Crunchy Candied Pecan Brownies

Crunchy Candied Pecan Brownies - made September 7, 2015 from Extreme Brownies by Connie Weis

It's been almost 2 months since I stopped baking like I used to. Meaning not: baking every weekend, stocking up on cookie doughs and brownies to put in my freezer, bringing in weekly treats to work every Monday, handing out treat bags whenever I got together with friends, trying out new recipes, trolling pinterest for ideas, loading up on baking ingredients every time I went to Costco.

As you can imagine, it's been rather life-changing. On the positive side, I've had more free time (okay, work took up a good portion of that but still, I also got some additional running/half marathon training and reading in there), I'm saving a lot of money from my almost-non-existent grocery bill now that I'm not buying baking ingredients any more (people, I once left Costco and spent less than $30!!), and I've lost more than five pounds.

On the not-as-positive side, I feel like I'm missing some vital part of my identity, one that's shaped me for most of my life. Baking is part of what I've used to define my interests, my activities, what I do online and offline. And hey, I just like to bake. It feels weird not to plan what to make for treat bags whenever I meet my friends (I mean, I just show up now - empty-handed), not to bake on Sundays for the Monday morning dropoff in the work kitchen, not to keep a sharp eye out on sales for chocolate chips, flour, sugar, butter, and baking chocolate. I went down the baking aisle at Target today out of habit and didn't put a single item in my cart. That's just weird.

Fortunately though, I haven't given baking up completely. This was a recipe I had planned to make before I suspended my regular baking schedule and therefore I still had all the ingredients on hand to make it. Used up the last of my Costco butter to do it but it was worth it (eek, I'm now out of butter). This recipe breaks my normal rules of no brownies made with nuts but I did modify it to leave out the step of chopping the candied pecans and adding them to the batter before baking. No way.

Instead, I put all of the candied pecans on top of the brownie before baking. OMG, this was amazing. Perfect fudginess of the brownie, beautifully robust chocolate flavor, and the candied pecans on top were sublime. I did underbake a trifle too much though and that made the middle pieces a bit too soft even after the brownie had set but the edges were terrific. No need to toast the pecans beforehand since you'll bake them in the sugar-cinnamon mixture and again on top of the brownie. Don't skip the candied pecans! They make the entire brownie. If you really do have a prejudice against nuts in brownies though, you can still make the base brownie as it makes an awesome plain brownie. But I'm glad I tried it with the candied pecans on top.

Candied Pecans
4 tablespoons (2 ounces) granulated sugar
2 packed tablespoons (1 ounce) light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg white, at room temperature
2 cups (8 ounces) pecan halves

Brownies
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon slices
4 1/2 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate
1 1/2 cups (9 ounces) 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate chips
6 large eggs
1 1/2 cups (10.5 ounces) granulated sugar
1 1/2 packed cups (12 ounces) light brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups (6.8 ounces) all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1. To make the candied pecans: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a half-sheet baking pan with a silicone baking mat. Place the sugars, cinnamon, and salt in a small bowl; whisk to combine.
2. Place the egg white in a small mixing bowl; whisk until frothy. Add the pecans and stir. Sprinkle the sugar mixture over the pecans and fold in well. Turn the nuts onto the prepared sheet pan and spread into a thin layer with a spatula. Bake for 13 minutes, then turn the nuts over with a metal spatula and spread out again. Continue baking until the nuts are fragrant and the sugar coating is caramelized, about another 6 minutes. Transfer the pan to a cooling rack.
3. To make the brownies: Maintain the oven temperature at 350 degrees F. Line a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with aluminum foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
4. In a small, heavy saucepan set over low heat, melt the butter, unsweetened chocolate and bittersweet chocolate chips, whisking until melted and smooth. Set aside.
5. Using a large whisk, lightly beat the eggs in a large mixing bowl. Place the sugars and salt in a separate small mixing bowl, then whisk into the eggs just until combined. Whisk the melted chocolate mixture into the egg mixture until just combined. Whisk in the vanilla.
6. Combine the flour and baking powder in a small mixing bowl. Sift onto the batter and stir in with a spatula until just combined.
7. Place 1 1/2 cups of the candied pecans in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until finely chopped but not ground into a paste. Sprinkle the ground pecans over the batter; fold until just combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly with a small offset spatula. Place the remaining pecans evenly over the batter. Bake for 38 minutes, until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and let cool at room temperature for at least 15 minutes. Refrigerate for 7-8 hours or overnight. Cut into squares.

Restaurant Review: Brown Chicken Brown Cow

Brown Chicken Brown Cow - lunch on August 22, 2015

I recently came across a link on my Facebook feed that listed the Top 10 Burger Places in the South Bay. That was about as irresistible as click bait was going to be for me so naturally I had to look. Turns out I’ve only gone to 3 of the Top 10. Huh. That’s not even a passing grade. To rectify the lagging oversight, the most natural thing to do of course was corral a couple of friends and say, “hey, let’s try these places!” Being my friends, they obligingly fell in with my plan to check off a 4^th restaurant on the list.

Fortunately Brown Chicken Brown Cow was in the neighborhood of one of them so we met there. I have a love/hate relationship with downtown Campbell where BCBC is located. I love all the shops and restaurants there plus it has a small-town/shop local feel that I enjoy. But I hate the parking, especially parking on a weeknight which is nigh impossible to find. Not to mention it takes me almost 2 hours in commute traffic to get there from work and another hour to find parking (you think I’m kidding but I’m not). To save myself and my friends the aggravation, we decided to meet there for lunch on a Saturday instead. If you get to that neighborhood early enough, then finding good parking is feasible and I’m back to loving the area again.

I could see by the address and google maps that it was near Naschmarkt but I didn’t recall ever seeing it when I was on that street. When I got there, it was obvious as to why. When you approach it from the street, you have to go inside the courtyard area and the only thing tipping you off that you’re in the right place is the wall painted with Brown Chicken Brown Cow, assuring you you’re on the right track and only need to take a few more steps to get there.

Cajun Sweet Potato Fries

On the other side of that wall is the restaurant itself. It’s a big small, more diner-sized than full-on restaurant, but there’s indoor and outdoor seating to accommodate patrons. We chose to sit outside since we were having excellent weather and the outdoor tables were covered overhead so we didn’t have to worry about the sun making things too hot.

Garlic Fries

The menu boasted a number of burger options; not just your average burger on a bun with lettuce, tomato, and optional cheese but a number of different additions to a burger, not unlike having different toppings on a pizza. Being the non-adventurous, hold-the-condiments type of eater, I went with the BCBC burger, hold everything but the leaf lettuce and add a slice of cheese. My friends were more adventurous and both got the Lady Marmalade which had bacon is some kind of “marmalade” that had the consistency of orange marmalade but wasn’t necessarily citrusy and had bacon it. I didn’t try it but they said it was delicious.

Lady Marmalade Burger

Personally, I liked my own plain-ish burger (hey, normally I don’t even have them include the lettuce but I was feeling virtuous that day). The burger itself was good, the patty wasn’t too thick or too thin but just right and cooked perfectly to my request of medium. It was comparable to St John’s so I’m glad they both made the Top 10 list.  Our waitress was also friendly and extremely efficient so thumbs up for the service as well. Bonus points that they offered sweet potato fries which had been cooked to perfection. It’s hard not to like sweet potato fries. My friends also ordered the garlic fries and that was delicious as well.

Brown Chicken Brown Cow Burger

I would definitely recommend this place. Once you find it, you’ll want to come back.

Sibby's Revisited

Sibby's Cupcakes - August 15, 2015

So we have to talk about Sibby’s again. I’ve already written about them before but that was when I was a passive consumer and was able to get a cupcake when someone else ordered them. This time around, I finally got to place my own order and saw Sibby’s Cupcakery in person.

My parents celebrated their 50^th anniversary earlier this year and we had a belated picnic celebration for  them at a local park. Since it was meant to be a casual affair and we didn’t want to bother with a lot of cake cutting, dishing out slices, little plates, forks and such, I decided cupcakes were the answer to dessert, especially Sibby’s cupcakes.

They’re easy to order online – check out their website, decide on your flavors then email them at the address provided. I ordered 3 dozen on a Sunday night and received a reply email the following morning. They confirmed my order then we had a follow up phone call to discuss how I wanted them decorated. At first I wasn’t going to spring for custom decorations because it was $6 per dozen for custom. I know, I sound cheap. Frankly, I wouldn’t mind spending the money but my frugal first-generation immigrant parents would be horrified at the cost of the cupcakes themselves, never mind that you have to pay extra for how they look. But 50 years is a big deal and when I was talking to Aryssa from Sibby’s, she said I could pay for custom design for just a dozen cupcakes and not all 3 dozen. That sounded more than reasonable to me and we agreed on a gold and white decorating theme.

Sibby’s doesn’t have a store front but you can either have them deliver (typically a $25 delivery charge depending on your location) or pick them up at Sibby’s baking facility. You just know I’m not going to fork over $25 for delivery so I opted to go pick them up. Plus I wanted to see Sibby’s in person since I’d only ever heard about their facility but have never been to it. I had to pick up the main courses we were having catered by a restaurant right before the lunch so I was hoping to be able to pick up the cupcakes a little early.

Sibby’s website said the earliest pickup could be was 10 am on Saturday unless I wanted them to bake the cupcakes the night before then I could come in earlier. You know I’m a stickler for freshness so I opted for Saturday baking with a 10 am pickup and they promised to let me know if the cupcakes would be ready sooner. True to their word, they called me before 9 am to let me know the cupcakes were ready – score.

I’m not sure what I expected from their baking facility, maybe a warehouse-type location with a stainless steel door you had to knock on and someone would pass through your cupcake boxes when they opened it. Nope. Their location is definitely off the beaten track and doesn’t scream “BAKERY!” It’s in a more industrial setting and the pink Sibby’s sign is the only splash of color on the block.

I walked in through a screen door to find a bustling hive of activity. Cupcakes everywhere in various stages of cooling and being decorated while pink cupcake boxes were stacked all around. It was very much a commercial kitchen with its ovens and refrigerated units and everyone busy with a job to do. They pulled my 3 boxes out of the refrigerator and showed me the cupcakes. I had expected only 1 dozen cupcakes to be custom decorated and the rest to have the regular Sibby’s look so I was pleasantly surprised to find all 3 dozen were cloaked in gold and white frosting and piping. The $6 custom fee I paid were for 4 designs appropriate for a 50^th anniversary and they kindly spread those designs equally amongst the cupcakes. The non-custom-designed cupcakes were equally festive with demure decorations that kept in the gold and white theme.

I had paid for the cupcakes over the phone so all I needed to do was pick them up. They showed them to me to get my approval and pointed out which flavors were which. One of the Sibby’s folks even helped me with the boxes out to my car. It was a really nice experience all around from ordering to pick up and, of course, to eating.

The cupcakes were amazing. I had ordered red velvet, lemon, salted caramel, dulce de leche, coconut and carrot. OMG. OMG. Let me say it again, OMG. I already knew what the red velvet, salted caramel and carrot tasted like from previous tastings. I can now also tell you the coconut was delicious, the dulce de leche was good (although I admit I liked the salted caramel better) but OMG, the lemon was the best. The best. Light, fluffy, perfect lemon flavor. I had gotten 6 of each flavor and the lemon went first. My niece is still a little bitter that she didn’t get to taste it after I raved about it. Hey, you snooze, you lose. Especially when it comes to cupcakes. 

Multiple thumbs up yet again for Sibby’s Cupcakery. Not only are the cupcakes delicious but the whole customer experience was excellent and I’d recommend them hands down if you ever need cupcakes. I still harbor hopes that they’ll go on Cupcake Wars, win the $10,000 prize and open up a retail store front. Then I can “drop by” 25+ miles from my house to get a cupcake. It could happen.

Cookie Butter Favorites

Cookie Butter Favorites

Another compilation of my favorite recipes, this time those involving cookie butter. You can use Biscoff which was the original cookie butter or the Trader Joe’s version called Speculoos. I used to treat them interchangeably; Biscoff is available at Target and, once in a blue moon, at Costco while Speculoos is only at Trader Joe’s (as far as I know). However, there are subtle differences between them. Biscoff is creamier and more akin to peanut butter in terms of spreadability. Speculoos is also easy to spread but you have to give it a stir or two first. I actually prefer the taste of Speculoos over Biscoff but I still like them both. And yes, in a blind taste test, my picky taste buds can taste the difference.

Given my past prejudices against combining chocolate with cookie butter (two dominant flavors fighting rather than complementing each other in my opinion), it won’t come as a surprise that none of my favorite cookie butter recipes include regular semisweet or milk chocolate. Instead, white chocolate prevails as it’s far more complementary to cookie butter than “real” chocolate.

Biscoff Cloud Cookies

Biscoff-Stuffed White Chocolate Lava Cookies

Biscoff-Stuffed Snickerdoodles

Classic Sugar Cookies Sandwiched with Cookie Butter

Speculoos Cookie Sandwiches

Biscoff Sheet Cake

Singapore Eats Part 3

August 21, 2015

My last day in Singapore wasn’t the same gustatory journey I’d enjoyed earlier in the week, mostly because I had a plane to catch but meetings to take first and a tour of a local facility I had wanted to see for work. But still, I managed to snag lunch at the airport before my flight. And even there, Singapore didn’t disappoint. They had a “24-hour food court” and it had the obligatory KFC and Subway but – woo hoo – they also had local food kiosks. Guess which one I chose?

Yep, had my last Chicken Rice meal before I left. You can’t imagine how happy I was to find it equally good as at the local restaurant with equally delicious rice. The finance geek in me was also happy that I paid only $5 SGD for the meal. I’ve never eaten that cheaply at an airport with food that didn’t taste like it was bought at an airport. Seriously, people who went to KFC or Subway, you’re missing out. I’ve spent almost 6 years blogging about food and this post goes down in my blog history as a write up of something I ate at an airport. Which was better than some of the meals I’ve had in “real” restaurants.

Chicken Rice - Changi airport version

My time on the ground in Singapore was mostly about work and the rest about jetlag so I didn’t have time to shop for gifts to bring home until I was at the airport. I mostly worked out of the airport lounge but fifteen minutes before boarding my flight, I wandered a couple of candy shops (of course) since I typically just bring consumables home. I had asked my coworkers earlier what’s a typical gift to bring back from Singapore and they said pineapple tarts. I was assured I could find them at the airport so I didn’t look for them elsewhere. Alas, I must not have looked in the right places because I couldn’t find any pineapple tarts at Changi. Instead I went with chocolate for my nieces and my parents, slabs of beautiful chocolate, similar to what I buy when I’m in Europe which I can never find in the US and not in the same flavors. For my team back at the office, I bought cookies. I have no idea how Singaporean they are since you tend to lose authenticity when you’re buying at an airport meant to cull tourist dollars but it was the best I could find. At least it was better than bringing back Kit Kats and M&Ms.  

Singapore Eats Part 2

August 20, 2015 - Singapore Eats, Part 2

Bless my coworkers because they took my desire to “eat local” to heart and lunch the next day was even more “local” than the day before. It wasn’t in a mall but was a busy restaurant nearby filled with other locals. They introduced me to “Chicken Rice” which is roast chicken in a light delicious soy-sauce-based sauce, almost like a teriyaki and a cup of rice. Not just any rice but really, really good rice. I don’t eat rice very often but if all rice was like the rice in Chicken Rice, I’d probably have it every day. They told me Chicken Rice is very Singaporean. I applaud them for their good taste. Oh and it isn't "Chicken and Rice" but "Chicken Rice". I know because I was politely corrected when I tried to add the "and" in there, lol.

We also had some kind of pork wrapped in a crispy skin, fried crisp and sliced into rounds from a log. I asked what it was called and they told me but neither my ears nor my tongue can do it justice so I won’t embarrass myself by trying to name it. Just trust me that it was delicious. We also had crispy, lightly bread shrimp. Can’t go wrong with that either. Plus a local dish of noodles, also quite good. My only issue with noodle dishes is they invariably come with bean sprouts. Back in the US, I always request the dishes be made without it but when in Asia, I didn’t want to be that American tourist insisting on how I want things so I just went with the flow, especially since all the dishes are shared and I’m sure my colleagues, unlike me, don’t consider bean sprouts the devil’s toothpicks.

Crispy Fried Shrimp

After work, I wandered back to the underground mall we had gone to for lunch the previous day.

It was the Raffles City Mall. I didn’t spend too much time on the bigger shops; they were just like what was available at home, literally. Instead, I poked around the little eateries and the local grocery store. I love walking the aisles of a grocery store when I travel. It sounds so simple but I like seeing what’s locally available. Sometimes you really have to look because it can be mostly global brands – Oreos, Kit Kats, Hershey bars, and Ritz crackers abound. But sometimes I discover different flavors I only see in other countries like Coconut Oreos and seaweed flavored chips. At least I assume we don’t have them in the US since I don’t shop Asian grocery stores when I’m at home.

I found a different bakery this time and picked out a couple of different bread rolls for dinner that night. It may seem like a humble meal and at less than $5 SGD, I’m not exactly padding the expense report but, hello, Asian bread. I’m there. I was staying in a really nice hotel but the cheapest room service entrée cost more than I spent eating local in a day. So no room service for me. Even if room service had been free, I still would’ve preferred wandering the underground malls and little eateries for sustenance.  That’s how I like to experience a country - through its food.