Wednesday, August 11, 2010
"Mrs. Fields" Chocolate Chip Cookies
"Mrs. Fields" Chocolate Chip Cookies - made August 3, 2010 from www.topsecretrecipes.com
When Mrs. Fields first opened shop many years ago, I became an instant fan. The cookies were fresh and warm, she offered my favorite milk chocolate chip cookie without nuts, they were of a thickness that I approved of (prior to this I had been baking the Nestle Tollhouse recipe and making do with flat cookies) and they smelled so good. Plus her cookie stands were located at the mall and me likey the mall.
My palate has become more sophisticated since then and Mrs. Fields’ Cookies much more commonplace. My cookie allegiance these days are more with Specialty’s or what comes out of my own oven. However, I have a sentimental soft spot for Mrs. Fields’ Cookies (although since her divorce from Mr. Fields, she’s technically not “Mrs. Fields” anymore…..but I digress) since she launched around the time I was really getting into baking. There was a time in my baking life when I obsessed with copying her cookie. I bought her autobiography and read her story on how she got started. I bought her cookbooks when they came out. But I could never really replicate her cookies, not even with her cookbook recipes or with the tips she says she uses with her cookies. I was going more for the thickness of the cookie rather than the taste and could never duplicate it, no matter which recipe I tried. Of course now I know having a convection oven helps but at the time I kept thinking if I could just find the right recipe, I could hit it. In my quest, I found this recipe from http://www.topsecretrecipes.com. I’m sure I made it at the time but have no memory of how it turned out so I made it again last week.
Hmm, no, once again, not like a Mrs. Fields’ cookie. It spread too much. But it tasted like a good standard chocolate chip cookie so if you’re looking for one, you can add this as another variation of the original Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie. I made the cookie dough and froze the dough balls then baked a batch to take into work (yes, they liked it). I still have some cookie dough in the freezer so when I want/need dessert after dinner, I throw a dough ball into a little ramekin and bake it off. To be topped with a little scoop of ice cream and eaten warm. In the ramekin, it’s not allowed to spread and tastes just fine. Oh, one last note - the recipe says to bake for only 9-10 minutes and that you might be tempted to leave it in there for longer but you should take it out as it'll continue cooking on the cookie sheet. Use your judgment. At 10 minutes, these were still raw looking so I baked them a few minutes longer before I took them out. They were still underbaked but more the way I like them.
1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter
½ cup granulated sugar
1 ½ cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 ½ twelve-ounce bags semisweet chocolate chips
1. Preheat oven to 350˚F.
2. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla.
3. In another bowl, mix together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
4. Combine the wet and dry ingredients.
5. Stir in the chocolate chips.
6. With your fingers, place golf ball-sized dough portions 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
7. Bake for 9-10 minutes or just until edges are light brown.
Makes 30 cookies
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Peanut Butter Cup Cake
This is another recipe I got from my fitness friend, Tanya. Note this is a peanut butter cup cake, not a peanut butter cupcake. Hence the peanut butter cups:
Tanya's recipe calls for making this as a 9" two-layer cake but I've already packed away my round cake pans so I made it in a bundt pan instead. Since the base of the cake is a cake mix, this was really easy to mix together. You have to bake it longer if you use a bundt pan instead of splitting between two round cake pans. I think I baked this for around 45-50 minutes.
As it cooled, I made the ganache. When I was in culinary school, one of my classmates, who had worked as a pastry chef before, had a tendency not to follow the directions our chef instructors gave us. No matter what, she usually did her own thing. Something I found baffling sometimes because then it makes you wonder why go to school if you're not going to do as instructed? But in the making of ganache, I confess, I like her method better. Ganache is essentially melted chocolate and cream whisked together. The traditional method and the one I was taught in school was to heat the cream to boiling and pour over chopped chocolate then to let the heat of the cream melt the chocolate before whisking together to make a smooth ganache. For some reason, I don't like this method. You have to take the time to chop the chocolate and sometimes the ganache doesn't come out evenly if the cream isn't hot enough or you don't whisk fast enough to melt it completely.
My classmate's method (which drove our chef instructors crazy, lol) was to melt the chocolate then take a little bit of cream and whisk into the chocolate. At first the chocolate "seizes" as liquid is added to it and it looks like the whole thing is going to solidify and be a wreck. But you just have to keep whisking and adding the cream a little at a time and you'll end up with a pretty smooth ganache. If you're risk-averse, go with the traditional method in the recipe but this other method also works pretty well. Just remember to keep whisking.
Tanya, a true peanut butter and chocolate aficionado, says she uses double the amount of peanut butter cups that the recipe calls for. I only had one bag of peanut butter cups so my cake turned out much more modest than hers.
You can't really see the peanut butter cups that got mixed into the cake itself - they're there but they blended in pretty well with the cake.
If you like peanut butter and chocolate, this is a good cake. My coworkers liked it - a lot, judging by how fast these disappeared from our communal kitchen on my floor. Next time though, I think I'm going to try it with a devil's food cake from scratch instead of a mix. I'll probably wait until I move, settle in and unpack so I can make it as a real two-layer cake. If you make this as a bundt cake, be warned that you don't need all that ganache. Probably 2/3 of the recipe will do. I personally am not a ganache fan as it's not sweet enough for me and I don't care for the texture as much as with regular frosting so I might change up the frosting too.
3 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
½ cup vegetable oil
2 cups chopped peanut butter cups (plus more for garnishing – I used 2 bags)
8 oz. dark chocolate, chopped
1 cup heavy cream
½ cup peanut butter
1. Preheat oven to 350˚F. Coat two 9-inch cake pans with non-stick cooking spray. Line with wax paper and coat paper.
2. In a large bowl, beat cake mix, eggs, buttermilk and vegetable oil on low for 30 seconds. Increase speed to medium-high and beat for 2 minutes. Scrape down sides after 1 minute. Fold in 2 cups of the chopped peanut butter cups.
3. Pour batter into pans and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
4. Cool cakes completely.
5. Place chopped dark chocolate in a medium bowl. Bring cream just to a boil and then pour over chocolate. Whisk until chocolate melts. Add peanut butter and whisk until smooth.
6. Trim each cake layer so the tops are flat. Place one layer on a cooling rack and pour 1 cup frosting on top. Spread evenly with a spatula. Add second layer and pour remaining frosting over top and sides of cake. Smooth out with spatula.
7. Allow frosting to set for a minute and gently press remaining chopped peanut butter cup pieces all over top and sides of cake. Place in refrigerator for about an hour to set. Remove and serve.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Lemon Doodles
1 ½ cups sugar
¾ cup flaked coconut
1 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 ½ teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon grated lemon peel
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1. Heat oven to 400˚F. In large mixer bowl combine all ingredients. Beat at low speed, scraping bowl often, until well mixed (2 to 4 minutes). Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto cookie sheets. Bake for 7 to 10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.
Yield: 4 dozen cookies
Friday, July 30, 2010
Tamarine - prepare for serious food porn
Second course: Ha Long Bay Soup (crab wontons served in a consumme infused with coriander and coconut milk) and Papaya Salad
Third course: Tamarine Prawns, Lemongrass Sea Bass, Chili Lime Aubergine, and Coconut Rice
With all good Asian meals, you have to have rice. This course came with coconut rice inside a banana leaf container. Despite the name, there wasn't much coconut to it so it was more like steamed rice. Very good.
I loved the sea bass as well but then again, I'm also a fan of lemongrass. Very tasty.
Fourth Course: Garlic Fried Rice, Shaking Beef and Hoisin Lamp Chops
I didn't even try the lamp chops. My eyes were on the prize (see next dish).
By the time we got to the fifth course, billed as "Chef's Seasonal Selection", I was pretty much topped up on fullness. Not sick full but full. Thankfully, dessert was a cup of fruit with creme fraiche(?) and what looked like a beignet but was really a little fried banana. I skipped the fruit bowl and had the warm fried banana, grateful for its relatively small size. Also quite delicious even if I probably would've enjoyed it more if I hadn't had that second helping of Shaking Beef.
So next time you're in downtown Palo Alto, give Tamarine a try - it's further down University Avenue near Middlefield, far enough down that you have a shot at getting a decent parking space even on a busy weeknight. I recommend going a little early (we got there at 6 pm) as the place gets packed. And don't forget to order the Shaking Beef (thanks, boss!)
Not So Sloppy Joes
1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 pound ground beef (90% lean)
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
1 ½ teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon kosher salt
4 hamburger buns, toasted (to prevent bread from becoming mushy)
½ cup (2 ounces) grated Cheddar (optional)
½ cup sour cream (optional)
1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, and bell pepper. Cook until softened, about 3 minutes. Add the beef and cook, crumbling it with a spoon, until no trace of pink remains, about 7 minutes. Spoon off and discard any excess fat.
2. Stir in the tomato paste, chili powder, cumin, black pepper, cinnamon and salt. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens slightly, about 12 minutes. Spoon the beef mixture onto the bottom half of each bun with the Cheddar and a dollop of the source cream (if using). Sandwich with the top half of each bun.
4 servings
Caprial's Chocolate Brownies
½ cup cold unsalted butter, diced
4 large eggs
1 ½ cups sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
¼ cup flour
1 cup chopped toasted walnuts or pecans
Pinch of salt
1. Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Line the bottom of a well-greased 9-inch round cake pan with parchment paper; set aside.
2. Place the chocolate and butter in a metal bowl set over a pan of simmering water, making sure that the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. When the chocolate has melted about halfway, remove the pan from the heat (leaving the bowl on the pan) and let the chocolate sit until completely melted; stir until smooth. Set aside.
3. Place the eggs, sugar and vanilla extract in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the whip attachment, and whip on high speed until the eggs are very light in color and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the melted chocolate and mix on medium speed until well blended. Add the flour, nuts, and salt, and mix on low speed until all of the ingredients are incorporated. Increase the speed to medium and mix just until smooth. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake until a knife inserted in the brownies comes out covered with moist crumbs, 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool about 20 minutes, then cut the brownies into 16 wedges and serve.
Heath Bits Peanut Butter Cookies
In case you've never seen toffee bits before, here's what's generally available at the grocery store. There are two kinds - one that's milk chocolate toffee bits and are essentially Heath Bars chopped into pieces (pictured below). The other is just toffee bits without the milk chocolate. The latter is harder to find, at least in my local grocery stores. I've been able to find them when I visit my sister in Southern California so I admit to stocking up on them in the infrequent times I go down for a visit.
This recipe made for a good dough to work with, meaning it wasn't too soft or sticky. I portioned the cookie dough into dough balls using my ice cream scoop which has gotten more use with cookie dough than with actual ice cream, placed them in a plastic lid that was originally supposed to be a cover for a pie pan, and put them in the freezer to firm up before I put them in a ziploc freezer bag marked with their name, oven temp and baking time.
½ cup shortening
¾ cup creamy peanut butter
1 ¼ cups packed light brown sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups (8 ounces) Heath Milk Chocolate Toffee Bits, divided
1. Heat oven to 375˚F.
2. Beat shortening, peanut butter, brown sugar, milk and vanilla in large bowl until well blended. Add egg; beat just until blended. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt; gradually bet into peanut butter mixture. Stir in 1 cup toffee bits; reserve remainder for topping.
3. Drop by heaping teaspoons about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet; top each with reserved toffee bits. Bake 7 to 8 minutes or until set. Do not overbake. Cool 2 minutes. Remove to wire rack. Cool completely.
About 3 dozen cookies