Crunchy Creamy Sweet

Homemade Peanut Butter

January 11, 2012 by Anna

It’s January – time of resolutions. After the holiday season, extended by my birthday, I had a chance to sit down and write down ours as a family. We do that every year, and on our special Family Holiday right before Halloween, we check the list.

This year, I decided I want to make more things from scratch. I won’t buy frosting or cake mix. I love my easy homemade jam so much – no need to buy it anymore. Same goes for the freshly baked breads and rolls.

Homemade peanut butter is also on the list. My kids love it and I was excited to make it myself!

Toasted peanuts.

Homemade Peanut Butter
adapted from Alton Brown

1 1/2 cups of unsalted peanuts ( you can use the Spanish kind too, as it has more oil and you might not need the additional tablespoons )
1 Tbsp of peanut or canola oil

Place the peanuts on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Roast them in 400 degree oven, for about 10 minutes. They will look shiny as they release their natural oil.
Place the peanuts in food processor and grind.
This is how it will look like after a couple of minutes.

Not quite there…

Keep grinding until it looks like this. Be patient here, it might take several minutes.

Spread on a freshly baked roll and enjoy!

We did. 🙂

I hope this will inspire you to try your hand in making homemade peanut butter. It is really delicious and sure makes you feel good about serving it to your family.

Do you write down your resolutions every year?
Are you planning on making more of homemade food ( like this peanut butter ) this year?

Please, feel free to share!

White Chocolate Cranberry Birthday Cake

January 4, 2012 by Anna

In our Family, Holidays are extended by certain someone’s ( mine ) birthday. It allows me to make another cake and spoil everybody just a bit more.

January new+048a White Chocolate Cranberry Birthday Cake

I spent days trying to decide on the flavors and decor. Until my Hubby said I should just take my favorite flavors and make them into a cake. Yes!

So, here it is: vanilla cake, white chocolate buttercream frosting, cranberry filling and white chocolate roses.

Perfect for a birthday in the midst of Winter. White frosting matches the outdoors and cranberries are still in season ( or in few bags in my freezer 🙂 ).

January new+049a White Chocolate Cranberry Birthday Cake

Now onto the roses. Oh, those roses! The white chocolate’s creamy hue makes them a perfect decoration for this time of year. And they look quite real, don’t you think?
The white chocolate roses are my new favorite cake topper idea. I was blown away by how easy the are to make and how beautiful they look.

January new+050a White Chocolate Cranberry Birthday Cake

For a filling I used my cranberry jam.

January new+057a White Chocolate Cranberry Birthday Cake

I also added little white chocolate flowers around the edge of the cake. Aren’t they adorable? 🙂

January new+074a White Chocolate Cranberry Birthday Cake

Here is the inside view. I apologize for the quality of the photo, but the natural daylight was long time gone. 🙂

January new+096a White Chocolate Cranberry Birthday Cake

I hope you will like my cake as much as I did. It is my new favorite, flavors and all!

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes with Brown-Butter Icing and Cinnamon Sugar Sprinkles

January 2, 2012 by Anna

Quite a title, no? Just wanted to make sure you know what we are dealing with here.

Snickerdoodles are my Husband’s favorite cookies. I caught those cupcakes floating on the web and knew immediately that I wanted to make them. For my Hubby. 🙂

January new+031a Snickerdoodle Cupcakes with Brown Butter Icing and Cinnamon Sugar Sprinkles

The original recipe calls for the seven-minute frosting. That’s when I wrinkled my nose. I made this type of frosting once and didn’t really like it. Besides, the idea of adding a frosting to snickerdoodle, even if it’s a cupcake, wasn’t really in my plan. I wanted to keep the sugar-y cinnamon-y coating from the cookie.

January new+032a Snickerdoodle Cupcakes with Brown Butter Icing and Cinnamon Sugar Sprinkles

I went ahead and baked the cupcakes. Oh, yum! They were good. Just like the cookies! I brushed them with melted butter and dipped in sugar and cinnamon sprinkles. Even better! After few more bites… Darn it! It needs some creaminess. Yeah, It’s a cupcake after all…

January new+038a Snickerdoodle Cupcakes with Brown Butter Icing and Cinnamon Sugar Sprinkles

But I still wasn’t making the seven-minute fluff. I knew I had to find something else. Long story short, I came across the delicious brown-butter icing recipe and it is perfect for my Snickerdoodle Cupcakes. 🙂
I iced the cupcakes, sprinkled with the cinnamon-sugar mix and was finally happy with them.

January new+039a Snickerdoodle Cupcakes with Brown Butter Icing and Cinnamon Sugar Sprinkles

Then came the moment of truth. What will the snickerdoodle fan say? I was walking back and forth in my kitchen waiting for the verdict. ( Ok, maybe I was just staring into his face awaiting the opinion ).

January new+040a Snickerdoodle Cupcakes with Brown Butter Icing and Cinnamon Sugar Sprinkles

He loved it! My Hubby said they taste just like the cookies and the icing is great!

😀 That’s me. Grinning.

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes
adapted from Martha Stewart

makes 28 cupcakes

1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 1/2 c cake flour ( see tip if you don’t have cake flour on hand )
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
2 sticks ( 1 cup ) unsalted butter, softened
1 3/4 c sugar
4 eggs, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 c milk

Note: The recipe calls for cake flour. You can imagine I didn’t have any on New Year’s Day, so I used a little trick: measure out as much flour as the recipe calls for and take out 1 tablespoon of flour per cup needed. Meaning, I needed 1 1/2 cups of cake flour, so I measure out 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour and took out 1 and 1/2 tablespoons from it.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line the cupcake pans with liners and set aside.
Whisk together dry ingredients ( flour/s, baking powder, salt and cinnamon ).
In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time. Beat well after each addition. Add vanilla. Beat again.
Add the dry ingredients, alternating with milk. Make sure you start and finish with dry mix. ( 3 additions of dry, 2 of wet ). Beat after each addition. Make sure everything is combined.
Fill each liner 3/4 full.
Bake 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cupcake comes out clean. Cool completely before icing.

Brown-Butter Icing

1/2 stick unsalted butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp milk

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook, 6 – 10 minutes, until it’s brown and has nutty fragrance.
Pour it into a heat proof bowl, add sugar and vanilla. Stir until smooth. It should be quite thick, so add the milk and stir again, until it reaches icing consistency. It should not be too runny. Glaze cupcakes and use a spoon to scrape the bowl and fill your mouth with this creamy, buttery goodness.
The icing will set as it stands. Sprinkle the cupcakes ( see below ) right after glazing.

January new+033a Snickerdoodle Cupcakes with Brown Butter Icing and Cinnamon Sugar Sprinkles

Cinnamon Sugar Sprinkles
To maintain the coating of a real snickerdoodle cookie, I mixed 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon in a small bowl. After you glaze the cupcakes, add a little magic with this sprinkle mix. 🙂