A Great Brownie (the original recipe title)

A Great Brownie - made April 15, 2017, modified from The Greyston Bakery Cookbook by Sara Kate Gillingham-Ryan

This is one of those brownie recipes I’ve made before, thought it was really, really good and never made it again. Not because I didn’t like it because, looking at my old notes, it appears I did. But I always want to try a new recipe so I never went back to this one. I did this time because I first tried this recipe before I started my blog so technically, it counts as a new post I can put up and share with everyone.

Since it’s a plain brownie, you can safely assume I made this for my niece’s fundraiser for her mentor program. BTW, she ended up raising $1400 against her original $1000 goal and, as a bonus, even got at least one of her friends interested in signing up to be a mentor in the program. Score.

Anyway, another good, basic brownie recipe but there’s not much more I can say about it since there are many good, basic brownie recipes out there. It’s killing my soul not to dress it up. If you want to try an easy recipe for brownies, this is it.

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
7 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped, optional

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line a 9 x 13" baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstcik cooking spray.
2. In a bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder and salt; set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer set to medium speed, beat the butter and sugar until combined. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Stir in the vanilla. Gradually mix in the dry ingredients until just combined. Do not overmix. Stir in half the chocolate chunks, if using.
4. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan. Sprinkle remaining chopped chocolate, if using, evenly over the top of the batter. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs. Remove from oven and let cool completely.

Garlic and Paprika Chicken

Garlic and Paprika Chicken - made April 22, 2017 from Jo Cooks

This dish represents the trifecta of using up the chicken drumsticks I got from Costco (yeah, I’ll be eating chicken for awhile), using the minced garlic and paprika I bought from Penzey’s and trying out the recipe I’ve had on my pinboard of easy meals to make.

This literally was easy to make and could be one of those easy weekday meals for busy professionals and/or working family members. You mix the ingredients together, pour over the chicken and bake. 

I’m not sure I found this particularly flavorful but it wasn’t bad either. Maybe I’m not that into paprika. I haven’t cooked enough with it to form a strong opinion one way or another. My bar for savory food that I cook myself is much lower than my bar for dessert so I’m not that critical about it. It used up ingredients I had, it made enough for a few meals so I didn’t have to do takeout and I didn’t give myself food poisoning from it. See, told you my bar was low.

6 chicken drumsticks
1/4 cup olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
pinch red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped (I used rosemary)
1 tablespoon fresh oregano, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line a shallow baking dish with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Clean and dry the drumsticks; season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
3. In a small skillet, heat the olive oil. Add the garlic, smoked paprika, red pepper flakes, parsley and oregano. Cool for about 1 minute over medium heat; do not burn the garlic.
4. Pour mixture over the drumsticks and coat each piece thoroughly. Lay in an even layer in prepared baking dish.
5. Bake for 45 minutes or until chicken legs are cooked through.

Chocolate Chip Cookies - Levain Bakery copycat #14 from Kirbie's Cravings

Chocolate Chip Cookies - Levain Bakery copycat #14, made dough April 9, 2017, adapted from Kirbie's Cravings

I’m not going to lie – I liked this cookie, enjoyed it at the time I made it, thought it was good and….can’t remember much about it now that it’s been a few weeks since I tried it and I didn’t do the write up of it soon enough to really remember it. Oops.

My only defense is I was making several of these copycat recipes for my niece’s fundraiser and I only tried one recipe at a time, spaced out between days of working out. I didn’t have time to do the write ups right after I baked it, which is always a mistake because then I don’t note down what I thought about the recipe. All I can say is it was good. 

The dough was a little soft and sticky after I finished mixing it and as I was shaping it into dough balls so that briefly caused me some concern about whether the cookies would spread too much but fortunately, that concern was unfounded. Do underbake these though to get that chewy-not-dry-or-cakey texure.

1 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup cake flour
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups chocolate chips

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar. Cream until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl.
2. Add in eggs, one at a time, beating until just incorporated.
3. Add in cake flour, all-purpose flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. Mix on low speed until just combined. Do not overmix. Fold in chocolate chips.
4. Divide dough into 6-ounce portions. Cover, chill or freeze for several hours or overnight. 
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 410 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Evenly space cookie dough portions and bake, one sheet at a time, for 12-13 minutes, until edges are brown and middles are just barely set. Let cookies cool on baking sheets for 15 minutes then transfer to wire cooling racks to cool completely.

Cinnamon Pound Cake with Cinnamon Glaze

Cinnamon Pound Cake with Cinnamon Glaze - made April 9, 2017, modified from Baking by Flavor by Lisa Yockelson (original recipe called Caramel Chip Cake)

Cinnamon Pound Cake with Cinnamon Glaze

The Caramel Chip Cake version - didn't come out of the pan very well

The original recipe from Lisa Yockelson’s Baking by Flavor calls this a caramel chip cake because it uses the addition of caramel-flavored chips. I only recently found caramel-flavored chips at Target so I was pleased I could finally try this recipe as Lisa Yockelson intended. But, alas, you can see from the pictures that how mine came out is probably not how she intended. That’s the downside of using chips in a Bundt cake. Despite dutifully tossing the caramel chips in a bit of the flour mixture which is supposed to keep the chips evenly suspended in the batter while the cake bakes, the chips still sank to the bottom and clung stubbornly to the pan when being up-ended to turn out the cake, despite the pan being properly and generously greased. Bah.

.My patchy Caramel Chip Cake

I might’ve been able to forgive it for that if I had liked the taste but I belatedly remembered after I took a bite that I just don’t like nutmeg in baked goods. This one only held half a teaspoon and I used my trusty, high-quality Penzey’s nutmeg but to no avail. I just don’t like the flavor of nutmeg. I don’t mind it in savory food but I don’t like it in baked goods. And it was pretty dominant in this cake, half a teaspoon or not. Strike three for this cake is I didn’t like the caramel-flavored chips in there either. They were too sweet and added a jarring note to the cake. 

Caramel Chip Cake - texture was good but I didn't like the nutmeg

Normally, with three strikes I would consider the recipe a failure, document it and move on. But the saving grace for this cake is I really liked the texture. It had a perfect pound cake texture, dense but soft, moist and chewy. So what do you do if you like nothing about the cake except its texture? Naturally, you tweak the recipe.

Cinnamon Pound Cake before the glaze

My tweaks were rather minor but made a world of difference. I made the cake again but this time I omitted the caramel-flavored chips entirely and instead of the nutmeg, I substituted the same amount in cinnamon. Vietnamese cinnamon from Penzey’s if you want to know since I don’t bake with any other cinnamon anymore. Half a teaspoon of cinnamon doesn’t go as far in terms of flavoring an entire cake as half a teaspoon of nutmeg does so to amp up the cinnamon flavor, I made up a cinnamon glaze. It’s a basic royal icing glaze with powdered sugar and milk but I added a teaspoon of cinnamon to the powdered sugar to flavor it.

Cinnamon Pound Cake

Lo and behold, my tweaky tinkering worked. It still didn't come out cleanly but it wasn't as patchy-looking at the original cake. I still loved the texture of the cake but this time I also liked the flavor. Forget the Caramel Chip Cake; this just became my Cinnamon Pound Cake with Cinnamon Glaze.

Cinnamon Pound Cake

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup unsifted bleached cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (I used Penzey's Vietnamese Cinnamon)
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
1/3 cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
2 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk, whisked well

Cinnamon Glaze
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
2-4 tablespoons whole milk or more as needed to achieve desired consistency

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 10-inch Bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Sift the all-purpose flour, bake flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together. 
3. Cream the butter in the bowl of a freestanding electric mixer on moderate speed for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the brown sugar and beat for 1 minute; add the granulated sugar and beat for 1 to 2 minutes.
4. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, blending well after each addition. Blend in the vanilla extract.
5. On low speed, alternatively add the flour mixture and the buttermilk, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. Scrape down the sides of the bowl frequently with a rubber spatula to keep batter even textured.
6. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula.
7. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until risen, set and a wooden toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs. Let the cake stand in the pan on a cooling rack for 5 to 8 minutes. Loosen sides and center with a small rubber spatula before inverting onto another cooling rack. Cool completely.
8. Make icing: whisk together confectioners' sugar and cinnamon. Add vanilla and the first 2 tablespoons of milk. Keep adding milk gradually, whisking smooth, until icing is desired consistency. Pour over Bundt cake.

Shrimp and Gnocchi with Garlic Parmesan Cream Sauce

Shrimp and Gnocchi with Garlic Parmesan Cream Sauce - made April 15, 2017, modified from Damn Delicious

This is another of those easy one-dish dinners I like to specialize in. Specialize sounds really hi-falutin’ but you can translate that to mean “so easy, even I, a person who can’t really cook, can make this and have it turn out decently well”.

It helps that you can buy ready-made gnocchi, which I did from Trader Joe’s. I also had my handy jar of minced garlic from Penzey’s so I didn’t even have to bother peeling and mincing garlic “from scratch”. Raw shrimp already deveined with tails on are easy enough to clean and take the tails off. After that, it’s just a matter of frying and stirring ingredients then tossing them all together at the end. I skipped the step of baking the shrimp as that seemed like an unnecessary extra step when stir frying would do just as well. I know, I know, I'm a lazy cook. 

This is a rich dish though because of the cream sauce and the Parmesan cheese. I don’t eat gnocchi very often because it’s just so heavy, even in small portions. With a rich cream sauce, you might want to make even smaller portions as this made for a hearty, filling meal even if you don’t eat very much of it. Next time, I might cut back slightly on the garlic and heavy up on the shrimp to balance out the starchy carbs of the gnocchi.

1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 tablespoon olive oil
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 16-ounce package potato gnocchi
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves

Garlic Parmesan Cream Sauce
1/4 cup unsalted butter
4 cloves garlic, minced (I used 4 tablespoons Penzey's minced garlic)
1 cup chicken broth, or more as needed
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 cup half and half
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmersan cheese
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1. Heat olive oil in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add shrimp, salt and pepper, and parsley leaves, stir frying until shrimp is pink. Drain onto separate bowl and set aside.
2. In large pot of boiled salted water, cook gnocchi according to package instructions; drain and set aside.
3. In same saucepan you cooked the shrimp, melt butter over medium heat. Add garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes. Whisk in flour until lightly browned, about 1 minute.
4. Gradually whisk in chicken broth, thyme and basil. Cook, whisking constantly, until incorporated, about 1-2 minutes. Stir in half and half and Parmesan cheese until slightly thickened, about 1-2 minutes. If mixture becomes too thick, add more chicken broth or half and half, as needed. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
5. Add shrimp and gnocchi; gently toss to combine. Serve immediately.

Chocolate Chip Cookies - Levain Bakery copycat #13 from Chew Out Loud

Chocolate Chip Cookies, Levain Bakery copycat #13 - made dough April 8, 2017, adapted from Chew Out Loud

I tried several different Levain Bakery copycat recipes for their chocolate chip cookie to make for my niece’s fundraiser donor goodie bags. The good news is all the recipes turned out. I made them the same way: big chocolate chips, subbed out some of the granulated sugar for turbinado sugar, froze the dough, baked them at higher temps and so on. They all turned out thick, chubby and delicious.

The bad news is because I made each recipe one at a time as I needed them to fill goodie bags, I didn’t bake them simultaneously and taste test them against each other. So I’m having a hard time distinguishing one recipe from another in terms of taste or remembering exactly how each one tasted. Other than they all tasted great.

The base ingredients are similar although one differed by being made with bread flour, a couple used cornstarch and some of the leavening agents varied in amount. But let’s be honest. My palate, while picky, is not quite that discriminating to be able to tell you whether the cookies made with bread flour instead of all-purpose flour or with ½ teaspoon of baking soda instead ¾ teaspoon baking soda is better. Especially when several days to a week might lapse between taste tests.

Ah, the first world problems I deal with. Let’s just say these tasted good. As did the other ones I’ve posted. As did the other ones still to come. Enjoy.

3 cups (13.5 ounces) bread flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup turbinado sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups chocolate chips

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Add sugars and beat until combined, 1-2 minutes.
3. Gradually add the eggs and vanilla, beating until just combined.
4. Reduce speed to medium-low and gradually add the flour mixture, scraping down the sides of bowl as needed. Beat until just combined; do not overmix.
5. Fold in chocolate chips. Portion dough into 4 to 6-ounce mounds or golf-ball-size balls, depending on your preference. Cover and chill or freeze several hours or overnight.
6. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Evenly space frozen dough balls on baking sheets and bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are golden brown and middles are just barely cooked. Let cool for 5 minutes on baking sheet then transfer cookies to wire rack to cool completely.

Beef and Sweet Potato Stew

Beef and Sweet Potato Stew - made April 15, 2017

I originally intended to make this in my crock pot. I had a 5-quart one but my niece appropriated it when she moved out and I haven’t seen it since. Which was okay by me as it always seemed a little too big and whenever I made something in it, I seemed to be eating the same thing for days on end. So I bought myself a little 2-quart one. That seemed like the perfect size to make meals for one that would last a few days rather than a few weeks.

Except I didn’t realize until I started making this stew that most recipes make amounts that are too much for a little 2-quart crockpot to fit into. So I ended up making this in a large saucepan. It still worked although I did end up boiling it for awhile until the beef was tender.

I don’t usually have good luck with beef dishes. I never know what cut of meat to get, I always forget the right way to cut it (against the grain, along the grain, what’s “grain” nomenclature doing with meat anyway??), I never know how long to cook it and it either dries out or stays tough. Fortunately though, it turns out the cooking gods decided to cut me a break and didn’t torment me for this one. I still didn’t know how to cut it and I ended up adding more beef broth and water than the recipe called for since I let the stew keep boiling until the meat was tender. But the good news is the meat actually ended up tender after I had boiled, I mean, simmered, it long enough.

The mistake I made – you know there had to be at least one – was I added the sweet potatoes too soon and so they boiled right along with the beef until by the time the meat was tender, the sweet potatoes were no longer distinguishable cubes but sweet potato mush if you stirred the stew and looked at it wrong. So the pictures don’t look that great but the stew was actually quite tasty. It looks a little dry and you can add more beef broth if you want a more soupy stew but I thought it was fine.

And would you believe I made up the recipe? I tried to follow one of the stew recipes I had on my pinterest board but I was missing at least one spice called for in each of the pinned recipes. Which, by the way, was really hard to believe considering how much I had stocked up my spice rack. I mean, c’mon, I never even kept a spice rack before of spices I actually used instead of shoving in a drawer until I forgot about them. There’s that Penzey’s allegiance again. Fortunately, stew is a very forgiving dish so even if you don’t have all of these spices, feel free to experiment and throw in some of your own favorite spices and see how it turns out.

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 pounds beef chuck roast, cut into chunks
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon English prime rib rub
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon oregano
4 whole cloves
3 whole bay leaves
3 cups beef broth
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed

1. Heat large pot with olive oil. Saute chopped onion and garlic until onion is soft and garlic is lightly browned. Add beef and sear until sides are brown but not cooked through.
2. Add paprika, English prime rib rub, pepper, oregano, cloves, beef broth and sweet potatoes. Bring to a low simmer and add bay leaves. Simmer on medium-low heat until beef is tender.

Vanilla Bean Snickerdoodles

Vanilla Bean Snickerdoodles - made dough April 9, 2017 from Cookies & Cups by Shelly Jaronsky

I’d been making so many batches of my favoritesnickerdoodle recipe for my niece’s fundraiser that I finally cracked and tried a new recipe just to do something different for the same cookie. I’m not big on making the same recipe over and over again because I always want to try something new. Which is one reason why I’ve never worked in a bakery or had my own small business selling baked goods. I’m not sure I could handle making the same things all the time.

I went back to my Cookies & Cups baking book to try out this recipe for vanilla bean snickerdoodles. It was pretty straightforward and I used vanilla bean paste in place of buying vanilla beans and scraping out the seeds from the pods. Vanilla bean paste is much easier to use. Vanilla beans are so expensive that I only tend to use them for things like crème brulee where you also soak the pod itself after scraping out the seeds to get more vanilla flavor. Otherwise I make do with vanilla bean paste and fortified vanilla extract (from Penzey’s, where else?)

This made decently good snickerdoodles. They did spread a bit more than my favorite recipe but the taste was on point and they were good. Mine spread more than the picture in the Cookies & Cups book but it could be because I also made my cookie dough balls bigger. No point in having little cookies. I was making this to put in goodie bags for my niece’s fundraiser donors and wanted them to be a good size since they’re meant to be thank yous for their donation.

1 cup butter

3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 vanilla beans or 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

Cinnamon Sugar for rolling
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until combined and creamy, about 2 minutes.
2. Add whole egg, egg yolk and vanilla extract. Mix until incorporated.
3. Scrape insides of vanilla beans and add scrapings to dough. If using vanilla bean paste, add to dough and mix.
4. Add the cinnamon, baking soda, cream of tartar, salt and flour. Mix until flour is just incorporated. Do not overmix.
5. Scoop into golf-ball-size dough balls, cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
6. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
7. Combine 1/4 cup granulated sugar and 1 tablespoon cinnamon in small bowl. Roll chilled or frozen dough balls in mixture, coating completely. Evenly space on parchment-lined baking sheets, Bake 10-12 minutes until edges are lightly golden and middles are just barely past raw. Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes on baking sheet before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.