It's definitely been quite awhile since I last baked or blogged! But for these babies, I made time! This week's Club: Baked recipe: honey corn muffins. I love how I have most of the ingredients in BAKED Explorations on hand. They were super easy to put together and delicious!

Honey Corn Muffins
Makes 12 muffins

2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1/4 cup honey
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 1/4 cups yellow cornmeal
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Lightly spray a standard 12-cup muffin pan with vegetable spray. Using a paper towel, spread the oil evenly around each muffin cup.

In a medium bowl, lightly whisk the eggs. Add buttermilk, honey, and butter, whisking together until combined.

In a large bowl, whisk the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, both sugars, and salt together. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients, pour the wet ingredients into the well, and gently fold the two together until just combined.

Use a large ice cream scoop and fill each muffin cup about three-quarters full. Tap the bottom of the pan on the counter to level the batter a bit.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean. Let cool for about 10 minutes on a wire rack before popping the muffins out. Serve muffins while they’re warm. Serve with butter and/or honey, if desired. Leftover muffins can be sliced and toasted in the oven.

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Photo courtesy of www.projectfoodie.com:
Chocolate Coffee Cake with Dark Chocolate
Ganache by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito

This week's Club: BAKED recipe is pictured on the left.
Quite an intimidating photo, don't you think???  I really wanted to make the cake but chickened out because I was afraid of all the work it would entail and opted for the easy way out and made CUPCAKES (pictured below)! 

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Memorial Day Weekend 2012 was a scorcher on the East coast and it was the perfect time to make ice cream -- Coffee Cream!   I love coffee and I love ice cream.  When it comes to ice cream, I usually prefer vanilla or chocolate.  Would you be shocked if I told you that I NEVER had coffee ice cream before?  It's true!  This was the first time I had it, and it will definitely not be the last.  The recipe is easy and straight-forward.  Heat cream, milk, sugar & instant espresso powder to make a sweet coffee cream and whip in egg yolks.

This was really good -- rich, creamy and delicious!  Another winner from the Baked Boys!

ingredients:
6 egg yolks
1 3/4 cups heavy cream
2 cups whole milk
3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons instant espresso powder
1 tablespoon Kahlua

directions:
Put the eggs yolks in a large heatproof bowl and set aside.

In a medium saucepan, stir together the heavy cream, milk, sugar, salt and instant espresso powder. Bring the mixture to a slow, consistent simmer (just this side of a boil) and remove from heat.

Whisk the egg yolks until just combined, then slowly stream in half of the hot coffee cream mixture while whisking constantly. Transfer the egg mixture back to the medium saucepan containing the other half of the coffee cream. Heat over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon (about 175 degrees on an instant-read thermometer).

Eemove from heat and strain the mixture into a bowl. Whisk in Kahlua and let mixture cool to room temperature. Press a piece of plastic wrap onto the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate for 4 hours.

Pour into ice cream machine and freeze, following the manufacturer's directions.

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It's time for another Club: Baked recipe.  I've made plenty of cakes, cupcakes and pies....but I've never made a tart before.  I bought these 4" mini tart pans just for this recipe.

This recipe has a few components:  tart shell, orange filling and whipped cream.  The orange filling (which is delicious!) was the most time consuming to make.  I made half the recipe and that was still a lot of work:  from zesting the oranges & lemon, to juicing, to cooking the custard.  You had to see the mess in the kitchen!  But everything smelled so citrusy!

Next was the tart shell which I made the next day.  I dread making pie crusts so I dreaded this as well cause its the same thing!  But I think I lucked out because it was on a much smaller scale.  And finally, the whipped cream -- I went with a lightly sweetened cream.  I thought the orange flavor was predominant already.

For my first tart, I'd say I was pretty successful!  Everything came out great.
Head on over to JRoll's blogpage for the recipe.
Join us next month for Club: BAKED!
(I'm hosting!)  We're making ice cream!

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Chocolate cookie crust, chocolate cake, chocolate pudding + lightly sweetened whipped cream!  Sounds yummy, right?  Well this was and it was Alexis' Club-Baked pick of the week --- Mississippi Mud Pie.

This was really easy to put together -- if one was patient!  I did this in two nights -- taking about an hour each night.  I made one quarter of the recipe and used a 4.5" springform pan (which was on the "too-small" side).  On the first night I made the the crumb crust and then baked the cake.  While the cake was baking, I made the pudding, which comes together really fast -- and I mean, seriously fast -- i burned the bottom of the pan because I turned away for a second.  Afterwards, I let everything set in the fridge.

On the next night, I made the whipped cream, using only 1/4 cup of cream because that's all that was needed and then assembled.  I guess I was suppose to let the pudding "set up" on the cake before unmolding?  The pudding was oozing everywhere - but that was ok cause this was sooooo delicious & chocolaty.  Good think I only made quarter of it, otherwise, I would have eaten a huge one up in no time!  

This was amazing!  The chocolate pudding recipe is a definite keeper!  I think I will forego the crumb crust next time (too much work) or make the FULL SIZE!

Visit Club: BAKED for more information on joining and to see how others did.

Check out Alexis's blog for the recipe.
Our next BAKED recipe:  Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

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It's been way too long since my last Club:  Baked post but I'm jumping back in with something that I've wanted to make ever since I got the book -- Nutella Scones!  I love nutella, hazelnuts & chocolate and this recipe has it all.

The recipe came together quick & easy.  I ran out of heavy cream and just used whole milk and I increased the hazelnuts to a full cup.  These were yummy... and not too sweet either.  But what brings this over the top is the warm nutella drizzle that goes on top after they're baked..... O.M.G!


Please excuse the iPhone photo. 
Forgot to charge the battery to the big camera.

Visit Club: BAKED for more information on joining and to see how others did.

Check out Lorraine's blog for the recipe.
Our next BAKED recipe:  Mississippi Mud Pie (B)

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Happy New Year!

It's been a few weeks since my last post. I thought I would kick off the new year with a BAKED post. Our first recipe for the new year was picked by my friend, Natalie of Just About Food.

I made these into cupcakes for my cousin who's going back to school after his winter break. He has a 10 hour drive ahead of him and really appreciated the snack!

The devils food cake was an easy recipe to put together consisting of cocoa powder (I used valhorna), strong coffee, more dark chocolate and brown sugar. The cake was moist and super chocolaty... This may become my go to chocolate recipe.

The angel frosting was easy to make and looked amazing on the cupcakes but for me the taste wasn't there. Eaten alone it tasted marshmallow-y. Eaten with the cake, it didn't really add any flavor. I think a fudgy frosting would go really well with his cake.

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This week's Club: BAKED recipe is brought to you by ME.

And am i ever so glad this was an easy recipe to make. You see... for the last two weekends I've been packing for our trip to DISNEY. Two adults, one toddler (who is super-excited) and the baby! What was I thinking? Just looking over everything I have ready is exhausting. We're going away for Thanksgiving -- first time we'll be away from home for the holidays. No turkey or cooking or baking by me this year. We'll be dining with Cinderella on Turkey Day! Picts to come!

Halloween just passed and there was a ton of Reese's leftover. We're still going thru it! I couldn't make this entire recipe so I made a quarter of it and came out with 6 huge homemade peanut butter cups. They taste just like the Reese's. Who knew they were so easy to make (and so much cheaper, too)! We loved these!

Ingredients:
1/4 cup cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups peanut butter
1 cup graham cracker crumbs (about 14 individual crackers, not whole sheets)
3 cups confectioners' sugar
10 Tbsp. (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
12 oz. good-quality dark chocolate (60 to 72%), coarsely chopped

Directions:

1. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese and peanut butter until combined. Add the graham cracker crumbs and beat on medium speed for 10 seconds. Add the confectioners' sugar and butter. Beat at low speed for 20 seconds to prevent the sugar from spilling over, then gradually increase the speed until the mixture is completely combined. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and beat again. The mixture will feel slightly dry. Set the peanut butter filling aside while you melt the chocolate.

2. In the top of a double boiler set over hot water, melt the chocolate, stirring frequently until it is completely smooth. Pour the chocolate into a small, deep bowl. Let it cool to tepid (about 100 degrees F, body temperature) while you shape the peanut butter centers.

3. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Scoop out slightly more than 1 Tbsp. worth of filling and use your hands to form it into a ball. (For uniform balls, use a medium-size melon baller or a very small ice cream scoop with a release mechanism.) Place the ball on the prepared sheet pan and repeat the process until all the filling has been shaped. The balls can sit fairly close to each other on the sheet; just make sure they are not touching.

4. One by one, using a fork or large skewer, dip each ball into the chocolate. Roll the ball around from side to side to cover almost the entire peanut butter center, leaving a small part uncovered. Manipulate the buckeye so that the dripping chocolate covers the holes made by the fork. Let the excess chocolate drip back into the bowl and return each chocolate-covered buckeye to the pan. Refrigerate the entire sheet pan for about 30 minutes to set the chocolate before serving. Buckeyes will keep for up to 3 days, tightly covered, in the refrigerator.

Visit Club: BAKED for more information on joining and to see how others did.

Our next BAKED recipe:  Almond Joy Tart

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