Beef and Sweet Potato Stew

Beef and Sweet Potato Stew - made April 15, 2017

I originally intended to make this in my crock pot. I had a 5-quart one but my niece appropriated it when she moved out and I haven’t seen it since. Which was okay by me as it always seemed a little too big and whenever I made something in it, I seemed to be eating the same thing for days on end. So I bought myself a little 2-quart one. That seemed like the perfect size to make meals for one that would last a few days rather than a few weeks.

Except I didn’t realize until I started making this stew that most recipes make amounts that are too much for a little 2-quart crockpot to fit into. So I ended up making this in a large saucepan. It still worked although I did end up boiling it for awhile until the beef was tender.

I don’t usually have good luck with beef dishes. I never know what cut of meat to get, I always forget the right way to cut it (against the grain, along the grain, what’s “grain” nomenclature doing with meat anyway??), I never know how long to cook it and it either dries out or stays tough. Fortunately though, it turns out the cooking gods decided to cut me a break and didn’t torment me for this one. I still didn’t know how to cut it and I ended up adding more beef broth and water than the recipe called for since I let the stew keep boiling until the meat was tender. But the good news is the meat actually ended up tender after I had boiled, I mean, simmered, it long enough.

The mistake I made – you know there had to be at least one – was I added the sweet potatoes too soon and so they boiled right along with the beef until by the time the meat was tender, the sweet potatoes were no longer distinguishable cubes but sweet potato mush if you stirred the stew and looked at it wrong. So the pictures don’t look that great but the stew was actually quite tasty. It looks a little dry and you can add more beef broth if you want a more soupy stew but I thought it was fine.

And would you believe I made up the recipe? I tried to follow one of the stew recipes I had on my pinterest board but I was missing at least one spice called for in each of the pinned recipes. Which, by the way, was really hard to believe considering how much I had stocked up my spice rack. I mean, c’mon, I never even kept a spice rack before of spices I actually used instead of shoving in a drawer until I forgot about them. There’s that Penzey’s allegiance again. Fortunately, stew is a very forgiving dish so even if you don’t have all of these spices, feel free to experiment and throw in some of your own favorite spices and see how it turns out.

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 pounds beef chuck roast, cut into chunks
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon English prime rib rub
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon oregano
4 whole cloves
3 whole bay leaves
3 cups beef broth
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed

1. Heat large pot with olive oil. Saute chopped onion and garlic until onion is soft and garlic is lightly browned. Add beef and sear until sides are brown but not cooked through.
2. Add paprika, English prime rib rub, pepper, oregano, cloves, beef broth and sweet potatoes. Bring to a low simmer and add bay leaves. Simmer on medium-low heat until beef is tender.

Vanilla Bean Snickerdoodles

Vanilla Bean Snickerdoodles - made dough April 9, 2017 from Cookies & Cups by Shelly Jaronsky

I’d been making so many batches of my favoritesnickerdoodle recipe for my niece’s fundraiser that I finally cracked and tried a new recipe just to do something different for the same cookie. I’m not big on making the same recipe over and over again because I always want to try something new. Which is one reason why I’ve never worked in a bakery or had my own small business selling baked goods. I’m not sure I could handle making the same things all the time.

I went back to my Cookies & Cups baking book to try out this recipe for vanilla bean snickerdoodles. It was pretty straightforward and I used vanilla bean paste in place of buying vanilla beans and scraping out the seeds from the pods. Vanilla bean paste is much easier to use. Vanilla beans are so expensive that I only tend to use them for things like crème brulee where you also soak the pod itself after scraping out the seeds to get more vanilla flavor. Otherwise I make do with vanilla bean paste and fortified vanilla extract (from Penzey’s, where else?)

This made decently good snickerdoodles. They did spread a bit more than my favorite recipe but the taste was on point and they were good. Mine spread more than the picture in the Cookies & Cups book but it could be because I also made my cookie dough balls bigger. No point in having little cookies. I was making this to put in goodie bags for my niece’s fundraiser donors and wanted them to be a good size since they’re meant to be thank yous for their donation.

1 cup butter

3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 vanilla beans or 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

Cinnamon Sugar for rolling
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until combined and creamy, about 2 minutes.
2. Add whole egg, egg yolk and vanilla extract. Mix until incorporated.
3. Scrape insides of vanilla beans and add scrapings to dough. If using vanilla bean paste, add to dough and mix.
4. Add the cinnamon, baking soda, cream of tartar, salt and flour. Mix until flour is just incorporated. Do not overmix.
5. Scoop into golf-ball-size dough balls, cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
6. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
7. Combine 1/4 cup granulated sugar and 1 tablespoon cinnamon in small bowl. Roll chilled or frozen dough balls in mixture, coating completely. Evenly space on parchment-lined baking sheets, Bake 10-12 minutes until edges are lightly golden and middles are just barely past raw. Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes on baking sheet before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Deep Dish Fudge Brownies

Deep Dish Fudge Brownies - made April 8, 2017 from Brownies and Blondies by Lisa Yockelson

Since I had resigned myself to making only plain brownies for my niece’s fundraising (she met her original goal to raise $1000 then pushed herself to raise $2000 so I’m still baking away), I thought it would be a good time to revisit my plethora of baking books and start pulling out random brownie recipes from them. If I can’t add “stuff” to the brownies, at least I can test out more recipes from the books I already have.

This was from a little-known, looks-to-be-out-of-print book, also by Lisa Yockelson. I honestly don’t remember how I acquired it; it’s been so long. Possibly in one of those little mom-and-pop used bookstores. I think it’s out of print, not just because it’s old, but also because some of the recipes have been reprinted in newer books.

It’s a good basic brownie recipe, not difficult to make, and bakes into a nice plain brownie. It isn’t as dense as her Truffled Walnut Brownies so if you want something a little lighter in texture but still not cakey, this is a good one to use. And of course, if you’re not under the restrictions I am, feel free to dress it up with frosting, Nutella swirls, caramel dollops, candy add-ins and the like. 

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cake flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
4 extra-large or large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9" x 9" square baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Whisk together all-purpose flour, cake flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.
3. Whisk the melted butter and melted chocolate in a bowl. Beat in the sugar, eggs and vanilla extract. Add in dry ingredients and stir to form a batter.
4. Pour and scrape the batter into the prepared pan, spread batter evenly. Bake for 30 to 33 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out with a few moist crumbs.
5. Cool the brownies completely in the pan on a wire rack before cutting and serving. 

Gooey Texas Skillet Cake

Gooey Texas Skillet Cake - made April 8, 2017 from The Cookie Rookie

I’m back waving my #madeintheUSA cast iron skillet around. Technically there’s probably no such thing as a “Texas Skillet Cake” since it really refers to a Texas Sheet Cake which is, uh, made in sheet cake form. But there are no rules about cakes that aren’t meant to be broken and this is a good way to break it.

I only made a half recipe since I don’t have a large skillet and, even at half-recipe, I still used two 6” cast iron skillets as well as a small ramekin to fit all the batter. You don’t want this to overflow and waste batter.

Like a regular Texas sheet cake, the batter is easy to make and so is the frosting which you pour over the cake while it’s still warm. The “gooey” part comes in when you dig into the cake. No need to underbake the cake (although you don’t want to overbake it either) because the frosting adds the gooeyness. The cake concaves in the middle under the weight of the frosting so when you stick that spoon in – and use a spoon because you don’t want to miss a crumb – the warm frosting over the warm cake pools into whatever space you created when you hooked in that spoonful. 

You can eat this plain or go for caloric gold and add a scoop of vanilla ice cream. If you use the 6” cast iron skillet, it’s definitely a dessert for 2 or even 3 chocoholics.

You can use a regular cake pan if you don’t have a cast iron skillet but I did like using the skillet because the edges got crisp and added a nice texture contrast to the softness of the insides of the cake and the sweet flow of the frosting. I never used to think cast iron skillets were good for baking cakes because they’re dark-colored and heavy metal, both traits that absorb heat quickly and I thought the outer edges of the cake would dry out before the middle was done. I think, because the skillet size I used was so small, that wasn’t an issue since the whole thing baked fairly evenly. 

One drawback to using the skillet though is you don’t want to leave the cake in the skillet if you don’t finish it all in one go. Cast iron skillets do take a little bit of babying to keep them in good shape. I transferred the uneaten cake to a plate, washed out the skillet and put it in a still-hot oven to dry. You don’t want to let it air dry or let water or moisture sit in it for too long or it can rust.

8 ounces butter (2 sticks), chopped
1 cup water
4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

Frosting
6 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
4 ounces unsalted butter
3 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar
3/4 cup pecan pieces

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 10-inch cast iron skillet or 2 6" skillets with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a medium saucepan, heat the water, cocoa and butter over medium heat. Bring to a boil then remove from the heat.
3. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. 
4. In a separate bowl, lightly whisk the eggs. Whisk in the sour cream and vanilla until combined. Pour egg mixture over flour mixture and stir with wooden spoon until combined.
5. Pour the chocolate mixture over flour mixture; whisk until combined and smooth. Pour mixture into skillet(s).
6. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out with moist crumbs.
7. While cake is baking, prepare frosting: in a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the milk, cocoa and butter. Bring to a boil.
8. Remove from the heat and add the powdered sugar. Use a hand mixer to beat the icing until fully smooth. Fold in pecans. Pour frosting over warm cake.

Levain Bakery Copycat Chocolate Chip Cookies #12 from A Bountiful Kitchen

Levain Bakery Copycat Chocolate Chip Cookies #12 - made dough April 7, 2017, modified from A Bountiful Kitchen

I’m back with the Levain Bakery copycat cookies for their chocolate chip cookies, not to be confused with my copycat attempts at their chocolate chocolate chip cookies. Since chocolate chip cookies was on offer for the treat bags for my niece’s fundraising donors, I allowed myself free rein to try new chocolate chip cookie recipes. I can usually tell if one will turn out and I have enough tricks in my arsenal to make sure it’ll be good enough for a goodie bag even if it’s my first time trying a recipe.

I’ve already posted most, if not all of the tricks, but to sum up:

Start with cold butter (and only butter, no margarine!), especially if you’re using a stand mixer. Butter warms up in the mixing/creaming process and if you start with room temperature butter, all the subsequent mixing can make your butter too warm and your dough oily.

Always portion out the dough balls then chill or freeze. Bake from frozen dough. This helps prevent them from spreading too much.

I added my own twist to all the new recipes I tried by substituting ¼ cup turbinado or raw cane sugar for ¼ cup of the granulated sugar. You don’t have to do that if you don’t have turbinado sugar on hand but I like it for the slight grit it gives the cookies as well as it seems to cut a little bit of the sweetness.

As always, err on the side of underbaking the cookies. If the edges are golden and the middles are just barely not raw anymore, it’s time to take the cookies out. Let them cool completely to get the best texture. I used to like chocolate chip cookies 10 minutes out of the oven but with my switch to thick, chewy, underbaked cookies, I find I like the texture best when it’s firmed and set up. An hour should be just right, if you can wait that long. The chips are still soft but the texture has set.

As copycats go, this made for a great chocolate chip cookie, although I don’t know that I would consider it a Levain copycat per se. But that’s partly because I’ve made so many copycats and it’s been awhile since I’ve had a Levain original chocolate chip cookie so my taste buds are confused. When I was in New York, I became so enamored of their chocolate chocolate chip that it eclipsed the regular chocolate chip cookie in my sensory memory. Still and all, I liked this cookie and I’d recommend it. Just watch that baking time. 

1 cup butter
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup turbinado sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup cake flour
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups chocolate chips

1. Cream butter and sugars on medium speed until blended and creamy, 2-3 minutes.
2. Add eggs, one a a time, and vanilla, beating briefly after each addition until just combined.
3. Scrape down sides of bowl. Combine cake flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl and whisk together. Add half of dry ingredients to butter mixture and beat until just combined. Add remaining dry ingredients and mix on low speed until just combined. Do not overbeat.
4. Fold in chocolate chips by hand. Portion dough into generous golf-ball-size dough balls or into 6-ounce portions for true Levain copycats. Cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space chilled or frozen dough balls on baking sheets,
6. Bake for 10-11 minutes or until edges are golden and top is barely set. Let cool on cookie sheets for 15 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.

Truffled Walnut Brownies

Truffled Walnut Brownies - made April 8, 2017 from Baking by Flavor by Lisa Yockelson

This was one of the first brownie recipes I ever made from Lisa Yockelson’s Baking by Flavor, one of my favorite baking books. It’s funny since I call it my favorite baking book yet I don’t seem to go back to it that often lately. But I’ve made multiple recipes from it over the years, most of which have turned out well so it’s one of the books I won’t part with, no matter how many times I purge my bookshelves.

My niece is holding a fundraiser this month for the mentor program she’s involved in. She’s mentoring a high school junior who goes to school and works part-time. Among her mentor duties, my niece is helping her "mentee" apply for other jobs (her mentee's current job has a tough schedule for her to meet while also going to high school) as well as gearing her up to apply for college next year. My niece is committed to raising $1000 in April to contribute to the program as $1000 funds 1 mentee/mentor relationship. Being the smart young up and comer who knows her audience, she baited her fundraising hook with “hey, if you donate at least $25, my aunt will make you a goodie bag with your choice of brownies, chocolate chip cookies and/or snickerdoodles.” Yes, I’m the aunt to whom she refers.

The first week, she raised $550, more than halfway to her goal, from 11 donors. She was very organized in tracking which donor wants which combination of the three treats on offer which made it easy for me to do my part of the order fulfillment. Snickerdoodles were easy since I was (initially) only going to do my favorite recipe for those. For chocolate chip cookies, I allowed myself the freedom to explore more recipes for Levain Bakery copycats. More posts on those experiments to follow in the coming weeks.

Alas, the brownies, where I normally live in my creative space because you know how I feel about plain brownies, she tied my hands. Whut?? Since we were catering to a varied audience and didn’t know who liked or didn’t like this, that or the other, she asked for me to make plain brownies. Gulp. Plain, did you say? Okay, fine but that kinda kills my baking soul not to do stuff like my Nutella crunch topping or swirl dulce de leche through the brownie or frost it with Nutella and sprinkle toffee bits over it or give it an Oreo cookie crust or – okay, fine, plain it is.

Which is why, although the recipe says “truffled walnut brownies”, there are no truffled walnuts anywhere in here. Even when I had originally made this recipe long, long ago, I hadn’t used walnuts anyway but pecans. This time around, I left out the truffled anything entirely. I still kept them in the recipe in case anyone wants to make these as Lisa Yockelson intended but even without them, these made a good moist, fudgy, rich brownie. They’re not too thick but the normal brownie thickness. I prefer them a little thicker myself but I had to keep reminding myself I’m not the one eating these.

You may be tempted to bake these too long. A crust does form on top as the brownies bake and a toothpick poked at the corners will come out clean while the middle will still have raw batter. Resist the urge to take them out too early. You want to bake them until a few moist crumbs appear on the toothpick test when you stick the toothpick near the center. But don’t wait until the center toothpick poke comes out “clean”. As long as you let the brownies cool to room temperature, they will set properly and give that fudgy texture, as in “baked fudge” fudgy texture. If you underbake them too much, they’ll be too mushy and not have a dense texture so much as a too-squishy one. And of course, don’t overbake them.

1 cup unsifted all-purpose flour

1/3 cup unsifted bleached cake flour

1/3 cup unsweetened, alkalized cocoa powder

¼ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

½ lb (16 tablespoons or 2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled to tepid

5 ounces (5 squares) unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled to tepid

3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled to tepid

5 large eggs

2 cups superfine sugar

2 ¾ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Truffled walnuts

1 cup walnut halves and pieces, lightly toasted and cooled completely
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted, cooled to tepid and blended with ¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
½ teaspoon unsweetened, alkalized cocoa sifted with 2 teaspoons unsifted confectioners’ sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F.  Film the inside of a 10”x10”x2” baking pan with nonstick cooking spray; set aside.
2. Sift the all-purpose flour, cake flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt onto a sheet of waxed paper.
3. Whisk the melted butter, unsweetened chocolate and bittersweet chocolate in a medium-size mixing bowl until thoroughly blended.  
4. Whisk the eggs in a large mixing bowl for 1 minute.  Add the superfine sugar and whisk for 1 minute or until just combined.  Whisk in the tepid melted chocolate-butter mixture.  Blend in the vanilla extract.  Sift over the sifted ingredients.  Whisk slowly until all particles of flour are completely absorbed, taking care to catch any pockets of flour along the bottom and sides of the bowl.  The batter will be thick and heavy.
5. Make the truffled walnuts: In a medium-size mixing bowl, toss the walnuts with the melted butter-vanilla extract mixture.  Sprinkle over the sifted cocoa-confectioners’ sugar and toss thoroughly.  The nuts will look a bit glossy.
6. Mix the truffled walnuts into the brownie batter with a rubber spatula.  Scrape the batter into the prepared baking pan, taking care to spread it evenly and into the corners.  Smooth over the top with a rubber spatula.
7. Bake the brownies for 30 to 33 minutes or until softly set (but not at all liquid).  Cool the brownies in the pan on a rack for at least 4 to 5 hours before cutting into squares with a small, sharp knife.

Dutch Baby Pancake

Dutch Baby Pancake - made April 2, 2017 from Brown-Eyed Baker

Yes, another skillet recipe. When I first bought the smaller cast iron skillet, I thought I would primarily bake cookies a la pizzookies in them but I’m finding other, creative uses for them. Such as this Dutch Baby pancake.

It isn’t a traditional pancake in that you don’t heat the skillet, pour pancake batter into it and then flip it over when the edges are browned. That would be a regular pancake and you can use any regular frying pan or griddle for that. No, this is a Dutch Baby pancake. It’s a German pancake baked in the oven. Think of it as a cross between a custard and a popover. Made with no sugar (for real) but flour, butter, salt and milk.

It puffs up in the oven during baking and is a perfect candidate for cast iron skillet baking because the cast iron crisps the outside while the inside and middle remain soft. This is so easy to make that I advise you preheat your oven and don’t start mixing the ingredients together until it’s at least at 350 degrees. You bake this at high heat and you want it to go into the oven right after it’s mixed.

I put all the ingredients into the blender, had the melted butter ready to go in the skillet, whipped the batter together in a matter of seconds, poured it into the skillet and popped it into the oven. 15 or so minutes later, it came out beautifully golden and puffy. The edges and bottom were crisp while the middle was soft and almost custard-like. The texture was akin to a really good bread pudding with a soft custard texture but without the bread. Hard to describe but this recipe is so easy that you can make it for yourself without any trouble and see what I mean.

The puffiness does subside so you might want to plan on serving and eating this shortly after you take it out of the oven. I skipped the syrup and went with melted butter. For something without any sugar, it was pretty tasty. And I don’t say that very often.

1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted

4 eggs
1 cup whole milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, divided

1. Preheat oven to 475 degrees F.
2. In a blender, combine the flour, eggs, milk, salt and 2 tablespoons of the melted butter. Blend until smooth with no lumps, 20 to 30 seconds.
3. In a 10-inch cast iron skillet, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons melted butter over high heat until foamy. Add the batter and immediately put the skillet in the oven. Bake until the outside of the pancake is puffed and a deep golden color, 17 to 18 minutes.
4. Remove from the oven, slather with softened butter, and cut into quarters. Pour syrup over the pancake slices and dust with powdered sugar.