Caramel Apple Cupcakes

Last week I found a great looking recipe on Whole Foods' website for a Caramel Apple Layer Cake and I couldn't wait to try it! You can find it here: http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/2344

The recipe seemed somewhat healthy, using whole wheat pastry flour and a combination of oil and applesauce to keep the fat and calories down some (although the butter and the sugar in the icing kind of counterbalances the somewhat healthy cake part!). I also thought the caramel apple flavor sounded great for a fall treat.

I usually prefer to make cupcakes rather than layer cakes...cupcakes are much easier to transport and share, plus people are way more willing to grab a cupcake than to cut off a piece from a half-eaten layer cake! So I got out the muffin tins and started mixing up the batter.

I only had regular pastry flour in the pantry, so rather than doing a mix of whole wheat pastry flour and all-purpose flour, as the recipe calls for, I did 2 cups of regular pastry flour and 1 3/4 cups of whole wheat flour. I also shook out a teaspoon or two of flour from each cup (high altitude adjustments). I also cut back on the baking powder just a bit, which I think helped prevent the cupcake from collapsing. I typically measure out the full amount and then just shake a little bit out of the measuring device...not very technical, but it works (almost) every time!

The light brown sugar was pretty compacted, so I ended up just using regular sugar, which turned out fine. I also couldn't find any caramel dessert sauce at the co-op, so I am pretty sure I only had about 1/3 c. instead of  the 3/4 c. that the recipe called for. Everything else I did pretty much according to the recipe. The dough was a little thicker than typical cupcakes, although I've found that I prefer the thicker dough...easier to measure and scoop for more uniform-sized cupcakes.

The recipe said to bake at 350, I upped the oven temperature to 355, might not have made much of a difference, although I'm convinced that the slightly higher baking temperature also helps keep the cupcakes from collapsing. I put 18 in at a time, baking for 7 minutes, rotating, and then baking for another 8 minutes, which was about perfect.

They puffed up nicely, and none of them collapsed!

After baking. ~15 minutes was about perfect.

Although some of them did start to collapse on the second batch...I was in a bit of a rush to get them rotated, and I think the tops collapsed a bit.

Small amount of collapsing on the second batch,
probably just from rotating them a little carelessly.

I tried one before it was completely cooled and iced, and it was good, but not great, and definitely not caramel-y enough! I figured I'd work on the icing and hopefully they would be better after being iced.

The frosting called for butter, powdered sugar, and apple cider. Yum! But again, the apple cider flavor didn't quite seem to come through. I went ahead and iced the cupcakes and stuck them in the fridge a bit to set.

Letting them cool was the trick. When I tried one a few hours later, it had definitely developed more of a caramel flavor, and the apple cider started coming through even more in the icing. The cake itself was moist but not overly sweet, more of a cross between a muffin and a cupcake, probably due to the whole wheat flour. I also didn't put in quite as much sugar as it called for, so they weren't overly sweet.

Overall, I think these are a great fall cupcake recipe. I'd like to try a few modifications though. Scott suggested maybe brushing them with some sort of simple syrup or applejack liquor, and I'd also like to try coring them and putting a little bit of sauteed cinnamon apple filling inside each one, just to really reinforce the apple flavor. Yum!

Frosting turned out a bit thin, probably could have used a little more powdered sugar.
But the apple cider flavoring was delicious! 

Pumpkin Protein Muffins

I am pretty much in love with anything sweet, especially if it involves ice cream. But, that's not very conducive to my triathlon-training lifestyle! So, in an attempt to make baking a little more healthy, I tested out a recipe from Neghar Fonooni's blog (a super strong woman that seriously kicks butt and takes names!) for pumpkin protein muffins. The basic recipe taken from her blog http://www.negharfonooni.com/ is as follows:

Wet stuff:

15 ounces canned organic pumpkin

2 egg whites

Dry stuff:

1 cup oats, ground in food processor

2 scoops vanilla protein powder (this had 23g per scoop!)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 cup splenda (you could certainly use sugar or agave nectar if you don't mind the calories)

Handful chopped walnuts

Mix all that junk up and transfer to a muffin tin coated with nonstick spray, filling each muffin cup about halfway. Put into a 350 degree oven and bake for just 8-10 minutes.

I actually doubled the recipe when I made them (apparently I was confident that they would turn out yummy!), but I accidentally forgot to double the sugar, so they turned out a bit less sweet than you'd expect in a muffin. I also added some milk to the batter, since it seemed a little thick. The overall result was quite tasty. They are still very muffin-like, although slightly more dense and none of that weird oily (read: fatty) texture you get sometimes, and the ground up oats and protein powder combo (rather than just plain, all-purpose flour) make them much more nutritious than your average muffin. I'm curious to try making these again with a little more protein powder and oats, or maybe a wheat germ/oats combo....some of the larger muffins were still a bit undone in the middle (perhaps partly the result of me adding milk), but the wheat germ should help soak up any extra moisture. I also want to try subbing the egg whites with a flax seed/water combo that is a great egg substitute in vegan baking.

These could easily be made vegan and/or gluten free, although I still need another batch or two to get the texture right. This is my first time cooking with protein powder, and overall the muffins turned out great! I'm excited to try some other combos in the future, to lend a little more nutritional value to some of my baking endeavors!

Up next: Frosted Caramel Apple Layer Cake!

Fresh out of the oven, still kind of dough-like rather than muffin-like

Finally back to baking - A first attempt at French Macarons

I was finally able to get back to some baking this past weekend after two months of complete craziness. Two large end of the fiscal year projects had me working some serious overtime, and I also spent a week biking around the Black Hills of South Dakota with my dad. Both projects have been wrapped up and turned in, so life is finally somewhat back to 'normal'.

A friend recently emailed me asking if I have ever tried making French macarons. These are distinctly different from the typical coconut macaroon that many of us probably grew up with. A coconut macaroon involves making a meringue, then folding in shredded coconut and baking. The result is a crunchy outside and chewy inside that is even better when chocolate dipped!

A "typical" macaroon, the coconut deliciciousness that most people think of when you say the word 'macaroon'

A French macaron also involves a meringue, but then powdered sugar and finely ground almonds are folded in to make a somewhat runny batter that is then baked and formed into little sandwiches using some sort of jam or buttercream filling. The recipe is fairly basic, and creates a wonderful meringue cookie that can accommodate almost any flavor profile.

A French macaron! Yummy little sandwich-type cookie. 

The trick to a good macaron is the right stiffness when beating the eggs and the correct number of folds when adding the powdered sugar and almond flour. Too little folding and the batter is too stiff, resulting in macarons that retain a little peak on the top and are not perfectly rounded. Too much folding, and the batter is too runny and won't set. A perfect macaron should be slightly domed but well-rounded on the top, with little crinkled 'feet' that pop up during baking and a light, airy texture.

When it comes to baking, I tend to throw technique out the window and go by what looks right or tastes good, but macarons require a fair bit of technical skill and a little bit of luck. So I was careful to follow the recipe directions, and also referred to this blog for help along the way: http://www.giverslog.com/?p=1089

I measured out the powdered sugar and almond flour (which I bought pre-ground, rather than making my own) and mixed the two together, then sifted the mixture twice. I actually ended up using a sieve, since the almond flour balled up in the regular flour sifter. After that was sifted and set aside, I got the eggs whipping. It took about 3 minutes for them to get foamy, then I added cream of tartar and continued whipping. Once soft peaks started to form, I added the sugar and continued whipping. (Note: the recipe called for baker's sugar, which is super fine sugar. I didn't have any, so I tried making my own by grinding some granulated sugar in the food processor. It worked well enough, but wasn't great.) Towards the end of the whipping process, I added some pink food coloring, just to make them pretty! I used the Wilton brand pink coloring for icing, and it worked great.

Once the eggs were whipped, I folded in the powdered sugar/almond flour combo. This is where it got tricky. The recipe I was using said to fold 50-75 times, until the batter reaches a "magma-like consistency". Being a geologist, I had to ask 'What kind of magma!!?' The viscosity differences between magmas are quite significant, and if we're talking basaltic magma that is an entirely different consistency than a rhyolitic magma! Ack!

Another tip was to watch for a 'toffee-like sheen' when the batter is ready. I've never seen fresh toffee, but the egg whites quickly deflated with the folding, took on somewhat of a sheen, and the consistency seemed "magma-like" after almost 60 folds. I dumped the batter into a prepared pastry bag and prepared to pipe the batter onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.

The piping onto the cookie sheet was quick, since the batter is pretty thin. The first round of macarons still retained a little bit of a peak after piping, the second round seemed a little closer to the consistency that I wanted (and didn't have any peaks on the top), so I'm guessing I could have used a few more folds before piping the first batch.

The macarons with little peaks were part of my first piping batch. The macarons on the sides and bottom of the image are from my second round of piping. Obviously those couple of extra folds that resulted while scraping the bowl made a big difference in consistency. Made me realize how easy these things are to mess up!

The recipe said to preheat the oven to 375 while letting the macarons rest for about 30-45 minutes. Once the macarons have started to develop a slightly hardened outer shell, turn the oven down to 325 and bake them for about 10 minutes, rotating halfway through.

As the macarons bake, they don't expand or rise, but rather develop little 'feet'. I was confident that my macarons would turn out well when I pulled them out of the oven and they all had cute little feet!

Some of the peaks remained during baking, but you can sort of pick out the little feet on the bottom of each macaron. 

Everything was looking good until I bit into one, and found out it was hollow!

A little too airy!

The bottoms of some of the macarons were also a little brown to slightly burnt, so I think I overbaked them. We have a new (to us) oven, so I'll have to get an oven thermometer so that I can really track the oven temperature, particularly with something so temperature sensitive. I am also going to experiment with just some basic meringue cookies in the near future, because I think that altitude has something to do with it, as it most likely affects the egg whites.

Perfection of the macaron will be an ongoing process, similar to my quest to replicate the Jacob Lake chocolate parfait cookie! So check back for another update sometime soon on my successes (and failures!) in the macaron-making process.