spike.bakes

Moving!

2011-02-13T19:06:00.004-05:00

I'm moving. No not to the mountains (I wish)... to tumblr!
I needed a change for spike.bakes and I think a tumblr switch might do me some good. I'll still be posting on my baking but a few other things might pop up in between.

Check it out: http://spikebakes.tumblr.com/

Nana & Papa Cookies

2011-02-07T19:44:00.006-05:00

My Nana and Papa always had andes mints at their apartment. I loved the little mints with their green wrappers. I couldn't just call these cookies "Andes Mint Cookies" as they're commonly known, that wouldn't do. I made a few tweaks and felt justified in renaming them after my grandparents.

This recipe made a million cookies. I made them for a friend who had a birthday last week but then had a bunch more that I gave to more friends and family. If you want a ton of cookies, follow as written. Or you could try bigger cookies with a full mint on top. I'm pretty sure the dough would freeze well too.

Nana & Papa Cookies
Makes 40+ cookies

3/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 tablespoons vanilla
12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 large eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/4 cups mint chips (optional but adds extra mint, I found some guittard chips that worked)
Andes mint candies, cut in half (about 1 package)

Over low heat, combine butter, sugar and vanilla. Heat until melted and add chocolate chips until partly melted. Remove from heat and stir. The batter may be a little grainy at this point. Pour into large mixing bowl. Let stand 10 minutes to cool slightly. Combine the flour, salt and baking soda in a small bowl and set aside.

Beat the eggs into the chocolate mixture one at a time on medium speed. Reduce mixer to low speed and add flour mixture. Beat just until flour disappears. Mix in the mint chips if you're usin them. Chill the dough for 1 hour, until the dough firms up a bit.

Heat oven to 350°F.

Roll dough into balls, place two inches apart on parchment paper-lined baking sheets. Bake for 10 minutes. Place an Andes Mint half on top. Return to the oven for 60 seconds, allowing the mint to melt slightly. Remove from the oven and spread mint around a bit with a spoon. Let cool on a wire rack.

Great Grains(!) Muffins

2011-02-01T00:01:00.000-05:00

In my head I've been calling these Great Scott! Muffins.I made this recicpe twice in the last week. The first time I did a half batch. I keep them plain, just grains and a subtle maple taste- no added nuts, fruit, chocolate. They were so perfect for breakfast that I made them again, this time a full batch.This is a simple but great recipe. Good plain, even better toasted with peanut butter. Happy Tummy is hosting this week so find the recipe over there.

Nutty, Chocolaty, Swirly Sour Cream Bundt Cake

2011-01-25T08:30:00.004-05:00

This week's TWD pick comes from my pal Jennifer. Early on in participating in this group I took a look at Jennifer's blog and saw that she was also from Medford, MA. Turns out we lived just a few minutes apart. She and I have been a team for operation baking GALS for about the last year and a half. She always posts some great recipes and this one was a fantastic pick.

I read all the warnings about cakes sticking to the pan in advance. I prepared for cake battle by dutifully greasy and flouring my already non stick pan. I covered up the swirl in the middle with batter- all the tricks other bakers had shared. When it was out of the oven, I took a quick picture before unmolding.

Held my breath, flipped the pan and:
It stuck. At least this cake had the good sense of being delicious to make up for the appearance. I loved the chocolate cinnamon combo and the good sour cream taste of the cake. Great pick! Find the recipe on Jennifer's blog.

Lemon Muffins

2011-01-18T09:25:00.004-05:00

I was glad to be reminded of this recipe this morning. After a long commute to work due to more snow, I realized that I had my lunch but nothing for the morning. Luckily I remembered that I had stashed a few of these muffins in the freezer a couple of weeks ago when I made them.

I left out the poppy seeds. I don't like the way they get stuck in my teeth. I have a great fear of walking around all day with a mouth full of poppy seeds. Oh the horror! However, the muffin is nice on its own, just a light lemon flavor. Very nice toasted with butter. Not anything to crazy, but just right for the morning. Betsy of A Cup of Sweetness has the recipe here. Now I still need to make last week's recipe...

Gooey Butter Cake

2011-01-11T07:21:00.004-05:00

I'll be late on my TWD post this week, but I'm sure that Margot picked a winner (Madeleines filled with fluff? yes please). Until they are baked and posted, I have this gooey butter cake for you.

My sister in law request chocolate sauce for her birthday treat so I picked out this cake to go with it. Part of the cake is yeasted, so there is some down time involved in making the cake. The top layer is butter and sugar goodness (a few other things too). When it bakes, you get these deep craters- perfect for filling with chocolate sauce.

Gooey Butter Cake
Adapted from Melissa Clark at the New York Times
Yields 16 to 20 servings

For the cake
3 tablespoons milk at room temperature
1 3/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
6 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 large egg
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

For the topping
3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon light corn syrup
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 large egg
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

hot fudge for the top, maybe a little ice cream too.

Make the cake dough: In a small bowl, mix milk with 2 tablespoons warm water. Add yeast and whisk gently until it dissolves. Mixture should foam slightly.

Using an electric mixer with paddle attachment, cream butter, sugar and salt. Scrape down sides of bowl and beat in the egg. Alternately add flour and the milk mixture, scraping down sides of bowl between each addition. Beat dough for a few minutes- it will be a very soft dough.

Press and stretch dough the best you can into an greased 9-by 13-inch baking dish at least 2 inches deep. Cover dish with plastic wrap, put in a warm place, and allow to rise until doubled, 2 to 3 hours.

Make the gooey topping: Heat oven to 350 degrees. To prepare topping, in a small bowl, whisk corn syrup with 2 tablespoons water and the vanilla. Using an electric mixer with paddle attachment, cream butter, sugar and salt until light and fluffy, 5 to 7 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl and beat in the egg. Alternately add flour and corn syrup mixture, scraping down sides of bowl between each addition.

Spoon topping in large dollops over risen cake and use an offset spatula to gently spread it in an even layer. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes; cake will rise and fall in waves and have a golden brown top, but will still be liquid in center when done. Allow to cool in pan before serving.

Paris Mushroom Soup

2011-01-07T00:38:00.001-05:00

I love mushrooms, or flavor sponges as those in the know (moi) call them. I made this soup on sunday while half watching the Pats destroy the Dolphins and lamenting that it was my last day off before back to the grind. The soup did make me feel better.

I took a few liberties with the recipe. I added some amazing grey salt with herbs de provence that I have. I added a splash of red wine instead of white because that's what the cabinet held. When blitzing up the first half of the soup in the food processor, it seemed too watery so I took out about a cup of liquid and pureed the rest. I like the consistency better that way. I also left out the little mushroom salad you make for the bottom of the bowl.

This is a great hearty soup, perfect for winter. Not so perfect, however, for photographing. Nothing like a bowl of gray soup. I guess that's why the photo in the book is of the ingredients before they become soup!

Buy this book for the recipe.

Midnight Crackles

2011-01-04T00:01:00.002-05:00

These midnight crackles may look like little lumps of dough (doesn't that sound appetizing) but they really are quite tasty. I refrigerated the dough and when I took it out of the fridge, it was much too solid to work with. I let it warm up on the counter but alas, it was still hard and crumbly when I tried to form the cookies. I did the best I could, baked up a few and hoped for the best.

The best came a day or two later- once the chocolate had fully hit the cookie after some time relaxing on the shelf, these were so good. I ate some for breakfast New Years Day. Obviously, I'm not one for resolutions.

Later I took some more dough, still rock solid, and put it in the mixer with some crushed up white chocolate pretzels and candy cane bits. I beat it up and made some more cookies. Still unattractive but a great mix of salty and chocolaty.

Try the recipe, but don't refrigerate the dough for long! The Recipe.

Holiday Treats

2010-12-21T08:57:00.003-05:00

I finally got around to a bunch of cookie and treat making this past weekend. Here's a look at the spread.
Very tiny rugelach, molasses cookies, peppermint bark, and chocolate caramel matzoh. Thanks to all for the great suggestions. I have a few more recipes on my list yet to try. I'd highly recommend the candy matzoh recipe from David Lebovitz (here's the recipe). Very easy and it got the best reviews at the office.
I did make a TWD recipe for this week, eating a muffin for breakfast as I type. I tried the cardamom cake awhile ago when I had delusions that it was the chosen recipe on a week it was not. It wasn't my favorite. Instead I made a Dorie inspired muffin mix and put leftover pecan crumble topping on top. Pretty tasty.

Coconut Pecan Cake

2010-12-13T18:56:00.003-05:00

Long story short... I didn't have apples so this is just a small coconut cake with a few pecans added in. I'm in new jersey with no cake (although I do have a few molasses cookies). I had a small bite before I left and thought this was a decent cake but probably would have been a whole lot better with a few apples thrown in.

Later this week christmas cooking and baking begins! If you have a cookie or dessert to recommend-m leave me a comment. I'd love to try a few new recipes this year.

Want to try the recipe as written? Check out Amber's of Cobbler du Monde blog.

Speculoos

2010-12-10T05:30:00.001-05:00

I was in Berlin last Fall visiting a friend (Hi Kiki!) and there were speculoos cookies and flavorings everywhere. From traditional thin cookies for christmas to ritter bars with speculoos flavoring in the middle. I brought a few of those ritter bars home with me, which disappeared (into my belly) quickly, and have been thoroughly disappointed by the local ritter bar selection ever since.

When I first bought Around the French Table and saw that it included a recipe for these cookies, I wanted to make them right away. With all the will power I could muster, I held off until December when the recipe would be most appropriate.

I made the cookies a bit thicker so they weren't as crunchy as they ought to be. I also drizzled on melted bittersweet and semi sweet chocolate for the Ritter bar effect. The chocolate is the perfect addition to the spice cookie. I think this recipe has successfully made it into the holiday cookie rotation.

Maple Tuiles

2010-12-07T08:34:00.002-05:00

Yep, this is a scary cookie. They bake up incredibly thin and you have to quickly get them off the pan in one pieces and drape them to create a curve. One of mine had the right effect. The rest were crazy. I had tuiles doing battle on the plate:
It was a short battle. Tuiles are very fragile.

It is kind of a fun recipe though, even if they don't come out perfect. The challenge of them is fun. I'm planning monday night pats v. jets (boo jets) with tuiles and egg nog ice cream. Pats, tuiles, and egg nog ice cream. Those things all go together perfectly in my mind.

Hindy of Bubie’s Little Baker has the recipe here.

Sweet & Spicy Nuts

2010-12-03T18:32:00.002-05:00

I have three recipes from French Fridays with dorie in the works at the moment. The kitchen is a mess. Here's the simplistic recipe of the bunch (and the only one I'll finish today). Nut mixes are a bit retro so I themed the photo that way. I love making them- easy app and totally delish. Although impossible to stop eating. You just coat the nuts in an egg white, mix with a sugar spicy mix (I used sugar, salt, ancho chile and cinnamon) and bake at 300 til brown. Then, the hard part. Not eating the whole lot. Happy Friday!

Cranberry Shortbread Cake

2010-11-30T08:22:00.005-05:00

You'll find no excuses here, just playing a little catch up. Even if I didn't comment, I read everyone's posts about this cranberry shortbread cake thing and knew I wanted to make it for thanksgiving. I've had a huge bag of cranberries in my freezer that I've slowly been working my way through and this recipe finally used the last of them. Huzzah!

I used clementines instead of orange in the filling and made that a day ahead. The crust is both perplexing and delicious in this dish. It is like a giant shortbread cookie housing a nicely tart filling. I thought the combination was fantastic. Others (non cranberry lovers) seemed less impressed with the filling but all for the crust. Here's the recipe. Thanks for a great pick Jessica!

I also baked up Dorie's chocolate pecan pie which I made last year as well. All desserts have finally left the house and I'm kind of dreading christmas cookies and another influx of baked goods at the moment. I will, however, be catching up on the FFwD roast chicken later in the week.

Peanutty Blondies

2010-11-17T22:41:00.000-05:00

I'm trying to play a bit of catch up after being baking delinquent and then heading west for a long weekend. I don't know why I couldn't get myself in gear to make these blondies for TwD on time- I had already purchased the ingredients. And they are right up my alley. Peanut butter is one of the greatest foods on earth. Plus they seemed like they would have been perfect to travel with. Oh well. Instead I baked them last night and brought them into work.

These are one of those treats that you really shouldn't eat hot out of the oven. They're okay like that but if you wait one day, the peanut butter flavor really shows and a good blondie turns into a fantastic one. These were thoroughly enjoyed by everyone in the office.

Here's the recipe link.

Potato Gratin

2010-11-05T22:36:00.001-04:00

Like a good Irish girl, I always eat my potatoes. Cover them with garlic infused cream, thyme, and a little cheese and I'll lick the dish clean. I was so excited to try these potatoes that I just snapped a quick photo with my phone instead of going through a real set up. I'm regretting that now because you don't get to see the true loveliness of this dish.I made these potatoes as part of a nice square meal last week. Really, I made a regular dinner- meat, potato, green vegetable. On a week night too. Dorie's new cookbook is good enough to make me eat non desserts for dinner at least one night a week. Find the potato gratin recipe when you buy the book.

Pumpkin Caramel Bacon Bars

2010-11-01T16:06:00.005-04:00

I'll be late on this week's TWD post but I thought these treats might be a good post in the meantime. My friend Katy forwarded the recipe from the noble pig and I made them last week for friend Joe's birthday treat. The pumpkin squares might be a bit boring on their own. When you top them with caramel cream cheese frosting and chopped bacon, things change drastically. The bacon tastes quite suitable atop all that sugar. The frosting I made with double the original amount of cream cheese and I don't think that was a mistake. The frosting stays pretty loose and drips down over the sides after you cut the bars. If you're a fan of salty and sweet treats, this one's for you. Unless you're a vegetarian.

Pumpkin Caramel Bacon Bars
based on a recipe by Cuisine at Home

For the Bars-
8 oz. bacon, diced
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt or table salt
1 and 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg, at room temp
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup chopped pecans

For the Frosting-
2 cups packed brown sugar
1/3 cup water
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 stick unsalted butter, cubed
8 oz. cream cheese, cubed
Sea salt

For the bars: Preheat oven to 350 F. Coat a 9 x 13 baking pan with nonstick spray. Cook bacon in a saute pan over medium heat until crisp; drain on a paper towel lined plate and set aside. Reserve 2 tablespoons drippings.

Whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt for the bars in a medium bowl; set aside. Whisk together pumpkin puree, granulated sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar, egg, melted butter, bacon drippings, and vanilla in a large bowl until well blended. Stir in flour mixture and pecans, mix just until incorporated.

Spread pumpkin batter evenly into prepared pan; bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting: Boil 2 cups brown sugar, water and a pinch of salt for the frosting in a large saucepan over high heat, 5 minutes, swirling occasionally to prevent scorching. Whisk in cream and butter pieces. (Mixture will bubble furiously; keep whisking.) Boil 2 minutes more.

Transfer caramel to the bowl of a stand mixer; whip on high speed until the caramel is thick and cool to the touch, about 10-minutes (don't try touching the caramel too soon or you'll burn your hand!). Add cream cheese, 1 cube at a time, until frosting is smooth.

Putting the bars together: Spread the caramel frosting over the bars while they are still in the pan. Let caramel set for 30 minutes. Add the chopped crispy bacon on top of the frosting. Cut the pan into small squares and enjoy.

Marie-Helene’s Apple Cake

2010-10-29T00:46:00.002-04:00

I've been down on apple recipes lately. I love this here apple cake but the other recipes I've tried lately were just too boring. Then this cake from Dorie Greenspan's newest cookbook came along and turned everything around. Reading over the recipe, I though that this was just too simple to be an amazing dessert. I was very wrong.
The lightly rum flavored batter just barely covers the chopped apples but when it bakes, it fills in and you have a perfect cake where the apples are really outstanding. No cinnamon needed!

I only made a small version of the cake to have as dessert after our dinner of mussels and chorizo last week. It was gone in seconds. In the future, I'll probably double the recipe instead. Thanks for another great pick Dorie and thanks to Marie-Helene for a priceless recipe.

Mussels and Chorizo

2010-10-24T00:05:00.002-04:00

For Dorie Greenspan's birthday, a bunch of Tuesdays with Dorie and French Fridays with Dorie bakers and cooks got together to make a grand birthday dinner. I opted to try a dish from the seafood and shellfish section of Dorie's newest book, Around My French Table. As with every recipe I've tried from this book, it was easy and delicious. You start by cooking onions, tomatoes and spicy chorizo together. While the pasta boils, just add some white wine and the mussels and within minutes you have a fresh and hearty meal. I think many think of french food as stuffy and involved. Where many dishes require classic techniques, many are just like this one-easy and satisfying.

A very happy birthday to Dorie! Her recipes have made my friends and family very happy over the past few years (me too!) and I look forward to many more books and favorite recipes to come.
See what the other birthday chefs made here. And thinks to Holly and Laurie for organzing this!

Caramel Pumpkin Pie

2010-10-19T00:01:00.000-04:00

I remember an old Prairie Home Companion where Garrison Keillor writes something along the lines of "the best pumpkin pie you ever had is not all that different from the worst and it is all just an excuse to use nutmeg". I shared the feeling; pumpkin pie was never anything special.
That is until this pumpkin pie. I used a graham cracker crust which helped the cause. The caramel here adds just enough flavor so you know it isn't an ordinary pumpkin pie. Plus it is easy, even with the caramel making. Once the pie was transported, we served it with a little whipped cream, it was gone before I could steal a slice to photograph. Perfect pie for a fall day when the Pats win it in OT.

Vietnamese Spicy Chicken Noodle Soup

2010-10-15T14:31:00.004-04:00

Instead of making this soup last Thursday evening as I had planned, I went out to see a band. When a local band makes their once a year performance, you don't stay home. By the time friday rolled around it was rainy and I was tired. It was the perfect time to come home and mix up a big pot of soup.

The soup doesn't take all that long to come together. The broth was really nice, a blend of star anise, coconut milk, stock, ginger, and more- no one flavor stood out but it blended together well. The leftovers have been put to good use as I now have a cold and want to have nothing other than soup at every meal. Three for three in great recipes from Dorie's new book!

Fold Over Apple Torte

2010-10-12T03:25:00.000-04:00

I've had some guilt over the last week after reading everyone's posts on the double apple bundt cake. Why didn't I love it too? I've concluded that I probably screwed it up. So I tried to redeem myself this week using the rest of my apples to make the pear (apple) torte selected by cakelaw (recipe).
Only I haven't redeemed myself. I made too many changes to the recipe, tried to scale it down, paid too little attention to the directions, and ended up with another meh apple dessert. The crust and custardy part were very tasty, but I should have spiced up the apples more.

In conclusion, I'm not sure I'm really a fan of apple desserts, especially when I don't follow recipe instructions. Next week I may be making a chocolate dessert instead. ugh.

Gerard's Mustard Tart

2010-10-08T08:01:00.001-04:00

Look! A non iphone picture! A few weeks ago I dropped my camera and the lense was stuck at one point so it couldn't focus. As of wednesday night, I still hadn't dropped it off to get fixed. However, this big strong dude showed up at my house and said "let me see that" and in two shakes, it was corrected. My hero.Wednesday was also the night I baked up Gerard's Mustard Tart for the brand spanking new group FFwD. Although Dorie mentions that the tart is best served right away, I was too hungry after work and had to eat my dinner right away before the tart even made it into the oven. When it did come out, it was so pretty (and puffed up) that I wish I had room for a tasted. Patience prevailed. The puff deflated into this loveliness and I was able to control myself until lunch the next day before taking a taste.I went with a tomato version of this tart. I oven-dried a mix of red and green tomatoes from the garden, mixed in a little fresh chopped basil for good measure. The result? So nice. A light tart with good mustard flavor- prefect with the roasted tomatoes. Made for a very nice lunch.

Various Apple Cakes

2010-10-05T08:07:00.000-04:00

The Double Apple Bundt cake was selected for Tuesdays with Dorie this week and what lovely timing. I made this last Saturday after returning from apple picking with friends. I left the cake in the oven with my friend's looking after it as I headed out to pick up other folks. Courtney reported that the cake was done before the minimum baking time. We had a dessert sampling of apple treats that evening and I wasn't in love with the cake. I found it a little dry. That may have been the apple cider cocktails talking but none the less not a favorite. And I didn't take a picture. Check out Lynne of Honey Muffin to try your hand at the recipe.

That experience had me wanting to try one of my favorite apple cakes- a recipe from the Smitten Kitchen. The apples are layered instead of mixed throughout and the cake itself isn't cinnamon but a nice light orange flavor. It is usually made in a bundt or tube pan but I tried loaf pans instead thinking it would be easier. Well I didn't let one of them cook through enough and it was a little doughy in the middle. I sent the good slices off with my mom for a birthday treat and ate the under done part myself (toasted, with ice cream). I also took a crappy photo of it. the end.

Gougeres

2010-10-01T03:05:00.001-04:00

Ah, thursday. After coming home from a business trip to Atlanta, I set off to work Thursday morning. A couple of miles from home my check engine light came on. Turned around, dropped off the car at my (tax evading) mechanic and headed home to work. Maybe I'll look on the car trouble as a blessing in disguise because I was able to cook up some lovely gorgeres during lunch allowing me to post for the very first French Fridays with Dorie on time.

The recipe allows for the use of any cheese you have in the fridge, luckily, because I was working with very little in the way of ingredients. I chose some goats cheese and romano and they turned out perfectly. So simple but such a sophisticated treat. Perfect to eat while sitting on the back porch waiting to give all your money to the car mechanic.

Dorie picked our first set of recipes so I'm guessing these are some of her favorites. I'm really look forward to cooking along with this group!

Preserves

2010-09-28T07:18:00.007-04:00

Greetings from Atlanta. I'm on a work trip and although I went apple picking before I left, I didn't have a chance to make the tart fine. There will be plenty of apple desserts to come once I'm home.

These Plum raspberry preserves were selected by Margo (of Effort to Deliciousness) for this week's Sweet Melissa Sundays. I'm late in posting. I made the tiniest amount and used nectarines. Instead of putting them in a jar for later, I poured the warm preserves over vanilla ice cream. Really as close to perfect as a non chocolate dessert can get. Thanks Margot!

ps- still no camera but having fun with the iphone. Seemed like an old fashioned dessert, hense the photo.

Coffee Break Muffins

2010-09-21T00:11:00.001-04:00

I almost choose this recipe when it was my turn to pick. These muffins are easy and have a ton of coffee flavor. Add some chocolate chips to the batter and it's all over.I've made these muffins a few times- mostly as mini muffins. Sometimes I even share them with others. I don't really drink coffee all that often- I was just able to start drinking it again after 10 years off the stuff- but coffee in baked goods has always been a go to choice. That's why there was only one mini left for picture time (this is taken with my phone seconds after I dropped my real camera. the last muffin was eaten in solace).

Find the super simple recipe at Rhiani's blog of Chocoholic Anonymous. I'm willing to bet she added chocolate as well.

Cranberry Upside-Downer

2010-09-14T03:24:00.000-04:00

This treat is no downer. An upside-downer, yes. I didn't think I was ready for a cranberry dessert. Sure, I had plenty of frozen cranberries in the freezer but it is early September still. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Then the weather turned cold and almost rainy and I caved. After wearing my coat at work all day, I was in the mood for a nice warm sugary treat.

It was perfect to whip up last night right before vampire mondays. My bud comes over on mondays for tween tv and we had the season of vampire diaries to watch. So what if my bff comes over to watch vampire shows once a week? I'm not too old for that!
Plus, it is all that much better when you watch will having a sophisticated dessert. Well okay, so my upside-downer didn't look too pretty. It was a hot mess in fact. That's why there is no picture of it. That and I broke my camera lense. Yep. Dropped it on the floor and I can't make it focus. Resorting to iphone pics until I get it fixed. I'm such a klutz. Sabrina picked this winner, find the recipe on her blog.

Mom's French Pancakes

2010-09-08T15:04:00.004-04:00

Did you know that I did my homework on this recipe way before it was due? true story. I made a first round of the crepes, filled them with butter and macadamia nut sugar. They were lovely. I froze the rest of the crepes with plans to try different fillings. That's where things broke down. I haven't completed my second round yet and I'm late on posting. whoops.
As soon as I saw that Jaime had selected these crepes, I thought of the semester I spent in Galway, Ireland. Yes, I thought Ireland, not France. On Sundays there was an open market in the city and one crepe vendor would make the most delicious crepes. My favorite was a breakfast one filled with eggs, spinach, sundried tomatoes and salty feta. Unbelievable. I still plan to do a similar version this weekend after my long run, with oven dried tomatoes see pictured here. Find the crepe recipe here and the tomato recipe here.

Peanut Butter Crisscross

2010-09-07T09:16:00.002-04:00

The crisscross will make you jump jump. When I got home from a day at the beach yesterday, I didn't really feel like turning on the oven. The butter was already at room temp on the counter though so I whipped up a half batch and just baked up a few. The rest of the dough went in the fridge for a treat later in the week.

This recipe over here is my favorite peanut butter cookie recipe-especially when you add chocolate chips. It is so peanut buttery. I did like this recipe a lot even though it wasn't quite as good as my older recipe. The addition of chocolate chips and chopped peanuts made the cookie feel a bit fancier. The crisscross on top tells you that it is pretty classic. Overall a very decent PB cookie recipe, and you can find it (in french and english) here.

Chocolate Espresso Shortbread Cookies

2010-08-31T07:25:00.000-04:00

I made these cookies for the third time this weekend. No, I didn't screw up the previous batches. I first made the cookies months ago and loved them. Repeated a bit later and then made again for this week. This time the cookies are headed over seas for Operation Baking GALS along with the yellow cake cookies also pictured.

I love anything coffee and chocolate. Except maybe a cup of mocha coffee but that's another story. The cookie batter comes together in seconds, you get to use Dorie's gallon bag trick for rolling them out, and the dough freezes really well. Not much to improve on there.

Donna will be posting the recipe for you here.

Peach Tarts & Personalysis

2010-08-24T16:01:00.000-04:00

My office uses Personalysis to improve our communication and work effectiveness and it has really helped to have a common language to understand your coworkers, their motivations and communication expectations. Now the good folks at Personalysis have opened their services to friends and family and asked those of us with blogs to help get the word out.

Now you can get a profile done for yourself, your partner, your teenage children, your parents... I am looking forward to profiling at least one person I know (I'm looking at you dude). I've been through the Personalysis facilitator training and enjoy drinking their koolaid so to speak, but I really think it is a valuable tool for understanding what people often can't put into words. Who doesn't need help communicating effectively with their family?! If all this sounds interesting, check out their website.
Another helpful thing to keep things running smoothly at home? Tasty treats like crunchy and custardy peach tarts. This week's TWD selection was a great nearing the end of summer (say it ain't so!) treat. I used nectarines and made two tiny little tarts. One had the gorgeous crunchy almond topping the recipe called for and the other I left plain. I tried to make it look like a flower....Both versions were enjoyed by moi, although the crunchy topping was perhaps my favorite part. That may be why I reduced the recipe but used the full amount of topping. Rachel of sweet tarte is our lovely host this week and you can find the recipe on her blog.

Almond Cake with Lemond Curd and Mascarpone Frosting

2010-08-22T02:06:00.000-04:00

Three posts in one. Part one is the SMS cake, Part a late post for Kitchen Readers, and Part three a request to join my Baking GALS team for September. Here it goes.1. The Cake
I halved this recipe for a dinner with friends this past week. The cake is a light almond cake- made airy with the use of whipped egg whites. Even though I used two fewer egg whites, it was still light and tasty. The cake was split in half and filled with a thin layer of lemon curd. True confession time- I used Stonewall Kitchen lemon curd instead of making my own. I'm stowe embarrassed (except not really, it was good). The frosting is a lemon mascarpone. Just lovely despite my inability to rid the frosting of a few unsightly lumps. A few slices of sugared lemon peel on top at the suggestion of my favorite kitchen lurker. Please find the recipe from Katie's adorable blog here.2. In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
I read last month's Kitchen Read Selection on time but mis placed the (library) book for several weeks so I missed posting about it. I found it in the depths of my gym locker this week. This book was somewhat similar to the one I chose in that it talks about the impact of food choices. I recently watch Food Inc which had many of the same themes. When it comes down to it, food choices affect personal health and impact on the environment and practices of the food industry. Some pretty disturbing things go into some food production. If you don't care, I'm not sure reading this stuff is going to really affect you in the long term. If that bugs you, read some of these books and change your practices. So there. (and thanks to Margaret for selecting the book!)3. Join me in baking for Soldiers
I'm leading a team baking for Lucas who is current on his second overseas deployment. If you'd like to join me in baking and mailing cookies to Lucas for September 1st, sign up for Team Wellington here or email me (spikethebaker gmail.com) for the info.

Oatmeal Breakfast Bread

2010-08-17T08:53:00.003-04:00

This should have been a complete disaster. I set out to make this this bread after a long day yesterday. I didn't have a key ingredient, applesauce, so I thought I'd just add some yogurt and apple juice. The batter seemed far to liquid to ever really come together. I also didn't have any dried fruit so the bread was a very plain oatmeal with more oatmeal in the topping.
Then, with great surprise to me, it baked up nicely in the amount of time it was supposed to take. AND it tasted good.

Find the recipe as it was intended on Oven Love

Honey Bun Cake

2010-08-12T09:24:00.000-04:00

The name of this cake got me.

I have a weak spot for these horribly wonderful gas station honey buns. I haven't had one in the last 10 years or more but I remember them as ridiculously sweet and completely necessary. I'm pretty sure if I were to taste them again, however, they would not compare to this cake.
Jennifer posted this recipe this past week and I knew it was the perfect thing to whip up and take with me on vacation. It uses a box yellow cake mix, so I had hopes that it would taste even half as good as yellow cake cookies. Something about the magical chemical components of yellow cake mix work in these recipes and make sure the baked goods taste great even after a couple of days, if they make it that long. The first day, the cake tasted a little too sweet for me. However after one day, the cake was perfect and kept even better over the next couple of days. Thanks for sharing the recipe Jennifer!

Honey Bun Cake
based on an Allrecipes Cookbook recipe

1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
3/4 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, at room temp
1 cup sour cream, at room temp
1 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 cups confectioner’s sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 9×13 pan with non stick cooking spray.

In a large bowl, stir the cake mix, oil, eggs, and sour cream until most large lumps are gone. Pour half the batter into the prepared pan. Combine the brown sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over the batter in the cake pan. Spoon the other half of the batter on top, covering the brown sugar and cinnamon (spreading this evenly can be difficult-it’s okay, it will all get mixed and swirled anyway). Swirl the cake with a knife a few times.

Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

In a small bowl, whisk together the confectioner’s sugar, milk, and vanilla until smooth. Spread frosting on cake while it’s still warm. This is great warm or at room temperature.

Chocolate Kahlua Ganache Ice Cream

2010-08-10T01:11:00.004-04:00

I'm on vacation in Lake Winnipesaukee right now. I feel good, I feel great, I feel wonderful... I feel good, I feel great, I feel wonderful... I feel good, I feel great, I feel wonderful...

I had to try this ice cream before I left- the reviews from the other bakers were great and Katrina is such a great TWD member (she picked the recipe this week).I may have screwed up the recipe a bit but it was pretty forgiving. I also added a touch or two of kahlua which helps right any wrongs.

holy holy. what a good recipe. I was all set to make it into a sundae but it was just lovely on its own. Except maybe a little bit more kahlua on top.

A Wedding Cake

2010-08-02T16:24:00.004-04:00

I'm just settling in after a crazy trip to San Fransisco for the weekend. Many absurd flight delays resulted in me flying with cake layers and then frosting my friend's wedding cake the morning of the shindig. They did a great job on the wedding, a small affair with homemade picnic baskets and vintage/thrifted everything. Loved it. The cake was one layer of carrot cake (a la Dorie Greenspan) and the rest caramel cake with caramel filling. The frosting was a not too sweet swiss buttercream (recipe here).
Baking a goodbye cake for a coworker tonight then making a few quick treats before heading out on vacation. Hoping to get next week's TWD made and posted before then. ttfn.

Turtle Brownies

2010-07-22T02:53:00.000-04:00

These are just a tad decadent. A brownie baked with chopped pecans and swirls of caramel. Once cooled, covered in salty caramel and topped with another pecan. This is a brownie best consumed with a fork and a glass of water (or, you know, beer). But, served cooled from the fridge, the richness is distinct but not enough to stop you from finishing your brownie. Here's a peak at the finished product:This one comes from those perfectionists at Cook's Illustrated. Despite their relentless testing of recipes, I still feel the need to (occasionally) add my own changes to the recipe. My version is below.

Turtle Brownies
based on a recipe from Cook's Illustrated

Caramel
1/4 cup heavy cream plus 2 additional tablespoons
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Brownies
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt (I use fine sea salt)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/3 cup chopped pecans

Garnish
pecan halves, toasted

Make the caramel: Combine the cream and salt in a measuring cup; stir well to dissolve salt. Combine the water and corn syrup in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Pour the sugar into the center of the pan, being careful not to let the sugar granules touch the sides of the pan. Use a rubber spatula to very gently stir the mixture to moisten the sugar thoroughly. Cover the pot and bring to a boil over medium-high heat; cook, covered and without stirring, until the sugar is completely dissolved and the liquid is clear, about 3 to 5 minutes. Uncover the pan and continue to cook the mixture, without stirring, until the bubbles have a faint golden color, 3 to 5 minutes more. Reduce the heat to medium-low and continue to cook (swirling occasionally) until the caramel is light amber and registers about 360 F on a candy thermometer, about 1 to 3 minutes longer. Remove the saucepan from the heat and carefully add the cream to the center of the pan (the mixture will bubble vigorously); stir with a whisk until the cream is fully incorporated and the bubbling subsides. Stir in the butter and vanilla until combined. Transfer the caramel to a large microwave-safe measuring cup and set aside.

Make the brownies: With a rack in the lower middle position, preheat oven to 325 F. Cut a piece of heavy-duty foil to a length of about 14 inches. Fold the edges back to form an 8 1/2-inch width. With the folded sides facing down, fit the foil securely into the bottom and up the sides of the prepared baking pan, allowing the excess to overhang the sides of the pan. Spray the foil and pan with cooking spray.

Place the butter and bittersweet chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl. Microwave until are melted and smooth (works best at half power to avoid scortching). Set aside to cool slightly. In a small bowl, whisk together flour and baking powder and set aside. Whisk the eggs in a large bowl to combine, then add the sugar, salt and vanilla and whisk until incorporated. When the chocolate has cooled slightly, add it to the egg mixture and whisk to combine. Add the flour mixture and fold it in with a rubber spatula until almost combined. Add the chopped pecans; fold until incorporated and no flour streaks remain.

Pour half of the brownie batter in the prepared baking pan and use an offset spatula to spread it in an even layer covering the bottom of the pan. Using a measured cup that has been sprayed with cooking spray, drizzle 1/4 cup of caramel over the batter. Drop the remaining brownie batter over the caramel and spread evenly into the corners of the pan with your offset spatula. Drizzle an additional scant 1/4 cup caramel over the top of the brownie batter. Using the tip of a butter knife, swirl the caramel and brownie batter. Bake the brownies until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool brownies in the pan on wire rack to room temperature, about 1 1/2 hours.

Heat the remaining caramel (you should have about 3/4 cup) in the microwave until warm and pourable but still thick, about 45 to 60 seconds, stopping to stir once or twice. Pour all of the caramel over the brownies. Use a spatula to spread the caramel to cover the surface. Refrigerate brownies, uncovered, for at least 2 hours.

Using the foil sling, lift the brownies from the baking pan, loosening the sides with paring knife, if needed. Peel away and discard foil. Using a chef's knife, cut the brownies into 20 evenly sized squares. Press a pecan half onto surface of each brownie. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Banana Chocolate Chip Cake

2010-07-20T04:48:00.003-04:00

Yes, this is banana cake not banana bread. Not quite sure of the difference- seems a bit lighter than banana bread. This recipe can be altered a million different ways...I went with a single layer cake with bittersweet chocolate chips and a bit of coconut.
Good for dessert or leftovers for breakfast. Or if you had a boat, you could eat this cake on a boat. I don't have a boat. If I did, I would have banana cake boating weekends all the time.

Kimberly of Only Creative Opportunities takes lovely pictures and has this week's recipe.

Sweet Melissa's Chocolate Pecan Brownies

2010-07-18T05:44:00.001-04:00

I've baked a lot of brownies in my day and in the last year or so I've settled on a variation of Dorie Greenspan's bittersweet brownies as my favorite (having replace Ina Garten's long standing recipe). I'm never opposed to trying new recipes so I was happy to make this weeks SMS selection.

I prefer a dense over overpoweringly chocolate brownie- these are a bit more cakey than fudgy. I subbed pecans for walnuts and brought these to work. We made them into brownie sundaes for someone's birthday using the new Brigham's flavor, Paul Revere's rocky ride. Enjoyed on one of our 90degrees in the shade days (I believe this is still New England despite the freak weather), it was just what I needed.

Thanks to Tiffany of A Spoonful & a Heap for hosting, recipe here.

Better Late than Never Tart

2010-07-13T06:44:00.002-04:00

The brrrownies that the TWD bakers made for today are really good- I made them in Januaury for my buddy the chocolate/mint fan's birthday. In an effort to make a new (to me, not to the group) recipe for this Tuesday, I made mini versions of the Tart Noire from last week.

These took under 30 minutes to put together. I already had some tart dough in the freezer which I fit into a mini muffin tin. Put together a small batch of ganache and let it set in the fridge. Simple but fun. Served this with some ice cream I made for dinner with the fam. I was testing a weird ice cream flavor- coffee with candied bacon- and wanted to have something in case that was gross. It wasn't gross but wasn't something I would eat everyday. These tarts, however, could find a way into every day.Dharmagirl has the recipe for you.

Cranberry Pecan Biscotti

2010-07-11T08:57:00.001-04:00

This should have been cherry almond biscotti. I thought it progress enough that I actually turned the oven on this week- a trip to the store would have been pushing it. Hopefully a few thunderstorms over the weekend will have things cooling down- until then, I'm making ice cream only.

This biscotti comes together pretty easily. Mix the dough. Let it refrigerate while you teach spinning in an 80f plus room. Come home and bake it. Some of my cookies broke during the slicing. I reduced the second baking time when things started to brown but the biscotti were just the right kind of crunchy.

Thanks to Tracey of Made by Tray Trayfor selecting the recipe, find the recipe here.

Pulled Pork Tacos

2010-07-07T08:27:00.004-04:00

This week is way too hot to even look at the oven. Instead of cooking or baking, I decided to finally post some pulled pork tacos I made last week.

It was still a little too hot to have the oven on for hours last week- but I closed off the kitchen and made out alright in the temp category. This recipe is adapted from Serious Eats- the first recipe I've made from the website. It is easy enough- save the trying to get the skin off the pork. I had to stop half way and sharpen my knives. Perhaps it would have been wiser to ask the butcher to do it for me.

Once the pork is cooked and pulled, you let it refrigerate overnight in the sauce. The next day we made it into tacos with a bunch of different toppings- red onion, guacamole, goats cheese, shredded mont jack cheese, and cilantro. I think it was pretty successful- easy and tasty- especially for a northerner.

Oven BBQed Pulled Pork Tacos

Serves 8-12
Adapted from The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook and Serious Eats

One 28-ounce can whole tomatoes, lightly crushed, with their juices
3 chipotles in adobo, chopped
2 tablespoons sorghum molasses
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
One 6-8 pound pork picnic shoulder
2 teaspoons fine sea salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons canola oil
4 large plum tomatoes, cored and halved
1 medium yellow onion, trimmed, peeled, and quartered
1 small bunch cilantro
1 red onion
24-36 flour or corn tortillas
additional toppings: goats cheese, shredded monterrey jack cheese, guacamole, etc

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

In a large enameled cast-iron stockpot or Dutch oven, bring the canned tomatoes, chipotles, molasses, and 6 tablespoons vinegar to simmer over medium heat.

Set the pork skin side up on your work surface. Use a sharp knife to slice the skin from the shoulder with a gentle sawing motion, working back from the point diagonally across from the leg end where the skin forms a corner. Leave a thin layer of fat on the shoulder. Season the pork with the salt and black pepper.

Pour the oil into a 12-inch skillet or sauté pan and heat over a high flame. When the oil shimmers and just begins to smoke, put the pork in the pan, skinned side down, and sear until golden brown all over, about 3 minutes per side. Lower the pork, skinned side down, into the pot with the tomato braising liquid.

Add the plum tomatoes and onion to the skillet and cook, turning every few minutes, until the tomato skins blister and blacken and the onion is caramelized on all sides. Tuck the vegetables around the pork in the pot. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons vinegar to the skillet and stir with a wooden spoon, scraping up any caramelized pork, tomato, and onion bits from the bottom. Pour over the pork.

Cover the pot, transfer to the oven, and cook for 30 minutes. Baste the pork, then turn the heat down to 300°F and continue to cook, basting every 30 minutes, until the pork is tender and falls from the bone, about 3 to 3 1/2 hours.

Remove the pot from the oven and the pork from the pot. Let the pork cook on a cutting board. Season the sauce in the pot with more molasses, vinegar, salt, pepper if necessary.

When the pork is cool enough to handle, pull it into shreds. Refrigerate the pulled pork overnight in a container with the sauce.

When the time comes to serve the tacos, reheat the pork gently in its sauce on top of the stove. Chop the cilantro and slice the onion very thin. Warm the flour tortillas and serve.

Food Matters

2010-06-30T06:03:00.000-04:00

I'm a pretty delinquent member of the Kitchen Reader- I've probably read about half of what the others have read. However, the group is great- they make wonderful choices of food related books. Great tales of relationships with food. Then I went a choose a book about healthy conscious eating. I may not be popular among the group now, but I've always loved reading books about where food comes from, trends in the US, strategies to improve health through your diet, and impact of our food systems on the world.

Food Matters by Mark Bittman is a pretty sensible approach to your daily food needs. He lays out where your food comes from and the impact on the environment. Generally, it is pretty concerning. For example:

Between 1995 and 2005, the number of chickens world-wide destined to be eaten rose by 14 billion
Livestock produce more greenhouse gas than the emissions caused by transportation
Meat consumption would have to fall 3 oz a day to stabilize greenhouse gases produced by livestock
50% of the antibiotics administered in the US go to animals

Ew. However, Bittman doesn't suggest any radical changes. He simply encourages people to a adopt a diet similar to what helped him feel better (both physically and about his impact). This includes eating fewer animal products. I don't eat a lot of animal products, so this isn't a big change for me. Veggies are delicious and the less processed food you eat, the more your crave good for you foods- at least in my experience.

I enjoyed the recipes in the book. I made a vegetable and grain torta that was pretty delish. Most of the recipes are open ended- letting you choose your grain and sub in or out meat and cheese. There are many more recipes on my list to try, expect to see a few of them here. This book is worth a read- at the very least to help you think twice about eating meat at every meal.

Amaretto Pound Cake

2010-06-29T07:56:00.004-04:00

Yesterday was one of those mondays where, by the end of the day, you feel like you've worked a whole week already. I probably should have just relaxed when I finally got home from work but instead I started a mountain of laundry, organized a bunch of crap and then decided it was time to start this week's TWD recipe. With the AC and the oven competing, I decided to halve the recipe and make it in this extra long loaf pan I have so as to reduce oven time. This pan is probably meant for something special but it looked fun at Ikea so I bought it and now use it maybe once a year for whatever. I subbed amaretto for the rum in the recipe. I like rum but I like amaretto even better. Last night the cake was okay- just had a small bite before bed. This morning, once properly cooled, the cake had a much richer taste. Very nice indeed. Wendy of Pinkstripes picked this recipe, find the recipe and some much nicer pictures here.

Dressy Chocolate Loafcake

2010-06-22T06:38:00.002-04:00

Thanks to all the well wishers for my triathlon this past weekend. All went reasonable well, despite it being 90 degrees and humid by the time I got to the run. Anywho, glad to have the first out of the way for the season. The race was on saturday and on sunday, my usually TWD baking day, I didn't feel like doing much.Walking up and down stairs to do laundry in the still humid weather was enough for me, so I decided a modified version of the dressy loaf cake would be appropriate. Instead of dressy- my cake was a little more business casual.

I halved the recipe, added a handful of chocolate chips to the batter, and then just melted some chocolate with a little butter for the topping. It was a lovely little cake- great reward for not much effort (I didn't even flour the pan). I've made a chocolate loaf cake of Nigella's for years- such a nice dessert to just cut off a small slice but get a good fully chocolate taste. Thanks to Amy Ruth for picking this one- find the recipe here.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

2010-06-18T07:35:00.001-04:00

I'm going to be missing this weekend's Sweet Melissa Sundays recipe because it is a race weekend! See how I pretend to be excited about triathlon? Right about this time tomorrow I'll be in the water which is the worst part of the race. Hope I make it out with out a panic attack!

Earlier in the week I made these oatmeal & chocolate cookies because the oatmeal makes them healthy and therefore great fuel. sure.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
makes 18-24 cookies

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg, at room temp
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 tsp espresso powder
1/4 teaspoon salt (preferably fine sea salt)
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup semi sweet or bittersweet chocolate chips- or a mix of both

Preheat oven to 350°F

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, espresso powder, and salt together. Stir this into the butter/sugar mixture. Stir in the oats and chocolate chips.

Scoop the cookies (2-3 tbs) onto a parchment lined baking sheet a couple inches in-between cookies. Chill the whole tray for 10 minutes before baking them.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, edges should be cooked and starting to brown but the center should look just slightly under baked. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Store for a couple of days in an airtight container.

Cinnamon Swirl Bread (and french toast)

2010-06-15T08:04:00.002-04:00

I worked in bread bakeries throughout high school and college. As a result of baking so much, I rarely make bread anymore- just a few times a year. When I do it usually brings back memories of waking up early, weighing out ingredients, falling asleep waiting for the proofer... Honestly, baking bread at home is a lot more fun. While the bread rises you get to do other things. Like watch the OCD project for example.

This cinnamon swirl bread comes together easily. It rose well and baked exactly as Dorie describes. I let the bread rise a second time in the fridge while I ran out to dinner. I couldn't help but make a slice into french toast for dessert on monday night. Nice crust of sugar on the outside was perfect. In danger of eating a full loaf of bread in under a week. The only thing I'd change in making it again is to add more cinnamon.
Susan at food.baby has the recipe, thanks for hosting Susan!

Chocolate Orange Macaroons

2010-06-14T09:00:00.004-04:00

I don't have internet at my house. I know, its 2010 and all that but I prefer to leave work at work so I never got an internet connection at my house. I do have a smart phone for google emergencies but otherwise, nada. This is all part of my excuse as to why I'm usually late on posting Sweet Melissa Sundays- unless I'm way ahead of schedule, it is more like Sweet Melissa Mondays. That and my camera card and camera were in two separate locations so no real photos were taken, save the sad iphone pic:This is the best macaroon recipe ever. Most recipes I've tried have you beating and folding egg whites. This recipe, you just mix the whites untouched with coconut , chocolate, and orange zest. Scope out little cookies and bake them for about 20 minutes. Couldn't be easier. The orange is nice and strong in these cookies. This will be my go to macaroon recipe from now on. Check it out at Ellen's blog- Blue Tree Green Heart.

Strawberry Cointreau Shortcakes

2010-06-09T00:57:00.003-04:00

This week's TWD selection of tender shortcakes is another great summer pick (thanks Cathy!). I went with the standard strawberries plus shortcake but spiked the strawberries with a little cointreau. The adult version of strawberry shortcake.

I made these right after walking in the door last night with very little sleep and they turned out really well. Quick to throw together, so tender they fall apart a bit as you try to slice them. That perfect combination of a rich but light tasting dessert.For the next couple of months every grocery store will have those little yellow cup shortcakes and cans of whipped cream hanging out with the strawberries as you walk in. Don't buy them. Get the strawberries, buy some cream and make these shortcakes and homemade (cointreau spiked) whipped cream. Worth a little extra effort, my dears.

You can find the shortcake recipe on Cathy's blog. For the strawberries, I just sliced them and mix with a sprinkle of raw sugar and a splash of cointreau. Here's my whipped cream recipe.

Cointreau-Spiked Whipped Cream
1 cup heavy whipping cream, cold
1/4 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons Cointreau

Make sure your bowl is cold before starting- helps to stick it in the fridge for 15 minutes. Beat whipping cream at medium speed with an electric mixer until foamy; gradually add powdered sugar and cointreau, beating until soft peaks form.

Sweet Melissa cranBerry Muffins

2010-06-06T18:03:00.003-04:00

I missed a Sweet Melissa recipe last month that called for orange blueberry muffins. I'm not a huge blueberry fan (I'm a freak) but I do enjoy them in pancakes or muffins- baked blueberry in batter tastes totally different. Although I would have liked to try the blueberry version, I had a bunch of cranberries hanging out in the freezer looking to party.

I'm not a great muffin baker. I'm not great at biscuits either and I'm making some for Tuesday. Stressful baking. I can make a mean cupcake so I'm not sure what trips me up about muffins. Then when I didn't have enough cream to make both these muffins and sweet cream biscuits- I used sour cream and water instead in this recipe. Should have been a disaster but luckily it worked. The pecan crumble on top was -of course- the best part.
I had one of these muffins for dinner on sunday which means I successfully had breakfast foods for all three meals that day. best day ever. Chaya has the recipe for you.

White Chocolate Brownies

2010-06-01T10:57:00.002-04:00

It's Tuesday. I just realized this. Long weekends throw me off. I saved a couple of these brownies at home to photography tonight and make them look pretty. Then in a panic that I was a day behind, I peeled back the tin foil at work and took a quick picture with the phone. This wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't hosted last week. Straight back to being a mess every post!

Anywho, I took some liberties. Used some vanilla guittard chips I found for a steal at the christmas tree shop, then added chocolate chips instead of raspberries and skipped the meringue. It is just too humid to make a good meringue. These brownies are so delicate, but have a lovely light flavor.

Marthe of Culinary Delights has the recipe for you as she is our lovely host this week. When it cools off a bit, I'd love to make the full original version.

Delinquent

2010-05-30T16:30:00.002-04:00

I've missed the last couple of Sweet Melissa Sunday recipes and I'm missing this week as well. I've been busy baking cupcakes for my mom's retirement party (Chocolate Espresso & Coconut pictured) and now making treats for my birthday cookout this weekend.

I'm in the middle of updating my whoopie pie recipe to get it ready for this year's fluff festival baking contest (you read that correctly). Also making a version of the white chocolate brownies for TWD.

Rather than make another dessert, I think I'll go for a ride then run to combat all this eating! Less than a month until my first triathlon of the season. yikes.

Banana Coconut Ice Cream Pie

2010-05-25T01:32:00.000-04:00

I know. I'm picky about a lot of things. I turn my nose up at jam thumbprint cookies and anything with raisins but then I go and pick something with coconut AND bananas for Tuesdays with Dorie! I hadn't even noticed this recipe in Baking from My Home to Yours any of the one million times I'd opened it before. When it came time for my recipe selection, it jumped right out at me.

In New England, the weather has been gorgeous and I've been out grilling quite regularly. It seemed the perfect time to start making some ice cream desserts and celebrate the season. I should have made my own ice cream for this dessert but I was worried about it being too soft for the pie. I went with a hometown favorite- Brighams chocolate ice cream instead.

The crust of this pie is the star. Toasted coconut, butter and butter cookies pressed into a pie (or tart) pan. You could cut the crust up and just eat it like a cookie. Or if you dislike banana (bless the banana haters), fill the crust with just ice cream. Any kind of ice cream really. You'd be perfectly happy. In fact, I was when I made it again in little muffin cups filled with coffee ice cream.Or you can follow the recipe and add a puree of bananas and rum(!) to the chocolate ice cream to fill that coconut crust. I changed it up a bit by reducing the amount of banana and adding some chocolate chips to the puree. Extra chocolate never hurt anyone. Extra rum didn't either. Leave it to me to pick a recipe with alcohol in it.

On that note I added a little hot fudge to the top when it came time for a close up of the pie. I've been eating this all week for dinner while plotting what I'm going to fill that coconut crust up with next. David Lebovitz's coconut ice cream perhaps? a coconut extravaganza.

Thanks to all who bravely baked along with me this week- although funny enough, there was no actual baking involved which makes it another perfect warm weather dessert. The full recipe follows.

Banana- Chocolate Ice Cream Pie
Dorie Greenspan
Makes 8 servings

For the Crust
1 stick (8 tbs) unsalted butter
2 cups sweetened shredded coconut
5 butter cookies, such as LU Petit Beurre or shortbread, crushed into crumbs (about 1/2 cup)

1 ripe but firm banana

For the Filling
2 very ripe bananas
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
2 tbs dark rum
1 pint premium-quality chocolate ice cream

For Serving
1 rip but firm banana
1 tsp lemon juice

To Make the Crust:
Butter a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate.
Melt the butter in a medium heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the coconut and cook, stirring without stopping, until golden brown. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the cookie crumbs. Turn the mixture into the pie plate and press it over the bottom and up the sides. Freeze for 30 minutes. (If you'd like, once the dough is frozen, you can wrap the pie plate and keep it in the freezer for up to 2 months.)
Cut the firm banana into thin slices and arrange the slices over the crust.

To Make the Filling:
Cut the bananas into chunks and toss them into a food processor along with the lemon juice and rum. Process until you have a smooth puree, scraping down the bowl as needed, about 20 seconds. Add the ice cream and pulse the machine on and off in quick spurts, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed, about 8 times, or just until the ingredients are blended- don't process so long that the ice cream melts.

Scrape the ice cream into the piecrust and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Cover the pie with plastic wrap and freeze it for at least 4 hours. (If you want to keep the pie longer, wrap it airtight and freeze up to 2 months.)

When you are ready to serve, slice the firm banana into very thin rounds, toss the slices with the lemon juice (to keep from blackening) and arrange the rounds in decorative circles on the top of the pie.

Playing Around: In addition to whatever add-ins you might want to include (Spike adds chocolate chips to the banana puree), you can also change the flavor of ice cream. Dorie sometimes makes this pie with vanilla ice cream, but the filling is not a pure color- the bananas turn the ice cream a little dark. This never bothers her!

Serving: Once the top banana is in place, the pie is ready to be served. It can be served plain, but, in keeping with the tropical theme, some sweetened whipped cream would be nice- or even whipped cream with a splash of rum.

Storing: Without the banana decoration, the pie can be wrapped airtight and frozen up to 2 months; serve tight from the freezer.

Bread Pudding

2010-05-18T08:09:00.004-04:00

Both the Sweet Melissa Sundays and Tuesdays with Dorie groups picked bread pudding for this week. Odd considering the weather is just starting to get warm in my neck of the woods. However, I can appreciate that when you turn comes round, sometimes you just want what you want and don't want to deal with complaining of the collective masses (just you wait until my TWD pick next week!)I love bread pudding. It is one of my go to winter treats for several reasons:
1) You can use up stale bread and the other ingredients (eggs, cream) are usually kicking around my fridge
2) You can scale back or increase the recipe quite easily
3) You can add leftover whatever and make some pretty good flavor combos
4) Easy
5) Tasty

That said, I didn't (really) make this weeks recipes. I put together a single serving pudding with chocolate and dulce de leche but then left it in the fridge and forgot to bake it. I may go home Monday evening and stick it in the oven and see what happens. Maybe not. Instead you get random photos (BREAD + PUDDING = HAPPY SPIKE...and buffy). Here are a couple of my favorite variations on the dessert:

Domestic Goddess' Pain au Chocolate- someone's done the recipe here.
Vermont Maple Bread Pudding- found on epicurious
And of course you can get the Apple Apple BP recipe from the lovely Elizabeth at Cake or Death or the Pumpkin BP from Carmen.

Chai Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

2010-05-16T15:28:00.000-04:00

My mom likes chai, so chai cake it was for mother's day this year. I halved this recipe to make just one layer but then made almost a full batch of frosting and piled it on top. The original frosting called for honey ginger but I went with a plain old cream cheese. I don't think anyone complained.

This is essentially a spice cake but didn't come out too dry like most spice cakes. It was simple but tasty and not overwhelming sweet despite all that frosting.
Chai Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Cake recipe from Sky High:Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes
Spike note: I made half of the cake and 2/3rds of the frosting for my cake- but it is good enough to do the whole thing.
1 and 1/3 cups of milk
6 chai tea bags, without added sweetner (Spike used Celestial Seasonings)
4 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
2 and 3/4 cups of cake flour
2 cups of sugar
4 and 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
3/4 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of salt
8 ounces of unsalted butter at room temp.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 Degrees F. Grease the bottom ans sides of the pans and line with parchment paper. Grease the paper as well.
2. In a small saucepan bring the milk to a simmer over low med-low heat. Add the tea bags, careful not to let the paper tag fall into the milk. Remove from heat and allow the tea to steep for 5 minutes. Remove the teabags and squeeze out the milk. Let the chai milk cool completely.
3. In a medium bowl mix the eggs, egg yolks, vanilla, and 1/3 cup of the chai milk. Whisk together.
4. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in the bowl of a mixer. Beat on low for 30 seconds. Add the butter and the remaining chai milk, on med-low speed. Raise the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy. Add the egg mixture in three additions scraping the between additions. Divide the batter evenly among the pans.
5. Bake the cakes for 26-28 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool in the pans for 10 minutes.Remove cakes from pans and peel off parchment paper. Cool completely.
6. To assemble the cake place one layer flat side down a serving plate and top with 2/3 cup of icing. Spread to the edge and repeat with second layer. Place third layer on top and spread the remaining ginger cream on top allowing it to drizzle down the sides of the cake like icicles.

For the frosting:
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 stick (8 Tbs.) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 pound (3 3/4 cups) confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla

Working with a stand mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter together until smooth and creamy. Gradually add the sugar and continue to beat until the frosting is velvety smooth. Beat in the vanilla.

Stay Tuned

2010-05-11T01:09:00.001-04:00

Overload of work meetings & dinners=not enough time to bake. A chai cake from mother's day to to be posted before the end of the week. stay tuned...

Operation Baking Gals and Peanut Butter Jelly Bars

2010-05-07T11:28:00.003-04:00

We had another great group baking with Team Wellington this month. The bakers were shipping to Nicholas stationed in Afghanistan. I made some peanut butter and jelly bars to ship. I normally don't love jelly with my peanut butter but I kept the jelly light and I think they were pretty tasty. I also made some brown sugar shortbread cookies but only half of them were any good due to leaving the oven on broil instead of bake. yep.

The recipe for the bars follows the run down of the care packages for Nicholas...
Jennifer made oatmeal chocolate chip crisps and sent a bunch of candy and treats.

Beth sent lemon cookies w/lemon drizzle.

Alisa and family made chocolate chip cookies.

Tara sent Tara's Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, Peanut Butter Chip Brownies, Peanut Butter Cookies, Snickerdoodles, and Chocolate Crinkles.

Tective made Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter Cookies and Zucchini cupcakes.

Cleo sent peanut butter & oatmeal & brownies and assorted snacks

Thanks bakers!

Peanut Butter Jelly Bars
based on a barefoot contessa recipe
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups (18 ounces) crunchy peanut butter
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 cup raspberry jam or other jam

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Grease a 9 by 13 by 2-inch cake pan. Line it with parchment paper, then grease and flour the pan.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until light yellow, about 2 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add the vanilla, eggs, and peanut butter and mix until all ingredients are combined.

In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture. Mix just until combined.

Spread 2/3 of the dough into the prepared pan and spread over the bottom of the pan and press into the edges lightly. Spread the jam evenly over the dough. Drop small bits of the remaining dough evenly over the jam. Don't worry if all the jam isn't covered; it will spread in the oven. Bake for 40 minutes, until golden brown. Cool and cut into squares.

Burnt Sugar Chocolate Soy Ice Cream

2010-05-04T05:10:00.002-04:00

Okay, so I wanted to make this ice cream a day last week and had all of the ingredients except milk. I don't drink milk and only ever have it for baking. Not feeling like a trip to the store, I turned to the container of chocolate soy milk in the fridge. Actually, to make things worse, it was light soy milk.

Carrying on, I made a half recipe and followed all directions except for the scary milk sub. The next day I got to churning. Now how did it turn out? It was interesting. Not in a good or bad way. I ate it but spent the whole time thinking "is this good?". Just plain weird, so I'm not recommending it. However, the texture was quite perfect so I'm convinced you could try this recipe with plain soy milk and have greater success.Becky of Project Domestication has the recipe for you.

Peanut Butter Truffles

2010-05-02T22:31:00.000-04:00

The weather has warmed up a bit this weekend and I wanted to be outside but there was baking to be done. I had to get some cookies ready for operation baking gals. I also need to make these truffles to some friends on saturday.

I have a surplus of peanut butter in my house right now. Dangerous. I'm making a lot of peanut butter treats to try to stop myself from having a pb sandwich every hour. These truffles had peanut butter in them but they didn't have a strong pb taste to them. Still, they were pretty tasty. I rolled them in three different toppings- cocoa, powdered sugar, and chopped pecans.

Get the recipe from Mara of Love Your Mother Earth.

Fancy Grilled Cheese & Kitchen Reader

2010-04-30T08:22:00.001-04:00

April is grilled cheese month and I've probably had at least 10 grilled cheeses to celebrate. Most of the grilled cheese I make tends to be fancy smancy. I'll use good bread, flavored mustards and a mix of cheeses. This one came about when I joined a bzz campaign for President Cheese.I got to select a free cheese and, after much deliberation in Stop & Shop, I went with a spreadable peppercorn and parmesan blend. It has a nice little bite to it. So that got mixed with chopped sundried tomatoes and went on some When Pigs Fly multigrain bread. I added a few slices of mild cheddar cheese and got to grilling. In butter, of course. At the very end, I pulled the bread apart and stuck some lettuce in there for freshness.
This was a satisfying little sandie. The peppercorn and added sundried tomato were perfect together. Spreadable cheese always makes for a nice and gooey sandwich.

Make a grilled cheese today! Hurray Grilled Cheese!

Today is also Kitchen Reader day- and this month I actually finished the book ahead of time. That may be because I thought we were supposed to read the book last month but whatevs. One the Line by Eric Ripert, Christine Muhlke details the inner works of the restaurant (Le Bernardin to be precise) everything from time schedules to the development of new dishes. The sample recipes seemed so complex- each dessert had four separate components! This is why I love restaurants like le bernardin- they do things I couldn't imagine putting together and execute them flawlessly time after time. The book makes you appreciate how much time and work goes into preparing a meal at a great restaurant. Thanks for a great pick, Jennifer.

Peanut butter Chocolate Chip Sandwich Cookies

2010-04-27T01:32:00.001-04:00

I love sandwiches. I love cookie sandwiches. Particularly with ice cream in the middle but when I saw these cookies on Tracey's site, I knew I would be making them. The recipe is simple- honestly. I made these late last Thursday and was up early slipping them into people's mailboxes. I do that sometimes.

I made up a little box for a friends birthday. Kind of reminded me of fun little macaron boxes (with nearly half the effort). The peanut butter cookies are pretty delicious on their own but then you add a peanut butter and bittersweet chocolate filling. I know.
These looked like they would be super sweet but they turned out okay on the sweetness level. This is good because you can eat several in a row without feeling all that bad. They're small!

Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip Sandwich Cookies
adapted from The Best of Fine Cooking Chocolate

Cookies
6 oz (1 1/2 cups) all-purpose flour
2 oz (2/3 cup) cake flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 oz (3/4 cup, 12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg, at room temperature

Filling
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
3 oz (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup smooth or crunchy peanut butter
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1/4 cup coarsely chopped bittersweet chocolate

To Make the Cookies: Preheat oven to 350 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk the all-purpose flour, cake flour, baking soda, and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the butter and peanut butter. Add both sugars and cream until until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and egg and continue creaming until smooth and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the flour mixture to the bowl and, with the mixer on low speed, beat until just incorporated.

Using a small ice cream scoop drop heaping tablespoonfuls of batter onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 2 inches apart. Bake until the cookies are puffed and golden, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely.

To Make the Filling: In a medium bowl, cream the confectioners' sugar, butter and peanut butter with a mixer until smooth. Add the heavy cream and beat until smooth and fluffy. Stir in the chocolate.

To Assemble: Match similarly sized cookies to form pairs of 2 for your sandwiches. With an offset spatula or butter knife, spread a teaspoon (or more) of filling onto one half of each cookie pair. Set the other cookie on top of the filling and press gently to spread the filling. Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature or in the refrigerator. They will keep for a few days.

Makes about 18-20 sandwiches

Strawberry Rhubarb Tart

2010-04-26T07:24:00.003-04:00

I love going to the grocery store every spring and getting rhubarb because the high schoolers working the check out always look at me and ask "what is this?" Poor misguided youth who don't know about rhubarb.

I decided to turn the cobbler into a tart because I wanted to test a new sweet pie crust recipe (it works really well- I'll post that one soon). I filled the tart with strawberries, rhubarb, just a bit of sugar and cornstarch and then added pistachios after it was baked. The fruit got a bit too juicy so I recommended more cornstarch in the recipe below. The pistachios added a salty crunch to the finished pie- nice with a little ice cream.A special thanks to Tracey for picking a rhubarb recipe! Here's the Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler Pie recipe selected by Tracey. My tart recipe is below.

Strawberry Rhubarb Tart

Filling inspired by Fresh from the oven

1 batch Sweet tart dough
1 1/2 cups of sliced strawberries
1 1/2 cups of sliced rhubarb
3 tbs of sugar
1.5-3 tbsp cornstarch
splash of lemon juice
pistachio nuts

Follow the instruction on the sweet tart dough recipe to bake the tart shell(s) using your tart rings or tart molds with removable bottom. Remove from oven when the tart shell(s) are dry and lightly colored- about 10 minutes.

Combine the sliced strawberries, rhubarb, sugar and cornstarch in a big bowl. Add a splash of lemon juice if you wish. Let rest for 5 minutes. Taste the fruit, add sugar to taste. Add additional cornstarch if there is a lot of juice.

Brush the eggwash on the bottom of tart shells. Spoon the macerated fruits into the shell(s). Add spoonful of juice collected at the bottom of bowl into each shells and bake for 30-35 minutes at preheated 350F oven.

The filling will bubbling when it's almost ready. The fruit and juice should looked set when it's ready. The finished tart will have a filling of jam consistency and not runny.

Remove the cooked tart(s) from oven and let cool. Sprinkle with chopped pistachios.

Makes 5 3.5-inches individual tarts or one regular tart.

Lineage Restaurant

2010-04-21T10:41:00.001-04:00

This past weekend I went to a cooking class at Lineage Restaurant in Brookline, MA. The owners, Jeremy and Lisa Sewall, also serve as head chef and pastry chef respectively. We started with a demonstration of the three dishes followed by a tasting. Here's what we had:

A Potato and spring onion soup with lobster and curry. The soup was nice and fresh, and the curry set everything off nicely- this wasn't your everyday potato soup! I'm going to try this one again soon.
A salad of creamy goat cheese, asparagus, arugula and radish. Nice and fresh- highlighting some great early spring flavors. A great tip from the chef on keeping asparagus fresh in the fridge- stand it upright in a little water to keep the ends from drying out.
Finally, a tart with lemon filling, fresh strawberries and rosemary simple syrup. Perfect pastry. Not a crumb left on my plate.I loved Jeremy and Lisa's approach to cooking- everything seasonal and high quality. Nothing was overworked or fussy. I'll be heading back to the restaurant soon to have dinner and some of their famous butterscotch pudding.

Sweet Cream Biscuits

2010-04-20T09:23:00.003-04:00

These mini biscuits don't require you to cut cold butter into flour, they just require a fork and heavy cream. Yep, still bad for you. I don't know what it is, but I'm just not a very good biscuit maker. Maybe because I've always lived in the north east. Maybe because I'm afraid of over mixing so I under mix. Anywho, my biscuits are always okay but not light and flaky as they are meant to be.
That said these little guys were easy to throw together. Since there wasn't any butter in the recipe, I decided it was okay to put a little extra on the hot from the oven biscuits. Melissa of Love At First Bite was our host and the recipe is here.

Compost/Chocablock/Whatever Cookies

2010-04-13T08:44:00.007-04:00

This month there was a barefoot bloggers pick for oatmeal raisin cookies (see Leslie's post here) and an upcoming Tuesdays with Dorie pick for chocablock cookies. On top of this I've seen a million posts about compost or amnesty cookies.

So when I told a friend of mine I'd make cookies for her bowling birthday party (no, she wasn't turning 8) this weekend, I was set on making a hybrid of all of these. Essentially, this is an oatmeal cookie with a bunch of whatever thrown in. I put in kit kats, semi sweet and bittersweet chips, coconut, and pecans. I think they turned out pretty well.
Hopefully I'll be back on track for the sweet cream biscuits for next Tuesday. If you want to check out the swedish visiting cake, Nancy has you covered.

Compost/Chocablock/Whatever Cookies
1/2 lb(2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temp
1 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, at room temp
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups AP flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp espresso powder
1/4 tsp fine sea salt (or kosher salt)
1 kitkat bar, chopped
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (mix of semi sweet and bittersweet)
1/4 cup coconut
1/4 cup chopped pecans
3 cups old fashioned oats

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. With the mixer on low, add the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla.

Sift the flour, baking powder, espresso powder, and salt together into a medium bowl. With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture. Add the candy, chocolate, coconut, nuts and oats just until combined.

This dough works well after being refrigerated, so if you have time give it 20 minutes in the fridge.

Using a small ice-cream scoop or a tablespoon, drop 2-inch mounds of dough onto sheet pans lined with parchment paper. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until lightly browned. Transfer the cookies to a baking rack and cool completely.

Baking Gals - Round 18

2010-04-08T07:38:00.004-04:00

For April, Team Wellington baked for Matthew, stationed in Iraq. Here's a run down of the team care packages:

Kathie and the Middle School Bakers made oatmeal walnut and chocolate mint surprise cookies and a lemon eggnog loaf for Matthew and his unit. The bakers also decorated cards and drew pictures.Stefanie sent a batch of Muddie Buddies, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookies, Cranberry Orange Shortbread. We also included 2 packages of sunflower seeds, 3 packs of gum, Fun Size starburst, Oreo Caksters, and 2 packages of cashews. Here are some of her pictures. Liz sent oatmeal raisin cookies along with snacks, candy and gum.

Rachael and her friends made a large container full of 'puppy chow' for the unit.

Sally sent an assortment of homemade goodies: peanut butter cup cupcakes;
monster triple chipper cookies; and GORP!

Spike sent out yellow cake cookies and some other treats.

Jennifer sent out Chocoblock cookies and plenty of fun snacks.
Peggy sent Cracker toffee with sunflower seeds, chocolate chip shortbread cookies, 4 pillowcases, 4 neck coolers, sunflower seed packets, chap stick, beef jerkey, Little Debbie snacks, tic tacs, a newspaper, game book & a card. Her pictures:
Thanks team, great work!

Mocha-Pecan Marbled Bundt Cup Cake

2010-04-06T08:49:00.001-04:00

I almost forgot about these little guys. I made these cupcakes a couple of weeks ago and substituted pecans for the called for walnuts. The chocolate had a nice strong coffee flavor. These were a good dessert but nothing that'll knock your socks off. Sometimes I convince myself that treats like this aren't really dessert. If it doesn't require a lot of time to put together or have a real richness I think I am just having a snack instead of dessert. It is thinking like this that results in long runs and evenings in the pool to make up for so called non dessert consumption. Thanks to Erin of When in Doubt…Leave it at 350 for hosting this week. I may miss next week's TWD but I promise that something will be posted here. That something will be cooking/baking related even though I'm tempted to just post things like this.

Wedding Cakes & Pecan Shortbread Cookies

2010-04-05T12:30:00.003-04:00

I am posting these together because I made them on the same weekend and haven't gotten my act together to post the Sweet Melissa recipe sooner. Those pecan cookies are also similar to Mexican Wedding Cookies so they are totally related. so there. First on the cookies (recipe here from Lara). So easy to make- I rolled half of them in the confectioners sugar and the other half dipped in chocolate. Now with pictures:
Now for the Kiki & Amy wedding cake project. My friend Kiks is getting married to a lovely young woman in California this summer and I get to make them a cake! I did a practice of the cake this weekend while they would be together state side and I could mail them slices. I was going to spend a lot of time decorating but then I realized it was 70 degrees outside and sunny and I slapped some frosting on and was out the door. Guys- I promise it will be prettier for your big day. Then I had a party to get my friends to eat the rest of the cake. Then brought the rest to Easter dinner. There was a lot of cake.

The bottom layer is carrot cake a la Dorie Greenspan. There is cream cheese frosting over part but most of the outside is swiss buttercream. For the wedding I'll double this layer but that didn't seem necessary for the test round.
The top two layers are caramel cake with caramel filling. I was going to use this caramel cake recipe but switched last minute to this new one I found on sk. Then I went back and made the first one too.
The actual cake will not have peeps on top but they make for a pretty good stand in.

Coconut Tea Cake

2010-03-30T08:48:00.001-04:00

It's pretty sad that I can be so spacey. If I had my s$#@ together, you would have seen this lovely cake topped with David Lebovitz' toasted coconut ice cream and drizzled with chocolate sauce. But I forget to take pictures more often than not. Luckily I did have a few extra slices to shoot so it's not a complete loss.
The cake is nice and light, with a subtle coconut lime flavor. And the ice cream? I think I liked that best- light and airy (okay I let the ice cream maker spin a bit too long) but good flavor.

Carmen has the cake recipe here and the ice cream recipe? Buy the book.

Operation Baking Gals

2010-03-28T01:34:00.000-04:00

I'm busy baking cookies for round 18 of operation baking gals- didn't have time for Sweet Melissa Sundays this week. If you'd like to bake cookies for a soldier serving over seas, there's still time to sign up with my group- Team Wellington! Check it out here.

Caramel Apple Turnovers

2010-03-23T08:01:00.002-04:00

Sunday on Tuesday this week. Those dulce de leche duos are good, right? I've made them before- cross my heart- but neglected to make them again this week's for TWD. Instead, I took the Sweet Melissa recipe from Sunday- a caramel apple pie- turned it into quick turnovers using puff pastry and added dulce de leche instead of caramel.

Then more dulce de leche over the top. I'm clever.

I would be even more clever had I remembered to take the puff pastry out of the freezer to defrost ahead of time. So instead of having these while watching this week's episode of Transform Me, I made them for breakfast. Relax! Stop judging me! It is fruit and pastry the same as plenty of people with potential heart issues eat every morning. Okay, I'm running after work tonight.

Here's the recipe for caramel apple pie, care of the wonderful Susan.

Soft Chocolate & Raspberry Tart

2010-03-16T07:40:00.002-04:00

Totally winged this one. I didn't want to try to find a home for this tart because it rained non stop all weekend and I didn't want to leave the house. I even skipped the St. Paddy's parade on Sunday because the weather was so bad. I sat at home looking at my Irish cupcakes while getting text messages calling out my wimpiness but it didn't matter. It was that miserable out and I was not leaving.
So instead of watching the parade (which really means going to house parties and occasionally looking out the window at the parade), I did some quick math and made one tiny little tart. Added frozen raspberries and a dash of framboise to up the raspberry flavor.I only tried a quarter of the mini tart- the filling was great. Love the chocolate raspberry. The crust, however, did not seem quite right. This may be due in part to my failure to add nuts to the dough. Really, I think I just wanted a chocolate cookie crust. Maybe I'll just eat the inside out of what's left and throw the crust away. Scavenge my way through dessert.

Want to try the filling for yourself? Find it on Rachelle's blog.

Carrot Cake Muffins

2010-03-14T10:57:00.002-04:00

Yes, you can turn a cupcake into a muffin simply by not frosting it. Why wouldn't you frost a carrot cake cupcake? Isn't cream cheese frosting the most delicious frosting in the universe? Yes.However, it is time for the St. Paddy's parade in S. Boston and I needed to make car bomb cupcakes and didn't feel the need for multiple frosted cupcakes to be in my possession (side bar: I know, car bomb is not a friendly name for a delicious treat but if I named them Guinness chocolate cupcakes with Jameson chocolate filling and Bailey's frosting someone would say "that reminds me of...").Wait, so now you want to make car bomb cupcakes instead of carrot cake? Well, my recipe is pretty similar to the smitten kitchen one so just follow that one because I'm too lazy to type.

These carrot cake "muffins" were sent into work last week and seemed to be enjoyed. Honestly, I like the Dorie Greenspan recipe best and it'll stay as my go to. These were certainly a treat to have for breakfast at any rate.
Julie of A Little Bit of Everything selected the carrot cake and you'll find the recipe here. Oh right, and I added a handful of shredded coconut, two handfuls of chopped pecans, and a sprinkle of coarse sugar 10 minutes into the baking.

Roasted Vegetable Lasagna

2010-03-12T13:07:00.002-05:00

Okay so "roasted vegetable" here only consists of two vegetables: zucchini and red onion. Three if you count tomatoes and roast your own tomato sauce (totally worth it). But this lasagna has the potential to include many vegetables, I'll leave that up to you.

I love this recipe because it comes together pretty quickly, has tons of flavor, and uses mostly goats cheese which I am a total nerd for.
and makes a nice lunch when you are chained to your desk (chain not pictured, skull however is pictured).

My darling mother made this for me after seeing the Martha Stewart recipe and luckily handed over the clipping. I'll be making this one weekly once my vegetable garden is in full swing this summer.

Roasted Vegetable Lasagna
Adapted from Martha Stewart
Serves 8

fine sea salt
3-4 pounds zucchini, cut lengthwise into 1/4-inch-thick slices (less if you use other vegetables too, you just want about 4 lbs of veg total)
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, for brushing
Freshly ground pepper
3 medium red onions, cut into 1/2-inch rings
5 ounces goat cheese
Marinara- fresh roasted tomato would be great
Fresh Lasagna Noodles (you will need about 1/2 of the batch), cut into 4-by-13-inch strips and cooked, or store-bought dried noodles, cooked
2 ounces finely grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Place zucchini in a single layer on oiled baking sheets. (Work in batches if necessary.) Brush with oil, and season with salt and pepper. Bake, rotating pans halfway through, until tender and just starting to brown, 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool slightly, then transfer to a dish.

Place onion rings in a single layer on oiled baking sheets. (Work in batches if necessary.) Brush with oil, and season with salt and pepper. Bake until tender and browned, 10 to 15 minutes. Let cool slightly, then chop into 1/2-inch pieces. Mix with goat cheese in a small bowl.

Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees. Spread 1/2 cup of marinara in a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Place a layer of noodles over marinara. Layer zucchini on top of noodles. Spread 1/2 of the goat cheese mixture over zucchini. Spread 1 cup marinara over cheese layer. Repeat layering until ingredients have been used- end by spreading remaining marinara on top of noodles, and sprinkle with Parm cheese.

Place baking dish on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until cheese is golden and sauce is bubbling, about 45 minutes. Let stand for 15 minutes before slicing and serving.

Operation Baking Gals- Round 17

2010-03-10T11:27:00.004-05:00

This round Team Wellington baked for Yuriy. That's him right there.
I made some yellow cake cookies and bar cookies with semi sweet and white chocolate chips, these ones:
It was a base from a Cook's recipe for blondies but you can put pretty much anything you want to in it. Even raisins if that's your thing. I sure hope that isn't your thing. Raisins make me sad. Anywho, recipe below.

Here's what some of the other bakers made:
Taylor sent a box stuffed full with a card, puppy chow, brownies, white chocolate chunk chookies, chocolate lovers dream cookies, and some reeses and peanut m&ms.

Kathie sent along two packages: One with Chocolate chip muffins, lemon cookies and a variety of candy... and another baked with her middle schoolers had white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, sugar cookies and nuts.

Liz sent a bunch of goodies including Peanut Butter cookies.

Ryan made "Everything Cookies" from the Pioneer Woman's blog (oatmeal, pecans, granola, apricots, and craisins) and peanut butter chocolate chip cookies...and also added some bags of jelly beans, Easter M&M's, Cheddar Pretzel Combos and a card.

Mary sent oatmeal raisin and chocolate cookies with peanut butter chips.

Charlene made white chocolate Macedonia cookies, kookie cookies, kookie brittle. She also sent along saf-t-pops, assorted hard candies, gum, assorted chocolate hershey minis, individual powder drinks, and magazines.

Sally baked ome marshmallow cookies, and a family favorite, Chewy Triple Chipper cookies. Those have chocolate, butterscotch, and peanut butter chips in a sweet, chewy dough.

Rosie made chocolate sugar cookies; oatmeal butterscotch; and oatmeal with chocolate chips and dried cranberries.

I'll update soon with more of what our bakers made. Thanks to all for joining us! If you know of someone serving overseas who could use a large dose of baked goods, please email me (spikethebakergmail.com).

Basic Bar Cookies
Adapted from Cooks Illustrated

A note from Cooks Illustrated: Be very careful not to overbake the blondies; they dry out easily and will turn hard. Start checking the oven a couple of minutes before they will be done.

1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (7 1/2 ounces)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), melted and cooled
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar (10 1/2 ounces)
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 ounces each white chocolate chips
4 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

optional: coconut, toasted pecans, peanut butter chips, whatever you want to add or sub for the other chips.

Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees.

Line a pan with foil, leaving a little overhang so you'll be able to pull the cooked dough out easily. Spray foil-lined pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in medium bowl; set aside.

Whisk melted butter and brown sugar together in medium bowl until combined. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Using rubber spatula, fold dry ingredients into egg mixture until just combined; do not overmix. Fold in chocolate and nuts and turn batter into prepared pan, smoothing top with rubber spatula.

Bake until top is shiny, cracked, and light golden brown, 22 to 25 minutes; do not overbake. Cool on wire rack to room temperature. Remove bars from pan by lifting foil overhang and transfer to cutting board. Cut into 2-inch squares and serve.

Mini Coffee Heath Ice Cream Cupcakes

2010-03-09T08:04:00.000-05:00

Stop looking for jam thumbprints because you're not gonna find them around here. I bought my niece a sesame street cookbook this summer filled with cookie recipes. What does she pick as the first recipe to make? Jam thumbprints. We all tried to push her towards something chocolate but it didn't work. So we made jam thumbprints. Guess who ate them? No one in my family, not even Nellie. I know some people like treats with jam, but I do not (if you do, check out the ugly food dude for the recipe- sorry I'm a jam loser Mike). So instead I made cupcakes. Lots of cupcakes.

For my little brother's surprise bday party this weekend I was making the treats. I knew he would want ice cream cake but I didn't want to have to go through the process of cutting an ice cream cake so I went with mini cupcakes instead. Brownies with a little hint of espresso on the bottom. Then coffee ice cream mixed with a little heath bar. A touch of chocolate ganache on top and another sprinkle of heath. Easy to eat at a party. According to one party goer these were the best mini ice cream things he's ever eaten. I'm not sure how many mini ice cream things he's had, but I'll take that as a compliment.Mini Brownie Buttons
based on a recipe from Baking From My Home to Yours

Makes 32 mini brownies

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
2/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/2 tsp espresso powder
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly butter two miniature muffin pans and place them on a baking sheet.

Whisk together the flour and salt.

Melt the butter, chocolate and brown sugar in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan over very low heat, stirring frequently with a heatproof spatula and keeping an eye on the pan so nothing overheats or burns. When the mixture is smooth, remove from the heat and cool for a minute or two.

Stir in the espresso powder, vanilla, and the eggs, into the chocolate mixture. When the mixture is well blended, add the flour and stir only until it is incorporated. You should have a smooth, glossy batter.

Spoon the batter into 24 of the muffin cups, using about a teaspoon of batter to fill each cup three-quarters full.

Bake for 10 minutes, or until the tops of the buttons spring back when touched. Transfer the pans to racks to cool for 3 minutes before carefully releasing the buttons. Repeat baking with any remaining batter. Cool to room temperature on the racks.

To assemble brownie cupcakes:
Freeze the mini brownies for 15 minutes (it is easier to leave them in the pan to help keep them from sliding around when you scoop the ice cream on).

Soften the ice cream slightly- mix in any extra ingredients (heath, chocolate chips, etc) you'd like. Remove the brownies from the freezer. With a mini ice cream scoop, scoop ice cream balls onto each brownie and return to the freezer to set. You may need to run the ice cream scoop under hot water from time to time to get a clean scoop. Return to freezer and let ice cream set for at least 30 minutes. Make your favorite chocolate ganache (I used Dorie Greenspan's). Spoon a bit on top of the ice cream and sprinkle with more toppings. Return to freezer for the final set. Let defrost 5 minutes before serving.

Paella!

2010-03-05T11:11:00.001-05:00

After reading about 17 paella recipes and getting suggestions for some of you guys- I went for it and made a rather successful (if I do say so myself) paella this week. The recipe you'll find below is mostly a mix of this williams sonoma recipe and some sound advice from Julia Child.

There are no shrimps is this paella simply because I don't like them and when I'm cooking my taste wins out. I did use mussels and scallops with artichokes, tomatoes and peas for veg. With one pesky pescetarian coming for dinner (love you KB) we had fake veggie choriso instead of the real deal- it really didn't seem to make that much of a difference. But then again, I love weird veggie crap.
Although a lot of the slicing and prep can be done ahead, most of this comes together in the half hour just before you eat.Then you'll be so excited and anxious to try it (and spacey due to sangria) that you will forget to photograph your paella for your blog. Then you will have to make up for it with lame pictures of saffron and pics from Espana.
Scallop & Mussel Paella
serves 6 people
4 cups vegetable stock
1 tsp. coarse sea salt
1 tsp. saffron threads
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 cup olive oil
1/2 lb. chorizo sausages (or fake chorizo), sliced into 1 inch pieces
1 yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 lb. ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded and roughly chopped
1 cup artichokes, jarred or frozen, sliced in half
2 1/2 cups risotto-type short-grain rice, such as arborio
1/4 cup of dry white wine
1 cup shelled English peas, fresh or frozen
24 large mussels
12 scallops
Juice of 1/2 lemon, plus wedges for serving

In a saucepan over medium heat, bring the stock to a gentle simmer and maintain over low heat.

Using a mortar and pestle, grind the salt with the saffron until a powder forms. Add the garlic and grind with the salt and saffron. Set aside.

Place a 16-inch paella pan or a large, wide, heavy-bottomed fry pan over high heat and pour in the olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the sausages and sauté until golden, about 10 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the meat to a plate and set aside. Reserve the pan with the remaining oil.

Add onion to the paella pan and sauté over medium heat until the onion is translucent and beginning to brown, about 3 minutes. Return the meat to the pan and add the tomatoes and artichokes, stirring to evenly distribute the tomatoes. Add 2 ladlefuls of the hot stock and simmer for 1 to 2 minutes.

Stir a little stock into the mortar with the saffron mixture and mix well. Pour the contents of the mortar into the saucepan of stock.

Add the rice to the paella pan, followed by wine and the peas. Then add all but 1⁄2 cup of the remaining stock. Stir everything together thoroughly. And let the rice cook, no need to keep stirring (says Julia Child).

Pat the scallops dry. Scrub the mussels with a stiff brush. Debeard them by scraping off the tuft of fibers with a knife. Arrange the scallops and mussels on top of the rice mixture, discarding any mussels that do not close to the touch. Return the paella to a simmer and cook until the fish is cooked through and the rice is tender but not too soft, about 20 minutes. If the mussels are in their shells, discard any that failed to open. If the paella is not yet done and all the liquid is absorbed, add a little of the reserved stock as needed. Squeeze lemon juice over the top.

Turn off the heat and cover the pan with a clean, dry kitchen towel or lid. Let stand for about 10 minutes to allow the flavors to mingle thoroughly and the rice to absorb any remaining juices. Serve warm, not hot, garnished with wedges of lemon.

Toasted Coconut Custard Tart

2010-03-02T08:18:00.004-05:00

Rushing to actually get a TWD post done on time for a change...up all last night baking and listening to the new frightened rabbit. I reduced the size of this one and made one tiny little tart.

I used a chocolate tart dough I already had in the freezer and skipped adding the vanilla (why add vanilla when you already put rum in there?) but followed the rest of the recipe as written.
The coconut flavor was perfect, with just enough rum to make me happy. The recipe was also fairly easy to pull together despite creating a mountain of dishes. Next time, and there will be a next time, I think I'll use a graham cracker crust.Beryl of Cinemon Girl has the recipe right here.

Paella?

2010-02-25T15:06:00.002-05:00

Does anyone have a good paella recipe? Back from Spain and tasked with making paella for a dinner next week. Any assistance very appreciated! Love, Spike.

Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies

2010-02-23T01:24:00.002-05:00

I'm back from a month of work travel, various 12 hour meetings and vacation. I realized Sunday that I hadn't really baked since the superbowl (horror!). Last week's TWD recipe seemed like a good first step to get back in on the action so here today you will find the coconut/chocolate chip version of the recipe.

I already have a favorite cc cookie recipe (this one) so I added some lightly toasted coconut to the mix for this recipe. I think it's a pretty fun variation- still mostly a standard cc cookie with a little coconut every other bite. Unfortunately, I forgot how to take pictures that were in focus over the break.

Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies
based on a Dorie Greenspan recipe, Baking From My Home to Yours
Makes 25 cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temp
10 ounces chocolate chips, I use a mix of bittersweet and semi sweet
1 1/2 cups shredded sweetened coconut, lightly toasted

Directions:

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

Whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with the paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed for about 1 minute, until smooth. Add the sugars and beat for another 2 minutes or so, until well-blended. Beat in the vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each egg goes in. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients in 3 portions, mixing only until each addition is incorporated. On low speed, or by hand with a rubber spatula, mix in the chocolate and coconut. (The dough can be covered and refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen. If you'd like, you can freeze rounded tablespoons of dough, ready for baking. Freeze the mounds on a lined baking sheet, then bag them when they're solid. There's no need to defrost the dough before baking - just add another minute or two to the baking time.)

Spoon the dough (about 2 tablespoons worth) onto the baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches between spoonfuls.

Bake the cookies - one sheet at a time and rotating the sheet at the midway point - for 10 to 12 minutes, or until they are brown at the edges and golden in the center; they may still be a little soft in the middle, and that's just fine. Pull the sheet from the oven and allow the cookies to rest for 1 minute, then carefully, using a wide metal spatula, transfer them to racks to cool to room temperature.

Repeat with the remainder of the dough, cooling the baking sheets between batches.

The cooking can be kept in a cookie jar or sealed container for about four days, or wrapped airtight and frozen for up to two months.

Chocolate Mousse

2010-02-14T01:19:00.002-05:00

I am feeling pretty lucky that my turn to pick the recipe for sweet melissa sundays falls on Valentine's Day. Now I know a lot of people have strong feelings towards this holiday, but any excuse to make decedent chocolate desserts (and decorate them with lame purple candy hearts) is okay with me.

I went with chocolate mousse for the section. I've made a whole lot of chocolate mousse in my life and I've screwed it up more than a few times- but this one is billed as "easy". One of the reasons I love the dessert and keep making it is that you can spike it with a million different liquors and get some rad results. This recipe didn't call for spiking but I left out the vanilla and went for it. In the past I've done grand marnier, Kahlua, amaretto. This was the time for something new...frangelico. I ended up adding about a tablespoon and a half and got a nice hint of hazelnut in the mousse. The end result was light in texture but rich in flavor.
Hope all the other bakers enjoyed this one- my apologies in advance for not getting around to see what everyone did in a timely manner, I'm on vacation now enjoying some Internet free time. Happy Valentine's.

Easy Chocolate Mousse
Makes 6 servings

5 and 1/2 ounces best-quality semisweet (58%) chocolate, coarsely chopped (Spike note- I used 4 oz semi and 1.5 oz bittersweet chocolate)
3 large egg whites, at room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1 and 2/3 cups cold heavy cream
1 tsp pure vanilla extract (Spike note-or skip and add a tablespoon or so of frangelico or grand marnier, etc)
2 tbs confectioners' sugar

1. In the top of a double boiler set over simmering, not boiling, water, melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally. Remove from the double boiler and set aside to cool to room temperature (Spike note, don't let it get cold or it won't mix well in #3).
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer set over a pot of simmering, not boiling, water, whisk the egg whites with the sugar until the sugar has dissolved (you can feel with your fingers for sugar grains at the bottom). Transfer the bowl to the electric mixer fitted with the whip attachment, and whip until the peaks are stiff but not dry.
3. Add one quarter of this meringue to the cooled chocolate and whisk to blend. Gently fold in the remainder of the meringue until mostly Incorporated (it can be slightly streaky at this point).
4. In the clean bowl of the electric mixer, whip the cream, vanilla (or liquor), and confectioners' sugar to medium-soft peaks. Gently fold the whipped cream into the chocolate meringue mixture until just incorporated.
5. Transfer the mousse to a serving bowl, or pipe it into individual bowls. Cover the bowl(s) with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour, or until set.

Serve chilled, garnished with fresh berries, if desired. The mousse may be kept in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 2 days, or frozen for up to 3 weeks.

Peanut Caramel Cookies & Operation Baking Gals

2010-02-11T10:17:00.003-05:00

Team Wellington baked for Dan in Iraq this month. I sent over Dorie Greenspan's Chocolate Oatmeal almost Candy Bars (here). Here's a run down of what some of the other team members made.

Julie sent Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies, Valentine's Brownies, gum, jerkey, trail mix, sweet tart hearts and licorice, along with a Valentine.

Sue baked oatmeal/chocolate chip muffins.

Janelle mailed off on 2/12 triple chip cookies, they had white chips, chocolate chips and butterscotch chips.

Adrienne made Dan chocolate chip toll house cookies with pecans. Yum! Also added some fun treats-- "old school" candies (childhood favorites) like Big Chew gum, fireballs, lemondrops, fun dip, chicklets, nerds, she even found a newly issued pack of baseball cards from 1989!

Charlene baked Chocolate chip cookies and Kookie Cookies, she also threw together a trail mix of peanuts,M&Ms and raisins and put it in snack bags. Sounds good!

Jen sent some double fudge brownies and some cowboy cookie bars. Check out her pictures:

Jennifer baked and shipped 2 dozen oatmeal raisin and 2 dozen m&m cookies.

Kathie and her Middle School Bakers made fudge crinkles, spice and lemon cookies for Dan and the men and women who serve with him. They added cards, cashews and a couple of bags of candy! and they loved doing it!

Liz sent a box with oatmeal raisin cookies, gum, tootsie rolls and jelly beans to Dan.

and Jennifer made m&m cookie bars!

Thanks to all for baking!

On to the cookies. I saw David Lebovitz posted these and found an excuse to make them as soon as possible (superbowl worked nicely). Peanut butter cookie, quite traditional. But then you make a little space for salty peanut caramel in the middle. And then you drizzle a little chocolate on top (for shizzle). I really think you should make these, my small changes to the recipe below.

Peanut Butter Cookies with Peanut Caramel
About 30 cookies Adapted from The Art and Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet & David Lebovitz
For the cookie dough
8 tablespoons (115g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup (120g) packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup (200g) creamy salted peanut butter
1 3/4 cups (250g) flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

For the salted peanut caramel
1 cup (250ml) heavy cream
1/2 cup (125ml) water
1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt salt
3/4 cup (100g) finely chopped roasted salted peanuts

topping
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted

1. Preheat the oven to 350F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
2. With an electric mixer, or by hand, make the cookie dough by beating the butter, brown and granulated sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla until well blended. If using an electric mixer, scrape down the sides of the bowl.
3. Beat in the peanut butter.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk or sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the peanut butter mixture and stir until there are no patches of flour.
5. Scoop up tablespoon-sized portions of the dough and roll each piece between your hands so they're as smooth as possible so they don't crack at the edges when performing the next step.
Space them 1 1/2-inches (2 cm) apart on the baking sheets, then use the rounded end of a wooden spoon, or your thumb, to make a depression in each one. Don't worry much if the sides crack; push them back together.
6. Bake the cookies for 12-14 minutes, rotating the baking sheets midway during cooking, until they are light-golden brown and the edges barely start to darken. Remove from oven, and while they're warm, press in to reinforce each depression with the end of the wooden spoon. Let cool completely.

7. Make the salted peanut caramel by warming the cream in a saucepan or microwave, and setting it aside.
8. Cook the water, 1 cup sugar, corn syrup, and salt to a caramel, gently swirling the pan only if necessary (to ensure it melt and cooks evenly) until it turns a nice golden brown.
Remove from heat and immediately whisk in the hot cream in a slow, steady stream.
9. Cool until warm and pourable, then add the chopped peanuts. Spoon some of the caramel into each cookie, letting it set for about an hour.
10. Drizzle cooled cookies with chocolate.

Rick Katz's Brownies for Julia

2010-02-09T07:29:00.002-05:00

TWD this week was Rick Katz's Brownies for Julia. I screwed these up. I spiked them with some amaretto and baked until the top was just as Dorie noted. Went out for a run and came back to find the brownies cooled but still super gooey inside. Not something to share with others.I salvaged the more cooked edges and threw those bits into the freezer to harden up. Tossed with a scoop of raspberry sorbet and it was almost as good as if I had done it on purpose. Now, we all know the truth but I kind of think Julie would appreciate me rolling with the punches.

Thanks to the chocolatechic for hosting, here's the recipe.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

2010-02-07T01:47:00.001-05:00

The Sweet Melissa recipe selected by Rosy was a red velvet cake which I halved and made into cupcakes a few weeks ago. The recipe would be great for Valentine's (because it is red). Or you could always make Sweet Melissa's chocolate mousse which I am hosting next week.

I had never made red velvet cake before and almost never order it out because the cake itself isn't usually all that special. It's really about the cream cheese frosting. This cake is nice- moist with a little tang and a little chocolate and a whole lot of red food coloring. Even so, the cream cheese frosting is really what this cupcake is about. I didn't eat most of the cake but finished every bit of the frosting.
For the recipe, please visit Rosy Lips and Lavender.

Houston

2010-02-02T09:25:00.000-05:00

No twd today, stuck in Houston for the week. I did have a delish hummingbird cupcake from Crave Cupcakes yesterday- just the right of banana, plenty of nuts, and lightly sweeten cream cheese frosting. Back for next week's recipe!

Butterscotch Pudding & Kitchen Reader

2010-01-31T10:12:00.002-05:00

Camera cord is not working and I'm trying to catch a plane which is why you are looking at a fuzzy Bill Cosby (& pudding) instead of of butterscotch pudding.
We made a butterscotch pudding for Tuesday's with Dorie that was amazing but I love scotch (scotchy scotch scotch) so I was all in for trying a different recipe. Wait a minute. There is no scotch in the recipe! Don't worry, I spiked it with a little instead of adding vanilla.

The pudding was really good, but was really more of a caramel flavor than butterscotch. I'm not complaining- I like caramel. If you like caramel pudding too, grab the recipe here (Thanks Jennifer!)

This month's kitchen reader selection was What We Eat When We Eat Alone by Deborah Madison. Given that I live alone, I tend to eat dinner alone fairly often. It was rather reassuring to read about all of the disgusting and odd things people eat- quite a few people seem to put crackers in coffee and then eat the mush (ew). Then when I tried to think of the really strange things I eat alone, I couldn't come up with anything too off the wall. I do have a freezer full of baked goods that I'll eat still frozen (with enough butter in them they tend to stay soft in the freezer). The only thing that I didn't like about the book were the frequent man versus women comparisions. I've been on a tear lately about all the times you hear things attributed to being a man or woman which makes me crazy (women never cook steak for themselves? Not true in my house).

Yuppie Nachos

2010-01-27T15:19:00.000-05:00

There's a restaurant in Cambridge where the service is terrible but the nachos are so good that we keep going back for more. Even when they give us end-of-the-bag chip crumbs. This place has something they call yuppie nachos- goat cheese, sun dried tomatoes, guacamole. Totally delicious and appropriate for the Cambridge/ Harvard crowd (and me).
Last weekend I made my own version. Melted sharp cheddar cheese, hunks of goat cheese, sun dried tomatoes on regular tortilla and blue tortilla chips. All the ingredients were organic too- how's that for yuppie? Not pictured but added at the end were slices of fresh avocado instead of guacamole. These don't really need sour cream or salsa on top. Here's an important step for making nachos- layer the chips and cheese. Nobody likes it when you get down to the bottom layer and there is no cheese, no nothing. Just chip crumbles. Life lessons.

Cocoa-Nana Bread

2010-01-26T04:42:00.001-05:00

This is not a recipe for cocoa bread from your Nana. It is a combo of banana bread with chocolate. Sounds amazing right? I thought so too and made this one months ago when I had some dying bananas. It wasn't successful then- a little too dry, not enough of either banana or chocolate so it was just plain confusing to eat.

When Steph of Obsessed with Baking chose this recipe for TWD, I decided to give it another go. I followed the directions carefully and added a few extra chocolate chips. Also added some espresso powder after reading this post from Mike. The results were much better- although I'm still pretty sure I want to make just plain banana bread next time I find brown bananas lurking in the kitchen. That said, any excuse to eat chocolate and call it breakfast is alright with me.

Black Bean & Red Onion Chili

2010-01-20T06:09:00.001-05:00

I came up with this veggie chili recipe when stuck inside on a snowy day. Now, weeks later, it is snowing again and I would like to make some more- and maybe try to clean up the bowl before I photograph it this time.

For chili, I love to use ancho chili powder because the spice has nice flavor but is not too overpowering. Luckily, my friend Jennifer picked me up some fresh ancho chili powder that I've been using in chili, enchiladas, eggs, and on it goes. The red onion and green pepper have a nice freshness.Minus the sour cream, it is actually really good for you. So in between making a second pot, I will attempt chin ups on my newly installed bar and feel virtuous.

Black Bean & Red Onion Chili
Olive oil
1 medium red onion, diced
1 small green pepper, diced
1 clove garlic, smash it and run a knife through it a few times
2 tbs Ancho Chili powder (If you use regular chili powder, hold back the amount as the spice is usually greater than with ancho)
1/2 tsp ground cumin
pinch of sea salt
1/4 cup water
28 oz can of whole tomatoes in juice
28 oz canned black beans, drained and rinsed

In a pot over medium heat, heat 2 tbs of olive oil. Add the onion and pepper and saute just until the onions start to go soft and translucent (3-4minutes). Add the garlic, chili powder, cumin and salt and continue to cook about 60 seconds- will become fragrant.

Add the water, canned tomatoes and their juice to the pot and bring the mix to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer for 45 minutes, stirring and breaking up the tomatoes every once in awhile.

Add the black beans, stir, and cook for an additional 20 minutes- you just want the beans to heat up and take on some of the flavor.

Serve with shredded cheese, sour cream, avocado, or tortilla chips.

Chocolate Oatmeal Almost Candy Bars

2010-01-19T09:20:00.003-05:00

This is in my top five Dorie Greenspan recipes. Top Three. I love making (and eating) cookies. Cookies are so simple but totally satisfying. Bar cookies are even easier- none of that rolling out balls of dough which I inevitably make bigger than they are supposed to be. The base is a simple oatmeal cookie with salty roasted peanuts through out. More peanuts cut the fudgy chocolate layer. More oatmeal cookie on top. I left out the raisins. Really, though- why would I put raisins in such a beautiful creation. Later thought a few butterscotch chips would do as a nice replacement but too late for this round.

The bar pictured was cut in half because these are so rich you only need a small bite...and this is coming from Spike who has the ability to eat ungodly amounts of rich desserts (it is a gift really). That said I did of course eat both pieces to equal the whole bar but there was a whole 2 minutes in between. I sent most of them off for operation baking gals. Join team Wellington (opening soon) here.

Make these, win admirers.

Recipe from Confectiona's Realm.

Darling Clementine Pecan Pound Cake

2010-01-17T06:29:00.002-05:00

Lemon Walnut Sour Cream Pound Cake, as was selected by Raeann of Basically, Baby Boots, turned into Spike is still made at the grocery store and refuses to leave the house oh my darling, Clementine Pecan Pound Cake. I had a few clementines rolling around in the fridge, looking to be needed, and the end of a bag of pecans just right for the recipe.

I thought it odd that the recipe called for shortening instead of all butter, but went with it and all was fine. I think the sour cream had something to do with an overall lovely taste and easy recipe.
I'm in a fight with my mini loaf tin. As you can see, it insists on browning the sides faster than the inside cooks. I've tried telling the pan that no one likes their mini loaves over browned on the outside but it will not listen. The full recipe here makes one large loaf or five minis that cook for 35 minutes. You can sub oranges, clementines, maybe even grapefruit for the lemon zest and juice and pecans for the walnuts.

Indonesian Ginger Tofu

2010-01-14T07:10:00.001-05:00

The Barefoot Bloggers are making Ina Garten's Indonesian Chicken recipe this week and I'm making a tofu version. I like tofu better than chicken. For real. Unless we're talking chicken finger basket with lots of honey mustard. At that point it's a toss up. I scaled this marinade way down and used less honey than called for- even so it was still sweet. But serve it with some rice and veggies and it will mellow out. Make sure to press the tofu between kitchen towels before using to get rid of some of the water and allow for the tofu to absorb the marinade.

Indonesian Ginger Tofu
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 tbs ginger, grated
1tsp orange zest
1 package of tofu, sliced and pressed
Sesame seeds (optional)

Whisk together the first 5 ingredients. Pour over tofu and let marinate for at least two hours, refrigerated. Place tofu in a lightly sprayed baking dish. Bake at 350f for 15 minutes (or pan frying in a sprayed pan over medium heat for 3-4 minutes per side). NOTE: If using sesame seeds- sprinkle on before baking. Serve with rice and vegetables.

Mrs. Vogel’s Scherben

2010-01-12T01:55:00.000-05:00

It's no wonder Germans get a rep for being tough- all that pounding of schnitzel and hand mixing of scherben. This week's dessert for tuesdays with dorie was Scherben- kind of like a fried dough with cinnamon, and two kinds of sugar. I was excited to make this for some football watching on Sunday. Things went very wrong. I tried baking instead of frying the dough and what resulted was very tasteless-even with the cinnamon and sugar coating. I left the cookies at home went off to watch football. More disappointment there.

So no more Pats football for the year and no more scherben. I wanted to love these but sadly they didn't work for me (sorry Teanna). For the recipe, check out the delightful Spork or Foon.

Chocolate Pie Dough

2010-01-11T09:11:00.003-05:00

The recipe picked from the Sweet Melissa Baking Book this week was a chocolate pie dough, filling choice was up to the baker. I made the full dough recipe but only baked up a bit, freezing the rest for another day. I made one mini pie and filled it with plain greek yogurt and a couple of banana slices on top. One bite of chocolate and banana without too much guilt. Don't worry, I'm not on a diet or anything insane like that- just baked 3 different kinds of cookies this weekend and didn't feel up to a full pie. The dough was nice and chocolaty but not too sweet. The recipe called for part butter, part shortening. I stopped by one store and there was no shortening to be found. I'm in a fight with (not so super) Stop & Shop because their gas ruined my car so I am boycotting the whole store for the time being. Long story short, I used all butter no shortening.

Donna has posted the recipe here.

Ultimate Wednesday Night Dinner

2010-01-06T01:44:00.000-05:00

Wednesday night dinner's theme for a couple of weeks ago (just getting to posting now) was "extreme cuisine", which makes fun of food on the menu of TGI Fridays/Chilis/Applebees type of establishments. They like to use words like "extreme" and "ultimate" and "obsession" when naming dishes. (and ps- read this NYT article on menu psychology)
Courtney (head chef) wore her flair and made pot stickers and potato skins (all veggie friendly down to the bacobits). Mike made avocado spring rolls. And Katy made some ultimate cocktails. Ultimately blue and lethal.I had dessert and made an Xtreme peanut butter pie- peanut butter and chocolate desserts are a staple of these types of restaurants. I remember the dessert selections at any one of these establishments to read something like: Triple Chocolate Brownie Sundae, New York Style Cheesecake with strawberry surprise, Molten Chocolate Lava Cake and Ultimate Peanut Butter Pie. All served straight from the freezer to your plate. I tried to elevate the recipe here slightly- still peanut butter and chocolate but with less sugar and more bittersweet chocolate. With all the sweets around over the holidays, I didn't want anything too big so I made one mini, divided into four modest slices (nothing xtreme about the serving size except that it was as deep as it was long). The recipe was a version of Dorie Greenspan's torte (full recipe below- too much work for only a mini). Seeing as I missed the TWD anniversary yesterday, I thought I'd finally get this post up.

Xtreme Peanut Butter Pie
Adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s “Baking: From My Home to Yours”

1 1/4 cups finely chopped honey roasted peanuts (for the filling, crunch and topping)
1/2 teaspoon instant espresso powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup finely chopped semi-sweet chocolate
24 oreo cookies, finely crumbed or ground in a food processor or blender (I sometimes uses chocolate teddy grahams)
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Small pinch of salt
2 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
12 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups salted peanut butter–crunchy (not natural)
2 tablespoons whole milk
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate finely chopped

Getting Ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 9-inch springform pan and place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment.

Toss 1/2 cup of the chopped peanuts, the sugar, espresso powder, cinnamon, and chocolate together in a small bowl. Set aside.

Put the Oreo crumbs, melted butter and salt in another small bowl and stir with a fork just until crumbs are moistened. Press the crumbs evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Freeze for 10 minutes.

Bake the crust for 10 minutes, then transfer it to a rack and let it cool completely before filling.

Working with a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip 2 cups of the cream until it holds medium peaks. Beat in 1/4 cup of the confectioners’ sugar and whip until the cream holds medium-firm peaks. Scrape the cream into a bowl and refrigerate until needed.

Wipe out (do not wash) the bowl, fit the stand mixer with the paddle attachment, and beat the cream cheese with the remaining 1 cup confectioners’ sugar on medium speed until the cream cheese is satiny smooth. Beat in the peanut butter, 1/4 cup of the chopped peanuts and the milk.

Using a large rubber spatula, gently stir in about one quarter of the whipped cream, just to lighten the mousse. Still working with the spatula, stir in the crunchy peanut mixture, then gingerly fold in the remaining whipped cream.

Scrape the mouse into the crust, mounding and smoothing the top. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or overnight; cover with plastic wrap as soon as the mousse firms.

To Finish The Torte: Put the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Leave the bowl over the water just until the chocolate softens and starts to melt, about 3 minutes; remove the bowl from the saucepan.

Bring the remaining 1/2 cup cream to a full boil. Pour the cream over the chocolate and , working with a a rubber spatula, very gently stir together until the ganache is completely blended and glossy.

Pour the ganache over the torte, smoothing it with a metal icing spatula. Scatter the remaining 1/2 cup peanuts over the top and chill to set the topping, about 20 minutes.

When the ganache is firm, remove the sides of the springform pan; it’s easiest to warm the pan with a hairdryer, and then remove the sides, but you can also wrap a kitchen towel damped with hot water around the pan and leave it there for 10 seconds. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Chocolate Creme Caramel Disaster

2010-01-04T10:18:00.004-05:00

Let me walk you through what happens when you try to quarter a recipe for making chocolate creme caramels:

Your portions will be tiny, only taking up a small portion of your very large pot.

Your annoying candy thermometer will not reach far enough down to the caramel mixture to measure temperature.

You will try to correct this by holding the pan and thermometer at an angle over the stove with one hand while stirring the mix with the other hand.

You will misread the temperature and end up with caramels that are very hard and very bad for your teeth (but still kind of delicious).Shards as proof.

Try the (Full never quartered) recipe from Jeanette.

Low & Lush Chocolate Espresso Cheesecake

2009-12-29T01:26:00.000-05:00

When I told someone I was making a chocolate espresso cheesecake to bring to a party last week, they said "didn't you already make one?" And I had. I made a mini version for Sweet Melissa Sundays and totally forgot about it. I made the full version of Dorie's and opted for the espresso variation. Glad I did because it seemed like the chocolate might have been a bit too boring otherwise.

Everyone at the party seemed to enjoy this cheesecake. I certainly did, but I'm one to always enjoy my own baking. The holly is my attempt at being festive. Sad, I know. My sense is that the first recipe I made was slightly creamier (at least it looks that way in the picture). Honestly, at this point I don't even know. Alls I know is I've been eating way too much cheesecake. The end.

The Tea Lady will be posting this recipe.

Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms

2009-12-24T01:40:00.000-05:00

The week leading up to Christmas is rushed for most everyone celebrating and usually filled with lots of cookies, candy, alcohol etc. I made an attempt to keep my regular fitness schedule and eat well during the day. Then I made these mushrooms for dinner. At least they were delicious and well worth some serious gym time.

This recipe was chosen for the Barefoot Bloggers by Michelle. The recipe calls for the regular little stuffed mushrooms but I wanted an excuse to eat appetisers for dinner so I just made them bigger. I swear there is a mushroom in there, just didn't hold up to the amount of stuffing! Definitely in need of a knife and fork. My variation on the recipe follows.

And a Merry Christmas Eve to you.

Sausage Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms

based on a recipe by Ina Garten

4 portabello mushrooms

1 tablespoon olive oil

1-2 sweet Italian sausages, removed from the casings

1 small shallot, chopped finely

1 garlic clove, minced

1/3 cup panko crumbs or fresh bread crumbs

1 tabs marscapone or cream cheese, at room temp

1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan

2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Remove the stems and gills from the mushrooms, place clean mushrooms in a baking dish and set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the sausage, crumbling it with the back of a wooden spoon. Cook the sausage for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until it's completely browned. Stir in the shallot and garlic and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the panko crumbs, stirring to combine evenly with all the other ingredients. Finally, swirl in the mascarpone/cream cheese and continue cooking until it has has melted and made the sausage mixture creamy. Off the heat, stir in the Parmesan, parsley, and season with salt and pepper, to taste, Cool slightly.

Fill each mushroom generously with the sausage mixture. Bake for 30 minutes, until the stuffing is browned and crusty.

Everyone's Favorite Pecan Pie

2009-12-22T01:12:00.001-05:00

I make a chocolate pecan pie every year on thanksgiving- usually a variation of the Cook's Illustrated pecan pie with bittersweet chocolate chunks added. This year it was Dorie's version (thanks to Someone's in the Kitchen with Brina for picking, recipe here). I didn't realize from the name but this pecan pie already has chocolate in it. Espresso powder too. The melting chocolate on the inside made the pie a bit difficult to eat without making a mess but the taste was amazing. The espresso powder really deepened the flavor. I have officially made the switch from Cook's to Dorie.Now I just have to figure out what I'm making for Christmas dessert (suggestions appreciated). I recieved one gift early this year- my friend gave me a cassette tape of the New Kids holiday album. It's pretty amazing (not as amazing as the pie but if I were to be eating a piece of this pie while listening to nkotb, my head might explode). Enjoy