Sorry about the poor photo, folks, but I’ve been messing around with new technology, and that’s always a dangerous thing!

When I was about 14, I went through a phase where, once a week, I’d make some kind of homemade pudding, usually chocolate. Personally, I think the skin that forms on top is the best part! We never made pudding from a box, and the whole instant pudding thing fascinated me – until I tasted it.

If you’ve never made pudding from scratch, you should give it a try. The depth of flavor and creamy texture make the commercial stuff pale in comparison. Just one bit of advice: don’t use nonfat milk (low fat is OK); I find that the pudding just doesn’t set up quite right.

As has been my wont lately, I completely forgot to add the vanilla extract to this, and it still tasted good. I got distracted (by my two sous chefs), the pudding boiled, so the texture was off, and I STILL found myself licking the pot.  Bottom line: homemade pudding is the way to go, and I’m looking forward to the butterscotch pudding recipe in the book.

Thanks to Melissa from Its Melissas Kitchen for this week’s pick. You can find the recipe on her blog, or on page 383 ofBaking: From My Home to Yours. For a look at how others did with the recipe, check out the Tuesdays with Dorie blogroll.

One of my favorite cookbook authors is Carole Walter – her books are filled with recipes that are usually tasty, well-written, with clear instructions. Great Cookies: Secrets to Sensational Sweets is no exception.

One day, I decided to try her recipe for Chocolate Shortbread Nuggets, mostly because one of the ingredients is rice flour, and I have a bunch that I need to use up. I also love the idea of bar or refrigerator cookies, because drop or cutout cookies are some of my least favorite things to bake. The fact that I adore shortbread, and that the recipe contains chocolate had nothing to do with it – that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

I was not disappointed. They were so rich that I had to nibble them bit-by-bit. Straight from the freezer, there is an almost fudge-like quality to them. I used a top quality imported butter in the recipe, and I think that made a huge difference, particularly in the texture.

They were so good. Yes, past tense – they’re all gone. Sigh.
For the original recipe, see here. For an adaptation, as well as great tips on making shortbread, check out Anita’s blog, Dessert First. Happy baking!

And neither does cream, that is why I was compelled, compelled, I say, to make some milk chocolate pecan scones. Woe is me!

My favorite type of scone is a cream scone, and I like them flaky, not cakey. Scones are a great way to use up buttermilk or cream, fruit, zest, and of course, chocolate. You see, chocolate doesn’t last forever – you have to use it up, especially white chocolate, which has a shorter shelf life. Dorie Greenspan’s scone recipe is wonderful, and I have used variations of it several times, but I wanted to try something different.

So, I found myself with several large hunks of milk and white chocolates left over from my voluminous Christmas baking, and a pint of cream which was screaming that its expiration date had just passed. I got to work, and after consulting several books, I came up with the following recipe.

I decided to live on the wild side and used Buttery Sweet Dough Flavor from King Arthur Flour for the flavoring instead of vanilla extract. The scones were fantastic, with rave reviews from Master Chow, a die-hard walnut fan! Will wonders never cease? The great thing about scones is that the raw dough freezes really well, so you can make and shape them, then pop them in the freezer (well wrapped), to bake whenever the urge hits you.

A couple of hints/thoughts: (1) Don’t overwork the dough. (2) If you don’t have a food processor, a great way to incorporate the butter is to use a box grater and grate the frozen butter into the dough. (3) You can make 6 or 8 scones. I flattened out the dough a bit more than I normally would, and made 8 because our sugar intake has risen alarmingly between Tuesdays with Dorie and the Daring Bakers.   Recipe after the jump . . .
continue reading "Chocolate Doesn’t Last Forever"

Life hands all of us some big challenges, and just when I’m feeling sorry for myself, something snaps me out of it. Brownies help. This past weekend, it was the news that fellow blogger Briana Brownlow’s breast cancer has returned. She is 30.

Today, June 3, is the 10th anniversary of my father’s death to lung cancer. On July 11th, it will be 4 years since I lost my mom to endometrial cancer. I think about them and miss them both every day.

Please consider helping Bri in her battle. For a moving post on the effects of this disease on a patient and her family, please read food blogger Jen Yu’s (of Use Real Butter) post, here. There will be information on how to help Bri at the bottom of this post.

Now, after all that, shall we talk about brownies? This week’s selection was French Chocolate Brownies, courtesy of Di of Di’s Kitchen Notebook. Brownies, like chocolate, I think, are proof that there is a benign force in the universe. They just make you feel good. I approached these with trepidation, because they have both raisins and cinnamon. Now, raisins are not my favorite, and cinnamon is not something I put in my brownies. But there are 12 brownie recipes in Baking: From My Home to Yours, so I thought, go for it! Live on the wild side! FOLLOW THE RECIPE AND PUT RAISINS AND CINNAMON IN YOUR BROWNIES!

So, I did. And it was good. I skipped the water and soaked the raisins in 30 year old rum, then flamed them. I could not taste the rum, but Master Chow could. I could taste the cinnamon, and it was a surprise – it provided a warm depth of flavor that brownies don’t normally have. But Master Chow couldn’t taste the cinnamon. Tastebuds are interesting things, indeed. Some people mentioned getting a thick crust, but that didn’t happen with mine.

Straight out of the oven, the brownies were extremely moist and bordered on fudgy, but were also cake-like. Overnight, they “fudged up,” and the flavors melded. I served them with a dollop of whipped cream and some pineapple, because I like pineapple and because it cancels out all the butter and chocolate. Didn’t you know that? Check out the Tuesdays with Dorie blogroll for more!

continue reading "Tuesdays with Dorie. Have Some Brownies, and Help Out a Fellow Blogger."

Leigh, of Lemon Tartlet chose Gooey Chocolate Cakes for this week’s Tuesday’s with Dorie, and much to my surprise, I stuck to the recipe! You can whip this up in 30 minutes, I kid you not, which is why I actually baked it this weekend. I served it with some fresh strawberries and a tad of cream, and that was it. If you love chocolate, this is the dessert for you. I didn’t think that Master Chow would be too thrilled with it, but he was, and the extras are going in the freezer, so we will see how well they hold.

One note: I baked these in my popover pan, which has a dark finish. If all you have on hand is something with a dark finish, cut back on the baking time, from the recommended 13 minutes, to about 10 or 11 minutes. Mine were a bit less gooey than they should have been, but they were still delicious. Now, have fun, and go check out all the other Dorie creations, at Tuesdays with Dorie.

P.S. I am thrilled beyond belief at next week’s selection:  The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart, chosen by Mary of Starting From Scratch.

As I’ve mentioned before, one of my favorite food magazines is Fine Cooking. During a recent visit with my auntie, she said that what sets this magazine apart is that she saves the entire issue. When it comes to other cooking magazines, she tears out pages that interest her, and she tosses the rest of the magazine.

Well said.This past Thanksgiving, I decided to add a chocolate pecan pie to the menu, in addition to my favorite pecan pie. I’m just getting around to posting about it now, in part because the making of said pie was traumatic:

Yes, that’s my homemade tart shell on my kitchen floor. This is why I have commercial crust back-ups in my freezer. The pie weights left dents all over the bamboo – it looks like someone shot it up with a BB gun. But I’ll deal with that at some point in the future!

Rose’s tart on the left, chocolate espresso tart, in production, on the right

So, I used a Pillsbury pie crust for a recipe by pastry chef Karen Barker in Fine Cooking’s issue #88. Boy, this is one rich, sweet, fudgy pecan pie. Too sweet, I thought, but I noticed an odd thing: folks would take a small bite and, overwhelmed by the richness of the pie, they would set it aside. And then come back for another bite. And another. Hhm. I guess some folks like really sweet, chocolatey pecan pie. Imagine that!

I’ve tweaked the recipe a bit to tone down the sweetness, but trust me, it will still be very sweet. And do not be tempted to use anything but unsweetened chocolate, or your teeth will ache!
The original recipe used corn syrup and a cup of sugar.

Chocolate Espresso Pecan Pie

Adapted from a recipe by Karen Barker, in Fine Cooking #88

One 9-inch pie crust, homemade or purchased, and blind-baked until a light golden brown
For the filling:
3 oz. unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used Valrhona. Boy, is it good!)
2 oz. (4 Tbs.) unsalted butter
4 large eggs
1 cup Lyle’s golden syrup
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
2 Tbs. instant espresso powder (I used Megdalia D’Oro)
2 Tbs. coffee liqueur
2 cups lightly toasted, coarsely chopped pecans
About 1/2 cup perfect pecan halves

To make the filling:

Melt the chocolate and butter in the microwave or in a small metal bowl set in a skillet of barely simmering water, stirring with a rubber spatula until smooth. Set aside and allow mixture to cool slightly

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the eggs, Lyle’s golden syrup, sugar, and salt. Dissolve the instant espresso in 1 Tbs. hot water and add to the egg mixture, along with the coffee liqueur and the melted chocolate and butter. Whisk to blend.

Evenly spread the toasted pecan pieces in the pie shell. To form a decorative border, arrange the pecan halves around the perimeter of the pie shell, on top of the pecan pieces, keeping the points of the pecans facing in and the backs just touching the crust. Slowly and carefully pour the filling into the center of the pie plate and over the pecans until the shell is three-quarters full. Pour the remaining filling into a liquid measuring cup or small pitcher. Transfer the pie to the oven and pour in the remaining filling. (The pecans will rise to the top as the pie bakes.)

Bake the pie until the filling puffs up, just starts to crack, and appears fairly set, 45 to 55 minutes. Transfer it to a rack and allow it to cool completely (at least 4 hours) before serving. The pie is best if you refrigerate it overnight – the filling sets and the flavors develop.

One of my favorite cookbook authors is Alice Medrich. I credit her, back in the 1980s, to with awakening me to the marvel of truly fine chocolate. I was a graduate student in the Bay Area, and one day I decided to walk into one of her Cocolat chocolate shops. I bought a white chocolate champagne truffle, and popped the whole thing into my mouth. If your tongue can have an orgasm, mine did at that time. I had never tasted anything like it. Every once in a while after that I would treat myself to some goodie, whatever I could afford on an extremely tight budget.When I moved from Hawaii to the east coast a few years ago, I lovingly packed her book, Cocolat: Extraordinary Chocolate Desserts, and mailed it. The post office lost the box, and I was so busy with work at that time, that I failed to replace the book promptly. When I did try to buy a new one, I discovered that the publisher must have lost its marbles, because the book was out of print, and I could only purchase it used, for quite a hefty price, via Amazon’s marketplace. I bit the bullet and did so, a decision I do not regret.

Imagine my pleasure a few months ago, when I discovered Ms. Medrich’s lovely new book,Pure Dessert. (Anita at Dessert First has also blogged about the book, as has Veronica’s Test Kitchen). One of the first recipes that caught my eye was the recipe for Iced Citron Vodka Chocolates with Fresh Mint.

As I was preparing for the holidays, I discovered an alarming amount of chocolate that I needed to use up, as some of it was starting to bloom (that went into cookies). What better way to use up chocolate than to make . . . chocolates? And take a new cookbook for a test run? I doubled the batch (I don’t recommend this, but I had a lot of chocolate, cream, and mint to use up). I did not have citron vodka, so I used Stolichnaya regular vodka and added a few drops of lemon oil to it.

The result? Delicious. I served them at a Christmas party, and people loved them, even Master Chow, who prefers white chocolate. I keep the chocolates in the freezer, and serve them ice cold. The vodka and faint mint and citrus flavors make the little morsels just go “poof” in your mouth when you bite into them. Medrich’s instructions were clear, simple, and exhaustive (I’m going to summarize my adaptations below).

I can hardly wait to try other recipes in her new book!

Iced Citron Vodka Chocolates with Fresh Mint
Adapted from a recipe by Alice Medrich in Pure Dessert

1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh mint
1 cup plus 2-3 extra Tablespoons heavy cream
9 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, marked 55% to 60% cacao (I used Scharffen Berger)
2 Tablespoons vodka, plus 3-5 drops of lemon oil
12-16 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped, for dippingEquipment:

An 8-inch square baking pan
Instant read thermometer
Baking sheet
Foil
Wax paper

Make the mint infusion:

Combine the cream and mint in a small bowl, cover, and refrigerate overnight. I let mine sit for three days and it was fine.

Strain the cream using a strainer over a glass measuring cup, pressing the leaves to get all the cream out. Discard the mint, and add additional cream to make one cup.

Line the bottom and sides of the baking pan with foil.

Make the ganache:

Chop the 9 ounces of chocolate into small pieces, no bigger than almonds, and set aside in a medium bowl.

Bring the cream to a low boil. Pour over the chocolate and gently stir with rubber spatula, until the chocolate is melted, and the mixture is completely smooth. Do not splash, or whisk or stir too briskly, or the ganache will have a grainy and cakey texture. Stir in the vodka and mix just enough to blend. Strain the ganache into the baking pan, level, and freeze until hard.

Line a large baking pan with wax paper. Cover a large cutting board with parchment paper. Using the edges of the foil, lift the slab of frozen ganache out of the pan, and flip it over onto the cutting board. Peel the foil off.

Using a large chef’s knife dipped in hot water, cut the ganache into 6 or seven equal strips, taking care not to cut through the parchment paper, and working quickly to prevent the ganache from melting . Cut the strips into squares. Transfer the squares into the prepared pan, and cover it with plastic wrap.

Keep the squares frozen until ready to dip the chocolates.

Dip the chocolates:

To dip the chocolates, cover a sheet pan with parchment. Melt the chocolate for dipping over a double boiler of barely simmering water. When the chocolate is thoroughly melted, cool it to 100 to 105 degrees F. Working with small amounts of the squares at a time (keep the others in the freezer until you need them), dip them in the chocolate, using a fork, and wipe the tines of the fork against the edge of the bowl to drain excess chocolate back into the bowl. Don’t let the chocolates sit too long on the fork, or they will stick. If you like, using the dipping fork, drizzle the dipped chocolates randomly to create patterns on their surface.

Refrigerate or freeze the chocolates in covered containers. They keep for up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator, or 3 months in the freezer. Note: the chocolates must be refrigerated, or they will bloom, as the chocolate shell is not tempered. They also taste terrific that way!

These are for you if: (1) you love chocolate, (2) would like to find an excuse to eat it for breakfast, and (3) don’t like baked goods that are too sweet. I definitely like chocolate, and have a fondness for muffins that don’t make my teeth ache from too much sugar, so I thought I’d give these a try. I uploaded the photos before my entire computer crashed, so I have something to blog about!

The pros: a tender crumb, moist, crunchy top, and they freeze well. The cons: I will definitely switch to semisweet chocolate next time (they need it), and double wrap these muffins if you freeze them, or they pick up every flavor in the freezer.

I used Scharffen Berger bittersweet chocolate:

I made a couple of adaptations: I added 1.5 teaspoons of espresso coffee crystals to augment the chocolate flavor, and I sprinkled turbinado sugar on top of the muffins before baking.

Chocolate Chocolate-Chunk Muffins

Adapted from Dorie Greespan’s Baking, From My Home to Yours

6 Tablespoons unsalted butter

4 oz. bittersweet chocolate (next time I’ll use semisweet), coarsely chopped

2 cups all purpose flour

2/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup cocoa powder, sifted (I used Droste brand)

1 1/2 teaspoons espresso coffee crystals

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups buttermilk

1 large egg

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Turbinado sugar for sprinkling

Center a rack in the oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Butter or spray a 12- slot muffin pan, or line with muffin liners. Place pan on a baking sheet.

Melt butter and half the chopped chocolate in a bowl over simmering water (or in the microwave). Add the coffee crystals and stir to dissolve. Take off heat and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In another bowl, whisk the buttermilk, egg, and vanilla together until well combined.

Pour the buttermilk mixture and the chocolate mixture into the dry ingredients. Mix gently but quickly to blend, but do not over mix as this will toughen the muffins. A few lumps are OK! Stir in the remaining chopped chocolate.

Divide batter among the muffin tins. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a thin skewer inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean. Cool pan on a rack for 5 minutes before removing muffins from pan.