The Flavor of Vanilla

Coffee Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

2010-02-18T11:43:00.001-08:00

Oh, baking, how I missed thee. After a *very* extended hiatus, I've finally gotten some time to start baking again. I checked in with the Tuesdays with Dorie group, and grabbed the closest recipe to date. It was chocolate chip cookies, so I modified it a bit (with Dorie's help, via her suggestions) and baked a batch. The host this week was Kait of Kait’s Plate.

I added 1/3 of a cup of unsweetened cocoa powder to the dry ingredients, and used coffee extract instead of vanilla extract as a finishing touch. I also added an excess of salt (I love salty chocolate cookies, ever since Dorie's World Peace cookies) as a little touch at the end.

I'm looking forward to getting into the swing of baking again, and hopefully having time to post longer entries soon.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan p. 68

Apple Zeppole with Cinnamon Whipped Cream

2009-10-22T13:26:00.000-07:00

My girlfriend has made it a habit to record all Giada De Laurentiis shows. While watching one of these, a particular recipe caught our eye. We decided to try our hand at it that night. The outcome were doughnut-like apple morsels and a delicious whipped cream to pair with it.

The zeppole have grated apple in them, giving them their main flavor. If you decide to make these, use whatever apple you like - just make sure they're your favorite, and this dessert will be one too.

Recipe:
Apple Zeppole:
1/3 cup sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water
1 cup flour
4 eggs, room temperature
1 large apple of your choice, peeled, cored, and finely grated
Oil for frying (canola or olive)
Powdered sugar, for dusting

Into a large, heavy pot, add enough oil to come at least 2 inches off the bottom. Bring to 325ºF, and keep it close to that temperature. In the meantime, bring to a boil the sugar, butter, salt, and water in a medium saucepan. After reaching a boil, immediately remove from heat and add in the flour. Using a wooden spoon, mix until it all comes together, then place back onto heat. Stir continuously for 3-5 minutes, or until a thick ball forms (similar to making choux). Remove from stove top and mix the dough with an electric mixture for a minute to release some of the heat. Add the eggs, one at a time, incorporating each egg completely before adding the next. After the final egg has been added, continue beating the dough until smooth.

Carefully drop about a teaspoon of the dough at a time into the hot oil, working in batches of 5 or 6 at a time, as to not crowd the surface. It helps if you have a small cookie scoop; if you don't, you can drop the dough in with spoons, but your final zeppole won't look as nice. Flip periodically until the zeppole are lightly browned and puffed, 4-5 minutes, then transfer to a plate lined with paper towels to wick away excess oil. Allow to cool to room temperature, then dust with powdered sugar and serve with Cinnamon Whipped Cream (side note: if you want to eat them while they're hot, that's just fine. However, your whipped cream will melt if you try to dip them, and won't stick to the zeppole). Yields 6 servings.

Cinnamon Whipped Cream:
1 cup whipping cream
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Combine all the ingredients and whip with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Transfer to a serving dish, and serve alongside the cooked zeppole.

These were devoured quickly when I brought the leftovers in to work the next day, so there seems to be no real problems with letting the zeppole sit out at room temperature overnight. Just keep them covered with plastic wrap, and make sure you refrigerate the whipped cream; let this come to room temperature before serving.

Allspice Crumb Muffins

2009-10-15T14:03:00.000-07:00

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was hosted by Kayte of Grandma’s Kitchen Table. It's a sweet muffin that can be served for breakfast, or for a snack/dessert. I'm posting a few days late, but rest assured, these were made on Tuesday.

I used mini-muffin pans and got about 3 dozen mini-muffins instead of the one dozen large ones. Make sure there's enough to share, right? They ended up looking like little mushrooms, but the bite-sized treats were light and flavorful.

I had some issue with my streusel. Instead of making a nice crumbly mass to lightly top my muffins, I ended up with a creamy thick goop. Adding a pinch at a time, I just broke up the streusel into as small of pieces as I could get, and lightly pushed them into the dough. Didn't seem to matter too much though - when they were cooking, the streusel melted anyways.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan pp. 16-17

Split Level Pudding

2009-10-06T00:01:00.000-07:00

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by...well, look at that, it's selected by me! Finally put in enough time to pick out a recipe. I picked out the split-level pudding, because something about it reminded me of my childhood, going for those hand-held cups of pudding with multiple layers of goodness.

Unfortunately, when it came time to take the pictures and get everything ready for this epic post, I ended up being rushed. Argh. I tried to get creative, and man did that work out horribly. Also, my photoshop is still dead. If I had that right now, I could at least *try* to make my pictures look prettier. Oh well, maybe next time.

It's a simple vanilla pudding on top, with chocolate ganache on the bottom. I would actually warm up this dessert before serving it - I tried it cold at first, and didn't really like it. My girlfriend suggested I heat it up. I did, and it was about 16 times better. Not sure why, but making it warm just made it awesome. Thanks for everyone who baked with me this week!

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, pp. 384-385

For the chocolate layer:
2 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/3 cup heavy cream

For the vanilla layer:
2 1/4 cups whole milk
6 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces, at room temperature
2 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Chocolate shavings for decoration (optional)

Have 6 ramekins or cups for the pudding, each holding 1/2-3/4 cup, ready.

To make the chocolate ganache, put the chocolate into a 2-cup glass measuring cup. Bring the cream to a boil, then pour over the chocolate and let sit for 30 seconds before stirring gently until blended. Divide among the cups and set aside.

To make the vanilla pudding, bring 2 cups of milk and 3 tablespoons sugar to a boil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. In the meantime, place into a food processor the cornstarch and salt. Whir until blended, then turn out onto wax paper. Place the remaining 3 tablespoons sugar and egg yolks into the processor, then process for a minute. Add the remaining 1/4 cup of milk and pulse just until mixed, then add the cornstarch mix and pulse until mixed. While the machine is blending, slowly add the hot milk mixture. After all the hot milk has been added, pour back into the saucepan and whisk over medium heat until thickened (about 2 minutes). If it begins to boil, lower the heat. Take off of the stovetop, and add the butter and vanilla. Whisk until fully incorporated (you can do this in the food processor, but I find it easier to whisk). Pour the pudding into the cups, and press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate puddings for at least 4 hours before serving.

Chocolate Souffle

2009-10-06T00:00:00.000-07:00

This is a delayed post for Tuesdays with Dorie, hosted last month by Susan of She’s Becoming DoughMessTic. It's Dorie's simple, yet delectable, chocolate souffle.

Even with the pep-talk by Dorie in the book, I was worried about making this dish. There's so much stigma surrounding souffles. It seems like the slightest gust of wind can make these formidable desserts cave in and render an amateur baker's heart. Nonetheless, I saw my challenge, and I went for it. Ta da! Success!

A bit of an admission: I've never ordered a souffle in a restaurant. Heck, I've never even had a souffle. This was definitely a first. Given that, I don't even know if I made it right. It looked good on the outside, but I have no idea how it's supposed to taste, or what sort of texture it's supposed to have. All I know is, it was good. I guess that's really all that matters, though.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, p. 406

Perfection Pound Cake

2009-09-29T12:54:00.000-07:00

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart, selected by Carla of Chocolate Moosey. I'd already made this recipe and posted it (here), so I opted to make something from the Tuesdays with Dorie archive of dishes I've missed. Dorie's Perfection Pound Cake is a delicious classic, and I took Dorie's "playing around" suggestion and made it marbelized with some chocolate batter.

Baking the cake for a little too long, I burnt it a little on the crust - what can I say, I've been out of it for a while. I really need to get back into the mode of baking more...I'm really getting rusty. Anyways, this was my second time marbeling, and I was pretty happy with how it turned out.

Cut into thick slices, microwaved, with just a small pat of butter on top, this treat is an excellent sweet breakfast, or delicious dessert. I'll be trying this out again soon, without the chocolate, just to see how well it turns out - who doesn't love a classic pound cake?

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, pp. 222-223

Cottage Cheese Pufflets

2009-09-22T09:08:00.000-07:00

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was hosted by Jacque of Daisy Lane Cakes. These cookies are made with a cottage cheese-based dough, and filled with a jam of your choice. I used blackberry preserves for mine, giving a bright purple color when you bite into them. Light, tasty, and not overly-sweet, these are a great snack or dessert.

The dough doesn't use eggs in it, so you can snack on it before cooking. Not something I'd really suggest, though. Eating raw cookie dough is usually a hidden treat for me - if nobody's looking, I can grab a spoonful and shove it in my mouth, swallowing before anyone sees. Usually it's delicious...in this case? Not so much. These cookies are definitely better cooked than they are raw.

I rolled these about 1/4 of an inch instead of 1/8-inch, giving the cookies a thicker texture. Even so, they gave me problems when I tried to fold them over and shape them, so a refrigerator/freezer is definitely your friend when working with this thin dough. If you make them thicker, add about 7 minutes to the cooking time, or until they're lightly golden on top.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, pp. 148-149

Espresso Cheesecake Brownies

2009-09-16T12:44:00.000-07:00

This is one of my delayed Tuesdays with Dorie posts. The dessert was initially to be posted September 1st, hosted by Melissa of Life in a Peanut Shell. It's a brownie-bottomed dessert, with espresso cheesecake on top, marbled with some of the brownie dough. Covered with a thin layer of sweetened sour cream, this dessert was a quick hit.

The individual portions are pretty easy to make, so putting the brownie together with cheesecake was a great idea; the finished product looks complex, but it's simple (though time-consuming). It tastes delicious, and goes great as an afternoon treat or a decadent dessert served along with some coffee.

After cutting into Dorie's suggested 16 portions, I tasted how rich they were, and decided to cut each portion into another half, making a total of 32 small bars. They were still devoured quickly at work, so I'm not sure how many people were just taking two anyways, but the slices still stood up to the cutting process after a quick chill in the refrigerator.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, pp. 104-105

Posting Hiatus

2009-09-01T16:43:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't been posting lately - I've been traveling a ton! This is just a quick post to let you all know that, yes, I'm alive and kicking. I'll be heading out to Florida this week, and then I'm busy for the next couple weeks after. But worry not - I'll be back and posting (frequently, hopefully) soon enough!

Blackberry Spice Bars

2009-08-18T09:53:00.000-07:00

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Karen of Something Sweet by Karen. Technically, the recipe is called Applesauce Spice Bars, but realizing I had just finished off my applesauce before making the recipe, and being too lazy to go to the store, I substituted some blackberries and Chambord.

When they came out of the oven, they looked perfectly fine without a glaze or icing, so I skipped out. Had they needed something though, I was considering a thin layer of chocolate to pair with the blackberry and raspberry flavor - maybe next time? I was worried when I started pouring the batter that this wouldn't rise properly. It seemed a bit too wet, but I went ahead with it and baked away. I was pleasantly surprised when it raised nicely enough to cover the blackberries, and the inserted knife came out cleanly. The raspberries with the mix of spices play on each other nicely, giving these bars a great overall taste.

Unfortunately, my computer recently broke, so the quality of pictures are pretty low-quality. Only 5 years old, and it's already beyond repair...time to get a new one, I suppose.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, pp. 117-118

Brownie Buttons

2009-08-11T16:58:00.000-07:00

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Jayma of Two Scientists Experimenting in the Kitchen. The recipe was for these mini-sized brownie buttons - a perfect bite-sized dessert. Optionally added is orange zest (something I skipped on, wanting to savor the chocolate) and a simple icing (something I skipped on, being lazy).

These follow closely to a basic brownie recipe, except when they are baked, teaspoon-fulls are scooped into mini-sized muffin tins. These allow them to rise slightly to gain a short mini-muffin shape, yet keep their brownie flavor in full. You could expand the recipe easily from 18 of the buttons to an even dozen, and make your buttons a bit more texturally exciting if you wanted to add some chocolate chips or nuts - something I think I'll do next time, finding this recipe a little bit on the plain side.

I also need to take a bit more care from now on when heating the butter/chocolate mixture. After the chocolate and butter had melted, I continued heating it, wanting all the brown sugar granules to dissolve into solution. I think I ended up actually separating my chocolate mixture with too much heat, because when I pulled these out of the oven there was oil bubbling on the tops. After cooling down, everything looked normal, but the taste was just slightly off. Did anyone else have problems with their brown sugar melting?

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, pp. 106-107

Vanilla Custard Ice Cream

2009-08-04T09:47:00.000-07:00

I've been a bad, bad, Tuesdays with Dorie blogger. My month-long hiatus is finally up, but I left without any explanation. After going months without missing a single recipe, I suddenly went a full 4 weeks without updating! I just got so lost in a busy schedule that I didn't even think about it. But on the plus side, I've been very busy in a great way - took a roadtrip to San Francisco, got certified to SCUBA dive, had a lot of great nights with friends, a lot of weddings to go to.... Anyways, this very delayed Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Lynne of Cafe LynnyLu.

Dorie's actual recipe simply calls it Vanilla Ice Cream, but the flavor distinctly held onto the flavor of eggs to me, so I threw custard in there as well. It's a great ice cream, perfect for a vanilla lover like me! Throwing gobs of chocolate or strawberries, or any other sort of flavor into a simple dish like this is a good way to ruin it quickly.

I wasn't in my own kitchen to make this, so I didn't have my handy stand mixer ice cream attachment, so I had to just stick it in the freezer and stir it every couple hours until it began to get hard. This lent to larger ice crystal formation, so the mouth-feel of the ice cream isn't as soft as it could be, but the flavor is all packed in there nicely.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan pp. 428-429

Tribute to Katherine Hepburn Brownies

2009-07-07T08:44:00.000-07:00

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Lisa of Surviving Oz. It's a moist and dense brownie, with walnut pieces, chocolate chips, and a bit of coffee. It's fast to put together (all done in one bowl), and quick to bake up. Including preparation time, these brownies are out of the oven within an hour.

These brownies use very little flour (only 1/2 of a cup for the whole batch), a secret that Katherine Hepburn supposedly told to her friends. This makes the batch a bit thinner than usual, but guarantees they stay moist inside.

I added quite a bit more salt than the recipe called for, and was happy with the result. Ever since the Tuesdays with Dorie group baked World Peace Cookies, I've been wanting to add extra salt to something particularly chocolaty - and this was a perfect time to do so. I feel it adds more depth to the brownies, and enhances the flavors better. The coworkers were happy with this batch, and couldn't quite put their finger on what made them so good. I'm convinced it's the salt.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, pp. 96-97
reference

Coconut-Roasted Pineapple Dacquoise

2009-06-30T00:00:00.000-07:00

Posted a week late...again. Last week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Andrea of Andrea In The Kitchen. Not being a fan of pineapple, I thought this dessert might not be my type, but it all turned out fine with the mixture of white chocolate, coconut, and almond.

This was a bit too sweet for my tastes on the whole, though. All that icing has a lot of sugar packed into it, not to mention what goes into the meringues. However, I really did like how the overall presentation ended up, with the meringue cutting (not breaking) nicely. The layers are nice, and the pineapple gives it good coloring.

I keep having a bit of trouble whenever I make a white chocolate icing in this manner. This is the second time I've over-beat it (though this time wasn't nearly as bad), and end up with something that curdles with some of the liquid escaping. I'm sure a few more tries and I'll have it down, but I need to remind myself not to take my eyes of the stand mixer when it's going.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, pp 293-295.

Bakewell Tart...er...Pudding

2009-06-27T07:49:00.000-07:00

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

This tart, or pudding depending on who you ask, is made using a sweet shortcrust pastry tart shell, topping it traditionally with jam, and covering it with frangipane - similar to an almond pastry cream. I decided to move away from the fruity jam (I had just made a pineapple cake, and felt like something a little more chocolatey) and simply layered the bottom with some melted chocolate.

Recipe:

Sweet shortcrust pastry:
225 grams all-purpose flour
30 grams sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
110 grams butter, very cold or frozen, cut into medium pieces
2 large egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1-2 tablespoons cold water

Combine flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times to bring together. Add the butter chunks and pulse until all the large pieces have been broken up, and you have remaining a mixture of small pieces of butter with some the size of a split pea. Turn the processor on, and add the egg yolks, followed by almond extract, and 1 tablespoon of water. Add half-teaspoons of the remaining water until the dough begins to come together, forming a slightly sticky dough. Wrap in cling wrap and store in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Frangipane:
125 grams butter, room temperature
125 grams icing sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
125 grams finely ground almonds
30 grams flour

Cream together the butter and icing sugar in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, medium speed, until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, scraping the sides of the bowl to bring everything together. Add the almond extract, and continue to stir. At this point, the mixture will look curdled. Mix almonds with flour and add in one portion to the stand mixer, then mix on low speed until combined.

Assembly:
Remove tart dough from the refrigerator and roll to 1/4-inch thickness. Butter a tart pan and press the tart dough into place, saving any leftover dough for cracks that may form. Freeze the tart for 15 minutes. In the meantime, preheat oven to 400ºF and melt 3.5 ounces of high-quality bittersweet chocolate (I use Valrhona). Pour this chocolate into the frozen tart dough and spread with a spatula until it evenly coats the bottom. Place in the freezer for an additional 2 minutes to let it set in place. Remove from freezer and top with frangipane, spreading the top until even. Bake 30 minutes, or until fluffy, golden brown, and springy to the touch. Allow to cool 15 minutes before slicing, or enjoy at room temperature if you want to wait longer.

The dessert is that easy to put together, but immensily enjoyable for anyone who is a fan of almonds. It's not overly sweet like many desserts, and I feel that the chocolate pairs nicely with the almond, though you could easily make this a more spring- or summer-themed dessert by using some strawberry preserves or some other tasty jam. When you use the jam, you can use anywhere from 1/4 cup to 1 cup of it, depending on how thick you want that layer.

Honey-Peach Ice Cream

2009-06-22T08:32:00.001-07:00

Last week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Tommi of Brown Interior. I actually made this recipe with plenty of time to post, but just haven't gotten around to doing it - been too busy with other things. Anyways, this light ice cream is delicious, made with peach puree, as well as small chunks of peach to give it texture.

I kept it fairly simple when it came to serve - a drizzle of honey and a sprinkling of nutmeg gave it a little added flavor, as well as a nice presentation.

This post is going to be pretty short, and I'm going to be late posting up this current week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe. Again, just too busy, but that's a good thing, right? I'd rather have it this way than not having anything to do.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, p. 437

Mahi-Mahi Potstickers

2009-06-14T09:21:00.000-07:00

This month's Daring Cooks challenge was to make Chinese dumplings or potstickers. The challenge is hosted by Jen from use real butter. The choice of filling and method of cooking were up to the individual cook (steaming makes dumplings, frying makes potstickers). Having seen recipes including shrimp and other fish before, I decided to make my potstickers using leftover Mahi-Mahi fillets tossed in with some other assorted ingredients.

As important as the filling is the dough itself. It's a simple flour and water dough, allowed to rest and rolled thin. After loading some filling into the dough, the dumplings are pinched and pleated together to seal them for baking.

Potsticker Dough:
2 cups flour

1/2 cup warm water, divided, plus more as needed

Pour the flour into a large bowl and add 1/4 cup warm water. Using your hands, mix together the water and flour. Add the remaining 1/4 cup of water a teaspoon at a time, continuing to mix and add until there are no longer any dry patches or cracks in the dough, and it's slightly sticky to the touch. Roll into a ball and flatten slightly to form a dome, then allow to rest for 30 minutes.

Mahi-Mahi filling:
1 lb. Mahi-Mahi, about 3 medium fillets

3 green onion stalks

2 medium carrots

4 oz. Gruyère cheese

Juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 egg, room temperature

Salt and pepper to taste

Slice the mahi-mahi fillets thinly, then mince it until fine. Slice the onion stalks very finely, make sure there aren't any large pieces remaining. Using a vegetable peeler, first peel the outside off of the carrots, and then continue peeling so you get long, thin strips of carrots. Gather these strips together and chop finely. Shred the cheese with the fine side of a shredder, then run your knife through it to break up any additional pieces. Combine the ingredients and add lemon, egg, then salt and pepper to taste. Take a teaspoon of this and fry on the stove-top, then taste to see if it needs additional seasoning.

Assembly:

Cut the rested dough into 1-inch ribbons, then cut each ribbon into 3/4-inch slices. Press each slice down, then roll thin (about 1/16th of an inch).

Place about 1 tablespoon of the filling in the center of each dumpling.

Press and seal the center portion, wedging the filling in the middle.

Begin to pleat the sides of the dough to form a seal.

Continue pleating until you reach the end.

Repeat with the other side. In a large skillet, add 3 tablespoons oil (something with a high smoke point) and arrange potstickers closely together, as many as you can fit on the bottom of the pan.

Place over high heat and fry the potstickers for about 3 minutes, then add 1/2 cup of water and cover. Boil until all the water has evaporated, then reduce heat to medium-low and uncover. Continue cooking an additional 2-3 minutes, then remove from pan. Serve fried-side up, with sauce of your choice on the side.

I couldn't find any soy sauce handy at the house (I was cooking at my brother's place without him there, and didn't want to venture off to the grocery) so I just had some fish cocktail sauce on the side. The potstickers can be filled with any ingredients of your liking, and many other cooks at the Daring Kitchen have made these, so make sure you check them out. You're sure to find a filling to your liking.

Parisian Apple Tartelette

2009-06-13T21:20:00.000-07:00

This week's (very delayed) Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was hosted by Jessica of My Baking Heart. It's a small and easily transportable dessert, made simply with puff pastry, apples, butter, and brown sugar. Its relatively fast baking time, combined with the ease of preparation makes this handheld treat a breeze to make.

This post is delayed mostly because I travelled to Chicago for a wedding, then have just been busy since returning home. Wanting to bring something relatively inventive on the plane, I decided it'd be a treat to bake up a couple of these tartelettes. I baked them the morning of my flight and wrapped them up in parchment paper, like Dorie suggested. No problems getting this tartelette through TSA.

The dessert was pleasantly light and sweet. The recipe allows you to decide for yourself how much brown sugar you want to add, or what type of fruit you might want to bake with. On one note, make sure you do skin the apples before halving and quartering them - my first batch, I felt lazy and left the skins on. Because of that, the quarters weren't bitten through as easily, so a large chunk would come off of the tartelette at a time. The next time I baked these, I skinned them and that easily solved the problem.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, p. 319

Chocolate Crunched Caramel Tart

2009-06-04T12:54:00.000-07:00

This delicious two-layered tart comes from Dorie Greenspan's collection. This isn't a Tuesdays with Dorie recipe (yet), but I decided to make it after a friend of mine came over for a visit. My friend wanted to bake something, but I couldn't come up with anything off the top of my head, so I tossed my Dorie baking book to her and told her to pick something out. She saw the pictures of this delicious tart and decided, without pause, that we'd make it that night.

The tart uses Dorie's sweet tart shell as a crust. This is always a good route to go with these tarts - it's delicious all on its own, like a big, but subtle, sugar cookie. The dessert is layered first by salty peanuts smothered with homemade caramel sauce. Next time, I'd smash them up with a mallet a bit, or give them a few pulses in a food processor to break them up, but the addition of the nuts to the caramel gooey goodness is great.

Finally, the dish is topped with a smooth bittersweet chocolate ganache. Every bite of the dessert has the delicious mixture of sugar crust, chocolate, nuts, and caramel. It's sort of like biting into a Snickers bar, but the texture is much softer, and it's not overly sweet.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, pp. 355-357

Sausage and Egg Casserole

2009-06-03T18:30:00.000-07:00

This basic breakfast casserole has been a staple dish for as long as I can remember. Either that, or due to its simplistic nature, a lot of other casseroles were so similar to it that I always thought they were variations of the same thing. This sausage and egg casserole can be made the night before you want to eat it, then baked up in about an hour the next morning. You can always count on a casserole like this when you're feeling like a warm and delicious breakfast, without having to get up early to make it.

With a recipe like this, it's very easy to adapt it and make it your own. If you want some spice, add some jalapenos or chili powder. If you want to make it vegetarian, maybe substitute some mushrooms and spinach instead of the sausage. Play around with cheese choices, add in some onions and tomatoes. The recipe I'm sharing is one at its most bare form, so feel free to add to it and make it your own.

Recipe:
1 lb. bulk pork sausage
6 eggs
2 cups milk (I prefer whole)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground mustard
6 slices bread (I prefer sourdough), cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 cup (4 oz.) shredded cheddar cheese

Butter a 9x13-inch baking dish. In a large skillet over medium heat, brown the sausage and stir until crumbled and cooked through. Drain and set aside on top of paper towels to wick away excess grease. In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, milk, salt, and mustard powder. Stir in the bread crumbs, cheese, then cooled sausage. Mix until incorporated and pour into the baking dish. Cover with foil and refrigerate for at least 8 hours, or overnight. Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking, and preheat oven to 350ºF. Bake, uncovered, for 35-40 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Serves 8-10.

Cinnamon Squares

2009-06-02T00:00:00.000-07:00

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Tracey of Tracey’s Culinary Adventures. These tasty squares have cinnamon and sugar mixed into the batter, as well as a layer of chocolate, with even more cinnamon and sugar added to it. This dessert (breakfast?) is pleasantly light, and easy to put together.

I opted not to add the espresso powder, nor the chocolate icing at the end. I stole a bite from a corner after the squares had cooled, and felt that there was a nicely subtle chocolate background to the dish, and decided adding more icing might overdo it.

I'm assuming that this treat was initially created as a dessert, as it is fairly sweet and has a lot of chocolate, but I don't see a reason why it couldn't be a decadent breakfast. It's fairly light, and the strong cinnamon flavor is definitely reminiscent of cinnamon rolls.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, pp. 210-211

Simple Steakside Mushrooms

2009-06-01T12:30:00.000-07:00

I originally copied this recipe down from one of my mom's collections of things to make before leaving for college. It's been about 6 years since then, and this is my first time finally getting around to making these steakside mushrooms. As the name implies, these mushrooms go wonderfully served with a juicy steak, but they can be applied to other things as well; I made mine with some hot sausage, and eventually took those leftovers and made sandwiches.

The sandwiches were easy enough to put together - I just used whatever I had lying around, since I was short on time and didn't want to make a trip to the store. I layered some thinly cut spicy chicken sausage on sourdough, then covered with some of these delicious mushrooms. Topped with slices of cheese and toasted, the sandwich was a surprisingly delicious treat. Funny how sometimes things exceed your expectations in such a way as to surprise you.

Recipe:
1 1/2 lb. Crimini mushrooms, sliced lengthwise
8 tablespoons unsalted butter
Seasoning salt of choice(I used Lawry's)
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup water

In a large skillet over medium heat, sweat mushrooms until almost all the liquid had been evaporated from them. Add the butter and increase heat to medium-high. Saute mushrooms until brown, then sprinkle liberally with salt to taste. Add Worcestershire sauce and simmer until almost all the sauce is absorbed. Add water and bring to a simmer. Continue to simmer until mushrooms are tender. Serves 8.
Don't be afraid to be very liberal when adding the salt in this recipe. The mushrooms will thrive in the seasoning. I still haven't gotten around to trying these mushrooms as they were intended to be made - served with a slab of beef. However, seeing how well this recipe turned out, it will be on the top of my list of sides next time the urge to cook steak comes along.

Corn Dog Casserole

2009-05-31T15:49:00.001-07:00

I've made this recipe before, but hadn't posted it because I couldn't get any good pictures off of it. I don't know what exactly changed this time, but the pictures for this round are worthy enough for me to throw on this blog. This recipe is exactly as it sounds - in the end, you have something that tastes like cut-up corn dogs in a casserole. Childish? Maybe. But it's definitely delicious, and easy to put together to boot.

Recipe:
2 cups thinly sliced celery
2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cups sliced green onions
1 1/2 pounds hot dogs
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
2 teaspoons fresh sage, chopped finely
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 packages (8.5 oz. each) corn bread/muffin mix
2 cups (8 oz.) sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 400ºF. In a heavy skillet over medium-high heat, melt butter and saute celery for 5 minutes. Add green onions, and saute for an additional 5 minutes. Place into a large bowl and set aside. Cut hot dogs lengthwise into quarters, then each quarter into thirds. In the same skillet, saute the hot dogs for 5 minutes or until browned, stirring frequently. Add into the cooling vegetables and mix to combine. Set aside 1 cup of this mixture. In a large bowl, combine eggs, milk, sage, and pepper. Add all but the one cup of hot dog mixture, then stir in corn bread mix. Using a large spoon, bring it all together, then add 1 1/2 cups of cheese. Spread evenly into a shallow 3-quart baking dish. Top with the reserved hot dog mix and remaining cheese. Bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Yields 12 servings.

Baked French Toast with Pralines

2009-05-30T16:36:00.000-07:00

I've been delaying my postings for far too long. I originally baked this breakfast over 6 weeks ago, but haven't gotten around to posting until now. My brother and sister-in-law don't live too far away from me, and I made this the week that my niece was born. I knew it'd be a struggle for them to find time to bake or cook with a newborn on their hands, so I asked my sister-in-law what her favorite breakfast was, and ended up making this baked french toast.

This recipe is based off Paula Deen's Baked French Toast, and is an easy way to make a large batch of french toast at once, covered with a sweet praline topping.

French Toast:
Dash of salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup whole milk
8 large eggs, room temperature
2 cups half and half
1 loaf (16 oz.) sourdough, cut into 1-inch slices

Stale bread soaks up the liquid better, so if time permits, let the slices sit out overnight covered with a tea towel. Butter a 9x13-inch baking dish, and place the sourdough slices into the dish, making sure slices don't overlap. Into a large bowl add the salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla, sugar, milk, half and half, and eggs, then mix until combined. Pour over the sourdough slices and cover with foil. Refrigerate at least 8 hours. Remove from refrigerator to warm to room temperature, preheat oven to 350ºF. Spread praline topping over bread. Bake, still covered with foil, for 45 minutes.

Pralines:
2 lbs. unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup pecans
2 tablespoons corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Using a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine all ingredients until a homogenous paste forms, then spread over the french toast before baking.

As you can see, this is fairly easy to put together, especially if you know that you're going to bake it ahead of time. This is one of those dishes that could be a treat for a holiday morning, or just a really good weekend breakfast. Scoop some ice cream on top, and you might just have dessert too.

Vegetable Strudel

2009-05-27T17:08:00.000-07:00

The May Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prauge by Rick Rodgers. However, I took another turn on this dessert and decided to make a more savory dish, using some vegetables I had leftover in the house. What I ended up with was an onion-based vegetable strudel.

The recipe for the strudel dough itself is easy, and after you let it sit for a sufficient amount of time it's simple to pull extremely thin. I washed off a flat table in our living room and went to work stretching it ever-so-gently. I made sure to get the center thinned out first, so there was extra dough around the edges as I pulled further, giving me more to work with.

You can see that the edges are a bit thicker, so they can still be pulled further. Working from the center out, using hands on both sides of the dough (one on top and one on bottom), going in a circle from the center, I was able to get the dough roughly 2-feet by 3-feet. At that point, it was tissue-paper thin. Enough so I could clearly see my hands through it.

Then I simply topped with the ingredients I had on hand, rolled, and baked. I threw in a few extras to make sure it'd be good and tasty, but I was surprised at how easily strudel could come together - it always seemed much more complicated to me.

Recipe:

Strudel dough:
1 1/3 cups flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons water, plus more if needed
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus more to coat the dough
1/2 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

Knead together all the ingredients, smacking harshly on a flat surface occasionally to get rid of any air bubbles. If the dough feels too dry, add water by half-teaspoons. After everything has come together, continue kneading until a soft ball with a rough surface forms. Shape into a ball and lightly oil the surface, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and allow to sit at room temperature for 90 minutes. After it's sufficiently rested, lightly flour a clean, large working space (at least 2-feet by 3-feet wide) and begin pulling the dough from the center out. There are some videos online that can demonstrate this better than words can.

Filling:
3 large onions, sliced thickly
2 large shallots, diced
Large bell pepper, seeded and diced
1/2 lb. carrots, sliced thickly
6 medium stalks of celery, sliced thickly
4 ounces Gruyere cheese, shredded
2 fresh sprigs of oregano, leaves pulled and chopped
Worcestershire sauce to taste

Preheat an oven to 350ºF. Top the pulled strudel dough on one side with the filling, working in layers to ensure that all the slices will have a little bit of everything. After adding it all together, carefully fold over the dough with filling inward towards the remaining dough. It's okay if a few holes appear in the dough here - they'll be covered up by the remaining layers of dough as you continue rolling. Continue rolling the dough onto itself until it has all been used up, then shape so it can fit onto a baking sheet. Bake for 40 minutes, or until the outside begins to turn golden brown and the vegetables inside have softened. Remove from the oven and cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing.

This can easily be either a main or side dish, and the variations you could make on it are nearly endless. You can fill it with choice vegetables of your own, and different varieties of cheese. You could add some pre-cooked beef, or even put in some sauce. Whatever you feel like putting into this, a strudel is a great way to combine all your ingredients into something that comes out with a flaky crust, and becomes easily transportable.

Chipster-Topped Brownies

2009-05-26T07:43:00.000-07:00

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Beth of Supplicious. This is the first time I think I've had a late entry to TwD, but I'm just going to back-date it since technically they were done on Tuesday. Around midnight, that is. I tried to squeeze it in on time, but the brownies didn't cool fast enough for me to get a good cut before I went to sleep.

This recipe was definitely one for sweet teeth. What could be better than brownies covered with chocolate chip cookie dough, then all baked together? I ended up cutting this into very small pieces because it's so rich, and I'm sure it's going to take a while for this to be gotten through at work. This is definitely a lot of chocolately sweet goodness.

Back to why I ended up posting this a day late - I was gone on an awesome camping trip with a group of friends for the past 6 days. We drove from San Diego to Redding, then set up camp near Trinity Lake. Nine guys, a lot of booze, hiking, exploring, and of course great food. I came up with the menu and did most of the cooking (what can I say, it's my hobby). I was surprised at how well most of it turned out - chicken foil wraps, beef stew with dumplings, pizzas, chili, country-style breakfast skillets to name a few. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera with me for fear that something would happen to it, so I'm not going to be able to post up any of those recipes or the pictures of that food. Next time, I suppose.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, pp. 94-95

Fresh Mango Bread

2009-05-18T20:18:00.000-07:00

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Kelly of Baking with the Boys. This was a new treat for me - I had never heard of mango bread, let alone attempt to make my own batch. Come to think of it, I don't think I'd even bought a whole mango before I set about baking this bread. Regardless, the end product was ultimately delicious, and makes for a great breakfast bread.

In this bread, Dorie brings together both fresh mango and raisins, giving the bread a light fruity flavor. I don't know how other mango breads taste in comparison to this one, but if they're anything similar, then I'm surprised they haven't spread more. I now have no reason to shy away from the mangoes when I see them in the grocery.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, p. 45

Ricotta Gnocchi with Pesto

2009-05-14T00:00:00.000-07:00

This month welcomes the birth of the Daring Cooks group. Linked with Daring Bakers, Daring Cooks is very much the same premise, but everyone cooks a specific meal rather than baking (which usually focuses on dessert). The selection this month was ricotto gnocchi, from Judy Rodgers' cookbook, The Zuni Café Cookbook. It didn't turn out quite as photographic as I had hoped, but it offered itself as a pleasantly light and delicious meal.

There's a nice Italian restaurant not too far from my house, and I've often ordered their gnocchi with pesto sauce. It's such a wonderful combination that I decided I'd try it out on my own. This gnocchi is different from the standard sort (using potatoes is standard, from what I've seen at least) in that it uses ricotta as the base, but I still figured the pairing would go well together. As far as the process went of actually cooking the formed gnocchi, I found that letting the gnocchi sit in the refrigerator for 24 hours really helped them hold their form. I was having trouble with them breaking apart, even after adding extra eggs and letting it sit for an hour or so in the refrigerator.

Gnocchi:
16 ounces fresh ricotta cheese
2 large cold eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
1 heavy pinch of ground nutmeg
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1/4 teaspoon salt
Flour to form the gnocchi

At least a day before you want to cook the gnocchi, place the ricotta cheese over a cheesecloth, placed into a wire mesh sieve, suspended over a bowl to catch the moisture. This will drain off a lot of the excess water that's held inside the cheese. If you skip this step, your gnocchi will fall apart easily while cooking. Once the water has been wicked away (about 24 hours in the refrigerator), place into a food processor and pulse a few times until smooth. Add the eggs, butter, nutmeg, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and salt. Pulse until everything is combined and smooth. Fill a shallow bowl with flour, and drop 2-3 teaspoons of batter into it at a time. Very gently roll it and shape it until it has an even coating of flour, then drop into a boiling pot of water. Once the gnocchi begins to float, boil for an additional 5 minutes, then gently remove from the water bath and set aside to cool. Do a practice gnocchi first, then if it holds up to the strain of boiling and removal, continue to cook gnocchi 5-6 at a time, such that the pot doesn't become overcrowded. If the gnocchi falls apart, try to add an extra egg white or allow the batter to firm up in the refrigerator. Once gnocchi are cooked, while still hot, serve with sauce of your choice.

Basic pesto sauce:
4 cups Italian (sweet) basil
1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup pine nuts
2 garlic cloves
1/3 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano
1 teaspoon salt

In a food processor, process the basil until finely chopped. Scrape down the sides as needed. Add the olive oil, pine nuts, garlic cloves, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and salt. Pulse until sauce comes together - it will be thick. Serve on top of the hot ricotto gnocchi.

I ended up keeping a lot of this for myself, but I was able to share a bit of it with a couple people, and the reviews were actually better than I had expected. I thought that I may have over-done it with the amount of Parmigiano-Reggiano, being in both the gnocchi and in the sauce, but it seems that it was a much-welcomed flavor. This first daring cooks challenge was interesting, and I'm looking forward for more to come.

Tartest Lemon Tart

2009-05-12T00:55:00.000-07:00

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Babette of Babette Feasts. Unfortunately, this is one of the few recipes that I've made from this book that I wasn't a big fan of. Instead of it being a very tart lemon tart, it just tasted like a...bad lemon tart. I'll blame it on the not-perfectly-fresh lemons, and assume that Dorie's recipe was tried and true, because that seems to be the case most of the time. However, if I made this again, I think I'd play it safe and use the lemon juice + lemon pulp, but leave the lemon skin out of it. It just gave it a bitter taste...not tart at all. Maybe I was reading the directions wrong in putting the whole lemon in there?

The top bubbled a bit more than I had expected as well (I took Dorie's warning to heart and placed down a sheet of foil, because I figured there'd be some spillage), and it was hard to take a relatively pretty picture. I tried covering it with powdered sugar, but it just didn't look right, so I went the route of making it brulee - getting to play with my blowtorch again was a happy side effect.

Anyways, this recipe was a good idea, and I'd be interested in trying something similar again...just not this one in particular.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, p. 336

Mom's Meat Loaf

2009-05-10T11:41:00.000-07:00

What a better way to celebrate Mother's Day than a tribute to one of the great American past-time meals, made by moms across the country? This is the meat loaf my mom used to make for me when I was younger, and I recently made a double-batch so I'd have enough to share. I'm sure there are plenty of people who had some bad experiences with meat loaves in their childhood, and I've heard several complaints about meat loaves being too dry or bland. However, if you follow this recipe, you're sure to get moist and tasty meatloaf that will be happily devoured.

Recipe:
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
2/3 cup finely crushed saltines
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon rubbed sage
Dash of pepper
1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

(Again, in the photograph are the supplies for a doubled recipe, making two loaves)

Preheat oven to 350ºF and set out an 8-1/2" by 4-1/2" loaf pan (not greased). In a large bowl, beat eggs until just together, then add milk, saltine crumbs, onion, salt, sage, and pepper. Add the beef and mix well, using your hands to bring everything together. Shape roughly into a loaf, then place into the loaf pan and pat down until it takes shape. In a small bowl, combine ketchup, brown sugar, and Worcestershire sauce. Stir until everything has been brought together. Spoon 3/4 of a cup of this sauce onto the top of the meat loaf. Bake for 60-65 minutes, or until there is no longer any pink in the center of the loaf. Remove from oven and drain off any excess fat. Let stand 10 minutes before slicing. Serve with the remaining sauce. Serves 6-8.

Tiramisu, and good luck?

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

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Megan of My Baking Adventures. This tiramisu cake is made with a yellow cake batter instead of ladyfingers, and syrup is poured over the cake rather than letting it outright soak.

A few weeks ago, you might remember, my oven broke down, so I had to cook everything on the broiler setting. Not long after that, two of the four coils on the top of the oven burned out, so that had to be fixed. Then around two weeks ago, there was a leak behind our wall, so the oven was pulled into the middle of the kitchen and I had to do all my mixing and whatnot in the living room. Last night, our cable/internet went out. I swear, it's a conspiracy. The cable/internet provider said it was going to be out for 3-4 days at least, so I'm having to type up this while at work. After a heavy sigh, I started baking this cake, and while making the batter, cracked my very first double-yolked egg! Hopefully, since that's a sign of good luck, fortune will begin to turn my way in the baking world.

I ended up making this cake twice. I got response that the first cake ended up tasting a bit dry for a tiramisu, so for the second batch I more than doubled the amount of syrup, adding an extra little helping of amaretto. To my disappointment, my first bite into it showed it was still dry. I'm used to having a very wet tiramisu, so maybe it's just a matter of opinion, but next time I'd probably soak the layers much more thoroughly than Dorie indicates. Overall though, the dessert is very tasty, and the frosting is exceptionally good (made with an extra couple doses of amaretto).

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, pp. 266-268

Brown Rice Pasta Salad

2009-04-29T13:31:00.000-07:00

What's a relatively healthy way to empty out the refrigerator? Pizzas are always a good way (not necessarily healthy, I suppose), but I also like being able to make a big batch of pasta salad and eat it as lunch for a week. It stays in the fridge fine, and actually starts to taste better the longer you leave it alone, as the flavors will all begin to meld together.

Recipe:
16 oz. brown rice pasta (I used fusilli), fully cooked
8 oz. mozzarella, cubed
4 oz. Genoa salami, thick slices cut into 6 wedges each
4 oz. sandwich-sized pepperoni, thick slices cut into 6 wedges each
4 oz. baby broccoli, chopped roughly
3 oz. Shiitake mushrooms, sliced
1/2 red onion, sliced thinly
1 small shallot, diced
1 handful Italian parsley, roughly chopped
1 oz. fresh basil, chiffonade
8 oz. grape tomatoes, halved
Olive oil, red wine vinegar, pepper, fresh parmesan, pepperoncinis

This is extremely easy to put together - the hard part is the preparation, cutting and cleaning everything. Using tongs, mix the pasta, mozzarella, meats, broccoli, mushrooms, onion, shallot, tomatoes and herbs together. Add olive oil and red wine vinegar to taste, then add fresh ground pepper, parmesan cheese, and pepperoncinis to taste. Cover and place in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours before serving.

See? Isn't that easy? Like I said before, the taste only improves with time, so if you wait a day or two before you start eating this, don't feel like you missed out on anything. Feel free to use whatever you'd like in this recipe, you definitely don't need to use what I listed. I just suggest that you use some meats (or mushrooms for vegetarian, maybe tofu?), veggies, tomatoes are always good in these, a couple cheeses, herbs, onion, and olive oil with vinegar of your choice. The specifics are all up to the person making it.

Chocolate Cream Tart

2009-04-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Kim of Scrumptious Photography. It's a creamy chocolate tart made with a chocolate shortbread-esque tart crust. It gave me a couple small problems, but it also finally gave me an excuse to use my cake stand.

I stepped away from the chocolate for a few seconds (minutes?) while it was heating up, and ended up burning a bit of it. All these times baking with chocolate, and I think this is my first time burning it. Oh well, I guess that'll teach me to walk away from hot food. Anyways, it didn't seem to throw off the taste too much after it had cooled, so I threw some shredded coconut on the bottom and top of the chocolate cream in hopes of covering it up. Just a subtle addition, and it seems to have worked fine.

The second problem came because I got antsy in moving my tart crust from the baking dish to the platter. It was still warm (definitely should have waited until it was room temperature, if not frozen) and ended up falling apart. I think I counted about a dozen separate pieces. I was able to sort of put it back together like a puzzle, and the cream covered most of the cracks and seems to have held it back together, but I guess that'll teach me to not remove a tart when it's hot. Gosh, baking's just all about learning, isn't it?

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, pp. 352-353

White Chocolate and Blackberry Cheesecake

2009-04-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

Cheesecake was the theme of this month's Daring Bakers challenge. The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge. The posted recipe was for a standard basic cheesecake, leaving a lot of room for each baker to adjust flavors to create whatever they wanted. My friend requested a long time ago for me to make a cheesecake that The Olive Garden makes - a white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake. My main focus this month was to create something similar to that.

White Chocolate and Blackberry Cheesecake recipe:

Ingredients:
Crust-
1 cup chocolate graham cracker crumbs
3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted

Blackberry sauce-
10 ounces frozen blackberries
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 cup water

Cheesecake batter-
4 oz. white chocolate
1/2 cup half and half
3 (8-oz.) packages cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Butter a 9-inch springform pan and preheat the oven to 325ºF. Line the bottom of the springform pan with parchment, along with the sides if you wish for a cleaner presentation. In a food processor, combine chocolate graham cracker crumbs and sugar, then add butter and pulse until clumps begin to form. Spread evenly along the bottom of the pan and press down to set. Stick in the freezer for at least a half an hour. In the meantime, combine blackberries, sugar, cornstarch, and water, then bring to a boil for 5 minutes or until the sauce thickens. Strain through a sieve to remove seeds and set this sauce aside. In a double broiler (or microwave-safe bowl), heat the half and half together with white chocolate, chopped. Stir frequently until all the chocolate has melted and combined with the dairy. In a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, whip the cream cheese together until light and soft, then add sugar and eggs, one at a time, waiting until the previous egg is fully incorporated before adding the next. Drizzle in the white chocolate mixture, followed by vanilla extract. Pour half of this into the springform pan, then top with 3 tablespoons of the blackberry sauce. Pour on the remaining cheesecake batter, then top with another 3 tablespoons blackberry sauce. Swirl around with a knife or stick to form marbellized texture, setting any additional sauce aside to serve with the baked cake. Bake 60-65 minutes, or until the filling begins to firm in the center. Remove from the oven and gradually cool to room temperature before moving to the refrigerator. Keep in the refrigerator at least 8 hours before running a knife along the edges and removing from the springform mold.

This dessert came out very tasty, and my friend that requested it loved it. I did, however, set up an additional challenge for myself. My roommate doesn't like cheesecake, or any sort of cheese. However, he loves graham crackers. At the same time, my boss didn't like the last time I brought cheesecake into work because it's not an easily transportable dessert (i.e., you can't walk around with a slice in your hand without it getting messy, fast). I figured I could kill two birds with one stone - up the graham cracker to cheesecake ratio, thus building more structural integrity for the cake, and making the overall dessert thinner so it could be cut into bar form. And voila, bar formed plain cheesecake.

The crust makes up about 1/3 of the cheesecake, as opposed to the usual towering of the cheesecake over crust. It's the same as the original recipe (check out Jenny Bakes) except the crust values are multiplied by 1.5, and it's baked in a 9"x13" pan. Everything else is the same. I was just happy I finally made a cheesecake my roommate enjoyed, and at the same time was easily transportable in hand.

Four Star Chocolate Bread Pudding

2009-04-21T08:03:00.000-07:00

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Lauren of Upper East Side Chronicle. Just like the title indicates, it's a simple bread pudding made with melted chocolate in the custard batter. I decided to use dark chocolate instead of bittersweet, just because that's what I prefer. Cutting this into slices was definitely easier once it had been chilled overnight in the refrigerator post-baking.

Making this bread pudding was interesting since my kitchen is in a bit of disarray...again. Seems like problems just keep coming up. There was a small flood in our townhouse, and it turned out that our adjacent neighbor's pipes were leaking into our area. Because they had recently remodeled their kitchen with granite, the plumber couldn't access the pipes from their side, so now we have a large gash in the wall of our kitchen, and the oven is sitting in the middle of it. Now, our kitchen isn't that big to start with, so it's been difficult lately to do the simple things, like open the refrigerator. But hey, when life gives you lemons, right? Hopefully it'll be finished this week.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, pp. 410-411

Chocolate Amaretti Torte

2009-04-14T00:00:00.000-07:00

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Holly of Phe/MOM/enon. It's a flourless cake made with almonds and amaretti - small Italian almond cookies. It gave me an excuse to visit Little Italy in San Diego, something I haven't done since I moved down here. I found Amaretti Di Saronno cookies by Lazzaroni, the ones Dorie suggests as her favorite, along with a ton of other goodies in the little market.

Among the goodies, I found a 750g (26.5 oz.) container of Nutella. Why have I not been told that these are around until now? Whenever I see them in the supermarket, they're in tiny containers. Have I been deprived, or is this a common occurance? Do any of your standard supermarkets carry super-sized Nutella, or do you have to find specialty stores to get your jumbo-sized chocolatey hazelnut goodness on? Needless to say I bought one, and immedietly remembered that I have no self-control. The tub lasted a good two weeks...it fought to stay full, it really did, but it was no match for my sweet tooth's lust.

Back to the dessert at hand, it's earned its place as one of my favorites from this book. So simple to put together (except for finding the ingredients), and absolutely decadent. It tastes like it has some great amaretto in it, a trick of the tongue with all the flavors playing on each other. I also munched on the leftover amaretti di saronno cookies, and they were delicious. I know they're the type that probably can't be duplicated in a home kitchen (and certainly not my current one), so I'll just stick to buying them if I see them from now on.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, pp. 276-277

Pavlova with Kiwifruit and Strawberries

2009-04-08T08:06:00.000-07:00

This creation was more or less a challenge to myself. I had a friend over, and we were talking about baking - why bother with all of this if you can buy cakes and cookies cheaply at the grocery? I commented that while my creations may not be as pretty as what can be bought at any mega-mart, I'd like to think they taste better. Besides, when was the last something you saw something real fancy at a standard grocery store? This got us talking about a fancy dessert shop in downtown San Diego, and my friend's favorite dessert there - a berry pavlova. I bet her I could make one, so we went to the grocery store and bought supplies.

The Trader Joe's I stopped by didn't have any berries but blackberries, but I saw kiwifruit and strawberries available cheaply, so I grabbed a package each of those. I found a recipe for pavlova on Simply Recipes, then made a vanilla ice cream batter for the sauce. If you want to make a similar recipe, just use your favorite ice cream recipe without running the batter through the churner - or on the other hand, you could buy some ice cream and just let it melt.

Recipe:

1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
6 large egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
1 pint each, strawberries and kiwifruit
1 recipe vanilla ice cream batter

Preheat oven to 275ºF, line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine cornstarch with granulated sugar and mix together with a fork. In a stand mixer fitted with a whisking attachment, whip the egg whites together with cream of tartar and salt, beginning at medium-low speed until soft peaks with small bubbles form (2-3 minutes). Increase speed to medium-high and very slowly add the sugar-cornstarch mixture, then add vanilla. Increase speed to high and whip until glossy and stiff (4-5 minutes). Spoon out 8-12 mounds, about three inches across, and indented in the center with the back of a spoon to hold the fruit. Place baking sheets into oven and lower the temperature to 250ºF, bake 50-60 minutes or until dry to the touch. Should not be browned or cracked. In the meantime, prepare the kiwifruit and hull the strawberries, then slice into bite-sized pieces. Chill ice cream batter in refrigerator. Remove baked pavlova from oven and allow to cool to room temperature before removing from baking sheets. Top with fruit and ice cream batter. Serves 8-12.

In the end, I made 12 pavlova, each under a dollar to make, fruit and sauce included. I think at the restaurant it's at least 8 times that much, if not more. Given, my presentation is still lacking from theirs, but if I wanted to spend some extra money I could top it off with gold leaf and flowers like they do. Or do something more artistic with the fruit. Still, I'd like to think this is more than what you'd get at your standard grocery.

Kiwifruit and Strawberry Pavlova

Pavlova topped with kiwifruit and strawberries, then covered with thick ...

See Kiwifruit and Strawberry Pavlova on Key Ingredient.

Banana Creme Pie

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

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Amy of Sing for Your Supper. To be honest, I don't remember much of this dessert - I remember it coming together easily, and being worried that I added too much cornstarch because the filling was so stiff, but it all spread out fine in the end. I sort of rushed this one, then dropped it off at my brother's house on my way out of town, sneaking in a little slice on the way.

I'm particularly fond of bananas, and I had all the other ingredients readily on hand, so I'm sure this is another one of those recipes I can make when I start over-accumulating ripened bananas (the staples so far being banana bread or banana pecan ice cream). Only problem is that it'd disappear too quickly at that point. And I'd be assuring myself that it's healthy to eat the whole pie since it has fruit in it.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, pp. 342-343

Ranch Macaroni and Cheese with Tarragon

2009-04-05T23:04:00.000-07:00

This is one of the ultimate comfort foods, amped up with powerful ranch flavor, and easily prepared in a slow cooker. When I mention this recipe to friends, I get disgusted looks - I think the first assumption is that I'm taking macaroni and cheese, then mixing in ranch dressing and calling it a meal. The ranch comes instead from packets of ranch powder, bringing a unique set of spices and herbs to a classic dish. Given that, while this isn't exactly a healthy meal, it's not nearly as bad as my friends' first assumptions.

Recipe:
1 cup milk
1/4 cup butter
2 ounces (2 packets) ranch powdered dressing mix
1 teaspoon lemon pepper
1 teaspoon garlic pepper
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 cup cubed Colby Jack cheese
1 cup cubed Monterey Jack cheese
1 pound elbow macaroni
8 ounces sour cream
Grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup crushed saltines
Tarragon to top

In a dutch oven, combine milk, butter, dressing mix and spices, then cheeses. Heat over the low setting and stir periodically until the cheese is fully melted. In the meantime, bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook the macaroni according to the package directions, leaving them a bit al dente - this makes sure the cheese fills all the little holes in the macaroni; if they're overcooked, the shapes may collapse. Drain the macaroni and set aside. Fold sour cream into the cheese sauce, then add saltine crackers and macaroni. Stir together, then cook over low heat until heated through - about 30 minutes. Sprinkle the top with parmesan cheese, then fresh tarragon. Serves 6-8.

Coconut Butter Thins

2009-03-31T00:16:00.000-07:00

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Jayne of The Barefoot Kitchen Witch. Unfortunately, I messed up the recipe a bit - decided to make some alterations where I really shouldn't have. I rolled the dough thinner than was recommended, and ended up burning all of my cookies. I saw the first half of the batch had burnt quite a bit, so I turned the temperature down and cooked for less time, but I still got more brown than I should have. However, now that I have all the ingredients for these cookies, I'll probably make another batch when I get an opening. If those turn out any better, I'll be updating this post with new commentary and better pictures.

Good news is that my oven's back up and running. The temperature setting is about 50ºF off what it should be, but I usually just go by my thermometer anyways, so that's not too much of a hassle. Here's looking forward to finally making some good food again!

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, p.145

Spinach and mushroom lasagne al forno

2009-03-28T08:42:00.000-07:00

This month's Daring Bakers challenge was to make spinach lasagne (the pasta), then to create a lasagne al forno (the dish) using the homemade lasagne, along with a bechamel sauce, and additional ingredients of the cook's preference. The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge. However, as usual, I made some adjustments (from sheer laziness? maybe) to make this dish my own.

Recipes:

Spinach Lasagne:
3 large eggs
10 oz. chopped spinach, thawed and dried
3 cups all-purpose flour

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until everything comes together. Use your hands to incorporate any dry pieces that aren't going in. Attach a hook to the stand mixer, and knead the dough for 10 minutes, until satiny and elastic. Add flour if the dough is too wet, and water if it's too dry, each by the teaspoon to make sure you don't add too much. After it has been kneaded thoroughly, wrap in plastic wrap and set aside to rest for 30 minutes. Cut the dough into quarters and slowly roll out until thin. I found it helpful to roll one side until it didn't seem it could stretch any further, then flipped the sheet over and rolled the other side. Continue rolling until the pasta is very thin, to the point that you can readily see light through it. Cut into 4-inch by 8-inch slices, then set aside until you're ready to assemble the lasagne.

Bechamel Sauce
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 2/3 cups milk
A pinch of nutmeg
Salt and pepper

Melt butter in a heavy pan over medium heat, then add flour and stir with a whisk until combined. Continue stirring until the roux begins to darken and releases a nutty smell. Add the milk, then bring to a boil and continue stirring until thickened. Add nutmeg, then salt and pepper to taste. I added quite a bit of pepper, giving the final Bechamel the appearance of country gravy.

Lasagne al forno:
1 recipe Spinach Lasagne
1 recipe Bechamel sauce
15 oz. Ricotta cheese
1 lb. Button mushrooms
1 lb. Crimini mushrooms
3 ounces basil, chiffonade
1 1/2 cups Parmigiano-Reggiano

Preheat oven to 350ºF and butter a 5-quart baking dish. Bring at least a gallon of heavily salted water to a boil, then boil your lasagne pasta for 2 minutes (only do 4-5 at a time). Gently remove from the boiling water and set onto paper towels to wick away extra water. Repeat until all the pasta has been cooked. Spread a thin layer of bechamel sauce across the bottom of the baking dish, then add a layer of cooked lasagne, overlapping slightly. Top with 5 ounces of Ricotta cheese, and 8 ounces of mushrooms (you can mix them together, or keep the different varieties apart). Add 1 ounce of basil, 1/4 cup of Parmigiano-Reggiano, and 1/4 cup of the bechamel. Top with another layer of overlapping spinach lasagne, then press down gently, yet firm enough to make the surface relatively flat. Repeat two more times. To the top of the outer layer of spinach lasagne, spread the remaining mushrooms and bechamel. Cover with a generous amount of Parmigiano-Reggiano. Cover with a tented piece of foil, taking care that the foil doesn't touch the lasagne. Bake for 40 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for an additional 10. Turn off the oven and wedge the door open with the back of a wooden spoon, and allow to gradually cool down for another 10 minutes. Remove the lasagne from the oven and serve warm. Serves 8-12.

This dish could easily include different flavors, maybe with a ragu sauce and Italian sausage. Lasagne is one of the great dishes to play around with, so feel free to adapt this to however your tastes may be.

Caramelized Onion and Pear Galette

2009-03-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

I just now realized that the date for this month's Daring Bakers challenge was moved forward a couple days (i.e., today), and I have yet to make the recipe. I also noted that, because the date was changed, we can post on the original date - so if you're here looking for the Daring Bakers recipe, please come again in two days. I already know what I'm going to make, I just need to get around to making it. So that aside, I decided this was as good a time as any to post up a recipe I've been hoarding for a while.

This galette is perfect for the season - pears are coming fresh into the market, and the caramelized onions mix with Gorgonzola cheese and walnuts to provide a dish that, for lack of a better term, is somewhat refreshing. Think of it as an early spring treat.

I served this as an appetizer, and it's fairly rich in its flavors so I can't think off the top of my head any dishes to which it could serve well as a side dish, but it could be a vegetarian main course. That's how I ate the leftovers, at least.

Recipe:

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 large onions, sliced thinly
1 tablespoon fresh minced thyme
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
6 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 recipe puff pastry dough
1 ripe pear, cored and sliced thinly
4 oz. Gorgonzola or other blue cheese, crumbled
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375ºF. In a large heavy skillet (I prefer cast iron) over medium-low heat, melt butter and add onions. Season with salt and pepper, add thyme, sugar, and vinegar. Stir and sweat until the onions have lost most of their liquid and are soft, about 30 minutes. Turn off the stove-top and add cream cheese, then stir to incorporate. Roll the puff pastry dough into a circle (or your galette could be a different shape, if you wish) and place onto baking sheet lined with parchment. Alternatively, you could use a buttered pie pan. Place the onion mixture into the center. Spread out evenly, leaving about three inches from all the edges. Top with the pear slices, creating a circular pattern. On top of this, place the Gorgonzola cheese crumbles and walnuts. Fold the edges towards the center of the galette, and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. Can be served warm or at room temperature. Serves 8.

This is a fairly easy recipe to put together, and is a definite treat. I'm thinking this would be a great dish to bring to a potluck, once spring rolls around. Or maybe a 4th of July appetizer. Something about this dish just fits that atmosphere for me. Anyways, this is definitely one that all of you should try.

Blueberry Crumb Cake

2009-03-24T00:34:00.000-07:00

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Sihan of Befuddlement. Always up for something new, I ended up broiling instead of baking this cake. The oven we have here is an old electric, and after waiting an hour for the oven to preheat, it never got warmer than about 100ºF. The bottom burner looks like it's out (so no clue why it even got warmer than room temperature in the first place) and I'll have to call the landlord about that soon, but in the meantime I had the cake just sitting there, waiting to be put in. I tented it with some foil and put it on a low shelft, then broiled it, checking every 10 minutes or so to make sure the temperature wasn't going too high. Long story short, the cake ended up taking me about two hours to fully bake instead of the one, but the taste definitely (and surprisingly) wasn't affected.

Hopefully this problem will be fixed quite quickly - I wanted to put myself ahead a few recipes, as I usually do, just in case something comes up, and I need to make my weekly loaf of sourdough (I pretty much eat a sandwich and some fruit for lunch every day at work, and I refuse to go out and buy bread. It's not that mine's any better, I'm just stubborn like that). Anyways, people reading this are probably more interested in the recipe. So, let's see. Fresh blueberries in a moist cake, topped with a walnut crumb crust. Contrasting texture of slightly crispy on top of soft; buttery walnuts with brown sugar topping the fruity cake. As Dorie suggests, this cake can be eaten as a breakfast treat, as a snack, or for dessert. It goes well with any time of the day. Fairly easy to put together, but your friends will think it took loads more effort.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, pp. 192 - 193

King Cake

2009-03-21T18:01:00.000-07:00

Happy belated Mardi Gras! Yes, I know, very very belated. I actually made this cake late on Monday night just in time for the celebration, but forgot I even had these pictures until just now. Just as well though - hopefully someone can find this recipe useful and make their own King Cake for the party next year. King Cake is traditionally shaped into a circle after braiding it, but I left mine as more a loaf because I didn't have the room to make the braids any longer. I really need a bigger kitchen. It's also traditionally topped with colored sugar for the three Carnival colors (purple, yellow, and green) and baked with a trinket inside - whoever gets the piece with the trinket has to bake the next King Cake.

Recipe:

Cake:
1/2 cup warm water
4 1/2 teaspoons instant dry yeast
4 1/2 cups flour (or more, depending on your dough)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon fresh lime zest
1/2 cup lukewarm milk
3 eggs, room temperature
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup butter, softened

In the bottom of a stand mixer attached with a kneading hook, combine the warm water and yeast. Allow to proof for 10 minutes. In the meantime, combine 4 cups of flour with the sugar, nutmeg, salt, and lime zest. Pour into the yeast mixture and add the milk and eggs. Knead until combined, then add the butter and continue kneading until the dough forms a ball that pulls away from the sides of the mixer. Add more flour, a tablespoon a time, if the dough is too wet to form a ball. After the dough is fully incorporated, butter a bowl and place the dough into it, then cover with a towel until doubled in size (about 2 hours). Punch down the dough and divide into three. Roll each portion into a rod, equal in length (your choice - mine were 16 inches long). Braid together on a baking sheet, then cover with a towel and allow to rise for about an hour. In the meantime, preheat oven to 350ºF. After the dough has finished rising, bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.

Icing:
3 cups confectioner's sugar
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
3 tablespoons water

Combine confectioner's sugar with lime juice and water, and stir until the sugar has had enough time to dissolve as much as it will. Add more water, one teaspoon at a time, if this mixture is too thick. Pour evenly over the cooled King Cake.

Sugar topping:
3/4 cup of granulated sugar, divided
Food coloring

In a small food processor, combine 1/4 cup granulated sugar with 3 drops of green food coloring. Pour out and repeat with the green and purple (for purple, I used 2 drops of red and 1 drop of blue). Sprinkle the sugar over the iced cake until you get the finish you want - don't overdo it, though.

Make sure your cake has baked through all the way (I altered the recipe I posted because when I cut into mine, it was a bit raw in the middle), and don't pour too much sugar on top. I ended up brushing off a bit of it because it was overly-sweet.

French Yogurt Cake with Apricot Glaze

2009-03-17T07:58:00.000-07:00

First off, I'd like to thank all the well-wishers from last week. I'm feeling much better now, and it's so nice to be able to bake again without fear of spreading sick to people. Again, thanks to all of you. Second item, happy St. Patrick's Day! This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Liliana of My Cookbook Addiction. I really had to fight the urge to add some green food coloring to this batter. A little green in the background will have to do. Thirdly (and randomly)...does anyone else have to fight the addiction for girl scout cookies? I feel like I keep getting conned into buying packages when I leave the store. This, after I complain that they never come to my house.

This cake is wonderfully moist and soft. It reminds me a lot of pound cake, but with a hint of almond and topped with a glaze of your choice. I'll be bringing this one into work today, and I have a feeling it'll be gone pretty quickly. Having eaten a bit of it already, it's surprising how fast a slice can disappear. All this, and it's probably one of the easiest cakes I've come across to put together.

If you're going to go out and celebrate St. Patty's Day tonight (and I know I will), make sure you wear green, and drink a lot of water. No hangovers allowed tomorrow - it's a work day.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, pp. 224-225

Chile con Pollo

2009-03-16T18:30:00.000-07:00

In my quest to use my slow cooker more often, I came across several recipes for chile con carne (standard issue chili). They all had their own mix of spices, ratios of meat to beans, types of beans, random ingredients - and I came to the notion that I should just make something of my own. While in the grocery, I picked up a couple new spices and decided to experiment. I also switched to chicken, but that's just a preference. You could just as easily make this with beef (like a chuck roast).

Recipe:
1 lb. dry kidney beans, soaked in water overnight
1 lb. chicken breasts, cubed bite-size
2 medium sweet onions, chopped
Pinch of salt
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 jalapeños, seeded, ribbed, and chopped
3 strips bacon, chopped
1 14-oz. can whole tomatoes
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1 tablespoon chipotle chili pepper powder
1 tablespoon red chili pepper powder
2 teaspoons cumin
3 cups + 2 tablespoons water, divided
Juice of 1 lime
Toppings (cilantro, red onion, shredded cheese, sour cream, etc.)

Soak the kidney beans in water overnight. The next morning, drain them and place into a slow cooker. Add the cubed chicken. Chop the onions and sweat over medium heat, and sprinkle with salt. After about 10 minutes, add the garlic and jalapeños and cook for an additional 10 minutes. Pour into the slow cooker, then add the bacon and tomatoes. Combine the spices and add 2 tablespoons of water, then mix together to form a paste. Scrape into the slow cooker, then add the remaining 3 cups of water and lime. Give the mixture a few good stirs to bring everything together, then cook over low heat for 8 hours.

You'll come home to the smell of a delicious meal sitting there waiting for you. At this point, you can add more water if it's too thick for your liking, or you can make a paste from cornstarch to thicken it. For me, the dish was just right, and I topped it with just a bit of cilantro. This is a fairly mild chili, so if you'd prefer spicy, add another tablespoon or so of red chile pepper powder.

Lemon Cup Custard

2009-03-10T08:58:00.000-07:00

Man, what a week this has been. I haven't posted anything since the last Tuesdays with Dorie listing because I've been sick for over a week, and really don't want to bake while ill with the chance of getting others sick. Fortunately, I made that last cake and these custards well in advance, so at least I can post these. This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Bridget of The Way the Cookie Crumbles.

This custard is particularly thick, and rich with lemon flavor (I opted to follow Dorie's suggestion and added a couple drops of lemon extract), and the portions are just the right size that you can eat one, enjoying its rich flavor without later regretting it. I made six cups, but one of them didn't make it to picture-time. I may or may not have left it in my stomach.

Hopefully I'll feel well enough to bake more pretty soon and check out everyone else's cooking. As it is, I have a lot of recipes and pictures just waiting to be posted, so I'll try to update with some of those while I'm in recovery mode.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, p. 387

Chocolate Whiskey Cake

2009-03-03T00:00:00.000-08:00

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was Chocolate Armagnac Cake, selected by Lyb of And then I do the dishes. The recipe comes with a story about Dorie working at a restaurant, and adjusting a cake by substituting a few ingredients. I decided to make the original cake (with raisins and scotch) because I already had all the ingredients on hand. I can understand how Dorie could get bored making the same cake every day, but by no means does that make the original cake any less delicious.

The cake includes pecans in the batter, and mixes in raisins that have been soaked in whiskey. Many people aren't fans of raisins, I know, but every time I throw them into a chocolate dish, something wonderful always seems to happen. If the people consuming the cake aren't told that there are raisins, they'll tell you that the cake is moist, and that there's something they can't quite put their finger on. Even those that have an aversion to raisins seem to get over it when it's surrounded by decadent chocolate. Give it a try, you won't regret it.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, pp. 279 - 281

Chocolate Valentino Cake with Ice Cream

2009-02-28T00:00:00.000-08:00

This month's Daring Bakers challenge was to make a flourless chocolate cake, paired with a homemade ice cream. I made a rich cake using Valrhona dark chocolate, paired it with two different ice creams - coffee, and chile spice, and topped it all with a semisweet chocolate and brandy sauce. Now that Daring Bakers is checked by a bot, we need to have an obligatory sentence in our post. I followed the suggested recipe for the cake, but the ice creams were not based on the shared recipes. Anyways, "The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge."

If you decide to make this cake, you can use whatever sort of chocolate you'd like (except white chocolate; the ratios in that chocolate will throw off the recipe), just make sure it's a chocolate you love. Because the cake is only eggs, butter, and the chocolate, the cake will end up tasting just like the chocolate you put into it. As with most recipes, the better quality ingredients you get, the better this cake will taste.

Chocolate Valentino Cake:
16 oz. premium-quality dark chocolate (like Valrhona), roughly chopped
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
5 large eggs, separated

Butter an 8"x8" pan, and line with parchment paper (the butter helps the paper hold shape). Preheat the oven to 375ºF. In a double boiler, combine the chocolate and butter over low heat, stirring continuously until fully melted. Don't overheat it, or the butter and chocolate will separate. Once melted, remove from heat and allow to cool down. Whip the egg whites into stiff peaks, but don't over-whip them or the cake will feel dry. Add the egg yolks into the cooled chocolate mixture, and stir to combine. Take one third of the egg whites and fold into the chocolate mixture, then gently pour this mixture back into the remaining egg whites and carefully fold. Don't over-fold, or the egg white foam will break, and your cake will deflate. Pour into the pan, and 20-25 minutes, or until the top begins to crack. An inserted knife will still come up damp, not dry. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan. Makes 8 servings.

Coffee ice cream:
1 1/2 cups whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups whole coffee beans
Heavy pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
5 large egg yolks
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon finely ground coffee

In a medium pot, combine the milk, sugar, coffee beans, salt, and 1/2 cup of the cream, then warm over medium heat until steaming. Cover and take off of the heat, then set aside to steep for 1 hour. After it has finished steeping, place a metal bowl into a larger bowl filled with ice, and pour in the remaining cup of cream. Reheat the coffee bean mixture until steaming again. Whisk the egg yolks together, and add a small amount of the steaming milk into it while whisking to temper, then combine the tempered yolks back into the steaming milk while continuing to whisk to prevent curdling. Stir over medium heat using a wooden spoon until nappe, about 10 minutes. Strain into the chilled cream. Mix in the vanilla and ground coffee. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, then process ice cream as per manufacturer's directions.

Chile spice ice cream:
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup milk
2 jalapeños, or chiles of your choice, roughly chopped
3/4 cup sugar
6 egg yolks
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Combine 1/2 cup heavy cream with the milk, sugar, and chiles. Place into a medium pot over low heat. Once the mixture begins to steam, cover with a lid and set aside to steep for 1 hour. Bring this mixture back to a steam, then whisk the egg yolks together. Place the remaining cup of cream into a metal bowl, set into a larger bowl filled with ice. Carefully temper the egg yolks with a little bit of this steaming milk, then pour back into the milk mixture, making sure to whisk to prevent curdling. Place back over medium heat and continue to stir until nappe. Strain this mixture into the chilled cream, then add the remaining spices and stir. Refrigerate this mix for at least 2 hours, then process according to manufacturer's directions.

The coffee ice cream is heavenly on its own, but the chile ice cream definitely needs to be paired with some chocolate. The spice is pretty mild with all the dairy it's in, but it still has a bite that just doesn't feel right without some accompanying chocolate. The cake itself was heavenly, and like expected, it tasted just like a big Valrhona dark chocolate bar, but with the lighter mouthfeel of a cake. The ease of this cake means it's a great last-minute dessert, as far as fancy cakes can go.

Caramel Crunch Bars

2009-02-24T00:00:00.000-08:00

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was picked by Whitney of What’s left on the table?. It's a rather soft coffee and chocolate flavored base covered with semisweet chocolate and topped with bits of Heath bar. The bars are perfect to share with a crowd, and are easy enough to make that you could produce masses of them without much concern. Give them a try for the next potluck you go to, or if you feel like serving a casual dessert.

Knowing how much chocolate went into these, I was surprised at how the coffee stood out the first time I bit into one. It took me a bit off guard, but grew on me before the first bar was finished. The way the flavors combine between the coffee, toffee, and chocolate are an instant hit.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, pp. 112 - 113

Devils Food White Out Cake

2009-02-17T00:04:00.000-08:00

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Stephanie of Confessions of a City Eater. This is the cover recipe for the book we've been baking from, so my expectations were pretty high, and I wasn't let down. A devil's food cake is sliced into four layers (if you can get it to rise, a common problem amongst the bakers) and is layered with marshmallow-like white frosting. Dorie leaves the option to frost all four layers like a normal cake, but I took her lead and copied her in chopping up one of the layers and using it as decoration.

If (when?) I make this cake again, I'm going to use some smaller cake pans so I can get thicker layers of cake. Because the texture was perfectly fine, I'm assuming that this cake just isn't meant to rise as much as I had expected, but I was a little bummed out by how much smaller it was than I had anticipated. Still, the mix of dark chocolate cake with light vanilla marshmallowy cream makes this cake a definite favorite.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, pp. 247 - 249

French Onion Soup

2009-02-16T11:05:00.000-08:00

I stick by the idea that many of the best ideas were formed by sheer laziness. I was sort of running out of food, but really didn't want to make a trip to the grocery store until I had a full list of items I needed. Looking around the kitchen, I found a stack of onions waiting in the cupboard, so I ventured to make some French Onion Soup. Not to mention it's another slow cooker recipe, so I enjoyed coming home to another great-smelling house last week.

The slightly altered beef broth is cooked with onions, then topped with french bread. I actually used some sourdough because that's what I had on hand, just make sure it's a hard-crusted bread. On top of that is freshly grated Swiss cheese. You can either put the cheese on top of the bread and bake it in the oven until melted, then float them in your soup...or you can float the bread in the soup, smother the whole thing with cheese, and break out a butane blowtorch to melt it all down. Is the butane torch necessary? I doubt it, but I have to find some sort of excuse to use it! You can do the same with a broiler, but make sure your dishes are oven-safe.

Recipe:

6 medium Panoche Sweet onions (or another sweet onion)
3 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons butter
2 (14.5-ounce) cans beef broth
3 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2 cups water
French or sourdough bread
8 ounces Swiss cheese, grated

Thinly slice the onions and mince the garlic. In a heavy skillet over medium heat, melt the butter and add the onions. Cook until soft with frequent stirring, about 15 minutes. Add garlic and continue to cook for an additional 5 minutes. You want to soften everything up, do not brown them. Place into a slow cooker and add the beef broth, Worcestershire sauce, and water. Give everything a good stir and set the slow cooker to low heat for 6 - 8 hours. Ladle soup into bowls, then slice the bread 1/2" - 3/4" thick, float in the soup, and top with grated cheese. Using a blowtorch, carefully melt the cheese on top. Alternatively, you can toast the bread with cheese on it in a broiler or toaster oven, then float that on top of your soup. Serves 8.

French Onion Soup

Made in a slow cooker, this is a simple soup ...

See French Onion Soup on Key Ingredient.

Floating Islands

2009-02-10T10:07:00.000-08:00

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Shari of Whisk: a food blog. These floating islands are poached meringues in a pool of creme anglaise. It's not a bold dessert, but its subtle flavor and sweetness make it delicious.

This was my first time making creme anglaise, and I loved how it ended up tasting. Creme anglaise ice cream, anyone? Creme anglaise is essentially ice cream batter on its own, so you could just throw it into an ice cream maker and have another delicious dessert waiting for you. I poached the meringues for 2-3 minutes per side instead of Dorie's suggested one. I knew that these would be sitting in the refrigerator for a few days, so I wanted to make sure that they held some structural integrity.

Unfortunately when I showed up with these at work, my serving dish was a ceramic pie pan filled with creme anglaise and topped with the islands. My boss asked me what was wrong with my lemon meringue pie. Uhm. So if I make this again, I'm going to make sure it's served in such a way that it's painfully obvious it's not a failed pie.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, pp. 401-402

Chicken Tortilla Soup

2009-02-05T00:12:00.000-08:00

There's a plethora of great reasons to go over to my brother's house. Quality time with family, hilarious stories, delicious free food, and great lighting. Erm...understand that my kitchen has horrible lighting, which is why a lot of my pictures end up coming out rather dark. I could fix this with photoshop, but I lost my last copy. My roommates stopped asking me what I'm doing when I start moving and leaning lamps towards the kitchen so I can get enough light for a decent picture. Most of my favorite pictures that end up on this blog were taken instead at my brother's house. What can I say, I love the electricity there.

I was at my brother's house a couple weekends ago, helping to paint a nursery for my future niece (8 weeks now? She's coming so soon!), and my sister-in-law put together this soup in a slow cooker. The meal was fantastic, so I copied the recipe (out of a family cookbook her close friend gave her). As with most things crock-pot, the dish is both easy to put together and delicious.

Credit must be given where due - my brother assembled the behemouth in this picture. I didn't even think about taking pictures when I topped the soup, and it was to my chagrin that my brother suggested I take some pictures - after I had already started eating. I knew my bowl wouldn't do this soup any justice. Fortunately, he saved the day by topping his in a very photogenic fashion.

Recipe:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 (15-oz.) cans black beans in liquid
2 (15-oz.) cans Mexican stewed tomatoes (such as Ro*tel)
1 cup salsa
4-oz. can chopped green chiles
15-oz. can tomato sauce
Tortilla chips
Assorted toppings (shredded cheese, sliced avocado, sour cream, guacamole, onions, etc.)

Combine chicken breasts, black beans, tomatoes, salsa, green chiles, and tomato sauce into a slow cooker and set to cook on low heat for 8-10 hours. After it has finished cooking, remove the chicken with tongs and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Cut into bite-sized pieces and scoop back into the soup. Ladle the soup into bowls and top with tortilla chips. Top with your choice of toppings.

If you're in a rush and didn't quite plan as far ahead as possible, you can cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces before you cook the soup, and cook on high heat for 4 hours. This is exactly what we did this time around, and the chicken was still tender.

This soup is truly a great comfort food. Its warmth combines with the symphony of flavors and spices to produce a delicious melody reminiscent of summer in soup form. Next time I need some good winter comfort food, I'm going to shy away from macaroni and cheese or mashed potatoes, and make myself a nice batch of this chicken tortilla soup.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

This delicious comfort food mixes several flavors and spices to ...

See Chicken Tortilla Soup on Key Ingredient.

World Peace Cookies

2009-02-03T17:48:00.000-08:00

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Jessica of cookbookhabit. These delicious chocolate-battered cookies are filled with chopped chocolate, as well as a good serving of salt to accent the flavors deliciously. It's also an egg-free dough, so it's one of those doughs you can get away with eating raw without too many worries.

The dough is very crumbly, so it may be hard to shape loaves like Dorie suggests. Rather than alter the dough, I just scooped out packed tablespoon-fulls of dough and baked them in the oven as per directions. They retained their dome shape from my tablespoon, so after they had cooled for a few minutes I patted them down with a fork. These cookies are delectable, melt (fall apart?) in your mouth, and are packed with a surprisingly high amount of flavor.

I'd be interested to make these cookies trying different types of salts, and seeing what sort of difference it actually makes in the overall flavor. The salt was particularly pronounced to me when the dough was still raw, but unfortunately seemed to lose its edge after baked. Had I used fleur de sel instead of Mediterranean sea salt, the outcome may have been different. Plus that'd give me a good excuse to make four batches in a row. All in the name of science, right?

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan pp. 138 - 139

Chocolate & Coffee Marzipan Swirls Wrapped with Tuile

2009-01-29T00:00:00.000-08:00

Well, that's a hefty title, but it sums up these treats perfectly. This month's Daring Bakers challenge was to make tuile dough and bend them into whatever shape met our fancy. Tuiles are a French cookie baked extra thin, and shaped (to somewhat resemble a roof tile, from which they get their name) as soon as they come out of the oven. Due to the flexibility of the cookie while it's still warm, it lends itself to be shaped into whatever you please. This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michael Roux. Now for my own little take on these recipes...

I was thinking about making rod-shaped empty crusts and filling them with some chocolate whipped cream or chocolate mousse. Something of that sort. I mentioned it to Moowie, and she suggested I try playing with marizpan, and maybe add some chocolate and coffee in there. What can I say, I took the idea and ran with it. I quickly found a couple marzipan recipes and adapted them to suite me, then found a good icing recipe and put it all together.

Recipe:

Marzipan:
2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cup water
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
4 cups (1 lb) ground almonds
2 egg whites, room temperature
Just under 1 lb. confectioner's sugar

In a medium sized pot over medium heat, dissolve the granulated sugar in the water. Once it's fully in the liquid, add the cream of tartar and bring to a boil, covering the pot. Continue boiling for 3 minutes, then uncover and continue to boil with the lid off until a candy thermometer indicates the mixture is at 240ºF. Remove from heat and place into a larger bowl or sink containing cool water. Stir while cooling until mixture is thick, then add the ground almonds and egg whites. Place back over low heat and continue stirring for 2 minutes or until thick. Spoon onto a surface coated with powdered sugar and turn with a spatula until cool enough to handle by hand. Knead as you would dough, adding confectioner's sugar until fairly dry, smooth, and somewhat flexible.

Chocolate coffee icing:
3 ounces high-quality bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tablespoon strong coffee
3 tablespoons powdered sugar

In a double broiler (I always use a metal bowl that fits into a large pot containing a bit of water) melt the chocolate and butter together, stirring frequently. Take care not to overheat it, as the butter and chocolate will separate. Once melted, remove from heat and add coffee and powdered sugar. Stir or whisk vigorously until a smooth icing is formed.

Tuile dough:
1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
Dash of vanilla extract
2 large egg whites, lightly whisked
1/2 cup flour

Preheat oven to 350ºF. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar together. Once sufficiently aerated, add the vanilla. Slowly add the egg whites, followed by small batches of flour. Take care not to overmix the dough. Cover and chill the dough in a refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Allow the dough to sit on the counter for 30 minutes before baking. Using two pieces of parchment paper, spoon some dough onto one piece and cover with the other. Flatten the dough thin with a rolling pin, then place into the oven for approximately 5 minutes. Traditionally, tuiles will be lightly browned and crispy, but then they cannot be sliced; for this recipe, go for a cookie that's still mostly white. Shape immediately.

Assembly:
Divide the marzipan into four portions and sandwich between layers of plastic wrap. Roll into an approximate 12"x10" rectangle, then remove the top layer of plastic wrap. The 10-inch face should be the closest and furthest from you, with the 12-inch faces on the sides. Spoon some icing onto the marzipan and spread evenly, leaving a 1-inch gap at the furthest side from you. Using the plastic wrap to help you pick up the marzipan, begin to tightly roll the marzipan forward. When the roll is formed, turn so the seam is on the bottom and refrigerate for at least an hour to let the marzipan retain its shape. Roll out tuile dough into a shape large enough to surround your marzipan loaf, and bake according to directions. Remove the marzipan loaf from the refrigerator and wrap with the tuile, forming a tight loaf. Allow to cool to reoom temperature before placing back into the refrigerator, chilling for at least an hour. Remove from the refrigerator and trim the edges off either side of the loaf, then cut individual cookies out, each about 2 cm (approximately 3/4") wide. Makes 48 cookies.

The combination of coffee with chocolate and almond make these treats a fine snack at any time of the day. Take a couple nibbles with coffee at breakfast, or bite into them for a sweet dessert after dinner. I had heard of marzipan only a few times previously, and it was surprisingly easy to make a batch of my own. Given, I still haven't had any in a pre-made fashion, so I'm not even sure if it turned out correctly, but the cookie comes together perfectly regardless. Just make sure you have people to share these with, or you'll quickly finish off all four logs.

Fresh Ginger and Chocolate Gingerbread

2009-01-27T00:24:00.000-08:00

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Heather of Sherry Trifle. This dessert lead to an argument between my coworkers and I over what defines a brownie versus a cake. We've now established the lines after much time spent scanning the internet, and came to the conclusion that this is a cake-brownie mix. Its fluffiness and gingerbread flavor definitely indicate cake, while the dense chocolate flavor favor brownie. Regardless, it's a delicious treat.

This was my first time buying stem ginger. I was worried it would end up overpowering the flavor of the chocolate, or that large chunks would turn up through different bites and ruin the effect, but the gingerbread evenly distributed everything. I tried mincing the ginger, but gave up on it after a few minutes and just ground it in a food processor. Much faster, and I just scooped out the tablespoons necessary.

I thought making gingerbread from scratch would be a much more daunting excursion for some reason, but this recipe turned out to be fairly easy. And now that I have a bunch of ginger stashed in the freezer, I'm sure I'll find some reason to make more gingerbread goodies in the coming months.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, p. 212

Berry Surprise Cake

2009-01-20T18:10:00.000-08:00

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Mary Ann of Meet Me in the Kitchen. It's a light cake, a nice break from the traditional overly-sweet ones. The cake itself is more egg than flour, lending an airy feel to the overall product. The filling is cream cheese based, loaded with raspberries, and after it's all been assembled it's topped with whipped cream.

According to Dorie's directions, the cake should rise up considerably more than mine did. Mine also caved in on me while it was cooling, but I didn't worry too much about it. After cutting the cake down the middle, I just kept loading raspberries into the center until it finally looked flat when the top was back on. Same finished product, just a different method via improvisation.

This is one of those treats that gets a top-five count for Dorie's best. The cake is light through every bite, with whipped cream, whipped cream cheese, and the egg-based batter. The raspberries play the key role of flavor, and the others go into the background to support without argument. The only bad thing with this delectable is that it's so light and delicious, you could probably eat the whole thing in one sitting without really noticing.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, pp. 273-275

Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins

2009-01-13T00:00:00.000-08:00

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Rebecca at Ezra Pound Cake. This was a well-welcomed relief from the fleet of sweets I've been ingesting courtesy of the Dorie group. These muffins are stuffed with mildly spicy flavor.

Packed inside each of these muffins (made with both flour and cornmeal for an added savory flavor) are fresh corn kernels, cilantro, baby bell peppers, and dried California Chili pods. I went with baby bell peppers instead of one red one because I like the more varied colors presented by using multiple small ones, and used the dried California Chili pod instead of a jalapeño because...well, I was lazy and I had a bunch of these in my cupboard anyway. I knew the muffins just needed some spice, so one of these larger pods would bring a more subtle spice, but would add a lot of flavor.

These savory muffins are definitely a hit. Its times like these that I ask myself why I don't bake muffins more often - they're always full of little goodies, and rare is a batch come across that doesn't taste delicious. Now I know that this book does savory just as well as it's always done sweet.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, p. 6

Combination Couscous

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

I'll call this Combination Couscous because it combines so many various items that you wouldn't normally thing would come together. Sweet, sour, salty, savory, soft, crunchy, and everything between - but at the same time, surprisingly, nothing loses its own flavor in the mix. Everything stands out on its own, yet melds together perfectly with the corresponding ingredients. If you have any spare couscous laying around the house, I suggest you give this recipe a try.

Recipe - adapted from Bon Apetit, August 2005
3 3/4 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 cups couscous
1 cup golden raisins
1 bunch (about 8 total) green onions
3 slices pancetta
1 cup hulled sunflower seeds
1/2 cup butter
Salt and pepper to taste

Place the chicken broth into a large pot and add the salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Add the couscous and raisins, then remove from heat. Allow it to sit, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes or until all the liquid has been absorbed by the couscous. Chop the green onions into 1-inch long sections, and roughly chop the pancetta. Combine green onions, pancetta, and sunflower seeds in a large bowl and mix. Cut the butter into 8 pieces and add to the bowl. Pour the hot couscous on top and stir (using tongs helps to get everything mixed in well) until combined. Add salt and pepper to taste, and serve hot.

This recipe can very easily be adapted to whatever extra things you may have lying around the kitchen. Have pecans but no sunflower seeds? No problem. Don't want to make a trip to the store for pancetta? Don't worry about it. I still have some leftover couscous, and I'm planning on cleaning out my cupboard a bit with the help of this recipe.

Combination Couscous

A mix of green onions, sunflower seeds, and golden raisins ...

See Combination Couscous on Key Ingredient.

French Pear Tart

2009-01-06T22:07:00.000-08:00

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by the woman behind the name herself - Dorie Greenspan. I believe this is the first time she's thrown in a suggestion for a recipe, and I think it's wonderful that she's taken an active role in this fan/baking group.

I spent a bit more time on this recipe than was probably necessary - blanching the almonds and poaching the pears myself. However, I hadn't done either until today, so they're good things to have learned. I also had some leftover ground almonds (non-blanched) from a previous recipe, so I took Dorie's suggestion and made a nutty tart shell by replacing 1/4 cup of flour with 1/4 cup ground almonds.

Covering the almond flavored shell is a layer of almond paste, which is delicious in its own right. The pears on top bring the dish to an end, combining their subtle fruity flavor with the sweet almond layers, culminating into a delicious dessert. This tart is every bit as tasty as it looks. As often happens with these recipes, this is one that will probably be repeated when the right occasion comes.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, pp. 368 - 369

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Fudges

2008-12-30T10:54:00.000-08:00

Making fudge has been a December tradition for my family for as long as I can remember. My mom makes every year some milk chocolate fudge, as well as her classic peanut butter fudge (which is always a favorite, and always devoured quickly). In recent years, I've copied her, and made a few adjustments of my own to the fudge recipes, with the end product being a bit lighter in flavor - I may yet change this again for next year.

I've experimented in the past with other flavors as well. I made white chocolate one time, which was overly sweet (even for fudge) as well as peppermint, which didn't quite come out the way I had hoped. I also tried chocolate and almond mixed together using almond extract, and while the taste was alright, it was in my earlier stages of fudge making and it ended up being too soft. It wasn't until recently that I got the right cooking time down to a science. My mom has also made chocolate with nuts in it, as well as a version that resembles a 50-50 bar in both appearance and flavor (this is now also a crowd favorite, and she makes it every year).

I made the peanut butter fudge last year, and my boss jokingly banned it from the building - he said that he was making too many excuses to go to the kitchen and eat some. I know when I go in after the holidays with the remnants of these fudges, my coworkers will be more than happy to devour them.

So if you're a friend of mine nearby, feel free to stop over and grab some of this fudge. It only makes an appearance once a year, and it's bound to disappear quickly!

Dulce de Leche Duos

2008-12-30T10:35:00.000-08:00

These delicious cookies were selected from the same book used in Tuesdays with Dorie, but the recipe has not yet been selected. I know that it will be eventually, so I went ahead and made them in advance (I had leftover dulce de leche from the Snickery Squares). I decided to share them now because of how wonderfully they turned out. This is one of the recipes I will absolutely repeat in the future.

The showcased cookies are made as per Dorie's instructions - with a bit of dulce de leche sandwiched between the cookies. These may be the best cookies I've yet made from Dorie's list. The caramely and gooey mixture makes these nearly sacrosanct sweets simply superb. I ran out of dulce de leche after making a few of the sandwiches, and served the remainder of the cookies by themselves. These were still delicious in a very pure way, with the light touch of dulce de leche. They aren't over-sweet, but at the same time, they don't lack.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, p. 161

Linzer Sables

2008-12-30T10:20:00.000-08:00

This Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Living the Life. I didn't dust the top of these cookies with confectioner's sugar, simply for storage reasons (stacking them on top of each other, it would have formed quite a mess), but would if I made this recipe again simply to give the cookies a more decadent look. I didn't have the scalloped cutter that the traditional cookies would be formed from, but did use a second smaller circle to make a peekaboo cutout off-center. These cookies were made with raspberry jam in the batter, with additional jam sandwiched between layers.

If I make these cookies again (and I probably will), I'll blanch and dry the almonds before I grind them down. The overall color was darker than I was expecting, but that didn't effect the overall flavor. What's better than a cookie with a little bit of fruit in it so you get the feeling that you're not being completely unhealthy? The flavors of spices, nuts, and jam all meld together in these mild cookies, perfect as a light treat.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, pp. 134 - 136

Grandma's All-Occasion Sugar Cookies

2008-12-30T10:06:00.000-08:00

This Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Küchenlatein. It's a plain sugar cookie that is anything but. While it looks like any other sugar cookie, this treat is surprisingly rich and tasty. I had my friend try one after she professed that she doesn't like sugar cookies, and she was wowed. She stated that these brought back nostalgia of cookies she used to have when she was little, and that these were the first sugar cookies since then that she's liked. Dorie gets another one right.

After making the batter and cutting the cookies out, I sprinkled them with granulated sugar before baking them. These cookies shouldn't be crowded with icing, which would only take away the basic flavors that these embody. I thought sprinkling the tops with a bit of sugar would give them a little more visual appeal - now they sparkle under the lights while they're being served. The addition of cinnamon, while flavorful, could dampen the overall effect.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, pp. 146 - 147

Buttery Jam Cookies

2008-12-30T09:53:00.000-08:00

This Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Randomosity and the Girl. These simple cookies combine ginger with a jam of your choice (I used apricot) and put it into a small bite-sized treat.

These had more of a ginger taste than I was expecting, but it wasn't something to complain about. While simplistic in their flavor, these aren't cookies to turn down, but they don't stand out as much from the other recipes from Dorie that I made for the holidays. These cookies are great in their own being, but don't seem to suit the time of year in which I made them. If I were to repeat them, they seem like they'd be a great springtime treat.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, p. 80

Snickery Squares

2008-12-30T09:32:00.000-08:00

In my attempts to catch up with the Tuesdays with Dorie recipe rotation, I also made these bars to serve for the holidays. The recipe was originally selected by Dinner and Dessert for early March. The three layers of these bars come together to give you the feeling that you've bit into a particularly rich Snicker's bar, a favorite of many people.

As with the brownies I previously made, I cut these into 64 squares instead of Dorie's suggested 16, simply because the bite sizes are better to serve at parties or get-togethers. This one held up better than the brownies to the multiple cuts, and the layers show themselves off beautifully. The sweet crust is topped by a mix of peanuts and dulce de leche (I had to go to 4 stores to find this - I was surprised, being in San Diego. I sort of figured I could find it at any grocery store), and finished with a layer of bittersweet chocolate and nuts.

These bites are very decadent, with just the right amount of all the flavors. I noticed that these disappear quite quickly whenever I bring them somewhere with me, so they're definitely a favorite. The recipe is rather simple and fast, so this would be one of those recipes that's easy to repeat for future use.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, pp. 120 - 122

Quintuple Chocolate Brownies

2008-12-30T09:13:00.000-08:00

I thought these holidays would be a great time to catch up on some of the Tuesdays with Dorie recipes I never got to try because I joined the group halfway through the year. This recipe was first made in early January.

If you want something extremely rich, this is the recipe for you. When I made it, I used dark chocolate, bittersweet chocolate, semisweet chocolate, and white chocolate. Originally made to form 16 squares, I cut it into 64 so they'd be more bite-sized (more appropriate for bringing to any holiday function). For the most part they held up fine, but some of the bites around the edges fell over - structural instability due to the nuts. Unfortunately I had to sacrifice those and eat them myself...darn.

Dorie suggests to serve these straight-up, but given how rich they are in even small portions, I couldn't imagine serving them without something to break up the chocolate, like vanilla ice cream. That's adding a lot more richness to the overall dish, so maybe you could make do with just a large glass of milk.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, pp. 98 - 100

Raspberry French Yule Log

2008-12-28T21:40:00.000-08:00

Time for the monthly Daring Bakers challenge. This month's challenge was brought to us by Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux. They've chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilège Gourmand.

There are six elements to this dessert, each of which can be adapted to your personal preferences. I made an almond Dacquoise Biscuit as the bottom portion, topped with carmelized white chocolate ganache. The two inserts are a plain praline crisp and vanilla creme brulee, all surrounded by raspberry and vanilla mousse. Topping all of it is a simple almond royal icing. I wanted to stay away from stronger flavors, like the typical dark chocolates that come with this dessert, simply due to the fact that so many other treats during the holiday season rely on these same flavors. I wanted to make something that would be a bit lighter, and would have a nice fruity taste added to it as well.

Recipe:

Almond Dacquoise Biscuit:
3/4 cup + 1 tablespoon almond meal
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
2 tablespoons flour
3 large egg whites
4 tablespoons granulated sugar

If you want to make homemade almond meal, simply blanch some almonds, remove their skins, and bake in a 350ºF oven for 10 minutes or until fragrant, then process roughly. Set aside any excess meal, then add to the processor the confectioner's sugar and flour, along with the almond meal, and process until just combined. In a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whisk the egg whites and slowly add the granulated sugar. Continue whisking until stiff peaks form. Pour almond mix on top and fold together. Pour onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper and smooth out until 1/3-inch thick. Bake in the 350ºF oven 15 minutes, or until golden. Cut to desired shape (I cut three 5-inch circles).

Carmelized White Chocolate Ganache:
4 teaspoons granulated sugar
6 ounces white chocolate chips
2/3 cup heavy cream

Heat sugar in a pot over medium heat, swirling occassionally to ensure it doesn't burn. Do not stir with a spoon - it will introduce air. Continue heating until dark amber color is reached (easier to see in aluminium). In the meantime, bring the cream to a boil. Remove caramel sugar from heat and, while at arm's length, pour cream into sugar. Add white chocolate and submerge all pieces with a wooden spoon. Wait 30 seconds, then stir together until combined. Pour a small amount onto each dacquoise biscuit, then cool in refrigerator until set.

Raspberry Vanilla Mousse:
1 2/3 cup heavy cream, divided
2/3 cup whole milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 large egg yolks
6 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup raspberry puree

Combine 2/3 cup heavy cream, milk, and vanilla extract. Beat together the egg yolks and sugar until light and fluffy. Add cornstarch, and beat until no lumps are present. Add the dairy mix and raspberry puree, then stir until combined. Move into a saucepan and heat over medium heat until thickened. Move to a refrigerator to cool. In a stand mixer with paddle attachment, whip the remaining cup of heavy cream, adding sugar and vanilla as necessary to flavor it. Fold together the raspberry and creme mixes with a rubber spatula - do not over-stir, it will collapse.

Praline Crisp:
1/3 cup whole milk
2/3 tablespoon butter
1/3 cup flour
1 tablespoon beaten egg
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon olive oil

Preheat oven to 450ºF. Heat milk and butter together until melted. Add flour and mix until the mixture comes together. Add egg, sugar, and oil. Mix together, then spread thinly on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for a few minutes, until golden brown and crispy.

Vanilla Creme Brulee Insert:
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup whole milk
4 egg yolks
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 210ºF. Whisk together sugar and egg yolks just to combine. Add dairy and vanilla. Strain and pour evenly into three creme brulee dishes. Place dishes into baking sheet with high sides, and add boiling water to come halfway up the sides of the dishes. Bake for 1 hour, or until the center is soft but the sides are set. Remove from the oven and cool in the refrigerator, covering with plastic wrap if you want to avoid skin from forming.

Almond royal icing:
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 large egg whites
1 teaspoon milk
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Begin whisking the egg whites in a stand mixer on medium speed, and add powdered sugar slowly. Continue adding until the mixture thickens to a consistency that resembles softened whipped cream. Add the milk and almond extract, then beat to combine.

Assembly:
Remove the almond dacqouise biscuit with ganache from the refrigerator. Scoop a little mousse on top and spread with praline insert, leaving it in place after the mousse has been spread. Add some more mousse on top, then spoon on some creme brulee. Place into the freezer for an hour to ensure it sets, then top with more mousse, forming the final shape of the dessert. Again, place into the freezer to set. Top with icing (go lightly, it's fairly strong) and freeze before serving. Cut with a hot knife to go through it cleanly.

Raspberry French Yule Log

A lighter-than-average-flavored French Yule Log

See Raspberry French Yule Log on Key Ingredient.

Spicy Sausage and Parmesan Risotto

2008-12-20T17:19:00.000-08:00

I have found a new favorite recipe. This is the first risotto to make that list. This being a hypothetical list, I can't go back and check what else exactly makes it, but this one definitely does. This dish is pretty simple to put together, but the taste is magnificent. It has an aura of comfort food, with a little kick of spice, and everything comes together brilliantly in this meal.

Recipe - adapted from Bon Appetit, December 2007
4 tablespoons butter, divided
4 hot Italian sausage links, casings removed
1 small white onion, chopped
1 cup Arborio rice
1/2 cup California chardonnay or similar white wine
3 cups chicken broth
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded
1/3 cup parsley

In a heavy (I prefer cast iron) skillet, melt 2 tablespoons of the butter over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and onion, breaking up any large pieces. Saute until the onions are translucent (4-5 minutes). Add rice and wine, then bring to a boil until all the liquid evaporates. Add the broth, bring to a boil, and then reduce heat to a simmer until risotto is tender (15 minutes). Mix in the Parmesan cheese and top with parsley. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

With a total preparatory time of about 30 minutes, this meal is fast to put together and sure to please. If you don't like spicy, you can substitute another type of flavored sausage to adapt the recipe to your own.

Spicy Sausage and Parmesan Risotto

With a prep. time of about 30 minutes, this meal ...

See Spicy Sausage and Parmesan Risotto on Key Ingredient.

Tall and Creamy Cheesecake

2008-12-16T20:12:00.000-08:00

I actually made this recipe ahead of time for last week, but got lazy and didn't bother posting it. This Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by AnneStrawberry. Like its title explains, this cheesecake is simple but very creamy one. It was so creamy in my case that individual slices fell apart once cut, even after having placed it in the refrigerator overnight. Suggestion to those that may make this after me - maybe try freezing it, then cutting it, before putting it in the refrigerator to thaw before serving. That should help it stay together.

The taste is very classic, the sweet and eggy coming together with the cream cheese. I've always been a fan of cheesecakes, and cream cheese in general, so I wasn't surprised at how delicious this was. It was devoured pretty rapidly at work, so the general consensus ddidn't seem to disagree with my own tastes.

The top did get a bit more browned than I'd have wanted in the last bit of baking, so next time I'd throw a piece of foil on top in the end. The graham cracker crust always completes cheesecakes perfectly, and I loved that this crust in particular came so far up the edges to give a nice presentation.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, pp. 235 - 237

Real Butterscotch Pudding

2008-12-02T00:00:00.000-08:00

This month, Tuesdays with Dorie is altering the rules slightly by allowing us to post recipes out of order, so long as they're all done by the end of the month and posted on a Tuesday. I'm deciding to save the cookie recipes for later, so I can share them with more people during the weeks closest to Christmas. This particular recipe was selected by Donna of Spatulas, Corkscrews & Suitcases.

I've always been a fan of butterscotch pudding, but I never put two and two together that butterscotch = butter + scotch. I guess since I grew up eating it, it was just a flavor of its own and had nothing to do with liquor. It's surprising how the flavors of brown sugar, butter, and scotch whiskey all come together into something so magnificent. This dessert definitely has the bite of liquor, so it'll be enjoyed most by adults, but the overall taste is smooth and sweet.

This is absolutely a recipe I'd like to make again, next time I have some sort of semi-formal dinner I can go to. It's a much more refined taste than the standard pudding cups you can buy in the store, and I'm sure most tasters will appreciate it much more. Dorie suggests adding buttered pecans to the top, and that would certainly be a great addition, but I just wasn't feeling up to it this week. If I were sharing this dessert with guests, I'd be sure to take that suggestion to give it a little more bite.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, p. 386

Pennsylvania Dutch Stuffing

2008-12-01T17:29:00.000-08:00

I was never very fond of stuffing while growing up. A mass of bread crumbs stuffed up a poor bird? No thank you. Besides, the flavors were never really that great, and the dish tended to come out either too dry or wet. That all changed when my mom started making this traditional stuffing, a dish with enough great flavors to allow it to stand as its own dish, and perfect texture.

This particular stuffing has apples in it, adding more depth and complexity to the flavors. It ties all the other vegetables together nicely with the meat. The stuffing can be baked in a casserole dish, or inside the turkey if you wish. I personally prefer staying away from stuffing it up the turkey because it complicates cooking time and could end up making the dressing dry - not worth it for the added flavor of a few turkey juices.

Recipe:
1 lb. breakfast sausage
3/4 cup raw bacon, chopped
1 large onion, chopped fine
1 cup chopped celery
8 oz. mushrooms, sliced
2 small apples, cored and chopped
1 cup fresh chopped parsley
1 teaspoon sage
1 teaspoon thyme
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup chopped walnuts
12 oz. dry stuffing bread crumbs
Salt and pepper to taste

Brown the breakfast sausage and bacon in a large skillet over medium heat, breaking up any large chunks that remain. Once browned, add the onion, celery, mushrooms, apples, parsley, sage, and thyme (in a pinch, you can use poultry seasoning in place of the sage or thyme). Sauté, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes or until tender. Stir in the chicken broth and walnuts, then add the bread crumbs (more or less depending on how dry you want it). Add salt and pepper to taste. If baking in a casserole dish, butter a 2 1/2-quart dish and preheat the oven to 350ºF. Slide stuffing into dish and spread evenly, but without compressing the stuffing. Bake 1 hour, and allow to cool uncovered before serving. Serves 10.

Sure, stuffing is traditionally served during thanksgiving, but this dish is delicious enough to be a comfort food anytime during the winter months.

Pennsylvania Dutch Stuffing

Delicious stuffing, better than the average bread stuffed into a ...

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Cloverleaf Rolls

2008-11-30T17:48:00.000-08:00

My job this thanksgiving was a simple one - to bring some sort of dinner roll. I wanted to make something a little different, at least shape-wise, so I made some classic cloverleaf rolls (something I hadn't done in the past).

Recipe:
3 tablespoons warm water
2 1/2 teaspoons instant dry yeast
3 tablespoons sugar, divided
1 stick + 1 tablespoon butter, divided
1 cup whole milk
2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 - 2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

In a stand mixer bowl, mix together the water, yeast, and 1 tablespoon sugar. Let stand for 5 minutes and froth. Melt 3/4 of the stick of butter, add milk to the mixture, and heat until lukewarm in a microwave. Add the milk and butter mixture into the yeast, add the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar, bread flour, and salt. Mix with a wooden spoon, and then place into the stand mixer with a hook attachment. Add 1 cup all-purpose flour, and begin kneading the dough. Add the remaining flour slowly until the dough is no longer sticky (about 10 minutes of kneading). Cover with a towel and wait for it to double in size, about 1 hour. In the meantime, butter 18 muffin cups with 2 tablespoons butter. Punch down the dough and cut into 54 equal portions (I cut the dough in half, divided each half into thirds, divided each third into an additional third, and thirded one last time to try to get even pieces). Roll each bit of dough with your fingers to get a roughly round shape, and position three pieces into each muffin cup. Cover with a tea towel and allow to rise 30-40 minutes or until doubled in size. Preheat the oven to 400ºF. If the seeds need to be toasted, empty them into a heavy skillet and put over medium heat, stirring frequently until lightly browned and fragrant. Melt the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter and brush the tops of each roll, then sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds. Bake 15-20 minutes.

These simple rolls are fairly simplistic in their flavors, so serve them alongside some jams or butter. Their fun shapes and ease to pull them apart set them aside from the standard dinner rolls, and you could boost the flavors to your own whim by topping them with a different spice or herb of choice.

Cloverleaf Rolls

These simple rolls are fairly simplistic in their flavors, so ...

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Lemon Pancetta Risotto

2008-11-30T13:18:00.000-08:00

This dish throws various vegetables together with a bit of pancetta, and melds the flavors together with the strong use of lemon and Parmesan cheese. As with most risotto recipes, it's fairly easy to put together and takes little time. It's warm and filling, perfect for the winter months.

Recipe:
5 cups chicken broth
1 clove garlic
1 medium onion, quartered
3 ounces pancetta
2 (2x1-inch) strips of lemon zest
1 tablespoon olive oil
10 ounces frozen peas
1 cup dry Arborio rice
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Bring broth to a boil, and then turn temperature down and simmer. In a food processor, chop the garlic, then add the onion and pancetta. Process until roughly chopped. In a heavy pan, add lemon zest and oil, then heat over medium-high. Add the onion mixture and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is soft and golden. Pour frozen peas into the simmering broth, and allow to cook for 2 minutes before straining and setting aside. Pour the chicken broth into the cooked onion mixture, then add the rice. Turn heat to high and cook 10-12 minutes, or until it has thickened. Stir in the cooked peas, Parmesan cheese, butter, and pepper. Remove lemon strips, give the mixture one more stir, and serve warm. Serves 4-6.

If you are not particularly fond of lemons, I would suggest altering the recipe a bit, perhaps adding more pancetta in their stead. This is a very adaptive sort of recipe, so you're free to add whatever vegetables you might have lying around if peas are not convenient.

Lemon Pancetta Risotto

This dish throws various vegetables together with a bit of ...

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Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting

2008-11-29T00:00:00.000-08:00

This month's Daring Bakers challenge was to make a caramel cake with caramelized butter frosting. In addition, a suggestion was to make homemade caramels to be served with the cake. I made some homemade caramels to go along with this recipe (though not the recipe suggested by the group), adding more texture to this decadent dessert. The cake as a whole isn't overly rich, allowing you to truly enjoy it. The challenge this month was hosted by Culinary Curiosity, and co-hosted by Blondie and Brownie, Foray into Food, and Gluten-a-Go-Go.

This cake is not overly complicated, nor is it pretentious. Its basic flavors are more than enough to support it, so there is no need to add details that could potentially take away from the burnt caramel and butter goodness. It would be remiss to force something overbearing into this cake, which would be easy to do considering the light flavors, so I would suggest you make the cake as-is.

Recipe (originally by Shuna Fish Lydon, her signature caramel cake)

Caramel Syrup:
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups water, divided

In a heavy pot, suspend the sugar in 1/2 cup of water - it will not fully dissolve. Heat high until the color turns dark amber. Remove from heat, and keeping the pot at an arm's length distance, slowly (and carefully) add the remaining cup of water. Step away from the mixture until it stops bubbling, then place over medium heat, whisking until reduced. When you drop a bit onto a cold plate and rub it between your fingers after it's cooled, it should have a consistency thicker than syrup but thinner than honey. Place into a glass jar to cool, and store at room temperature.

Caramelized Butter Frosting:
12 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 pound confectioner's sugar, sifted
4-6 tablespoons heavy cream
2-4 tablespoons caramel syrup
Kosher salt to taste

In a light pan, cook the butter over medium heat until it is browned and emits a nutty aroma. Pour through a small sieve into a stand mixer bowl and allow to cool completely. Using a whisk attachment, begin whisking the butter and add the sugar slowly. Once it begins to form chunks, add cream and caramel syrup a tablespoon at a time. Add more sugar until chunky, and then again add cream or syrup. Continue doing this until all the confectioner's sugar is whisked smoothly into the frosting. Add kosher salt to taste. Can be refrigerated a week in advance. Before using, allow to warm to room temperature and whisk to fluff it.

Caramel Cake:
10 tablespoons, unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup caramel syrup
2 eggs, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups cake flour, divided
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup whole milk, divided

Preheat oven to 350ºF and grease a 9-inch cake pan with sides at least 2 inches high. Cut the butter into 10 pieces and place into a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Add the sugar and cream together on medium speed until lightened in color and fluffy. Add the salt, and turn speed down to medium-low. Slowly add the caramel syrup in a steady stream. Once incorporated, add the eggs one at a time, waiting until the first one is fully incorporated before adding the second. Pour in the vanilla extract and stir until combined. Add the flour and baking powder together, mix, and then separate into three equal portions. Add the first third into the batter and mix until combined. Add 1/2 cup of the milk, mix until combined, and then add another third of the flour. Repeat with the remaining milk and flour. Don't over-mix the batter. Turn off the stand mixer and fold the batter a few times with a rubber spatula to ensure no flour collected at the bottom. Pour into the cake pan and bake for 30 minutes, rotate 90º, and then bake for an additional 15-20 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the middle comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before cutting or adding frosting.

Homemade Caramels:
1 tablespoon water
1/2 cup heavy cream
6 tablespoons butter
1 1/3 cups brown sugar, packed

Line a small dish (I used a 9x9-inch square pan) with foil, and then butter that foil. In a heavy pot, combine all the ingredients and heat on medium until the sugar dissolves and the butter melts. Wait until it comes to a boil, and then place a lid on the pot and allow it to boil for 3 minutes. Uncover and add a candy thermometer. Heat, without stirring, until the temperature reaches 250ºF. Pour into the dish, and wait a few minutes before scoring the top with a knife. Once completely cool (6 or so hours), break along these scored marks and wrap individual pieces in wax paper. Keeps at room temperature for one week.

Assembly:
Cut the cake horizontally into three pieces. Brush each layer off to ensure no crumbs remain behind, and brush each layer liberally with caramel syrup. The syrup is easier to work with when hot, so warm it up in the microwave for 30 seconds if need be. Put the cake back together and add the frosting to your desire. I simply smoothed out the sides, and then piped on a random design on the top. You can crunch up some of the homemade caramels as well and sprinkle them on top. Serves 12-16. After you slice it and place on a plate, drizzle with a little caramel syrup for presentation.

Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting

A light yet flavorful cake with the taste of caramel ...

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Thanksgiving Twofer Pie

2008-11-25T07:38:00.000-08:00

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe is a combination of two Thanksgiving dessert favorites - pumpkin pie and pecan pie. It was selected by La casserole carrée. This pie is made with a layer of perfectly spiced pumpkin pie filling, and then topped with pecans and covered with brown sugar spiced syrup like any pecan pie.

I've never made pumpkin or pecan pies before (though I've eaten my fair share over the previous years of Thanksgiving), but I was surprised with how well the two layers go together. I think if you made non-Dorie pumpkin and pecan pie fillings (the standard sort you'd put in a pie) and tried to layer them, the flavors would be lacking.

I ended up cutting mine into thinner slices than Dorie suggests - there's an awful lot of sugar and butter in each bite, and I figured it was rich enough to up the servings. Given the size of the pies (8-12 servings) and the relative ease with which this recipe comes together, this is an easy recipe to build via assembly line and pop out 2 or 3 at a time for Thanksgiving events. It would be unfortunate if someone didn't get to have a taste of this delicious pie because there wasn't enough to go around.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, p. 321

Homemade Mayonnaise

2008-11-22T10:22:00.000-08:00

If you've never had homemade mayonnaise, it's definitely a treat you must try. I made a batch previous to this one about a year ago, but it didn't come out quite the right consistency or flavor. This recipe hits it dead-on. Homemade mayonnaise is so much better than the store-bought stuff, and it's so simple to make, that I'm willing to bet once you've tried a batch of your own, you won't go back.

Recipe:
1 large egg yolk
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup canola oil, divided

Hand whisk together the egg yolk, lemon juice, vinegar, Dijon mustard, and salt until lightened in color, abut 30 seconds. The Dijon mustard helps to keep the bubbles of fat in suspension so you don't get separation later down the road - don't skip it. Wrap a wet towel around the outside of the bowl so it stays in place while you whisk (you'll need both hands off the bowl), or sit down with the bowl in your lap so it won't go anywhere. Continuously whisk and add 1/4 cup of canola oil dropwise. Once it's all been added, pour in the remaining 1/2 cup of canola oil in a slow stream while steadily whisking. It's vital that you don't add the oil too quickly, or the fat globules will combine and you'll get a separated mix of egg and oil. After the oil has all been added, place into the refrigerator, or enjoy it as is. Remember, this does have raw egg in it, so take the precautions you deem necessary - use pasteurized eggs if need be. Makes 1 cup of mayonnaise.

This is delicious by itself on bread, particularly egg bread. You could of course use it wherever you would usually use mayonnaise - egg salads, deviled eggs, sandwiches. I was never a big fan of tuna, but mixing a can of shredded tuna with some of this mayonnaise, and adding a little salt and pepper, then serving on an egg bread knot got me to change that quickly.

Homemade Mayonnaise

Homemade mayonnaise proves to be better than the generic store-brand ...

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Egg Bread Knots

2008-11-22T09:34:00.000-08:00

I was in the mood for making a different sort of bread, and had a large batch of eggs in the refrigerator about to go bad. I found an egg bread recipe, but it formed a large loaf. I decided to change it up a little bit and make these simple knots instead. They're a perfect size for a sandwich (about the size of a large hamburger bun), and they're fluffy inside with the added light taste of eggs.

I baked two batches at the same time, but the top batch browned a bit more than I had anticipated. It didn't burn, so the taste wasn't poor, but it just came out darker than my liking. If you prefer a browned top, stick to the top third of the oven - a lighter golden color is achieved by using the lower third.

Recipe:
4 1/2 teaspoons instant dry yeast
2/3 cup warm water
6 egg yolks
4 eggs, divided
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
4 1/2 cups flour

Dissolve yeast in the warm water. Combine egg yolks plus three eggs (the remaining egg is for an egg wash) and whisk together lightly. Pour this into the dissolved yeast mixture and add the vegetable oil, sugar, salt, and 3 1/2 cups of flour. Using a stand mixer attached with a paddle attachment, begin kneading the dough on low speed, adding the remaining flour until the dough pulls cleanly away from the edges. Continue kneading for 8 minutes. Oil a large bowl and add the dough - allow to rise for 90 minutes, or until doubled in size. Punch the dough down, and cut into 16 equal pieces.

Lightly knead each individual piece to get rid of air pockets (they rise quickly) and roll into an 18-inch long tube shape.

Fold one end over the other, and form the knot by tucking one end underneath the formed circle, and the other on top.

Place 8 on each of two baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Maximize empty space - they'll double in size during proofing. Allow to proof for 45 minutes, and preheat the oven to 375ºF with a rack placed in the lower third. Whisk the last egg and brush the tops of each knot with the egg wash. Bake for 12 minutes, then place onto cooling rack to cool. Makes 16 knots.

Although these have a similar look to Hawaiian sweet bread, don't serve this as anything other than plain bread - I got a couple confused looks when I brought these into work. They're great for sandwiches, or serve with just a little homemade mayonnaise (trust me, delicious on this bread).

Egg Bread Knots

Simple egg bread, perfect for sandwiches.

See Egg Bread Knots on Key Ingredient.

Buttermilk Sherbet

2008-11-21T18:26:00.000-08:00

Buttermilk? As a dessert? Really? And isn't it spelt sherbert? Yes buttermilk, with a lot of lemons makes a great dessert. Really. And no, funny story, it's actually spelt sherbet. I was a bit confused at first, but "sherbert" is a very common misspelling. Anyways, back to this dessert. Don't be afraid of the presence of buttermilk in a sweet dessert - it's actually an underlying taste, even if it's the central character.

I had a bunch of buttermilk in the fridge about to expire, and being tired of buttermilk biscuits and buttermilk cornbread, I strove to find something altogether different. I eyed my ice cream mixer, and went on a search for a recipe. The mixer recipe book actually had a buttermilk sherbet recipe, but I switched things around to better suit my needs, and to make sure I already had everything on hand.

Recipe:
2 1/2 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/3 cup sugar
Zest of 2 lemons

Combine all of the ingredients together and stir for 5 minutes. This is just to make sure that the sugar more or less dissolves in the buttermilk - you don't want granules in the finished product. Add to ice cream maker and operate as per directions. The sherbet never fully solidifies like an ice cream, but once it begins to get chunky, move it to a storage container and place in the freezer. Freeze at least 12 hours before enjoying. Serves 4.

When you first bite down on this sherbet, all you taste is lemons. It's after you've swallowed that a slight reminscing flavor of buttermilk hits your taste buds. It's actually a great pairing of flavors, and I was surprised with how well the two paired. If you want, you could also add a bit of mint - I probably will next time.

Buttermilk Sherbet

Buttermilk and lemon come together surprisingly well in this dessert.

See Buttermilk Sherbet on Key Ingredient.

Arborio Rice Pudding (with Raisins)

2008-11-18T08:06:00.000-08:00

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was Arborio Rice Pudding, selected by Les gourmandises d’Isa. I had never made rice pudding up to this point. I've made bread pudding several times, but rice pudding is much more runny, and the preparation (while easy) is different. After making the pudding, I threw it in the refrigerator overnight to cool. When I woke up all I saw was runny liquid. I was worried that it hadn't thickened enough, but then I stirred a bit and found all the rice and raisins had settled at the bottom. Additionally, I may or may not have added an extra cup of milk - it was a very late night (bowling) and I sort of lost track of count mid-pour. Mixing everything up rectified the problem, and I got a delicious sweet breakfast this morning.

I made the vanilla version (Dorie's recipe offers both vanilla and chocolate) and added a cup of golden raisins while it was still hot. The mix of the vanilla and raisins go together nicely, but several types of fruit could be added in their stead.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, pp. 412-413

Spiced Chicken and Cinnamon Onions on Couscous

2008-11-12T07:53:00.000-08:00

I was in the mood to try making some sort of international fare - something different from what I've made in the past. Most of my other cooking has been Italian, so I decided to turn south and try something African. I searched Epicurious for something appealing, and came across this recipe - with a few changes to better suit my tastes.

Recipe - adapted from Bon Appétit, December 2002

Cinnamon onions:
4 tablespoons olive oil
3 medium sweet onions, chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar (packed)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Heat the olive oil in a heavy (I prefer cast-iron) skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chopped onions and saute, stirring every 5 minutes, until browned. Add the sugar and cinnamon, and continually stir for an additional 5 minutes, or until the onions are soft. Scrape out of the skillet and set aside.

Spiced chicken:
1 medium sweet onion, roughly chopped
Juice of 2 lemons
1 tablespoon cumin
3/4 teaspoon ginger
3/4 teaspoon paprika
5 thinly sliced chicken breasts
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 cups diced tomatoes (1 can)
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 handful cilantro, chopped
2 cups couscous

In a food processor, add the onion, lemon juice, cumin, ginger, and paprika. Turn the processor on to high, until all the ingredients are puréed. Pour this marinade into a plastic bag, and add the chicken. Squeeze out any excess air and place in the refrigerator for 30-90 minutes. Heat the olive oil in a large non-reactive skillet (not cast iron - the tomatoes will react with it) over medium-high heat. Remove the chicken from marinade and cook until lightly browned, about 2 minutes on each side. Remove the chicken from skillet and pour in the marinade. Add the diced tomatoes and broth, and boil until thickened. Return chicken and braise until cooked (cut into the thickest part of each chicken to make sure there's no remaining pink). Remove chicken and set aside. Add cilantro and continue cooking sauce, stirring frequently, until thickened to an almost paste-like consistency. Pour the sauce into a separate bowl. Prepare couscous according to package directions.

Spoon out a bed of forked couscous, a bit over 1/3 c. for each serving. Add a spiced chicken breast, and spoon on some sauce. Add the cinnamon onions, and sprinkle with cilantro for presentation.

I'm very happy with how this recipe turned out. The chicken is moist, and all the spices together work perfectly. While the chicken and sauce are delicious, when it's combined with the onions and couscous, the flavors combine wonderfully. The meal isn't too heavy, and would be a great course any day.

Spiced Chicken and Cinnamon Onions on Couscous

Spiced chicken and sauce, served on a bed of couscous ...

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Kugelhopf

2008-11-11T07:47:00.000-08:00

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by The All-Purpose Girl. It's a simple sweet bread, or cake, with the flavor of butter, sugar, and raisins. However, this is the first time I had a serious problem with one of Dorie's recipes. It may be because I don't have a Kugelhopf pan and used a Bundt pan instead, but the dough didn't rise as expected. When it was freshly made, it doubled and I punched in down as per directions. When it was in the fridge, same story. When I took it out the next day to rise in the bowl...nothing. It still tastes delicious, but it's probably not as light and airy as it should be.

Lack of a rise aside, this cake is very flavorful in its simplistic way. The top is brushed with butter as soon as it comes out of the oven, then sprinkled with sugar to form a thin glaze (at least in my case). After it's cooled to room temperature, it's sprinkled with confectioner's sugar for decor and served. Small slices are perfect, giving you a few bites to satisfy your sweet tooth.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, pp. 61-63

Raspberry Rugelach

2008-11-04T08:39:00.000-08:00

If chocolate has ever been paired with better flavors than this, I've yet to experience it. This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was picked by Piggy’s Cooking Journal , selecting Rugelach which can be varied to suit the maker's taste.

The dough is made in a food processor, and comes together easily. It's just cream cheese, butter, flour, and salt processed until it gets a curd-like texture. The filling is raspberry preserves (delicious, but the pesky seeds keep sticking in my teeth), golden raisins, walnuts, cinnamon sugar, and bittersweet chocolate. The chocolate spilled all over the place while baking, but it didn't hurt the flavor. I opted to skip the glaze because by the time I was ready to bake, it was midnight and I was getting tired (late bowling night).

Make sure you get out and vote today, people! No excuses.

Recipe - Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, p. 150-151

Buttermilk Cornbread

2008-10-30T07:37:00.000-07:00

Some of the previous recipes I've made had small amounts of buttermilk in them, meaning I had a mostly-full container of buttermilk in my refrigerator. Conveniently, a friend of mine was having a potluck last weekend, so I decided to mix something up with the buttermilk. I ended up with a cornbread with savory flavor.

Recipe:

2 c. yellow cornmeal
1/2 c. flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 c. buttermilk
1 large egg
1/3 c. butter, melted - plus extra for top of loaf

Preheat oven to 425ºC, and butter an 8x8 glass baking dish. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix together with a whisk. Add the buttermilk, egg, and melted butter, then mix until combined. Pour into the glass baking dish and place into the middle of the oven. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a crust begins to form on top. Pull the cornbread out of the oven and brush the top with a stick of butter. Allow to cool for 15 minutes, then turn upside-down to dislodge the cornbread. Cut and serve warm. Serves 8.

Always a good comfort food, this is perfect for the upcoming holidays. One of my favorites growing up was having a hot bowl of homemade chili and eating some cornbread on the side. If you want to add a hint of sweet flavor, throwing in a couple tablespoons of honey could do wonders to this dish.

Buttermilk Cornbread

Always a good comfort food, this is perfect for the ...

See Buttermilk Cornbread on Key Ingredient.

Country Pizza

2008-10-29T00:00:00.000-07:00

This month's Daring Bakers challenge was to create a pizza of our own. The general way to make the pizza dough was given, but the selection of sauces and toppings were up to each blogger. Having made pizza dough in the past, I decided the shining point of this recipe would be finally emanating an old favorite of mine - a pizza from a gourmet shop in my hometown that was topped with country gravy, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and mozzarella.

Because this was such a favorite of mine growing up, I was real worried that I'd be disappointed with my own end result. It's hard to live up to something you remember being so delicious. To be honest, while adding the ingredients on top, things weren't looking too great. The flavors just didn't seem to be coming together as well as they could have been, and I was worried it would come out bland. Something magical happened when it was all smashed together and baked in the oven though, and the pizza came out tasting exactly the way I remembered. I nailed it on my first try, and loved every bite. Now that I know how to make this pizza, I'm sure I'll be making it once in a while as a good treat.

Recipe:

Country gravy:
8 pork sausage links
2 T. unsalted butter
1 T. flour
1 c. milk

Cook the pork sausages as per directions on container. Using tongs or a fork, remove the sausages, leaving behind all the baked-on bits and grease.

Add the butter and melt. Sprinkle the flour on top, and whisk together to make the roux. Make sure to scrape up all the bits leftover from the sausage - that's where the gravy gets its flavor. Continue stirring over medium heat until a light nutty smell is coming from the roux, and it turns blonde. Whisking well, slowly add the milk and turn the temperature to high. Continue stirring, and whisk until thickened to the point of nappe, then remove from heat. Cut up the sausage links into small pieces and add to the gravy.

Crust:
4 1/2 c. flour
1 3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon yeast
1/4 c. olive oil
1 3/4 c. water
1 tablespoon sugar

Combine the flour, salt, and yeast. Mix together lightly and place into a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add the olive oil, water, and sugar. Mix until the dough begins to come together, and then replace the paddle attachment with a kneading hook. Knead together for 10 minutes. The dough will be wet enough to stick to the bottom of the bowl, but it should be dry enough that it no longer sticks to the sides. Add flour or water as needed to get the right consistency. Let the dough rest in the refrigerator for 12 hours before punching down. Remove from refrigerator 2 hours before baking so it comes to room temperature.

Pizza:
1/2 Crust recipe
1/2 recipe Classic Mashed Potatoes
1/2 Country Gravy recipe
2 Pan-Fried Chicken Breasts, sliced
8 oz. mozzarella, shredded

Preheat the oven to 500ºF with a pizza stone on the bottom rack. Work the pizza dough with your knuckles and slowly form the circular pizza shape. Form a 12-inch circle on top of parchment paper, leaving a little extra dough on the outside edge for a thick crust. Spoon on the mashed potatoes and spread evenly. Drizzle the country gravy on top, including some sausage chunks. Place the chicken breasts on top, and top with the mozzarella. At this point, the pizza looks overloaded. Press down lightly on the top to compact the toppings. Slide the pizza and parchment paper onto the pizza stone and bake for 5 minutes. Pull from the oven and allow to sit for an additional 10 minutes before slicing.

The pressed down toppings end up even with the thick crust on the sides, resulting in a thick pizza. A single slice of this is like a meal on its own, so one pizza got me through several lunches. The flavors mash perfectly on this giant of a pizza. This is certainly one of my favorite recipes to date.

Country Pizza

Pizza loaded with mashed potatoes, country gravy, fried chicken, and ...

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Classic Mashed Potatoes

2008-10-28T22:31:00.000-07:00

With the holidays coming up, I thought it'd be a good time to get a classic comfort food posted in here. These mashed potatoes are nice and creamy, with enough flavor that they can be eaten by themselves. No gravy necessary.

Recipe:
4 large Russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
16 oz. sour cream
3 T. fresh chives, chopped
Salt and pepper

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and add the roughly cubed potatoes. Boil until soft enough that a knife stuck into the middle of a cube comes back out without effort. Drain the water and roughly mash the potatoes. Add sour cream and chives, and mash with a potato masher or the back of a large spoon until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste, serve warm.

This may not be the healthiest way to make mashed potatoes, but it definitely comes out wonderfully. It's always great to have these as a side to a wide variety of dishes, particularly steak or Thanksgiving turkey.

Classic Mashed Potatoes

Delicious mashed potatoes, perfect as a side to any number ...

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Chocolate-Chocolate (Almond) Cupcakes

2008-10-28T07:56:00.000-07:00

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by I Heart Food4Thought. The original recipe was for a grown-up bittersweet chocolate cupcake with a bittersweet chocolate glaze on top. I had some slivered almonds in the cupboard, so I added half a cup of those to the cupcake batter, and added 1/8 teaspoon of almond extract for a little extra flavor. The end product was a moist cupcake with great flavor.

I brought these in to work, and about half of them disappeared the first day. Keeping in mind we only had 8 or so people there that day, I'll take that as a good thing. I can never trust my own taste-buds with my baking.

Moowie is also bringing in some cupcakes today so we can have a little taste test between the two. I don't know if she's tried one of mine yet, so perhaps me sneaking in the almond extract and almond slivers can give me a little boost. That, and the Valrhona chocolate...I've taken to stocking extra Valrhona in the cupboard for baking.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, pp. 215-217

Pumpkin Muffins

2008-10-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

Nothing says fall like pumpkins. Well, maybe the turning of the leaves, or the weather getting cooler. Or maybe the end of daylight savings time. But when it comes to cooking, pumpkins show that fall's arrived. This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, Pumpkin Muffins, was picked by Sounding My Barbaric Gulp.

The mix of spices in these muffins are perfect to accompany the pumpkins. Allspice, cinnamon, ginger. I skipped on the nutmeg, because I still haven't gotten around to buying one. Biting into these muffins was reminiscent of eating pumpkin pie, but with a warm soft texture. The orange color that the pumpkins bring to the muffins definitely stands out, though it may not translate as well through pictures.

Come to think of it, that's pretty yellowish on the inside. But anyways, the outside is nicely orange. The addition of pecans, golden raisins, and sunflower seeds add to the texture, giving the muffin some good mouth-feel. These treats are perfect for any fall get together.

Recipe: Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, p. 13

Pan-fried chicken

2008-10-20T07:05:00.000-07:00

When is something so plain worth the bother of posting in a blog? When it's so simple and versatile that it could be used in a multitude of recipes. This pan-fried chicken certainly isn't a main course; its only spices are salt and pepper. However, it's the perfect addition to a salad, pasta dish, or pizza.

I had a friend in college that would never eat chicken. I'm not sure why, but she absolutely loathed it. I'm sure it was some sort of quirk from a bad chicken experience as a child (why I'm still so iffy about broccoli), but things turned around when I made a pasta with this chicken in it. I've gotten other compliments on this recipe, and I'm not entirely sure why. I think the simplicity of the flavors, along with the seared exterior guaranteeing a moist interior, help return the flavor of chicken to...chicken. There are too many recipes out there that disguise chicken in layers of spices, sauces, and cheese. This recipe returns to the basics that are too often forgotten.

Recipe:
2 chicken breasts
4 T. flour
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

Sprinkle freshly ground salt and pepper over one side of the chicken. Pat it down with your hand gently so it sticks in place. Flip and repeat. Be liberal - too often people are afraid of adding too much salt, and end up not adding enough. Remember it's a flavor enhancer. Dust both sides of the chicken with flour, enough for a good coating. Be careful while handling the chicken so you don't get any cross-contamination. In a medium pan, add enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan, and put over medium-high heat. Once warmed, add the chicken breasts. Cook for 5 minutes before flipping, and cooking for an additional 5 minutes. Cut into the thickest part of the chicken and ensure there is no pink remaining before removing from the heat. Pat down the chicken gently with a paper towel to remove excess oil.

If you wanted to add herbs and spices, you could. However, I think just the salt and pepper bring out the flavor of chicken that's been ignored for too long. Make sure you add this austere alternative to the deep-fried variety next time you're adding something extra to a dish.

Pan-fried Chicken

A return to the way chicken should taste; this uncomplicated ...

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Delicious Dip

2008-10-19T08:23:00.000-07:00

I've made this dip on several occasions, and every time it's unveiled everyone tends to turn voracious. I've never had this dip sit around for long without being completely consumed. Add the simplicity of the ingredients, and the quickness with which it's made, and you've got a great appetizer.

Recipe:
2 (8-ounce) sticks cream cheese, room temperature
1 can chili
1 1/2 c. Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
1 bunch green onions, rinsed

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. In an 8x8 inch baking dish, spread the cream cheese evenly across the bottom using a spoon. Pour the chili on top and spread evenly. Sprinkle the cheese on top - it doesn't have to be the exact amount, just eyeball it to get good coverage. I keep the green onions in the store-bought bunch (8 or so stalks) and cut them over the top of the cheese using scissors - it's a lot faster than using a cutting board. You don't have to use all of the onions, just enough to lightly cover the cheese. Cover with foil and bake in the oven for 30 minutes, or until the cream cheese is heated through. Serve with tortilla chips. Serves 6+.

The type of cheese and amount can vary, as can the types of chili. I typically go with something spicy to give the dip more flavor, but it can just as easily be mild or vegetarian. If you want the top to brown a little, you can remove the foil in the last 10 minutes of baking. And below is a picture of how everything typically looks a few minutes after being surrounded by people.

As I said, I've never had people ignore this dip. If you need a quick recipe that will please everyone, this is the one for you.

Delicious Dip

A quick and simple dip that always gets devoured.

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Pizza Soup

2008-10-18T07:20:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I broke out my crock pot, and we had a cold weekend in San Diego, so I decided to make some soup. As with any crock pot recipe, this is a great way to throw a bunch of ingredients together and let them cook while you're at work. When you get back, dinner's hot and ready to eat, and you get a great smell moving throughout the house.

This pizza soup has just the right amount of spice, and is packed with great flavor. It has everything you could want in a pizza, except the dough.

Recipe:
16 oz. spicy chicken sausage, sliced
1 large white onion, chopped
8 oz. crimini mushrooms
1 red bell pepper, chopped
3 c. basic tomato sauce
1 c. chicken broth
Mozzarella cheese, shredded (to top)

Combine all the ingredients in a slow cooker, and stir. Cook on low heat for 4-5 hours. Serve while hot, and top with mozzarella cheese. Serves 6.

It's really as simple as that. The end result is a great pizza filled with lots of different "toppings" that give it a lot of texture. This recipe is very adaptive, so you could add any sort of thing you'd normally want on a pizza instead. Instead of chicken sausage, use pepperoni. Instead of mushrooms, use hot peppers. Opt out the bell pepper. The choices are all up to you.

Pizza Soup

This pizza soup has just the right amount of spice ...

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