The only kind of snowball anyone should be dealing with by now...

I grew up loving, I mean loving Hostess Snowballs. I love them so much, I prefer to eat them alone so I can really go at it. I recently introduced these little balls of indulgence to a good friend of mine and upon my absolute horror, said friend spit it out and said they were the grossest things ever.

To be honest, I get it. I understand why someone wouldn't enjoy these things... I mean I think most of what makes these things is synthetic and not technically even real food. I still enjoy them, go ahead and judge me, I do.

So I thought I would make a homemade snowball and see if I could sway my friend into enjoying this with me, here goes.

I started by make a chocolate genoise cake, this makes such a soft "sponge" I thought it would be perfect for how I was going to use it

Chocolate Genoise
1/2 stick unsalted butter
3/4 cup ap flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
6 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Pre-heat oven to 350
Prepare 9 inch round pan (I usually just spray with Pam, liberally)
Melt the butter, set aside.
Sift the flour, cocoa, and salt into a big bowl

Whisk the eggs and the sugar in a kitchen aide until well combined. Then, place the bowl over  a sauce pan of simmering water, making sure that the water does not touch the bowl. Now whisk constantly (this is a true labor of love...) until it is warm to the touch, remove from heat and let the kitchen aide do its magic and beat at medium speed until the eggs are pale colored, and full of volume. About 6-8 minutes.
Beat in the vanilla extract. Remove from mixer and take a hefty portion of the eggs (about 1 cup) and stir into the melted butter.
Then slowly sprinkle the flour mixture into the batter on slow just until incorporated. Add the melted butter/eggs back into the batter, gently folding it in. You don't want to take any of the volume out of the batter.
Pour gently into prepared pan and bake for about 35 minutes, it should bounce back when gently pressed with a finger. A clean finger preferably.

Once the cake has cooled in the pan, turn out and let cool to room temp. Then wrap up in saran wrap and let chill in the fridge for at least an hour.

Slice of the top of the cake where it is round and do not throw this away or eat it, you need it.
Then slice the cake into 4 (thin) layers, this is done best with a serrated knife and a turntable.
Take one of the cake rounds and cut it into 8 pieces like a pizza

Then line a 9 inch round bowl with saran wrap so that there are long edges of saran wrap hanging over the bowl. Place the triangle pieces all along the bowl. This can be a little bit of a bitch. Just keep in mind, you work the cake, don't let the cake work you. If there are some spaces in between, just use that top part of the cake I told you to keep and rip pieces of it and just press into any showing spaces so that the bowl is fully lined with the chocolate cake.

See how the saran wrap hangs below the bowl? This will make getting out of the bowl super easy. Next take your favorite raspberry jam and liberally spread all over the cake, then put into the fridge. 

While its chilling, take a pint of heavy cream, add 1 Tablespoon powdered sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste (or scrape out the inside of a vanilla bean) and add 2 Tablespoons of Raspberry Kirsch and whip heavy cream up to stiff peaks. 

     

Take some of that whipped cream and place some of it at the bottom of the cake lined bowl, then cut out a small circle from one of the 4 layers, I just did this by eye... I am sure you can do it as well, and place the small circle of cake on top of the whipped cream. Repeat till it is filled right up to the top.

                                               Cover with saran wrap and let chill.

While it is chilling, make the marshmallow topping.
1/2 cup water
2 tsp unflavored gelatin
1 1/2 sticks of butter, at room temp
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
4 cups of Fluff

Dissolve the gelatin in a microwave safe bowl with the water until is soft. (at least 6 minutes)
Microwave the gelatin mixture until it is bubbling, this really varies on your microwave oven, for mine it took about 45 seconds. Stir in butter, vanilla and salt till combined. Once this has cooled till it is just warm to the touch, add the fluff, whisk until it is well mixed and no lumps of anything. This is a bitch, but hang in there, it will come together. Cover and let chill in fridge.

For the original snowballs, the coconut "substance" that is used is not toasted, but I thought that it could use some crunch. So I  died some coconut pink (about 2 cups, just put coconut in a food processor add a couple drops of red food coloring and grind away)

Once its the pink that you want, toast it. I did this by putting the pink coconut on a sheet pan and into a 400 degree oven till it got pretty toasty.

                                                      Now invert the cake onto a plate

                                                                           
                Next, using a rubber spatula, mix up the marshmallow spread so that it is spreadable.
                                Then slather all of that marshmallow goodness all over the cake

                                            Immediately cover with the toasted pink coconut

           
                                    Call your bff over and enjoy this snowball and say good bye to winter.
                                                     Enough with the snow and cold already!

What should you do with all those apples you got apple picking? Make bread pudding, of course

I've said it before and I'll say it again (just do us both a favor and pretend its the first time you've heard me say this) I love fall. I just love it, reasons to layer up with sweaters, buy new sweaters, buy new boots. I still think the old "back-to-school" clothes shopping still applies to me...

With fall, comes the annual trek for New Yorker's to head to the "country" otherwise known as the suburbs (with no more then a maximum of 1 hour drive away) and pick this seasons harvest.
Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy the drive and the very small escape out of the city, even if just for the day, true story.

Once home with the bags and bags of apples, the usual is apple pie, apple cake, rustic apple galettes,  and I was just recently told that I need to try putting freshly diced up honey crisp apples into vanilla flavored greek yogurt, this is, of course, super high on my list of things to try.....

This year I wanted to make a little something different. So I made a Maple, Apple, Cranberry bread pudding. I served it with salted caramel sauce and spiced whipped cream. Because everything should use a little salted caramel sauce and spiced whipped cream. Spiced whipped cream shouldn't scare you, I'm not putting any spicy flavors into it, all I do is add 2 Tablespoons of whole cloves and 1 tsp of Allspice into 1 cup Heavy cream, I let this sit in the fridge over night. The next day I strain it and then whip it up to med-soft peaks. There you have it spiced whipped cream*

Maple, Apple, Cranberry Bread Pudding

• 6 large eggs
• 1/2 cup pure maple syrup (preferably Grade B) It gives more flavor when baking
• 1/2 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons apple brandy (such as applejack or Calvados)
• 1 cup cranberries
• 1 1-pound loaf Brioche bread cut into 3/4- to 1-inch cubes (6 1/2 to 7 cups)* Let sit out over night and dry out. 

*I used Brioche, and I left the crust on, I think it gives more texture to the bread pudding

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 1/4  pounds Granny Smith apples (about 3), peeled, quartered, cored, cut into 1/3-inch-thick slices (about 7 cups)
• 1 1/4 pounds Honey crisp apples (about 3), peeled, quartered, cored, cut into 1/3-inch-thick, once all cut, combine apples together
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup plus additional for brushing (preferably Grade B)
• 1/4 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
• Whisk eggs, maple syrup, brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and sea salt in large bowl. Add milk, cream, and brandy and whisk until well blended. Strain through a fine mesh strainer and then add bread cubes and cranberries and press to submerge into custard. Let soak at least 30 minutes, occasionally pressing on bread cubes to submerge.

Meanwhile, position rack in bottom third of oven and preheat to 350°F. Generously butter 9 X 13 glass or ceramic loaf pan (you want something good and thick so the bread pudding cooks better) 

Melt 3 tablespoons butter in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add apple slices and sauté until deep golden and beginning to soften, stirring and turning apple slices frequently, 10 to 12 minutes. Stir in 1/4 cup maple syrup, then brown sugar. Simmer until sugar dissolves and mixture thickens to syrup, about 1 minute. Remove from heat and let cool. 

Mix half of apple slices into bread-custard mixture. Transfer bread pudding mixture to prepared pan. Arrange remaining apple slices atop bread pudding however suits you best. Spoon any remaining syrup from skillet over apple slices. 

Bake bread pudding until puffed and cracked on top, apples are deep brown, and instant-read thermometer inserted into center of pudding registers 170°F to 180°F, about 1 hour 30 minutes (pudding will rise high above top of pan). Remove from oven and let rest at room temperature 45 minutes to 1 hour (pudding will fall). Brush apples on top of pudding with additional maple syrup. Spoon pudding into bowls and serve warm, room temp or cold, whatever suits you best, this is your bread pudding. Scoop on a generous portion of the clove spice scented whip cream on top, or on the side and enjoy. 

Salted Caramel Sauce

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

1 cup Heavy cream

1 tsp sea salt

Pour sugar into sauce pan, pour water and do not pour, let come to a boil on a med-high heat, once  it starts to boil, lower the heat and look for the sugar to turn a dark amber color, once it does, remove from heat. Carefully add the heavy cream, it will bubble and steam so stand back. Stir till combined, if it hasn't come together, put back on the heat and stir till well combined. Pour into a bowl and let cool stirring occasionally. Once cooled, sprinkle in salt and stir.