Pie Time

Melanie and I got together to practice making pie crust yesterday. We ended up making three pies:



Yes, my friends, that's an Apple Bacon Cheddar pie. It remains to be seen if it's actually tasty, but those of you attending Arun and Rachel's holiday party will get to find out. We also made a cherry pie:



Finally, we made a chocolate-peanut butter cream pie, not pictured here. I'd like to think that I imparted some knowledge of making crust to Melanie, but she's mostly right that I'm a control freak in the kitchen. Sorry Melanie!

Forbidden Doughnuts

I made doughnuts for Friday Morning Grad Student breakfast this morning. I think this counts as the first time I've successfully made doughnuts, which may come as a shock to some of you. I've actually tried making cake doughnuts before, but I failed miserably. I went with a yeasty doughnut this time, and had a lot more success.

I used the recipe for dough from this Epicurious recipe, and it worked pretty well. The texture was more dense than a KK doughnut, but still tasty. I didn't bother making the jelly doughnuts as described in the recipe, but instead went crazy with a variety of frostings and fillings after I fried them up.

You can click on those photos to get the annotated version of which doughnuts is which, but all told I made:

• Maple-Bacon Bars - Inspired by a trip to Voodoo Doughnuts in Portland, where I first had a maple-bacon bar. Just as tasty as I remembered and a big hit with the grads. Also, did you know that Maple Bars are a North West thing?


• Peanut Butter and Jelly - I made these in honor of a similar doughnut I had at Doughnut Plant in New York City, under the tutelage of doughnut master Chethan P. Damn those were good doughtnuts, and my cheap knock-off was still pretty tasty.


• Nutella Glazed - Nutella on a sandwich. Awesome. Nutella on a doughnut? Sweet fancy Moses.


• Espresso-Glazed - Cribbed the glaze recipe from Epicurious. I'm not a fan of coffee flavor, but they were all eaten in quick order, so what can I say?


• Cinnamon Sugar - Simple and tasty.

All in all, the doughnuts were a hit. Now I just need to nap off the food coma I'm in.

Maple Bacon Cupcakes

Tired of vegetarians stealing all your cupcakes? Finally, a solution. Credit to Jon Hsieh, who sent me this recipe most likely after hearing of my illustrious history of bacon baked goods (bacon cookies anyone?). I made these recently for a cookout, where they were definitely a hit with some and feared by others. I felt the flavor was good, but the texture was a little coarse for my tastes. I've modified the original recipe for maybe a bit of improvement?

4 1/2 Tbsp. of butter, room temperature

1/2 Tbsp. of bacon drippings (left in the fridge to become solid)

5 Tbsp. of brown sugar

1 egg

1 1/4 cup of all purpose flour

1 tsp. of baking soda

1/2 tsp. of baking powder

tiny tiny pinch of kosher salt

4 Tbsp. maple syrup

1/4 cup of milk

1/4 cup of minced bacon, cooked and drained

Cook some bacon in a fry pan (about 6 thick strips). Reserve the drippings and place in the fridge to solidify. Mince 1/4 a cup of the bacon. The chef should eat whatever is left to assure that the bacon is tasty.

Beat the crud out of the butter and solidified bacon fat 'till light and creamy. Add the brown sugar and beat well until combined. Add the egg and beat until incorporated.

Sift the flour, salt, baking soda and powder together. Combine the milk and maple syrup. Alternate additions of half of the flour, half of the liquid, the remaining flour, and finally the remaining liquid, mixing each addition just until combined. Fold in the bacon bits. Scoop into cupcake papers and bake at 350 F for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Maple Syrup Frosting

4 Tbsp. of butter

2 Tbsp. of maple syrup

1 cup of powdered sugar

turbinado sugar (optional, but recommended)

coarse grain sea salt (optional, but recommended)

Combine the syrup and butter until combined. Add the sugar, a bit at a time, and whip at high speeds until combined. Pipe or spread onto cupcakes. Sprinkle on sea salt and turbinado sugar for decoration and a lot of added flavor.