scrimpySnack of the Week: Blonde Bites

Good Sunday afternoon! Here in Boston, it's rainy and dreary, and Dylan is teething and so miserable. I have a new follower, Ariel, so that's has really made my day. I just love to see people are reading. So, welcome Ariel, and thanks for following me as I try to enjoy life in the city on the cheap!

This week's scrimpySnack is Blondie Bites. It's actually surprisingly difficult to think of new and unique things to bake each week, but I'm looking forward to getting a bit more adventurous. This week's snack is not adventurous. I didn't have any chocolate, but I had everything I needed to make blondies (and I'm sure you do, too). I just finally realized that "blondies" are a play on "brownies". Like, blonde vs. brown hair I guess? Anyways, I should probably go ahead and file this post away in the "i am an idiot" folder.

I hope you enjoy these bites, we sure did/are still. They kind of taste like sugar cookies.

the centers fall to form the cutest little dimple on top!

Bangin' Blondie Bites

makes:
2 dozen mini-bites
1 dozen normal muffin-tin size
1 9 x 9 pan

2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour (you could use half whole-wheat, half AP...$.37)
2 1/2 t. baking powder (as usual, double check you're not using baking soda...$.10)
1/2 t. salt (<$.01)
3/4 c. butter, softened (1 1/2 sticks...$1.05)
1 c. white sugar ($.31)
2/3 c. brown sugar ($.40)
1 1/2 t. vanilla extract ($.24)
2 eggs (organic - $.70)

Total is $3.18...not bad, my friends!

1. Prepare muffin tin or pan with butter or muffin cups. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt.
   
3. Cream butter (if you haven't thought far enough in advance, and your butter isn't softened, cut it into very thin slices) and sugars.
   
4. Add eggs to the butter mixture one by one, making sure one is incorporated before adding the next.
   
5. Add vanilla to the egg + butter + sugar mixture.
6. Gently stir flour mix into wet ingredients until combined.
7. Spread in pan, or put into tins. For pan, bake 25 minutes, for bites, bake 15-20 until golden and crisped on top.

scrimpyTips:

- For a chocolaty kick, add a cup or two of chocolate chips...or caramel chips...or peanut butter chips.

- I made mini-bites and a few normal muffin tin size, and they were too cute. These would be great to bring to a home as a hostess gift or dessert!

- How about this...make regular muffin sized bites, and top with tiny little scoops of vanilla (or any) ice cream and a shaving of chocolate on top. Easy, scrimpy, elegant, and cute! (Haagen Dazs is on sale 2/$6 at CVS this week!)

scrimpySnack of the Week

OK everybody! Here's the scrimpySnack of the Week. I had made this once before for dessert to bring to our cousins Pat and BriAnne's place, and it turned out to be pretty delicious. Those two have a few really specific food aversions, so I'm always wondering if they're into what I'm bringing. Since they liked this coffee cake, I figured it's kind of a "go-to", so I made it again. It was better the first time, unfortunately, but I think that's because I forgot to add the cinnamon the other day :(.

You could make this in advance and freeze it, too. This way, you'd always have something for company in a pinch. If I hadn't eaten the whole thing, I would have cut nice, big, pieces and sent them to work with Mike's lunch.

Crumbly Crumble Coffee Cake

makes 1 loaf cake, serves about 10

3/4 c. butter (I know, I know, that's a lot of butter...$1.05)

1 1/4 c. white sugar ($.39)

2 eggs ($.60 ---- $.90 for me since I dropped one on the floor while baking)

1 1/2 c. yogurt (organic - $.44)

1/2 t. vanilla ($.08)

2 c. flour ($.30)

1 t. baking powder ($.04)

1/8 t. salt (<$.01)

1/3 c. flour ($.10)

2 T. melted butter ($.18)

1/2 c. packed brown sugar ($.28)

1 t. cinnamon ($.06)

Total is $3.53...not bad! That's $.35/slice. You'd pay about 8 times that amount at Starbuck's for a piece of this goodness.

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease loaf pan (or cake pan, or whatever size pan you're using).
2. Sift flour, salt, and baking powder.
3. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Add eggs one at a time.
5. Add yogurt, mix to incorporate.
6. Add vanilla.
7. Stir in flour with as few strokes as possible (over mixing toughens the cake).
8. Melt 2 T. butter and mix with brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon...this makes the crumbly crumbles.
9. Spread 1/2 of the batter on the bottom of your pan, sprinkle half the mix, spread (carefully) the rest of the batter on top, then sprinkle the rest of the crumbles on top.
10. Bake for 1 hour at 350. I think mine took longer than an hour. It's ready when the top springs back up from a light touch in the middle. If yours is getting too golden on the top (read: burning), cover it with aluminum foil.

scrimpyTips:

- These would make great "coffee cupcakes". Just spread half the batter, add crumbles, add more batter, add more crumbles. Just instead of being in the pan they're in a cupcake tin. That's a cute idea.

- This would be great with chopped nuts and/or chocolate chips.

- I think the butter can be cut down even further to 1 cup. I didn't make it that way, but with the 1 1/2 sticks, it's soooo moist and soft, it seems like it could definitely handle losing that extra half a stick of butter.

- This is perfect with coffee and as a snack for lunches.

I'm going to make this for Easter morning, and I think I'm going to use half whole wheat flour so that Dylan (the baby) can have a few bites. I will let you know how that turns out!

Enjoy the scrimpySnack of the Week. This is a yummy one, trust me. I ate half the cake.

Putting the Creme in those Puffs!

So, I've shared with you how to make the actual puff. Now, I need to fill you in on how to fill them in...ha!

Vanilla Pastry Creme (Creme Patisserie)

makes about 2 cups (I just feel like this book overestimates the yield...I don't think I got 2 cups from this...)

1/3 c. sugar ($.10)
2 T. all purpose flour ($.02)
2 T. cornstarch ($.13)
4 large egg yolks ($1.16 - organic)
1 1/3 c. milk ($.48 - organic)
3/4 t. vanilla extract ($.13)

1. Pour milk in a small saucepan and bring milk to a simmer.
2. Meanwhile, beat sugar, flour, cornstarch, and egg yolks on high speed until thick and pale yellow (about 2 minutes). It's crazy, it seems like it's all dry ingredients, and then it's a pale yellow cream.
3. Gradually pour about 1/3 of the milk into the egg yolk mixture, whisking to combine. Scrape egg mixture with milk back into saucepan with the rest of the milk. Whisk constantly and scrape the bottom and corners to prevent scorching.
   
4. Keep whisking until the custard is thickened (only a few minutes - happens way faster than you expect) and beginning to bubble. Then continue to cook and whisk for 45 to 60 seconds. Using a clean spatula (without raw egg yolks on it) scrape custard into a bowl.
5. Stir in vanilla extract.
6. Cover surface of custard with plastic wrap (to prevent a skin from forming) and allow it to cool to room temperature. Refrigerate before using.

Total: $2.02 (and that's with organic milk and eggs...not bad!)

To fill creme puffs with the creme (I like spelling it "creme" better than "cream"...it's like, dainty and sounds more sophisticated and fancy):

Fill a pastry bag with creme and pipe in to puffs. If you don't have a pastry bag, put the creme in a ziploc bag and snip the tip off (be careful not to make the whole too big) and pipe it in to puff through the steam hole you created.

I like to top the puffs with confectioner's sugar...ha, like I make these everyday. What I should say is the one time I made them, I put confectioners sugar in a strainer and tapped it over the puffs. It created a beautiful, snowy effect, and a delicious mouth feel!

scrimpyTips:

- This keeps in the fridge for 2 days.
- Make sure you whisk well, because the eggs can cook and leave it lumpy and gross.
- This is the first time I had ever made it and it came out perfect, so it's easier than it seems.
- Even though it's more expensive than the plain whipped cream (recipe follows), it's so much better and is really what you're supposed to fill the creme puffs with. **The whipped cream actually turns out to be more expensive if you don't have a use for the rest of the heavy cream, because then you've spent $3 and only used $1.50 worth. Therefore, it's not really cheaper if you're not using up the rest of the cream.**
- Another option is to fill with ice cream, and since it was on sale for $3.50 at CVS, that was an option, but the pastry creme really turned out cheaper!


You can go for plain vanilla whipped cream. This is as easy as it gets, but if you're using this I would advise cutting the puffs in half and spooning the cream in and placing the top on. This cream isn't "stabilized" it can weep or deflate...and you don't want that. Here's the recipe:

Sweetened Whipped Cream
(also from The Joy of Cooking...can you tell I'm scared I'll get in trouble from using recipes from someone's book?)

makes 2 - 2 1/2 cups

1 c. cold heavy cream ($1.50)
2 T. confectioners sugar...or to taste (anywhere from 1T-4T) ($.10)
1/2 t. vanilla ($.09)


Total: $1.69

In a chilled bowl with chilled beaters, at med-high to high speed beat the cream until thickened. Add sugar and vanilla and beat to desired consistency. It gets too thick quickly. Ideally you stop when it's the consistency of cool whip. If you beat it until it's very stiff, it gets reallllly rich. So if that's what you're going for, keep on beating, but if you want a soft dollop, don't overdo it.

scrimpyTip:
- You can use this the same way you'd use whipped cream, and it's cheaper than most store bought varieties.


All said and done, the creme puffs cost $4.06. This makes from 15-30 puffs, so that's an average of $.23/puff. I want to go to the bakery and see what they cost each there. But I bet it's at least $1.25 each.

Delectable Creme Puffs...I love the word "puffs"

I spent a semester in Belgium in 2007 along with a few others from my school, Northeastern University. My roomate, Teddy, and our 2 girlfriends Sandra and Tracey have all kept in pretty good touch since returning to the states. Every so often, we have a little get together to catch up and get drunk and eat fattening foods. We've had homemade pasta ravioli (i make pasta! watch out world!), a fondue party, holiday brunch, etc...

This is a bit of a digression about how important it is to get together with friends, if you just want the recipe and technique for $4 Creme Puffs, just skip this part:

Getting together with a few of your friends with inexpensive wine is a really healthy habit to get into, I say. It's good for you to get out (especially during these cold winter months) and socialize, and doing it at someone's home really makes it an affordable thing to do. Sometimes keeping in touch with friends is hard, and as everyday life takes over it falls by the wayside. It really does make a difference in your life, though, to keep up with friends and family and make sure those relationships stay strong. After all, that's what's important in life! (A little sappy, but it's seriously true). I try hard to maintain my friendships because when all is said and done, friends are the people that love you rich or poor, fat or thin, happy or sad...

So, now that that's over, I can tell you what we ate. Tracey decided to do fajitas. I always love to bring dessert, so I suggested I'd make something spanish-mexican-texmexish to go with the theme. I found out that cream puffs are kind of a Spanish thing. I don't even know how that's the case, but it may or may not be. Anyways, I decided to go for it. I had never made them before but after cross referencing The Joy of Cooking with allrecipes.com and a Barefoot Contessa recipe from foodnetwork.com...and find, an Alton Brown recipe, but I hate him so I don't even like to give him any credit (for the record I didn't use his recipe), I decided I could do this...and I could do it for UNDER $5. Here's how (from The Joy of Cooking):

Creme Puffs are made from a dough called "choux" which is French for "cabbages" - The Joy of Cooking says this is because the little dollops of paste expand in the oven to resemble tiny cabbage heads. I would say that's a stretch. It can be made sweet or savory, but that's for another day.

This dough is cooked on top of the stove and then shaped and baked. The paste must cool a bit before you add the eggs, so that you don't cook the eggs in the pastry. If the dough is too cold, however, your eggs will not incorporate properly. The finished paste should be shiny, smooth, and very thick but not stiff.

Choux Paste (creme puff dough - this makes between 15-30 puffs depending on the size)

1 c. all purpose flour ($.15)
1 c. water or milk (I use water because it's FREE) ($.37 if you use organic milk)
1/2 c. (1 stick) unsalted butter cut into small pieces (if you only have salted just omit the salt from recipe) ($.70)
1 T sugar ($.02)
1/2 t. salt (<$.01) 4 eggs at room temperature (if I don't have time to wait, I just put the eggs in a cup of warm water for a few minutes - like, while you're doing the dough) ($1.16 - organic)

1. Position rack in lower third of oven and preheat to 400 degrees.
   
2. Measure out the flour and put it aside.
3. Combine all other ingredients (water/milk, butter, sugar, salt) in a medium saucepan. Bring the mixture to a full boil over medium heat.
   
4. Add the flour all at once and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon. The mixture won't look smooth, but just keep stirring fast. In a few minutes the paste will become dry and won't stick to your spooin or the pan, and when the spoon is pressed on it lightly it will leave an indentation. Do not overcook or overstir at this point because the puff won't puff in the oven.
   
5. Transfer to a bowl and let cool for 5 minutes, stirring a few times.
6. Add one egg at a time, beating rigorously or on low speed with a mixer (I used a kitchenaid stand mixer, but I know we don't all have them. Only use your handmixer if it has a REALLY low setting, or else this is better done by hand I think). Make sure the paste is really smooth each time you add an egg so that you can be sure each egg is fully incorporated. This is important.
7. Continue to beat with each egg until the dough is smooth and shiny. The proper consistency is when a small quantity of dough will stand erect if scooped up on the edge of a spoon.
8. You can now either put the dough in a pastry bag fitted with a round tip and pipe out little mounds on a sheet (covered in parchment paper or a silicone baking mat - this is a must, they will stick) or spoon them out and pat down the spikes on top with wet fingertips (this is what I did).
9. Bake them at 400 for 10 minutes and then lower the oven to 350 and allow to bake for 25 more minutes or until they're golden brown and very firm to the touch. As soon as you take them out of the oven poke them with a small knife to let the steam out (if you don't the steam will come out and make them soggy).
10. Let them cool completely before adding the filling (whipped cream or pastry cream...recipe follows)

Total Price for Puffs $2.04...$2.41 with organic milk.

scrimpyTips:

- This dough can be refigerated up to 4 hours and does not need to be brought to room temperature before you bake it.
- You can fill these with whipped cream, pastry cream, ice cream, or even cool ship in a pinch...I'm posting whipped cream and pastry cream recipes in my next post...just have to get my little peanut down for a nap!