Toffee Crunch Cookies

Toffee Crunch Cookies - made January 31, 2017 from Curiouser and Curiouser

After the Soft Toffee Cookie experiment, you'd think I'd lay off toffee cookies for awhile. Too sweet, remember? Do I listen to myself? Not really. Still had a bag of toffee bits to use, the one that was just straight toffee bits, not the one that was bits of milk chocolate toffee. I compensated by chopping up a toffee chocolate Cadbury milk bar slab I picked up last time I was running through Heathrow. Because London and chocolate....

Anyway, not only do I not listen to myself but I also went against instinct not to try this recipe because it only used granulated sugar for sweetening. In my experience, a cookie that only has granulated sugar typically ends up being too sweet. As opposed to also having brown sugar which would at least give you some caramel flavor, like a chocolate chip cookie. Did I listen to myself about that either? No.

The good news is listening to myself is overrated. Because the gamble paid off. This wasn't soft like the other toffee cookie but was crisp and crunchy in a good, chewy way. It wasn't too sweet (I've had sweeter) and was pretty good. Who knew?? The only thing I would suggest is to make these a little smaller than what I did. Normally I like to scoop out big cookie dough balls, at least the size of golf balls because I like thick, chubby cookies. But since these spread to uniform thinness, they made for large, thin cookies, something I normally don't like. But the taste and texture of these overcame my usual prejudice. I would make them into small dough balls to get normal-sized cookies.

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups chopped Heath Bar pieces (~8 1.4-ounce bars)

1. In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, salt and baking soda; set aside.
2. In the bowl of a mixer, cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and add vanilla.
3. Add in the flour mixture until just combined then fold in the Heath Bar bits. Portion into dough balls slightly smaller than golf-ball size, cover and chill for at least 1 hour or freeze until ready to bake.
4. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space dough balls on sheet.
5. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until edges are just beginning to brown. Remove from oven and let cool on baking sheet for 2-3 minutes then remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies - Levain Bakery copycat #3 from The Cultural Hall

Levain Bakery copycat #3 - Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies - made January 31, 2017 from The Cultural Hall Podcast

First test bake

This is my next attempt at a Levain Bakery copycat for their chocolate chocolate chip cookie. Surprisingly, there aren't that many copycat recipes out there for the double chocolate cookie. Most copycat attempts have gone towards their original chocolate chip cookie. What I'm trying to recapture is both the crisp outside but, more importantly-to-me, their dense fudginess of the inside. I've made fudgy cookies before but the Levain fudginess is something else. It isn't just moist chocolate that has set. It's almost like a fudgy brownie in cookie form that married the best fudge. That's the best way I can describe it and what I'm seeking.

First test bake

First test bake

I'm not a scientist but I know enough about baking to believe that dense, fudgy texture is likely to come from less leavening, less beating or aeration of the cookie dough and enough flour to give it structure but not make it dry. I also wonder if some of the chocolate should come from melted baking chocolate rather than just cocoa powder but all of the copycat recipes I've found use cocoa so that's what I'm trying for now.

Second test bake

Second test bake

I baked 2 test cookies for this recipe at two different times on two different days. The first time, I think I baked it a minute longer than I should have. Not that it was overbaked or even fully baked but I wanted it more underbaked than it was. The texture was lighter than fudge, albeit not light enough to be considered cakey. The outside wasn't particularly crisp although there was a thin "crust" to it but not much of one. The first set of pictures shows that first bake.

The second time I didn't bake it as long and while the edges were set, the middles were just barely past "no longer raw" in the middle. Still a lighter-than-fudge texture when just barely lukewarm but when I ate the fully cooled cookie a couple of hours after baking, it had a more satisfyingly fudge-like texture. Still not as richly dense as the Levain original though. The drawback of waiting to complete coolness is while I could get closer to the inside texture, the outer crispness had softened and was gone. The taste was good but I haven't nailed the texture or outside yet. On to the next recipe.

Second test bake, just cooled to room temperature

Second test bake, a couple of hours after cooling completely

2 sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup dark cocoa powder
1 1/4 cups bread flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups semisweet chocolate chunks

1. Cream butter and sugars together until fluffy and well combined, 2-3 minutes.
2. Add eggs, one at a time, then vanilla, mixing until incorporated.
3. Whisk together cocoa, bread flour, all-purpose flour, salt and baking powder. Gradually add to creamed mixture, mixing until just combined. Do not overmix.
4. Fold in chocolate chunks. Divide dough into 4-ounce portions. For a smooth exterior, roll into balls and form into thick discs. For a more ragged appearance like the original Levain Bakery cookie, roll into a ball, then separate into halves, "gluing" the halves together, smooth sides in, jagged edges out, by pressing together to adhere.  Cover, chill and refrigerate or freeze for several hours or overnight.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Evenly space cookies and bake for 16-18 minutes or until middles no longer look raw or shiny and edges are set. Cool completely.

Asian-Style Ribs

Asian-Style Ribs - made January 20, 2017 from Off the Shelf by Donna Hay

My mom is a great cook. And it's apparent when she makes ribs. I'm not even going to claim I made these because I didn't. But I'm going to put them up on my blog to capture the recipe in case anyone else wants to make amazingly flavorful ribs.

I don't know how she does it or what tricks she uses to have ribs, no matter which recipe she uses, come out so tender. She says she just bakes it long enough but I've tried that and ended up with chewy, stringy, dry meat on the bone. Hers are fork tender, moist and flavorful. Sigh. Let me assure you that cooking skills are not hereditary.

Fortunately, she shares what she makes with the rest of us so here you go - really good ribs with a simple marinade that imparts great flavor.

3 pounds pork spare ribs

Marinade
1/2 cup hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon grated ginger
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1/4 cup Chinese rice wine or sherry
1 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder
2 tablespoons sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Cut the ribs into individual pieces.
2. Combine all marinade ingredients in a large bowl. Add the ribs and toss to coat. Reserve the remaining marinade to brush over the ribs while cooking.
3. Place the ribs on a wire rack in a baking dish. Bake for 20 minutes, then brush with the reserved marinade.
4. Bake for a further 20 minutes or until well browned and crisp (my mom baked them a little longer to get them more tender).

Baked Parmesan Sweet Potatoes

Baked Parmesan Sweet Potatoes - made January 24, 2017, modified from Lil Luna

I'm back with another sweet potato recipe because, you know, bag of sweet potatoes from Costco. And there are a million ways to make sweet potatoes. I've tried and tried and tried to make crispy sweet potato fries. Why aren't those efforts on my blog? Because they've failed. Spectacularly. I'm okay blogging my failures too but honestly, I couldn't even bring myself to take pictures. And yes, I've tried all the tricks from all the recipes that say "here's the secret to crispy sweet potato fries!" Um, no, I couldn't do it, not the cornstarch trick, not the soak or rinse or bathe in cold water trick or both cold water and cornstarch. You know when I gave up? When I freaking deep fried them and they still weren't crispy!!

Okay, deep breath. It's upsetting because you know I love sweet potato fries. But they mock me. Never mind. I now switch my attention to other ways to make sweet potatoes without going the crispy-fries route (mutter). Thankfully, I can pan fry and bake sweet potatoes with the best of them and these turned out to be delicious.

I did make a couple of modifications from the original recipe to fit what I had in my (Penzey's!!) spice drawer. I used paprika instead of Italian seasoning and sprinkled tarragon instead of parsley. (Hey, they were still bits of green.) They turned out beautifully. The pictures aren't very good but believe me, the sweet potatoes were. As long as I'm not making sweet potato fries, it's hard to go wrong with sweet potatoes.

2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed into 1-inch cubes
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons butter, melted
4 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon paprika
Tarragon or parsley (I used tarragon)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Place garlic, oil, butter, salt, Parmesan cheese and Italian seasoning in a ziploc bag and mix well.
3. Add sweet potato cubes and shake until well coated.
4. Place cubes onto cookie sheet in single, even layer. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until fork tender.
5. Serve warm and sprinkled with dried parsley if desired.

Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies - Levain Bakery copycat #2 from Kirbie Cravings

Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies - made dough January 28, 2017, modified from Kirbie Cravings (same as Modern Honey recipe)

I'm dwelling on a new riff of an old obsession. Yes, I'm still fixated on Levain Bakery cookies. I think I've got the chocolate chip ones out of my system (for now) as I've come to realize that while I do like the original Levain Bakery chocolate chip cookies, some of the copycat recipes I've tried out have also been excellent and satisfy my chocolate chip cookie sweet tooth (yes, I have one of those). So I don't feel the need to make an exact Levain copycat because there are quite a number of acceptable substitutes out there.

But.....one thing I realized from my visit(s) to the original Levain Bakery is how much I loved their chocolate chocolate chip cookie. The crisp outside, the rich dense fudginess of the inside that's like eating baked fudge? Nirvana. And nirvana is hard to replicate. However, never let it be said I back down from a challenge, at least not while I'm obsessed. So you're going to see more copycat recipes for their fudgy chocolate chocolate cookie in the coming weeks (months?).

Pinterest, of course, was the logical starting point as yes, they have copycat recipes for Levain's chocolate chocolate cookie, although not as many as I'd like. And the same one keeps getting repinned. I'd tried one some months ago before I even went to Levain and that turned out well but not quite like the real thing. This copycat from Kirbie's Cravings seemed quite popular and looked amazing on her site. It's the exact same recipe I found on Modern Honey as well. So that became attempt #2.

I thought it was pretty good. The picture above shows the inside while it was still a bit warm so the gooey-ness is prominent. Chocolate chocolate cookies are one of the few cookies I recommend eating at room temperature. That gives the chocolate time to set and it'll still be fudgy without being too mushy. You'll also get the full flavor of the chocolate. The recipe calls for baking the cookies at 410 degrees. Depending on your oven, that might be a bit hot. When I bake chocolate chip cookies over 375 degrees in mine, the chips tend to burn slightly before the cookie is done enough to be taken out. I put the baking sheet in at 375 while the oven is still preheating, let it hit 410, keep it there for 2-3 minutes then bring the oven temp back down to 375 to finish baking.

The picture below gives you an idea of what I mean about a room temperature texture as that was taken well after the cookies had cooled and the chocolate had set. As chocolate chocolate chip cookies go, this was tasty. Be sure you use a dark, high quality cocoa to get the richness of the chocolate flavor. But it's not quite a Levain Bakery cookie because once the cookies had cooled, the crisp-ness of the outside softened. The taste was still good and was rich but not quite the baked-fudge texture of the Levain original which is one of the things I loved so much about it. It was just a bit more "light" in texture than the dense fudginess of the Levain Bakery original. On to the next attempt and another copycat recipe for me.

1 cup unsalted cold butter, cut into cubes
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Pernigotti cocoa)
1 cup cake flour
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cornstarch
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups semisweet chocolate chips and/or chunks (I used half semisweet, half milk chocolate chips)

1. In a mixing bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, dark brown sugar and granulated sugar on high speed until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
2. Whisk together cocoa powder, cake flour, all-purpose flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. Add to mixing bowl on lowest speed, mixing until just combined. Do not overmix. Fold in chocolate chips or chunks.
3. Portion into generous 4-ounce dough balls, cover and chill for 15 minutes or longer.
4. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 410 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space chilled dough balls. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until surface is dry and cookies look almost set. Let cool for a few minutes on baking sheet then remove to wire cooling racks to cool completely.

Garlic Butter Smashed Sweet Potatoes

Garlic Butter Smashed Sweet Potatoes - made January 20, 2017 modified from Cafe Delites

I have yet to meet a sweet potato that I don't love. I can eat it plain boiled or baked and be perfectly fine. Once in awhile, I take a walk on the wild side and "do stuff" to the plain sweet potato so that it isn't so plain.

It helps when you buy a large bag from Costco and get all crazy. Fortunately, it's hard to ruin sweet potatoes. Even more fortunately, this recipe makes them better. This was just enough savory to complement the sweet potato perfectly. I made one minor mistake because I didn't read the directions carefully enough beforehand (oops) and sprinkled the Parmesan cheese on top the first time I put them in the oven. So the sprinkles got a bit burnt.

Fortunately, the potatoes survived me and my cooking, er, skills and were perfectly fine. It's best to cut the potato rounds a bit thick so they don't fall apart in boiling so easily and there's more sweet potato to enjoy with each serving.

4 medium or 3 large sweet potatoes
3 tablespoons melted butter
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese

1. Cut sweet potatoes into thick discs, skins on. Place in large pot of salted water. Bring to boil, covered for 20-25 minutes or until just fork-tender. Drain.
2. Preheat oven to broil, high heat setting. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
3. Arrange sweet potatoes in single layer and lightly press with fork.
4. Mix butter, garlic powder and parsley. Brush each sweet potato generously with mixture until evenly divided among the pieces. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. 
5. Broil until they are golden and crispy, about 15 minutes. Remove from oven, sprinkle tops with parmesan cheese and return to the oven until the cheese is melted.

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Apple Crumb Coffee Cake

Apple Crumb Coffee Cake - made January 20, 2017 from NeighborFood

So...I kinda messed up on this recipe (and the pictures didn't turn out that well either). Fortunately, it survived me so you may want to keep reading. Otherwise, you're going to miss a really fabulous apple coffee cake.

I put together the crumb mixture, peeled and sliced the apples, and made the cake batter just fine. Had my 9 x 13 baking pan all lined with foil, sprayed with nonstick cooking spray, the oven was preheated, everything was good to go. Except when I started spreading half the batter for the bottom layer of the cake and there was hardly enough to cover 3/4 of the pan. Seriously, it looked like I was making a really big rectangular pancake. Never mind that the other half of the batter was supposed to cover all of the apples and a part of the crumb layer. Eek.

So I got the brilliant-to-me idea of using a smaller pan. In hindsight, I should've gone with a 10 x 10 pan as it was closer in size to the 9 x 13 I was supposed to use. But no, don't be silly; that would've made too much sense. Instead, I went with a 9 x 9 pan. The first half of the batter spread nicely and covered the bottom of the pan like it was supposed to at a height I would estimate would be great for the cake once it was baked.

The larger cake with the apples but you can't really see them

Except....I still had the apples to layer, then part of the crumb topping then the rest of the cake batter then the rest of the crumb topping. If you guessed I would have run out of room before I could layer all that, you guessed better than I did. I layered the apple slices, I crumbled the crumb topping on top and hit the top of the pan. And that was before baking. I knew the cake would rise so it would end up even higher.

Yeah, that's when I belatedly remembered how crumb cake was really all about the crumb, not the cake. As in, I had so much crumb topping that had I stuck to the 9 x 13 pan, things would have been fine. Fortunately, I knew enough not to insist on cramming everything in that 9 x 9 pan. Instead, I went with just the bottom cake layer, the apple layer and a generous amount of crumb topping on top. The extra batter and crumb topping I split between different ramekins.

Despite my blunder, this was an excellent crumb coffee cake. The crumb topping was probably one of the best I've ever made. It mixes together easily and is easy to squeeze into big lumps so you get gorgeous, crunchy-sweet topping on top of your baked cake. When making a crumb cake, you don't want crumb dust. No, you want big pieces of streusel that crisp up during baking provides a sweet crunch to go with the cake. Just bake it in a big enough pan.

Crumb
3 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 large or 3 small tart apples, peeled and chopped (I used Granny Smiths)

Cake
8 tablespoons butter
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup sour cream
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder

Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
1-2 tablespoons apple cider
1-2 tablespoons milk
pinch salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9 x 13-inc baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Crumb: In a mixing bowl, whisk together 3 cups flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add the melted butter and vanilla extract and stir until the mixture is evenly moist. Set aside.
3. Batter: In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and sour cream. 
4. In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder. Add to the butter mixture, stirring just until combined. Do not overmix.
5. Spread half the batter into a thin layer at the bottom of the pan. Line the apple slices evenly over the batter. Top with about 1 cup of the crumble mixture, Spread the remaining batter over the top followed by the rest of the crumble. Squeeze some of the crumble into large chunks before topping the cake.
6. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. If top is getting too brown, lightly cover with foil for the last 10 minutes.
7. While the coffee cake bakes, whisk together the powdered sugar, apple cider, milk and salt. Drizzle over warm cake and serve.