"Fruitcake" oatmeal cookies

Amazeballs. Best after completely cooled with a nice cup of tea (or milk tea!). And yes, you can eat them for breakfast because they are oats and fruit!

1 C butter, softened (preferably Kerry Gold)
1 C sugar
1 C packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 t vanilla extract
2 T dark rum
2 C flour
2 C rolled oats
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1/2 t salt (increase to 1 t if using unsalted butter)
3/4 C golden raisins
3/4 C diced candied fruit, including citrus peel (i.e. https://nuts.com/driedfruit/glazedfruit/mixed-peel.html)
1 C chopped toasted pecans (optional but delicious)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Cream the butter and sugars together, then the add eggs one at a time, mixing well to incorporate. Mix in the vanilla and the rum. In another bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. In three batches, mix the dry ingredients into the wet, then fold in the fruit and nuts.

Drop by generous tablespoon onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes.

Makes 4-6 dozen.

Ancho Chile Candied Pecans

Last year for the holidays, I made some semi-successful salty maple pecans for people. This year, I got a real recipe for candied pecans and replaced the disgusting cinnamon with ancho chile powder. Holy crap was that a stroke of genius. The smoky chile flavor paired perfectly with the flavor of the pecans. I used less sugar and more salt than most recipes and have been receiving nothing but compliments, specifically that they are the perfect level of sweetness.

Ancho Chile Candied Pecans

2 lb pecans

1/4 C egg whites

2 T water

1/2 C evaporated cane juice (or granulated sugar)

1/2 C coconut sugar (or dark brown sugar)

3 t ancho chile powder

2 t Kosher salt

Preheat oven to 350. Whip egg whites with water just until a little foamy. Toss pecans in egg wash, coating thoroughly. Whisk the rest of the ingredients together and toss with eggy pecans until well-combined. Pour onto parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake 15 minutes. Stir and bake another 15-20 minutes until the sugary stuff starts to crystallize. Immediately remove parchment paper to another surface to cool. Wait to bag pecans (if you're not shoveling them directly into your mouth) until they are completely cooled and dry.

Whoopie Pie Redux

Turned out I had all this frosting left over from the last batch of whoopie pies (don't fret, in that post, I gave measurements for 1/2 of what I actually made). So I thought I'd give it another go, since the red velvet pies were very popular around here. This time, I got a box of devil's food cake mix and different shortening. I also followed the recipe (gasp!) and used the correct mixer attachment, with good results.

Generic cake mix is the best; I fell for the butter-flavor shortening, but it's a fancy health-food brand, so it must be okay

This is dough, not batter like last time

Dry dough easily comes out of the spoon

I rolled it into balls... because I like balls

So the parchment trick wasn't too good this time since these needed to cool before they really set

Done

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

What to do with a box of red velvet cake mix? Make a cake? LOL no; too easy. Cookies? I don't know, kind of boring. Whoopie pies? YES!

I found a recipe online calling for only cake mix, shortening, and eggs. The cookies looked nicer (more like Oreo Cakester cookies) than other recipes calling for a more cakey batter. I decided to add some cocoa powder since I like super-cocoa flavor.

I mixed together 1 box of red velvet cake mix, 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder, 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons of shortening, and 2 eggs. The batter was rather thick and I happened to have buttermilk in the fridge, so I mixed a couple of tablespoons into the batter. Note: the little white dots are bits of my fancy non-hydrogenated shortening...

Scoop by tablespoon and attempt to drop onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. My batter wouldn't drop on its own, so I had to help it. Thus, they came out a little ugly. Perhaps an oiled tablespoon would correct that.

What I did here was drop the batter onto a sheet of parchment while I had one batch in the oven to at 375°F for 9 minutes, then I just changed out the parchment.

Now for the filling. What's better with red velvet cake than cream cheese frosting? White chocolate cream cheese frosting! Melt 3 oz of white chocolate and allow to cool a bit. Beat on high 4 oz of cream cheese, 2 tablespoons of butter, and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Add in the white chocolate and beat some more before slowly beating in 1 cup of confectioner's sugar.

I forgot to picture the vanilla.

Put the frosting in a piping bag, or in my case, a ziplock with a corner cut off, and pipe the frosting onto the bottom of one cookie, then top with another. Thanks to the white chocolate, the frosting stiffens up with time, so even though they are really messy to eat right away, after a few hours they're totally manageable.

They were perfect. Perfect, I tell you!

Persimmon Upside-Down Cake

This fall I've been totally persimmon crazy. My fuyu persimmons have been ripening and they're finally pretty soft. I was thinking about what kinds of things I could do with them - jam, bread, pie... cake! For a while I was thinking Tarte Tatin, but I ended up deciding to do something a little different. I lucked out when I came across a recipe from Emeril Lagasse for Pineapple Upside Down Cake. I don't usually go for Emeril recipes, but this one was done in a cast-iron skillet, which I thought was really cool, so I could get that Tarte Tatin feeling with a cake. Warning: this cake is very sweet; whipped cream or crème fraiche will help cut the sweetness.

Start with slicing the persimmons into pretty rounds about 1/2-inch thick. I love the star pattern inside the fuyus. Also let the butter soften. Coarsely chop the persimmon butts to purée and add to the cake batter. Emeril's recipe calls for 1 cup of buttermilk, so I puréed the leftover persimmon with buttermilk to make 1 cup.
Next make what will become the top of the cake. In an oven-proof skillet over medium heat, melt 4 tablespoons of butter. Then add 3/4 cup of light brown sugar, increase the heat to medium-high, and cook until bubbly. Arrange the persimmon slices in the bubbling goo and cook for about 2 minutes. Flip the persimmon slices and remove the skillet from the heat.

Now start on the cake batter. Stir together 1 cup of cake flour, 1 cup of all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, 1 teaspoon of baking soda, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt.

Cream together 1/2 cup of butter and 1 cup of granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Add 2 eggs, one at a time, mixing until incorporated.

Add the flour mixture and persimmon purée in 3 alternating batches, mixing at low speed until combined. Scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally.

Once the batter is finished, scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula once more to make sure everything is combined, then carefully pour over the persimmon slices in the skillet.

Put the skillet in the middle of a 375°F oven and bake until the top is golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean, about 30-35 minutes. Remove the entire skillet to a rack and cool for 5 minutes.

Very carefully flip the cake onto a plate.

Now make some whipped cream. A trick I learned doing pastry at a restaurant is to whip the cream in a frozen metal bowl and only add flavors once the whipping is almost finished. Also, make sure the whipping cream is very cold. These measures prevent "weeping," that is, liquid seeping out from the whipped cream after it sits for a while. Whip the cream on high speed until soft peaks form, then add brown sugar to taste (I don't like mine very sweet). Whip it some more just until the peaks don't collapse. Stop there before you start getting butter!