You didn’t think I could resist dreaming up a treat for Valentine’s Day did you? I’ve always enjoyed the holiday and have fond memories of pouring through all the cartoon cards in my heart decorated box in grade school and placing small boxes of chocolate outside the dorm doors of all my girlfriends in college. I’ve also always loved stocking up on Dove hearts when they go on sale! Now I use the holiday as an opportunity to pour over cookbooks and blogs and come up with an indulgent gourmet meal. I haven’t decided on the menu yet for this year, but I’m leaning towards braising short ribs!

When I think of Valentine’s Day, I think of chocolate covered strawberries and truffles, so why not combine the best of both worlds? These truffles contain a rich and creamy strawberry center that I initially had a bit of trouble with – in fact, it took 4 batches of wasted strawberry puree until I achieved the consistency I was looking for (thank goodness I was using the less expensive frozen berries and not the out of season expensive fresh ones)! But my patience and persistence paid off and I finally nailed it. The strawberry centers are simply coated with chocolate. I did drizzle a bit of white chocolate over the truffles and included the directions for this in the recipe below, but would probably actually skip this step next time because I think it detracts a bit from the gorgeous red strawberry centers and it was extra work. The filling is a bit sticky when it warms up, so be sure to chill the dough as needed to avoid this. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Truffles
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 cup pureed strawberries (I pulsed 8-10 thawed frozen whole strawberries in the food processor)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/3 cup white chocolate chips
Several drops of pink gel food coloring

Directions:
Place strawberry puree, sugar, and butter in a small nonstick pan over medium low heat and simmer 15 to 20 minutes or until reduced to 1/2 cup. Mix reduced liquid with flour and salt in a small bowl. Chill truffle filling for 1 hour in the fridge or until cold.

Carefully roll chilled strawberry filling into 12 round truffles and place on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes or until cold.

Melt semisweet chocolate chips in a shallow bowl on High 1 minute, stirring after 30 seconds; stir until chips are melted and mixture is smooth, microwaving an additional 10 seconds as needed. Mix in 1 tablespoon oil. Using 2 forks, dip strawberry centers into melted chocolate and cover evenly. Place on waxed paper and smooth tops with the back of a spoon, if needed. Cool in the fridge until chocolate is set, about an hour.

Melt white chocolate chips in a shallow bowl on High 1 minute, stirring after 30 seconds; stir until chips are melted and mixture is smooth Mix in remaining 1/2 tablespoon oil and pink gel food coloring and place chocolate in a pastry bag with a number 4 tip. Drizzle chocolate over truffles. Makes 12 truffles.

Nutrition: 106 calories, 4.1g fat, 0.8g fiber, 0.9g protein per truffle
Cost: $0.34 per truffle

The countdown to our flight to Arizona has begun and we’re playing our favorite game of trying to finish up all the perishables in our fridge before we go. We got a little off track when Apolinaras brought a half gallon of milk home on Sunday and thawed six pork chops, but there are only two porkchops left, so I think we still have a shot! Even the huge roll of goat cheese from Costco is over half way gone and I’m going to make this pizza tomorrow night to use up the rest of it. I also found a cup of extra pumpkin puree in the fridge that was leftover from making Apolinaras his favorite low-fat oatmeal cookies the other day and decided to make myself a little treat.

I whipped up a super thick and creamy pumpkin pudding and was planning on just eating it straight out of the bowl, but some puff pastry shells caught my eye.  I was experimenting with recipe ideas for the Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry Contest (which are due December 31, so you still have time to enter!), and had some extra shells, so I filled them with the pudding instead! I topped the little tarts with some toasted walnuts and powdered sugar and they were just a wonderful quick and easy holiday treat. Merry Christmas!

Pumpkin Puff Pastry Tarts
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 (10 ounce) package Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry Shells
1 (3.4-oz.) package instant vanilla pudding
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 cup pure pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
2 tablespoon toasted chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon powdered sugar

Directions:
Prepare the puff pastry shells according to the package directions. Let baked shells cool to room temperature, about 10 minutes, and remove the tops.

Meanwhile, prepare the pumpkin filling. In a large bowl mix instant pudding, milk, condensed milk, pumpkin, and pumpkin pie spice. Refrigerate 10 minutes or until set. Scoop pumpkin filling evenly into the puff pastry shells. Sprinkle toasted walnuts and powdered sugar evenly on top of each tart. Makes 6 servings.

Nutrition: 277 calories, 4.8g fat, 1.8g fiber, 6.3g protein per serving
Cost: $1.77 per serving

I figured it’s about time that I actually post a cake recipe – you know, since my blog is called Cake, Batter, and Bowl and all… I couldn’t resist the cute word play on Shake, Rattle, and Roll when I was brainstorming names with my Dad over Christmas last year, but in reality the title wasn’t totally appropriate because prior to starting this blog my favorite cake to make was from a box of Pillsbury’s Funfetti mix! I had made my mom’s famous chocolate cake from scratch a couple of times, but didn’t really get into other recipes until I kept running across cakes on the blogosphere that I was inspired to make. Even though I kept gaining more and more experience, for the longest time I was still too intimidated to experiment on my own. However, this all changed when I was encouraged to come up with an original cake recipe (details about that in a future post). I actually had fun dreaming up flavor combinations when I got into it and found it wasn’t quite as challenging as I had envisioned. No cakes fell in the oven or were inedible because they were too dry. I even managed to nail the frosting consistencies and improved my piping skills. These cupcakes were one of the first ideas that popped into my head.

I decided they needed to be stuffed with shredded apples and spiced with cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, and cloves. Then I topped the cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting with a hint of lemon and toasted pecans. My very favorite part of this recipe is the caramel drizzle. Caramel is actually pretty easy to make at home, since you don’t even need a candy thermometer. I used apple juice as the base instead of water and it turned out so well! This recipe is broken down by each component so it doesn’t get too confusing, and you really only need a couple tablespoons of the caramel for the cupcakes, so you’ll have lots left over for other treats!

p.s.  The winners of my Hotel Chocolat giveaway were Danielle and Biz – congrats!

Spiced Apple Cupcakes
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

Cupcakes:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large Gala apple, cored, peeled, and shredded (should have 1 1/2 cups of shredded apples)

Cream Cheese Frosting:
2 2/3 cups powdered sugar
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons butter, softened
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons lemon juice

Caramel Drizzle:
1/4 cup unsweetened 100% apple juice
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup pecans, toasted and coarsely chopped

Directions:

Prepare the Cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Mix together flour, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, cloves, baking powder, and salt and sift the mixture into a large bowl. Beat butter and sugar with a mixer in a large bowl until creamed. Add in eggs and vanilla extract and mix until smooth. Slowly mix in sifted flour mixture until smooth. Mix in shredded apples. Line a standard 12-cup cupcake pan with cupcake liners and evenly spoon cupcake batter into the liners, filling cups 3/4 full. Bake cupcakes at 350˚F for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean and the tops are light golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes in the pan and then transfer cupcakes to a cooling rack. Cool for 20 minutes or until cupcakes are room temperature.

Prepare the Cream Cheese Frosting: Place powdered sugar, cream cheese, butter, vanilla extract, and lemon juice in a large bowl and beat with a mixer until smooth, scraping down sides of the bowl as needed.

Prepare the Caramel Drizzle: Meanwhile, prepare caramel drizzle. Place apple juice and sugar in a medium saucepan, stir well, and bring the mixture to a boil over medium high heat. Boil for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring frequently, or until mixture is a caramel color. Monitor closely so the sugar does not burn! Remove pan from the heat and pour in slowly stir in cream and vanilla. The mixture will boil up. Return pan to the heat and boil an additional 2 to 5 minutes or until mixture thickens slightly, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and allow caramel to cool to room temperature.

Cupcake Assembly: Place cream cheese frosting in a decorating bag with a 1M decorating tip. Frost cupcakes evenly. Top cupcakes evenly with chopped pecans. Drizzle caramel sauce over the top of each cupcake, using a new decorating bag with a 4 tip. Makes 12 cupcakes.

Nutrition: 379 calories, 15.7g fat, 1.2g fiber, 3.8g protein per cupcake
Cost: $0.67 per cupcake

Our whirlwind NYC tour would not have been complete without visiting a few famous bakeries! The two at the top of my list were Bouchon and Levain, so the first thing we did after checking into our hotel was head up to Bouchon Bakery in the Time Warner Center right next to Central Park. I will probably never make it to The French Laundry or Per Se, so I was excited to sample a bit of Thomas Keller’s genius at Bouchon. We had a light lunch (I highly recommend the rich dark meat chicken veggie and herb dumpling soup!), so we still had room for double chocolate and Nutter Butter cookies, which were incredible! Bouchon was our favorite bakery and my mom actually kept suggesting we head back there for another meal during the remainder of our trip!

After lunch we headed up to the Upper West Side so we could sample the famous cookies at Levain. We got a chocolate chip walnut and dark chocolate peanut butter chip cookie and enjoyed them outside on a bench in front of the bakery. Both cookies were still warm with a crispy outside and gooey middle. They were really really good, but were they the best I’ve ever had? Probably not. But, I still think Levain is a bakery everyone should visit at least once!

Next up was Amy’s Bread, a cute bakery in Chelsea Market that features both breads and desserts. I had a butterscotch cashew bar, which was delicious, but the real highlight was meeting Emily (which I know you’re all super jealous about!), the gorgeous superstar blogger of Sugar Plum! I’ve been a huge fan of Emily’s blog for a long time now.  In fact, her blog was one of the ones that inspired me to start my own! She was also the first person to ever comment on my little blog. She’s just as sweet and funny as she comes across on her blog and I think we could have chatted all day!

I was also very excited that to meet up with my good friend Annika. She treated me to an amazing spread of sweets at Billy’s Bakery, which is around the corner from her apartment (lucky girl!). We reminisced about causing trouble in college and turning 30 and overdid it on a piece of ice box cake (which tasted like a huge Oreo – yum!), cheesecake, carrot cake cupcakes, and a stack of snickerdoodles!

The last sweet spot of our trip was a visit to M&Ms World in Times Square. My mom is a HUGE M&Ms fan and collects their dispensers. She picked out a couple things for her birthday and we both got cute matching measuring spoon sets (I seriously can never have too many, I swear all my 1/4 teaspoons are hiding out together in some random drawer because I can never find one when I need it!).

So, of course I had to come up with a recipe featuring M&Ms for this post! The cookies were inspired by the butterscotch cashew bars I had at Amy’s. To play with the salty and sweet contrast even more, I mixed chunks of pretzels into the dough. My original plan was to top the cookie bars with a homemade caramel sauce (which I’ve recently discovered is actually pretty easy to make), but I realized our cream had gone bad while I was heating the sugar, and using milk didn’t exactly work out. Anyway, you can never go wrong with chocolate, so I made a quick ganache instead and topped the bars with it and then sprinkled as many M&Ms and beautiful whole cashews on top that I could. The cookies themselves were really crunchy, so I had to be very careful getting them out of the pan. I actually lifted them all the way out (I think lining the pan with parchment paper would work really well) and then cut them on a cutting board with my chef’s knife. They are very tasty though and definitely worth this extra hassle!

M&M Cashew Pretzel Bars
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup coarsely chopped pretzels (I used the honey wheat pretzel rods from TJs cut into eighths)
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 cup whole cashews
1/2 cup M&Ms

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350˚F. Mix butter, brown sugar, flour and baking powder in a medium bowl until smooth. Mix in chopped pretzels. Spread dough evenly into a greased 8×8-inch pan (or line the pan with parchment paper so the bars can be easily pulled out of the pan) and bake for 15 minutes at 350˚F or until lightly browned and set. Cool for 30 minutes.

In a small bowl, microwave chocolate chips and milk on High 1 minute, stirring after 30 seconds; stir until chips are melted and mixture is smooth. Spread ganache over cooled pretzel bars and top ganache evenly with cashews and M&Ms. Refrigerate for an hour or until ganache is set. Cut into 16 bars. Makes 16 servings.

Nutrition: 194 calories, 10.7g fat, 0.9g fiber, 2.2g protein per serving
Cost: $0.37 per serving