Guinness Chocolate Pudding

There's nothing like a nice tall glass of Guinness on St. Patrick's Day. A nice tall glass of Guinness chocolate pudding that is! This delicious treat is made up of a dark and decadent chocolate pudding made with the Irish stout, topped with a "head" of softly whipped Guinness flavored cream. I've made Guinness flavored desserts in the past, but for the most part I've found that the flavor of the stout doesn't really shine through. That's not to say its super strong in this dessert either, but the dark chocolate and Guinness combination brings the stout flavor to the front a little more, as does adding Guinness that's been reduced to a thick syrup to the whipped cream topping. It's just the perfect amount of flavoring. Not so strong that it turns off those that are not a fan of stout, but a big enough presence that those who love stout will be able to appreciate it.

Vanilla Ice Cream with Salted Butter Caramel

Today I want to wish my brother Ryan a very Happy Birthday! He's an amazing older brother, and an wonderful father, and hopefully he has an awesome day today because he deserves it! And hopefully he doesn't mind me sharing his age with you, because this birthday cake ain't telling no lies.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Hi there! It's Fall! Were you all aware of this? Because it sure did sneak up on me. I guess I should have had some warning considering all the pumpkin recipes that are floating around the internet. It seems like pumpkin is everywhere out there in the blogosphere! From breads, muffins and cakes, to flans, puddings and pies, to stews and curries, it's out there in all forms possible.
For my first pumpkin recipe of the season I wanted to make something I never had before. Something that was still full of pumpkin flavor but was more unique than the usual pumpkin quick breads and muffins. And if it could marry together that perfect combination of pumpkin and cream cheese, well then I would be a happy woman. So that's how these totally amazing pumpkin whoopie pies came to be.

Piesignment #2 - Allison's Three Berry Pie

I have something I need to say about pies. They don't scare me. Never have, never will. I know this may sound a little cocky, or maybe a little silly to those of you who are also unafraid of pies, but I just had to put that out there. See, I hear all the time about the fear that pie crust instills in people, and I just don't get it. I guess I can see how it would be daunting; all that talk about keeping things super cold you think you'd have to live in Alaska to make an ok crust. Or how about the very specific instruction that the butter must be pea-sized before mixing in the liquid? I still don't know if I've ever achieved the perfect pea-sized piece of butter. And then there's the rolling out, and the horror stories of pie crust sticking and tearing, and ok this does sound a little terrifying.
But here's the thing, the most important thing about pie crust: homemade pie crust always taste better than store-bought, always! At least, that's what has been my experience. And so even if you mess something up, or it looks a little funky, you're still way ahead of the game in the taste department. When I began to bake about ten years ago, one of the very first things I ever made was pie, and since then I have continued to bake pies probably more than any other dessert. There usually is a pie of mine at every family gathering, every summer BBQ, and don’t get me started on Thanksgiving when the baking starts two days before the event and usually ends in 5 or 6 different pies.

Why so much pie? Part of it I think is because pie is just so darn simple to make, and anything that’s simple appeals to the lazy side of me. That’s right, pie is simple! Especially fruit pies. Because most pie crust recipes use the same method (cut cold fats into flour until it looks like coarsemeal, drizzle with a cold liquid and mix until it just comes together), the only part you really have to memorize are the ingredients. So once you’ve got the method down, and the ingredient portions memorized, you will never need a recipe again! Trust me, you'll love the feeling of having a pie crust recipe under your belt; it's like having a secret dessert weapon in your arsenal at all times.

Pie Spectacular #1 - Allison's Sweet Cherry Pie

When it came to the first piesignment for our Summer Pie Spectacular, I didn't think too far out of the box. This is just a traditional lattice-topped, slice of Americana kind of pie. It's the kind of pie that makes me think of Fourth of July BBQ's, state fair baking competitions, and pie-eating contests. To me, cherry pie has such a retro feel to it that it takes me back in time. Back to those days that people like to refer to as "simpler." It makes me think of a pie being cooled on a windowsill (if that sort of thing actually occurs), the scent enticing those who walk by to try and steal a piece. Which is exactly what I attempted to do before realizing my windowsills were not made to accommodate pies, and that I live out in the boonies so if there was somebody happening to be walking by I would be more freaked out than charmed.

I may not have been able to make my homespun vision a reality, but I was able conjure up some of those images while making and enjoying this good old fashioned pie. The pie itself isn't completely traditional though. I did jazz up the filling a bit with some Cointreau and almond extract. I love the combination of almond and cherries, and the citrus kick from the liqueur was the perfect counterbalance. I would love to make a cherry pie with fresh sour cherries which are traditionally used in cherry pie, but unfortunately we just don't see those around these parts. So I went with the sweet cherry varieties that are available instead. I used half Bing and half Rainier which are both very sweet and very delicious in their own different ways.

I'll admit that I had never tried Rainier cherries before last week. I kept passing them over at the farmer's market; maybe it was something about their yellowish hue that didn't appeal to me? I don't know what it was, but I had gone my entire life without consuming one. But when I set out to make pie for this assignment I knew that I couldn't possibly make a sweet cherry pie without trying all the different varieties. Once I popped one in my mouth however, it was love at first taste. These yellow beauties were even sweeter than the Bing cherries that they would be sharing a pie with. I'm just bummed I have been missing out on them this whole time!

Lemon Drizzle Cake

It may sound a little cheesy, but this cake will always hold a special place in my heart. Not necessarily because it was one of the first cake recipes that I truly made from scratch that actually turned out a success. Or because it was also the first recipe I ever saved, clipping it out from some long-forgotten magazine, pasting it on a piece of paper and adding it to a binder I entitled “My Favorite Recipes”. That was about ten years ago, and while those things do make this cake special, there’s another reason why it’s so important to me. You see, this is my Dad’s favorite cake.
It’s nothing too fancy, just a single layer lemon cake with a simple powdered sugar lemon glaze that gets sprinkled with lemon zest. But it has appealed to my Dad from the very first bite. Ever since that first bite he has requested it for his birthday, for special occasions and sometimes just because it’s a Tuesday. It’s my go-to cake when I want to make him something special or show him how much I appreciate him.
And believe me, I definitely have many occasions to show how much I appreciate him. Because my dad is not just my father, he’s my best friend, my confidant, and my moral compass. If I’ve got a problem, a nagging issue, or some sort of decision to make, he’s always there to hear about it. Frankly, I’m not sure how he hasn’t gotten sick of me after all these years. He listens to me babble on and on, offers advice when it’s needed, and does all this without making me feel as if I’m being a nuisance. And by doing this, he makes me feel loved and secure, which as I grow older I’m realizing are two very important ways to feel.

Apricot Hand Pies

Ah summertime, there’s nothing quite like it. Each day is a little longer, a little warmer, a little more magical than the one before it. It’s the perfect time for casual entertaining, trips to the beach, camping with friends, and these delicious little hand pies. Because just one of the many things that is great about this dessert is how portable they are, and they would be more than welcome at any of those places I just mentioned. Sure they take a little bit more work to put together than your average pie, but when you get to your destination with a container full of little packages of flaky crust and juicy fruit that need little more than a pair of hands to enjoy, you’ll agree that it’s well worth it.
Summer and pie just happen to go hand in hand (pun intended), and we here at Butter + Cream love our pie any way we can get it. Whether it be covered in a lattice top, filled with a creamy filling, topped with whipped cream, or folded up into a handy treat, they’re allll good. In fact, we love pie so much, this summer we are having what we like to call the Butter + Cream Pie Spectacular! We will be putting up piesignments twice a month and hopefully all of you will play along with us. Click here to catch up on all the details. So needless to say, pie is going to be a very good friend around these parts for awhile, and I can't think of a better way to kick of the summer of pie than with these portable tasty treats.
These hand pies are so good it's ridiculous. Imagine a big bite of your favorite fruit, encased in a buttery flaky crust that fits in the palm of your hand. This is definitely a dessert for anyone whose favorite part of pie is the crust (you know who you are), because there tends to be a higher ratio of it to the fruit. The pies are completely customizable and can be filled with whatever type of fruit or filling your heart desires. I’m a sucker for any fruit or vegetable with a short growing season as it seems to make every bite that much more extraordinary. Which meant that when apricots started showing up at the weekly farmer’s market, I knew I had to make something special out of them that would showcase the fleeting fruit, because blink and they’ll be gone.

Vanilla Pudding with Baked Rhubarb

Oh do I love me some pudding. Whether it be chocolate, rice, tapioca, butterscotch, you name the pudding and I'll be delving my spoon into it. There's just something so comforting and satisfying about a big bowl of pudding. Especially when it's homemade. Don't get me wrong, I'll eat a pudding cup every now and again, but homemade pudding tastes much less artificial, more luscious and decadent.

Which brings me to this pudding recipe, which is definitely more decadent than some of the other pudding recipes out there. The original recipe calls for whole milk, egg yolks, and half a stick of butter. I tweaked it a little bit, using low-fat milk, and half the butter, and still ended up with a very rich and thick pudding. Chock full of flecks of vanilla bean and topped with some sweetly tart baked rhubarb, this pudding gets elevated to a whole nother level of deliciousness.

I used what will probably be the last of the rhubarb this season in my neck of the woods, so I realize that it may not be a topping option for much longer. Which is why I provided several other topping ideas at the end of the recipe. Because I could see foresee using this pudding as a template for so many different flavor combinations. I can also foresee just eating spoonfuls of it plain, standing next to the fridge with the door open, which is what I'm about to go do now.

Lemon Meringue Cake

A few weekends ago we celebrated my Mom's Birthday with a surprise party. I'm not going to tell you which birthday we were celebrating, because I know better than that, but I will let you know that it was a big one, one that required some fanfare and attention. My Mom however, is the kind of person who hates attention. She loathes the idea of all eyes being on her, and she would rather someone else be in the center of it all. These were all things that she told me explicitly about a month before her birthday, when she expressly said that we were not allowed to have a surprise birthday party for her. She swore to me that she would never forgive us if we threw her one. I tried to reason with her, but she would not budge in her thinking.

So when my father approached me asking me to help him plan a surprise party for her, I very adamantly told him everything that my mother had said. I explained that she would be mortified if we had one, and that she would be very upset with us. To which he quickly replied, "I don't care." Apparently my Dad can be just as stubborn as my Mom.And wouldn't you know, but my Dad was right to not care? The party was a huge success, and my Mom had the time of her life. It truly was one of those magical evenings where everyone seemed to have a great experience. I'm just happy that the guest of honor didn't pass out or start swearing at us, because either reaction might have put a damper on the whole event.

We held the party at my place, and it was the perfect day for it.
The weather was absolutely gorgeous, sunny and clear, with just enough warmth for dining outside on the deck.

Crispy Salted Oatmeal White Chocolate Cookies

One of my favorite reasons to bake is when I’m baking something for someone else. There’s nothing like the feeling of sharing with others a delicious treat that you’ve made with your own two hands. I like to think about the person who will be receiving it, and how it will hopefully bring them joy. Which is what I was hoping these cookies would bring when I made them for my friend Caitlin. She had mentioned to me that she was a white chocolate nut, and so I hemmed and hawed over various white chocolate recipes, finally deciding on these cookies. I was hoping that there would be enough white chocolate flavor in them, because I did not want to disappoint.

Let me tell you a little bit about Caitlin real quick, because she was my very first best friend. We were neighbors growing up, which was a pretty big deal because our houses were out in the country with no one else nearby. Caitlin and I were born two months apart, and I like to think about how we became best friends from the time we were infants. I guess we didn't have much choice in the matter considering our location.

Caitlin and I
Considering our outfits, I'm assuming sometime during the late 80's or early 90's

But I was so lucky to have someone to share such an amazing childhood with. Whether it was exploring in the creek together, creating our own special languages, playing hide-and-go seek in the tall grass of the field next to our house, or goofing around at a slumber party, Caitlin and I were always having a good time. It may sound silly, but I look back on those years as being a truly magical time; and I feel blessed that I got to spend it with a really good buddy.

Pastel de Tres Leches

Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone! Hopefully your day today is filled with margaritas, chips and salsa, and possibly a slice of muy delicioso tres leches cake. The tres leches cake has become one of my all-time favorite cakes over the past few years. The first time I tried one was also the first time I made one, and I stared in disbelief as the recipe called for me to pour what seemed like an endless amount of a milk mixture over the top of the cake. So much that I thought “There’s no way this cake is going to be anything other than a big pile of mush.” But I took that first bite, and I was hooked. This was no mush; this was a big ol’ bite of heaven.
Moister than any cake you could ever imagine, cool and creamy with delicious hints of cinnamon; a tres leches is no ordinary cake. The name comes from the fact that the cake uses three different milks, usually condensed, evaporated, and good old fashioned whole milk. The cake itself is traditionally a sponge cake, which gets holes poked all along the top of it, and a milk mixture is poured over the top, saturating every crumb. It’s usually topped with some sort of whipped cream frosting. There's a whole lot of dairy going on in this cake, and it's all a good thing.
When I’ve made tres leches cake in the past I've always used the same recipe, which follows the more traditional version of a tres leches. There’s one twist in that the three milks that get poured over the top of the cake get heated up so that they become rich and intense, with flavors similar to that of dulce de leche. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that recipe, but when I decided to bake a cake for Cinco de Mayo this year, I wanted to try something a little different.

Churros

My friend Miguel is an interesting guy. He has an enormous amount of knowledge about sharks and dinosaurs, is an amazing artist, and collects bugs, reptiles, and other creepy crawlies for fun. And sometimes Miguel likes to buy things on impulse, such as a giant industrial sized churro gun. Also known as a churrera, the gun is basically a giant extruder, meant to handle large batches of churros at one time. Just the sort of thing that every home kitchen needs, right?
I agreed to help him with his first batch of churros, even though neither one of us had ever made them before. Luckily the batter was a cinch to whip up, and in no time we were pumping out the delicious fried treats. Here we are making churros like pros:
And man were those first churros tasty. Crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and sprinkled with the perfect amount of cinnamon sugar. I think we could hardly believe we had created something so good. We made that first batch of churros about a year ago, and unfortunately I don’t think the churro gun has been in use ever since. In all honesty it was a bit cumbersome, and not exactly practical for the smaller batches of churros that we were churning out. Luckily churros are just as easily prepared with a piping bag and piping tip.

Homemade Oreos

There's something about that first bite of an Oreo cookie that takes me reeling straight back to my childhood. I can remember the way I liked to stack them in tall piles, piles that were way too large for such a small child to be consuming, and then eating them one by one, each a little differently. Some I would eat whole, others I would twist apart, scraping out the center to eat first, and savoring the cookies which were my favorite part. But my absolute favorite way to eat Oreos was dunking them whole, in a nice big glass of cold milk.
To this day that's still the way I enjoy to eat them. Although I don't allow myself to eat them very often nowadays, because left to my own devices, I do believe I could polish off an entire package. Honestly, it's a problem. And that's why after I baked these bad boys I promptly gave them away, because I knew it wouldn't be long before I started stacking them in piles and eating away the whole batch one by one.

Ok, ok, so maybe I enjoyed one or two before giving them away.

Sugar Doughnuts

There is something about a doughnut that is so hard to resist. Sure they may seem innocent enough, just some fried dough and a sprinkling of sugar, but there’s much more to them than that. It’s there in each sinful bite, that voice in the back of your head that says you should be eating something healthy, but you can’t help it because this doughnut is just so darn good.
I should really rename these “All Day Doughnuts” as that’s how long it seemed to take me to make them. I started making them at 8:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning, hoping to enjoy them with a late breakfast, and was only starting to drop them in hot oil around 1:00 p.m. that afternoon. Apparently the temperature in my kitchen was not jiving with the doughnut dough, as it was stubbornly refusing to rise.

This can happen when working with yeasted doughnuts because depending on how warm your ingredients are and the temperature in your kitchen, the dough may take varying times to rise. It's helpful to be patient as you could potentially be stuck with lots of down time as you wait for the doughnuts to rise. That's not such a bad thing however, as all that time spent waiting can be used to do things that are productive. Or that time could be used to catch up on reality TV and old episodes of Chelsea Lately, which is precisely what I used it for. I may not have cleaned the house, or paid the bills, but at least I had doughnuts to show for my time.

Raspberry Rhubarb Cobbler

This past weekend my boyfriend and I took a spontaneous and completely relaxing trip to Lake Tahoe. Activities included: handling live crabs, reading numerous celebrity magazines, falling knee deep in snow, sleeping in, and stuffing ourselves with comfort food. Now that's my kind of vacation.

And the weather couldn't have been more gorgeous. Bright and sunny, with just barely a hint of chill in the air. There were still plenty of piles of freshly fallen snow, that made me reconsider my recent complaints about winter weather. Because there really is something so spectacularly beautiful about fresh snow.
Especially when you combine it with summer-like weather. What a kick it was to walk through a mile of snow to reach a sunny, sandy beach that could have been warm enough to sunbathe. It's enough to make you want to stay awhile.

Light and Luscious Lemon Curd

When it comes to having dessert, I want to splurge on something really tasty. It doesn't always have to be decadent and rich, but it definitely has to be delicious. Whether it's a bite of a sinful chocolate cake, a spoonful of vanilla pudding, or a bowl of perfectly ripe fruit, ultimately it has to taste good. Which is why I'm a little skeptical when it comes to "low-fat" desserts, because more often than not they always seem to disappoint in the taste department.

I love the idea of taking a dessert and lightening it up, and don't get me wrong, there are recipes out there that you would be hard pressed to tell are low fat. But when it comes to cake, if I'm going to splurge and have a piece, I want it to be worth it.

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

I don’t think I fully understood that my family was Irish until we took a trip to Ireland when I was 18. I don't think I even realized that our last name Hackett was Irish, until we came upon a castle in the Ireland countryside with the same name. It was on that trip that I started thinking about heritage, tradition and my family namesake. It was also on that trip that I had my first taste of Guinness, and it was love at first sip. Unlike anything I had ever tasted; dark and rich, yet smoother than expected. After a pint of it, I felt full, like I had just eaten a large meal. And being underage for drinking back home, it made the whole experience seem slightly illicit. It was not until years later however, that I had my first Irish Car Bomb; which let’s just say was love at first chug.

If you are unfamiliar with what an Irish Car Bomb is; I will do my best to describe it. First, Guinness is poured about ¾ of the way into a pint glass. Then a shot glass filled with half whiskey, half Bailey’s Irish cream is dropped in to the pint glass and the mixture must be chugged quickly. If not drank quickly, it can start to curdle; not the most pleasant drink experience.
Something about the way all three ingredients combine creates a wonderful tasting mixture that I would best describe as a beer milkshake. This beer milkshake was love at first chug for my father as well. I will forever remember my college graduation dinner as the time we went to Cheesecake Factory and my Dad insisted on ordering an Irish Car Bomb, even though it was not on the menu. He had to order each ingredient separately, assemble the drink himself, and after spending a ridiculous $18 later he was happy. So happy that he ended up ordering two of them.

And somehow over the years, the Irish Car Bomb has become a Hackett family tradition. I guess you could call it our signature drink. At least a few times throughout the year, on holidays, birthdays and special occasions, we inevitably will have a round of car bombs. I know this may make us seem like a family with a drinking problem, but I swear it’s just our Irish roots, or something like that. Here we are at Christmas, chugging away. Classy, right?Classy or not, I loved the idea of turning this drink in to a dessert for St. Patrick’s Day. I had seen several interpretations of it on the Internet, typically a Guinness chocolate cupcake with some sort of Irish Cream or Whiskey frosting. But I loved the idea I saw on Smitten Kitchen, which was to fill the cupcakes with a whiskey chocolate ganache, and then top with an Irish Cream frosting.