Calaveras Cookies

 

I meant to get these posted before Dia de los Muertos [All Souls Day], but that didn't happen.  Instead, you can marvel at them this year and plan to make your own next time... They would, of course, work as Halloween cookies, but since I was using my Mexican Chocolate Cookie dough it seemed only appropriate to wait for November 2nd.  Sometimes decorated cookies don't taste as good as the look, but that cookie is a workhorse and has enough flavor to power through my as-tasty-as-it-gets royal icing. [Royal icing looks great but tastes flatly sweet, even with a goodly amount of almond extract. That's why the flavor of the cookie underneath is so important.]

These were pretty fun to make.  As you fill them, different features appear and I'd intentionally leave "highlights" here and there and I found the emerging characters very entertaining... which is good, because I made a double batch (~80) and it did take a while.  On further consideration, I could have made the cookies twice as thick (1/4") and it probably would have made them even tastier.

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You also don't need the fancy cookie cutter.  I have one (that I think I got after Halloween one year at Williams-Sonoma) so I use it, but you could do the same technique with a simple oval and get almost the same effect (minus the little teeth).  I have no artistic talent*, so I like guidelines.

Recipe: Royal Icing

Gluten-Free Brownie Skins

I recently made these guys over the weekend for a gluten-avoiding friend of mine.  They have very few ingredients and come together in a minute.

The recipe comes from 101 Cookbooks, where they're called "Chocolate Puddle Cookies," but I think they taste like gooey brownies when they're still warm, so I've renamed them accordingly.  They do firm up as they cool but they maintain a thin layer of goo in the middle.  The first time I made them without nuts; this time I used toasted and skinned hazelnuts... both were tasty but a little too sweet for my liking [though JG's a big fan].  I think next time I might swap out some of the powdered sugar for rice flour or buckwheat [which would be a different cookie entirely but a little grain's always better for you, right?].  I'll let you know how it goes.

Also, I made a half recipe and a #60 scoop and managed to get about 20 the size of my palm [10 on each cookie sheet].  The ones in the original recipe must be monsters... which makes sense since each cookie would have almost a quarter cup of powdered sugar.[!]  Even the smaller ones I made have about 1.5 tablespoons per cookie... so, yeah, they're not low-calorie, but they are a decadent, gluten-free addition to the cookie plate.

Howdy Cakes

[Where did I go?  I certainly didn't mean to abandon the blog, but in my evergrowing frustration with self-taught web design, I kept working in Dreamweaver until I couldn't possibly sit at the computer a moment longer and stormed away.  My apologies to anyone who reads regularly and has felt snubbed... but that's probably only my mother and she's holed up in the woods for the summer so she probably hasn't noticed.]

Whoopie Pies are a New England thing and not pies at all [chalk another one up to "Yankee know-how"] but two chocolate cake discs and a gooey white filling usually made from a marshmallow fluff base.  [I've also seen the cakes in trendy flavors like vanilla and pumpkin.] Now, chocolate cake is easy and marshmallow fluff ain't hard if you know how to make marshmallows, but I thought I'd try them in a traditional red velvet as homage to my southern roots... and that, of course, means doing it old-school with pureed beets and roux frosting!

Despite the magenta batter, beet-colored red velvet cake is not as bright as the artificial kind and the rosey hue can easily be overwhelmed by the cocoa content.   The beets actually go really well with chocolate and give it a little more sweetness and earthy complexity. I wanted a chocolaty cake, but was bummed at first by the normal brown-black color of the final product. The taste, however, is fantastic and I'm not going to quibble because the tint wasn't as odd as I hoped. 

Roux frosting is traditional for red velvet cake and amazing -- if you don't try these pies you should at least try the frosting the next time you have a need. It's equal parts milk, butter, and sugar (plus a few other things) and it's got all the texture of a great buttercream but without the overwhelming sweetness and is far less likely to break into grainy bits when it gets warm. I added a little buttermilk powder and amaretto for flavor, but if you don't have those things you shouldn't let it stop you.  I'm in love with this stuff -- real love, too, not just some trashy fling.**


Recipe: Howdy Cakes
I refuse to call them pies.

Chocolate Macarons

JG and I are spending a bit of time in the heartland, which meant we had to clear out the fridge and put the garden in the bathtub [it wasn't easy].  I had 6 egg whites leftover from a couple projects and chocolate that was starting to bloom in my warm pantry, so I figured I may as well make a triple batch of David Libovitz' chocolate macarons and my own low[er] fat caramelized chocolate ganache.    

My only adjustment was that I sifted the dry ingredients into the whites because the nut oil/cocoa powder combination was clumping together... and the final result was still a little too bumpy.

 As for the ganache, I caramelized the sugar and browned the butter before adding fat-free evaporated milk [in lieu of heavy cream] and then stirred in nearly a pound of chocolate... and had nearly a pound of the resulting ganache left over, waiting for me in the freezer when I come home.

Recipe: Caramelized Chocolate Ganache

Chocolate Easter Bunny Ragout!

[Sorry, friends. My parents came up for their first visit to Boston and I've been away from the computer. I was almost finished with this post when I realized their plane was landing early and just never got back to it. I think they had a pretty good week... more to follow.]

A while back, I came across a recipe in an Alice Medrich book that used a tiny bit of chocolate in lieu of bacon to add savory depth to coq au vin. At the end of the recipe, she mentions that you can substitute rabbit for lapin au vin.

I ask you: What could possibly be a better dinner for Easter than a chocolate bunny (au vin)?

I worked hard for this dish. It had been raining for three miserable days straight when I biked over to the other side of Cambridge to the only place for fresh rabbit... Mayflower Poultry. The rabbits are dispatched on a nearby farm, but they do come complete with head and organs... I mean, they're butchers and they'll happy remove such things it to order, but I kind of like butchering meat myself -- or in this case, watching closely as JG does it.

Medrich's recipe does some weird things that seem to overly complicate it. For example, she marinates the meat in the wine for two days with standard stock vegetables and herbs, but recommends cooking the alcohol off before marinating. After marinating, she then strains everything out, pats down the meat, then browns it and veggies separately, before recombining them again in the wine to stew. Wine soaked veggies take a long time to brown.... I ask you, why not brown the veggies add wine to deglaze and simmer to cook off the alcohol _before_ marinating? _Plus_ I don't really believe theirs any point in marinating something if you're going to stew it in exactly the same thing later... marinades are really only useful for things that will later be cooked over dry heat. One thing I did appreciate, though, was browning the mushrooms and onions separately, which gave them much more distinct textures and flavors than ones cooked along with the meat.

I'm streamlining the recipe below. I do think it's best to cook it the day before to allow all of the flavors to meld and to separate the fat out of the broth, but you can certainly do it in a day if you must. You could increase the amount, but it would probably take it into novelty food territory... as it stands the chocolate gives the meal nice earthy undertones without being too much of a departure from a more familiar dish.

Recipe: Chocolate Bunny Ragout,
Lapin au Vin et Chocolat
Adapted heavily from Bittersweet by Alice Medrich
I use a decent amount of oil for browning, but it all gets skimmed off at the end. Do whatever your conscience dictates. If you're comfortable using more pans and tending multiple things at once, you can brown everything concurrently in separate pans, but this can lead to disaster if you're not prepared to flip mushroom caps and rabbit legs at the same time... Actually, let's just say the rabbit should be browned with your undivided attention.

Serves ~8

1 bottle fruity red wine (I used 1/2 rioja, 1/2 merlot... party leftovers)
2 carrots, 1/4" sliced
1 large yellow onion, 1/4" slice
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 bay leaf
4 tbs olive oil, divided use
1- 3lb rabbit, head and organs removed, cut into ~12 pieces [here's a good video if you're doing it yourself]
2 tbs flour
1 lb frozen pearl onions, thawed, or fresh and blanched
1 lb mushrooms (preferably cremini, button will work), stems removed and reserved
2 cups water
black pepper

To assemble:
2 tablespoons cocoa powder (preferably Dutched)
1 lb pasta (preferably whole-wheat egg noodles or gemelli), cooked
1 tbs flat leaf parsley, chopped

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add carrots, onions, mushroom stems, and salt and brown, stirring occasionally, until richly colored, ~7-10 minutes. Deglaze with 1 cup of wine [or a few glugs], scraping the pot bottom to remove any stuck bits, and transfer contents to a large Dutch oven or good-sized stock pot. Cover the pot and place on a back burner of your stove over medium-low heat. [You'll be adding to it as you go.]

Reduce heat to medium and add another tablespoon of oil. Dust rabbit pieces with flour and then add to the skillet [in batches, if necessary] and brown until golden on all sides (don't go too dark or you might make a tough bunny]. As soon as each piece is finished [the legs will take longer than the rib meat] transfer them to the pot with the carrots and onions. Once the skillet is empty, add another cup of wine [a few more glugs] to deglaze the pan again and add that liquid to the pot.

Still at medium heat, add another tablespoon of oil and add mushroom caps in a single layer. Saute on one side until deep golden brown, then flip to the other and continue cooking until 2nd side is browned and mushrooms stop releasing liquid ~5-7 minutes.[The volume should be reduced by about 1/3.] Transfer mushrooms to a large airtight container. [It'll be joined by the pearl onions and rabbit pieces.]

Without deglazing, increase heat to medium-high, add another tablespoon of oil and the pearl onions, and saute, shaking the pan occasionally, until golden brown all over, ~10 minutes. Transfer onions to the airtight container, return the pan to heat, and deglaze with a few more glugs of wine or some of the water if you've run out. Scrape up all the browned bits, and transfer the liquid to the pot. Add any remaining wine and water to the pot. The rabbit should be mostly covered; add a little extra water if it's not. Increase the heat on the pot to medium-high until it comes to the boil, then reduce to a steady simmer.

Cook 50-70 minutes or until meat pulls apart. Transfer meat -- removing any clinging stew vegetables -- to the container with the mushrooms and onions and refrigerate until the meal assembly.

Strain the liquid into a large measuring cup, press the vegetables against the strainer to release as much juice as possible, then discard the solids. You should have ~2 cups of liquid. If you have significantly more, return it to the pan and simmer another 10 minutes or so until reduced further. Return liquid to measuring cup (or fat separator), cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until the meal assembly.

TO ASSEMBLE:

Bring water to a boil and cook pasta.

Meanwhile, pull rabbit meat from the bones in as large of pieces as possible from the body and in similar sizes shreds from the legs. Scrape off the white fat layer from cooking liquid and discard. Transfer liquid to an appropriately-sized pot over medium heat. (It'll be pretty gelatinous from the bones; this is not fat and it'll quickly thin.) Bring to the boil and whisk in cocoa powder. Stir in meat, mushrooms, and pearl onions and simmer until everything is completely heated through. Adjust salt and add black pepper to taste. Serve immediately over warm pasta, garnished with chopped parsley.

[We had Vichy carrots and a fennel-celery salad on the side.]

Whole-Grain Chocolate Almond Biscotti

I realize I have a biscotti problem -- obsession, really -- but once I gave up coffee I haven't been able to commit to a single flavor. The latest batch were from Joy of Baking, and I followed it pretty closely [except for substituting 1 cup white whole wheat and 3/4 cup oat for the called-for A.P. flour] but I had a little timer problem:

I didn't realize it until I was sitting at the computer and a toasty smell wafted toward me. I looked at the clock, then ran to the kitchen, half-expecting to find biscotti charcoal. They were deeply brown around the edges but just shy of burned, which actually gave them an amazing roasted marshmallow-esque flavor. I'm making a note to add another 15 minutes to the second bake on this recipe. [I think it was actually closer to 20 but they were just a shade away from the trash can, so it's best to undershoot and monitor, know what I mean?]

Grandpa Jack's Toffee... my way.

I was looking to make a non-cookie treat and a trip through my grandmother's old recipe box yielded a card in my grandfather's handwriting for English Toffee. [As far as I can tell, it's an American creation, where "English" means slathered with chocolate.] My grandmother made a lot of sweets, but my grandfather always made the candy, using a scientific thermometer permanently borrowed from his chemistry lab to monitor the temperature of the sugar.
I grew up hearing stories about Grandpa and his chemistry candy thermometer, but I've since learned you don't actually need to take the sugar's temperature if you're making a simple caramel or toffee. It'll be at the hard crack stage once it starts taking color, so you can just pull it off the stove when it's a little lighter than you want the final candy to be and let it sit in the hot pot until it reaches that caramel brown color. It's easy, but it rarely fails to impress.

Another thing about toffee specifically is that the butter will separate out a bit, which then, in English toffee gets combined with the chocolate to make a rich top coating. I was able to reduce the butter from 16 tablespoons to 6 [browning 2 of them for more flavor] without a problem. I mean, it's still a candy made from sugar and butter, but reducing the fat never hurts.
I also have a trick to keep the chocolate from getting too soft in a warm room, but for that, you'll have to follow the recipe...

Recipe: Jack's Granddaughter's English Toffee
Grandpa's recipe calls for pecans, though it seems walnuts would be more "English".

6 Tbs butter [divided use]
1 cup sugar
pinch salt
1 Tbs amaretto
3 oz dark chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup pecans, toasted and chopped

Place a cookie sheet into the oven and set to 400F.* Oil an 8x8 metal pan close to the stove. In a heavy bottom pot, brown 2 tablespoons of butter over medium high heat. Once the butter solids turn the color of almond skins, add remaining butter, sugar, and salt, and stir until the butter melts and sugar liquifies. Boil, stirring occasionally, until mixture is a rich caramel color, just a shade lighter than desired. Stir in amaretto [mixture will sputter] and pour into the prepared pan. Wait 3 minutes for the toffee to set, then sprinkle with chocolate. Wait another ~2 minutes for the chocolate to mostly melt, then spread with an offset spatula or knife. Remove cookie sheet from the oven and place over the toffee pan. Let it sit for 3 minutes, [turn off the oven meanwhile] then remove. Sprinkle with toasted nuts and allow to cool until chocolate is firm to the touch, ~30-45 minutes. Turn toffee out of the pan and cut with a sharp knife or break into pieces. Store in an airtight container.

* The pan over the top will heat the chocolate further and help retemper it... without melting your toffee. [FYI: if you're making those cookies with the Hershey's Kiss in the middle, it's also best to pop those bad boys back in the oven for a couple minutes after adding the kisses; they'll actually re-solidify faster and harder.]

Cocoa Powder: Go Dutch

Things are a bit pricier in Yankee Land. I tried to be frugal when I replenished my pantry upon arrival, but I've since reaffirmed that some things are worth the price when you're dedicated to food that tastes as good as possible.
Case in point: A few weeks into our adventure, JG made the comment that the biscotti we always have around weren't quite as good as they used to be. I knew they weren't and I knew why: store-brand cocoa powder. Dutched cocoa powder has a much stronger chocolate flavor [due to an acid neutralization process created by a Dutch man] and gives baked goodies a deeper color.
It's a few dollars more than Hershey's or store brand, but a bag or box lasts a while -- even for me -- and if you're going to use it as a primary ingredient to bind a cake together, it's better if it tastes great. I would even choose a cheaper Dutched cocoa over a premium non-alkalized cocoa.
So there.

Gluten-Free Chocolate Pesos

Today's JG's birthday, so I made a cupcake variant for his lab. At least one of the people in his group is the non-gluten type, so it seemed like a good time to practice GF-friendly baking. I considered one of the angel food variations, but ultimately decided to try something a little different.

[JG kindly supplied me with a photo in situ]

This is a take on a French tea cake called a financier because they resemble gold bars. They use ground nuts and usually some flour; once I ground almonds and substituted cocoa powder, I was just a tablespoon of cinnamon away from Mexican chocolate... then baking them in a mini muffin pan turned them into pesos.

I did this the first time like a chiffon and whipped the whites. I tried it again without whipping and the difference in rise wasn't too significant and I only got one piece of equipment dirty, so I'm posting the easy version with a variation for over-achievers.

Recipe: GF Chocolate Pesos
(or Mexican chocolate financiers)
Yield: 2 dozen mini muffin-sized coins [possibly one 9-inch cake layer?]
You don't have to brown the butter, but it's part of the classic financier preparation and adds a nice caramel-nutty note. If you want to whip the whites separately, transfer the rest of the mix to a big bowl after step 2. Whip whites, and incorporate 1/3 at a time.

1/2 cup roasted almonds (or ~1/3 cup almond meal)
1/2 cup dutch-process cocoa powder
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
4 tablespoons butter, browned and cooled slightly
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 egg whites, room temp*

powdered sugar and/or sesame seeds to garnish

1. Preheat oven to 350F. [You can set the mixing bowl with egg whites near the oven to warm, just check to make sure it doesn’t get too hot.] Line the bottom of whatever pan you’ll use with parchment paper, or use muffin cups.
2. Process almonds with other dry ingredients until no large chunks remain ~30 seconds. Add butter and vanilla and pulse until crumbly and evenly moist.
3. Whisk whites with a fork until foamy. Add to chocolate and process until evenly batter-like.
4. Pour into prepared pan, filling almost to the top. [Optional: sprinkle with sesame seeds and a little sugar to form a crust.] Bake ~20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
5. Cool until pan is no longer too hot to handle. Use a sharp knife to cut around the edges of the cakes and turn out. Dust with powdered sugar.



*I made mayo with leftover yolks:
4 yolks
2 tablespoons lemon juice or vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup neutral oil (canola or non-extra-virgin olive)

Slowly whisk oil into yolks/acid. Start with a few drops at a time and gradually increase to a steady stream. Once emulsified, adjust salt and add pepper to taste.

Chocolate Sunflower Cookies

This variation was inspired by a bowl of chocolate/candy-covered sunflower seeds at a checkout counter. They were tasty -- so are these cookies. I pressed the seeds into both sides so the bottoms have a nice crunch. I considered arranging the seeds in a sunflower pattern, but the chocolate chunks made it too tricky and I was loathe to omit the chocolate.
Variation: Chocolate Sunflower Cookies
You can use a booze-free chocolate chip recipe if you're baking with children.

1 batch Butter Rum Cookies
~3/4 cup dark chocolate, roughly chopped, or a bag of chocolate chips
~ 3/4 cup roasted, salted sunflower seeds

Preheat oven to 375F. Fold chocolate into cookie dough. Roll or scoop into smaller-than-a-ping-pong-ball and drop into a bowl full of sunflower seeds. Press the dough into the seeds, flip, and press again. Transfer to a baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough. Bake 12-15 minutes or until the edges brown. [It takes 14 minutes in my oven.] Cool until chocolate resolidifies, then store in an airtight container.

Chocolate-Banana… Er...

The "hot" weather is breaking; I don't think it'll get much above 80F here again this year. I admit there were times when I was actually reluctant to bake bread in my non-airconditioned attic apartment. The heat also made the breakfast bananas ripen too fast... and that led to a lovely new treat that uses neither the stove nor oven.This is not a mousse. Mousses use egg yolks and whipped whites. It’s not a custard; that requires baking cream and eggs in a water bath. It’s not really a pudding either since there’s no milk or starch involved. It's great frozen, but there's no sugar syrup so I wouldn't call it a sorbet. At cool room temp or in the fridge it sets to the consistency of a good cream pie filling, but it’s no pastry cream and uses none of the pastry staples: egg, cream, butter or flour… I think it’s almost vegan.
I have no idea what it should be called. All I know is it’s shockingly easy and as long as you like bananas, you’ll love the result. It's versatile, too. You can increase the recipe by 50% to fill a 9” pre-baked pie shell or crumb crust.* You can use it to fill a layer cake, Boston Cream Pie-style. You can freeze it in one container and scoop it like ice cream or freeze it in those popcicle molds and make them into healthy fudgecicles.So many possibilities!

Recipe: Chocolate [Peanut Butter] Banana… Dessert

The nut butter is optional but fun for variations... cashews and rum would make the whole thing South American-ish. As you can see in the picture, it does have a slightly grainy texture from the bananas. You can press it through a sieve if you'd like it more smooth, but then you get less fiber.

4 bananas
2 oz dark chocolate (preferably 60% or more)
1 tablespoon peanut butter [optional]
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla (or 1 tablespoon liquor; I like rum or kaluha in this)
pinch of salt

Combine bananas and chocolate in a microwave-safe container and nuke until chocolate is mostly melted,~2 minutes, stirring after 1 minute.
or
Combine in a small saucepan over medium-low heat (no water bath needed), stirring frequently until chocolate is mostly melted, ~5-7 minutes.

Use an immersion blender or transfer to a blender . Add remaining ingredients and process until smooth. Pour into 4-6 containers of your choice and refrigerate or freeze until set.


*It takes 6 bananas, 3 oz chocolate, and ~2 tablespoons cocoa to fill a 9” pie crust.

Silken Chocolate Pie

This pie is fantastic. It's rich and creamy. It melts in your mouth yet cuts perfect slices. It's low-fat and has fewer calories per slice than a standard chocolate chip cookie, and more protein. It's tofu, baby.
It started with a recipe by Mark Bittman for chocolate tofu pudding. I've come across vegan chocolate pie recipes that consist of a bag of chocolate chips and block of tofu, but this one seemed a little more refined. I also had a bunch of biscotti crumbs I'd been saving and it was time to empty out the freezer in preparation for the big move... and I just happened to have a block of silken tofu in the bottom of my fridge that had to go, too. What's a girl to do?

Add liquor, for one thing. I had a small squeeze bottle of blended strong stuff that was left over from the beef cake. I also reduced the sugar and melted chocolate and added cocoa powder in its place, both because I wanted it to be a richer chocolate flavor and less pudding-like and because I didn't want to just throw out the last bit of cocoa powder in the pantry.

I love this recipe. I've now tried it out on friends, parents, in-laws, and a 4-year-old niece. With every group I told them part way through that the pie was tofu-based and they still finished it -- well my mother-in-law had already finished hers and I'm not sure if she would have -- but my dad sure did and he's not the tofu type... he's not even the chocolate type, actually, but he still liked it.
If you reduce the water and add more cocoa powder, you get something the consistency of chocolate truffles... I'm pretty excited about the possibilities.

Recipe: Silken Chocolate Pie
The picture is a small pie that I made in a 6” cast iron skillet, which used a half recipe of the filling and easily served 8. For the full recipe I used 3 tablespoons each rum and amaretto, then topped it off with water. The liquor boils off for the most part so it's safe for kids. I think brandy would work well, or crème de menthe for a grasshopper pie. You can also use all water… I'm still working on a crumb crust from scratch. I've tried to come up with one that doesn't have to be baked, but it hasn't really worked yet. You can use oil in place of the yogurt to make it non-dairy... but only if your crumbs are vegan to begin with.

Crumb crust:
1 1/2 cups cookie or cracker crumbs (I used my biscotti)
2 tablespoons fat-freet yogurt or sour cream
1 tablespoon rum or water

In a 9" pie pan, mash yogurt and rum into crumbs until they stick together. Add a little more yogurt if necessary. Use a dampened drinking glass or spoon to press the crumbs into place.

Pie filling:
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup liquor and/or water
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate
1/3 cup cocoa powder
pinch salt
1 pound firm silken tofu

Chocolate shavings or additional cocoa powder, sifted, to garnish.

In a large glass measuring cup in the microwave or in a small saucepan on the stove, boil liquid and sugar until sugar is mostly dissolved. Add chocolate and let sit a minute or two until the chocolate is mostly melted. Stir in cocoa powder and salt, then transfer to a blender (or use an immersion blender), add tofu, and puree until smooth. Pour into prepared crust, and chill at least 30 minutes before serving.

Yield: 8-12 servings

Multi-Grain Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm moving -- next week -- and packing up my kitchen makes cooking pretty awkward... but sometimes you've just got to make a soothing batch of cookies, especially when you need to use up some random pantry ingredients. These were surprisingly good. The oat flour makes them nice and crispy on the outside, but perfectly soft in the middle. Chocolate chip cookies are JG's favorite and he's always resisted my attempts to "healthen" them. These, he loves.

Recipe: Multi-Grain Chocolate Chip Cookies
As always, you can just use all purpose flour, but the oat flour is key to the texture and well worth seeking out.

7 Tbs butter (you could use 6 or 8, but I had 7 left)
1 cup sugar
2 Tbs yogurt [plain fat-free]
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 Tbs coffee liquour (I was out of vanilla extract, it worked really well)

1 cup whole wheat flour (I used white whole wheat)
1 cup oat flour (key)
1/2 tsp kosher salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
12 oz. bittersweet chocolate (I usually chop it, but I had a bag of Ghiradelli 60%)

[Optional step: In a small skillet, brown 3 tbs of butter until the solids turn the color of almond skins. Pour into a metal or shatterproof glass bowl and transfer to the fridge to cool. Once it's opaque but still soft, add it to the remaining butter and sugar in the mixer]

Preheat oven to 350F. Combine butter, sugar and yogurt in a standing mixer and beat on medium high until smooth (it won't really cream, but the color of the butter will get paler). Reduce speed to medium. Add whole egg and beat until combined, scrape down the bowl, then repeat with the egg yolk and the liquour.

Add the dry ingredients and mix on low until almost all of the flour is incorporated, then add the chocolate and mix in. [You don't actually have to worry about the cookies getting too tough because there's no gluten in the oat flour.]

Drop by rounded tablespoons on a parchment-lined sheet. Bake 12-15 minutes or until edges begin to brown. Slide onto a cooling rack and wait at least a few minutes before eating.

Beef Cake

I don't tend to do novelty cakes, but my mom asked me to make a cake for my little brother's graduation... I think she was thinking of a sheet cake with "Congratulations" piped across. I did this instead:
It makes a little more sense to know my brother majored in agriculture and he's working on a black angus cattle ranch. The cake turned out even better than I hoped. I achieved the look of fine-grain leather by not heating the fondant before I rolled it, a definite no-no with store -bought fondant, but my version was a little more pliable [and even pleasant to eat] ...
...as a bonus, the cake slices looked just like well-crusted brisket.

Recipe: Beef Cake
The individual components can be made ahead and chilled until ready to use. I should have done a triple recipe to fill my cake pans better, but I was winging it at the time. I don't have a low-fat frosting recipe, although adding the pureed dry fruit makes the filling marginally better for you. In my opinion, if you want a healthier cake, just dust it with powdered sugar or cocoa powder, or a super light drizzle of glaze. Frosting is frosting... and this frosting recipe comes from Smitten Kitchen, which is an excellent resource for layer cakes. The "soil" in the picture is borrowed from a chef friend's dessert menu and I can't share it [but it was tasty!].

Cake:
2 recipes Rum Cake,
--replace lemon with amaretto
--add 1/2 cup cocoa powder to dry ingredients
red food coloring as desired

Pour batter into one 9x13 and one 8x8. After they're cooled, wrap the cakes in plastic wrap, stick them in the freezer until frozen solid, cut in half to form two layers, refreeze, then cut to desired shape and assemble on cake board [or refreeze until ready to use.

Frosting and Filling:
1 recipe Buttercream frosting
1/3 cup cocoa powder
8 oz dried plums [prunes]
4 oz dried dates
2 tablespoons amaretto
red and black food coloring

Add cocoa powder during mixing. Color 1/2 the frosting with black food coloring, and set aside. In a food processor, puree plums, dates, amaretto, and food coloring until mostly smooth add remaining frosting, a dollop at a time, until well combined. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Fondant:
1 lb Whiskey Marshmallows [substituting rum for whiskey]
1 to 1.5 lbs powdered sugar
black food coloring to desired color [I also added a tiny bit of green]

Spray mixing bowl with oil. Microwave marshmallows until soft ~1 minute then transfer to mixing bowl. Add powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time and beat until soft and pliable. Knead in food coloring, spray with oil, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate until ready to use.

Assembly:
1-2 Tablespoons rum or amaretto
Corn starch

Spread a thin layer of the black frosting underneath the cake to adhere it to the cake board. Take off the top layer and spread all of the red filling. Replace top layer [and sprinkle with a little more rum if the cake feels a bit dry]. Spread a thin layer of frosting over the top and sides of the cake. It's fine if the crumbs come through, because this will all be covered by the fondant. Let it dry at least 30 minutes. Meanwhile, remove fondant from fridge (still wrapped) and let it warm to room temp.

Thoroughly dust a counter with corn starch, unwrap fondant onto counter and sprinkle top with cornstarch. Roll out to ~1/4 thick in roughly the desired cake shape (plus a good 2 inches around to cover the sides, dusting as needed to keep from sticking. Gently lift the fondant to check for stuck spots and scrape with a knife to unstick (this will stay the underside, so it doesn't have to be perfectly beautiful. Bring the cake as close as humanly possible. Roll up the fondant onto your rolling pin [I actually had to roll around my arm] and transfer it to the cake. IMPORTANT: It's nearly impossible to adjust the fondant once it's on cake, so make sure you line it up before you put it down. Fold edges over sides without stretching and cut with scissors to fit the cake form. Use a pizza cutter to trim the base, then gently smooth all edges and seams with your fingers. Use the top side of a butter knife to indent the fondant with any desired details.

At this point, the cake should not be refrigerated again until after presentation as doing otherwise will cause condensation beads (and food color runs) on the fondant.

Whole-Wheat Mexican Chocolate Cookies

I always have to suppress an eye-roll when people talk about baking as chemistry. It's not real chemistry. I mean, some of the more avant guard pastry may be, and there are chemical reactions involved in baking, but most home baking is a matter of approximate ratios of flour/sometimes sugar/butter/salt/sometimes egg. You don't have to level off every cup and teaspoon perfectly... eyeballing it works in most cases. You might start off with a quick bread and end up with a cake, but that's because they're not that different... muffins are just an excuse to eat cake for breakfast. That said, it is possible to throw off your ratios inadvertently -- like forgetting to reduce one ingredient when halving a recipe or accidentally grabbing the 1/3 cup instead of the 1/2 cup -- and it change the texture quite a bit. Still edible, but not quite right.

In the case of these particular cookies, there is a certain point where the batter is basically a soft chocolate mousse... a really, really good chocolate mousse with caramel notes of browned butter, earthy cocoa and espresso and just the right amount of cinnamon. If you eat enough of the dough at this stage you can actually throw off your ratios significantly, rendering the final dough too dry and unfit for anything but a cookie crumb crust base. It, um, happened to someone I know...
Recipe: Whole-Wheat Mexican Chocolate Cookies
These cookies are very thin with a delicate crumb, in part because of the pastry flour. I've only managed to reduce the butter by 25%, but since they're so thin you get a lot of cookies and each one packs a pretty satisfying chocolaty punch. Sometimes I roll them thicker ~1/4” if I want something sturdier to make sandwich cookies. You can omit the sesame and cinnamon for a more basic chocolate cookie flavor, or add 1/8 tsp cayenne for a hint of heat.

1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp sesame seeds

8 oz. (16 Tbs/2 sticks) cold butter (divided use)
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp espresso powder
1 cup sugar
2 egg yolks
1 Tbs vanilla

Combine first five dry ingredients and set aside. Brown 4 Tbs butter in a small skillet until golden brown and fragrant. Pour into bowl of your standing mixer and add cocoa, cinnamon and espresso. Turn on low speed and stream sugar into running mixer. [This helps cool it a little so you don't melt the rest of the butter.] Once sugar is fully incorporated, slice remaining butter into large pats and add to somewhat cooled mixture. Increase speed to high and beat until creamed… 2-3 minutes. The color will go from almost black to a rich brown like chocolate frosting. Reduce speed to medium and add eggs yolks, then vanilla. Beat until batter is nice and thick.

Now you’re just a few eggs and some refrigerator time shy of a mousse. DO NOT EAT MORE THAN A SPOONFUL OF THIS LOVELY BATTER OR YOU’LL RUIN YOUR COOKIES! Add the flour mixture, ½ cup at a time and waiting until flour is mostly incorporated before adding next scoop. Divide dough roughly in half and dump into Ziploc bags or wrap in plastic wrap before flattening into disks. Chill dough for 15 minutes, refrigerate for up to 3 days, or freeze indefinitely [Allow to come to a cool room temp before rolling out]. If chilling, turn on oven to 350F so it'll be ready when you are.

Unwrap dough and place on parchment paper, keeping plastic wrap spread over top. Roll dough to 1/8” thick, remove plastic, and cut into desired shapes. Using an offset spatula or a thin pancake spatula, move shapes to parchment-lined baking sheet and bake 8-10 minutes. Once done, slide cookies, parchment and all, onto cooling rack. Allow to cool completely before removing from parchment.

Angel Food Cake

My brother told me my mom wanted Angel Food cake for her birthday. I'd never made one, but I'm pretty good with folding meringues, so I thought I could give it a shot. I ended up giving it 8 shots.
I looked at several recipes and was amazed by how little flour was actually used: 3/4 cup cake flour to 12 whites and 1 1/2 cups sugar. Surely the soft wheat flour wasn't providing that much structure, so why not try alternatives? I made 7 half-recipes before selecting my final blend.***
The variations were:
cake flour -- as a baseline
whole wheat pastry flour
oat flour
buckwheat flour
cocoa powder
whole-wheat pastry flour plus gluten
rice flour

As you can see in the pictures, most of them fell... but I'm unwilling to blame the flours. I kept taking them out of the pans before they were completely cool because I couldn't start the next round until I emptied the pans [who knew 2 tube pans wouldn't be enough?].
My favorite, flavor-wise, was the buckwheat. It had great tang. Other tasters preferred the honey notes of the oat flour, but the texture on that one was crumbly. The 100% cocoa powder turned into the best fat-free brownie ever. [more experiments are in order there.]
The rice flour version looked identical to the cake flour one, i.e. just like you'd buy at the grocery store, but the texture was a little rice-floury. I don't think white rice flour is particularly more healthful than cake flour, but it is gluten-free... I didn't have any brown rice flour on hand. The whole-wheat pastry was pretty neutral, but the crumb wasn't quite as spongy as it should be and I wanted to make a cake that wasn't obviously different. I mean, my family knows about my recipe tinkering, but I didn't want it to become "that health-food angel-food cake Maria made that time" in family lore.
Recipe: Angel Food Cake
The final verdict was to keep at least 1/4 cup cake flour. If I have occasion to make another, I think I'll do equal parts wwp/cake/buckwheat, because I think it'd be awesome with strawberries... although the oat flour did make for a pretty great angel food/shortcake hybrid.

12 egg whites, room temp
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup sugar [divided use]
1/2 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup cake flour
1 tbs vital wheat gluten

1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp vanilla^^
1/2 tsp almond^^

Preheat oven to 350F. Use an ungreased tube pan and trace the outside of it onto parchment paper, cut out, fold in quarters, and cut the tip back to the radius of the center tube. Drop it inside the pan, trimming as necessary.

Whisk egg whites on low until foamy ~3 minutes or so. While this is going, sift together flours, gluten, and remaining 1/2 c sugar. Add tartar and salt to the whites and bump up the speed a notch. Once incorporated, slowly, slowly pour in 3/4 cup sugar and whisk until dissolved. Switch to highest speed and whip until soft peaks form. [The tip should make a "Dairy Queen" curl instead of sticking straight up. If you accidentally take it to firm peaks, it's okay, the cake just won't rise as much.] Add lemon and extracts and whip until whites return to soft peaks. Sift 1/3 flour mix over whites and gently fold. Repeat two more times. Spoon into ungreased tube pan and shake a little to distribute evenly. Bake 1 hour or until the top springs when pressed, i.e. you can press the top without the crust breaking under your fingers. Carefully remove from oven, invert and suspend over a wine bottle or place on a cooling rack over an oven burner (w.o. pilot) until completely cool ~2-3 hours. Seriously. Don't cut it out at 1.5 hours. It made my heart hurt when it deflated -- every time because I refused to learn my lesson.

Once completely cool, flip upright and run a serrated knife around the edge and center cone. Flip back onto a cooling rack or serving plate. Peel off parchment and serve with your choice of toppings.


^^ I wanted to keep everything the same except the flours, so I didn't play with this. The acid in the lemon juice helps set the whites, but the extract combination tastes exactly like you'd expect angel food cake to taste. By the second batch I really wanted to replace the almond with herbsaint or chartreuse. I think it'd be great to sub rum or brandy for the entire amount and use it for an English Trifle in place of pound cake... or reduce the vanilla and add 1/2 tsp orange blossom water and top the cake with grilled pineapple. Ooh, yeah. Let's do that next.
***You may ask, "Where does one get enough egg whites to make 4.5 full angel food cakes without having 54 yolks to spare? " In this case it pays to know pastry chefs, especially ones that make custards and ice creams. They use lots of yolks and often store away their whites without any specific purpose, just because they hate to waste them... although they often don't use them and they go bad and have to be thrown out anyway. I made sure the leftovers from all the New Year's pastries didn't go to waste.

Mexican Chocolate Biscotti

We eat these daily. When we run out, I usually make more the same day. Sometimes I'll switch it up and make Sicillian biscotti with lemon and anise, or a hazelnut or almond biscotti if I've got nuts to spare, but the next batch will always be Mexican chocolate. The whole wheat flour contributes to the nutty, earthy, chocolate-ness without making them seem "healthy." This style of biscotti using only whole eggs for fat, makes a very hard cookie after the second bake [biscotti means "twice-baked in Italian]. I have made these by hand but the dough is pretty gooey, so by the time I stirred in enough to get everything incorporated it was a little overmixed and the resulting texture was more dense than usual, but still good. The chemical reaction between the soda and the chocolate helps the crumb immensely. They aren't so hard you'll fear for your teeth, but they do soften nicely when dunked in coffee. They can keep for months in a sealed container... but we always finish them well before that.

Recipe: Mexican Chocolate Biscotti

You can chop some of the chocolate and add it at the end if you want chunks... but you'll also have to wait a couple hours for the chocolate to set before you can cut them cleanly for the second bake. The sesame seeds and tahini add a great mole-esque flavor, but they're easily omitted. I've made these with honey, but the texture was off. You can also use all purpose flour for all or part of the flour mix.

4 oz Mexican chocolate squares (Popular, Ibarra, or the like -- or 4 oz regular bittersweet)
1 cup sugar
1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1/3 cup Dutch processed cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon (add an additional 1t if using regular chocolate)
1 1/2 tsp sesame seeds
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 Tbl tahini (seame paste)
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
______________________________________________
Set oven to 350 degrees F. Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper or grease lightly.

Combine chocolate squares and sugar in a microwave save bowl and nuke 1 minute or until chocolate is soft, stirring every 30 seconds. Transfer mixture to a standing mixer. Whisk remaining dry ingredients in another bowl and set aside.

Add eggs and vanilla to sugar. Mix on medium speed until creamy, then add tahini and mix until combined. Switch to low speed and add dry ingredients a 1/2 C at a time; mixing until just combined. The dough will be very sticky, but resist the temptation to add more flour.

Spoon the dough into two logs 12-15 inches long and at least 1 ½ inches apart on the cookie sheet. Using saran wrap as a barrier, pat the logs smooth with your hands. Bake approximately 35 minutes or until log begins to crack along the surface. Transfer to a large cooling rack and cool for at least 10 minutes or cool enough to handle.

Turn oven temperature to 325 degrees F. Transfer logs to a cutting board. Slice logs on a diagonal 1/4” to 1/2” thick. (If you have a storage container in mind, it helps to measure your diagonal to it so they’ll fit inside.) Arrange slices on the cooling rack and place in the oven for an additional 20-25 minutes or until biscotti reach the desired crispness. (If you don’t have a large cooling rack, place on the cookie sheet and flip halfway through.)

The drier/harder they are, the longer they keep…up to a few months in an airtight container.