2.09.2009

Back to Basics

You may have noticed a slight hiatus over the past year or so... that can be explained. I took fifteen months to complete a master's degree. That's right. I now can place the letters MBA behind my name... how thrilling!

Anyway. Before I dive into the insane number of projects I've got brewing, I thought I might let you in on a bit of baking. I ran across Bakerella's blog not too long ago and decided I just had to try her Sweet Potato Bourbon cupcakes.


I quite honestly had never cooked sweet potatoes in my life (as I'm not fond enough of them to do so), but when blended with cake who can say no?


The pecans are amazing! I (somewhat accidentally) used a great amount of sugar and they weren't too intense. I admit I used a different recipe for the candied pecans as I don't have a deep fryer. I found a few oven roasted varieties and combined them to form this:

Candied Pecans

Ingredients:
1 egg white
1 tsp. water
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
8 oz. raw pecans
1 cup sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

Preheat oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit and grease bakingsheet. In a medium-sized bowl, whip the egg and water into a froth. In another medium/large bowl mix the sugar, salt and pumpkin pie spice. Add the pecans to the egg white and stir, then toss the pecans in the bowl of sugar mix. Bake for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.


I also amended the vanilla glaze somewhat as Bakerella mentioned it might have been better off with burbon added directly to the vanilla glaze, rather than adding the Bourbon Syrup/Glaze/Frosting Concoction. Instead of adding 3/4 tbs. of milk to the glaze, I added 2 1/2 tbs of milk and 2 tbs of bourbon. This amount may make the glaze too thin as I believe I added a bit more confectioners sugar than was suggested - but you get the idea!


Overall, these were delicious and although my father didn't like them (he's not much of a drinker, haha), everyone else enjoyed them quite thoroughly!

1 comment:

kimodified said...

Yummmm those look luscious! Now that you have an MBA you'll have time for a foodie/knittie blog to die for, right??