Poppycock

I know Poppycock usually has a holiday feel to it but I couldn't wait any longer to share our version.

Our Caramel Popcorn Recipe (Here)  is similar to this recipe but different enough that it warrants its' own post. Sticky sweet caramel popcorn with salty mixed nuts... do we really need to convince you to try this? 

While it is the ultimate holiday treat, it also is *perfection* to bring to BBQs, game nights, sleepovers, and those relaxing nights at home!

Poppycock

Ingredients

24 cups popped popcorn

4 cups mixed nuts

2 cups brown sugar

1 cup butter

1 cup corn syrup

2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

Directions

Preheat oven to 225. Spray a large cookie sheet with cooking spray, set aside. 

Place popped popcorn in a large bowl. Make sure to pick out any unpopped kernels. Sprinkle with the nuts. Set aside.

In a saucepan over medium heat, stir brown sugar, butter, and corn syrup. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes, stirring constantly. 

Remove from heat and add in vanilla and baking soda. BE CAREFUL! It will sputter and foam up as you stir it in. 

Carefully pour the hot caramel over the popcorn and stir gently to coat evenly. Spread onto the prepared cookie sheet. 

Bake at 225 for one hour, stirring every 10 minutes. (This is a bit of a pain but it's what makes the popcorn crispy and sticky instead of soggy!)

Remove from heat and let cool, stirring every once in a while to break it up. 

Serve immediately or store in airtight containers. It lasts for a couple of days on the counter before going stale. It is best the day of/day after making it though. 

If you are looking for a bake sale or gift idea - look no further. Poppycock is a family favorite around here and friends and family love getting it... for Christmas or anytime! 

Turtle Donuts (Big Batch)

I started out simply looking for a chocolate yeast dough to work with. I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to do but knew it would involve chocolate. I asked for some advice on Facebook and a friend suggested I try to make Turtle donuts. I'm sure you've heard of turtles, right? Those dreamy caramel and pecan bites drenched in chocolate? 

If you haven't, welcome to earth, you must be new here. 

Turtles are one of my favorite chocolates. Chewy and melty and crunchy. What's not to love?

Turning them into a donut was a little trickier than I thought. There is NOT a lot of chocolate based yeast doughs out there. I ended up making my own through some trial and error and was pretty happy with the end result. The caramel glaze is nice and sticky, and the crunchy pecans add just the right finishing touch. 

Turtle Donuts (Big Batch)

Ingredients

Donuts

2 Tbsp active dry yeast

4 tsp + 1 cup sugar, divided

1/2 cup hot water

4 cups warm milk

2 eggs

1 Tbsp oil

2 tsp salt

2 tsp instant coffee granules

1 cup baking cocoa powder

8 - 10 cups of flour

Caramel Glaze

1/2 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

2/3 cup heavy cream

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup icing sugar

Toppings

3 - 4 cups chopped pecans

Oil for frying (about 1 litre)

Directions

Prepare dough - In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast with 4 tsp sugar and the 1/2 cup hot water. Set aside for 5 minutes so yeast can active. 

After yeast is foamy, add in the warm milk, eggs, oil, salt, 1 cup sugar, coffee granules, cocoa powder, and about 6 cups of flour. Stir well. Slowly add in more flour until stiff dough forms. 

Place on floured work surface and knead for 3 minutes. Place dough into a large, oiled bowl. Cover and place somewhere warm to rise for an hour. 

After an hour or so your dough should be doubled.

Place parchment paper on 2 large cookie sheets and set aside. 

Roll out dough on a floured surface to about 1/2 - 3/4 inch thick. 

Cut with biscuit cutter or round cookie cutter. Then use a smaller round cutter to cut out the center. Place the donuts on the prepared cookie sheets. Re-roll the scraps for more donuts. (If you don't have a large work surface, cut the dough in half and work with half at a time.) NOTE - place the donuts at least an inch apart so they have room to rise. If they are too close they will stick together! 

Cover with a clean tea towel and let rise another hour. (You should get about 3 dozen - 3 inch donuts plus that many donut holes.) 

When risen, heat oil to 350 degrees. This takes about 10 - 15 minutes so you can start heating it when dough has been rising for about 45 minutes. 

When oil reaches desired temperature, gently place about 3 - 4 donuts into the oil at a time. Cook for 1 minute on each side.

Remove from oil using a slotted spoon and set on paper towel or wire racks with paper towel underneath to drain off any excess oil. Continue until all donuts have been fried. 

Allow donuts to cool to room temp.

Prepare caramel glaze - Put butter, brown sugar, cream, and salt in a pot over medium heat. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil 1 minute. Remove from heat, cool 5 minutes, then whisk in the icing sugar. 

Place the glaze in a shallow bowl and place the chopped pecans in another shallow bowl.

Dip a donut in the caramel glaze and gently shake off any excess. 

Then dip the donut into the pecans. Place on wire racks to let any excess caramel drip off. 

Caramel, chocolate, and pecans. I'm in love.

The chocolate yeast dough would be a great base for a lot of donuts. I'm thinking black forest donuts or chocolate covered strawberry donuts for a start. 

Oh yeah, don't forget all those wonderful donut holes as well!

I dipped them in the glaze but had run out of pecans to roll them in. They were pretty tasty just like this... just not turtle-y. 

What is your favorite chocolate dessert that your would turn into a donut flavor, if you could? 

Butter Tart Thumbprint Cookies

There is never a bad time for cookies, am I right?

Winter, spring, summer, fall - there is different seasons for different types of cookies. I'm calling these cookies a winter cookie. Mainly because butter tarts seem to be a Christmas thing around our house so these make the perfect addition to the Christmas cookie list. 

(Click on these links for more butter tart recipes - Butter Tart Donuts HERE, Butter Tart Ice Cream HERE, Butter Tarts HERE, Maple Syrup Butter Tarts HERE) 

I believe I got 4 1/2ish dozen cookies (using my large cookie scoop), which is great if you need a bunch of cookies for a cookie exchange or gift giving. The recipe can easily be halved though! 

Butter Tart Thumbprint Cookies

(Slightly altered from Food Meanderings)

Ingredients

Butter Tart Filling

3 Tbsp butter

2 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup whipping cream

1 1/2 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vinegar

2 tsp cornstarch

1/4 cup currants

Cookies

1 1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cup butter, room temp

6 eggs

1 1/2 cup ground pecans

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

pinch salt

5 cups flour

Directions

 Prepare filling - In a medium pan over medium heat, stir together butter, vanilla, and cream. Stir until starting to steam. Remove from heat. In a small bowl, whisk together brown sugar and eggs. 

Place pan back over medium-low heat. Whisk in the brown sugar and egg mixture. Then whisk in the vinegar and cornstarch. Keep whisking until thickened - about 10 - 15 minutes. Remove from heat once thickened and set aside to cool. (Can be placed in fridge to speed up cooling process)

While filling is cooling, prepare cookie dough.

Prepare cookie dough - In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter, scraping sides of bowl as needed. Add in eggs, beating after each addition. 

In a separate bowl, stir together ground pecans, baking powder, salt, and flour. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until stiff dough forms. (Start by using a wooden spoon and then switch to your hands to make sure dry ingredients are fully incorporated.) Cover and chill dough for about an hour. 

When dough and filling are chilled - Preheat oven to 350. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper, set aside. Scoop dough using a cookie scoop. (I use a large one for bigger cookies)

Place about 1 1/2 inches apart on prepared cookie tray. Roll the scoops into a ball and then press your thumb into the center of each ball to make an indent. (I use the back of a teaspoon so they are all even.)

Bake the cookies for 10 - 12 minutes, until bottoms are lightly browned. Remove from heat and gently repress the hole in the center of the cookie. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack to cool for about 5 minutes.

Fill the indent with some of the filling and let cool completely. 

If you run out of the butter tart filling you can use jam!

FYI - SORRY! I'm terrible for exact numbers of cookies because I tend to use my big scoop and then my little scoop so the numbers get skewed. I'm pretty sure I get 4 1/2 dozen big scoop cookies. 

A few notes - these stay sticky because of the filling so are not really stack-able. These do freeze very well though. We like currants in our butter tarts but you could use raisins or even chopped pecans instead - or leave them out totally.  If you can't find ground pecans then you can just grind pecan pieces in a blender or food processor until quite fine! 

5 Flavor Cake

Sometimes you just want to have options. 

This cake is perfect for those days when you just can't decide what kind of deliciousness you need. We went with maple bacon, lemon pie, turtle, cherry cheesecake, and cookies and cream... but there are still a million more options you could choose from. You start with a basic vanilla cake and go from there! I made several cakes at one time for Thanksgiving because I knew several friends would go crazy for them! 

Ok, yes. This cake is a bit more expensive and a little more work than a plain ol' one flavor cake but it just looks sooooo cool and tastes ridiculously good. Holiday dinners are the perfect showcase for this beautiful looking dessert. 

Need something a little fancier to impress your guests? You're in the right place.

5 Flavor Cake

Ingredients

Cake

1 box vanilla cake mix

ingredients to make cake from box

1 box vanilla instant pudding

2 tsp vanilla

Base Frosting

2 cups whipping cream

1 box vanilla instant pudding

Fillings

Base Frosting for all 5 flavors - 2 cups whipping cream, 1 box vanilla instant pudding

Maple Bacon - 1/4 maple syrup, 4 pieces cooked bacon (crumbled)

Lemon Pie - 2 graham crackers, 1 slice lemon, 1/2 cup lemon curd

Turtle - 1/4 cup caramel sauce, 1 Tbsp mini chocolate chips, 1/4 cup chopped pecans, 2 whole turtle candies

Cherry Cheesecake - 1/4 cup cream cheese (softened), 1/2 cup cherry pie filling

Cookies and Cream - 4 or 5 Oreo cookies

Directions

Prepare vanilla cake according to package directions, adding in the instant pudding and vanilla. Bake in a 9 X 13 pan according to package directions. Let cake cool completely. 

Take a large piping tip (or just use a sharp knife) and scoop out  5 lines of 4 circles - this is where you will put the fillings. Keep the round piece of cake from each hole. 

Fill one line of 4 with bacon bits and maple syrup, one line with lemon curd and bits of broken graham cracker, one line with caramel sauce, mini chocolate chips, and chopped pecans, one line with a bit of cream cheese and cherry pie filling, and one line with crushed Oreos and a bit of whipped cream. 

Place the little round piece of cake you kept back on top of each filled hole. (NOTE - VERY IMPORTANT - remember in which order your filled the cake!! Make a note of it if you need to. Once it is frosted you won't be able to tell which filling is in which hole!)

Prepare Base Frosting - Beat together the whipping cream and vanilla instant pudding until thickened enough to spread. Spread over top and sides of cake. 

Using a chopstick (or other long utensil), press a line into the frosting dividing the lines of the fillings. You can then start topping your cake. 

Grate one of the oreo cookies over the line which holds the cookies and cream flavor. Drizzle a little cherry pie filling over the cherry cheesecake area. Sprinkle chopped pecans over the turtle area. Drizzle lemon curd over the lemon pie area. And, lastly, sprinkle a little crumbled bacon over the maple bacon area.

See photo line up below for step - by - step instructions. 

To finish topping your flavors: 

Prepare the Base Frosting For All 5 Flavors - Beat together the whipping cream and vanilla instant pudding until thickened enough to spread. Take out 1/5 of the frosting and mix in enough maple syrup to flavor the cream. This will go on top of the maple bacon layer. Pipe 4 swirls, equally spaced apart, on the maple bacon layer, and then sprinkle with more crumbled bacon. Place a larger piece of bacon on top of the swirl.

Place the remaining frosting in a piping bag. Pipe swirls equal spaces apart on the remaining flavors. 

Top the Lemon Pie area with some crumbled graham cracker and a small piece of sliced lemon.

Place half a turtle chocolate candy on top of the turtle area swirl.

For the cherry cheesecake - place a whole cherry from the pie filling on top of each swirl.

And, lastly, for the cookies and cream area, press a half of an Oreo onto each swirl.

See... a bit more work but not that much.

I made one of the cakes with an apple pie layer instead of a maple bacon as the person I was making it for didn't want bacon.

The apple pie filling was a chopped apple cooked with a bit of brown sugar and cinnamon until soft. Then topped with bit of cinnamon, a piece of pie crust, and a bit more apple filling. 

Here is a photo of the other cakes I did. Another step-by-step!

I mention that it is important to remember which flavor is on which end of the cake because I frosted these three and then couldn't remember which end was up. I ended up having to dig out a hole on each cake so I could see what was in there. 

20 good sized pieces of delicious cake for dessert. There are so many flavor combinations you could do! 

Please note - my amounts for the filling ingredients are rough measurements. You may need a pinch less or more to fill the holes depending on how deep you carve them out. 

Salted Caramel Pecan Trifle

There was a birthday at work last week and the lady whose birthday it was said she wanted something caramel-y.  Challenge accepted. 

I knew that she loves trifle so obviously a caramel trifle was the way to go. I added in a sour cream - whipped cream layer for a little tang and toasted pecans for a little crunch and *voila* a super delicious, not too sweet but still sweet enough dessert for the whole office!

Plus, I had enough left over to make a dessert for the family.

You really can't lose with this one. For real though. 

Salted Caramel Pecan Trifle

Caramel Sauce

1/4 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup whipping cream

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 Tbsp vanilla

Cake

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp caramel extract

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup milk

Sour Cream Whipped Cream

3 1/2 cups whipping cream

2/3 cup sour cream

2/3 cup icing sugar

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups toasted pecan halves

Directions

Prepare caramel sauce - In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine butter, brown sugar, whipping cream, sea salt, and vanilla. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, simmer for 7 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and let cool to room temp. 

 Prepare cakes - Preheat oven to 350. Line 3, 8 inch pans with parchment paper and lightly spray with cooking spray. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat together butter and brown sugar until fluffy, scraping sides as needed. Add in the eggs, beating after each addition. Beat in the caramel extract. 

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. 

Gradually add the dry mixture to the wet mixture, alternating with the milk. Beat well after each addition. Spread the batter evenly among the 3 pans.

Bake at 350 until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean, about 20 - 30 minutes. 

Let cool ten minutes in pan and then invert on cooling racks to cool completely. 

When caramel sauce and cakes are cool you can prepare the whipping cream.

Prepare sour cream whipped cream - In a large bowl beat whipping cream, sour cream, icing sugar, and vanilla until soft peaks form. 

Assemble your trifle: 

Cut 2 of the cakes into approx 1 inch cubes. 

Have your caramel sauce and whipping cream mixtures ready.

Place a layer of cake cubes in the bottom of your serving dish.

Spread approx 1/3 of the whipped cream mixture over the cake.

Drizzle with a generous amount of caramel sauce and then place about 1/3 of the pecans over the caramel.

Repeat layers 2 more times. 

Chill until ready to serve. 

You will have one cake left over and a little of the cream, caramel, and pecans - depending on the size of your trifle dish, of course. I simply "iced" the cake with the leftover whipped cream and caramel and pecans. 

FYI - it's tasty this way too.

Of course, a big ol' scoop of trifle is a pretty good way to go as well.

If you have a bigger trifle dish then feel free to use up all the ingredients in the trifle. 

FYI - Salted caramel is a fabulous way to go for those people who aren't fond of chocolate.