Hot Milk Cake

Grandma Lilly's Hot Milk Cake - October 11, 2009

(I may seem like I'm going out of chronological order with the postings but I baked this cake on October 11 then froze it and brought it into work today.)

The name of this recipe is Grandma Lilly’s Hot Milk Cake and is from the Treasury of Country Baking by Lisa Yockelson. I had blogged earlier about her Best Vanilla Pound Cake recipe being one of my favorite pound cake recipes for its simplicity and taste. What makes this particular recipe unusual is the way it’s made. I’ve never boiled milk and butter then added it to the batter but it does make for a smooth, shiny batter. Follow the instructions exactly so you get the result the author intends you to get. It was easy to make and for the most part, I liked it. Texture-wise, it felt like a cake that couldn’t make up its mind to be a light pound cake or a dense sponge cake. There were elements of both which is a bit unusual. Taste-wise it was similar to the Best Vanilla Pound Cake so I liked it but if I had to make a vanilla cake, I’d probably go with the true pound cake recipe.

Grandma Lilly's Hot Milk Cake

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup milk
2 cups unsifted cake flour
¼ teaspoon salt
4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
Confectioners’ sugar for dusting, optional

1. Lightly butter and flour a plain 9” tube pan. (Do not use a tube pan with a removable bottom; the cake batter will seep out.) Set aside. Preheat the oven to 350˚F.
2. Place the butter and milk in a large saucepan and bring to the boil over moderate heat. Sift the cake flour with the salt onto a large sheet of waxed paper. Beat the eggs in the large bowl of an electric mixer on moderately high speed for 2 to 3 minutes. With the mixer on moderate speed, beat in the sugar in 3 additions, beating well after each portion is added. With the mixer on low speed, blend in the vanilla. Beat in the flour in 2 additions. When the butter and milk mixture has reached a full, rolling boil, remove it from the heat and pour it into the flour mixture as it revolves in the mixture. The beaters must be turning and the bowl moving while the milk is being added. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl to make an even-textured batter. Lastly, add the baking powder and beat for 1 minute at moderate speed. Quickly pour and scrape the batter into the prepared pan.
3. Bake the cake on the lower-third level rack of the preheated oven for 1 hour, or until nicely risen and golden on top; a wooden pick inserted into the center of the cake should come out clean and dry.
4. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for 5 to 6 minutes, then invert onto a second cooling rack. Invert again to cool right side up. Dust the top of the cake with sifted confectioners’ sugar, if you like.
5. Serve the cake cut in medium thick slices.

Chocolate Brownies with Cream Cheese Icing

Chocolate Brownies with Cream Cheese Icing - October 13, 2009

There are many brownie recipes out there and I feel like I’ve tried them all or at least most of the variations. Most people have pretty strong preferences for their brownies and I’m no exception. A “good” brownie is moist, fudgy, chocolatey, and nutless (unless they’re on top and caramelized in some fashion). I don’t like cakey brownies and dry brownies aren’t worth a tooth mark in them.

I had high hopes for this recipe from Magnolia Bakery because when I was in New York , I had a fantastic brownie from Magnolia. It was moist, fudgy and covered with a white chocolate layer sprinkled with nuts on top. I’m not excessively fond of white chocolate but it worked as a great contrast to the fudgy “true” chocolate of the brownie itself. This is a different brownie since it’s covered with cream cheese frosting instead of white chocolate but I figured Magnolia would know how to make good brownies and have good brownie recipes. Hmmm. There may be an exception to every rule. My first hesitation with this recipe was when I saw cake flour being used instead of all-purpose flour. Cake flour is great when you want soft or light-textured cakes. In a brownie? For the kind of texture I like in my brownies, maybe not. But I’ll try any new recipe at least once and will give it a fair shake. I’m an equal opportunity baker after all.

The second off-putting aspect of this recipe was the size of pan it required. Most brownies are made in a 9 x 13 pan at the largest. This called for a 12 x 18 jelly roll pan. They mean serious volume with this brownie. Conceivably, I could have cut the recipe in half and adjusted the pan size but to be truly accurate with the recipe, I would’ve needed a 6” x 9” pan or a pan that totaled to 54” in its dimensions. I don’t have such a pan so I decided to make the recipe as is. I had a bunch of meetings the next day and coworkers I could give it to anyway so I figured none of the brownies would go to waste. But I did “cheat” anyway and baked the brownies in a 9 x 13 pan and an 8” square pan, eyeballing the amount of batter I spread in each pan so they’d each have the same level of thickness. I also cut the frosting in half since I only had 8 ounces of cream cheese on hand, not the full pound the frosting recipe called for. I had mocha frosting left over from the devil’s food cake recipe I’d made the night before so I used that to frost the 8” pan and used the cream cheese frosting for the 9 x 13” pan.

So how’d they turn out? I can’t say I’d give them a glowing review. The texture was kind of funny to me – not the typical denseness of my preferred fudgy brownie but it was both dense and light at the same time, more like a cross between a flourless chocolate cake and a cakey brownie. Kinda weird. Of course, it could also be due to the fact that I’ve been baking (and eating) a lot of sweets lately and I’m getting pretty jaded. If it isn’t absolutely fabulous, then it’s just “okay” to me. To other people, it was great. I had people fighting over the ones I handed out today and I got several emails and IMs thanking me and telling me they liked it. But I’m my own worst critic on many things, including what I bake. This recipe didn’t pass muster with me and I’m not likely to make it again. They are too many other brownie recipes to try or too many good ones to re-make.

Brownie
3 cups cake flour (not self-rising flour)
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 ½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3 cups sugar
6 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
9 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted

Icing
1 pound (2 eight-ounce packages) cream cheese, softened
6 tablespoons (¾ stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
6 cups confectioners’ sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Grease a 12 x 18-inch jelly roll pan.
3. To make the brownie: In a large bowl, sift together the flour, the baking powder and the salt. Set aside.
4. In a large bowl, cream the butter and the sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Lightly beat the eggs, then add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Add the vanilla extract. Add the chocolate and mix until well incorporated. Add the dry ingredients. Pour the batter into prepared pan. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into center of pan comes out with moist crumbs attached.
5. To make the icing: In a medium-size bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat together the cream cheese and the butter until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add the vanilla extract. Gradually add the sugar and beat until well incorporated.
6. Let the brownies cool completely, then ice with cream cheese icing.
7. As an optional icing, try this fudge frosting: In a small saucepan, combine ¾ cup heavy cream and 12 ounces semisweet chocolate and place over very low heat. Stir constantly until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in ¾ cup confectioners’ sugar until dissolved. Allow to stand until firm.

Easy Devil's Food Cake with Mocha Buttercream

Easy Devil's Food Cake with Mocha Buttercream - October 11 & 12, 2009

A good chocolate cake is hard to make. Mixing and baking chocolate cakes is easy enough but having them turn out well is another matter. I've tried dozens and dozens, if not hundreds, of chocolate cake recipes and I'm not satisfied with most of them. Cakes dry out too easily if left in the oven for just one minute longer than necessary and they come out gummy if you take them out too soon. Even if you master the texture and come up with a tender, moist crumb, sometimes they're lacking in flavor or they're too chocolatey (yes, there is such a thing as too chocolatey).

Of course, that doesn't stop me from trying to find good chocolate cake recipes. This one is from the Family Baker by Susan G. Purdy. It was easy to make but would it pass the taste test? I baked the cake layers last night but since it was late and they wouldn't be cool enough to frost by the time I went to sleep, I covered them tightly with plastic wrap and let them sit for a day. I made the frosting tonight after work and assembled the cake tonight. The taste test? Hmm, unfortunately, to me, it was just okay. It was moist enough but I couldn't decide whether I liked the chocolate flavor or not. This was made with cocoa and I used my favorite brand - Pernigotti from Williams Sonoma which has a nice, deep chocolate flavor. I don't know whether it was just my natural prejudice of "day-old" cake not being fresh enough or whether I, for once, was not in a chocolate mood.

On the plus side, the frosting turned out pretty well and I'm not usually a frosting person. I'm especially not fond of buttercream as too often it's slick and "too creamy" meaning I don't like the slick, almost greasy texture. But this frosting had less slickness than traditional buttercreams and the mocha was a nice contrast to the chocolate and added good flavor. I don't drink coffee but I love coffee-flavored stuff, especially paired with chocolate. When I was a kid in the Philippines, my favorite ice cream was mocha made by Magnolia, a local company. When we came to the States, mocha ice cream was hard to find when I was younger. In my college days, I discovered premium ice cream ran to mocha but nothing was still as good as the mocha ice cream I had in the Philippines.

Lastly, I didn't do a very good job with the layers - take a closer look at the picture. The bottom layer is thinner than the top layer meaning I didn't divide the batter evenly enough between the 2 cake pans. Also, they're not lined up very well as the bottom layer juts out more than the top. In culinary school, we learned to hide the deficiencies in cake layers by filling in with frosting when needed but that all gets exposed as soon as you slice the cake.

Easy Devil's Food Cake with Mocha Buttercream

Cake
2 ¼ cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup sifted regular, unsweetened cocoa
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 ½ cups buttermilk

Mocha Buttercream
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 to 6 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar, as needed
1/3 cup sifted regular unsweetened cocoa
½ cup double-strength regular or espresso coffee or 1 tablespoon instant espresso powder dissolved in ½ cup boiled water
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Position racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat it to 350˚F. Coat the pans with shortening, then sift on a layer of cocoa; tap out excess.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa.
3. In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until well blended, then beat in the vanilla and eggs. Add all the dry ingredients and the buttermilk and, with the mixer on lowest speed, beat a full 60 seconds. Scrape down the bowl and beater. Beat on high speed about 3 minutes, until the batter is smooth, light and fluffy. Scrape down the bowl and beater again.
4. Divide the batter between the prepared pans and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the top feels springy to the touch and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the layers in their pans on a wire rack for about 10 minutes, then run a knife between the cake sides and the pans, top each layer with a plate or wax paper-covered wire rack and invert. Lift off pans. Cool the layers completely on wire racks.
5. To prepare the buttercream: In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter until very sort and creamy. Slowly beat in about 2 cups of the sifted sugar, then scrape down the bowl and beater. Add 2 more cups of the sugar, cocoa, coffee and vanilla, beating until completely smooth and very creamy. Add the remaining sugar as needed to bring to spreading consistency.
6. To assemble the cake: Place a dab of buttercream in the center of the foil-covered cardboard disk or on a serving plate. Center one layer on the desk. Spread the layer with about 1 cup of the buttercream, top with the second layer, and then align the cake sides. Spread icing over the cake sides, then the top.

Black and White Chocolate Pudding Cake

Black & White Chocolate Pudding Cake - October 11, 2009

When I first read a recipe for pudding cake, I was intrigued. How could you pour water on top of cake batter and have everything come out okay? It just seemed - well, weird. So I never really made pudding cakes before but always wanted to try one. Today, because I had a fresh carton of milk to use up before it expired next week, it seemed like a good time to try it.

This recipe is from The Family Baker by Susan G. Purdy and touts itself as "one of the easiest cakes to make". Since I had just taken two layers of a devil's food cake out of the oven and popped in a "hot milk cake" to take its place (more about those in a future post), easy sounded good to me. And it was. Mix up the cake batter, spread it in the pan, sprinkle a layer of cocoa and sugar on top, and pour a cup of boiling water over it before sliding into the oven. And whaddaya know, when it comes out, it's both cake and liquid fudge mixed in with much of the fudgy liquid pooled at the bottom. Whoever discovered this was a genius.

Unlike lava cake which is baked in small ramekins at a high temperature and taken out while the center is still liquid, pudding cake is a random combination of cake and fudge sauce in every spoonful. Like lava cake, it's meant to be served warm with ice cream. The nice thing is pudding cake can be made in a single pan so no messing around with individual-sized ramekins. On the other hand, this recipe isn't as rich as the other lava cakes I've tried in the past. Still, it's got a homey touch to it in both taste and appearance. I'd consider it a poor man's lava cake (nothing wrong with either).

Black and White Chocolate Pudding Cake

1 cup unsifted all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar, divided (2/3 cup and 2/3 cup)
½ cup sifted, unsweetened cocoa, preferably Dutch-processed, divided (¼ cup and ¼ cup)
2 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch of ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup milk
¼ cup canola or other mild vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup white chocolate, very coarsely chopped, or white chocolate chips (largest size available) or semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup boiling water

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat it to 350˚F. Butter an 8” square baking pan and set it aside.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, 2/3 cup of sugar, ¼ cup of cocoa, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Stir to blend, then mix in the milk, oil, vanilla and white chocolate. The batter will feel quite stiff. Spread it in the baking pan.
3. In a small bowl, stir together the remaining ¼ cup cocoa with the remaining 2/3 cup sugar. Spread this evenly over the batter in the pan and pour the boiling water on top. Do not stir.
4. Bake the cake 25 to 30 minutes, or until the top looks crisp and crackled and a cake tester inserted in a cakey area comes out clean. Cool the cake a few minutes, then serve warm, spooned directly from the pan. Top with vanilla ice cream or unsweetened heavy cream.

Pumpkin Cake with Brown Sugar Icing

Pumpkin Cake with Brown Sugar Icing - originally made on 12.31.08

Since I dissed pumpkin for so many years, I feel the need to atone by blogging about some of the great pumpkin recipes I've discovered once I got over my mental block about pumpkin. This is a pumpkin cake with brown sugar icing - yeah, it's as rich as it sounds. This is from Fearless Baking by Elinor Klivans which is a recipe book I've really enjoyed trying recipes from. Elinor Klivans has some other books but I've found one of her cookie books to be pretty much all the same recipe with minor variations of the mix-ins you add to it. One recipe has the same ingredients except you add milk chocolate chips instead of semisweet or throw in white chocolate chips too and she seems to consider that 3 different recipes. (Read: ripoff if you buy the cookbook.) Not so with Fearless Baking. I've gotten some good recipes from it, including this one.

The cake itself is super easy to make. The only liberty I took with it is the recipe calls for adding the pecans on top once you have the batter in the pan. Previous experience has taught me that even if you add the nuts to the top, while baking, the nuts will sink into the cake anyway and once again we have that I-don't-like-nuts-in-cakes problem. So I waited until the cake was almost done then added the pecans to it so they would stay on top and not sink into the cake. It worked.

Pumpkin Cake
1 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking powder
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ teaspoons ground cinnamon
¾ teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup granulated sugar
½ cup canola or corn oil
2 large eggs
¾ cup pecan halves

Brown Sugar Icing
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
2/3 cup whipping cream
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar

1. Mix the cake: Position an oven rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 325˚F. Butter or rub with oil the bottom and sides of a 9 x 9 x 2-inch or 11 x 7 x 2-inch pan.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and ginger onto a piece of wax paper or into a medium bowl and set aside.
3. Put the pumpkin, granulated sugar, and oil in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Add the eggs one at a time, beating to blend each thoroughly into the mixture. The mixture looks smooth and shiny. Decrease the speed to low and add the flour mixture. The batter is ready when the flour is mixed completely into the batter. Use a rubber spatula to scrape the batter from the bowl and spread it evenly in the prepared pan. Scatter the pecans evenly over the top.
4. Bake the cake: Bake just until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 30 minutes. The cake can be iced when it is warm or has cooled, but let the cake cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes before adding the icing. Use a small knife to loosen the cake from the sides of the pan before adding the icing.
5. Make the icing: Put the butter, cream, and brown sugar in a medium saucepan and cool over medium heat until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves, stirring often. Increase the heat to medium-high and bring the mixture to a boil. Boil for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla just to blend it into the mixture. Set aside to cool slightly for about 30 minutes. Sift the powdered sugar into a medium bowl. Pour the slightly cooled sauce over it and use a whisk or electric mixer to beat the icing smooth, about 1 minute or less. It will change from a brown to a light brown color. Immediately pour the icing over the cake in the pan. Use a metal spatula to spread it evenly, if necessary. If the cake is warm, the icing spreads by itself. Icing will drip down around the edges of the pan and thinly coat the sides of the cake. This is good. Cool the cake and icing thoroughly, about 3 hours, but mark the portions in the top of the icing as soon as it is firm enough to hold the mark. Cut the cake into 9 squares. A thin metal spatula and a pancake turner work well together to help lift the cake squares from the pan. Serve the cake cold or at room temperature.

Pumpkin Upside Down Cake

Pumpkin Upside Down Cake

It's October so we need to start talking about pumpkins. First, I never liked pumpkin when I was growing up. We didn't really eat it when I was growing up as you can imagine it's not a traditional Filipino food. Second, I based my dislike of pumpkin solely on pumpkin pie which is what I thought was the only thing you could do with pumpkin. It sounded good when you read about it in cozy Little House on the Prairie-type books. But the reality of it was different and I didn't (and still don't) like pumpkin pie - maybe because the first couple I tried weren't that good. I didn't like the texture and it seemed overspiced. But third and most importantly, I was wrong about pumpkin. You can do more with it than put it in a traditional pumpkin pie. And in the right recipe, it's fabulous.

My eyes - and taste buds - were first opened when I attended a Sur La Table cooking class in Los Gatos, CA where Emily Luchetti, the former pastry chef of Stars, gave a cooking demonstration of recipes from her then-newly published cookbook, A Passion for Desserts. She made this recipe for Pumpkin Upside Down Cake that was simply delicious. You make a caramel sauce, pour it in the bottom of the baking pan, add toasted pecans and cranberries, cover it all with a pumpkin cake batter, bake it then flip it over when you take it out of the oven. Delicious. Note the exception here from my previously stated bias about nuts. I don't normally like nuts with cakes unless they're baked on top and don't get into the cake itself. Technically these are baked on the bottom but they end up on top. Regardless, toast the nuts first to bring out their flavor. Ironically, the caramel, which is a liquid that you'd think would soften the nuts, actually help them retain a somewhat crisp texture when the cake is cooled. And that makes everything okay.

My other bias is against using fruit or berries in desserts. I don't even normally like cranberries and you won't find jellied cranberries on my plate at Thanksgiving. But cranberries are perfect with this cake as they provide a tart contrast to the sweetness of the caramel and the cake. Use raw ones and they'll soften and cook just right when the cake is baked. I may have a lot of odd or rigid preferences in certain things when it comes to baking but I'm happy to find recipes that prove to be the exception. It makes me believe I could probably like many things, if I could just find the right combination for them in baking.

Pumpkin Upside Down Cake

8 ounces (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 cups cranberries
4 ounces (1 cup) coarsely chopped pecans, toasted
2 large eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 350˚F. Line the bottom of a 9-inch square pan with parchment paper.
2. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the brown sugar and whisk until smooth. Pour the brown sugar mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan.
3. In a medium bowl, combine the cranberries and pecans. Place them in the pan over the brown sugar mixture.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, pumpkin puree, and oil. In another bowl, sift together the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Stir the flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture. Carefully spread the batter over the cranberry pecan topping.
5. Bake the cake until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack. Place a large plate or platter on top of the cake. Invert the cake and plate together, then remove the pan. Carefully peel off the parchment paper.
6. Let cool completely before serving.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunkers

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunkers - October 6, 2009

I've said a few times that I'm not wild about peanut butter so it might seem odd that I seem to bake so much with it. Well, it's not that odd because I like peanut butter in almost anything but its natural form. I especially like it paired with chocolate. Peanuts are also the only nut I'll voluntarily add in a peanut butter cookie, mostly if I use chunky peanut butter but I also like to sprinkle chopped peanuts on top of the cookie. That's more preferably than having it baked in it. I also tend to buy the big jars of peanut butter at Costco so I feel compelled to bake with peanut butter to use it up. Later on, I'll blog about the peanut butter brownies I've made as some of those are really good.

This recipe is for Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunkers from Nancy Baggett's All-American Cookie Book. It's a pretty simple, straightforward recipe for peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. I don't like the traditional peanut butter cookie that's crisp. I like my cookies to be more like the texture of a regular chocolate chip cookie but with a peanut butter flavor. These cookies are like that. The only disappointing thing about them is they spread and I've already made my preference about thick, chunky cookies quite clear. And because they spread, when the recipe calls for dipping the dough balls into chopped peanuts and chocolate chips, I don't see the point because the cookies spread so much that the chocolate chip/nut bits space out on the cookie anyway.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunkers

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups smooth or crunchy peanut butter
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened
1 ½ cups packed light brown sugar
2/3 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
10 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped (divided)

About ½ cup (2 ¼ ounces) chopped unsalted peanuts, for topping

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease several baking sheets or coat with nonstick spray.
2. In a medium bowl, thoroughly stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat together the peanut butter, butter, brown sugar, and sugar until very well blended and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs, corn syrup, and vanilla and beat until well blended. Beat or stir in the flour mixture until evenly incorporated. Stir in 1 cup of the chopped chocolate. Let the dough stand for 5 minutes, or until firmed up slightly.
3. Shape portion of the dough into 1 ¾” balls with lightly greased hands. In a small bowl, stir together the remaining chocolate and the peanuts. Dip one half of each ball into the chocolate-peanut mixture until some bits are embedded. Place the balls, coated side up, on the baking sheets, spacing about 2 ¾” apart. Pat down the tops of the balls just slightly.
4. Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, in the upper third of the oven for 13 to 16 minutes, or until lightly browned all over, slightly darker at the edges, and slightly soft when pressed in the centers. Reverse the sheet from front to back halfway through baking to ensure even browning.
5. Transfer the sheet to a wire rack and let stand until the cookies firm up slightly, 1 to 2 minutes. Using a spatula, transfer the cookies to wire racks. Let stand until completely cooled.

Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 1 ½ months.

Lowney's Brownies

Lowney's Brownies - October 3, 2009

This is a standard brownie recipe from Nancy Baggett's All-American Cookie book. Quick and easy to make, it comes out fine but to me, having baked dozens upon dozens, if not hundreds, of brownie recipes, this is nothing special. Even baked in an 8" pan, it still comes out pretty thin and the taste isn't exceptional. I substituted chocolate chips for the nuts which was fine but this isn't a standout recipe. People at work liked it just fine and I got some compliments on it but to my overly critical taste buds, I don't think they warranted that much praise. They were just okay.

But that's part of trying out new recipes - some will be fabulous, some will flop and others are in that wide gray area in the middle of okay but nothing special. My baking quest is about the ones above average and tremendously special. Luckily, it's often easier to find good brownie recipes than average ones. I have so many different varieties that now I look for brownie recipes that are just a little bit different. I'll start posting a few so you can see what I mean.

Lowney's Brownies

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, broken up or coarsely chopped
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, slightly softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup (2 ounces) chopped walnuts or pecans
¼ teaspoon salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Lightly grease an 8-inch square baking pan or coat with nonstick spray. Line the pan with aluminum foil, letting the foil overhang two opposing sides of the pan by about 2 inches. Grease the foil or coat with nonstick spray.
2. In a small, microwave-safe bowl, microwave the chocolate on 50% power for 1 minute. Stir well. Continue microwaving on 50% power, stirring at 30-second intervals. Stop microwaving before the chocolate completely melts and let the residual heat finish the job. (Alternatively, in a small, heavy saucepan, melt the chocolate over lowest heat, stirring frequently; be very careful not to burn. Immediately remove from the heat.) Let cool to warm.
3. In a medium bowl, with a wooden spoon, mix together the butter and sugar until well blended and smooth. Stir in the chocolate until evenly incorporated. Stir in the eggs, then the flour, walnuts or pecans, and salt, until evenly incorporated. Turn out the batter into the baking pan, spreading to the edges.
4. Bake in the middle of the oven for 19 to 23 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let stand until the brownie is completely cooled. Refrigerate until chilled.
5. Using the overhanging foil as handles, transfer the brownie to a cutting board. Carefully peel off and discard the foil. Using a large, sharp knife, cut the brownie into 16 squares; wipe the knife clean between cuts.

Store in an airtight container for up to 4 days or freeze up to 1 month. If freezing, leave the brownie slab whole, then cut into squares when partially thawed.

Chocolate Sour Cream Pound Cake

Chocolate Sour Cream Pound Cake - October 3, 2009

I also made this recipe last weekend. I tend to go on baking sprees when I have large chunks of time on a weekend, typically during the day on Saturday if I don't have social plans. The great thing about pound cakes is they're not only easy to make but most of them freeze really well. When I bring baked goods into work, they always marvel at how I have "time to bake". Uh, newsflash, I don't have time but because I like doing it, I make the time. And usually I can only make time on the weekends so I'll bake a lot on Saturdays or Sunday evenings and wrap the stuff up to store in the freezer until I'm ready to bring them in. Typically, my freezer is most full by Sunday night and practically empty by Friday morning as I will have brought the weekend's baking bounty in by then.

Cookie doughs get portioned out in dough balls and put in ziploc freezer bags to be baked off the night before I need them. I don't believe in freezing cookies that are already baked - the thawing will affect their texture and baked cookies are more susceptible to absorbing odors of the things around them and freezer burns. Besides, it's much better to have a cookie freshly baked the night before than one baked much earlier and just thawed (shudder) before you consume it. Remember, if you have to have the calories, make them the best calories they can be.

Anyway, pound cakes get baked and wrapped up tight in foil then put in freezer bags. I don't believe in letting them sit in the freezer too long. Just because they actually can last long doesn't mean they should. I'm a stickler for freshness so nothing I bring into work has been in my freezer for longer than a few days to at most a week.

This particular recipe is from the Doughmakers Cookbook and while it bills itself as a pound cake, its texture and crumb was lighter than most pound cakes so I would consider this more cakey than your typical pound cake. I could tell it would turn out that way too because the batter was more liquidy than your average pound cake batter. Still, whatever you want to call it, it tasted pretty good. You never want to overbake anything, but especially not cakes as they dry easily. I took this out when the toothpick still had a few moist crumbs clinging to it to ensure it wasn't overbaked. I'll be repetitive on this topic but I can't abide dry cakes.

Chocolate Sour Cream Pound Cake

1 cup boiling water
Two 1-ounce squares unsweetened chocolate, chopped into small pieces
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ pound (1 stick) butter, softened
1 ¾ cups firmly packed light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup sour cream

Confectioners’ sugar for dusting

1. Preheat the oven to 325˚F. Grease and flour an 8 ½ x 4 ½” loaf pan.
2. In a small bowl, pour the boiling water over the chocolate and stir to melt it. Allow to cool.
3. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda. In another large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla, continuing to beat as you add each ingredient.
4. Add half of the flour mixture to the butter-sugar mixture and beat thoroughly. Add the sour cream and continue beating. Add the remaining flour mixture and beat until combined. Add the chocolate mixture and beat until just blended.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake for about 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes, until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Run a thin knife around the edge of the cake and remove from the pan. Continue cooling the cake on the wire rack. Dust with confectioners’ sugar before slicing.

Banana Layer Cake

October 3, 2009 - Banana Layer Cake with Tangy Vanilla Frosting

My favorite banana cake is from Icing on the Cake in Los Gatos - every time I try a new banana cake recipe, I compare it to that. This recipe is from Abigail Johnson Dodge's Weekend Baker and, appropriately enough, I made it last weekend. The cake turned out fairly well - had a good texture that was nice and cakey, not too heavy like a pound cake and not too light like a sponge cake. It was similar to Icing on the Cake's but not quite the same so my quest to find the perfect banana cake recipe continues.

I made 2 novice baker mistakes with this cake. One, contrary to my previous posting on the use of bananas, I didn't let my bananas get ripe enough before I used them for the cake. The bananas I had were too ripe to eat but still not at that almost-completely blackened skin stage which would make them the most flavorful. But this weekend was the only time I had to make a layer cake so I was willing to risk it. The cake still turned out okay but would probably have been a smidge more flavorful if the bananas had ripened even further.

The second mistake is probably common to most cake bakers - I didn't let the layers get completely cool before I frosted them. Usually I have more patience but I was on a schedule and needed to get going so I let them mostly cool but frosted them while they were still just a tiny bit lukewarm in the center. It didn't matter too much except the frosting did get a bit moist/melty and I had to let it set in the fridge after I frosted the layers. That's one thing in baking that I've learned through the years - oftentimes, you can't really hide your mistakes. You can see my 2nd mistake clearly by looking at the layers - you can't see the frosting layer in between them. That's because not only did I use a thin layer of frosting (since I'm more of a cake girl, not a frosting chick) but what frosting there was between the two layers melted into them. It didn't affect the taste at all and the taste was actually quite good but from a presentation standpoint, I wouldn't follow my example on this one.

The original recipe has this frosted with chocolate frosting but for a banana cake, I prefer a more neutral flavor pairing. Vanilla (or cream cheese) showcases the banana flavor, chocolate competes with it. Whichever you choose is more of a personal preference.

Banana Layer Cake with Tangy Vanilla Frosting
For the cake
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon table salt
¼ teaspoon baking soda
16 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 ¾ cups granulated sugar
3 medium very, very ripe bananas (about 14 ounces including peels), peeled
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs
½ cup buttermilk
¾ cup (3 ounces) chopped, toasted walnuts, optional

For the fudgy frosting
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
1 cup evaporated milk
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 2 pieces
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
½ teaspoon table salt

To make the cake
1. Position an oven rack on the middle rung. Heat the oven to 350˚F. Grease and flour the bottom and sides of two 9 by 2-inch round cake pans, tapping out the excess flour.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Whisk until well blended. In a large bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer (stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment or handheld mixer) on medium-high until smooth. Add the sugar and beat until well combined. Add the bananas and vanilla and beat until well blended and only small bits of banana remain. Add the eggs two at a time, beating well after each addition. The mixture will look curdled and a bit lumpy. Don’t worry, it will all come together. Add half of the flour mixture and mix on low speed just until blended. Add the buttermilk and mix just until blended. Add the remaining flour mixture and mix just until blended. Stir in the walnuts, if using. Scrape the batter into the prepared pans, dividing it evenly.
3. Bake until the tops are light brown and a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center of 1 layer comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Transfer the pans to racks and let cool for about 15 minutes. Run a thin knife around the sides of each pan to loosen the cake. Invert the layers onto the racks, lift off the pans, and let cool completely.
To make the fudgy frosting
4. While the cake is baking, make the fudgy frosting. Melt the unsweetened chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave. Meanwhile, combine the sugar, evaporated milk, butter, vanilla and salt in a blender; there’s no need to blend at this point. When the chocolate is melted, remove it from the heat or the microwave and give it a stir. Scrape the hot melted chocolate into the blender. Cover with the lid and blend on high speed until the mixture darkens and is very thick, about 2 minutes. Scrape the frosting into a clean bowl and set aside at room temperature. When the frosting is cool, cover the bowl with plastic wrap until the cake is completely cool and ready to frost.
5. Frost the cake


Tangy Vanilla Frosting
16 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon table salt
1/3 cup sour cream

1. In a large bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer (stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment) on medium-high speed until very smooth and creamy. Add the confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, salt and beat until blended and fluffy. Add the sour cream and, using a rubber spatula, gently stir just until blended. Cover and set aside at room temperature until the layers are completely cool and ready to be frosted.

Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies - Test batch 3

I have 2 favorite chocolate chip cookie recipes. One is the more traditional, chewy, sweet cookie and the other is less sweet and more cakey. Both are thicker than the normal Toll House variety which is why they made the favorites list. I'm currently on a kick to try and combine the best of both cookie recipes into one.

Must have for my perfect chocolate chip cookies:

1. Milk chocolate chips - preferably the big Guittard chips or milk chocolate chunks (yeah, I know you semisweet lovers are baffled but hey, it's my sweet tooth).

2. Thick - remember thin is a bad word when it comes to most baked goods, see earlier blog post. So I need a cookie that doesn't spread much when baked in a regular oven. Convection ovens are great because they'll often bake the cookie before it's had time to spread very much. But I don't have a convection oven so I have to adjust the recipes to work in my normal oven.

3. Need a perfect combination between chewy and cakey - this is the toughest thing for me to nail so far. I don't like cakey cookies or crisp cookies (as a rule but there are some exceptions) or cookies grainy from too much sugar or greasy from too much butter.

4. You can get chewy cookies by underbaking but I don't like them so underbaked that they're still cookie dough. Again, the cookie dough lovers will be baffled by this but I'm that rare cookie baker who never eats cookie dough when making cookies. It's raw dough. Ewwww. I've had many an argument with cookie dough lovers over this but the most they can do is shake their heads and look at me in pity. Doesn't work. I still won't eat cookie dough. My friend Annie loves cookie dough and her tag line is her cookies are for people who love cookie dough more than cookies. But I like Annie's cookies so I don't think that's the definition of cookie dough I'm talking about. I mean the stuff that's still in the mixing bowl and doesn't make it onto a cookie sheet that goes into the oven.

5. Crisp edges when eaten 10 minutes out of the oven but the middle is still soft and chewy. When it cools, it's okay for some of the crispness to be gone but still would be good for it not to be too soft around the edge. That's what you need to offer a different texture contrast from the middle.

This is my 3rd test batch of starting from the chewy cookie dough recipe and modifying it to be closer to the cakey one. I think I overshot towards the cakey and not enough on the chewy. What's the difference? The cakey one is what it sounds like - more like a little blob of a dense cake. The chewy, well, it just tastes like a chocolate chip cookie. I did like how these turned out in size and thickness though. The taste was pretty good too. But I still have to work on the texture to be more cookie-like rather than cake-like.

Brownies!

Brownies are a busy baker's best friend. They can be mixed in one bowl, poured into a pan and baked in no time at all. Given both the hours I work and the amount of time I have to bake, brownies are a crucial part of my baking therapy. You can fit them in almost any time.

Unlike many other sweets that require being exact in ingredients, brownies are a little more forgiving about "add in" ingredients. I've been known to add chocolate liqueur in lieu of or in addition to vanilla as well as chocolate extract, Kahlua, etc. You can also dress up a plain brownie with chopped up candy bars, chunks of chocolate, M&Ms, Rolos, Snickers - you name it, it can probably be added. Don't go wild though as the beauty of the brownie is its simplicity and you don't want to lose its richness by adding too much other stuff. I added plain M&Ms to this recipe. Peanut M&Ms would've been too big and the softness of the texture of these brownies would've been overwhelmed by anything bigger than the plain M&Ms.

Most brownie recipes call for nuts to be added to the batter. As previously stated, I am diametrically opposed to nuts in my brownies and other baked goods. If they're layered on top, they might be okay but inside the batter? That's just wrong. Brownies tend to have a higher proportion of chocolate so it's crucial to use good quality chocolate. Your brownies are only as good as the ingredients you put in.

The most common mistake people make with brownies is they bake them too long. They wait until the toothpick comes out "clean". No, no, no. Did I mention "no"? By the time your toothpick comes out clean, your brownie is likely overbaked and possibly dry. Since most brownies have a high proportion of chocolate compared to the rest of the ingredients, it's okay to err on the side of underbaking them. The chocolate will "set" as it cools. Some people like their brownies fudgy, others like them cakey. I belong in the fudgy camp. If I wanted cakey brownies, I'd make a chocolate cake. Some people mistake my brownies for fudge. I'm okay with that. There's a fine line between the two anyway.

Lots of people like the brownie edges and they even make an Edge pan for those who only like the edges http://www.amazon.com/Bakers-Edge-Nonstick-Brownie-Pan/dp/B000MMK448/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1254363324&sr=8-1
That would NOT be for me. I like the middles. They're generally more moist and chocolatey. I give the edges to other people.

I tried a new recipe last night - Bittersweet Brownies from Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours. It's a fantastic book and I highly recommend it for even the most novice bakers. So far all the recipes I've tried from it have turned out pretty well. The original recipe called for the brownies to be thin and baked in a 9 x 13 pan. I'm almost as opposed to thin brownies as I am to nuts in brownies. Thin brownies? Are you kidding? Thin should only be applied to my weight loss goals. Thin doesn't belong with brownies. I compensated by baking them in a smaller pan so, while they weren't really thick, at least they weren't thin. Some brownies are so rich that you probably don't want them too thick. In that case, just cut them smaller. But don't make them thin.

I brought these into work today for a few meetings and I passed out the leftovers amongst some of my coworker friends. Ran into one of them, Rick, after I'd passed out the last brownie and I had to confess they were gone. That earned me a searing look and the declaration from Rick of "You're dead to me!" LOL. Guess Rick likes brownies too. Fortunately for him, Albie saved the day and shared one of the ones I had given her. Maybe next time, Rick, I'll bring you your own. Maybe.

Peanut Butter Fudge Cookies

I am not a huge fan of peanut butter - at least not by itself. Never had a peanut butter & jelly sandwich in my life (don't even get me started on not liking jelly). However, I don't mind peanut butter combined with other flavors, especially chocolate. Or peanut butter baked into cakes, brownies or cookies. Just don't like the stuff straight out of the jar.

While I like peanut butter cookies for the most part, I don't like the traditional flat peanut butter cookie that's a bit crisp. Crisp in a cookie often translates into "dry". I like my cookies rounded, thick and moist. Crisp also often signifies the use of shortening in a recipe and I much prefer butter.

I like this recipe for Peanut Butter Fudge Cookies because it holds its shape well and is a nice combination of peanut butter and chocolate. It's moist, fudgy and not too overwhelmingly peanut butter-y. Watch the baking time on this one. It bakes for 10 minutes in my oven. When in doubt, err on the side of underbaking rather than overbaking. This is from Nancy Baggett's All-American Cookie Book.

Peanut Butter Fudge Cookies

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, broken up or coarsely chopped
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
1 ½ cups packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened American-style cocoa powder
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup (6 ounces) milk chocolate morsels, finely chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Grease several baking sheets or coat with nonstick spray.
2. In a small, microwave-safe bowl, microwave the unsweetened chocolate on 50% power for 1 minute. Stir well. Continue microwaving on 50% power, stirring at 30-second intervals. Stop microwaving before the chocolate completely melts and let the residual heat finish the job. (Alternatively, in a small, heavy saucepan, melt the chocolate over lowest heat, stirring frequently; be very careful not to burn. Immediately remove from the heat.)
3. In a medium bowl, thoroughly stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on low, then medium, speed, beat together the melted chocolate, peanut butter, brown sugar, sugar, and cocoa powder until very well blended. Add the butter and beat until very well blended and smooth. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until fluffy and well blended, about 2 minutes. Beat or stir in the flour mixture, then the chocolate morsels, just until evenly incorporated. Refrigerate the dough for 15 minutes, or until it firms up slightly.
4. Divide the dough into quarters, forming each into a flat disk. Divide each portion into quarters, then eighths. Shape the portions into balls with lightly greased hands. Place on the baking sheets, spacing about 2 ½ inches apart. Lightly oil the tines of a fork. Using the fork tines, firmly press down each ball horizontally and then vertically until the ball is about ½” thick.
5. Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, in the upper third of the oven for 8 to 11 minutes, or until not quite firm when pressed in the centers; be careful not to overbake. Transfer the sheet to a wire rack and let stand until the cookies firm up slightly, 1 to 2 minutes. Using a spatula, transfer the cookies to wire racks. Let stand until completely cooled.

Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 1 ½ months.

Lemon Cream-Filled Cookies

These are nice, simple cookies, perfect for serving at a tea or brunch. They take a little more time than drop cookies but are fairly straightforward and simple to make. My niece Lauren made these for my dad's birthday party last weekend, using my recipe below. She made the dough herself, rolled out the dough, cut out the shapes, baked them, cooled them, made the filling and she and Shyla put them together.

Usually I don't have the time to make sandwich cookies. The chilling, rolling out, baking, cooling and sandwiching together are great for a weekend project but not so much during the week when I get home late from work. The thing with any kind of sandwich cookies is the importance of uniformity. The dough has to be rolled out to just the right thickness. Too thick and you'll get a bulky cookie when you sandwich the halves together. Too thin and they'll break apart easily, not to mention they brown too fast when you bake them. You can't have a thin half and a thick half either - looks weird. Plus each one has to be the same size and shape in order to put together neatly. If you like the homey touch, then it doesn't really matter if the cookie halves are mismatched. But (you guessed it), I'm a bit anal about stuff like that so I prefer to use a cookie cutter to get uniform shapes and sizes for my sandwich cookies.

The filling is important too. If it's too liquidy, the filling will run out the sides of the sandwich cookie or leak out when you bite into it, making a mess. If it's too hard, it ruins the texture contrast with the cookie halves or won't be soft enough to hold the two sandwich halves together.

This recipe is from a Mrs. Fields cookie book. You can use any size and shape cookie cutter to cut the cookies. I like to use small ones for more dainty-looking cookies. Normally I use a scallop-shaped cookie cutter to make these prettier but I had Lauren use a plain circle this time around just to keep things simple.

Cookies
¾ cup salted butter, softened
½ cup confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons pure lemon extract
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup cornstarch

Filling
¼ cup salted butter, softened
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon heavy cream
juice of 1 freshly squeezed lemon (about 2 tablespoons)
grated zest of 1 lemon (2-3 teaspoons)

To make the cookie dough
1. In a medium bowl, cream butter with an electric mixer set at medium speed. Add sugar, and beat until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.
2. Add lemon extract, and beat until light and fluffy. Then add flour and cornstarch; blend at low speed until thoroughly combined.
3. Gather dough into 2 balls of equal size and flatten into disks. Wrap the disks tightly in plastic wrap or a plastic bag. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
To make the filling:
4. In a small bowl, beat butter with mixer until fluffy. Gradually add sugar while continuing to beat. Add cream, lemon juice and lemon zest. Mix until thoroughly blended and set aside. To harden filling quickly, refrigerate for 15-20 minutes.
5. At this point, preheat oven to 325˚F.
6. Using a floured rolling pin, roll the chilled cookie dough on a floured board to a ¼” thickness. Cut circles of dough on ungreased cookie sheets, ½” apart. Continue rolling out and cutting dough scraps until all dough is used.
7. Bake for 15-17 minutes, or until edges begin to brown. Immediately transfer cookies with a spatula to a cool, flat surface.
8. When cookies are completely cool, spread a cookie with 1 teaspoon of the lemon cream. Place another cookie on top of the filling to make a sandwich. Complete entire batch.

Pancit Palabok - a Filipino noodle dish

My mom is an awesome cook – one of those people who don’t use a recipe and just cook by taste. For as long as I can remember, she was always cooking, seemingly effortlessly. She did NOT pass those abilities onto me. I can bake but I can’t cook. Trust me, there’s a difference. The few times I’ve attempted “real cooking” – well, let’s just say my worst baking failures are probably still better than my best cooking efforts.

Cooking is more of an art and there’s much more room for ad hoc creativity and going by how something tastes. Baking is more of a science and is more exact in its ingredients and instructions. Most chefs, amateur and professional, prefer one over the other and are better at one over the other, even if they can do both. I’m on the baking side and always will be. I can create all sorts of desserts and pastries but can barely boil water for the pasta to go with the canned jar of sauce from the grocery store. Those frozen dinners you can microwave are a staple in my freezer.

This is a picture of a traditional Filipino dish called Pancit Palabok – it’s a noodle dish with sauce, hard-boiled eggs, shrimp, a little chicken, green onions and a bunch of other “stuff” (says the non-cook). I’ve tried to get my mom to write down the recipe for the tastebook I’m creating for my nieces but while she’s made this dish for years and can probably make it in her sleep, she doesn’t have a recipe for it. She just knows how to make it. That’s a cook. Whereas I have reams of dessert cookbooks and pore over recipes, making notes, refining them and writing them out to document them. That’s a baker or a pastry chef. A world of difference. Fortunately for my nieces, my sister, Corin, inherited Mom’s cooking genes so she can make the traditional Filipino food. Although she doesn’t really use recipes either. Argh.

Another Red Velvet Cake

Red Velvet Cake - More from Magnolia Bakery cookbook - September 19, 2009

My nieces came up for the weekend for my dad’s 70th birthday party. In what’s now becoming our tradition, they stay with me for a night and the rest of the time, they spend at my parents’ house. On “my” night, we get takeout from Krung Thai, my favorite Thai restaurant, and I make dessert. This night’s dessert was red velvet cake. I tried the recipe from the More From Magnolia Bakery cookbook. It turned out pretty well but I confess I like Diane’s recipe better. I also made the Creamy Vanilla Frosting that was in the Magnolia cookbook and it was good but I still prefer cream cheese frosting with red velvet cake. Overall, I’m not a big fan of frosting. Most frostings and icings are too sweet and I’m more about the cake than the frosting. I’d rather have just a tiny bit of frosting, only enough to hold the cake layers together. Some of my friends are the opposite and would rather have a ton of frosting than cake (shudder). I need to hang out more with those people because we’d never let a slice of cake go to waste – I can eat the cake and they can eat the frosting.

I don’t make layer cakes that often because it’s time consuming – not so much the mixing and baking part but the waiting for the cake layers to cool enough to frost. You always want cake layers to be completely cool or else your frosting will melt. I do have some cake recipes where you’re supposed to let the frosting melt over the warm cake – yum. It’s also almost inevitable that the outer edges of the cake layers are a tad dry in the time it took to get the center baked enough to take out. I tend to underbake my cakes just a trifle to avoid this but then sometimes the center comes out gummy. I know people recommend the Magi-Cake strips but they’ve only been marginally successful to me and sometimes not really worth the bother. But layer cakes do make a nice presentation and are very photogenic.

Going back to red velvet

I combine my love of baking with my love of reading when I read culinary mysteries. Some notable authors of the genre are: Virginia Rich, Diane Mott Davidson, and Joanne Fluke. I love a good mystery and when the books are based on characters who bake or cook for a living with recipes sprinkled throughout the chapters - well, what's not to love?

This is a picture of red velvet cookies whose recipe is from The Carrot Cake Murder by Joanne Fluke, who writes the Hannah Swensen mystery series. Normally I don't try a lot of the recipes in the books but I was going through my red velvet cake obsession at the time that I read this book so I had to try the cookie version. Am I glad I did. These are to-die-for cookies. Essentially they're chocolate cookies with red food coloring just as red velvet cake is chocolate cake with red food coloring. Like the cake, these cookies are frosted with cream cheese frosting. My nieces love these cookies and they're perfect for Christmas and Valentine's Day because of their color. The only drawback is because they're frosted, you can't stack them or package them for mailing. They don't spread much and stay nice and thick. This is one of the few cookies I'm actually very careful to time in the oven. Due to their color, you can't tell when they're done by appearance alone and you don't want to overbake these. They're perfect just slightly underbaked as they're nice and fudgy. The cream cheese frosting provides a nice contrast to cut the richness of the cookie with the sweetness of the frosting.

Red Velvet Cookies

2 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate
½ cup (1 stick) butter at room temperature
2/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/3 cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 tablespoon red food coloring
¾ cup sour cream
2 cups flour (pack it down in the cup when you measure it)
1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

1. Line your cookie sheets with parchment paper. Spray the parchment paper with nonstick cooking spray. Melt chocolate and let cool.
2. Combine the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat them on medium speed until they’re smooth. This should take less than a minute.
3. Add the baking soda and salt, and resume beating on medium again for another minute, or until they’re incorporated. Add the egg and beat on medium speed until the batter is smooth. Add the red food coloring and mix for about 30 seconds.
4. Shut off the mixer and scrape down the bowl. Then add the melted chocolate and mix again for another minute on medium speed. Shut off the mixer and scrape down the bowl again. At low speed, mix in half the flour. When the flour is incorporated, mix in the sour cream.
5. Scrape down the bowl again and add the rest of the flour. Beat until the flour is fully incorporated. Remove the bowl from the mixer and give it a stir with a spoon. Mix in the chocolate chips by hand.
6. Use a teaspoon to spoon the dough onto the parchment-lined cookie sheets, 12 cookies to a standard-sized sheet. Bake the cookies at 375˚F for 9 to 11 minutes, or until they rise and become firm. Slide the parchment from the cookie sheets and onto a wire rack. Let the cookies cool on the rack.

Cream Cheese Frosting

¼ cup butter, softened
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups confectioners’ sugar

1. Mix the softened butter with the softened cream cheese and the vanilla until the mixture is smooth.
2. Add the confectioners’ sugar in half-cup increments until the frosting is of proper spreading consistency.


Oh and I did bake tonight after work but it was Petra's Banana Bread recipe that I already posted about. My aunt and uncle are arriving this weekend from Canada for my dad's 70th birthday and this is one of my aunt's favorites so I had to make enough for her to enjoy while she's here and some for her to take home to my cousins back in Winnipeg.

A Random Act of Kindness

Can I say I love my coworkers because they’re an awesome bunch of people? Today, my friend and coworker, Erin, came over and surprised me with a signed copy of The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters. She had been to a book signing/talk by Alice Waters at Berkeley and presented the cookbook to me from the Yahoo! for Good team – talk about a random act of kindness! Erin was also very sweet and told me how appreciated I am – always a nice thing to hear from good people, especially with the mountain of work that had been crushing my spirit lately. Incidences like these and people like Erin never fail to remind me why I am where I am and why I’m grateful for it.

One of my favorite things to do when someone gives me a cookbook as a present is to make something from that cookbook and give it to the giver. To me, that's one of the best things about getting a cookbook. It can literally be the gift that keeps on giving. So, YFG team, you never know what you'll be surprised with in my baking future but it'll be coming your way soon.

No baking tonight as I’m having dinner with another group of current and former coworkers whose company I enjoy. Feeling very blessed indeed.

I can't believe I've gone through most of my baking life and never had red velvet cake until a few years ago. Where have I been?? I LOVE this cake. I first tried it when one of my coworkers, Nathan, had me try a test piece of a red velvet cake he was making for his mom (is that cute or what? I rarely meet guys who bake). When I was in New York a couple of years ago on a foodie trip, I visited every bakery I knew of or could find in Manhattan and came upon the red velvet cake from the Buttercup Bake Shop. It was fabulous!

I also heard of a bakery in New Orleans called Gambino's and people raved about their red velvet cake. I haven't made it to New Orleans yet but I always wanted to try their red velvet cake. Gambino's does ship but it's $70 for a cake! I couldn't bring myself to spring for it (hey, I'm cheap) but I came close to pulling the trigger so many times. Thankfully, I had an awesome boss who, last Christmas, for a holiday gift, he (or rather his exec assistant, Tess) ordered me the red velvet cake from Gambino's. They shipped it to the office and Tess drove it to my house to drop it off as my boss was on vacation. It was terrific. Not sure I would've paid $70 for it but that made the gift even more perfect, lol. I was able to share it with my family as one of our Christmas desserts. The picture of the whole, unsliced cake is the Gambino's one. For those who can't spring $70 for a Gambino's cake either, you can also get a slice of red velvet cake from the California Pizza Kitchen - it's not Gambino's or Buttercup's but it's still pretty good.

After that, I went through a period of trying recipe after recipe for red velvet cake. Most of them were just "okay" but none really came up to snuff. Some were too heavy, some not moist enough, some not "red" enough and some didn't have that much flavor. This past March, I was on a ski trip with my church singles group (ASCSA) and one of my condo mates, Diane, mentioned she had a red velvet cake recipe. Diane later sent me the recipe and yep, that one was the winner (pictured with the big ol' slices already cut out). I don't know how widely I'm allowed to share it so I'm not going to post it here but if anyone wants to try a good red velvet cake recipe, Bobby Flay's recipe on the Food Network is also pretty good.

Ironically, I have the Magnolia Bakery cookbook (they're the same owners as the Buttercup Bake Shop) and they have a red velvet cake recipe in there but I have yet to try it. Hmm, future baking project.

Chocolate Chocolate White Chocolate Cookies

You have to love a recipe that has the word "chocolate" in the title three times. If you’re a chocolate fan like me, you know the importance of good quality chocolate. I’m not talking low-rent grocery store stuff. I’m talking break-the-bank, bust-the-budget high end chocolate – the kind that sounds European because it is European. And I don’t mean “European-style Hershey’s” either. When I was in culinary school, we had one class where we tasted different types of chocolate. Bliss. A class on chocolate tasting. Yeah, it’s as good as it sounds. That’s when I discovered that my favorite eating chocolate is Valrhona milk chocolate. I prefer milk chocolate anyway (see the chocolate chip blog post) and Valrhona is the epitome of creamy, good chocolate. There are other, expensive chocolates like Del Rey and Scharffenberger but I ended up liking Valrhona the best.

I would love to be able to say I’m a total chocolate snob and only ever eat the best. However, I’d rather not lie on my own blog. Truth of the matter is, for most of us, buying high end chocolate to eat is one thing and can occasionally be a great indulgence. Buying high end chocolate to bake with as much as I bake? I might as well take out a second mortgage on my house to be able to afford it. So I’ve learned to adjust my preferences to my paycheck and live within my means when it comes to buying baking ingredients. The trick is to gauge the importance chocolate plays in a recipe. If I’m making brownies, and chocolate is in equal or lesser proportions to sugar, butter, flour and the like, I settle for Hershey’s, Nestle's and Baker’s baking chocolate, especially if it’s unsweetened chocolate. If I’m making something like a flourless chocolate cake or chocolate cookies that have a high proportion of chocolate compared to the rest of the ingredients, I upscale it a bit with Lindt or Valrhona or even Ghirardelli. Fortunately you can find some good chocolate like Valrhona at Trader Joe’s for a somewhat reasonable price. I also scour the sale ads every week, ready to pounce when Lindt and comparable brands go on sale so I can stock up. The point is, buy the best quality chocolate you can afford. It’ll be worth it. This is another instance where I can give someone the same recipe I use but if I use Lindt and they use generic grocery store brand chocolate, their results are going to be different from mine. Quality chocolate will taste creamy and make you roll your eyes to the back of their sockets in ecstasy. Cheap chocolate will taste like chalk and crumble when you bite into it and leave a waxy aftertaste. A calorie is a calorie - which would you rather spend your daily total on?

I made the dough for these cookies this past weekend, shaped them into balls, put them in freezer bags, wrote their name, baking temp and baking time on the bag(s) and put them in my freezer. Best time saver in the world. I don’t have much time these days since that thing called a job gets in my way so I have to maximize my baking time. I make the dough on the weekends and I bake off the cookies during the week when I need them for something. I baked some off last night to bring into work this morning and I’m baking the rest tonight to bring to a coworker dinner tomorrow. Thereby also freeing up my freezer for this coming weekend’s baking efforts.

This recipe is from the Buttercup Bake Shop cookbook. The dough was pretty liquidy, not surprisingly because it has 4 eggs (most recipes only call for 2) and a large amount of melted chocolate. I had to chill the dough first to get it to firm up then shape it into balls, then freeze them, THEN put them in freezer bags and stow them in the freezer. The cookies turned out okay but while they didn’t spread too much, they did still spread and weren’t as thick as I normally prefer my cookies. I didn’t make the dough balls that big though so that could be partially why. It’s also because I don’t have a convection oven which tends to bake cookies fast enough to keep them thick and not spread so much. In any case, the taste was pretty good – a nice, basic chocolate cookie. It's pretty typical of other chocolate chocolate cookies I've made before so they don't really stand out to me.

My coworkers, who serve as willing guinea pigs, bless their hearts, seemed to like them. After baking for my various workplaces for years, I have my own gauge on how successful a recipe is. I get in around 8 am or earlier and will put the cookies out in the communal kitchen on my floor when I first arrive. How fast they disappear is a testament of how much people like them. Successes will usually be gone within an hour. If people really like them, I also get instant messages thanking me - these cookies rated 3 IMs and a personal thank you in the hallway this morning. So-so baked goods last a couple of hours. Failures might make it to lunchtime. And yes, I do have failures often enough. I bring them in anyway because I figure someone will eat them (and they do). If I consider something a total failure, I leave it on a different floor so they’re not associated with me. I have a reputation to protect after all.

Chocolate Chocolate White Chocolate Cookies

¾ cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 ½ cups sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted
12 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted
2 cups vanilla (or white chocolate) chips

1. Preheat oven to 350˚F.
2. In a medium bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the eggs, vanilla and espresso, and beat on high speed for about 2 minutes. Turn the mixer to low and mix in the melted chocolates, stopping to scrape the bowl. Resume mixing on low speed and add the dry ingredients, mixing well. Stop the mixer and stir in the vanilla chips.
4. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets, leaving several inches between for spreading. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Cool the cookies on the sheets for 1 minute, then remove to a rack to cool completely.

Lemon Bars - pucker up

I can make all sorts of complicated desserts that take a ton of time mixing, baking, layering, frosting, chilling, decorating, etc and yet you know what is one of the most frequently requested baked good I’m asked for? Lemon bars. Nice, simple, uncomplicated lemon bars. What makes a good lemon bar? To me, they have to have just the right tartness and amount of lemon. Too often the lemon curd part of the lemon bar is too mouth-puckeringly lemony. If I wanted that much lemony taste, I’m better off just sucking a lemon. Or else the curd is too gelatinous. I’m not a big custard-y type dessert eater (notable exception: crème brulee but we’ll get to that later) so the perfect lemon bar has equal amounts of shortbread crust and lemon curd which is curd, not lemon gelatin. And a light sprinkling of powdered sugar dusted on top, not a whole blanket of snow.

I’ve tried a fair number of lemon bar recipes over the years but I always come back to the first one I remember making which is from the Land O Lakes Treasury of Country Recipes cookbook. I even remember when I first made this – I was newly graduated from UC Berkeley, living in San Francisco and working for PG&E. I brought these into the office and one of the ladies there enjoyed it so much she asked me for the recipe. I gave it to her and she made it but told me afterwards that hers “didn’t turn out” like mine. This was a good 18 years ago and I hadn’t had the baking experience back then that I have now but I remember being baffled. The recipe isn’t that hard. I just followed it and I assumed anyone else who followed it would also get the same results. Apparently not so. Looking back and over the years with making this recipe, I’ve never varied the ingredients or took liberties with the amounts but I have adjusted baking times based on the pans I’m using and the ovens I’m baking in. While baking is more of a science than cooking, there is also some art involved. My biggest secret is I hardly ever time anything. I don’t use a timer and I’m lucky if I remember to check the time when I put something in the oven. Or I check the time then forget what it is later on. The times in recipes are just guidelines. Everyone’s oven is different so you have to adjust baking time accordingly. Depending on what I’m baking, I go by appearance (for cookies) or the toothpick method (for brownies and cakes). If you’re more of a novice baker, you might want to use a timer to start with until you get more comfortable with how something should look when it’s done. I just wing it.

On the subject of sharing recipes: I used to be really zealous about guarding my recipes. It’s not like I had any wildly original concoctions either. Most of my recipes are straight out of dessert cookbooks that anyone can buy. I make the recipe once as is then I add my own notes of how it turned out, modifications that should be made and what I could do better next time. For most recipes, I don’t really drastically change them but I do figure out how to bake them and bake them well. I always felt bad if someone asked me for a recipe and I couldn’t (or wouldn’t) share it. Let’s face it – asking for someone’s recipe is the most sincere compliment they can give you that they liked what you made. It’s kind of a slap in the face if you say no, you won’t share the recipe. In my defense, I did have reasons at the time (beyond being young and selfish).

A) I thought I would someday write my own cookbook and if I gave all those recipes away now, who would buy my cookbook later? That was just self-preservation, right? While I would still like to publish my own cookbook “someday”, the reality is it would take a lot more baking experimentation than I do today (which is mostly weekend tinkering) to write a cookbook. It takes original ideas, foolproof recipes, multiple iterations of the same thing over and over again and a ton of other work. In essence, it’d be a full-time job and frankly, I already have one of those.

B) The young and selfish part – I put in a lot of work in trying out many different recipes of something. For example, I went through a lot of lemon bar recipes to settle on the original one as the best. For someone to ask me to just hand it over felt like I was working for them for free and making it easy for them to get a great recipe. Where were they when I had to fit a Costco run into my busy schedule because I’d run out of butter and eggs? Where were they when I had to fork over $1 per lemon when I couldn’t get to Costco and had to succumb to Safeway’s or Lucky’s exorbitant grocery store prices? Okay, it sounds kinda dumb, childish and bratty when I write it out like that but that’s how I felt.

C) Too much pride in my baking – I don’t mean this in a narcissist way but I take a lot of pride in my baking hobby/passion/obsession and I love being able to provide baked treats for everyone. In my younger days, I was known for a chocolate caramel brownie recipe and I was very proud of being able to bake those brownies because, while the recipe seemed really simple, it took a lot of effort and months of trial and error to get it right. To this day, if I go too long without making them, I forget all the little tricks I used to get them right and I’ll mess up the recipe. It’s still good and if you’ve never had the “perfect” version, it’s just fine since you don’t know how much better it could be. I once made the “mistake” of giving that recipe to someone. She, in turn, started bringing them to the same gatherings I would go to and taking credit for my recipe. I cringed whenever I saw her passing off “my” brownies as hers, especially if they weren’t as good as I could have made them. That probably sounds narcissist. I don’t mean it to be. I also had other issues with this person. Think of the movie “Single White Female” and you’ll know where I’m coming from – the brownie thing was just the tip of the iceberg with this one.

In any case, for the most part, I’ve been able to let go of those hangups and am able to share recipes more freely. One of my favorite chef instructors at the Culinary Institute of America said he doesn’t see why people wouldn’t share recipes. Everyone makes things differently and recipes are meant to be shared. He’s right. I can attest some of my favorite recipes are from people who have shared them with me so I can do no less than to share what I have. I constantly, constantly have people ask me for my recipes and what I try to do is ask for a favorite recipe of theirs in return. Not to give something with strings because if they don’t have one, I still give them my recipe. But it’s my way of collecting different recipes that have people’s personal recommendation behind them which all of my recipes do.

One last thing on recipe sharing – I always share the recipe exactly as I make it. I’ve heard of people who don’t want to share their recipes changing the ingredients or leaving something out so that they’re not really giving out their true recipe. I don’t do that. Like I said, it’s a compliment to be asked for a recipe so giving them an altered one seems like returning a compliment with the insult of dishonesty. I’d rather someone tell me they’d rather not share a recipe than give me an inaccurate one. So if I give you a recipe and it “doesn’t turn out" like mine, I can honestly tell you that was the recipe I used. Ovens are different, quality of ingredients used might be different, baking steps taken might be done differently – there are a whole myriad of reasons why the recipe didn’t turn out exactly the same as mine but it won’t be because I didn’t give the same recipe I used.

Lemon Bars
Crust
1 1/3 cups flour
¼ cup sugar
½ cup butter, softened

Filling
¾ cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tbsp flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
3 tbsp lemon juice
powdered sugar

1. Heat oven to 350°F. In a small mixer bowl, combine all crust ingredients. Beat at low speed, scraping bowl often, until mixture is crumbly (2-3 minutes). Press on bottom of 8” square baking pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.
2. Meanwhile, in small mixer bowl combine all filling ingredients. Beat at low speed, scraping bowl often until well mixed. Pour filling over hot crust. Continue baking for 18-20 minutes or until filling is set. Sprinkle with powdered sugar; cool.