Happy Halloween and Ghastly Pumpkin Chocolate Swirl Cupcakes

I probably said this last Halloween but I'll say it again, I LOVE Halloween.  Unfortunately this year I haven't done such a good job of showing it.  You see, I thought and thought about an idea for a costume and when my friend Julia finally came up with one that was perfect for me (Cruella Deville) I turned all lazy and perhaps a bit too frugal.

So here I am on Halloween with no awesome costume to match previous years (Wednesday Addams, Minnie Mouse, 60's flight attendant, Betty Boop) but a lot of festive food* to make up for it.  Hopefully, Halloween will forgive me.

*I will be posting another Halloween themed recipe tomorrow!

Spiced Pumpkin Chocolate Swirl Cupcakes with Light Cream Cheese Icing
I found these cute little ghost shaped baking tins at Target, but obviously regular baking cups or even a bread or brownie pan will work just fine, for the latter two you will likely need to adjust the cooking time though.
Loosely adapted from Cooking Light and Make Me Hungry

Ingredients
1 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/8 teaspoon cloves
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cup non-fat plain yogurt
2 tablespoons melted butter
scant 1/4 cup canola oil
1 15oz can canned pumpkin

For the chocolate swirl:
1 cup batter
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons agave nectar
1/4 cup skim milk

For the icing:
These measurements are inexact, basically you just want to achieve an spreadable consistency.  Not too liquid-y and not too thick, unless you like it that way.

1- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon skim milk
1 tablespoon softened butter
3 tablespoons whipped cream cheese

Chocolate for decorating:
~2oz dark chocolate
splash milk or cream

Preparation
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Sift all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl and set aside.  In a medium bowl, combine the eggs, yogurt, vanilla, pumpkin, melted butter and oil and stir until well combined.  Pour the wet mixture into the dry and mix until everything has been incorporated.

Take 1 cup of the batter an transfer it into a medium bowl, add the cocoa powder, agave, and milk and mix well.

Spoon enough of the pumpkin batter into a prepared muffin tin (or ghost) to just cover the bottom, then add a spoonful of the chocolate batter and another spoonful of the pumpkin batter (until the muffin cup is 1/2- 3/4 full, depending on how big you want them to be) and swirl together with a knife.  This doesn't have to be precise, experiment with different ways and see what works best for you.

Bake at 350 F for about 30 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.

Icing and Decorating
For the frosting, mix all ingredients together in a bowl until your desired flavor and texture are achieved. Wait at least 30 minutes for the cupcakes to cool before frosting them.

Melt the chocolate over a double boiler with a splash of milk or cream and then transfer to a pastry (or heavy duty ziploc) bag.  If using a ziploc, cut a tiny hole in the corner of the bag and then squeeze out the chocolate for decorating.

Mole Chili

I've been busy lately.  So busy that I missed my blog-iversary which, for the record, was October 14th.  It's strange to think that I started this blog a year (and 4 days) ago; before then, I hardly ever read food blogs and I was totally unaware that such a vast array of them existed.  Now, reading other food blogs, as well as keeping up my own, is something of a habit that I can't quite imagine my life without.

Unfortunately, ringing in a new blogging year came with a lot of flops.  In the past few weeks I've made a handful of things which weren't terrible by any means but were certainly nowhere near outstanding either and thus, in my limited time, not worth posting.  It wasn't until I came back to an old favorite, and one of the first real meals I started to cook from scratch, that I finally had some success.

The chili recipe below is a re-vamped version of a recipe I fell in love with a few years ago.  As I mentioned a while ago, it was my friend's Dad who first introduced me to homemade chili.  His was a hearty, healthy, and simple vegetarian chili that was comfort food without the subsequent bloating.  My recipe below is a spin on his simple chili with added cocoa powder and cinnamon for complexity and depth of flavor, lean ground beef for slightly more body, and fire roasted tomatoes for even more warmth.  This is my idea of the perfect cold weather fare.

Mole Chili*
This recipe is extremely adaptable.  Aside from the flexibility you have with seasonings, you can easily leave out the ground beef for a vegetarian version and add more beans or veggies such as zucchini, mushrooms, corn, peas, or celery.  In addition, you can play around with texture by using a food processor to prepare the vegetables or chopping them slightly larger by hand.

Ingredients

2 small sweet onions (or one large), diced
2 carrots, diced
1 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
1- 2 tablespoons olive oil or canola oil
2 bell peppers (red, green, yellow, whichever), diced
1 small jalapeño, seeded and minced
1 1/2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 28 oz can diced fire roasted tomatoes
1/2 lb lean ground beef
1 14 oz can kidney beans

1/3- 2/3 cup water, broth or wine added as needed
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation
Prepare all the vegetables, then coat the bottom of a 6 quart or larger stock pot with cooking oil and add the hot red pepper flakes.  When the oil is hot, but not smoking, add the onions and carrots and cook until the onions are translucent, about 5 minutes.

Add the peppers and stir all together.  Let the veggies wilt another two minutes or so and then add the remaining spices and herbs.

Add the tomatoes.  Bring mixture to a boil and then reduce heat to a low simmer.  As you wait for the mixture to simmer, brown the ground beef in a medium sauté pan with a few spinkles of chili powder, salt and pepper.

Add the beans and the ground beef and simmer on low for at least 45 minutes adding extra liquid (water, broth, wine) as needed.  Stir occasionally to make sure the chili doesn’t burn or stick to the bottom of the pot. Taste to correct for seasoning (hotter?).

Serve over brown rice, polenta, millet, egg noodles or with a side of cornbread (or whatever else you'd like) and garnish with chopped sweet onion and shredded cheddar cheese.

* I know this isn't a traditional mole, per se, but the complex blend of spices in mole is what inspired this recipe.

Butternut Squash Risotto with Fried Sage

I love fall and pretty much everything about it. The air is crisp and comfortably chilly, the colors are warm, the food is wonderful and Thanksgiving is in the near future :). Some of my favorite falls foods (and I'm sure many of yours as well) are pumpkin, butternut squash and sweet potatoes. All orange, all hard, all delicious.

So to celebrate the beginning of fall and its produce, I wanted to make something perfectly seasonal. And wow, did this hit the spot. I know it's quite a bit more indulgent than the recipes/food I usually post (and eat, for that matter) but indulging once in awhile is fine by me, as long as it's worth it. And yes, if you were wondering, this is definitely worth it.

I don't know if you know this, but risotto is like savory pudding. It's amazing. I could hardly keep my fork, or spoon (or hand?) out of this risotto; it was that good. The fried sage is the perfect garnish too; it allows for a slight crunch and a concentrated earthy kick to this supremely creamy and utterly heavenly dish.

You will thank me for this.

Butternut Squash Risotto with Fried Sage
Serves 4, generously
Adapted from both Just Vegging Out and Simply Recipes
Ingredients
1 butternut squash, peeled and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
6 sage leaves, finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups arborio rice
4 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup dry white wine (I used Sauvignon Blanc)

~ 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil for frying
extra sage leaves for frying and garnish

Preparation
Melt 2 tbsps butter in a large saucepan. Add onions and squash cubes and sauté until squash is tender and slightly mashable. Lightly mash some pieces with your spoon.

Heat broth in a medium pot. In a large pot heat 1 tbsp butter until melted. Add the rice and stir until all the grains are coated. Add the squash and onion mixture and stir until combined. Then add 1/2 cup of the wine and cook until almost fully absorbed.

With a ladle, begin adding hot broth until the rice is just covered. Let the broth evaporate/ absorb into the rice and add more until just covered. Repeat this process until the broth has been used up.

To fry to the sage, heat olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Gradually tilt the skillet so the hot oil pools on one side and add 5 or so sage leaves (per batch). Stir until they turn just a shade lighter and crisp up (about 30 seconds). Transfer to paper towels to drain. Continue to fry in batches until you have your desired amount.

In the last few minutes of cooking the risotto, add the remaining 1/4 cup of wine and stir until absorbed. Then add the Parmesan and stir. Garnish with fried sage. Devour.

Oatmeal Buttermilk Bread

I don't know if I've discussed this before but I've baked bread a fair amount of times and while they usually turn out pretty well, I can never seem to achieve that bread bakery quality. You know, the crusty on the outside, spongy and springy on the inside quality. Well, this bread is the closest I've come so far.

No, it's not perfect but the texture on the inside is pretty spot-on. The outside was crusty and hard when it emerged from the oven, but after sitting on the counter overnight it became more like the crust of a traditional supermarket loaf, which is not necessarily a bad thing. The crust actually had a nice oven baked flavor; it tastes like it looks, browned and oaty- definitely not a bad thing.

I used mostly white whole wheat flour for this bread (it's my first time trying it out so I used a bit of all-purpose as well) and like one of my new favorites, whole wheat pastry flour, I was very pleased with it. It's lighter in color and flavor than regular whole wheat flour but is almost equal in nutritional value (I believe white whole wheat has 1 gram less fiber than whole wheat per serving) so it's a great alternative to refined flour with a less noticeable change in flavor (than using traditional whole wheat). Plus, it was on sale at the grocery store! What more could you ask for?

Oatmeal Buttermilk Bread
makes 2 medium boules (see Peabody's site if you would rather bake 1 loaf in a bread pan, instead of 2 boules on a pizza stone as I have done. Alternatively, Foodie Bride made her two boules in a dutch oven.)
Adapted from Foodie Bride's take on Peabody's recipe

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup boiling water
1/4 cup warm water
2 teaspoons dried yeast
1 1/2 cups low-fat buttermilk
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons molasses
1/3 cup canola oil
2 teaspoons salt
3 cups white whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour [I added an extra 1/2 cup to the batter white kneading due to stickiness]

2 teaspoons honey mixed with 1 tablespoon hot water

Preparation
Set aside 1/4 cup rolled oats. Place the remaining oats into a medium bowl. Cover with boiling water. Mix with spoon to moisten all oats. Let bowl sit, uncovered, for 10 minutes, stirring frequently.

Place 1/4 cup of warm water in the bowl of your stand mixer and sprinkle yeast on top. Let rest for 5 minutes. Add soaked oats, buttermilk, oil, brown sugar, both flours, and salt. With hook attachment, mix on low speed to combine, then increase speed to medium and mix for about 10 minutes [I did this by hand and need to develop better skills]. Dough will be wet and cling to hook, but have a satiny finish.

Place dough in an oiled bowl and over with plastic wrap. Proof in a warm area for about an hour, the dough will almost double in size [Mine took longer than this to proof, maybe around 2 hours, since it wasn't too hot in my apartment].

Place dough onto a floured surface and flatten it with your hands, releasing excess air bubbles. Divide the dough into two equal portions. Knead a few times to form each half into a ball and rest seam-side down on two sheets of parchment paper cut larger than the dough ball. Cover with lightly-oiled plastic wrap and let rise for 45 minutes.

While loaf is proofing, place your pizza stone in the oven and preheat to 400 F.

Remove plastic wrap and use a very sharp knife or razor to make 1/2″ deep cuts on the breads in a pattern of your choice. Use a brush to apply the honey and water mixture to the top of each loaf [you could also bake them separately if your stone is not large enough for both; in this case, wait until the first loaf has come out before prepping the second for the oven]. Sprinkle each with half of the remaining oats. Carefully transfer the parchment paper with the dough to the pizza stone [I slide the dough on parchment from a cookie sheet directly onto the pizza stone]. Bake for 40- 45 minutes, or until the top and sides of the loaf are a deep brown.

Remove the breads from the oven by grabbing onto the parchment and sliding the loaf on parchment onto your cookie sheet. Cool on a wire rack.

Earl Grey Tea Cupcakes with White Chocolate Frosting

If a cupcake were ever sophisticated, this would be it.

I bet this seems weird to some people- sure, you're familiar with tea and cake but tea in cake? But let's start at the beginning, shall we...

I got the idea for this ingenious mix of flavors at least a year ago from eat me delicious but my recipe inspiration came from another source. Right when I read the heading, "Earl Grey White Chocolate," I knew these were going to be something special (don't ask me why it took me so long to actually make them).

As usual I made a number of my own changes, the biggest of which was upping the amount of tea used. I read many different recipes and almost all of them said something along the lines of "the earl grey flavor was very subtle, next time I might try adding more tea." Being the lover of earl grey tea (and bergamot along with its debatable benefits) that I am, I didn't want these cupcakes to be subtle; I wanted them to be unmistakeably earl grey, and I think they were thanks to extra tea leaves in the batter coupled with tea infused milk.

These cupcakes came out perfectly, really, I have no complaints (is this a first?). The flavor was as strong as I wanted it to be, however, since earl grey is by nature a delicate flavor, it was by no means overpowering. The cake itself was light, tender, and subtly sweet, which provided a nice compliment to the more decadent frosting.

All I have left to say is that these are my kind of cupcake, and if you haven't already gotten the message: make them!

Earl Grey Tea Cupcakes
I halved the recipe to make 12 cupcakes (below is the halved version, hence the awkward 1 3/8 cup flour)
Adapted from Vanilla Garlic

Ingredients
1/2 cup (one stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 3/8 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
scant 1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup 2% milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 bags double bergamot early grey tea [I used the Stash Tea brand]

Preparation
Beat the butter until soft for 30 seconds. Add the sugar and continue beating until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat for 30 seconds between each.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a bowl. Then add 2 bags of the tea (bags ripped open and contents emptied) into bowl and whisk until combined.

Measure out milk and heat in the microwave until just boiling (1- 2 minutes on high). Place the remaining 2 tea bags into the piping hot milk and let steep for at least 5 minutes. when finished make sure to squeeze the tea bags to release any remaining milk. Next add the vanilla extract to the milk tea and stir.

Mix in the flour mixture and the milk mixture into the egg/butter/ sugar mixture, alternating between the two and ending with the flour. Scoop the batter into cupcake papers about 3/4 full.

Bake for 18- 22 minutes* at 350F until a toothpick comes out clean.

*the original recipe had a bake time of 22- 25 minutes but mine were ready (just golden on top) around the 19 minute mark.

White Chocolate Frosting
Although this frosting was good, I wish I could have tasted the white chocolate a bit more. Next time I might try skipping the milk altogether and lessening the sugar to 1 1/4 cups; this will also help if you like a thicker frosting. Also, the higher quality the white chocolate you use, the better the frosting will taste. I've found Lindt to be a good option for both affordability and quality.
From Diana's Desserts

Ingredients
4 1/2 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped
1 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup 2% milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick/3 oz./85g) unsalted butter, softened
Pinch of salt

Preparation
Melt the white chocolate in a double boiler. Stir until smooth. Let cool to room temperature.

Sift the confectioners' sugar into a medium bowl. Stir in the milk and vanilla. Add the butter and salt and beat until smooth. Stir in the cooled white chocolate. Refrigerate until firm enough to frost the cupcakes, about 30 minutes.

Trail Mix Granola Bars

I've made granola bars a handful of times before but none quite like these. The first time I used a recipe I found under the lid of some Quaker oats and they turned out poorly, too cakey. The next few times I tried my hand at no-bake granola bars using brown rice syrup, oats, crisp rice cereal and whatever mix-ins I was feeling at the time; those turned out pretty well but I couldn't seem to perfect the ratios of ingredients and I used puffed rice cereal instead of crisp rice cereal but didn't realize my mistake until after I'd made a couple batches... oops. Needless to say (though I guess I already have), there were some problems, one of the biggest being that out of the fridge the bars totally softened up, and while I like a chewy granola bar, I don't want them to fall apart on me.

So here is some of my criteria for a good granola bar: a good granola bar needs to be filling, it needs to be wholesome, it needs to be able to hold up in the bottom of a handbag or backpack, and, perhaps most importantly, it needs to taste good.

I got my inspiration for these from my new favorite bars, Pure Bars. I can't find them at many places around here; actually, I can only find them at Trader Joe's and they only carry two of the six flavors (Cherry Cashew and Chocolate Brownie, if you were curious). Anyway, I've really wanted to try the ChocChip Trail Mix flavor but as I said, I can't find it anywhere so I decided to make it. I changed up the ingredients a little and came out with a bar that I'm sure is just as good (if not better than) the original (even though I've never had it).

These bars meet all my criteria for a good granola bar. The only thing I might do differently next time is decrease the amount of nuts so the bars aren't quite as caloric. What I did this time once I realized is cut them into smaller pieces. If you make 10 squares instead of six rectangles, each one will be about 200 calories with around 75 from fat, which is pretty much just how I like my granola bars- with a calorie count low enough to be a snack and a decent amount of healthy fats to keep you satisfied.

Trail Mix Granola Bars
Feel free to play around with these ingredients however you'd like. The original bar uses raw cacao nibs instead of chocolate chips, but I wasn't ready to make that splurge just yet. Also, you can use your favorite nuts and mix-ins instead of following mine to a T. I really enjoyed the sweet and salty combo that resulted from using some raw nuts and some salted ones. You could also double the recipe and press it into an 8x8 brownie pan if you want more bars.

Ingredients
1/4 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup raw cashews
1/3 cup raw almonds
1/4 cup dry roasted and salted pistachios
10 medjool dates, pitted [I always buy un-pitted and pit them myself to prevent them from drying out]
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup roasted unsalted sunflower seeds
1 tablespoon ground flax
1 tablespoon peanut butter
3 tablespoons oat bran

Preparation
Pulse chocolate chips in a food processor until broken up into smaller pieces (don't worry if they aren't uniform, and don't over process). Remove the chips and set aside. Add all nuts to the food processor (no need to clean) and pulse until broken into small pieces, remove and set aside. Pulse the dates, peanut butter and half the raisins in the food processor until a paste forms.

In a large bowl, combine the chocolate chips, nuts, sunflower seeds, ground flax and oat bran and stir together. Transfer the date paste to the bowl and mix until well combined- this will take some time and seem difficult at first, but it happens.

Press the mixture into a parchment lines bread pan and even out (you can coat your hands with a small amount of oil, use the bottom of a cup, or press down with the exposed parchment). Freeze or refrigerate until hard (I used the freezer and waited a little under an hour) and then cut into as many pieces as you'd like.

Wrap in wax paper and store in the refrigerator.

Sunflower Chip Cookies

I had the bright idea of adding chocolate covered sunflower seeds to these cookies when I was at Whole Foods picking up some spelt flour. You see, Borders is right next to Whole Foods and they sell chocolate covered sunflower seeds (street names: little drops of heaven, crack, sunflower chips). These things are so good but aren't too easy to come by around these here parts. Still, I don't know why I haven't thought of adding them to baked goods before. They really made these cookies.

As usual, I adapted this recipe. For some reason I have this problem. I cant just make a recipe as is; for better or for worse, I have to fiddle with it. And so fiddle I did. I changed up the flours, substituted agave (my first time baking with it!), nixed the molasses etc. etc.

Though I tried to make my ratios of wet to dry ingredients as similar as possible to the original recipe, for some reason my cookie batter was definitely on the wet side. I added a touch more flour and then thought about adding some more, but the mixing was causing the color of the sunflower chips to run. Reluctantly I stopped mixing and decided to proceed with the wet, sticky excuse for cookie batter I'd created.

It was a bit hard to shape them into rounds but being the perfectionist that I sometimes am, I pressed on. While they were in the oven, I crossed my fingers that I didn't waste those precious little sunflower chips on what might turn out to be the worst cookies I'd ever made. But soon enough they were done and my fears were assuaged. Impatient, as I usually am, I had to eat one soon after it came out of the oven.

So here's the verdict: The flavor of these cookies is great (I'm going to give most of the credit for that to the sunflower chips- gold star!) and the texture was like a perfect soft baked cookie. The only "problem" was that they were super thin. I think this could be easily remedied by making smaller cookies (I, only having one cookie sheet, made them quite large). I tried to fix the thickness problem by making them a second time with regular chocolate chips (boo) and more flour, and while this certainly helped the thickness, the cookies were more cake-y and less sweet.

So here's my solution to super thin soft baked cookies (if you even want a solution): fold in half and enjoy. I ended up doing this with most of the sunflower chip cookies and it gave me twice the thickness, twice the softness and no need for recipe alterations. So what if it turned my near perfect circles into semi-circular confections, even my sometime perfectionist can live with that.

Sunflower Chip Cookies
Adapted from Vive le Vegan!

Ingredients
3/4 cup spelt flour (not the white kind)
1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup brown sugar (not packed)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup light agave nectar
1 tablespoon grade B maple syrup
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
scant 2 1/2 tablespoons canola oil
heaping 1/4 cup chocolate covered sunflower seeds

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°F. In a bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, brown sugar and salt, until well combined.

In a separate bowl, combine the maple syrup with the agave and vanilla, then stir in the oil until well combined. Add the wet mixture to the dry, along with the sunflower chips, and stir through until just well combined (do not overmix).

Place large spoonfuls of the batter on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 11 minutes, until just golden (if you bake for much longer, they will dry out*). Let cool on the sheet for no more than 1 minute (again, to prevent drying*), then transfer to a cooling rack. Makes 8-10 large cookies.

* I did not have this problem with drying at all, alternatively, my cookies were very, very moist- likely because of the changes I made to the recipe.