Guilty Pleasures

Let me introduce you to my new friend - the brownie cookie with salted caramel icing - a gourmet oreo if you will...  I have recently become overwhelmingly obsessed with BiRite's Salted Caramel Ice Cream, so imagine my delight when I stumbled upon this recipe that added brownie cookies to the mix.

Diet?? What Diet?!  Please enjoy, and in advance... you are welcome!

Brownie Cookies with Salted Caramel Creme Filling: 

Preparation: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line bake sheet with parchment paper.

Ingredients:

Brownie Cookie (adapted from Donna Hay) :
12 oz. chocolate, chopped
3 tablespoons butter
2 eggs
⅔ cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup all-purpose flour, sifted
¼ teaspoon baking powder, sifted

Salted Caramel Creme Filling:
1 cup butter
2 cups confectioner sugar
1/4 teaspoon salted
1/4 cup caramel (Make sure caramel is cooled if making homemade. Click here for homemade caramel sauce recipe)

Instructions:

To make brownie cookies:

Place 7oz. of the chocolate and the butter in a saucepan over low heat and gently stir until melted and smooth. Set aside.

Place the eggs, sugar and vanilla in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat for 15 minutes or until pale and creamy. Add in flour, baking powder, melted chocolate mixture, remaining 5 oz. of chocolate and mix to combine. Set aside to to stand for 10 minutes. Spoon 2 tablespoonful of the mixture, onto parchment lined bake sheet. Bake for about 8–10 minutes or until puffed and cracked. Allow to cool completely on trays.

To make caramel creme filling:

Place butter in a bowl and beat until creamed. Add in confectioner sugar and salt and beat until light combined. Add in caramel and beat until combined.

Assembly:

Spread a teaspoon and a half of caramel creme on underside of one brownie cookie and place a second brownie cookie bottom side down on top frosting.

Photo and recipe by Bakers Royale

Makes 24 one-and-a-half inch sandwich cookies | 

The House

Doesn't this look so good?  We had lunch today at a restaurant called The House.  Located in Northbeach, you'd never notice this un-pretentious restaurant, but the food is phenomenal, and the prices are totally reasonable.  I'd describe it as asian fusion - there is a ton of seafood on the menu - all super fresh, and they use really interesting flavor combinations.  So amazing.  HIGHLY recommend!!

Anyways, I have been totally MIA this week - so busy with work!  (why do the short work weeks always feel the longest)?!  I am so looking forward to the weekend already - some warm weather, and a little field trip to the south bay for my best friend's gender reveal party.  Have you heard of this new phenomenon?  Pregnant women throwing parties to reveal if they are having a boy or girl?

I hadn't heard of it, but I am so excited to see her, rub her belly, and catch up.

Happy Thursday!

Brussels Sprouts: AMAZING Recipe

Oh man, of all the vegetables I hated growing up, brussels sprouts topped the list.  I still believe that there is nothing worse than a steamed brussels sprout, however, I have discovered that with a teeny bit of fat, and a super hot oven, these little morsels can end up pretty tasty!  In an honest effort to combat their bad rap, here is a fool proof recipe that will make even the pickiest eater gobble them down, and if all else fails, throw in some bacon... it solves everything...

Maple Cayenne Roasted Brussels Sproutsadapted from Everyday Food magazine

2 pounds Brussels sprouts, halved lengthwise
1 Tablespoon olive oil
salt to taste
1 Tablespoon pure maple syrup
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400*F.
2. Toss Brussels sprouts with olive oil and salt and spread on a rimmed baking sheet.
3. Roast 15-20 minutes, stirring halfway. They should be tender and browned.
4. While the sprouts are roasting, in a small bowl, combine maple syrup and cayenne pepper.
5. Pour the maple syrup/cayenne mixture over the sprouts, stir to coat, return to oven for one more minute.
6. Serve and enjoy!

San Francisco Eats: Absinthe

We are lucky boys and girls tonight... after a very long day at the office, we are heading out with one of my favorite sales teams for dinner at Absinthe.  I know we are so spoiled!  Last night it was southern Italian at A16, tonight it's French at Absinthe.  Life is rough but someone has to do it!

xo

Happy Weekend!

It's Friday afternoon, and this weekend is going to be awesome - I can just feel it!  This afternoon, we are having our very belated office x-mas party.  We are going to be doing a walking tour of Northbeach, complete with restaurant tours and tastings, bar "tastings" and I'm sure a canolli or two snuck in there somewhere.  More updates on this next week!

Tomorrow, I am taking my best friend Taryn out for a much anticipated birthday celebration.  I haven't seen her since last summer since we live several hours apart, and I cannot wait to see her lovely face.

Also on the itinerary this weekend, I will be wrapping up the bedroom furniture.  I am in the home stretch now since the hard part is done.  I've completed several rounds of spackling and sanding the drawers, so the fronts are perfectly smooth.  I just need to wipe them down, and prep for paint!

After a very long week, there is a collective sigh of relief in the office! Have a happy weekend!

Valentine's Day: Sweet Treats

If you aren't looking forward to Valentine's day, here are some sweet treats that will change your mind.  They are pretty, pink, and oh-so-adorable.  I so wish I had the time to whip up a few of these confections!

An assorted marshmallow pop bouquet!  What could be cuter (and easier)?!  
From MommyGaga: 
Cake pops are all the rage right now. But they take so long to make, and even after many attempts at the art, my pops end up being a bit lumpy (even though delicious)! If you would like the cute cake pop look for a baby shower, birthday party or a Valentine’s Day treat but you don’t want the hassle, make Marshmallow Pops!

1. First cut a small slit in the top of the marshmallows to allow you to insert your straw. If you skip this step you just might mash your marshmallows!
2.  Insert the straws or Popsicle sticks and put them in the freezer for about 5-10 minutes. They do not take long to freeze and by doing this, the marshmallow is adhered more securely to the straw.
3.  Meanwhile, melt the white chocolate in the microwave on medium heat and stir every 30 seconds. White chocolate seems to burn a lot easier than regular chocolate so watch it closely! Add your food coloring if desired.
4.  Next up is the fun part: decorating! Dip the frozen marshmallows in the white chocolate. You will want to tap the excess white chocolate off. The frozen marshmallow will make the chocolate harden quickly so don’t wait too long before dipping them into the sprinkles

Adult Lemonade - not for the kiddos!  To make: 2 oz. strawberry infused vodka | 2 oz. simple syrup | 2 oz. fresh lemon juice | Top with sparkling wine | Garnish with strawberries and mint


Don't even try to make these - they will never be as cute.   Just pay $30 for the professionals to "handle" these handlebar mustache cookies - LOVE


Cheesecake candy hearts

Ingredients:

1 cup graham cracker crumbs (15 squares)

pinch of cinnamon

1/2 stick butter (melted)

16 ounces (2 blocks) cream cheese, softened

1 cup sugar

3 large eggs
2 cups sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

food coloring - pink, purple, blue, green, yellow, and red

Supplies Needed:
stand mixer or a mixing bowl and hand held mixer
rubber spatula
Wilton Heart Shaped Silicone Molds
fine tip paint brush (new or food only brush)
roasting pan big enough to fit your heart shaped molds

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. You will need a water bath to bake your cheesecakes, so place your roasting pan in the oven filled with enough water to go half way up the sides of your heart molds -allow the water to heat along with the oven. Combine graham cracker crumbs, cinnamon, and melted butter, stirring until it looks like sand. Spoon out about a tablespoon of crumb mixture into each heart cavity. Press the crumbs down making an even crust. Refrigerate until ready to fill with cheesecake mixture. Note: If you are only making 12 cheesecakes, you will have some of this leftover.

In the bowl beat the cream cheese on medium high until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add sugar and beat for one minute. Add eggs and beat until creamy, 1 to 2 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl once. Add the sour cream and vanilla and mix just to combine.

Equally divide the filling among 6 bowls. Add food coloring to create the colors you'd like. It took between five and eight drops of color to achieve the colors of my cakes. For orange, mix yellow and red together. If you prefer, you can add fruit purees instead.

Pour colored cheesecake filling into the heart shaped cavities in your Wilton silicone mold. 

If you are making 12 larger hearts, then fill the cavities to the top, if you are making 18, then only fill them about 3/4 full. If making 12, you will have a few tablespoonfuls of each color left over.  Bake for 15-28 minutes, depending on the size of your molds (45 minutes for a whole cheesecake.) When finished baking, the center of each cake should still jiggle but look set, not soupy. If you fill them 3/4 full, then go with 20-25 minutes and about 15 minutes for the mini cakes.

The easiest way to get these cheesecakes out of the molds is to freeze them for a few hours. They pop right out. I only broke off a tiny piece of crust from one of my hearts after allowing them to freeze for two hours.  Squeeze a few drops of red food coloring into a small bowl. Use a fine tip paintbrush to paint conversation heart sayings onto each cheesecake heart.  

Pink Ombre Swirl Cake - courtesy of Glorious Treats.  I don't have the talent or the patience for this one - 
gorgeous though it is.  My advice, put in a custom order at a bakery!
.

Magnolia Bakery's Famous Sugar Cookies.  Order them online or make them yourself:
Sugar Cookies:

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup powdered sugar

2 cups vegetable shortening

3/4 teaspoon vanilla

1 large egg, beaten

4 1/3 cups cake flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 tsp. orange zest (not flavoring) optional

1. Preheat oven to 375°.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the sugars and shortening using an electric mixer.
3. Mix on slow speed 30 seconds, then scrape down the bowl with a spatula.
4. Increase speed to medium and mix for 3 minutes.
5. Slowly add vanilla and beaten egg while mixing.
6. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Gradually add the flour mixture to the mixing bowl, mixing on slow speed until just blended. Do not overmix.
7. Scoop with an ice-cream scoop if decorating with sugar only
8. Place directly on cookie sheet.
9. Bake at 375° for 9-10 minutes. Cookies are done when small cracks appear and are pale golden. Ideally, the edges do not brown.

Buttercream Frosting:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

6 to 8 cups confectioners' sugar

1/2 cup milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Add 4 cups of the sugar and then the milk and vanilla. On the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat until smooth and creamy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition (about 2 minutes), until the icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency. You may not need to add all of the sugar. If desired, add a few drops of food coloring and mix thoroughly. (Use and store the icing at room temperature because icing will set if chilled.) Icing can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Happy February!!

Photo courtesy of Style Me Pretty's Little Black Book

It's the first day of February, and I am the quintessential "girly girl".  I love shopping and jewelry, fashion and getting dressed up.  I love pampering myself, and being pampered.  To me, the start of February awakens this little girl inside me that is excited to send out Valentine's Day cards, bake sweet treats, and wear lots of pink (even though it's really not my color).

Kris and I are pretty low key, and don't buy into the hype of it all - the past few years we have stayed home, made dinner together, and exchanged cards with sweet notes.  Regardless, I love day-dreaming about all the fun things about this totally commercialized holiday because let's be honest, they are SO PRETTY!  To kick off the countdown to Valentine's Day, let's talk sweets.  How gorgeous are these pale pink ruffly confections above?!  So cute!

What I have been dying to try are these red velvet XOXO cupcakes.

Photo courtesy of The Picky Cook

From the sound of it, these cupcakes can get messy with the red food coloring, but how cute are they?!  A pet peeve of mine is TOO MUCH frosting on a cupcake (am I the only person in the world who doesn't like too much frosting?)  These cupcakes have a thick cream cheese icing X or O, so its just the perfect amount!

It's pretty funny to me - people think red velvet is a unique flavor of it's own, but it's really a combination of chocolate and vanilla cupcakes (look at the ingredients).  What makes them special is the red food coloring - I guess the saying is true.  We really DO eat with our eyes first :-)

I've hunted down a good one - no brick colored Red Velvet here!  Find the recipe with instructions below, enjoy these treats, and let the countdown to February 14th begin!

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting:
Recipe from Pinch My Salt

2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour - sift it before you measure it.
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 oz. red food coloring (two bottles)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake papers (really it only makes 20 - not 24). I made 12 regular sized cupcakes and 12 mini-cupcakes.

Sift together the cake flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl; set aside.  In a small bowl, mix food coloring and cocoa powder to form a thin paste without lumps; set aside.

In a large bowl, using a hand mixer or stand mixer, beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about three minutes.  

Beat in eggs, one at a time, then beat in vanilla and the red cocoa paste, scraping down the bowl with a spatula as you go.  Add one third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, beat well, then beat in half of the buttermilk. Beat in another third of flour mixture, then second half of buttermilk. End with the last third of the flour mixture, beat until well combined, making sure to scrape down the bowl with a spatula.

In a small bowl, mix vinegar and baking soda.  Be careful - it will fizz up.  Add vinegar mixture to the cake batter and stir well to combine. Using an ice cream scoop, fill cupcake cups with cake batter (they should be 2/3 - 3/4 full).  Place muffin tins on the middle rack of a preheated 350 degree oven.  Bake for approximately 20-22 minutes, rotating pans halfway through. Cupcakes are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Check early and don't over bake. In my oven - the mini cupcakes took 15 minutes and the regular sized cupcakes took 18 minutes.

Cool the cupcakes in their tins on a wire rack for 10 minutes then remove and allow to cool completely before frosting.  Frost cupcakes with cream cheese icing - recipe below.

Cream Cheese Frosting

16 oz. cream cheese (2 packages), softened
1/2 cup unsalted butter (one stick), softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
pinch of salt

With an electric mixer, blend together cream cheese and butter until smooth.  Turn mixer to low speed and blend in powdered sugar, salt and vanilla extract.  Turn mixer on high and beat until light and fluffy. Use immediately or refrigerate, covered, until ready to use.  If refrigerated, the frosting will need to be brought to room temperature before using (after frosting softens up, beat with mixer until smooth).

Et Voila! Bon Appetit!

Macaroons make Monday's Better

A fun treat arrived to my office this morning!  Gorgeous French Macaroons from L'Artisan Macaroon.  They are very hard to find, and these one's in particular actually came from one of my favorite bakeries in the world - Bouchon, a Thomas Keller bakery in Yountville California.

If you ask me, Yountville is the most adorable town in the world, located between Napa and St. Helena - its a foodie haven set against the most stunning wine country backdrop.  If you've never been, please go, rent bikes, get lost on windy vinyard roads, go wine tasting, eat a Michael Chiarello's restaurant or if you are feeling splurg-y, French Laundry (another Thomas Keller hot-spot that is on my bucket list for sure), and soak in everything lovely about the wine country.

Anyways, I digress.  These perfect french macaroons are such a treat - SO colorful, and as delicious as they are beautiful.

Happy Monday!

San Francisco Eats: Gary Danko

Today, our lovely partners at Collective media took our agency out for lunch - not only did they invite the entire agency team, but they rented out Gary Danko - one of the most premier restaurants in San Francisco.  They arranged to open the restaurant for our group, selected a phenomenal menu, and we spent a glorious 3 hours there this afternoon indulging over food, fabulous company, and wine pairings.

We started with this incredible butternut squash soup with apple compote and aged balsamic (I WISH I could make that), and moved on to scallops.  Then we moved on to filet mignon with risotto, and finally dessert.  What I wouldn't give if unbuttoning the top button on your jeans was socially acceptable!

Yet another over-the-top fabulous meal - with all of this holiday indulgence, I won't fit into my pants soon!

San Francisco Eats: Quince

I like to consider myself one of the luckiest people in the world, because part of my job requires a certain amount of wining and dining.  This means that at the ripe age of 27, I have eaten at some of the finest restaurants in San Francisco, and being an adventurous eater and a total foodie myself, I consider this an amazing treat!

Last night, we went to one of my all time favorites - Quince.  It is tucked into this cute little neighborhood - not quite downtown, not quite North Beach - and it reminds me of New York.  Lots of old original brick buildings, and leafy tree lined streets.  Not many people know about it since there are a lot of art galleries, and design studios located in these three blocks, but it really feels like you are in a different city.

In terms of fanciness, this place takes the cake - no suit required for men, but its fancy enough that there is a chauffeur to escort you to the bathroom - that kind of fancy :-)

In my humble opinion, Quince is the best restaurant in this city - better than Gary Danko's by a long-shot, and maybe a hair better than Michael Minna.  Perhaps its the service and ambiance that put it over the top.  As you can see from my sweet pics below (that I subtly snapped on my new iPhone) the food is incredible, and if you go, you MUST get the cheese cart!  You smell it before you even know it has rolled up, there are over 30 cheeses to choose from, and it is just to DIE for!!

Also - wine pairings - it's a bit pricey, but honestly the food is just good food without it... the wine pairings bring out all the best flavors and subtle hints that you just wouldn't fully appreciate otherwise.  Also, hearing the sommelier explain how they work together really changes the experience of savoring your food, and tasting each flavor.

This is the lamb - oh my god - they even took it off the rack for fanciness, and it came with a delicious demi glaze, and roasted root vegetables - half of which I couldn't even tell you.

And the infamous cheese cart - so fancy!

And my cheese selection - from the left, a bleu cheese from Ireland, then a creamy goat from Sonoma, then a fennel encrusted and infused cow's milk cheese from another cool place, and finally the triple creme from France.  Poor guy got cut off in the picture, but it was literally like butter... but better.