Carrot Cake - the search for perfection.

Carrot cake is my all time favorite cake.  I would choose it over chocolate or vanilla any day. Many people might say it is really just because of the cream cheese icing, seriously who does not love cream cheese icing.  However I really think carrot cake has the whole package.  It has texture and flavour and not overly sweet.  It can incorporate so many different items like raisins, nuts, coconut and pineapple.  Each of these create the possibility for so many different variations   My goal is to perfect Carrot Cake, I need to be the mom who makes the best carrot cake.  I want my kids to crave carrot cake over chocolate and vanilla, a feat potentially difficult to achieve. Today's carrot cake will be the first of many in my quest, until I deem my self to be satisfied with the perfect recipe.  This might be a difficult battle and if I have to torture self with several iterations,  I will do it. 

Pecan Bourbon Carrot Cake
(adapted from Food & Drink)

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 cups grated/processed carrots, shaved
• 2 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1/2 cup Greek yogurt
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup pecans (praline)
• 1/2 cup silvered almonds
• 1/3 cup bourbon or orange juice
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1 1/2 cup coconut

Cream cheese icing

• 2 cups (16 oz) of cream cheese, softened and cubed (2 packages)
• 1 cup (8 oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 - 3 cups sifted confectioners sugar

INSTRUCTIONS:

1) Preheat oven to 350F or 325F convection.  Spray and place parchment rounds in three 9 inch pans.
2) Shred or grate carrots using a food processor and set aside.  Place the raisins in a small bowl with the bourbon and microwave for 1 minute, stirring half way through.   Set aside and mix occasionally.  Chop up nuts if using whole pecans.   Toast the coconut for 3-5 minutes watching carefully to not over burn.

3) Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Stir to combine and make a well in the middle.

4) Combine the oil, sugar, eggs, yogurt and vanilla in a mixer bowl.  Beat on medium speed for 3 minutes.  Pour the wet mixture into the well and scrape with a wooden spoon or spatula until flour just incorporated.

5) Fold in carrots, followed by raisins and bourbon and then nuts.   The mixture will be thick and less fluid.

6) Divide the batter evenly between the 3 pans.  Tapping pans on counter to remove any air bubbles and flatten out the batter. Bake until center appears set when lightly tapped about 30 minutes.
7) Let cool on a baking rack about 15 minutes in pan and then turn out on racks to finish cooling.   Wrap cakes in saran and place in fridge overnight.
8) Make the cream cheese icing.   Beat cream cheese and butter together until creamy and smooth.  Add vanilla and combine.   Slowly add some of the sugar beating on low until mixed in.  Scrape the sides of the bowl and repeat with remaining sugar beating until smooth.   Add additional sugar if mixture seems to thin. Icing can be refrigerated and a day ahead as well.   Take out of fridge about 20 minutes before icing cake.
9) Level the cakes as needing using a serrated knife.  Place a 1/4 of the icing on top of one of the cakes and spread over the cake using an offset spatula.  Place one of the remaining cakes on top and repeat and place the last cake on top.   Using the remaining icing and an offset spatula to cover the top and sides of the cake.  Let the cake set for an hour in the fridge.

10) Remove the cake from the fridge and let sit for 5 minutes to allow the icing to grab the coconut.  Scoop some of the toasted coconut and press into the cake covering the sides of the cake and repeat until the sides are covered.   Place some chopped pecans on the top center.   Let the cake sit in the refrigerate for a few hours or overnight before serving.

I actually halved the recipe and made a 6 inch round cake, just safer for my waist line that way.   This was a great carrot cake to start with.  It was moist and perfectly sweet.  The nuts, raisins and coconut added great texture and the icing was spoon licking good.  Is my quest over already I wonder?  Maybe not quite yet but this recipe will be duly noted.

MEG's RATING : D-EEEE-LICIOUS!

Butter Tarts and Chocolate Chow Mien Cookies

For the last several Christmas' my Mother, Sister and my niece and I get together for Mother/Daughter baking day.  The focus : Ooey Gooey Flaky Butter Tarts.  My mom found this recipe from Canadian Living, but she made a few tweaks, passed it on to us and we have been making it ever since.   It's great for us to get together and spend the day baking, laughing and sharing so we always make a point to set up this day.   Along with the butter tarts we also make Chocolate Chow Mien Noodle cookies, Hay Stacks, Spider cookies or Oodle Kadoodles, whatever you want to call them.   They maybe the easiest cookie ever, but they are so addictive and yummy.


Butter Tart INGREDIENTS:

Dough (Tenderflake - makes 6 pie shells about 3-4 dozen tart shells)

• 5 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 lb tenderflake lard
• 1 egg, stirred slightly
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• 7/8 cup cold water

Filling: (makes about 12 tarts)

• 1/2 cup Brown Sugar
• 1/3 cup corn syrup
• 1 egg
• 3 tbsp Butter, softened
• 1 tbsp Vinegar
• 1 tbsp Vanilla
• Pinch Salt
• A few in each tart - Raisins or Cranberries

INSTRUCTIONS: 

1) Make the dough :  

• Stir the flour and salt together.   Cut in the lard with a pastry blender until the shortening is in pea size pieces. In a measuring cup, combine the egg and vinegar. 
• Add enough cold water to make one cup.   Stir the liquid into the flour mixture, adding just enough to make the dough cling together.  Stir the water in with a wooden spoon until mixed thoroughly, then gather the dough into a ball, and separate into 6 portions. 
• Cover and refrigerate for one hour, you can chill overnight, covered, providing you leave it at room temp for 15 mins before rolling. 

2) Make the filling :  In bowl, vigorously whisk brown sugar, corn syrup, egg, butter, vanilla, vinegar and salt. 

3) Roll, Cut and Fill:  On a lightly floured surface roll out pastry to 1/8-1/4inch thickness. Using about a 4 inch round cutter cut out circles.   Re rolling as needed.   

4) Spray the muffin tin or grease/flour and place in the dough to make a cup.  Add a few raisins at the bottom of each tart and then add the filling to about halfway to 2/3 full.   You do not want to overfill or the tarts will not remove from the pan easily.    

5) Bake at 350F for about 18minutes or until filling is just set and golden.

OUR VARIATIONS AND RESULTS:

We try and get a head of the game and make the dough ahead of time but this year none of us had time so we started from scratch.  Unfortunately we had issues with the first few batches of dough.  We always tend to use the crust recipe from the Tenderflake shortening box and we did this time but we didn't actually have Tenderflake, we had no name lard.  So we ended up with 5 rounds of dough that just didn't want to stay together.    At this point I went to my never fail dough, it's more of a sweet dough than a flaky dough but its really good and it worked.   PHEW!      My sister likes when the butter tarts have the wavy look just so when she puts them into the muffin tin she adds the bumpy look.   That choice is totally up to you, but it definitely gives them the homemade feel.    We did also put some cranberries in about a dozen instead of raisins.  Different but quite nice.  In the end we made about 8 dozen but due to some over filling and some broken shells we didn't quite get that many.  Not such a large tragedy though eating the broken pieces is still fun.

Ooops! Sorry about the your recipe Mom!  

MEG's RATING : D-EEE-LICIOUS!!


CHOCOLATE CHOW MIEN COOKIES

While we were waiting for the dough to chill and remaking the new dough, my sister made the cookies.
They are really quick and easy and require no baking!   We don't really use a recipe but for guidance I adapted the one from Hershey.

INGREDIENTS: (makes about 4 dozen)

• 3 cups Chow mien noodles - slightly crushed
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (1 12 oz package)
• 1 2/3 cups peanut butter chips (1 10 oz package)
• 1 cup chopped peanuts 
• 1 cup raisins

INSTRUCTIONS: 

1) Melt both chips in a double boiler.   Add chow mien noodles a cup at a time and mix so they are all covered in chocolate.  Add peanuts and/or raisins.  You don't have to do both.

2)  Drop a heaping spoonful on a baking sheet lined with parchment or silpat. 

3) Refrigerate or (put in your cold garage as what we did) until set. 

Seriously, that is it!!   I know it may seem odd with the noodles but trust me.  These are a great easy treat! Great for doing with kids as well, they may just want to eat the noodles covered in chocolate.  Case in point <<

Try experimenting with different nuts or butterscotch chips....or even skor bits.  :-)

MEG's RATING : D-EEE-LICIOUS!