Amicus Cupcake

Pretty Girl Makes Cupcakes

2010-07-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone. Good news, I’m neither dead, nor retired from blogging. It’s just been a busy few months, and I haven’t had the time / energy to do much baking, and even less to do posting. Since my last post I’ve graduated from law school (hooray), started studying for the bar exam (boooo), and have started packing for a move to DC at the end of the summer. All in all, a busy time. Because of the bar don't expect many, or even any, new posts for awhile, but I thought I'd try for at least this one update.

This weekend though, I was fortunate enough to have a pretty girl help me make cupcakes (hence the title of the post). Hattie (the aforementioned pretty girl) and I made Chocolate-Banana-Peanut butter cupcakes for a Fourth of July party. These aren’t exactly new for me, as I’ve done a pretty fair number of chocolate peanut butter desserts, but I thought the addition of banana made these excellent. The cake is my basic chocolate, filled with a chocolate banana ganache, and frosted with a peanut butter frosting. The combination was excellent, if I can say so, and the banana really came through as a flavor in the ganache, even though you wouldn't suspect it (it just has the texture and appearance of regular whipped ganache).

Chocolate Cupcakes

Makes ~26

2 sticks unsalted butter

½ cup cocoa-powder

¾ cup water

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

½ cup well-shaken buttermilk

1 T vanilla

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 t cinnamon

¼ tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 350. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.

2. Melt the butter in a heavy bottomed sauce pan over low heat. Add in the cocoa powder and whisk until smooth. Then add the water and mix until smooth again. Remove from heat

3. One at a time mix in the sugar, egg, buttermilk, and vanilla

4. Sift the dry ingredients over the wet, and whisk until well combined.

5. Fill cupcakes using a ¼ cup measure. Bake for about 18-20 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Let them cool thoroughly before frosting.

Chocolate-banana ganache

8 oz. dark chocolate

½ cup heavy cream

½ cup banana puree

1. Chop the chocolate, and place it in a heat proof bowl.

2. Bring the cream to a simmer, pour over the chocolate, allow to sit for a minute, then stir until fully combined.

3. Stir in the banana puree. Allow to cool until set.

4. Pour cooled ganache into the bowl of a mixer, beat with whisk attachment until light in color and fluffy

Peanut Butter frosting

1 cup peanut butter

4 oz cream cheese, softened

1 ½ cups whipped cream (from about 1 cup cream)

1 cup powdered sugar

½ cup banana puree

1. Beat together the peanut butter, cream cheese, and powdered sugar until smooth.

2. Add the whipped cream and beat to combine. Beat in the banana puree.

Assembly

Use the cone method to fill the cupcakes with the whipped ganache. Top with the peanut butter frosting.

Three Berry Buckle

2010-04-25T19:26:00.000-07:00

I’m not going to lie, I considered a lot of puns to title this post, things like “buckle up,” or “get ready to loosen your...” but I ultimately decided against it. Not that I don’t love a good (or bad) pun, as the case may be, but memorializing it seemed like perhaps a bad idea, and so here we are.

If you’ve never had a buckle before, stop what you’re doing (ok, stop once you’re done reading this post and the recipe), and go make a buckle. A buckle is sort of a cross between a cobbler, a cake, a pie, and maybe a crisp. It takes all of the best elements of each, resulting in a soft, super moist cake. I would say it’s almost pudding like, but that really doesn’t do it justice. The buckle is topped with sort of a crispy sugar crust, making it even better.

The recipe I use is adapted from an old Gourmet. My mom has actually been making it for about as long as I can remember. Her advice when I went to make it was this “Bad fruit = bad buckle,” which is absolutely true. The original recipe calls for nectarines and blueberries, but almost anything will work. Ideally you want something with a sort of concentrated flavor. Most stone fruits (nectarines, peaches, etc) are great, as are all kinds of berries. I’ve never tried it with apples or pears, but I bet they would work in a pinch. One of the reviewers on epicurious mentioned having made one with strawberries and rhubarb. Given the early spring season, I went the berry route, and made one with strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries, which are always a solid choice if you can find good ones.

What I can say for sure is that the people I made this for couldn’t stop telling me how good it was. Maybe they were just being polite, but I suspect otherwise...

Fruit Buckle

Makes 9 x 13 pan worth

For filling:

1 cup + 2 T (2 ¼ sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup + 2 T sugar

1 ½ tsp vanilla

3/8 tsp baking powder

2 cups AP flour

¾ tsp salt

4 large eggs

4-5 cups mixed fruit

For topping:

¾ stick COLD unsalted butter, cut into chunks

¾ cups sugar

½ cup AP flour

¾ tsp cinnamon

¾ tsp nutmeg

1. Preheat oven to 350. Butter a 9x13 cake pan or pyrex baking dish.

2. Start by making the topping. In the bowl of a food processor, briefly pulse together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add the cold butter, and pulse until mixture resembles a coarse grain. Put the topping in the fridge while you make the rest of the buckle.

3. In a large bowl (or the bowl of a standing mixer) cream together the butter and the sugar until fluffy. Beat in vanilla.

4. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

5. With the mixer on medium speed, alternate adding the flour, and the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

6. Fold in the fruit. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the topping liberally over the top of the cake. It might look like you’re putting it on thickly, but remember it melts in the oven, the more you add, the ticker and crunchier a crust you get.

7. Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until the cake is golden on top, and the fruit juice is bubbling up the sides. Check it as you’re going, and if it looks like the top is burning, tent it with tinfoil.

8. Serve warm, with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Cookie Dough Cake and Turning Two

2010-04-15T20:09:00.000-07:00

It’s the second anniversary of my creating this blog and it’s been an interesting experience running the site for the past two years. Originally my intention was at most to document for my own purposes and reference the things I had made. But having the blog changed the way I cook and bake. The need for posts, especially early on, drove me to more cooking and baking that I might otherwise do. It also drove me to push my own limits, if only to keep what I had to write about interesting. It’s also encouraged me to experiment. I can’t post about recipes I’ve made before, and so I have to keep pushing for new things. While this means that I don’t return too much (there are a few, like the tiramisu cupcakes, or the double pumpkin cupcakes, that I will come back to over and over), it also means I keep looking for new things to try. It also just seems boring to make other people’s recipes, I can review them I suppose, and sometimes I do, but at the same time I feel like that’s not adding anything. I’d rather try to make a snickers bar cupcake, or one with candied prosciutto in it, than just making the same old thing. And while I am far from the most creative person out there, I like to at least think I’ve done a few things that if nothing else, no one else has bothered doing, at least in the same way I have.

Interestingly, running the blog has also been an interesting way for me to catalogue my own life. A friend of mine recently went through the blog and made a slideshow of all of the best pictures on the website (I know they’re not all winners). I remembered each baked good, both what I was seeing, as well as what I had made them for, the various parties, potlucks, events, and tribulations of law school over the past two years since starting Amicus Cupcake. And while I don’t tend to add the kinds of persona vignettes that many other bloggers do, for me at least the pictures and the recipes act as triggers of memory far more extensive than what is written.

I know that of course my blogging has slowed down lately. When I was celebrating my 1 year blogoversary, I was also celebrating my 100^th post. Now I’m only remarking my 136^th, certainly a nearly 2/3 reduction in postings is noteworthy, but it’s just been necessitated by my life. When I do repeat recipes, I don’t have anything to write. Sometimes I don’t have time to take pictures between baking and serving, which means no blog posting. Law school also just takes a lot of time and energy, and I often just don’t feel like writing up my recipes. Last, and probably most important, has been a change in the way I bake. In an effort to eat healthier I’ve instituted personal rules on when I bake, most notably I only bake when I have a good reason, and a way to get rid of it (without eating it all myself). The consequence is less baking, but a healthier me. I think it’s been a fair tradeoff.

Now on to the cake! Earlier this month Annie of Annie’s Eats posted a recipe for cookie dough cupcakes. I’m always a sucker for cookie dough, and so I decided to turn it into a layer cake. The recipe, however, looked a little off to me, and so I went to Bakewise and made a few changes. Namely I reduced the amount of butter (3 sticks seem like a lot for 2 cake layers), reducing the milk, and increasing the sugar. As a result, I can’t actually comment on Annie’s version of the recipe.

That disclaimer aside, I thought this cake was really good, but very dense and rich. The layers of cake were thick, and had a texture that reminded me of pound cake. The edges of the cake were a little overcooked, making the cake harder to cut through, but it didn’t mess up the taste. I would say overall the layers reminded me of cookies. The cookie dough filling itself was great. At first I thought that it tasted too much like sweetened condensed milk, but after a night in the fridge the tastes mellowed and it made an excellent cookie dough substitute. As for the frosting, I omitted the flour to make it lighter, and also took out some of the sugar, because I tend to think buttercreams just have too much sugar in them. I thought the light frosting went well with the heavier cake and filling though.

Cookie Dough Cake

Makes 2 eight inch cake layers

1 ¼ cups (2.5 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 2/3 cups light brown sugar, packed

4 large eggs

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

¼ tsp. salt

3/4 cup milk

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350. Butter two 8 inch cake pans, line with parchment, and butter the parchment. Whisk the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda together and set aside.

2. Cream together the butter and brown sugar in the bowl of a standing mixer on medium speed, until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

3. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape down the sides as necessary. In a measuring cup combine the milk and the vanilla.

4. Reduce the mixer speed to slow. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the butter, followed by half of the milk. Continue alternating between the two, ending with the dry ingredients

5. Stir in the chocolate chips with a spatula. Divide the dough into the prepared cake pans, level off the tops of the cake batter.

6. Bake the cake layers for 30 to 32 minutes, until layers are golden on top, pulling away from the sides, and a tester comes out clean. The cakes will probably dome, mine did.

7. Remove to cooling racks and let cool. Invert to remove from pans once cooled.

Cookie Dough Filling

This makes more than enough. You can use the extra to make decorations, cookie dough truffles, or do like me and just eat it with a spoon

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

¾ cup light brown sugar, packed

2 ¼ cups AP flour

14 oz. (1 can) sweetened condensed milk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

½ cup mini chocolate chips

1. In the bowl of a standing mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy.

2. Beat in the flour, sweetened condensed milk, and vanilla until combined

3. Stir in the chocolate chips. Transfer dough to a bowl, cover in plastic wrap, and put in the fridge for several hours to firm up, or overnight

Brown sugar buttercream

This made just barely enough for me to cover the outside of the cake

1 ½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

¾ cup light brown sugar, packed

2 cups powdered sugar

1 T milk

2 ½ tsp vanilla extract

Pinch salt

1. Cream together the butter and the brown sugar until smooth. Add the powdered sugar, and beat until smooth.

2. Add the milk, vanilla, and salt and beat until combined. Add more milk (to loosen) or powdered sugar (to stiffen) to adjust the consistency as you desire.

Assembly

Cake layers

Cookie Dough Filling

Brown Sugar Buttercream

Mini Chocolate Chips

1. Line an 8 inch cake pan with plastic wrap. Press some of the cookie dough filling into the pan, until you have a disk that is 8 inches across, and ½ inch to 1 inch thick. Place in the freezer for 5-10 minutes

2. Level off the tops of the cakes, so that they are flat. Place the first layer cut side up on your serving plate.

3. Remove the cookie dough from the freezer. Remove it from the cake pan, and peel off the plastic wrap. Place the cookie dough disk upside down (flat side up) on the cake layer. If it sinks a little in the middle (mine bowed a bit), you can work the dough in your hands till it becomes putty-like, and push it into the disk to make it level.

4. Put the second cake layer on top, cut side down. Press the sides of the cake, to make sure the cookie dough layer is flush with the cake.

5. Spread about a quarter of the frosting on the cake as the crumb coat, Place in the fridge for 20 minutes.

6. Add the remaining frosting to the cake, spread evenly around the outside of the cake. Stud the cake with mini chocolate chips for decoration. Refrigerate the cake until ready to serve.

Red Velvet

2010-04-11T15:09:00.001-07:00

This week a friend of mine had an overlap of both her birthday, and an election for an organization she belongs to at the law school. To celebrate, she decided she decided she wanted to make some red velvet cupcakes. To keep with the election theme, she wrote “Pick Flick” on top of the cupcakes (a reference to the movie Election, and yes, it says “FLICK” though on some of them the L and the I run together a little...) It’s been a month or so since I made my last batch of cupcakes, so this was a good way for me to get back into form (bet you didn’t know you could lose your cupcake making form, but you never know). Anyway, as a base we used the Magnolia Bakery recipe. I have to say, I’m often not a big fan of red velvet cakes, I think they’re just overblown vanilla cakes, but these had a really nice flavor, excellent crumb, and were very moist. I would strongly recommend them. Instead of the vanilla frosting recipe called for, we instead made a cream cheese frosting, which is appropriate for red velvet as far as I’m concerned. All told, I still don’t think red velvet cupcakes top my list of desirable cakes, but if that’s what you’re after, this recipe is the way to go.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Makes 24 cupcakes

3 1/2 cups cake flour (not self-rising)

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

2 cups sugar

3 large eggs, at room temperature

6 tablespoons red food coloring

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

1 1/2 teaspoons cider vinegar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1. Preheat oven to 350 and line cupcake tins. Sift cake flour and set aside. In the bowl of a mixer cream together the butter and sugar on medium speed until fluffy, about 5 minutes.

2. Add the eggs one at a time, beating completely after each addition.

3. In a small bowl whisk together the red food coloring, cocoa, and vanilla extract. Beat into the butter mixture and beat well.

4. Stir the salt into the buttermilk. Alternate adding the buttermilk and the flour in three parts, mixing until just combined. In a small bowl whisk together the vinegar and baking soda, and stir into the batter, mix well. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

5. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 cups full, and bake for 20 minutes, until a tester comes out clean. Set aside to cool

Cream Cheese Frosting

12 oz. low fat cream cheese, room temperature

½ stick butter, room temperature

2 tsp vanilla extract

3-4 cups powdered sugar

1. Cream together the cream cheese and the butter

2. Add the vanilla and the powdered sugar, beat until combined.

3. Frost cupcakes

Beth piping "Pick Flick" onto the tops of the cupcakes

Pistachio Waffles

2010-03-29T15:35:00.001-07:00

It’s been a long time since my last post. I can’t claim I haven’t been cooking or baking, but there just hasn’t been anything really inspired lately, and I didn’t want to waste time writing it up. I was at Trader Joes a while ago, and discovered they’d started selling shelled pistachios, and so I bought some (usually buying them shelled is overly expensive). Since then I’ve been looking for a good way to use them, and this weekend I found one. I had some folks over for brunch and I decided to make some pistachio waffles. I used a recipe for hazelnut waffles I got off of culinate, but I swapped the hazelnuts out for pistachios. I thought these waffles were really good, the flavor of the nuts came through subtly. The waffles themselves are not overly sweet, and so are well complimented by sliced bananas, or maple syrup.

Pistachio Waffles

1¾ cups all-purpose flour

1 Tbsp. sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

1¾ cups milk

3 eggs, separated

6 Tbsp. butter, melted

1 tsp. vanilla extract (I used Fiori di Sicilia, if you want the same citrus undertone, add a little orange zest)

¼ tsp. cream of tartar 1 cup chopped pistachios

1. Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt

2. In a separate bowl, Whisk together the milk, egg yolks, melted butter, and vanilla

3. In the bowl of a mixer, combine the egg whites and cream of tartar, and beat until soft peaks form

4. Mix together the flour and milk mixtures until just combined. Stir in the chopped nuts. Add the egg whites, and fold until just mixed, you should still see streaks of egg white.

5. Cook according to your waffle makers directions. These are best made crispy. Serve with bananas, maple syrup, and chopped pistachios

Peppermint Cupcakes with Chocolate Mousse

2010-02-06T15:47:00.000-08:00

I made these along with the eggnog cupcakes (I actually just divided the batter in half, and then made additions to each). I thought they were really good, and based on the rate at which they disappeared, so did the people I left the, for. On a side note, I’m aware that I’m way behind on posting at the moment (these are actually from December sometime), but if I can I’ll catch up soon. Despite the lack of posts, don’t despair, I haven’t stopped baking or cooking!

Peppermint Cupcakes

Downy Yellow Butter Cake (from the cake bible)

3 egg yolks

½ cup milk

1 ¼ tsp vanilla extract

1 ½ cups sifted cake flour

¾ cups sugar

2 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

½ tsp peppermint extract

¼ cup ground peppermint candies

6 T unsalted butter, softened

1. Preheat oven to 350. In a medium bowl whisk together the egg yolks, 2 T of the milk, and the vanilla.

2. Combine the dry ingredients (including the sugar) in the bowl of a mixer, and mix on low speed for 30 seconds to blend.

3. Add the butter, the peppermint extract and remaining milk, continue mixing on low until ingredients are moistened. Fold in the ground peppermint candies. Then turn the mixer up to medium and beat for another 90 seconds.

4. Slowly add the egg mixture in thirds, beating for 20 seconds after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

5. Fill mini-cupcake liners 2/3 full, and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until cakes are golden, and a tester comes out clean. Let cool

Chocolate mousse (from Cookwise)

2 cups heavy cream

1 1/3 cups semisweet chocolate, chopped

1 cup sugar

1. In a heavy saucepan heat the cream until you see steam.

2. Remove from heat, slowly stir in sugar. Add the chocolate, and continue stirring until it is all dissolved.

3. Refrigerate 4 hours, or overnight.

4. With a mixer on medium high speed, beat the mousse until stiff peaks form. Refrigerate until ready to use.

White chocolate peppermint frosting

½ cup heavy cream

1 T unsalted butter

8 oz. white chocolate

Peppermint extract to taste (1/4 – ½ tsp)

1. Bring the cream and butter to a simmer. Remove from heat and stir in white chocolate and peppermint extract

2. Refrigerate until spreadable.

Assembly

Use a piping bag fitted with a small tip to fill the cupcakes with chocolate mousse. Fill just until cupcake begins to bulge.

Frost with the cooled frosting.

An Indian (British) Dinner

2010-01-21T19:36:00.000-08:00

On occasion I do actually post things that aren’t baked (or desserts). This week for dinner I decided to take a crack at making myself some Indian food. But, I made Chicken Tikka Masala, which an Indian friend told me really is British food. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed making it, and eating it. Alongside I made some curried cauliflower, and I had palak paneer and naan from Trader Joes. All in all a full quasi-Indian feast.

For the chicken I used a marinade from Mike’s Table. I thought it was excellent, even by itself it made for a very moist, flavorful chicken thigh. After that I made a sauce based on that from All Recipes, I made a fair number of changes to it though. Finally, I made this curried cauliflower from epicurious, which I thought was only so-so. The flavors weren’t as strong as I was expecting, and some of it burnt, if I were to do it again I might cook it at a slightly lower temperature.

Chicken Tikka Masala

Makes 4 servings

For Marinade:

1 ½ - 2 lbs chicken thighs, skinned, deboned, with excess fat removed

2 T ginger paste

2 T garlic paste

½ tsp salt

¼ cup plain yogurt

½ T chili powder (more if you want it spicier)

1 ½ T vegetable oil

For Sauce:

1 clove garlic, minced

1 jalapeno chili, seeded, deveined, and finely chopped

3-4 green cardamom pods

1 t whole coriander seeds

1 T butter

2 ½ tsp ground cumin

2 tsp hot paprika

1 tsp chili powder

1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes, drained

½ cup plain yogurt

Salt to taste

1. Place the chicken, ginger, garlic, and salt in a bowl. Rub the chicken with the mix, trying to get even coverage.

2. In a separate bowl whisk together the yogurt, chili powder, and 1 T of the oil.

3. Toss the chicken with the yogurt mixture. Mix in the rest of the oil.

4. Seal the chicken and marinade in an airtight container, refrigerate for at least an hour, or over night.

5. Spread the chicken with the marinade in a roasting pan, and place under a broiler at 450. Broil for about 20 minutes, or until cooked through but moist.

6. Meanwhile, make the sauce. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic, jalapeno, cardamom pods, and coriander seeds. Saute for a minute.

7. Add the cumin, paprika, some salt, the tomatoes, and the yogurt.

8. Use an immersion (stick) blender to puree the sauce, if you don’t have one you can pour the sauce into a regular blender, just be careful, because it’s hot. You might remove the cardamom pods before this, but I didn’t, and they stayed pretty much intact.

9. Cook the sauce until heated through. Chop the chicken into bite sized pieces. Add the chopped chicken to the sauce and cook for five minutes.

10. Serve immediately over basmati rice

Curried Cauliflower

12 cups cauliflower florets (from about 4 pounds cauliflower)

1 large onion, peeled, quartered

1 teaspoon coriander seeds

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

3 1/2 teaspoons curry powder

1 tablespoon Hungarian hot paprika

1 3/4 teaspoons salt

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1. Preheat oven to 450°F. Place cauliflower florets in large roasting pan. Pull apart onion quarters into separate layers; add to cauliflower.

2. Stir coriander seeds and cumin seeds in small skillet over medium heat until slightly darkened, about 5 minutes. Crush coarsely in mortar with pestle. Place seeds in medium bowl. Whisk in oil, vinegar, curry powder, paprika, and salt.

3. Pour dressing over vegetables; toss to coat. Spread vegetables in single layer. Sprinkle with pepper.

4. Roast vegetables until tender, stirring occasionally, about 35 minutes.

Eggnog Cupcakes

2010-01-16T12:28:00.000-08:00

So, the Nog season may have passed, but that shouldn’t stop you from trying these eggnog cupcakes if you can find some. I actually made these back before the holidays, but it has taken me awhile to get around to posting them. The cake is a half recipe of the “downy yellow butter cake” from The Cake Bible. I then piped it full of eggnog pastry cream, which I found a recipe for here. To finish, I topped it with a bourbon buttercream (which is a keeper in and of itself, at least if you like bourbon). I made these as minis, which I thought was better for this particular set of flavors (I think eggnog is best in small doses), but there’s no reason you couldn’t make them full sized if you really wanted to, just fill them using the cone method instead of piping in the filling.

I didn’t think the pastry cream recipe I found was eggnog-y enough, and so after it was done I whisked in another half cup or so of eggnog. As an alternative, you could probably just replace some of the milk in the pastry cream with more eggnog (pre-cooking), but I haven’t tried this, so I’m going to write what I did, with this as a suggestion to anyone else who cares to try. Also, make the pastry cream first, as it needs several hours to cool.

Eggnog Cupcakes

Downy Yellow Butter Cake (from the cake bible)

3 egg yolks

½ cup milk

1 ¼ tsp vanilla extract

1 ½ cups sifted cake flour

¾ cups sugar

2 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

½ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp ground nutmeg

6 T unsalted butter, softened

1. Preheat oven to 350. In a medium bowl whisk together the egg yolks, 2 T of the milk, and the vanilla.

2. Combine the dry ingredients (including the sugar) in the bowl of a mixer, and mix on low speed for 30 seconds to blend.

3. Add the butter and remaining milk, continue mixing on low until ingredients are moistened. Then turn the mixer up to medium and beat for another 90 seconds.

4. Slowly add the egg mixture in thirds, beating for 20 seconds after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

5. Fill mini-cupcake liners 2/3 full, and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until cakes are golden, and a tester comes out clean. Let cool

Eggnog Pastry Cream

1 ½ cups full fat eggnog

1 cup whole milk

4 egg yolks

1/3 cup sugar

¼ cup flour

¼ cup cornstarch

¼ tsp ground nutmeg

¼ tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla

1. In a medium saucepan over low heat, bring the milk and 1 cup of the eggnog to a simmer.

2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl whisk together the remaining ingredients until smooth.

3. Slowly pour ½ of the hot milk mixture into the eggs, whisking constantly, to temper them. Whisk this mixture back into the saucepan, and return to the stove over medium heat.

4. Stir the mixture constantly until it thickens. With a pastry cream this is sort of a strange process, at first it will begin to look like parts are overcooked, and then that it is curdled. Just keep stirring until it becomes smooth.

5. Remove from heat. When it has cooled sufficiently, taste. If you want it to have a stronger eggnog flavor, whisk in the remaining ½ cup eggnog.

6. Press plastic wrap directly onto the pastry cream, and refrigerate until set. At least 3 hours.

Bourbon Buttercream

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1/3 cup bourbon

3-4 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1. Cream the butter with 1 cup of the powdered sugar until smooth. Beat in the bourbon and the vanilla.

2. Add more powdered sugar until the frosting gets to a flavor and consistency that you like. I tend to aim for less powdered sugar in my buttercreams, but you should do what you like.

Assembly

Fit a pastry bag with a small to medium round tip. Fill the bag with pastry cream.

Stick the tip into the top of a cupcake, and squeeze the bag. Fill just until the cupcake puffs up

Decoratively pipe on buttercream, using it to disguise the hole.

Esterhazy

2010-01-04T12:40:00.000-08:00

Chances are good you’ve never heard of an Esterhazy torte, at least if google is any indication. It’s a traditional Hungarian walnut cake, made with thin, meringue like cake layers and a rich walnut filling, which I first had at a little local place, and was absolutely blown away by. Of course, I immediately went home to find a recipe so that I could make it myself, but much to my surprise, there was a relative dearth of information and recipes (one that didn’t look great from about.com did come up). Fortunately, digging through some message boards on cooking websites unearthed a couple of recipes, which I combined into something workable. I’ve actually tried this cake a couple of times, first before thanksgiving, and then I made two of them for New Year’s parties.

I made one major change from the traditional cake. As I’ve seen it at a restaurant, and the few places I’ve found it, an Esterhazy is traditionally topped with a fondant or mirror, which then has a chocolate web made into it. The first time I tried this, my fondant (really, the recipe was just for a glaze) was apparently too loose, and within minutes it flowed off of the cake, literally leaving it sitting in a pool of frosting. I made several more attempts to no avail. I also thought this caused the cake to be overly sweet (a picture of this cake, as I finally served it, is at the bottom of this post). Consequently, the second time I made the cake, I replaced the traditional fondant with a nice chocolate buttercream, which I used to frost the whole outside of the cake. I have to say, this may not be traditional, but combined with the walnuts it was very good. The filling in this cake is also pretty unusual, sort of a cross between a butter cream and a pastry cream, but when it’s done it is to die for. This cake could also be made with almonds, or maybe even hazelnuts. One last note, as a consequence, this cake is incredibly rich, so serve small slices.

Esterhazy Torte

Cake Layers – makes 6 thin layers (the recipe I took from claimed it only made 5, but there was enough left for a sixth)

10 egg whites, room temperature

7/8 cup sugar (this is one cup minus two tablespoons, use vanilla sugar* if you have it)

2 cups + 2 T ground walnuts (about 8 ½ oz)

Zest of 1 medium orange, finely grated

½ cup all purpose flour, sifted

*vanilla sugar can be purchased at specialty stores, or made by combining a vanilla pod with sugar. If you have vanilla powder, you can also put in a little of that. I would not recommend adding vanilla extract to this part of the recipe, as the liquid may cause your whites to lose some of their stiffness.

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Draw 6, eight inch circles on parchment paper, and lay them out on cookie sheets.

2. Combine the egg whites and sugar in the bowl of a mixer, and beat until the whites reach stiff, dry peaks.

3. Fold in the nuts and orange zest. Sift the flour over the mixture and gently fold to combine.

4. Place some batter at the center of one of your parchment circles (somewhere around ¾ of a cup). Using an offset spatula, spread the batter as thinly as possible, covering the entire circle. I would say my layers ended up being about ¼ inch thick.

5. Once all your layers are made, place in the oven for 45 minutes, until crisp and golden. Be careful not to place your layers too low in the oven (if that’s where your heating element is), or they may get scorched on the bottom (learned this the hard way).

6. Remove from the oven, and transfer to cooling racks after about a minute. Promptly peel off the parchment paper. Let sit until completely cool and firm. If you leave them overnight, and they need to be re-crisped, put them in a 185 degree oven for 12 minutes.

Here is a picture of what the completed cake looks like sliced. The individual layers become a little indistinct, but it still tastes great.

Walnut Filling

6 egg yolks

1 ½ cups milk (any kind)

1 ½ cups ground walnuts

6 T cornstarch

1 ½ T sugar

2 t vanilla extract

3 T dark rum

18 T butter (2 ¼ sticks), softened

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

½ tsp almond extract (optional)

1. In a double boiler, over barely simmering water, whisk together the egg yolks, milk, walnuts, cornstarch, vanilla and sugar. Switch to a spatula and continue stirring, making sure to scrape the bottom of the pan.

2. As you go, the mixture will thicken (you are making a pastry cream). At first, it will appear to separate, as parts are thick and others aren’t, just keep stirring until it becomes uniformly thick. Bring it all the way up to a boil (it will be very thick by this point). Remove from heat.

3. Just so you know, at this point the pastry cream should taste pretty unappetizing, sort of like oatmeal. That is normal (consider how little sugar went in). Whisk in the rum. Press plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the pastry cream, and let set in the refrigerator, at least 4 hours.

4. In the bowl of a mixer cream the butter until fluffy. Add 1 cup of powdered sugar, and beat until fully combined. Add ¼ of the pastry cream, along with the almond extract, and beat to combine. Keep adding it in portions until all pastry cream has been beaten in. If the mixture is too soft, add additional powdered sugar. Do remember it is a filling though, and doesn't need to be pipeable. The end result of this looks a little strange, but should taste great.

Chocolate buttercream

½ pound butter (2 sticks)

½ pound semisweet chocolate (finely chopped, or in chip)

½ tsp vanilla

2-3 cups powdered sugar

1. Melt the chocolate over barely simmering water in the bowl of a double boiler. Set aside to cool.

2. Cream the butter with 1 cup of the sugar until light and fluffy.

3. Once the chocolate is cool enough that it won’t melt the butter, add in the chocolate. Beat until well combined.

4. Beat in additional powdered sugar until frosting is pipeable, and tasty. I tend not to like overly sweetened buttercreams, and so try to stay on the softer side, with less powdered sugar, but you should do what feels right to do, buttercream is incredibly flexible

Assembly

Cake layers

Walnut filling

2 T apricot Jam

1 T dark rum (or cold water)

Chocolate buttercream

1. Place a cake layer flat-side down on your work surface. Spread 1/5 of your walnut filling on it, reaching to all the corners. Try to spread it relatively thinly, as with 6 layers, this is not a cake where you want thick layers of frosting. Place the next layer on top, and gently press it into the frosting, then frost the top of it, and press another layer on. It will look sort of like a stack of pancakes. If any of your layers are misshapen, and stick out beyond the edge of the cake, gently trim them with scissors. If any of your layers crack or break while you’re working, don’t worry about it (it happened to me twice). Just stick them back together, and cover them with filling, this stuff is a little like schlak, and will hold them together without a problem.

2. Continue until you have placed your last layer on top of the cake (this time flat side up). You should not frost the top of the cake with the walnut filling).

3. Use excess frosting to patch up the sides of your cake, first any holes you have, and then just all around the make the edges of the cake even and flat if you can.

Here's one of the cakes with the filling spread around the edges, so it's more even, and the second in the process of getting its crumb coat

4. Simmer the apricot jam with the rum in a small saucepan, just until the jam is melted. Avoiding any big chunks of apricot, use a pastry brush to spread the glaze thinly over the top layer of the cake.

5. Spread a small amount of the chocolate buttercream evenly over the cake, this is your crumb coat. Refrigerate the cake for 10 minutes.

6. Spread the remainder of the chocolate buttercream evenly over the cake. Reserve some for whatever decorations and embellishments you choose.

These are the two completed cakes I made for New Year's Eve

Here is my first attempt at the Esterhazy, with the fondant. Pressed into the sides is some ground up praline. Combined with the fondant, this was too sweet, and the fondant didn't add anything. The chocolate is better.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-25T00:01:00.000-08:00

Whether you celebrate it by going to church, eating Chinese food, going to the movies (my own family's tradition) or doing nothing at all, I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season. My friend Jess and I made gingerbread houses again this year, so, and I thought this would be a good day to post them. We used the same recipes and schematics as last year. Have a happy holiday!

Christmas Cookies!

2009-12-23T08:49:00.000-08:00

It seems I’m running out of time to post about the Christmas cookies I made this year. What, after all, is the point of posting Christmas cookies after Christmas? It’s not as if anyone makes New Years Cookies. So, without further delay, here are the Christmas cookies I made this year. For those who don’t know, I have a Christmas cookie party every year in early December. For us law students that is the time directly preceding finals, and so it’s known for being a bit stressful. Getting people together with their favorite cookies (everyone brings some), along with some milk, nog type drinks, or whatever else they can think of. This year I made two kinds of cookies, a family favorite peppermint cookie, and the better than brownie cookies from Tracey’s Culinary Adventures. Both kinds of cookies were good, but the brownie cookies were really big hits, and were all gone by the end of the evening (which could not be said for any other kind of cookie. If you’re looking for a cookie with just the flavor of pure chocolate, I strongly recommend these cookies. The peppermint guys are good too, but they tend to lose their crispness quickly (after a day or two). This can be rectified by re-crisping them for a few minutes in a warm oven.

Peppermint Cookies

Makes ~ 40

¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/3 cups sugar, divided

2 eggs

1 tsp peppermint extract

¾ tsp vanilla extract

2 ½ cups flour

¼ tsp salt

1 ¼ cups ground peppermints

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together butter and 1 cup of the sugar until fluffy.

2. Add eggs and extracts, mix until well combined. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour and salt. Add the flour mixture to the butter in three parts.

3. Combine the crushed peppermints with the remaining 1/3 cup sugar.

4. Form the dough into 1 inch balls and roll in the crushed peppermint. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 8 minutes, or until golden and just firm.

5. Let cool on the baking sheet briefly, then remove to a cooling rack.

Better than Brownie Chocolate Cookies

Makes ~ 30 (Tracey says 24, I got more though)

2 2/3 cups (about 16 ounces) bittersweet chocolate, chopped

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

4 eggs

1 1/3 cups granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Put the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set it over a saucepan of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally, until completely melted and smooth.

2. In a separate bowl whisk together the eggs, vanilla and sugar. Set aside. In a small bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder.

3. Add the melted chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and stir to combine well. Slowly add the dry ingredients, folding them into the batter.

4. Once all of the flour is incorporated, fold in the chocolate chips. This dough will be more like a batter (it’s very runny), that’s how it is supposed to be,

5. Spoon about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough onto parchment lined baking sheets. Like I said, the dough will be a little runny. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the cookies are firm on the outside. Like brownies, do not overbake! Leave to cool completely on the baking sheets.

And, if anyone has ever wondered where my penchant of baking comes from, here is a picture of all of the Christmas cookies my mom made this year. I can count 8 different kinds in that photo, and I can testify that they are all delicious.

It's French For Melted

2009-12-09T00:01:00.000-08:00

That’s right, it’s Fondue. Everyone favorite melted dessert from Switzerland. With the weather turning cold it seemed like the right season to invite people over to eat some well heated foods. Rather than sticking to one kind, I went ahead and made the traditional cheese and chocolate fondues, and then as a third, made pumpkin pie fondue with white chocolate and bourbon. That’s right, three fondues (I don’t own three pots, two were borrowed). All three were excellent, and were eaten up by the end of the evening. The chocolate and cheese fondues were both as you’d expect, but I thought the pumpkin was great (maybe just because it was my own idea), it really tasted like warm pumpkin pie, with a good kick of bourbon in it. Perfect for winter. Also, as a side dish I made ground up pecan praline, so that you could roll something dipped in chocolate or pumpkin in praline. Anyway, I’ve provided all of the recipes here, as well as suggestions for things to dip. I recommend preparing all of these in pots, and then pouring the fondues into the serving pots, as you’ll have better control of the heat over an oven, than over a sterno or whatever you call the controller in electric pots.

Cheese Fondue (From Simplyrecipes)

½ lb gruyere cheese, shredded

½ lb Swiss cheese, such as Emmenthaler or Jarlsberg, shredded

2 T cornstarch

1 clove garlic, peeled and halved crosswise

1 cup dry white wine

1 T lemon juice

1 T kirsch (optional)

Pinch fresh nutmeg

1. Toss the cheese and cornstarch together in a freezer bag and set aside.

2. Rub the inside of the pot with the garlic and discard. Add the wine and lemon juice, bring to a simmer over medium heat.

3. Gradually add the cheese, stirring constantly in a zigzag motion (this helps to keep it from becoming stringy). Do not let it boil.

4. Stir in the kirsch and nutmeg, transfer to serving pot

Suggested dippers

French or Italian Bread
Cut and blanched vegetables (broccoli, carrots, asparagus)
Sausage, other cubed meats
Pretzels
Apples and Pairs

Chocolate Fondue (Also from Simplyrecipes)

12 oz dark chocolate, chopped

8 oz heavy cream

Frangelico or Amaretto (to taste)

Pinch of salt

1. Put the chocolate chopped in the fondue pot. Bring the cream to a simmer on the stove. Pour the cream over the chocolate and let sit for 30 seconds (If this sounds surprisingly like making ganache, that’s because that’s basically what it is).

2. Stir in the frangelico and salt. Keep over very low heat

Suggested dippers

Fruits (apples, pears, bananas, pineapples)
Pound or Angle-food Cake
Graham crackers
Peanut butter cookies (indulgent but wonderful)

Pumpkin Pie Fondue

1 cup milk

1 cup pureed pumpkin

½ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp ginger

Pinch cloves

Pinch nutmeg

1 tsp vanilla

1 ½ cups white chocolate chips

1/3 cup bourbon

Splash bitters (optional)

1. In a heavy bottomed saucepan over medium heat, whisk together the milk, pumpkin and spices, bring to a light simmer. Remove from heat.

2. Stir in the white chocolate; continue stirring until it has melted. Add the bourbon and bitters, stir to combine. Transfer to fondue pot and keep over low heat.

Suggested dippers

Graham cracker
Gingersnaps
Pound or Angel-food cake

Roasted Tomato Soup

2009-12-03T17:20:00.000-08:00

Ok, I’m back, and this time with some really great soup. I got the recipe from here, and made only a few modifications. I added some roasted corn, from one cob. I also pureed everything using a stick blender directly in the pot, rather than transferring it all to a blender.

Roasted Tomato Soup

3 lbs Roma Tomatoes, halved
3 Cloves Garlic, whole
1 Yellow Onion, halved and quartered
5 Tbsp Olive Oil
4 1/2 Cups Chicken Stock
2 - 3 Sprigs of Fresh Thyme
1/2 of a Chipotle chili in Adobo Sauce, seeded

Kernels from one ear of corn, roasted
Sea Salt to taste
Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Finely chopped basil (fresh or dried)

1. Preheat oven to 400. Put tomatoes, onions, garlic and thyme in a roasting pan, toss with olive oil, and place in the oven. Roast for about 30-35 minutes. Remove the skin from the garlic and discard the thyme.

2. In a large pot combine the roasted veggies with the chicken stock. Bring to a simmer. Add the corn and chili. Puree with a stick blender.

3. Remove from heat and let cool to an edible temperature. Garnish with salt, pepper, and basil (some chopped bacon would be a good addition too).

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

2009-11-25T07:38:00.001-08:00

So, this is a terrible picture, sorry about that. But I baked these on the morning after my Halloween party, and had to have them ready for later that morning. A friend of mine had a birthday brunch recently, and so I decided to try this recipe for pumpkin cinnamon rolls. The pictures and the recipe sound so promising, but these just didn’t wow me. Just as likely it was my own fault, and not the fault of the recipe. I did make mine miniature, and so maybe the result was that I overbaked them or something. But, whatever it was, I thought they were tough, and not particularly sweet. All and all, I don’t think I would make these again.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

Makes

Dough

8 ounces (1 cup) cooked pumpkin or winter squash puree (canned pumpkin)

2 large eggs

1 to 2 ounces (2 tablespoons – 1/4 cup) lukewarm water*

2 ounces (1/4 cup) soft butter

10 1/2 ounces (2 1/2 cups) all-purpose flour

7 ounces (1 3/4 cups) white whole wheat flour

1 ounce (1/4 cup) nonfat dry milk

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

few grates of fresh nutmeg

1 1/2 ounces (3 tablespoons) dark brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons instant yeast

*Start with smaller amount of water and adjust as needed.

Filling

5 1/4 ounces (3/4 cup) dark brown sugar

1 3/4 ounces (1/4 cup) granulated sugar

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

pinch each of salt, freshly grated nutmeg, and ground cloves

2 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted

2 1/2 ounces (1/2 cup) crystallized ginger, minced

2 1/2 ounces (1/2 cup) dried cranberries

2 1/2 ounces (1/2 cup) pecans, chopped and toasted

Glaze

1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar

2 tablespoons real maple syrup

1. Mix and knead all of the dough ingredients together by hand or mixer until you’ve made a soft, fairly smooth dough. You can dump it all into the bowl at once and then mix until the sticky dough holds its shape.

2. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover, and let rise for 1 1/2 hours, until it’s almost doubled in bulk.

3. Turn the dough out onto a lightly greased surface. Gently deflate the dough and then roll it into a 14″ × 22″ rectangle. The dough will be thin.

4. Mix the sugars, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, and cloves together for the filling. Brush the melted butter over the dough and then evenly sprinkle on the filling, leaving one short edge free of filling (to make it easier to seal when rolled into a log). Gently press the filling into the dough. Sprinkle the crystallized ginger, dried cranberries, and pecans atop the filling.

5. Starting with the short end that’s covered with filling, roll the dough into a log. Cut the log into 12 rolls using a serrated knife or dental floss.

6. Place the rolls into a lightly greased 9″ × 13″ pan that’s at least 2″ deep (or 2 round cake pans). Set aside, covered, to rise for 1 hour, or until the rolls look puffy.

7. Bake the rolls in a preheated 375°F oven for 25 to 30 minutes, until they’re lightly browned and feel set. Remove them from the oven, and set them on a rack. Turn them out of the pan, and allow them to cool for about 15 minutes. Towards the end of the cooling time, make the glaze.

8. To make the glaze, whisk together the sugar and maple syrup. I added a little milk as well to thin it out. Drizzle over the cinnamon rolls.

Halloween

2009-11-15T16:37:00.000-08:00

So, it’s only two weeks, past Halloween, so just in time for me to post what I made for my Halloween party. Unfortunately I didn’t really get many pictures of what I made, so instead I’m just going to post links to what I made (it all came from other blogs), along with some brief reviews, although in truth it was all good.

Main: Chicken and Chorizo Sliders

These were great. The chorizo and jalapeno added some nice spice, and the chicken was tasty and moist. I cooked these up on my George Foreman, and I didn’t think they took a full 7 minutes a side. I also made the avocado mayo along side, which went nicely. My only problem was that I couldn’t find slider buns, so I had to use regular hamburger buns, with the result that these were a little bready. Of course, I made a double recipe of these, and by the end of the evening they were all eaten, so no one seemed to complain.

Dessert: Cinnabon Caramel Corn

This stuff was a little like popcorn crack. I made one batch with light brown sugar, and regular corn syrup, and another with dark brown sugar and dark corn syrup (this has much more to do with my having run out of the light stuff after the first batch, and not too much with creativity). The molasses flavor was very nice though, and complemented the other flavors nicely. My only other comment was that this took longer to bake than I was expecting, and letting it bake fully is important. The popcorn gets soggy from the addition of caramel, and the baking really is needed to dry it out. That said, this is super easy to make, and totally worth it.

Other Dessert: Chocolate cupcakes

For these I used one of my own recipes, so I’ve recopied it below. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you what exactly was in the buttercreams, because I just threw it together. I made it with a pound of butter, probably about the same amount of powdered sugar, and some vanilla. I then divided it into thirds, left some as vanilla (which I added red food coloring to, so I could make brains), added melted chocolate and cocoa powder to another third (to make the monsters), and added orange extract and orange food coloring to the third, to make, well, orange ones. These were great cupcakes, and people really enjoyed the decorations.

makes about 60 mini cupcakes

1 ½ sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter
1/3 + 2 Tbs cocoa powder (I used Hershey’s special dark)
½ cup + 1 Tbs warm water
1 ½ cups sugar
2 eggs
3/8 cup well shaken buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 ½ cup all purpose flour
¾ tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Once melted, whisk in cocoa powder until mixture is smooth. Add the water and mix until smooth.

2. Remove from heat. One at a time, mix in sugar, eggs, buttermilk and vanilla.

3. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda and salt. Sift it over the liquids and mix to combine.

4. Use a tablespoon measure to fill the mini-muffin tins 2/3 full. Bake for 9-12 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.

5. Make sure to find a way to keep separate the mint and orange cupcakes, so you don’t swap their frostings.

Happy Halloween

2009-11-01T07:29:00.001-08:00

Mocha Brownies

2009-10-25T16:06:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine had a few people over last night, and I made some brownies to bring. My friend is known for liking coffee flavored things, so I decided on mocha flavored. Some quick google searching took me to Martha’s recipe. I made it almost exactly as Martha’s recipe called for, but I added a teaspoon of extra coffee extract, and some chocolate chunks. All of the chocolate I used (the melted and chunks) came from the same big Trader Joe’s pound plus dark chocolate bar (my favorite for baking, and eating, and anything else chocolate is needed in). I did make it in a 8x8 pan, since I didn’t have a 9x9 pan to use. The result was some very tall brownies, but they tasted great.

Mocha Chunk Brownies

Makes a 9x9 pan

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, plus more for pan

1 cup all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons instant espresso powder

16 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped, divided

1 1/4 cups sugar

3 large eggs

1 tsp coffee extract1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush a 9-inch square baking pan with butter. Line bottom and two sides with a strip of parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on the two sides. Butter paper, and set pan aside.

2. In a small bowl, whisk flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

3. Place butter and half the chocolate in a large heat-proof bowl set over (not in) a saucepan of gently simmering water. Heat, stirring occasionally, until smooth, 2 to 3 minutes; remove bowl from pan.

4. Add sugar to the chocolate and mix to combine. Add eggs, and mix to combine, followed by the coffee extract. Add flour mixture; mix just until moistened (do not overmix). Add instant espresso powder and remaining chocolate chunks. Transfer batter to prepared pan; smooth top.

5. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, 50 to 60 minutes. Cool in pan for 30 minutes. Using paper overhang, lift brownies out of pan; transfer to a rack to cool completely (still on paper). On a cutting board, using a dampened serrated knife, cut into 16 squares. Store in an airtight container at room temperature, up to 2 days.

The Snickers

2009-10-05T17:33:00.000-07:00

I’ve had the idea for this cupcake in my head since I first started baking a little over two years ago. I took a shot at it last year in the form of a cake, which was good, but not entirely what I was after. Largely because the nougat just didn’t work out. This weekend, however, I decided to take another shot, this time in a cupcake form. The result was a cupcake that I think definitely captured the essence of snickers, though at least some of my tasters thought that these were too much on the sweet side. I used a cocoa-based buttercream, mostly because I was lazy, I think a buttercream made with full chocolate might have been better. Either way, you might want to reduce the sugar from what I’ve listed. What I failed to keep in mind while tasting was that the nougat and caramel are both pretty sweet. For the cake I just used my favorite chocolate cupcake recipe, which held up well here with a nice chocolate flavor. The caramel recipe is from Martha Stewart’s Chocolate-Salted Caramel cupcakes

These are some of the most challenging cupcakes I’ve ever made, mostly because of the nougat. It’s taken me a good 5 or 6 tries to make it successfully, including two yesterday. For me I think the real problem is that nougat is just not common enough for lots of people to have written about, and so there aren’t a lot of instructions out there on how to make it. I followed the instructions here. I’ve done my best to write my full set of impressions below, but I think it is just one of those things to try a few times until you get the hang of it. The important thing is to coordinate everything in terms of timing, the egg whites and sugar need to be ready at the same time. Unfortunately, the recipe is in grams, which is what I did it in, but I got my grams scale for $5 at Kmart, and it’s worth having, so go out and get one.

The other challenge with these is the assembly. I cut my disks of nougat a little large (mostly because it was the smallest cutter I had). As a consequence I had to hollow out a lot of a large amount of cupcake. The thickness of the nougat also meant the holes had to be very deep. Especially since a layer of nuts and caramel also had to get in there. It’s definitely doable, but takes some effort. Also, the caramel needs to be spooned while it’s still hot, so I filled the cupcakes with the nougat and nuts first, then made the caramel.

Chocolate Cupcakes

Makes ~26

2 sticks unsalted butter

½ cup cocoa-powder

¾ cup water

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

½ cup well-shaken buttermilk

1 T vanilla

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 350. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt.

2. Melt the butter in a heavy bottomed sauce pan over low heat. Add in the cocoa powder and whisk until smooth. Then add the water and mix until smooth again. Remove from heat

3. One at a time mix in the sugar, egg, buttermilk, and vanilla

4. Sift the dry ingredients over the wet, and whisk until well combined.

5. Fill cupcakes using a ¼ cup measure. Bake for about 18-20 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Let them cool thoroughly before filling.

Peanut Butter Nougat

Makes 1 9 x 13" pan

400 grams sugar

150 grams glucose (white corn syrup)

125 grams water pinch salt

60 grams egg whites (2 large eggs)

125 grams peanut butter

1. line the pan with parchment paper, and oil it. Place the peanut butter in a microwave safe bowl, put it in the microwave, set it for 1 minute, and set aside. Put the eggs and the salt in the bowl of a mixer set with the whisk attachment. Put the sugar, corn syrup, and water in a heavy bottomed saucepan, whisk until combined, and place over high heat.

2. Turn on the mixer to high speed, whisking the eggs up to stiff peaks. Ideally you want the eggs to reach stiff peaks at the same time the sugar gets to the right temperature, but it’s hard to coordinate, and it’s easier to stop egg whites from beating than caramel from cooking. If the eggs get to stiff peaks before the caramel ready, turn off the mixer.

3. While the egg whites are whipping, heat the sugar to 270F. When the sugar hits about 250, turn on the microwave to melt the peanut butter (it’s just a lot easier to mix in melted peanut butter than solid).

4. As soon as the caramel hits 270, turn the mixer on high, and slowly pour the caramel down the side of the bowl.

5. Continue beating the mixture until it cools off slightly, and becomes just slightly doughy. It should still be pretty hot. Remove from the mixer, and gently fold in the melted peanut butter. DO NOT OVERBEAT, or you will make it crumbly. It should still be pourable when you’re done. My first batch needed to be scooped out of the bowl, and didn’t spread at all, it was also immediately crumbly. The second, successful batch poured out of the bowl and flowed properly to fill the pan.

6. Set aside to let cool completely.

This is the successful nougat

This is what the failed nougat looked like

Assembly stage 1

Nougat

Chocolate Cupcakes

Lightly salted peanuts

1. Using a small, circular cutter, cut out disks of nougat. It should cut fairly easily.

2. Cut large, deep cones in the cupcakes. You may need to do some extra hollowing out with the tip of your knife.

3. Place a disk of nougat into each cupcake, top with a few peanuts.

4. Cut the bottoms off of the cones you removed, so that you only have the top, place it back on the cupcake it came from, just to keep track of the proper caps.

I don't know why blogger keeps rotating my images, anyone know how to fix it?

Salted Caramel

2 & 1/2 cups sugar

2/3 cup water

1 tablespoon light corn syrup

3/4 cup heavy cream

1 & 1/2 teaspoons sea salt

1. Place sugar, water, and corn syrup in a heavy bottomed saucepan, stir until clear. Stop stirring and bring to a boil. Continue heating until caramel reaches 360 degrees.

2. Remove from heat. Immediately stir in cream, be careful, the caramel will bubble up and steam. Add the salt and continue stirring.

Assembly Stage 2

Cupcakes from stage

1 Caramel

1. As soon as the caramel becomes manageable, remove the caps from the cupcakes, pour caramel in over the nuts, and reaffix the cupcake tops.

Chocolate Buttercream

3 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 ½ cups cocoa powder

~4 cups powdered sugar

¼ cup milk

1. Beat the butter until smooth. Add the cocoa, the milk. Beat in the sugar 1 cup at a time, until the frosting reaches a flavor and consistency you like.

2. This frosting was too thick to pipe, so I just spread it on with a spoon. Top with a sprinkling of peanuts.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse Cake

2009-09-29T18:35:00.000-07:00

So, I’ve become negligent about posting again. Unfortunately it’s been busy lately. Fortunately though, this cake is an excellent return. It is, admittedly, pretty much the cake version of a cupcake I made over the summer. But that didn’t stop it from being excellent. I also used the “Deep Dark Chocolate Cake” recipe from bakewise as the cake, which was an excellent choice. Very chocolaty and moist. This recipe makes more peanut butter mousse than I needed, but I imagine you can find a creative use for the extra. Special thanks, as always, go to my friend Jessica, who helped me a great deal in making this cake (particularly by making the actual cake part).

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Mousse Cake

Chocolate Cake Layers

Makes 3, 8 inch layers

4 cups + 2 T sugar

1 tsp salt

1 cup + 2 T Dutch Process Cocoa Powder

1 ½ tsp baking soda

1 ½ cup water

1 ½ cup canola oil

3 tsp vanilla extract

2 ½ + 2 T Spooned and Leveled AP flour

6 large egg yolks

3 large eggs

3/8 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously butter cake pans, line with parchment, and butter the parchment.

2. In a heavy saucepan stir together the sugar, salt, cocoa, and baking soda. Bring the water to a boil, stirring constantly, pour the water slowly into the cocoa mixture. Stir the mixture. Place on the heat and bring back to a boil. Turn off and allow to stand for 10 minutes.

3. Pour the cocoa mixture into a large mixing bowl, add the oil and vanilla and beat on low speed for 10 seconds. Still on low speed add the flour, and then quickly add the eggs, yolks, and buttermilk. Pour the batter into the prepared pans, filling about 2/3 full. If you have extra, make them into cupcakes (that’s what I did).

4. Bake for about 30 minutes, until the cake is set, pulls away from the sides of the pan, and a tester comes out clean. Let cool in the pans for 10 minutes, and then invert onto cooling racks to cool completely.

Peanut-Butter Mousse

2 cups creamy peanut butter (not natural)

2 8oz package cream cheese, room temperature

2 cup powdered sugar

2 T vanilla

2 cup chilled whipping cream

1. Beat the peanut butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla together until smooth and well blended.

2. Using clean, chilled beaters, and a chilled bowl, beat the cream to stiff peaks.

3. Fold ¼ of the whipped cream into the peanut butter mixture. Fold in the remaining whipped cream ¼ at a time. Fold until smooth and well mixed. Chill in the fridge until ready to use.

Peanut-butter Ganache

18 oz. dark chocolate, chopped

1 cup creamy peanut butter

2 cups heavy cream

1. Put the peanut butter and chocolate in a bowl.

2. Heat the heavy cream to a simmer, pour over the chocolate

3. Let the cream sit for a minute, then stir until thoroughly mixed. Let the ganache cool until it thickens enough to be spreadable.

Assembly

Place one layer flat side down. Spread about 2 cups of the peanut butter mousse on the cake, all the way to the edge. Place the most imperfect layer in the middle. Spread another 2 cups of peanut butter mousse on the cake. Place the final layer on top, flat side up. Pour about half the ganache over the cake, use an offset spatula to spread it all around the top and sides covering all of the cake. Once this layer of ganache, reheat the remainder just until it flows, and pour it over the cake. I found this ganache was too thick to just let it run down the cake, so I still had to use a spatula to spread it all around. I used a little extra peanut butter mousse to do the decorations.

One Quiche, Two Quiche

2009-09-10T00:01:00.000-07:00

Since everyone was back in town once school started back up, I threw a potluck. People brought lots of food, and a good time was had by all. I followed my traditional potluck style and made an entrée, and a dessert. This time for the entrée I decided to make two quiches. First, I made a pesto and goat cheese quiche with caramelized onions, and then I made a broccoli and garlic quiche with cheddar. Unfortunately the pictures are a little lacking, since I didn’t cut them until it was time to serve, at which point people dug in with a gusto which left no leftovers. The plus side is that it certainly seemed to mean that people liked the quiches (I sure did), and I would recommend them to anyone. If you’ve never tried making a quiche, it is remarkably easy, and if you’re lazy like me you can use a frozen, store-bought pie crust to make things even simpler.

For the pesto quiche I used homemade pesto, but you can just as easily use store brought if you don’t happen to have any around. I got the instructions for caramelizing onions from simply recipes. The one change is that I found it too

Goat Cheese and Pesto Quiche

1 deep dish pie crust, frozen

½ a large red onion, sliced into thin strips

2 tsp olive oil

½ tsp balsamic vinegar

¼ cup pesto, divided

5 oz goat cheese, room temperature

1 ½ cups low fat sour cream

6 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 large tomato, sliced into quarter inch thick slices

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Put oil in a medium, heavy bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Add onions and a little salt. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to

medium low and continue cooking for another 30 minutes, until onions are well browned, stirring occasionally. Add the balsamic vinegar, and cook for another 10 minutes. Remove from heat.

2. While the onions are cooking, blind bake the pie crust. To do this, poke holes in the bottom

of the crust with a fork. Line the crust with tin foil or parchment paper, pushing all the way into the corners. Fill the pie crust with pie weights or dried beans. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, and let cool briefly. Remove the pie weights or beans, and place the pie back in the oven for another 10 minutes. When this is done, turn the oven up to 400 degrees.

3. Put one T of the pesto into the pie crust. Using a pastry brush, spread the pesto around the inside of the quiche, trying to cover the entire bottom as well as the sides.

4. In a large bowl, whisk together the goat cheese (it really just turns into small crumbles) and the sour cream. Add the remaining pesto and the eggs, and whisk until thoroughly combined. Stir in the caramelized onions.

5. Layer the bottom of the quiche with the sliced tomatoes.

6. Pour the quiche filling over the tomatoes (you will probably have a little extra).

7. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes. It’s done when the edges are set, but the center is still a little shaky. I should note that my quiche souffléd like crazy (it rose a good two inches, probably means I overbeat the eggs, that’s why I’m saying you should beat them lightly before adding them), which made it hard to tell when it had reached this point. I took it out after an hour 10 and it was fine (and fell back down to normal levels). Cool until just warm and serve.

Brocolli-Garlic Quiche

1 deep dish pie crust

1 cup broccoli florets, 1-2 inches of stem attached

3 cloves raw garlic

5 cloves roasted garlic, divided

6 large eggs

1 ½ cups half and half

¼ tsp ground nutmeg

¼ tsp cayenne

8 oz shredded cheddar cheese.

1. Preheat the oven to 375. Blind bake the pie crust. To do this, poke holes in the bottom of the crust with a fork. Line the crust with tin foil or parchment paper, pushing all the way into the corners. Fill the pie crust with pie weights or dried beans. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, and let cool briefly. Remove the pie weights or beans, and place the pie back in the oven for another 10 minutes. When this is done, turn the oven up to 400 degrees.

2. While the crust is baking, bring 3 quarts of water to a boil. Add the broccoli, and cook for 4 minutes.

3. With a generous pinch of salt, chop up the raw garlic until you make it into a paste. Mush in three cloves of the roasted garlic.

4. Take the remaining two cloves of roasted garlic and place them into the pie crust, using your fingers, gently crush them, and do your best to spread them around the bottom of the crust, without breaking it (this is a challenge).

5. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and heavy cream. Add the garlic paste, nutmeg, and cayenne.

6. Line the bottom of the crust with half of the cheese. Pour over the egg mixture. Place the broccoli in the quiche, and cover with the remaining cheese (that has not yet been done in the picture below).

7. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes. I found this quiche souffléd a lot as well, but I took it out after an hour, and it seemed well set (maybe because it was on the upper rack, and so cooked a little faster). Cool until just warm and serve.

Donuts!!

2009-09-06T00:01:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago some friends and I decided to make donuts (I like to spell it doughnuts, but apparently I’m the only one), just because we could. It was the heady days before class had started up again. As you may recall, I’ve tried making donuts before, without much luck. Fortunately, with a recipe my friend Beth provided (from an old Pillsbury cookbook), and some additional assistance from Jessica, we were able to make some excellent donuts. These are simple drop donuts, so they don’t have quite the neat appearance of traditional donut holes, but that doesn’t stop them from tasting excellent. These are great, simple donuts for those who’ve

never tried making them before.

Cinnamon-Sugared Doughnut Drops

Makes 30-60 donuts

1.5 cups AP flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup milk
2 tbl oil
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg

1/2 cup sugar1 tsp cinnamon

1. In large saucepan, heat 2 to 3 inches oil to 375.

2. In large bowl, combine first 6 ingredients. Stir in milk, oil, vanilla and egg with a fork just until dry ingredients are moistened.

3. Drop by teaspoonfuls into hot oil, 5 to 6 at a time. Fry donut drops 1 to 1.5 minutes on each side until deep golden brown. Drain on paper towel. Mix 1/2 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon; roll warm donut balls in sugar-cinnamon mixture.

I Scream, You Scream

2009-09-03T18:47:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I couldn't come up with a better title for this post. I recently got an ice cream maker attachment for my Kitchenaid, and so I figured I had to try it out and make some ice cream. Gourmet recently printed a recipe for a recipe for salted caramel ice cream, and so I thought I would try my hand. I thought the ice cream this made was really good, with a strong toffee flavor. I didn't think the salt came through particularly though, but maybe that's just me.

Salted Caramel Ice Cream

1 1/4 cups sugar, divided

2 1/4 cups heavy cream, divided

1/2 tsp flaky sea salt

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 cup milk

3 large eggs

1. Heat 1 cup sugar in a dry, heavy skillet. Stir sugar with a fork until it begins to melt, then stop stirring and cook, swirling pan occaissionally so sugar melts evenly. Continue cooking until the sugar reaches a dark amber.

2. Carefully add 1 1/4 cups cream (mixture will splatter), stir until all of the caramel is dissolved. Transfer into a bowl and stir in the salt. Cool to room temperature.

3. Bring milk, remaining cup cream and 1/4 cup sugar just to a boil.

4. Lightly whisk eggs in a medium bowl. Add half the hot milk mixture in a thin stream while whisking. Pout back into the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Continue cooking until mixture coats the back of the spoon and registers 170 degrees on a candy thermometer.

5. Pour the mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a clean bowl. Chill in the fridge, stirring occasionally, for 4-5 hours. Freeze according to instructions of your ice cream maker.

Double Peanut Double Chocolate Cookies

2009-08-28T18:31:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine was hosting a barbeque (cookout of you're a southerner who insists pulled meats must be present for it to be a barbeque). I decided to make up some cookies to bring. I got this recipe from epicurious, but instead of using chocolate chips and peanut butter chips, I used mini peanut butter cups from Trader Joes. These has a nice, cakey texture (if you like a cakey cookie), but I thought they were a little lacking in flavor.

Double Peanut Double Chocolate Cookies

Recipe says it makes 60, but I thought it made closer to 40

1 cup flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cups) unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup peanut butter (don't use natural)

3/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup light brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups mini peanut butter cups

1. Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and baking powder.

2. In another bowl, cream the butter, sugars, and peanut butter together until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, followed by vanilla.

3. Beat in flour mixture, and stir in mini peanut butter cups.

4. Drop dough by teaspoons two inches apart onto a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes, remove from oven and cool on cookie sheets for ten minutes before removing to baking racks.

Browned Butter

2009-08-21T09:38:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the delay in my blogging. It's been a busy few weeks, and I've been feeling a little lazy (as is known to happen when the summer heats up). Anyway, a few weeks ago, while I was back home, my mother brought a recipe for Browned Butter Oatmeal Cookies to my attention. I'd never used browned butter before, and the article in which she had seen the recipe (in an issue of Vogue apparently), had boasted that they were the best oatmeal cookies. The recipe is very simple, and essentially makes shortbread with oatmeal in it. The resulting cookies were excellent. Crispy and sandy, with a wonderful toasted taste. These were definitely worth the foray into brown butter. The brown butter actually used in the recipe is a little odd itself, and I've included the recipe for it after the cookie recipe. A candy thermometer is helpful here.

Oatmeal Brown-Butter Cookies

Makes about 30

1 cup browned butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

2 cups quick cook oatmeal (not instant)

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup flour

1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, use a wooden spoon to beat together the sugar and softened butter (the goal is not to cream the butter here, I found this took a fair amount of jabbing with the blunt end of my spoon).

2. In another bowl, combine the oatmeal, baking soda, salt, and flour. Using a wooden spoon, mix these into the butter (this again took a lot of mashing). Mix in the vanilla. The result should be crumbly, but cohesive enough to squeeze into balls.

3. Place 1 inch balls of dough 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet. Flatten the cookies with a fork until they are 1/4 inch thick.

4. Bake for 10 minutes, until pale-gold. Let cool on their sheets for a minute, then transfer to cooling racks to cool completely.

5. Store in an airtight container.

Browned Butter

This makes 2 cups, more than you'll need for one batch of cookies

1 lb butter

1 cup powdered milk

1. Take a large bowl and fill it with ice, put a smaller, but still sizable bowl in it (ideally metal). You will need to pour your butter into this later. Set aside.

2. In a large, heavy bottomed saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Whisk in the powdered milk. Continue heating the butter, stirring occaissionally. The butter will begin to bubble and foam, this is the water boiling off.

3. Continue heating the butter until it stops sizzling. It should begin to darken. Let the butter cook until it is a medium brown, like the color of a paper grocery bag. Alternatively, the temperature should reach between 245 and 250 degrees F.

4. Pour the butter into the prepared cold bowl. Immediately begin vigorously whisking the butter. At first butter will begin to solidify around the edges, use your whisk to scrape this off and reincorporate it into the whole butter mass. Stop whisking when the butter becomes too thick. This will take some time.

5. Move to an airtight container and refrigerate until ready to use.

White Russian Cupcakes

2009-08-08T00:01:00.000-07:00

These were the number three cupcakes in the poll I took of my coworkers. For those who don’t know, a white Russian is a drink made with vodka, kahlua and milk. I have to say, I was not a huge fan of these cupcakes. I used a recipe I got here. It could be the all purpose flour I used in place of the cake flour, but I found the texture of the cupcakes to be a little rubbery. The flavors of the alcohol also didn’t come through strongly enough. I frosted the cupcakes with a kahlua ganache, which might have been a mistake, since the chocolate flavor seemed to overwhelm everything else. The whipped cream in the original certainly would have been more faithful to the original drink, but that’s the way it goes.

White Russian Cupcakes

Makes ~15 cupcakes

1 1/2 cups cake flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp b. powder
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, room temp
1 egg white, room temp
1/3 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 tbsp vodka
3 tbsp kahlua

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a small bowl, combine dry ingredients (flour, salt and baking powder). Set aside.

2. In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes.

3. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

4. Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not over beat.

5. Add vodka and kahlua. Continue beating until incorporated. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended.

6. Using a ¼ cup measure, carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about 3/4 full. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.

7. Cool the cupcakes in tins for 5 minutes. Brush tops of cupcake with kahlua. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before decorating.

Kahla Ganache

8 oz dark chocolate, chopped

½ cup kahlua

½ cup heavy cream

1. Put the kahlua and chocolate in a bowl.

2. Heat the heavy cream to a simmer, pour over the chocolate

3. Let the cream sit for a minute, then stir until thoroughly mixed. Let the ganache cool until it thickens enough to be spreadable.

Decadent Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cupcakes

2009-08-01T00:01:00.000-07:00

For the end of my summer job, one of my coworkers threw a party so that all of us could celebrate. I, inevitably, made cupcakes (this really has been a cupcake heavy summer, probably because my cupcake pans are all I brought with to DC). For this particular party I let my coworkers vote on cupcake choices. I made the first and third choices (the second was made by another coworker). The number one choice was chocolate-peanut butter cupcakes. For the cupcake base I used one of my standard chocolate-cupcakes, which I filled with a peanut-butter mousse, and frosted with a peanut-butter ganache. The cupcakes were really rich, but excellent. Key to their success was cutting out large cones from the centers of the cupcakes, so that lots of mousse could get in.

Chocolate Cupcakes

Makes ~26

2 sticks unsalted butter

½ cup cocoa-powder

¾ cup water

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

½ cup well-shaken buttermilk

2 T vanillas

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 T cinnamon

¼ tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 350. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.

2. Melt the butter in a heavy bottomed sauce pan over low heat. Add in the cocoa powder and whisk until smooth. Then add the water and mix until smooth again. Remove from heat

3. One at a time mix in the sugar, egg, buttermilk, and vanilla

4. Sift the dry ingredients over the wet, and whisk until well combined.

5. Fill cupcakes using a ¼ cup measure. Bake for about 18-20 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Let them cool thoroughly before frosting.

Peanut-Butter Mousse

1 cup creamy peanut butter (not natural)

1 8oz package cream cheese, room temperature

1 cup powdered sugar

1 T vanilla

1 cup chilled whipping cream

1. Beat the peanut butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla together until smooth and well blended.

2. Using clean, chilled beaters, and a chilled bowl, beat the cream to stiff peaks.

3. Fold ¼ of the whipped cream into the peanut butter mixture. Fold in the remaining whipped cream ¼ at a time. Fold until smooth and well mixed. Chill in the fridge until ready to use.

Peanut-butter Ganache

6 oz. dark chocolate, chopped

1/3 cup creamy peanut butter

2/3 cup heavy cream

1. Put the peanut butter and chocolate in a bowl.

2. Heat the heavy cream to a simmer, pour over the chocolate

3. Let the cream sit for a minute, then stir until thoroughly mixed. Let the ganache cool until it thickens enough to be spreadable.

Assembly

1. Cut large cones out of the cupcakes. Cut the bottoms off of the cones.

2. Fill the cupcakes with peanut butter mousse. Re-cover the tops of the cupcakes.

3. Pour or spread the ganache over the top of the cupcakes. Refrigerate until 30-45 minutes before serving.

Brown Sugar Blondies

2009-07-25T17:36:00.000-07:00

This is the second dessert I made for my friend’s potluck last weekend. I found the recipe here, and was pretty tempted. I thought the recipe was great. The blondies had a nice molasses flavor, and was excellently moist. Unfortunately, the recipe is largely in grams, and I don’t have a kitchen scale here in DC. I did double the original recipe for baking in a standard US cookie sheet (~11” x 17”, technically a half sheet I believe). The only ingredient I really don’t have a good measure on is the brown sugar. I needed 800 grams, so I just dumped about 8/9 of a 2 lbs (900gram) into the recipe. I thought that these were really good, but I thought it was a little strange that all of the chocolate and nuts were put on top at the end. If I were making this again, I would have stirred the chocolate and nuts directly into the batter.

Chocolate Chip Brownies

Makes 1 cookie sheet worth

¾ Cups (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter

800 grams (most of a 2lbs bag) dark brown sugar

2 tsp vanilla

6 eggs, beaten

5 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

Generous pinch of salt

4 oz. dark chocolate, chopped

4 oz. milk chocolate, chopped

4. oz pecans, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with non-stick foil. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

2. Over medium heat melt the butter in a medium saucepan. Whisk in the brown sugar.

3. Remove from heat, and let cool for a moment. Stir in the eggs and vanilla.

4. Sift the flour mixture over the butter mixture. Beat together until just combined.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared cookie sheet. Spread the chocolate and nuts over the batter, and lightly push them into the batter.

6. Bake for 25 minutes, until just firm. Remove and let cool completely before cutting.

Strawberry and Champagne Cupcakes

2009-07-19T17:07:00.000-07:00

One of the associates at work hosted a potluck over the weekend, so inevitably I volunteered to bring cupcakes (in fact, it was a bake off between this associate and myself, and I’m fairly certain her cupcakes won, but that shouldn’t be further spoken of). I decided to go for the expimental, and came up with the idea of strawberry and white-chocolate cupcakes with a champagne frosting. Thinking myself quite original, I went searching the internet for a cake recipe to use, when I came upon this. Having found it, I used Cupcake Project’s strawberry cupcakes recipe, but with a few modifications. I changed the frosting over to my champagne meringue. And for the cakes, I added white chocolate chips. To increase the strawberry flavor, I also added powdered strawberry to the cake recipe. I can’t say for sure if this made a difference, other than adding some nice color, but I have a feeling it made the cakes a little stronger. To make strawberry powder, I got some freeze-dried strawberries from Trader Joe’s, which I then crushed into a powder.

When I baked these, I followed the instructions, let them bake for 20 minutes, put in a tester, and took them out of the oven. I let them cool, and decided to eat one, only to discover that it was raw in the center. Panicked, I put the cupcakes back in the oven for about another 10 minutes. They did eventually get fully baked, and for the next bath I increased the time. Nonetheless, I would test multiple cakes before taking these guys out of the oven. I didn’t have any cake flour here in DC, so I used all purpose in its place without a problem.

Strawberry Cupcakes

Makes 24 cupcakes

2 ½ C cake flour

1 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

½ C (1 stick) unsalted butter

1 ½ C sugar

5 T powdered strawberries (see above for details)

2 large eggs

1/3 C buttermilk

¼ C canola oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 C finely chopped fresh strawberries

12 oz. white chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, sift together the cake flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl, cream butter, sugar, and strawberry powder with an electric mixer.

3. Add eggs. Mix until smooth and creamy. Add buttermilk, oil and vanilla. Mix until combined.

4. Add flour mixture to butter mixture. Mix until just combined.

5. Stir in strawberries and white chocolate chips.

6. Fill cupcake liners using a quarter cup measure (half to two-thirds full). Bake at 350 F for 25-30 minutes, or until tops are golden and testers come out clean. Let cool.

Champagne Meringue Frosting

6 T egg white Powder

2/3 cup extra-dry Champagne

1/4-1/2 cup granulated sugar (to taste)

1. Measure ¾ of champagne (this can be tricky because of the foam). Pour the egg white powder into a large bowl, and add the champagne. Use an electric mixer at high speed to whip the mixture until it becomes foamy. Add the sugar two Tbs at a time (until the taste gets where you like it) and beat until the meringue forms stiff peaks.

2. Frost cupcakes, lightly torch frosting with a culinary torch, or under the broiler.

Tiramisu Mk II

2009-07-11T13:54:00.000-07:00

So, this is a bit of a cheat, since most of this recipe has been posted before. It’s such a favorite though that it’s one of the few recipes I am willing to remake. This time I tried to change it up a little. Rather than the standard mascarpone frosting, I made this one by first making a zabaglione, and then beating it with the mascarpone. The frosting was richer than usual (if such a thing is possible), and I thought it had a greater depth of flavor. Once the frosting is in the fridge, it also sets nicely (the ingredients basically are the same as what would go into a cheesecake). I also added orange zest to the sponge cake, but it got a bit lost behind the other flavors. This frosting is really great, a strongly recommend it. Could also be used as a filling for a no-bake cheesecake. Unfortunately, the amounts of marsala and powdered sugar in the frosting are largely estimates, as I just added them until the frosting had the right taste and consistency.

Tiramisu Cupcakes

Makes ~ 30

Cake

6 eggs, separated
3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup sugar, divided
3 tablespoon water, room temp
1 teaspoon vanilla

2 tsp finely ground orange zest
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup sifted, all-purpose flour

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Separate the eggs.

2. Put the egg-whites and the cream of tartar in a large mixing bowl. Whip the egg-whites at highest speed until they are foamy. Begin adding a ½ cup of sugar 2 tablespoons at a time, until all the sugar is incorporated and the egg-whites have reached soft peaks. Rub a bit of the meringue between your fingers to make sure the sugar is fully dissolved.

3. In a small mixing bowl beat the egg yolks at high speed until they are thick and lemony colored. Should take between 3-5 minutes.

4. Gradually beat in remaining ½ cup sugar, vanilla, water, orange zest and salt.

4. With a sifter gradually sift flour over the egg-white mixture (I never sift, I just sprinkle gently, mostly because I don’t own a sifter). Add the beaten yolk mixture, and gradually fold the flour and yolks into the whites.

5. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full, and bake in the pre-heated oven for 10-15 minutes (I usually bake them for 12). The cupcakes will rise a lot in the oven, and then fall as soon as you take them out. As far as I can tell this is normal.

For Mocha Syrup

½ cup confectioner’s sugar
2/3 cup water
5 teaspoons instant espresso powder

4 tablespoons cocoa powder

1. Combine everything in a heavy pot over high heat; bring to a boil, stirring occasionally

2. Remove from heat and let cool. The mixture should have thickened into a syrup.

3. Poke holes in the tops of the cupcakes with a fork. Put a spoonful of the syrup on top of each cupcake, and let it permeate the cake through the holes.

For the Mascarpone Frosting

4 egg yolks

4 Tbs sugar

½ cup marsala wine (divided, more to taste)

¼ tsp cinnamon

3 c mascarpone, softened
1 1/3 c confectioner’s sugar (more as needed)

1. Mix the egg yolks, sugar, ¼ cup of the wine, and the cinnamon in the bowl of a double boiler. Over simmering water rapidly beat the eggs until thick, foamy, and doubled in volume. It should come to about 180 degrees.

2. Remove the bowl of the double boiler from the heat. Let it come to room temperature, or, if you want to use it sooner, place the bowl in a larger pot of cool water. You need to reduce the temperature of the zabaglione before using it, or it will melt the mascarpone.

3. With a hand mixer, beat the mascarpone on medium speed until smooth. Reduce the speed to slow and add the zabaglione. Add the powdered sugar and the remaining marsala. If the frosting is not stiff enough, add more sugar, if it is not flavorful enough, add more wine. Keep alternating until you get a taste and texture you like. When I made this it was on the runny side, so I just scooped it onto the cupcakes, but it set up very nicely once refrigerated.

Bread Pudding Cupcakes

2009-06-22T18:46:00.000-07:00

I’m not entirely sure whether or not to call these cupcakes. In one sense, they are cupcakes, since they were made in cupcake pans (although they lack liners). On the other hand, it’s really just a bread pudding recipe that I baked in cupcake pans, there’s nothing particularly “cupcakey” about the recipe, other than the pan used. Really, it is a question better left to philosophers. What is important is that these were REALLY good. I brought these bread puddings to a potluck with work folks, and they were very well received, with multiple people asking for the recipe. The original recipe came from an epicurious recipe for Chocolate-Dulce de Leche bread pudding. I made a few modifications though. I used a loaf of challah bread, plus one croissant as the bread for this recipe. The only change I would make is that I would add some Cinnamon, maybe a tablespoon or so.

For the dulce de leche I used the sweetened condensed milk method. Take two cans of sweetened condensed milk; peel the labels and all of the glue off. Place the cans in boiling water, and boil for two hours. Make sure the cans stay covered in water, or they might explode. After two hours, remove the cans and let them cool completely. Make sure to have extra on hand to serve on top of the cakes. I also used 1 cup heavy cream, and ½ cup fat free half-and-half. The original recipe calls for all heavy cream, but I wanted to cut it down just a little.

· Chocolate and Dulce-de-Leche Bread Pudding Cupcakes

· Makes 19

· 1 loaf egg bread, plus one croissant, cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices (about 4 x 5 inches), cut into 3/4- to 1-inch cubes

· 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted, divided

· 1 cup heavy whipping cream

· ½ cup half-half

· 2 cups dulce de leche, divided

· 2 large egg yolks

· 2 tablespoons dark rum

· 1 overripe banana, mashed

· 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

· Pinch of salt

· 1 cup (about 3 ounces) bittersweet chocolate chips

· 1 cup chopped pecans

· 2 tablespoons sugar

· Powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Place bread in large bowl. Drizzle with 3 tablespoons melted butter and toss. Transfer to rimmed baking sheet and Bake until bread begins to color, stirring occasionally, about 12 minutes.

2. Butter the individual cupcake cups. I used non-stick pans, and it was still important that I butter them

3. Stir whipping cream, half-and-half, and 1 ½ cup dulce de leche in medium saucepan over medium heat until blended and bubbling. Remove from heat.

4. Whisk eggs and yolks in large bowl. Add rum, vanilla, banana and salt; gradually whisk in warm dulce de leche mixture.

5. Stir in bread cubes. Let soak 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

6. Mix chocolate chips and pecans into the custard mixture. Scoop into cupcake pans, try not to press down on the puddings too hard. Sprinkle the tops of the cupcakes with sugar.

7. Bake pudding until puffed and set in center, about 20 minutes. Let cool 15 minutes. Use a butter knife to gently cut around the edges of the puddings. For the most part the knife should be able to push the puddings away from the pans, rather than having to cut. Invert the pan onto a cookie sheet, and tap the bottoms of the pans. The puddings should fall out easily.

8. Serve the puddings with the extra dulce de leche.

Pineapple Cupcakes

2009-06-17T17:44:00.000-07:00

I got the chance to bake again this weekend, and decided I wanted to make something on the summery-fruity side. I thought pineapple cupcakes might be an interesting twist. Some google searches revealed a lot of recipes for pineapple upside down cakes, but not a lot of straightforward pineapple cake recipes. Eventually I found a recipe for pineapple Bundt cake on Genesis of a Cook that I thought looked good, and decided to try it. Instead of going with a traditional frosting, I decided to make a caramel-rum glaze for the cupcakes. The glaze was good, but only really stayed on the tops of the cupcakes for maybe 30 minutes. After that it really just soaked in. These cupcakes were moist and dense, and I thought very tasty. I thought they were best within a day or two of baking,

Pineapple Cupcakes

Makes about 24 cupcakes

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 cup butter, softened
1 ½ cups sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 egg whites
2 tsp. lemon zest
1 (16 ounce) can crushed pineapple, undrained

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together the flour and the baking powder.

2. In a large mixing bowl cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the cinnamon, salt, eggs and zest, beat until thoroughly combined. Fold in flour. Stir in pineapple and juice.

3. Fill cupcake liners with a ¼ cup measure. Bake for 17-20 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Let cool.

Caramel-Rum Glaze

½ cup(1 stick) unsalted butter

¼ cup water

1 cup sugar

½ cup dark rum

1. Melt the butter over medium heat in a saucepan. Add the water and sugar, stir until combined, and bring to a boil. Boil for 5-7 minutes, until it just begins to turn a caramel color.

2. Remove from heat. Carefully pour in the rum – be careful, it will steam and bubble.

3. Let the glaze cool until thickened. Spoon over the cupcakes.

Mixed Nut and Chocolate Cookies

2009-05-31T10:21:00.000-07:00

It turns out I have had some time to bake while here in DC for the summer, so I decided to make some cookies to bring into the office. My original intention was to make cashew butter cookies with white chocolate, but the store was out of cashew butter, so instead I used almond butter. But, it turns out I didn’t have enough almond butter, so I had to use some peanut butter. And of course, the ground nuts I used (I chopped them with a knife), were cashews. Hence why these are a mixed nut cookie. I also used both white and semisweet chocolate chips in these cookies. Overall, I’m not positive the variety of nuts or nut butters really came through, it might have been easier to just use peanut-butter, but the cookies themselves were excellent. The recipe is based on one I found here. I made these cookies small, and doubled the recipe when I made it, which made a huge number of cookies, nearly 150.

2 1/2 c flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

16 Tbs (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened but still cool

1 c brown sugar

1 c granulated sugar

1 c almond butter

2 large eggs

1 T vanilla

1 c cashews

6 oz. white chocolate chips

6. oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

2. Beat the butter until creamy. Add the sugars and beat until fluffy. Add the vanilla, followed by the eggs one at a time.

3. Beat in the almond butter. Stir in the flour mixture, followed by the chopped cashews and the chocolate chips.

4. Roll the cookie dough into 1 T sized balls. Place on cookie sheets 1-2 inches apart. Bake for 11 minutes, or until just browned. Remove from the oven and let cool.

Summer?

2009-05-16T05:58:00.000-07:00

Well, it is again time for my summer break, and I'm not entirely sure what that will mean for this blog over the next few months. I'm moving to DC for the summer for a job, which will mean that I'm far from my faithful kitchen and ingredients. I have packed a mixing bowl and egg beater, just in case, but I really don't know if I'll have time to do much baking or cooking. What does that mean for the blog; I don't know yet. I might turn it into DC restaurant reviews, or maybe a blog on interesting things you can make with ingredients that come primarily from Trader Joes. I'd be happy to take any suggestions, and don't worry, Amicus Cupcake will be back in strength in come August, no matter what the summer holds. Thanks for Reading!

Malted Milk Mini Cupcakes

2009-05-13T00:01:00.000-07:00

People seem to have one of three responses to malt; they either love it, hate it, or have no idea what it is. I fall into that first category, malt is absolutely one of my favorite flavors. When it comes to malted milk, I like Carnation, and don’t recommend Ovaltine, which I think is more of a drink mix than straight up malted milk powder. With these cupcakes I hoped to bring that out. The recipe I used comes from the book Baked: New Frontier’s in Baking, but I got it reposted over at How To Eat a Cupcake. My addition to the recipe is the filling, which is a vanilla pastry cream with malt. I was hoping for something that would make the whole cake a little creamier, brining the malt back to its milkshake roots.

I made these for May week, which is actually an event for my journal where we have to do a bunch of extra work the week after finals ends (Fun!). Since I needed to make a lot of these for the office, I decided to make them mini. How To Eat a Cupcake’s review of these is definitely correct, they are super tender, and almost fall out of their wrappers. People really enjoyed these, and they received many compliments, including one person telling me that no one ever needs to bother with cupcakes again, as these are their “Platonic Form” (If you know what that means, it should give you a sense of the kind of nerds I hang out with). Even if you don’t understand it, know that these cupcakes come highly recommended.

Because these cupcakes are so small, the cone method I normally use for filling the cupcakes doesn’t work (the cupcakes just fall apart). Instead I injected the filling using a pastry bag. All you do is fit a pastry bag with a small, round tip, fill the bag with the pastry cream, gently push the tip into the cupcake, and squeeze. You just want to squeeze enough in so that the cupcake starts to bulge, or filling comes out the hole. Too much and you risk tearing apart the cake. That said, I’d never done this before, and found it very easy, so don’t let it intimidate you.

Malted Mini Cupcakes

Makes ~60 mini cupcakes

1 cup
½ cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 cup malted milk powder
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup vegetable shortening 1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup ice cold water
2 egg whites

1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees and line your mini cupcake pan with liners. In a medium bowl sift together the first seven ingredients, then give them a good whisk to make sure they are well blended.

2. Put the butter and shortening in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed until smooth, 3-4 minutes. Add the sugar and beat until fluffy, 3 more minutes.

3. Reduce the mixer speed to low. Add a quarter of the flour mixture, followed by a third of the ice water. Continue alternating, until both are fully added, ending with the flour.

4. In a clean bowl, whip the egg whites to soft peaks. Add to the batter and gently fold to combine.

5. Fill the cupcakes liners ½ to 2/3 full, but be careful not to overfill. Bake for 14 minutes, or until tops are just golden, and a tester comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for a few minutes before removing to a cooling rack.

Vanilla Malted Pastry Cream

Makes 2-3 cups (more than you will need)

3 egg yolks

¾ cup sugar, divided

6 Tbs corn starch

2 ½ cups whole milk

1 T vanilla paste

2 T malted milk powder, divided1. In a large bowl whisk together the egg whites and ¼ cup + 2 T of the sugar. Add the corn starch 1 T at a time, whisking thoroughly after each (believe me, you don’t want to add it all at once).

2. Combine the remaining sugar, the milk, the vanilla, and 1 T of the malted milk powder in a heavy bottomed saucepan over medium high heat. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly with a flat ended spatula to scrape the bottom of the pan.

3. Remove the milk from the heat. Pour ¼ of the milk mixture into the eggs in a thin stream, whisking constantly. Pour the remaining milk mixture into the eggs and whisk to combine. Put the bottom of the pot into cold water to cool it. Place it back on the stove on a cool burner. Pour the mixture back into the pot, and begin heating over medium high heat.

4. Heat the mixture, stirring constantly, until it thickens into a paste. This may take awhile, I found it happened just after 170 degrees. At first you might think your pastry cream is curdling, or that it’s separated, just keep mixing, and it will come together. Make sure you heat the pastry cream over 180, if On Food and Cooking is accurate, you should actually be able to bring it to a boil without burning it, so don’t worry too much.

5. Once the pastry cream is thickened, remove from the heat and pour through a strainer into a clean bowl. You will probably need you use your spatula to push it through the strainer. Quickly whisk in the remaining 1 T of malted milk powder.

6. Press plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the pastry cream and refrigerate until cool and set.

Milk Chocolate Frosting

4 oz. Milk Chocolate, chopped

4 oz. Bittersweet Chocolate, chopped

¾ cup heavy cream

1 T light corn syrup

1 ½ sticks butter, softened

1. Put the chocolates in the bowl of a standing mixer, and set aside. Put the cream and corn syrup in a medium sauce pan and bring to a simmer.

2. Pour the cream over the chocolates, and let stand for 2-3 minutes. Slowly whisk until smooth. Set aside (or refrigerate) until completely at room temperature.

3. Attach the bowl to the mixer set with the whisk attachment. Gradually add the softened butter, whisking on medium speed until totally smooth.

4. Refrigerate for a few minutes, until firm enough to pipe.

Assembly

As described above, pipe the pastry cream into the cupcakes. Top each cupcake with frosting, and refrigerate.

Aztec Chocolate Cookies

2009-05-10T17:22:00.000-07:00

Finals time is finally over! Hooray! Of course I still have a massive research paper to write, but that won’t stop me from doing some baking. Of course the end of finals entailed some celebrations, so I made some cookies. I found this recipe for “Aztec Chocolate Cookies” here, and thought they sounded pretty good; and they definitely lived up to my expectations. They were a little spicier than I expected, but I didn’t mind it. It also turned out I didn’t have any chocolate chips, so instead I chopped 7oz. of a semisweet chocolate bar (I used part of a Trader Joe’s Pound Plus Bar). I think the irregular chunks added something to the cookies over chocolate chips. The chocolate stayed gooey for hours after baking. I would definitely recommend these.

Aztec Chocolate Cookies

Makes ~25

1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4-1/2 teaspoon ground chipotle chili pepper
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup dark-brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
7 ounces semisweet chocolate chips / chocolate chunks
1/4 cup granulated sugar

1. In a medium bowl mix together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, chipotle powder, and cocoa powder.

2. In a large bowl, beat the butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Add the honey and vanilla and beat until mixed.

3. In a small bowl dissolve the baking soda in 1 ½ tsp boiling water. With the mixer on low speed add half the flour mixture, followed by the baking powder mixture, and then the rest of the flour.

4. Stir in the chocolate chunks. Place the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes.

5. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Roll the dough into 2 inch balls, and roll them in granulated sugar. Place the dough 2 inches apart on a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet. Flatten the cookies slightly. Bake the cookies for 18-20 minutes.

6. Cool the cookies on the sheets for 2 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool until cool, if you can wait that long.

Sushi?

2009-05-02T12:00:00.000-07:00

I don’t know why, but when I first read the recipe for chocolate ribbons in Bakewise the first thought my mind went to was “you could use that to make dessert suishi.” And so I set out to try it. This “sushi” is composed of malleable chocolate, rolled around a filling of coconut rice, mangos, pineapple, and kiwi. I topped it off with mango “caviar” in an attempt to complete the tromp l’oie effect. I have to say, making this was a whole lot of work. I’d never made malleable chocolate before, but it is not the easiest thing to use, specifically rolling it out is challenging, expect to get a good work out. I did think this tasted really good, when you first bite in the fruit and rice hit your mouth, followed by the taste of the chocolate. The recipe here is largely a guide, as these could be filled with almost anything, and a pretty wide variety of fruits would be good. I have cut the recipe for coconut rice in half from what I used, as it made way more than I needed. I would also recommend adding some flaked, sweetened coconut to the rice after it is cooked (or maybe just some coconut extract), as I didn’t think the coconut flavor came through as much as I’d like.

Making the mango caviar was my first experiment with “spherification” – turning liquids into spheres. I used agar agar for this spherification, rather than the more complicated chemicals used for dishes like liquid ravioli. This method has the disadvantage of turning the spheres into solid gel all the way through, but the advantage of using an ingredient that can be found in most health food stores and Asian markets, and doesn’t cost an absurd amount. I have read a number of recipes on this technique, and I’m not sure if you’re supposed to bring the agar agar mixture to a boil or not, I did. One recipe also said to blitz the mixture with an immersion blender, which I didn’t bother with. This was a mistake, as many of the agar agar flakes didn’t dissolve, resulting a weaker gel, and the occasional chunk of agar agar. I will definitely experiment with this technique again. I didn’t bother using a hypodermic needle to make my spheres, I just dripped the juice from a measuring cup. I also tried using a pastry bag, but attempts so squeeze near boiling liquid did not go well.

Coconut Sticky Rice

2 t flavorless oil (canola, vegetable)

1 cup Thai jasmine Rice

1 cup coconut milk

¾ cup water

¼ tsp salt

1 T brown sugar

1. Use a paper towel to oil the bottom of a medium pot. Combine all ingredients in the pot over medium high heat. Bring mixture to a boil, stirring constantly, making sure to scrape the bottom.

2. Once the mixture begins to bubble, stop stirring, turn heat down to low, and cover the pot with a lid. Leave the lid slightly askew so that some steam can escape. Cook 15-20 minutes, until rice has absorbed all of the liquid.

3. Turn off the heat, but leave the pot on the burner and let rest for 5-10 minutes.

4. Remove the rice from the heat, and let cool COMPLETELY. If you want to use the rice soon, you might spread it in a baking pan or put it into the fridge or freezer. It is imperative that the rice be cold when you put it into the sushi, otherwise it will melt through your carefully rolled sushi, and cursing will ensue!

Mango Caviar

1 cup mango juice

1 T agar agar flakes*

1-2 cups very cold (preferably from the freezer), neutral oil (such as vegetable or canola)

*I used flakes, because that is what my store had. The package had the 1 to 1 ratio on it, if you have a different form of agar (such as powder) check your packaging for the appropriate ratio. Otherwise, I have read that you want between 1-2% weight of agar to liquid. A cup of juice should take about 2.5 grams of agar.

1. Pour the cold oil into a shallow dish. You want breadth, not depth, you probably need less than an inch of depth.

2. Combine the mango juice and the agar argar. Blitz the mixture with an immersion blender to break up the agar agar. Put the mixture into a small saucepan over medium high heat and bring to a heavy boil.

3. Pour the mixture into a spouted measuring cup. Drip the mixture into the cold oil. You should see your droplets settle on the surface, then sink and turn into spheres after a few moments. How much you drip will determine the size of your spheres.

4. Make as many spheres as you want. Pour the remaining mango mixture into a ramekin and place in the fridge to set as a nice mango jelly. Use a fork to test if your spheres have set (they should be solid and resist the fork. If they haven’t set, place the pan into the freezer for a few minutes.

The caviar may look flat from the top, but from the side you can see they're really spheres

5. Pour the oil and mango caviar through a fine mesh strainer. Rinse the mango caviar with slow running, cold water, to clean off the remaining oil. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Malleable Chocolate Sushi wrappers

This may make more than you need, I only made one “roll” of sushi so I had a lot leftover

10 oz. semisweet chocolate

1/3 cup + ½ tsp light corn syrup (Bakewise recommends pouring this from a measuring cup that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray, so that all of it will come out easily. I scraped it out with a spatula)

1. Melt the chocolate in a medium saucepan over low heat. Once the chocolate is melted and smooth, remove from heat.

2. Quickly stir in the corn syrup into the chocolate. At this point you will have a wet, sticky mess. Use your spatula to continuously turn the mixture and fold it over on itself. As the mixture cools and you work it, it will begin to form a dough. Eventually the dough will pull away from the sides, and will no longer be sticky when you touch it (this may take awhile, I would guess it took me ten minutes).

3. Dump the dough onto a clean counter. Flatten the dough out, and fold it over on itself three times. Press it together, flatten it out, and fold it over again. Do this several times. When complete press the dough into about a 6 inch disk, wrap with plastic wrap, and refrigerate several hours or overnight.

4. This is the challenging part. Remove the dough from the fridge. It will be incredibly hard. Put the dough between two pieces of wax paper and begin rolling it out. Bakewise suggests that if the dough is too hard you should give it 10 seconds in the microwave at 30% power, but I didn’t try this. Once you have the dough rolled out, fold it over on itself, and roll it out again. Keep doing this until the dough begins to become reasonably flexible.

5. Bakewise recommends putting the dough through a pasta maker on its widest setting at this point, which turns out to be a remarkably good idea. Just make sure the pasta maker is completely clean, as the chocolate will pick up any dirt in it. Take about a quarter of the chocolate, and run it through the machine. Fold it back on itself, and run it through again. Do this until the chocolate is very flexible. Unfortunately, for a sushi shape, you cannot use the pasta maker, and will need to return to rolling out the chocolate by hand.

6. On a piece of wax paper, roll out your chocolate. It should be considerably easier to work at this point. However, because any flour or powdered sugar will discolor the chocolate, I didn’t use it. Instead, after every roll or two, pick up the parchment paper, and flip the rolled out chocolate onto your hand, (treat it like a pizza dough, and be careful not to let it fold over on itself), and then flip it back onto the wax paper. This will help the keep from getting the chocolate stuck to the paper. Roll the chocolate into roughly a rectangular shape, and use a pizza cutter to trim off any edges. You will not be able to make the chocolate as thin as seaweed, and wouldn’t want to, but try to aim for 4-5 mm at most. Once the chocolate is rolled out, let it rest for at least 5 minutes before using it to make the sushi (I found this made the chocolate a little less prone to breaking when rolled, good time to get the next piece of chocolate ready.

Chocolate sushi

Chocolate sushi “wrappers” (above)

Cold Coconut rice (Must be completely cooled)

Thinly sliced sticks of mango, pineapple, and kiwi (or whatever fruit you would prefer)

Mango caviar

1. Place a chocolate sushi wrapper on a piece of wax paper, oriented so that the longer direction is perpendicular to you (the photos are not oriented this way)

2. Spread about ½ cup of rice on the chocolate wrapper, spreading the rice all the way to the edge nearest you leaving about an inch at the far end uncovered.

3. Place the fruit in a line, about an inch from the nearest edge.

4. Using the wax paper to help, lift the near end of the sushi, and begin to roll it over on itself. Roll it all the way over, trying to keep the roll tight. Press the chocolate together to seal the roll.

5. Immediately transfer the roll to a plate (be careful to support it under the center when moving), and place in the fridge for 5 minutes to let the chocolate firm up.

6. When ready to cut, take a very sharp, serrated knife, and run it under hot water. Quickly dry the knife, and use it to slice the roll into individual sushi. Top each piece of sushi with some mango caviar and serve.

For My Bonnemaman - a Mocha Genoise

2009-04-28T16:40:00.000-07:00

When I was young, my bonnemaman (french for grandmother) would make a mocha cake whenever my parents and I would come to visit. Unlike American Mocha, the traditional European (or maybe just Belgian) is just coffee flavored. It was an excellent cake, that both my parents and I have very fond memories of. Unfortunately, no one ever got the recipe from my grandmother. We do, however, know some of the elements. The frosting was a coffee flavored buttercream, which she added texture to by including granulated sugar. The trouble with this is that most buttercreams can hold very little liquid, and so just adding coffee to a buttercream won’t make a frosting, and extracts don’t provide the same flavor. My grandmother also had a philosophy that when the frosting contained as much fat as hers did, the cake shouldn’t contain any fat, and so she used a genoise with no butter added to it. Based on this I set about trying to construct a version of the recipe. Finding a genoise recipe was easy, I used the one from Bakewise. The frosting recipe was more complicated, but then my mother found a recipe for a Flemish crème-anglaise based coffee buttercream, which she sent to me. Armed with these two recipes I decided to take a shot at it. Of course, I have nothing to do with a full cake, so instead I made the cake in a jelly roll pan, and turned it into petit-fours. I made 1 ½ times the genoise recipe, and half the frosting recipe, which ended up with my making way too much cake, and way too little frosting. My genoise was also far from perfect, the first attempt failed utterly (I underbeat it massively), and the second, while a vast improvement, was far from perfect (the flour was not evenly mixed). I have reprinted the recipes here in the proportions I made them, you might want to adjust accordingly (this is also why a lot of the measures in the cake are strange).

So how did they turn out? Pretty good I would say. The cake itself definitely reminded me of my grandmothers, though it wasn’t quite there. I thought the frosting was a little too buttery, but this might have been because the butter ended up far too soft when I put it in, and so it might not have fluffed up as much as it would have otherwise. I also didn’t add any granulated sugar to the frosting, and it really could have used that added texture, as both the frosting and cake are very tender. I did add espresso beans to the tops of the cakes, which added some much needed contrast.

Simple Genoise

Makes one 11 x 17 jelly roll pan (at least, mine was probably overfilled)

9 large eggs, in the shells

¾ cup plus 1 ½ T sugar, divided

1 cup plus 2 T cake flour, spooned and leveled

¼ cup plus 1 ½ tsp cornstarch

1/8 tsp pinch of salt

1 ½ tsp vanilla

1. Arrange shelf in the lower third of the oven. Preheat to 350 degrees. Grease and flour an 11 x 17 inch jelly roll pan. Line with parchment, grease the parchment

2. Put the eggs, in their shells, in a bowl and cover with very hot water. Mix together the flour, the 1 ½ T sugar, the cornstarch, and the salt.

3. Put two inches of water into a skillet over medium heat. Separate three of the eggs, placing the yolks in the bowl of your mixer. Add the remaining 6 eggs and the remaining ¾ cup sugar. Place the mixing bowl into the skillet of water. Whisk the mixture constantly until it reaches between 86 and 9 degrees.

4. Attach the bowl to a mixer set with the whisk attachment. Beat on high for two minutes, and then reduce speed to medium and beat for another 10 minutes. Mixture should be thick and foamy, and should fall in thick ribbons from the whisk.

5. Sift ¼ of the flour mixture over the egg mixture. Gently fold the flour into the egg, repeat in 4 to 5 batches until all of the flour is incorporated. Gently fold in the vanilla.

6. Pour the genoise batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until puffed and golden. The center should spring back to the touch. After removing the cake run a knife around the edges so the cake can settle.

Coffee Buttercream

1/3 cup espresso coffee beans

1/2 Cup milk

3/4 cups granulated sugar

4 large egg yolks, at room temp

1 1/3 cups unsalted butter, softened

1. Coarsely crush the espresso bean in a mortar and pestle processing in small batches so that none of the coffee is crushed finely. Combine the crushed espresso beans with the milk in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Remove from the heat, cover and let steep for 10 minutes. Strain through fine sieve, pressing down on the beans to extract as much milk as possible. You should have about 1/3 of espresso-flavored milk. If necessary at a little milk to get back up to 1/3 cup. Discard the coffee grounds and rinse out eh sieve so it will be ready to use again for straining the custard.

2. Combine the espresso-flavored milk with 2 T of the sugar in a heavy 1 quart saucepan and bring to a simmer.

3. Meanwhile, combine the egg yolks with the remaining sugar in a mixing bowl and beat with a wire whisk until smooth and lemon-colored. Pour in about half of the hot milk, whisking constantly. Pour this mixture back into the saucepan and stir until thoroughly blended.

4.* Place the saucepan over medium heat and stirring constantly with a wooden spatula, stirring the custard almost to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring constantly with the spatula until the custard thickens and coats the spatula heavily. (When you draw a line across the back of the custard-coated spatula with your fingertip, the custard should not flow back over the line). Reduce the heat to the lowest possible setting (moving the saucepan to the side of the burner as needed) and keep the mixture hot, again stirring constantly, for 4 minutes to pasteurize it. – This is the original instruction, and I hate instructions like this, I cooked mine to 175 degrees, which was nice and thick, but not overdone.

5. Immediately strain the custard through the fine sieve into the bowl of the mixer. Beat the custard with the wire whip at medium speed until is light and cool. This is the buttercream base.

6. Gradually beat in the softened butter at medium speed, using the flat beater if your mixer has one. When all of the butter has been added, beat the buttercream vigorously to make it as light as possible.

7. Use the butter cream right away.

Assembly

Cake

Buttercream

Espresso beans

1. Cut the cake into 1 x 2 inch rectangles. Slice each rectangle of cake in half horizontally (so that you now have two layers).

2. Generously put about a tablespoon of frosting between the two layers. Press together. Use a butter knife to spread a thin layer of butter cream over the outside of the cake (this is the crumb coat, it doesn’t need to look great). Refrigerate the cakes until firm, which will take several hours, or place in the freezer for about 10 minutes.

3. When the crumb coat is firm, use a butter knife or offset spatula to apply a second layer of frosting. I’m not great at this, so have no tips here.

4. Top the completed petit-fours with espresso beans, or other decorations.

Celebrating the Blogoversary with a Chocolate Cake and a Guest

2009-04-15T05:06:00.000-07:00

Here it is, the promised second post celebrating my blogoversary. As mentioned, this post was going to be a little different: It is my first posting by a guest blogger! The guest is my good friend, and frequent assisster, Jess, who kindly volunteered to make this cake for me to celebrate. And Jess, I can tell you, people were not just being polite, this is a truly excellent cake! Thanks again for making it for me, and for all the assistance you've given me on the various recipes throughout this blog.

When amicus cupake mentioned to me that his blog was coming up on its first anniversary and that the anniversary would coincide with the 100^th post on his blog, I begged him to allow me to make a cake to celebrate. Ever since this blog started he has made the desert for every party that I can remember. This is wonderful, as his deserts are always divine, but it is also sad because it means I seldom get the chance to bake for anyone. Accordingly, when this anniversary rolled around, I saw my opportunity and I seized it. The cake was served to amicus and a group of friends after we tried out a new dinner spot. The combination of friends, food, and cake made for an excellent evening.

In deciding what to make I knew I needed something that is celebratory (chocolate), something to please a crowd (chocolate), and something that amicus would enjoy (chocolate). When I hit on a recipe for Chocolate Crunch Layer Cake with Milk Chocolate Frosting on epicurious.com, I knew I was on the right track. I really didn’t make any modification to the recipe, except that I prepared the dry and the wet ingredients before I melted the chocolate and that I greased the pans with Pam rather than bothering with waxed paper and butter. The cake seemed to be a hit, or at least everyone was very polite!

Cake

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup hot water
1 3/4 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup whole milk

Frosting

1 1/4 cups whipping cream
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1 pound milk chocolate, chopped

Assembly

4 1.4-ounce chocolate-covered English toffee bars (such as Heath Bars or Skor), cut into 1/4-inch dice
7 ounces milk chocolate (I used one large Heresy’s bar and one normal sized bar)

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Grease two 9-inch-diameter cake pans with 1 3/4-inch-high sides. Combine chocolate and 1/2 cup hot water in small saucepan. Stir over low heat until melted and smooth. Cool to lukewarm, stirring often.

Whisk flour, baking soda and salt in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until fluffy. Gradually beat in sugar. Beat in eggs 1 at a time, then vanilla extract. Beat in chocolate mixture. Add flour mixture in 3 additions alternately with milk in 2 additions, beating just to blend after each addition. Divide batter equally between pans. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean and cake just begins to pull away from sides of pan, about 35 minutes. Cool cakes in pans on racks 5 minutes. Cut around pan sides. Turn cakes out onto racks; peel off waxed paper. Cool cakes completely.

Combine cream, corn syrup and butter in heavy large saucepan. Whisk over medium heat until mixture begins to simmer. Add chopped chocolate. Reduce heat to low and whisk until frosting is smooth, about 1 minute; transfer to large bowl.

Fill another large bowl with ice. Set bottom of bowl with frosting atop ice. Whisk until frosting is cool and begins to thicken, about 8 minutes. Place bowl of frosting on work surface. Using electric mixer, beat until color lightens and just until frosting becomes thick enough to hold peaks when beaters are lifted, about 2 minutes (frosting will continue to thicken as it stands).

Place 1 cake layer, flat side up, on 8-inch-diameter tart pan bottom or cardboard round. If desired, place pan bottom with cake atop 8-inch-diameter cake pan to make simple decorating stand. Top layer with 1 1/2 cups frosting, spreading to edge. Sprinkle evenly with diced toffee. Top with second cake layer, flat side down; press slightly to adhere. Spread thin layer of frosting over top and sides of cake to seal and set crumbs. Spread remaining frosting over top and sides of cake (if frosting becomes stiff, stir gently with spatula to loosen).

Stand chocolate bar on 1 short end. Using vegetable peeler and starting at top edge of 1 side, run peeler down length of bar (chocolate will come away from side of chocolate bar in curls). Pile chocolate curls atop cake. Chill at least 2 hours. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Cover with cake dome and keep chilled. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour before serving.)

One Year Blogoversary #1

2009-04-15T00:01:00.000-07:00

Hooray, it is the one year anniversary of the launch of Amicus Cupcake, and my 100th post! (Yes, I launched this blog on tax day). This is the first of the two posts celebrating the auspicious ocaission. I haven't actually had time to bake anything to celebrate, so instead I'm reposting some pictures of my original post, tiramisu cupcakes. When I did the original post I didn't have any good pictures, but I remade them a few months ago and took better ones. I decided not to reprint the recipe below, since I feel like that's cheating, but if you're interested in making them (still highly recommended and some of my most requested cupcakes), free feel to follow the link above. The second post celebrating should be up a little later today!

Chocolate and Hazelnut Cookies, Who Could ask for More?

2009-04-12T11:34:00.000-07:00

It’s been another bit of a break since my last post. I keep apologizing for the long breaks, but they’re going to keep happening for awhile. It just seems like baking it taking a back burner to other, more pressing concerns these days. I have done some cooking, but nothing really worth posting about. I’ll try to get better I promise. In those lines I may have a guest blogger joining me later in the week...

In the meantime, here are some awesome chocolate and hazelnut cookies. I got the recipe here, at Cookie Madness. The recipe calls for stuffing the cookies with nutella, which is always a good call, but to make things interesting I decided to fill half the cookies with dulce de leche. While the nutella was good, I thought the DDL was better, it contrasted a little more with the surrounding cookie, and so I was a little more aware of it. If you’re too lazy to make your own DDL (recipe is below), you can use store bought DDL, or barring that, you could probable just stick one of those Kraft caramel cubes in there. These cookies were really excellent though, and they make a pretty small batch, which has its advantages.

Chocolate and Hazelnut Lava Cookies

Makes 8

2 oz chopped hazelnuts plus about 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into chunks
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 large egg
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 scant teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup lightly spooned and leveled flour1/4 teaspoon baking powder
8 teaspoons Nutella or Dulce de leche

1. Place the nuts and accompanying butter into a skillet over medium high heat. Cook until butter is melted and nuts are aromatic, about 4-5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

2. Melt the butter in a medium sauce-pan over medium-high heat. Once the butter is melted at the chocolate, stir constantly until mixture is smooth, remove from heat and set aside.

3. In the bowl of a mixer (hand or stand mixer will work) combine the egg, sugar, vanilla, and salt. Beat on high speed for 2 minutes. Beat in the chocolate mixture. Stir in the cooked nuts.

4. Whisk together the flour and baking powder. Pour the flour over the batter, and stir together. Once dough is fully incorporated, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Scoop generous tablespoons of dough into balls on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Make a depression in each ball, and fill it with nutella or dulce de leche. Use more dough to cover the filling. (pictures below)

6. Bake cookies for 12 minutes. Remove and let cool on the sheet for 5-7 minutes before transferring cookies to a cooling rack.

Dough Balls

Depressions made

Filled

Sealed

Dulce De Leche

If you’ve never made it before, dulce de leche is the easiest thing to make. Take a can of sweetened, condensed milk (not non-fat, I’ve tried and it tastes funny), and remove the label, as well as any glue. Submerge the can in water in a large pot, making sure the can is completely covered with water. Bring the water to a boil over medium high heat. Cover the pot and let it boil for at least 2 hours*, checking every half an hour or so to add water (Important – Never let the water level dip below the can, if the can is not covered, it may explode!). Remove the can after two hours (using tongs), and place on a cooling rack. Let the can come to room temperature, when you open it, you will have dulce de leche.

*I’ve experimented with this, letting one can boil for up to four hours. The longer time you leave the can to boil, the darker and thicker the dulce de leche will get, and the more complex the flavor. It’s sort of fun to put 3 or 4 cans in one pot, and remove them at different times to compare. 2 hours is fine though, and makes a nice, light, milky dulce de leche.

A Dessert to Share

2009-03-28T16:37:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the long delay, but it's a busy season in law school. It was my friend Joe's 30^th birthday the other day, and I volunteered to make the cake with the help of my friend Jessica. I was told Joe's favorite kinds of cake were cheesecake, and chocolate cake. Being an indecisive person, I decided that rather than choosing one, I would combine the two. The obvious choice was a brownie bottomed cheesecake. Some quick googling turned up this recipe for a brownie bottomed peanut butter cheesecake. This cheesecake was amazing, good enough that people cursed me out when they felt compelled to go back for more. Which is why this is a cheesecake to share, so that you won't end up eating the whole thing. This recipe does make more cheesecake batter than is needed, so I made a second smaller cheesecake with the extra. I tried to make a pretzel crust for it, but I didn't like it, so I didn't bother to include the recipe for it.

Peanut Butter Cup Brownie Bottom Cheesecake

Brownie Crust

6 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1-1/4 cups sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla extract (I used Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla)
2 eggs
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup peanut butter chips

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 9-inch springform pan with butter.

2. Stir together butter, sugar and vanilla in large bowl with spoon or wire whisk. Add eggs; stir until well blended. Stir in flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt; blend well. Spread in prepared pan.

3. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until brownie begins to pull away from side of pan. Meanwhile make cheesecake layer (see below).

4. Immediately after removing brownie from oven, sprinkle milk chocolate chips, peanut butter chips and peanut butter cups over brownie surface. Spoon cheesecake mixture over chips. Turn down oven 325°.

Cheesecake Filling
2 lbs cream cheese, softened
5 eggs, at room temperature
1-1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup smooth peanut butter (not natural-style)
1/2 cups whipping cream
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup mini peanut butter cups*

*These were chocolate chip sized peanut butter cups I got from Trader Joes, if you can’t find them, skip them

1. Beat cream cheese in bowl of electric mixer until smooth.

2. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add sugar, peanut butter and cream; mix until smooth.

3. Stir in vanilla and mini peanut butter cups.

4. Pour filling into prepared crust. (I poured the rest off into a smaller springform pan)

5. Double-wrap springform pan with aluminum foil to prevent water seeping in. Place springform pan into a larger baking pan. Pour hot water into the larger pan so that the water comes 1 inch up the sides of the springform pan. (This is easiest to do once you have already moved the pan into the oven, that way you don’t have to try to move a pan full of water).

6. Bake at 325 degrees 1-1/2 hours, or until firm and lightly browned.

7. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack for one hour.

8. Run a knife along the edge of the cake to loosen it from the pan somewhat.

9. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours before decorating. I tend to make cheesecakes a day ahead to let things set.

Decoration

¼ cup whipping cream

½ cup chocolate chips

½ cup peanut butter chips

1. Place all ingredients into a microwave safe bowl. Microwave on medium power in 30 second bursts, whisking after each, until mixture is fully combined.

2. Let the ganache sit out until it has firmed up enough to pipe. Use to decorate the cake as you choose.

Brunch Food

2009-03-15T18:06:00.000-07:00

I had friends over for a potluck brunch this morning. Earlier in the week the weather got really nice, and it put me in the proper mood (of course today it was cold and rainy). Brunch is one of my favorite meals, mostly because it is an excuse to eat vastly oversugared breakfast foods, along with some fruit, and call it a meal. In keeping with that theme, I decided to make pecan rolls. I followed Dorie Greenspan’s recipe in “Baking From my Home to Yours.” Her recipe, however, calls for a full recipe of Golden Brioche dough to be made, and then only half of the dough to be used. I was having enough people over that I wanted to use the full amount of dough, so I made one regular recipe of Honey Pecan Rolls, and one recipe of Chocolate Almond rolls. I thought both turned out really well. The pecan rolls were sticky and caramely, and the almond rolls were rich and chocolaty (I didn’t make the almond rolls in a caramel glaze).

I did find that the rolls baked faster than the recipe called for. The recipe also said to knead the dough until it pulls away from the bowl, and after 20 minutes in the mixer, I found this still hadn’t happened. The rolls tasted great anyway though, so I didn’t worry too much about it. I did find that the almond buns got a little burnt on top, because they didn’t have a glaze to sit in. I’m not sure what can be done about that. Fortunately covering them in glaze helps to hide it.

Golden Brioche Dough

Makes 2 loafs

2 packets active dry yeast (each packet of yeast contains approx. 2 1/4 teaspoons)

1/3 cup just-warm-to-the-touch water

1/3 cup just-warm-to-the-touch whole milk

3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons salt

3 large eggs, at room temperature

1/4 cup sugar 3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature but still slightly firm

1. Put the yeast, water and milk in the bowl of a stand mixer and, using a wooden spoon, stir until the yeast is dissolved. Add the flour and salt, and fit into the mixer with the dough hook, if you have one. Toss a kitchen towel over the mixer, covering the bowl as completely as you can-- this will help keep you, the counter and your kitchen floor from being showered in flour. Turn the mixer on and off a few short pulses, just to dampen the flour (yes, you can peek to see how you're doing), then remove the towel, increase the mixer speed to medium-low and mix for a minute or two, just until the flour is moistened. At this point, you'll have a fairly dry, shaggy mess.

2. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula, set the mixer to low and add the eggs, followed by the sugar. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for about 3 minutes, until the dough forms a ball. Reduce the speed to low and add the butter in 2-tablespoon-size chunks, beating until each piece is almost incorporated before adding the next. You'll have a dough that is very soft, almost like batter. Increase the speed to medium-high and continue to beat until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl, about 10 minutes.

3. Transfer the dough to a clean bowl (or wash out the mixer bowl and use it), cover with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature until nearly doubled in size, 40 to 60 minutes, depending upon the warmth of your room.

4. Deflate the dough by lifting it up around the edges and letting it fall with a slap to the bowl. Cover the bowl with the plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator. Slap the dough down in the bowl every 30 minutes until it stops rising, about 2 hours, then leave the uncovered dough in the refrigerator to chill overnight. (After this, you can make the sticky buns or freeze all or part of the dough for later use.)

Pecan Honey Sticky Buns

For the Glaze:

1 cup (packed) light brown sugar

1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces

1/4 cup honey

1-1/2 cups pecans (whole or pieces)

For the Filling:

1/4 cup sugar

3 tablespoons (packed) light brown sugar

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

For the Buns:

1/2 recipe dough for Golden Brioche loaves (see below), chilled and ready to shape (make the full recipe and cut the dough in half after refrigerating it overnight)

1. Mix the sugars and cinnamon together in a bowl. If necessary, in another bowl, work the butter with a spatula until it is soft, smooth and spreadable.

2. On a flour-dusted work surface, roll the chilled dough into a 16-inch square. Using your fingers or a pastry brush, spread the softened butter over the dough. Sprinkle the dough with the cinnamon sugar, leaving a 1-inch strip bare on the side farthest from you.

3. Starting with the side nearest you, roll the dough into a cylinder, keeping the roll as tight as you can. (At this point, you can wrap the dough airtight and freeze it for up to 2 months . . . . Or, if you want to make just part of the recipe now, you can use as much of the dough as you'd like and freeze the remainder. Reduce the glaze recipe accordingly).

4. Generously butter a 9-x-13-inch baking pan (a Pyrex pan is perfect for this). In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, bring the brown sugar, butter, and honey to a boil over medium-low heat, stirring frequently to dissolve the sugar. Pour the glaze into the buttered pan, evening it out as best you can by tilting the pan or spreading the glaze with a heatproof spatula. Sprinkle over the pecans.

5. With a chef's knife, using a gentle sawing motion, trim just a tiny bit from the ends of the roll if they're very ragged or not well filled, then cut the log into 1-inch thick buns. (Because you trim the ragged ends of the dough, and you may have lost a little length in the rolling, you will get 15 buns, not 16.) Fit the buns into the pan cut side down, leaving some space between them.

6. Lightly cover the pan with a piece of wax paper and set the pan in a warm place until the buns have doubled in volume, about 1 hour and 45 minutes. The buns are properly risen when they are puffy, soft, doubled and, in all likelihood, touching one another.

7. When the buns have almost fully risen center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Remove the sheet of wax paper and put the pan on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat. Bake the sticky buns for about 30 minutes, or until they are puffed and gorgeously golden; the glaze will be bubbling away merrily. Pull the pan from the oven. The buns must be immediately unmolded. To do this, place a rimmed cookie sheet lined with a silpat directly over the baking pan, and flip everything over. The buns should fall out of the pan onto the silpat. Be careful, the caramel will be scalding hot! These are best eaten as soon as they have cooled enough.

Chocolate Almond Buns

For the glaze:

1 1/3 cups powdered sugar

2 T milk

½ t vanilla extract

¼ t almond extract

Slivered almonds

For the filling

¼ cup granulated sugar

3 T brown sugar

¾ blanched almonds

¾ cup mini chocolate chips

3 T butter

1. Put the sugars and blanched almonds into a food processor. Pulse until mixture is coarse. Stir in the chocolate chips.

2. On a flour-dusted work surface, roll the chilled dough into a 16-inch square. Using your fingers or a pastry brush, spread the softened butter over the dough. Sprinkle the dough with the almond-chocolate mixture, leaving a 1-inch strip bare on the side farthest from you.

3. Starting with the side nearest you, roll the dough into a cylinder, keeping the roll as tight as you can.

4. Generously butter a 9-x-13-inch baking pan (a Pyrex pan is perfect for this). With a chef's knife, using a gentle sawing motion, trim just a tiny bit from the ends of the roll if they're very ragged or not well filled, then cut the log into 1-inch thick buns. (Because you trim the ragged ends of the dough, and you may have lost a little length in the rolling, you will get 15 buns, not 16.) Fit the buns into the pan cut side down, leaving some space between them.

5. Lightly cover the pan with a piece of wax paper and set the pan in a warm place until the buns have doubled in volume, about 1 hour and 45 minutes. The buns are properly risen when they are puffy, soft, doubled and, in all likelihood, touching one another.

6. When the buns have almost fully risen center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Remove the sheet of wax paper and put the pan on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat. Bake the sticky buns for about 30 minutes, or until they are puffed and gorgeously golden. Unmold by placing a rimmed cookie sheet over the top of the baking dish, and then inverting.

7. Mix together the sugar, milk, and extracts until smooth. Drizzle the tops of the buns with glaze, and sprinkle with slivered almonds.

Another Pound Cake

2009-03-11T16:29:00.000-07:00

My softball team was having a cookout on Sunday, so I decided I would make pound cake. I’ve made Dorie Greenspan’s Perfect Pound cake before, so this time I thought I would try the Pound Cake Recipe from The Best Recipe. I thought that resulting pound cake was excellent, moist, good crumb, and nicely dense. I did think it could have used a little more flavor, and I think upping the vanilla would be a good idea, or switching to vanilla paste. I would definitely rate this pound cake highly though.

The Best Recipe Pound cake

Makes 1 9 x 5 loaf

½ pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/3 cups sugar

3 large eggs, plus 3 large yolks, room temperature

1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

1 ½ tsp water

½ tsp salt

1 ½ cups cake flour

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 9 x 5 x 3 loaf pan, line it with parchment paper. Place butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium-high until butter is smooth and shiny, about one minute. With the machine still on, gradually add the sugar over about 30 seconds. Continue beating the mixture until light and fluffy, about 4 to 5 minutes.

2. Mix the eggs, yolks, vanilla and water together in a measuring cup. With the mixer still on pour the egg mixture into the butter in a very slow stream. Beat in the salt.

3. Sift ½ cup of flour over the batter and fold it gently in. Repeat two more times until flour is fully incorporated.

4. Scrape batter into prepared baking dish. Bake for 70 to 80 minutes, until cake is golden and a cake tester inserted into a center comes out clean. Remove cake from the pan, let cool.

Raisin Chai Bread

2009-03-06T11:50:00.000-08:00

I’ve never really been big bread baker, in part because I don’t really eat a lot of bread. But, for whatever reason I was struck with an inclination to make bread this week. I started out with the recipe for Cinnamon Swirl Bread in The Best Recipe. In my view, however, cinnamon bread is never complete without raisins, so I decided to add some (I used golden raisins because that’s what I had). Then I thought I might add some cardamom to the cinnamon mixture, since cardamom is one of my all time favorite flavors. At that point it was a short leap to adding the remaining spices to make it Chai mix. My friend and fellow blogger Beth then suggested that I could actually infuse tea into to the dough. At that point it was settled I was making raisin chai bread. The results are unusual. When I was making the bread I didn’t really think I could taste the tea in the dough, but it definitely came through in the finished products. The spices are a little more subtle, but are very much present. Overall I think it’s a very good bread, and would be great toasted with jam. Even better, I may use it to make some French toast this weekend. I think this bread would also be ideal going into a bread pudding, but I won’t make a bread pudding unless I have something to do with it other than eat the entirety myself.

A few notes on this recipe. I had to use all of the flour allowed to make my dough get to the right consistency. I also found the second rise took at least an hour over what the book said it would. Since it’s winter here, I let my bread rise in a slightly warmed oven.

Raisin Chai Bread

Makes one 9 x5 loaf

Bread Dough

½ cup milk

1 bag black tea (such as Tetleys)

4 T unsalted butter, cut into

½ inch pieces

½ cup warm (110 degrees F) water

1 package (2 ¼ tsp) dry active yeast

1/3 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 ½ tsp salt

3 ¼ - 3 ¾ cups flour

1 cup raisins

Filling

¼ cup sugar

1 T cinnamon

1 T ground cardamom

½ t ground ginger

½ ground cloves

2-3 cracks of ground black pepper

Milk for brushing

Egg Wash

1 large egg

2 t milk

1. In a small saucepan over medium high heat, bring the milk to a boil. Remove from heat and add the tea bag and butter. Let the tea steep and the butter melt. Remove the teabag once the mixture has come back down to about 110 degrees.

2. Put the water in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Sprinkle the yeast over the water. Beat in the sugar and eggs at low speed. Add milk mixture, salt, 2 cups of flour, and raisins and mix at medium speed until thoroughly mixed, about 1 minute.

3. Switch to the dough hook attachment. Add an additional 1 ¼ cups flour and kneed at medium-low speed, adding flour sparingly if dough sticks to the side of the bowl (I found I had to add a few tablespoons here). Continue kneeding until dough is smooth and comes away from the sides of the bowl, about 10 minutes.

4. Turn dough out onto work surface. Grab the dough with a clean, dry, hand. If the dough sticks to your hand, kneed in up to an additional ½ cup of flour (I had to add about a ¼ cup). Transfer dough to a large, lightly greased plastic bowl. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and set in a warm place to rise. Let rise until doubled, 2 to 2 ½ hours.

5. Lightly grease a 9x5x3 loaf pan. Mix the spices and sugar. When the dough has risen, punch it down once. Then turn the dough out onto your unfloured work surface (I recommend flouring just a little). Let the dough rest for 10 minutes.

6. Press the dough into a 6 x 8 inch rectangle, with the short side facing you. Roll the dough into an 8 x 18-inch rectangle. Brush the dough with milk. Sprinkle the spice mixture evenly over the dough, leaving a 1 ½ inch border on the far side.

7. Starting with the edge closest to you, roll up the dough, pinching gently to make sure it is tightly sealed. Use hands to push the sides of the loaf in as you go, to make sure it stays within the 9 inches. When you reach the end, pinch the dough ends together to form a secure seam. Firmly pinch dough at either end to seal sides.

8. Place loaf, seam side down, into the prepared pan. Press lightly to flatten. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise until dough is one inch above the top of the pan, about 1 ½ hours (this took closer to 2 ½ hours for me).

9. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together the eggs and milk for the egg wash. Brush the top of the loaf thoroughly with egg wash. Bake until loaf is golden brown, about 30-35 minutes.

Chocolate and Raspberry Mousse Dacquoise Napoleons

2009-03-02T17:20:00.000-08:00

This was the dessert I made for my big dinner, and was by far the best part of the meal. You’ll have to forgive the lack of a photo of the plated dish, but it was so good that I forgot to take one. And despite this being essentially a modification of an earlier post, I strongly recommend this preparation. I served the final napoleons sitting in a vanilla crème anglaise, and drizzled a raspberry coulis over the top of the dessert. I should note that because of the addition of the jam, the mousse was not nearly as stiff as other times I’ve made this. I stuck the mousse in the fridge for a few hours and it firmed up enough to be pipable. I would recommend making the ingredients for this dessert in advance, but only combining the Dacquoise and mousse an hour or two before serving, and not adding the sauces until it is actually time to serve. In the prep photo, if you look closely enough, you might notice there are raspberries on the bottom layers, but not the top, that’s because I ran out of raspberries. I did top each napoleon with two raspberries, which I cemented in place with a little chocolate mousse. I’ve included an picture of the assembled but not plated dessert below.

Chocolate Raspberry Napoleons

Makes ~ 6

Chocolate Mousse

400 ml water

16 oz. bittersweet chocolate

6 T seedless raspberry jam, melted (I recommend Polaner’s)

1. Get a large mixing bowl and a larger pot. Fill the large pot with ice and water, and place the mixing bowl in it. You might want to build a foil collar for the mixing bowl, as chocolate is going to spray.

2. In a medium, heavy bottomed sauce pan, combine the chocolate and water. Heat over medium high heat, stirring occasionally, until chocolate is melted and mixed with the water.

3. Pour the water and chocolate mixture into the prepared mixing bowl, and immediately begin to beat using a hand mixer. Beat for 5-10 minutes, or until mixture has cooled and stiffened into a mousse (the more you beat, the stiffer it will get, and because it will loosen up when the liquor is added, you want it very stiff to start).

4. Beat in the jam 1-2 T at a time. Store the mousse in the fridge until ready to use

Almond Dacquoise

215 grams blanched almonds

150 grams confectioner’s sugar, plus more for dusting

5 egg whites

50 grams granulated sugar

1. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silpats.

2. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Spread the nuts out on a cookie sheet and bake them for 10 minutes, or until just golden. Quickly place them into a towel and rub them together to get the skins off. (chances are you will be more successful getting the skins of the hazelnuts than the almonds, don’t worry about it).

3. Reserve 80 grams of the nuts. Place the remaining 135 grams in the food processor and pulse until coarse. Add the powdered sugar and pulse until combined and fine.

4. Place the egg whites in the bowl of a standing mixer with the whisk attachment. Whip the egg whites until soft peaks form. With the mixer on high, gradually add the granulated sugar. Continue beating the egg whites until they reach still peaks.

5. Gently fold the nut and sugar mixture into the egg white mixture, until just combined.

6. Using a pastry bag fitted with a ½ inch tip (this is just a bear coupler on a regular bag). Pipe the dacquoise into rectangles. I didn’t bother using any kind of form for this, I just made each rectangle 5-6 inches long, and three passes with the pastry bag wide.

7. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until dacquoise are crisp and golden, switching the baking sheets half way through. Remove from the oven and let cool completely. Store in an airtight container with wax paper between the dacqoise until assembly.

Raspberry coulis

1 pound bag frozen raspberries

½ cup sugar

1 T lemon juice

1. Put the raspberries and sugar in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Whisk until liquefied (this may take awhile if you start with frozen raspberries). Continue until mixture is brought to a simmer and somewhat reduced.

2. Remove from heat and strain the coulis through a sieve to strain out the seeds. Stir the lemon juice. Refrigerate until you’re ready to use.

Crème Anglaise

2 cups whole milk

1 T vanilla paste

½ cup sugar

4 egg yolks

1. Set a medium bowl in an ice bath, with a sieve over the top. Set it aside.

2. In a second bowl whisk together the egg yolks and sugar. Set aside.

3. Combine the vanilla and milk in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Heat until small bubble begin to form.

4. While whisking the egg mixture, pour the half of the milk into the eggs in a thin stream. Pour egg mixture into the saucepan and combine it with the rest of the milk.

5. Put the saucepan back over the heat. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon until mixture has thickened slightly (Do Not bring to a boil).

6. Pour the mixture through the sieve into the ready bowl (the one sitting in the ice bath). Refrigerate until ready to use.

Parmesan Crusted Tilapia

2009-02-26T16:36:00.000-08:00

I know this is a little overdue, and the picture's not great, but I’ve finally got the time to post the main course I served at my dinner party the other night. I honestly didn’t think this was that great. Part of it was my fault, as I undercooked the fish. The crust was also a little lacking though. The mixture was too thick to really spread onto the fish, and so it was really more of fish covered by lumps. After it had gone back under the broiler it was spreadable, and if I had put it back under the broiler, it probably would have turned it into more of a crust, which is what I would recommend if you do this. As for the potato pancakes, I used this recipe. The centers of the pancakes were good, but the edges became blackened and charred. I don’t know if the cooking temperature should have been lower, the cooking time shorter, or if there just should have been thicker edges. I doubled the pancake recipe when I made it, but provided the original here. I also served steamed broccoli, but I won’t bother providing a recipe for that.

Parmesan Crusted Tilapia

Makes 5 filets

5 tilapia filets

1/3 cup shredded parmesan cheese

1/3 cup bread crumbs

2 ½ T unsalted butter, softened

2 T low-fat mayonnaise

4 t lemon juice

¼ tsp smoked paprika

¼ tsp garlic powder

1/8 tsp onion powder

1/8 tsp celery salt

1/8 tsp dried basil

Pinch black pepper

Pinch salt

Pinch cayenne pepper

1. Set your oven to broil. Whisk together everything that’s not the tilapia. Grease a broiler pan and place the tilapia in the pan.

2. Put the tilapia under the broiler, cook for three minutes, flip the tilapia over and bake for another 2 minutes. Take the tilapia out of the oven and spread the topping evenly over each piece of fish (I had trouble spreading it, so I more lumped it, if you have this problem take the tilapia out with a minute left and spread the topping better). Put the tilapia back under the broiler, and cook until it flakes, and is fully cooked.

Hashbrown cakes

Makes 4

1 1/2 cups paper-thin onion slices

1 pound Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled, coarsely grated on large holes of box grater or in processor (about 2 1/2 cups)

1 teaspoon salt, divided

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Put the potatoes in a medium bowl with half of the salt. Let sit for 5 minutes. Place the onions in a large bowl. Squeeze the water out of the potatoes, and mix them with the onions. Toss with the butter and remaining salt.

2. Place 4 mounds of the potato mixture onto a buttered baking sheet. Place in the oven for 15 minutes. Take the baking sheet out of the oven, and turn the oven temperature down to 350 degrees. Use a flat spatula to press down each pancake until flat. Flip each pancake over, and place back in the oven. Bake for another 45 minutes, or until cakes are golden and crisp around the edges.

Pad Thai Dumplings

2009-02-22T17:04:00.001-08:00

This was the first course of the meal I made for my friends this weekend. The idea here was to use vegetables in pad thai sauce, but to replace the noodles traditionally in pad thai with the wonton wrapper used to make the dumpling. I thought it worked pretty well, although I think I might have made the sauce a little too strong, or put a little too much tamarind in it. Other than the sauce, the measurements in this recipe are just rough estimates, and you should feel free to adjust them to suit your tastes. For a good set of instructions on how to fold the dumplings go here.

Pad Thai Dumplings

Makes ~ 30

2 T tamarind concentrate dissolved in 3 T hot water

1 T + 1 tsp fish sauce

1 ½ tsp chili paste (adjust to your taste)

2 T brown sugar

3 cloves garlic, minced

¾ cup shredded carrots

3 green onions, green and white parts thinly sliced

½ cup coarsely chopped peanuts, plus more for garnish

2/3 cup salad shrimp, coarsely diced

¼ cup packed cilantro, diced Juice from half a lime (about 2 tsp)

Peanut oil for stir frying

30 wonton wrappers

Spray oil (like pam)

1.Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and spray with oil (making sure it is well covered, these things stick!) Whisk the first four ingredients in a bowl, this is the sauce, set aside.

2. Put a small amount of peanut oil into the bottom of a wok or pot set over medium-high heat, with just one piece of garlic. When the garlic starts to sizzle add the remaining garlic and stir fry for one minute. Add the carrots, green onions, peanuts, and half the sauce, stir fry for another thirty seconds, and then remove from heat.

3. Move the contents of the wok to a bowl, attempting to leave behind excess sauce. Stir in the shrimp, cilantro and lime juice.

4. Place about 2 tsp of filling in the center of each wonton wrapper. Use a wet finger to dampen the edges of the wrapper, and bring the opposite corners together (so you fold it into a triangle). Press closed the seam and bring the two outer points to the center and pinch the three points of the triangle together (it helps to have damp fingers when doing this, the wrapper will stick to itself better). If this seems unclear, check out the link to instructional pictures above, or those I’ve included at the bottom of this post.

5. Put the dumplings on the cookie sheet. Spray all of the dumplings with oil, and bake them for about ten minutes, or until the wonton wrappers are becoming translucent and look like they’re becoming crispy. Serve promptly with remaining sauce for dipping. Garnish with additional peanuts, green onions, and slices of lime.

A Complete Dinner

2009-02-22T17:02:00.000-08:00

Over break I decided I wanted to make a complete dinner. Unfortunately I hadn’t had time to do that kind of cooking before this weekend. Over the course of the week I’ll be posting recipes for the various things I made. The menu was:

Paid Thai Dumplings

Salad

Parmesan crusted Tilapia with potato pancakes and broccoli

Chocolate mousse and almond Dacquoise with crème anglaise and raspberry coulis

I thought the pad thai dumplings were good, and the dessert was delicious. The fish was a little lacking, the crust didn’t quite spread out the way it should, and I undercooked it a little. The potato pancakes were also overcooked, with the edges singed. I’ll provide more details on the individual recipes throughout the week.

Stir Fry Noodles with Peanut Sauce

2009-02-18T00:00:00.000-08:00

I’ve had some rice noodles in my pantry for a long time now. I bought them way back when I made pad thai last summer, and then set them in the back of the pantry and forgot about them until today. I wanted to make dinner without going shopping, so I decided to use them this week. I combined the method I learned to make pad thai with one of my favorite peanut sauces for stir fry, and I was very pleased with the results. I made this just for myself, so the recipe makes only one serving. Use whatever vegetables you like in stir fry, I used broccoli, grated carrots, green onion, bean sprouts, and water chestnuts. This recipe is easily made vegetarian by replacing the chicken broth with vegetable broth and omitting the chicken and fish sauce.

Stir Fry Peanut Noodles

For sauce:

1 T peanut butter
2 T Chicken Broth
1 T Low Sodium soy sauce
2 t honey
2 t mirin (rice wine)
2 t rice vinegar
1 t fish sauce
1 t thai chili paste (optional / to taste)

For Stir Fry

2 cloves garlic, finely diced

2 tsp diced ginger

½ cup rice stick noodles

½ cup diced chicken

½ cup vegetables to stir fry

1 T sesame oil

1. Put the rice noodles in a pot of warm water. Let the noodles sit in the water for 15-20 minutes, until noodles are flexible, but still al dente

2. Put the oil in a wok or large pot over medium high heat. When the oil is hot enough that water boils on contact, add the ginger and garlic. Stir fry for 30 seconds.

3. Add the diced chicken and continue stir frying. Add a tablespoon of the sauce. Some of it will burn to the bottom of your pan, don’t worry about it.

4. When the chicken is cooked through, add the noodles, the vegetables, and the rest of the sauce. Stir fry the mix. Cook until the vegetables and noodles are cooked, 1-2 minutes. Immediately remove from heat and serve.

My First Macarons

2009-02-14T14:22:00.000-08:00

I know that by posting this I am contributing nothing to the culinary world, basic recipes for macarons abound, and I just used someone else’s. In fact, if you want to make macarons, I strongly recommend this guide, which is what I used. Nonetheless, I am posting this because these are my first macarons, and I feel like making macarons are some kind of baking right of passage, given their notorious fickleness. Truthfully, these macarons weren’t perfect, the outer shell was very brittle, and there was a large air pocket. And from the descriptions in the guide, I suspect I overbeat the batter, as it was a little too thin when I was piping it. But, they grew feet, didn’t crack, and taste like almond, so I was at least pretty close. I have no idea how many cookies this actually makes, I successfully made 9 sandwiches, but that includes a lot of waste. Also, this recipe is in grams. I bought a small, plastic scale that measures in grams for under $5 from Kmart, so don’t let lack of one stop you. Especially if you’re interested in doing lots of European style baking, it’s worth having. I filled the macarons with a simple chocolate ganache

Basic Macarons

90 grams egg white (about 3 eggs worth) – separated and allowed to sit out for 24 hours (not covered with plastic)

120 grams almond meal

145 grams confectioner’s sugar

75 grams regular sugar

1. Place the almond meal and confectioner’s sugar in a food processor, pulse until it is mixed into a fine powder

2. Put the room temperature egg whites in the bowl of a standing mixer. Beat the egg whites at high speed until they are foamy and stiff peaks form.

3. Turn the mixer speed down to medium, and very gradually beat in the regular sugar. Continue beating until you get a stiff, glossy meringue (I beat until stiff peaks, but this might have been too much)

4. Remove the bowl from the standing mixer. Pour the sugar-almond mixture over the eggwhites. Using a folding motion begin to combine them (this should not be gentle folding). Continue folding until the mixture reaches a “magma like consistency,” or until a ribbon of batter dropped onto the rest takes about 30 seconds to disappear back into the mass. Tartlette says this should take about 50 strokes.

5. Using a large tip, pipe the meringue onto a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet. The circles will spread out a little, so leave space. Try to make the circles 1 ½ - 2 inches across.

6. Let the piped cookies sit out on the counter for at least an hour. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

7. Put the cookie sheet on the oven’s center rack for 2 minutes. After two minutes, wedge the oven door open with a wooden spoon, and continue baking for another 5 minutes, or until the cookies have developed feet, and are a creamy ivory color

8. Remove from the oven and let cool on the cookie sheet for a few minutes. Gently remove the cookies from the sheet and place them on a cooling rack (I lost a few cookies that stuck to the sheet, I’m under the impression this is inevitable).

Chocolate Ganache

9 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1 cup heavy cream

2 T butter

1. Put the chocolate in a bowl. Pour the cream into a saucepan over medium high heat until it comes to a simmer.

2. Pour the heated cream over the chocolate and let it sit for 30 seconds. Add the butter and begin whisking. Whisk until the mixture is uniform.

3. Let the ganache cool to a spreadable consistency. If you’re impatient like me, stick it in the freezer, removing to whisk every few minutes to keep it even.

4. Gently sandwich the macarons with the ganche. Eat

Stuffed Poblanos

2009-02-12T00:01:00.000-08:00

I’ve always had a weakness for Chiles Rellenos, unfortunately, making a frequent habit of eating them is an invitation to a rapid death (they’re basically deep fried cheese inside peppers). I’m also generally hesitant to deep fry things myself, as I find hot oil a little intimidating. Instead I decided I would make my own recipe for stuffed peppers. These have a lot more than cheese in them, and I think they’re really good. Mostly I put in what I had sitting around, and I also guessed a little on the amounts of things, so feel free to experiment with them to your tastes. I’m not entirely sure how many it makes, as I’ve made the filling, and am stuffing them at a rate of one per night for my dinner. Also, everything in here is finely diced because it needs to end up fitting inside a pepper. I made this fairly spicy, tone it down if spicy isn’t how you like it. It would also make an excellent vegetarian dish if you cut out the chicken and sausage.

Stuffed Poblanos

½ white onion, finely diced

3 cloves garlic, finely diced

1 jalapeno chili, seeded and deveined, finely diced

½ Serrano chili, seeded and deveined, finely diced

½ green bell pepper, finely diced

1 green onion, finely diced

1 cup frozen corn

1 can black beans, drained

½ tsp chili powder

½ tsp Chipotle chili powder

¼ tsp coriander

1 avocado, finely diced

Juice of one lime

1 chicken breast, cooked and diced into ~ ½ inch cubes

1 chorizo sausage

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

¼ cup fat free sour cream

Poblano Peppers

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Put the first 11 ingredients (onion through coriander) into a large, heavy bottomed pan over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 10-15 minutes, or until onions begin to look cooked. Remove from heat.

2. Stir the remaining ingredients (except the poblanos) into the pan, and mix well

3. Cutting down from the top, remove the stems from the poblanos, but save the caps. Use a spoon to scoop out any seeds, and cut seed section from the poblano caps

4. Stuff each pepper with filling, and stick the caps back on. Put the peppers on a tinfoil lined baking sheet in the oven. Bake for 15 minutes, flipping the peppers over half way through. Peppers are cooked when they have softened and the skin has just begun to blister.

5. Serve immediately, garnish with cilantro.

Chestnut and Banana Pancakes

2009-02-08T15:42:00.000-08:00

A month or so ago I ordered some chestnut flour on a whim from L’Epicerie, largely because they were selling it pretty cheaply. However, I didn’t know what to do with it (although The Cake Bible does have a recipe for a chestnut flour genoise). This morning I decided to make pancakes using it. Aiming for an Italian theme, I used Ricotta as the dairy in the batter and honey as the sweetener. I also added a banana. I thought these pancakes were really good. The batter was very thick because of the ricotta and mashed banana, the ricotta kept the pancakes nice and moist (which is how I like my pancakes), and I thought the chestnut was subtle but present. The recipe is based on my old favorite pancake recipe, which originates from the Tasajara Bread Book.

Chestnut and Banana Pancakes

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour

2/3 cups chestnut flour

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 T honey

3 eggs

1 banana mashed with enough low-fat ricotta to make 1 ½ cups total ½ cup vegetable oil

Butter for the pan

1. Whisk together the flours, the baking powder, and the salt, set aside

2. Whisk the eggs, add the honey, banana-ricotta mixture, and oil and whisk to combine.

3. Put your pan over medium-high heat and melt the butter. Once the butter is melted quickly fold the dry ingredients into the wet

4. Spoon out pancake batter to make pancakes of whatever size you like. Remember the batter is thick, you may need two spoons.

5. Cook the pancakes 3-4 minutes a side, or until both sides are brown and the pancakes are cooked through. Serve Warm with maple syrup.

Mini-Empanadas

2009-02-02T18:12:00.000-08:00

I finally got my digital camera back, which means I can post again. Of course that might create the illusion that I’ve been cooking all week, which isn’t the case. This semester has been busier than the last, and I haven’t had that much time to cook. My roommate did have a Superbowl party though, so of course I had to make something. I decided to make a few kinds of appetizer sized empanadas. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera while making them, so I couldn’t get any process pictures, but Laylita’s Recipes, from whom I got the recipe for the dough, has some great instructions. I decided to go with 4 kinds of filling, 3 savory and 1 sweet. With the assistance of my friend Jessica, who was instrumental in rolling out the dough and stuffing the empanadas, we made spinach and goat cheese, tomato, basil and mozzarella, chicken and vegetables, and rocky road. To top the first three I also made salsa verde. I thought the savory ones were good, but the rocky road was a little weak, they probably would have been better warm.

Basic Empanada Dough

Makes 25-30 small empanadas

3 cups all purpose flour

¼ teaspoon salt

6 oz unsalted butter (1 ½ sticks), cold and cut into

12 pieces

1 egg

4-5 tbs water

1. Place flour and salt in a food processer. Mix to blend. Add the remaining ingredients and mix until a clumpy dough forms

2. Push the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes

3. When you’re ready to use them, roll the dough out to 1/8 inch thickness and cut out circles that are 4 -5 inches in diameter

Spinach and Goat Cheese filling

Makes ~20 empanadas

5 oz. goat cheese

10 oz. spinach (fresh and wilted or frozen and thawed)

2 tsp garlic powder

½ tsp fresh ground nutmeg

1. Mix all ingredients in a bowl

Tomato, Basil, and Mozzarella filling

Makes ~35 small empanadas

2 cups freshly shredded, part skim mozzarella

2 10.5 oz. cans diced tomatoes with basil and oregano, drained

1 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Mix all ingredients in a bowl

Chicken and Vegetable filling

Makes ~ 25 small empanadas

1 grilled chicken breast, cut into small pieces

½ green pepper, diced

½ medium onion, very finely diced

½ cup frozen corn

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded, deveined, and very finely diced

2 cloves garlic, very finely diced

1 tsp chili pepper

½ tsp chipotle pepper powder

½ tsp cumin

1. Mix all ingredients but the chicken in a frying pan set over medium-high heat. Spray with a little cooking oil and stir fry for about 5 minutes.

2. Add the chicken and cook just until heated through. Remove from heat.

Rocky Road Filling

2 cups mini-marshmellows

12 oz. semisweet chocolate chips

6 oz. chopped pecans.

1. Mix all ingredients in a bowl

Assembly

Dough disks

Filling

1 egg mixed with 1 tsp water

1. Lay out the disks of dough, and place between 2 tsp and 1 T filling onto each disk.

2. Fold the disks over on themselves and press together the edges. You might want to use the tines of a fork to press into the dough

3. Brush each empanada with the egg wash (for sweet empanadas sprinkle sugar over the top).

4. Bake for 12-14 minutes, until the dough is browned.

Salsa Verde

2009-02-02T18:11:00.000-08:00

I made this salsa to accompany the empanadas I made. People really ate this up, and I thought it was really good. When I first made it, it was a little on the oniony side, but the onion mellowed a little with a night in the fridge.

Salsa Verde

Makes 3 -4 cups

1 ½ lbs fresh tomatillos, husked

1 medium white onion, coarsely chopped

3 green onions

2/3 cup cilantro leaves

1 ½ T fresh lime juice

5 cloves garlic

¼ tsp sugar

2 jalapenos deveined and seeded

1 Serrano, deveined and seeded

Salt to taste

1. Turn on your oven’s broiler with a rack directly under it and let it heat up. Cut the tomatillos in half, and place them cut side down on a baking sheet lined with tin foil. Broil them for 5-7 minutes, until the skins are just starting to blacken.

2. Place the roasted tomatillos and all the other ingredients into a food processor and blend until fully mixed.

Blood Orange Sandwich Cookies

2009-01-25T18:47:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the longer than expected delay, but it’s been a really busy week phasing back into the semester. Fortunately I found some time tonight to bake. I had been keeping my eyes open for blood oranges for quite some time, and finally found some the other day. All that was left was to decide what to make. Not having a whole lot of time this weekend I decided to go for something simple, chocolate and almond cookies with blood orange curd filling. For the cookie base I decided to go with a shortbread base, with mini-chocolate chips mixed in.

I thought these cookies were good, but a little gooey. The shortbread was very crispy, and so the filling tends to squirt out when you bite down. The filling was good, but not the strongest blood orange flavor in the world, I think one of the oranges I used was a little on the weak side. UPDATED: these cookies taste a lot better if you store them in the fridge for awhile, the curd stays firmer, and so doesn't squeeze out when you bite, and the flavors mingle better.

Almond Chocolate-Chip Shortbread

Makes 40 Sandwiches (80 cookies)

1-1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softend
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup ground almonds (I ground about ¾ of a cup of whole, blanched almonds to get this amount)
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

¾ cup miniature chocolate chips

1. Cream together the butter and the sugars on medium speed until fluffy. Mix in the salt, the extracts, the almonds, the chocolate chips, and the flour. Once the dough starts to come together into medium sized clumps stop the mixer and press the dough together with your hands.

2. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Take the dough out of the fridge. Break the dough into two pieces. On a floured surface roll out one of the disks until it is about ¼ inch thick. Use a round cookie cutter, or a glass to cut 1 inch circles out of the dough. Pick up the extra dough, and transfer the circles to the cookie sheets. Roll out the second disk of dough and do the same, then combine the extra pieces of dough and roll it out. Continue rolling out the dough until you have made as many cookies as you can.

5. Bake for 10-13 minutes, or until the edges are just turning golden. Remove from the oven and let cool on the cookie sheets

Blood Orange Curd

½ cup blood orange juice

2 tsp finely grated blood orange zest

2 tsp lemon juice

½ cup sugar

3 eggs

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into cubes

1. In the bowl of a double boiler over medium-high heat, mix all ingredients except for the butter. Whisk constantly until the mixture thickens and the whisk begins to leave a trail (175 degrees on a candy thermometer)

2. Remove from heat and quickly whisk in the butter.

3. Pour the curd into a bowl or baking dish, and press plastic wrap onto the surface. Place into the fridge and refrigerate until it has firmed up.

4. Once the curd is firm, place 1-2 tsp of curd onto the bottom of one cookie, and sandwich with another. Store in an airtight container in a refrigerator.

I'm Back

2009-01-18T11:34:00.001-08:00

Sorry for the extended absence folks, but I'm back, with a new semester starting up and some new cooking and baking projects to tackle. I'm not quite sure when the next post will go up, hopefully sometime this week. Unfortunately my digital camera is out of commission (it chose a good time to break, right after I finished my vacation), so I'll have to work out some interim solution until it can be repaired.

I Can't Believe There's No Butter

2009-01-09T20:35:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago my brother and his family were coming over for dinner, and I volunteered to make the dessert. This was complicated, however, by the fact that my sister-in-law doesn’t eat dairy, nor is my brother’s family big into sugar. I spent a fair amount of time trying to think of something that would meet these criteria. I knew I could make something simple like a sponge cake, but that just didn’t quite seem right. And while I could make genoise without dairy, which would leave the question of frosting (a dairy free frosting is hard to come by, other than meringue). And then I remembered the magic chocolate mousse I made a few months ago, which requires only bittersweet chocolate and water. I decided I wanted to make this, and sandwich it between two dacquoise made with hazelnuts and almonds. The result was really delicious. The mousse as by far the dominant flavor, but its richness was nicely offset by the light and crispy dadquoise disks. And the best thing about this dessert is that it’s surprisingly healthy (for a dessert anyway). The only fats come from bittersweet chocolate, and the nuts, neither of which are particularly bad for you (at least compared with most desserts I make which have several sticks of butter). Remember to use good quality chocolate when you make the mousse here. This would also be really good with some fruit, either some fresh raspberries or strawberries, or some jam smeared on the insides of the disks. We, however, did not serve them like that.

Unfortunately the ingredients for the dacquoise are in grams, because I used Pierre Herme’s recipe. I’ll try to measure things back out and give a volume at some point.

Chocolate Mousse Sandwiches

Makes seven 5-inch sandwiches

Chocolate Mousse

400 ml water

16 oz. bittersweet chocolate

2 T Frangelico or Amaretto (or other nut flavored liquor)

2. In a medium, heavy bottomed sauce pan, combine the chocolate and water. Heat over medium high heat, stirring occasionally, until chocolate is melted and mixed with the water.

4. Beat in the liquor. Store the mousse in the fridge until ready to use

Hazelnut-Almond Dacquoise

215 grams nuts (hazelnuts and/or almonds)

150 grams confectioner’s sugar, plus more for dusting

5 egg whites

50 grams granulated sugar

1. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Using a ramekin or mug, trace 14 5 – 6 inch circles on the parchment, leaving an inch between each. Set aside

3. Reserve 80 grams of the nuts. Place the remaining 135 grams in the food processor and pulse until coarse. Add the powdered sugar and pulse until combined and fine.

5. Gently fold the nut and sugar mixture into the egg white mixture, until just combined.

6. Using a pastry bag fitted with a ½ inch tip (this is just a bear coupler on a regular bag). Pipe the dacquoise into the prepared circles. Start at the center of the circle and move outwards in a spiral. Chances are your circles won’t look perfect, but don’t worry about it.

7. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until disks are crisp and golden, switching the baking sheets half way through. Remove from the oven and let cool completely. Store in an airtight container with wax paper between the disks until assembly.

Assembly

Don’t assemble these until at least a few hours before serving, otherwise you risk the dacquoise becoming soggy from the mousse.

1. Place the 7 uglier disks face up on their serving plates (so that the flat side is down). Place a serving of mousse onto each dacquoise base (I would say half a cup, but that’s an estimate).

Place a second dacquoise disk on top of the mousse and press down, but not so much that the mousse squirts out the sides. Serve.