S'Mores Pie

Ahh sweet Friday. 

I always love when this part of the week comes.  Especially when we have a full weekend planned.  Well, half of a weekend, anyway.  Tomorrow is the annual Brew At The Zoo.

I did a review of last year's festivities and it was a blast... and this time Andy gets to join.  So it's bound to be tons of brilliant fun.  So stay tuned for that.

And yesterday, I drove down to Danville, KY.  I met up with a few other food bloggers from the state (including Mindy from The World In My Kitchen, Lori from Fake Food Free, Fiona from Crazy Englishwoman Cooks, Beth from The Goodness of the Garden, Rona from Savoring Kentucky, Deanna from Mirabelle Creations, and Carolyn & Erin from Bourbon & Beans).  More on that next week, of course!  But it was so fun to finally meet in person - everyone was so friendly and warm, just like they are on all of their blogs!

Anyway, let's talk about everyone's favorite campfire treat.  I'll be the first to tell you that I am not a camping person.  AT ALL.  Bugs.  Nature.  No running water.  Yeah... I can't handle that very well.  But s'mores.  Those I can do.  And thank goodness I don't have to be in the middle of a forest to indulge in them! 

But actual s'mores can be somewhat messy (but I'm sure that's half the fun, right?) - so as soon as I saw this neat little pie over at The Pastry Affair, I knew I had to try it.  Andy said this was THE best dessert I've made ever.  EVER.  Personally, I don't think so - it was really rich, but I think chocolate ice cream is rich, so don't take my word.  Take Andy's.  After all... he knows best.

Ingredients:
Adapted from The Pastry Affair's Recipe

Graham Cracker Crust

2 cups honey graham crackers, about one sleeve
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, melted
2 teaspoon cinnamon

Chocolate Filling
 
3/4 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup milk
6 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
Pinch of salt
2 eggs, whisked
1 bag of large marshmallows
Chocolate sauce (I used a bottled kind, but you could easily make your own), optional

Preheat oven to 325 F.

In the bowl of a food processor, pulse the graham crackers until finely crumbled.

Add cinnamon and melted butter and pulse until combined and the mixture resembles wet sand. Press mixture into a 9 inch pie plate. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until fragrant.

Keep oven running.

In a medium saucepan, whisk together cream and milk. Warm over medium-low heat. Add in chocolate and salt. Stir until chocolate has melted and is smooth. Slowly add whisked eggs and mix until smooth and slightly thickened.

Pour chocolate filling into baked pie crust. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until chocolate filling is set and does not move when pie is lightly shaken. Remove from oven.

Cut marshmallows in half and place on top of the pie until covered.

Set oven to broil. Place pie under the broiler and lightly toast the marshmallows, about 2 minutes - but watch the marshmallows carefully because everybody's oven is different and you could go from toasted to crazy, nasty burned in a matter of seconds.

Drizzle with chocolate sauce, if desired.  Chill pie in the refrigerator to set for 2-3 hours.

Cut into slices and enjoy!

So yeah, I let Andy have half of the pie and took the other half to work.  Needless to say, it was a winner all around.  If you're a chocolate lover - you have got to try this!


Have a great weekend everybody!

Sweet Potato Blondies

Happy Friday guys!  Boy am I glad!  Because after my 8-hour work shift tonight, I'll be on vacation for the next 9 days - and it's much needed!

It's another "stay"-cation, but I won't be working, so it'll be a stress relief, that's for sure.

In other good news, I signed up to do my first half-marathon at the end of October.  I'm setting my main goal to just finishing (with minimal/no walking), so I'm pretty sure I can do it.  Meaning, I'll probably be starting my training next week too.  I figure, if I can get into the hang of this running business early, I can amp myself up for later on.  Make sense?

Anyway, I figured since it was Friday, I might as well leave you all with a sweet treat.  As well as a sweet poll!  My Great American Bake Sale is next Saturday, so I need some inspiration for what to make - so pick a treat and I'll make sure to sell it!





Ingredients:
Adapted from a Food Network recipe

3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 & 1/8 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanila
3/4 cup sweet potato puree
1/4 cup chocolate chips
10-12 large marshmallows, optional

Preheat oven to 375 F and grease a small (around 8x10 or so) baking dish with flour and butter.

In a medium bowl, combine brown sugar and butter.  Beat until smooth.

In another medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt.

In bowl with sugar and butter, beat in eggs (one at a time) and vanilla.

Slowly add in flour mixture until a thick batter forms.  Fold in sweet potato puree and chocolate chips.

Pour batter into baking dish and bake for about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  If you wanted to kick it up a notch, like I did, you could top the batter with marshmallows about halfway through the baking time to get them all toasty.  After all, marshmallows and sweet potatoes were just meant for eachother!

Hope you guys have a great weekend!  Ours will be filled with sushi, Father's Day, and relaxing!  Oh... and a HAIRCUT!

Sweet Potato Donuts w/ Cinnamon Marshmallow Cream

Well, you guys sure do like Chocolate Cake don't you?!  I hear you people, and I have no idea why I didn't just make it into a post, but the recipe I used for the chocolate cake is from the blog Foodess - recipe titled "Moist Chocolate Cake".  And it ain't no lie!  I pretty much followed that one to a tee (I made it into a rectangle cake, instead of a circular one), so it's no-fail.  I was a little worried, because you add the hot coffee at the end and it made the batter look like a big mud puddle (but I think that's what makes this cake so moist, so don't fret!).  I also used this Buttercream Frosting recipe from Wilton.com, and the only change I made was to only use 2 cups of powdered sugar instead of 4 (I just have trouble using that much sugar sometimes) and it made just enough frosting to frost the whole cake.

Anyway, to today's recipe (which won the poll from a couple weeks ago) is Sweet Potato Donuts.  Seriously, these are a must try.  And to have it with the cinnamon marshmallow cream just puts them over the top!  A-d-d-i-c-t-i-n-g.

Don't forget to vote for the new poll (which I'll try not to be too late on, again) down below!

I bet you can't have just one!

Ingredients:
Adapted from Food & Wine's recipe

Donuts:


1 large sweet potato
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon instant dry yeast
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 & 1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 vanilla bean, seeds scraped
pinch of nutmeg
1 tablespoon bourbon (c'mon, I live in Kentucky, had to replace the rum with this, hehe)
1 egg
2 egg yolks
3 & 1/4 to 5 cups flour, plus more for rolling out dough

Cinnamon Marshmallow Cream:

1 & 1/2 cups marshmallows
1 tablespoon heavy whipping cream, plus more if desired
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Prick your sweet potato all over with a fork and cook in the microwave for 10 minutes, or until softened.  Let cool to room temperature and carefully peel.

Place sweet potato in a high rimmed bowl and puree with an immersion blender (or an actual blender - but I was going for getting less contraptions dirty) until smooth.  I had about 1 & 1/2 cups of puree.

In a small skillet, brown butter under medium high heat until nutty in flavor, about 5-6 minutes.

Scrape butter and any solids into a medium sized bowl and let cool.

Using the same skillet used for butter, add milk and heat until it is just warm (about 105 F).  Pour milk into a large bowl and add yeast.  Let sit for about 5 minutes.  Slowly mix in white sugar, dark brown sugar, salt, vanilla seeds, nutmeg, and bourbon.  Stir in sweet potato puree, browned butter & solids, egg, and egg yolks.  Beat mixture until combined.  Add the flour and beat at a medium speed (I used a wooden spoon for this - nothing like an old-fashioned workout) until pliable dough forms.  I think I added about 1 to 1 & 1/2 more cups of flour to get the desired dough consistency for mine (but I think this all depends on how big your actual sweet potato is, and how much puree you end up with).  Knead dough for a few minutes and place in a greased bowl.  Cover and let rise for about 1 hour.

Punch down the dough and let sit for about 5 minutes.  On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to about 1/2 inch thickness.  Use a floured rim of a glass (or round cookie cutters) and cut out as many rounds as you can.  Use a smaller round cookie cutter (or in my case, the bourbon cap) to cut out the centers of the donuts for donut holes.  Nothing goes to waste here!  Roll out dough one or two more times to cut out as many donuts as possible.  I think I ended up with a little over 2 dozen.

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and transfer cut out dough to each sheet.  Cover baking sheets with plastic wrap and let rise for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 400 F and place oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven.  Bake the donut holes for about 10 minutes, and the donuts for 20 minutes, or until risen and golden.  You can have the holes and donuts on the same sheet, just remember to remove the donut holes first.  Let donuts cool to room temperature before dipping in cream.

To make the marshmallow cream, heat a small saucepan under medium low to medium heat.  Add marshmallows, heavy cream, and cinnamon.  Stir slowly until marshmallows have melted.  You can add more cream if you want a thinner sauce.

Dip the donuts in cream and let any excess drip off (into your mouth, if you wish).

The original recipe had a cinnamon sugar topping, which is all well and fine, but seriously, the marshmallow cream here is where it's at.  There's a restaurant here in Louisville, the Village Anchor, that serves sweet potato fries with this cream (I was lucky enough to obtain this VERY simple recipe from our waiter last time we were there), and I just thought it would be perfect for these donuts!  I could really just drink that cream by itself, it's that good.

I love that these donuts were baked, instead of fried, too.  It makes them actually somewhat healthy, right?  They were absolutely delicious, unique, and perfect with a cup of coffee!

And don't forget to vote for next time's dessert in this week's poll!  I'm in a chocolate mood - and when I'm in a chocolate mood, Andy is very very happy.