Improve your KitchenAid mixer

Blueberry ginger buckle

6/1/2019

What's a buckle, you ask? It's a Northeastern US, streusel-topped coffee cake loaded with fruit. This one's full of blueberries and some spicy zippiness from ginger and black pepper. The buckle has a dense texture and a crunchy, crackled (buckled) top. It's perfect for brunch, breakfast of with tea or coffee.

We went with the full amount of ginger from the original recipe. If you don't like ginger or have a sensitive palate, cut it in half or omit altogether. We added less than half the pepper when we made ours.

We saved a few of our blueberries to stud the top of our cake at the end. Simply press into the streusel topping.

Our recipe is loosely based on one in the book Bake From Scratch, Volume 2. We made alterations in the ingredients and technique, so we're calling it our own.

Cake keeps for one day on your counter or five days in your refrigerator in a sealed container. We don't recommend freezing.

Video is coming soon!

ingredients

Cake

1/4 cup (57g) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
1 large egg (50g), room temperature
2 cups (250g) cake flour
1 teaspoon (5g) baking powder
1/4-3/4 teaspoon ground ginger (to taste or omit)
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup (120g) whole milk or buttermilk (we used buttermilk)
3/4 pound (340g) fresh or frozen blueberries ( we used frozen)
1 Tablespoon (15g) fresh lemon juice
9 x 9 pan (we used an 8 x 8 and it took much longer to bake in the center - we recommend a 9-inch pan if you have one)

Topping

1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
1/3 cup (42g) cake flour
1 teaspoon (2g) nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon (1.5g) Kosher salt
1/4 cup (57g) cold unsalted butter, cubed

instructions

Heat oven to 350F (180C). Butter and flour a 9 x 9 pan square baking pan. Set aside.
In your stand mixer fitted with SideSwipe or a flat paddle, beat the butter and sugar at medium speed until it is fluffy/sandy. It won't be super fluffy like many creamed mixtures.
Add egg and beat well on medium.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, ginger, salt and pepper.
With mixer on lowest speed, add small amounts of milk, alternating with small amounts of dry ingredients. Beat between each addition, mixing just until barely combined. End with flour mixture.
In a small bowl, toss blueberries with 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice.
Gently stir blueberries into the cake batter. The batter will be thick - more like muffin than most cake batters. Spread and level with a spatula.
In a small bowl, combine flour, sugar, nutmeg and salt. Using a pastry blender of fork, cut in cold butter until the mixture is crumbly.
Sprinkle topping evenly over the cake. If desired, press a few extra blueberries into the topping for a decorative effect.
Bake until golden - 35-45 minutes for a 9-inch pan; 45-55 minutes for an 8-inch pan. It's difficult to determine the doneness with a toothpick. Instead, wait until the center no longer seems jiggly and the edges achieve a golden color. We overcooked ours a bit on the edges because it took a while for the center to bake. We used an 8-inch pan. This would be less of an issue for a 9-inch pan bake.
Cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then remove cake from pan. You can serve at this point or move to a wire rack and cool completely.

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Olive Oil Chocolate Chunk Cookies

5/29/2019

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Chewy and slightly sophisticated, these cookies are sure to please who like their desserts to have "that little bit extra." We swapped out some of the butter with some fruity and delicious olive oil. We also substituted bread flour for a portion of the all-purpose flour. The result? Chewier cookies (although we attribute that more to the oil than the flour).

The addition of chopped dark bar chocolate gave us puddles of gooey chocolate when they came out of the oven. If you don't have bread flour, feel free to use all-purpose for all the flour. Just don't skip the salt!

We used our favorite grocery store brand, California Olive Ranch, for this recipe. It has a great flavor, is widely available, and is reasonably priced, to boot1

Our recipe, adapted from the Displaced Housewife blog, makes about 3 dozen cookies. They keep at room temperature for several days and can be frozen as dough balls or finished cookies for up to three months.

We will link up a video soon!

ingredients

1 -1/2 cups of brown sugar, any type, packed
1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup good quality olive oil ( we used California Olive Ranch)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1- 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 -1/2 cups bread flour (or an additional amount of all-purpose flour)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sea salt
3- 1/2 cups dark chocolate, coarsely chopped or chips (reserve some for the tops)
Sea salt flakes for the tops (optional)

instructions

Heat your oven to 375 degrees F. Make sure you have a rack in the top third of your oven. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone mats.
In stand mixer fitted with SideSwipe or your paddle attachment, cream your brown sugar, butter, oil and granulated sugar on medium speed until fully incorporated.
Add the eggs + vanilla and mix on medium until everything is well blended.
In a medium bowl whisk together all-purpose flour, bread flour, baking powder, baking soda and sea salt.
Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix on low speed until the cookie dough is barely blended. You still want to see streaks of flour. Add the chocolate chunks and fold until just mixed.
Gently roll into 2 tablespoon-sized balls (we used 1-1/2 Tablespoon scoops). Place on prepared baking sheet with 2 inches between the dough balls. Stud the tops of the cookie balls with some of the reserved chocolate chunks for pretties cookies. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or freeze dough balls 10 minutes before baking if you like thicker cookies.
Bake the cookies in the top third of the oven for about 11 minutes. They will look slightly underdone. Fresh out of the oven, sprinkle with the sea salt flakes. Cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, the cool completely on a wire rack.
Store in a sealed container up to three days at room temperature.

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confetti cookies

5/22/2019

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Perfect for a birthday or a rainy Tuesday, these soft, sprinkle-covered. almond flavored sugar cookies will brighten the day! They freeze well as dough balls or baked cookies, so go ahead and make a big batch so you can have some on hand for a quick treat or gift.

For the most uniform cookies, we recommend you use a 1-1/2 Tablespoon scoop. Makes 4 dozen 2-1/2 inch cookies. Recipe comes from King Arthur Flour and Smitten Kitchen.

This is a great recipe to bake with kids!

ingredients

3 cups (375g) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon fine sea or table salt
1 cup (8 ounces, 225g or 2 sticks) unsalted butter
1/4 cup (2 ounces, 55g or 1/4 of an 8-ounce brick) cream cheese
1-1/4 cups (250g) granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
1 cup rainbow sprinkles

directions

Heat oven to 375F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.
Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl and whisk to blend
In your stand mixer fitted with SideSwipe or your flat paddle, beat on medium speed : cream cheese, butter and sugar until fluffy.
Add egg and extracts and blend on medium speed until well combined.
On your mixer's lowest speed, add the flour mixture all at once, and beat just until flour disappears. Chill dough in the fridge for 20 minutes.
Scoop balls of dough using a 1-1/2 Tablespoon scoop if you have one, or approximate the size and roll completely by hand. With scooped dough, roll gently in the palms of your hands before dropping them in a bowl of rainbow sprinkles and gently rolling to coat them evenly. The sprinkles stick best to slightly hand-warmed dough.
Transfer balls of sprinkle-coated dough to lined baking sheets at least two inches apart. Use the bottom of a drinking glass to press down on the cookies until they are about 1/4 to 1/2-inch tall. Fill in any bare spots in the sprinkles if you like. Add more sprinkles on top if you want a heavy coating - the cookies will spread a little and may leave gaps.
Bake for 9 to 10 minutes until they look underbaked but lightly golden underneath. [Err on the underbaked side, otherwise the cookies will become too crisp by Day 2.] Let cool on the baking sheet on a rack for a few minutes before transferring to cooling racks to cool the rest of the way. Repeat with remaining cookie dough.

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chocolate cream cheese frosting

5/19/2019

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We made a half-batch of this frosting as an experiment, and put it on our 6-inch devil's food layer cake. It is so good that we wanted to share the recipe with you! We don't have any video or photos of the mixing or the steps. We may come back later and do that. But it's so simple, we think you can make it without all those things. Just follow these simple instructions to achieve another great, not-overly-sweet frosting (we know, you know we're not into sweeeeet stuff here).

The recipe below makes enough to frost: 12 cupcakes with a ton of frosting; 24 cupcakes with a traditional amount of frosting; 2 x 8-9 inch cake layers; or a 9 x 13 pan cake). We frosted two 6-inch cakes with a half-batch and still had enough for Mr. SideSwipe to eat a small bowl of frosting to "test it."

Do you like the look of this cake? You can find our "one mixer bowl" recipe for Devil's Food cake here.

ingredients

1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
8 oz (226g) cream cheese softened brick-style, not spreadable
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
3-1/2 (440g) cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup (44g) natural cocoa powder (we used half natural, half dutched)
2 - 3 Tablespoons of half-and-half, heavy cream or whole milk (to loosen frosting as needed for your application)

instructions

In your stand mixer fitted with a SideSwipe beater, mix at medium speed your room temperature (but not melting or microwaved!) butter, cream cheese and salt until creamy, well-combined, and lump-free.
Add vanilla extract. Mix on low to medium speed to combine.
Sift powdered sugar and cocoa powder into the mixing bowl. You can skip this step if you're not piping the frosting, but we think the cocoa mixes in best this way.
With mixer on low, gradually incorporate until moistened and begin to be combined. Don't begin on a high speed unless you want sugar and cocoa all over your kitchen!
Once moistened, turn mixer up to medium-high speed. Add your milk a little at a time, allowing it to fully incorporate. We used the equivalent of 2 Tablespoons in our frosting - we added it in about halfway through to get the creaminess going. Then toward the end to achieve the consistency we wanted. You may want to use a little less if you're planning on detailed piping or more for a looser frosting.
Frost completely cooled cake or cupcakes.