The Wolf Eel BaKes

Who doesn't love pretzels? Okay, maybe a lot of people. Pretzels for me are a "roadtrip" food now - my dear friend Lóa and I were making a winter drive between Reykjavik and Akureyri in Iceland and stopped at a gas station. I randomly picked up a bag of pretzels, which we would not really have considered but turned out to be such a great idea that we now consider pretzels as our main roadtrip food. (Heaven knows we have had the opportunity to take unintentionally long roadtrips - especially when I got us lost in western Sweden and Norway.)














I have a lot of baking recipes and ideas that pull pretzels in and incorporate their salty goodness (and who doesn't love salty goodness?) into sweet stuff. Pretzels and chocolate sound like they would be a lovely mix - so I found a recipe somewhere comprised of a crushed-pretzel-crusted chocolate cupcake. In fact, the cake part is vegan, which is rather cool considering that I have long planned to delve into some vegan baking options but have not managed until now.

As far as I can tell, these turned out fine - the people who ate them seemed to approve.













Vegan chocolate cupcakes with pretzel crust recipe

Pretzel Crust
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups crushed salted pretzels
1/4 cup melted vegan margarine (or butter, if you are not going vegan)

Combine crushed pretzels and melted margarine. Mix stir until moistened. Line a cupcake tin with liners and fill the bottom of each liner with about a tablespoon of the pretzel mixture. Flatten/press mixture together to form a solid base/crust. Set aside

Vegan chocolate cupcakes

1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
3 heaping tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup strong brewed coffee or espresso
1/3 cup almond milk (or water)

Preheat oven to 350F (180C).

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt). Add the vanilla extract, vinegar, oil, coffee, and almond milk. Mix the batter until smooth.

Pour batter over pretzel crusts. Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool to room temperature before frosting. I think the original recipe source frosted these with peanut butter frosting, which would be a lovely complement to the chocolate and pretzels. I, however, decided to make a chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream and then topped the cupcakes with mini pretzels.

I realized while looking through past blog posts that I made this peanut butter chocolate bundt cake for the first time some November ago ... and discovered then that November is bundt cake month. Here we are again, in November, and I have made this cake about four times in the last three days.

I dropped three off at my office and have some here for my Thanksgiving guests (since they are here for more than just the actual Thanksgiving holiday, I have to feed them things, like cake and cookies, on other days as well as just Thanksgiving).

I think I took a picture of the latest attempts at this - but for now will just put a picture of the last time I made this cake (since you can see the inside. The new pics are just general pictures of the whole cake before being cut into. Recipe is available at the link above.

I found some variation of this recipe and tried it out last year when I spent a long while in the US. I was separated from my own kitchen and its comforts and tools, but it was second best – I was at my parents’ house, so mostly it was at least familiar and well-stocked, quite unlike the houses of friends where I have tried to host Thanksgiving dinners in the past.

The big problem for me about the original version of this recipe is that it called for making the pumpkin mousse from Cool Whip!? WHAT? I object to anything like Cool Whip on principle, but it’s especially unfortunate not to have an alternative. My first (and until now, only) attempt to make these required that I be flexible, so I used Cool Whip and sent all of these cupcakes off to work with my father. (And one of his colleagues apparently was looking at them all “googly eyed”.) It was fine, but I wanted to find another option.

My first thought, as I decided to make these as part of a big-bang, last-bake-before-summer (and the last bake in the old Oslo office), was that maybe there was a way to make a mousse from coconut milk (I did not want to mess with heavy cream or gelatin/stabilizers or anything of that sort). I read up on it and found that it is possible, but I only had some coconut milk that would not work in this case (in cans, you can refrigerate coconut milk, and the liquid separates from the thick, cream part of the coconut milk – you can then beat the thick part to make something like a mousse cream). I had some other kind of coconut milk that is all the same consistency throughout and would not separate.

Back to the drawing board. I thought for a while and realized that Swiss meringue buttercream is so smooth, light and fluffy that it could easily be used as a filling rather than a frosting and decided to give that a go. I ended up with a lovely filling and grateful taste testers and witnesses to my baking insanity (gracious Oslo colleagues) report that it is delicious.

Should you decide to take on the challenge yourself, here is the recipe.


Cupcakes

2 cups flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ cup softened butter

1 ¼ cups sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¾ cups milk

Instructions:

Heat oven to 375F, line a cupcake pan with liners. Whisk dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until smooth, add eggs, vanilla and ¼ cup of the milk. Beat for several minutes until the mixture is light and fluffy. Alternately beat in dry ingredient mixture and the remaining ½ cup of milk. Put about ¼ cup into each cupcake liner.

Bake at 375F for 20 minutes (until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean). Cool on a wire rack.

Pumpkin-spice Swiss meringue (technically frosting)

3 egg whites

¾ cups sugar

½ cup butter, chilled and cubed

½ cup pumpkin puree

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon ginger

Mix pumpkin puree and spices together, set aside.

In a double boiler (or a glass bowl over gently boiling water) on low heat, heat egg whites and sugar until the sugar is dissolved (if you want to be precise, a candy thermometer should read XXX). Pour this mixture into a mixing bowl and beat (with a handheld or stand mixer) until stiff peaks form (you are basically making meringue).

When the mixture reaches this stage, add the cubed butter, small bits at a time. It will take some time for the mixture to reach a more frosting like, fluffy consistency (it will look watery and curdled at various stages). Just keep adding the butter and beating.

When it has reached a fluffy, mousse-like consistency, add the pumpkin mixture and beat until well mixed.














Fill cupcakes with this “mousse” once they are cooled. To do this, you will either use a half-full piping bag and insert the tip into the cupcake and squeeze into the cupcake until the top begins to rise. Or you can cut a piece out of the top of the cupcake and manually fill the hole you made (and replace the top), as I did.






































Chocolate ganache frosting

5 ounces (about a cup or so) semi-sweet chocolate

5 tablespoons of hot coffee

1/3 cup of butter, cut into small pieces

Heat chocolate and coffee together, stirring until it reaches a smooth consistency. Once smooth, remove from heat and stir in the butter, adding slowly in intervals. Stir until butter is melted and whole consistency is spreadable and cool.

Spread the chocolate ganache over the top of your filled cupcakes.

Still trying to decide if my heart is stuffed with love, hence the stuffed cookies... or whether I am more of the type who thinks Valentine's Day (and even love) is something people can stuff up their asses, still making stuffed cookies appropriate. Now I just hope I have time to do it all. Time is not on my side right now.


Pumpkin cheesecake stuffed snickerdoodle cookies
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup powdered sugar
2 large eggs
4 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar + 1 tablespoon cinnamon (for rolling)

Pumpkin cheesecake filling:
2 cups white chocolate chips (about 10 ounces)
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 1/2 cups finely ground gingersnap cookies
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
4 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened

Directions:
Make the pumpkin cheesecake filling. Melt the white chocolate chips in the microwave or in a double boiler. Set this aside to cool. Make crumbs from the gingersnaps and graham crackers. Mix the pumpkin, gingersnap and graham cracker crumbs, powdered sugar, cinnamon, and cream cheese together. Add the white chocolate and mix well until thoroughly combined. Put the mixture to the refrigerator to chill. Make the snickerdoodle dough.

Mix together the butter, vegetable oil, granulated sugar, powdered sugar, and eggs in a large bowl. In a separate large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Add the flour mixture into the butter mixture in 3-4 additions, mixing until just combined between each. Place the finished dough in the refrigerator to chill. While the cookie dough chills, roll pumpkin cheesecake into balls and place on a wax-paper or parchment-lined baking sheet. Cover, and freeze (1 hour or so).

In a small bowl, mix 1/2 cup granulated sugar and cinnamon. Preheat oven to 375F/190C. Take a few pumpkin balls out of the freezer at a time to work in small batches (so they stay firm). Scoop out about a tablespoon of chilled cookie dough. Press a frozen pumpkin cheesecake ball into the center, then cover with another bit of dough, working the dough around the whole ball. Roll in cinnamon-sugar and place on a lined baking sheet. Repeat the process, placing cookies 3-4 inches apart. If cookie dough gets too soft, re-chill it.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until edges are slightly browned. Let the cookies cool on the pan for a few minutes before removing them to a cooling rack to cool.

Oreo-stuffed chocolate chip cookies
1 cup softened butter
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
10 oz bag chocolate chips
1 package Oreo cookies (I have two small packages of 12 each)

Preheat oven to 350F/180C.
Cream butter and sugars until well combined. Add in eggs and vanilla until well combined. In a separate bowl mix the dry ingredients. Slowly add to wet ingredients and then chocolate chips.

Take a scoop of cookie dough and place on top of an Oreo. Use another scoop of dough for the bottom of the Oreo. Work the dough around the edges of the Oreo and press together, enclosing the Oreo with dough. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake cookies 9-13 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

Oatmeal cookies with cheesecake filling
Filling
8 ounces room-temperature cream cheese
4 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla

Cookies
1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups finely ground graham crackers
1 1/2 cups flour
2 1/2 cups oatmeal
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Add the filling ingredients to a medium bowl and mix well. Let the mixture solidify in the fridge.
Preheat oven to 350F/175C.
Cream butter and sugars. Mix in other wet ingredients. Whisk dry ingredients in separate bowl. Add dry ingredients to wet. Fold together until evenly combined.
Shape dough into balls. Remove filling from the fridge and make balls to stuff into the cookie dough balls. Once stuffed, place the balls in the freezer for several minutes to make firm. Place balls on a parchment-lined cookie sheet.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until golden brown.

Peanut butter Nutella stuffed cookies
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
Cream the butter and sugars together, and then add the egg and mix. Stir in vanilla and peanut butter, when incorporated, add flour and salt. Refrigerate for an hour or so while you make the filling and topping.

Filling:
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup Nutella
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp cocoa
3 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp powdered sugar
Mix all ingredients until creamy. You should be able to roll little balls of the filling in your hands. If it’s too sticky, add some more powdered sugar.

Topping:
1/4 cup peanuts (run through the food processor)
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
Grind the topping ingredients together and place in a shallow bowl.

Preheat oven to 375F. When the cookie dough is chilled, take 1 tablespoon of dough and roll into a flat disc. If the dough is too sticky, add a bit of flour. Place a ball of filling in the middle, and another 1 Tbsp disc of dough on top. Roll between hands to form one big ball. Roll this in the topping, then place onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Press with your fingers to flatten slightly. Bake at 375 for 8-12 minutes.

There are a few other kinds of cookies and cupcakes I will probably make, but no sense writing them here. For now.

My ambitious cupcake plan for next week:
Banana-Nutella cupcakes
Pumpkin cupcakes with honey-cinnamon frosting
Cappuccino cupcakes with coffee frosting
Mock Hostess cupcakes (chocolate cupcakes with a fluffy, marshmallow filling)
Lemon cupcakes with lemon curd filling and meringue topping
Vanilla cupcakes with dulce de leche filling and salted caramel frosting

I don’t know how far I will get in trying to bake and take these cupcakes to work next week.

Poetry: A changed view
Nobel winner Wislawa Szymborska passed away the other day. Her work brought so much reflection and feeling to the surface for me. I remember discovering her when I was in high school, feeling I had been initiated into a whole new world of imagery and language. A door into a multitude of poetry written by Polish women poets seemed open to me. I had been trying to collect information for my high school world literature class final project – I had wanted to look at poetry written by 20th century eastern European women. Even as vast and broad as this subject was, I was alarmed when my teacher said, “That topic will be impossible since there aren’t any.” Aren’t any what? Yes, she meant there aren’t any eastern European women poets about which to write. Why? Because she did not know about them. (Granted this was at the very early dawn of the Internet age, and immediately following the end of Communism in these countries, so information was not flowing with speed or ease. Nevertheless, I knew better than to believe that something did not exist just because my suburban high school teacher did not know about it.)

I was elated when Szymborska won the Nobel in 1996; I am often pleasantly surprised by the Nobel committee’s literature choices because sometimes they are so obscure on a global level. I would say Szymborska was one of those, and it delighted me to think her work would become better known as a result of her win.

My first Szymborska poem was “I Am Too Near…”, and although I have fallen in love with so many of her works, this one remains closest to my heart.

“I am too near to be dreamt of by him.
I do not fly over him, do not escape from him
under the roots of a tree. I am too near.
Not in my voice sings the fish in the net,
not from my finger rolls the ring.
I am too near. A big house is on fire
without me, calling for help. Too near
for a bell dangling from my hair to chime.
Too near to enter as a guest
before whom walls glide apart by themselves.
Never again will I die so lightly,
so much beyond my flesh, so inadvertently
as once in his dream. Too near.
I taste the sound, I see the glittering husk of this word
as I lie immobile in his embrace. He sleeps,
more accessible now to her, seen but once
a cashier of a wandering circus with one lion,
than to me, who am at his side.
For her now in him a valley grows,
russet-leaved, closed by a snowy mountain
in the bright blue air. I am too near
to fall to him from the sky. My scream
could wake him up. Poor thing
I am, limited to my shape,
I who was a birch, who was a lizard,
who would come out of my cocoons
shimmering the colors of my skins. Who possessed
the grace of disappearing from astonished eyes,
which is a wealth of wealths. I am near,
too near for him to dream of me.
I slide my arm from under the sleeper’s head
and it is numb, full of swarming pins,
on the tip of each, waiting to be counted,
the fallen angels sit.”

RIP Wislawa Szymborska

Lazy language and defining “necessary details”
In writing a review, as I have reflected and written upon before, it is too easy to be lazy and follow the path of all other reviewers. Are you negligent for not including a piece of irrelevant trivia that all other reviewers will include as though it is somehow important (always written in this “knowing” tone)? Watching Tom & Viv, I noticed that Rosemary Harris plays one of the characters, and it triggered the memory of the film Sunshine, remembering clearly how, upon its release, not a single write-up I read mentioned it or Jennifer Ehle’s presence in it without mentioning that she is the daughter of Rosemary Harris, who plays an older version of Ehle’s role in the movie. Is this important information? Does it contribute anything to the viewer’s enjoyment of or understanding of the movie? Sure, we all appreciate a bit of trivia, but is this necessary enough that every reviewer ought to point it out? Maybe. As I have proven in my own blog writing, somehow making little connections between things drives us, keeps us going… enjoying making connections between things and people, sometimes very simple like this mother-daughter one, and sometimes more complex like a web of things. But does that mean that every writer/reviewer needs to serve up the same trivia in relation to these actors and these roles? This makes me think of my complaints about the overuse of the same tired descriptors, comparisons and anecdotes. Doesn’t it read and feel like the easy way out?

Language use, misuse, imprecision and the easy way out
Many words and expressions have been co-opted by specific groups of people and industries, in attempts to “elevate”the lingo of that particular subculture or industry (usually making it more obscure and only accessible to those “in-the-know”, often designed to confuse listeners deliberately). Two industries that spring to mind as the worst offenders: marketing and management consulting. (The new TV show House of Lies highlights this pretty well.) Apart from annoying expressions like “tipping point”, “crossing the chasm”, “low-hanging fruit”, “the sweet spot” and “special sauce”, among a million other things, I especially dislike more basic, egregious and fundamental violations. Two of these such words include “leverage” and “collateral”. Both of these, for me, embody very specific, precise meanings.

Most of the time, when marketing and consulting folks use the word “leverage”, they could (and should) tone it down and use the word “use”. “Leverage” implies that something is hanging in a balance (as in a “lever”)… if it is not blackmail (where you have leverage over someone else) and it is not really akin to “leverage” in the financial sense (using assets/resources as a kind of collateral), how is it different from using? One could argue that leverage can exist in these cases (marketing departments might have something to leverage, for example). The problem is using the word “leverage” when it is not being used in those very specific cases.

The second word, “collateral”, suffers a similar butchery. The main definition of “collateral” is quite finite and pertains to finance. It is an asset or property that a borrower pledges against a new loan (the collateral is the bank’s security). We have all heard the term “collateral damage”. But none of these definitions implies anything about the materials one produces in marketing, such as case studies, white papers, fact sheets. Yet, these are commonly referred to as “collateral”. I was recently in a meeting with an exec who told me he just learned this new meaning of “collateral” – I promptly told him that though I know this meaning and hear it bandied about all the time, I don’t approve of it. Why use words that just hide the more tangible meaning of what we want to talk about? Why do we not call this stuff “marketing materials”, which everyone would understand?

Unintentionally funny
I saw a job opening titled “anti-cheat administrator”: the word choice struck me as funny. It sounds like a more appropriate title for a person hired to follow suspected cheaters and produce evidence of marital infidelities. This job had nothing to do with that but gave me a chuckle thinking about it.