Red Velvet Cake

Red Velvet Cake - made June 10, 2017 from Spicy Southern Kitchen

So.....the original blog I got this recipe from said to sift the cake flour before measuring or else you'lll have too much flour and the cake will be dry.

True confession time: I hate sifting flour. I really do. It's messy, it's time-consuming and it just means an extra gadget (the sifter) to wash. For all-purpose flour, I use the dip and sweep method to measure. For cake flour, if the recipe calls for sifting then measuring, I just use less cake flour, about 1-2 tablespoons less for each cup of flour called for. It's almost always "close enough".

Alas, I probably shouldn't have taken the lazy baker's shortcut with this recipe. Although I only used about 2 cups of cake flour (unsifted) and thought the batter was fine, the cake, when baked, did have a slightly dry mouthfeel to it. No, I take that back. It wasn't really dry as I didn't overbake it but it wasn't as moist as I like my cakes.

The taste was fine but I prefer a more liquid batter that bakes into a more moist cake from a mouthfeel perspective. I don't know if it was because I ignored the instructions to sift then measure which means I did use too much flour or if I baked it longer than I should have (although I don't think so) but this didn't turn out quite as I had hoped.

Ah, well, lesson learned.

2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour (sift before measuring)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons red food coloring

Frosting
1 16-ounce box confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
milk, if needed, to achieve desired consistency

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9 x 13" pan with foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Sift both flours, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and vanilla on high speed for 3 to 5 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
4. On low speed, add sugar in a slow and steady stream. Once sugar has been incorporated, turn mixer to high speed and beat for 3 to 5 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
5. On medium-low speed, beat in eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition until just combined.
6. Combine buttermilk and food coloring. With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture, alternating with buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Beat until just combined; do not overmix.
7. Pour batter into prepared pan and spread evenly with a spatula. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs. Cool completely before frosting.
8. For the frosting, beat confectioners sugar, butter, sour cream and vanilla extract until smooth and creamy. Add milk, one tablespoon at a time, until desired consistency is achieved.

Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies

Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies - made May 29, 2017 from Martha Stewart's Cookies

Fudgy brownie, peanut butter batter swirled and baked into the brownie. Not much more to say here except “break out the mixing bowl and turn the oven on” if you like peanut butter chocolate combinations.

These turned out better than I expected in the sense that the brownie portion was nicely fudgy with my preferred chewy-soft, rich taste and texture and the peanut butter swirling throughout added a complementary flavor while not interfering with the chewy texture.

I made these for work by request and they went over pretty well. If you want some crunch in them you can use chunky peanut butter instead of creamy and/or you can sprinkle chopped up bits of toasted peanuts on top before baking. I prefer an unadulterated smoothness in my brownies so no peanut bits here but to each her/his own. The great thing about brownies is they’re pretty forgiving if you want to do a little experimentation. The only things they won’t survive are sub-par, low quality ingredients and overbaking.

Batter
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Filling
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line an 8" square baking pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Brownie: Melt butter and chocolates together in the top half of a double boiler set over hot, barely simmering, water. Whisk until smooth and completely melted. Set aside to cool slightly.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
4. Whisk granulated sugar into melted chocolate mixture. Add eggs, and whisk until mixture in smooth. Whisk in vanilla. Add flour mixture; stir until well combined.
5. Make filling: Stir together butter, confectioners' sugar, peanut butter, salt and vanilla in a bowl until smooth.
6. Pour one-third of the batter into the prepared pan; spread evenly with a rubber spatula. Drop dollops of peanut butter filling on top of the batter, spacing about 1 inch apart. Drizzle remaining batter on top and gently spread to fill pan. Drop dollops of remaining peanut butter filling on top. Gently swirl peanut butter filling into batter with a butter knife, running the knife lengthwise and crosswise through layers.
7. Bake until a cake tester inserted into brownies comes out with a few crumbs but is not wet, about 45 minutes. Cool completely.

Lady's Chocolate Chip Cookie & Cookie Butter Skillets

Lady's Chocolate Chip Cookie and Cookie Butter Skillets - made May 26, 2017, modified from Modern Honey

I've come to believe that one of the easiest "comfort food" desserts you can serve is the chocolate chip cookie skillet. There's nothing like warm chocolate chip cookies. Served with ice cream. Baked in a cast iron skillet. Oh, and while you're at it, put some nutella to slowly melt over the warm cookie. Because....why not? Okay, yeah, you're going to have to do some massive workouts and live on rabbit food for 3 days but it's worth it. Especially this one.

Pre-bake

It's also quite versatile. If you have some non-chocolate lovers (I know, I don't understand them either), you can make the dough and right before you add the chocolate chips - which, hello, make the whole thing - separate out the plain dough and add cookie butter to that batch instead. No need to mix it into the actual cookie. I layered it into the cookie skillet for a cookie butter cookie skillet. It's hard to top a brown sugar sugar/cookie butter combination.

Post-bake

Unless, of course, you make the traditional chocolate chip cookie skillet with big milk chocolate chips, bake it, then spread a layer of nutella to melt over it. And serve it warm with vanilla ice cream. Yes, it was as good as that just sounded. Or better.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Skillet covered with Nutella

While chocolate chip cookie skillets are easy to make, you do want to make sure you choose a chocolate chip cookie recipe that spreads. I know, that's against my usual grain of thick, chubby, chunky cookies that remain thick with very little spread. But since it's in a skillet, you want it to spread at least enough to make it to the edges of the skillet. Otherwise, you'll get a weird cookie in the middle of a skillet that looks like it didn't need to be baked in a skillet. Plus the cookies that spread tend to be more buttery and less floury, also a good thing.

The cookie butter, chocolate-chip-less version was also good. It's hard to see the cookie butter in the picture below which only means I should've used more. But it, too, was good. Next time you have a group of friends or family over for an informal meal, this is a good dessert topper for a casual gathering.

Cookie Butter skillet cookie

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup + 1 tablespoon flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk chocolate chunks
1/3 cup cookie butter
vanilla bean ice cream

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Spray two 6-inch cast iron skillets with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a small heavy saucepan, melt brown over medium heat, stirring often, until it bubbles and milk solids turn brown. Turn off heat and add brown sugar and granulated sugar, stirring until completely blended. Cool slightly.
3. Add egg and vanilla, stir until combined.
4. Add flour, baking soda and salt. Stir until well combined.
5. Pour half of the cookie batter into 1 6" skillet, adding dollops of cookie butter and covering with dough,
6. Add milk chocolate chips to other half of the cookie batter and pour into second skillet. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until edges are lightly golden brown and middles no longer look like raw dough. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes.
7. Add vanilla bean ice cream and serve.

Good, Better, Best Cookies

Good, Better, Best Cookies - made May 29, 2017 from Dorie's Cookies by Dorie Greenspan

This was the name of the cookies in Dorie Greenspan’s cookie book but it doesn’t really tell you what this cookie is. In the original recipe, the “good” was represented by making just the cookies, “better” was to make the filling and serve these as sandwich cookies and “best” was to dip half the sandwich cookies in chocolate.

As you can see, I didn’t bother with the part about dipping into chocolate but I did get to the “better” stage (sort of) by making as sandwich cookies. Although I cheated and used straight cookie butter instead of making the filling in the recipe. C’mon, if you’re going to make a cookie butter sandwich cookie, I firmly believe the sandwich filling should be cookie butter in its unadulterated glory.

The cookies themselves were based on ground almonds. I didn’t have whole or slivered almonds to grind but I did have some almond meal I had bought for another recipe (which I haven’t made yet) so I figured it would do. In hindsight, it might’ve been better if I had ground up almonds as I was a little unsure of how much almond meal to use and it seemed my almond meal was finer than any almonds I would’ve ground in my food processor. But I made do and this seemed to turn out okay.

The dough was good to work with, which was just as well since this calls for rolling out to an even thickness so you can use a round cookie shaper to cut out uniformly-sized and shaped cookies. I did chill it briefly to make the dough easier to work with but I don’t think I rolled it out thinly enough as they still made for slightly thick cookies. I wasn’t sure whether these were supposed to be crisp like a shortbread or chewy. I suspect if I had rolled them more thinly and baked them longer, they might’ve gone into crisp territory but mine were a little thick and I never bake them “longer” so they were more chewy.

In general, I thought these were good, especially sandwiched with cookie butter. But I think I would’ve liked them better if I had ground the almonds myself instead of using almond meal. The almond meal was too uniformly fine whereas ground almonds would’ve had bits of almonds in the dough and that would’ve provided a nice texture contrast to the smooth cookie butter filling. Taste-wise, the cookies themselves didn’t seem to have much flavor and I’m not sure whether to blame the almond meal or not. Again, it would’ve been better to make the recipe as is and ground toasted almonds for both better texture and flavor.

My final caveat is my usual reminder about my picky taste buds which influence my assessment of a recipe. While I thought these were "okay", I did get at least one rave review of them at work so someone thought they were more than okay.

Cookies
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sliced or slivered almonds, lightly toasted (or 4 ounces almond meal)
6 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces
1 tablespoon cold water
1 cold large egg yolk

Filling
1/2 cup Biscoff spread
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon milk or more as needed

1. Cookies: Put the flour, almonds, sugar, cinnamon and salt in a food processor and pulse until the almonds are ground. Scatter the pieces of cold butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is worked in and the mixture looks like moist crumbs.
2. Lightly beat the cold water into the egg yolk and, pulsing the machine, add the yolk in 3 additions. Using long pulses, process until the dough forms clumps and curds.
3. Turn the dough onto the counter, divide in half, gather each piece into a ball and shape into a disk.
4. Working with one piece of the dough at a time, roll the dough between pieces of parchment paper to a thickness of 1/8 inch. Slide the parchment-sandwiched dough onto a baking sheet and freeze for at least 1 hour or refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
6. Cut 2-inch circles into the chilled dough and evenly space on baking sheets. Bake the cookies for 11-13 minutes or until lightly browned on the bottom and top. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
7. Filling: In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the Biscoff, butter and salt until smooth, about 2 minutes. Reduce the speed to low and gradually add the confectioners' sugar. Add milk and continue beating until smooth and desired consistency is reached. 
8. Turn half of the cookies bottom-side up and spread with filling. Sandwich with the other half of the cookies, bottom-side in and top side up. 

New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies

New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies - made dough May 21, 2017 from The New York Times

I wouldn’t call this a Levain Bakery copycat recipe and it isn’t meant to be one. Instead, it’s a jumbo chocolate chip cookie with sea salt sprinkled on top. I’ve come across several variations of the New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies. I don’t think they’re an urban legend like the Neiman Marcus cookie but there are several versions because the New York Times printed several versions over the years.

I know I’ve tried an earlier version and didn’t think there was anything special about them so I wondered what all the fuss was about. That earlier one was fine but it just seemed like a typical chocolate chip cookie. Remember, I have jaded taste buds though.

This version was pretty good. It did make for a nice big cookie with crisp edges and it caramelized nicely for a chewy texture in the middle. It’s not a cakey-cookie in terms of texture but was a chewy cookie-cookie texture. The sprinkles of sea salt, which the original authors insisted was a must to send this over the edge, was fine but I liked the cookie just as well without it. I’m not big on the salty-sweet with chocolate chip cookies as I prefer the flavor profile to be more focused on the chocolate and the brown sugar caramelization.

Any time you make big chocolate chip cookies, I advocate using either the mini chips to get more chocolate in every bite or use big chocolate chips or chunks as befitting a behemoth cookie. You can use the regular Tollhouse-sized chocolate chips if you had to but it isn’t as impressive. Go big or go mini but don’t go regular. It's hard to tell from the pictures but I actually did use Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips that are slightly bigger than Tollhouse. But the cookies were so big in size that they made the chips look smaller than they are. Guittard milk chocolate chips might've been a more size-fitting choice.

2 cups minus 2 tablespoons (8.5 ounces) cake flour
1 2/3 cups (8.5 ounces) bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/4 lbs bittersweet or milk chocolate, coarsely chopped
sea salt

1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl; set aside.
2. Using a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla.
3. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds.
4. Fold in chopped bittersweet chocolate. Press plastic wrap against dough and chill for 1 hour. Portion into golf-ball-size dough balls, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 72 hours but at least for 24 hours.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space dough balls onto sheet. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes then transfer cookies onto another rack to cool.

Slow Cooker Korean Beef

Slow Cooker Korean Beef - made May 20, 2017 from The Recipe Critic

I’m still making simple meals in my two-quart slow cooker and this was another easy one. You cut the flank steak into strips, toss it with cornstarch in a Ziploc bag, mix the sauce ingredients together in the slow cooker, add the meat, turn cooker to the high setting and leave it alone for a few hours until meat is tender.

Usually when I make anything in my crock pot, I end up with something soupy and/or watery. I was pleasantly surprised with this one that the sauce was actually thick rather than watery. I suspect tossing the meat with cornstarch and having that be part of the cooking process from the beginning was the main reason this sauce didn’t get watery.

I was also surprised that the flank steak got tender fairly quickly. I’m not familiar with the different cuts of meat and had thought it would take longer to tenderize, like stew meat. But I think I overcooked this in the sense that the beef was really, really tender. As in fork-tender and could cut with a fork. Not a bad thing but next time I probably wouldn’t bother to cut the strips very thin or small. I didn’t have any green onions to chop up and garnish this with or the dish would have looked prettier but overall, this is a tasty, easy meal.

1 1/2 pounds flank steak
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup beef broth
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup onion, chopped
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
sesame seeds and chopped green onion, for garnish

1. Cut flank steak into thin strips. In a ziploc bag, add flank steak pieces and cornstarch. Shake to coat.
2. Add the sesame oil, minced garlic, soy sauce, beef broth, brown sugar, onion and red pepper flakes to the slow cooker. Stir. Add coated flank steak and stir again until coated in the sauce.
3. Cook on high for 2-3 hours or on low for 4-5 hours until steak is cooked throughout and tender. Garnish with sesame seeds and green onions.

Lemon Swig Sugar Cookies

Lemon Swig Sugar Cookies - made dough May 13, 2017 from The Recipe Critic

I don’t know if Swig Sugar Cookies are more popular or well known in other parts of the country but they’re not that common where I live. I only heard about them through the internet and since I don’t buy store bought cookies (Oreos and Biscoff cookies being the rare exceptions), if they’re sold in the supermarkets in my area, I’ve missed them completely.

So it’s just as well that I’m a cookie snob and prefer to make my own anyway. If you’ve never had a “swig sugar cookie”, they’re best described as a cross between a cakey shortbread and a sugar cookie.  Every recipe I’ve seen makes them large and they’re frosted with some kind of vanilla frosting (not a glaze or a thin icing but an honest to goodness frosting) which can easily be tinted different colors, depending on your preference, mood or occasion. Or you can leave untinted and flavor it instead.

Which is what this version does in making a lemon cream cheese frosting for the cookies. The dough itself is easy to make and great to work with, having a smooth consistency, not dry or crumbly or oily or sticky. Make the dough balls into the size of a golf ball – or thereabouts – then press gently with the bottom of a glass. Not too hard as you don’t want them to be thin and they will spread a little, though not much.

I erred on the side of caution and only pressed so that the top dome of the dough ball was flat and I was left with a thick, chubby disk. Which I then froze overnight. When it came time to bake them, they spread slightly and when I took them out, I dipped the bottom of the glass in granulated sugar and pressed more firmly. You want to get those iconic “edges” to the cookie that comes with all that bottom-of-glass pressing. Plus a very slight indent or well to better hold the frosting. You only want to frost the center of the cookie and leave a ring of outer edge unfrosted and exposed. That makes for easier handling. Plus it’s prettier.

I really enjoyed these cookies. And when I say “enjoyed” and “cookies”, I meant I ate three. Three big cookies. Spaced out over 24 hours but still…. That’s two cookies above my usual taste test ration. So you know I can sincerely tell you these were great cookies. If you’re a vanilla fan or one of those people who “don’t do chocolate” or have nut allergies or simply have a pulse, these are delicious cookies to try out.

If you’re making these for a crowd and don’t want to have such big servings, rather than making them smaller, which I think detracts from the bold-as-brass, look-at-me impression you want them to make, go ahead and make them jumbo or large-sized but cut them in half after you frost them. Then serve with the halves lined up to still look like whole cookies. People can take then take a half as their serving. But after they take a bite, I bet you they come back for the other half.

1 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/4 cup granulated sugar plus 1/4 cup reserved
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon lemon zest
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon salt
5 1/2 cups flour

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 cups confectioners' sugar (or less if you prefer less sweet and more tangy frosting)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt; set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter, vegetable oil, 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar, confectioners' sugar and water. Add in lemon juice and lemon zest and mix briefly to combine. Add eggs and beat until just combined.
4. Slowly add in flour mixture until just combined. Do not overmix. Roll the dough into golf-ball sized balls and place onto prepared baking sheets.
5. Dip the bottom of a glass into the reserved 1/4 cup sugar and press onto each dough ball to slightly flatten the cookie.
6. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the bottoms are lightly brown. Do not overbake. Remove to wire cooling rack and let cool completely before frosting.
7. To make the frosting: beat cream cheese and butter until creamy and well combined. Add lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla and beat until incorporated. Add confectioners' sugar, one cup at a time, until desired flavor and consistency. Beat until smooth and frost each cookie with frosting.

Ground Turkey Sweet Potato Skillet

Ground Turkey Sweet Potato Skillet - made May 7, 2017, modified from Primavera Kitchen

It’s been awhile since I made this and I didn’t do the write up immediately after so my memory is a little fuzzy on this dish. I think it was fine as far as cooking my own savory food goes and I liked all the base components of ground turkey, sweet potatoes and (Penzey’s) spices. It was also one of those simple, one-dish meals I like to make so I can’t quibble with that.

From the pictures, it looks a little dry but it isn’t a dish that’s meant to be soupy.  I added a little pizza sauce but mostly because I had a jar from an earlier pizza-in-my-cast-iron-skillet meal and I wanted to use it up. 

Overall, a simple healthy meal. 

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound extra-lean ground turkey
1 teaspoon garlic clove, minced
1/2 cup onion, diced
1/2 cup yellow pepper (I left it out)
1 1/2 cups sweet potato, diced
salt and freshly ground black pepper
pinch of red chili flakes
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup pizza sauce, optional
Parsley for garnish, if desired

1. In an iron cast skillet, heat olive oil over medium high heat.
2. Add ground turkey and garlic, stirring to break up the turkey as it cooks. Stir occasionally until turkey is cooked.
3. Add onions and yellow pepper; cook until onion is golden brown, Add the sweet potatoes, chili pepper, salt and pepper. Add the pizza sauce if using.
4. Cover the skillet and cook until sweet potatoes are tender, stirring occasionally.
5. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. When sweet potatoes are tender, add shredded mozzarella cheese and place skillet in oven to melt the cheese. Once cheese is melted, remove skillet from oven. Garnish with parsley if desired.