fall = apples + spices (and everything nice)

ok, ok, i know it's been a long time. i've been taking care of things that needed to be taken care of, and i'm finally getting some good cooking and baking time in, these days. i'm in the process of looking for a really good apple cake - because really, what's better in the fall than a nice, spicy apple cake? well, besides chicken pot pie. anyway, i've tried three or four so far, and have discovered the following preferences:

- no oil-based cakes. because honestly, they never taste quite that good, and though moist, the crumb is never quite tight enough. i cannot condone an oil-based cake. butter is a flavor, people, and don't you forget it!

- i am looking for a spiced apple cake, in particular - it's fall! i quite enjoy the flavor of apple on its own, but that's another kind of cake (one which would pair apples with slivers of candied lemon...mmm...). it should be spicy, but not so much that it overpowers the apple.

- no exotic ingredients, and nothing that is too expensive (ie, apple butter)

- i like the idea of this as a cake that has a bit of chew to it - so nothing too moist. my connotations to overly moist cake is cold and slimy, so i just don't like to go there.

- i'm not a huge fan of nuts in cakes. i think i would actually enjoy walnuts in an apple cake, but generally i leave them out for the other no-nuts people.

- not too sweet: i am not a huge fan of cakes that are too sweet. i don't like undersweetened cakes either, though.

- i am so over these apple cake recipes that specify "medium apples" or "large apples". what, pray tell me, is a "medium apple"? a "large apple"? can't we go with a cup measure of grated apples instead? honestly. precision is a cornerstone of baking!

of the cakes that i've tried, one fails the exotic ingredients test, one fails the sweetness test, and one fails the oil-based cake texture test. we are just going to forget oil-based cakes altogether...we are going to forget that they exist. because we like flavor, yes? i am including the cake that fails the exotic ingredients test - it's just that it has a lot of apple butter in it, which is lovely, but a little expensive for a cake. the third...well, let's just say that the third is in development!

double-apple spiced bundt cake

(adapted from dorie greenspan)

2c flour

2t baking powder

1/2 baking soda

1t cinnamon

1/4t nutmeg

1/4t ground ginger

1/4t salt

1 1/4 sticks butter, room temp

1 1/2c brown sugar

2 eggs

1c apple butter

2 medium apples, peeled, cored, and grated

1c pecans or walnuts, toasted and chopped (optional)

1/2c raisins (or 1c raisins if you omit the nuts)

1. preheat oven to 350F. butter and flour a 10- or 12-cup bundt pan.

2. in a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices. in a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar for about five minutes (this develops the structure of the cake).

3. add the eggs, one at a time, incorporating each one completely before adding the next. add the apple butter on low speed. the mixture may appear to be curdled, but don't worry, that's fine.

4. using a spatula, fold in the grated apple until completely blended in. stir in the dry ingredients and mix until the flour is just completely incorporated. fold in the raisins and nuts (if using).

5. scrape the batter into the bundt pan and smooth the top. bake for about 50-55 minutes, until a tester comes out clean. cool the cake for five minutes, then invert onto a plate.

[serves 10-12; keeps in the fridge, wrapped, for a week.]

when everything changes; plus friday lunch

so i've been at home in carlisle for about two weeks now; my new lease doesn't start until mid-july, and this was just the easiest thing to do logistically. it's weird having everything packed away in boxes, though - and it proves that you really can live without all your stuff. i think i just like having all the stuff around - a little clutter is somewhat comforting.

anyway, the upshot of this is that i have really been far too busy to cook anything. (as it happens, i do have a restaurant review in the works, but i'm going to wait until i'm not typing entries on my ipod for that.). you know how it goes: you don't want to clutter your fridge with more stuff when you're about to move, and then you pack up your stuff, then work gets busy, and you're not unpacked...this is partly why i haven't moved in five years. this is also how i managed to amass an entire kitchen's worth of kitchen tools, dishes, and utensils - independent of my roommates' stuff. yeah. it's a little obscene.

i did finally feel settled today, especially after my trip to whole foods yesterday (bedford WF < prospect st WF < river st WF < tribeca WF), so today i returned to my friday ritual of cooking and made lunch for my mom and me. cod was on sale at WF, so I'd gotten some with the idea of building a nice lunch from that. i was originally going to sear the cod, but in truth, i was lazy and did it en papillote instead, with some fresh tarragon and lemon zest. i plated the fish on a bed of slightly caramelized leeks, and added roasted potatoes and a quick watercress and mozzarella salad as accompaniments. i think that in the hustle and bustle if the past several weeks, i had really forgotten just how much i like the process of cooking: choosing proteins and vegetables, complementing them with other sides, planning out the sequence of steps to get everything on the plate while it's still hot. if i get it right, it's pretty satisfying. this lunch went pretty smoothly - i started prepping at about 11:15 and we sat down to eat at 12:30. i'm not really going to write up a recipe - this is pretty much the most basic and self-explanatory meal you could make. oh, but i did use foil instead if parchment, and the fish bakes for 15 minutes at 400. other than that, i did do a very basic vinaigrette for the salad, lemon juice and olive oil, plus a bit of honey to balance the bitterness of the watercress. so go to it!

Location:Sidney St,Cambridge,United States

3eme soiree du porc

this recipe is for the weekend, as it takes up a large chunk of your day, but it has a pretty high upside. this is my take on the traditional mexican stew, posole - essentially a pork and hominy stew. i had pork neck bones in the freezer, as well as some pork ribs, and it all went in. i specifically chose cuts of meat with bones, for better flavor, and it definitely paid off - this is a hearty meal, with delicious porky flavor and a bit of sweetness from the corn. in the matchup between pork neck bones and oxtails, the former are a clear winner. for a really cheap cut of meat (granted, most of it is bones), you can't get more tender meat, with a slight slick of unctuous texture from the neck bones.

i also threw in a bunch of cabbage that was leftover from the pulled pork - i chopped it, sauteed it in bacon fat and pulsed it in the food processor to get it fine enough to go into the posole. it adds body and is healthy, too, with lots of vitamin k and c, and a good amount of dietary fiber. i left the cabbage out of the recipe, but in case you want to add it, i put in about two cups of food processed cabbage at first, then ended up adding the rest in after we'd had maybe a quarter of the stew for dinner, for a total of 1.5 small heads of cabbage.

we had this with cornbread, braised kale (i was distracted, so the kale was pretty bland, but good with the posole), and "guacamole" (insofar as mashed avocados with lime juice can be considered guacamole).

posole

2-3T vegetable oil

3-4 lbs pork neck bones

2 lbs pork ribs (country style, bone-in)

2T olive oil or rendered pork fat

1/2 head of garlic, minced

4 large onions, diced

1 package fresh oregano, chopped

3-4 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce

2 dried pasilla peppers

1 carton of chicken broth

1 carton of beef broth

cabbage (optional)

32 oz canned hominy

zest of 3 limes

1. in a large, not non-stick pot, heat the oil on medium-high heat. sear the pork neck bones on each side, in batches, taking care not to crowd the pan. set aside on a plate to rest.

2. add the olive oil or pork fat to the pot, let it heat over medium, and then add the garlic, onions, and oregano. stir together and let cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are translucent and the garlic is slightly golden, about 10-15 minutes. scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to make sure the browned bits don't burn.

3. while the onion mixture is cooking, chop the pasilla peppers and chipotle peppers, and stir in 1/3c of chicken broth. microwave on medium for 2 minutes, then put through a food processor or blender. add this mixture to the onions and let cook a few minutes.

4. add the neck bones back into the onion mixture, and add enough broth to cover the meat. let simmer on medium (turn down the heat if it boils vigorously) for at least an hour, stirring occasionally to make sure nothing burns.

5. remove the pork neck bones and put on a plate in one layer to cool, and put the pork ribs into the broth-onion pot to simmer on medium to medium-low. when the pork neck bones have cooled enough to touch (about 15 minutes), shred the meat off the bones. put the shredded neck meat into the pot and discard the bones.

6. let the mixture in the pot simmer for an hour (45 minutes if you're in a hurry) and remove the ribs. let cool 15 minutes, or until cool enough to touch, and shred the meat off the bones. return shredded meat to the pot and discard the bones.

7. drain the liquid from the hominy and stir it and the lime zest into the pot. let simmer for at least an hour, until reduced and stewy in consistency.

8. serve immediately with cornbread or rice.

[serves 10-12]

bacon-scallion cornbread

1c cornmeal

1 1/4c flour

1/4c sugar

2t baking powder

1t baking soda

4 slices bacon

1 pkg scallions or 3 large onions

2T chives (optional), chopped

1c buttermilk, or a mixture of yogurt, cream, or milk

3 eggs

6T butter, melted and cooled to room temp

salt and pepper to taste

1. preheat oven to 350F and butter a 9" square pyrex pan. in a medium bowl, stir together cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda.

2. cook the bacon over medium heat until crispy, then remove and drain on paper towels. pour off all of the fat except for 1T; heat on medium and add the scallions or onions. cook the scallions until just wilted, about 10 minutes, or if using the onions, cook until caramelized, about an hour. remove from heat and let cool to room temp.

3. meanwhile, whisk together the eggs and buttermilk. add the butter and whisk together. chop the bacon into bits and stir bacon and scallions into the flour mixture. stir in the chives, if using.

4. add the wet ingredients to the dry, and stir just until the mixture is completely combined. scrape into the pan and bake 25-40 minutes, until golden brown on top and a tester comes out with a few crumbs adhering. let cool slightly, then serve.

[serves 6-8]

take this easy path to pork heaven

i have fond memories of the pig 'n' pepper fair in westford, ma, from my childhood. my best friend's mother ran the pepper tent, where people entered pepper products to be judged, and we helped out and ran around the fair. one of the staples of running around was getting a pulled pork sandwich from redbones for lunch: a soft bun containing a small mountain of pork, liberally doused with bbq sauce. a few months ago, while at star market, i saw a good-looking pork shoulder and snapped it up. it languished in our freezer until i finally thawed it and popped it in the oven.

it's nice to know that slow-cooker recipes also work without the slow cooker. really, it's a logical conclusion, but i guess that it's hard to leave the oven on overnight. i would be on board with a pressure cooker - i find that pretty intriguing - but slow cooker, not so much. i try not to use more exotic appliances unless i really need to, since i don't have a kitchen aid, pressure cooker, slow cooker - any of the really big-ticket items. i do, however, have pretty much everything else, and i make good use of my roommates' kitchen appliances.

anyway, this pork is great, and the easiest thing i've made in a while. you just pop a pork shoulder in the oven and cook it at low heat until it's done. i did actually let the oven cook it overnight, and it was fine, safety-wise - after all, 235F is not a particularly high temperature. the meat near the bone and under the fat cap is the most flavorful and tender, while the meat closer to the baking pan's surface adds a bit of chew. shredded together...mmmm.

i love condiments, and i served this to my friends with a few different salads, including a bit of watercress to add a bit of balance to the richness of the pork. i had some potatoes on hand, so i made a mustardy potato salad; the coleslaw was also mustardy and tangy, since i swapped out some of the mayo for yogurt. serve this with whichever condiments you like, and you and your guests will be very happy.

note: the yield of this recipe depends on how hungry you are, and how much people like condiments. i had a pork shoulder that was about 8 lbs. the pork stretches further if you balance it with condiments (and just don't eat ridiculous amounts of meat in the bun). the size of the bun also limits how much pork people tend to put on the bun. anyway, i had 10 people over and a few people went back for seconds, just so you get an idea of how many this will feed.

pulled pork

1 7-10lb pork shoulder

salt and pepper

buns

1c bbq sauce

whole wheat hamburger buns

condiments: mustard, coleslaw, bbq sauce, watercress, carrot slaw, potato salad

1. preheat the oven to 235F. rinse the pork shoulder and pat dry with paper towels, and season with salt and pepper.

2. place the pork in a roasting pan (or on a foil-lined baking sheet) and roast for 8-12 hours, overnight. your pork is done when when it's starting to fall apart and the fat cap is browned.

3. remove the pork from the oven and cool until it's not too hot to touch. shred the pork with forks or your hands, discarding bits of fat and gristle. stir in about a cup of bbq sauce (see previous post), to keep the meat moist. cover with foil until ready to serve. (refrigerate if not serving that day; reheat in the oven.)

4. serve on toasted buns, with condiments.

[serves 8-12]

liquid smoke v. EU

i made this bbq sauce to go with the pulled pork i was making last week, and along with the pork, it's quite a winner. it's mild in your mouth with a bit of a fiery kick at the end, and pairs well with pulled pork and other things you might want to barbecue (chicken wings, etc). it mellows as you let it stand, so try to make this a day before using it.

i've adapted the recipe a little bit, as the original recipe called for liquid smoke. according to wikipedia, liquid smoke is "a substance produced from smoke passed through water," and apparently, carcinogenic compounds such as tar and ash are removed in processing the liquid. however, i just can't get on board with semi-artificial ingredients like this - who knows what went into this stuff, anyway? also, the EU version of the FDA, which has higher standards, is currently investigating liquid smoke, so that's good enough for me - no liquid smoke. instead, i swapped in smoked salt that i got from the whole foods bulk section in tribeca. you'll get a bit of smoky flavor from the chipotle peppers, too; i found that this sauce was plenty smoky enough.

the original recipe also called for just combining the ingredients in a pot, but i sauteed the aromatics (onion, garlic, allspice) before adding everything else, for that added dimension of flavor. it's likely that i can't taste the difference, as my palate isn't sensitive enough, but i like any adaptations that have the potential to add more flavor.

perhaps i should have paid more attention to molasses, which is also a processed food, but i didn't. i did use the "robust" flavor of molasses from the supermarket, which is what we had lying around. don't use blackstrap, but if you have something that has slightly more bite than typical molasses, that's probably perfect for this sauce.

i am not particularly well-versed with southern, mexican, or south american cuisine, so i don't know if canned chipotles in adobo sauce count as heresy. sorry if they do, but they're important to this sauce. i even found them in the international foods aisle of star market - a welcome surprise, since i was shopping at 11:30pm the night before people were coming for dinner.

finally, with respect to ingredients, i used fire-roasted tomatoes. if it were the season, i would have used real tomatoes, but as they're still out of season, i substituted muir glen tomatoes. the tomatoes even have little black flecks in them, which actually creeps me out a little bit - somehow it looks like black confetti added in at the last moment, rather than being the product of fire-roasting. however, i do trust muir glen, so it is what it is.

bbq sauce

2 28-oz cans crushed tomatoes (2 28-oz cans fire-roasted muir glen)

9-12 ounces molasses ("robust")

1/2c orange juice

2T worcestershire sauce

4 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, chopped (or more if you want a hotter sauce)

2 medium onions, diced

2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

2t allspice

1T olive oil

1/2t smoked salt, plus more to taste

pepper

additional equipment

immersion blender (a regular blender is fine too)

1. in a large saucepan, heat the olive oil on medium heat. when the oil is hot, add the onions, garlic, and allspice, stirring to combine evenly. cook 10 minutes, until the onions are glossy and the garlic is slightly browned, then add the tomatoes, molasses, onion, sherry, worcestershire sauce, chipotles, and 1/2t smoked salt. bring to a simmer over medium-high heat.

2. reduce heat to low and cook, uncovered, for 30 minutes - stir occasionally to make sure nothing's sticking to the bottom of the pan. take the pot off the heat and use your immersion blender to blend the mixture into a homogenous sauce. simmer, stirring frequently, for at least 45 minutes longer (i simmered mine for about 4 hours, all told). see step 3 before adding additional salt and pepper.

3. if you are roasting a pork shoulder while making this sauce, add any rendered pork cracklings (the shiny, crispy, dark brown stuff stuck to the bottom of the roasting pan) to the pan. if you, like i had when i made this sauce, made pork belly recently, add the pork jelly (the brown liquid that renders from the belly, minus the fat) to the sauce as well. the cracklings and jelly are salty and will add body and a slightly meatiness to your sauce. if you are using cracklings, make sure you don't add additional salt beyond the smoked salt until after you add the cracklings.

4. when the sauce is reduced to the amount you want (in the neighborhood of 2 quarts), take it off the heat and let it cool. transfer to an airtight container and store for up to a month. this sauce also freezes well.

[makes 1.5 to 2 quarts of sauce]

"recipe adapted" (also: samoas)

this post is really about homemade samoas, a recipe that i noticed popping up on the blogs a few weeks ago. but first (first?!), a digression about that label on so many blog recipes: "recipe adapted from." for the samoas, i used graham crackers as a base that i saw a photo of on somebody's blog. it turns out that that person had posted the recipe as being adapted from heidi's recipe over at 101cookbooks. i was curious, and went through the recipes side-by-side. well, readers, these recipes were exactly the same, word for word. that's simply not ok.

for me, recipes are intellectual property just like anything else - a song, a patent, etc. i think that the community, potluck aspects to recipes on blogs and in magazines do allow for a creative commons-type usage, hence the "recipe adapted from" label that allows for "fair use" along with absolution from legal entanglement. but here's the thing: if you adapted the recipe, it should no longer be the same recipe. yours is derivative, but it's its own variation. and i would say that nearly all of my recipes are truly adapted - there may be one or two that i posted in my early days, when i didn't know how to cook that well, which are less well-adapted. i'm not that stringent in my position on the ethics of adaptation, either - i fully support a wide range of degrees of adaptation. on the minimum side of the spectrum, a really good recipe that's in tune with my tastes won't require very many adjustments in the combination of ingredients, and sometimes a recipe doesn't work unless you use the exact measurements as the original. in this case, i will always write my own instructions, with the notes and thoughts that i know will help me remember the recipe the next time i make it. on the maximum side of the spectrum, there are recipes that i completely retool, both in ingredients and instructions. these are recipes that are overly wordy or incorrect in their instructions, or that don't completely accord with my own tastes of what constitutes sweet, savory, balanced. unless there's an attribution, though, i would never post a recipe without any changes.

and, of course, there are different kinds of uses of a recipe. adaptation applies to when you repost a recipe that is not originally yours - rather than, say, linking to it. adaptation doesn't apply to merely cooking a recipe; after all, what cook doesn't want somebody else to use her recipes, especially if she's posting them online? but if you are going to publicly share a recipe, and it's not your own original, it should bear the adaptation tag. if you didn't change anything, you should just link to the recipe.

back to the samoas: this recipe is a good example of me liking someone else's general idea, but completely changing the preparation. it's girl scout cookie season, and i love samoas (or rather, caramel delites, as i seem to prefer the latter over the former). this recipe is my homemade version of samoas, which i will just say upfront, are predicated more on my memory of what a samoa tastes like, rather than what a samoa actually tastes like, so be forewarned. these cookies, in my opinion, are better than the authentic version.

the original recipe i found was itself an adaptation from the bakingbites blog. and, as i read through both of them, i didn't really like either one. in the original, the caramel in the topping was simply melted caramels, which is just not a good option (tastewise and ingredientwise, because of all the corn syrup). the adaptation is more a true adaptation in that it makes samoa-like cookie bars, rather than actual cookies, since the cookie base isn't baked before assembling.

wanting a slightly less buttery taste to the cookie, i decided to use a graham cracker base, though i did worry a bit that it would make the cookies taste too healthy. i started making the caramel part of the adapted recipe before noticing that it had a rather odd ingredient - a cup of sour cream - added into it before baking. i kept making the caramel, and i did actually add a bit of sour cream, but nowhere near what was suggested. i then cooked the caramel until softball stage, mixed in the coconut, and molded it onto the cookies while warm so it didn't totally stiffen up. the cookies, as it turned out, were on the very crispy and very slightly hard side of cookieness, and so i was hoping the caramel would actually soften them up just a little bit. i was going to dip the bottoms of the cookies in chocolate, then drizzle them like the real cookies, but i got lazy and just dipped half of each cookie in. (i only dipped about two thirds of the cookies; the photos are from dipping the remaining third. this worked out well, as the cookies i dipped first fit into the cookie jar with no space to spare.)

and so you ask, how did these turn out? well, when i tasted each component on its own, they were good, but not great. when i tasted the finished cookie, they kept on tasting better and better. specifically, when i tasted the caramel, it tasted a bit too buttery, though it didn't have excess butter in it - but the darkness of the chocolate completely eliminated that problem. i think this is the sort of thing that shows you just how bad a storebought cookie can be, because the homemade version tastes so much more complex. these cookies stay good for over two weeks in an airtight container, losing none of the graham cracker's crispiness and snap. the caramel was chewy and pliable, and the whole combination of flavors was really complemented by the chocolate to a degree i haven't recently experienced. in fact, i liked the chocolate on the cookies so much that i would dip the whole cookie in chocolate. use a good chocolate and you will be rewarded many times over.

what i realized after i made these, and opened the box of samoas i had set by to taste-test, is that the cookies i made are almost completely different than the girl scout version. in fact, samoas are mostly cookie, with a thin coat of caramel and a bit of coconut sprinkled into it, with a drizzle of chocolate. the cookies i made are probably 40% cookie, 50% coconut-caramel, and 10% chocolate. while i still favor the crumbly-sandy-yet-tender crumb of the original, i think the balance of components in my version was far superior.

this recipe is still pending some revisions to the cookie base - i'd like to find a cookie with a slightly sandier texture - more tender than the graham crackers, but still just as crisp. you can substitute your own choice of cookie, just make sure they're not too buttery. the caramel needs a bit of salt, i think (which i have added into the recipe), but it's otherwise quite workable. i might fiddle with it, but it retains a nice pliability without stickiness, which is key for this recipe; if anything, let you caramel get a good deep amber so you maximize the effect of the caramelized sugar.

this recipe is easy, but involved due to the number of components - i recommend making the cookies one day, then adding the topping and chocolate coating the next day. when you are melting the chocolate for the coating, melt it slowly to make sure the chocolate doesn't seize, and that there is less of a chance of your chocolate blooming. (fyi, the chocolate did begin to bloom ever so slightly after two weeks; make sure you use good chocolate and this will be less of a problem.)

homemade samoas, aka caramel delites

graham cracker base (adapted from 101cookbooks)

2 1/2c flour

1c dark brown sugar

1t baking soda

3/4t kosher salt

1/2c butter

1/3c honey

5T milk

2t vanilla

caramel-coconut topping

1 1/2c sugar

1/2c butter

1/3c sour cream or yogurt, at room temp

1/2t salt

1t vanilla (optional)

2 1/2c unsweetened shredded coconut (any dimension, really; i prefer it to be shredded on the fine side, just make sure it's still somewhat pliable, not dried out)

8-12 oz bittersweet chocolate

1. to make the graham crackers, pulse the dry ingredients in the bowl of a food processor to combine (this recipe is a typical food processor recipe, in which you cut the butter into the dry ingredients, then add any other wet ingredients). scatter the butter in the dry ingredients and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal. in a small bowl, mix together the remaining ingredients (honey, milk, vanilla) and then add to the flour mixture. pulse a few times, until the dough comes together. turn the dough out onto a clean surface and shape into a large disk, no more than 1 1/2" thick. wrap in plastic and refrigerate until firm, 2 hours or overnight.

2. to bake the graham crackers, preheat the oven to 350F. roll the dough out to slightly more than 1/8" or a scant 1/4" thick (depending on your preference; i tended towards the thinner cookies, which will still rise a bit from the baking soda). cut out cookies with a cookie cutter of your choice (i used two square fluted cutters - 1.5" and 2.5" square). bake 15-25 minutes (depending on the thickness of the cookies), until slightly browned and slightly firm to the touch. the tops of the cookies should look dry. transfer to a rack to cool completely, then store in an airtight container until ready to assemble cookies.

3. to make the caramel, heat the sugar in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-low heat until it melts and caramelizes. as it melts, it will turn a light amber; swirl the pan around a bit in order to get the sugar to melt evenly. you want your sugar to turn a dark amber that is not too brown (too brown = burned) - somewhere slightly lighter than the color of pecan skins. if the color of your sugar is like chestnut shells, it's burned and you should start over - just soak the pan in hot water and the burned sugar will dissolve.

4. when the caramel has turned the correct amber, remove it from the heat (you can turn the stove off) and add the butter. it will spit and bubble, but if you're using a saucepan with sufficiently high sides (ie, nothing skillet-like), you'll be fine. stir the mixture until the butter is incorporated. stir in the yogurt and salt, then let cool for 5 minutes, or until the caramel is hot but not scalding to the touch (so as to not burn the coconut) and before the caramel stiffens up. while the caramel is cooling, set out the cookie bases on some trays or cooling racks. mix the coconut into the caramel until well combined, then immediately start molding the caramel onto the cookies with a knife, while still pliable. if your caramel stiffens up, you could probably reheat it on the stove on low heat, but i didn't reheat mine. don't do this in a cold kitchen - the caramel will stiffen up too quickly. besides pliability, you need to apply the caramel while it's warm, because it will adhere better to the cookie.

5. as the cookies are cooing to room temp, chop the chocolate and melt slowly in a heatproof bowl over a pot of barely simmering water. the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water; you need only 1 to 1 1/2" water in the pot. if your chocolate is heated too fast, it could seize or bloom; i'm not one to temper chocolate unless it's a special occasion, but if you want to temper, go ahead. when the chocolate is melted, set up a silpat and a few large sheets of parchment paper. grab a cookie by its edges (the caramel can be a good way to hang onto it), dip the bottom in chocolate. shake off the excess chocolate and place on the silpat/parchment, about 1" apart. when you've finished all the cookies, dip a spatula in the chocolate and swing it gently over the cookies to deposit chocolate threads on the tops of the cookies. practice over a few of the cookies to get the hang of this - you need to get the right amount of chocolate on the spatula, but not too much. you can also put the chocolate in a squeeze bottle with a fine nozzle, for better control. let the chocolate harden, then transfer to an airtight container.

(approximate) active cooking time: 1-1.5 hrs for the graham crackers, 1-1.5 hrs for the coconut caramel, 1 hr for assembly and dipping

[makes 40-50 small cookies, or 30 large cookies]

dulce de leche (definitive version)

it's been a couple weeks since dulce de leche v1.0, and the verdict is in. that version, as you will remember, was defined both by a beautiful color and a slightly acidic aftertaste. the basic recipe remains the same: a quart of milk, a cup of sugar, a vanilla bean; but i made two more batches varying in the type of milk product. the first of those batches employs regular whole milk, the second evaporated milk. in the photo above, there's a clear variation in the color of each batch (l-r: whole milk, evaporated milk, whole milk + baking soda).

there are differences in texture, visible in the photo, as well: the regular milk batch is a little grainier, even after food processing. in fact, after two weeks in the fridge, it has definitely crystallized a bit. the other two batches retained a creamier texture; perhaps it's the baking soda, but the baking soda batch edged the evaporated milk batch in texture, with a slightly softer mouthfeel. the baking soda batch did mellow a bit as it aged, so if you really want the darker color, you could probably do with adding in the baking soda. i would recommend not, in general.

i will say that making dulce de leche does not involve much skill, so go to it! it does require patience, but it will be worth it - this stuff does taste better to me than the typical way of making dulce de leche, with a richer taste and texture. if you're making this, don't forget that since there are so few ingredients, you should use good ones. your vanilla bean should be plump and at least moderately supple and bendy; if you're using regular milk, use an organic, hormone-free milk for best results.

dulce de leche

1 quart (4c) evaporated milk

1c sugar

1 vanilla bean

1. in a heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine evaporated milk and sugar. split the vanilla bean and scrape the beans out into the pan. stir to combine (the vanilla seeds will disperse more evenly as the mixture thickens and cooks) and turn heat to medium.

2. cook over medium heat until the mixture is thick and it doesn't run too much when you firmly drag a rubber spatula through the mixture. keep stirring it frequently, taking care that it doesn't boil, but rather simmers. the time for this varies, but it will probably take about four hours. it will look a little bit grainy as it gets close to being done, but don't worry about that. you will want to stir more in the last half-hour to make sure the mixture doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan and burn.

3. scrape the mixture into the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the mixture is smooth. if you don't have a food processor (or a blender, or immersion blender), your dulce de leche just won't be quite as smooth - it will still taste the same, all debates about the effect of visual perception of food on its taste notwithstanding. this is a rare occasion in which i do actually recommend using a food processor. scrape the mixture into an airtight container and let cool. when it's cool, store in the refrigerator up to about a month or two.

[makes 1 to 1 1/2 cups]

caramel...melts

i don't usually take photographs at an angle - that "artistic angle" so favored by food bloggers - but for some reason, the dead-on photos just don't look as good. something about the straight shooting suppresses the cragginess of these cookies.

so, caramel melts. this is what i discovered upon leaving a tupperware of ganache-topped caramels in the fridge, with no outer coating of chocolate, for over a year. possibly for two years - i've forgotten exactly when i put them in for that long, long hibernation. i think i expected them to keep the way that, miraculously, my most prized caramel sauce has kept for two years as i slowly consume it. (the original delicious caramel sauce got a boost of sugar syrup from spiced, baked apples, infused and reduced with tea, that rendered it positively spectacular.) alas, it was not so. beyond acquiring the aroma of the refrigerator - airtight container be damned - the caramels absorbed liquid from the ganache and melted into waxy sludge.

luckily, while cleaning the fridge recently, i found a slab of caramel from some other caramel experiment (i have yet to find a definitive caramel recipe that does not include corn syrup, but the one i've posted before is pretty good nonetheless). i cut myself a bit to taste, and it appeared to be in good enough working condition to include in these cookies. these cookies involve a rather soft dough, due to the inclusion of yogurt to provide some of the moisture, and i think that as they baked, the caramel sort of melted into the batter, producing a cookie that's crisp on the outside, soft on the inside (from the original dough itself), and gooey in the center. that is to say, these cookies are delicious and you should make them asap. as usual, they will taste better if you use good-quality cocoa and caramel.

salted chocolate-caramel cookies

1 1/4c flour

1/4t baking soda

1/2t salt

5T butter

7-8T cocoa

2/3c sugar

1/3c dark brown sugar

1/3c plain yogurt or sour cream

1t vanilla

~3-4oz soft caramel, rolled into 1/2"-diameter balls (dice, then squish the corners in until it resembles a sphere)

1. preheat the oven to 350F (i accidentally baked these at 375, and it was fine). in a small bowl, mix together the flour, salt, and baking soda.

2. melt the butter in the microwave in a medium bowl. sift the cocoa over it and mix until combined. add both sugars and mix until combined. add yogurt or sour cream, as well as the vanilla, and mix until combined. slowly mix in the dry ingredients with a spatula or a wooden spoon.

3. take a couple scant teaspoons of dough and form it evenly around a ball of caramel (i stick my thumb into a ball of dough and put the caramel into the ensuing hole). if your caramel balls are bigger than a few teaspoons of dough will cover (you want at least 1/4" of dough on the exterior of your caramel, estimating of course), then use as much dough as you need to make it work. place on a baking sheet about two inches apart and bake until the tops are slightly crackled, but before the caramel starts leaking out of the cookies - about 10 minutes or so. let cool at least 5 minutes - cookies will be very soft and will need to set up a little. transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

4. store in an airtight container and eat 'em within a few days for best flavor!

[makes 30-40 cookies]

yeasted bread chronicles, chapter II

this one's a keeper. there was a post about this bread/cake at thekitchn, which is originally from flo braker (via leite's culinaria). i love sweet yeasted breads and buns, and this is the best of the bunch. really, it's a cake, but i always think of yeasted things as breads, so there you go. essentially, this is a yeasted dough that gets rolled out after the second rise, then cut into rectangles spread with lemon zest and sugar, and stacked into a loaf pan. the dough gets one last rise and then goes into the oven. when you eat it, you can just pull the sheets off one by one.

this dough is less eggy and less bready than the overnight cinnamon buns, but somehow manages to be richer. ok, the butter brushed between the rectangles of dough helps a lot. and this dough is moister than the cinnamon buns, which makes it seem more like cake, less like bread. regardless, it's delicious, and after being attacked by four of us for dessert, it was more than half gone. it's not too sweet - the cream cheese icing has a bump of lemon juice in it to balance the sweetness of the bread - and if you eat it the day you bake it, the top will still be crispy.

if you have the time, make this right now. i did this over two days, refrigerating the dough after the first rise, and assembling it the next day out of the fridge. i was a bit overzealous in getting the dough to room temp after assembling it (putting it in a hot water bath that was probably a bit too hot), so that's why the bread is super-puffed on the ends. i think i might try the alton brown technique next time, and put the assembled dough in a cold oven with a pan of hot water underneath it. one other thing - i have never understood how other people manage to roll doughs out into rectangles, so if you can do it, please inform me of your technique. i always end up with oblong ovals, rather vaguely rectangular. that's not a real problem with this bread, so don't worry about it.

i love yeasted breads, but i always dislike how much effort you have to put in to get the final product. while the dough is rising, i'm not actually doing anything, but i'm impatient to get the dough into the oven so i can eat it. it would even be better if i was really busy during the rising time - for example, i have no problem making really complicated things that require hours, as long as i'm kept busy chopping, stirring, etc. waiting for dough to rise is like watching water boil - interminable. i do think this bread is worthwhile, though, so maybe the solution is to double the recipe and make two loaves, freezing one to bake later.

lemon-scented pull-apart coffee cake (adapted from flo braker via leite's culinaria)

for the dough

2 3/4c (12.25 oz) flour

1/4c (1.75 oz) sugar

2 1/4t (1 packet) yeast

1/2t salt

1/3c (2.5 fluid oz) whole milk

2 oz (4T) butter

1/4c (2 fluid oz) water

2 eggs, at room temp

for the filling

1/2c (3.5 oz) sugar

3T lemon zest (from 3 lemons)

1T orange zest

1.5 oz (3T) butter, melted

for the icing

3 oz cream cheese, softened

1/3c (1.25 oz) powdered sugar

1T whole milk

1T fresh lemon juice

1. stir together 2c (9oz) of the flour, the sugar, the yeast, and the salt in a large bowl. in a small saucepan, heat the milk and butter over low heat, until the butter melts. add the water and continue to heat the mixture until it's about 130F.

2. pour the milk mixture over the flour-yeast mixture, mixing with a rubber spatula until well combined. add the eggs one at a time, mixing with the spatula each time until completely incorporated. add 1/2c of the remaining flour, and mix with the spatula until the dough is smooth. add two more tablespoons of flour and mix until the dough is smooth.

3. flour your countertop and turn the dough out on the counter. knead until smooth and only slightly sticky (add a few more tablespoons of flour if it's stubbornly sticky), about 10-15 minutes. the dough will be quite soft. place the dough in a buttered or oiled bowl, and cover with plastic wrap. let the dough rise in a warm place (at least 70F) until it doubles in size, about an hour. if it's winter, you can warm up the dough's environment by putting the bowl in a warm water bath, though you should be sure not to make the water too hot. if you're doing this, make sure you use a plastic bowl - it will conduct heat a little more gently than a metal bowl. if you're refrigerating the dough overnight, punch the dough down and re-cover with plastic wrap, and pop the bowl in the fridge.

4. to make the lemon filling, mix together the sugar, lemon zest, and orange zest in a small bowl. let this stand while you handle the dough, as it will get wetter as the sugar draws moisture out of the zest).

5. butter a 9"x5"x3" loaf pan and line with parchment paper; butter the parchment paper. flour your countertop and roll the dough out into a 20"x12" rectangle. brush the dough with butter, using a pastry brush (be generous). using a bench scraper, pizza cutter, or knife, cut the dough into 5 vertical strips, each 4"x12". sprinkle one of the strips with a fifth (about 1.5-2T) of the sugar-zest mixture and press it into the butter. top with another strip of dough and sprinkle it with the sugar-zest mixture, pressing it into the butter; repeat with remaining dough strips until you have one stack of rectangles. (the last layer does get sugar-zest mixture on it, btw.)

6. slice the stack horizontally into 6 strips, each 4"x2". fill the loaf pan with the stacks (see photo above to see what it should look like), cut edges facing up. loosely cover the pan with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place (or, if the dough is cold from the refrigerator, set in a cold oven with a pan of boiling water on the rack underneath it), until the dough doubles in size, 30 to 50 minutes. (press the dough gently with your finger; if the indentation remains, the dough is ready to be baked.)

7. bake the cake until the top is a deep golden brown, 30-45 minutes. let cool as you make the icing.

8. to make the icing, mix the cream cheese and sugar until smooth with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula (or use an electric mixer). mix in the milk and lemon juice and stir until well combined.

9. remove the coffee cake from the pan, and put it on a serving plate. using a spatula, knife, or pastry brush, ice the top of the coffee cake. serve at room temp. store in an airtight container.

active cooking time: 2 hrs; total time ~4.5 hrs

[makes 1 loaf; serves 8-10]