Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Brownies

Dulce de Leche Cream Bars - made April 19, 2011 from Brownie Mix Bliss by Camilla V. Saulsbury (book #92)

I'm renaming these brownies from "cream bars" to "cheesecake brownies" as the appendage to the dulce de leche part.  Because anything with this much cream cheese in the topping deserves the cheesecake moniker.  Now you may notice I've broken one of my cardinal rules and made this from a (gads, it's hard for me to say it, much less type it)....brownie mix.  Yes, that's right - a mix.  At first I was going to substitute in a from-scratch brownie recipe for the base but since the recipe book is actually called Brownie MIX Bliss and the basis is that you can make delicious brownies even from a mix, I felt honor-bound to go through with the recipe using the mix.  And in case anyone wonders why, when I'm so opposed to brownie mixes, that I have an entire baking book that uses one in every recipe....I dunno.  I did mention I have a problem resisting buying baking books, right?  I must've bought this awhile ago before my baking snobbiness really kicked in.

Anyway, it turns out Betty Crocker brownie mixes are on sale at Walgreens this week for 89 cents a box so at least, if I had to compromise my baking principles, I did it on the cheap.  When using a brownie mix or a cake mix, always run it through a sieve first to get rid of the lumps.  It's usually a pain to do but worth it in your end product to have it be lump free.  I made two alterations to this recipe.  First, I used actual dulce de leche instead of caramel topping.  Uh, if you're going to call something dulce de leche, you should use dulce de leche in it.  Caramel and dulce de leche are not the same thing even though, in many cases, they can probably be used interchangeably, depending on the recipe.  The second modification I made was rather than reserving the rest of the dulce de leche to drizzle on top of the bars, I actually swirled it into the brownie base itself.  But that's just a personal preference on my part as I anticipated I would prefer the sweetness of the dulce de leche more with the chocolate brownie than atop the cheesecake layer.

The brownie batter, because it had relatively little liquid in it, was more of a brownie dough so you have to pat it even in the pan.  It was too stiff for me to literally swirl in the dulce de leche so I dropped it in dollops on a thin layer of the dough and (mostly) covered it with the remaining brownie dough. After 18 minutes in the oven, the edges looked baked but the middle was definitely soft.  The cheesecake topping is pretty liquid-y, like most cheesecake toppings.  Pour it carefully over the hot brownie base in a slight, steady stream all over the pan.  You don't want a waterfall of cheesecake topping denting your brownie in spots.

Overall, I think this came out well.  I'm not a big cream cheese or cheesecake fan so this will still only rate an "okay" in my book, even if other people love it.  The brownie base was nicely chewy and made for a good contrast to the softer texture of the cheesecake topping.  It's not as tangy as other cheesecakes, perhaps because of the addition of the dulce de leche.  Surprisingly, it also wasn't that sweet which could've been the offset from the sour cream.  I still think this would taste better if you use a from-scratch brownie recipe but I have to admit, it did "work" with the brownie mix version being more of a dough rather than a brownie.  It became more of a crust for the dulce de leche cheesecake rather than a brownie base.

1 19.5 to 19.8-ounce brownie mix

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

4 large eggs

2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, softened

½ cup firmly packed brown sugar

3 tablespoons flour

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 cup sour cream

1 17-ounce jar premium caramel ice cream topping

1.      Preheat oven to 350⁰F.  Position a rack in the lower third of the oven.  Spray a 9 x 13” baking pan with nonstick cooking spray and/or line with foil then spray.

2.      In a medium mixing bowl, mix the brownie mix, melted butter and 1 egg with a wooden spoon until just blended and all dry ingredients are moistened.  Spread mixture into prepared pan.

3.      Bake 18 minutes.  Remove from oven (leave oven on).

4.      Meanwhile, in a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, brown sugar, flour and vanilla with electric mixer set on high until well blended.  Add sour cream; mix until blended.  Add remaining 3 eggs, one at a time, mixing on low after each addition until just blended.  Add half of the caramel topping; mix on low until blended.  Pour over hot crust.

5.      Bake 32-35 minutes or until center is just barely set.  Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.  Refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight.

6.      Drizzle remaining caramel topping over bars; refrigerate until set.  Cut into bars.  Makes 24 large or 36 small bars.

Chocolate Easter Baskets

Chocolate Easter Baskets - made April 21, 2011 from A Year in Chocolate by Alice Medrich (book #91)

I still have 2 brownie recipes to put up but I'm going a little out of order to get this post up before Easter arrives.  You might be busy putting together the Easter ham and its fixings, dyeing Easter eggs or cleaning the house for Easter company.  In the midst of all that, if you want something quick and simple to make with your kids and/or just for something pretty to put at individual places on the company table, try this simple recipe for chocolate Easter baskets.  If you like chocolate covered pretzels, here's a way to have your, er, basket and eat it too.  Although I think my version is more accurately called "birds' nests" rather than baskets, just in appearance.

I only wanted small "baskets" but instead of using the wax paper method like Alice Medrich's instructions say to do, I formed these in cupcake paper liners so they'd be easier to shape. A couple of tips to make this easier: break up some of the pretzel sticks so you have them in varying lengths.  It'll make the baskets easier to make and not too big.  Mine ended up looking more like birds' nests than baskets but I wasn't going to be picky.  Second thing to note is not to let the melted chocolate get too cold.  It's okay to combine it with the pretzels while the chocolate is still warm and to start forming the baskets/birds' nests.  If the chocolate gets too cold, it'll clump on the pretzels and be more difficult to work with.  If that happens, simply warm it up very, very slightly until it's more liquid and easier to work with again. 

Filled with Cadbury mini eggs

Please, please, please use good, high quality chocolate.  Since there are only 2 ingredients in the baskets, you should buy the chocolate you would most enjoy eating on your pretzels.  A 3.5-ounce bar of Valrhona is $2.99 at Trader Joe's and a similar-size bar of Lindt or Godiva costs even less at Target and sometimes CVS - trust me, it's worth the money to buy good chocolate.  3 ounces of chocolate only made 4 birds' nests for me so you might want to double the recipe if you need more.  I didn't measure out the pretzel sticks but simply mixed enough in until all the pretzels were coated.  Once the chocolate has set, carefully peel away the cupcake liners and fill the nests with your favorite Easter candy - jelly beans, chocolate eggs, pastel M&Ms, etc.  My favorites are Cadbury mini eggs and I think the only reason I made the baskets was so I could have an excuse to eat the mini eggs.

ETA: I forgot to add - for anyone who's worked with chocolate, you'll know one risk of melting and cooling chocolate is what's known as chocolate "bloom".  That's the grayish/white stuff (aka cocoa butter) that rises to the surface of your chocolate once it cools and re-solidifes.  You can avoid it a couple of ways.  The first and most foolproof way is to temper your chocolate properly.  That means when you melt it, you bring the chocolate to a certain temperature (there are different temps for dark, milk and white chocolate but generally around 113 degrees F) then cool it down to a certain temperature (again, there are different "working temps", depending on the type of chocolate you're using but think somewhere in the mid to high 80s) before working with it.  The second way is more quick and dirty - prepare the baskets at the last minute, refrigerate until just barely set and use immediately.  Then get your guests to eat them before the bloom has time to appear :).

3 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate

3 cups or more thin pretzel sticks, salted or unsalted

2-quart bowl or box, lined with plastic wrap, for a large basket or nest

Sheets of wax paper for small nests

1.       Melt the chocolate in the top of a double boiler over barely simmering water.  Cool to lukewarm.  In a medium bowl, pour most of the chocolate over the pretzels.  Use a rubber spatula to turn the pretzels gently in the chocolate until they are lightly coated, adding as much as the rest of the chocolate as necessary.  It’s okay if some of the pretzel shows through the chocolate.

2.       For a large basket or nest, scrape the pretzels into the lined bowl or box.  Arrange the sticky pretzels against the sides of the container to resemble a basket or a nest.  Shape small nests or wreaths on sheets of wax paper.

3.       Refrigerate to set the chocolate.  To unmold the large basket, lift the plastic liner from the container and peel it away from the pretzels.  Fill with candy.

Macaroon Brownie Bars

Macaroon Brownie Bars - made April 19, 2011 from Greyston Bakery Cookbook by Sara Kate Gillingham-Ryan (book #90)

I'm on a brownie kick again because I'm meeting a group of friends for dinner tonight and it's tradition that I always bring goodie bags to hand out, which usually includes brownies.  I get to experiment with new recipes and my friends get to have some homemade treats.  Win-win all around.  I remember one time when I felt guilty that I was handing out bags of calorie bombs so I didn't bring anything to a get together, thinking I was doing them a favor.  Not so much.  Never saw such long faces in my life when I arrived empty-handed.  Not only did I let down my friends but also their spouses who were waiting for them at home, expecting to partake of said goodie bags.  So now I've learned my lesson and don't veer away from tradition.  The goodie bags live on.

This is a pretty easy brownie to make.  I omitted the chocolate chunks from the brownie base and instead added mini chocolate chips to the macaroon topping.  No particular reason why but just wanted to sprinkle some chocolate to the top.  You can do either or both.  Other than that, I followed the directions to the letter and for once, actually timed everything exactly.  Unfortunately, I would rate these brownies as only "okay".  I like the concept of them and I love the coconut topping.  But the brownie base was more cakey than fudgy.  It wasn't dry but I'm used to my brownies being barely one step above fudge.  I want them fudgy, not cakey.  If I were to make these again, I'd cut the first baking time in half and reduce the second baking time by at least 5 minutes.  The taste was good but I prefer a fudgier texture for the brownie part.

Brownie Base

2/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

2/3 cup sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

½ teaspoon pure almond extract

4 ounces good-quality bittersweet chocolate, chopping into chunks

Coconut Topping

2 eggs

2/3 cup sugar

¼ teaspoon almond extract

1/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

2 ¼ cups (7 ounces) sweetened, flaked coconut

1.      Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350⁰F.  Grease a 9” baking pan and line it with parchment paper, leaving about 1” of paper overhanging the two long sides.

2.      In a bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder and salt until well blended.

3.      In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed.  Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.  Stir in the vanilla and almond extracts.  Gradually mix in the dry ingredients until well combined.  Stir in the chocolate.

4.      Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan.  Bake for 20 minutes, or until the sides begin to set but the center is still soft.  Remove the pan from the oven and set on a wire rack to cool slightly.

5.      Prepare the coconut topping: In a bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar.  Stir in the almond extract.  Gradually stir in the flour, mixing thoroughly.  Stir in the coconut.

6.      Using a spoon, gently place spoonfuls of the mixture over the partially baked brownie base and spread evenly with the back of a spoon or a rubber spatula.

7.      Return the pan to the oven and bake for 30 minutes, or until the topping is golden brown and a wooden skewer inserted in the middle comes out almost clean.  Do not overbake.  Remove the pan from the oven and set it on a wire rack to cool completely.  Remove the brownies by grasping and lifting the edges of parchment.  Cut into bars.

SF Chocolate Salon

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Signage at Fort Mason

Last Sunday I had a chance to go to the 5th Annual SF Chocolate Salon, held in Fort Mason in San Francisco.  I'd never been to it before but a whole bunch of chocolatiers in one warehouse giving out free samples?  I'm so there.  Beyond a slightly higher ticket price, it seemed very similar to the Ghirardelli Chocolate Festival which my friend Jenny and I went to last year and you may recall we OD'd a bit on all that chocolate.  Plus we didn't get there until early afternoon and by then it was super crowded with both locals and tourists.  So while I wouldn't necessarily go back to the Ghirardelli Chocolate Festival again, I did want to have a look-see at the SF Chocolate Salon.  Fortunately, Jenny was game as well so we met up in the city to hit Fort Mason and a day of chocolate.

This time around we went first thing in the morning, right when they opened.  We figured this would help us beat the crowds that had made the Ghirardelli Chocolate Festival a bit trying.  It turned out to be a good call because it definitely wasn't as crowded earlier in the day as it was later on.  Plus it had the added advantage of being held at the Festival Building in Fort Mason which was essentially a large warehouse.  Various chocolatiers and wineries had display tables and they were spaced far enough apart to accommodate a reasonable number of people without being so far apart that you had to trek from one to the other.

Help yourself to samples

We could - and did - wander from table to table, sampling at will.  I kept taking pictures of the tables and the signage of the chocolatiers as there were so many, I knew I wouldn't be able to remember them all.  Some had leaflets, business cards or flyers to hand out to prospective customers, some were selling their wares and others just had samples laid out of their products for anyone to taste test.  Needless to say, there was no shortage of chocolate to try.

Now, I'm a bit of a purist when it comes to chocolate.  I favor milk chocolate and I don't mind it combined with caramel and/or nuts but that's usually it.  I can appreciate a high-quality dark chocolate but my sweet tooth still prefers milk chocolate.  Those who consider themselves true chocolate aficionados will disagree with me but that's okay - there's no such thing as "wrong" when it comes to high-end chocolate.  Except I have to admit, some of the flavors at the show were a bit too exotic for me.  The recent trend has seemed to be infusing chocolate with all sorts of flavors you can think of - not just your traditional fruit flavors like orange, raspberry, cherry or liqueurs like kahlua, kirsch, frangelico, and whatnot.  But I saw a lot of tea-infused flavors like chai, green tea and jasmine as well as spice-infused chocolate.  I was unfortunate enough to sample a chili pepper chocolate.  One nibble and I had to go get a sample of the sorbet one table had to kill the taste.  Sorry, I don't believe in spicy chocolate.

My favorite - and yes, I ate a whole one

My favorite of the day though was the Salt Water Caramel from JTruffles.  Normally I don't like sweet and salty together, especially in chocolate but the combo worked really well in this truffle.  The filling was a chewy caramel, not too hard, not too liquidy or soft but just the right chewy consistency.  It wasn't too salty which is probably what won me over.  I find fleur de sel and other salt like it too salty with a sweet pairing but JTruffles did an excellent job with this truffle, to the point that I had to go to their website afterward and check out their pricing in case I want indulge at a later date and order myself a box of these truffles.  I was doubly glad Jenny and I went to the Chocolate Salon in the morning because early in the day, JTruffles was giving out whole truffles as their sample.  While it made for a big sample and we figured they'd run out fast, I enjoyed that truffle so much, I couldn't stop eating it, even though I was already sampling a lot of other chocolatiers' tables.  By the afternoon, when we stopped by their table again after lunch, they had run out of the Salt Water Caramel Truffles and had chopped up pieces of their other truffles to give as samples.

We also saw the first cooking demo of the day, given by Jake Gandolfo from Master Chef, Fox TV.  He did a balsamic vinagrette with chocolate melted into it as a sauce for a caprese and a red wine reduction with chocolate for a goat meat dish.  He only made a single serving so no sampling there :).

My second favorite sample(s) of the day was the toffee.  I sampled toffee from three tables and I don't think I had a bad one.  They all had the perfect crunch, not too hard or difficult to chew, not "chewy" but crunchy the way good toffee should be.  Milk chocolate almond toffee was my most favorite and I even met one chocolatier from St. Helena whose husband had also gone to the Culinary Institute of America, although he did the program in Hyde Park NY whereas I did the one in St Helena. Her toffee (www.permano.co) was quite good.

All in all, it was a fun way to spend the day.  Now I'll be dreaming about Salt Water Caramels for awhile....

Rigatoni with Sausage, Bacon and Onions

Rigatoni with Sausage, Bacon and Onions - made April 16, 2011 from Cooking For One by Mark Erickson, CMC and Lisa Erickson

This is the recipe that I needed the homemade tomato sauce for.  It had all the elements on what I'll eat in a pasta dish so I didn't have to play around with it or take out any ingredients, as I'm prone to do.  Getting the red wine was a little tricky since I don't drink and know nothing about wine so I had to look through the wine selection at Trader Joe's and go by the shelf labels to figure out which was the red wine and which bottle to get (merlot? burgundy?  "plain" red wine?  what's the diff??).  Glen, my wine aficionado friend, would shudder at my ignorance but there you have it.  Besides, the recipe only called for 2 tablespoons of the stuff and it's not like I'm going to drink it so my standards for wine weren't that high.

As I've been taught in culinary school, I got my mise en place ready before I turned on the stove.  That means I got everything ready beforehand - water heating up to boil the pasta,  the onion, bacon and sausage cut up and ready on the cutting board, the bottle of red wine open and the tablespoon measure beside it.  The only substitution I did was to use turkey bacon instead of regular bacon, mostly because I prefer turkey bacon.  I knew it wasn't going to yield as much fat as regular bacon so I added a little olive oil to saute the bacon and onions.  Turkey bacon doesn't really fry up crisp like regular bacon so I only sauteed it until it was cooked rather than crisp.  Once you fry the sausage and remove it from the skillet then add the red wine, the reduction goes quickly.  I confess mine nearly dried out in moments so I must not have moved very quickly.  I added the homemade tomato sauce before it was all gone so crisis was (mostly) averted.

This was a pretty easy recipe to put together.  It was good and I liked the sausage and bacon aspect of it.  It might've had a bit more crunch if I had used regular bacon but I was okay with the turkey bacon.  The tomato sauce itself was a bit more bland than I expected and I'm not sure if that's from the tomatoes I used perhaps not having a lot of flavor.  It wasn't even acidic as some tomato sauces have a tendency to be.  Bear in mind I tend to have bland taste buds to begin with and generally don't eat a lot of spicy food so if this strikes me as a little bland, people who like spices might want to make a few modifications and add some heat.  Next time I might add a few more spices, especially more basil leaves in the initial roasting of the tomatoes and onions.  I couldn't really taste the onions which to me is a good thing but the sauce might benefit from a little addition of garlic.  However, I will say that overall I was pleased with how fresh the sauce tasted.  Which comes from using the homemade tomato sauce.  Now I can see why real cooks can be fanatic about only using the freshest ingredients.  It really does make a difference in how your cooking tastes.
 

½ medium onion

3 ounces bacon

1 link hot or sweet fresh Italian sausage (6 ounces)

2 tablespoons dry red wine

1 ¾ cups tomato sauce

3 ounces rigatoni pasta

Grated Parmesan cheese as needed

1.      Cut the onion into thirds lengthwise and then thinly slice it crosswise.  Cut the bacon crosswise into 1/3-inch-wide pieces.  Cut the sausage in half lengthwise, then cut the halves crosswise at an angle into 1-inch-thick pieces.

2.      Heat a sauté pan over medium heat.  Add the onion and bacon and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion and bacon are browned, about 10 minutes.  Pour the mixture into a colander to let it drain.

3.      Return the pan to the stove and add the sausage.  Cook, turning the pieces as necessary, until browned on all sides, about 3 minutes.  Add the sausage to the colander holding the bacon and onion.  Toss briefly to combine, blot lightly with paper toweling, and set aside.

4.      Return the pan to medium heat, add the red wine, and stir well to release any drippings.  Let the wine reduce by one-fourth, about 2 minutes.  Add the tomato sauce and bring it to boil.  Reduce the heat to low and add the onion, bacon, and sausage mixture.  Cover the pan and simmer the sauce over low heat until flavorful, 15 to 20 minutes.

5.      Cook the rigatoni in salted boiling water according to directions on package.  Drain the pasta in a colander, shaking it to get rid of the excess water.  Add enough of the sauce to dress the pasta and toss to combine.  Spoon the pasta into a warmed bowl and serve with grated Parmesan cheese.

Linked to:

Homemade Tomato Sauce

Homemade Tomato Sauce - made April 15, 2011 from Cooking for One by Mark Erickson, CMC and Lisa Erickson (book #89)

You have to know me really well to understand what an epic accomplishment this was for me.  I've already alluded to the fact that I don't really cook. It's usually a major undertaking for me, at least in my head.  I also don't like most vegetables.  I can count on the fingers of one hand the veggies I normally eat and I can only count that many if you let me include french fries (for the people who say potatoes are not a vegetable but a starch....I can't hear you).  Add to that, when I do cook, I reach for the most convenient things to make.  Pasta is one of them as even I can boil water and noodles at the same time.  When it comes to sauce, the easiest thing for me to do is reach for a jar of pasta sauce or those dry spaghetti mixes where you add tomato sauce and water plus some ground beef and call it sauce.  My friend Emily tells me her Italian grandmother would roll over in her grave at what I do.  She even offered to come over one day and teach me how to make real pasta sauce.  Thanks, Em.

That's my lead in to say even some of us old dogs can be taught new tricks.  It started when a friend sent me this cookbook and asked if I would do a book review of it.  It was written by two graduates from the Culinary Institute of America and she wanted my take on it as a CIA grad myself, albeit my certification was from the Baking & Pastry Arts program and I had nothing to do with the "hot side" and I only did 8 months for the certificate, not 2 years for the AA degree.  Plus, I'm just not much of a cook.  But I'm willing to try anything once and agreed to take a stab at it.  The recipe I chose called for homemade tomato sauce as the base and the recipe for that was also in the book.  Honestly, you can't know how much I just wanted to buy a can of Del Monte and be done with that part of it.  But that seemed like cheating and I had promised to break out of my non-cooking comfort zone so I went for making tomato sauce from scratch.

The "before" pic of the tomatoes before roasting

I bought the tomatoes from Trader Joe's as well as all the other ingredients one day and made the recipe the next day (it's already a "production" when I have to spread it out to more than a day).  When Emily found out what I was doing, she instructed me to call her on her cell phone in case I ran into any problems.  That's more context setting for you on how cooking-challenged I am.  This whole lead-in is going to be anti-climactic though because I have to tell you....it was the easiest thing in the world.  Wash the stuff, cut it up, roast in the oven for an hour and fifteen minutes, stir every now and then, take out, let cool, then puree in the food processor.  Who knew making tomato sauce was so easy??  What the heck did I find so intimidating about it?  I can make real tomato sauce from honest-to-goodness tomatoes!  Woot!  I was on a culinary high.  Real chefs can laugh at me but that's fine.  It is laughable.

Someday, this will hopefully yield tomatoes

Two major lessons I learned:
1) real tomato sauce isn't as red as the Del Monte and Hunt canned versions or jarred Ragu version.  It's a sad statement that I wondered if anything was "wrong" with my tomato sauce that it wasn't as red as the processed version.  Then I realized my tomato sauce was pretty much the color of the tomatoes I started with because I didn't add any red dye or other artificial ingredients.  That's how it's supposed to look before it gets interfered with for mass production.  Just like real mac and cheese with real cheddar cheese isn't supposed to be the color of Cheetos.  Who knew?

2) I really need to stop building up stuff in my head as "too hard" or "I can't do it".  I can't believe I spent so much time thinking about this when, once I actually did it, there was nothing to it.  Nike got it right with their slogan: Just Do It.  I would also add, "it ain't that hard".

I was on such a high from the whole making-tomato-sauce-is-so-easy that the next day, I went to Home Depot and bought some tomato plants.  Yep.  I'm going to try growing my own tomatoes so I can keep making my own tomato sauce.  If you've been reading my blog, you also know that's another epic moment.  The non-gardener and non-veggie eater is going to grow a vegetable.  Yeah, I know tomatoes are technically/scientifically a fruit but don't kill my buzz.  Tomatoes go in the veggie category for me.  I don't eat whole tomatoes as is but I do like tomato-based pasta sauces and that's what I'm growing them for.  I also bought and planted some basil - pesto sauce in my future.....

Sweet Basil - pesto sauce in the making

2 lbs cored and quartered tomatoes

½ onion, peeled and sliced (about 4 ozs)

2 garlic cloves, peeled and coarsely chopped

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 basil leaves, optional

Salt and freshly ground pepper, as needed

Pinch of sugar, optional

1.      Preheat the oven to 350⁰F.  Toss the tomatoes, onion, garlic and olive oil together in an 8 x 13” roasting pan.  Roast, uncovered, for 1 hour, stirring occasionally to break up the tomatoes.  Add the basil leaves, if using.  Roast for another 15 minutes.  Remove from the oven and cool to room temperature.  Some of the vegetables will be browned in spots, which adds a nice, rich flavor.

2.      Pass the vegetables through a food mill or process them in a food processor until pureed, then strain through a medium sieve, pressing on the solids, to remove the skin and seeds.  Season to taste with salt and pepper and a pinch of sugar if the sauce seems too acidic.

3.      Heat the sauce over low heat and combine with cooked pasta, or store the sauce in jars in the refrigerator for up to 1 week or in freezer containers for up to 6 months.

Honey Whole Wheat Biscuits

Honey Whole Wheat Biscuits - made April 16, 2011 from Whole Grain Baking by King Arthur Flour (book #88)

I wanted to make some kind of bread to go with a pasta dish I was making for some friends and although you normally don't have biscuits to go with a dinner entree, these were faster to make than the whole wheat dinner rolls recipe I was initially looking at so I went with this instead.  It was also another potential Easter brunch option that I wanted to try out.  Besides, whether it's a biscuit or a dinner roll doesn't matter as much as eating it warm with melting butter, right?

As with most biscuit recipes, this was pretty easy to put together.  Combine all the dry ingredients in one bowl and all the wet ingredients in another then mix the two together all at once.  Roll out, cut into rounds and bake.  Also like with all (or most) biscuits, these are best eaten warm, preferably-to-me, spread with butter.  I wouldn't necessarily call them flaky, not in the way a Pillsbury biscuit from a can is flaky but it's still pretty good, especially when the outside/top is crunchy and the inside is warm and chewy. The honey gives it an added sweetness and the whole wheat flour gives it some robustness.

2 ½ cups (10 ounces) whole wheat flour, traditional or white whole wheat

½ cup (2 1/8 ounces) unbleached bread flour

2 ½ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

¾ teaspoon salt

½ cup (1 stick, 4 ounces) cold unsalted butter

1 large egg

¾ cup (6 ounces) buttermilk, plus more for brushing

3 tablespoons (2 ¼ ounces) honey

1.      Preheat the oven to 400⁰F.  Lightly grease a baking sheet or line it with parchment paper.

2.      Whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl.  With a fork, two knives, a pastry cutter or food processor, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Whisk together the egg, buttermilk and honey in a small bowl or large measuring cup.  Add, all at once, to the flour mixture, and blend lightly and quickly with a fork until the mixture is evenly moistened.

3.      Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface, and using a bench knife or dough scraper, fold the dough over on itself three or four times until it comes together.

4.      Pat the dough out (or roll very lightly with a rolling pin) until it’s ¾” thick.  Cut the dough into squares or rounds with a 2” biscuit cutter, and transfer the biscuits to the prepared baking sheet.  Stack the scraps on top of each other, fold them as you did for the original dough, and pat out and cut again.

5.      Brush the tops of the biscuits with buttermilk, if desired.

6.      Bake until the tops are golden brown, 20 to 22 minutes.  Remove from the oven and serve warm, or cool on a rack.

Coconut Pound Cake

Coconut Pound Cake - made April 15, 2011 from The Lady & Sons Just Desserts by Paula Deen (book #87)

I'm still trolling for recipes that use up milk and/or buttermilk and that inevitably leads me to cakes.  I love coconut, especially in my favorite recipe for coconut cake.  So I figured I would love coconut pound cake as well and wanted to try this recipe.  I think I've only tried one recipe from this cookbook.  Not that it doesn't have a lot of good-looking recipes in it because it does.  But sometimes Paula Deen's recipes scare me on a caloric level.  I love her accent and listening to her on her show but I shudder when I see the amount of butter that goes into some of her cooking and baking.  I love butter but it doesn't love me back....

There probably aren't enough workouts I can do in a day that would offset a piece of one of Paula's creations.  Which is why it's important to make those empty calories count with your taste buds. I walked 11 miles the same day I made this cake so I had a fighting chance that I burned enough calories to try a taste test piece, lol.  The  rest is going into the freezer in slices to be later distributed to friends and family.

Fortunately this recipe didn't have more than the usual amount of butter a cake might have.  Although the addition of shortening isn't typical.  The only alteration I made to this recipe is I substituted vanilla extract for the coconut extract.  Much as I love coconut, I don't like coconut extract.  It tastes too artificial.  I also added an extra handful of coconut to the batter to make up for not using the coconut extract and because I love coconut.  This made a little too much batter for my Bundt cake pan so I also baked some in a small Bundt pan.

I really liked this cake.  It's slightly more dense than a layer cake so it's the perfect texture for a pound cake without being too dense as it also had some "fluff" to it.  I loved the flavor and chewiness of the coconut in it.  The only thing I didn't like is it didn't come out cleanly and intact from my Bundt pan but that's more a problem with the pan than the cake itself.  It's time for me to get a new (and really) nonstick Bundt pan.  Bottom line: this was well worth the 11-mile walk to consume the taste test piece.  Heck, I'd walk another 11 miles for a second piece.

¾ cup shortening

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

3 cups sugar

5 eggs

3 cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking powder

1 cup milk

2 teaspoons coconut extract

1 3.5-ounce can flaked, sweetened coconut

1.     Preheat oven to 325˚F.  Grease and flour a 10-inch Bundt pan.

2.     Using an electric mixer, cream shortening, butter, and sugar together.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Sift together flour, salt and baking powder, and add alternately with milk to shortening mixture, beginning and ending with flour.  Add coconut extract and stir in coconut.  Pour into prepared pan and bake for 1 hour and 25 minutes or until done.  Cool for 10 minutes; invert onto cake plan.

Serves 16 to 20

Cornmeal Griddle Cakes

Cornmeal Griddle Cakes - made April 15, 2011 from Baked Explorations by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito

Since I'm not even halfway through all my baking books for my baking challenge, you'd think the last thing I need is a new baking book, right?  I've been checking out other foodie blogs and a few made mention of this baking book along with posting some scrumptious looking pictures of what they'd made from it.  Plus they all raved about this book.  So it becomes yet one more baking book I want to have as (of course) my inner Gollum says, "Oooh, shiny object!"  Bald-headed beast.  Fortunately, my local library came to my rescue and I was able to borrow this book instead of buying it.

A first run through of the book suggests I may want to eventually add it to my collection (shut up, Gollum) as it contains some mouth-watering recipes that look awesome to make.  But for now, I'm okay with having it in my greedy possession only for the next 3 weeks.  Of all the recipes in this book, surprisingly, I chose to try a relatively humble one for Cornmeal Griddle Cakes.  It's not a recipe I see everyday and, more importantly, it calls for more of the buttermilk I need to use up shortly.  I was also thinking, with Easter Sunday a little over a week away, it seems to call for exploration of brunch options.  Nothing like springtime brunch on Easter Sunday.  Not to mention I love breakfast for dinner which is what I had when I made these.

The term "griddle cakes" always reminds me of Little House on the Prairie and Ma frying them on an iron spider over hot coals while Pa set up camp and Laura and Mary played in the prairie grass.  Can you tell I loved reading those books when I was a kid and practically had them memorized?  As an adult, I replaced my worn, well-thumbed, dog-eared paperback versions of the books with more durable hardbacks.  And I admit to rereading them every once in awhile.

In any case, those griddle cakes just sounded delicious.  This version is probably a far cry from Caroline Ingalls' though.  For one thing, they were lighter and fluffier than I expected from something that had cornmeal in it.  Probably from the chemical leavening which she wouldn't have had.  They also weren't very sweet (which may be more true to the Little House version).  These are pretty much pancakes.  They were fairly good although I think they're optimally served hot with melting butter slathered over them or with warm syrup if you want something more sweet.  I only had one but wrapped the rest up individually and deposited them in my freezer for future breakfasts, lunches and dinners.  Cook them long enough for the top to get crunchy and try to make them small if you do serve them for a brunch so your guests don't get too full from 1 griddle cake.

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 cup yellow cornmeal

2 tablespoons firmly packed light brown sugar

2 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

4 to 6 tablespoons unsalted butter for the skillet

1.    In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.  Set aside.

2.    Bring 1 ½ cups water to a boil.  Place the cornmeal in a large bowl.  Stirring continuously, slowly pour the boiling water over the cornmeal.  Keep stirring until the mixture has cooled to lukewarm, almost to room temperature.  Add the brown sugar and stir until combined.

3.    In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs until pale yellow.  Add the buttermilk and whisk until blended.  Add the flour mixture, alternating with the buttermilk mixture, to the cornmeal in three parts (beginning and ending with the flour mixture), stirring after each addition until just combined.  Stir in the melted butter.

4.    Heat a skillet or griddle pan over medium-low heat.

5.    Add 1 or 2 tablespoons butter to the skillet and make sure it coats the surface.  Drop griddle cakes in ¼-cup batches into the skillet (they will spread – do not crowd the pan).  Cook until the bottoms are medium-brown, about 3 minutes, and the tops are bubbly, then flip the griddle cakes over and cook the other side for about 2 minutes and serve immediately.  Continue cooking and serving until all the batter is gone.  Serve with generous amounts of sweet butter.

Krispies

Krispies - made April 14, 2011 from Mrs. Fields' Cookie Book by Debbi Fields (book #86)

I remember when this book first came out.  I was still crazy about Mrs. Fields' cookies and obsessed with baking cookies just like hers.  None of the chocolate chip cookie recipes I tried even came close to staying thick like hers did.  I even wanted to work part-time at a Mrs. Fields' Cookies in high school just so I could learn how they make those cookies.  Except I found out the workers don't really know the actual recipe.  Everything is pre-bagged and measured out and they just mix everything together and bake it.  Plus my parents would only let me do tutoring jobs and occasional baby-sitting after school during the school year so that nothing would take away from my studies.  During the summer, I worked at office temp jobs because they paid more than being a cookie baker at the mall.  So I never did find out how the cookies were made.

So imagine my excitement back in the day when this cookie book was finally published.  Of course the first recipe I tried out of it was the chocolate chip cookie recipe, fully expecting to be able to make cookies like Mrs. Fields.  Unfortunately I was disappointed.  My cookies still spread!  The taste was good but they didn't have the thickness or texture of a Mrs. Fields' cookie and were almost nothing like the mall cookies.  I tried a few more recipes from this book and had some success with some of the recipes, notably the lemon sandwich cookies, but still, that perfect chocolate chip cookie eluded me.  I kept this cookie book out of sentimental value and haven't baked from it in years.  This time around, I decided to try the Krispies recipe.  Looks like a typical cookie recipe in the book but it has the advantage of using up some of my Rice Krispie cereal that I still had on hand from experimenting with the brownie recipes.  I didn't have any Nestle Crunch Bars to chop up for the cookie dough so I increased the amount of rice krispies to 1 1/2 cups and chopped up a plain milk chocolate bar to add.  Also, past experience with Mrs. Fields' cookie recipes taught me that the cookies spread so I substituted 1/4 cup of shortening for 1/4 cup of the butter to minimize that.  Do NOT overbake these cookies.  In fact, better to underbake them.  I didn't bake them as long as the recipe called for but just long enough for the edges to get a little color and the middles to lose the doughy look, maybe 13-15 minutes.

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about these cookies.  I think they turned out the way they were supposed to.  The Rice Krispies gave them a nice little crunch and the cookies stayed nicely puffy and thick.  But they seemed kind of ordinary.  Like chocolate chip cookies with Rice Krispies in them.  Which is, I guess, exactly what they are so I'm not sure why I expected anything different.  I think I still expect more from Mrs. Fields, at least something amazing.  This was good but I don't know that I would call them amazing.  Although I acknowledge I have high standards for sweets so most people roll their eyes when I call something "okay" because they think better of it than I do.  So take my assessment with a grain of salt.  It's a nice little cookie if you want something a bit different from the norm or, if you want a little crunch to your cookie but don't like nuts in them, the Rice Krispies are a perfect addition.  For regular chocolate chip cookies, I think I'll stick with Alton Brown's recipe, the browned butter version.

2 cups all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ cup dark brown sugar, packed

½ cup white sugar

¾ cup salted butter, softened (I used 1/2 cup butter and 1/4 cup shortening)

1 large egg

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 cup crispy rice cereal

1 ½ cups (8 ounces) crispy rice chocolate bar, coarsely chopped

1.    Preheat oven to 300⁰F.

2.    In a medium bowl, combine flour, salt and soda.  Mix well with a wire whisk and set aside.

3.    In a large bowl, blend sugars with an electric mixer on medium speed.  Add butter and mix to form a grainy paste.  Scrape down sides of bowl, then add egg and vanilla.  Beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.

4.    Add flour mixture, rice cereal and chocolate chunks.  Blend at low speed just until combined.  Do not overmix.

5.    Drop by rounded tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheets, 2 inches apart.  Bake for 22-24 minutes.  Immediately transfer cookies with a spatula to a cool, flat surface.