The Pastry Chef's Baking

Oreo-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownies

2012-02-24T16:59:00.000-08:00

Oreo-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownies - recipe adapted from The Essential Chocolate Chip Cookbook by Elinor Klivans and Chocolate Ecstasy by Christine France (book #194)

A friend sent me a link to a blog that showed a triple layer brownie: chocolate chip cookie crust on the bottom, Oreos in the middle and a brownie layer on top. It was a great concept but both the bottom and top layers were made from (shudder) box mixes. You know how I feel about mixes. My snobby baking soul can't handle them except on rare occasions and only if enough other ingredients are mixed into the base mix so that you can't taste the mix-iness of the finished product. But, regardless, the brownie was a great concept so I decided to recreate it my way: from scratch.

You can use almost any chocolate chip cookie recipe for the bottom layer but go for the ones that spread or aren't too cakey. I chose this one as it was part of a recipe that uses the chocolate chip cookie as a crust for a tart. I adapted the brownie recipe from Chocolate Ecstasy: that recipe called for oil but I substituted in butter for better flavor and increased the flour from 2/3 cup to 3/4 cup for slightly more substance.

I liked how this brownie turned out. I originally baked the chocolate chip layer for only 10 minutes since I was afraid of overbaking it once I layered the Oreos and brownie batter on top but it probably would've been better to bake a few minutes longer to just barely past the wet dough stage. Still, it was pretty good. The base was buttery and moist and the brownie layer was all chocolate glory with the flavor being fortified by a good-quality dark cocoa (I always use Pernigotti). And I don't have to rhapsodize about Oreos in anything - they speak for themselves.

This was the last thing I made during my nieces' visit last weekend and I packed them up for them to take back to their respective schools and friends. They gave it the highest accolade in their collegiate vocabulary: "these are bomb". The brownies were also classified as "sick" which apparently doesn't mean what my generation thinks it means but is actually also a positive accolade. I really must keep up with the latest lingo.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Crust

Source: The Essential Chocolate Chip Cookbook by Elinor Klivans

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

½ cup light brown sugar

6 tablespoons sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350⁰F. Line a 9-inch square baking pan and spray lightly with nonstick cooking spray.

2. Sift the flour, baking soda and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.

3. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until smoothly blended, about 1 minute. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until blended, about 1 minute. On low speed, add the flour mixture, mixing just until incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips.

4. Layer evenly in the prepared baking pan and bake for 12-15 minutes.

5. Line top with Oreos, making an even layer.

6. While crust is baking, make brownies as directed below. Pour brownie mixture and return pan to oven.

Brownies

Source: Chocolate Ecstasy by Christine France

5 ounces unsweetened chocolate

½ cup butter

1 ¼ cups light brown sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¾ cup all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa

1. Melt the chocolate and butter together and cool slightly.

2. Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla extract together. Stir in melted chocolate-butter mixture. Beat until evenly mixed.

3. Sift flour and cocoa powder into the bowl and fold in thoroughly. Do not overmix.

4. Pour brownie batter over Oreo layer, covering them completely. Bake 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center of the brownie comes out with moist crumbs.

Peanut Butter Cookies with Nutella

2012-02-22T21:05:00.002-08:00

Peanut Butter Cookies with Nutella - made February 19, 2012 , recipe adapted from Milk & Cookies by Tina Casaceli

Both my nieces were visiting last weekend which was a rare treat since one of them goes to school further away and we don't get to see her as often. Being the doting aunt, I asked her what she wanted me to make for her visit and to bring back to school for her friends. One of her requests was for peanut butter cookies. So I made this cookie using the "base" peanut butter cookie recipe from Milk & Cookies. I also added my own twist by dropping small dollops of nutella into the cookie dough as I was scooping it into dough balls.

The taste of the cookie itself was pretty good. I was a bit concerned when I was making it though because it called for an awful lot of butter. I bake with butter all the time and rarely blink at how much I use but 1 1/2 cups seemed like too much for a normal batch of cookie dough and I even wondered if it was a typo. But I soldiered on and stuck to the original recipe just to try it. The dough came out pretty soft and sticky so that told me this would likely spread, even if frozen first and even baked on the convection setting. I was right. The cookies were also pretty fragile, definitely not good candidates for a care package so I'm glad my nieces were here in person to eat them. I had to pack them carefully for their respective trips home. If you try this recipe, you might want to cut the butter down to 1 cup and see how that works. I advocate doing the nutella dollops too as that turned out pretty well.

1 ½ cups (6 ounces) all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup (7 ounces) light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup (8 ounces) smooth peanut butter
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a mixing bowl. Set aside.
2. Put the butter in the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with the paddle. Begin beating on low speed. Add the brown sugar, increase the speed to medium, and beat for about 4 minutes or until light and creamy. Add the peanut butter and beat to incorporate; then, beat in the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula after each addition. Beat in the vanilla.
3. With the motor running, gradually add the flour mixture, beating just to blend. While the dough is still streaky, remove the bowl from the mixer and scrape the paddle clean.
4. Lightly flour a clean, flat work surface.
5. Scrape the dough onto the floured surface. Lightly flour your hands and finish mixing the dough by using a gentle kneading motion, working until the dough is just blended. Do not overwork the dough, you want to be certain that all of the ingredients are just blended together.
6. Scoop the dough into dough balls and refrigerate, covered with plastic wrap, for at least an hour.
7. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 325°F.
8. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
9. Remove the dough balls from the refrigerator and unwrap.
10. Place the balls, about 2 inches apart, on the prepared baking sheets. Using your palm, gently flatten the top of each cookie slightly. If you want to make the traditional cross hatches of a peanut butter cookie, press the surface with the tines of a fork.
11. Bake cookies for about 8 minutes, or until golden brown around the edges.
12. Remove from the oven, let sit on cookie sheets for 1 minute then transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool. Store airtight, at room temperature, for up to a week.

Linked to Sweet Treats Thursday

Cocoa Waffles

2012-02-21T18:53:00.001-08:00

Cocoa Waffles - made February 18, 2012 from Baking Style by Lisa Yockelson (book #193)

My homemade version

It's National Pancake Day and normally I would pay homage to one of my favorite breakfast foods with a pancake recipe but today I am bucking the trend in favor of another breakfast-but-I-eat-it-for-dinner favorite: waffles! I love waffles. I love the traditional waffles smothered in butter or syrup (for some reason I don't like to mix both, it's one or the other for me, usually syrup for waffles, butter for pancakes). And when we went out for my mom's birthday dinner a few weeks ago, I also loved the chocolate waffles we had for dessert at Outback Steakhouse. So much so that I decided I had to make them myself.

This is the version from Outback Steakhouse - truly decadent and so good. Four of us split this and it was perfect for sharing.

But first, uh, you might remember that I've been on my baking challenge for well over a year now. The goal was to make at least one recipe from every cookbook I own and the "prize" at the end of it was I would allow myself to buy Baking Style by Lisa Yockelson, one of my favorite cookbook authors. When I started on this challenge, Baking Style hadn't even been published yet and it seemed easy enough at the time to swear off buying any new cookbooks until I was done with the challenge. After all, I had so many cookbooks that I was afraid to count them. All I knew is I have somewhere around 200 cookbooks and the only reason I didn't know the exact number is when I started actually counting them, when I hit 200 and there were still more, I stopped counting because I didn't want to know. Tallying the count as I made a recipe from each book was the official way to count them because then I've ensured I've used them.

I broke the challenge a few months ago when, in a moment of weakness, I ended up buying Baking Style because it was on sale and I had a gift card. Honestly, I just couldn't be expected to pass it up at a bargain, now could I? So then I promised I would still continue with the challenge and not make anything from the book until I was done. Um, yeah, I broke that promise too with this recipe. In my defense, it was the only book out of several dozen that I checked that actually had a chocolate waffle recipe. And I wanted chocolate waffles. Plus I can justify almost anything when it comes to making sweets. I'm still going to continue with my baking challenge, mostly because I actually am close to finishing by now and I always finish what I start.....most of the time.

So on to the waffle recipe. I screwed up the first time I made this. My nieces were visiting and I was making this at my parents' house for our dessert. I mixed together all the dry ingredients at my place and had the liquid ingredients separate but measured out, ready to go for putting together at the last minute. Which worked out great except I forgot the butter I had ready to go in my fridge. As in I really forgot they were supposed to have butter in them when I was mixing the batter at my parents'. The waffles still turned out pretty well despite being butter-less but they were more cakey and soft than waffly-crisp. So I made a second attempt, making the batter properly the next day in my own kitchen. This time there was more crisp around the edges although they were still somewhat soft. I was afraid to cook them too much in my waffle iron because I didn't want to burn them. But I figured out a good way to deliver on the texture - if you want them crisp, reheat them later by toasting them in the toaster oven. Don't burn them though. Just toast them enough to get the outside crisp but the inside should still be soft and chewy. Flavor-wise, this was really good with an enhanced chocolate flavor fortified by both the cocoa powder and the unsweetened chocolate. Use a dark cocoa for the full chocolate flavor. And don't forget the vanilla ice cream on top of the warm chocolate waffle. For super decadence, serve with hot fudge sauce and some chopped-up Oreos.

2 cups unsifted bleached all-purpose flour
1 cup unsweetened alkalized cocoa powder
1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups plus 3 tablespoons superfine sugar
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled to tepid
4 large eggs
2 cups buttermilk
1/3 cup heavy cream
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ¼ cups miniature semisweet chocolate chips
Confectioners’ sugar, for sprinkling on finished waffles

1. Preheat a 2-grid deep-dish (Belgian-style) waffle iron (each grid measuring about 4 ½ by 4 ½ inches).
2. For the batter, sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt and superfine sugar into a large mixing bowl. In a medium-size mixing bowl, whisk the melted butter, melted unsweetened chocolate, eggs, buttermilk, heavy cream and vanilla extract. Pour the buttermilk mixture over the sifted ingredients and stir to form a batter, using a wooden spoon or flat wooden paddle. Mix in the chocolate chips. The batter will be moderately thick.
3. Spoon a generous 1/3 cup batter into each grid, cover the iron, and cook until baked through (at the medium heat setting, if you waffler has one), following the directions supplied by the appliance’s manufacturer. Lift up the waffle squares onto individual plates, dredge with confectioners’ sugar, and serve immediately.

Toffee Buttermilk Scones

2012-02-19T09:28:00.000-08:00

Toffee Buttermilk Scones - made February 12, 2012, recipe adapted from Tartine by Elizabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson (book #192)

I modified this recipe from Tartine. The original recipe called for using currants but I'm not a fan of currants so I substituted toffee bits instead. This made a lot of scones (almost 2 dozen) so if you don't need that many, you can easily make only half the recipe.

This was easy to make but, similar to biscuits and pie crust, you want to handle the dough as little as possible so gluten doesn't develop and so the texture is more tender than chewy. I think I was only marginally successful as they weren't super flaky-tender as some other scones I've made but still, they came out fairly well. I think what helped was that the crunch from the coarse sugar on top provided a nice contrast and some sweetness to the scone itself. I used vanilla sugar I had gotten for Christmas (I love getting good ingredients as presents) to sprinkle on top of the scones and it was a nice touch. The toffee bits were good too but to have more of a butterscotch flavor, next time I think I'd add chopped up butterscotch chips and perhaps substitute some of the granulated sugar for brown sugar.

4 ¾ (24 ounces) cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

¾ teaspoon baking soda

½ cup granulated sugar

1 ¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup + 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, very cold

1 ½ cups buttermilk

½ cup Heath bar toffee bits

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Large crystal sugar or granulated sugar for sprinkling

1. Preheat the oven to 400⁰F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Sift the flour, baking powder and baking soda into a food processor. Add the sugar and salt and pulse briefly to mix. Cut the butter into ½” cubes and scatter the cubes over the dry ingredients. Pulse on and off so that you don’t break down the butter too much. You want to end with a coarse mixture with pea-sized lumps of butter visible.

3. Add the buttermilk all at once along with the toffee bits and mix gently with a wooden spoon or pulse briefly to mix. If the mixture seems dry, add a little more buttermilk.

4. Dust your work surface with flour and turn the dough out onto it. Using your hands, pat the dough into a rectangle about 18” x 5” x 1 ½”. Brush the top with the melted butter and then sprinkle with the sugar. Using a chef’s knife, cut the dough into 12 triangles. Transfer the triangles to the prepared baking sheet.

5. Bake the scones until the tops are lightly browned, 25 to 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and serve immediately.

Sables au Chocolat

2012-02-16T22:00:00.000-08:00

Sables au Chocolat - made February 11, 2012 from La Maison du Chocolat by Robert Linxe (book #191)

French is supposed to be the language of love. I also say it's the language of food because almost every edible sounds classier in French, lol. Sables (pronounced "sah-blay" and no, don't pronounce the second "s" in there) au Chocolat sounds more upscale than "chocolate cookies". I've only been to Paris once and I did the usual touristy things like climb the Eiffel Tower and L'Arc de Triomphe and do a day trip out to Versaille. But my favorite part about France was being able to walk into any hole-in-the-wall food shop and get the best bread ever. I don't know if it was my imagination but everything just seemed to taste better in Paris, especially the fresh baguettes.

One place, however, that I missed out on, simply because at the time I didn't know about it, was visiting La Maison du Chocolat, a confection-boutique chain of high-end chocolates by chocolatier Robert Linxe. I didn't know about it until after my trip and I could kick myself for not making a point of going there. I haven't returned to Paris since then but it's definitely on my bucket list to go visit. For now, this recipe book will have to stand in for it.

The picture of these cookies in the recipe book is what moved me to try them but I have to admit I'm a little disappointed in how they turned out. I thought they would crisp up and have more of a snap to them, like maybe the upscale cocoa version of the Oreo cookie. Not so, mes amis. Instead they were not moist, not dry. They were just....there. So then I tried covering half the tops with chocolate to give them a little punch. Eh. Just okay. And I did follow the recipe to the letter, including timing them in the oven since they were chocolate cookies and it's hard to tell by looks alone if chocolate cookies - excuse me, sables au chocolat, are done. But they are how they are. Perhaps I need to stick to the all-American brownie after all.

2/3 cup confectioners’ sugar

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1 stick plus 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

2 eggs

2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

¼ cup granulated sugar

1. Combine the confectioners’ sugar and the cocoa powder in a bowl and mix to blend. Set aside.

2. Place the butter in a mixing bowl, add the cocoa powder mixture and beat until smooth. Add the eggs and beat vigorously. Add one third of the flour and fold just to blend with a spatula; do not overmix. Repeat for the remaining flour, adding in two more batches. Form the dough into a large ball and refrigerate for 2 hours.

3. About 30 minutes before baking, remove the dough from the refrigerator and let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes. Form the dough into little sausage shapes, about 1 inch in diameter, and roll in the granulated sugar. Return to the refrigerator for 15 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350⁰F. Slice the dough sausages into circles about ¼-inch thick and arrange on a nonstick baking sheet.

5. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool before serving.

Valentine Sugar Cookie Cake

2012-02-13T21:04:00.000-08:00

Valentine Sugar Cookie Cake - made February 13, 2012 from my own experimentation

I'd been seeing "sugar cookie cakes" around the foodie blogosphere lately - they're essentially sugar cookies but made as bar cookies topped with frosting or as "cakes". I like sugar cookies but find them a pain to roll out, cut, ice, decorate, etc. So the idea of a sugar cookie cake where you simply spread the batter in the pan, bake, cool and frost was appealing. I was on another "gotta use up buttermilk before it expires" recipe quest so I made up this recipe adaped from several different ones I'd seen, including one for buttermilk sugar cookies from one of my cake books. My first attempt didn't quite turn out as I had envisioned. For my original results, I had too much cookie dough for the 9 x 13 pan I used so the sugar cookie cake came out thick. Which normally wouldn't be a problem but it called for baking them long enough for the middle to bake which means the ends came out a little dry. So it's better to make them a bit thinner with less batter and underbake (very slightly) rather than fully bake them.

The recipe below is my second attempt. I made less batter and baked in a smaller pan. It had a lighter texture than my first attempt and was much more moist. Actually it was more cake than cookie but that's okay. Instead of a sugar cookie cake, I could've accidentally just invented a good vanilla cake too, lol.

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Frosting
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened
2 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
2-3 tablespoons of milk or just enough to get the consistency you want
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
a few drops of red food coloring (enough to make a Valentine pink)

Line a 9 x 9-inch square baking pan with foil and spray lightly with nonstick cooking spray. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy, 1-2 minutes. Add egg, egg yolk, vanilla and vanilla bean paste.
Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir in dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk
Spread into prepared baking pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out just barely clean. Cool completely and spread with icing.
For the icing: Beat butter until creamy and no lumps remain. Add 1/2 cup of powdered sugar at a time and beat until light and fluffy, adding milk as needed for desired consistency. Add vanilla extract and red food coloring until you have the desired color. Beat until evenly colored. Spread over cooled cake.

Valentine Cookies - get your red, white and pink on

2012-02-12T08:32:00.000-08:00

Valentine Cookies - made February 8, 2012, recipe adapted from The Cake Mix Doctor by Anne Byrn

I've already blogged a few Valentine's Day-appropriate recipes in the past that have the red velvet theme going:
Red Velvet Cookies
Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies
Red Velvet Brownies with White Chocolate Frosting
Red Velvet Pancakes
Red Velvet Cake
Red Velvet Cupcakes

But I also wanted to try out a new Valentine Cookie, also still using red velvet as the base. I have a one-track mind. I adapted this recipe from the Cake Mix Doctor by Anne Byrn. The original recipe was for chocolate cookies but since red velvet is a form of chocolate, I decided to see how it would turn out using a red velvet cake mix instead of a devil's food cake mix. And to give it that Valentine's flair, I used the Valentine package of plain M&Ms instead of chocolate chips and nuts. I admit, I'm girly girl enough to like all the pink, red and white schmaltzy stuff.

These turned out somewhat decent but I wouldn't rave about them. I was hoping they would have crisp edges and chewy middles like a chocolate chip cookie. They were fine, more chewy all around than I would've preferred but they didn't wow me. And I like to be wowed. I think the missing link is they didn't really taste like anything. Good red velvet has that chocolate flavor. These just tasted like....cookies. But I refused to be defeated. If I wanted that chocolate flavor, I was going to get that chocolate flavor. So I went with the obvious and coated them in chocolate.

1 package (18.25 ounces) red velvet cake mix

1/3 cup water

4 tablespoons (½ stick) butter, melted

1 large egg

6 ounces (1 cup) semisweet chocolate chips

½ cup chopped nuts

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350⁰F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

2. Place the cake mix, water, melted butter and egg in large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, increase speed to medium and beat for 1 more minute. The cookie dough will be thick. Fold in chips and nuts.

3. Drop heaping teaspoons of dough 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets. Bake the cookies until they have set but are still a little soft in the center, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from oven and let cookies rest on cookie sheet for 1 minute before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Cheesecake Brownies with Oreos

2012-02-10T17:48:00.000-08:00

Marbled Fudge Brownies - made February 4, 2012 from Great Chefs, Great Chocolate, edited by Julie M. Pitkin (book #190)

My niece was visiting me last weekend and, as has become our tradition when she spends the night, we eat and we bake. Besides the apple pie we made, we also baked these brownies for her to take back to her friends. Because I can't resist tinkering when it comes to brownie recipes, I also added chopped up Oreos to the chocolate batter, partly because I like Oreos and partly because it gave us an excuse to snack on a few while she was chopping them up to add to the batter.

Because the ratio of cream cheese batter to chocolate batter was nearly 1:1, I would consider these to be more like cheesecake brownies than simply "marbled" brownies as the original name declares. I also didn't marble them much on purpose just to keep the two batters distinct. I liked the addition of the Oreos because it gave the brownies a little crunch. The recipe calls for making them in four 4 x 1" round pans but I used an 8 x 8-inch pan which I lined with foil and sprayed with nonstick cooking spray, thus eliminating the need for dusting with unsweetened cocoa. The 8-inch pan made the brownies of a nice thickness.

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa for dusting (didn't use)

Fudge Mixture

9 tablespoons unsalted butter

4 ounces good-quality semisweet chocolate, chopped

2 eggs

¾ cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

½ cup all-purpose flour

Pinch salt
Oreos, chopped (use as much or as little as you like), optional

Cream Cheese Mixture

1 8-ounce package cream cheese, at room temperature

¼ cup sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1. Preheat the oven to 350⁰F. Butter four 4 x 1-inch round molds (I used one 8 x 8-inch pan, lined with foil and lightly sprayed with nonstick cooking spray) and dust with the cocoa. In a double boiler over barely simmering water, melt the butter and chocolate, stirring to combine thoroughly. Set aside to cool slightly.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar until well combined. Add the chocolate mixture and stir well to incorporate. Stir in the flour and salt until blended, but do not overmix. Add the chopped up Oreos if using.

3. Cream cheese mixture: In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese and sugar until well blended. Add the vanilla and egg and continue to beat until smooth.

4. Fill the prepared molds (pan) three-fourths full with the chocolate mixture, then top off with cream cheese. Using a fork, swirl the layers 2 or 3 times, using a folding motion. Be careful not to overmix or to scrape the sides or bottom of the pan, or the brownies could stick.

5. Bake the brownies for 35 minutes, or until the tops are golden and the centers are somewhat firm. Let cool on a wire rack and unmold. Serve with chocolate sauce and your favorite ice cream or dust with confectioners’ sugar.

Apple Pie for National Pie Month

2012-02-08T19:08:00.000-08:00

Apple Pie - made February 4, 2012, crust from Nick Malgieri's Perfect Pastry (book #188) and filling from Pie Town, New Mexico 2011 cookbook (book #189)

Did you know February is National Pie Month? Just thought I'd mention it so you don't think February is just about the Super Bowl and Valentine's Day. The pie deserves some love too. Many people love pies and I'm no exception. Except for me, the only pie in the world is apple pie. Sure, there's pecan pie and chocolate pie (which I'll never eat again after watching The Help), coconut custard pie, etc and those are well and good too. But for fruit pies, only apple does it for me. With ice cream. Not whipped cream but ice cream. I don't like whipped cream. To me, whipped cream is flavored air with calories. Plus, if something is going to look like ice cream, it should be ice cream. And with apple pie, it can only be vanilla ice cream.

The pie gives the ice cream something to sit on

My sister and her boyfriend went to the Pie Festival in Pie Town, New Mexico last year and brought me back the cookbook that all the pie festival participants contributed to, sharing their prize-winning recipes. You can tell they're probably a bunch of pie experts as, on some of the recipes, the directions are alarmingly vague: "mix ingredients together as you would any pie crust". Uh, what if you don't normally make pies or have never made pie crust before? If so, clearly, you're not entering any contests in Pie Town, New Mexico anytime soon. But of course I have to make something from the pie festival cookbook for National Pie Month. So I compromised - I used the Flaky Pie Crust recipe from Nick Malgieri's Perfect Pastry cookbook and the apple pie filling recipe from one of the apple pie recipes in the Pie Town cookbook. Even for the filling recipe, I added my notes in italicized blue font just to flesh them out a bit.

Bear in mind I'm not a pie maker by any means. I know just enough to be dangerous but I don't make pies anywhere near as much as I make brownies, cookies, cakes, and the like. However, I was fairly pleased with how this turned out. The pie crust uses all butter so it was appropriately flaky-to-die-for, not to mention deliciously buttery. The filling was also good, not too tart or too sweet, although my niece, who I made this with, and I probably cut into the still-warm pie a little too soon because the juices all ran out after I took out the first piece. But it did solidify enough later after it had cooled without being too gelatinous.

Oh, and if you don't want to waste perfectly good pie dough scraps, do what I did: gather all the scraps and make into a round "cookie", sprinkle with vanilla sugar and bake along with the pie. We ended up with a buttery, sugary crust-cookie that was really good. I would've taken a picture of it so you can see what I mean but I'm afraid we ate it too fast for the camera to capture.

We had to make sure we had enough ice cream

Flaky Pastry Dough

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, about 10 ounces

¼ cup cake flour, about 1 ounce

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon baking powder

2 sticks unsalted butter, 8 ounces, cool

5 to 6 tablespoons ice water

1. Combine the all-purpose flour, cake flour, salt and baking powder; cut up and add the butter, and gently toss to coat.

2. Rub in the butter until the mixture looks sandy. Sprinkle over 3 tablespoons of ice water; toss with a fork. Add another tablespoon of water if necessary. Press the dough together. Wrap and chill.

Apple Pie

To: Honor IV. Burrell (I don't know who this is but it's what's listed in the book)

5-7 tart apples (I used Granny Smith)

¾ - 1 cup sugar (I used 3/4 cup)

2 tablespoons flour

Dash of salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

1 recipe plain pastry (I used the pie crust recipe above but you can substitute your own)

2 tablespoons butter

1. Prepare apples and slice thin. Mix sugar, flour, spices – add to apples.

2. Fill 9-inch pastry-lined pan. Adjust top crust. Crimp edges and cut slits in top crust to let steam escape. Dot with butter (note: it's a little unclear whether she means to dot the butter on top of the crust or underneath it. I went with underneath the top crust and egg washed the top crust itself before putting it in the oven). Place pie pan on a cookie sheet to catch any drips. Bake in hot oven (400 degrees) for 50 minutes. If crust is browning too quickly, lower temperature to 375 degrees. If apples are not tart, add 1 tablespoon lemon juice or grated lemon peel, if desired.

Also linked to Sweet Treats Thursday

Banana Coffee Cake

2012-02-07T17:55:00.000-08:00

Banana Bread with Nutty Streusel - made Feburary 3, 2012 from Miette by Meg Ray with Leslie Jonath (book #187)

Now that the holidays are over, as you can tell, I'm back to trying out new recipes and back on my baking challenge. Much as I love baking for the holidays, I also love constantly trying new recipes. One thing I made over and over for my holiday gifts was Petra's banana bread. So you'd think I'd be sick of making it by now. And in a way, I am. But I still can't resist trying out a new recipe, especially since I still had overripe bananas on hand. This recipe from Miette includes a streusel so it was a little different from my usual recipe. Besides, you gotta love streusel. I also liked that in the description of the recipe, the book describes it as being more cakey, which is also like Petra's recipe.

This came out pretty well. I wouldn't say it's better (or worse) than Petra's recipe but I liked it too. The texture was cakey more than quick-bread-y. The banana bread itself is not as sweet as Petra's recipe but that could also be due to the nutty streusel topping imparting a complementary toasted pecan flavor. But overall it is sweeter because of the streusel. It's actually more like a banana coffeecake because of the streusel so I'm renaming it for my own purposes. Overall, thumbs up.

Nutty Streusel

½ cup (2 ounces) pecan pieces

¼ cup (2 ounces) firmly packed light brown sugar

1/3 cup (1 ½ ounces) all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter

¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

Banana Bread

2 ¼ cups (11 ounces) all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

¾ teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 ½ cups (10 ½ ounces) sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup vegetable oil

4 medium soft, but not black, bananas (about 1 pound total) peeled and roughly mashed

½ cup (2 ounces) pecan pieces

1. Liberally butter four 5-by-3-inch or two 8-by-4-inch loaf pans and dust with sifted flour. Tap out the excess flour.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

3. To make the streusel: In a food processor, add the pecans, sugar, flour, butter, cinnamon, vanilla and salt and pulse until coarsely combined. Transfer to a small bowl, cover and refrigerate until ready to use, up to 5 days.

4. To make the banana bread: sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a bowl and set aside.

5. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk the sugar, eggs, and vanilla on medium speed until well combined and lightened in color, 4 to 5 minutes. Reduce the speed to low and drizzle in the oil, whisking until combined. Add the banana mash and whisk just until combined. Add the dry ingredients and pecans to the batter in three additions, whisking just to combine after each addition. Do not overmix.

6. Divide the batter between the prepared pans. Sprinkle the tops with the streusel, dividing it evenly. (You may not need all of the streusel if making the smaller loaves.) Bake until the breads have risen nicely and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes for the small loaves and 45 to 50 minutes for the larger loaves. Transfer to wire racks and let cool in the pans for 20 minutes. Run an offset spatula around the edges of the pans, then invert the cakes onto the racks and let cool for about 20 minutes longer. Serve right away, or wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate until you are ready to serve, up to 3 days. To freeze, wrap tightly in a second layer of plastic and store in the freezer for up to 2 months. Serve at room temperature.

Chocolate Fudge - another fudge fail

2012-02-06T18:42:00.000-08:00

Chocolate Fudge - made February 1, 2012 made from Hallelujah! The Welcome Table by Maya Angelou (book #186)

Do you like your fudge dry, crumbly and/or grainy? If so, let me make your fudge for you. Because that's how my last couple of attempts to make fudge have turned out. I know there are "no-fail" fudge recipes out there that use marshmallow creme and/or evaporated milk to minimize the risk of graininess but I was trying to make "real", old-fashioned fudge the old-school way. Ha, that was a mistake.

If you've ever read any of the Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace, they were always making fudge amongst their high school crowd with Betsy, Tacy, Tib, Carney, et al. They must've had a knack for it because no one ever complained about grainy fudge. Although it is a work of fiction after all, as fictitious as my making non-grainy fudge. I knew I was taking a risk though since the instructions were a bit sparse. I did try the old-fashioned soft ball test of dropping a bit of the boiling fudge mixture into ice-cold water until it formed a soft ball. It took forever for the fudge to get to that stage and I was afraid of overcooking it. But actually I think I undercooked it because I cheated and also used a candy thermometer to see when it got to 220 degrees F or "soft ball" stage. By the ice-cold water test, the fudge formed a soft ball at 210 degrees so I finally took it off since it had been boiling for over 20 minutes and the thermometer hadn't budged a degree above 210 for 10 minutes. So I got insecure about it and took it off the burner. I followed the rest of the instructions to a T but my fudge still ended up grainy. Sigh. Epic fail.

Someday I will conquer old-fashioned fudge making. Today was not that day.

3 cups sugar
3 cups milk
2 tablespoons corn syrup
6 ounces semisweet chocolate
3 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped roasted almonds

1. Butter 8 x 8-inch pan.
2. In large, heavy saucepan, bring sugar, milk, corn syrup, and chocolate to a boil.
3. Put a drop of mixture in 1 cup of ice-cold water. When the drop forms a soft ball, remove from heat. If ball does not form, continue cooking and repeat until ball forms.
4. Add butter and vanilla extract to hot mixture. Cool. When saucepan with chocolate mixture has cooled to a lukewarm temperature, beat mixture with spoon until it losses its gloss and becomes thick. Stir in almonds before mixture cools completely. Cool in pan. Cut in desired-size squares.

Orange Chicken made in the crock pot

2012-02-04T20:24:00.002-08:00

Orange Chicken - made January 29, 2012

I'm trying to cook more these days so I don't go out to eat all the time. Although, "cook" might be a subjective term. Let's call it, "I took down my crock pot from the high shelf and threw in some chicken". It took a little more effort than that but not much more. Last year I had tried a slow cooker orange chicken recipe from another blog that was pretty good and I was going to make it again but when it was time to assemble it, I didn't have my computer on and was too lazy to fire it up to check that original recipe so I made up this one on the fly instead with the ingredients I had on hand. It came out pretty well, although it could've been more orange-y. Next time I need to decrease the barbecue sauce and increase the orange marmalade.

I want to use my crockpot more often because it's the easiest way to cook but one issue I always have with whatever I make in it is that it always comes out soupy. Sometimes I'm not going for the soup texture so I end up thickening the sauce with some cornstarch. It still hardly ever thickens up to the consistency I want but taste-wise, it comes out okay. I've made worse, haha.

12 skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of fat
1 cup barbecue sauce (I used Trader Joe's smoky-sweet BBQ sauce)
1/2 cup orange marmalade
1 teaspoon ground ginger
3 green onions, chopped (green tops and all)
Salt and pepper
2 teaspoons cornstarch

Combine all ingredients except cornstarch. Cook on low setting in slow cooker overnight or 6-8 hours until chicken is fork-tender.
Remove 1/4 cup of the sauce and combine with 2 teaspoons cornstarch. Stir to dissolve and add back into slow cooker. Stir and let simmer another 10 minutes. Turn off crock pot and serve.

Lemon Shortbread Cookies

2012-02-03T07:20:00.000-08:00

Citrus Shortbread Cookies - made January 29, 2012, adapted from Desserts to Die For by Marcel Desaulniers (book #185)

This baking book by Marcel Desaulniers (as with all of my posts, click on the book title to go its amazon page, get more info and/or purchase) is full of lots of fancy, impressive-looking desserts. The pictures alone are guaranteed food porn. The book isn't really for newbies unless you're a risk taker who doesn't mind taking the plunge on multi-step, multi-layer recipes or have some baking experience and want to tackle something to awe your friends. I am somewhat in the middle of the spectrum. While I bake a lot, I rarely have long stretches of time to take on a single, complicated baking production. And even if the end result is eye-catchingly impressive, I'm more interested in the taste and likely only want a small piece before I'm moving on to the next project. So that's my long lead in to say that, while this book is filled with all kinds of fancy, I chose one of the simplest recipes in it to make. The original recipe called for both orange and lemon zests but I don't like to mix my flavors so I made it a pure lemon shortbread cookie. Also because I didn't have any oranges on hand, ha. It also said to use orange-flavored liqueur but since I wasn't going the orange route, I substituted lemon oil instead.

This could not be simpler to make and the dough was easy to work with, pliable without being too sticky. I rolled it into a squarish log, wrapped it in wax paper and refrigerated it overnight before slicing and baking the next morning. I baked it a couple of minutes longer than the recipe called for before I was satisfied with the golden brown color. I knew that with this type of cookie, it's best not to underbake it because you want it baked enough to have the snap and crisp texture of a good shortbread cookie. I'm glad I did because this turned out really well. It was almost as good as my favorite butter cookie from Bakewise by Shirley Corriher. It's a nicely-flavored lemon shortbread cookie, perfect for afternoon teas or just a dessert snack reminiscent of spring and summer flavors.

¼ pound unsalted butter

5 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 teaspoons grated lemon zest

1 teaspoon lemon oil

1 cup all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon salt

1. Preheat the oven to 325⁰F.

2. Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle. Beat on medium for 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Beat on high for 3 minutes, until the batter is light (but not fluffy). Add the lemon zest and the lemon oil. Beat on high for 30 seconds. Operate the mixer on low while gradually adding the flour and salt, and mix for 1 minute. Remove the bowl from the mixer and use a rubber spatula to finish mixing the dough, until thoroughly combined.

3. Wrap dough in plastic wrap. Roll the dough on a flat surface to form a 6-inch-long and 1 ½-inch in diameter cylinder. Place the dough in the refrigerator for 1 hour and 30 minutes.

4. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and discard the plastic wrap. Cut the dough into 12 individual ½-inch-thick slices. Divide the slices onto 2 baking sheets. Place the baking sheets onto the center rack in the preheated oven and bake for 16 to 18 minutes, until lightly browned around the edges. Halfway through the baking time, rotate each baking sheet 180 degrees. Remove the cookies from the oven and cool to room temperature on the baking sheets, about 20 minutes. The cooled cookies may be stored in a tightly sealed plastic container for several days at room temperature, or for several weeks in the freezer.

Linked to Sweet Treats Thursday

Root Beer Bundt Cake

2012-01-31T19:29:00.000-08:00

Root Beer Bundt Cake - made January 28, 2012 from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito (book #184)

I'm not fond of root beer. I might've liked it as a kid but when I tried it as an adult, I found it way too sweet for me. And for someone with my sweet tooth, that's saying something. Yet I was drawn to this recipe for a couple of reasons. One, it's similar in concept to a cola cake which I've never made before but was always curious to try. And two, when you've been baking as much and as long as I have, it's good to try things I might not have liked or considered in one form. I never know when I might like it in a different form. So it's good to expand baking horizons. Besides, the picture of this cake in the Baked cookbook was irresistible.

I wasn't sure what I expected from this cake except I thought it would taste like root beer. It doesn't. Instead, it's probably one of the best chocolate cakes made from cocoa that I've ever tried. It's even better than the Simple Chocolate Sheet Cake I made for National Chocolate Cake Day. Cocoa imparts a rich, dark chocolate flavor to almost anything it's used in (provided you use high quality cocoa!) but it sometimes has a tendency to have a drier texture. Not in this cake. Must've been the root beer but this made a moist, almost velvety, cakey-dense-but-not-too-dense texture. It's hard to describe except that both the taste and the flavor of this cake were excellent. As always, it's important to use a dark, high quality cocoa since that is what you'll taste.

The only issue I had with this cake is, because the batter is so thin, it became a bit lumpy after the flour was added. The recipe cautions against over mixing so I was afraid to beat out all the lumps and I didn't know if straining it would be considered over-handling/over-mixing so I didn't. There were some flour spots/little lumps in the baked cake but nothing too embarrassing....I hope.

2 cups root beer (do not use diet root beer)

1 cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 ¼ cups granulated sugar

½ cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

Root Beer Fudge Frosting

2 ounces dark chocolate (60% cacao), melted and cooled slightly

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1 teaspoon salt

¼ cup root beer

2/3 cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder

2 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 325⁰F. Generously spray the inside of a 10-inch bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray.

2. In a small saucepan, heat the root beer, cocoa powder, and butter over medium heat until the butter is melted. Add the sugars and whisk until dissolved. Remove from the heat and let cool.

3. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda and salt together.

4. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs until just beaten, then whisk them into the cooled cocoa mixture until combined. Gently fold the flour mixture into the cocoa mixture. The batter will be slightly lumpy – do not overbeat it, as it could cause the cake to be tough.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time, until a small sharp knife inserted into the cake comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool completely. Gently loosen the sides of the cake from the pan and turn it out onto the rack.

6. Make the Root Beer Fudge Frosting: Put all the ingredients in a food processor. Pulse in short burts until the frosting is shiny and smooth.

7. Use a spatula to spread the fudge frosting over the crown of the bundt in a thick layer. Let the frosting set before serving, with ice cream on the side.

Red Velvet Pancakes with Cream Cheese Glaze

2012-01-28T21:08:00.000-08:00

Red Velvet Pancakes - made January 21, 2012 from Allrecipes.com

Welcome to any new followers and thanks to everyone who leaves a comment! I may not always have time to comment back or my responses may be delayed but I read every single one and am glad to know someone's reading my blog :) - please keep them coming!

Did you blink and realize it's almost the end of January? I love the start of a new year but it seems like I barely have time to savor it before we're actually well into the year itself. January is almost over and I could start blogging about snacks for Super Bowl parties but since my beloved 49ers lost in the NFC Championship Game against the Giants, well, meh, I'm skipping that. Let's just go right into Valentine's Day (although I reserve the right to change my mind later and possibly come up with some kind of snack-y Super Bowl-y dessert idea once the bitter sting has passed. Which could be next week or in August for pre-season, haha).

If you're noticing the dates on when I've made stuff and when I've blogged about them, you'll see I'm going a little out of order. Normally I post the stuff as I make it, depending on the time I have to bake and blog, which isn't always on the same day. I've been going out of order lately to try and time to the different days of remembrance, lamingtons for Australia Day, chocolate cake for National Chocolate Cake Day, homemade Snickers for National Peanut Butter Day, etc. I've held off blogging about this recipe to get us a little closer to Valentine's Day in case anyone is planning some kind of Valentine's Day-themed brunch or something.

I pretty much love red velvet anything. Yeah, all that red dye #7 probably isn't good for me but it's not like I have it every week. I try to keep it for special occasions. You know, like Tuesdays. I did go through an alarming amount of red food coloring during my holiday baking spree but that was for Christmas. Now I've got to break out at least one red velvet item for Valentine's Day. I've done red velvet cake, 2 different kinds of red velvet cookies and even red velvet brownies. So why not Red Velvet Pancakes? I had buttermilk to use up (I always seem to have buttermilk to use up) and whenever I have a particular ingredient to use or want a recipe for a particular food I want to make, I always check allrecipes.com. That's where this recipe comes from. I flipped through other red velvet pancake recipes from the blogs I follow and a few looked really promising but at the time, I didn't have all the required ingredients on hand. I did for this one so it won by default.

I like the concept of these pancakes, with the cream cheese glaze as the "syrup" for them. They turned out well although I don't know that I would consider them true red velvet. I didn't get much of a chocolate undertone in them so they almost seemed like red-dyed pancakes rather than red velvet. There wasn't any baking soda in this recipe which means the acidity of the buttermilk wasn't neutralized so you can taste that tang. Overall they were good but I think I would still keep looking for a "true" red velvet pancake recipe.

Cream Cheese Glaze
1 (4 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon milk, or as needed

Red Velvet Pancakes
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
2 teaspoons red food coloring
1/4 cup melted butter

Prepare the cream cheese glaze by beating the cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract in a bowl until smooth. Thin with 1 tablespoon milk or as needed to achieve a pourable consistency. Set aside.
Whisk the flour, white sugar, baking powder, cocoa powder, and salt together in a bowl until evenly blended; set aside. Beat the eggs in a separate mixing bowl until smooth. Whisk in 1/4 cup milk with the buttermilk, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, vinegar, and food coloring. Stir in the flour mixture until moistened. Drizzle in the melted butter, and stir until the butter has incorporated and small lumps of flour remain.
Heat a lightly oiled griddle over medium-high heat. Drop batter by large spoonfuls onto the griddle, and cook until bubbles form and the edges are dry. Flip, and cook until browned on the other side. Repeat with remaining batter. Drizzle with the cream cheese glaze to serve.

Simple Chocolate Sheet Cake

2012-01-26T18:56:00.000-08:00

Simple Chocolate Sheet Cake - made January 22, 2012, recipe adapted from Cook’s Country Chocolate Desserts

January 27 is National Chocolate Cake Day so of course, I have to post a chocolate cake recipe. Last year, I had posted the Mexican Chocolate Fudge Pecan Cake which is one of my favorite chocolate cake recipes. This year, I tried out this "Simple Chocolate Sheet Cake". True to its word, it actually is pretty simple, especially if you need a quick and easy recipe for a crowd pleaser, upcoming Super Bowl party, family picnic, classroom treat, etc. Because it's made as a sheet cake, this is easy to make, there's no muss or fuss to cut up and serve and it tastes pretty good.

I did modify the directions a bit, mostly in how to make the frosting. The original recipe calls for making it like a typical ganache where you chop the chocolate fine, heat the cream, pour the cream over the chopped chocolate and whisk until the chocolate is all melted and smooth. Unfortunately, I find this method imprecise. My chocolate doesn't always melt and I'm left with little bits while the cream has already cooled. Instead, I advocate melting the chocolate first, heating the cream, then whisking the two together. The chocolate will seem to seize at first but keep whisking and it'll smooth out. Or, if you want to play it safe and go with the more traditional method of making ganache, if your chocolate doesn't completely melt with the addition of the hot cream, you can always strain it smooth. But I prefer the other method and save myself the straining.

I liked the flavor and texture of this cake - it was as a good chocolate cake should be. However, be sure to use a dark, high quality, unsweetened cocoa - the grocery store/generic brand won't cut it for flavor. I use Pernigotti but you can also use Scharffenberger, Valrhona, etc. You can taste the chocolate flavor from the cocoa in this cake so don't cheat yourself by using anything less than the good stuff. As for the frosting, it came out with a really silky-smooth texture. I myself am not a frosting lover so to me it was "okay" but I wasn't in love with it. It's soft and spreadable when you first make it but it does cool into a firm consistency. Not firm like a pure fudge layer but it won't be spreadable anymore after it's cooled. Because it's a milk chocolate frosting, it makes a nice contrast to the dark chocolate cake. And of course, use high quality milk chocolate in the frosting; you won't be sorry.

View from the top

1 ¼ cups (6 ¼ ounces) all-purpose flour

¾ cup (2 ¼ ounces) Dutch-processed cocoa
¼ teaspoon salt
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
12 ounces unsalted butter
4 large eggs
1 ½ cups (10 ½ ounces) sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
½ teaspoon baking soda

Creamy Milk Chocolate Frosting

½ cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon light or dark corn syrup
Pinch salt
10 ounces milk chocolate, chopped
½ cup (2 ounces) confectioners’ sugar
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces and chilled

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325°F. Line a 13 x 9-inch baking pan with aluminum foil and spray lightly with nonstick cooking spray.

2. Sift together flour, cocoa and salt in medium bowl; set aside. Place chocolate and butter in the top half of a double boiler over barely simmering water and stir until melted together. Do not let boil.
3. Whisk together eggs, sugar and vanilla in medium bowl.

4. Whisk chocolate into egg mixture until combined. Combine buttermilk and baking soda; whisk into chocolate mixture, then whisk in dry ingredients until batter is smooth and glossy. Pour batter into prepared pan; bake until firm in center when lightly pressed and toothpick inserted in center comes out barely clean, about 35-40 minutes. Let cool on wire rack until room temperature, at least 1 hour; serve, or ice with frosting if desired.

4. Make frosting: Combine cream, corn syrup, and salt in liquid measuring cup and microwave until simmering, about 1 minute, or bring to simmer in small saucepan over medium heat. Melt chocolate in top half of double boiler. Add hot cream mixture, whisking constantly. Melted chocolate might seize at first but keep whisking and it'll smooth out. Pour into food processor, add confectioners’ sugar and process to combine, about 30 seconds. With processor running, add butter 1 piece at a time; process until incorporated and smooth, about 20 seconds longer. Transfer frosting to medium bowl and let cool at room temperature, stirring frequently, until thick and spreadable, about 1 hour.

Linked to Something Swanky's Sweet Treats Thursday

Lamingtons - Happy Australia Day!

2012-01-25T06:55:00.000-08:00

Lamingtons - made January 24, 2012 from Allrecipes.com (click on title to go to the site)

January 26 is Australia Day and a year ago almost to the day, I was in Australia for the first time at the start of a 3-week tour of Australia and New Zealand. So it seems fitting that I make a recipe of one of the (many) foods I tried in Australia. There were lots of choices: meat pie (love), lamingtons (yum), camel (no), kangaroo (really, no), crocodile (tastes like chicken but still "no"), pavlova and ANZAC biscuits. There's some controversy whether pavlova was invented by the Aussies or the Kiwis so I wasn't going to go there. At first I wanted to make ANZAC biscuits for Australia Day but it turns out there's an ANZAC Day in April. Plus, since ANZAC stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps, it would still be sharing the spotlight with New Zealand. Nothing wrong with that but since this is Australia Day, I decided to go with lamingtons which can be genuinely attributed to Baron Lamington, a governor of Queensland, Australia in the early 1900s.

I tried a lamington in Kuranda on a day trip where I held a koala, took a scenic train ride through the mountains and rode a gondola over some majestic views. So not only was it a memorable day, but, hey, the lamington was pretty good too. In case you missed my blog post about it last year, a lamington is a light vanilla cake covered in chocolate icing and dusted with coconut. I went to allrecipes.com to search for a recipe. This one got good reviews so I decided to try it out. The only thing I changed is the pan size. The recipe calls for an 8 x 12 pan but I don't have that size pan so I went with a 9 x 9 pan.

view from the top

One of the things I liked best about the lamington I had in Kuranda was the added texture from the coconut sprinkled over the chocolate icing. I didn't use as much coconut as the recipe called for (at most I used 1 cup) and I toasted it golden brown first, let it cool, then crumbled them into smaller bits. Although it's a little difficult to tell from the picture of the lamington I had in Kuranda, the coconut they used was much more fine than the flakes we can buy in the States so I thought toasting and crumbling the coconut flakes might help.

I really liked this cake. The texture wasn't as soft and fluffy as the one I had in Australia but it was still a good vanilla cake with the taste reminiscent of a cakey Filipino bibingka. I loved the texture of the toasted coconut as well. The icing is runny so if you don't want it to soak into the cake but rather stay on top of it or adhere to the sides, make sure the cake is completely cool and the icing has also somewhat cooled to lukewarm or a bit warmer. Otherwise it will have a tendency to soak into the cake itself. But don't let it cool too much or it will thicken into a frosting. Because you're supposed to enrobe the cake in the icing, it's best to cut these small, like a petit four size as the icing makes it pretty rich. Use a dark cocoa in the icing to offset a bit of the sweetness.

The inside look

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk

Icing
4 cups confectioners' sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup milk
2 (8 ounce) packages flaked coconut

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Line a 9 x 9" rectangular pan with foil and spray lightly with nonstick cooking spray.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup butter, 3/4 cup sugar and the vanilla until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk; beat well.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Let stand 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely. Store overnight to give the cake a chance to firm up before Icing.
To make the icing: In a large bowl, combine confectioners' sugar and cocoa. In a saucepan, heat milk and 2 tablespoons butter until the butter is melted. Add the milk to the sugar mixture and mix well to create a fluid, but not too runny, icing.
Cut the cake into 24 squares. Place coconut in a shallow container. Using a fork, dip each square into the icing, then roll it in the coconut. Place onto rack to dry. Continue for each piece. The Icing will drip, so place a sheet of parchment paper under the rack to catch the drips.

Homemade "Snickers" & a Buckeye recipe

2012-01-22T20:12:00.000-08:00

Homemade "Snickers" - made January 21, 2012

I've been toying with the idea of making a homemade version of a Snickers bar for awhile. Snickers is another childhood candy favorite but I rarely eat it nowadays. I've done a homemade Twix version and a homemade Almond Joy version. Now it's Snickers' turn. Technically, I suppose this really isn't a Snickers bar though since it doesn't have nougat. Instead, I used a peanut butter blondie as the base, covered it with a layer of caramel and roasted peanuts and topped that with the peanut filling from a Buckeye recipe that Lauren, one of my friends from culinary school gave me. Lastly I enrobed it in milk chocolate. Hey, close enough.

To make this, you need 1 recipe of Peanut Butter and Milk Chocolate Brownies without the milk chocolate in the middle, a cup or so of caramel melted with a little milk until just the right consistency (not too thick, not too thin, Goldilocks), sprinkled with chopped roasted peanuts (roast the peanuts first then let them cool before using), topped by a layer of Lauren's Buckeye filling (recipe below), enrobed in melted milk chocolate candy melts.

Peanut Butter Blondie base

Add a layer of caramel and chopped roasted peanuts

Pat a "cover" of buckeye filling on top

I had received this new-fangled brownie pan from my ex-BIL and his girlfriend for Christmas that made bite-sized square brownies. While they would make "Snickers" that were a bit too big to be bite-sized, it still was a good petit four-type size that I thought would work. Because my vision called for multiple layers, it was important that no single layer be too thick. The layers don't have to be equal in thickness unless you want them to be but at a minimum, the bottom peanut butter blondie layer should be the thickest since it's the base, the caramel & peanut layer should be enough to "glue" the bottom and top layer together without oozing out and overflowing between the layers and the top layer should be no thicker than the bottom layer. If you use a similar pan, fill the square cavities no more than 1/2 full for baking. Alternatively, you can make the peanut butter blondie recipe in a 10-inch square pan without the chocolate layer called for in the original recipe and just cut the blondies into small squares for the base after it's baked.

Final step is to enrobe in milk chocolate

For the most part, this turned out, although not exactly as I had envisioned. The peanut butter blondie base squares didn't come out very easily from the new-fangled pan as the texture of the blondies was a bit delicate. Still, a little coaxing with a mini spatula yielded them easily enough without breaking apart. This turned out to be more like a peanut butter bon bon than a true Snickers knockoff. Next time I would make the caramel peanut layer a bit thicker and possible add the milk chocolate back into the peanut butter blondie base. But if you're a peanut butter lover, this is a good one to try.

adapted from Lauren's Buckeye recipe

8 ounces confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
8 tablespoons butter
1 cup graham cracker crumbs

1. Melt butter. Pour over graham cracker crumbs and mix. Add confectioners' sugar and peanut butter. Mix until smooth.
2. Use as needed for recipe. If making traditional buckeyes, shape into balls and dip in melted chocolate. Let cool until chocolate has set.

Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

2012-01-21T07:35:00.000-08:00

Cream Cheese Coffee Cake - made January 14, 2012 from Cook's Illustrated Holiday Baking 2011 by Christopher Kimball (book #183)

This looks deceptively done but inside lurks overly gooey filling about to flood out

This is another booklet I got for Christmas that adds to my baking book collection so it counts in my baking challenge. I love the stuff from Cook's Illustrated because the articles leading up to the recipes are really interesting as the testers go through various trial and error to come up with the perfect recipe. For this one, the author was trying to create a combination coffee cake and cream cheese pastry so that you don't have to necessarily choose between a coffee cake and a Danish for breakfast. I go for coffee cake every time since I don't like the cream cheese filling in Danishes and I rarely have it for breakfast but I thought I'd give this a try anyway. More importantly I had sour cream, lemons and cream cheese to use up and this recipe used all three so it was perfect to try out.

This is reminiscent of the Lemon Ripple Crunch Cake (take 1) I've blogged about before - it's a cake with a custard-type filling and a sugar crunch topping. Also like the Lemon Ripple Crunch Cake (take 2), I made the same mistake as before in that I didn't bake it long enough, cut it too soon before the filling had really set and warm liquid filling came gushing out along with a bit of raw cake batter. Not pretty. I ended up putting it back in the oven to bake some more and while the results were not eye-catching to behold (unless you want to classify it in the cake wreck category), the taste held up really well. The cake part wasn't overbaked like I feared it would be with a second baking and the filling remained soft but not liquid. It was more like a firm custard. If you like cream cheese and custard-type desserts, this is a pretty good cake to make. Although you might want to skip my mistake and just make sure it bakes long enough the first time and to let it cool enough for the filling to set. I ended up salvaging the cake by slicing it and only giving away the decent-looking slices. I deliberately didn't take a picture of the cake-wreck look as that would've been too embarrassing to have documented.

Lemon-Sugar Almond Topping
¼ cup sugar
1 ½ teaspoons freshly grated lemon zest
½ cup sliced almonds (which I omitted because I don't like nuts in my cakes)

Cake
2 ¼ cups (11 ¼ ounces) all-purpose flour
1 1/8 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/8 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened but still cool
1 cup plus 7 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest plus 4 teaspoons juice (1 to 2 lemons)
4 large eggs
5 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ¼ cups sour cream
8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1. For the topping: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350°F. Stir together sugar and lemon zest in small bowl until combined and sugar is moistened. Stir in almonds; set aside.
2. For the cake: spray 10-inch tube pan with vegetable oil spray. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in medium bowl; set aside. In stand mixer fitted with paddle, beat butter, 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, and lemon zest together on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down sides and bottom of bowl with rubber spatula. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, about 20 seconds, and scraping down beater and sides of bowl as necessary. Add 4 teaspoons vanilla and mix to combine. Reduce speed to low and add one-third of flour mixture, followed by half of sour cream, mixing until incorporated after each addition, 5 to 10 seconds. Repeat, using half of remaining flour mixture and all of remaining sour cream. Scrape bowl and add remaining flour mixture; mix on low speed until batter is thoroughly combined, about 10 seconds. Remove bowl from mixer and fold batter once or twice with rubber spatula to incorporate any remaining flour.
3. Reserve 1 ¼ cups batter and set aside. Spoon remaining batter into prepared pan and smooth top. Return now-empty bowl to mixer and beat together cream cheese, remaining 5 tablespoons sugar, lemon juice and remaining 1 teaspoon vanilla on medium speed until smooth and slightly lightened, about 1 minute. Add ¼ cup reserved batter and mix until incorporated. Spoon cheese filling mixture evenly over batter, keeping filling about 1 inch from edges of pan; smooth top. Spread remaining 1 cup reserved batter over filling and smooth top. With butter knife or offset spatula, gently swirl filling into batter using figure-8 motion, being careful not to drag filling to bottom or edges of the pan. Firmly tap pan on counter 2 or 3 times to dislodge any bubbles. Sprinkle lemon sugar-almond topping evenly over batter and gently press into batter to adhere.
4. Bake until top is golden and just firm, and long skewer inserted into cake comes out clean (skewer will be wet if inserted into cheese filling), 45 to 50 minutes. Remove pan from oven and firmly tap on counter 2 or 3 times (top of cake may sink slightly). Cool cake in pan on wire rack for 1 hour. Gently invert cake onto rimmed baking sheet (cake will be topping side down); remove tube pan, place wire rack on top of cake, and invert cake sugar side up. Cool to room temperature, about 1 ½ hours. Cut into slices and serve.

Linked to Sweet Tooth Friday

Korean BBQ Beef

2012-01-18T19:03:00.000-08:00

Korean BBQ Beef - made January 11, 2012 from Everyday Low Carb Cooking by Alex Haas (book #182)

The original recipe is actually Korean BBQ Chicken but lately I've been eating enough chicken to grow my own feathers so I substituted beef instead. I sliced it thin then pounded each slice with a meat mallet to tenderize it. Since I don't really cook, I know little to nothing about different cuts of beef other than the more expensive it is, likely the more tender it is. I don't think chuck roast shrieks "high end" so I whacked the pieces with the meat mallet just to be on the safe side. And this time you'll be happy to know that I used green onions/scallions as called for in the recipe instead of shallots.

Oddly, I even had all of the ingredients in my pantry so they must've been from past cooking attempts. Although I don't think I can attest to the shelf life of some of my spices. But at least the green onions were fresh from the produce section of the grocery store. I ended up marinating the beef overnight since I haven't yet developed the knack of working all day, coming home, preparing dinner from scratch and eating said dinner that same night. My usual habit is to come home, workout, eat whatever dinner food I had in the fridge from the night before then prepare what I would cook the following night. Hence the 24-hour marinating period.

I didn't have a grill so I cooked these via stir fry in a large frying pan (since I don't own a wok either). Despite all these modifications, the dish actually turned out to be quite tasty. It was a little on the spicy side for me so there was some life still left in my spices after all. Although this comes from a low carb cookbook, I couldn't help but think this is really good served with rice. :)

Still piping hot

3-lb fryer, cut into 8 pieces (I used 1 1/2 lbs chuck roast, sliced thin)

½ cup soy sauce

2 tablespoons sesame oil

1 teaspoon sesame seeds

3 tablespoons sugar equivalent sweetener

½ cup green onions, diced

¼ teaspoon black pepper

½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon dried ginger

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1. Mix all ingredients. Let the chicken marinate 1 hour if possible. Cook slowly over charcoal, basting with the marinade. Discard any marinade that isn’t used.

Apple Crumble with Oatmeal Crunch Topping

2012-01-15T08:58:00.000-08:00

Autumn Fruit Crumble with Oatmeal Crunch Topping - made January 8, 2012 from Great Pies and Tarts by Carole Walter (book #181)

My final baking experiment from last weekend was this apple crumble. I had a hankering for a warm dessert I could top with ice cream and there's nothing easier than putting together a crumble for a quick dessert. I've listed the original recipe below but, as usual, I did my own modifications. For the topping, I only made half a recipe and I substituted pecans for walnuts, partly because I think walnuts are too bitter and partly because I only had pecans on hand. For the filling, I only used Granny Smith apples because that's what I had and I don't really like pears anyway. Actually, now that I look at the recipe again, I didn't follow the filling recipe at all and just made up my own: to go with half the recipe of the topping, I used 2 Granny Smith apples (peeled, cored and sliced), sprinkled them with a couple of tablespoons of granulated sugar, a few sprinkles of cinnamon and the juice from 1 lemon.

Before

After

I used the topping mixture to also make a bottom layer of the crumble in 3 individual-sized ramekins, layered the apples on top and covered it all with the rest of the topping mixture. Then I baked for....I don't know how long since I never time these things. Just until "a toothpick poked into the apples shows the apples are soft enough" is about as precise as I got. Oh and when the top was browned enough. You decide based on your oven how long it should be in there for.

At first I didn't think I liked this recipe as much as other crumbles, cobblers and crisps that I've made. It didn't seem to be sweet enough which made me think the oats and pecans cut the sweetness as well as I might've used too much lemon juice in the apples. Plus the apple filling didn't seem very juicy so it seemed a little dry. However, that was only the first taste test on the first day. This is a dessert that seems to improve with age. I had the second taste test the next day after refrigerating the individual crumbles - after I had warmed it up in the microwave and topped it with ice cream, it was much better, had a bit more juice and the apples were sweeter. I don't know why that is but that's what I found. So overall, this made a nice base for a scoop of vanilla ice cream to sit on.

Topping

¾ cup unsifted all-purpose flour

¾ cup whole wheat pastry flour

½ cup quick rolled oats

½ cup walnuts

¼ cup granulated sugar

¼ cup lightly packed light brown sugar

¼ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

2/3 to ¾ cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Filling

3 Cortland apples (or Empire, Macoun or Granny Smith)

4 firm Red Bartlett or Anjou pears

1 ½ cups fresh cranberries, washed and dried

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

½ cup granulated sugar

1 ½ tablespoons cornstarch

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon grated navel or Valencia orange zest

1. Preheatthe oven to 350⁰F. Position theoven rack in the lower third of the oven. Butter generously a 7 x 11 x 1 ½” ovenproof glass baking dish.

2. Makethe topping: Place the flours, oats, walnuts, sugars, baking powder, salt andcinnamon in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Pulse until blended and the nuts are finelychopped. Empty the contents into a largebowl.

3. Pourthe melted butter over the flour mixture and toss with a fork to formcrumbs. Set aside.

4. Preparethe fruit: Cut the apples into quarters, core, peel and cut into ¾-inch thickpieces. If using apples other thanCortlands, cut into 1/2-inch pieces.

5. Cutthe pears in half, core, peel and cut into 1-inch chunks.

6. Placethe apples, pears and cranberries in a large bowl. Drizzle with the lemon juice. Combine sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon andorange zest. Sprinkle over the fruit,then shake the bowl to distribute. Emptythe mixture into the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle the crumb mixture over the fruit. Do not press.

7. Bakefor 50 to 55 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and the juices are bubbly. Serve warm with ice cream, frozen yogurt orwhipped cream.

Chicken in Creamy Orange Sauce

2012-01-12T18:04:00.000-08:00

Chicken in Creamy Orange Sauce - made January 7, 2012 from Cook’s Encyclopedia 30-Minute Cooking (book #180)

I was housebound last weekend and had a hard time just "resting" to get over this cold. Lying down was actually not restful since I had a harder time breathing when I'm horizontal. Sitting on my couch in front of the TV gets old after several episodes of Criminal Minds, NCIS and Law and Order, all of which I've already seen multiple times. So I spent time in the kitchen, not only baking but also cooking. Anything to further my baking/cooking challenge to make at least one recipe from every cookbook I own. I can't even remember how long I've had this book or why I bought it. It was probably during one of my more optimistic moments when I thought I was going to learn how to cook. Umpteenth years later, this is the first recipe I've made from this book.

While this recipe was easy to make, it also reinforced to me that I'm NOT a cook. I bake. I don't cook. Any real cook will tell you that following a recipe doesn't make you a cook. It might lead you to make something edible (or not) but that's not necessarily "cooking". And the reason I came to this conclusion is the comedy of errors I experienced in making this dish. It seemed straightforward enough: brown the chicken, throw the ingredients together for the sauce, let boil, serve. Ha! First, I apparently can't tell the difference between a scallion and a shallot. Scallions are also known as green onions. I call them green onions. I know what a green onion is. I've even cooked with green onions. But apparently my befuddled mind mixed up the two and I used a shallot instead. Shallots are a small, brown form of an onion. They are not scallions. Just so you know.

Second, I didn't have brandy in the house since I don't drink but I do have rum because I've used it in past baking recipes. So I used rum instead of brandy. Third, I also didn't have fromage frais and didn't even know what it was until I googled it. Apparently you can get it in Europe. I don't live in Europe. And they don't sell it at Target. Some sites said you can substitude low-fat cream cheese for fromage frais so that's what I did. Except I didn't have the low-fat version so I used full-fat cream cheese. So let's review this so far: I don't like the taste of rum, I don't like the tang of cream cheese and shallots aren't high on my list of things to taste or flavor food with. Why did I make this recipe then? Not just because it looked simple but it was also supposed to be an orange sauce. Strike three. Despite using 1 1/4 cups of orange juice (freshly squeezed from real oranges, mind you), I could barely taste the orange flavor in the sauce. Probably because it was overwhelmed by the shallots, the rum and the full-fat cream cheese. Sigh. For the final insult to my cooking injury, I forgot to salt and pepper the darn thing "to taste".
This is not my finest moment - "it's edible" is the kindest thing I can say about my cooking efforts. Made properly, this might actually be a good dish. The texture itself was sinfully rich and creamy, it was just the taste I wasn't wild about. If I venture to make it again, I would skip the rum or brandy entirely, cut back on the cream cheese (and actually use the low-fat version), jack up the orange juice and use honest-to-goodness green onions (scallions!). And not forget the salt and pepper.

8 skinless chicken thighs or drumsticks

3 tablespoons brandy (I used rum)

1 ¼ cups orange juice

3 scallions, chopped

2 teaspoons cornstarch

6 tablespoons low-fat fromage frais (substitute low-fatcream cheese)

Salt and ground black pepper

1. Cookthe chicken pieces without fat in a nonstick or heavy pan, turning until theyare evenly browned.

2. Stirin the brandy, orange juice and scallions. Bring to a boil, then cover, lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes,or until the chicken is tender and fully cooked.

3. Blendthe cornstarch with a little water, then stir the paste into the fromagefrais. Stir this into the sauce and stirover medium heat until the sauce boils and thickens.

4. Adjustthe seasoning and serve with boiled rice or pasta and green salad.

Chewy Fudgy Triple Chocolate Brownies

2012-01-11T06:37:00.000-08:00

Chewy Fudgy Triple Chocolate Brownies.....with a layer of dulce de leche - made January 6, 2012 from Cook's Country Chocolate Desserts

This was the final thing that went into the care package I sent out last weekend. It's also from Cook's Country Chocolate Desserts because I'm like a kid with a new toy when I get a new baking book. It's all I want to play with and make recipes from. The picture in the booklet led me to try these because the browneis looked so dark and fudgy. I added a layer of dulce de leche in the middle to jazz it up a bit. This was a dark chocolate brownie so I thought the dulce de leche would give it a nice sweetness contrast. For the most part, it worked. The brownies were dark chocolate fudgy goodness and would probably have been fine as is if you want an indulgent chocolate treat. The dulce de leche also worked although I would probably use half the amount next time so it's more a ribbon of sweetness than a competing layer. It made slicing a little messy. Fortunately the dulce de leche layer was in the middle rather than on top so it was still doable to packaged them up in plastic wrap (2 squares to a package) and put them in the care package.

5 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces

3 tablespoons cocoa
3 large eggs

1 ¼ cups (8 ¾ ounces) sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup (5 ounces) all-purpose flour

1. Adjustoven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 350°F. Spray 8-inch square baking pan with vegetableoil spray. Make foil sling by folding 2long sheets of aluminum foil so that they are as wide as the pan. Lay sheets of foil in pan perpendicular toone another, with extra foil hanging over edges of pan. Push foil into corners and up sides of pan,smoothing foil flush to pan. Spray foilwith vegetable oil spray.

2. Inmedium heatproof bowl set over pan of almost-simmering water, melt chocolatesand butter, stirring occasionally until mixture is smooth. Whisk in cocoa until smooth. Set aside to cool slightly.

3. Whisktogether eggs, sugar, vanilla, and salt in medium bowl until combined, about 15seconds. Whisk warm chocolate mixtureinto egg mixture; then stir in flour with wooden spoon until justcombined. Pour mixture into preparedpan, spread into corners, and level surface with rubber spatula; bake untilslightly puffed and toothpick inserted in center comes out with small amount ofsticky crumbs clinging to it, 35 to 40 minutes. Let cool on wire rack to room temperature, about 2 hours, then removebrownies from pan using foil handles. Cut into 1-inch squares and serve. Do not cut brownies until ready to serve; brownies can be wrapped inplastic and refrigerated for up to 5 days.

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

2012-01-09T19:31:00.000-08:00

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies - made January 7, 2012 from Cook’s Country Chocolate Desserts (book #179)

No matter how many different recipes for chocolate chip cookies I've tried and even though I've already found two I liked (Alton Brown's Chocolate Chip Cookies and Ultimate Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies), a potentially good chocolate chip cookie recipe always catches my eye. I'm usually sucked in when the picture accompanying the recipe is absolutely mouthwatering and shows a moist, thick cookie that makes me salivate. Plus putting "thick and chewy" in the title is a baking magnet. This was one of those recipes from this booklet/magazine. My cousin Christine gave it to me for Christmas and although it's not as thick as a book, I already want to try nearly all of the recipes in it. And I probably will. The first one out of the gate is this recipe.

Because you melt the butter, this is really easy to put together in a short amount of time. I didn't bother with using my stand mixer but mixed it all by hand. Remember when making chocolate chip cookies, don't add the chocolate chips all at once. Hold back a handful to add to the last scoop of dough when, almost inevitably, all the chips are gone and you're just left with the remaining (chipless) spoonful of dough. I chilled these for an hour before I made them. Normally I would've made these the night before I needed them but I was still sickly and didn't have anything left in me after making the honeybun cake. But I needed these for a thank you care package so I mixed up the dough the morning before I mailed the package.

Because the recipe gave weight measurements of the ingredients, I used my food scale to measure everything out for the greatest accuracy. I got results similar to what the write up in the booklet promised: crisp edges, moist and chewy middles and the inside looked like the original picture that lured me into trying the recipe. Good, right? Unfortunately though, I thought these cookies were way too sweet. Maybe it's my sickly taste buds that lowered my sugar tolerance; perish the thought as I can usually ingest a lot of sugar without blinking. But I think these truly were genuinely too sweet. I prefer my chocolate chip cookies to have more of a buttery taste rather than a sugary one and for the sugar not to compete with the chocolate chips so forcefully. Which is too bad as I like everything else about the cookie - texture, spread, ease of preparation. But not all the sugar flavor. So it's really unfortunate that I packed these in the care package I sent before I realized how sweet the cookies were. Oops.

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons (10 5/8 ounces) all-purposeflour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 cup packed (7 ounces) brown sugar
½ cup (3 ½ ounces) granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-1 ½ cups chocolate chips

1.     Adjustoven rack to upper-middle and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 325°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchmentpaper.
2.    Whiskflour, baking soda, and salt together in medium bowl; set aside. Using stand mixer fitted with paddle, mixbutter and sugars on medium speed until thoroughly blended. Beat in egg, egg yolk, and vanilla untilcombined. Add dry ingredients and beaton low speed just until combined. Stirin chips to taste.
3.     Rollscant ¼ cup of dough into balls. Holddough ball with fingertips of both hands and pull into 2 equal halves. Rotate halves 90 degrees and, with jaggedsurfaces facing up, join halves together at base, again forming single ball,being careful not to smooth dough’s uneven surface. Place formed dough balls on prepared bakingsheets, jagged surface up, spacing them 2 ½ inches apart.
4.    Bakeuntil cookies are light golden brown and outer edges start to harden yetcenters are still soft, 15 to 18 minutes, switching and rotating baking sheetshalfway through baking. Let cookies coolon sheets. Remove cooled cookies frombaking sheets with wide metal spatula and serve.

Honeybun Cake

2012-01-08T17:43:00.000-08:00

Honeybun Cake - made January 6, 2012 from Eat Cake for Dinner blog

First baking experiment of the new year! I've been sick all week and normally I don't bake when I'm sick. It's kind of gross to be in the kitchen, coughing and sneezing, and possibly contaminating whatever I'm baking (ewwww). So I just don't do it. But my cold seems to have "progressed" to the point that I can control the coughing fits and, while the dull pounding in my head hasn't abated, I miss baking enough that it's almost a manic impulse to drag myself into the kitchen and bake something just to make myself feel better. I needed something that seemed easy though because there's only so much pounding in my skull that I can work through. This recipe fit the bill since I had sour cream to use up and a lone box of cake mix sitting in the pantry. I did modify it slightly by adding 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract to the batter and an extra teaspoon of cinnamon to the brown sugar-cinnamon mixture. Guess I just can't help tinkering and I wanted a little more vanilla and cinnamon flavor. Or at least I figured the additions couldn't hurt.

This was really easy to mix up. I did worry a bit that there didn't seem to be enough batter for a 9 x 13 pan and that the cake would be too thin. I also don't know if I did a very good job of swirling since it was a little difficult to swirl properly. But once this went into the oven and started baking, it smelled heavenly, even through my stuffed-up nose. It turns out my worries were unfounded because the cake rose properly to be a good thickness and there's really no wrong way to swirl cinnamon-brown sugar into anything. I did modify the glaze from Jenn's original recipe and ended up using both more milk and vanilla to make the glaze a nice runny consistency. In hindsight, I should've used even more milk to make the glaze more runny. Once it cooled and set, it firmed up like royal icing but I think a little more milk would've kept it softer.

Of course I had to try the taste test piece warm. Because that was the point of pouring the glaze over the hot cake right out of the oven, right? I did have the decency to wait until the cake had cooled enough to still be warm but not so hot that I'd burn my taste buds. I had that much self control.....barely. This was a great cake. The cake portion was the perfect light, airy/cakey consistency, the brown sugar-cinnamon in the middle melted inside the cake and the brown sugar-cinnamon sprinkled on top and swirled provided a slightly crunchy contrast. The glaze was the perfect topping and provided a nice sweetness.

My adapted version (please click on post title to go to the original recipe on Jenn's blog)

1 yellow cake mix (I used Pillsbury but you can use any standard yellow cake mix)

4 eggs

1 cup sour cream

3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Filling & topping

1 cup light brown sugar

3 teaspoons cinnamon

Glaze

2 cups powdered sugar

5-6 tablespoons milk

2 teaspoons vanilla

Combine cake mix, eggs, sour cream and oil until well blended; set aside.
Combine brown sugar and cinnamon in a separate bowl. Spread half of the cake batter into a 9x13 cake pan. Sprinkle with half of the brown sugar and cinnamon, covering the entire cake. Spread the rest of the cake batter over layer and top with remaining sugar and cinnamon. Use a knife and swirl the batter.
Bake at 325 degrees for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Make the glaze: combine powdered sugar, milk and vanilla until smooth and pour over the hot cake right when it comes out of the oven. Let set. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Alfajores

2012-01-05T19:14:00.000-08:00

Alfajores - made December 31, 2011 from Chewy, Gooey, Crispy, Crunchy by Alice Medrich

The last thing I made in 2011

When my parents and later my friend Jenny went to South America, they each brought me back some alfajores, which, according to Alice Medrich, are "the fancy sandwich cookies of Spain and Latin America." There are many variations of alfajores but they're essentially vanilla butter cookies sandwiched with dulce de leche. Some are coated in chocolate, some are rolled in coconut, some are plain. The alfajores given to me were individually wrapped in foil and they were soft because the dulce de leche filling softens the cookies. So I was eager to make my own alfajores to try them as the fresh, crunchy version with the dulce de leche filling.

I don't own this cookbook but it's another one I checked out of my local library in an effort to keep my acquisitive nature under control. I like Alice Medrich's cookbooks though so I can see owning this down the road (cough). For now, the library copy will suffice. Actually, I've promised myself that once I thin out my recipe books of the ones I don't really use or plan to use, then and only then can I add to it with the ones I want the most. After my baking challenge is done.

In any case, since this is a sandwich cookie, I made them small, using a small ice cream scoop for reasonably similar-sized cookies. I thought that would make them small enough. The dough was a dream to work with, a bit stiff but not sticky and it was easy to shape. For once I didn't freeze them first. The recipe calls for flattening the cookie dough balls to a 1-inch thickness before baking. Although I started with fairly small cookies, they did puff slightly and spread a bit so the cookies turned out a little larger than I had expected. For the filling, I used the jar of dulce de leche from Williams Sonoma; it's good quality and tastes great.

These cookies turned out really well. They were crunchy the day they're made and are really tasty, especially with the more high-end dulce de leche as the filling. I had been a little apprehensive about adding the rum to the dough since I don't like alcohol but it was the perfect touch and upscaled it from "just" a butter cookie. The rum taste isn't strong at all but gives it more flavor. Definite thumbs up. The cookies do soften a little the next day because of the filling but they're still quite good. The only thing I would do differently next time I make these (and there will be a next time) is to make them even smaller and flatten them a little more to make them a little more dainty.

2 ¼ cups (10.125 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, very soft

1 cup (7 ounces) sugar

1 large egg

2 tablespoons brandy or rum

1 cup dulce de leche

1. Preheat the oven to 325⁰F. Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven.

2. Combine the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl and mix together thoroughly with a whisk or fork.

3. With a large spoon in a medium mixing bowl or with a mixer, mix the butter with the sugar until smooth and well blended but not fluffy. Add the egg and brandy and mix until smooth. Add the flour mixture and mix until completely incorporated.

4. Shape heaping teaspoons of dough into 1-inch balls. Place the cookies 2 inches apart on lined or ungreased pans and flatten to about ½" thick. Bake for 14 to 16 minutes, until the edges are lightly browned. Rotate the pans from top to bottom and from front to back, halfway through the baking time. Transfer the cookies to racks and cool completely before storing or filling.

5. Sandwich the cookies with a generous dab of dulce de leche. The cookies will soften as they stand. They are good crunchy or soft. May be stored in an airtight container for at least 1 week.

Crazy for Crust Sweet Tuesday
Sweet Tooth Friday
Sweets for a Saturday

My sister's after-Christmas party

2012-01-04T07:04:00.000-08:00

Still catching up from last week: My sister threw an informal dinner party the day after Christmas and besides the pineapple teriyaki meatballs and the lumpia I've already blogged about, she had quite a spread. Because I love taking pictures of food, here you go:

Freshly fried tortilla chips - totally addicting

Guacamole/salsa dip

Vegetarian version of pancit

Two types of shrimp in hollowed-out pineapple shells

Lechon (roast pork)

The lechon, cut up

Gotta have rice :)

My other niece got clever with the Kahlua Cake and made it to be like a wreath

And dessert, also a must have

We also had the veggie version of lumpia but I don't eat it so I must not have taken a picture of it, lol.

Old-Fashioned Chocolate Sheet Cake

2012-01-02T18:26:00.000-08:00

Old-Fashioned Chocolate Sheet Cake - made December 22, 2011 from Chocolate Chocolate by Lisa Yockelson

I'm a bit behind on a couple of blog posts so this is a catch up from before Christmas. Despite my earlier claims about keeping it conservative when it comes to recipe experimentation during the holidays, I have to admit I get a little twitchy if I go too long without trying a new recipe. There's only so much of baking the same tried-and-true recipes I can do without feeling like my baking soul is being stifled. There are so many recipes out there! I can't imagine sticking to the same ones all the time. But I do compromise around the holidays and take very few risks.

So when I do try a new recipe, I go with one that's almost certainly guaranteed to turn out. As I've mentioned over and over, Lisa Yockelson's recipes typically fit that bill. I needed a few more baked gifts for the last of my holiday lunches before Christmas and something to put in the freezer for my post-Christmas baked-goods gift giving so this was almost a no-brainer to try out. A chocolate sheet cake that can be frosted, sliced, wrapped and stored is ideal for what I needed.

The cake itself turned out great. The flavor was nice and chocolaty, the texture was soft and moist. Overall, this is a good chocolate cake recipe. The only failure though is the frosting recipe I used. It set too much too quickly, likely because I either used too much powdered sugar or too little milk (because I ran out) so it hardened to be more like a thin fudge layer rather than a creamy chocolate frosting. Not that that is necessarily bad but I would've preferred a more traditional soft frosting.

2 cups bleached cake flour

1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

10 tablespoons (1 stick plus 2 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened

1 2/3 cups plus 2 tablespoons superfine sugar

3 large eggs

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled to tepid

2 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

1 ¼ cups milk

1. Preheat the oven to 350⁰F. Lightly grease the inside of a 9 x 13 x 2” baking pan with shortening and dust with flour.

2. Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt onto a sheet of waxed paper.

3. Cream the butter in the large bowl of a freestanding electric mixer on moderate speed for 3 minutes. Add the sugar in 3 additions, beating on moderate speed for 1 minute after each portion is added. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating for 30 seconds after each addition. Blend in the melted chocolate and vanilla extract. On low speed, add the sifted mixture in 3 additions alternately with the milk in 2 additions, beginning and ending with the sifted mixture. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl frequently to keep the batter even-textured. The batter will be velvety.

4. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Smooth the top with a rubber spatula.

5. Bake the cake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes, or until risen, set, and a toothpick inserted in the center withdraws clean (or with a few crumbs attached). Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack. Spread the frosting on the cake, swirling it as you go. Let the cake stand for 1 hour before, cutting into squares for serving.

Pineapple Teriyaki Meatballs

2011-12-31T07:25:00.000-08:00

Pineapple Teriyaki Meatballs - made by my niece on December 26, 2011, recipe adapted from Food Network

Here's another good appetizer to serve at a party if you've got one coming up. My niece made these for my sister's after-Christmas party earlier this week and they turned out beautifully. Everyone loved them and they were gone before the end of the night.She made a few changes from the original recipe - noted below.

Flash fry to brown the meatballs for color

After frying, line on a baking sheet to prep for baking in the oven

She used Lawry's teriyaki sauce for the glaze

After baking, spear with a toothpick and pineapple on top, squeeze fresh lime over all

1 slice white sandwich bread

1 1/2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon soy sauce (teriyaki)

5 scallions

1 1/4 pounds ground pork

3 large cloves garlic, finely grated

1 tablespoon finely grated peeled ginger (about a 2-inch piece)

1/3 cup water chestnuts, drained, rinsed and chopped

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1 1/2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

1/2 cup hoisin sauce
1/4 cup mayonnaise

2 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

3 to 4 teaspoons Asian chili-garlic sauce

Peanut or vegetable oil, for frying

Pineapple chunks (halved)

Lime

Toothpicks

Tear the sandwich bread into small pieces, then toss with the milk and soy sauce in a large bowl. Let stand 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, mince the scallions.
Add the scallions, pork, garlic, ginger, water chestnuts, egg, cilantro, 1 teaspoon sesame oil, 1 1/4 teaspoons salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper to the bowl with the bread; mix until combined. Gently form into golf ball-size meatballs. Put the meatballs on a baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 to 4 hours.
Teriyaki sauce: Stir the hoisin sauce, mayonnaise, 11/2 tablespoons lime juice, the chili-garlic sauce and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil in a medium bowl. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. (Instead of making the teriyaki sauce, my niece used Lawry's pineapple teriyaki sauce and pineapple juice.)
Heat about 1 1/2 inches peanut oil in a large, wide saucepan over medium heat until a deep-fry thermometer registers 350 degrees F. Add the meatballs in batches and cook, turning occasionally, until browned and cooked through, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate to drain. (She flash-fried the meatballs in hot oil , brushed with glaze then finished cooking them by baking in a 400 degree oven.)

Pictorial guide to making lumpia

2011-12-29T07:12:00.000-08:00

Lumpia are Filipino egg rolls and I've posted a recipe for them previously but my mom and my nieces made them again for my sister's Christmas party so I took the opportunity to take step by step pictures in case anyone wants to see how to make them. I think the recipe my mom uses varies slightly from the one I posted, mostly because she doesn't actually use a recipe but it'll get you close. These are great appetizers to serve at New Year's Eve parties or any other kind of party as a crowd pleaser.

Make the filling mixture

Cut the original won ton wrappers into 4 squares

Place a small amount of filling in a log shape at one corner of the square

Bring up the bottom tip over the filling

Fold the bottom tip over the filling

Fold the left and right corners in like you're making an envelope

Roll the lumpia into a small log and seal the edges with a mixture of cornstarch and water

Line them up and cover with plastic wrap, refrigerate until you're ready to fry them

Deep fry in hot oil until golden brown all over

Drain in a paper-towel-lined colander to absorb excess grease

Enjoy (and workout before and after to offset fried foods :))

Florida Brownies

2011-12-24T07:47:00.000-08:00

Florida Brownies with Nutella Crunch Topping - made December 17, 2011, brownie from Nick Malgieri's Bake! book

This is an easy post since I had already posted the recipe as the brownie base for the Almond Joy Brownie Bombshells. I had a lot of batter leftover after making the mini brownie rounds for the base so I poured the rest into a 9 x 9 baking pan and baked it as a normal brownie. I couldn't imagine giving it away plain though so I did add the nutella crunch topping to give it some depth and texture. Once these set, just cut into squares, wrap the squares in plastic (I wrap two squares together to make one wrapped package) and put in freezer storage bags for freezing if you're not eating or giving away immediately.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Banana Bread - another easy holiday gift

2011-12-21T19:00:00.000-08:00

Petra's Banana Bread - made December 17, 2011, the latest out of countless times

Got more holiday parties to attend between now and Christmas? Need to bring something to the family gathering? Need an easy hostess gift? I don't know about you but most of the people I know, including myself, already have enough "stuff". And even if they don't, you don't always know what "stuff" people want or don't want and you don't want to give somebody something they won't like or will end up gathering dust or end in the Goodwill pile. Which is why I like to give consumables. And if it's something they can freeze for later, even better, since, if you're fortunate, we're in the season of plenty, food-wise. But you can't eat everything at once. Or at least, you shouldn't :). Which makes this recipe for banana bread a perfect and easy holiday gift. Besides lemon bars, this is what I'm asked for most often. This also freezes really well.

I use the same recipe I've always used since college and the only thing that varies is how much I make and how long it lasts. Or doesn't last. When I went to Winnipeg for my cousin's wedding, I brought 4 batches of banana bread (each batch makes 4 small loaves or 2 regular loaves). They might've lasted a day, maybe 2, not counting the loaves my aunt hid in the freezer to try and space out their consumption. The last time I brought some to my sister's house, one of my nieces got mad at her twin, my sister and my sister's boyfriend because "they ate it all" while she was sleeping. Guess that'll teach her to be the last one in the house to wake up when there's banana bread on the table.

There are many ways banana bread can go right and many ways it can go wrong. Even though I've shared this recipe with everyone who likes the bread and asks how to make it, I still get a lot of "mine doesn't taste as good as yours". Hmm, not sure what to say other than "but that's the same recipe I use". Or maybe they would just rather I made it instead of them, lol. I've made this recipe so many times I can probably bake it in my sleep and I rarely eat it myself anymore since I don't need to taste test it. I made it again last weekend and had a taste - hey, it is pretty good :). I'll reiterate the basic tips for good banana bread, regardless of which recipes you use.

Normally they should be even more ripe than these for banana bread

The bananas have to be really, really ripe. As in to the point of blackened skins and banana mush texture that you wouldn't normally eat anymore, no matter how much you like bananas. The ones I used this past weekend were still a little too firm for my liking and not quite ripe enough but I was out of time to let them ripen further as I needed banana bread for baked gifts I was giving away to church friends the next day. So I made do.

If you like chunks of banana in your banana bread, puree 2/3 of the bananas called for in the recipe, then mash in the remaining 1/3 with a wooden spoon. That way you'll have part of the banana that is the liquid mush texture needed for the batter while still retaining some banana chunks in there. Some people have suggested roasting the bananas for better flavor. I tried that once and it didn't work as well as I expected. I think my bananas were either too firm (it's harder to roast softened banana mush) or I didn't roast them long enough for the caramelized flavor to come out. I'll have to try it again someday.

I also don't like "stuff" or other flavors in my banana bread. You should taste banana in banana bread. Not nuts, not raisins, not cinnamon or nutmeg, nothing. Heck, Petra's recipe doesn't even use vanilla extract. It's just pure banana. Which is one of the reasons I like it.

And of course, don't overbake banana bread. You don't want to underbake it either since the bananas already add moisture to your batter and underbaking just makes it more gooey than is good. Baking just right means the toothpick inserted at the ends come out clean but in the middle just barely comes out with moist crumbs. If it comes out coated with batter, it still needs to bake some more. This recipe has more of a cakey texture than a chewy bread texture so it's a little lighter than most quick breads. The sweetness will partially depend on the ripened state of your bananas (the more overripe, the sweeter) so you may want to adjust the sugar content if you like it less sweet or more sweet. I like to have the banana speak for itself so I might cut back on the sugar but I've never added more sugar than this recipe calls for.

The great things about banana bread during the holidays is 1) it's a year-round fruit so you can get good bananas almost anywhere and don't have to wait for it to be in season and 2) it's easy to bake in pretty paper loaf pans for gift giving. I love these loaf pans because they're sturdy enough to bake in and are a good way to present mini loaves for gifts. Not to mention no pans to wash after using. To use them, fill them halfway with your batter, place them on a baking sheet (don't crowd too closely against one another) and bake in the oven. Once they're baked, let them cool, then wrap them in clear plastic or aluminum foil and put in a holiday cellophane bag with a twist tie. Easy gift.

Marathon Baking Session - tips and tricks

2011-12-20T18:29:00.000-08:00

Ready, Set....Turn on the Oven!

We're hurtling towards Christmas in a few days and I'm wrapping up the last of my baking gifts for pre-Christmas giving. There'll be post-Christmas, pre-New Year's Eve baked-goods giving but I'll worry about that next week. Last Saturday, I had a mini-marathon baking session. I love those days and it's one of the reasons I do a lot of holiday stuff like decorating, sending out cards, shopping, and gift wrapping early - so I have time to bake during the holiday season itself and can get together with friends without worrying about how to "get it all done".

If you've still got massive baking to do for the holidays, here are some tips to manage the baking load. The name of the game when you do a marathon baking session is to plan what you're making and once you turn that oven on, you want your products in and out in the least amount of time. I don't believe in wasting energy and turning the oven off and on, depending on what you have to bake and how soon something is ready to go in. Instead, I plan it so once the oven is turned on, it's always got something in it and there's never any downtime for it. As soon as one thing is done, get the next thing in the oven until the last dessert is baked and the oven can be shut off for the day.

But before you even get started on baking, have a clean kitchen. It'll clutter up soon enough once you start baking but start out with a clean work area. While you should always clean as you go, you don't want to waste time cleaning it up in the first place. Wash all the pans, cookie sheets, measuring cups, spoons, utensils and mixing bowls you need and have them ready.

Once your kitchen is clean, get out all the ingredients you need and group them by recipe. This gives them time to come to room temperature if needed and also ensures you have all the ingredients you need for everything you're going to bake before you even crack the first egg. This is your mise en place. If you need to make a quick trip to the grocery store because you're missing something, you'll know exactly what you need for all that you're baking that day and you won't have to interrupt your baking session later on when it'll be more inconvenient.

After you have your mise en place, prep the baking pans first. It's the easiest thing to do and gives you some structure on the order things go into the oven. If you have a lot of cookies to bake, get all your cookie sheets ready. I like to line mine with parchment paper so they're easy to clean afterwards and the cookies don't stick to the pan. I line square cake pans and brownie pans with foil, lightly sprayed with nonstick cooking spray, no matter what the recipe says. It not only guarantees easier cleanup but you can lift your brownies or bar cookies right out of the pan, using the ends of the foil as handles. This way you can cut them on the cutting board rather than in the baking pan. Muffin tins get lined with cupcake liners ahead of time if I'm making cupcakes or mini panettone paper molds are lined up on a baking sheet if I'm using those.

At this point, the oven's still not turned on yet. Before you turn it on, do the most time consuming tasks first. My baking plan for the day included lemon bars, brownies that became both the base for the Almond Joy Brownie Bombshells and Nutella Crunch Brownies, banana bread, Nutella Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies and Diamond-Edged Melt-in-Your-Mouth Butter Cookies. Out of all of those things, I already had the cookie doughs made and ready in the freezer. The banana bread batter is quick and easy to put together so instead, I did the shortbread base for the lemon bars first. While the crust baked, I mixed the lemon curd layer.

If you're making anything with nuts, those should go in first so you can toast them and they have time to cool by the time you need to incorporate then into your baked goods. If you're making sandwich cookies, those should go in next, again so they have time to cool before you sandwich them with filling. Likewise anything that needs to be frosted so they have cooling time before you frost them. This isn't so much about oven management but time management in general. If you're trying to keep a certain amount of baking hours throughout, plan your baking schedule to maximize the time you have in the kitchen while also keeping the amount of that time to a manageable level. It's a bummer if you're so busy in the kitchen that you don't get to spend time with your friends and family outside of the kitchen because you're still baking.

I baked the lemon bars off first so they would get the longest cooling time since lemon bars are messier to cut if they're warm. While the lemon bars had their second baking with the lemon curd layer, I worked on the brownie batter I wasn't done filling the mini muffin pans with the brownie batter by the time the lemon bars were done so I put a cookie sheet of nutella peanut butter oatmeal cookies in next. Cookies are great to bake in between other things since the cookie dough is ready and they can go in at a moment's notice - just plop the dough balls onto the parchment-lined cookie sheet and into the oven they go. If you have a limited amount of cookie sheets, it's also good to bake the cookies between other items so your cookie sheets have time to cool before you use them again. Never place cookie dough on hot cookie sheets - they'll melt part of your dough before the baking even begins and cause more spread than necessary.

So that's how my afternoon went. While something was baking, I was already mixing up another thing. If I wasn't ready, I baked a sheet of cookies so the oven was always in use and none of the energy went to waste. As everything baked, more and more of my kitchen was overtaken by baked goods in various stages of completion: loaves of banana bread cooling on a wire rack (they must be taken out of the pans to cool or else they'll steam and stick inside of the loaf pans), lemon bars cooling and waiting for the sprinkling of powdered sugar on top, brownie bases waiting for the coconut topping and enrobing in chocolate, cookies cooling, etc. By the end of the afternoon, I had what I needed to give away the next day. Then it was just a matter of packaging everything as gifts.

Nutella Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

2011-12-19T19:35:00.000-08:00

Nutella Peanut Butter Cookies - made cookie dough December 17, 2011 from Everyday Insanity's blog

Really good with nutella swirled in

I got the original recipe for this from another baker's blog (please click on the recipe title to go to Cindy's Everyday Insanity blog for the original recipe). I loved how they stayed thick and just looked yummy. Plus I'm a Costco shopper myself and have those big jars of peanut butter and nutella that I "have" to use up. No better time than the holidays when I have a lot of baked gifts to give and enough reliable standbys that I could afford to take a chance on a little recipe experimentation.

The unbaked cookie dough balls - freeze first before baking

The baked version of the cookies

I did modify it slightly though so I am listing my changes below as well as spelling out the instructions a bit more for any newer bakers. Plus I added directions of what I usually do when I make cookie dough: make into dough balls and freeze for baking later. It also appears from the original recipe that you're supposed to mix the nutella thoroughly into the batter to give it a uniform appearance. I took it a different direction and instead just dropped dollops of it throughout the batter and was careful not to mix it too much. Instead, I left it as swirls, like the almond butter and nutella swirl cookies. Not surprisingly, my version came out looking different than Cindy's. But I hope just as good. These were definitely reminiscent of the almond butter and nutella swirl cookies. They didn't spread much and stayed thick. Underbaking them slightly gives a very moist, dense texture that partners well with the nutella swirls mixed in. They are more fragile that way though so you want to make sure these cool and firm up a bit before moving them. They also wouldn't survive being mailed so it's best to enjoy them in person or giving them away on plates or some kind of flat surface. I stacked a few on each plate for my giveaways, surrounded by the Almond Joy Brownie Bombshells and that seemed to work.

1 cup flour

1 cup oatmeal

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup peanut butter (I used smooth)
1/2 cup golden brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

2/3 cup Nutella

Mix flour, oatmeal, baking soda, baking powder and salt together and set aside.
Beat butter in the bowl of a mixer until soft; add peanut butter and beat to combine until lump free. Add both sugars and beat until combined, 2-3 minutes.
Add egg and vanilla, mix another minute.
With mixer on low, gradually add dry ingredients till just combined.
Stir in Nutella by hand but do not mix in completely - you want swirls of it through the cookie dough.
Portion into cookie dough balls and place in the freezer to firm up for 30-60 minutes. Once they're firm, either place dough balls in freezer storage bags to bake later or else bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

Homemade Almond Joy Brownie Bombshells

2011-12-17T20:01:00.000-08:00

Homemade Almond Joys - made December 17, 2011, adapted from 2 different recipes

Ever since I made the homemade Twix brownie bars, I've been wanting to make a homemade Almond Joy brownie version as well. Almond Joys are another favorite candy from childhood because they're milk chocolate, coconut and almonds. I don't like Mounds as well because they're dark chocolate but I love Almond Joys. Nowadays I don't really eat them except as a topping to a brownie but I thought it would be fun to make these. They turned out a bit bigger than I expect so I decided to name them Almond Joy Brownie Bombshells.

I basically just put two recipes together to make these. Coincidentally, they both had Florida in their titles so that seemed to cry out to put them together. I made the coconut filling from the Florida Chocolate-Dipped Coconut Patties recipe below, except I left out the milk chocolate coating and used milk chocolate candy melts instead.

For the brownies, I used Nick Malgieri's recipe from his latest book, Bake, that I had borrowed from the library awhile back. I didn't beat the batter as much as the recipe directed though as I didn't want really light and airy brownies. I just needed a good brownie base for the coconut topping to sit on. Instead of a 9 x 13 pan, I half-filled mini muffin tins for a little round base, centered a whole roasted almond on top of each one and topped with a small scoop of the coconut filling. I still had a lot of batter leftover even after making 48 mini brownie bases so I poured the rest into a 9 x 9 pan and made them as regular brownies which I then topped with the nutella crunch topping.

bad lighting at night, pic a little blurry

For the bombshells I melted the candy melts and carefully spread it all over each one, coating them as completely as possible except for the bottoms. It's more difficult to do evenly with these than the Twix version because the coconut was a little sticky and didn't want to stay put on top of the brownie base but it wasn't too hard. If you don't want them too big, you might use less of the coconut filling on top of each one and mash it a little flat. Overall I thought these came out pretty well. They look like gigantic truffles and definitely had the homey look rather than the professionally-dipped look, lol. But I liked them. I ran out of the coconut filling and had leftover little brownie bases so I put those in a ziploc freezer bag and stuck them in the freezer. They can easily be "repurposed" at a future date for a future dessert: drop a couple in a bowl, warm up in the microwave and top with vanilla ice cream.

Left the almond out of the taste test piece because it wouldn't stay put

Florida Chocolate-Dipped Coconut Patties

Source: Spago Chocolate by Mary Bergin and Judy Gethers

1 ¼ cups confectioners’ sugar

2 ounces (½ stick) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1 egg white

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 ¼ cups (5 ounces) coconut, unsweetened or sweetened,packed

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

4 ounces semisweet or milk chocolate, cut into smallpieces (if using milk chocolate, add 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil while melting)

1. Makethe coconut filling: In a medium heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmeringwater, whisk together the confectioners’ sugar, butter, egg white, and saltuntil very liquid and warm to the touch, about 10 minutes.

2. Removefrom the heat and, with a spoon, stir in the coconut and vanilla until wellcombined. Cover with plastic wrap andrefrigerate for 1 to 2 hours, up to overnight.

3. Whenready to coat the coconut, in a small heatproof bowl set over a pan ofsimmering water, melt the chocolate. When almost melted, turn off the heat and let the chocolate continue to meltcompletely, stirring occasionally. Keepthe bowl over the warm water.

4. Formthe balls: line a small tray with parchment paper. Using a scant ounce of the coconut mixture,roll into a small ball and place on the parchment-lined tray. Repeat with the remaining mixture, forming 18balls.

5. Arrange18 paper or foil minicups on the tray. Gently place one of the balls into the warm melted chocolate and, usingtwo forks, roll the ball in the chocolate until well coated. Lift (do not pierce) the coated coconut ballwith one of the forks, allowing some of the chocolate to drip back into thebowl, and carefully place in one of the prepared cups. Repeat with the remaining coconut balls andmelted chocolate. Refrigerate until thechocolate has hardened and use as desired.

Florida Brownies

Source: Bake! By Nick Malgieri

8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter

8 ounces premium unsweetened chocolate, cut into ¼-inchpieces

5 large eggs, at room temperature

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon salt

3 ¾ cups sugar

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

One 9 x 13-inch baking pan, lined with buttered foil

1. Seta rack in the middle level of the oven and preheat to 375⁰F.

2. Meltthe butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Let the butter get hot and start to sizzleafter it’s melted. Remove the pan fromthe heat and add the chocolate all at once. Gentle shake the pan to submerge all the chocolate in the butter. Setaside.

3. Combinethe eggs, vanilla, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with thewhisk attachment. First whisk by hand tomix. Whisk in the sugar by hand.

4. Whipon medium-high speed for 10 minutes, until very light.

5. Whiskthe butter and chocolate smooth and scrape into the mixer bowl. Whip on lowest speed just until smooth, thenstop the mixer.

6. Siftthe flour onto a piece of paper, bend the paper and slide the flour into thebowl. Mix again on lowest speed untilthe flour is absorbed.

7. Removethe bowl from the mixer and use a large rubber spatula to give a final mixingto the batter.

8. Scrapethe batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.

9. Bakethe brownies until they are firm, but not dry, and the point of a paring knifeinserted in the center of the pan emerges with moist crumbs clinging to it,about 35 minutes.

10. Coolin a pan on a rack. Unmold the browniesto a cutting board and remove the pan and paper. Cover with another board and invert the wholestack. Remove the top board and wrap thebrownies on their board in a double thickness of plastic wrap. Keep the brownies at cool room temperatureovernight before cutting.

Baked gifts

2011-12-16T17:40:00.000-08:00

If I blogged about everything I've baked since Thanksgiving, whether a new recipe or a previously made one, you'd see a flood of daily postings, sometimes multiple times a day, especially on the weekends. But instead, here are some (not all) of the care packages and baked gifts I've sent out or given away to family and friends so far this holiday season. As I've posted previously, part of the fun of giving away baked treats is packaging them up to look pretty. I don't do a lot of fancy-looking desserts as I focus more on taste than decoration but I rely on the packaging to make a nice presentation. Most of this stuff I got from Michaels and Target. The labels I ordered online.

I have another marathon baking session coming up this weekend so stay tuned....

Brownies and Lemon Bars

Holiday Caramel Treats and Almond Butter & Nutella Swirl Cookies

Diamond-Edged Melt-in-Your-Mouth Butter Cookies

Buttery Tea Balls, Almond Butter & Nutella Cookies, Alton Brown CCC

Red Velvet cupcakes, Red Velvet Cookies and White Chocolate Toffee Macadamia Cookies

Baking Fail - when the baking gods forsake you

2011-12-14T19:24:00.000-08:00

Sometimes even tried-and-true recipes can fail. Or at least I've proven they can. I wanted to make Red Velvet Cookies for a friend last weekend because I know how much she likes cream cheese and these had the cream cheese frosting on top. Plus 'tis the season for red velvet. I've made these cookies countless times so you'd think they'd come out consistently well each time. Apparently.....not so.

Everything was fine at first - mix the batter, melt the chocolate, preheat the oven. When I make this recipe, I let the melted chocolate cool a bit since I didn't want to add it hot to the batter and possibly melt the butter, thereby changing the texture of the recipe. But it was cold in my kitchen early Saturday morning and I was (again) multi-tasking on other baking projects so it appears I waited a little too long and the melted chocolate cooled a little too much. As in, when I added it to the batter, instead of being warm enough and free flowing enough to blend seamlessly with the rest of the (probably also cold) batter, parts of it seized up and became little solid chocolate flecks. Uh-oh. I couldn't heat up the batter enough to melt the chocolate and I didn't have time to start over with a new batter. So I decided to plow forward and hope for the best. Besides having solid flecks of unsweetened chocolate in the batter, it was also more pink than red because the chocolate hadn't added to the batter in enough liquid form to give it more color. Darn.

uh, those chocolate bits are not intentional chocolate chips - baking fail

One thing I always watch out for with this cookie recipe is to bake it properly. I followed the directions of having the oven at 375 degrees and I knew I would have to pounce on it at 7-9 minutes to take it out in time for a fudgy texture. If it bakes even a minute or two too long, it becomes more of a spongy-cakey texture and that's not what I wanted. Well, I checked it at 8 minutes and to my surprise, the cookies were already puffed up and looked done rather than underdone. Shoot. Took them out, slid in another cookie sheet and this time strove to take them out sooner. I also lowered the oven temp to 350, thinking my oven might be too hot. If I had hoped the unsweetened chocolate flecks would melt a little into the cookie dough, I was doomed to disappointment. They remained fleck-ish.

Second cookie sheet came out at exactly 7 minutes. Looked a little underdone but I wasn't taking any chances. Put the third cookie sheet in and raised the oven temp back to 375 as 350 seemed a little too low. By this time, the first cookie sheet actually looked decent and not underdone as the cookies had cooled and settled into fudginess. Hmm, I think I may have been psyched out byt the baking gods. Third cookie sheet baked fast again but I think I got them out at the right time. Now it was time to frost and taste test them. Ironically, the first cookie sheet turned out the best, the second was too raw and the third was okay. I had already frosted all of them so I couldn't put the second sheet back into the oven to bake a little more. Almost total fail.

I brazened it out anyway, picked out the best ones and prettied them up for my friends' goodie plates that day. They tasted okay. They just weren't up to my usual standard. I had made a couple of other things as well but didn't have enough to not give the cookies so I included them and made excuses to my friends later. That's not something I normally would do but I was pressed for time and had to just deal with it. This is the kind of thing I hate when it happens and I hate even more having to admit it and blog about it but at the end of the day, it's just a cookie, it's one baking fail amongst other successes and I have forgiving friends :). Dust off the flour and move on to the next cookie.

Caramel Brownies

2011-12-13T19:14:00.000-08:00

Caramel Brownies - made December 10, 2011

This is just a modified version of Rosie's Award-Winning Brownies. I had melted caramel leftover from the Holiday Caramel Treats and rather than letting it go to waste, I made Rosie's brownies, spread 1/3 to almost 1/2 of the batter on the bottom, spread the caramel layer evenly over it and covered it completely with the remaining batter. Voila, caramel brownies.

When I bake with caramel, I try to have it be inside the brownie and covered completely. Any caramel that bubbles out tends to get a bit too hard/chewy once it cools again. Whereas if you have it inside, it's still soft-chewy and helps keep your brownie moist. You can use any brownie recipe with the caramel but I recommend brownies that use more dark chocolate or unsweetened chocolate. The caramel provides enough of the sweetness and will help complement a dark chocolate brownie. If you use in milk chocolate brownies, it might be a little too sweet.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

2011-12-11T08:58:00.000-08:00

Red Velvet Cupcakes - made December 9, 2011 from the King Arthur Flour holiday preview 2011 catalog

It's the season of red velvet. I've been hankering for a new red-velvet-something recipe and this one fit the bill. I got it from the King Arthur Flour holiday preview catalog as I'm on their mailing list and I like trying out their recipes. The downside of using one of their catalog recipes, however, is it almost always calls for an ingredient found only or mostly on their website - it is a product catalog for a reason. However, usually the more specialized ingredients are optional so I typically do without it or substitute something else. In this case, I used red food coloring for the "red velvet flavor" and skipped the cake enhancer.

I had the taste test cupcake while it was still warm from the oven and unfrosted. Almost needless to say, it was delicious. The texture was soft and it was moist. You almost can't not like a warm cupcake. The true taste test, however, is when the cupcake is at room temperature. It was still good but a bit more dense since I probably underbaked it slightly in my abhorrence of dry, overbaked cupcakes. I still haven't mastered the art of a perfect cupcake. I like the texture of Sprinkles cupcakes (their red velvet is one of my favorites, along with their banana, pumpkin, orange......actually, I think I like all their flavors except the chocolate one) but mine don't come out as light in texture, no matter which recipe I try. I don't think it's necessarily the recipe but my timing on when I take the cupcakes out of the oven. Haven't conquered that trick yet.

I made these for some friends I met yesterday and instead of using the standard cupcake liners, I made them in the mini panettone molds that I ordered from (of course) amazon. I love using these molds. They're stiff enough that you can pour the batter in and bake them on a baking sheet, no muffin tin needed. Plus they're just cuter than cute. The only downside is if you fill them enough to bake cupcakes to the top, they'll be bigger than a regular cupcake. Oh, did I say that was a downside?

½ cup (4 ounces) unsalted butter
¼ cup (1 ¾ ounces) vegetable oil
1 ¾ cups (12 ¼ ounces) granulated sugar, superfine preferred
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons red velvet flavor (I used red food coloring)
1 tablespoon cake enhancer, optional
2 large eggs
3 cups (12 ounces) cake flour, sifted
¼ cup (¾ ounce) Dutch process cocoa
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (8 ounces) buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Place cupcake papers into two 12-cup muffin pans or lightly grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans (to make a layer cake).
Mix the butter, oil, sugar, salt, color, flavor, and cake enhancer, beating until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well and scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl after each addition.
Sift together the flour, cocoa, and baking soda. Alternately add the dry ingredients and the buttermilk to the creamed mixture, one third at a time, beating well after each addition.
Spoon the batter into the prepared pans, and bake the cupcakes for about 18-21 minutes, or the cake for 26-28 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove the cupcakes from the oven, cool on a rack for 5-10 minutes, then turn out of the pans to cool on the rack.

Yield: 24 cupcakes or two 9” round layers

White Chocolate Toffee Macadamia Cookies

2011-12-09T19:44:00.000-08:00

White Chocolate Toffee Doodles - made December 8, 2011 from Something Swanky's blog

I'm a follower of Something Swanky's blog and like Dorothy's Crazy for Crust blog, Ashton of Something Swanky always has some killer desserts and recipes on her blog. I liked this one, both for the flavors and because it just looked yummy. Judging by the recipe, it also seemed like a safe bet to try out for the holidays and have it turn out. When I do try a new recipe during the holidays, I like the safety net of knowing it turned out well for another baker and that they recommend it. Bonus that it was easy to mix up when I had 15 minutes and could sit in the freezer until I needed to bake it for a social event.

The only thing I changed from the original recipe (click on the blog title for the recipe) is I added macadamia nuts in addition to the white chocolate chunks and toffee bits and I baked at a convection oven setting of 350 degrees instead of the 375 degrees in Ashton's recipe. This turned out pretty well. But do not overbake these. I would only bake until the middles look just barely raw. I baked the first batch at 375 degrees and they baked up faster than I thought. I didn't burn them but I definitely baked them instead of underbaking them. They were fine but not as moist as I like my cookies. I had better results with the second cookie sheet when I baked them at 350 degrees and took them out when the edges were brown and the middles were just past not-doughy-looking. They were great then. The edges were crisp but the middle was soft and chewy. I think I would've been better off without the macadamia nuts so that the flavor wouldn't compete with the toffee. But the cinnamon in the dough was a nice flavor enhancer and I enjoyed these. Thanks, Ashton, for a great recipe.

Diner-Style Powdered Buttermilk Doughnuts

2011-12-06T20:08:00.000-08:00

Doughnut Holes - made December 3, 2011 from Diner Desserts by Tish Boyle

This is the other new recipe I tried for last Saturday's little dessert get together with my high school friends. The main thing I changed from the recipe is I made them all as doughnut holes and didn't cut them out as doughnuts. Because they were only one of several treats I was serving at my dessert gathering, I didn't want any one dessert to be too big. Doughnut holes were less of a commitment than doughnuts and left my guests free to sample everything else. Although, as you can tell from the pictures, these look like really misshapen doughnut holes, lol. I used a small round cookie cutter for them but they came out more like little biscuits that fried to their own interesting shape. But they still tasted good. They're more like cake doughnuts since they're not yeasted or, as one of my friends' kids put it, "they taste like churros". As expected, they were best when warm but even after they had cooled, they were still crisp on the outside. Their texture is a bit heavy so it's best to make them small. If I make them again, I would make them half the size of these.

3 ½ cups cake flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

1 ½ teaspoons salt

¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

¾ cup granulated sugar

¾ cup buttermilk

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 large egg, at room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Vegetable oil for frying

1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted

1. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add the sugar and stir the dry ingredients with a whisk until combined.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, melted butter, egg, and vanilla until blended. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour the buttermilk mixture into it. Using a rubber spatula, stir until the mixture forms a soft, moist dough. Dust a work surface with flour. Scrape the dough onto the work surface and lightly sprinkle the top of the dough with flour. Gather the dough into a ball and knead it gently 5 or 6 times, or until smooth. Roll or pat the dough into a round roughly 10 inches in diameter and ½ inch thick. Transfer the round to a baking sheet, cover it with plastic wrap, and place it in the freezer for 15 minutes or until firm.

3. Using a 3-inch doughnut cutter (or a 3-inch round biscuit cutter and a ¾-inch cutter or pastry tip for the hole), cut out 7 doughnuts and holes from the dough. Gather the scraps together, reroll ½ inch thick, and cut out 3 more doughnuts and as many holes as possible. Place the doughnuts and holes on a baking sheet or 2 plates, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate while heating the oil for frying.

4. Pour the oil into a deep-fat fryer or large straight-sided saucepan to a depth of 2 to 3 inches. Heat the oil to 370⁰F. Line a baking sheet with paper towels.

5. Fry the doughnuts and holes in small batches, turning once for 2 to 3 minutes, or until golden brown. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to the paper towels to drain, then place on a wire rack to cool completely.

6. When the doughnuts and holes are completely cool, place the confectioners’ sugar in a medium bowl. Generously dredge the doughnuts and holes in the sugar, shaking off the excess. Serve the same day.

Holiday Caramel Treats

2011-12-04T08:36:00.000-08:00

Holiday Caramel Treats - made December 4, 2011 from Prize Winning Cookies from Current customers (book #178)

I had my holiday dessert party with my high school friends yesterday and it was a lot of fun. It was great to catch up with everyone and you know you're very fortunate when, after everyone has left, you realize what nice friends you have. This is what the holidays are about, not the stress of preparing for them :).

To help alleviate that stress, I went with some reliable stand-by recipes. I had prepared enough cookie doughs in advance that I could (and did) change my mind as to what to serve. My friend Lisa likes lemon bars so I made those, using my old standby recipe since I had already made my new favorite, the Three-Layer Lemon Bars, last week:

I also made the peanut butter kiss cookies that always seem to be a holiday favorite

As well as a year-round favorite, Alton Brown's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Since I had enough of the tried and true cookies to serve, I also decided to try a new recipe. A few of my friends were bringing their kids so I included this cookie as something fun for the dessert table for them. I felt safe taking a calculated risk on this new recipe because the base recipe is very similar to Mexican Wedding Cakes but without the nuts in the dough and you cover it with caramel instead of powdered sugar. I can live with that. Plus it's the kind of recipe I need to try for parties rather than care packages since anything covered in caramel usually don't package well or ship well.

After the cookies are baked, you stick a toothpick in the center, let them cool then dip them in caramel and roll them in nuts. I switched it up a bit in case anyone didn't like nuts and did a few in red and green sprinkles for the kids. Make sure your caramel is thin enough to be dipped in but not so thin that they don't coat the cookie. Keep the caramel warm and after you coat the whole cookie, let the excess caramel drip off before rolling it in nuts (or sprinkles). I did have a little difficulty with the nuts clumping a little because of the caramel. Make sure to grind the nuts fine. I ground them on the "coarse" setting in my nut grinder so the pieces were a little bit big which I didn't mind from a taste standpoint but they might've looked prettier had they been more finely chopped. In general though, I liked how these turned out. The cookies themselves were like a little vanilla butter cookie and were the perfect foil for the sweetness of the caramel and the crunch of the toasted almonds.

¾ cup butter, softened

½ cup powdered sugar

1 large egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

½ teaspoon liquid maple flavor or almond extract

Dash of salt

2 cups all-purpose flour

48 round wooden toothpicks

Coating

36 caramels, unwrapped

¼ cup milk

1 cup finely chopped peanuts, walnuts or almonds

1. Heat oven to 350⁰F. Have baking sheets ready.

2. To make cookies, beat butter and powdered sugar in a large bowl with electric mixer until fluffy. Beat in egg, vanilla, maple flavor and salt. On low speed, gradually beat in flour. Form dough into forty-eight balls, about 1 inch in diameter. Place 1 ½” apart on baking sheets. Bake 12 to 14 minutes until balls are set, but not browned (tops may crack slightly). Insert a toothpick into center of each. Cool on wire racks.

3. To make coating, melt caramels in milk, stirring often. Keep warm over a pan of hot, not boiling water. Dip each cookie into the caramel mixture, coating completely and drawing bottom of cookie across edge of pan to remove excess caramel. Dip bottom of each in chopped nuts. Place on sheet of wax paper to set. Store loosely covered; best served within 24 hours.

Makes 48

Hosting dessert parties and managing your time

2011-12-02T18:48:00.000-08:00

Three-Layer Lemon Bars

Last year I had blogged about some tips when hosting a dessert party. I usually host a big-to-me dessert party only every other year and last year was it so this was my off year. However, I do generally have a few guests over throughout the season to catch up with friends or host family. Last Saturday was my first gathering of the season where I hosted a dozen family members for an impromptu post-Thanksgiving get together. They came around lunchtime and, as you know, I don't cook, but thankfully my mom brought arroz caldo (a Filipino rice porridge) and my cousin Christine brought a pizza. I made the desserts: lemon bars with lemons from my mom's lemon tree, buttery tea balls because my mom likes anything with pecans and I had ceramic mitten dishes to serve the "snowballs" in, and red velvet cookies because they're my niece Shyla's favorite and a chocolate item my nephew Jason will eat (he doesn't like chocolate. Someday I'm going to tell him red velvet is chocolate. But not yet.)

"Snowballs" aka Buttery Tea Balls in mitten dishes

I'm hosting another gathering with a few friends from high school tomorrow. I had missed my has-it-really-been-25-years high school reunion last month because I was at my cousin's wedding in Winnipeg. So I thought it would be fun to catch up with a few old friends. The family gathering last weekend spurred me to finish my decorating and my house is now reasonably clean (mostly) so it's fit for company. But there's still the matter of what to serve.

Red Velvet Cookies

The issue when you work full time and have other things going on during the holiday season is there usually isn't enough time to get everything done that you want to do, including party prep. Which is why I stock up my baking pantry ahead of time, make up cookie doughs for the freezer and salvage any baking failures when necessary. One key component of advance prep is selecting the right menu. First, when deciding what to serve, play to your strengths. My cousin Chris is a trained chef and he put on a 7-course meal for his family at Thanksgiving. I'm sure it was superb. But you won't catch me hosting a full-course dinner anytime soon (or ever) simply because my cooking skills are subpar and I don't enjoy cooking like I do baking. So it's always going to be a dessert party for me. I know my limits, lol.

Second, parties are not typically the time or place to take risks on new recipes unless you're absolutely sure they'll turn out, it's something similar to what you've done before and you have a backup plan if it fails. In other words, now is the time to be risk averse with the menu. I might try a new cookie recipe if it's one cookie out of several kinds that I'm serving but I'm not likely to take on a towering croquembouche as my dessert centerpiece. Seriously.

Third, time management is essential. Last year I blogged about how I like to have a variety of flavors that will be crowd pleasers and/or past favorites of my guests. But I also take into account which ones I can make ahead of time and balance those with the items that have to be done the day of the party or at the last minute. I work full time, I sometimes have social engagements after work, and errands always need to be run to the bank, the gas station, the library, the grocery store, the post office, etc, all in the same 24 hours in a day when it isn't the holiday season.

For this weekend's dessert party, my menu was driven by both what I thought my guests might like and what I could reasonably accomplish in the time I had. I already had peanut butter brownies in the freezer that I had baked earlier in anticipation of needing it this week. Then every night this week that I didn't have dinner plans after work, I made cookie dough. One night, I made cookie dough for peanut butter kiss cookies, the next night I made cookie dough for holiday caramel treats (recipe to follow), a third night I made cookie dough for Almond Butter and Nutella Swirl Cookies. Each of these cookie doughs took a grand total of 10-15 minutes (if that) to put together, portion into individual cookie dough balls and store in ziploc bags in my freezer, ready to be baked off at a moment's notice. The point being I could make it when I had 10-15 minutes to spare this week, not when I have to make it in a rushed timeframe right before the party.

Which frees me up to focus on the more last-minute baking the night before and the day of the party. Since I'm a stickler for freshness, the only thing I'm actually going to bake the night before are lemon bars. They'll be fresh enough the day after they're made and they're actually a bit better the next day because they've had time to set. On the morning of the party, I'm going to bake some of the cookie doughs I had already made but that will only take baking and clean up time. Which leaves me free to tackle a whole new recipe without being too frazzled. I chose a doughnut recipe because I don't often have people over and that's the ideal time to try something like doughnuts because they're best when they're fresh out of the fryer and can be mass consumed by people besides yourself. I'm certainly not going to eat a whole batch of doughnuts by myself! Plus I consider the risk of failure to be minimal - it's hard to go wrong with something deep-fried, rolled in cinnamon sugar and served warm. Doughnut recipe to follow.....as soon as I actually make it.

S'more Squares - sans marshmallows

2011-11-30T07:08:00.000-08:00

S'more Squares - made November 28, 2011 from Sweet Miniatures by Flo Braker (book #177)

This is one of those new recipes I decided to take a risk on to see how it would turn out. The ingredients and instructions were straightforward and the risk of failure seemed minimal. I did, however, skip the last step of the melted milk chocolate and topping with a mini marshmallow, partly because I didn't have time after work and partly because I don't like marshmallows, mini or otherwise. So if you leave out the marshmallows, can these still legitimately be called "s'more" anything? Maybe not. But regardless, these were pretty good. The graham cracker crust was a nice touch to add to the brownie which itself was also good, albeit a bit thin. These were somewhat plain since I skipped the mini marshmallow topping but you can dress these up with a Hershey kiss or chopped up Snickers or peanut butter cups if you wish. Or leave them plain and just enjoy.

Crust

1 ½ cups (5 ½ ounces) graham cracker crumbs
¼ cup (50 grams) packed light brown sugar
7 tablespoons (3 ½ ounces) unsalted butter, melted

Filling

2/3 cup (100 grams) unsifted all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
6 tablespoons (3 ounces) unsalted butter
1 tablespoon water
1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Topping

2 ounces milk chocolate, melted
4 dozen mini marshmallows

1. Adjust rack to lower third of oven and preheat oven to 325°F. Press a sheet of aluminum foil to cover outside bottom and sides of a 9” square pan. Invert pan and gently press aluminum form into pan to fit contours; set aside.
2. Crust: In a large bowl, blend the graham cracker crumbs and the sugar. Add the butter and blend thoroughly. Press the crumbs into foil-lined pan. Set aside.
3. Filling: Sift the flour, salt, and baking soda onto a piece of waxed paper; set aside. In a small saucepan, melt the chocolate and butter over low heat, stirring occasionally. Turn off heat, stir in the water. Pour the mixture into a large bowl and let cool for about 5 minutes. Stir in the sugar, then the eggs and vanilla, just until thoroughly blended. Add the flour mixture, stirring just until combined. Pour filling into crumb-lined pan, spreading evenly.
4. Bake for 30 minutes only. Remove pan from oven to a rack, and cool in the pan.
5. Topping: To serve, remove the cake from the pan to a cutting board by lifting the foil by its edges. Pour the chocolate into a small handmade paper cone and pipe zigzag lines over the filling’s surface. Cut into 1 ½’ squares. Center a mini marshmallow on each square, and pipe a tiny dot of chocolate in the center of each marshmallow.
6. Store in one layer in a covered foil-lined cardboard container, such as a cake box, at room temperature up to 2 days.

O Christmas Tree - and preparing for baking gifts

2011-11-28T19:30:00.000-08:00

As a baker, it should not surprise you that my fondness (cough, obsession. cough) for baking also manifests itself in other areas of my life. The only thing I've been doing almost as long as I've been baking is collecting Christmas ornaments. I started off with Hallmark and branched out to other brands and eventually ended up with a collection that had both sentimental value imbued with certain memories and ornaments I bought just because I loved them. But Hallmark ornaments will always have a sentimental place of honor in my collection even though I don't buy them by the dozens every year like I used to.

My Hallmark tree

Nowadays I don't buy as much since I'm out of storage and display space. So I've cut back on new purchases but the old ones still remain. I've culled out a great many in recent years but kept even more as I just like them. Not surprisingly, I have an inordinate amount of food ornaments. I used to decorate my largest artificial tree with just food ornaments. Last year, my food ornament collection outgrew the big tree so I had to split it up into 2 full-size food trees.

Food ornament tree #1

Food ornament tree #2

I always start decorating early because it takes so long and I like to be done by Thanksgiving weekend. Because that time period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is one that I devote solely to baking and holiday get togethers. I've got my Christmas card pictures printed, envelopes stuffed, stamped and addressed and they're all ready to mail by December 1. Yes, I'm also one of those annoying people who not only gets her Christmas shopping done early but gets the Christmas gifts wrapped as soon as possible. Although this year I am a little behind but expect to wrap up my Christmas shopping with Cyber Monday deals. It also helps that a lot of my gift giving is homemade baked goods.

When giving away homemade goodies, I take the appearance and presentation of the baked gift as seriously as any store-bought gift that I wrap. Maybe even more so since it's personal and I put much more effort into the baked gifts coming out of my kitchen than the gifts I buy at the store or online. Which means presentation matters. Well before the holiday season, craft stores like Michaels have decorated gift bags, treat bags, treat boxes, cupcake boxes, candy boxes, plates, cellophane wrap and everything else you need to make a nice presentation of your gifts. When I shop at the after-Christmas sales, those are the things I look for. Even before Christmas, I save the weekly 40-50% off coupons from Michaels and buy the treat packaging a little at a time. That's generally when they have the best selection and by the time I'm baking and giving away treats I have all the necessary packaging materials I need. More avoidance of holiday stress.

I also take into account sizes in terms of how much I can fit into each package and quantity of baked goods for each recipient. For friends with families, I tend to give more and possibly combine different packages together to give them a variety of treats. For my (few remaining) single friends, I might give one treat package but put in a little sample of several different things so they still can get a variety without going into sugar overload. The treat packages I tend to buy are small to medium in size for the most part. It's easier to put several smaller packages together to make a bigger gift than to give one large gift that's too much for your recipients to consume.

I hate for things to go to waste but am also mindful that this is the season of (over)indulgence and my friends are likely to be getting treats from other bakers as well or they also make their own. So I try to give a variety of treats, some of which can go into the freezer for eating at a later date and others with a shorter shelf life are given in fewer quantity. I also tell my friends which ones can be frozen for later and which ones should be consumed sooner rather than later so they can get maximum taste and freshness from their baked gifts. Although some eat all of it right away - that's fine too :).

So have fun with your gift packaging - if you give away your baked treats, dress them up! Although it's inside the packaging that counts, it's also nice for your gift to reflect the effort and care you put into making them and for your recipient to get an eye-catching gift that pleases more than their taste buds.

Thanksgiving 2011 - menu pictorial

2011-11-27T07:51:00.001-08:00

It's been a busy week and I haven't been on the computer much for the past few days. In between baking, decorating, Thanksgiving, visiting with family and friends and hosting my first holiday get together of the season (no, not Thanksgiving itself - I'm SO incapable of that), there just hasn't been enough time. Here's a pictorial view of our Thanksgiving meal. Christmas posts to follow in the coming days.

Lumpia appetizer - almost always present at every Filipino family gathering

Lechon (pork roast) - also a traditional feast food

Lechon in more serving size pieces


Shrimp pesto pasta - with basil grown in my mom's garden

Leche flan (Filipino creme caramel) - made by my mom

Basque Cake (butter cake with vanilla pastry cream)

Apple cobbler, aka Apple Crumble Bars (serve warm with ice cream)

Salvaging the baking failures

2011-11-22T06:23:00.000-08:00

Okay, we're now in the midst of holiday baking - Thanksgiving is this week, Christmas is hot on its heels afterwards. Your pantry is now stocked up and you've done much advance prep in mixing up cookie doughs and storing brownies and bar cookies in the freezer. But sometimes things can still go wrong when we just don't have time for things to go wrong. When that happens, my next baking tip is to do what you can to salvage your "failures".

This happened to me a couple of days ago when I had mixed up a batch of Alton Brown's Chocolate Chip Cookies and had them portioned out into dough balls, in the freezer, ready to bake at a moment's notice. I was meeting friends for dinner last Sunday night and I popped a batch of cookie dough into the oven to bake. But I was multi-tasking and by the time I remembered I had cookies in the oven, it was almost too late. I yanked them out of the oven and, while they were just short of becoming burnt, they were definitely fully baked, more so than I, the Queen of Underbaking Cookies, would prefer. They weren't bad but they also weren't anything I considered fit enough for goodie bags to give away. 95% of people would probably think there was nothing wrong with them but I'm the 5%.

Yet I didn't want to throw them away as that would be such a waste, not only of ingredients but time I couldn't afford to lose. So I needed to get creative on what to do with overbaked cookies. (Thankfully they weren't burnt or they wouldn't have been salvageable because a burnt taste would've taken over anything I tried to do with them.) I pulverized them in the food processor, mixed the cookie crumbs with a few tablespoons of melted butter and use them as a cookie crust layer for brownies. The brownie recipe is from The Good Cookie and for added decadence, just like in the recipe, I put a peanut butter cup in the middle. I made the cookie crust first, patting it on the bottom of each little round cavity of my mini cheesecake pan, put the peanut butter cup centered on top of the crust and poured the brownie batter over it. I had plenty of brownie batter leftover so I baked it in a smaller pan (an 8" instead of an 9" pan) for a normal brownie per the recipe.

This turned out pretty well and the rounds made a good individual-sized treat to give away. Sometimes baking mishaps will happen but don't let that discourage you. Instead, go into "life --> lemons --> lemonade" problem solving. You never know what you can come up with and who knows, it might turn out just as well or even better, than what you were trying to make in the first place.

Black and White Pound Cake

2011-11-21T07:03:00.000-08:00

Black and White Pound Cake - made November 18, 2011 from Great Coffee Cakes by Carole Walter (book #176)

I'm still making my way through my collection of recipe books and I'm more than 3/4 of the way there, maybe even closer. I'm feeling some pressure to wrap up this baking challenge soon because the whole reason I started it in the first place was to justify buying Lisa Yockelson's new book, Baking Style, which has already been released. But, hello, confession time, I recently bought the book. I know, I know, I wasn't supposed to until I had finished this challenge. But it was on sale, I had a gift card that would pay for most of it and I had a weak moment. So there you go. However, I only bought it, I haven't actually used it yet. Now my new challenge is I can't bake from it until I finish up my old challenge. I've now been on the first challenge for over a year. Who knew it would take so long just to bake 1 recipe from every cookbook I own?

I have several cookbooks by Carole Walter and they're always straightforward, generally easy and usually come out. If they don't, I modify them to suit me but for the most part, she has terrific recipes. Which is why I felt okay taking the risk of trying out a new recipe during holiday baking time. You usually can't go wrong with pound cakes or a Carole Walter recipe.

My faith was justified as this turned out pretty well. It takes longer to mix than the norm as the instructions have you adding the powdered sugar a little at a time and beating the batter to airy lightness. I don't think I took the full 8-10 minutes to beat the sugar in but it did take awhile. In fact, it took so long that my melted chocolate mixture cooled too much to use so I had to warm it slightly again before I added the 2 cups of vanilla batter to it to make the chocolate batter. But it was worth it as the texture was perfect, not too dense but not too light. The flavor was good as well. Don't swirl the two batters too much as you do want distinct sections of chocolate and vanilla together once the cake bakes.

This is best eaten warm or lukewarm. When I tried a sliver after it had cooled to room temperature, it wasn't as good. So if you're not going to serve it warm, then heat it up in the microwave for 10-15 seconds first before slicing and serving.

4 ounces fine-quality bittersweet chocolate, such as Lindt, coarsely chopped

1/3 cup hot water

3 tablespoons strained Dutch-process cocoa powder

1 tablespoon light corn syrup

4 cups sifted cake flour, spooned in and leveled

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

6 large eggs

½ cup milk

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 ½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly firm

¼ cup canola or vegetable oil

3 ½ cups strained powdered sugar, spooned in and leveled, plus extra for dusting

¼ teaspoon baking soda

1. Position a rack in the lower third of the oven. Heat the oven to 325˚F. Generously butter a 10-inch angel food cake pan with a removable bottom and line the bottom with baking parchment. Set aside.

2. Combine the chocolate, hot water, cocoa powder, and corn syrup in a medium heatproof bowl. Place the bowl over a pot of simmering water and heat just until the chocolate is melted. Stir to combine and set aside.

3. In a large bowl, thoroughly whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

4. Whisk the eggs in a medium bowl. Blend in the milk and vanilla.

5. Cut the butter into 1-inch pieces and place in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until smooth and lightened in color, about 2 minutes. Slowly drizzle in the oil, taking about 1 minute, then beat for 1 minute longer. Scrape down the side of the bowl.

6. Reduce the speed to medium-low. Add the powdered sugar, 2 to 3 tablespoons at a time, taking 8 to 10 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Slowly pour in ½ cup of the egg mixture and mix for 2 minutes longer.

7. Add the dry ingredients alternately with the remaining egg mixture, dividing the flour into four parts and the egg mixture into three parts, beginning and ending with the flour. Scrape down the side of the bowl as needed.

8. Remove 2 generous cups of the batter and place in a 2-quart bowl. Stir the baking soda into the tepid chocolate, then add the chocolate mixture to the 2 cups of batter, gently folding together.

9. Using two large clean spoons, alternate placing large spoonfuls of the chocolate and vanilla batters in the prepared pan, carefully spreading the flavors so they touch. Make a second layer of batter, this time placing spoonfuls of vanilla batter on the chocolate and the chocolate batter on the vanilla. Repeat, alternating the flavors, making about four layers. Insert a kitchen knife into the batter starting about 1 inch from the funnel and circle the pan twice. Do not overwork the batters. Firmly tap the pan two or three times on the counter to level the batter.

10. Bake for about 1 hour and 20 minutes. The cake is done when the top is golden brown and firm to the touch, and a wooden skewer inserted deeply in the center comes out clean.

11. Remove the cake from the oven and let stand on a cooling rack for 25 to 30 minutes. Holding the tube, lift the cake from the outer ring and place it on the cooling rack. Let stand for another 20 to 30 minutes. Cover the cake with a cooling rack, invert, and carefully lift off the tube section of the pan and the parchment paper. Cover with another rack and turn the cake top side up to finish cooling. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.

Remembering our troops - care package time again

2011-11-19T08:18:00.000-08:00

It's Thanksgiving week and and one of the reasons Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday is it's a palpable reminder to express gratitude. For me, I truly feel gratitude not only when I express it but when I share it as a means of that expression. Sometimes it's sharing of positive thought and emotions, spreading happiness by being happy. Other times it's a more tangible expression. And this week, in thinking of our military personnel being away from their homes and families during the holidays, I wanted to do my own small part to help and express my gratitude for their service.

In the past I've used organizations like adoptasolider.org to send in donations and packages or else I've asked friends who had family and friends in the military what they would like and where I can send a package. This year, I asked an online friend, Madeline, from my fitness forum who has a son in the military what items he and his unit would like and where I can send a package to him. She thought it was nice of me but I'm not doing it to be nice. In all honesty, I thought it was literally the least I could do and little enough in light of what he and our troops were doing for me. This is just an expression of gratitude.

I've blogged before about care package tips to friends and to my college-age nieces. This is a different sort of post because sending care packages to military personnel requires different items and packaging tips.

First of all, to preserve their safety, you're not likely to know exactly where your care package is going or what the conditions will be like in that part of the world. So you don't know if it'll be blazing hot, freezing cold, humid, or arid. That means the items you send have to withstand any type of temperature. Unfortunately that likely means no chocolate candy as it potentially could be a melted mess if it's going to a hot climate. Send hard candies or non-meltables like Skittles, Jolly Ranchers, Sweettarts, etc. If you send packaged food items with items like soaps, be sure to wrap each separately and buffer them with other items between the two. Do not send perfumed soaps. In very hot climates, the perfume will permeate everything else in the box and potentially ruin the food. To be safe, seal them separately in ziploc bags, especially anything like liquid soap which could leak or burst out of its container.

Second, you don't know how long your package is going to take to reach its destination. So everything you send must either be non-perishable or at least have a long shelf life. Beef jerky is an often-requested item from our troops and should be able to withstand the journey. Same with coffee and tea.

Package items closely so things move as little as possible

Third, safety of our troops is paramount so that means there are things you absolutely cannot send. In more innocuous care packages, I thrive on sending the stuff I've baked. Can't do that with a military care package. While I know there's nothing harmful in my baked goods (except an excess of calories), the military recipients don't know that. Just like you can no longer hand out homemade goods to trick or treating kids on Halloween night and can/should only hand out packaged candies and the like, only sealed, packaged food should be sent in a military care package.

Fourth, remember the contents of your care package are more than likely going to be shared within the unit. Try to send individually packaged items or items that can be easily shared. And remember women serve in the military as well so don't be shy about sending "feminine" stuff.

Lastly, in the US, the Post Office has flat rate priority mail packaging expressly meant for military care packages. You can fit as many items as possible and pay only the flat rate, no matter how heavy it is. See here for the guidelines, restrictions and rates on sending to an APO/FPO/DPO address. As with any package, tape it securely and write the address legibly. And whatever else you put in the package, don't forget a note to thank them for their service and that you're thinking of them. I know I can safely enjoy my Thanksgiving with family and friends at home because of where they are and what they're doing. And I appreciate and am grateful for that.

Happy Thanksgiving (week)!

The brownie version of Texas Fudge Cake

2011-11-18T06:52:00.000-08:00

Essence of Chocolate Squares - made November 14, 2011 from Baking by Flavor by Lisa Yockelson

Have you ever had Texas Fudge Cake? There are probably other names for it but it's essentially a chocolate sheet cake that's covered with chocolate frosting while it's still warm so the frosting melts into the cake then sets into a fudgy layer over the cake when it cools. If you're a chocolate cake lover, it's a must-consume. This is the brownie version of a Texas Fudge Cake. And if you're a brownie lover or a fudge lover, I would argue this is even better than Texas Fudge Cake (ducking the cake lovers). As you can see from the picture, the frosting melts into the cake and sets into what is essentially a layer of fudge on top. Not "frosting" but "fudge". This is pure unadulterated chocolate. The brownies are moist and fudgy and the frosting is...well, to repeat, fudge. Cut the pieces small as they're pretty rich and use a dark chocolate. Otherwise it'll be too sweet.

I've made these before and blogged about them before so click on the title to go to the original blog post and the recipe. Like I've said earlier, this isn't the time of year that I do a lot of experimentation so I may be revisiting and re-posting some earlier favorites. This one is definitely a favorite and is already packaged up and sitting in my freezer waiting to go out in the next care packages or goodie bags I'm giving away.

Baking ahead

2011-11-16T16:11:00.000-08:00

Now that you have a fully stocked pantry with all the baking ingredients you need, it's time to plan your actual baking and do as much ahead of time as you can. Making things ahead of time alleviates stress and eliminates or minimizes wondering how you're going to get everything done in a compressed timeframe.

First, plan what you're going to make. While I do a lot more baking during the holidays, I rarely try out new recipes unless I'm extremely confident they'll turn out. Because I have too much to bake and too little time so I can't afford to have a recipe experiment flop and leave me without anything to bring a party or give to friends at get togethers. Experimentation is for the rest of the year. Holiday baking comes with a mission and nothing can jeopardize it. Besides which, oftentimes, my friends know I'm giving them a baked gift and have specific requests of their favorites which I'm happy to accommodate. After all, the gift is about the recipient, not the giver so my recipe ADD has to be set aside during the holidays.

Second, once you know what you're going to make, do as much ahead of time as possible. Cookies are the best example. Make your cookie dough(s) ahead of time, portion them out into individual cookie-dough balls and put them in ziploc freezer bags marked with the name, baking temp and time then place them in your freezer. Or roll the cookie dough into logs, wrap wax paper and saran wrap and freeze them for slicing later. Some people like to bake the cookie dough first and freeze the baked cookies as their time saver. I have to admit, I'm not a fan of that. I'm a super stickler for freshness and to me, a freshly baked cookie is better than a freshly thawed cookie. Plus you don't have to worry about the cookies crumbling when you freeze, store and thaw them. Cookie dough, if it crumbles, can be squished back together before baking and no one will ever be able to tell once they're baked. You also have to remember that once you give away your cookies, you don't know how long it takes your recipient to eat them so if you had baked them beforehand, froze them, thawed them then gave them away, that's a long life you expect the cookies to have and most cookies have a shorter freshness lifespan than that. It's better to freeze the dough and have it ready for last-minute baking and giving.

Cookie doughs that freeze well:
Alton Brown's chocolate chip cookies
Super Sugar Sparkles
Peanut Butter Fudge Cookies
Brown Butter Cookies

Brownies and bar cookies, on the other hand, (depending on the recipe), can easily be baked ahead of time and then frozen without their freshness being materially jeopardized. What I like to do with brownies I'm giving away in individual care packages or gift bags is bake the brownies, let them cool, cut them into individual pieces then package them up, two squares to a package, wrapped in plastic wrap then put in freezer bags and stored in the freezer, marked with what kind of brownie they are. If I bake enough in advance, when it comes time to put together the gift bags or care packages, I have an assortment of brownies to choose from and give away. It's always nice for your recipients to get a variety. If I'm taking brownies to a party or potluck, after they've baked and cooled, I'll wrap the whole thing without cutting it and freeze it whole. When it's party time, I let it thaw then cut the brownies and arrange them on a nice plate. Unless you're going to wrap each individual piece, it's best to leave the brownies uncut so the edges don't dry out.

Almost all brownies freeze well - here are just couple of examples:
Peanut Butter Surprise Bars
Nutella Crunch Brownies

I rarely freeze cakes. The light, cakey texture I like in most of my cakes don't tend to freeze well or else if their flavor doesn't suffer from being frozen, sometimes their texture does. The only exceptions are pound cakes which are a dense enough texture to freeze well and basque cake. I love basque cake and I make them as individual-sized cakes which are the right size for giving away. If you do freeze cakes, please freeze them unfrosted (make the frosting at the last minute) and wrap the cakes well. Keep all frozen baked goods from odorous items in your freezer. Don't cozy up even your most well-wrapped baked goods next to that package of frozen fish or overripe bananas or else the odors and flavors could permeate your baked goods.

Pumpkin Caramel Cake

2011-11-16T12:31:00.001-08:00

Ooey Gooey Caramel Pumpkin Blondies - from Eat Cake for Dinner blog, linked from Sweets for a Saturday #41 made November 12, 2011

I discovered this on Sweets for Saturday, a link party hosted by Lisa that I usually participate in. The picture was enough to lure me to click on the link and go to Jenn's Eat Cake for Dinner blog. I'm so glad I did because this cake was scrumptious. Totally high calories but totally worth it, especially if you like pumpkin or caramel or both. Normally, when I try a recipe from someone else's blog, I link back to it so you have to go to that blog to get the recipe. That seems like good blogging etiquette to drive traffic to their blog. However, I did make a couple of modifications to Jenn's version so I'm listing my changes and the modified recipe below. Please do visit her blog though to get the original recipe (you might like her version better) and check out her other delicious creations. I'm also taking the liberty of renaming her confection as mine turned out more like a cake than a typical blondie.

The main change I made from Jenn's version is I think it would be better if the bottom layer of batter was initially baked for a few minutes first. When you have a caramel layer in the middle, the bottom layer tends to soak in the caramel without fully baking. To keep the bottom from being overly moist, I recommend giving it a bit of a head start in baking. I didn't do that and ended up having to put this back in for a second baking, even though the toothpick taste came out clean the first time. The bottom was still too moist. I also omitted any kind of nuts in the caramel-chocolate chip layer since I prefer cakes without them if they're mixed into the cake (as opposed to staying crisp on top).

This is one of the few confections that I prefer at room temperature rather than eaten warm. When it was warm, it was a little too mushy/gooey for me. When it was at room temperature, you can taste the pumpkin and cinnamon flavors better. In fact, I think this was actually better the next day when the flavors had time to develop and meld together. The texture was also more set; it was moist without being overly gooey. Just general overall deliciousness - thanks Jenn!

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup packed light brown sugar

2 extra large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

Filling:

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 (11 oz) package caramel bits

1/4 cup whole milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 9x13 inch pan with foil and spray lightly with nonstick cooking spray; set aside.
Cream together butter and brown sugar. Add eggs, vanilla and pumpkin puree and blend until combined. Slowly add cinnamon, flour, soda and salt. Spread about 1/2 of the batter into pan evenly and bake for 6-8 minutes. While it's baking, melt caramel bits and milk in a small saucepan until smooth, stirring constantly.
Remove baking pan from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips over the top. Pour caramel evenly over chocolate chips. Dot remaining batter over top and spread dollops out with a small spatula, gently covering as much of the caramel as possible. Bake 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. It might have caramel on it, but it shouldn't have cake batter.
Serve warm (might get oozing caramel) or cool completely. Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Stocking up the Baker's Pantry

2011-11-14T10:01:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving is next week! Despite my being a Christmas fiend, Thankgiving is actually my favorite holiday, bar none. It honors gratitude and if you're very fortunate, gets your friends and family together for celebration and formally remembering to give thanks for all of our blessings. I love this time of year. It can be stressful if you let it because of all the myriad of things involved in holiday celebrations but to me, if I get stressed over the holidays, I'm missing the point of them and the true spirit of celebrating them.

One thing I've learned over the years is to minimize the usual stressors. This can be done by planning ahead. As any Type A personality can tell you, there's much you can do to manage a long to-do list by thinking through what you truly need to do (as opposed to the want-to-get-done list) and giving yourself enough lead time to accomplish it. Interspersed with baking posts over the next month, I hope to also put up some tips and tricks for getting through the holidays stress-free. Ironically though, I'm late in putting up this kind of post since it's been so busy but that doesn't mean I haven't been preparing, just that I haven't written about it.

First up for any baker: stock your pantry early. The last thing you want is to be in a frenzy, baking for a family celebration, hosting a dinner party, attending a holiday party, going to a company potluck, etc and realize you're out of a critical ingredient at an inopportune time. If you're truly organized, you'd plan ahead what you want to cook and/or bake, make out an ingredient list and buy everything ahead of time. If you're the more normal kind of person and not quite that anal-retentive, never fear, you don't have to be that far-thinking. But you can and should stock up on some staples. Here is what the typical baker should always have on hand for marathon baking sessions well ahead of time - these are what I consider the "base staples":

Unsalted butter (Costco has them the cheapest in my area in four 1-lb packs)
Large or extra large eggs
All-purpose flour
Granulated sugar
Brown sugar (light and dark)
Powdered sugar
Baking powder
Baking soda
Salt
Vanilla extract (I buy this in "bulk" here)
Cake flour
Unsweetened baking chocolate
Bittersweet or semisweet baking chocolate
Unsweetened cocoa powder (I like Pernigotti from Williams Sonoma)
Chocolate chips (semisweet, milk, white, mini, chunks - your choice/preference)

Many of the above go on sale at this time of year so be on the lookout and stock up when the prices drop. I've bought 50 lbs of flour at one go when the 5-lb bags went on sale for $1.50 each. Then I went back and bought 20 more lbs. I bake enough that I know I'll use them well before the expiration date and that was the cheapest they've been in awhile. Yes, I'm a baking ingredient hoarder.

Depending on what you like to make or flavors you want to use, I also suggest having on hand:

Peanut butter, creamy and/or chunky - your preference
Nutella
Red food coloring (for red velvet-type confections)
Lemons
Cream cheese
Cinnamon
Graham cracker crumbs
Marshamallows
Rice Krispies (for rice krispie treats and nutella crunch topping)
Nuts if you bake with them - they can be stored in the freezer until you're ready to use them
Caramel
Dulce de leche

More perishable with a shorter shelf life so you don't want to buy these too early but you should have a good sense of when you need them and purchase them accordingly:

Whole milk
Buttermilk
Heavy cream (skip the half and half - you can use half whole milk and half heavy cream for any recipe that calls for it)
Sour cream

Of course, the above isn't an exhaustive list and you may still need to make a last-minute grocery run when you need something for a particular recipe but if you have most of the above, there are many, many things you can whip up at a moment's notice right out of your pantry. The added advantage of having a fully stocked baking pantry ahead of your holiday baking is you can avoid the long lines at the grocery store or Costco as holiday time nears and it fills up with people doing their last-minute shopping. Not to mention you can spread out the cost so it doesn't run up against your Christmas gift-buying budget.

Lastly, if you plan to make any banana-flavored items, you should be buying the ripest bananas you can find now/yesterday so you can give them time to overripen. If they turn black before you actually need them, just peel them and put the bananas in the freezer in a ziploc freezer bag. Then when you need them for baking, you already have them ready to thaw and use.

Caramel Coconut Brownies with Oreo Crust - Take 3

2011-11-12T09:01:00.001-08:00

Double Chocolate Brownies with Fudge Sauce - made November 7, 2011 from Chocolate Box by Linda Doeser (book #175)

Your eyes aren't deceiving you - the picture of these brownies don't match the original title of the recipe. That's because I only used the brownie recipe part to make the top layer of the oreo caramel coconut brownies again. I wasn't going to make this kind of brownie again but I had some coworkers in town last week and one requested that brownie. To further my baking challenge along, I semi-cheated and just chose a random brownie recipe to make it again. As mentioned before, I have recipe ADD: it's hard for me to make the same recipe twice unless it's a family or friend favorite when I could be trying out more new recipes.

In any case, I think I've got the hang of these triple-layered brownies now so nothing really new or revolutionary to report on them. I am, however, also getting sick of Oreos now so I may give these a rest. But I did list the original recipe below as is in case anyone wants to try making them as the cookbook author intended.

I was too busy last week to really bake much so I have to get myself in gear. Holiday baking is coming up and that's my busiest baking season. Not only do I bake for family gatherings but also when I go out with friends, attend parties and send care packages. LOTS to bake. More to come in the next few weeks....

½ cup unsalted butter

4 ounces/115 grams semisweet chocolate, broken intopieces

1 1/3 cups superfine sugar

Pinch of salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa

½ cup white chocolate chips

Fudge Sauce

4 tablespoons butter

1 cup superfine sugar

2/3 cup milk

1 cup heavy cream

2/3 cup corn syrup

7 ounces/200 grams semisweet chocolate, broken intopieces

1. Preheatthe oven to 350⁰F. Grease and linea 7-inch/18-cm square cake pan with parchment paper. Place the butter and chocolate in a smallheatproof bowl set over a saucepan of gently simmering water until melted. Stir until smooth. Let cool slightly. Stir in the sugar, salt, and vanillaextract. Add the eggs, one at a time,stirring well, until blended.

2. Siftthe flour and unsweetened cocoa into the cake batter and beat untilsmooth. Stir in the chocolate chips,then pour the batter into the pan. Bakein the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes, or until the top is evenly colored anda skewer inserted into the center comes out almost clean. Let cool slightly while preparing the sauce.

3. Tomake the sauce, place the butter, sugar, milk, cream, and corn syrup in a smallsaucepan and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to a boil and stir for 10 minutes, oruntil the mixture is caramel-colored. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate. Stir until smooth. Cut the brownies into large or small squaresand serve immediately with the sauce.

Wedding in Winnipeg

2011-11-10T17:09:00.001-08:00

You know it's been busy when I've barely baked and haven't blogged in over a week. I was gone for a few days at my cousin's wedding in Winnipeg last weekend. It was fun to have a mini family reunion with some of my relatives and I'm glad to have been able to be a part of the wedding festivities. Her dress was gorgeous:

Being food-obsessed, I took almost as many pictures of the food as I did of the family and the wedding activities.

Mini quiches and stuffed mushrooms were 2 of the appetizers

Followed by mushroom soup

One of the entrees was beef tenderloin with scalloped potatoes and veggies

Dessert was "Flight of Mousse"

And of course the beautiful wedding cake - Red Velvet

Congratulations to Romina and Nick! Thanks for a beautiful wedding!

Pumpkin Coffee Cake

2011-11-03T20:57:00.000-07:00

Pumpkin Coffee Cake - made October 29, 2011 from Crazy for Crust's blog

I think I've mentioned before that one of the things I enjoy about blogging is getting exposed to all the other foodie blogs out there. Unfortunately I can't follow them all and even the ones I do follow, I don't always have time to read all the entries. But when I'm lucky, I have the right timing to not only catch up on some of the blogs but also catch a yummy-sounding and looking recipe like this one from Crazy for Crust. Dorothy has an awesome blog and I encourage you to check it out for not only some delicious goodies but also some very clever and creative concoctions. When I saw this one for Pumpkin Coffee Cake (click on the blog title to go to the original recipe on Dorothy's blog), it looked too good to pass up. I still had leftover pumpkin puree from the Brown Butter Pumpkin Cupcakes and just enough milk that the recipe called for. Plus I love streusel and coffee cake so it was a no-brainer to try this out.

I've learned to trust Dorothy's recommendations as she and I seem to have similar tastes. This was validated by this recipe. She loved this one and so did I. It was super easy to make and turned out really well. The cake is moist and the streusel on top crisped up to provide a nice contrast to the soft texture of the cake. The only thing I changed is I didn't have pumpkin pie spice so I substituted cinnamon instead. Still turned out great - thanks, Dorothy!