Slow Cooker Orange Chicken

Slow Cooker Orange Chicken - made May 20, 2011 from This Woman Cook's blog

I loved how this looked on Christina's blog (click on title for the recipe on her blog) and it was just the kind of cooking I can do: mix stuff up, put in a slow cooker and leave it alone until it's done.  And now that I'm working, I also needed to figure out some simple, easy meals I can make or have ready when I get home from work.

As easy as crock pot cooking is, I rarely do it.  For one thing, I have the regular size which is rather largish for one person so when I do use it, it means lots of leftovers and eating the same thing in the future, even if I freeze some.  For another, invariably, whatever I make turns out soupy.  It might be tasty-soupy but soupy nonetheless and sometimes I just don't want soupy.  I end up eating too much rice to sop up the sauce. But I couldn't resist this recipe because I love orange chicken and it was so easy to make.  I'm glad I tried it because it was good and incredibly easy to put together.  It did come out a bit soupy and I tried to thicken it with a little cornstarch but there was still a lot of soupy sauce.  But that's okay as I figure I can always cook more chicken to go with the sauce. 

Oh, and how your sauce turns out is of course going to depend on the ingredients you use so use your favorite barbecue sauce (I used Trader Joe's Kansas City-Style Barbecue Sauce) and marmalade (I used Dundee Orange Marmalade - also from TJ's).  Thanks, Christina, for the recipe!

Charlie's Afternoon Chocolate Cake

Charlie's Afternoon Chocolate Cake - made May 18, 2011 from Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard (book #111)

There are many decadent-sounding recipes in this cookbook, accompanied by mouthwatering pictures.  The picture of this cake in the cookbook looks like the creamiest baked fudge so it was almost inevitable that I had to make it.  Notice the relatively short list of ingredients and how prominently chocolate figures into it.  To sound like a broken record, please use high quality chocolate on this one.  It'll make all the difference and render the calories worth it.  I used Valrhona - $2.99 for a 3-ounce package at Trader Joe's. I needed these to pack in goodie bags which is harder to portion out when you bake something in a round pan so I made this in a 9" square baking pan.

This has no chemical leavening and the instructions don't call for beating it a lot so I didn't expect it to rise much, if at all.  It spread into a thin layer in a 9-inch pan so next time I'd bake it in an 8-inch pan just to have it a little thicker. If you do that, be sure to adjust for the baking time.  I followed the recipe exactly with regards to the size of pan and the baking temps and times so I didn't even bother with the toothpick test on this one.  The chocolate set as it cools and it has a fragile texture but a great taste (from the "good" chocolate).  It was just a trifle too sweet for me so next time I'd use a darker chocolate than 60%.  I like my chocolate candy and truffles to be milk chocolate but chocolate baked goods to be a deeper, richer chocolate.  But this is a crazy-easy cake to put together so if you need to whip up something fast, this is a good choice.  If you do bake in a 9-inch pan, the thin squares would make a good base for a scoop of ice cream.  Just sayin'....

10 tablespoons unsalted butter

8 ounces 60% chocolate, chopped

2 large eggs

2/3 cup sugar

¾ cup all-purpose flour

1.      Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350⁰F.  Spray the sides and bottom of a round 9-inch cake pan with nonstick cooking spray.  Dust it with flour, shaking off the excess and set aside.

2.      Bring the butter to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat.  Stir a couple of times to prevent it from burning.  Remove from the heat and add the chocolate to the pan.  Stir the mixture until the chocolate is melted and smooth.

3.      Whisk together the eggs and sugar in a large bowl until well combined.  Add the flour and mix well.  Add the chocolate to the batter and stir until the mixture is just combined.  Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan.

4.      Bake for 15 minutes, then lower the heat to 300⁰F and bake for an additional 8 minutes.  Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool completely in the pan.  Unmold and serve.

Diamond-Edged Melt-in-Your-Mouth Butter Cookies

Diamond-Edged Melt-in-Your-Mouth Butter Cookies - made May 17, 2011 from Bakewise by Shirley Corriher (book #110)

I'm still posting recipes I made last Tuesday - that was clearly a banner baking day.  Tomorrow is officially back to the working world for me.  I'm still behind by a few more blog posts of what I've made last week but I've written them up ahead of time so I can post them with a click of a button next week and hopefully it'll be enough to see me through the week.  I'd gotten used to baking and posting almost daily but once I exhaust my backlog posts, I'll have to scale back a bit until I adjust to a full-time working schedule again.  In the meantime....

Bakewise by Shirley Corriher gave me one of the best brownie recipes I've ever made.  Considering exactly how many I've made over the years (well over 150+), that's saying something.  So I had high hopes for this butter cookie.  Despite their simplicity or maybe because of their simplicity, good butter cookies are hard to find.  Some taste great but spread too much because they contain too much butter and some don't spread at all and are dry because they don't have enough butter.  I love plain butter cookies.  I'll even admit that, much as I scoff at "storebought" cookies and prefer to make my own, I love those danish butter cookies that come in the big tins every Christmas.  I can eat those like kettle corn, popping them in my mouth one after the other.  So much for portion control.

Given how good Shirley's brownie recipe is, I was willing to give this recipe as much optimism as possible.  The dough was very easy to work with, not too crumbly, not too greasy.  I only made a half recipe because I'm trying out as many recipes as possible this week so I was going for quantity of different recipes, not necessarily a lot out of each recipe.  I refrigerated it overnight and baked off what I needed for goodie bags the next day.

I love these cookies - they're awesome slices of butter goodness and the rock sugar or sugar crystals you roll them in before chilling and baking are a perfect complement both texture-wise with their crunch and taste-wise with their sweetness against the butter cookie.  For once, I don't advocate underbaking - these cookies taste best when they're baked properly for the right amount of time.  The edges will be crisp-crunchy like a good butter cookie should have and you don't want the middles too soft or mushy but with a uniform "snap" to them.  Shirley Corriher scores once again, not just with a good recipe but with one of the best versions I've tried so far out of any recipe for this cookie - that makes 2 for 2 from her book.  Oh, and it goes without saying to please use fresh butter - not something that's been sitting unused in the refrigerator for weeks or months.  You want to taste the sheer butter goodness.

ETA: forgot to add but someone reminded me - I substituted vanilla extract for the almond extract in this recipe and it was just fine.  I love almonds but not almond extract so I always automatically substitute vanilla extract wherever almond extract is called for.

1 cup unsalted butter, cut into 2-tablespoon pieces

1 cup granulated sugar

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon pure almond extract (I used vanilla extract)

2 large egg yolks

2 ¼ cups (9.9 ounces) bleached all-purpose flour

½ cup coarse or crystal sugar

1 large egg, beaten

1.   In a heavy-duty mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, sugar, salt and almond extract until light and creamy.  Add the yolks, one at a time, and beat with each addition, just to blend in thoroughly.

2.   On low speed, beat in the flour, scraping down the bowl twice.  Divide the dough into 4 pieces.  Roll each into a log about 1 ½ inches in diameter.

3.   Sprinkle coarse sugar evenly on wax paper, the length of the rolls and about 4 inches wide.  Brush a roll lightly with beaten egg, then roll in sugar to coat well.  Repeat with each roll.  Wrap each roll individually in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight.

4.   About 30 minutes before you are ready to bake, place a shelf in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 375⁰F.

5.   Cover a heavy baking sheet with parchment paper sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.  Slice cookies into 3/8-inch slices and arrange about 1 inch apart on the sheet.

6.   Place the baking sheet on the arranged shelf.  Bake one sheet at a time until the edges just begin to brown, about 14 minutes.  Allow to cool on the sheet for 2 minutes, and then remove to a cooling rack.

Snickerdoodle Blondies

Snickerdoodle Blondies - made May 17, 2011 found on Sweets for a Saturday #13, from ArcticGardioStudio blog

1st try

I love snickerdoodles and when I saw this recipe for Snickerdoodle Blondies and the picture on Arctic Garden Studio's blog, I immediately bookmarked the post so I could go back to it later and make it.  This is essentially a snickerdoodle in bar cookie form.  It has the same sugar-cinnamon flavor and topping as a snickerdoodle cookie and is just slightly more cakey than the traditional cookie.  But that could just be in the baking.  On the original blog, what sucked me in was how dense and moist the bars looked.  Mine turned out to be more cakey.  It wasn't dry but I think I would've liked it better less baked.  Next time I'm going to cut the baking time.  The dough was also so stiff that it doesn't really smooth out during baking so if you put it in craggy, it'll come out craggy (an obvious lesson I learned).  But it tasted good so another good recipe from the Sweets for a Saturday link party.  Next time Imight add a little more liquid so the dough isn't so stiff, smooth the top better and bake it for less time.  Click title above for the original recipe and/or Arctic Garden Studio's blog.

ETA May 22, 2011 - okay, I really wanted to make these better so I tried another half batch yesterday.  This time I baked in a slightly smaller pan (6" by 9") and only baked for 20 minutes instead of 25.  The taste was the same (good) but I liked the texture much better this time around.  It was more moist, less cakey and more dense.  Still not as good looking a texture as on Nicole's blog but getting there.

2nd try came out much better

 

Devil's Food Cupcakes

Devil's Food Cupcakes - made May 17, 2011 from Mary Engelbreit's Sweet Treats Dessert Cookbook (book #109)

It's coming up on the end of my last week of time off and I'm almost done with my list of "Things To Do Before I Go Back to Work".  As you can tell, on that list, is "Bake as much as I can".  I got a fair amount of baking done on Tuesday and gave away the results to my former coworkers, some friends and my cousin.  It's been great being able to try more new recipes and I've also spent some time going through the cookbooks I have left to bake from and typing up the recipes I want to try from them.

I once went through a Mary Engelbreit phase some years ago and I think I got most, if not all, of her baking-related cookbooks.  All the cookbooks have nice layouts with pretty pictures and easy to follow recipes, not to mention being set against a backdrop of cheery Mary Engelbreit patterns.  So naturally I got sucked in (it doesn't take much).  I'm past the Mary Engelbreit phase now but surprisingly I've found some good recipes in her cookbooks.

I tried this recipe for devil's food cupcakes partly to use up some buttermilk and partly because I have yet to find a memorable devil's food cake recipe that I like.  And cupcakes can be the bane of my baking existence.  In my abhorrence of dry cupcakes, I tend to underbake them.  While they're not dry, underbaked cupcakes tend to be more dense than they should be and sometimes don't taste right.  So I haven't cracked the cupcake secret yet.  But I keep trying.  Someday I'll get it right. 

And this cupcake recipe is a good start.  The cupcakes were a nice deep chocolate thanks to Pernigotti cocoa and the texture was just right - cakey, fluffy, moist.  For once I think I took them out at the right time, although I was getting twitchy at the end and almost took them out too soon again. Even the frosting was good, much better than the one from the Chocolate Velvet Cakes recipe.  I only used a generous 2 cups powdered sugar, not 3 full cups, and it turned out fine.  Just add enough milk until it's the consistency you want for spreading.

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Pernigotti and it was perfect)

1 ½ teaspoons baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 ½ cups sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups buttermilk

Easy Buttercream Frosting

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

3 cups confectioners’ sugar

2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

Food coloring (optional)

Sprinkles, mini M&Ms, colored sugar, etc, for decorating

1.      Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Line 20 muffin cups with foil liners.

2.     In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.

3.     In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Beat in the vanilla.  On low speed, add the flour mixture alternating with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.  Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling each one about two-thirds full.

4.     Bake the cupcakes for 17 to 19 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.  Let cool completely in the pans on wire racks.

5.     To make the frosting: In a large bowl, cream the butter with an electric mixer until very soft and light, about 3 minutes.  Add the remaining ingredients and beat until smooth and fluffy.  Use immediately or cover and refrigerate until needed.

6.     If desired, divide the frosting among several bowls and tint it different colors with food coloring; leave one bowl of frosting white.  Ice the cupcakes generously with the frosting.  Before the frosting has set, sprinkle the decorations on top.

Three-Layer Lemon Bars

Three-Layer Lemon Bars - made May 17, 2011 from My Five Men blog, found on Sweets for a Saturday #16

It's time to try another recipe that I saw from Sweets for a Saturday.  I have a list a mile long of recipes I see linked up there every Saturday that I want to try but given I've got my own baking books to go through, I have to limit myself to trying a few here and there.  In the meantime, I bookmark the links, promising myself that I'll go back "someday" to try out all these wonderful-looking concoctions.

I met some friends for lunch and dinner on Wednesday and with both groups, my lemon bars have been a hit in the past.  This time around, I thought I'd try something slightly different for them and use this recipe that Betsy posted.  The picture just looked so good.  The basic ingredients are almost the same as in my recipe but mine doesn't have the glaze on top.  What could it hurt?

The main thing I changed from Betsy's posted recipe (click on the title at the top to go to the original recipe on her blog) was I baked the crust at 325 degrees instead of 300.  At 300 degrees, in the first 10 minutes of baking the crust, it seemed like the butter in the crust was only melting, not baking so I raised the oven temp slightly. During the baking with the filling, I lowered it to 315 for the first 20 minutes then back down to 300 for the last 20.  These got a little crusty and brown on top so it might've been better to stick with 300 degrees the whole way once the filling was added.  My glaze isn't showing up as white as Betsy's and that could be because I applied the glaze only a couple of minutes after I took the lemon bars out and they melted into the top.  If you look closely, you can still see the glaze but I think it would look better had they remained more uniformly white.  Next time I would let the bars cool to lukewarm then apply the glaze.

Overall, I really liked the taste of these lemon bars.  The glaze was a sweet offset to the tartness of the lemon filling and I actually liked the crust on top that was enhanced by the glaze to provide a bit of a texture contrast to the lemon filling.  The glaze was great - I like it better than sprinkling powdered sugar on top like most lemon bars have.  The bottom crust could've been baked a bit more before the filling was added so I'm posting how I would adapt this recipe below.  Otherwise this had great flavor.  It probably also helped that my lemons were from my aunt's tree so they were homegrown.  I'm looking forward to the day I can use my own lemons for this recipe.

In any case, I'm very glad I tried this recipe.  This is exactly why I keep trying out new recipes even for desserts I already have perfectly good recipes for.  You never know when you might discover something even better and come up with a new favorite. I want to make this recipe again with my modifications to see if it really is going to usurp my old lemon bar recipe.  I suspect it might.

Crust

½ cup powdered sugar

2 cups flour

2 sticks (1 cup) cold butter

Filling

4 eggs

4 tablespoons flour

2 cups sugar

Zest from 2 lemons

4 tablespoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon lemon extract

Glaze

2/3 cup powdered sugar

Lemon juice

1.     To make the crust: Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Place the crust ingredients in a food processor and pulse until combined.  Press into greased 9 x 13” baking pan lined with foil.  Bake for 20-25 minutes, until edges are golden brown.

2.      To make the filling: Whisk filling ingredients together and carefully pour over hot crust in an even layer.

3.      Bake 40-45 minutes until nicely brown and knife comes out clean when inserted in the center.

4.      To make the glaze: whisk glaze ingredients together.  It should be thin enough to drizzle.  Let lemon bars cool to just a bit warmer than lukewarm.  Spread over bars and let set.  Cool completely before cutting.

Chocolate Chunk Coconut Macadamia Cookies

Chocolate Chunk Coconut Macadamia Cookies - baked May 17, 2011 from The Buttercup Bake Shop  Cookbook by Jennifer Appel (book #108)

The last time I was in New York City, I went to every bake shop in Manhattan that I could conceivably walk to - and believe me, I can walk a lot when there are baked goods involved.  I'd heard about the Magnolia Bakery and its sister bakery, the Buttercup Bake Shop, and visited both.  At Buttercup, the best thing I ever ate was a slice of their red velvet cake.  When I came back from my trip, I bought several of their baking books which had been published by that time.  This was one of them.  I normally make coconut macadamia cookies as they're a family favorite but I decided to try the chocolate version of them with this recipe.  As I think of heading back to work, I also want to stockpile some cookie doughs to have ready in the freezer that I can bake off whenever I need them.  Some people advocate baking cookies and freezing them until needed but I prefer to freeze the cookie dough (already portioned into dough balls) and bake them off when I need them.  A freshly baked cookie trumps a freshly thawed cookie any time.

This recipe is fairly standard and easy to put together.  I did what I almost always do with cookies - I make the dough ahead of time, portion them into dough balls and put them in the freezer.  Then I bake them at least a day later, right before I need them.  This was part of a baking drop off at my old company so I baked them the same morning I delivered them.  I think they were barely cool before I piled them on a plate and brought them over.  As with all chocolate cookies, I actually timed this one in the oven since it's hard to tell when chocolate cookies are done since you can't go by how "brown" the edges look.  And there's nothing worse than overbaked, dry chocolate cookies.  I like to underbake mine just slightly so when they cool, they're nice and fudgy.  The quality of your cocoa matters since this is where the chocolate flavor comes from.  I use Pernigotti from Williams Sonoma but any high-quality cocoa should do.

I like this cookie - the richness of the chocolate is offset by the sweetness and chewiness from the coconut and complemented by the macadamia nuts.  Wonder of wonders, I didn't even mind the nuts in these cookies and you know I hardly ever like nuts in my cookies.  Macadamia nuts are the rare exception though as long as the cookie is thick and chewy or fudgy.  I don't think I would feel the same if this had been made with almonds or pecans (and I love those too - just not in cookies)

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour

½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/3 cups (2 2/3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

2 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted

2 tablespoons milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 ½ to 2 cups semisweet chocolate chunks

1 cup coarsely chopped macadamia nuts, unsalted

1 cup sweetened, shredded coconut

1.      Preheat oven to 350˚F.

2.     In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.

3.     In a large bowl, cream the butter and the sugars until smooth, about 3 minutes.  Add the eggs and mix well.  Add the chocolate, milk, and vanilla and incorporate thoroughly.  Add the dry ingredients and beat well.  Stir in the chocolate chunks, nuts and coconut.

4.     Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets, leaving several inches between for expansion.  Bake for 8 to 10 minutes.  Cool the cookies on the sheets for 1 minute, then remove to a rack to cool completely.

Makes 3 to 4 dozen cookies