Baking for Zoe

If you've followed my blog for awhile, you might remember last year when my friend Maria's daughter, Zoe, passed away from Ewing's Sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer, just 5 days after her 16th birthday. I don't think of Zoe as having "lost" her battle to cancer as there's nothing remotely about losing in this girl.  She won hearts and minds from those around her with her courage and strength and inspired so many with her faith and grace.  Zoe's legacy lives on in those who love her and keep her spirit alive.  Two manifestations of that are the Zoe Inciong Memorial Scholarship and the Zoe Means Life Scholarship.  The first is awarded to scholar athletes like Zoe was (she played two sports and ended her sophomore year with a 4.39 GPA even during her treatments) and the second is awarded to students who face medical challenges like she did.  Funding for the scholarships come from fundraisers and community donations.  Now in its second year, I'm privileged to contribute in some small way to a bake sale being held this Saturday, September 21, at the Dan Oden Swim Complex in Union City, CA as part of the Second Annual Zoe Inciong Memorial Tournament for the water polo team Zoe was once a part of.

I will be posting recipes for all of these baked goods pictured below (although I'm quite behind on posts so please be patient with me) but I wanted to give a preview of what I made for the bake sale and urge anyone in the area to stop by and support the team and Zoe's scholarships.  The event starts at 8 am and admission for anyone over 12 is only $5.  There will be a silent auction with items donated from community businesses and members as well as a raffle and the bake sale with proceeds going to fund Zoe's scholarship awards.

I've been making cookie dough every night this week and took the afternoon off from work today to bake them off and make a few brownies/bar cookies.  I actually had plans to make even more brownies and a lemon bar but I ran out of time and steam.  But here's what I did come up with:

Mississippi Mud Brownies

Peanut Butter Cookies with Peanut Butter Cups

Quadruple Chocolate Cookies

Frosted Sugar Cookies

Milk Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Soft Pudding Monster Cookies

White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies

Soft & Thick Snickerdoodles

Red Velvet Oreo Truffle Brownies

M&M Frosted Brownies

White Chocolate Macadamia Bars

Turtle Cookies

Turtle Cookies - made September 4, 2013 from Rock Recipes

I had a failure moment with these cookies.  When I first saw the picture on Rock Recipes, my brain processed the cookie as being a thumbprint cookie.  You know, make a crater in the center of the chocolate dough ball, bake then fill said crater with caramel and drizzle with chocolate.  After all, I've made Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies that were classic turtle cookies before.  So that's what I expected these to be.

The dough was a little soft so I chilled it briefly before I portioned it into dough balls, rolled the balls in chopped, toasted almonds then made a crater in the center of each one for the "thumbprint".  I froze them once they were properly cratered and stored them in my freezer until I needed to bake them.

Above is what went into the oven and below is what came out.  Eek. They spread like any typical cookie and there was no hint of any crater-like impression.  In fact, they even puffed up in the middle like any drop cookie.  Okay then, these are not thumbprint cookies.  I went back to the original recipe to see if I had done anything wrong. I had deliberately left out pushing a piece of caramel in the middle before baking because I didn't want the caramel to get hard and had planned to fill the (non-existent) crater with melted caramel after baking. Other than that, I'd followed the recipe pretty faithfully. Near as I can tell, I was just operating under the wrong assumption.  They're Turtle Cookies all right, just not thumbprint cookies.  My bad.

Fortunately, they were still good turtle cookies, chocolaty from the "good" cocoa and chewy because I underbaked them slightly. Since they were already chocolate cookies with nuts on the outside, I turtle-ized the first batch by spreading some chocolate ganache (leftover from the Chocolate Turtle Cake) on top then adding some salted caramel over them. I thought they were pretty good, despite my prejudice about nuts in cookies.

I baked off the rest of the cookies for work at a later time and for one batch (not pictured), I put a Rolo in the crater of the unbaked cookie, hoping it would melt and flow like the caramel on Rock Recipes' blog as it baked.  Um, not so much.  The Rolo melted and sank liked the Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz when you threw a bucket of water over her; in other words, it melted around the edges and the middle just flattened down because the bottom had melted but it was a bit blobby.  Not impressive.  To hide the imperfection, I used up the rest of my ganache to cover up the melted Rolo blobs and sprinkled mini chocolate chips on top.  A little baking sleight of hand there.  And it seemed to have worked because this is another recipe where I had 2 people stop by my office to thank me and tell me the cookies were good, one person email me asking for the recipe, a 4th coworker emailed me to let me know this may have been her most favorite of all the treats I've brought in and another thank you note left by the vanishing platter of cookies. I already had the pics from the first batch of Turtle Cookies so I didn't think to take a picture of the Rolo version but maybe I should have. I didn't realize they'd be such a big hit at work.

Always nice to be appreciated :)

I've posted the original recipe as is below in case anyone wants to make Turtle Cookies that are thumbprint-less.

The naked version

2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup very good quality cocoa (I used Pernigotti)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
12 oz semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans (I used chopped toasted almonds)
3 dozen individually wrapped caramel candies

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a medium sized bowl whisk together flour, cocoa, salt, and baking soda.
3. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and combine thoroughly.
4. Add the flour mixture to the sweetened butter. Mix only enough to incorporate flour. Do not overmix. Fold in the chocolate chips.
5. Roll into 1 inch balls and dunk one half of the ball into the chopped pecans.
6. Place on parchment lined baking sheet 3 inches apart with the side dunked in pecans facing upward. Press down slightly. Gently push one caramel candy half way into the center of each cookie ball. (see #9 below)
7. Bake 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees F. Do not over bake or cookies will be brittle.
8. Cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheet before removing to a wire rack to cool thoroughly. 
9. If you want to make something closer to my version, do not bake the cookies with the caramel candies.  Instead, bake the cookies as is then, once cool, drizzle with melted chocolate and caramel.  Sprinkle with mini chocolate chips or more chopped toasted nuts if desired.

Baked Parmesan Paprika Chicken

Baked Parmesan Paprika Chicken - made September 2, 2013 from Pia Recipes

Time for the occasional, obligatory savory dish just to cut through some of the sugar I generally post. I've been very lazy about cooking lately and even lazier about searching for easy-to-make dishes.  Fortunately, I keep a pin board with easy cooking recipes that I can always fall back on and see if any leap out at me.

I had chicken tenderloins in my freezer and, shockingly, the rest of the ingredients needed for this dish so it was a no-brainer to try out this recipe.  I don't think I ended up using enough chicken though as I only used one pack of the tenderloins which was probably the equivalent of 2 chicken breasts.  The amount of coating was just right for the pack but I think I ended up with too much butter.  Because my tenderloin pieces were smaller than chicken breasts, I didn't bake it as long as the recipe directed, maybe for 45 minutes?  The coating will get crisp as you bake the chicken but with the abundance of butter, it does get soggy later on. Nevertheless, this was a simple, easy dish to make and fed me for 4 meals.  Can't ask for more than that.

1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons milk
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1/4 cup butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Coat a shallow baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Combine flour, parmesan, paprika, salt, and pepper in a bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg and milk. Dip the chicken in the egg, then dredge in the flour mixture. Place in the baking dish, and pour the melted butter evenly over the chicken.
3. Bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until the cheese has browned, and the chicken has cooked.

Bakery Review: Beard Papa

Beard Papa - visited September 6, 2013

I feel funny calling Beard Papa a "bakery" since I usually view bakeries as places that offer a full line of different baked goods and Beard Papa doesn't.  But that's what they call themselves so I'll stick with their nomenclature.  Although they have a few different bakery items for sale, they are predominantly all about cream puffs. They don't fit my definition of a mom and pop small business as they're actually an international company out of Japan with multiple stores in 15 countries but they franchise and franchise owners are small business owners.

The franchise in Cupertino, CA is conveniently located right next to J.T. McHart's Pizza so almost every time after I get pizza, I stop off at the Beard Papa's next door for a cream puff.  I'm not actually a big cream puff fan and don't love them enough to make a special trip for them but since they're right next door and I can't seem to break my habit of wanting something sweet to top off lunch (or dinner), Beard Papa's is extremely convenient.

The inside of the store looks deceptively small but they manage to utilize the space efficiently with baker's racks of cream puffs, display cases of sodas, juices and bottled water and even a bookcase.  There's limited seating with a counter height table and tall chairs but I think most people take their cream puffs to go.

The cream puffs appear to be baked in the store if the picture below shows working ovens (as opposed to just warmers).  Cream puffs are made from pate a choux dough which is essentially flour, butter, water and eggs cooked on the stovetop then piped into mounds and baked until they're puffed up, hollow and dry on the inside.  You can start them at high heat to get the initial rise to maximum puff (similar to popovers) but it's important to lower the oven temperature later and bake them at a low temperature so the inside has time to dry out while the outside doesn't get too brown.  

Once filled, cream puffs have a very short shelf life and should always be refrigerated if you're not going to consume them immediately.  Their filling is typically comprised of dairy ingredients like - you guessed it - cream which will spoil quickly if not refrigerated.  Beard Papa offers several different varieties of both cream puff flavors and custard fillings and they put together your cream puff only when you order it.

For this particular trip, I got the dulce de leche with chocolate custard.  Once you have a cream puff in hand, it's best to eat it right away.  Not just because you're (or I'm) greedy for sugar but because the shell is crisp to start with but will soon become soggy from the filling the longer you wait.

At Beard Papa's in Cupertino, each cream puff is $2.60 which is a pretty good price for dessert. Cream puffs are messy to eat so arm yourself with napkins and/or wipes.  They're worth the mess.

Inside the Dulce de Leche Cream Puff

Coconut-Stuffed French Toast

Coconut-Stuffed French Toast - made August 24, 2013, original recipe

I saw something similar on pinterest but didn't pin it so I had to make up my own recipe.  I love French toast, especially made with my favorite challah from Trader Joe's.  I hardly ever have French toast for breakfast but see nothing wrong with having it for dinner.

The pin I didn't pin on pinterest had a coconut stuffing, a concept I found intriguing and tried to replicate.  First you slice the bread to the thickness you want your French toast to have.  Then slice it in half but don't slice all the way through to the bottom.  You don't want two separate pieces of bread but one thick slice that flaps open so you can put the stuffing inside.

To go with the coconut theme, I decided to use coconut milk in addition to whole milk for the custard mixture to soak the bread in. I thought this turned out fairly well although the coconut milk didn't seem to stand out any differently than the regular whole milk but it might have also been hard to tell because the coconut sprinkles provided the coconut chewiness and flavor.  The only issue I had from considering this recipe completely successful is I didn't cook the french toast long enough.  My slice was too thick and the coconut coating on the outside browned before the french toast was fully cooked in the middle so the end product was a little mushier in the middle than I would have liked. One way to rectify it is to make the slices slightly thinner and cook the french toast over very low heat.  Otherwise, I like the concept of stuffed French Toast and will need to explore it a bit further.

Challah (or your favorite loaf bread), thickly sliced
2 eggs
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup whole milk
1/3 cup coconut milk (I used canned)
1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Slice bread to the thickness desired then slice each piece down the middle, leaving the bottom still joined, i.e. do not cut all the way through.  You want each piece of bread to have a "flap" opening.  Fill with a handful of coconut.
2. In a medium-size bowl, beat eggs and add sugar.  Pour in milk and coconut milk and whisk until smooth.  Add vanilla.
3. Dip bread into mixture and let soak all the way through, turning over each piece to soak completely in the mixture.
4. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat and spray with nonstick cooking spray.  When hot, sprinkle one side of each piece of bread with coconut and place, coconut-side down, in skillet.  Sprinkle more coconut on the top side of each bread slice.  Fry bread slices until golden on each side. If coconut appears to be turning darker brown and the French Toast isn't fully cooked, reduce heat.  Serve warm with butter and syrup, if desired.

Soft Chocolate Sugar Cookies

Soft Chocolate Sugar Cookies - made dough August 23, 2013 from Mel's Kitchen Cafe

Of all the Peanuts characters invented by Charles Schultz, the one I identify with most is Linus.  Not Charlie Brown, not Snoopy, not Lucy - although I've been told I'm more like Lucy.  C'mon, are you kidding, Lucy's a bossy know-it-all who....oh. Wait.  Never mind.  Anyway, Linus.  The reason I identify with Linus is he has a security blanket which is literally his blanket. I would argue that most people have their own version of Linus' blanket: something that gives them peace of mind and is kept close at hand.  My security blanket is having cookie dough and brownies stocked in my freezer.  Does that sound weird?

First, you have to understand whenever I get together with friends or family, I always, always bring goodie bags of baked goods.  Whether I'm meeting 1 person or 20, I bring goodie bags for each one.  Second, I don't always have a lot of time to bake given a full-time job and life outside of my kitchen. If I have a last-minute get together, I need to be able to put a goodie bag together quickly.  If I have a big social gathering coming up and I have to put together multiple goodie bags, I plan ahead so I'm not making 6 or 7 different things on the day of - I never have that kind of time. I don't always feel like baking either (rare but it happens) even if I do have time so it's just best to be prepared.  So I like to make up batches of cookie dough ahead of time, ready to be baked off at the last minute.  Or I bake brownies or bar cookies, cut them into individual serving sizes, wrap them in plastic wrap and place in freezer bags to store in my freezer until I need them.  If I go too long without restocking my freezer with cookie dough or brownies, I get nervous. This week, I also volunteered to bake for a very special cause (more to follow on that) so I am all about making cookie dough every night this week.

So if you've noticed I've done a lot of cookie posts lately (and more to follow), it's because I've been in Linus mode of hugging my security blanket by putting up a bunch of cookie doughs in my freezer.  Including this one I found on pinterest. The dough mixes up more like a thick brownie batter than cookie dough so you might want to chill it briefly after you mix it up before you portion into dough balls, just for easier handling.  I chilled the whole bowl for 20 minutes or so, scooped out into dough balls, froze them and then baked them off whenever I needed them. The key for this cookie is going to be the cocoa.  If you use a bland grocery-store cocoa powder, you're not going to get a rich chocolate punch.  In other words, Hershey's isn't going to cut it.  I used Pernigotti from Williams Sonoma (also available on amazon) but you can use any high quality dark cocoa powder.  The darker the cocoa, the more chocolate richness you'll get.  The lighter the cocoa, you'll probably get more sweet than chocolate flavor.

This turned out to be an unexpected hit at work.  I say unexpected because to me, they would've gone in "yup, good" category but not enough for me to warrant having a second cookie.  My bar is rather high for that.  Yet I put a couple dozen of these cookies out at work at 8 am and 2 hours later, there were only 3 left.  I also got a personal visit from one coworker who dropped by my office while eating one to tell me they were good, an email from another saying the same thing, an instant message from a third and a personal thanks from a 4th when I was in the kitchen getting some water.  There you go then - lots of recommendations from my coworkers and heaven knows they've had to be my guinea pigs on less successful experiments so they know their baked goods.

1/3 cup (2 1/3 ounces) granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons (8 1/8 ounces) all-purpose flour
3/4 cup (2 1/4 ounces) unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
14 tablespoons butter
1 3/4 cups packed (12 1/4 ounces) dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk

1. Pour the granulated sugar in a shallow bowl and set aside. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and baking powder.
2. In a large bowl, melt 10 tablespoons of the butter in the microwave. Microwave the butter until just melted. Stir in the remaining 4 tablespoons butter until melted. Allow the butter to cool for 5-10 minutes (it should be about 90-95 degrees on an instant read thermometer).
3. Whisk the brown sugar, vanilla and salt into the melted butter until the mixture is completely smooth. Whisk in the egg and egg yolk until smooth. Stir in the flour mixture until just combined. Chill the dough briefly to firm up if it's too soft.  Scoop into dough balls, about 2 tablespoons per cookie.  Freeze for baking later if desired.
4. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
5. Roll the dough  balls in the granulated sugar and place on lined (with parchment or silpat liners) baking sheets.
6. Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, until they have puffed and have cracks running through the top, about 12-14 minutes. Don't overbake or the cookies will be dry. Transfer the cookies to a baking rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Turtle Cake

Chocolate Turtle Cake - made August 31, 2013 from Sugar Plum

If you notice a lot of pics in this particular post, it'll be because I was pleasantly surprised how nice-looking this cake turned out so I had to capture the images for posterity. I don't normally make a lot of effort on how something looks....and I have cake wreck pictures to prove it.  Or at least not as much effort as I put into how it tastes. But I was putzing around following the recipe and somehow ended up with this - yay.

My cousin and her family were coming over to my parents' house one Sunday afternoon and I naturally brought dessert for their visit.  Any excuse to bake, right? I normally don't make layer cakes since they're not as easy to portion out like the cookies and brownies I bring to work but since this wasn't for work but was actually a sit-down occasion where I could slice and serve onto real plates with official forks, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to be a bit more fancy.

Any time I make a layer cake, especially with a recipe I've never tried before, I always bake a little bit of the batter in a small ramekin as my taste test portion.  I mean, you can't serve a cake for company with a slice missing and explain you had to taste it first, now can you? Tacky. The only tricky thing is, because of the different sizes between the ramekin and the cake pans, you have to monitor the baking time and make sure you're baking them equitably.  Meaning, you could bake the ramekin perfectly and think you've made an awesome cake based on that taste test but if you overbake the cake layers, you could be serving a dry cake to everyone else.

But still, I don't deviate from the ramekin taste test.  In this case, I was gratified to note this was a pretty yummy cake: moist, chocolatey and the perfect cakey yet still fudgy texture.

The original directions guide you to ice the bottom layer with the ganache then sprinkle pecans over it before topping with the second layer.  Given my prejudice against nuts inside baked goods (the moistness of the ganache will soften the pecans over time), I preferred to only fill between the layers with ganache and reserve the pecans for decorating with on top and the sides. Make sure you toast the pecans first to bring out their flavor and give them a crisp texture that will contrast nicely with the softness of the ganache and the caramel.

I really enjoyed both the taste and texture of this cake, both in the ramekin taste test and in the slice of the layer cake I had later. The sweetness of the caramel complemented the fudgy chocolate of the cake and I even liked the extra crunch and flavor from the pecans. The fun part is you can decorate this however you like; there's no right or wrong way to do it and there's never anything wrong with drizzling caramel over chocolate.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup dark or regular cocoa powder
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs
1 cup dark or semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted
1 1/3 cups whole milk

Ganache
1/4 cup unsalted butter
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 cups dark or semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 1/2 cups finely chopped pecans, toasted, plus additional whole pecans for decorating
1 tablespoon mini chocolate chips (optional)
Caramel sauce (I used Trader Joe's salted caramel)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour 2 (9-inch) cake pans. Line with parchment circles.
2. In a medium sized mixing bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.
3. In a large mixing bowl, using a mixer on medium speed, beat 3/4 cup butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar and vanilla, until creamy, about 2 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until well combined. Beat in 1 cup melted chocolate chips until combined. Reduce mixer speed to low and beat in flour mixture, alternating with milk, until well combined, about 2-3 minutes.
4. Evenly scrape batter into prepared cake pans and smooth the surface with a spatula. Bake at 350 degrees F, for 35-40 minutes, or until cake edges pull away from the pan, and a toothpick inserted into cake comes out with moist crumbs attached. Cool for 12 minutes before running a knife around edges and inverting onto wire racks to cool completely.
5. To make the ganache, melt 1/4 cup butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir in heavy cream and bring to a boil; turn heat off and stir in 2 cups chocolate chips until melted and smooth.
6. Spread ganache evenly onto first layer of cake. Place second cake layer on top. Spread the rest of the ganache over cake top and sides. Sprinkle and top with remaining pecans. Decorate the top with whole pecans. Sprinkle mini chocolate chips over the top, and drizzle caramel everywhere.

Restaurant Review: J.T. McHart Pizza

J.T. McHart - lunch on September 6, 2013

J.T. McHart's Pizza is exactly the type of small business I like to patronize.  They're family-owned and operated and have been in business for 25 years (as always, click on the post title to go to their website). The inside is small but I also prefer that as "cozy" over large, dark pizza joints with bad lighting.

You can get whole pizzas or, if you're just going there for a quick lunch, pizza by the slice as a coworker and I did one Friday.  She got the combo slice and I got the Hawaiian.  They serve their pizza with a thick crust and it's loaded with toppings.  I love their crust.  For me, the crust makes or breaks the pizza and J.T. McHart's makes a good one with an excellent combination of just slightly crisp at the edges but satisfyingly chewy throughout.

The pizza slices are also cheap - one slice was $3.25. It's only very slightly smaller than the individual slices from Premier Pizza but for $1.50 less, a much better deal.  J.T. McHart's also does corporate catering and of course, takeout for non-corporate customers.

I've called ahead before and ordered a pizza to go.  Whether you dine in or take out, they're always very pleasant and make your experience there, brief or long, an enjoyable one. Kudos to the McHart family for their longevity and quality.

Salted Caramel Brownies

Salted Caramel Brownies - made September 8, 2013, recipe adapted from The Busty Baker

The original recipe for these called for dulce de leche but I used salted caramel so I'm renaming them.  The chocolate flavor comes solely from the cocoa powder and I only had Pernigotti to use so I knew this would turn out to be a very dark chocolate brownie.  So I decided to contrast the dark chocolate with a load of caramel.

Baking with caramel can be a little tricky.  When baking caramel into brownies, I like to bake the bottom layer for at least 10 minutes first to give it a little time to set up.  If you layer the caramel over the unbaked layer, the caramel melts into the batter and incorporates itself into it rather than remaining a distinct layer.  Once I par-bake the bottom layer and spread the caramel over it, I also like to cover the caramel layer completely with the remaining batter rather than letting any peek through.  A swirl of caramel always looks pretty in the finished product but I find that exposing the caramel to high heat causes it to bubble during baking then once it cools, the caramel becomes chewy and hard instead of creamy and soft.  Hence the covering.

However, there is something appealing about puddles of soft, creamy caramel on top of a rich chocolaty brownie so this is where the chopped up Milky Way caramels come in.  Cut them into generous chunks then sprinkle them on top during the last few minutes of baking.  The caramels will melt slightly but you don't bake them long enough for them to melt completely then re-form into hardened chewy bits. I find this to be a good use of Milky Way caramels which is why they're usually on my post-Halloween, get-them-on-sale, candy-buying list so I can use them for baking later.

 

These brownies were good but a little too dark chocolate for me so I'm glad I loaded them with the caramel, both as a middle layer and on top.  If you don't like dark chocolate, this is one of the rare times I'd advise using a more bland cocoa powder to cut into the high end dark cocoa.  I still recommend using the good stuff but you can substitute up to half of the cocoa powder with the less chocolatey cocoa like Hershey's or Trader Joe's brand.

10 tablespoons (1 ¼ sticks) unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
½ cup all purpose flour
½ cup salted caramel
1 cup Milky Way caramels, chopped
Coarse sea salt, for sprinkling

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line an 8x8-inch baking pan with aluminum foil, allowing the sides to hang over by 2 inches. Spray with nonstick cooking spray; set aside.
2. Melt butter in microwave. Add sugar and cocoa and stir until incorporated and smooth, and no bits of butter remain.
3. Remove from heat and stir in salt, vanilla extract, and eggs until well combined and glossy. Add flour, stirring until just combined and no streaks of flour remain. Once combined, with a rubber spatula or a wooden spoon, fold batter vigorously for about 30-45 seconds.
4. Pour half of batter into prepared pan, spreading to the edges. Bake for 10 minutes.  Dollop 1/2 cup salted caramel in teaspoon sized drops over the batter. Pour remaining batter over top and gently smooth to edges, trying to cover as much of the caramel as possible.
5. Bake 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a just a bit of batter attached and center barely jiggles when the pan is shaken. 5 minutes before the brownies are done, sprinkle with chunks of Milky Way caramels. When brownie is done, remove from oven and sprinkle with coarse sea salt. Cool in pan for 20 minutes. Using foil overhang, lift from pan and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Once cooled, slice with a sharp knife into 16 squares.

Restaurant Review: Asian Pearl (dim sum)

Asian Pearl - lunch on August 25, 2013 (I linked to the yelp review which gives the link to the main Asian Pearl restaurant group website which in turn gives the direct link to this particular Asian Pearl Restaurant but when I tried going there, the security settings on my browser classified the site as "suspicious" so I'm not providing a direct link like I normally do)

Asian Pearl Seafood Restaurant

Pacific Commons Shopping Center

43635 Boscell Rd

Fremont, CA 94538

510-979-1368

Partial shot of the inside which is even bigger than this shows

I don't go to dim sum that often. My family had a favorite dim sum place to go to for Sunday lunch when I was younger but it closed and we fell out of the habit of going for dim sum after church because there weren't that many places where my parents lived that served it.  It's usually best to go with a large group so you can get a variety of plates but it's also best to go early, like mid-morning, which is when most places open or you might have a hard time being seated with a large party. Most dim sum places open at 10 am and I have to admit, that feels a little early for me to eat savory dim sum. And if we go on Sunday, we don't get out of church until 11 and by then, dim sum places are packed since they've been open for an hour by then.

One of the dim sum carts

However, we did manage one Sunday to go to a new-to-me dim sum restaurant called Asian Pearl. There were only 3 of us and we were lucky to get a table as soon as we got there but the restaurant was packed and by the time we left, people crowded the foyer and spilled outside, waiting for tables to free up.

Baked Pork Buns

If you've ever been to dim sum, you know how it works.  You wait at your table and dim sum carts come rolling past, typically pushed by Chinese ladies who tout the wares on their cart. If there's something on the cart you want, you speak or gesture (or ask questions) when they come to your table.  Once you've selected something, the cart lady will place it on your table and stamp the dim sum card left on your table by the host who seated you.  Depending on what you chose, it'll be classified as a small, medium or large dim sum dish and billed accordingly once you've finished eating.

Fried Fish

Most dim sum dishes (with some exceptions like the fish above and other dishes classified as "large") typically come in servings of 3 or 4 pieces.  If the pieces are large, the cart lady will cut them after she lays the plate on your table. Sauces that are meant to go with your dim sum selection are also placed by her before she stamps your card and rolls over for the next table. You can also order from the menu if you want something instead of or in addition to dim sum.

Deep Fried Shrimp Balls - one of my favorites

Now, I don't speak Chinese but I do speak dim sum, if you will.  There are certain things we (or I) always have to get and I've learned either what they're called so I can ask for them specifically if I don't see them roll by on the dim sum cart or I can gesture with the best of them when I do see them on the cart.

Something steamed with shrimp and veggies inside

Regular family favorites:
- Cha Siu Bao (pork buns, I prefer the baked kind over the steamed)
- Siu Mai (steamed pork dumplings)
- Deep fried shrimp balls (no idea what their Chinese name is but I know what they look like)
-Har Gow (steamed shrimp dumplings) - we didn't get these this time around because by the time they had them, we were already stuffed.
- Pork cocktail buns - these are rectangular, flaky pastries filled with barbecue pork and sprinkled with sesame seeds on top.  I have no idea what they're called but again, I know what to look for on the rolling carts. Not to be confused with pork buns.

For this particular visit, we also got the shrimp wrapped in long, flat rice noodles with a light soy sauce (or something like soy sauce).

Siu Mai

My dad picked up the tab so I couldn't tell you what the plates cost :) but I thought Asian Pearl served a pretty good dim sum.  The only dish we tried that none of us liked was the fried fish.  It tasted just a little too "fishy" to be good and one of the breaded fried fish "sticks" turned out not to be fish but seemingly part of a very large fish bone - almost like the thickest part of the spinal cord on a big dish. The Siu Mai, however, was particularly good as were the baked pork buns.  I didn't care for the very sticky glaze on the pork buns but the buns themselves were good.

 BBQ Pork flaky turnover thingies

The main drawbacks of Asian Pearl were how crowded it was (but that's typical of most good dim sum places on a weekend morning) and that there were very few dim sum carts rolling around, especially considering the size of the room and the crowded restaurant. I think I only saw 3-4 different carts and they moved slowly because they had a lot of tables to service.  To alleviate that issue, there were dim sum servers walking around with a tray of one particular dim sum, offering them at tables throughout the room.  The advantage is there were more of them walking around and you didn't have to wait for a rare cart to come by.  The disadvantage is they only carried one type of dim sum and if that wasn't what you wanted, you still had to wait for the next offering to come by.  Still, Asian Pearl is a good dim sum option to go to and I'm glad there's one in the neighborhood.