Dessert Potluck - what a way to go out!

The last four weeks I've been helping ordering and planning dinners for our church Bible Study. I'm used to feeing 4 people so feeding over 150 was interesting. For the last week we did something our church does really well - dessert buffet. We laid out dinner food - but kept adding more and more tables for all the different desserts that people brought to share. Church people love a good potluck and a dessert potluck even more so.
I decided a chocolate donut cake since chocolate usually doesn't fly in my household that well. This batter was amazing - the cake baked beautifully, the glaze was way too much and overflowed the plate and everything was all sorts of sticky. I thought the cake needed that glaze, or something to dunk the cake into - it was a bit dry - I thought. My coworkers ate the left overs and didn't seem to complain... Usually I go home from church with a clean plate - but not with a dessert spread like that! It was wonderful to see so many people sharing their desserting skills. I'm ready to just feed four people for a while... until it's VBS time.

Chocolate Donut Cake Recipe
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
3/4 cup Dutch process cocoa powder
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (optional)
1/4 teaspoon cardamom (optional)
1/2 cup buttermilk, room temperature
1/2 cup full fat sour cream, room temperature
1/2 cup hot water
For Donut Glaze
3 cups (360 g) powdered sugar, sifted
1/3 – 1/2 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 10-12 cup bundt pan generously with non-stick baking spray. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together on medium high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Add eggs, one at a time until fully incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Add the vanilla and mix until just combined.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg and cardamom. With mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture alternating with the buttermilk and sour cream. Mix until just barely combined with a few streaks of flour remaining. Do not over mix.
Remove the bowl from the mixer and add the hot water. Stir with with a rubber spatula until the batter is smooth.
Transfer the batter into the prepared bundt pan. Tap pan firmly on the countertop 3 times to release any air bubbles.
Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean or with a few crumbs remaining. If the top of the cake is browning too quickly, loosely cover the top with aluminum foil for the last 10 minutes of baking.
Remove the cake from the oven and cool on a wire rack for exactly 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, use a cooling rack or cake platter to invert the cake. Flip the cake once more to expose the rough bottom face up. Cool completely before adding the glaze.
For Donut Glaze
In a medium bowl whisk together powdered sugar, milk and vanilla until smooth and pourable. If glaze is too thin, add more powdered sugar. If too thick, add more milk.
Drizzle the glaze over the cooled cake, being sure to drench the top allow the glaze to drip over the sides of the cake. The glaze will harden as it sits. For best results, allow to rest for 10 to 15 minutes before slicing.

Covered the pan in Gluten

Our favorite thing about the Brazilian Steak house in DC was... the cheese rolls. Puffy little delicious balls of doughy cheesiness. They kept bringing them out and we kept eating them. When I saw a recipe for them, I knew I wanted to give them a try. They don't contain what flour, but instead tapioca flour - which isn't on my general shopping list - nor in my pantry. I ended up hunting but I did find it. While these are naturally gluten free I did spray the pan with gluten to ensure they came out - Pam with flour. If I were making them for someone who was GF - I'd be more careful but since it was just us - I sprayed that pan with gluten! I used mini muffin pans and this recipe made 20 two bite puffed up rolls. It was impressive watching them bake in the oven and puff right out of their muffin well. These were a hit with our crew. And certainly something to consider at our next family event where something GF is necessary for the GF folks.

Brazilian Cheese Rolls | Pão de Queijo
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1 cup tapioca flour sometimes labeled tapioca starch no substitutions
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 large egg
1/4 cup freshly grated cheddar cheese preferably medium or sharp
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Optional: extra cheese to sprinkle on top and any herbs/flavorings you’d like to add. Try rosemary and or garlic powder my favorites!

Instructions
Quick Blender Version:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a mini (or about 7 wells of a regular-size) muffin tin with non-stick spray or rub with butter. Make sure the whole surface and sides of the well are coated or they will stick.
Place egg, milk, oil, tapioca flour, and salt in blender and blend until smooth. Add cheeses and pulse just a couple times.
Immediately pour batter into muffin tin. If you let your batter sit before filling your muffin tins, the ingredients can settle and result in uneven rolls. Fill each well about 3/4 full. If desired, sprinkle a bit of parmesan cheese on top.
Bake for 15-20 minutes until puffed and golden. Remove from oven and cool for a few minutes before removing rolls from pan. Serve warm.

A little salty goodness

Why have one go to chocolate chip cookie - when you can just keep trying more recipes and finding more amazing ways to eat chocolate chip cookies? Now did I forget the sea salt on top? Yeah... would they have benefited? I'm sure they would have but they were also just amazing as is. We are having four Sundays in a row to church dinners which I've been organizing and if I'm asking other people to bring cookies? I am too. Last week my container of cookies kind of went, but not great. The people who know which ones I brought - took many cookies, others? Not so much. This week? I brought these cookies and I took an empty container home - my favorite kind of container after this sort of event - empty. That means, not only did my family love these, so did everyone else. I also used to be way better on my chocolate chop game, I always had a full container in the cabinet - lately I've had to borrow from the sad milk chocolate chop container because I keep running out of semi-sweet. Good thing that these cookies can handle the mix - because they were so good. I may have to make another batch and add the salt on top - what doesn't benefit from a little salty goodness?

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup salted butter
1 ¼ cups packed light or dark brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon table salt
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Flaky sea salt, for sprinkling (optional)

Line two half sheet pans with parchment paper; set aside.
For the brown butter, cut the butter into pieces and add to a 10-inch skillet (preferably light-colored so you can see easily when the butter has browned). Heat over medium heat, stirring as the butter melts so that it cooks evenly.
As the butter continues to cook, constantly and slowly stir with a silicone spatula. The butter will foam, sizzle, bubble, and after a few minutes (anywhere from 5 to 8 minute), the solids in the butter will begin to turn golden. Brown butter can burn easily, so don't walk away!
When the butter solids are browned and golden and it smells caramelly and fragrant, immediately remove the skillet from the heat and pour the butter into a large bowl.
For the cookies, to the bowl with the brown butter, add the brown sugar and granulated sugar. Stir to combine. Let the mixture sit until just barely warm or cooled to room temperature, 5 to 7 minutes.
Add the eggs, egg yolk, and vanilla, and stir until well-combined and the batter is light and creamy.
Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix until a few dry streaks remain.
Stir in the chocolate chips until evenly combined. Let the batter rest while the oven preheats.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. (Make sure the oven is preheated fully before baking the cookies – if the oven isn't hot enough, the cookies will likely spread while baking.)
Scoop the cookie dough into 2-tablespoon size portions (I use a #40 medium cookie scoop) and roll into balls. Place several inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.
Bake for 10 to 11 minutes until the cookies are just set around the edges and a bit crackly on top. For super soft and chewy cookies, don't over bake.
Immediately out of the oven, sprinkle a few grains of sea salt on each cookie, if desired.
Let the cookies cool for a few minutes on the baking sheets before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Giving Creami recipes a home here

So two years ago I hopped on the Ninja Creami train because it looked so fun. I had decided I wasn't going to post recipes because it is really a niche gadget but now I find myself losing my recipes and not remember which were the good ones... so let's start posting them somewhere! This sorbet recipe is our absolute go to for all kinds of fruit, my favorite is strawberry. We've used it for strawberry, blueberry, peaches, and even mango. Sometimes when we have a mix of berries - we toss them all in and give it a whirl. It's simple, a pound of fruit and a quarter cup of sugar. Toss it in the chopper add the sugar, freeze in the pints. We were at our favorite odd grocery store a few nights ago and we got 4 pounds of strawberries for $4. Yes that's an amazing deal! They were a bit on the ripe side so I knew we needed to use them soon, sorbet was the perfect thing for ripe fruit! Nicholas cut up and pureed the fruit in the chopper. It's important to let it sit in the freezer for 24 hours so we had to wait - that's why anyone who gets this insanely LOUD machine I suggest they get more pints. That way you always have something ready to go in the freezer. We waited a few nights and last night I spun up two pints for the four of us. The perfect cool treat that we all love.

Ninja Creami Strawberry Sorbet
Ingredients
16-ounce container of fresh strawberries
1/4 cup granulated sugar

Wash, hull, and halve the fresh strawberries. Place in the bowl of a food processor.
Add sugar to the bowl of the food processor. Puree until smooth.
Transfer mixture to a Ninja Creami pint container and secure the lid. Place on a level surface in the freezer and freeze for 24 hours.
Remove pint container from freezer and remove lid. Place pint into the outer bowl of the Ninja Creami and lock the outer bowl lid into place.
Secure the outer bowl into the Ninja Creami machine. Press the Sorbet button and let the cycle run (this should take about 2 minutes).
Remove outer bowl from machine and take off the lid. If the mixture appears crumbly, add a tablespoon of lemon juice, then return to the machine and press the Re-Spin button. If necessary, repeat re-spin cycle until desired texture is achieved.
Scoop and serve!

Baking up three flavors into one cookie

I've had my eye on a Neapolitan style cookie for a while - something about all three great flavors seems like a great idea. I used to get the cheapo Neapolitan ice cream for Aldi - they don't make it anymore - but I love the idea of three different flavors mixed in one scoop. These cookies weren't as easy as scoop and drop on a cookie sheet, but they also weren't difficult. Taking three small sections of dough and making one dough ball. I used more strawberries than noted and in hindsight I'd use even more. The absolute wild thing that happened - the dough that had the cocoa powder - puffed up and stayed puffed! I did a little research and apparently it's a chemical reaction with the baking soda. Science!! I made these for a church dinner - we needed a little something after our taco dinner and these hit the spot. Also - I totally used two eggs... mostly because when I was separating them I goofed and well, I'm not wasting eggs at how insane they cost right now... nope! So in it went and out the cookies came just great.

Neapolitan Cookies
2 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup of freeze-dried strawberries, which equals 8 grams (measured before pulsing)
1 cup [2 sticks] unsalted butter room temperature
1 3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 large yolk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 or 3 drops red food coloring optional
2 tablespoons Dutch-process cocoa powder
Sprinkles or granulated sugar for rolling

Instructions
Adjust an oven rack to the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350F. Line three baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt.
In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a blade, pulverize the strawberries into a powder.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Add the sugar and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the egg, yolk, and vanilla, and beat on medium speed until combined. Add the flour mixture and beat on low speed until just combined.
Dump the dough out onto a work surface and divide it into three equal portions. Put one-third of the dough back into the mixer and add the powdered strawberries and food coloring, if using. Mix on low speed until totally combined, then remove the dough and quickly wipe out the bowl of the mixer.
Add another third of dough to the mixer. Add the cocoa powder and mix on low speed until totally combined.
Pinch a small portion (about 1/2 oz) of each of the three doughs, and press them gently together, so they adhere to each other, but keep their unique colors. Press the piece into a cookie scoop or roll it into a ball, then roll the ball into sprinkles or granulated sugar. Place 6 or 7 cookies on each sheet pan. Bake the cookies one pan at a time, rotating halfway through baking. Bake until the sides are set and the cookies are puffed, 10 to 11 minutes.
Transfer the sheet pan to a wire rack and let the cookies cool for 5 to 10 minutes on the pan, then remove them and let them cool completely on the wire rack. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days.