Mint chocolate bars

Haha, sugar free. April Fool's! I was just a few months late. Right.

Anyway, back to real life. Where all things are good in moderation. These bars are adapted from the creme de menthe bars sold at Gabriel's. They are really something else. When I had one from the restaurant, I immediately determined to make something as close as possible at home, and was pleased to realize it was nothing more than a rich brownie base, a sort of fluffy (but thin) mint filling, and a thin layer of icing. Before I tried reproducing them, I googled for a recipe, just in case, and was rewarded with a preview page of Johnnie Gabriel's cookbook on Google Books that let me see the original recipe. So that simplified things!

I used a slightly different brownie recipe (the justly famous Nick's supernatural brownies) and halved all the components, since a 8" square pan makes more than enough for a family of 2 1/2 (we are not feeding the baby such unwholesome things yet), plus some to share.

Mint chocolate bars
adapted from Johnnie Gabriel's Cooking in the South
Makes 16 squares

Brownie base:
8 Tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter
4 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped
2 eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Filling:
5 Tbsp. butter, softened
2 cups confectioners' sugar
2 Tbsp. whipped cream (go ahead and whip up a few tablespoons while you're at it, and save the rest for hot chocolate or whatever)
3/4 tsp. peppermint extract (or you can use 2 Tbsp. creme de menthe liqueur if you're fancy enough to have that around)

1-2 drops green food coloring (optional)

Chocolate icing:
3 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped (or use chips)
2 Tbsp. butter

For the base:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8" square baking pan with parchment paper and grease the paper.

In a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan filled with 1" of barely simmering water, melt the chocolate with the butter, stirring frequently, until smooth. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, sugars, vanilla, and salt. Stir in the melted chocolate mixture, then fold in the flour just til combined.

Scrape batter into prepared pan, smoothing the top, and bake 25-30 minutes, just until a toothpick inserted comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. Do not overbake! (In my opinion it is always better to underbake brownies a tad than risk drying them out.)

Cool on a wire rack to room temperature.

For the filling: While brownies are cooling, beat the softened butter and confectioners' sugar til fluffy. Fold in the whipped cream and peppermint extract (and food coloring if desired), then spread over cooled brownie base. Refrigerate for at least 1 1/2 hours.

For the icing:
Melt butter and chocolate together (in microwave or in double boiler as described for brownies), then pour over the top of the chilled brownies, smoothing as you go. Chill at least a couple hours, til topping is firm, then cut and serve.

Cherry-chocolate Bundt cake

I made a chocolate cake today that was a fantastic hybrid of Bundt cake recipes from two sources: Bon Appetit (Sept. 2009) and Cook's Illustrated's The Best Light Recipe. For a couple of years now, with widely varying results, I have been trying to make the latter recipe work. After the most recent attempt, I resigned myself to the fact that significantly underbaking the cake was the only way to make it worth the trouble, maybe. Otherwise there's no getting around the dryness and surprisingly anemic chocolate flavor.

I don't remember the last time I tried baking something "new" (okay, semi-new) and got exactly what I was hoping for. It is a good feeling for an amateurish home baker to have, especially while enjoying a slice of her success, still slightly warm from the oven.

Cherry-chocolate Bundt cake
Yields one standard-sized Bundt cake, serving about 16

1 3/4 cups (8 3/4 oz.) unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
1 cup boiling water
3/4 cup (2 1/4 oz.) natural cocoa powder (you can use Dutch-processed if desired, but it's not necessary)
2 cups (14 oz.) packed light or dark brown sugar
3/4 cup vegetable/canola oil
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 cup chopped semisweet chocolate, or chocolate chips (most are not dairy-free; I use Trader Joe's Pound Plus baking bars, which are)
1/2 cup sour Morello cherries in light syrup, drained and chopped coarsely (watch for and remove any pits, of course)

Directions
1. Preheat your oven to 350 with a rack in the middle. Grease a 12-cup Bundt pan with Baker's Joy, or grease and flour.

2. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Set aside. In a 2-cup glass measuring cup, whisk the cocoa powder into the boiling water. Let cool about 5 minutes.

3. In a large mixer bowl, beat the sugar, oil, and vanilla until well combined. Add the eggs and beat another 30 seconds or so, scraping down the side of the bowl, til combined. Add half of the flour mixture, beat til combined, and then add all the cocoa/water mixture. Mix in the remaining flour, then fold in the chopped chocolate and cherries.

4. Scrape batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45-50 minutes, turning the pan once halfway through, until a toothpick or skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out with a few wet crumbs attached. Remove from the oven and let sit 15 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling. Serve with cherries, whipped cream, powdered sugar, or nothing at all.

Farro and winter squash salad with pepitas

This morning, for the first time in forever, I cooked something for myself for lunch--something healthy. I figured it'll magically offset all the candy I ate last night, feeling an obligation to make a dent in the overstock we were left with. It's our first year in a house (no one ever went trick-or-treating in the apartments), I was excited, and I didn't know how much to buy. On top of that, apparently ours is the kind of neighborhood where everyone has kids, puts up adorable Halloween decorations, and then takes the kids to another neighborhood to trick-or-treat. Cute. Thankfully we had a few small groups, including one with a boy who was actually excited to see "Stawbuhst!"  Knock yourself out, kid, there's a reason I put that one out for the first round...

Some time ago I had to swear off subscribing to food blogs as prolific and consistently tantalizing as Smitten Kitchen, finding myself even less capable than usual of making semi-frugal meal plans and then not changing my mind a thousand times... It was an unhealthy and inefficient pattern. So I wouldn't even call myself a regular reader of Smitten Kitchen, though I love her writing and her food and the cookbook is most definitely on my wishlist. Something about that blog transforms me from all-out recipe slave (thanks, Cook's Illustrated) to semi-imaginative, measurement-despising pseudo-chef. Probably it's a mix of the encouraging, amicable tone and the artsy small print (not to mention the photos!), but whatever it is, something akin to creativity is its invariable effect on me. So in that spirit I altered this recipe to use the delicata squash I picked up on a whim last week. I had never tried it but I've never met a winter squash I didn't love roasted, and this one proved no different. It's like candy, people. Healthy candy. What more can you ask for from a vegetable? The pairing with farro and pumpkin seeds is nothing short of inspired, so I didn't feel the need to mess with success. I did try adding rinsed canned black beans to mine for some protein and it worked quite well.

And as for the cheese---I might as well throw a real quick pity party and say that I've been reluctantly dairy-free for about two weeks, trying to solve some reflux issues with la bebita, and I think it's definitely helping her (mixed feelings---just kidding! Totally kidding.). I say this as a strong believer in the placebo effect, so I went into it quite suspiciously. I haven't been doing a total elimination diet; I just cut my inordinate dairy consumption by about 98%, I would say. So I guess the way to test this scientifically is to go another week as I have been, and then reintroduce one food at a time to look for a reaction... Seems kind of cruel when your test subject is a baby, but we're not suspecting a serious allergy here, just sensitivity. All that to say, I vacillated on whether to put a teeny tiny bit of feta in this salad (one of several opened cheeses languishing in my fridge...tragic). But guess what? It didn't need the cheese. I know, such a hypocrite---I just swore I would never trust a person who called the presence of any cheese in any dish "unnecessary." But all the other components of the salad are just that good--- and perhaps I am starting to reconcile myself to this dairy-free thing. Pity party over, though. Make this salad. With all the modifications your heart desires, because you were born to cook and know exactly what you're doing, you brilliant chef you. /unsuccessfully channeling Deb

(Oh hey, I remembered to take a photo. Bet you wish I hadn't. I should learn how to use a camera someday. Here it is sans the last-minute addition of black beans.) 

Farro and winter squash salad with pepitas
adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Serves 2-3 as a main dish
Keeps a week

2 medium delicata squash, peeled (optional), halved lengthwise, seeded, and sliced into 1/2" half-moon pieces
4 Tbsp olive oil, divided
3/4 cup farro
1/2 red onion, minced
1 Tbsp. sherry vinegar
1 Tbsp. water
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 c. toasted pepitas, preferably salted
Feta cheese to taste (optional)
1 (15 oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Roast the squash pieces in a single layer on a baking sheet with 2 Tbsp of the oil and salt to taste until tender, 20-25 mins, turning pieces over halfway through. Set aside.

2. Meanwhile, cook the farro according to package directions or, if you bought it in bulk like me and have no idea if it's pearled, semi-pearled, or what, try just dumping it in lots of boiling salted water for 25-30 minutes or so. You want it to be soft but still a bit chewy. Once done, drain and let cool slightly.

3. Also meanwhile, combine the onion, vinegar, water, sugar, and salt in a small bowl. Let marinate about 30 minutes while the other stuff cooks.

4. Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and toss with the remaining 2-3 Tbsp. of olive oil. Add more salt and pepper if desired, then serve at room temperature or chilled.

Yeasted waffles

These delicious waffles can and indeed must be made the night before the breakfast/brunch at which you wish to serve them. The original recipe served four but I don't like leftover waffles, and honestly it's enough of a hassle getting up and down for each new batch when it's just two people eating them; I've heard you can hold waffles in a 200 degree oven for a half hour or so without disastrous results, and I guess that would be your only option if you wanted to double these for a (relative) crowd. Yeasted waffles have a rich, delicate flavor that begs for little more than a sprinkle of cinnamon and a generous amount of maple syrup.

Yeasted waffles 
Serves 2
3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp whole or lowfat milk
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/2 cup (2 1/2 oz) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (2 1/2 oz) white whole wheat or traditional whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp. granulated sugar 
1/2 teaspoon table salt
3/4 teaspoon instant yeast 
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 

Heat milk and butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat until butter is melted. Cool mixture until warm to touch. Meanwhile, whisk flours, sugar, salt, and yeast in large bowl to combine. Lightly whisk the egg and vanilla together in another small bowl. Once the milk/butter mixture has cooled, whisk into the flour mixture until batter is smooth. Add the egg and vanilla and whisk til incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate immediately, at least 12 and up to 24 hours. When ready to serve, whisk the batter to recombine (batter will deflate) before baking in your waffle iron. Serve hot.

Chicken pocket pies

I was hooked on cream cheese pastry the first time I encountered it in a Cook's Country quiche Lorraine recipe. I have a very poor track record when it comes to successfully making "regular" pie crusts, whether all-butter, a mixture of butter and shortening, or (my most successful combination) butter and lard. I hate rolling out dough and I either add too much water or not enough--you would think this would be easy enough to recognize and rectify, but apparently I am missing some brain cells that help normal people deal with such things. So often I've ended up smushing the dough into the pie plate, which at best makes it shrink and at worst makes it tough. Sometimes it turns out passably, but it always tries my patience to the limit.

It is a much happier story when I use a combination of butter and cream cheese (and in this case, a little heavy cream), because the dough comes out uniformly moist, soft, and extremely forgiving of novice handling. How forgiving? Well, when I last made these pocket pies, I left out 1/2 cup of flour and didn't realize it until I had the two disks neatly wrapped and ready to chill in the fridge. I had to unwrap them, mix in the remaining flour, and rewrap them. Guess what? They were still perfect. Not a hint of toughness.

This recipe is adapted from Lucinda Scala Quinn's Mad Hungry. The last time I made them I tried using fennel leftover from the stuffed squash. It made the kitchen smell positively glorious and tasted terrific. I've also subbed blue cheese for the Parmesan, keeping the original carrot/onion/celery trio (just do about 1/3 cup of each, chopped). This is about as make-ahead as a recipe can get, designed to be kept on hand in the freezer, and it's a pretty quick process all told. They make the perfect fall lunch with a nice seasonal salad.

Chicken pocket pies with fennel and Parmesan
Yield: 10 mini-pies
adapted from Mad Hungry, by Lucinda Scala Quinn

For the filling:
1 boneless, skinless chicken breast (about 5 oz)
2 tsp. vegetable oil
1/3 c. water
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1/2 c. onion, minced
1/2 c. fennel, diced small
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/4 tsp. fresh thyme, minced, or a pinch dried
2 Tbsp. flour
1 1/4 c. low-sodium chicken broth (if not low-sodium, reduce sea salt to 1/4 tsp)
1/4 c. fresh grated Parmesan
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice

1. In a small skillet, heat the oil over med-high until shimmering. Pat the chicken breast dry, season with salt and pepper, and place in the hot skillet. Cook til lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Flip chicken, add the water, cover, and reduce heat to low. Cook until chicken registers 160 on a thermometer, about 7-10 mins. Remove to a plate to cool, then shred into bite-size pieces with two forks and/or your hands. You should have 1 heaping cup of chicken.

2. Meanwhile, in a 10" skillet melt the butter. Add the onion and fennel and saute til softened and lightly browned, 4-5 mins. Stir in the salt, thyme, and flour and cook, stirring for 1 minute. Slowly stir or whisk in the broth. Bring to a simmer and cook til thickened, about 2 mins. Off heat, stir in the chicken, Parmesan, and lemon juice. Transfer to a bowl and chill in the refrigerator at least til at room temperature.

For the pastry:
8 Tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 c. heavy cream
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups + 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
(for egg wash)
1 egg
1 Tbsp. water

1. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese in a large bowl til combined. Add the cream and (this is why you want a large bowl, because it splatters) beat til combined. Add the flour and salt and beat on low until a ball of dough forms.

2. Divide the dough into two pieces and wrap in plastic, forming into disks as you do so. Chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes and up to overnight (if you have it in the fridge more than a few hours, let it sit on the counter for 15 minutes before trying to roll it out).

To assemble:
1. Lightly flour a work surface and a rolling pin. Working with one disk of dough at a time, roll out the disks to about 12" in diameter. Using an overturned bowl that measures about 5-6" across, cut out 3 circles per disk. Gather the scraps and re-roll once more, cutting out more circles.

2. Place a scant 1/4 cup of chicken filling off-center on a dough circle. Wet edges of dough and fold to form a half-moon shape, pinching the edges to seal and then crimping sealed edge with a fork. Repeat with remaining dough circles and filling.

3. If freezing for later use, place pocket pies in a single layer on a large plate or baking sheet, then transfer to freezer for several hours, until frozen solid. At this point you can dump them all into one freezer bag and keep them in the freezer up to a month or so. If serving immediately, place pocket pies on a large plate and chill in the fridge for 15 minutes. Preheat your oven to 375. Brush the tops of the pocket pies with the egg wash and prick twice with the tines of a fork. Bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown. Let rest 5 minutes before serving. If baking from the freezer, do not thaw; brush with egg wash and bake 25-30 minutes or til golden brown. (It's probably a good idea to prick them with a fork halfway through baking.)

Orange-almond cake

I keep recipe binders for loose recipes I cut out from magazines, print from the Internet, or (horrors) wrote out by hand long ago before we had a printer/copier. I have one recipe in the last category for orange yogurt cake, which I think I got from a now-defunct website in, like, 2007, and next to it I simply wrote "Yum." That had been annoying me (I try to make reasonably detailed notes on everything I make), and since it looked like it had potential, I thought I'd try it last night. It came out great, and since (for once) this is not a Cook's Illustrated recipe, I can actually post it here. For a cake this one has an unusually open crumb, is moist, and comes out fluffy though it looks like a scant amount of batter going into the oven. It also takes about the amount of time to mix together as the oven takes to preheat.

I was going to go the healthy route and just sprinkle some confectioners' sugar on top, but the urge to make a buttercream overcame me. I took a cue from a CI white layer cake recipe in which they spread a little bit of seedless jam over the bottom layer, then top that with frosting mixed with sliced almonds. I tried that with orange marmalade (I like imported Italian kinds without corn syrup) and Trader Joe's sliced raw almonds, which are about the only nuts I keep on hand at all times. It worked really well.

In this photo you can see that I didn't have enough icing: I hate cakes with three inches of icing on them so I often adjust recipes down. This time 3/4 of the original amount would have been better than halving it. The recipe below should be the right amount.

Orange-Almond Cake
Yield: one 9" cake, sliced in half horizonally for two layers
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. grated orange zest
pinch of salt
1/2 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp. sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 Tbsp. orange juice
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350º. Lightly spray a 9" nonstick cake pan with Baker's Joy (or butter and flour it). Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, orange zest, and salt in small bowl. In a larger bowl whisk together the yogurt, sugar, oil, orange juice, egg, and vanilla until smooth. Add the dry ingredients and stir just til incorporated. Scrape batter into prepared pan and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown, fragrant, and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cool in pan on trivet for 10 minutes, then carefully invert onto wire rack and let cool completely. Once cool, slice in half horizontally with a large bread knife. (It's best if you make a shallow line all the way around the cake as a guide, then dig your knife in and slowly rotate the cake stand as you go.)

Frosting and filling:
12 Tbsp. butter, soft but still cool (65º is ideal)
3 cups (3/4 lb) powdered sugar
2 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 1/2 tsp. milk
dash of salt
about 1/2 cup orange marmalade, at room temperature
about 1/2 cup sliced raw almonds, plus more for garnish if desired

Beat the first five ingredients on low speed until sugar is moistened. Increase speed to medium-high; beat til creamy and fluffy, about 1 1/2 minutes (for a stand mixer). Remove half the frosting to a small bowl and mix in the almonds.

Set the bottom cake layer on your stand. Spread a thin layer of marmalade across the top (you may need more, I didn't measure). Spread the frosting with almonds evenly across the marmalade layer. Set the top cake layer down, then use remainder of frosting on the top and sides. Press almonds on top and sides if desired.

Frosted, this cake should be covered and kept in the refrigerator up to 3 days. Bring to room temperature before serving.*

*I have read, and now know by experience, that cakes made with a lot of butter end up tasting quite dry if they have to be refrigerated, unless you bring them thoroughly back to room temperature before serving. So it's not quite as important with this butter-less cake, but I think it tastes better all the same.

Anniversary Dinner

Today's our anniversary, and in an unusual fit of ambition fueled most likely by self-deception, I am trying three new recipes---unless you count each component, in which case it's six new recipes---for one dinner. Thankfully, more than half of them are at least partially make-ahead, which helps tremendously. Two are from CI's Restaurant Favorites, and one is from Epicurious, which I bookmarked a while back thanks to a thread on Chowhound where at least 5 people in a row named that as one of their top 5 favorite recipes of all time. So, it's about time we tried it.

Appetizer: Crispy chicken dumplings with sweet-and-sour sauce. These are deep fried with a homemade sauce. I therefore trust that they will be good. I don't currently have a food processor so I'm not looking forward to mincing everything in the filling rather than having a machine whiz it around for 10 seconds, but I'll deal.

Main: Pan-seared tuna steaks with ginger-shiitake cream sauce. I don't think I've ever bought fresh tuna or shiitakes before. When I stopped by Fresh Market this morning I was pleasantly surprised that a) the few shiitakes they had left were on sale, and without weighing I picked out the last ones that looked good and had exactly enough for my recipe; and b) the sashimi-grade tuna was only $11/lb, which I wasn't expecting. I'll serve this over soba noodles.

Dessert: Asian poached pears with ginger pastry cream and spicy shortbread chopsticks. I have to say that it costs me something to make a dessert that does not contain chocolate in any of its parts, but I thought I should give Mike a break from my obsession already. Besides, this recipe looks really intriguing. I already made the delicious pastry cream last week (sans the ginger) for my cream puffs, so it's technically not new. I made the version with ginger this morning, and now I am waiting for the pears and poaching liquid to cool down before I run out for an errand. They smell delicious. I didn't splurge on Asian pears, as CI promised that regular grocery store hard-as-a-rock pears work great. It took mine a while longer than estimated to become tender, but I think the liquid wasn't quite simmering when I put the pears in. You would think by now I'd be fairly confident as to what simmering liquid looks like, but it's not the first time it's happened. Probably more a function of impatience than incompetence. The chopsticks look a bit daunting, but I think they'll add a nice textual and visual contrast.