Pumpkin "Bars" with Cream Cheese Icing

Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Icing - made November 30, 2010 from More from Magnolia Bakery (book #16)

I love Magnolia Bakery.  They're based in New York and are famous for their cupcakes but ironically it was their brownies I liked best when I tried them in Manhattan several years ago.  Since then I've bought both their cookbooks as well as the Buttercup Bake Shop cookbook (same owners).  The recipes I've tried from all 3 cookbooks have pretty much always turned out so I had high confidence in this one.  That confidence wasn't misplaced.  This is a perfect dessert to bring to a potluck or any kind of gathering.  It bakes in a 9 x 13 pan so you'll have enough for a crowd and is very simple to make.  I think it took longer for my oven to preheat than for me to mix this together so if you're pressed for time this holiday season, this is a good option.

I wouldn't call them "bars" as much as I would call this a pumpkin cake, simply because the texture is all cake and isn't dense like you'd expect a bar cookie to be.  I omitted the pecans, of course, but if you want to dress it up a little, you could always add on cooled toasted pecans as a garnish to the frosting.  If you wanted to go a little fancier, make in 2 8-inch cake layers and frost with the cream cheese frosting then garnish with pecans.  Regardless of the shape and look, it tastes good, especially if you like the pumpkin-cinnamon-cream cheese flavor combination.

 

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

1 ¼ cups canned pumpkin puree

1 ¼ cups sugar

¾ cup vegetable oil, preferably canola

3 large eggs, at room temperature

½ cup coarsely chopped toasted pecans (optional)

½ recipe Cream Cheese Icing

½ cup coarsely chopped toasted pecans for garnish

1.       Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.       Grease and lightly flour a 13 x 9-inch baking pan.

3.       In a small bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.

4.       In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat together the pumpkin, sugar, oil and eggs until smooth, about 3 minutes.  Add the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.  Stir in the pecans, if using.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan.  Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the pan comes out clean.

5.       Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before icing the top with cream cheese icing.  Garnish with pecans as desired.

 

Cream Cheese Icing (make only half the recipe for the cake)

16 ounces cream cheese

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla

5 cups confectioners’ sugar

1. Combine butter and cream cheese and beat until smooth.  Add vanilla.  Add confectioners’ sugar gradually until desired consistency.

Caramel-Glazed Blondies

Caramel-Glazed Blondies - made November 29, 2010 from Cookies, Brownies & Bars by Elinor Klivans (book #15)

I normally don't like blondies.  To me they're usually wannabe brownies that missed the mark because they didn't add chocolate to themselves.  And the typical blondie is generally cakey but isn't a cake. If you want to be cakey, be a cake.  That's my prejudice against blondies.  However, I'm so glad I tried this recipe from Elinor Klivans because she blasted every prejudice I had against blondies.  These are good.  I'm talking flavor, texture, everything.  As in my usual taste test piece turned into 2 taste test pieces because the first piece was so good I had to have another (which I don't normally do).  The flavor itself is good - it's got a nice butterscotch flavor from the brown sugar and the caramel complements it nicely.  But it was the texture that sold me.  It wasn't cakey but would be fudgy if I could describe something non-chocolate as fudgy.  It was dense like a brownie but didn't pretend to be a cake by trying to be cakey.  It's hard to explain but this gets the thumbs up from me based on both flavor and texture.  One of my coworkers described it as "melt in your mouth".  I think that's pretty accurate.

I did "cheat" and use the last of my dulce de leche from South America instead of making the caramel from scratch (hey, it was getting late and I had to work the next day).  The only thing I would do differently next time (and there will be a next time) is instead of layering the caramel/dulce de leche on top all over the blondie, I would drizzle it so that it doesn't cover it completely.  That way the blondie isn't so overwhelmed by the "caramel".  The brown sugar/butterscotch flavor needs to stand on its own as it's a good flavor.  The only drawback to these blondies is with the caramel on top, they're a little difficult to cut cleanly as the caramel clings to the knife and you can't stack them or package them in plastic wrap very well.  But those are minor prices to pay for an awesome blondie.

½ cup unsalted butter

1 ½ cups brown sugar, firmly packed

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Caramel Glaze

¼ cup unsalted butter

½ cup heavy whipping cream

¾ cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup confectioners’ sugar

1.        Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325˚F.  Line the bottom and sides of a 9 x 9 x 2” baking pan with aluminum foil.  Butter the foil or spray with nonstick cooking spray.

2.       For the blondies: in a saucepan, combine the butter and brown sugar.  Warm over medium heat, stirring often, until melted and smooth.  Scrape into a large bowl and let cool slightly.  In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.  Add the eggs and vanilla to the butter-brown sugar mixture and mix until smooth.  Add the flour mixture and stir just until incorporated.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan.  Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs attached, 20 to 25 minutes (this took almost 30 minutes in my oven).  Transfer to a wire rack and let cool until room temperature, about 1 hour.

3.       To make the glaze: in a saucepan, combine the butter, cream and brown sugar.  Warm over medium heat, stirring constantly, until melted.  Increase the heat to medium-high and boil for 2 minutes.  Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract.  Let cool.  Sift the confectioners’ sugar into a bowl, then whisk in the cooled brown sugar mixture to make a smooth glaze.  Spread the glaze evenly over the cooled blondie, still in the pan.  Let stand until set, about 30 minutes.

4.       Lift the brownies out of the pan using the foil as handles and cut into squares.  Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.


 

Spaghetti Carbonara

Spaghetti Carbonara - made November 28, 2010

We interrupt this baking blog to post a recipe for “real” food.  Sort of real anyway.  I got this recipe from the coupon section of the Sunday newspaper a couple of weeks ago.  I clipped out just the recipe so I don’t remember the ad but I assume it was for Classico pasta sauce since that’s what’s specified in the recipe.  I love carbonara and simple pasta dishes are one of the few things I can make so this seemed like a good recipe to try.  I did my usual substitutions and modifications though – for one thing, I omitted the shallots because I didn’t know what they were and didn’t want to hunt for them in the produce section.  I assume they’re an onion-like thing so I was fine skipping them since I’m not fond of onions.  I also swapped in turkey bacon for the pancetta.  I like pancetta but bacon is easier to find and I like turkey bacon better than bacon bacon – less fat.  Instead of Parmesan cheese, I substituted a mix of 6 grated cheeses.  For no other reason than the bag of that was cheaper by 50% than the parmesan and cheese is cheese once you melt it into the pasta sauce (I can picture foodies shuddering at my heresy – sorry).  I also used whole wheat thin spaghetti noodles to add a little more fiber in.  Clearly I’m more comfortable making wild substitutions when I’m cooking real food than I am when I’m baking.

Despite all my machinations, the recipe turned out okay.  The trick with carbonara is you have to keep the pasta noodles hot since tossing it with the egg mixture is what cooks the eggs.  But you don’t want to cook the eggs as in scrambled eggs so much as you want to thicken them into a sauce and heat them enough to kill any bacteria.  The eggs/alfredo pasta sauce mixture didn’t have a lot of flavor.  I don’t know whether it was because the jar of pasta sauce didn’t have much flavor to start with or if that’s what I missed out on by not adding the shallots.  For my bland taste buds, this was okay but I have to admit I prefer Donna Hay’s carbonara recipe for real carbonara, even in all its full-fat glory.

1 package (16 ozs) spaghetti pasta

1 jar (15 ozs) Classico Light Cream Alfredo Pasta Sauce, or about 2 cups

4 eggs, beaten

½ lb thinly sliced pancetta, or about 24 slices (I used turkey bacon)

2 large shallots, chopped or about 1 cup

2 teaspoons minced garlic

½ cup dry white wine

½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

¼ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1. Cook pasta al dente according to package instructions and drain, reserving about ¼ cup of pasta water.  Return pasta to pot and cover to keep warm.  In a medium bowl, whisk together pasta sauce and eggs, and set aside.
2. Meanwhile, in a large skillet over medium heat, brown pancetta for 3 to 4 minutes, or until crisp, turning occasionally.  Place pancetta on paper towels and coarsely crumble or chop, reserving drippings.
3. In the same skillet with reserved dripping, over medium high heat, cook shallots and garlic for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Stir in wine and cook for another minute.  Remove skillet from heat.
4. Return pasta pot to stovetop over low heat.  Add shallot mixture to warm pasta and lightly toss with tongs.  Slowly add pasta sauce mixture, a little at a time, tossing pasta frequently to prevent eggs from scrambling.  Cook for 4 to 6 minutes, or until sauce is cooked through and thickened.  Add reserved hot pasta water if needed to thin sauce to desired consistency.  Add cheese, parsley and pancetta crumbles, and cook for another minute, stirring frequently.  Season with salt and pepper to taste if desired.  Serve immediately.

Double Fudge Brownies

Double Fudge Brownies - made November 18, 2010 from The Family Baker by Susan G. Purdy (book #14)

Since 1 batch of brownies isn't likely enough to feed 12 teenagers, not to mention my nieces' other aunt, a certified chocoholic (yes, Coreen, I mean you), I tried another brownie recipe to add to the birthday goodie bags.  I made them the same way as the Gold Bar Brownies in that I kept it a plain chocolate brownie with a layer of dulce de leche in the middle.  The main difference with this recipe is it uses unsweetened chocolate instead of semisweet.  Although they came out very similar, I think I prefer this one.  It had the same fudgy texture (always a must in brownies) but I like the "deeper" chocolate taste.  It's hard to explain what I mean unless you're eating the same thing. Chocolate, to me, isn't about sweetness.  It's about richness.  And the darker your chocolate, the richer it can be without being overly sweet.  I still love the dulce de leche for the sweetness contrast and the dark fudginess of this brownie sets it off nicely.  As always, no nuts.  No point ruining a good brownie.

8 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut up, plus extra for preparing pan

4 large eggs, at room temperature

1 ¾ cups granulated sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup sifted all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa

1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips or chopped solid chocolate

1 cup (6 ounces) chopped walnuts or pecans, optional

1.      Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat it to 350˚F.  Line a 9 x 13 pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.

2.     In the top of a double boiler set over simmering water, melt the unsweetened chocolate together with the butter.  Stir until smooth, remove the pan from the heat and set it aside to cool.

3.     In a large mixing bowl, with a sturdy spoon, beat together the eggs, sugar, salt and vanilla, then add the melted chocolate mixture.  Slowly stir in the flour, cocoa, and chocolate chips and beat until no streaks of flour or cocoa are visible.  The batter will be quite thick.

4.     Spread the batter into the prepared pan and sprinkle on the nuts, if using.  Bake for 22 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached; don’t overbake or the brownies will be dry.  Cool the brownies in the pan on a wire rack, then cut into 2-inch squares. 

ETA: after the birthday dinner party, we passed out the goodie bags to my nieces' friends.  One of them told them the next day that the brownies were "heavenly" - can't ask for a better endorsement than that.

Thanksgiving desserts 2010

While I enjoy trying new recipes, holidays and get togethers aren't the time when I experiment.  There are too many people to feed and desserts to bring to gatherings for me to risk a new recipe that might potentially fail.  I fall back on my tried and true recipes, not only because I know how they'll turn out but often people have had them before and that's what they request I make.

For Thanksgiving every year, I prefer to make a variety of desserts but not too much of each one.  I serve them in individual-sized portions so people can sample what they want but not overeat themselves sick.  Moderation is key, after all.  Plus you want to leave them wanting more, not wishing they hadn't eaten themselves to gluttony :).

I don't necessarily have a typical dessert I make every year but I do rotate amongst a select few crowd pleasers.  For those who don't want to search through my blog, here are the links to this year's dessert offerings:

Pumpkin Upside-Down Cake with caramelized pecans and cranberries (I never liked pumpkin or cranberries until I made this cake)


Apple Cobbler, aka Apple Crumble Bars that I made recently and that trumped my long-standing apple cobbler recipe.  Every time we have a family get-together, I have to make cobbler as that's a family favorite.

Red Velvet Cupcakes - requested by my nieces, especially this particular recipe.  Although I originally made it as a cake the first time, any cake adapts easily to the cupcake version.  Just watch the baking time carefully as cupcakes will bake much faster than cakes since they're smaller.  We're going to make the mini cupcake version which can bake/dry out very quickly so I'll be hovering over the oven while these are in there.

Noah's Chocolate Chocolatey Chocolate Chips

Noah's Chocolate Chocolatey Chocolate Chips - made November 17, 2010 from All-Butter, Fresh-Cream, Sugar-Packed Baking Book from Rosie's Bakery by Judy Rosenberg (book #13)

If you're a chocoholic, you've got to be favorably predisposed to any recipe that's got a rendition of chocolate three times in its title.  I've had good luck with recipes from both of the Rosie's Bakery books I have so I figured this was a safe bet.  I needed cookies for a couple of meetings this week so I made the cookie dough for this last weekend and kept them in the freezer until I needed them.  Which was a good thing so I put in a long day at work the day before I needed them and didn't have much energy beyond throwing the dough balls into the oven.  I put my oven on the convection setting and only baked one pan at a time in the hopes that that would help keep them from spreading too much.  That worked and while they weren't thick, they weren't thin either.  I also deliberately made the dough balls smaller than usual.  Next time I want to make them bigger and see if they'll still spread less and make a thicker cookie.

This is a good chocolate chocolate chip cookie.  You do have to time this since it's sometimes hard to tell when chocolate cookies are done since you can't always go by appearance or how soft the dough looks in the middle.  You want to bake long enough that it doesn't look raw in the middle but take it out before they're fully cooked.  Since it's a chocolate cookie, the chocolate will help the cookie set and, when underbaked just right, you'll have a fudgy interior with crisp or chewy edges.

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature

1 ¼ cups (lightly packed) light brown sugar

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 large whole eggs

1 large egg yolk

8 ounces (1 ¼ cups) semisweet chocolate chips (I used 12 ounces of milk chocolate chips)

1.        Preheat oven to 400˚F.  Line several baking sheets with parchment paper.

2.       Melt the unsweetened chocolate in the top of a double boiler placed over simmering water (don’t let the bottom of the top half touch the boiling water). Then remove it from the heat and let it cool slightly.  (You want it cool enough that it doesn’t melt the butter-sugar mixture you’ll be adding it to but not so cool that it’s difficult to add into the mixture.)

3.       Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt together into a small bowl and set aside.

4.       Using an electric mixer on medium speed, cream the butter and both sugars together in a medium-size bowl until light and fluffy, 1 ½ to 2 minutes.  Stop the mixer twice during the process to scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula.

5.       Add the eggs and egg yolk and beat on medium speed until they are blended, about 30 seconds.  Scrape the bowl.  Add the (cooled) melted chocolate and blend until mixed, about 10 seconds, stopping the mixer once to scrape the bowl.

6.       Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed for 15 seconds.  (I add the flour ½ cup at a time and mix very briefly until most of it is incorporated before I add another ½ cup.)

7.       Add the chocolate chips and blend until they are mixed in, 5 to 8 seconds.  (I added all of a 12-ounce bag and reserved a handful for the last of the dough once I scooped out the cookie dough balls.)

8.       Drop the dough by generously rounded tablespoons onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them 2 inches apart.

9.       Bake the cookies until the centers are puffed up and lightly cracked, but still soft, 12 to 13 minutes.  Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool on the sheets.

Gold Bar Brownies

Gold Bar Brownies - made November 17, 2010 from Pure Chocolate by Fran Bigelow (book #12)

Last year, for my nieces' birthday, I baked up a bunch of brownies and portioned them out into goodie bags for them to give to their friends at their birthday dinner as party favors (hey, those are my idea of party favors).  This year I suggested to my nieces that we set up a chocolate fountain and I'd prepare stuff like rice krispie treats, sliced bananas and strawberries, pretzel sticks, pound cake, etc and we'd have chocolate fondue for dessert after their birthday dinner.  They liked that idea so I'm packing up the chocolate fountain my sister had given me for Christmas a few years ago.  However, one of my nieces also asked if I would do brownies again as their party favors for their friends to take home.  Never one to turn down a chance to bake brownies for voracious appetites, I was happy to agree.

The request gave me an excuse to try new brownie recipes, always one of my favorite baking endeavors.  This one is from book #12, Pure Chocolate by Fran Bigelow.  The original recipe calls for almonds so (of course), I substituted with more chocolate chips.  I also substituted dulce de leche for the caramel sauce.  However, instead of swirling the caramel through the batter, I spread 2/3 of the brownie batter evenly in the pan, dropped dollops of the dulce de leche on top then covered that completely with the remaining brownie batter.  The reason I recommend this way is when caramel (or dulce de leche) is baked uncovered, it tends to get hard and chewy after the brownie cools.  The point of caramel (to me) is having that soft, sweet texture.  If I wanted hard and chewy, I'd eat a Tootsie Roll.  Some of the dulce de leche leaked through the top layer in the last minute of baking - that's okay as that doesn't happen until towards the end of the baking time and the brownie is probably done, the dulce de leche is overheating and that's why it's bubbling over.  As long as it's not baked uncovered for too long, the texture will still remain soft.

Note the relatively high amount of semisweet chocolate the recipe calls for.  Always use a high quality chocolate.  Trust me, it makes a difference in how your finished product turns out and tastes.  I used a combination of Valrhona and Ghirardelli semisweet chocolate.  Also, because of the high proportion of chocolate, don't be afraid to underbake this slightly.  The chocolate will set once the brownie cools.  For the toothpick test, make sure there are still moist crumbs clinging to the toothpick when you insert it close to the center.  Raw batter means it's still not done, "clean" means take it out right now.  This brownie is rich and fudgy.  The dulce de leche provides a nice contrast of sweetness to the chocolatey richness.  I cut these into squares, packaged them 2 squares to a pack wrapped in saran wrap and placed them in ziploc freezer bags in the freezer, ready for the trip to So Cal for my nieces and their friends.

1 cup caramel sauce (use your own recipe or storebought – I used dulce de leche)

8 ounces (1 2/3 cups) whole almonds (I left out the nuts and used more chocolate chips)

1 pound (16 ounces) semisweet chocolate

1 ½ ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped

1 stick plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar

2/3 cup sugar

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

¾ teaspoon instant espresso powder

3 large eggs

1 ¾ cups cake flour, sifted then measured

(Directions slightly modified from the original recipe)

1.        Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 325˚F.

2.       Lightly butter a 9 x 13-inch baking pan.

3.       Place the almonds on another baking sheet and toast in the oven for 10 minutes or until fragrant.  Let cool then roughly chop into ¼” pieces.  Set aside.

4.       Finely chop 12 ounces of the semisweet chocolate for melting.  Chop the remaining 4 ounces of semisweet into ¼” chunks for chips.

5.       Melt the finely chopped semisweet and unsweetened chocolates in a double boiler over low heat.  Remove when nearly melted and continue stirring until smooth.

6.       In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together the butter and two sugars until light and very fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes.  In a small bowl, stir together the vanilla and the espresso powder.

7.       Add to the butter mixture and beat to combine. (I added to the melted chocolate instead to make it easier to combine to something more liquid.)  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between additions and scraping the bowl several times.  Pour in the melted chocolate and beat to combine.

8.       Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold in the sifted flour by hand until no traces of white remain.  Fold in the toasted almonds and the 4 ounces semisweet chocolate chunks.  The batter will be quite thick.  Evenly spread the batter in the prepared pan.  (I reserved 1/3 of the batter and spread 2/3 evenly in the pan.)

9.       Spoon the caramel sauce (dulce de leche) in tablespoon-side dollops over the top.  Cover completely with the remaining 1/3 batter.  Try to make sure all the dulce de leche or caramel is covered by the brownie batter.  Bake for 45 minutes.  When tested with a toothpick in the brownie portion (not the caramel), it will have moist crumbs.

10.    Let cool in the pan 1 hour.  Cut into squares and remove with a spatula.  Store brownies in a sealed plastic container up to a week or freeze.

Apple Crumble Bars

Apple Crumble Bars - made November 13, 2010 from Fearless Baking by Elinor Klivans (Book #11)

During holiday family gatherings, apple cobbler is a perennial favorite and requested by various family members.  For Thanksgiving this year, my aunt and her family are joining us from Canada and one of my uncle's favorite desserts is apple cobbler.  I have a recipe I normally use for cobbler so I wasn't really looking for a new one.  However, when I tried this recipe for Apple Crumble Bars, although it's meant to be a "bar dessert", I saw the potential for cobbler so I made it in a serving dish and a ramekin.  The ramekin was for the taste test so I wouldn't have to cut into it before I served it to some of my family.  (Always a nice trick if you want to err on the side of caution and have a taste test before serving but can't cut into the serving dish itself.)

I have to say this recipe trumped my usual cobbler recipe.  I used Granny Smith apples like I always do and this had the crumb topping similar to my cobbler.  But what set this above the other one was the crumb topping also doubled as the bottom crust.  Delicious.  The sweetness of the crust and the crumb topping is a perfect foil for the tartness of the apples.  Serve it warm with vanilla ice cream and you have a winner.  I would also recommend this recipe for baking novices.  The crust and topping are simple to put together - just cut the butter into the dry ingredients with 2 knives, reserve 2 cups for the topping and spread the rest in the bottom of your baking pan for the crust.  There's no rolling of dough - you just pat the mixture evenly into the pan, top with the apple mixture and then scatter the crumb topping.  Really very simple.  The "hardest part" is really peeling and cutting the apples and even that's not hard.

I served this to my parents and our family members, my uncle Allan and my cousin Stephanie, from Missouri and they seemed to enjoy it.  It's always a nice compliment when people not only have seconds but take the rest home with them :).  In the pictures above, you'll notice there's still a little flour clinging to the sides - that's the part of the topping that didn't cook down over the apples.  If you want something a bit more presentable, just brush those off before or after baking and before serving.

Crust and Topping

2 cups all-purpose flour

¼ cup powdered sugar

¾ cup packed light brown sugar

6 ounces (1 ½ sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into ½” pieces

Apple Filling

3 cups peeled and cored apples chopping into ½” pieces (about 3 large apples) (I ended up using 4 apples just to make sure there was enough)

1 tablespoon granulated sugar (I used 1 1/2 tbps)

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (I used 1 1/2 tbps)

1 cup golden raisins, optional (I omitted the raisins)

1.        Preheat the oven to 325˚F.  Line a 9 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan with heavy aluminum foil that extends over 2 ends of the pan.  Butter the foil that will touch the bars.  (If you're not going to cut as bars, bake in a nice serving dish and omit the foil but lightly spray the bottom with nonstick cooking spray.)

2.       Mix the flour, powdered sugar and brown sugar together in a medium bowl.  Add the butter pieces, cutting them into the dry ingredients until they’re the size of peas and well-coated in the flour mixture.  Remove 2 cups of the mixture and set aside.  Transfer the remaining mixture to the prepared pan and press it evenly over the bottom.

3.       Mix the filling: Stir the apples, sugar and lemon juice together in a large bowl.  Stir in the raisins, if using.  Spoon the filling over the prepared crust, distributing it evenly.  Sprinkle the reserved crumbs evenly over the apple filling.

4.       Bake until the crumb topping is golden and the apples are soft when tested with a toothpick, about 55 minutes.  Carefully lift the aluminum foil and bars from the baking pan.  Loosen the foil from the sides of the bars.  Cut into 12 to 16 pieces.  Serve warm, with vanilla ice cream, if desired.

Oven-fried (Herbed) Potatoes

Oven-fried (Herbed) Potatoes - made November 14, 2010 from Cookwise by Shirley Corriher (Book #10)

Many years ago, I read Fast Food Nation and watched Supersize Me in the same timeframe.  Needless to say, it put me off fast food almost permanently.  I went from having it once or twice every couple of weeks to once or twice a year, if that.  It's not that I really enjoyed fast food itself but the convenience couldn't be beat, especially since you can't turn the corner without tripping over a MacDonalds, Burger King, Wendy's, Carl's Jr, Jack in the Box - well, you get the picture.  One thing I do miss from having given up fast food though are french fries.  You know the kind I mean: crisp on the outside, mealy inside.  Yes, they're bad for you.  Yes, they're good. 

My coworkers at my first job after college used to make fun of me for blotting each individual fry with a napkin to absorb some of the grease.  I liked the crunch.  But I didn't like the grease.So oven-fried potatoes seem like a good way to go.  This recipe is from Cookwise by Shirley Corriher.  In the section with this recipe, Shirley explains the benefits of chilling the potatoes ahead of time because it helps the starch turn into sugars which help with the crunchiness in baking.  I was just glad this recipe both forced me to use my steamer that I've had for a couple of years and never used and gave me a chance to have "french fries" again.

I put the "herbed" part in parentheses in the title because I didn't follow the recipe exactly.  I had gotten the potatoes last week and have had them in my refrigerator for 7 days instead of overnight like I had originally planned because I kept forgetting to buy rosemary and Parmesan cheese.  I gave up on remembering and decided to make these as plain home fries without the herb and cheese.  They turned out pretty well that way.  Because I tossed the potato sticks with the olive oil, salt and cayenne pepper, they're already pretty well-flavored/salty so I didn't need to add additional salt when I was eating them.  The main thing I did wrong though was not to spray the foil-lined baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.  I figured because the potato sticks were tossed with olive oil, that would be enough to prevent sticking.  Wrong.  Every single one of them stuck to the foil.  I had to pry some of them loose, hence the very amaterish appearance.  Didn't stop me from eating them though.  The potato sticks were crunchy on the outside and some of the bigger pieces had that nice mealy texture inside.  My knife skills are deplorable so I ended up cutting different sizes of potato sticks and some baked into crisp little sticks while others were the size and texture of steak fries.  Clearly, my standards for cooking "real food" are lower than my standards for baking.  Nevertheless, I liked this recipe and would make it again, preferably next time with a nice juicy teriyaki burger.

2 large (1 ½ to 2 pounds) Russet Burbank (Idaho) baking potatoes

Nonstick cooking spray

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 teaspoons salt

¼ teaspoon cayenne

2 teaspoons finely minced fresh rosemary

¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan

1.        Place the potatoes, unpeeled, in the refrigerator for a day or two.  When ready to cook, scrub but do not peel, and cut into fat French fry sticks.  Rinse well under running water.

2.       Preheat the oven to 450˚F.  Spray a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray. (Don't skip this part and make a mess like I did.)

3.       Steam the potato sticks for 8 minutes.  Pat dry.  Stir together the olive oil, salt, cayenne, and rosemary in a medium bowl.  Add the potato sticks and toss well to coat.  Arrange in a single layer on the baking sheet.  Bake until lightly browned, about 1 hour.

4.       Sprinkle the Parmesan over the potatoes and return to the oven just long enough to melt the cheese, about 4 minutes.  Taste and add salt as needed.  Serve immediately.

Stovetop Double Chocolate Pudding

Stovetop Double Chocolate Pudding - made November 7, 2010 from The Weekend Baker by Abigail Dodge (Book #9)

Pudding has never been one of my comfort foods.  That spot goes to spaghetti and meatballs, potato cheese soup, warm homemade bread with butter and warm chocolate chip cookies with vanilla ice cream.  But the early nightfall combined with cold and rainy weather made me feel like warm chocolate pudding was an appropriate and comforting dessert.  I’ve actually never really made pudding before, probably because I’m not much of a pudding eater.  If I’m going to eat something with that consistency, I’d rather eat ice cream.  But I’m trying to vary my baking repertoire so I did get out of my comfort (haha) zone and give this recipe a whirl.  It didn’t hurt that I also had some milk to use up.  I think half my baking experiments are driven by using up ingredients before their expiration date.

As with anything else, the quality of your ingredients is the biggest factor in how well something tastes or turns out.  I used Ghirardelli semisweet chocolate for this one and also Pernigotti cocoa.  Past experience has taught me that using that much Pernigotti would make for a very rich, chocolaty product so I actually combined the Pernigotti with an almost-equal amount of Hershey’s cocoa.  Yes, the bland Hershey’s cocoa I’ve dissed in the past.  Why?  Because it would temper some of the rich chocolatey-ness from the Pernigotti while still meeting the cocoa requirement.  It worked too as while the end result was definitely chocolatey, it wasn’t too chocolatey.  It’s all about personal preference though so if you have a high tolerance for chocolate, then go all the way with the good cocoa.  This version was enough for me to be satisfied after a few spoonfuls.

One important step in the directions – make sure you follow the directions to start with a small amount of milk to make the paste with the dry ingredients before you add the rest of the milk.  If you don’t, it’ll be too difficult to combine the dry and liquid ingredients together to make a smooth, lump-free pudding.  I may shortchange the frying time of the chicken but I take the combining of pudding ingredients seriously.  Also, keep whisking as the directions say as that’ll help avoid lumps from forming in the pudding too.  This is just like making pastry cream where it’s important to have smooth consistency and no lumps.

¾ cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup cornstarch

1/3 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder, sifted if lumpy

¼ teaspoon table salt

3 ½ cups whole milk

4 ounces semisweet, bittersweet, or milk chocolate, chopped

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1.        In a medium, heavy saucepan, combine the sugar, cornstarch, cocoa powder, and salt.  Whisk until well blended.  Pour in about ½ cup of the milk and whisk until the mixture is smooth.  (Don't cheat this step or else you'll end up with a lumpy mixture.) Whisk is the remaining milk.

2.       Set the pan over medium-high heat and cook, whisking constantly, until the mixture comes to a full boil.  Boil for 1 minute and then remove from the heat.  Add the chocolate and vanilla and whisk until the chocolate is melted and the pudding is smooth.  Pour into serving bowls.  Cover with plastic wrap, pressing it directly onto the surface to prevent a skin from forming.  Let cool slightly and serve warm, or refrigerate until room temperature or cold.  

Storage: Cover and refrigerate the cooled pudding for up to 4 days.