update: thanks platonic jeff for joining me and taking pictures. and making us all laugh. i think everyone @ daytime loves you too (platonicaly that is) ;0)
I have to apologize… I’ve been baking (lots). I’ve been taking pictures (lots). I’ve been back on Ottawa Daytime… THREE TIMES!!! And I haven’t blogged about any of those things.
I think it’s time to get started.Last week I tried to teach Derick, TL and all of their fans how to make powdered sugar-free buttercream.
Seriously… the GREATEST buttercream EVER (and I say this knowing most people swoon over a really good cream cheese frosting… but this has it beat).
The three of us sure had fun (but then again, we always have fun), but I kinda screwed up the recipe. Just a little… just enough that if you watched the episode live and decided to follow our (as in my) instructions… you probably would have finished and scratched your head wondering… “did I do something wrong?”
Nope. Not you. Me. I completely forgot an important step in the whole process.
More milk.
Now if you didn’t watch – I should warn you: this recipe says NO to powdered sugar and says YES to milk, flour, regular sugar and butter. No lies. You basically start off with a béchamel (well not a traditional béchamel – only the flour and milk – no butter at this point), and add that to some whipped sugar and butter.
So I’m here to make it up to you … that way you can enjoy the wonderfulness of this buttercream. Because it truly is wonderful… amazing… incredible… rich and creamy and fluffy. In a word: DELISH.
If you want to giggle while you start on this recipe… check out Derick, TL and I as we muddle our way through the recipe (don’t they look like they’re having a blast!?).
And then if you feel up to trying this buttercream (which you should … because it’s that good)… put away that powdered sugar and pull out a small saucepan and whisk. Let’s get started!
baker’s note: the recipe I’m sharing is for a dark chocolate buttercream… however the recipe I made for Daytime Ottawa was a brown sugar-cinnamon buttercream. Omit the melted chocolate and use brown sugar and 1 tbsp cinnamon rather than regular white sugar if you’d like to try my “tv” version (which is delicious when paired with a zucchini cake). Otherwise, the rest of the recipe remains the same (you can also omit the melted chocolate to make a vanilla buttercream too).
(powdered sugar-free) whipped buttercream
ingredients:
4 oz (100 g) dark chocolate, melted and cooled
1/4 c. flour, sifted
1 1/2 tbsp vanilla
1 c. milk, divided
1 c. white sugar
1 c. butter, room temperature
Think of this recipe in stages…
First start with the warm part – melt your chocolate in a double boiler (or in the microwave). Once melted, set aside and allow it to cool.
Then start on the faux béchamel.
Grab a small saucepan (as mentioned to Derick and TL, a small saucepan works better than a medium one) and whisk together the flour, vanilla and 1/4 c. milk.
Whisk until there are no lumps, then place the pan over medium heat – whisking continuously: slowly adding the rest of the milk (this is the part I left out on the show).
You’ll notice that the mixture thickens and starts to pull away from the sides of the saucepan – about 4 minutes. Turn the heat down to low and continue whisking for another 3 minutes. Now… remove the saucepan from heat and keep whisking the mixture for another 2 minutes. This is important. Otherwise it’ll keep cooking – and you don’t want that.
That’s it.
Now – you can either wait for your faux béchamel to cool to room temperature – or do like me – and pass it through a strainer – this cools it down nice and quick and gets rid of any lumps you might get during the cooking process.While you are passing the faux béchamel through the strainer – start whipping your butter and sugar mixture together.
Using the paddle attachment of your stand mixer, whisk the butter and sugar at medium-high speed until light and fluffy – 7 minutes (that’s normally the amount of time I need to strain the faux béchamel).
Turn your mixture down to slow and slowly add the melted chocolate – increase the speed to medium incorporating the chocolate into the whipped butter/sugar.
Once incorporated, return the speed to low and add in your faux béchamel. Increase the speed to medium and whisk for another 5 minutes.
You end up with something so light and fluffy, so creamy… you end up with this… Frost your cake, or cupcakes… or heck – just dip your finger into the buttercream and enjoy. Seriously … A-MAZ-ING
Make this buttercream and I promise you that you’ll think twice about using powdered sugar again (unless you have some serious piping work to do).