My Baking Adventures

It’s that time again - the Cookie Carnival is here! The always lovely Kate chose Blackberry Almond Bars for this months’ Cookie Carnival. And she made special note in her email that tinkering with the recipe is allowed. Now I’m SURE she wasn’t talking about me. I never always change things around.

But this recipe was special to me. I actually made the blackberry curd myself! No, I mean I really did! My evil twin suggested using store bought blackberry jam, but honesty and integrity prevailed - and I had blackberries in the fridge that were so tart they were almost inedible. So I introduced them to the mini-prep, strained them, and cooked the puree with eggs, sugar and butter. I could have taken a bath in that mixture. It was smoooooooth. Just say it in your best Barry White impression and you’ll know what I mean.

Now Kate, the ONLY change I made **drum roll please**………………….was to omit the almonds in the crust. I had meant to put lemon zest in but I got distracted and forgot.

These are really good - all the powdered sugar on top makes the blackberries less tart, and the shortbread crust is always a bonus!

Whew! That was a mouthful. I saw this recipe on Culinary Concoctions By Peabody, and I thought it would be a nice afternoon sweet to take to the vet’s office, since I always want to stay in their good graces. With three dogs, last minute incidents are common, so it never hurts to have the receptionists eager and willing to see you!

Back to the shortbread. I wasn’t overly thrilled with it - the recipe calls for dark unsweetened cocoa, but I think it was too strong. It had a good coffee flavor, but overall, I wouldn’t make it again. The original recipe is from the Food Network, and for Peabody’s version, click on the link above.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Espresso Shortbread

1 ½ sticks butter, softened
½ cup sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp. instant coffee powder
1 ½ tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9” square baking pan

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the flour, coffee powder and cocoa powder and mix until the dough is smooth, about 1 minute. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Press the dough into the prepared pan. Place the pan in the oven and bake until the shortbread is set, about 18 to 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool 15 minutes. Invert onto a wire rack and cool completely.

Reader note: this post is originally from June 3 - however wordpress didn’t transfer it, so I am reposting it.

French Chocolate Brownies were the recipe of choice for this weeks TWD. Many thanks to Di for selecting these! Anything with chocolate is a personal favorite of mine, so I couldn’t wait to get these going!

I decided against the “flaming raisins”, since they don’t have a big fan base in our house, but you better believe I added the rum. Extra rum. Delicious spiced rum. Yum.

I did notice the absence of vanilla, but I figured I should probably follow the recipe for a change. Being the rule-breaker that I am, though, I couldn’t help myself and left out the cinnamon too.

After their time in the oven, I cut off a square and tried one. Hmmm. I could taste the rum (bonus!), but the consistency is definitely more like a cake than any brownie I’ve ever made. Don’t get me wrong, though. I cut off another piece just to make sure it was as delicious as I thought it was the first time around.

So now you are probably wondering where the trickey comes in. My parents came over for dinner that night, and Alexander told my mother that we have brownies for dessert. “Oh no, I don’t like chocolate, or brownies”, she said. Well, I was in the kitchen during this dialogue and overheard Sabrina telling him it wasn’t a brownie, it was cake. So I cut off a piece, plated it nicely and presented it to my mother with “Look, I made a new chocolate cake today. Would you try it?” She wrinkled her nose, and took a bite. Then another bite. “Oh, this is really good, it’s very light. And you know how I feel about chocolate cake.”

So the big question here - is it cake? Or brownie?

Two Christmases ago, I gave my friend Leslie an 11 pound block of Callebaut chocolate. I’ll never forget the sight of her lugging that huge block of chocolate across the school yard - I wasn’t sure she’d make it to the safety of her car with all those kids around her. But she did, and when she got it home her husband (yes, Sam, that means YOU) couldn’t wait to rip it open. And who says men don’t have a sweet tooth? They just hide it better than we do.

The only problem with having a block of chocolate this large is, well, what is the problem? NONE!!! Seriously, breaking it apart is tougher than I thought it would be. Dropping it onto the patio works, but I find myself obsessing over every last shard of chocolate. I also love the word “Schokolade”on the package. I like the way it rolls off the tongue. Go ahead, say it. You know you want to.

So what’s a girl to do with 22 pounds of chocolate? Oh, did I forget to say I bought 2 of these? I had to be prepared for a rainy day, or in this case, 100+ weather. And yes, those days have arrived. There’s no way to ship this stuff once it’s super hot. And we are going to fry between now and October. Doesn’t that just make you want to pack up and move here?

I found this recipe for brownies on a cute site called Recipelink. They have copycat recipes, recipes from cookbooks, and homemade recipes as well. This particular recipe came from a book called “Brownie Points”. Love the title!! Anyways, I couldn’t wait to try these, and they did not disappoint. I was afraid that I had overbaked them but cowabunga! They are intense with a capital I! Rich, chocolatey, smooth - the center is almost mousse-like. I didn’t put anything in them - and I decided to forgo the glaze. Even I thought it would be overkill. I took half the pan to the doctor’s office yesterday, in the hopes that anytime you are about to get hit with a needle, you’d better do everything you can to make sure the doctor is in a good mood. And he was very appreciative.

I don’t know what is going on with my picture taking skills lately. I can’t get a clear shot to save my life. So apologies for the crummy pictures - but if you make these you will forgive me for my camera skills and thank me for the chocolateness.

The recipe is kind of long, and there are several variations, including a gluten free version, so go here for the recipe.

Something monumental happened in the kitchen today - no, not nuclear fusion - I combined 3 different components of 3 different recipes to come up with something new and tasty. I love making big pans of bar cookies because this way my freezer is always well prepared for last minute necessities - you know, the “Oh, I forgot to tell you that it was my turn to bring in treats for the _______ happening at school today”. With a well stocked freezer I can almost always come out shining. Almost.

Today’s creation is part Nick Malgieri (a culinary genius), part Sara Foster (via Martha Stewart) and part Magnolia Bakery. I started with a basic shortbread crust, spread the baked crust with seedless blackberry preserves, poured a thin layer of cheesecake filling on top of that, then topped the whole thing off with brown sugar crumb crust.

So, is your mouth watering yet?

Blackberry Jammers - courtesy of Malgieri, Foster, and Torey - but put together by ME!

Shortbread crust:
1 cup butter, softened
½ cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour

2 cups blackberry preserves

Cheesecake Filling:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

Crumb Topping
½ cup butter
1 ¼ cups flour
½ cup brown sugar
¼ tsp fresh nutmeg

Line a 9 x 13 pan with foil and spray lightly with cooking spray. Set aside

Beat butter until soft, 1-2 minutes. Add powdered sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add vanilla, then on low speed add flour and blend until combined. Press dough into pan and bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes, or until light golden brown. Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes.
Spread baked crust with blackberry preserves. Set aside.

Prepare cheesecake filling:
Blend cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add egg and vanilla and mix to combine well - don’t overbeat. Pour cheesecake topping over top of preserves and gently spread to cover preserves.

Prepare crumb topping:
Melt butter and set aside. In mixing bowl, combine flour, brown sugar and nutmeg. Add to butter and stir till mixture forms large crumbs. Using your fingers, crumble topping over cheesecake filling.

Bake at 350 for 13-16 minutes, or until topping is light golden brown. Cool completely, then keep refrigerated (or cut into bars and freeze).

While browsing the many food blogs out there in cyberspace, I came across Brownie or Die. Along with her sharp wit, Jessica has some interesting recipes - first one I came across was the Disproportionate Cheesecake. As a family of carb-loving dessert-o-philes, this was marked as a *must-try*. The crust seems to be more complicated than necessary, so I simplified it to my liking. The “cheesecake icing” was enhanced by adding 1/2 cup sour cream, which upped the creaminess quotient.

After chilling for awhile (ok, so it was only 1 hour), we had at it. The dilemma faced by every mother with a dessert in her hand is universal - offer the first piece to your loving, sweet children - or tell them there’s a new form of wildlife in the backyard and while they’re running to look you eat the first piece as fast as you can? Well, self-control prevailed and I offered the first perfectly cut square to my eldest. She took one look at the size and said “Where’s the rest of it?” My youngest grudgingly took a bite (he’s understandably suspicious of cheesecake since an unfortunate run-in with an Atkins cheesecake several years ago). The general consensus was “thanks for trying this but don’t bother again”. It was still delicious but I guess we prefer our cheesecake high and mighty. I’ll post my recipe for my regular cheesecake later - we are off the enjoy the perfect 75 degree day outside.

Thanks for visiting my blog - here you can see all of my adventures in baking - the good, the bad and downright disappointing.

I have my first entry ready for viewing - I raided the kids Easter candy - but my motivation was something new that Sabrina could actually eat. I took all the Peppermint Patties I could find (besides, it was those or else get stuck with the fruit flavored Tootsie Rolls - yuck) and broke them into a new brownie recipe . I decided to try Alice Medrich’s New Classic Brownie recipe, which calls for baking the brownies at a higher temperature than usual, then placing the baked brownies into an ice bath. The resulting texture is smooth, fudgy and delicious! Here’s the recipe I used:

New Classic Brownies - Alice Medrich

8 tbsp unsalted butter (1/2 cup)
4 oz unsweetened chocolate
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2/3 cup walnuts or pecans (optional) - I left these out because I don’t think nuts belong in brownies.Preheat oven to 400F and line an 8″ square metal baking pan with foil. Melt butter and chocolate together , stirring until smooth. Stir in sugar, vanilla and salt. Add eggs one at a time, followed by flour. Stir until very smooth - about 1 minute. Scrape batter into prepared pan (here’s where I spread half the batter into the pan, sprinkled the peppermint brownies pieces over the batter, then covered them with the remaining batter). Bake for 20 minutes (mine were done at 15). Prepare ice bath while brownies are baking. When brownies are done, remove from the oven and place directly into the ice bath. Add more ice if necessary, and keep the brownies in the ice bath until they are completely cool. Remove from the pan and cut into 9 brownies. What do you think of these?