Gooiedness

Recently, my friend gave me the cookbook Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey: Desserts for the Serious Sweet Tooth. She said that she had known it was the perfect cookbook for me because it had chocolate and it [the layout] is cute (in a kitschy way). And she was right; I love it. Unfortunately, I was in the middle of packing and moving and was not able to try any of the recipes right away. Last weekend, in the midst of all of our housework, the mister and I were craving sweets. So, I thumbed through my new book and came to the recipe The Best One Bowl Chocolate Chunk Pecan Cookies.

At first, I was cynical about this recipe. I mean, come on, one bowl? To further my doubt, the recipe required melting the butter in the microwave in lieu of the traditional creaming with sugar method. Desperate as we were for some sugary goodness, I forged ahead anyways. And you know what? They were the best one bowl cookies that I’ve ever made. They even give my standard cookie recipe a run for its money. The toasted pecans were sweet and caramel-like. The cookies had the perfect balance of crunchiness and gooeyness (although, after sitting out overnight, they were a bit too crunchy for my taste). I initially baked up about a dozen, which was about half the batter. Those were gone within two days. The Mister, who typically has enough self-control for the both of us, couldn’t keep his hands away from them. That is a pretty big compliment, I think.

If you’d like to try them out, check out the lovely recipe over at DailyDelicious.

 

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways…

I can’t believe that I haven’t posted about this yet: For my birthday, which is still two weeks away, Boy gave me a KitchenAid stand mixer (Pro HD in chrome). *squee* This past week, I’ve been baking to my heart’s content. Since I broke my wrist, it has been very difficult for me to knead bread dough or make anything else that involves stirring a firm dough. I had to really cut back on baking, so you can imagine how exciting it is for me to be able to do these things with a flip of the switch.

And now to the cookies! Yesterday, I made cookies using the Jacque Torres’s Secret Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe from, you guessed it, Martha Stewart. (I’m really on a MS kick lately, aren’t I?) Of course, I slightly modified the recipe, because we really didn’t need 8 1/2 DOZEN cookies sitting around the house. Here’s my version:

Jacque Torres’ Secret Chocolate Chip Cookies V2.0 (or should that be V.25?)

• 1 stick unsalted butter (or pareve margerine) at room temp
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cups packed light-brown sugar
• 1 large egg at room temp
• 3/4 cups pastry flour
• 3/4 cups ap flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 8-10 ounces of the best semi-sweet chocolate you have, chopped into small chunks. (I broke out the Scharffenberger 63% for this.)

1. Preheat oven 350 F
2. Cream together butter with sugars, add egg and vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together. Reserve 2 T of mixture. Add the remaining dry ingredients in with the wet ingredients about a quarter cup at a time, mixing until well incorporated.
4. Toss chocolate chunks with reserved dry mixture (this helps keep the chocolate from sinking, not too important with cookies). Fold into dough.
5. Using a tablespoon, scoop dough onto parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake for approximately 15 mins, until golden, but still a little soft. Let cool on a rack (I never knew how important this step was until now!).

• Makes about two dozen, or less if you are like me and swipe a bit of cookie dough every time you pass the bowl.

In reducing the recipe, the ratios changed slightly. If you actually want 100 cookies, then I’d follow the recipe as given (but really, unless you’re doing a bake sale or some other event, why would you want that many cookies?). Also, because I didn’t have any bread flour on hand, I used all-purpose flour. The cookies turned out deliciously and beautiful. I apologize for the lack of a picture. We’re having issues with our rechargeable batteries at the moment. I’ll try to post a pic before the cookies are gone. Now with picture-y goodness above.

* As a side note, I’d like to say how much I like Alton Brown’s approach to recipes. This is a cookie recipe. The ingredients may change, but the method for combining the ingredients is the same as most other cookie recipes. You cream the wet stuff, you add the dry stuff, bake it up, and voila, you have <insert your favorite> cookies! I just might start writing that from now on when I’m (re)writing a recipe.

 

Pesach Baking

For the past few weeks, I’ve really been in the mood to bake, but I’ve had to restrain myself or else we would have had to toss a few dozen cupcakes before Passover started. Luckily, there are a ton of recipes for unleavened baked goods around the internet. We will definitely have our fill of sweets this week and I will have my fill of baking. Alas, a brisket currently occupies my oven, so I’ll have to wait a few hours more.

Martha Stewart is a surprisingly great source for Passover recipes. For the Matza House that she made last week with Joan Rivers, I think she should be deigned an honorary member of the tribe. Here are a few recipes that I’m eyeing for the week:

• Passover Apple Cake from Arthur Schwartz.
• Glazed Hazelnut Squares
• Coconut Macaroons which use sweetened condensed milk, unlike the French Almond Macaroon recipe from the NYTimes. I think I’ll experiment with a few different macaroon recipes and figure out what I like.
• Chocolate Torte with Passover Fudge Glaze with more hazelnuts, mmm….

Here are some of the non-Martha recipes that I’m considering:

• Damp Apple and Almond Cake by Nigella Lawson
• Passover Chocolate Cupcakes (!) from Cupcake Project with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting, although if I want to serve these at my seder (I do), I’m going to have to find a non-dairy topping.

Who says you can’t make cupcakes while escaping slavery?

 

What goes together better than peanut butter and jelly?

Banana cupcakes with Nutella frosting!

Recipe:

2 1/4 c cake flour*

1 t baking soda

1/4 t salt

1 1/2 stick butter or margerine

1/2 c vanilla sugar**

1 c sugar

2 mashed bananas

3/4 c sour cream

3 large eggs

1 1/2 c Nutella (or your favorite chocolate hazelnut spread)

1. Preheat oven at 350. Line regular sized cupcake tin with papers.
2. In a food processor, pulse flour, baking soda, and salt together with butter until coarse dough forms. Transfer mixture to a large bowl.
3. Add sugar, sour cream, and mashed banana. Mix well.
4. Whisk eggs until fluffy and then fold into mixture.
5. Fill each paper about 3/4 of the way. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool completely.
6. Frost with Nutella.
7. Eat!

Makes about two dozen cupcakes.

* I made my own cake flour by adding 5 T corn starch to a measuring cup and then filling up to the 2 1/4 c line with all-purpose flour. Finish by whisking or sifting well.

** To make vanilla sugar, scrape the innards from one vanilla bean, then add to a container with 2-3 cups of granulated sugar and seal for several days before using. I keep this around at all times to add to tea or baked goods.

 

Linky Linky

The recipe for these double chocolate oatmeal cookies comes from Everybody Likes Sandwiches. Last night, while surfing the web, because Friday’s are So Exciting around here, I stumbled on this recipe and headed straight to the kitchen for cookie goodness. They are good and easily Pareve/Vegan too! (Use margarine instead of butter, which I do almost by default anyways.) The dough has a very different consistency than other doughs. It has no eggs and so is not wet. I worried that they might crumble in the oven, but they held. Of course, I had to add a roasted hazelnut to each cookie. Mine didn’t spread like those pictured with the recipe and I’m not sure why, but I like them this way.

Here are some other recipes I want to try:

• Cheryl’s Yummo Eggplant over at Belle Epoque
• Fried Okra from This Vintage Chica
• Refrigerator Pickles at Happy Things

With a break from the rain today, perhaps we will have a picnic…