Vanilla Extract | I Can Cook That

Pumpkin Eggnog

The only upside to the colder weather, is that it is now appropriate for me to make eggnog. And not just any eggnog, but pumpkin eggnog. Pinnacle Vodka came out with a pumpkin pie vodka this year, and I’ve been waiting and waiting for the right weather to make this drink. I actually used a recipe that came from The Cookbook of Ellen M Emlen, which is a recipe book from from the 1860’s that The Historical Society of Pennsylvania found in their collection. I’ve written about this cookbook before on this blog and I just love it.

One of the issues in the cookbook though, is that it is written before standard measurements were invented so the recipes aren’t easily reproduced. (For example, this recipe called for a wine-size glass of milk. White wine or red wine glass? Completely full, or what a serving in the glass would be? You get the picture.)

But I figured if it was good enough for the 19th century, it’s good enough for me!

Ingredients:

2 eggs

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon sugar

2 cups milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons pumpkin puree

1 oz pumpkin spice vodka

Nutmeg to taste

Pumpkin Cheesecake Tarts

Have you ever had a recipe just not work out the way it’s supposed to? It happens to me all the time. I usually tend to mess up a recipe so badly that I don’t even post it on here. But every now and then, my odd mistake ends up not being so bad, and is, dare is say it, quite delicious. This is one of those times, so I decided to share it. This recipe is adapted from verybestbaking.com.

Ingredients:

2/3 cup (~15) crushed gingersnap cookies

2 tablespoons butter, melted

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 can pumpkin puree

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon allspice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 tablespoons dark or semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners. (I tried both paper and foil cupcake liners. Use foil, the paper ones got stuck and I couldn’t get the tarts out!)

Crumble the gingersnaps. Place them in a ziploc bag and roll with a rolling pin until finely crushed.

Combine the cookie crumbs and butter in a small bowl.

Evenly distribute into each muffin tin (about 1 tablespoon per muffin tin) and press into the bottom to create a crust. Bake the muffin cups for 5 minutes.

Beat the cream cheese, pumpkin, sugar, spices, and vanilla extract until blended.

This is where things went south. My cream cheese was not having this whole “blended” thing. I think it still might have been too cold so it kind of chunked off into the mixture. Blargh.

Add eggs and beat well.

Nope, still chunky.

Pour the mixture into the muffin cups, filling about 3/4 of the way full.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, remove, and allow to cool in a pan on a wire rack.

Refrigerate the tarts for 10 minutes. You can prepare the chocolate drizzle at this point. Add the chocolate chips to a heavy duty ziploc bag. Microwave on high in 10 second intervals, taking the bag out and kneading to see if the chips have melted. (I think mine took 3 10 second intervals).

Cut a super tiny corner from the bag.

Squeeze over the tarts to drizzle with chocolatey goodness.

So. They probably aren’t as pretty as they were supposed to be. And I was pretty bummed about the chunks of cream cheese. Sigh.

But one bite, and I was over it. They were delicious! It kind of ended up being like a mini pumpkin pie with bursts of cheesecake. So you can judge how funny they look all day, but I’ll just keep on snacking on my funny looking tarts. 🙂

Applejack Spiked Hot Cider

Well, we are apparently forecasted to get hit with yet another nor’easter on Halloween. I remember as a kid, some houses would serve us hot cider to keep us warm while trick-or-treating. Those (along with the houses with candied apples and tons of Reeces) were my favorite. Now that I no longer go house to house on Halloween, nor do I even get trick-or-treaters, I wanted to make a more adult hot cider to enjoy during the crummy weather, or Applejack Spiked Hot Cider, to be specific.

Cooking Light must’ve read my mind, because The New Way To Cook Light showed up on my doorstep this week, with a wonderful sounding recipe for Applejack-Spiked Hot Cider!

Ingredients: (makes 6 servings)

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons brown sugar
10 black peppercorns
8 whole allspice berries
5 whole cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
6 cups apple cider
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 (2-inch orange rind strips)
2 (2-inch lemon rind strips)
3/4 cup applejack brandy
for garnish (optional):
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

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Barbuzzo’s Salted Caramel Budino

Tasting Table posted an adapted recipe of Marcie Turney’s Salted Caramel Budino. If you’ve never been to Barbuzzo in Philadelphia, your taste buds are missing out on one fantastic dessert. So, if my attempt at this adapted recipe is even half as good as the original salted caramel budino, I will consider this a win.

Barbuzzo’s version is described as “dark chocolate crust, vanilla bean caramel, sea salt.” The Salted Caramel Budino version below omits the crust, but maintains the vanilla bean salted caramel poured over a maple flavored custard.

Ingredients

Salted Caramel:
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoons light corn syrup
- 3 tablespoons water
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon flaky sea salt, plus more for garnish
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Pudding:
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- ½ cup dark brown sugar, packed
- ¼ cup water
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2½ cups half-and-half
- 1 large egg plus 2 large egg yolks
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- Whipped cream, for serving

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Guinness Cupcakes with Baileys Frosting

With St. Patrick’s Day right around the corner, I wanted to test out my recipe for Guinness Cupcakes with Baileys Frosting before the big day to make sure it didn’t need any tweaking.

Guinness cupcakes are chocolate cupcakes that use a dark stout to enhance the flavor.

To keep with the theme, I decided to also make Bailey’s frosting.

Ingredients (makes 24 cupcakes)

Guinness Cupcakes:

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 cups sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 12 oz bottle of Guinness (or any other dark stout) – if your bottle is more than this, just measure out 12 oz
1 (4 oz) stick of butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sour cream

Baileys Frosting:

2 (4 oz) sticks of butter, softened
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup Bailey’s Irish Cream
1/4 tsp salt
8 cups powdered (confectioners) sugar

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Pumpkin Walnut Muffins

VisitPhilly.com’s Philly Homegrown section recently posted fall recipes from local eateries in Philadelphia. All of them sounded amazing and I hope to try them all in the coming weeks, but my pumpkin obsession took priority. Metropolitan Bakery’s Pumpkin Walnut Muffins were calling me. I’ve adjusted the recipe a bit, but the general idea is still very much there.

The recipe made two dozen large muffins, or 4 dozen cupcake-sized muffins. Your friends and coworkers will like you a whole lot after you make this recipe!

Ingredients:

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
2 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups lightly packed brown sugar
10 tablespoons unsalted butter
6 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups pumpkin puree, canned
3/4 cup milk
2 cups chopped walnuts

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