Epicuriosity #2: Pumpkin Spice Granola

It's crisp outside, and not just early in the morning or late at night. It's "sweater weather" for 80% of the day now. Boots. Scarves. Corduroys. Chai spices. Apple picking.

And pumpkin.

Lots and lots of pumpkin.

I actually made this granola a few weeks ago. I wanted some for snacking, and none of the store bought granolas were appealing enough for the price. So, naturally, I sought out Pinterest. Wa-la! Granola recipes galore at my fingertips.

I believe this recipe came from the blog My Baking Addiction. Below I have my adapted recipe based on what I had in my kitchen.

Pumpkin Spice Granola
Makes 4 cups, or 8-10 servings

Ingredients: in order of use
4 c old fashioned oats
3/4 c dried shredded coconut
1/2 c chopped/slivered nuts

2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 c honey
3 Tbsp maple syrup
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 c light brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 c dried cranberries or raisins (or a combo of the two)

Almost all of the ingredients seen here... I forgot the pumpkin pie spice for the picture!

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350*
2. Spray sheet pan or rimmed cookie sheet with oil. Just enough to coat.
3. In a large bowl, combine oats, nuts and coconut. I used slivered almonds because it's what I had in my pantry. I think the original recipe calls for chopped pecans, which would be divine, but I only had almonds on hand. Alas.

Pecans or walnuts would be a wonderful substitute. Will doesn't really care for added nuts to things, but almonds he'll ususally tolerate. So at least I have that going for me...

4. In a small saucepan, combine vegetable oil through brown sugar. Whisk to combine over medium heat. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat.

At this point my camera battery died, so you'll have to enjoy the rest of this recipe sans-pictures (except for the final product). I'm sure you'll cope well enough.

5. Add vanilla extract to saucepan. Stir together. I also sprinkled in a little extra cinnamon. Pumpkin Pie spice by McCormick doesn't have enough cinnamon to stand up to the maple & honey, so I give it a little extra. But you can taste your granola at the end & decide for yourself how "spice-y" to make it.
6. Pour wet ingredients over oat mixture. Stir together with a spatula or spoon until evenly distributed.
7. Spread mixture in an even layer onto cookie sheet.
8. Bake for 15-20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes or so. The color will change dramatically between the 5 and 10 minute point. Don't worry if the granola isn't completely dried or crispy at the end of 17-20 minutes-- when you take it out to cool, it will dry out.

You can do a better job of distributing the Craisins than I did. I usually just shake my tupperware pretty well before I spoon out my portion for breakfast.

9. Add dried fruit. Again, the original recipe called for 1/2 c raisins and 1/2c Craisins. I don't really care for raisins, so Craisins all the way!
10. Let cool. Store in an air tight container.



Enjoy with yogurt, fruit, or on top of other fall favorites, like apple cider pancakes ... (coming next!)

Visiting Family in New Hampshire

This weekend, Will & I went to visit some of my family that live in the New England area. My mom came up to visit from Virginia with her boyfriend, so my brother & his family drove from their home in Maine to meet up with us all in my grandmother's house.

This was Will's first time meeting my grandmother, and the first time that either of us really got an opportunity to play with my brother's children. When Hugh & Sabrina moved to Maine, Caleb was just a baby, and Ellie was born up in Maine, so I met her for the first time the day before the wedding. Needless to say, "family time" around our wedding wasn't very abundant or quiet, so this was our first chance to interact and play with the little ones.

Hugh & Sabrina, and Ellie (on Sabrina's lap, 13 months) and Caleb (almost 3 years)

 My mom's family has a long history in the little historic town they live in, so anything new becomes big news in that area. My grandmother brought us all to an area with a large stone wall and a marble statue of a character from Greek mythology.

In true Guthrie/Killmer form, we mostly just took pictures at the site.

Statue of *Niobe shielding her child from attackers

My grandmother asked Will if he knew anything about Greek mythology, since he knew the Greek language. He was happy to give her the full story behind the statue. Will is working on schoolwork right now, otherwise I'd ask him for specifics, but what I understood of the story is that *Niobe was the daughter of Zeus and Diana, and she was very fertile and had around 14 kids. I'm not sure what made people want to attack her (and in Greek mythology, it really doesn't require much to induce an attack), but the story goes that all of *Niobe's children were shot with arrows in this attack. The statue is of a mother trying to protect her child.

... On a brighter note, I have lots of pictures of us playing with Ellie & Caleb at the playground!

(How does one transition to family photos after a Greek tragedy?...)

We left the statue and drove around the area, taking in the wonderful New Hampshire scenes of calm ponds and windy roads. We drove up to the "general store" which has several homemade/local foods and old school toys and candies. We left with some fudge, apple butter, and New Hampshire maple syrup.

We went home and had a cook-out lunch with the rest of the family, followed by a group outing to the nearby playground.

Most of the rest of our day can me summed up in these pictures and captions. Enjoy!

"Uncle Will" jumped right in with playing with the kids in the playground. Here he is helping Caleb climb into the slide.

This boy is the poster child for JOY. He is smiling 95% of the time he is awake, slide or no slide.

My brother Hugh and his daughter cheering on Caleb's adventures.

In true sibling form, if one child does it, the other must follow. Here's Ellie making her way up the slide...

... and Uncle Will catching her at the end. I've spared you the picture of the mega-meltdown Ellie had at the end of the slide.

Aunt Jenny's turn up the slide.

Patiently waiting my turn.

"Maybe she'll like the slide more if you're holding her..."

Nope. Still had an upset baby in my lap. But Caleb and I enjoyed the ride!

Uncle Will playing on his own on the "zip line" at the playground. The playgrounds near my home did not compare to this awesome space.

Uncle Will surprising Caleb as he makes his way down slide #2. Surprise!

My mom's attempts at the zip line. I wish I captured the audible screech she let out as she careened down the line. It was a show stopper.

Wherever Uncle Will went, that was the coolest toy of the moment. Helloooo tire swing!

"Get Ellie in there too..."

She looks traumatized.

Caleb looks confused.

Will looks gregarious.

My turn!

There was a massive rock near the playground, and we assumed it was meant for climbing and photo shoots. Here's my mom with her first grandbaby. Joy joy joy!

Sabrina was trotting around the playground documenting the fun, too.

Portrait of Uncle Will.

I couldn't resist.

This is what family pictures look like with two little ones... baby looking off in the other direction, and mom's head getting knocked by a dump truck. Smile!

New Hampshire.

He came.

He saw.

He Concord conquered.

Trapped in the tire swing. The stuff nightmares are made of.

The large yellow/white house in the background has been in my family since it was built in the 1860s. A lot of history in that home!

Mom was doing her own documenting with her fancy iPad.

The Killmers visit NH.

Fun weekend!!

Epicuriosity #1: Chocolate Stout Cake and Will's 26th Birthday

Today we celebrated my husband's 26th birthday.

This is exciting for a lot of reasons.

1. All birthdays are exciting. Period.

2. This is my first time celebrating the birthday of a husband that's all mine, so that's pretty monumental.

3. I am one month older than Will, so we lovingly call the month between my birthday and his birthday "The Month of the Cougar" ... and so today ends The Month of the Cougar 2012.

4. I am making me him chocolate stout cake to celebrate.

For the wedding, he asked for Chocolate Guinness cake for the groom's cake. I told him it was unlikely that I'd find a bakery that had that available, and I was already over-extended planning the wedding & looking for a job. I asked the bakery of our wedding cake if they'd consider baking a cake using a recipe I submitted, and they said they'd make a test batch to see if it was realistic.

I submitted a recipe found on a favorite cooking blog of mine, smitten kitchen, and it was a huge success! In fact, one of the few things we remember about our reception is demolishing tasting the groom's cake.

So I decided to make it for him again, but this time with ganache on top... because that's what Smitten Kitchen told me to do.

Chocolate Stout Cake
found here

Ingredients (for cake):
1 cup stout (I used Guinness)
1 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cup all purpose flour
2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs

(for ganache):
6 oz semisweet chocolate chips
6 tbsp heavy cream
3/4 tsp instant coffee granules

Preheat the oven to 350*. 

Spray a bundt pan, or do as I do, and coat the inside with butter.

*Side note: this recipe was adapted from another recipe that would fill 2 round cake pans... just double the recipe, and you're all set for a lovely layered cake!

This was Will's bundt pan from the pre-marriage era. Makes very pretty cakes, but those contours are asking for sticking situations-- go butter go! Or, since I'm in New England, go buttah go!

This is how I jam when baking-- iTunes blasting my latest downloads with the instructions at the ready. This is not your grandmother's kitchen.

In a saucepan, combine stout and buttah.

Bring stout and buttah to a simmah simmer. Stir in cocoa and set aside to cool. Move on towards your wet and dry ingredients. 

Take a little taste of this delicious conconction. PSYCH. It tastes horrific. Learn from my mistakes.

Combine eggs and sour cream in the mixer (or you can use a bowl and a handheld electric mixer... or you can just whisk it together by hand, but truly, who has the patience for that...)

Very slowly add your chocolate mixture to the egg/dairy mix. You don't want to dump it in all at once because that will scramble the eggs.

Add slowly. Your patience will be rewarded... by the absence of scrambled eggs in your batter

In a separate bowl, add flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. Whisk together.

Slowly add the dry ingredients to the chocolate mix, one scoop at a time. I had my KitchenAide set on "stir" for this bit... reduces flour pouffing* all over your counter.

*not a real culinary term. 

See, no pouffage*

*still not a real term

Stir the batter with the spatula and pour into your buttahed buttered cake pan.

I do recommend tasting this batter... sweet and deep flavor

Bake for 35-45 minutes. I'm still learning my oven, so I started at 30 minutes and checked on the cake every 5 minutes after that. The grand total time was 45 minutes of baking until the knife I inserted came out clean.

My husband is the 2nd face on the top row. Seriously, how could I deny that face an out-of-this-world birthday cake?

The recipe only calls for 1 cup of stout... but these cans hold greater than 1 cup... Waste not, want not. PSYCH AGAIN. I don't dig stouts.

Let cake cool completely before turning it upside down on a cooling rack. After cake has completely cooled, get goin' on that ganache!

By this time, our whole apartment smells of chocolate cake. Maybe our whole building. You're welcome, neighbors.

After it's cooled completely, turn it upside down on a cooling rack. If you're smart like me, you'll put wax paper beneath the cooling rack prior for the ganache drizzle.

Looks like the biggest, most decadent donut you've laid your eyes upon

To make the ganache, you'll need 6 oz of chocolate chips, 6 Tbsp of heavy cream, and 3/4 tsp of instant coffee. I think I actually used closer to 1tsp for a richer flavor.

Coincidentally, 6 oz of chocolate is just under 1 cup, for those of you without a coffee nut husband who weighs his coffee beans daily scale.

The recipe calls for a double boiler, which we don't own (yet). I just used a large sauce pan with a smaller one inside of it. The point is just to heat up the ingredients with uniform heat without burning it. You can actually do this in the microwave, but you have to stop and stir it often.

Make it work, Killmer

Once you have this glossy sheen, whisk it a little to get a uniform texture.

 Mine was a little too thick to just drizzle, so I spooned it over my donut cake.

And the final product! The wax paper catches the little chocolate drizzles into these little ponds of lusciousness. This makes for easier clean up... or slightly more sanitary licking up the chocolate ponds. Slightly. Let the ganache and cake cool completely, then transfer to a serving dish for your guests and birthday boy to ooh and ahh over.

Marvel at your ability to follow written instructions, 

then taste the fruits of your messy kitchen labor.

I have 2 pictures of the birthday boy and some friends who came over to celebrate with us, but I am unable to find my camera cord, so I'll have to add those later. We really enjoyed the little gathering-- the first time we've had people over since our apartment has been "put together"! -- and the birthday boy enjoyed his decadent cake.

All in all, successful start to his 26th year.