Dessert's Answer to the Turducken

I was recently engaged in serious post-graduate conversation about turduckens. For those of you living in blissful ignorance about what that might be, let me enlighten you: a turducken is a boneless chicken stuffed inside of a boneless duck, which is then stuffed inside of a boneless turkey. The resulting poultry trifecta can then be grilled or roasted... or, I'm sure, deep fried. I had assumed the turducken was a recent invention,perfectly suited to our current culture of excess. However, it turns out similar dishes were thought to have been made by the ancient Romans. I can't help but re-frame all of my mental images of Cicero and Plutarch to involve going home after a long day at the Forum, putting their feet up, and enjoying a hearty serving of turducken. If only I had known this tidbit during all of my political theory classes...

Regardless, our conversation eventually turned, jokingly, to the possibility of making a desert version of a turducken. We all laughed about the idea of baking a pie inside of a cake, but I began to really think about the endless dessert concoction possibilities. I love baking, and I have realized in the past few years that I bake when I am nervous or anxious. The past few weeks have definitely been hectic enough for me to maintain a healthy level of anxiety, so I figured this mythical dessert was just the thing for me to attempt.

As soon as a friend told me about Oreo cupcakes I knew I had found the recipe for me. I don't know if it is the result of trying one too many new gourmet cupcake boutiques, or seeing one too many commercials for DC Cupcake on TLC, but I have apparently jumped on the bandwagon of the nation's current cupcake obsession at a full sprint. I recently have been unhealthily (on many levels) obsessed with cupcakes. The name cupcake is actually a bit of a misnomer for Oreo cupcakes, as they are mostly made of dairy products and don’t have any flour, sugar, etc. In fact, I was a little nervous when I actually sat down to look over recipes, as I generally don't embrace some of the ingredients on the list, but combined, they surpassed all expectations I had for them, and they were much more appetizing than I imagine a turducken to be. I dubbed them cupcakeos... if Mary and I ever hit it big and get famous, remember, it started here.

Cupcakeo Recipe

21 Oreos (depending on size of muffin tin)

1/4 c. white sugar

1 egg

1/4 c. sour cream

1 8 oz. package of cream cheese

1/2 t. vanilla extract

1/4 t. salt

(these quantities can be easily double or tripled)

1. Line the muffin tray with muffin liners, and place one Oreo inside each liner.

2. In a mixer, blend the cream cheese until soft, then add the sugar. Once blended, add the vanilla and the egg. Continue to blend. When well blended, mix in the sour cream and the salt.

3. Put three Oreos in a plastic sandwich baggie

and hit them with a pestle or another

appropriate object until crushed. (This is a big anxiety-reliever. I guess you could also chop the Oreos with a knife, but where is the fun in that?). Mix crushed Oreos into cream cheese mixer and blend until lightly mixed.

4. Pour batter into muffin tray, covering the Oreos and filling the liners nearly to the top.

5. Bake for about 25 minutes at 300 degrees. The cupcakes will still be slightly moist, but the batter should have set. Let cool in muffin tray then carefully remove cupcakes. Let chill in refrigerator for at least three hours before eating (OK... you don't really have to wait, but it does firm them up quite nicely).

Great Craic, Even Better Bread.

St. Paddy's day. One of my favorite holidays. TOMORROW. What's not to like? Corned beef, cabbage, a cold Guinness, and a green Chicago river (or at least a slightly more neon green than usual).

I realize I'm not actually from Ireland (which a friend from London INSISTS on telling me constantly), but my great-grandparents came over from Ireland and I am extremely proud of my heritage. So this St. Paddy's day I decided to attempt my Nana's soda bread recipe. I told myself I'd try this recipe earlier in the week, but I didn't realize how nervous I would be actually cooking it. I suddenly felt all this pressure, like my family was going to compare it to the soda bread's of my grandmother, great-grandmother, etc., and Irish eyes would NOT be smiling.

Regardless, I pushed on, and combined my Nana's recipe with a few tweaks of my own (this way no one would blame me for totally botching her own recipe). For one, I macerated the raisins beforehand in a few tablespoons of really good whiskey I had left from a trip to Scotland. The whiskey flavor was barely there, but the raisins were much plumper and juicier. I also decided to add about 1 1/2 teaspoons of orange zest to give the bread a little extra zing. And since I didn't have any cream of tartar, I decided to omit it completely (with my aunt's approval).

But probably the best decision I made was to splurge and buy Irish Butter. I remember a baker once told me that using Irish butter made all the difference in his breads, and I am certainly not one to shy away from more butter-y butter.






















I was getting more nervous while making this because it is SUPER sticky. Definitely the wettest dough I've ever used. I don't think there's a surface in my kitchen without some dough permanently stuck to it. But... the result was great! The bread came out moist, but not soggy, and cake-y, but not dry. I'm really looking forward to having it with a strong cup of Irish tea for breakfast tomorrow morning. Hope Nana approves!

Adapted from Nana's Irish Soda Bread
Ingredients
3 cups Unsifted flour
3 1/4 to 4 tablespoon Irish butter (cold)
2 1/4 teaspoons Baking powder
1 teaspoon Baking soda
1/2 cup Sugar
1 teaspoon Orange zest
1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
1 cup Raisins (I soaked mine in 2 tablespoons of Famous Grouse whiskey for 15 minutes, then patted them with a paper towels to absorb extra liquid)
1 egg
2 cups Buttermilk
1 1/2 teaspoons Caraway seeds

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and butter an iron skillet. Mix flour and butter in a large bowl so butter is incorporated, but still lumpy.
2. In the flour mixture, combine the baking soda, baking powder, salt, sugar, and caraway seeds.
3. In a separate bowl or measuring cup, whisk together the buttermilk, egg and orange zest. Slowly add the liquid to the dry ingredients with an electric mixer.
4. Add the raisins, and mix with a wooden spoon. Turn the dough into the iron skillet.
5. Cover the wooden spoon in flour, and drag spoon around the sides of the dough to create a neat circle. Using a serrated knife, make an X on the top of the dough. Bake for 45 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Allow to cool in the skillet.
6. Enjoy with more Irish butter!

Not Your Average Cookie

It should come as no surprise that I really enjoyed my time studying abroad in Madrid -- my food experiences there have been the inspiration for more than one of the posts on this blog. Here's another one:

While in Madrid, I lived around the corner from a bakery that sold delicious dulce de leche cookies. My roommate, who happened to be one of my best friends from college, and I would make up any excuse to treat ourselves to the cookies. Since we've been back in the States, we still often reminisce about how delicious they were, so I decided to try my hand at making them myself... you know how much we love cookies.

It wasn't until Mary and I were going over the recipe and making a shopping list that I realized that dulce de leche isn't for sale in the grocery store, but rather is made from heating condensed milk. This made me more than a little nervous, since as we kept googling how to make dulce de leche, we kept reading warnings about how the condensed milk cans could explode. My fears were definitely not assuaged by the warning on the label of the cans telling me to never heat the cans, either. As a result of this, my parents avoided the kitchen for the day, and in the end, we made some pretty delicious cookies. They were nothing like the cookies in the bakery in my neighborhood in Madrid, but I daresay they were even better.

Dulce de Leche:

Remove all labels from condensed milk cans. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, reduce heat to simmering and place in can(s) of condensed milk. Make sure water covers the can by at least an inch. Simmer for at least three hours, adding about a cup of water to the pot every thirty minutes to maintain the water level. Our dulce de lecher was pretty thin, but according to some of the recipes we read, the longer you keep it on the stove, the darker and thicker it becomes. When ready, gently remove the cans from the pot and let sit for at least 30 minutes until cool. We (ok, I) was pretty nervous the cans would explode when we tried to open them, but Mary bravely opened them (and lived to eat the finished product).

Dulce De Leche Cookies:

2 1/2 c. flour

1 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

2 sticks unsalted butter

3/4 c. dulce de leche, plus more for filling

3/4 c. light brown sugar

1/2 c. sugar

2 large eggs

1. Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl.

2. In another bowl, use a mixer (hand or standing) to beat the butter until soft. Add the dulce de leche and sugars and beat until fluffy. Add one egg at a time, mixing well between eggs.

3. Reduce mixer speed and add the dry ingredients, mixing until they just disappear into the batter.

4. Using a teaspoon, spoon the dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Make sure to space them well, as the cookies tend to spread.

5. Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes at 350 degrees. Halfway though, rotate the cookies in the oven. They should be light brown, but still soft. Remove from oven, and let cook before transferring the

cookies to a wire rack.

6. When the cookies are cool, spread the flat side of half of the cookies with dulce de leche, and using a second cookie, create a sandwich with both flat sides touching.

Thankfully this recipe makes a LOT (about 35 pairs) of cookies, because the cookies were amazing. We have never made anything like them - they were soft and chewy and the dulce de leche was delicious. It was practically impossible to only eat only one of them. The only reason I haven't been baking a new batch every day is because I am still a little nervous about the whole dulce de leche making process, but the more I reminisce about these cookies, the more I am realizing I need to bite the bullet... perhaps even tomorrow.