S'mores Petit Fours

Summertime is here and with that comes my family’s annual trek to Northern Calilfornia. This year we’ve booked a place at Yosemite. By that I mean a real campground. We are trading in the hotel for a tent.

Like a proper foodaholic, my main concern is what the heck are we going to eat. If I was griller, I would welcome this excursion, but I’m not. This is where I solicit you all for some help with outdoor meal making. Ideas anyone?

Luckily, I have dessert under control. I figure if the dinners don’t work out, everyone can still go to bed smiling after a sweet treat. With that, I thought I would get the family ready for some planning (everyones least favorite thing to do in my house) by setting the mood with some of my S’mores Petite Fours.

Now, I was going to make Ms. Martha Stewart’s Smore’s cupcakes but I love all things mini when it comes to dessert, so petit fours first.

A few notes:
1. Trying adding some crushed almonds to your crust for an added kick to flavor.
2. You can bypass the chocolate covering to cut down on the prep time.
3.  For a more traditional petit four look, pour chocolate ganache over cut outs.

S’mores Petit Fours
{Printer Version}

Yields 4 dozen 1 ½ squares
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line 8×8 pan with foil.

Ingredients:

Crust:
11/2 cup crushed graham cracker
¼ cup packed light brown sugar
7 tablespoon unsalted butter(melted)

Filling:
2/3 cup flour
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon espresso powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
6 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2 cup chocolate
1 tablespoon water
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla extract

INSTRUCTIONS:

Crust:

1. Combine graham cracker crumbs with sugar.
2. Add melted butter and blend until combined.
3. Press into pan. Set aside.

Filling:
1. Sift flour, salt, espresso powder and baking soda. Set aside.
2. In a sauce pan melt butter and chocolate over low heat, stirring occasionally.
3. Remove saucepan from heat and add water. Set aside for 5minutes to cool.
4. Stir in sugar, then eggs and vanilla just until combined.
5. Pour filling over crumb layer.
6. Bake 30 minute. Cool completely.

Assembly:
1. Cut into 1 ½ inch squares.
2. Drizzle chocolate over top and place mini marshmallow on top.
3. Pipe small dot on marshmallow.
8. Alternatively, you can cover the Smores Petit Fours with chocolate ganache and then finish up with the latter half of step 2 and then step 3.

Source: Adapted from Flo Baker

Easter Tea Cakes

First let me confess, this is The Cheat version of my Easter Tea Cakes.  Generally, when I make tea cakes I use Joy of Baking’s Pound Cake recipe. But with the Hub in the hospital  and waiting on oven repairs, I wasn’t able to. Out of time and without an oven. . . .Sara Lee to the rescue.

For those who follow me you already know what Cheats are and that they usually follow a Purist version, that is recipes made from scratch

There was a time in my life when I use to really turn my nose up to boxed or pre-made bake goods—my one snobbery in life (okay, that and books). Then my family came along and between them and sometimes having a 50 hour work week, I’ve come to embrace some of my cheating recipes.

However, I will say, for me there’s just not the same satisfaction in using The Cheats. Yeah, it’s timesaving, but I love baking because I love creating, testing and discovering.

That being said, using the “The Cheat” Sara Lee pound cake, led me to my latest discovery. I originally planned to use CakeJournal’s poured fondant, but had to think of an alternative when I realized I did not have white fondant on hand.

Frustrated at first, but determined not to be completely beaten out of making my Easter Tea Cakes. I melted some  buttercream for a poured version. After a few failed attempts that ranged from a lumpy mess to an oily and milky drool-like consistency and two pound cakes later, I finally hit it right. The key is to melting it slowly.

And boy do I love it! It’s so easy and so perfectly smooth. But the absolute best part—it taste so much better then fondant.

Much like my Irish Cake Bombs post the table below outlines the components for both The Purist and The Cheat version.

Easter Tea Cakes

A few notes:
1. Use your favorite buttercream recipe.
2. For a pound cake, I like Joy of Baking’s recipe found here: http://bit.ly/cB6lyy Shape cutters – Use any shape you prefer, but for pouring and decorating unless you have a deft hand try to stay away from intricate cutters and use simple shapes.
3. Any dense cake recipe will work well. Since I’m a novice at this, I like the density and hardiness of pound cake when I’m doing small detail work. That is, less room for my klutzy hands to ruin my cut-outs.
4. Work near a microwave as you will need to reheat your buttercream as you work to keep its pouring consistency. Mine is above the oven unit. If yours is as well, remove all moveable hardware like grates and throw down some foil over your work surface- this will make for a really easy clean up.
5. Use little ramekins as they are easier to work with.
6. Use plastic microwaveable spoons, so that you do not have to remove them when re-heating.  I use  Baby’s First spoons since they are non-toxic plastic and you can feel safe about placing them in the microwave.
7. Have everything you need in place and close at hand to work quickly. The fat content in the melted buttercream causes it to thicken quickly.
8. Heat your buttercream slowly. Start with heating in your microwave for 10 seconds. It should look like the consistency of heavy cream. If in doubt, heat at 5 second intervals to prevent overheating and separating. If it does separate, gently re-combine with a whisk and let rest.
9. Stir gently and slowly when heating to prevent air bubbles from forming in the melted buttercream.