I Heart PB Cookies

One morning, about a week into the New Year, the paralegal in my office said someone just dropped this off for you.  She went on to say that she was out of the office and did not see who it was.  What was dropped off was a bag of flour, marked with the name of the same locality I work for.  The note of the bag said “This is the flour we discussed.  It is the best.  Enjoy.”  It also contained some cryptic name inscribed on the note, of which I could not read.  I did not know who this person was.

I proceed to ask the paralegal 101 questions, but she did not know who it was.  I racked my brain for about 10 minutes regarding every baking conversation I have ever had with someone I worked with.  I came up with nothing.  I set the bag of flour on my desk and left it there to sit.  No offense to whomever this mystery person was, but I do not use ingredients from strangers.  I do not know what they could have possibly done to it.

After leaving it in my office over night, the next day the culprit identified himself because he wanted to make sure I would not waste the flour.  The flour was a gift from my boss’s wife.  She saw the locality-named flour and thought that I could use it.  My boss, ever the prankster, played the little joke on me.  But I got the last laugh because the flour did not come home with me until I could determine its giver.

Anyway, have you ever seen that movie Stranger than Fiction with Maggie Gyllenhaal and Will Ferrell?  At one point when Will’s character is trying to woo Maggie’s character, he presents her with flours (not flowers).  Yes, different kinds of flour.  Maggie’s character was the owner and operator of a bakery.  Watch it!  Though the premise of the movie is a little fuzzy to my memory, that scene is ever present.  A man wooing with flours has the key to my heart!  The mysterious flour instance made me think of one of my favorite movie scenes, though it is wholly unrelated to this post and the situation in which the flour is presented.  I just thought I would share (Mr. R out there, take note :-)

I decided to go old school with this flour, and make the Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe off the side of the flour bag.  Old school peanut butter cookie recipe means shortening instead of butter.  I had to really talk myself in to this change because you know how I feel about butter.  I did want to dress up these cookies with a peanut buttery punch, and added Reese’s peanut butter hearts to the top, pressed it into the cookie right after they came out the oven.

These cookies were nice the first day, but I found that they tasted better a day or two later.  They maintain their freshness, softness, and yumminess inordinately longer than most cookies, probably due to the shortening.  I cannot say I am converted to shortening, but I can definitely see the benefit of using it.

Old School Peanut Butter Cookies
Recipe from the Flour Bag sharing the same name as the locality which I work for, which I will not state here for anonymity sake.

Ingredients:

1 cup Shortening (I used Butter flavored Crisco)
1 cup Peanut Butter
1 cup Sugar
1 cup Brown Sugar
2 Eggs (or Egg Replacer)
3 cups All Purpose Flour
2 tsp Baking Soda
½ tsp Salt
1 tsp Vanilla

Method:
“Cream shortening, peanut butter, and sugars. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until light and fluffy. Combine flour, soda, and salt. Add to creamed mixture; blend. Add vanilla; mix. Roll dough into balls. Place on baking sheet. Flatten with a fork. Bake at 350 F for 12-15 minutes.”

I rolled dough balls in organic sugar before baking and I did not flatten them with a fork. Upon coming out the oven, I pressed a Reese’s peanut butter heart (unwrapped and directly from the freezer) into the center of each one. Let cool completely before moving as the heart will distort if not allowed to set-up before moving.

Sweet Potato Cake

Say whaaaat?!?!  Yes, sweet potato cake.  Not pie, not soufflé and no melted mini marshmallows here.  By-golly, it is super yummy too!

A friend of a friend gave me three very large sweet potatoes out of his garden.  My first thought was to make sweet potato pie.  I make a great sweet potato pie and it has been five years since I made one.  It was well over due.  I bought all the ingredients necessary to make some out-of-this-world sweet potato pies and I was just waiting until the weekend to make them.

Then the weekend comes and I peel, slice, and steam the sweet potatoes in the oven.  I then run my stick blender through them to puree them until creamy.  After all this, I did not want to make pie.  I wanted something different.  I wanted cake!

I thought about it intuitively.  People make pumpkin cake; I have seen pumpkin pie and sweet potato pie; sweet potato is like pumpkin; therefore, I think sweet potato cake would work.  I was randomly looking through one of my baking books, and there was a recipe for sweet potato cake by Warren Brown.  (You know Mr. Brown, the George Washington law graduate, turned attorney, turned baker, turned owner of several Cake Love bakeries all over the greater DC Area.  Yes, I am intrigued by his story.)  Who would have known that a sweet potato cake recipe existed?

The problem came however when I went to the fridge to pull out the ingredients.  I only had two eggs.  Mr. Brown’s recipe called for three egg yolks (plus 2 eggs).  At that moment, a last minute trip to the grocery store was not possible.  What to do?  I refused to give up on my sweet potato cake.  By now, I was jonesing (definition: to have a strong need, desire, or craving for something) for it.

I searched the internet, looking for another sweet potato cake recipe that did not call for more than 2 (or 3) eggs.   I finally found one, and actually liked it better than Mr. Brown’s recipe.  Sorry, Mr. Brown, I will try one of you delicious recipes next time (legal disclaimer: by next time, I mean next time or at some other point in the near future, of which I disclaim, renounce, and do not subscribe to any definition or semblance to the colloquial, legal, or any other understanding of the definition and usage of the words “next,” “time,” “near,” and/or “future” :-). 

The new recipe required fewer eggs, but also had a lot of add-ins I did not want to use.  I also substituted some of the ingredients for ones I thought would be better.  In the end, my recipe is loosely based off the one on from meals.com.

Now after that super long back story, lets chat about the cake itself.  Please excuse me as I wipe drool off the key board.  Yup, that’s how good it was!  This cake has the distinct taste of sweet potato, there is no masking it and you will not confuse it for pumpkin.  It also has delicate and palate-pleasing spice flavors from the traditional sweet potato pie spices.  Forget angel food cake; this is the cake they are serving in heaven.

I ate my cake plain, but served it up cake-in-a-jar style with a tangy cream cheese frosting and candied ginger and pecan pieces between the layers for a flavor burst and texture.  This cake would be perfect for a layer cake with frosting, or a bundt cake plain or with glaze.  You cannot go wrong with this cake… seriously.

Sweet Potato Cake

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups All Purpose Flour
1 TBS Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp All Spice
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
15oz (by weight) Sweet Potatoes (pureed)
1 cup Granulated Sugar
1/2 cup Brown Sugar (or more Granulated Sugar)
3 Eggs
1 TBS Vanilla
1 cup (2 sticks) Melted Butter (cooled, but still liquid)
1/2 cup water

Method:
1. Pre-heat oven to 350 F.

2. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, all spice, and nutmeg. Set aside.

3. In a separate bowl combine sweet potatoes and sugar. Add eggs, butter, and water separately, mixing each until combined.

4. Mix flour mixture into sweet potato mixture, stirring until combined.

5. Pour batter into a 9x13 inch pan prepared with flour pan spray and parchment paper (or any way you choose). I use this size to cut circles for cake in a jar. Try other pan sizes and shapes for different style cakes.

6. Bake for 35-40 minutes. Until the cake is browning, slightly pulls away from the sides, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few crumbs.