Pumpkin Cream Pie

Last week Garrett and I started watching the Throwdown Thanksgiving episode with Bobby Flay vs. Pioneer Woman. While watching it I was browsing through her site looking for a dessert to make for a dinner party, we were attending on Sunday, and I came across her version of Pumpkin Pie. It's a pumpkin pie of sorts made with pudding and whipped cream in a graham cracker crust, and it is amazing.

On The Pioneer Woman site she gives her beautifully photographed step by step instructions, so I'll just let you go there to check it out. But you start with vanilla cook and serve pudding and make it with half and half and heavy whipping cream, cinnamon, nutmeg and ground cloves. (I omitted the cloves because I didn't have any. We didn't miss them.) You cook the pudding until it thickens then add in pumpkin puree. I could have stopped right here and ate this as a pumpkin pudding. It was so delicious. I had to stop myself if I wanted to have any left to put in the actual pie. To the pudding mixture you add whipping cream that has been whipped up with brown sugar, hence the name pumpkin cream pie. You place all this in your crust and chill, chill, chill. It definitely needs to be cold.

This dessert went over very well at the dinner party. I didn't leave with any leftovers. I was a little sad about that, so tonight I was feeding a few people dinner and Brian and I both decided that we would be more than ok eating pumpkin cream pie again for dessert. So I whipped up another one this morning. On round two, when I went to the store I couldn't find the small pack of pudding, so I used the bigger box. I used a little eighth grade math and set up a few proportions to adjust the cream, half and half and pumpkin to account for a larger amount of pudding. It turned out just as good as the first. I might consider using the larger box instead, it filled the pie crust a little better.

Another difference between making round one and round two was the length of time I cooked the crust. The first time I cooked it for eight minutes and the crust was very crumbly when I tried to serve it. So round two I cooked it for ten minutes and the crust was very hard to cut making it equally hard to serve. So take your pick, I think I prefer the softer crust to the harder. But do note that they tasted exactly the same.

Brian and I are finishing the Throwdown episode as I type this, so I don't know if Pioneer Woman won, but I'd be willing to bet if she used this pie as her dessert she would have it in the bag!

Pumpkin Cream Pie

Peanut Butter Caramel Swirled Brownies

I'm going on a little spring break vacation to Las Vegas, but Brian can't come. So whenever I leave him, I always make him some treats so he's not too sad and lonely. I've been looking for a reason to make these brownies I saw Bobby Flay make on an episode of Throwdown. He actually lost the throwdown, but of course his brownies looked delicious, and these ones definitely are. The brownies are so fudgy and rich.

They don't take too long to make, but there are a few parts to them. You start by making a peanut butter caramel. It was simple and delicious. I think my pinch of salt in the caramel was a bit too big since the peanut butter is already salty, so just be careful. Then you melt unsweetened chocolate, bittersweet chocolate and butter in a bowl over simmering water. Then mix that up with the eggs and sugar. The brownies only use one cup of flour, which, I think, is what makes them so fudgy. I thought about using more, thinking it wasn't right, but they came out perfect.







The only thing I did adjust was the cooking time. After reading the reviews online everyone said they needed to be cooked a big longer than the 25 minutes is called for. I ended up doing them for 35, but think 30 would be perfect. (Brian likes them more on the gooey side.)

Whoever came up with the idea of putting peanut butter and chocolate together, I thank them. And these brownies are just another great way to get these two amazing flavors together.



Peanut Butter Caramel Swirled Brownies Recipe

German Chocolate Cake

Monday was by husband Brian's Happy Birthday! I was so excited to celebrate his birthday this year. It's the first one we've been married for, and I got to make a new cake and throw a party! I asked Brian what kind of cake he wanted and he picked German Chocolate. I was up for the challenge. I have never made one before and was anxious to being my search the a recipe. I headed right over to food network to search it out. I expected to find a recipe from Ina and maybe a few others. I came across an episode of Throw Down with Bobby Flay where he challenged Harlem, NY bakery Make My Cake to a German Chocolate Cake throw down. Turns out I saw that episode and the cake looked delicious. Make My Cake actually lost the throw down, but I figured it must be a pretty amazing cake for Bobby to want to challenge it. So I went for it.

I made the Coconut/Pecan Frosting and a chocolate ganache the day before. I read over the recipe and it looked like a lot to take on after work on Monday before I had to serve it up that evening. Doing half of it ahead of time was perfect. Then the day of I just had to make the cake, which was very doable, and put it all together.


The coconut/peacan frosting was absolutely delicious. When I tasted it I figured if the cake didn't turn out too great it wouldn't matter because I would just slather it with the frosting and all would be well! I cooked it according to the recipe. I thought it seemed a little runny after the 12 minutes, but once it cooled (I refrigerated it over night) it was just the right consistency for a frosting. I toasted my pecans in a pan on the stove just for a few minutes. The recipe calls for a chocolate frosting to put around the outside of the cake, but her's is a secret family recipe that she didn't give out. I read through the reader comments on the recipe and a lot of people just used a basic ganache and said it worked out great. The recipe I used is below.


Again for the cake I followed the recipe as written. I started melting the chocolate and water in a make shift double boiler with a glass bowl and pan, but apparently my glass bowl wasn't heat proof and it cracked. (Mom it was that little one you gave me.) Yikes! So I carefully got rid of the broken glass and hot liquid and started again. This time in the microwave and it worked like a champ. I used the Baker's German chocolate as recommended. I beat the egg whites, which I had never folded into a cake before, but it definitely made the cake very fluffy and the other ingredients made this a very moist and delicious chocolate cake. And just the right amount of chocolate taste too! One thing different from the recipe, that I found, is that I didn't have enough batter to fill three 9-inch pans, so I just filled two. Not sure if that is a miss print, but it didn't matter. The cook temp isn't included so I just cooked it at 350 for a little more than 30 minutes until my toothpick came out clean.


When I put the cakes together I had quite a bit of the pecan frosting, and maybe that's because I didn't end up with three layers, but I used most of it and no one complained of too much frosting. I forgot to take pictures of the layers as I was putting it together and it was eaten up so fast once we cut into that I couldn't get any pictures then either. Oh well. I'd say the cake was a hit and made Brian's birthday. If you like German Chocolate Cake I strongly recommend giving this recipe a try.

Make My Cake German Chocolate Cake Recipe

Chocolate Ganache
4 oz semisweet chocolate, 1/2 cup heavy cream, 1 tsp vanilla.
Melt chocolate and cream together on low heat until even, add vanilla, chill 15 minutes

Just a few pictures from the party. Brittany and I made this fabulous, if I do say so myself, Happy Birthday sign and hung it over the food table. Brian loves Henry Weinhard's Root Beer, so we chilled some of those and put them in cute bowls. My wrapping paper even matched the sign! It was a very successful birthday party.