Lemon Cake with Lemony Sugar Wash

Lemon Cake with Lemony Sugar Wash - made May 10, 2012 from Baking Style by Lisa Yockelson

Although lemons generally ripen in winter, lemon desserts always remind me of summer.  Our weather is heating up and we're finally kicking winter to the curb.  Last year, my lemon tree produced zero lemons.  It started out promisingly enough, had a lot of blossoms and even started growing uber-tiny lemons barely beyond blossom stage.  Then the bugs, the soil, the wind or something said "Psych!" and killed off any growth except new leaves.  Now my lemon tree is in its 2nd year and this time, it looks like at least a few lemons might survive to ripen.  I count at least 3 that are on their way to a healthy size and although they look more like limes right now since they're still green, I'm hopeful they'll morph into ripe lemons at some point.  Not to mention this year's army of uber-tiny lemons again just barely past blossom stage but I'm not going to hold my breath yet on those.  Fool me once....

In the meantime, my mom's lemon tree in her backyard, older and more prolific, supplies me with the lemons I need for baking.  As a matter of fact, I'm going to have to search for more and more lemon recipes because she's got a ton.  Fortunately, lemon cake is usually a sure bet and once again, I hit Baking Style for a recipe.  Now I've rhapsodized about Lisa Yockelson's brownie recipes but I should also mention her pound-cake-type recipes are also bomb (like how I incorporated the new slang there??).  Rarely have they not turned out.  In fact I can't remember when one of her pound cake recipes has ever failed me.  And this doesn't either.  If you like lemon and have fresh lemons to use, make this cake.  It has the perfect pound cake texture and brushing it with the lemon-sugar wash ensures great lemon flavor and moistness.  You can make it more summery by serving it with fresh berries as well but it also holds its own perfectly plain.  Let picnic cake season begin.

2 tablespoons finely grated lemon peel

2 ½ teaspoons lemon extract

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 cups unsifted bleached all-purpose flour

1 cup unsifted bleached cake flour

¼ teaspoon baking powder

¾ teaspoon salt

½ pound plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

2 ½ cups superfine sugar (I used regular granulated sugar)

1/3 cup plus 3 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar, sifted

6 large eggs

2 large egg yolks

1 cup heavy cream

1.      Preheat the oven to 325°F.

2.      Combine the lemon peel, lemon extract, and lemon juice in a small mixing bowl.  Set aside.

3.      Lightly spray a 10-inch Bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray and coat with flour, tapping out the excess.  (This makes a lot of batter so if your Bundt pan can't hold it all, put the excess batter in small ramekins and bake those as well.)

4.      Sift the flours, baking powder and salt onto a sheet of waxed paper and set aside.

5.      Cream the butter in the large bowl of a freestanding electric mixer on moderate speed for 4 minutes.  Add the superfine (or granulated) sugar in 4 additions, beating for 1 minute after each portion is added.  Add the confectioners’ sugar and beat for 45 seconds.  Beat in the whole eggs, one at a time, mixing for about 20 seconds after each addition to combine.  Add the egg yolks and beat for 30 seconds longer.  Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl with a rubber spatula.  Blend in the lemon peel and extract mixture.  On low speed, alternately add the sifted mixture in 3 additions with the heavy cream in 2 additions, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl thoroughly with a rubber spatula after each addition.  Beat the batter on moderately high speed for 1 minute.

6.      Pour and scrape the batter into the prepared baking pan.  Smooth the top.

7.     Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until risen, set, and a toothpick inserted into the cake withdraws clean.  Cool the cake in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes.  Loosen with a narrow spatula and invert onto a serving plate.  Spoon the lemony sugar wash all over the cake, including the sides, giving time for the liquid to absorb before you spoon more over the cake.  Cool completely.

Lemony Sugar Wash

½ cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

1.     Combine the sugar and lemon juice in a small saucepan and heat, stirring, until sugar is dissolved.  Spoon over warm cake.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies - made May 5, 2012 from Michelle's Tasty Creations blog

It's been crazy busy lately and I haven't been home much so it's been hard to bake and blog in the same week.  I made the cookie dough for this last week, in anticipation of this being a busy week this week, and baked them off to give in goodie bags for my coworkers at our team dinner earlier this week.  I got the recipe from another blogger (click on the recipe title above for the original recipe) and wanted to make it because hers looked so good.  I've been baking long enough that I can tell from a picture if a recipe's going to be good (usually).  From Michelle's picture, I thought this would be moist and chewy and they wouldn't spread very much.

I was right on all counts although mine didn't turn out how I thought they would based on the other picture.  Mine didn't look as "smooth" as hers.  But they didn't spread too much, they were moist and they were chewy. The key for any peanut butter cookie (or most cookies, come to think of it) is to underbake them.  With peanut butter, you want to retain something close to that peanut butter texture but in cookie form.  The oatmeal wasn't very pronounced in these cookies but the peanut butter and chocolate chips make an impression.  Thumbs up.

 

Chewy Brownies - throw some Snickers in there

Chewy Brownies - made May 5, 2012 from Absolutely Chocolate by the editors of Fine Cooking

My niece and one of her friends ended up visiting me last week and besides having Chinese food for lunch with my parents, watching the Avengers and having the best cheesesteaks in town at a local restaurant for dinner, we also baked our desserts at my place.  As is tradition, I give my niece the choice of what she would want to have that could be found on my blog.  She narrowed her choices down to three then gave her friend final decision rights amongst the three.  He picked the Bruleed Banana Split I made a couple of weeks ago.  Being me, I kept the spirit of the dessert but used a different brownie recipe.  Actually I thought I was trying a new one but it turns out I had already made this recipe and not too long ago at that.  Oh well.

We had leftover brownie batter once I'd made the individual brownies in ramekins for the base of our bruleed banana splits so I used my mini square pan to make little brownies and we stuck a chopped-up square Snickers in the middle of each just because.  The brownies were satisfyingly fudgy and chewy.  The recipe in the link is the original version if you just want a pan of plain brownies but you can also get creative with it and make it the base for your own banana split or adorn it with Snickers, Rolos, peanut butter cups and anything else you deem appropriate.  You really can't go wrong with a nice, fudgy brownie (well, you can if you overbake it so.....don't :)).


   

Chewy Biscoff Blondies

Chewy Biscoff Blondies - made May 4, 2012 from The Traveling Spoon's blog

I love biscoff cookies and they're about the only thing I'll eat on an airplane (you can keep the peanuts and pretzels, thanks).  Then I heard about biscoff spread buzzing in the foodie blogosphere so I had to look into that too.  I found the biscoff knockoff at Trader Joe's called Speculoos Cookie Butter Spread.  According to the amazon reviews, it was close to the original biscoff spread so I thought I'd try it before "the real thing" since it was cheaper (almost $9 for a jar of biscoff spread from amazon - ouch).  I saw this recipe from The Traveling Spoon's blog so it seemed like a good contender for my first foray into baking with biscoff spread.  Her picture looked so incredibly yummy.

I did modify the recipe slightly (modifications included below).  Unlike the average cookie butter fan, I didn't have any problem not eating the spread right out of the jar.  I have enough vices and didn't want to pick up another one (side note to all nutella lovers: much as I like baking with nutella, I don't eat nutella "straight" out of the jar either).  Which means I had a full jar to work with so I increased the amount of cookie butter to 1/3 cup to put into the blondies.  Mine turned out pretty well but I think I could've used more cookie butter for a more pronounced biscoff taste so I'm suggesting 1/2 cup below with an increase in coconut oil for more liquid.  They weren't dry but they weren't as gooey as I would've liked so I would probably shave a minute off the baking time as well.  But otherwise, this was a great blondie.

4 generous Tablespoons coconut oil (I got mine from amazon but saw later that Trader Joe's also carries this)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup Biscoff Spread or Speculoos Cookie Butter
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 - 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line an 8x8-inch baking pan with foil and spray lightly with nonstick cooking spray. In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, melt coconut oil, Biscoff spread, and brown sugar until just combined. Stir until smooth. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, in a small mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.  Set aside. Stir egg and vanilla into the cooled Biscoff mixture, until just blended. Add the dry ingredients and stir until smooth. The mixture will be very thick. Fold in chocolate chips.

Transfer mixture into the prepared pan, spreading evenly with a small offset metal spatula. Bake for 20 minutes or until the edges just begin to brown. Cool in pan on a wire rack.

 

Chocolate Cake with Warm Chocolate Frosting

Chocolate Cake with With Chocolate Frosting - made May 2, 2012 from Baking Style by Lisa Yockelson

Do you need an easy cake to make when you're short on time?  Got a last-minute request to feed a crowd?  Have a chocolate craving that needs instant gratification?  Then make this cake.  It has very basic ingredients and should only take you 30 minutes from start to finish.  Really.  Maybe 35 minutes but that would be if you're moving slowly.  You can mix up the batter while your oven is preheating and while the cake is baking, you can make the frosting.  Heck, you even have time to wash your mixing bowl and baking utensils and tidy up your kitchen while the cake is in the oven for 20 minutes.  And since you spread the frosting on the cake 2 minutes after the cake comes out of the oven, there isn't even any cooling time involved.  30 minutes stand between you and sinking your teeth into a slice of warm chocolate cake with fudgy icing melting over it.  It's the perfect cake to make on a weeknight after work which is exactly what I did.

When it cools, the frosting sets and since it's baked in a 9 x 13 pan, it's very easy to cut into squares, package up and take to work (or wherever) to give away, which is also what I did.  Easiest way to fit in baking during a busy week and get a chocolate fix.  Another winning recipe from Baking Style.  I suspect I will be hawking the glories of this book often in the coming days.

2 cups cake flour

2 cups granulated sugar

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ pound unsalted butter, cut into chunks

¼ cup unsweetened alkalized cocoa powder, sifted to get rid of any lumps

1 cup water

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Chocolate Frosting

3 ¾ cups plus 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar

Large pinch of salt

¼ pound unsalted butter, melted and cooled

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

6 tablespoons milk

1 cup chopped toasted pecans, optional

1.     Preheat oven to 400°F.  Line a 9 x 13” baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.

2.     Sift the cake flour, sugar, and salt into the large bowl of a freestanding electric mixer.

3.     Combine the buttermilk and baking soda and set aside.

4.     Combine the butter, cocoa powder and water in a heavy medium saucepan over moderate heat and bring to a boil, whisking together as the mixture approaches a boil.  Pour the boiling mixture over the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl and beat on low speed to combine.  Add the buttermilk-baking soda mixture, the eggs and vanilla extract.  Blend well, scraping down the sides of the bowl to keep the batter even-textured.  The batter will be thin.  Strain through a fine-mesh sieve if necessary to get rid of any lumps.

5.     Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 20 minutes or until risen, set and a toothpick in the center withdraws clean.

6.     While the cake is baking, prepare the frosting: sift the confectioners’ sugar and salt together to a large mixing bowl.  In a small bowl, whisk the melted butter and melted chocolate together until blended.    Blend in the vanilla extract.  Pour the chocolate mixture over the confectioners’ sugar, add the milk and beat on low speed for 1 to 2 minutes, or until just combined and smooth, using a handheld electric mixer.  Blend in the pecans by hand, if using.  Use immediately by spreading over the warm cake, 2 minutes after you take the cake out of the oven.

 

Cinnamon Buttermilk Butter Dips

Cinnamon Buttermilk Butter Dips - made April 29, 2012 from Baking Style by Lisa Yockelson

Now that I'm done with my baking challenge, I'm feeling a bit more freedom to choose whatever recipe I want to make next.  I was going to come up with another challenge to give myself some structure but I've decided to back off on that for now.  I've had enough structure lately.  Time to cut loose and just bake whatever I feel like baking.  I have pins on pinterest that I want to make at some point so I'm amassing recipes from other foodie bloggers as well.  But I also couldn't resist going back to Baking Style, which was the reason for coming up with my baking challenge in the first place.  Now that I've had a chance to go through the whole book, I have to say this could end up being one of my favorite baking books.  Not that I don't already have a lot of "favorites" to the point that I could redefine the word.  But similar to her other book, Baking by Flavor, this has a nice variety of recipes with many different flavors as the focal points.  Plus I know how trustworthy her recipes usually are, aka they turn out great 99 times out of 100.  The 100th time I always figure I did something wrong and need to try again.

This is what they looked like plain, pre-butter dip and cinnamon sugar rolling

This recipe is one of the 99.  These were like little cinnamon cakes when left plain and almost like cakey cinnamon sugar doughnuts when dipped in melted butter and rolled in cinnamon sugar.  In other words, really good.  And they're easy to make.  I used small muffin tins, both square and round, to bake the batch in and they were a nice size for a bite-size snack.  Heck, even my parents liked them and you know how they feel about sugared stuff ("don't make it too sweet" - these weren't).  If you've got a brunch coming up, this is a perfect accompaniment instead of the usual muffins or doughnuts.  If you make these small, just watch the baking time carefully and take them out when a toothpick inserted in the biggest one comes out with moist crumbs.  You get the moist, cakey texture only if these aren't overbaked. 

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 ¾ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

9 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

¾ cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

¾ cup buttermilk

Dip

1 cup sugar

3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon cardamom, optional

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled but still warm

1.      Preheat oven to 375°F.  Lightly spray the insides of a 12-cup muffin tin or a 24-cup mini muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray.

2.      Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg onto a sheet of waxed paper.

3.      Cream the butter in the large bowl of a stand mixer on moderate speed for 3 minutes.  Add the sugar in two additions, beating for 1 minute after each portion is added.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing for 30 seconds after each addition.  Blend in the vanilla extract.  On low speed, alternately add the sifted ingredients in 3 additions with the buttermilk in 2 additions, beginning and ending with the sifted mixture.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

4.      Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups, dividing evenly among them.

5.      Bake the muffins for 18 to 20 minutes or until nicely risen, set and a toothpick withdraws clean. 

6.      While the muffins are baking, prepare the butter, sugar and spice dip by thoroughly whisking the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom (if using) in a small, deep mixing bowl.  Place the melted butter in a small, deep bowl.

7.      Cool the muffins in the pans on racks for 5 minutes.  Remove the muffins to other cooling racks.  Dip the muffin tops into the melted butter to coat well, then into the topping  to enrobe in the sugar and spice mixture.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

Bruleed Banana Split with homemade Hot Fudge Sauce

Bruleed Banana Splits - made April 28, 2012 from A Passion for Ice Cream by Emily Luchetti (book #209)

October 20, 2010 is when I first started my baking challenge.  April 28, 2012 is when I finally finished it with this creation.  It took 16 months, 1 week and 1 day to make at least one recipe from every cookbook I own.  And I have to confess, I cheated towards the end because as I went through the last of the cookbooks I still had, if I couldn't find a recipe in it that I wanted to make, I donated the book to the library.  It was only 5 or 6 books but oh well.  Shouldn't have bought them in the first place if there's nothing in them I want to make now.  And at some point, I just wanted to finish what I had started.  Which I finally did with this recipe from the last book.  It's a bit ironic though that the title of the book is "A Passion for Ice Cream" but the only thing I didn't make from it was an ice cream recipe.  Oops.

But I did make the brownie and the hot fudge sauce recipes from the book.  It's finally getting warm enough for an ice cream dessert but I was too pressed for time to make ice cream from scratch so I fell back on Dreyers Slow-Churned Vanilla Ice Cream (as an aside, I actually prefer the low-cal ice cream to the super premium ice cream; go figure).  For the brownie, I used my dessert shell pan again but this wasn't an ideal brownie to make in that pan because the brownie was so fudgy and dense that it didn't come out of the shell pan that easily.  For simplicity, I would recommend making the recipe as outlined below in the 9 x 13 pan and simply cutting it into squares to serve as the base for the banana split.  I did manage to salvage a few of the dessert shell brownies and in the cavity, filled it with bruleed banana pieces before topping with ice cream.

To put this dessert together, do the following:
1. Make the brownies as directed and let cool completely.  Cut into whatever size squares you want the base of the dessert to be.
2. Make the homemade hot fudge sauce as directed below and keep warm until you're ready to use. I don't recommend starting the hot fudge sauce until your brownies are baked and have cooled to at least lukewarm.
3. Once your hot fudge sauce is completed, cut a banana in half then cut into length-wise pieces.  Sprinkle each piece lightly with granulated sugar, just enough to thinly coat the banana pieces then brulee using a handheld torch or by broiling in the oven until the sugar caramelizes into a golden brown.  Let it cool just long enough to let the melted sugar harden into a crisp-crackly top. You don't want too much sugar on the banana, not as much as for a creme brulee but just enough to get a light crunch after the bananas have been bruleed and the melted sugar has cooled into a thin crust.
4. You can arrange the bruleed bananas any way you like around the brownie, on top of it, under it, etc.  Place a scoop of ice cream over the brownie and top with warm hot fudge sauce.  The hot fudge will solidify into sticky, chewy fudge after it hits the ice cream.  Serve immediately.

Brownies

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped

5 ounces unsalted butter

3 large eggs

1 ¼ cups sugar

½ cup all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking powder

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1.     Preheat oven to 350°F.  Line a 9 x 13” baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.

2.     Melt the chocolates and butter in the top half of a double boiler over hot water (not boiling).  Set aside and let cool to tepid.

3.     In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar.  Whisk in the melted chocolate mixture.

4.     Sift the dry ingredients together and stir into the chocolate-sugar mixture.  Spread the batter into the prepared pan.

5.     Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs, not raw batter, about 20-25 minutes.

Hot Fudge Sauce

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped

4 ounces unsalted butter

½ cup half-and-half (you can also use 1/4 cup whole milk and 1/4 cup heavy cream)

1 ½ cups sugar

1.     Melt the chocolate and butter in the top half of a double boiler over hot water (not boiling).  Whisk until smooth.  Pour in the half-and-half in a steady stream, whisking as you pour.

2.     Slowly add ½ cup of the sugar in a steady stream, whisking as you pour.  Continue stirring until the sugar has dissolved and isn’t grainy, about 30 seconds.  Repeat with the next ½ cup sugar and then the last ½ cup of sugar.

3.     Cover the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce becomes glossy and thickens slightly, about 25 minutes.  Serve warm.  Note: when the hot fudge cools, it becomes grainy.  Warming it up again will make it liquid smooth once more.

 

Forever Brownies

Forever Brownies - made April 23, 2012 from Baking Style by Lisa Yockelson

Yes, I like my brownies this fudgy

Yikes, it's been a busy week before, during and after work so I haven't had much time to bake or blog.  The only baking I did this week was so I wouldn't go to social occasions empty-handed.  I had a team lunch this past Tuesday and, in keeping with tradition, I always like to bake a little something for my coworkers and give them goodie bags to take home.  They get some homemade baked goods and I typically get to try out a new recipe so it's a win-win.  As always, my go-to baking of choice during the work week (when I'm more pressed for time) is brownies.  I can bake them the night before, cut them into individual-sized pieces the next morning, package them up and bring them to work to give away at the lunch.  Brownies are easy to make and don't take as much time to bake as other desserts when you need enough for several people.  Plus, I cracked open Baking Style again and was immediately captivated by all of the mouthwatering recipes in it.  And I mean all.  Okay, maybe, out of the 500-page book, there were 3 recipes I don't think I'd make.  But I want to make everything else.  And I just might.

For now, I started off with the very first recipe in the book.  You know I can wax poetical about any of Lisa Yockelson's brownie recipes because they're also so consistently good.  This one was no exception.  Rich, moist, fudgy.  Even plain, this stands on its own.  I didn't do any add-ins this time so I got a pure fudge brownie.  OMG.  Wow.  This is good.  Don't overbake it so you can get that fudgy texture. Use a rich dark cocoa and a good-quality unsweetened chocolate for maximum chocolate punch.  Cut into small pieces and savor each bite.  This one also goes into the category of "I'm going to run more miles at the gym because this is worth it" (for the record, last week I ran 10 miles but this week I upped it to 12 miles - totally worth it).  Fortunately, I did end up giving most of this away after I had a piece or I may not have ever been able to actually leave the gym if I ate more than that.

2/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon unsifted bleached all-purpose flour

2/3 cup unsifted bleached cake flour

¼ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1/3 cup unsweetened alkalized cocoa powder (I use Pernigotti)

½ pound plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

5 ounces unsweetened chocolate

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate

5 large eggs

2 cups superfine sugar (regular granulated sugar is fine)

2 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1.       Preheat oven to 325°F.  Line a 9 x 9 pan with foil and spray lightly with nonstick cooking spray.

2.       Sift the flours, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder onto a sheet of waxed paper.

3.       Melt the butter and chocolates together in the top half of a double boiler over hot, not simmering, water.  Whisk to blend and let cool to tepid.

4.       In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs just to mix.  Add the sugar and beat for 45 seconds, just to combine.  Blend in the butter-melted chocolate mixture, vanilla extract and corn syrup.  Resift the flour mixture over the chocolate mixture.  Whisk slowly to form a batter, scraping down the sides of the mixing bowl with a rubber spatula to keep the batter even-textured.  Don't overmix.

5.       Pour and scrape the batter into the prepared pan.  Smooth the top and bake for 30-33 minutes or until just set and a toothpick inserted near the center comes out with moist crumbs.  Cool for 2 hours or refrigerate until firm enough to cut.  Cut into (small) squares and serve.

   

ANZAC Cookies, I mean "biscuits"

ANZAC Cookies - made April 22, 2012 from Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy by Alice Medrich

April 25 is ANZAC Day.  ANZAC stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps and April 25 is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand which honors the members who served their countries.  We would call their edible namesakes "cookies" but in Australia (and probably New Zealand), they call them "biscuits".

The ANZAC biscuits I had in Australia were crunchy cookies with coconut, not quite a vanilla cookie but flavored with honey or syrup.  It's not normally my type of cookie since I prefer the thick, chewy, moist, melty-chocolate texture of a chocolate chip cookie but I did like ANZACs.  Of course, it didn't suck that I ate them while I was in Australia on the same day I held a koala and got my pic taken with one.  There aren't many recipes for ANZACs in the cookbooks I have (read: there were none) but I did find this one from Alice Medrich's book, the same one where I got the recipe for Alfajores.  (As an aside, I'm finding it a personal triumph that I haven't broken down and bought this book....yet.  I'm exercising some restraint.....for the moment.)

Because you melt the butter mixture, the dough is quite warm after you mix in all the other ingredients.  It was more like a stiff batter than a cookie dough.  But it does firm enough as it cools that you can shape into logs as the recipe directs.  I laid them out on wax paper, shaping as they cooled and left them on the counter to cool some more before doing a final shaping then rolling the wax paper around each log, putting them in a ziploc freezer bag and placing them in the freezer overnight.

I really liked how these cookies (sorry, biscuits) turned out.  They had a perfectly crunchy texture complemented by the vanilla flavor and the coconut provided some chewiness.  This is one cookie biscuit I wouldn't really underbake because I do think you need to bake it enough for it to become lightly golden and get that nice crunch typical of an ANZAC biscuit.  Another good recipe from Alice Medrich - if this keeps up, I may need to stop borrowing this from the library, give in to the inevitable and just buy the darn thing.

1 cup (3.5 ounces) rolled oats

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter

¾ cup (5.25 ounces) sugar

1 tablespoon water

2 tablespoons golden syrup or honey (I used maple syrup)

1 cup (4.5 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 cup (3 ounces) unsweetened dried shredded coconut

1.    Place the oats in a blender or a food processor.  Process just until the oats are coarsely ground but not powdered; set aside.

2.   Combine the butter, sugar, water and golden syrup in a large saucepan and warm over low heat until the butter is melted.  Add the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, coconut and oats all at once and stir until the flour is completely incorporated.  Divide the dough in half and form two 8 by 2-inch logs.  Wrap the logs in foil and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.

3.   Preheat the oven to 325⁰F.  Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven.

4.   Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let it soften at room temperature for 15 minutes.  Slice the dough ¼ to 3/8” thick with a thin serrated knife, pressing the edges of the cookies together if the dough crumbles a bit, and place the slices at least 1 inch apart on the parchment-lined cookie sheets.

5.   Bake for 14 to 17 minutes, or until golden brown all over.  Rotate the sheets from top to bottom and from front to back halfway through the baking time to ensure even baking.  Cool the cookies completely before stacking or storing.  May be kept in an airtight container for at least 2 weeks.

Brownies with Salted Caramel

Chewy Brownies with Salted Caramel - made April 20, 2012 from Absolutely Chocolate by the editors of Fine Cooking

One of the things I love about getting inspiration from other foodie bloggers is coming across new baking ingredients I hadn't tried before or, in some cases, had never even heard of until I read about how someone used it for baking.  And, thanks to my amazon obsession patronage, I can usually find it there and wishlist it to remind myself to order it or try to find it locally (Trader Joe's, Sur La Table, World Market and Williams Sonoma are good sources for instant gratification).  My amazon wishlist used to be full of books; now it's full of ingredients I want to try or have already tried and would reorder:

Salted Caramel (luckily, I found a jar at Trader Joe's)
Biscoff Spread (TJ's also has a knockoff version called Speculoos Cookie Butter)
Chocolate Peanut Butter
Black Cocoa Powder
Coconut Oil (bought it on amazon, have a recipe teed up which uses it)
Fleur de Sel
Pearl Sugar
Almond Butter

To dress up this brownie, I dropped dollops of salted caramel between two layers of brownie batter.  I love caramel brownies.  I'm picky though in that I always put the caramel within the brownie and am careful to cover it all with brownie batter.  While it's always pretty to see swirls of caramel atop a brownie, the reality is when caramel is exposed to high direct heat, it'll bubble and cook further.  When your brownie cools, the caramel hardens and sometimes becomes too brittle or chewy to really enjoy. You don't want that.  Also remember when you bake with caramel within your brownie, it makes it more moist - you have less risk of overbaking but you also don't want to underbake too much or it'll be too gooey rather than perfectly fudgy.  I've made that mistake more than once and while it's not the end of the world, I'd still rather have it be less goo and more brownie.

This was a great brownie recipe with the fudgy texture I prefer in my brownies.  I think I could've had a heavier hand with the salted caramel layer but otherwise, this turned out really well.  Cut the pieces small though as they're pretty rich.  I had one and that filled my chocolate quotient for the day.

4 ounces (1/2 cup or 8 tablespoons) unsalted butter; more for pan
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate

1 ½ cups granulated sugar

Scant ¼ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs, at room temperature

4 ½ ounces (1 cup) all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons unsweetened natural cocoa powder (not Dutch-processed)

1.       Position a rack in the middle of the oven; heat the oven to 350⁰F. Butter an 8-inch square pan, line the pan bottom with parchment, and then butter the parchment.

2.       Melt the butter and chocolate together in a medium metal bowl, set over a pan of simmering water.  Let the chocolate cool slightly before stirring in the sugar, salt and vanilla.

3.       Add the eggs one at a time, stirring each time until blended.  Add the flour and cocoa and beat until the mixture is smooth, 30 to 60 seconds.  Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake until the top is uniformly colored with no indentation and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out almost clean, with a few moist crumbs clinging to it, 35 to 45 minutes.  Set the pan on a rack until cool enough to handle.  Run a paring knife around the inside edge of the pan, and then invert the pan onto a flat surface and peel off the parchment.  Flip the baked brownie back onto the rack to cool completely.  Cut into squares.