Ghirardelli Chocolate Festival

Ghirardelli Chocolate Festival - September 11, 2011, San Francisco, CA

2010 marked the 15th year of the Ghirardelli Chocolate Festival. It's held, appropriately enough, at Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco and spans the course of 2 weekend days. This year it was September 11-12, 12 noon - 5 pm. Every year I always plan to go and every year, for one reason or another, I always miss it. Usually because I forget when it is. This year, I got a reminder from a post from The Chocolate Life and it even included a link to discount tickets. The event itself is free but you need to buy a ticket if you want to try any of the chocolate samples. And of course you do, otherwise why bother going?

Anyway, I planned to go, was reminded about it from the Chocolate Life post then promptly forgot about it again due to the crush of work I was under. But it seems I was meant to go when my friend Kendra emailed me a few days before the festival asking if I was going and she was forwarding another email from one of the vendors attending and this too also had a link with a discount code for tickets. How could I not go after that?

My friend Jenny lives up in the city so we arranged to meet at the ferry building and walk up to Ghirardelli Square from there. I'm always on the lookout for ways to be active and burn calories, especially as I was planning on consuming 15 samples of chocolate. We couldn't have had nicer weather that day. San Francisco was absolutely gorgeous. Temps were in the 70s (maybe low 80s), it was bright and sunny with a nice breeze from the bay and the sky was a beautiful blue. It was San Francisco at its finest.


Since I'd never been to the Chocolate Festival before, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Just something with lots of chocolate. In that aspect, I wasn't disappointed. Essentially the "festival" was comprised mostly of vendors in booths, giving out chocolate samples and marking off the tickets once you'd been given a sample. There were also a few demos per day from chefs from local chocolate places as well as Ice Cream Sundae Eating contests. Unfortunately what I hadn't counted on was the sheer number of people who were there. We arrived around 1 pm and it was already crowded and growing more so as the afternoon wore on. The idea of chocolate sampling was great and we did get some good samples but there was also a lot of standing in line to get said samples.

Our first sample was "Traditional Toffee" from the Goodytwos Toffee Company. The great thing about a place like the festival from a consumer standpoint is you can sample treats from places you'd never heard of before. From a vendor standpoint, it's a way to reach a potential market you might not normally get. Many vendors had their actual wares for sale so that if you liked the sample, you could also buy it.


We also tried the chocolate hazelnut caramel truffle bars (mere slivers actually, literally) from Sterling Confections - pretty to look at and good chocolate but it didn't quite stand out to my jaded chocolate taste buds.


My personal favorite of the day were the Milk Chocolate Macadamia Laceys from Desserts on Us. I love lace cookies (similar to Florentines) but they're a pain to make so I never make them. Desserts on Us not only had great cookies but they gave out whole cookies as their sample, not cookie bits.


Not pictured but we also tried: Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes (mini cupcakes, very mini) from Eat My Love for You, a mini hot fudge sundae (hold the whipped cream and cherry on mine) from Ghirardelli Chocolate, and Spiced Almond Caramel Corn from CC Made.

I discovered I was more of a chocolate lightweight than I thought. By the 6th or 7th sample, both Jenny and I were ready to call it quits. Turns out we can't consume that much chocolate, even though some of the samples were literally one-bite-sized. Learning for next time if I go again - share a 15-sample ticket with someone. We ended up lining up in the long line for the Ghirardelli Chocolate booth and using up the rest of our sample tickets for packaged Ghirardelli chocolate squares that we could dump in our purses.


All in all, it was a fun day but I have to admit, I'm not sure this is something I'd go to every year and I don't know if I've missed all that much by not attending any of the first 14 years of the festival. It was just too crowded and beyond lining up to get samples from the booths, there didn't seem to be that much entertaining entertainment. There were some wine and chocolate pairing happenings but I don't drink and I've never been a fan of eating contests, ice cream sundaes not withstanding. If there hadn't been so many people, I might've been interested in going to some of the chef demonstrations but honestly, it was so crowded (and I never cease to be amazed by people who can and do wield unwieldy strollers through massive crowds) that it killed any desire to linger too long. What made the day enjoyable and worthwhile was the great weather and the fact that Jenny and I can talk a mile a minute about any and everything so it was a great bonding experience and fun in that respect. So it was a good friendship day and a good chocolate day. I guess you can't ask for anything more.

Red Velvet Cake - Southern Cakes

Red Velvet Cake - made September 6, 2010 from Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott

This recipe is very similar to my friend Diane's red velvet cake recipe and came out just as well. The texture is soft and fluffy and it has a nice flavor, especially considering there's only 2 tablespoons of cocoa for the chocolate component. Use a high-quality dark cocoa, not an insipid grocery story brand. I use Pernigotti's from Williams Sonoma.

A key to good red velvet cake is not overbaking it. Actually that's key for any cake. Part of the flavor is having that moist and tender crumb. Normally I like to pair red velvet cake with a cream cheese frosting but the frosting accompanying this recipe was also identical to Diane's so I thought I'd try it since I'd skipped it when I had made her recipe. I'm not a big frosting person though so I probably can't really rate this with any kind of expertise. It was good but I only had the barest minimum on there. I added the coconut to the frosting for texture but omitted the nuts.

I like this cake and probably will make it again when I'm in the mood for red velvet. Next time, I'm switching back to the cream cheese frosting though. Just as a matter of taste preference.

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons cocoa
One 1-ounce bottle (2 tablespoons) red food coloring
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
1 tablespoon cider vinegar or white vinegar

1. To make the cake, heat the oven to 350˚F. Grease two 9-inch round cake pans generously, and line them with waxed paper or kitchen parchment. Grease the paper and flour the pans.
2. Prepared three separate mixtures for the batter: Combine the flour and salt in a medium bowl and use a fork to mix them together well. Stir the vanilla into the buttermilk. Combine the cocoa and the red food coloring in a small bowl, mashing and stirring them together to make a thick, smooth paste.
3. In a large bowl, beat the butter with a mixer at low speed for 1 minute, until creamy and soft. Add the guar, and then beat well for 3 to 4 minutes, stopping to scrape the bowl now and then. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each one, until the mixture is creamy, fluffy and smooth. Scrape the cocoa-food coloring paste into the batter and beat to mix it in evenly.
4. Add about a third of the flour mixture, and then about half the milk, beating the batter with a mixer at low speed, and mixing only enough to make the flour or liquid disappear into the batter. Mix in another third of the flour, the rest of the milk, and then the last of the flour in the same way.
5. In a small bowl, combine the baking soda and vinegar and stir well. Use a wooden spoon or spatula to quickly mix this last mixture into the red batter, folding it in gently by hand. Scrape the batter into the prepared pans.
6. Bake at 350˚F for 20 to 25 minutes, until the layers spring back when touched lightly in the center and are just beginning to pull away from the sides of the pans.
7. Cool the cakes in the pans on wire racks or folded kitchen towels for 15 minutes. Then turn them out on the racks or on plates, remove the paper, and turn top side up to cool completely.


Coconut- Pecan Icing

1 cup milk
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts

1. To make the icing, combine the milk and flour in a small or medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat, whisking or stirring often, until the mixture thickens almost to a paste, 2 to 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and scrape it into a small bowl to cool completely.
2. Meanwhile, beat the butter with a mixer at high speed until light and fluffy. Add the sugar in thirds, beating well each time, until the mixture is creamy and fairly smooth. Add the cooled milk-and-flour mixture and beat for 1 to 2 minutes, scraping down the sides now and then, to combine everything well. Using a large spoon or your spatula, stir in the vanilla, coconut, and pecans, mixing to combine everything well into a thick, fluffy, nubby icing.
3. To complete the cake, place one layer, top side down, on a cake stand or a serving plate, and spread icing on the top. Place the second layer, right side up, on top. Frost the sides and then the top of the cake. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or more to help the icing set.


 

Snickerdoodles - BHG

Snickerdoodles - made September 3, 2010 from Better Homes & Gardens Cookie book

My cousin Christine's son, Jason, doesn't like chocolate. So when I hosted them for Monopoly night (yes, I lost - defeated by a 5-year-old and his mom, I may never be able to hold my Monopoly-playing head up again), I had to come up with a non-chocolate, no-nuts dessert (he doesn't like nuts either). Snickerdoodles was a logical choice as it's an easy cookie dough to make ahead of time and I thought Jason, like most kids, might like rolling the dough balls in the cinnamon sugar. Plus it's pretty much a vanilla cookie and he does like vanilla.

I have several snickerdoodle recipes on tap but I thought I would try a new recipe this time. It has the same basic ingredients as most snickerdoodle recipes, the key one being cream of tartar, but this one had a slight twist in that you beat half the flour in with the butter before adding the rest of the ingredients. I think that's the only cookie recipe I've tried so far that called for such a thing. Normally, in cakes and cookies, you add the flour last and don't beat it a lot once it's added so you don't develop the gluten in it and make it tough. Only in products such as bread do you work the flour a lot (or knead the dough) to deliberately develop the gluten and come up with chewy bread. In cookies, however, you usually don't and I have countless recipes warning against overmixing. But, ever obedient to a recipe, at least the first time I make it, I followed the instructions exactly.

The cookies came out pretty well. We had them once they had cooled slightly (taking a Monopoly break) and the edges were crunchy and the middles were soft. I thought these were pretty good. I sent the rest of the cookies and unbaked cookie dough home with Christine and Jason but I forgot to take a picture of the cookies for my blog so I "had" to make them again the following day. My parents don't normally like chocolate either (although my mom - and dad - have been known to enjoy Godiva truffles on occasion. Not See's though as they claim it's too sweet.) so snickerdoodles are also a good choice for them. I baked another batch, following the same recipe and same instructions. This time though, for some reason, they struck me as a little too sweet. I don't know why or how my taste buds changed in less than 24 hours or if it was because I had the cookie the next day while it was at room temperature so I could really taste the sweetness. In any case, these are still good but be prepared for the sweetness.

½ cup butter
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 egg
½ teaspoon vanilla
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. In a large mixing bowl beat the butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed about 30 seconds or till softened. Add about half of the flour to the butter. Then add the 1 cup sugar, egg, vanilla, baking soda and cream of tartar. Beat till thoroughly combined, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally. Beat in the remaining flour. Cover and chill about 1 hour or till dough is easy to handle.
2. In a shallow dish, combine the 2 tablespoons sugar and cinnamon. Shape the dough into 1-inch balls. Roll the balls in the sugar-cinnamon to coat. Place balls 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake in a 375˚F oven for 10 to 11 minutes or till edges are lightly browned. Remove cookies; cool on wire racks. Makes about 36 (only if you make them really small. They made 15-16 normal-sized cookies to me).

Brown Sugar Pound Cake

Brown Sugar Pound Cake - made August 29, 2010 from Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott

This is a good twist on a traditional butter pound cake. The sweetener is predominantly brown sugar so it has a nice butterscotch/caramel flavor. It also has that perfect pound cake texture for those of you who like hearty cakes. It would make a great picnic cake or, if you wanted to dress it up a bit, you could glaze it with a caramel glaze. Although there's also something to be said for leaving it plain and being able to warm it up later if you wanted. But you might want to slice the cake a bit thin if you don't want to overdo. I like pound cakes but if you eat too much, they have a tendency to sit like a lump in your stomach once you've consumed them. Must be all that butter....

3 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk
1 ½ cups (3 sticks) butter, softened
One 1-pound box (about 2 ¾ cups) dark or light brown sugar
½ cup sugar
5 eggs

1. Heat the oven to 325˚F. Grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan, or two 9 x 5-inch loaf pans.
2. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl and stir with a fork to mix well. Stir the vanilla into the milk and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, beat the butter with a mixer at high speed until light and fluffy. Add the brown sugar in three batches, and then add all of the white sugar, beating well after each addition.
4. Add the eggs, one by one, beating well after each addition. Add half the flour, and then half the milk, beating at low speed only until the flour or milk disappears into the batter. Add in the rest of the flour, and then the remaining milk, in the same way.
5. Quickly scrape the batter into the prepared pan, and baked at 325˚F for 1 hour and 10 minutes (55 to 60 minutes for loaf pans), or until the cake is nicely browned at the edges, springs back when touched lightly at the center, and a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
6. Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack or a folded kitchen towel for 20 to 30 minutes. Loosen the cake from the pan with a table knife and turn it out onto a wire rack or a plate to cool completely, top side up.

Mountain Meadow Chocolate Fudge Cake

Mountain Meadow Chocolate Fudge Cake - made August 17, 2010 from Sticky, Messy, Chewy, Gooey

You can rarely go wrong with a chocolate cake from a recipe book with this name. You bake the cake for a relatively short time at a high temperature, frost it while it's warm and let the frosting melt into the cake. It lives up to its name in being gooey. It's important not to overbake this cake since it's baked at 400 degrees. I was hovering around my oven and a toothpick inserted in the center that came out with the slightest bit of batter one minute was done and coming out almost clean in the next minute. Take it out in that next minute.

The main thing to watch for with the frosting is because you make it while the cake is baking and it's likely warm when you use it and put over the hot cake, the butter will have a tendency to separate out a bit. No worries - just blot it carefully to take off the shine or any little "pools" of butter in the frosting. If you don't, when the cake and frosting cool, you'll see the butter solidify on top. That's not very appetizing. Then again, once people taste this cake, they may not care. It was a rough day at work and I'll be the first to say this is excellent comfort food. And yeah, try this while it's warm.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup boiling water
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2 cups sugar
½ cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

For the fudge-pecan icing
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
3 to 4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 ½ cups chopped pecans, toasted

1. Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 400˚F. Brush a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with melted butter or spray with a nonstick cooking spray.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together into a large bowl and set aside.
3. Combine the butter, boiling water, and chocolate in a saucepan. Place the saucepan over medium-low heat, and whisk gently until the butter and chocolate are melted and the mixture is smooth. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the sugar. Quickly whisk in the buttermilk and then the eggs and vanilla. Using an electric mixer set at medium speed, beat the chocolate mixture into the dry ingredients just until combined and a smooth batter forms, about 1 minute.
4. Pour the batter immediately into the prepared pan. Bake until the cake starts to pull away from the sides of the pan and a wooden skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, make the icing: combine the chocolate, butter, buttermilk in a saucepan and cook, stirring over medium heat, until the chocolate is melted. Remove from the heat and whisk in the vanilla, salt and 3 cups of the sifted confectioners sugar. If you would like the icing sweeter and thicker, whisk in the remaining confectioners sugar to taste. Stir in the pecans.
6. Transfer the cake to a wire rack and pour the warm icing over the cake while it, too, is still warm in the pan. Let cool completely, then cut into squares and serve.

Hershey's Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cake

Hershey's Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cake - made August 13, 2010 from a newspaper clipping in the Sunday coupon section

This is one of those recipes I've had for so long that I don't remember where exactly I got it from. But it looks like I clipped it from the coupon section of the Sunday paper so I suspect it was part of an ad for a Hershey's product, likely Hershey's cocoa since that's one of the ingredients in the recipe. It's really easy to make as it's just stir, pour and bake. Since it's made with water, it's not particularly rich. I made it with Hershey's cocoa in honor of the title but I don't find Hershey's cocoa that rich-tasting in baking so the cake itself didn't seem very rich. It was good but not take-the-top-of-your-head-off chocolatey. The texture was fine.

I didn't add all the milk in the frosting as it seemed like it was at a good consistency when there was still a little milk left in the measuring cup. However that turned out to be a bit of a mistake unless you like your frosting the consistency of fudge because once the frosting had cooled, it was more like a block of fudge on top of a cake. Nothing wrong with that but if you like traditionally creamy frosting, add all the milk. I had the taste test piece at room temperature but later on, in thinking I didn't want a block of fudge as the frosting, I heated up another piece about 15-20 seconds in the microwave. I didn't want to melt the frosting, just soften it a bit. Holy chocolate orgasm, Batman - turns out that makes this cake absolutely fantastic. The bottom layer of the frosting closest to the cake melts a bit, the top stays intact and the cake is warm. Deelish. Try it.

¾ cup butter or margarine
1 2/3 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup cocoa
1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda
¼ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups water

1. Heat oven to 350˚F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans or one 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan.
2. In large mixer bowl, combine butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla. Beat on high speed 3 minutes.
3. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt; add alternately with water to butter mixture. Blend just until combined.
4. Pour into prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes, or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans. Cool completely; frost with chocolate frosting.

8 to 10 servings

Hershey’s Chocolate Frosting

2 cups (12-ounce package) Hershey’s semisweet chocolate chips
2 cups powdered sugar
2/3 cup evaporated milk

1. In a small microwave-safe bowl, place chocolate chips. Microwave on high (100%) 1 ½ minutes; stir.
2. Microwave on High additional 30 seconds or until melted and smooth when stirred. Chips may also be melted in pan over warm water.
3. Gradually add powdered sugar and evaporated milk, beating until smooth. About 2 ½ cups frosting.

Kara's Blondie Brownies

Kara's Blondie Brownies - made August 8, 2010 from Tate's Bake Shop

I love this brownie because it’s a simple yet brilliant combination at the same time. The bottom layer is a chocolate chip cookie layer and the top layer is a chocolate brownie layer. Nothing could be simpler. It takes a little more time to put together but it’s not complicated. Make the first batch like you’re making chocolate chip cookie dough, spread it evenly on the bottom then make the brownie batter and spread on top of the chocolate chip cookie layer. It works better to have the chocolate chip cookie layer on the bottom because it’s heavier and more like a dough whereas the brownie layer is more fluid/liquid and truly a batter. If you did it the other way around, the brownie batter is so soft that you wouldn’t be able to spread the (stiffer) chocolate chip cookie dough on top of it without it sinking and mixing in with the brownie.

I used regular-size chocolate chips when I first made these but I’ve found that mini chocolate chips work better for the chocolate chip cookie layer – they’re not quite so chunky. Definitely don’t overbake these! The toothpick inserted near the center should come out with a few moist crumbs (not raw batter) but shouldn’t come out “clean”. Clean means potentially overbaked = dry.

Blondies
2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup salted butter, softened to room temperature
1 ¾ cups firmly packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Brownies
¾ cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup salted butter
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons water
2 large eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9 x 13-inch baking pan.
2. To make the blondies: In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
3. In another large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until they are light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until they are well blended. Mix in the vanilla. Stir in the flour mixture until it is well blended. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Fold in the pecans and chocolate chips. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan. Set it aside.

Note: Use a 9-inch square pan if you just want to make blondies.

4. To make the brownies: In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda and salt.
5. In a large bowl, combine the chocolate chips and vanilla.
6. In a saucepan, combine the butter, sugar and water. Bring the mixture just to a boil. Pour the hot mixture over the chips and stir them until they are melted. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the flour mixture and mix it till it is just combined.
7. Pour the mixture over the blondie mixture and spread it evenly.
8. Bake the brownies for 30 to 35 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out with a moist crumb. You don’t want to overbake these brownies. When they are cool, cut them into squares.

Yield: 24 bars

"Mrs. Fields" Chocolate Chip Cookies

"Mrs. Fields" Chocolate Chip Cookies - made August 3, 2010 from www.topsecretrecipes.com

When Mrs. Fields first opened shop many years ago, I became an instant fan. The cookies were fresh and warm, she offered my favorite milk chocolate chip cookie without nuts, they were of a thickness that I approved of (prior to this I had been baking the Nestle Tollhouse recipe and making do with flat cookies) and they smelled so good. Plus her cookie stands were located at the mall and me likey the mall.

My palate has become more sophisticated since then and Mrs. Fields’ Cookies much more commonplace. My cookie allegiance these days are more with Specialty’s or what comes out of my own oven. However, I have a sentimental soft spot for Mrs. Fields’ Cookies (although since her divorce from Mr. Fields, she’s technically not “Mrs. Fields” anymore…..but I digress) since she launched around the time I was really getting into baking. There was a time in my baking life when I obsessed with copying her cookie. I bought her autobiography and read her story on how she got started. I bought her cookbooks when they came out. But I could never really replicate her cookies, not even with her cookbook recipes or with the tips she says she uses with her cookies. I was going more for the thickness of the cookie rather than the taste and could never duplicate it, no matter which recipe I tried. Of course now I know having a convection oven helps but at the time I kept thinking if I could just find the right recipe, I could hit it. In my quest, I found this recipe from http://www.topsecretrecipes.com. I’m sure I made it at the time but have no memory of how it turned out so I made it again last week.

Hmm, no, once again, not like a Mrs. Fields’ cookie. It spread too much. But it tasted like a good standard chocolate chip cookie so if you’re looking for one, you can add this as another variation of the original Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie. I made the cookie dough and froze the dough balls then baked a batch to take into work (yes, they liked it). I still have some cookie dough in the freezer so when I want/need dessert after dinner, I throw a dough ball into a little ramekin and bake it off. To be topped with a little scoop of ice cream and eaten warm. In the ramekin, it’s not allowed to spread and tastes just fine. Oh, one last note - the recipe says to bake for only 9-10 minutes and that you might be tempted to leave it in there for longer but you should take it out as it'll continue cooking on the cookie sheet. Use your judgment. At 10 minutes, these were still raw looking so I baked them a few minutes longer before I took them out. They were still underbaked but more the way I like them.

1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter
½ cup granulated sugar
1 ½ cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 ½ twelve-ounce bags semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350˚F.
2. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla.
3. In another bowl, mix together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
4. Combine the wet and dry ingredients.
5. Stir in the chocolate chips.
6. With your fingers, place golf ball-sized dough portions 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
7. Bake for 9-10 minutes or just until edges are light brown.

Makes 30 cookies

Peanut Butter Cup Cake

Peanut Butter Cup Cake - made August 1, 2010

This is another recipe I got from my fitness friend, Tanya. Note this is a peanut butter cup cake, not a peanut butter cupcake. Hence the peanut butter cups:


Tanya's recipe calls for making this as a 9" two-layer cake but I've already packed away my round cake pans so I made it in a bundt pan instead. Since the base of the cake is a cake mix, this was really easy to mix together. You have to bake it longer if you use a bundt pan instead of splitting between two round cake pans. I think I baked this for around 45-50 minutes.

As it cooled, I made the ganache. When I was in culinary school, one of my classmates, who had worked as a pastry chef before, had a tendency not to follow the directions our chef instructors gave us. No matter what, she usually did her own thing. Something I found baffling sometimes because then it makes you wonder why go to school if you're not going to do as instructed? But in the making of ganache, I confess, I like her method better. Ganache is essentially melted chocolate and cream whisked together. The traditional method and the one I was taught in school was to heat the cream to boiling and pour over chopped chocolate then to let the heat of the cream melt the chocolate before whisking together to make a smooth ganache. For some reason, I don't like this method. You have to take the time to chop the chocolate and sometimes the ganache doesn't come out evenly if the cream isn't hot enough or you don't whisk fast enough to melt it completely.

My classmate's method (which drove our chef instructors crazy, lol) was to melt the chocolate then take a little bit of cream and whisk into the chocolate. At first the chocolate "seizes" as liquid is added to it and it looks like the whole thing is going to solidify and be a wreck. But you just have to keep whisking and adding the cream a little at a time and you'll end up with a pretty smooth ganache. If you're risk-averse, go with the traditional method in the recipe but this other method also works pretty well. Just remember to keep whisking.

Tanya, a true peanut butter and chocolate aficionado, says she uses double the amount of peanut butter cups that the recipe calls for. I only had one bag of peanut butter cups so my cake turned out much more modest than hers.

You can't really see the peanut butter cups that got mixed into the cake itself - they're there but they blended in pretty well with the cake.

If you like peanut butter and chocolate, this is a good cake. My coworkers liked it - a lot, judging by how fast these disappeared from our communal kitchen on my floor. Next time though, I think I'm going to try it with a devil's food cake from scratch instead of a mix. I'll probably wait until I move, settle in and unpack so I can make it as a real two-layer cake. If you make this as a bundt cake, be warned that you don't need all that ganache. Probably 2/3 of the recipe will do. I personally am not a ganache fan as it's not sweet enough for me and I don't care for the texture as much as with regular frosting so I might change up the frosting too.

Peanut Butter Cup Cake

1 devil’s food cake mix
3 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
½ cup vegetable oil
2 cups chopped peanut butter cups (plus more for garnishing – I used 2 bags)
8 oz. dark chocolate, chopped
1 cup heavy cream
½ cup peanut butter
1. Preheat oven to 350˚F. Coat two 9-inch cake pans with non-stick cooking spray. Line with wax paper and coat paper.
2. In a large bowl, beat cake mix, eggs, buttermilk and vegetable oil on low for 30 seconds. Increase speed to medium-high and beat for 2 minutes. Scrape down sides after 1 minute. Fold in 2 cups of the chopped peanut butter cups.
3. Pour batter into pans and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
4. Cool cakes completely.
5. Place chopped dark chocolate in a medium bowl. Bring cream just to a boil and then pour over chocolate. Whisk until chocolate melts. Add peanut butter and whisk until smooth.
6. Trim each cake layer so the tops are flat. Place one layer on a cooling rack and pour 1 cup frosting on top. Spread evenly with a spatula. Add second layer and pour remaining frosting over top and sides of cake. Smooth out with spatula.
7. Allow frosting to set for a minute and gently press remaining chopped peanut butter cup pieces all over top and sides of cake. Place in refrigerator for about an hour to set. Remove and serve.

Lemon Doodles

Lemon Doodles - made July 30, 2010 from Land O Lakes Cookies book

You have to try this recipe just for the name alone. Not to mention it garnered my parents' highest praise: "It's not too sweet." Lemon Doodles are not to be confused with the more common Snickerdoodles. These are not sugar-butter cookies rolled in cinnamon sugar. Rather, they're lemon butter (or sugar) cookies with coconut. There isn't enough coconut to really call them a coconut cookie but the coconut does add to the chewiness making them very good. You know my taste buds are jaded so when I like a cookie, I like a cookie.

My only issue with these cookies is that they spread out. They puff a bit during baking and look promising but once you take them out of the oven and they cool, they deflate. It's not a dealbreaker since the taste and texture are still pretty good but this is definitely one I want to bake again once I have my convection oven and see if I can minimize the spread. I underbaked them slightly but they would be better baked just right - the edges are crisp and the middles are nice and chewy with a great lemon flavor that isn't overwhelming. And they couldn't be easier to make.

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups sugar
¾ cup flaked coconut
1 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 ½ teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon grated lemon peel
1 tablespoon lemon juice

1. Heat oven to 400˚F. In large mixer bowl combine all ingredients. Beat at low speed, scraping bowl often, until well mixed (2 to 4 minutes). Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto cookie sheets. Bake for 7 to 10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.

Yield: 4 dozen cookies