Valentine Cookies - get your red, white and pink on

Valentine Cookies - made February 8, 2012, recipe adapted from The Cake Mix Doctor by Anne Byrn

I've already blogged a few Valentine's Day-appropriate recipes in the past that have the red velvet  theme going:
Red Velvet Cookies
Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies
Red Velvet Brownies with White Chocolate Frosting
Red Velvet Pancakes
Red Velvet Cake
Red Velvet Cupcakes

But I also wanted to try out a new Valentine Cookie, also still using red velvet as the base.  I have a one-track mind.  I adapted this recipe from the Cake Mix Doctor by Anne Byrn.  The original recipe was for chocolate cookies but since red velvet is a form of chocolate, I decided to see how it would turn out using a red velvet cake mix instead of a devil's food cake mix.  And to give it that Valentine's flair, I used the Valentine package of plain M&Ms instead of chocolate chips and nuts.  I admit, I'm girly girl enough to like all the pink, red and white schmaltzy  stuff. 

These turned out somewhat decent but I wouldn't rave about them.  I was hoping they would have crisp edges and chewy middles like a chocolate chip cookie.  They were fine, more chewy all around than I would've preferred but they didn't wow me.  And I like to be wowed.  I think the missing link is they didn't really taste like anything.  Good red velvet has that chocolate flavor.  These just tasted like....cookies.  But I refused to be defeated.  If I wanted that chocolate flavor, I was going to get that chocolate flavor.  So I went with the obvious and coated them in chocolate.

1 package (18.25 ounces) red velvet cake mix

1/3 cup water

4 tablespoons (½ stick) butter, melted

1 large egg

6 ounces (1 cup) semisweet chocolate chips

½ cup chopped nuts

1.   Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350⁰F.  Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

2.   Place the cake mix, water, melted butter and egg in large mixing bowl.  Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl, increase speed to medium and beat for 1 more minute.  The cookie dough will be thick.  Fold in chips and nuts.

3.   Drop heaping teaspoons of dough 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets.  Bake the cookies until they have set but are still a little soft in the center, 10 to 12 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cookies rest on cookie sheet for 1 minute before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Cheesecake Brownies with Oreos

Marbled Fudge Brownies - made February 4, 2012 from Great Chefs, Great Chocolate, edited by Julie M. Pitkin (book #190)

My niece was visiting me last weekend and, as has become our tradition when she spends the night, we eat and we bake.  Besides the apple pie we made, we also baked these brownies for her to take back to her friends.  Because I can't resist tinkering when it comes to brownie recipes, I also added chopped up Oreos to the chocolate batter, partly because I like Oreos and partly because it gave us an excuse to snack on a few while she was chopping them up to add to the batter.

Because the ratio of cream cheese batter to chocolate batter was nearly 1:1, I would consider these to be more like cheesecake brownies than simply "marbled" brownies as the original name declares.  I also didn't marble them much on purpose just to keep the two batters distinct.  I liked the addition of the Oreos because it gave the brownies a little crunch.  The recipe calls for making them in four 4 x 1" round pans but I used an 8 x 8-inch pan which I lined with foil and sprayed with nonstick cooking spray, thus eliminating the need for dusting with unsweetened cocoa.  The 8-inch pan made the brownies of a nice thickness.

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa for dusting (didn't use)

Fudge Mixture

9 tablespoons unsalted butter

4 ounces good-quality semisweet chocolate, chopped

2 eggs

¾ cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

½ cup all-purpose flour

Pinch salt
Oreos, chopped (use as much or as little as you like), optional

Cream Cheese Mixture

1 8-ounce package cream cheese, at room temperature

¼ cup sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1.   Preheat the oven to 350⁰F.  Butter four 4 x 1-inch round molds (I used one 8 x 8-inch pan, lined with foil and lightly sprayed with nonstick cooking spray) and dust with the cocoa.  In a double boiler over barely simmering water, melt the butter and chocolate, stirring to combine thoroughly.  Set aside to cool slightly.

2.   In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar until well combined.  Add the chocolate mixture and stir well to incorporate.  Stir in the flour and salt until blended, but do not overmix.  Add the chopped up Oreos if using.

3.   Cream cheese mixture: In a medium bowl, beat  the cream cheese and sugar until well blended.  Add the vanilla and egg and continue to beat until smooth.

4.   Fill the prepared molds (pan) three-fourths full with the chocolate mixture, then top off with cream cheese.  Using a fork, swirl the layers 2 or 3 times, using a folding motion.  Be careful not to overmix or to scrape the sides or bottom of the pan, or the brownies could stick.

5.   Bake the brownies for 35 minutes, or until the tops are golden and the centers are somewhat firm.  Let cool on a wire rack and unmold.  Serve with chocolate sauce and your favorite ice cream or dust with confectioners’ sugar.

Apple Pie for National Pie Month

Apple Pie - made February 4, 2012, crust from Nick Malgieri's Perfect Pastry (book #188) and filling from Pie Town, New Mexico 2011 cookbook (book #189)

Did you know February is National Pie Month?  Just  thought I'd mention it so you don't think February is just about the Super Bowl and Valentine's Day.  The pie deserves some love too.  Many people love pies and I'm no exception.  Except for me, the only pie in the world is apple pie.  Sure, there's pecan pie and chocolate pie (which I'll never eat again after watching The Help), coconut custard pie, etc and those are well and good too.  But for fruit pies, only apple does it for me.  With ice cream.  Not whipped cream but ice cream.  I don't like whipped cream.  To me, whipped cream is flavored air with calories.  Plus, if something is going to look like ice cream, it should be ice cream.  And with apple pie, it can only be vanilla ice cream.

The pie gives the ice cream something to sit on

My sister and her boyfriend went to the Pie Festival in Pie Town, New Mexico last year and brought me back the cookbook that all the pie festival participants contributed to, sharing their prize-winning recipes.  You can tell they're probably a bunch of pie experts as, on some of the recipes, the directions are alarmingly vague: "mix ingredients together as you would any pie crust".  Uh, what if you don't normally make pies or have never made pie crust before?  If so, clearly, you're not entering any contests in Pie Town, New Mexico anytime soon.  But of course I have to make something from the pie festival cookbook for National Pie Month.  So I compromised - I used the Flaky Pie Crust recipe from Nick Malgieri's Perfect Pastry cookbook and the apple pie filling recipe from one of the apple pie recipes in the Pie Town cookbook.  Even for the filling recipe, I added my notes in italicized blue font just to flesh them out a bit.

Bear in mind I'm not a pie maker by any means.  I know just enough to be dangerous but I don't make pies anywhere near as much as I make brownies, cookies, cakes, and the like.  However, I was fairly pleased with how this turned out.  The pie crust uses all butter so it was appropriately flaky-to-die-for, not to mention deliciously buttery.  The filling was also good, not too tart or too sweet, although my niece, who I made this with, and I probably cut into the still-warm pie a little too soon because the juices all ran out after I took out the first piece.  But it did solidify enough later after it had cooled without being too gelatinous.

Oh, and if you don't want to waste perfectly good pie dough scraps, do what I did: gather all the scraps and make into a round "cookie", sprinkle with vanilla sugar and bake along with the pie.  We ended up with a buttery, sugary crust-cookie that was really good.  I would've taken a picture of it so you can see what I mean but I'm afraid we ate it too fast for the camera to capture.

We had to make sure we had enough ice cream

Flaky Pastry Dough

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, about 10 ounces

¼ cup cake flour, about 1 ounce

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon baking powder

2 sticks unsalted butter, 8 ounces, cool

5 to 6 tablespoons ice water

1.   Combine the all-purpose flour, cake flour, salt and baking powder; cut up and add the butter, and gently toss to coat. 

2.   Rub in the butter until the mixture looks sandy.  Sprinkle over 3 tablespoons of ice water; toss with a fork.  Add another tablespoon of water if necessary.  Press the dough together.  Wrap and chill.

Apple Pie

To: Honor IV. Burrell (I don't know who this is but it's what's listed in the book)

5-7 tart apples (I used Granny Smith)

¾ - 1 cup sugar (I used 3/4 cup)

2 tablespoons flour

Dash of salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

1 recipe plain pastry (I used the pie crust recipe above but you can substitute your own)

2 tablespoons butter

1.   Prepare apples and slice thin.  Mix sugar, flour, spices – add to apples. 

2.   Fill 9-inch pastry-lined pan.  Adjust top crust. Crimp edges and cut slits in top crust to let steam escape. Dot with butter (note: it's a little unclear whether she means to dot the butter on top of the crust or underneath it.  I went with underneath the top crust and egg washed the top crust itself before putting it in the oven).  Place pie pan on a cookie sheet to catch any drips. Bake in hot oven (400 degrees) for 50 minutes. If crust is browning too quickly, lower temperature to 375 degrees.  If apples are not tart, add 1 tablespoon lemon juice or grated lemon peel, if desired.

Also linked to Sweet Treats Thursday

Banana Coffee Cake

Banana Bread with Nutty Streusel - made Feburary 3, 2012 from Miette by Meg Ray with Leslie Jonath (book #187)

Now that the holidays are over, as you can tell, I'm back to trying out new recipes and back on my baking challenge.  Much as I love baking for the holidays, I also love constantly trying new recipes.  One thing I made over and over for my holiday gifts was Petra's banana bread.  So you'd think I'd be sick of making it by now.  And in a way, I am.  But I still can't resist trying out a new recipe, especially since I still had overripe bananas on hand. This recipe from Miette includes a streusel so it was a little different from my usual recipe.  Besides, you gotta love streusel.  I also liked that in the description of the recipe, the book describes it as being more cakey, which is also like Petra's recipe.

This came out pretty well.  I wouldn't say it's better (or worse) than Petra's recipe but I liked it too.  The texture was cakey more than quick-bread-y.  The banana bread itself  is not as sweet as Petra's recipe but that could also be due to the nutty streusel topping imparting a complementary toasted pecan flavor.  But overall it is sweeter because of the streusel.  It's actually more like a banana coffeecake because of the streusel so I'm renaming it for my own purposes.  Overall, thumbs up.

  

Nutty Streusel

½ cup (2 ounces) pecan pieces

¼ cup (2 ounces) firmly packed light brown sugar

1/3 cup (1 ½ ounces) all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter

¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

Banana Bread

2 ¼ cups (11 ounces) all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

¾ teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 ½ cups (10 ½ ounces) sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup vegetable oil

4 medium soft, but not black, bananas (about 1 pound total) peeled and roughly mashed

½ cup (2 ounces) pecan pieces

1.   Liberally butter four 5-by-3-inch or two 8-by-4-inch loaf pans and dust with sifted flour.  Tap out the excess flour.

2.   Preheat the oven to 350 F.

3.   To make the streusel: In a food processor, add the pecans, sugar, flour, butter, cinnamon, vanilla and salt and pulse until coarsely combined.  Transfer to a small bowl, cover and refrigerate until ready to use, up to 5 days.

4.   To make the banana bread: sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a bowl and set aside.

5.   In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk the sugar, eggs, and vanilla on medium speed until well combined and lightened in color, 4 to 5 minutes.  Reduce the speed to low and drizzle in the oil, whisking until combined.  Add the banana mash and whisk just until combined.  Add the dry ingredients and pecans to the batter in three additions, whisking just to combine after each addition.  Do not overmix.

6.   Divide the batter between the prepared pans.  Sprinkle the tops with the streusel, dividing it evenly.  (You may not need all of the streusel if making the smaller loaves.)  Bake until the breads have risen nicely and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes for the small loaves and 45 to 50 minutes for the larger loaves.  Transfer to wire racks and let cool in the pans for 20 minutes.  Run an offset spatula around the edges of the pans, then invert the cakes onto the racks and let cool for about 20 minutes longer.  Serve right away, or wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate until you are ready to serve, up to 3 days.  To freeze, wrap tightly in a second layer of plastic and store in the freezer for up to 2 months.  Serve at room temperature.

Chocolate Fudge - another fudge fail

Chocolate Fudge - made February 1, 2012 made from Hallelujah! The Welcome Table by Maya Angelou (book #186)

Do you like your fudge dry, crumbly and/or grainy?  If so, let me make your fudge for you.  Because that's how my last couple of attempts to make fudge have turned out.  I know there are "no-fail" fudge recipes out there that use marshmallow creme and/or evaporated milk to minimize the risk of graininess but I was trying to make "real", old-fashioned fudge the old-school way.  Ha, that was a mistake.

If you've ever read any of the Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace, they were always making fudge amongst their high school crowd with Betsy, Tacy, Tib, Carney, et al.  They must've had a knack for it because no one ever complained about grainy fudge.  Although it is a work of fiction after all, as fictitious as my making non-grainy fudge.  I knew I was taking a risk though since the instructions were a bit sparse.  I did try the old-fashioned soft ball test of dropping a bit of the boiling fudge mixture into ice-cold water until it formed a soft ball.  It took forever for the fudge to get to that stage and I was afraid of overcooking it.  But actually I think I undercooked it because I cheated and also used a candy thermometer to see when it got to 220 degrees F or "soft ball" stage.  By the ice-cold water test, the fudge formed a soft ball at 210 degrees so I finally took it off since it had been boiling for over 20 minutes and the thermometer hadn't budged a degree above 210 for 10 minutes.  So I got insecure about it and took it off the burner.  I followed the rest of the instructions to a T but my fudge still ended up grainy.  Sigh.  Epic fail.

Someday I will conquer old-fashioned fudge making.  Today was not that day.

3 cups sugar
3 cups milk
2 tablespoons corn syrup
6 ounces semisweet chocolate
3 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped roasted almonds

1. Butter 8 x 8-inch pan.
2. In large, heavy saucepan, bring sugar, milk, corn syrup, and chocolate to a boil.
3. Put a drop of mixture in 1 cup of ice-cold water. When the drop forms a soft ball, remove from heat. If ball does not form, continue cooking and repeat until ball forms.
4. Add butter and vanilla extract to hot mixture. Cool. When saucepan with chocolate mixture has cooled to a lukewarm temperature, beat mixture with spoon until it losses its gloss and becomes thick. Stir in almonds before mixture cools completely. Cool in pan. Cut in desired-size squares.

Orange Chicken made in the crock pot

Orange Chicken - made January 29, 2012

I'm trying to cook more these days so I don't go out to eat all the time. Although, "cook" might be a subjective term. Let's call it, "I took down my crock pot from the high shelf and threw in some chicken". It took a little more effort than that but not much more. Last year I had tried a slow cooker orange chicken recipe from another blog that was pretty good and I was going to make it again but when it was time to assemble it, I didn't have my computer on and was too lazy to fire it up to check that original recipe so I made up this one on the fly instead with the ingredients I had on hand. It came out pretty well, although it could've been more orange-y.  Next time I need to decrease the barbecue sauce and increase the orange marmalade.

I want to use my crockpot more often because it's the easiest way to cook but one issue I always have with whatever I make in it is that it always comes out soupy. Sometimes I'm not going for the soup texture so I end up thickening the sauce with some cornstarch. It still hardly ever thickens up to the consistency I want but taste-wise, it comes out okay. I've made worse, haha.

12 skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of fat
1 cup barbecue sauce (I used Trader Joe's smoky-sweet BBQ sauce)
1/2 cup orange marmalade
1 teaspoon ground ginger
3 green onions, chopped (green tops and all)
Salt and pepper
2 teaspoons cornstarch

1. Combine all ingredients except cornstarch.  Cook on low setting in slow cooker overnight or 6-8 hours until chicken is fork-tender.  
2. Remove 1/4 cup of the sauce and combine with 2 teaspoons cornstarch.  Stir to dissolve and add back into slow cooker.  Stir and let simmer another 10 minutes.  Turn off crock pot and serve.

Lemon Shortbread Cookies

Citrus Shortbread Cookies - made January 29, 2012, adapted from Desserts to Die For by Marcel Desaulniers (book #185)

This baking book by Marcel Desaulniers (as with all of my posts, click on the book title to go its amazon page, get more info and/or purchase) is full of lots of fancy, impressive-looking desserts.  The pictures alone are guaranteed food porn.  The book isn't really for newbies unless you're a risk taker who doesn't mind taking the plunge on multi-step, multi-layer recipes or have some baking experience and want to tackle something to awe your friends.  I am somewhat in the middle of the spectrum.  While I bake a lot, I rarely have long stretches of time to take on a single, complicated baking production.  And even if the end result is eye-catchingly impressive, I'm more interested in the taste and likely only want a small piece before I'm moving on to the next project.  So that's my long lead in to say that, while this book is filled with all kinds of fancy, I chose one of the simplest recipes in it to make.  The original recipe called for both orange and lemon zests but I don't like to mix my flavors so I made it a pure lemon shortbread cookie.  Also because I didn't have any oranges on hand, ha. It also said to use orange-flavored liqueur but since I wasn't going the orange route, I substituted lemon oil instead.

This could not be simpler to make and the dough was easy to work with, pliable without being too sticky.  I rolled it into a squarish log, wrapped it in wax paper and refrigerated it overnight before slicing and baking the next morning.  I baked it a couple of minutes longer than the recipe called for before I was satisfied with the golden brown color.  I knew that with this type of cookie, it's best not to underbake it because you want it baked enough to have the snap and crisp texture of a good shortbread cookie.  I'm glad I did because this turned out really well.  It was almost as good as my favorite butter cookie from Bakewise by Shirley Corriher.  It's a nicely-flavored lemon shortbread cookie, perfect for afternoon teas or just a dessert snack reminiscent of spring and summer flavors.

¼ pound unsalted butter

5 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 teaspoons grated lemon zest

1 teaspoon lemon oil

1 cup all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon salt

1.   Preheat the oven to 325⁰F. 

2.   Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle.  Beat on medium for 2 minutes.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl.  Beat on high for 3 minutes, until the batter is light (but not fluffy).  Add the lemon zest and the lemon oil.  Beat on high for 30 seconds.  Operate the mixer on low while gradually adding the flour and salt, and mix for 1 minute.  Remove the bowl from the mixer and use a rubber spatula to finish mixing the dough, until thoroughly combined.

3.   Wrap dough in plastic wrap.  Roll the dough on a flat surface to form a 6-inch-long and 1 ½-inch in diameter cylinder.  Place the dough in the refrigerator for 1 hour and 30 minutes.

4.   Remove the dough from the refrigerator and discard the plastic wrap.  Cut the dough into 12 individual ½-inch-thick slices.  Divide the slices onto 2 baking sheets.  Place the baking sheets onto the center rack in the preheated oven and bake for 16 to 18 minutes, until lightly browned around the edges.  Halfway through the baking time, rotate each baking sheet 180 degrees.  Remove the cookies from the oven and cool to room temperature on the baking sheets, about 20 minutes.  The cooled cookies may be stored in a tightly sealed plastic container for several days at room temperature, or for several weeks in the freezer.

Linked to Sweet Treats Thursday

Root Beer Bundt Cake

Root Beer Bundt Cake - made January 28, 2012 from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito (book #184)

I'm not fond of root beer.  I might've liked it as a kid but when I tried it as an adult, I found it way too sweet for me.  And for someone with my sweet tooth, that's saying something.  Yet I was drawn to this recipe for a couple of reasons.  One, it's similar in concept to a cola cake which I've never made before but was always curious to try.  And two, when you've been baking as much and as long as I have, it's good to try things I might not have liked or considered in one form.  I never know when I might like it in a different form.  So it's good to expand baking horizons.  Besides, the picture of this cake in the Baked cookbook was irresistible.

I wasn't sure what I expected from this cake except I thought it would taste like root beer.  It doesn't.  Instead, it's probably one of the best chocolate cakes made from cocoa that I've ever tried.  It's even better than the Simple Chocolate Sheet Cake I made for National Chocolate Cake Day.  Cocoa imparts a rich, dark chocolate flavor to almost anything it's used in (provided you use high quality cocoa!) but it sometimes has a tendency to have a drier texture.  Not in this cake.  Must've been the root beer but this made a moist, almost velvety, cakey-dense-but-not-too-dense texture.  It's hard to describe except that both the taste and the flavor of this cake were excellent.  As always, it's important to use a dark, high quality cocoa since that is what you'll taste.

The only issue I had with this cake is, because the batter is so thin, it became a bit lumpy after the flour was added.  The recipe cautions against over mixing so I was afraid to beat out all the lumps and I didn't know if straining it would be considered over-handling/over-mixing so I didn't.  There were some flour spots/little lumps in the baked cake but nothing too embarrassing....I hope. 

2 cups root beer (do not use diet root beer)

1 cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 ¼ cups granulated sugar

½ cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

Root Beer Fudge Frosting

2 ounces dark chocolate (60% cacao), melted and cooled slightly

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1 teaspoon salt

¼ cup root beer

2/3 cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder

2 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar

1.   Preheat the oven to 325⁰F.  Generously spray the inside of a 10-inch bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray.

2.   In a small saucepan, heat the root beer, cocoa powder, and butter over medium heat until the butter is melted.  Add the sugars and whisk until dissolved.  Remove from the heat and let cool.

3.   In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda and salt together.

4.   In a small bowl, whisk the eggs until just beaten, then whisk them into the cooled cocoa mixture until combined.  Gently fold the flour mixture into the cocoa mixture.  The batter will be slightly lumpy – do not overbeat it, as it could cause the cake to be tough.

5.   Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time, until a small sharp knife inserted into the cake comes out clean.  Transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool completely.  Gently loosen the sides of the cake from the pan and turn it out onto the rack.

6.   Make the Root Beer Fudge Frosting: Put all the ingredients in a food processor.  Pulse in short burts until the frosting is shiny and smooth.

7.   Use a spatula to spread the fudge frosting over the crown of the bundt in a thick layer.  Let the frosting set before serving, with ice cream on the side.

Red Velvet Pancakes with Cream Cheese Glaze

Red Velvet Pancakes - made January 21, 2012 from Allrecipes.com

 Welcome to any new followers and thanks to everyone who leaves a comment!  I may not always have time to comment back or my responses may be delayed but I read every single one and am glad to know someone's reading my blog :) - please keep them coming!

Did you blink and realize it's almost the end of January?  I love the start of a new year but it seems like I barely have time to savor it before we're actually well into the year itself.  January is almost over and I could start blogging about snacks for Super Bowl parties but since my beloved 49ers lost in the NFC Championship Game against the Giants, well, meh, I'm skipping that.  Let's just go right into Valentine's Day (although I reserve the right to change my mind later and possibly come up with some kind of snack-y Super Bowl-y dessert idea once the bitter sting has passed.  Which could be next week or in August for pre-season, haha).

If you're noticing the dates on when I've made stuff and when I've blogged about them, you'll see I'm going a little out of order.  Normally I post the stuff as I make it, depending on the time I have to bake and blog, which isn't always on the same day.  I've been going out of order lately to try and time to the different days of remembrance, lamingtons for Australia Day, chocolate cake for National Chocolate Cake Day, homemade Snickers for National Peanut Butter Day, etc.  I've held off blogging about this recipe to get us a little closer to Valentine's Day in case anyone is planning some kind of Valentine's Day-themed brunch or something.

I pretty much love red velvet anything.  Yeah, all that red dye #7 probably isn't good for me but it's not like I have it every week.  I try to keep it for special occasions.  You know, like Tuesdays.  I did go through an alarming amount of red food coloring during my holiday baking spree but that was for Christmas.  Now I've got to break out at least one red velvet item for Valentine's Day.  I've done red velvet cake, 2 different kinds of red velvet cookies and even red velvet brownies.  So why not Red Velvet Pancakes?  I had buttermilk to use up (I always seem to have buttermilk to use up) and whenever I have a particular ingredient to use or want a recipe for a particular food I want to make, I always check allrecipes.com.  That's where this recipe comes from.  I flipped through other red velvet pancake recipes from the blogs I follow and a few looked really promising but at the time, I didn't have all the required ingredients on hand.  I did for this one so it won by default.

I like the concept of these pancakes, with the cream cheese glaze as the "syrup" for them.  They turned out well although I don't know that I would consider them true red velvet.  I didn't get much of a chocolate undertone in them so they almost seemed like red-dyed pancakes rather than red velvet. There wasn't any baking soda in this recipe which means the acidity of the buttermilk wasn't neutralized so you can taste that tang.  Overall they were good but I think I would still keep looking for a "true" red velvet pancake recipe.

Cream Cheese Glaze
1 (4 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon milk, or as needed

Red Velvet Pancakes
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
2 teaspoons red food coloring
1/4 cup melted butter

1. Prepare the cream cheese glaze by beating the cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract in a bowl until smooth. Thin with 1 tablespoon milk or as needed to achieve a pourable consistency. Set aside.
2. Whisk the flour, white sugar, baking powder, cocoa powder, and salt together in a bowl until evenly blended; set aside. Beat the eggs in a separate mixing bowl until smooth. Whisk in 1/4 cup milk with the buttermilk, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, vinegar, and food coloring. Stir in the flour mixture until moistened. Drizzle in the melted butter, and stir until the butter has incorporated and small lumps of flour remain.
3. Heat a lightly oiled griddle over medium-high heat. Drop batter by large spoonfuls onto the griddle, and cook until bubbles form and the edges are dry. Flip, and cook until browned on the other side. Repeat with remaining batter. Drizzle with the cream cheese glaze to serve.

Simple Chocolate Sheet Cake

Simple Chocolate Sheet Cake - made January 22, 2012, recipe adapted from Cook’s Country Chocolate Desserts

January 27 is National Chocolate Cake Day so of course, I have to post a chocolate cake recipe.  Last year, I had posted the Mexican Chocolate Fudge Pecan Cake which is one of my favorite chocolate cake recipes.  This year, I tried out this "Simple Chocolate Sheet Cake".  True to its word, it actually is pretty simple, especially if you need a quick and easy recipe for a crowd pleaser, upcoming Super Bowl party, family picnic, classroom treat, etc.  Because it's made as a sheet cake, this is easy to make, there's no muss or fuss to cut up and serve and it tastes pretty good.

I did modify the directions a bit, mostly in how to make the frosting.  The original recipe calls for making it like a typical ganache where you chop the chocolate fine, heat the cream, pour the cream over the chopped chocolate and whisk until the chocolate is all melted and smooth.  Unfortunately, I find this method imprecise.  My chocolate doesn't always melt and I'm left with little bits while the cream has already cooled.  Instead, I advocate melting the chocolate first, heating the cream, then whisking the two together.  The chocolate will seem to seize at first but keep whisking and it'll smooth out.  Or, if you want to play it safe and go with the more traditional method of making ganache, if your chocolate doesn't completely melt with the addition of the hot cream, you can always strain it smooth.  But I prefer the other method and save myself the straining.

I liked the flavor and texture of this cake - it was as a good chocolate cake should be.  However, be sure to use a dark, high quality, unsweetened cocoa - the grocery store/generic brand won't cut it for flavor.  I use Pernigotti but you can also use Scharffenberger, Valrhona, etc.  You can taste the chocolate flavor from the cocoa in this cake so don't cheat yourself by using anything less than the good stuff.  As for the frosting, it came out with a really silky-smooth texture.  I myself am not a frosting lover so to me it was "okay" but I wasn't in love with it.  It's soft and spreadable when you first make it but it does cool into a firm consistency.  Not firm like a pure fudge layer but it won't be spreadable anymore after it's cooled.  Because it's a milk chocolate frosting, it makes a nice contrast to the dark chocolate cake.  And of course, use high quality milk chocolate in the frosting; you won't be sorry.

View from the top

1 ¼ cups (6 ¼ ounces) all-purpose flour

¾ cup (2 ¼ ounces) Dutch-processed cocoa
¼ teaspoon salt
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
12 ounces unsalted butter
4 large eggs
1 ½ cups (10 ½ ounces) sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk
½ teaspoon baking soda

Creamy Milk Chocolate Frosting

½ cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon light or dark corn syrup
Pinch salt
10 ounces milk chocolate, chopped
½ cup (2 ounces) confectioners’ sugar
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces and chilled

1.   Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325°F.  Line a 13 x 9-inch baking pan with aluminum foil and spray lightly with nonstick cooking spray.

2.   Sift together flour, cocoa and salt in medium bowl; set aside.  Place chocolate and butter in the top half of a double boiler over barely simmering water and stir until melted together.  Do not let boil.
3.   Whisk together eggs, sugar and vanilla in medium bowl.

4.   Whisk chocolate into egg mixture until combined.  Combine buttermilk and baking soda; whisk into chocolate mixture, then whisk in dry ingredients until batter is smooth and glossy.  Pour batter into prepared pan; bake until firm in center when lightly pressed and toothpick inserted in center comes out barely clean, about 35-40 minutes.  Let cool on wire rack until room temperature, at least 1 hour; serve, or ice with frosting if desired.

4.   Make frosting: Combine cream, corn syrup, and salt in liquid measuring cup and microwave until simmering, about 1 minute, or bring to simmer in small saucepan over medium heat.  Melt chocolate in top half of double boiler.  Add hot cream mixture, whisking constantly.  Melted chocolate might seize at first but keep whisking and it'll smooth out.  Pour into food processor,  add confectioners’ sugar and process to combine, about 30 seconds.  With processor running, add butter 1 piece at a time; process until incorporated and smooth, about 20 seconds longer.  Transfer frosting to medium bowl and let cool at room temperature, stirring frequently, until thick and spreadable, about 1 hour.

Linked to Something Swanky's Sweet Treats Thursday