Sometimes, it just takes a very small change to make a big difference. This is true in many things, but it is equally true in the kitchen. The BeaterBlade is a great example. This stand mixer attachment has a silicone “blade” that extends from what is otherwise a regular paddle attachment. It scrapes the bowl as it mixes, making blending easier and faster than with a regular paddle attachment, particularly for things like creaming butter and sugar. The same company, New Metro Design, has come out with another kitchen innovation, the MixerMate Bowl.
The MixerMate is a bowl designed to improve the efficiency of your hand mixer (because not everyone has a stand mixer or those who do don’t use them all the time). The bowl has an unusual shape: oval, with sides that taper in towards a relatively narrow bottom. This is a contrast from rounder, straight-sided bowls. The tornado-inspired shape of the bowl is supposed to reduce mixing time by up to 30%, while the extra-tall walls of the bowl will reduce splatter.I found the bowl to work just as promised. My butter and sugar creamed extremely fast and I didn’t need to move the beaters around the bowl as much to get everything blended. I was also able to whip up cream and frosting even faster than usual. I didn’t expect there to be much difference between this bowl and my other bowls, but I was pretty impressed with how well it performed!
The bowl also has two pouring spouts and the handles can double as pouring spouts, so it is very easy to get anything you put into the bowl out again, and there is a nonslip base on the bowl to prevent it from sliding around the countertop. It comes in four colors and is a great little tool to add to your kitchen, especially if you use a hand mixer frequently.
Whoopie pies are typically round in shape, made with soft, cake-like cookies that sandwich a creamy filling. It may be tradition to have round whoopie pies, but it isn’t written in stone that all whoopies must be round, either. These classic snack cakes are enjoying a surge in popularity right now and to make them a little more holiday-appropriate, Wilton has just introduced a Bunny Whoopie Pie Pan that makes bunny shaped cakes perfect for a spring or Easter celebration.
The nonstick pan has 12 bunny shaped cavities, and all you need to do is pipe in the batter of your choice and let them bake. With a pan to give you the forms, you don’t need to worry about your batter spreading while it bakes or that your whoopies won’t match up properly for sandwiches. You might, however, need to level off one side of the cookie with a knife to get a better fit if your batter puffs up too much, as the bunnies fit back-to-front when sandwiched. The cakes should release from the pan easily, and then you can fill and decorate them however you wish. If you don’t want to limit yourself to whoopie pies, you can also use the pan for other cookies (pressing a thicker dough down into the molds), like chocolate chip or shortbread.
Whenever I want to dress up a batch of brownies, I don’t turn to chocolate ganache or fancy chocolate chips. I turn to a big bag of cream filled, Oreo-type sandwich cookies, chop them up and add them to my brownie batter. I suppose that this is actually dressing down the brownies, rather than dressing them up, but Oreo cookies make a fantastic addition to a batch of brownies and take these from good to irresistible.
These Cookies n’ Cream Brownies are fudgy, chewy brownies that are loaded with oreo cookies (or a similar brand of chocolate and vanilla sandwich cookie). The brownie batter is not that unusual, made with chocolate and cocoa powder to ensure that it has a good chocolate flavor. There is quite a bit of sugar in it and the sugar contributes to that chewy texture, as well as to the flavor of the brownies, sweetening the batter because all the chocolate called for is unsweetened. There is no leavening in this brownie batter, either, which keeps the brownies very moist, rich and fudgy.
The Oreos are a nice addition to these for a couple of reasons. They actually hold up very well to baking and you’ll see the full sandwich preserved in the brownies when you slice into them! You definitely get a cookies n’ cream flavor along with the dark chocolate brownie, just like you do when you eat cookies n’ cream ice cream. This recipe makes a big batch, which is great for sharing, so make this for a party, take it to a bake sale or just invite some friends over to share.
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White chocolate is a blend of sugar, cocoa butter, milk and vanilla. It is not considered to be chocolate by some chocolate fans because it does not contain any cocoa solids, unlike milk and dark chocolate, but the thing that makes chocolate special is not just the cocoa solids but the cocoa butter. Cocoa butter is the fat in chocolate that gives it the unique property of being solid at room temperature, yet easily able to melt on your tongue. This means that white chocolate delivers a creamy vanilla flavor and melts in your mouth as well as- or even better than – other chocolates.
Trader Joe’s recently introduced a small package of White Chocolate that boats a 45% cocoa butter content. The amount of white chocolate. National guidelines dictate that white chocolate must be at least 20% cocoa butter, 14% milk solids, 3.5% milk fat, and a maximum of 55% sugar. The exact ratios vary from producer to producer, but it is still clear that 45% is a very high cocoa butter content for white chocolate.
The packaging suggests that this higher cocoa butter percentage gives the white chocolate a more “chocolaty” flavor and I found this to be true when I tried it. The dairy notes that are usually so clear in white chocolate are not as clear here, but the vanilla comes through in the smooth chocolate bar along with a cool, chocolatey flavor that is usually associated with other types of chocolate. This is a good bar for eating, but the high cocoa butter content has a side effect that you might want to watch out for if you’re planning to melt this chocolate and use it in a frosting or a batch of White Chocolate Truffles: cocoa butter has a very yellow color to it, and so does this chocolate, when melted. This doesn’t change the flavor of the chocolate and you can certainly still use it, but it does look a little odd compared to other brands that I use in baking (Guittard or Ghirardelli, for instance) so I’ll keep this as a snacking chocolate and probably bake with something else.
