Vanilla Pudding Snickerdoodle Cookies

Vanilla Pudding Snickerdoodles - made dough January 1, 2013, recipe adapted from Something Swanky

My sweet tooth seems to be returning.  (Let's not kid ourselves, it was never lurking too far away.)  But I did have impetus to bake cookies since I was meeting my cousin Christine and her son, Vanilla King, for dinner last week.  One of Vanilla King's favorite cookies is Snickerdoodles.  He doesn't like chocolate but he likes white chocolate (we just call them vanilla chips - shhh, it's all in the perception).  So I decided to go with a combo of the two.  I didn't have the white chocolate instant pudding mix that Something Swanky's original recipe called for so I went with plain vanilla pudding mix since I already had it in hand.

The rest of the recipe is like a traditional chocolate chip cookie.  But the key difference is not only the pudding mix addition but also the teaspoon of cinnamon.  I loved this cookie.  When you eat it warm (give it at least 10 minutes out of the oven to cool slightly), the edges are crunchy and the middle is moist and light.  The cinnamon gives it a really nice flavor as does the cinnamon sugar coating.  At room temperature, it's almost even better,  The cookie is chewy and moist.  Definitely a good choice for Vanilla King.

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
3.4 oz. package white chocolate instant pudding mix (I used vanilla pudding mix)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups white chocolate chips
1 teaspoon cinnamon

For coating
1/3 cup cinnamon sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350º (unless you're going to freeze the dough first). Prepare baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
2. In a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugars.
3. Add eggs first, and mix in, then add remaining ingredients, except the cinnamon sugar. Mix well.
4. Scoop out with a cookie scooper (about 3 tablespoons worth) and roll the dough ball in the cinnamon sugar, coating completely.
5. Place on baking sheet about 2 inches apart.
6. Bake for approximately 10 minutes, until slightly golden and just set in the middle. Do not overbake. Let cool on baking sheet.

Challah

Challah - made January 1, 2013 from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day

2nd loaf made from refrigerated dough - had a higher oven spring

I love bread.  Even more than sugar.  There's just something about a slice of homemade bread, still warm from the oven and slathered with melting butter that makes me forget I want to keep fitting into my clothes.  And out of all the breads out there, challah, a traditional Jewish bread. enriched with eggs, butter and honey, is one of my favorites (and I don't even like honey).  Challah is similar in taste and texture to versions of Filipino ensaimada, except without the butter and sugar on top that ensaimada has.  Challah is also typically made in braided loaves while ensaimada is coiled rolls.  Still, regardless of the comparison or non-comparison, my love for good challah knows no bounds.

But much as I love bread, I don't make it that often because of the time and effort involved.  When I do make it, it's on a rare Saturday when I have time to make the dough, knead it, let it rise, punch it down, let it rise again, shape it, rise, bake, yada yada.  In other words, when I have nothing to do all day....which almost never happens. And I still don't knead the dough properly enough half the time.  I'm so afraid of overworking the gluten that I don't work it enough.  Plus, there's that whole I want to keep fitting into my clothes thing.

Baked from newly-made, unchilled dough - spread out more

Nevertheless, I broke my self-imposed ban of not buying any new cookbooks by buying this book, Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.  A friend on my online fitness board had recommended it awhile back and someone posted a pic of their challah made from this book on pinterest.  Hello, did someone say challah?  So I bought it on impulse because amazon prime membership and two-day shipping are dangerous elements to combine with no willpower.

But one taste of this bread and I forgave myself.  As the book claims, it's really easy to make - you literally put all the ingredients in the bowl, mix it with a dough hook on the Kitchenaid, let it sit for a couple of hours then use it.  I like to think I braided the challah correctly but the dough was pretty soft (a must for this method of bread making) so when it rose, the braids blended into each other somewhat so the distinctive braids weren't quite so distinctive.  The authors say if that happens, try increasing the flour a bit more next time.  Still, I loved the taste.  I'm not a fan of honey but you can't really taste it in this bread other than as a slight sweetener.  I don't like hard crusts on my bread and this one was a bit soft yet a little crunchy when it was warm.  I think I ate two pieces before my mind was fully aware of what I was doing.  My taste buds had taken over all conscious thought processes.

If you like homemade bread but don't like the big time investment it normally takes, try out this recipe (the challah also serves well as good sandwich bread) and try out this book.  I've only made this one recipe so far but I think it's worth the entire book.  It does make more than enough dough for a couple of good-sized loaves.  I made 2 loaves on two different days and still have some leftover that I think I'll use the rest to make beignets - stay tuned.

Warm with butter - fantastic

1 ¾ cups lukewarm water

1 ½ tablespoons granulated yeast (2 packets)

1 ½ tablespoons Kosher salt

4 large eggs, lightly beaten

½ cup honey

½ cup unsalted butter, melted

7 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water)

1.     Mixing and storing the dough: mix the yeast, salt, eggs, honey and melted butter with the water in a 5-quart bowl or a lidded (not airtight) food container.

2.     Mix in the flour without kneading using a spoon, a 14-cup capacity food processor with dough attachment or a heavy-duty stand mixer with dough hook.  If mixing by hand, you may need to use wet hands to incorporate the last bit of flour.

3.     Cover (not airtight) and allow to rest at room temperature until the dough rises and collapses (or flattens on top), approximately 2 hours.

4.     The dough can be used immediately after the initial rise, though it is easier to handle when cold.  Refrigerate in a lidded (not airtight) container and use over the next 5 days.  Beyond 5 days, freeze in 1-pound portions in an airtight container for up to 4 weeks.  Defrost frozen dough overnight in the refrigerator before using.  Then allow the usual rest and rise time.

5.     On baking day, line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.  Dust the surface of the refrigerated dough with flour and cut off a 1-pound (grapefruit-size) piece.  Dust the piece with more flour and quick shape it into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go.

6.     Divide the ball into thirds, using a dough scraper or knife.  Roll the balls between your hands (or on a board), stretching to form ech into a long, thin rope.  If the dough resists shaping, let it rest for 5 minutes and try again.  Braid the ropes, starting from the center and working to one end.  Turn the loaf over, rotate it and braid from the center out to the remaining end.  This produces a loaf with a more uniform thickness than when braided from end to end.

7.     Allow the braid to rest and rise on the prepared cookie sheet for 1 hour and 20 minutes (or just 40 minutes if you’re using fresh, unrefrigerated dough).

8.     Twenty minutes before baking time, preheat the oven to 350°F.  If you’re not using a stone in the oven, 5 minutes is adequate.  Brush the loaf with egg wash.

9.     Bake near the center of the oven for about 25 minutes.  Smaller or larger loaves will require adjustments in baking time.  The challah is done when golden brown, and the braids near the center of the loaf offer resistance to pressure.  

 

Slow-Cooked Pork Chops

Slow-Cooked Pork Chops - made December 31, 2012 from My Daily Moment

Another "real food" recipe.  Yes, I'm still trying to feed myself at home.  I don't usually cook with pork very much, mostly because I'm inept at it and pork chops can toughen up easily (well, they do when I get hold of them).  But I figure you can't go wrong throwing them in a crock pot since all you need to do is let them cook long enough to get tender.  Which is pretty much what this recipe is.  The beauty of it is you can prep and pan sear them in a few minutes then throw them in the slow cooker for the rest of the day and forget about it.  That's my kind of cooking.

After my brush with dry chicken breasts, I also wanted something with a little bit of sauce and this delivered.  This didn't get too soupy since you only put in the one can of soup and no water but the sauce wasn't thick either.  I cooked it on high for almost 6 hours, until the chops were fork tender.  Taste-wise, I don't think I'd win any culinary blue ribbons but this turned out pretty well.  It was a tiny bit salty for me but otherwise good.  I also added sprigs of rosemary to the crock pot.  The original recipe didn't call for it but I have a healthy, thriving, ever-growing rosemary plant and I figure I'd better be using it as much as possible.  Especially since even after I cut off half a dozen sprigs, the plant looked as bushy as it ever was.

6 lean pork chops
1/2 cup flour
1 tablespoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons dry mustard1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons oil
1 10-oz can chicken and rice soup

Coat pork chops in mixture of flour, salt, dry mustard, and garlic powder and brown in oil in skillet. Place browned pork chops in crock-pot. Add can of soup. Cover and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours or on high for 3 1/2 hours.

Lemon Chicken

Lemon Chicken - made December 30, 2012 from Juju Good News

Happy New Year!  Welcome 2013!  Try to stay a little longer than 2012 did because that girl just whipped on by.

It's that time of year when I temporarily switch over from dessert recipes to "real food" recipes.  It's partly because I've been baking so much over the holidays that yes, even I burn out on baking and sugar.  Don't worry, that particular insanity really does pass (give me another day week or so).  In the meantime, I still have to eat and as part of every new year, I make a concerted effort to cook for myself and stop eating out or getting takeout for my sustenance.  Actually, I've been getting better at cooking for myself (not necessarily the results, just the act of cooking) and as has been the theme with real food recipes this year, pinterest provides a lot of possibilities.

Case in point is this one I found on pinterest from Juju Good News.  This is a healthy rendition of Lemon Chicken where the main ingredient really is lemon.  I still have a bunch of lemons from my mom's lemon tree and she keeps asking if I need more.  Since I'm not baking, I decided to repurpose the lemons to a savory dish in an attempt to use up the bounty.  Plus, my friend Hongpei gave me a rosemary plant for Christmas so this had the added bonus of using a fresh herb I already had.  If you make the recipe as is, this is a pretty healthy choice, even healthier if you leave off the butter.  I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts and had half a piece over a bed of salad greens (squirt of lemon as the dressing) for my dinner.  I know, I know, you think someone's hacked my blog and this couldn't possibly be me.  Would it help if I said I followed up that singularly healthy dinner with a chocolate chip cookie baked in a ramekin and topped with vanilla ice cream?  See, it really is me.

In any case, if you make this recipe, I don't advise using chicken breasts.  As I've discovered (more than once but I keep forgetting), they dry out too easily.  I baked mine a trifle too long so yup, they were a bit dry.  There isn't much "sauce" although the lemon does permeate the chicken nicely, especially considering I marinated it overnight.  So stick with the thighs or drumsticks per the original recipe.

However, all is not lost if you do end up with sauceless, slightly dry chicken.  I searched for and found this recipe for Lemon Sauce - bonus that it used up more lemons.  I may have to stock up on lemons after all the next time I go to my mom's.  This sauce is reminiscent of the sauce for lemon chicken in Chinese restaurants and is also thick, thanks to the cornstarch.  Don't be afraid to go big on the lemons - you want that nice lemon flavor.

2 tablespoons lemon zest
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary leaves, finely minced
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
2-4 lbs. of bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs or drumsticks (I used chicken breasts)
2-3 tablespoons melted butter
Thinly sliced lemons, for garnished

1. Combine the lemon zest, lemon juice, garlic, thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper in a large zipper-lock plastic bag. Seal the bag and shake well to blend. Place the chicken pieces in the bag with the marinade, pressing out excess air and sealing once more. Refrigerate and let marinate for 2 hours.

2. Preheat the oven to 425˚ F. Remove the chicken pieces from the marinade and transfer to a baking dish, skin-side up, reserving the leftover marinade. Brush the top of each piece of chicken with melted butter.

3. Bake for 50-55 minutes, until the skins are crispy and well-browned. Halfway through baking, pour the remaining marinade over the chicken pieces in the baking dish. Once fully baked, cover loosely with foil and let rest 10 minutes before serving. Transfer to a serving platter, garnish with lemon slices and serve.

Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting - made December 15, 2012 from Bake or Break

This is the last new dessert recipe I tried before Christmas and I'm sneaking it in before 2012 ends.  The picture of this cake from Bake or Break looked really good but it was the write up that led me to try this recipe because the author mentioned Billy's Bakery in Manhattan and their banana cake.  The last time I was in Manhattan, I actually had the banana cake from Billy's Bakery and it was fantastic.  Light, fluffy and moist.  Almost as good as my favorite banana cake from Icing on the Cake in Los Gatos, CA.  So of course I had to try this recipe.

Sadly, though, my efforts missed the mark.  I don't know whether I didn't mix the batter enough or beat enough air into it or whether I didn't bake it long enough but mine didn't have the fluffy texture I was hoping for.  The taste was good but this was too dense which points to one of the errors I probably made above.  Back to my quest to find a banana cake similar to Icing on the Cake.

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tablespoons canola oil
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 large egg white, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 large ripe bananas
1/4 cup milk

Frosting
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 & 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons chopped toasted nuts (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 375°. Line an 8-inch square pan with foil and lightly spray with cooking spray.
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
3. Using an electric mixer, beat butter, oil, and sugar. Beat in eggs and egg white, 1 at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in vanilla. In a separate bowl, mash bananas with milk. Set aside.
4.  Gradually mix half of dry ingredients into butter mixture. Mix in bananas. Mix in remaining dry ingredients. Pour cake batter into prepared baking pan.
5. Bake 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean. Cool cake in pan on wire rack. 
6. To make the frosting: Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat cream cheese and vanilla.  Reduce speed and gradually add confectioners’ sugar. Spread frosting on cake. Sprinkle with nuts if desired.

Jacques Torres' Chocolate Chip Cookies

Jacques Torres' Chocolate Chip Cookies - made December 17, 2012 from A Tender Crumb

I've been out of town for the holidays and put up a few pre-written posts while I was gone but now I'm back and just in time.  It's National Chocolate Day!  I'm woefully inadequately informed on important foodie days like that (Chocolate Day!!) so I'm caught a little unprepared with some kind of decadent chocolate dessert.  So this chocolate chip cookie recipe will have to be the stand-in. 

I made the dough before Christmas in preparation for a couple of get togethers and a few holiday gifts.  As I've mentioned earlier, every time I have plans to see my friend Todd whose favorite dessert is chocolate chip cookies, I have an excuse to try a new chocolate chip cookie recipe.  I've had this pinned for awhile waiting for one of those Todd occasions.  I made the dough and had it chilling overnight but then got the email that one of our mutual friends had to cancel the dinner so we postponed it until next month.  Same thing happened last time I was supposed to meet with Todd.   Fortunately, chocolate chip cookies are universally welcomed by most of my friends so I had no problem finding other recipients for them for my baking gifts (sorry, Todd).

This was a pretty good recipe, although, to my jaded taste buds, it's always best 10 minutes out of the oven when it's still warm, the edges are crisp and the chips are melt-y.  Once it cooled to room temperature, it was somewhat like your average chocolate chip cookie.  Still good but I have to give the nod to Averie's chocolate chips and chunks cookies as being better at room temp. I did not have pastry flour so I used half all-purpose and half cake flour as a substitute.  Someday I do want to try it with pastry flour though and see how it turns out.

1 pound unsalted butter
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
2 1/4 cups packed light-brown sugar
4 large eggs
3 cups plus 2 tablespoons pastry flour (I used half all-purpose/half cake flour)
3 cups bread flour
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 pounds bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used Guittard milk chocolate chips)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (unless you're freezing the cookies first). Line baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugars.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
4. Reduce speed to low and add flours, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla, and chocolate; mix until well combined.
5. Using a 4-ounce scoop for larger cookies or a 1-ounce scoop for smaller cookies, scoop cookie dough onto prepared baking sheets, about 2 inches apart (or scoop into dough balls and freeze for several hours or overnight).
6. Bake until lightly browned, but still soft, about 20 minutes for larger cookies and about 15 minutes for smaller cookies.
7. Cool slightly on baking sheets before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

---

Truffle Brownies

Truffle Brownies - made December 15, 2012 from The Fearless Baker by Emily Luchetti

Merry Christmas Eve!

I borrowed this book from the library during my virtuous phase of borrowing baking books instead of buying them.  So far the phase is holding.  It helps that I copied the recipes I was most interested in before I returned the book.  This is one of them.  And it lives up to its name because it's definitely a truffle in brownie form.  If you like fudgy brownies, this is one slight step beyond that. If you like the dense creamy filling of dark chocolate truffles, try this recipe.  Use the highest quality unsweetened chocolate you can afford (Scharffenberger comes to mind) because that makes or breaks this brownie.  It's pure chocolate.  The recipe says to cut into 16 squares but I recommend treating it like fudge and cutting the pieces smaller.  To offset the richness, you can also sprinkle toffee bits on top or swirl it with caramel but I went for the pure unadulterated chocolate version.  Suffice it to say, with my sweet tooth gone AWOL, one small piece was sufficient for me.  Don't overbake or you won't get the creamy, fudgy texture.

8 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter

4 large eggs

1 cup granulated sugar

¾ cup firmly packed light brown sugar

¾ cup all-purpose unbleached flour

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Large pinch kosher salt

1.     Preheat the oven to 350⁰F.  Grease the bottom and sides of a 9 x 9-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.

2.     Melt the chocolate and butter in the top half of a double boiler over simmering water.  Stir and scrape the sides occasionally with the rubber spatula until the chocolate is smooth and evenly melted.  Let cool to room temperature.

3.     In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until combined, then whisk in the melted chocolate.  Add the flour, vanilla, and salt, and continue to whisk until the mixture is smooth and evenly combined.  Pour into the prepared pan and smooth the surface with the baking spatula, preferably an offset spatula.

4.     Bake the brownies for 20 minutes and check for doneness by inserting a toothpick in the middle.  When it comes out a little fudgy, not quite clean, the brownies are done.  If they’re a little too wet, bake 5 minutes longer and check again.

5.     Let the brownies cool in the pan, then cut into 16 squares.