Sugar & Salt

We Knew This Would Happen One Day...

2010-09-16T21:24:00.004-04:00

...we basically tied. Yup. Tied. The score was down to the hudredths of a point. Sugar's Southern Joy Pie came in with a 3.93, and Salt's Creamy Goodness Key Lime Pie For Lazy People came in at 3.87. Super close, so we are calling this week's throwdown a TIE!!

So, since there is no loser this week (or any other week for that matter) we have decided to each choose one item and use one of the desserts offered up last week for this week's poll. So, without further ado, get your voting mouses ready because this week's choices are:

SNICKERDOODLE COOKIES
GINGERBREAD CAKE
LEMON BARS

Voting is open from now until next Friday at 12:00 noon when we post the results. Stay tuned and have a great weekend!

I Wish I Had Bought The Jack Lalane Juicer from that Infomercial

2010-09-14T12:22:00.009-04:00

I soo should have posted this yesterday, but a little thing called Monday Night Football was on and completely distracted me from my blog post. So, sorry for the delay, but here is my recipe for Key Lime Pie.

This pie was a near disaster (it seems I'm having a few of those lately). I started off making a recipe from Southern Living, which called for 1 cup of freshly squeezed Key Lime Pie. So, I bought a bag of key limes and began squeezing. The recipe says 25 minutes of prep time - I would like to call BS on that. After 1 hour of squeezing and grating rinds, I barely reached 3/4 cup with a bag of 20-some key limes. Uh oh.... So, I opened up the classic Joy of Cooking cookbook which, thankfully, only called for 1/2 cup of key lime juice but used 1 tablespoon of grated key lime rind. I ended up blending these two recipes to create the recipe below. I hope it worked, I ate it for breakfast and liked it.

I also just love how each week Salt and I have come up with completely different recipes. It's so cool seeing how each of us chooses recipes each week and the key lime throwdown is no different. LOVE IT!

PS - Do not put foil over meringue, apparently it can cause the meringue to disappear where it touches the foil, thus causing your pie to look like a cake wreck.

Sugar's Southern Joy Key Lime Pie

Yield: 1 9" Pie

Prep Time: 1 hour (for squeezing juice), 25 minutes for the rest, 28 minutes cook, and 8 hours to chill

Ingredients:

Pie Crust:
1.25 cups of graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup melted butter
1/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

Filling:
2 (14 oz.) cans of sweetened condensed milk
1/2 c. fresh key lime juice
1 tbsp. grated key lime rind
1 egg yolk, lightly beaten

1/4 tsp. salt

Meringue:
2 egg whites
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
2 tbsp. sugar

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350. Combine the graham cracker crumbs, butter, and sugar in a bowl with a wooden spoon. Press into a 9" pie plate. Bake for 10 minutes.
2. Remove the crust from the oven and allow it to cool.
3. Combine sweetened condensed milk, lime juice, rind, and egg yolk in another bowl and stir until well combined. Pour into the pie crust.
4. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar until soft peaks form. Gradually add the sugar, one tablespoon at a time. Beat for about 4 minutes on high speed.
5. Spread the meringue overtop of the pie and filling.
6. Bake at 350 for 28 minutes.
7. Allow the pie to cool off a bit, then chill for 8 hours.
8. Eat for breakfast.

XOXO,

Do you love Key Lime Pie? How about free time?

2010-09-13T16:19:00.004-04:00

Wow I can't believe I am the first to post today! Everything about Key Lime Pie week has been as easy as...pie. I was hoping we would eventually get to make it because I have the quickest recipe ever to share with you guys. It required no research because my mom and I have been making it ever since she asked her friend that worked at this one restaurant how they made the key lime pie that she so loved to eat there and he told her. And we laughed because it was so ridonkulously simple.

I have made it for countless parties and it's always a hit. Even with people who don't really like key lime pie.

The best part? If you're feeling super lazy, you don't even need to turn on the oven. The only reason I had to yesterday was to make the crust because the rules here include no buying pre-made.

Salt's Key Lime Pie for Lazy People

From Salt's personal recipe vault.

Yield: 1 pie. Duh.

Ingredients:

1 12oz container of Cool Whip from the freezer section (Sorry there are some things that I am not going to do from scratch and whipping cream is one of them.)

1 can of condensed milk

Concentrated Limeaid

And if you are making your own pie crust you will need:

1.5 cups of graham cracker crumbs

2 tbsp granulated sugar

6 tbsp melted butter

Then you combine all these things in a bowl and press into the bottom of a pie pan. Then bake for 8 minutes at 350 degrees.

Or you could just buy a pre-made crust.

For the pie filling...combine the whipped cream and condensed milk in a bowl. Add Limeaid to taste. I always like this part because you can make it as limey as you would ever want it to be (I prefer a little less limey). Pour in pie crust. Cover and stick it in the freezer to set for like 8 hours.

The end.

Seriously. It is the easiest dessert ever. Personally, I like to make mine with low fat whipped cream and reduced fat condensed milk so that I feel less guilty eating it. Then I have to stop myself from eating the whole pie in one sitting because it is just that good.

Or at least I think it is. Time to let the taste testers decide.

The polls are closed...

2010-09-10T13:16:00.002-04:00

...and the winner for this week's bake-off is...

KEY LIME PIE!

Just in time for the end of the summer! Sugar's husband is going to be thrilled.

Thanks so much to everyone that voted! I'm off to figure out the best way to make a graham cracker pie crust. The last time I made one, I had a massive fail. (This is Salt posting BTW.)

Stay tuned for our creations on Monday!

Red Velvet Cupcakes - The RESULTS!

2010-09-02T16:29:00.007-04:00

It's results time again!

Sugar's Cupcakes:

Salt's Cupcakes:

After the fiasco that was my meringues, I needed a win to make me feel better about myself! I highly recommend the recipe I used to anyone that loves red velvet. I just received word from one of our taste testers that the cupcakes are still fabulous all these days later as long as you keep them in the fridge!

Yep. We are still eating them over here.

So because I won this week, Sugar has picked out the next three things that our lovely readers can vote on.

Will it be:

Key Lime Pie (Yes, again...apparently Sugar's husband is a HUGE fan.)
Apple Pie
Lemon Bars

A poll will be appearing in the side bar as soon as I can figure out how to make one. Or maybe I will just have to beg Sugar to do it for me because she's already a Blogger poll expert. :)

HAPPY VOTING and we hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. We will announce the results of the poll at the end of next week and get back to baking after the holiday is over.

Does anyone know if they make red velvet cupcake perfume?

2010-08-30T14:33:00.006-04:00

Because I need it. I would be totally happy if I could smell like these every day for the rest of my life.

First and foremost, I would like to give a big boohiss to my husband's job that has taken him away to Texas until Thursday. Without him, leftover cupcakes are going to sit in my kitchen and I am going to have to dial up all the willpower I have to not continuously cram them into my face. This recipe made 3 dozen cupcakes, you guys. That is exactly 2 and a half dozen more than will probably be eaten at the office today. I'm in big trouble.

So what can I say about red velvet cupcakes besides the fact that I want to wear them as perfume? They are my favorite kind of cake (hence why I picked them as an option when I lost the meringue challenge). And cream cheese icing rocks.

When I started looking into different recipes though, I was somewhat appalled by how much oil some of them used. (I'm looking at YOU, Paula Deen.) That's when I came upon the absolutely most perfect cupcake for me. Not only because oil was out entirely, but because the recipe is said to be from the famous Magnolia Bakery in NYC.

Okay I have no idea why that would make it any more perfect for me. Maybe because I used my superior Google skills to find it? Whatever.

Super Special Secret Magnolia Bakery Red Velvet Cupcakes on the DL

Courtesy of some blogger that rocks for putting it online.

Yield: I just told you. My ass is going to be enormous if someone doesn't take some of these home.

Ingredients for the cake:

3 ⅓ cups cake flour (not self-rising)

¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened

2 ¼ cups sugar

3 large eggs, at room temperature

6 tablespoons red food coloring

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

1 ½ teaspoons salt

1 ½ cups buttermilk

1 ½ teaspoons cider vinegar

1 ½ teaspoons baking soda

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease and lightly flour three muffin tins. Place cupcake papers in the tins.
Sift the cake flour and set aside. In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until very light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each.
Whisk together the red food coloring, cocoa, and vanilla. Add to the batter and beat well.
In a measuring cup, stir the salt into the buttermilk. Add to the batter in three parts, alternating with the flour. Beat until each addition is fully incorporated.
Stir together the cider vinegar and baking soda. It will foam up just like in middle school science class and if you are anything like me, it will make you laugh like a moron. Add and mix well until the batter is smooth.
Divide the batter among the prepared pans. Bake each tray for 20 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
Let the cupcakes cool in the pans for 1 hour. Remove from the pans and cool completely on a wire rack.

And now the frosting:

1 pound (two 8-ounce packages) cream cheese, softened and cut into small pieces

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened and cut into small pieces

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

4 cups confectioners’ sugar

The original recipe calls for 5 cups of sugar, but I thought that was kind of overkill. Plus I like my cream cheese icing to taste a little like cream cheese.

In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth, about 3 minutes.
Add the vanilla and beat well.
Gradually add the sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating continuously until smooth and creamy.
Cover and refrigerate icing for 2 to 3 hours, but no longer, to thicken before using.
Put icing in pastry bag and then proceed to get it all over self, counter, floor, cats, and anything else that might be within a 15 foot radius.

I'm not joking. I have never destroyed my kitchen so thoroughly as I did making these cupcakes. I love them though. Please, someone take some. Please.

I Must Give a Big, Public Thank You...

2010-08-29T22:08:00.005-04:00

...to my absolutely wonderful, perfect husband. Without him, this crazy weekend of baking madness could have never taken place. So, before getting into of the yummy details behind this week's recipe, I would like to first and foremost thank my husband for the massive amount of help and support he gave me this weekend so I could bake 2 cakes, celebrate a plethora of birthdays, and create this round of cupcakes. LOVE YOU!! XOXO!!

Okay, now on to one of my most favorite desserts ever, Red Velvet! This week, I could have taken the easy way out and used the same recipe for all of my baking, but thought I might try my own personal Red Velvet throwdown. I made a cake by Bobby Flay this weekend and loved the flavor of the cake and the icing was not a typical cream cheese icing, but a cream icing. That icing tasted great and was actually textured (probably because I did something wrong), but still tasted fantastic. I highly recommend anyone try it. Here is the recipe. For anyone into decorating, this icing is much easier to work with than any cream cheese icing, so if you've got some crazy decorating job or prefer your cakes to hold up more than 5 minutes outside of the arctic, I say go for this icing.

For these cupcakes, however, I tried Paula Deen. This chick can seriously bake. Anyway, I think I liked the icing from these better than Bobby's, plus that icing was waaaay quicker and easier to make. Perfect for cupcakes. As for decorating, it's a typical cream cheese icing that must be refrigerated as you go because simple hand heat will completely melt this. But, I think the flavor is FANTASTIC!!! The cupcakes require a lot more oil, y'all, than I'm used to, but I figured the closer you are to a heart attack, the better they probably taste. :)

Paula Deen's Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Recipe Courtesy Paula Deen, 2007

Prep Time: 20 min

Cook Time: 20 min

Serves: 24 Cupcakes

Ingredients:

2.5 cups all-purpose flour

1.5 cups sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cocoa powder

1.5 cups vegetable oil

1 c. buttermilk, room temperature

2 large eggs, room temperature

2 tbsp. red food coloring

1 tsp. white distilled vinegar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 lb. cream cheese, softened

2 sticks butter, softened

1 tsp. vanilla extract

4 c. sifted confectioner's sugar

Chopped pecans & fresh raspberries or strawberries, for garnish (Note: I omitted this step)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350-degrees F. Line 2 muffin pans with cupcake liners.

In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. In a large bowl gently beat together the oil, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla with a handheld elextric mixer. Add the sifted dry ingredients to the wet and mix until smooth and thoroughly combined.

Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake tins about 2/3 filled. Bake in the oven for about 20-22 minutes, turning the pans once halfway through. Test the cupcakes with a toothpick for doneness. Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting.

For the Cream Cheese Icing:

In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla together until smooth. Add the sugar and on low speed, beat until incorporated. Increase the speed to high and mix until very light and fluffy.

Garnish with chopped pecans and a fresh raspberry or strawberry.

Cook's Note: Frost the cupcakes with a butter knife or pie it on with a big star tip.

Happy Baking!!

XOXO,

Sugar

The way to a man's heart is undoubtedly through his tastebuds.

And the Winner Is....

2010-08-27T13:27:00.002-04:00

Red Velvet Cupcakes!!

Thanks to all who voted. Stay tuned till Monday when Sugar & Salt throwdown with some cute, red little treats. Have a great weekend!

And the Voting Starts...NOW

2010-08-17T12:21:00.001-04:00

... voting has officially begun on the Sugar & Salt Throwdown. As Salt has forfeited this week, she had full rights to choosing three yummy dishes that you, our beloved followers, can vote on for us to make in two weeks (see below).

Salt's choices are (drumroll, please):
a. Red Velvet Cupcakes
b. Snickerdoodle Cookies
c. Key Lime Pie

Please vote on the handy-dandy poll to the right. We are also opening up voting on our Facebook page.

Emeril's Forgotten Kisses Meringues earned Sugar an overall score of 4 Yums!

I would like to state for the record, that Salt's meringues taste AWESOME!! I could not stop eating them. Although the texture wasn't that of a meringue, the flavor was fantastic and she probably would have kicked my butt had they firmed up. I'm not even a mint fan, but I loved her peppermint meringues, so I highly recommend everyone try them.

Now, for the sad news, we will be taking next weekend off as a bye week to prep for football season. No..not really, but we will be taking off because Salt has some awesome family events that she must attend to and Sugar will be attempting to hit a golf ball without taking someone's eye out. For that reason, the voting will close on Friday, August 27 for our next bake-off on August 30. This gives each of you 2 whole weeks to vote like crazy on the culinary concoction of your choice. Happy voting!!

In the meantime, if we discover any more tips, tricks, or failures from baking land we'll be sure to keep you posted.

XOXO,

Yeah...don't try this at home....

2010-08-17T08:41:00.002-04:00

I'm swamped right now. At work and in life. So when I had to pick what we made this past week, I wanted to do something that I had made (successfully) before and also something that I could lazily copy/paste directly out of my personal blog. Smart right? It always worked for art history papers in college.

Well it didn't work out so well for me this time. I ended up forfeiting this weeks challenge because my meringues fell flat. Like literally. They were like little pancakes. The flavor was VERY good, but I just don't think I left them in the oven for long enough. Lesson learned...moving right along.

Here's the recipe, but pay no attention to the baking times. In fact, I'm not even going to post baking times. Refer to Sugar's recipe if you want baking times because hers came out crispy just like these things are supposed to.

Mint Madness Meringues

by: Me. I take full responsibility for this crap.

What you need:

4 large egg whites

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar (I had no idea what this was…you can find it in the spice section at your local grocery)

1 1/2 cups of granulated sugar

1 cup of semi-sweet mini chocolate morsels

Peppermint extract

First of all, you want to separate your eggs. Pour your newly separated egg whites into a mixing bowl and combine it with the salt and cream of tartar. Beat “until soft peaks form”.

Add a little bit of the peppermint extract. Caution: This stuff is STRONG. You don’t need very much. And if you get it on your hand, you will smell like peppermint for the rest of the evening, regardless of how many times you wash your hands or take a shower.

Finally, gently stir in the chocolate chips.

Grease cookie sheets and drop tablespoon-ish sized dollops of this mix onto them. Now refer to Sugar's post about how long to bake these bad boys because mine were seriously underdone. Delicious, but underdone.

This May Be My New Diet Cookie....

2010-08-15T19:36:00.005-04:00

Well, I have to admit, I'm not the biggest fan of meringues in the world. I've made some lemon meringues the past few Christmases, and maybe ate one...got annoyed that it got stuck in my teeth, and then stopped eating them for another 12 months. So, my expertise in the meringue genre is limited and I actually didn't realize the possibilities that existed until I searched for recipes.

I chose for this week, Emeril Lagasse's Meringue Cookies ("Forgotten Kisses"). They are a vanilla meringue with chocolate chips. And, after kicking myself for putting nuts in the brownies last time, I omitted the walnuts in this recipe so I could partake in some taste testing this week.

The meringue batter tasted like marshmallow before baking, so that was a little surprising. However, I tasted one of the little cookies after 2 hours in the oven and it was like a diet little chocolate chip cookie.

Meringue Cookies ("Forgotten Kisses")

Recipe courtesy Emeril Lagasse, 2003

Prep Time:: 20 min
Inactive Prep Time:: 30 min
Cook Time:: 2 hr 0 min

Level:: Easy

Serves:: about 4 dozen cookies

Ingredients

2 large egg whites, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
2/3 cup superfine granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips or finely chopped semisweet chocolate
1 cup finely chopped walnuts

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat egg whites until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and beat until fluffy but not at all dry. (Be careful not to over beat.) Add the sugar gradually, about 3 tablespoons at a time. When 1/2 of the sugar has been added, add the vanilla extract. Continue beating and adding remaining sugar in batches, until all of the sugar is dissolved and the meringue is very shiny and tight. Gently fold in the chocolate chips and chopped nuts. Working one teaspoon at a time, push a teaspoonful of meringue from the tip of 1 teaspoon with the back of another teaspoon onto the lined baking sheets, leaving 1-inch of space between cookies. Place baking sheets in the preheated oven and turn the oven off. Leave the cookies (undisturbed) in the oven for at least 2 hours and up to overnight, or until cookies are crisp and dry.

Happy Baking!!
XOXO,
Sugar
The way to a man’s heart is undoubtedly through his taste buds.

Oh - Big PS. DO NOT use egg whites in a carton. They will not fluff up the same way fresh egg whites will.

Meringue Monday!!

2010-08-12T12:19:00.007-04:00

Salt has requested that since she is such a great baker that she's really not had the opportunity to choose our treat for next week that she choose meringues for next week's throwdown and voting begin next week. This is also due to her deep craving for meringues. So, on Monday we shall bring you these little sweet treats.

The flavor of meringues is completely in the air, so this will be an interesting throwdown as there could be 2 totally different meringue recipes competing against each other.

(Image Courtesy of McCormick)

On a side note - Sugar's rating for Guy Fieri's [Not So] Craisy Oatmeal cookies was a 4.6. This is with scientific accuracy and a grand total of 3 voters (our whole office was on vacation last week and the cookies were gone by the end of the day Monday).

What flavor meringues do you suggest for us?

Have a great weekend!

So This Guy Walks Into Rosemary, A Coconut...

2010-08-09T19:08:00.006-04:00

...and puts it in his oatmeal cookies. Since Salt is away this week, I've decided to make the oatmeal cookies I probably should have made two weeks ago instead of the eh, so-so ones I threw together before vacation. This week I made Guy Fieri's [Not So] Craisy Oatmeal Cookies, without the dried cranberries. The recipe was actually really easy to make. I just love how he threw the coconut in the cookies to make them extra-moist, but the thing that really threw me was the rosemary. Yes, rosemary. I was a little leery at first, but the cookies turned out pretty good.

So, here's the recipe. Please make it and let us know how you like them. Also, get your voting minds ready for Salt's return so you can vote on what we make next week.

Guy Fieri's Craisy Oatmeal Cookies
(Not So Craisy when Sugar Made Them)
Copyright 2010 Guy Fieri, Food Network

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon (I added a little extra)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), at room temperature
1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 cup sweetened coconut flakes
3/4 cup dried cranberries (Omitted by Sugar)
2 cups quick oats
1/2 teaspoon fresh rosemary, finely chopped
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a medium bowl, sift together flour, soda, powder, cinnamon and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar with a mixer. Mix in honey and vanilla until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, until fully incorporated. Mix in coconut, dried cranberries, oats and rosemary. Fold dry ingredients into butter mixture. Form into balls, approximately 2 tablespoons. Place 2 inches apart on parchment lined cookie sheets. Bake until cookies turn golden, 13 to 15 minutes. Remove from oven to cooling rack. Let sit 5 minutes in the pan before transferring to a rack to cool completely.

Happy Baking!!
XOXO,
Sugar
The way to a man’s heart is undoubtedly through his taste buds.

The Results Are In, But Salt Is Not. :(

2010-08-05T08:57:00.005-04:00

Sorry for the lack of graphics on our results post, but Salt is out on her vacation this week and without her mad graphic design skills, I'm kind of lost. But, anywhoo, here are the results of our brownie bake-off.

Salt: 3.6 Yums
Sugar: 4.4 Yums

Sugar gets her first win!! Yay. So, now we have a change in our Throwdown that will interest all 47 of our loyal followers. Salt will be choosing 3 things that she wants to make for the next Throwdown. We will post her choices as a poll next week and our followers will get to vote on what we make next. :) When she returns from getting tan and relaxing, the official ballot will be posted for you.

As for this week, since Salt is out I've decided to go with the Guy Fieri oatmeal cookie recipe and have it judged to make up for my baking sin from last week. We'll see how this one goes over. The recipe will be posted on Monday and results on Wednesday. Have a great weekend, everyone!

And mine were butterscotch!

2010-08-04T16:29:00.005-04:00

My brain has been a total mess of work and vacation preparations this week, so I apologize that I forgot to write out my recipe. Let's just say that I already know I did not win, but my brownies were still pretty good. If you love butterscotch (which some people do and some people don't...my husband happens to like it very much which is why I went in this direction) I can pretty much assure you that you will enjoy these.

Plus they are a cinch to make, which made me enjoy them even more.

They are adapted from a Nestlé recipe.

Yield: 2 dozen brownies

Ingredients:

1 cup (6-oz. pkg.) semi-sweet chocolate morsels

1 cup (6-oz. pkg.) butterscotch morsels

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, cut into pieces

3 large eggs

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 350.
Melt semi-sweet morsels in a saucepan with the stick of butter, stirring until smooth.
Remove from heat and stir in eggs.
Add flour, sugar, vanilla, and baking soda.
Stir in butterscotch morsels, saving out a few to sprinkle over the top.
Pour batter evenly into a greased 13"x9" baking pan.
Bake for 18 to 22 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out slightly sticky.

Outrageous Brownies (That I Haven't Tried)

2010-08-03T12:03:00.003-04:00

So, we are a day behind on baking this week and brought our brownies in for taste testing today instead of yesterday. We also changed our ballots a little this week to allow for a "comments" section. Our wonderful judges (coworkers) have offered some suggestions to recipes verbally, however, we thought that writing these down so appropriate corrective measures could be taken would be a great idea.

I chose to bake "Outrageous Brownies" by Barefoot Contessa on the Food Network website. They had awesome ratings, but the reason I chose them was because the prep for these brownies was different than any other I had made. I love how the butter and two chocolates were melted together first and then added to the batter, then more chocolate chips were added to the batter later on. Yum! I tasted the batter before adding nuts in and it tasted fudge-y and rich.

The recipe calls for a 12x18x1 pan, but as a warning to all: the batter will completely fill the pan. Completely, to the edge and just shy of overflowing. However, when the batter bakes, it rises perfectly straight up over the pan, so no worries. While the recipe shows melting the chocolates and butter in a bowl over boiling water, I just used a double boiler. This took probably about 30 minutes for everything to completely melt on medium heat. I did adjust the heat setting a few times to avoid chocolate burning. I suggest working on mixing the other ingredients while stirring and melting the butter & chocolate.

Outrageous Brownies
(Copyright 1999, The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook)

Ingredients:
1 lb. unsalted butter
1 lb. plus 12 oz. semisweet chocolate chips
6 oz. unsweetened chocolate
6 extra-large eggs
3 Tbsp. instant coffee granules
2 Tbsp. pure vanilla extract
2 1/4 c. sugar
1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
3 c. chopped walnuts

Directions:

1. Preheat over to 350 degrees F.

2. Butter and flour a 12x18x1 baking sheet.

3. Melt together the butter, 1 lb. of chocolate chips, and the unsweetened chocolate in a medium bowl over simmering water. Allow to cool slightly.

4. In a large bowl, stir (do not beat) together the eggs, coffee granules, vanilla, and sugar. Stir the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and allow to cool to room temperature.

5. In a medium bowl, sift together 1 c. of flour, the baking powder, and salt. Add to the cooled chocolate mixture.

6. Toss the walnuts and 12 oz. of chocolate chips in a medium bowl with 1/4 c. flour, then add them to the chocolate batter. Pour into the baking sheet.

7. Bake for 20 minutes, then rap the baking sheet against the oven shelf to force the air to escape from between the pan and the brownie dough. Bake for about 15 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean (NOTE: I had to bake for an additional 5 minutes, 20 minutes total after releasing air). DO NOT OVERBAKE! Allow to cool thoroughly, refrigerate, and cut into 20 large squares

NOTE: This made 30 big brownies for me... not sure how big she is cutting the brownies, but the more the merrier :)

Happy Baking!!

XOXO,

Sugar

The way to a man’s heart is undoubtedly through his taste buds.

Oatmeal Raisin Results!

2010-07-27T15:26:00.015-04:00

The results are in!!

Sugar's Cookies:

3.1 YUMS!

Salt's Cookies:

3.9 YUMS!

SALT wins again, but there was a somewhat interesting twist to all of this.

As we mentioned in the recipe posts, Sugar is out of town this week. She left her cookies (which she claimed were not very good) in my office, sealed in a Tupperware container. I don't know what kind of magical Tupperware voodoo occurred, but her cookies were actually much better 2 days later than they were when we first sampled them on Friday. (I know because I taste tested them myself.)

So while I feel that we shouldn't completely forgive Martha Stewart for what she put Sugar through, it's nice that her cookies went over better than expected with the taste testers.

What we are making for Monday is going to be a surprise. Just as much for me as it is for you!

Seriously I have no idea what she wants to do...maybe I should send her a Facebook message...

Happy rest-of-the-week to everyone!

I'm no oatmeal raisin connoisseur or anything, but I think these taste pretty darn good.

2010-07-26T09:00:00.002-04:00

You may have already read (or are about to read) all about Sugar's oatmeal raisin fiasco. Her post is scheduled for today as she is off at some beach enjoying a well-deserved vacay. In her hurry to get packed and ready to go, she got her recipe together at the end of last week.

So I've already tasted her cookies. And she's my friend so I'm going to withhold comment on them other than to say that we are in agreement that I have a pretty good shot at winning this week unless I decided to bake blindfolded.

It's all Martha's fault.

Anyway, my Google search method worked well enough for the chocolate chip cookies, so with a quick plug-in of "best oatmeal raisin cookie recipe" I was on my way.

The original recipe that mine is based on comes from the Simply Recipes site. It was posted by a woman named Elsie who claims that her grandmother used to make these cookies years ago. I just love a good back story.

I made a few slight changes. The cookies were originally regular oatmeal (sans raisins) and contained walnuts. Because I'm not sure if anyone in the office has a nut allergy, I decided to opt out of those and of course added raisins because that's what this contest is all about. If you do feel like adding nuts to the mix, it calls for 1/2 cup.

Someone's Grandma Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

(Does not contain bits of real grandma.)

Yield: About 2.5 dozen large cookies.

Ingredients:

1 cup shortening

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

2 large eggs

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cup flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tbsp cinnamon

3 cups oats (I used Quaker Old Fashioned. Recipe warns against instant.)

3/4 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350.
Cream shortening and sugars. Add in eggs and vanilla. Beat well.
Sift flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Add to mixture.
Add in raisins. Then add oats last.
Spoon out rounded tablespoons onto a greased cookie sheet.
Bake 10 minutes. Remove to wire rack. Cool completely.

Depending on your oven, you might want to let them bake an extra minute or two. I left my first batch in for 10 minutes and they were a little too soft in the middle. Now that they are cooled, I'm sure they are firmer, but I haven't tried them out yet.

I have never in my life made anything with shortening in it, so this was an adventure. I tried half of a chewy cookie right out of the oven and thought it had a nice flavor, but who really cares what I think, right?

See you on Wednesday with the results!

Slap the Ankle Bracelet Back On, Martha.

2010-07-26T09:00:00.000-04:00

In 2004, Martha Stewart was convicted of lying to investigators with regards to insider trading. She served 5 months in prison. In 2010, Martha Stewart is convicted of lying to Sugar about having awesome “Classic Oatmeal Cookies”. Martha, you were wrong. You should wear the ankle bracelet and be on house arrest until you come up with a better recipe, because this one sucked.

The cookies were, indeed THAT BAD. This must be the recipe she hands out to avoid giving away her super awesome secret recipe. Martha, this cannot possibly be your recipe for real, I mean... you're MARTHA STEWART for God's sake.

Go with your gut…. , go with your first choice… all the advice that teachers from elementary school through college gave about multiple choice questions has been tossed out the window with this recipe. I owe an apology to each of my teachers for this. I had to make my cookies early this week as I’ll be on vacation Monday and I wasn’t putting off a good tan in the name of cookies (and crappy ones at that). I printed one of Guy Fieri’s recipes off FoodNetwork.com for this week and loved the recipe. (Please make it, I’m sure it’s way better than this one).

However, I chose Martha’s recipe for three reasons:

One would think Martha Stewart would sooner jump off the highest point of her Hamptons estate roof before publishing a mediocre recipe.
I had all the ingredients for her recipe, and not Guy’s.
I'm lazy, had to pack suitcases for me and Baby J, and this was quick.

The cookies were a little dry (more like chewing on raw oats and flour) and slightly bland. I’m hoping that by sitting in a Tupperware container in Salt's office over the weekend it will only help. I had the idea of experimenting and putting a test cookie in a Tupperware with a ghetto-shotglass of saltwater to see what happened and if the cookie improved. Salt will have to report the results of my saltwater cookie on Monday as I’ll be soaking myself in saltwater by then. A coworker suggested adding a slice of bread to the batch of cookies. I may have to give that a whirl, too, if I can locate a loaf of bread in the office.

Also – if you do for some reason test Martha’s recipe, use regular raisins. Another gut feeling I should have gone with. Golden raisins may have further ruined these cookies and I highly recommend staying away from any food products which use the word "golden." Ick.

So, that being, said. I give myself a 2.25 Yum rating this week. I may as well hand Salt the golden spatula now and begin researching what I want to make for next week. Double Ick.

(Photo Courtesy of Martha Stewart OMNIMEDIA)
OMNIMEDIA - That's just rubbing it in your face that she's got some evil plot to take over the world. More on my developing conspiracy theory with Martha Stewart later...

Martha Stewart’s Mediocre Classic Oatmeal Cookies

Yield: About 3 Dozen

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup packed light-brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup wheat germ

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1.5 cups golden raisins

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter and both sugars on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs; mix on high speed to combine. Mix in vanilla; set aside.
Combine oats, flour, wheat germ, baking soda, and baking powder in a large bowl. Stir to combine. Add the flour mixture to to the butter mixture, and beat on low speed to combine, 10 to 15 seconds. Remove bowl from mixer, and stir in raisins.
Using a large metal scoop, drop dough onto prepared sheets, about 2 inches apart. Bake until golden and just set, about 18 minutes. Transfer sheets to wire rack to cool.

So which chocolate chip cookies take the cake? Er...cookie?

2010-07-20T13:33:00.001-04:00

The results are in!!

Sugar's Cookies:

3.9 YUMS!

Salt's Cookies:

4.1 YUMS!

Which basically means that SALT wins the very first throwdown by an extremely teensy margin, and we learn that our mad baking skillz are evenly matched.

We have decided that for now the person who came in 2nd (who I refuse to call a loser because she's SO not and next week it could totally be the other person in 2nd place – aka: me) gets to have the upper hand by picking our next Food-of-the-Week.

So stay tuned for Sugar's choice:

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies!

See you on Monday!

This is what happens when you wait until the last minute...

2010-07-19T09:18:00.000-04:00

When Sugar told me this morning about her recipe search and subsequent invention of a brilliant new chocolate chip cookie, I felt like a total lazy ass.

Although I did bake my face off yesterday, no matter the fact that I was up until 5am the previous evening playing Rock Band at my bff's house. In typical Salt style, I used the procrastination method when looking for which recipe I would use.

I located online after a painstaking search that lasted all of 10 minutes.

Salt's Procrastination Cookies

(Copyright: Some woman that isn't me.)

Yield: About 66,000 cookies. Seriously, unless you are attending a big party or feeding a family of 12, cut this bad boy in half.

Ingredients:

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking soda

2 cups butter, softened

1 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 (3.4 oz) packages of instant vanilla pudding mix

4 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

4 cups semi-sweet chocolate morsels

Preheat oven to 350.
Sift flour and baking soda together. Set aside.
Cream together butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar.
Beat in pudding mix until blended.
Stir in eggs and vanilla.
Blend in the flour mixture.
Add chocolate chips (and nuts or something if you're feeling sassy).
Drop in rounded spoonfuls on ungreased baking sheet.

The recipe said to bake for 10-12 minutes, but I let mine go a for like 15 because they seemed undercooked before. I would suggest just keeping an eye on them after the 10 minute mark.

One thing that really struck me about this particular recipe is the fact that it called for vanilla pudding mix; I had never heard of anyone using it for chocolate chip cookies before. I think it made these cookies taste phenomenal (and my husband agrees and is thrilled that the recipe made so many), but we will just have to wait and see what our taste testers decide!

I'm thinking it's time for cookies for breakfast. :)

Sugar's BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES TO GRACE THE PLANET EVER!!

2010-07-19T06:04:00.000-04:00

Wow. I never thought baking a simple batch of chocolate chip cookies would be so flipping hard. I’ve created my own “captain’s log,” if you will of the thought process behind such simple little tasty treats that, before this friendly competition, I have not given so much thought. It’s amazing what the want of a week’s worth of bragging rights can do.

Day 1 (Friday night):

I have been lazily browsing the internet for days and flipping through all my happy-homemaker magazines (Southern Living, Good Housekeeping, Cosmo…wait..nevermind, that was something completely different with chocolate altogether) and hoping that some magic cookie recipe would jump out, grab me, and beg me to make it. However, no such luck. I did, however, find in all these fitness magazines that chocolate is good for your heart and for the purpose of anti-aging. That justified skipping my run, grabbing a glass of wine (also extraordinarily healthy), and finding a great cookie recipe in the name of health and longevity.

As it turns out, typing “best chocolate chip cookie recipe ever in the world” into Google turns up many claimants that they have, in fact, the world’s best chocolate chip cookie recipe. Amazingly, none of these people had their own bakery, Food Network show, or famous last name like Ghirardelli, Fields, Spunkmeyer, or Chips Ahoy! I take the recipes that look the best and merge them into one recipe I can call my own. I created 2 simple rules to live by for the sake of this recipe, and probably giving at least 1/2 the people who eat these cookies a heart attack

More butter + lard + eggs = better. (Paula, this one’s for you)
More brown sugar = better

I started the traditional route and pulled a few recipes from blogs, one from Southern Living, and a three from the Food Network. Below is a copy of the chicken scratch that may become the recipe for the BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES TO GRACE THE PLANET EVER!!

I felt like I was doing a horrible, never-ending algebra equation with a hint of chemistry mixed in. And for those of you who know me, math is not my strongest subject. Break out the calculator.

Day 2 (Saturday):

Okay, so maybe the first draft was not, by any means, the BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES TO GRACE THE PLANET EVER!! For starters, I think I went a little too Paula Deen-ish by throwing in extra shortening on top of the extra butter. (These are not health food, wait, yes…yes, they are – see day 1 post) Apparently, that makes for some very soft and crumbly cookies. Even a little too soft and crumbly for me as they really didn’t brown up like I wanted. By the end of my trial and error session, the grease on the cookie sheets from my cookies could have rivaled the griddle at Denny’s after the drunk-shift and breakfast shifts combined.

I did the first batch small, tablespoon size and they were okay. I tried some larger, flatter cookies, too. Flavor was good, but not at all what I was going for.

Awww, Isn't he cute!??

I also am going to try baking soda instead of powder. Baking soda is more common in cookies, but I thought after studying food chemistry online last night that baking powder may be the way to go if I was chilling the cookies. I think my leavening agent leavened too much.

Regardless, Baby J and J both loved the flavor. J wasn’t too impressed with the texture. Luckily for our dinner guests tonight, I made a backup gingerbread cake so they won’t be disappointed. J gave it 3 Yums! 3 Yums ain’t winning anything, and if that’s a guaranteed win on this blog, we should pick another topic. Our dinner guests, D & S, said that they were like a shortbread cookie with chocolate chips thrown in.

Back to the drawing board.

Day 3 (Sunday):

J tells me the recipe is pretty good for a first shot at making my own recipe. I think he’s trying to boost my ego in return for more cookie dough batter to lick. I tweak the recipe – less flour, more anise, more salt, and more vanilla. I also reverted back to the traditional baking soda for a leavening agent. I turned the heat down to 350 as a crazy daredevil move (the only recipes I read showed 375 and there was one 325). Baked the cookies and 14 minutes later gooey and crunchy tasty goodness emerged. I crossed my fingers and said a prayer as J came downstairs to try one and…(start playing Rocky theme music)..LOVED THEM! 5 Yums! from J. Hallelujah. So, below is my recipe for BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES TO GRACE THE PLANET EVER!! Hope now that I’ve named them that I get bragging rights for the week.

If you make them, please let me know what you think! If you are a coworker, Erin (they are being sent to you today), Kristin (I will drop them by on my break tomorrow), or anyone else who has tried them, please comment and let us know what you think.

The BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies to Grace the Planet EVER!!

By: Sugar

7/18/2010

Yield: 2 Dozen Big Cookies

Ingredients:

1 c. packed dark brown sugar

½ c. granulated pure cane sugar

1 c. unsalted sweet cream butter, softened

2 T. pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

2 ½ c. all purpose flour

¾ t. +/- salt

1 t. baking soda

1 t. anise seed

12 oz. Ghiardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350
Mix butter & sugars on low speed with an electric mixer until well combined.
Add vanilla & eggs, continue mixing on low speed until well blended.
Add salt & baking soda to mixer while still on low speed.
Gradually add flour to wet ingredients while still mixing on low speed. Continue mixing until all cookie-doughy.
Stir in anise.
Stir in chocolate chips with a wooden spoon until just combined. Do not overmix.
Spoon giant balls of cookie dough so that only 6 fit on a standard cookie sheet. Do not grease the cookie sheet or use parchment paper.
Bake for 14 minutes at 350.
Cool on wire racks. If you like extra melty, gooey chocolate chips eat immediately , but risk burning your tongue. Badly.

Happy Baking!!

XOXO,

Sugar

The way to a man’s heart is undoubtedly through his taste buds.

Oh! And a BIG PS –

This was the recipe on the back of the McCormick Anise jar. Apparently, Mrs. McCormick couldn’t really bake but wants you to buy her spices, or else she’s in bed with the Pillsbury dough boy.

Welcome to the Throwdown!

2010-07-16T12:00:00.000-04:00

Hello blogland! We are Sugar and Salt and we would like to welcome you to the THROWDOWN!

Basically, we are a couple of real life (as in non-internet) friends that love to bake and this project has been a long time in the making. We wanted to create a joint venture where we could experiment with recipes and then post our findings. Then Sugar (aka: the smart one...and she's not even the one writing this so you know it's true) had the brilliant idea to turn this blog into a baking throwdown.

So how is this a "throwdown"? So glad that all none of you asked.

Every week we will choose something to make. It might be a cookie. It might be a cake. It might be muffins. You get the idea. Then we will each locate a recipe for this Food-of-the-Week and cook them up in our respective kitchens. These recipes must be FROM SCRATCH. No cheating and trying to pass off something out of a Betty Crocker box as our own.

The results might be delicious. They also might be terrible. That's for our taste testers to decide. Every Monday, we will bring our completed creations in to our office...

Oh did I mention we work together? Yeah, not important.

...and they will be set out in the kitchen for people to try. They won't be labeled and these taste testers won't know which dish belongs to who, which works out well in case one of them is feeling particularly spiteful towards one of us that day. Then they will vote based on this nifty little rating system that we came up with:

I give you...THE YUMS:

5 Yums basically means that whoever created the dish must have cast serious magical baking voodoo on it. It would make angels sing and bring peace to the Earth. Unicorns frolicking on a rainbow. That sort of thing.

4 Yums is like a A-/B+. Still very delicious, but maybe lacking a little bit of that magic something.

3 Yums is above average. The tasters have had better, but they have also had much, much worse.

2 Yums is...meh. It's not like anyone will spit it out into a napkin, but it definitely isn't setting the world on fire.

1 Yum? Yeah. Not good. One bite was more than enough.

And then we have 0 Yums, which is basically WTF were you thinking? Were you drunk when you made this? Massive baking FAIL.

Every Wednesday we will post up the results of the tasters' testing using the Yum system. Winner gets bragging rights. Also we will post up what the food for the following week will be! While this will also be a lot of fun for us, we hope that the people reading this blog might be able to use some of these recipes for their own friends and families. The good ones of course. Neither of us recommend recreating anything that gets 0 Yums.

Now because it is our very first challenge this week, we decided to stick with something easy. So stay tuned for this Monday when we bring you...

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES!

Thank you so much for stopping by today! We hope you stick around...we can't wait to get started!