat in buttermilk until just combined. Add flour mixture in 3 batches, mixing after each addition until just combined.

Spread batter in cake pan(s), smoothing top. Rap pan(s) on counter several times to eliminate air bubbles.

Bake until golden and a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack 10 minutes. Run a knife around edge of cake to loosen, then invert onto a plate. Discard paper and reinvert cake onto rack to cool completely. The cake can be made a day ahead, cooled completely, and wrapped in plastic wrap. I'm sure you could also make it further in advance and freeze it, but I would completely thaw it before assembling.

Macerate berries

Squeeze the half-lemon into the measuring cup. Add enough water to bring it to a half-cup of liquid. Bring lemon/water (or Sherry) and sugar to a boil in a small heavy saucepan, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Put berries in a bowl with lemon zest and pour hot syrup over them, gently tossing to coat. Let stand 15 minutes. The macerated berries can sit as long as two hours at room temperature, but much longer and they'll start to get soggy.

Make cream and assemble cake

Beat mascarpone and cream with sugar in a large bowl with electric mixer until mixture just holds stiff peaks.

Halve cake horizontally with a long serrated knife. Carefully remove top half and reserve. Put bottom half on a plate, then spread evenly with all of cream and replace top half. Sprinkle top with confectioner's sugar. Just before serving, heap berries in the center. The juices may run down the sides a bit, melting the powdered sugar, but don't worry about it! Some of the reviewers on Epicurious mentioned straining the berries so this wouldn't happen, but I actually liked it when the juice soaked into the cake a bit. I also saved some of the extra berries (they didn't all fit on top of the cake) and the juice and served them alongside it.

These are the berries, macerating.

Ready to go except for the berries.
The end result. Yum!

mascarpone brownies

We celebrated my mom's birthday recently. My parents came over for a barbeque (mmm, Bobby Flay's cheeseburgers with grilled vidalia onions and horseradish-dijon spread, corn salad, leftover, awesome fried chicken wings...). I wanted to do something special for dessert, but I also wanted to keep it simple, in keeping with the low-key BBQ. My mom loves fudgy brownies, and I had seen this recipe for one bowl mascarpone brownies.

I based my interest in the recipe off the photo, which looked almost like fudge to me. Conveniently, I had mascarpone in the fridge. I didn't even realize they had a ganache topping until I looked at the recipe more closely. To be fair, the brownies themselves only require one bowl, but you have to wash it and reuse it to make the ganache. I'll let it slide since these were rich and delicious and fudgy. However, without having added up calories and fat grams, I'll wager that these are incredibly bad for you (lots of sugar, butter, eggs, and chocolate, plus the mascarpone), and I didn't think they were SO outstanding that I'd go out of my way to make them again. By the time we topped them with vanilla bean ice cream, I was pretty much over my caloric allotment for the year.

Let's get on with the recipe.

Mascarpone Brownies

Brownies
1 cup unsalted butter
3 ounces best-quality semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
3 large eggs, at room-temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup (2 1/8 ounces) all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (2 ounces) cocoa powder

Ganache
5 ounces best-quality semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
5 tablespoons whipping cream
1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 325F and line an 8x8" pan with parchment paper. I let the parchment hang over the edges a bit to make it easier to remove.

In a glass bowl, melt butter in microwave. Stir in chocolate and mix until combined (a few additional seconds in the microwave may be needed).

Add sugar to chocolate/butter mixture and stir until combined. Heat for an additional 30 seconds on high, remove and stir until it looks shiny. It will still look a bit grainy.

Add marscapone, eggs, and vanilla, mixing until smooth.

Sift flour, salt, and cocoa into mixture with a sieve. Stir just until combined, making sure to scrape all sides of the bowl. (Mixture will be rather light in texture, instead of dense and heavy like many brownie batters.)

Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth top to ensure even baking. Bake for 40-50 minutes until tester comes out clean. While they are still warm, use a potato masher to lightly tamp down the surface of the brownies. Don't squish them; just flatten them a little so the surface is level. Leave in pan and set on wire rack to cool.

While brownies are cooling, make the ganache. Since this is a poured ganache, it's quick; you don't have to wait until the ganache sets up. You'll want to pour it over the brownies while they're still warm. I don't usually use butter in ganache, just cream and chocolate, but I figured I'd follow their directions. I reduced the amounts in all the ganache ingredients slightly and it was plenty.

First, chop the chocolate so it'll be ready to go. Heat the cream and butter in a saucepan over low heat. You can do it in the microwave as well, but make sure not to boil it. Add the chocolate and stir gently until it is all melted and well incorporated. Immediately pour over brownies. Let cool completely. You can put them in the fridge, which will help them cut cleanly. You may need to clean your blade for each cut for a more polished look.

Usually, I make 20-25 brownies from an 8" pan. With these, I made at least 36. Because they're taller than regular brownies, you can easily cut more pieces and still get plenty of bang for your buck. Also, please note the awesome plate, which was a gift from my friend Anna. I love the fluted edges!

kid-friendly desserts: burger bites and domino brownies

I volunteered to bring dessert for the kids' end-of-the-year performance and party at school. I wanted to do something fun that would really appeal to kiddos, and my mom had great suggestions for two desserts from my childhood: burger bites and domino brownies. Fun and easy!

First up, the burger bites. I'm sure you've seen these, and they were SUCH a big hit - totally disproportionate to the amount of work (or actual baking: none) that does into them. I used 'Nilla Wafers, mini Peppermint Patties, coconut tinted green with a little food coloring, and sesame seeds. With one box of cookies and one bag of candy, I was able to make about 40 burgers.

Preheat the oven to 250F. Place half the cookies, rounded side down, on a cookie sheet; that's the bottom bun. (Do I have to say you should unwrap the Peppermint Patties? Do it now.) Place one patty on each cookie; that's the burger. Before you put them in the oven, you're going to want to get the coconut (lettuce) and remaining cookies ready. I'm not much for mise en place, but you have to move fast once they are heated so the top "bun" will stick. Measure about 1/2 cup coconut and place it in a tupperware with a couple of drops of green food coloring, then seal it and shake it around to evenly coat the coconut.

Place the tray in the oven for just a minute or two, until the Peppermint Patties are a tiny bit shiny/melty on the top, but not melting. Pull the pan from the oven and quickly sprinkle it with a little coconut and top it with the other cookie, round side up. You need to do this fast so the buns will stick. Once you've finished all of them, brush each cookie lightly with water and sprinkle four or five sesame seeds on top. This isn't an exact science; just do what looks good to you. I placed each cookie in a small cupcake liner to keep them upright and from melting together.

Now for the domino brownies. These couldn't be easier! I just made my standard brownie recipe (which I recently discovered can be found on Epicurious - guess it's not a family secret, though I think my mom and I both consider it our "go to" recipe) and doubled it so it made a 9x13" pan. The cooled brownies were frosted with my standard bakery buttercream icing. (Beat together 3/4 cup unsalted butter, 1/4 cup shortening, 6-8 cups powdered sugar, 1 3/4 teaspoons vanilla extract, 1/4 teaspoon almond extract, and several tablespoons of milk. The amounts of sugar and milk can vary depending on how light you like your frosting; I usually use 6 1/2 or 7 cups of sugar and about 4-5 tablespoons of milk. I like it light and easily spreadable. By the way, this much frosting will cover and fill a two-layer cake; you could safely halve it for the brownies and still have plenty.)

Back to the method. Frost the brownies, then cut them in domino-sized rectangles. I think I got about 48 (8x6). Remove them from the pan and separate them slightly to make it easier to decorate them. I used a fairly narrow chopstick to draw a line across the brownie to form the two halves of the domino. Mini-chocolate chips, point sides down, form the dots. This is actually very time consuming and rather a pain, but not difficult. I tried to make a good assortment of dot combinations so it would resemble a real domino set. I also had to cheat and look at actual dominoes to remember the position of the dots! They came out super cute and, of course, delicious.

Now for the confession: I am a big dork. I made the brownies earlier in the week and froze them. In my not-so-infinite wisdom, I cut them first. Um, yeah. Thursday night, I frosted them. It's awfully hard to see where the brownies are cut with frosting on the top. I gently pulled them apart, but of course the frosting wasn't as neat as if I had just cut straight through them, so I used a small offset spatula to go around the edges and smooth them. They worked fine (and 3-5 year olds aren't that discerning), but it did add some extra work. They're still cute, though!

holy cow!

Well, that was a first. In the process of kneading bread dough, my heavy-duty Kitchen Aid mixer just "walked" itself off the counter and landed on the floor with a huge BOOM!

1. Boy am I glad no one was in the kitchen with me.
2. Wear shoes while cooking.
3. Do not fail to pay attention to your mixer. It can whine louder than any 5-year old.

Whew!