Mississippi Mud Pots

Here are the promised Mississippi Mud Pots. Aren't they cute?

I made some more chocolate chip cookies, this time with some baking powder and less baking soda. I even bought new baking soda. They came out better than last time, but could use some improvement (in looks only, taste was terrific as always). Unfortunately, that was the day my brother was over, so not a one is left for a picture.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME??!

Ok, I am seriously depressed. My chocolate chip cookies are coming out flatter than a pancake. Which is saying something because I make some fluffy pancakes. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Ok, maybe because I'm not spooning the flour into the cup. Or, because my baking soda is old. Hmmm?

I made a batch of cookies last night, and everything looked fine until I pulled the baking sheet out of the oven. The cookies had spread way too much and they turned brown after I let them rest on the sheet. Nothing at all like the first time I tried the recipe. AGGGHHHH! They turned out delicious, but not pretty.

I need to change something. I am obsessed. What to do? Ok, I think I'm going to try using less soda and more powder. And maybe, spoon the flour instead of scooping it. I hate flour.

I'm having a bake-off against myself. That way only I can win. Hehe.

I'll post the results next week.

EEEEK! & MMP

Ok, I jinxed myself. I made chocolate chip cookies last night, and they didn't come out anything like the ones before. But readers, try your own fate at the famous recipe, it works. Its not the recipe, its me. :(

However, I did make something else that turned out fabulous. Mississippi Mud Pie is a staple in our house. Whenever I need a quick dessert, I turn to MMP. Amna and Jawad were coming over and I didn't feel like baking anything, or creaming butter, or all that, so I turned to my trusty MMP. What kind of baker am I, huh?

Instead of making a whole big dish, I made Mississippi Mud Pots. They were just as good, but cuter. (Pictures to come later.)

Give me coffee and chocolate anyday...

Last Friday, I had a craving for chocolate so bad, Rehan found scrounging around the pantry for candy. Nothing was to be found. I had a bar of Godiva Chocoiste (Dark Chocolate filled with Extra Dark Ganache) in my purse, but I was saving that to fight boredom at work. I wanted chocolate cupcakes. With milk. The recipe that I wanted to try didn't require softening any butter and the cupcakes looked so good!!! Deep dark chocolate with more chocolate on top and an espresso filling.

Rehan usually doesn't like chocolate cake, but even he admitted that these were delicious. He absolutley loved the coffee filling. Tayyab doesn't really care for chocolate cakes either, especially with chocolate frosting, but he was gobbling these up fast.

I got the recipe from http://www.alpineberry.blogspot.com/. I made a lot of changes, and I got about 40-something cupcakes, but Tayyab wanted to taste one right out of the oven, so of course Mari did too. So, again, I'm sorry I don't have an exact number. Thank you Mary for the delicious recipe. I will use the cake recipe as a base for many more occasions.

I added my changes in pink. :)

Chocolate Espresso Cupcakes
(makes 30 cupcakes)

Chocolate Cupcakes

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 whole eggs
1 egg yolk
1 1/4 cup whole milk
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup brewed coffee (with 2 tsp instant espresso powder dissolved in the coffee)
(I didn't have espresso powder, so I made one cup of coffee with about 4-5 teaspoons of Folgers Instant coffee. You can't taste the coffee in the cupcakes, it just makes it heavenly soft and chocolatey.)

Espresso-Mascarpone Filling

8 ounces mascarpone cheese (I used 8 oz. cream cheese, softened)
2 tbsp milk (I used heavy cream, makes everything creamier)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp finely ground espresso beans (I used 4 tsp Folgers Instant coffee, ground into a powder)
2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted (1/2 cup more)

Chocolate Glaze

2 cups (6 ounces) semi or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
6 tbsp (3 ounces) unsalted butter
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract

To make cupcakes

Preheat oven to 350F. Line 30 standard (4 fl oz capacity) muffin cups with paper liners. In the bowl of a stand mixer, sift together flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

Add the eggs, egg yolk, milk, oil, vanilla and coffee and beat on low speed until well combined.

Fill your prepared muffin cups about 2/3 full. Bake until a cake tested comes out clean, about 18-23 minutes. Leave cupcakes in pan for 5 minutes then remove from pan and cool completely on cooling rack.

To make filling

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the mascarpone, milk, vanilla and espresso until fluffy. On low speed, slowly beat in the sugar until smooth.
(I ground up the coffee crystals, and mixed them with 1 tbsp pf the cream to make a paste. I beat the cream cheese until fluffy, then added all the other ingredients. I also added 1/2 cup more powdered sugar to make the filling a little stiffer.)

Transfer filling to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/4-inch plain tip. Insert tip into the top center of cooled cupcake and dispense about 2 tsp filling into the cupcake. (I filled with about 1 1/2 tbsp of filling.)

To make glaze

Combine chocolate, butter and corn syrup in a small saucepan. Stir over low heat until well combined about 2-3 minute. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract. (I think I forgot to add the vanilla, but the glaze was still perfect.)

Frost the filled cupcakes with the warm glaze.

I didn't fill all the cupcakes with the coffee filling so Mari and Tayyab could enjoy some too. To be able to discern between the filled and un, I piped a small star of coffee filling on the filled ones. :)

The search is over!

I finally found the perfect recipe for the perfect chocolate chip cookie. I was searching for a recipe that makes soft, chewy, buttery cookies, and that stay soft for a couple of days in the cookie jar. When I first started baking, (approximately 15 years ago) I loved the Nestle Toll House recipe on the bag, but that became unsatisfactory real fast. They came out flat and too crispy. I know some people like crispy chocolate chip cookies, but I like mine soft and chewy. After hours of searching and looking at cookie forums I found a recipe on Foodnetwork. Alton Brown had done a whole show on chocolate chip cookies! (I didn't see that episode.) He has a cookie called 'The Chewy" that I tried out. The first time I made it, oh my god, it was good. I tasted one right out of the oven, and it seemed like this is exactly what I was looking for. And the recipe makes HUGE cookies. But they don't store so well. After 2 days, the cookies were kinda hard and crumbly, and didn't taste too good. Since I don't buy cookies from the store anymore, I needed a cookie that would last at least a week for lunch boxes and evening snacks and still taste like it was fresh out of the oven.

So, back to searching and trying out different things. Some chocolate chip cookie forums said to add more flour to make a stiffer dough. This helps with the spreading but it makes a cakey cookie. Some said melted butter makes the difference, but majority of the recipes call for creamed butter.

Finally I found one. Wendy Gaynor's recipe for chocolate chip cookies. Usually I hate letting things chill because I'm craving the chilling dough so bad, but its worth it to let the dough chill and bake perfect chocolate chip cookies. I don't bake these too big, just about 1 1/2 tablespoon full of dough. I shape it into a ball to have perfect rounds, and also I decreased the amount of chocolate to 2 cups dark chocolate chips. Rehan loves these and even told me so! Without me asking him.

The search is over! They came out perfect.

I usually get about 30-36 cookies, I can never keep count because my kids keep darting in and out of the kitchen and cookies keep disappearing.

***********************************************************************************

Wendy Gaynor’s ‘Perfect’ Chocolate Chunk Cookies

8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract4 cups semisweet chunks (preferably imported).

1. Place the butter in a large bowl and cream at high speed until fluffy. Add the sugars and beat until light and fluffy, about 4minutes, scraping down sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until completely mixed.

2. In a separate bowl, mix flour, salt and baking soda. Add to the butter mixture at low speed until just combined and add vanilla extract. Beat on medium speed, scraping bowl down, until blended. Do not over mix.

3. Add chocolate chunks and mix till thoroughly combined. Refrigerate batter until cold, preferably overnight.

4. Preheat a conventional oven to 350 degrees or a convection oven to300 degrees, and line several baking sheets with parchment paper. Drop heaping spoonfuls of batter 2 inches apart on the lined baking sheets and bake, turning tray once, until golden brown around edges and soft(but not bubbly), about 9 minutes in a convection oven or 12 in a conventional one. Cool on a wire rack.

Yield: 36 to 72 cookies, depending on size.

Summer Weddings

I used to hate going to weddings before I was married. Always the dread of getting married myself. Why does our culture always make everything such a big deal and so melancholy and sad? After I got married, it was so fun going together with Rehan, getting all dressed up knowing that someone (other than just the women) will actually see me and like what I'm wearing. (WINK.)


A friend of mine just got married a couple of weeks ago and asked me to make her wedding cake. My first wedding cake challenge. (AHEM!!-Amna and Jawad!) I was so excited and crazy nervous. Which recipe would I use? I had to make sure the cake tasted good while looking good. And she wanted strawberry filling, so I had to make sure it was clean!!! Have to take my time.


So, it started... I tried out some recipes, and one was deemed that it tasted just like cornbread by Farro. Well, she likes cornbread, but my cake can't taste like cornbread! I tried out a couple more, and Rehan was getting pissed because I was making cakes everyday. I finally settled on a vanilla cake recipe that I hoped would turn out moist yet with a good fine texture, and was white and smooth. The chocolate cake recipe had already been picked out. She wanted a vanilla tier and a chocolate tier. I bought the pans, recruited Nora to help and got started.


Having Nora there as a blessing. I got everything done SO quickly becuase she was there helping the whole day. Washing cups, pans, the beaters, spatulas, and measuring utensils. We made 2 12"x2" vanilla cakes and 4 8"x2" chocolate cakes. 4 chocolates, because the first time I took the first batch out of the pans they broke, they were so fragile. So, back to the mixer. The second time I left them in the pans to cool overnight in the refridgerator.


Friday I came home from work, ready for filling, frosting and decorating. The bride didn't specify what kind of decorations she wanted, so I chose something on my own. I filled the cakes with strawberry preserves, and frosted both in white chocolate buttercream. After letting the buttercream set, I started the decorating. I decided to go with a mehndi design on the cake.


I filled a pastry bag with melted dark chocolate and started piping the cake like mehndi. I had sketched a design on a piece of paper for ideas, and loosely followed the idea on the cake. Although it wasn't difficult to do, it was tedious, and very time consuming. But, I got it done, and it looked absolutely gorgeous!


I wrapped the cake in plastic wrap for pick up in the morning. Right before the bride's brother came to pick it up, I topped it with fresh strawberries that I had dispatched Rehan and Tayyab to pick up that morning.

The end result: