Musings & more….
It is pissing rain Vancouver. PISSING. I can feel my autumn instincts trying to kick in. Suddenly, I crave hot chocolate paired with a good book, or to bake dinner rolls or corn bread or at least a bunch of cookies, with spaghetti or maybe chili for dinner… then knitting a blanket or sweater in front of the TV afterwards.
Except the TV currently sucks and I’ve barely managed to harvest anything out of the garden! WTF?
I guess we are just skipping spring and summer this year, hey Vancouver?
While it is true that chocolate has many perfect partnerships: peanut butter, caramel, ice cream, and really ANY cookie, as well as, being simply fantastic in many different manifestations: solid, chips, melted, hot, cold and, of course, molten – I believe that the pairing of chocolate pudding and macaroons is one of the most perfect pairings of recipes in all time (at least of the time I’ve been baking).
If you are craving pudding then what are you going to do with the egg whites? Throw them out? Make a (I don’t hesitate to say) bland omelet? The same goes with the yokes when making macaroons. My solution? Make both!
Mini Almond Macaroons – a tiny version of my standard recipe. FYI – full sized ones where featured in the 2nd episode of my (half-filmed) web series, SiftingRealities.
My chocolate pudding recipe comes via my trusty, and terribly destroyed, copy of Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book – no modifications. Tips: stir, stir, stir – constantly – and you won’t end up with lumpy pudding. Also use butter and high quality cocoa. Michael, who isn’t really supposed to eat chocolate in large quantities, can’t have a single cup of this pudding without getting a migraine. I praise blame the cocoa.
Why the tiny portion sizes? We’re counting calories this new year and I am happy to say that with all the “good” ingredients still included, and by simply trimming back portion size, the pudding is only 118 calories a (1/4) cup and a single macaroon weighs in at 81 calories (or less if you don’t add the ground almond). Why not have two?
YUMMY!
I chose to bake Eggnog Cheesecake Bars (another Martha Stewart recipe) specifically for Michael because he is a such a fan of eggnog (especially when added to coffee). I followed the recipe pretty precisely, though I needed to strain the mixed batter, as it was lumpier than I liked, before pouring it over the crust. I think I didn’t let the cream cheese soften enough before using it and then rushed the initial mixing – it seems I was in a big rush ALL of yesterday (December 17, 2010), because I also had a batch of shortbread (almost) flop.
Modifications: I lined the pan with parchment paper rather than trusting the vegetable oil cooking spray, used graham cracker crumbs (rather than crackers) and omitted the brandy.
Notes: the plastic wrap clings to the top (and therefore messes it up) if you let it touch.
Tasting notes: Michael says they taste exactly as advertised – eggnog cheesecake – and gave them 5 stars. It’s a keeper! Also, reviews from various tasters at the Christmas Drop-In were all positive.
Yesterday I tried baking a couple of items out of Martha Stewart’s Holiday Cookies (a special issue of her magazine). Every now and then I find a recipe I really, really like via Martha Stewart (though I usually modify it to suit my particular taste), but I don’t regularly collect her magazine as I am attempting to cut my consumption of paper.
I heavily modified the recipe for Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies and am not totally sold on the results. They are a little like brownies with a subtle kick and, because of that, they may need some sort of icing to be really tasty. If you click through to Martha’s recipe (link above) you will note that mine look nothing like hers and I believe that is due to the fact that I substituted in whole wheat pastry flour.
Modifications: whole wheat pastry flour, salted butter, cayenne pepper.
Notes: I could have upped the cayenne pepper content.
Tasting notes: dense, chocolately – almost brownie like – very tasty, but maybe a bit dry. The spicing was subtle, but added a nice afterthought kick to the chocolate.
I will elaborate on these further in an upcoming post, but here is a teaser of Icing Sugar Chocolates being dipped:
Sugar Cookies being iced:
Santa Whiskers baked and ready for consumption:
And rather perfect-looking shortbread (if I say so myself) (though please forgive the grungy cookie sheet – it is my favourite one and has needed replacing for a few years now):
I somehow neglected to get a picture of the gingerbread people, but here is a post (and the recipe) that I wrote earlier this year.
I will chocolate dip a second batch of shortbread tonight and then keep moving on down my list of things-to-bake until I run out of time or patience. I suspect lack of time will be the deciding factor this year in regards to the number of holiday recipes I manage to complete, and – honestly – I started too late.
I know it seems like I am never happy when I experiment with baking and, unfortunately, this post does nothing to counter that general opinion.
I had a bunch of apples. I had a brand new pie plate. I made a pie on a day that I had already been baking for 8 hours. I kind of made up the recipe, though I did use the whole-wheat pastry flour short crust I usually like. I cut out some stars to make it pretty.
What went wrong?
The crust was too dry – it broke and cracked. The innards weren’t sweet enough (in my opinion). I only ate a couple of bites of my piece. Michael finished my serving up for me, and then I had him take the remaining pie to his job site… where, supposedly, none of the carpenters had any complaints about being forced to eat 3/4 of an apple pie.
Problem is, my apple crisp recipe rocks and it is less labour intensive, so why make apple pie, at all, ever? Mark this one as a #fail.
My lovely friends Janine & Thomas came for a visit over Thanksgiving weekend and brought a pile of these tasty McIntosh apples from their family orchard in Kelowna.
After arranging this beautiful bounty in a large bowl and admiring it on my counter for a few days – what colour!! – I decided I wanted to try a couple of new recipes, so I tested out a recipe for apple kuchen that I had had my eye on.
Of course, seeing as I can never seem to follow instructions properly, I modified the recipe. It went something like this:
What did the test tasters have to say? YUM! Michael promptly renamed it Apple Pizza and warmed it up as breakfast for a number of days in a row. Jimka was, supposedly, lucky enough to be working nearby and certainly didn’t turn down a piece or two. Re-warming created a sugary crust that was the foundation for the name change.
Personally it was kind of ho-hum for me, kind of bread-y and not enough chocolate for my taste… but that was to be expected.
It has been crazy busy around here, and, though I have planned a number of posts for the blog, and even taken a few illustrating pictures, I haven’t managed to write any of the individual posts. So here is a teaser of some upcoming projects:
These are fresh chocolate mint leaves soaking in condensed milk. The homegrown mint leaves are planted in a container so they don’t take over an entire bed. I like to run my hands through the plant — the aroma is lovely. I am also drying some leaves to be used in tea. I will be making some chocolates with this mint-infused milk, as soon as I get an undedicated moment in the kitchen.
Made with the last box of fresh BC blueberries I picked up from Granville Island, these are my blueberry cinnamon buns (seen here posed with a strawberry rhubarb smoothie — recipe by Michael). I have every intention of posting the recipe and no time to write it down.
I participated in Urban Grains’ CSA this year and just picked up my haul — 4 sacks!! — of red spring & winter, white winter and rye flour. I have not found the time to even dream about what I will be making with these flours, but you can guess there will be lots of cookies and breads and maybe even pasta recipes tested soon!
Lastly, a garden update. This is our watermelon which never did grow out of it’s baby form… but it was still a sweet, though awfully seedy, treat!
So that is me for now… there are lots of knitting projects to finish and a bunch of loom projects to take pictures of, but right now I am researching and writing a new feature film script and, unfortunately, work trumps hobbies.
This recipe was referred to as the ultimate chocolate chip cookie recipe on a Knit & Bake forum on Ravelry about a week ago and I, being a rather obvious fan of chocolate and cookies, thought I would give them a try.
Here are the results:
My thoughts: really tasty, but certainly not more so than my less work intensive cookies. The chocolate (sourced, once again, from Chocolate Arts) was amazing–of course–and the cookies themselves had a sort of yummy chewy caramel quality to them, but they flattened more than I like (which results in crispy cooled cookies) and, even though I thought I had spaced them well on the cookie sheet, they ran together all three times I baked them–they somehow gravitate towards each other in the oven (?). Even my taste testers did not rave as they are usually prone to do over baking, though no one refused seconds or a take home baggie.
I include the original recipe, as found on the New York Time website, below, but these are my modifications: bread flour – used whole wheat flour – sifted 4 times, cake flour – used whole wheat pastry flour – sifted 2 times, used salted butter and therefore reduced salt to 1 teaspoon, chocolate used 400 grams of 70% Fleur de Cao. No sea salt, but only because I forgot… will try it on the next batch.
NY times Chocolate Chip Cookies
Published: July 9, 2008 Adapted from Jacques Torres
Time: 45 minutes (for 1 6-cookie batch), plus at least 24 hours’ chilling
2 cups minus 2 tablespoons (8 1/2 ounces) cake flour
1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
1 1/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate disks or fèves, at least 60% cacao
Sea salt.
1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.
2. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Drop chocolate pieces in and incorporate them without breaking them. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.
3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.
4. Scoop 6 3 1/2-ounce mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day.
Eat warm, with a big napkin.
Yield: 1 1/2 dozen 5-inch cookies
Still working on perfecting this recipe, but I thought I’d share a picture at least:
