Russian Buttercream - Three Ingredients For A Quick Fix

Vanilla Sponge Cake with Russian Buttercream
Garnished with Macerated Strawberries & Strawberry Sauce

Russian Buttercream

One day I was looking through some recipes for Russian desserts. In the past I've made savory Russian dishes, but never dabbled enough in Russian desserts. It was time to remedy that situation. While I was looking, I stumbled across Russian Buttercream. 

What? Russian Buttercream? How did I not know about this? Three ingredients? Are you kidding me? 

Nope. Three Ingredients: Butter, sweetened condensed milk, and vanilla. That's it! 

That's all you need, and the recipe comes in handy when you are in a hurry and need a frosting ASAP! 

As luck would have it, I already had some 4-inch cakes on hand, because I had planned to make Strawberry Shortcakes. Well, that would still happen, but with Russian Buttercream instead of whipped cream. Yeah, I know, I wasn't making "traditional" strawberry shortcakes using a sweet biscuit base, but sometimes we like to switch things up. 

So I go to the food safe to find a can of sweetened condensed milk. We always have that stuff on hand. I rummage. I grab the flashlight so I can look in every corner on every shelf. What? How do we not have any? We always have it! 

Classic case of: "We always have that ingredient on hand when we don't need it, but when we need it we don't have it." It happens sometimes. No rush. Testing delayed for a few days.

The Recipe

Easy as pie! (Actually easier than pie, since making a pie requires more of a time commitment.) Grab 2 sticks of butter from the fridge and set them out until they soften. They should be a little firm, not to the point where they are the consistency of Pond's Cold Cream. (Do they even make that anymore? That might be a bad example.) Not to the consistency of mayo. They should be firm, but not mushy. 

Take out one can of sweetened condensed milk and have your vanilla on hand. 

When the butter is ready, beat it with a mixer on medium speed for 5 minutes. It should look considerably lighter. If you're using a stand mixer, use a spoon and coax the condensed milk into the bowl a little at a time while the mixer is still running. Alternatively, just add in small increments, stopping the mixer between each addition. You can do it 3 to 4 ounces at a time. Add vanilla in at any of those points. 

If your butter seems too soft or the mixture looks like it might be separating, just pop it in the fridge for a few minutes, then take it out and whip it some more. (I had to do that a couple of times because it was pretty warm in the kitchen when I made it.)

So easy. It has a good flavor and is not too sweet, and it has a silky mouth feel. You can pipe it and it will hold its shape, as seen in the photo above. If your hands are hot, work quickly or take breaks and pop the piping bag in the fridge for a few minutes. 

How Does It Hold Up?

If your sweet creation is going to be consumed pretty quickly, using this frosting is not a problem. It will be okay for a few hours if the temperature where it's being held isn't too warm. I frosted a cupcake to test out what would happen to the frosting overnight and the frosting started to lose cohesion and get oily. The cake in the above photo was in the refrigerator overnight and looked just as good the next day. If you go that route, just take the cake out 30 minutes to an hour before serving so it can soften up a bit. If you have stored cakes in the refrigerator before, you know what I mean. 

For Chocolate Russian Buttercream, just add 1/2 to 1 cup of cocoa and whip it with a mixer until well combined. 

Yes, this recipe is a winner. It's a good idea to keep some sweetened condensed milk in your pantry so you can make this recipe instead of relying on one that is commercially made. The flavor is miles above the canned stuff!

Vanilla Sponge Cake with Russian Buttercream,
Macerated Strawberries, and Lemon Curd

Recipe: Tasty Peanut Butter Cookies And A Little Bit Of History

 

Low Sugar Peanut Butter Cookies

What the Fork?

Who loves peanut butter cookies? 

They were never my favorite when I was growing up. I may have eaten them if they were around, but I could take them or leave them. They just didn't ring my bell. The school used to serve them to us as one of the dessert items. They were always dry & hard. I did like my Mom and grandma's versions better, but they still weren't that thrilling to me. 

Of course they were always easy to spot on a buffet table, because everyone marked them with a fork. Usually crosshatch, but not always. There are different lines of thought about why that practice started. Some say it was to make it easier to identify the cookie. Well, it's peanut butter. The smell alone is the identifier. It's not like oatmeal chocolate chip cookies that you bite into, only to find you were betrayed because they are full of raisins. 

Some feel that they were marked simply as a way to press the cookie down so it baked evenly. (Yeah, I could buy that, but it really depends on the recipe.) Why not just use the bottom of a glass to press them down? A fork seems like a goofy way to press cookie dough down when there are other ways that are more efficient. 

Another line of thought is that they were marked so anyone allergic to peanuts would know. Maybe, but I wonder if peanut allergies were at the same level as they are now. For instance: Many schools don't serve them anymore, or allow them to be carried into school because peanut allergies are so prevalent now. 

My line of thought is this: The person who first made the marks did it for decoration only, so it would resemble the ridges on a peanut shell. 

I tracked down the first published recipe that included the fork treatment in the instructions. It was a cookbook named "Pillsbury's Balanced Recipes," in a recipe for "Peanut Butter Balls." There was also a recipe for peanut butter drop cookies in the same cookbook. You can find this cookbook for sale on vintage book websites or auction sites. The price is usually out of this world, though, because the book cover is a nifty silver tin, and it has binder rings so the recipes can be removed for ease of use. I found pictures on Reddit of pages from the cookbook, but I didn't want to use those because they aren't mine. If you use a search phrase and mention the cookbook, you can view the images too. 

Who Invented Peanut Butter?

According to Smithsonian Magazine, the Incas were the first people to grind peanuts for use. The Incas were known as "master agriculturists" and many of the crops grown during their era are still a part of the Peruvian diet today. 

In the United States, peanut butter made its first appearance in the late 1800s. In 1895, John Harvey Kellogg filed a patent for boiling and grinding nuts into a paste. Peanuts weren't specified in that patent, he used other nuts too. Nonetheless, peanut butter was born. 

Kellogg...sounds familiar, eh? Well, if you thought about the cereal, you are correct. He was a "cereal pioneer." He was also a doctor and nutritionist, and in charge of a sanitarium. He wanted to create foods that were easier for his patients to eat, and peanut and other nut butters helped resolve that issue. Before the end of the century, one of his employees invented a machine to roast and grind peanuts, which surely made consuming peanut butter a much more pleasant experience for his patients. 

So peanut butter was around, but not very well known right away. In 1896, Good Housekeeping magazine published an article that encouraged housewives to grind their own peanuts using a meat grinder. This may have been at the behest of Mr. Kellogg, who preferred a plant-based diet and viewed meat as an aphrodisiac. (That's speculation on my part, but the article was so close in time to his invention, that it seems likely.)

The first recipe for peanut butter cookies was published in 1902 in a cookbook called "Mrs. Rorer's New Cook Book." Her recipe didn't call for using a fork to press the cookies down before baking because in her recipe, the dough was rolled out and cut into squares. I suspect she was influenced by the Good Housekeeping article though, because directly above the cookie recipe are instructions for grinding peanuts. (Her cookbook is in the public domain, and you can view it here. Alternatively, you can purchase a copy of it from an online merchant's site, but the prices are a little high, so...nah! Digital all the way!) 

Peanut butter was formally introduced to the public in 1904 at the St. Louis World's Fair. 

George Washington Carver

George Washington Carver was an amazing man. He was a scientist, inventor, and teacher. He had a master's degree in agricultural science and spent a lot of time helping farmers with his experiments. Read more about this extraordinary man here. 

Mr. Carver also did more for peanuts than any other American. He published bulletins on many subjects when he was alive, and I ran across one of them regarding peanuts. In this bulletin, he was promoting the use of peanuts and there are 105 recipes for peanuts! I am definitely going to try some of these recipes. Check out this bulletin. He was very thorough with his research and developed 300 ways to use peanuts! Ultimately, he became known as "The Father of the Peanut Industry." 

George Washington Carver
(Public Domain Photo)

Recipe

This is now my favorite recipe for peanut butter cookies, (at least until I make one of Mr. Carver's recipes). 😁 It does not have a ton of sugar, and I don't use a fork to make the crosshatch marks. I like the way the cookies look without human intervention, and I have had no issues with them baking thoroughly. 

If you bake a lot, you are probably familiar with your oven's temperature. The one I use tends to get a little hotter so if I have a recipe that says "bake for 8-10 minutes," I'm going to check it at 8 minutes. It really sucks when cookies get too brown on the bottom. 

This recipe will make approximately 36 cookies if you use a cookie scoop that is 1.5 Tbsps. in size. A cookie scoop is not a mandatory item though. You can simply use 2 spoons to drop the cookies onto the sheet. That's what I did for years until cookie scoops spoiled me. 

For this recipe, I used Jif Natural Peanut Butter, and the cookies in the photo at the top of this post were the result. You can use your favorite if you like. 

Ingredients

3/4 C peanut butter

1/2 C butter (room temperature), or shortening 

3/4 C packed light brown sugar

1 egg (room temperature)

3 Tbsps. milk (as needed, you might not need all 3)

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 3/4 C AP flour

3/4 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. salt 

Instructions

1. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

2. In a separate bowl - cream butter (or shortening), peanut butter, and sugar until well combined. 

3. Add egg & vanilla, mix thoroughly. 

4. Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well. 

5. Repeat step 4. 

6. Add the rest of the flour and mix well. If dough is too crumbly & not holding together, add 1Tbsp. of milk & mix thoroughly. Repeat with the remaining Tbsps. of milk if necessary. 

7. Cover bowl of dough with plastic wrap or a lid and refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour. (With our fridge, I usually refrigerate for 30 to 45 minutes.)

8. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking liners. (If you don't have any available, don't worry about it. You can bake them directly on the sheet, just keep a closer eye on them. The sheets don't need to to be greased whether lined or not.) 

9. ***When cookie refrigeration time is almost up, set oven to 375°.

10. Remove dough from refrigerator and drop by rounded spoonfuls onto cookie sheets. 

11. Bake for 8-10 minutes. 

12. Remove from oven and let cookies rest for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack. 

***Important Note: If you are using dark sheet pans, or older pans that have a darkened bottom, reduce oven temperature to 350°. Darker pans absorb more heat and can result in cookies getting too brown on the bottom, or even burned. 

These cookies aren't overwhelmed by sugar and you can actually taste the peanut butter. Eat them as is, or frost them with peanut butter or chocolate frosting. 

Enjoy! 

Tiramisu Cookies

 

I mentioned these in a previous post. The idea involving these beauties had been simmering on a back burner in my mind since at least last year. It was time to bring it out into the world. I had originally planned to make a sandwich cookie version, but I changed my mind, and I'm glad I did. 

The holdup for this experiment was time, but also indecision about what the base cookie should be. I had originally planned on a nice, fat, sugar cookie. Sure, I could have made batter for ladyfingers and used that, but...nah. I wanted a cookie that could be eaten by hand and not one that required eating utensils. With ladyfinger batter they would have simply been "Tiramisu Bites." 

There are other recipes out there, and I did review them, but none of those were what I had in mind. I wanted to get as close as possible to the real thing. Then the bell finally rang. Why not make a cream cheese cookie for the base? The ingredients for cream cheese cookies mimic the ingredients for "substitute mascarpone" anyway. So, hey! This could be IT! Would the cookies be sturdy enough for the base? That was the next question for which I needed an answer. 

I made the dough, chilled it so it wouldn't spread too much, and used the Norpro 1.5 Tbsps. scoop so they would be uniform in size. The resulting cookie was soft, but not too soft. I thought they would work. 

The next component was the "coffee liqueur." I obviously couldn't dip the cookies in that. It wouldn't work. So instead, I used Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Baking Chips to make a coffee-flavored ganache. I had espresso powder on hand because I purchased it some time ago, when I initially had the idea. I was going to simply use the powder alone at first, but the ganache seemed like a better idea. More "oomph." I added it to the cream but ended up adding more after the ganache was finished, because it needed more. It was fine. I just stirred it in and added a bit more cream. 

For the next component, I made a white chocolate ganache using rum & vanilla. The cookies were finished with a dusting of cocoa powder. 

The result? Success! The cookies exceeded my expectations. It was like biting into the real thing, "mouth feel" and all. The cream cheese cookies complimented the other elements perfectly. The mascarpone element had been worrying me, and I had wrangled with that for a while. I thought about cream cheese powder in the ganache, etc. But it was totally unnecessary. The right flavor was in the cookie base, and the rum in the white ganache covered nicely for the coffee liqueur. All of the right flavors were there, albeit in a different order. I was very happy with the results. I was able to share with some friends for a taste test and they loved them as well. 

I will be posting the full recipe and instructions for these soon. Now on to the next experiment! 

Tiramisu Cookies

Bienenstich Cookies

Bienenstich

                Bienenstich (Bee Sting Cake)  is a lovely German pastry that you may have heard about or experienced. I suppose the proper title would be Bienenstich Kuchen, but if you look it up and scroll through recipes, it is more commonly referred to as simply "Bienenstich." It may be commonly referred to in Germany that way, I will have to ask someone. 

                I first learned of Bienenstich through a German friend when we were discussing cookies. If memory serves, that was in 2015. During that conversation, I was asked to make the cake. After listening to his description, I scoured the internet in search of the proper recipe. 

                The first try turned out quite well even though my filling wasn't quite thick enough. My friend deemed my version of the cake as "just as he remembered" back in Germany. That was a very high compliment for me, because if I can transport someone back in time through taste buds, it is a great accomplishment. 

                Since then, Bienenstich has been added to our list of holiday desserts at our home. I have made it many times, and everyone always enjoys it. It is a delightful combination of a yeast cake sponge, creamy filling, and an almond topping. Each element contains honey. 

                I have been intending to shrink the Bienenstich into smaller cakes that would serve one or two; or even making a bun-sized version, but I haven't had a lot of time for experimentation with those. I have also had the desire to make a "shelf-stable" version. (Bienenstich in its original form must stay under refrigeration.) 

Bienenstich Cookies

                So that brings me to the cookies. I was finally ready to make a version of Tiramisu in cookie form (after thinking about it off & on for over a year), and it suddenly occurred to me that I should do the same with Bienenstich.  It went from "thought to plate" very quickly...I believe it holds the record for that now, though I don't really keep tabs on the time things go from thought to plate (unless it's. savory dish, then the process is much faster). I have many pastry experiments to do and not enough time -- some have been in a holding pattern for months or years. This one entered the "queue" and was realized in less than 24 hours, so that's pretty good. 

                Without further ado, here they are: 

Bienenstichplätzchen 
(Bee Sting Cookies)

                This was from the second batch. I was going to use a round tip for piping so they resemble the cake even more, but a star tip made them look much more appealing, in my opinion. I will be posting the recipe, but in a nutshell I used: a modified German honey cookie recipe for the base, honey ganache, and the standard topping for Bienenstich. I used Norpro #677 scoop (1.5 Tbsps.) for the cookie dough. I measured after they were done & as luck would have it, (really, it was Kitchen Magic, not luck 😁), I had some silicone cupcake molds on hand, which were just the right size to bake the topping, so the cookies were uniform in size from top to bottom. 

                The topping was not rock hard, you could still bite through it with no issues. You could simply make some almond brittle and crumble it over the cookies, but the presentation wouldn't be as nice, in my opinion.  

                As luck.....errr....I mean....Kitchen Magic would have it, my German friend was around to sample these and give them the German Seal of Approval. The experiment was a success! 

             

Costco Product Review: Mission Hill Bistro Sliced Beef Brisket

 We recently took a trip to Costco after a lengthy hiatus. While we were there we decided to buy something for the 4th of July meal. It was an "impulse buy" that happened because the sample was so tasty, (which doesn't happen often, at least not on my part). We don't buy pre-cooked food like this on a regular basis, but once in a while it is okay. 

I am usually leery of products like this because of experience with them in the past. Sometimes you hit a winner, sometimes not. As far as smoked brisket is concerned, it's usually the latter. But we were at Costco, so the line of thought was that the product would be superior to those purchased in the past. In addition to that, in wasn't a sample consumed under duress by hunger, because we'd already had lunch. Taste buds are more objective when hunger is removed from the equation, at least to a degree, (That's just my opinion though. Your mileage may vary).

Mission Hill Bistro Sliced Beef Brisket

Here is the package of the Mission Hill Bistro Sliced Beef Brisket. I should have taken a picture before I opened it, but I didn't think about writing a review until I had already mangled it. I didn't want to cadge a photo from another website, so this is what I have. You may have seen Mission Hill Bistro products elsewhere. If I remember correctly, we purchased a beef roast dinner from Costco a couple of years ago that was the Mission Hill Bistro brand. 

This brisket is good. It's not like brisket from a BBQ joint, of course, but for a pre-cooked brisket, it is very tasty. There is no odd "aftertaste" like I've experienced from pre-cooked briskets (or other pre-cooked meats) in the past. It has a smoke ring, and the slices are very thin. It was jumbled in the package, just a big clump of meat, not neatly laid out in rows. There was solidified beef fat visible in the package, but not to the extreme. It had just the right amount, instead of being totally steeped in fat. 

I was going to put the whole shebang in the oven, but I opted to follow the heating instructions, at least loosely, because it was slightly frozen after being stored in our refrigerator's bottom bin. You can heat it entirely in a microwave, or you can heat it in the microwave followed by a stovetop visit in a pan with a tiny bit of oil. I did the latter. You don't need a lot of oil, I may have used 2 or 3 tablespoons. 

This brisket is tasty even without any adornments. I had my sauce on the side. I think it would be great for brisket tacos too, among other things. There were at least two pounds of brisket in the package and the price was reasonable. 

I was curious about the source of the beef, so I conducted a search on the company. Mission Hill Bistro is a trademark of Stampede Meat, which was founded in 1995. According to their website, they are "an innovative protein solutions company," and they have 5 facilities in the U.S. Four are in the Chicago area, and one is in New Mexico, where they converted a plant that used to belong to Tyson Foods. The New Mexico plant had its grand opening in 2018. 

Last year, the company filed a lawsuit in federal court after it was ordered to close the New Mexico facility for two weeks in November of 2020 because of the number of COVID-19 cases reported there. The lawsuit was settled in March of this year. You can read more about that here: Las Cruces Sun News. 

Stampede Meat has a blog on their website, and there's a post there from September of 2020 that is of interest. The company received an "infectious disease prevention certification" in Illinois. They were taking the proper steps to protect their employees, so I don't believe that the lawsuit they filed in New Mexico was a simple matter of greed. That is my opinion. One of the other reasons they fought against closure was the millions of pounds meat that would have to be destroyed if they closed for those two weeks, according to their pleadings in the lawsuit. I do recall reading about other companies throwing food away last year when facilities had to be closed. 

But everything "on paper" looks pretty good as far as Stampede Meat is concerned. They donated food to frontline workers, implemented a home delivery system for consumers to help slow the spread of COVID-19, and they had onsite COVID-19 vaccinations in both New Mexico and Illinois. They are taking the pandemic seriously. Kudos to them for that. 

I looked for employee reviews that were on other sites to get an idea about working conditions. The average for the company is about 3 out of 5 stars. Long hours, too cold, not enough breaks, and the need for better compensation were some of the complaints. Other former employees said there is room for advancement at the company, and there are benefits available. 

The company is also very concerned about food safety and has a program that exceeds USDA Food Safety standards. All of this inspires me to purchase their products again in the future.

As far as company sources for unprocessed products, well, they do use sources here in the U.S., and I can definitively say that they have imported beef products from Canada, Australia, and Mexico, according to the bills of lading available for view on import databases. I think we can assume they use imports from other countries as well, since the U.S. is ranked as one of the top importers in the world, and one of the main suppliers of meat in the U.S. is Stampede Meat, according to the Garay Company. If you have any insight about any of the info I posted here, feel free to share it and I'll happily add it and/or make corrections. 

Verdict: Mission Hill Bistro Sliced Beef Brisket is a good product that you can feel safe about consuming, thanks to the stringent standards of Stampede Beef, and the product has no "off-putting" aftertaste.

Mission Hill brisket, homemade potato salad, 
homemade sauce, chili beans