*UPDATED 12/26/2011*

I first saw this recipe on Deb’s Smitten Kitchen a while back, and bookmarked it.  Then forgot about it.  Luckily, I saw it on Jenn’s Use Real Butter recently, and that gave me the kick in the pants I needed to make this delicious, moist, easy, incredible chocolate cake.  Jenn and Deb weren’t kidding – this bundt cake is amazing, and I plan on making it a lot in the future.  I am not a big fan of layer cakes, but I love a good bundt cake, and this one is the best chocolate bundt cake I’ve ever had.  Plain.  No ganache, no frosting, just a dusting of powdered sugar.  My husband asked if I wanted him to take it in to work – my usual method of getting these things out of the house – and let’s just say, I said “no.”  Actually, I said, “NO WAY!”

I used a coffee-chocolate stout, so I did not add any extra espresso crystals to the batter, my usual modus operandi when it comes to chocolate desserts.  All I can say is, you have to make this cake!
continue reading "Chocolate Stout Cake – Day 4 of Chocolate Week"

These may not look like much, but boy, were they good!  My usual go-to scone recipe is one by Dorie Greenspan, namely her Cream Scones.  But, cream has a lot more calories than buttermilk, and I wanted to expand my repertoire, so I dug up this recipe and fiddled with it a bit.  I added lemon zest, white chocolate, and dried cherries, plus a little extra sugar.  I am not a big fan of really sweet stuff (usually), but I increased the sugar because I served these with a brunch and I needed something sweeter than these scones would have been had I followed the recipe exactly.

Two tips:  leave the white chocolate in big chunks or it will melt into the batter, or use white chocolate chips, which will hold their shape better.  Finally, these scones rise quite a bit, so if you make 8 scones out of the recipe, as I did, they will be big.  These are definitely on the repeat list!
continue reading "White Chocolate Cherry Scones – Day 3 of Chocolate Week"

For the most part, I don’t care for flavored coffee or chocolate (there ARE exceptions).  In particular, I dislike cinnamon in chocolate.  So, I really tweaked these brownies a lot.  Eliminated the cinnamon.  Cut down the coffee to 3/4 tsp, and baked for 35 minutes.  These brownies are thin, and incredibly rich, but if you’re having a chocolate craving, they are the way to go.  They are also very fragile, and do best if chilled before serving, or better yet . . . frozen.  Eat them frozen!  Fantastic that way.

Thanks to Lisa of Surviving Oz for this week’s pick (you can find the original recipe on her blog), and as usual, be sure to check out the TWD blogroll!

Tomorrow:  White Chocolate Cherry Scones!

Starting today, I’m going to post a chocolate recipe a day for the next five days.  I have a serious chocolate craving and, by golly, I aim to satisfy it.  I am not a chocaholic (I’d choose a citrus dessert over a chocolate one in a restaurant), but once in a great while, I get chocolate brain.

This month for You Want Pies with That?, Rebecca at Ezra Pound Cake and Mary at Alpineberry chose “Taste of Summer” as the theme. For me, summer means fruit, berries to be precise. But I’ve made so many berry pies that a desire to do something different, combined with an intense craving for chocolate, resulted in this marvel of deliciousness, Ye Olde Chocolate Cream Pie.  I’d never made it before, and I’m glad my recent chocolate jag led me to take the plunge. (Wow, whipped cream is hard to photograph).

Some friends of ours recently had a second child, and mom was out of town for the weekend, so we invited dad, the babies, and his visiting mom over for dinner.  The pie was a hit, especially with their 19-month old daughter, who is not a big eater.  Apparently, they had yet to try chocolate cream pie because after one bite of it, she pointed to it repeatedly, loudly proclaiming “PIE!” every time she wanted her dad to shovel some more into her mouth.  Her sweet, chocolate-covered mouth.  I love cooking.  Moments like that make it all worthwhile.  You can find the recipe after the jump, and check out the blogroll after July 7 to see what other pies everyone baked.
continue reading "Chocolate Cream Pie for July’s “You Want Pies with That?” and to Kick off a Week of Chocolate!"

This month, little ol’ me had the opportunity to choose what we made for Recipes to Rival, a group of cooks who experiment with savory dishes.  For some reason that I cannot fathom, I thought posting day was July 5.  The reason I can’t figure out why I thought that is because we always post on the first of the month.

I blame a Brain Fart.  Please forgive me!  So, while I usually post something for Frugal Fridays, today I am posting my R2R pick – Beef Wellington.

Now, there are a lot of Beef Wellington recipes out there, so I perused books, the internet, and magazines until I cobbled together a recipe that I thought might take the best of the bunch.  Basically, the dish is made up of several components:  beef, topped with a mushroom mixture called duxelles, foie gras, all of which are wrapped in a puff pastry crust.  Instead of the foie gras, I used a truffle mousse that I found at Whole Foods.

My photos leave a lot to be desired, but the dish was a huge success.  Basically, my husband ate both our shares, but I did get a couple nibbles.  I am not a fan of meat, but even I thought this tasted pretty good.  He was a bit skeptical at first, but by the time he was digging into my share, he had asked me to put the Beef Wellington on the “repeat list.”

The beauty of this dish is that you have so much flexibility – use any protein that you like, and adjust the seasoning accordingly.  If you go the vegetarian route, I suggest you use tempeh or seitan, because tofu is far too wet for this dish, and will leave the crust a soggy mess.

Do not be afraid to make this dish – it is not difficult.  There are three keys to making this:  first, look for good beef sales, and stash the meat away for the day you want to prepare this.  Beef tenderloin is not cheap, but I did manage to find some on sale for about $6.00/lb.  Second, prepare the duxelles in advance.  Third, mise en place – meaning, have everything prepped and ready to go when you make this.  You can find a helpful  Gordon Ramsey video online on how to make his version of Beef Wellington, using Parma ham wrapped around the fillet instead of the foie gras.

I want to thank Lori of Lip Smacking Goodness for allowing me to pick this month’s recipe, and for gently reminding me that my post was not up!  A class act, that Lori!  Now, please check out the blogroll to see what others did with the recipe, which you can find after the jump.
continue reading "Recipes to Rival, and I’m SOOOO Embarrassed"

The June Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart… er… pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800’s in England.

According to our hostesses, the tart is  made up of several layers.  “The first is the “pudding” where a layer of jam is covered by an almondy pastry cream and baked in puff pastry. The second is the “tart” where a rich shortcrust pastry holds jam and an almondy sponge cake-like filling. The version we’re daring you to make is a combination of the two: a sweet almond-flavored shortcrust pastry, frangipane and jam.”

I decided to bake this in my square tart pan, and I used one of my favorite jams, Blenheim apricot, from We Love Jam.  Folks, if you haven’t tried their jams and barbecue sauce, you are seriously missing out on something.  I discovered them via David Lebovitz’s blog, and I’ve been a loyal customer.

The tart was easy to put together, and I didn’t bother rolling the crust to try to fit it into the pan – I just flattened it out, and pressed the dough, bit by bit, into the tart tin.  I’ve found that when I’m dealing with shortbread crusts, this technique saves my sanity.  After that, it was a matter of layering in the jam (2/3 cup – I will use a full cup next time) and the frangipane cream.  After it cooled a bit, I dusted it with powdered sugar.  I think my husband had three pieces, he loved it so much.  Definitely a winner, and something I plan on making again.

Thank you Jasmine and Annemarie for a great pick.  Check out the DB blogroll to see what other bakers made this month. You can find the recipe here.
continue reading "The Daring Bakers and a Traditional Bakewell Tart. Or Pudding."

The theme for Frugal Fridays is to use ingredients I have on hand so they don’t go to waste.  Recently, I made some Italian Knot Rolls and, because I halved the final recipe, I had some biga left over.  While perusing one of my favorite baking books, King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking: Delicious Recipes Using Nutritious Whole Grains, I came across a recipe for Sourdough Chocolate Waffles.  I used the leftover biga, and added some buttermilk until the mixture looked “right.”  I know that’s not really helpful, but the starter is supposed to be 100% hydration.  Judging by the incredible, mouth watering, gut-busting results, I think I got the proportions correct.

These are some of the best waffles I’ve ever eaten.  They were better than most chocolate CAKES I’ve ever had.  I had some left over so I froze them, and they were good FROZEN.  By that I mean we didn’t even bother to toast them, they were so good.  Even my husband loved these, and he’s not a big fan of chocolate.  The waffles are a bit soft when they come out of the iron, but if you let them sit in a 150 F oven on a rack, they will firm up.  I will be making these again and again, and I’m so happy to have found another recipe for my leftover sourdough toss off and biga.  You may also be interested in this recipe, which is a lot like the one in the book.  And be sure to check out Susan’s weekly Yeastspotting roundup!
continue reading "Whole Wheat Sourdough Chocolate Waffles – Fantastic!"

I had everything I needed to make this week’s dish.  Andrea of Andrea In The Kitchen picked Coconut-Roasted Pineapple Dacquoise, and after reading some of the reviews, I was looking forward to making it.  Until I discovered that a mouse had eaten my coconut.

Let me back up.  Master Chow and I have lived here for going on nine years.  Until the last year, we never saw a mouse.  Then, last year, a field mouse invaded our home.  We finally caught him in a humane trap and released him, but not after I had to throw out quite a bit of food.

Fast forward to the past week.  We’ve had very wet spring, and last week we did a lot of yard work and weeding.  I think the combination of the rain and possible disturbance of a rodent’s abode led a small field mouse to move into our laundry room.

I did a pantry inventory a week ago, and there was no sign of a mouse.  A few days later, I picked up a bag of brown rice and grains of it started to shower onto the floor.  Surprised, I looked at the bag and thought at first that I’d torn it.  But, nooooo.  I saw tell-tale signs of a mouse, namely poop.  Over the course of this past weekend, I discovered that Field Mouse had treated my pantry like a smorgasbord, nibbling here and there, and contaminating a lot of food.

Now, there are some things that I buy in bulk because we eat quite a bit of it.  Oatmeal, for example.  So, when the mouse ate through the cardboard box and sealed bag to take a nibble of some oatmeal, I had to throw out 4.5 POUNDS OF IT.  Below is a partial list of what this fellow munched on, and what I had to discard:

• the aformentioned oatmeal
• A BRAND NEW, 64 OZ. BAG OF CHOCOLATE CHIPS (this find alone nearly made me swoon.  Don’t mess with my chocolate!)
• 2 bags of unsweetened coconut (for this week’s cake, and very hard to find)
• 1 bag of sweetened coconut (for next week’s cake)
• a bag of muesli
• a 5 pound bag of raw peanuts (for assorted sweet and savory uses)

That’s a partial list.  An expensive list.  Needless to say, without coconut, I’m not making this week’s dessert.  I also have to vacuum and wash down our entire laundry room with a bleach solution.

And the mouse?  We set two snap traps and one live-catch trap.  I don’t use sticky traps because they torture the animals to death.  If it’s a choice between my mouse or my family, I pick my family, but I’m not going to torment the animal for trying to survive.  I caught the little bugger in the live-catch trap, and released him into the wild far from my house. Where there is no chocolate, and no coconut.

(First, sorry for the lousy photos – I’ve been having lighting issues.)

Take a rich buttery brioche, and add bacon and cheese to it.  Then thank the Italians for this marvelous creation that they call Casatiello.

Now, how does this fit into my Frugal Fridays theme of using everything on hand to make something and not let food go to waste? I’m glad you asked, because I had a hunk of frozen provolone in the freezer, along with some bacon and . . . Morningstar Farms soy bacon.  Yep, you read that correctly.

And the result?  Delicious, fragrant, buttery, tender.  Even after a few days the bread was great toasted, and excellent for sandwiches.  We are still eating it because this bread is huge – almost as big as the Artos bread I made a few weeks ago.

You can find a list of those participating, here, and you can find the recipe for Casatiello here.   Be sure check out Susan’s bread baking roundup every Friday:  Yeastspotting.

Going up later today! Friday:  Casatiello! On another note, here is a scary article about wheat crops that every baker should read.

I tell you, I’ve been having a heck of a time taking photos lately; lighting issues, blurriness, etc., and my brioche and Casatiello photos are no exception.  At any rate, I opted for the poor man’s brioche, the bread with the least amount of butter, which is kind of like comparing a woolly mammoth to a whale.  It still has a lot of butter, so the diet is out the window.  I know because my scale told me so.

On a happier note, the fragrance of brioche baking is so distinctive once you experience it, you’ll never forget it.

I didn’t have any problems making the brioche.  We consumed one loaf, and the other one sits in my freezer, waiting for a brunch that I’m hosting in a couple weeks.  Yum, what shall I make with it? The possibilities are endless:  a strata?  French toast?  We shall see.

You can find a list of those participating, here, and you can find the recipe for Poor Man’s Brioche here.   And please check out Susan’s bread baking roundup every Friday:  Yeastspotting.