adam's apple dumplings

Are you confused as to whether or not these are apple dumplings that belong to Adam or dumplings made of Adam's apples? I didn't think so, but as an editor, I enjoy the word play.

Moving on, these were for Adam's birthday way back in the before time, in the long long ago. (Think, February.) I'd actually never made apple dumplings before, so this was a dessert first!

First off, we have the sauce that gets poured everywhere and bubbles up nicely when baked. Sugar, water, butter, and cinnamon.

  

It's always hard to catch a picture when making sauces. I'm too afraid my camera will plunge into the sticky pot!

 

Dumpling dough is next. Good thing I know how to use a pastry cutter from all my strawberry shortcake experience.

 

Those are not my tattooed arms.  I can't roll dough at our island without being on a ladder, so Mark graciously steps up to the dough, so to speak.

We got these great apples at the Pittsburgh Public Market. Love it there. LOVE.

 

After I was done drooling over the apples, it was time to peel and core. Or core and peel, as the case may be.

 

The apples hung out while the dough was cut into squares for wrapping.

 

Each apple was placed on the dough, filled with honey, and then topped with a cinnamon/sugar/butter mix.

I didn't get any shots of them in the pan, wrapped up, but I managed to grab one before I dug in!

ninja fudge brownies

 

Anthony requested fudge brownies for his birthday, so that's what he got. He didn't ask for ninjas, but thanks to Amber, he got those too. I used a fudge brownie recipe that had three kinds of chocolate (all fair trade certified, except for the last of the Hershey's cocoa we're using up so as to not be wasteful).

I really wanted to catch the egg mixture mid-drip.

I made a foil sling for the brownies so they could be easily pulled out of the pan and cut without damaging the pan.

 Once cool, we added the ninja honor guard.

And once at the restaurant, flaming pirate candles, including a ship, a parrot, and a treasure chest.

The yellow ninja in this next photo looks like he's fist pumping.

 

 

The most rich, fudgey brownie I've ever eaten. Right here to the west of Bounty Bay and north of Parrot's Cove.

alyn's birthday turtle cheesecake

My title makes it sound like Alyn had a birthday turtle who liked cheesecake. But you know what I mean. This recipe had a swirled/marbled batter and a crust made out of chocolate graham crackers.

My springform pan isn't missing its bottom: it's glass. My grandma gave me this springform pan years ago when I was just starting to get into baking. It's Pampered Chef and is awesome. The bottom is glass, and it also comes with a bundt pan insert so you don't have to have two pans.

Sweetened condensed milk gave the batter a little bit of a caramel hint.

Time for the secret ingredient. You add it when you add the sugar. Can you guess what it is?

Corn starch! The tiny bit of corn starch helps to keep the cheesecake from cracking. Then it's on to the last bit of liquid, some vanilla extract.

After melting some chocolate bits (Sunspire chocolate!), you add in a little bit of batter and swirl to make the chocolate layer.

Each layer goes back and forth in the pan until it gets full.

And it goes into the oven, on top of a tray to catch any residual butter drippings from the crust. I also include a cake pan full of water to assist with the effort to keep it from cracking.

After letting it bake without opening the oven door to check on it and then allowing some heat to escape the oven after it's done so that it doesn't shock in temperature (and crack), it can come out to rest.

Topping time. Chocolate syrup, caramel syrup, and chocolate chips and pecans. That's the turtle part, I guess.

And once you get to the Spaghetti Warehouse for dinner and everyone finishes their meal, you can take it out to display on a red and white checked tablecloth. :)

I will spare Alyn and not post the photo of him in his balloon hat. But it was classic. That much I will tell you.

Decadent and rich, the key ingredients for deliciousness.