Coffee Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

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

Allspice Crumb Muffins

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

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

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

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

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

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

Blackberry Spice Bars

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

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

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

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

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.

Honey-Peach Ice Cream

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

Parisian Apple Tartelette

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

Cinnamon Squares

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

Chipster-Topped Brownies

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

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

Tartest Lemon Tart

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