a couple of recipes for you

ok, nothing fancy here - just wanted to share a few recipes with you. the first is a chocolate cake, like the one i use for everything (the stout cake), but for when you don't have beer on hand. it's much the same in consistency, and a little bit healthier! (note: a little bit. still...) it's a wonderful chocolate cake, keeps well, not too sweet. and, of course, moist despite not having any oil in it.

the second is one for snickerdoodle blondies. they turn out wonderfully chewy and are rife with cinnamon, like a dense, concentrated snickerdoodle - but i couldn't help thinking about all the butter in them as i ate one. so, i provide the recipe i used originally, but i bet you could use 1 1/2 sticks of butter and nobody would be the wiser (except your heart). the key here is to use good quality cinnamon - i tried vietnamese cinnamon for the first time and boy, was it good. more depth of flavor than the usual cinnamon, and intangibly sweeter without actually being sweeter. make these - i took a bowl of these babies to a friend's house as a pre-dinner snack (yes, of cookies) and the bowl was empty in no time.

lastly, i have a new chocolate chip cookie recipe for you. these turn out wonderfully - just thick enough, without thinned edges, with a mix of chocolate and wheat-y flavor. they stay nicely soft in the middles without the use of shortening (blegh. double blegh.). i have to say, though, that i am surprised. i have found a chocolate chip cookie that is actually better when baked up crisp - stick-it-in-your-coffee crisp, an amber golden brown. just before burnt. they are a beautiful marriage of chocolate and wheat and butter, and you will be a convert if you bake up just one pan of these in all of their crispy glory. i think the whole wheat flour really needs some time to develop and cook in the oven, so this time, forgo the soft chewy cookie for the one with superior flavor.

chocolate cake (for when no beer is on hand)

1c Dutch-process cocoa

2 1/3c flour

1 2/3c brown sugar

1 1/2t baking powder

1t espresso powder, optional

1 1/2t baking soda

1t salt

1 1/2c chocolate chips (8 oz....but honestly you can just use the whole bag), optional

3 eggs

1 1/2c whole milk

1T rum

1T cider vinegar (or white if that's what you have)

1 stick butter, melted

1. preheat oven to 350F. grease two 9" cake pans and line withparchment paper, or line a muffin tin with cupcake wrappers (you'll have two batches).

2. in a large bowl, whisk together the cocoa, flour, sugar, baking powder, espresso powder (if using), baking soda, salt, and chocolate chips.

3. in a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, and rum. stir egg mixture into the dry ingrdients, mixing until just combined (some dry streaks are fine).

4. stir in vinegar and melted butter until combined. spoon the batter into the prepared pans, filling the cups 3/4 full if making cupcakes. bake 23-25 minutes, until a tester comes out clean. if you made cakes, then wait 10 minutes, and invert onto plate, then flip back over onto a rack to cool.

[makes 24 cupcakes or two 9" cakes]

snickerdoodle blondies

2 2/3c flour

2t baking powder

1 1/2t vietnamese cinnamon

1/4t nutmeg

1c butter, softened

2c brown sugar

2 eggs

1T rum

2T sugar

2t vietnamese cinnamon

1. preheat oven to 350F. butter a 9x13 pan and line with foil, then butter the foil lightly.

2. in a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

3. in a large bowl, cream the butter with an electric mixer, then add the brown sugar and beat until fluffy and completely combined. beat in the eggs one at a time, until completely combined, scraping the bowl after each addition. beat in the rum until completely combined, then mix in the dry ingredients on low until completely combined - your batter will be quite stiff.

4. scrape the batter into the pan and spread evenly with a spatula. in a small bowl, mix together the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over the batter. bake 25-35 minutes, until a tester comes out clean (the batter will rise, then fall). let cool to room temperature and cut into squares. small squares. the blondies will set up and become chewier as they cool.

[makes 24 2" square blondies]

whole wheat chocolate chip cookies

3c whole wheat flour

1 1/2t baking powder

1t baking soda

1 1/2t salt

2 sticks butter, softened

1c dark brown sugar, packed

1c sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2t rum

8 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped coarsely (i chopped up chocolate chips)

1. in a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

2. in a large bowl, cream the butter, then add both sugars and beat until fluffy and completely combined. beat in the eggs one at a time, until completely combined, scraping down the bowl in between each egg. beat in the rum. add the dry ingrdients and mix in on low, until completely combined.

3. scoop the dough out of the bowl with your hands and check to see that all of the flour has been incorporated. smooth and shape into a large roundish ball and wrap securely in plastic wrap. refrigerate dough for at least 12 hours (to allow the flour to absorb enough moisture) and up to 2 days.

4. preheat the oven to 350F. form tablespoons of the dough into round balls and place on baking sheets lined with foil or parchment paper. bake cookies 16-25 minutes, until the edges are golden and the tops are cracked. for best flavor, bake cookies until they are on the crisp side, completely amber-golden-brown.

[makes 36-40 cookies]

kill your heart with chocolate + toasted nuts

those of you who know me well, know that i am not the biggest fan of nuts. i hate the way they get stuck in your teeth: not only little bits of the meat of the nut, but also flakes of skin that stick to your teeth. then you're struggling not to look weird while trying to get stuff off your teeth, because you're ocd and you can't stand when there's stuff on your teeth. suffice it to say that i do not have the best relationship with nuts.

suffice it to say that these cookies are one of the few items for which i will bear nut skins stuck to my teeth. these are deeply chocolaty from the unsweetened chocolate, with a slightly "wet" crunch from the toasted nuts (do not skip the toasting step!!!). they stay soft but are best the first two days after you make them - although magically, the nuts retain their crunch. make these: you won't regret it! then give most of them away so you don't eat them for breakfast and inadvertently kill your heart.

chocolate chubbies

(adapted from the sarabeth bakery cookbook)

8T butter

9 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped*

3 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped

1/2c flour

1/2t baking powder

1/2t salt

3 eggs, room temp

1 1/4c sugar

2t dark rum

1 3/4c bittersweet chocolate chips (11 oz)

1 1/2c (5.5 oz) pecan halves

1 1/4c (4.5 oz) walnut halves

1. preheat oven to 350F. spread pecans and walnuts in a single layer on a baking sheet and toast 15 minutes. remove from oven, let cool 15 minutes, and break into pieces (size irregular, but don't break them into pieces that are too small). leave the oven preheated. while the nuts are toasting, you can chop the chocolate.

2. melt the butter and chopped chocolates together in a bowl over a double boiler (or on low heat in the microwave, in a heatproof or pyrex bowl; remove from microwave every two minutes to give it a stir), stirring to incorporate. remove bowl from heat and let stand, until cooled slightly.

3. in the meantime, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. in a large bowl, whip the eggs on medium-high speed with an electric mixer until eggs are foamy and lightly thickened, ~30 seconds. add sugar and rum and whip on high speed until the mixture is very thick and pale yellow, about 4 minutes. reduce mixer speed to medium and beat in cooled chocolate, until completely incorporated.

4. add the flour mixture and mix on low speed until just incorporated (or fold in with a spatula). stir in the chocolate chips, pecans, and walnuts with a spatula, making sure that they are evenly distributed throughout the cookie batter. the dough will be soft, and stiffen up slightly as it sits.

5. using a 2-inch ice cream scoop (or a large spoon), scoop 2T balls of dough onto a baking sheet lined with a silpat or foil, 1 1/2" apart. bake 15-20 minutes, until cookies are set around the edges but still seem slightly underdone in the middle - be careful not to overbake. cool completely on the baking pans before removing (you may transfer the foil or silpat off the pan with the cookies on it, to do another batch.

*you may cheat with good-quality bittersweet chocolate chips if you are feeling lazy, or unfortunately didn't realize you didn't have any actual bittersweet chocolate in the house, like i did.

[makes 24-36 cookies; these keep for a week in an airtight container]

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]

AT LAST....my love has come along

The night I looked at you
I found a dream that I could speak to...
I found a thrill to rest my cheek to
A thrill that I have never known...

And here we are in heaven
For you are mine
At last

--

friends, this is a momentous occasion: the brownie hunt is over, thanks to katharine hepburn and her brownie recipe. i have fond memories of slightly-undercooked brownies, allowed to chill in the fridge before being consumed in a state of cold, slightly chewy fudginess. i certainly used to sneak more than my fair share...

in general, if it's homemade, it's better than the mix version. however, i held out in the case of brownies for years, as homemade brownie after homemade brownie didn't meet my standards: too cakey, too dry, not chocolatey enough... unfortunately, this belief was proved wrong when i tried two brownie mixes last fall, in a bid to revisit the glory days of cold, fudgy brownies. all of a sudden, i really could taste all of the chemicals and preservatives that go into these mixes, and they lacked both richness and depth of flavor. to add insult on top of injury, i failed to be attentive enough to the brownies and allowed them to overbake, bringing their texture closer to foam blocks than fudgy heaven.

since then, i've made brownies only once - thekitchn's one-bowl mascarpone brownies (incidentally, really you should never use more than one bowl when making brownies). they were adequately fudgy, but a touch too...well, they felt a little thick on the tongue, rather than settling into a buttery, chocolatey layer in your month. and this is where a homemade brownie, with an adequate recipe, will finally help you out - the butter allows a good brownie to nearly melt in your mouth. i have adapted katharine hepburn's original recipe slightly - i cut the sugar, used half cocoa and half flour, and doubled the recipe, based on user comments of the original brownies being too thin, too sweet, etc.

one of the dangers of homemade brownies is that you can cut into them too early, before they set. one must not give in to temptation, however; homemade brownies are invariably better when you allow them to cool. i did abide by this brownie maxim tonight, and was duly rewarded tenfold. these brownies are super-chocolatey because of the use of unsweetened chocolate, and the sugar required to balance that chocolate creates that delectable crunchy top on the brownies. the key, though, is that the body of the brownies remains wonderfully fudgy, with only the faintest hint of flour to help the brownies hold their shape. best to cut them into small squares in order to prevent yourself from eating the whole pan yourself.

homemade brownies

(adapted from katharine hepburn's brownies)

1c (2 sticks) butter

4 oz unsweetened chocolate, broken or chopped into smallish pieces

1 3/4c sugar

4 eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4c flour

1/4c good quality cocoa (valrhona is good, hershey's not so much)

1. grease a 9" square pan (i used a 9" square pyrex) with butter. line with a wide strip of parchment paper, extending past the edge of the pan, to make it easier to take the brownies out, and butter the paper. preheat oven to 325F.

2. melt the butter and chocolate together in a medium saucepan with a heavy bottom. stir together with a rubber spatula as they melt.

2. whisk in the sugar until well incorporated. make sure the mixture isn't too hot (it can be hotter than lukewarm, but not too much more than that) and whisk in the eggs one at a time. whisk in the vanilla and salt.

3. stir in the flour with the spatula. sift the cocoa into the batter and stir that in as well. your batter should be thick, and slightly glossy.

4. pour into the prepared pan. bake for about 45 minutes, or until the top looks crusty and the batter doesn't jiggle when you shake the pan slightly. a toothpick inserted into the batter will come out with rather wet crumbs adhering to it, but it is indeed done. let cool for 1-2 hours, then slice - these will be easiest to slice if you refrigerate them overnight, then cut them the next day, but i understand if you need to satisfy a craving. cut these into small squares (1.25"-1.5") because they are quite rich.

[makes about 25 small brownies]

those cookies again

my feet are killing me because i just ran to school (ok, walked really fast; i don't run) to get my computer - i'm having dinner at josh's and i'm shamelessly using it as an excuse to have him help me extract my hard drive from my dead laptop so i can get the data off it.

luckily i think i have time to dash off this quick recipe, which i've been meaning to post for quite some time. so without further ado, the buckwheat-cocoa nib cookies. these are best made the day before you're going to eat them, as the flavors develop in a lovely partnership. and coming up: hainanese chicken, caramel sauce, and caramels!

buckwheat-cocoa nib cookies
(adapted from alice medrich)

1 ¼ cups flour
¾ cup buckwheat flour
2 sticks butter, at room temp
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa nibs

1. in a medium bowl, whisk together the flours.

2. beat the butter with a wooden spoon until it's soft, then add the sugar and mix until smooth and creamy. add the cocoa nibs and mix to incorporate. add the flour, and mix just until incorporated. the mixture will look more like dough as you mix it - the butter needs a little time to moisten the dough. when the dough is completely mixed together it'll pull away slightly from the side of the bowl.

3. on a sheet of plastic wrap, form the dough into 1-2 logs that are about 2" in diameter - this can be easier if you use the plastic wrap to help you squish the dough together. you'll probably have to press the dough together pretty firmly to get it to stick together. wrap the dough well in plastic wrap and chill overnight.

4. remove the dough from the fridge and slice it into 1/4" thick slices - if it shatters, you should let it sit at room temp for 30 minutes to an hour so the dough softens up a little. make sure you use a sharp knife. alternatively, you can probably try rolling it out and cutting it out with cookie cutters, but just make sure you don't roll it out too much or your cookies will be tough. if your dough gets too soft, just pop it in the freezer for 10 minutes or so. also, i generally recommend rolling cookie or pastry dough out between two sheets of plastic wrap - much less messy and easier to get onto the baking sheet.

5. preheat the oven to 350F. bake the cookies for about 11-15 minutes in the middle of the oven, on baking sheets lined with a silpat, parchment paper, or foil. space the cookies about 1" to 1.5" apart - 15 cookies per sheet.

6. cool the cookies completely before storing them, so they stay crisp - they do retain their crispness quite well over time. they stay good in an airtight container for about a month, more if you freeze them.

[makes about 60 2" cookies]

ripped from the headlines

can you believe that i haven't been watching law & order obsessively? yeah, neither can i. so this isn't a murder case involving food, but it does involve me surreptitiously copying a recipe out of the best recipe at barnes & noble. this is my favorite recipe for chocolate pudding, and i know multiple people who do own the cookbook (i bought it for my sister a few years ago), i just always forget to write it down somewhere. so this is just me writing it down so i can have it for later. writing it down in more than my shorthand, too:

best chocolate pudding ever
2T cocoa*
2T cornstarch
2/3c sugar
1/8t salt

1c light cream, room temp
3 egg yolks, room temp
2c whole milk, room temp
6 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled**
1T butter

1. sift together the cocoa, cornstarch, sugar, and salt.

2. whisk in the cream, yolks, and milk. whisk in the chocolate. the chocolate will clump, but that's just the reaction of the melted chocolate to the cooler liquids. the lumps will cook out when you heat the mixture.

3. bring to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium high heat (this is what the best recipe says, but just to be safe i like to do it all at medium), then reduce heat to medium and boil 1 1/2-2 minutes longer, until the pudding has thickened. be sure to give the pudding frequent stirs with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, and you can see how thick the pudding is by sticking the spoon/spatula in and drawing a finger through the pudding that coats the spoon. it should be thick, not runny in any way, and probably if you're wondering if it's the right consistency, you need a little longer. don't overcook it, though, or the pudding will curdle because your egg yolks got too cooked. this is why you cook it over medium heat while stirring: to gently cook the custard until it sets.

4. remove the pan from the stove and stir in the butter until it's completely incorporated. pour the pudding into whatever you're using as a serving dish and cover with plastic wrap - if you press the plastic wrap into the surface of the pudding it will prevent a skin from forming, if you hate the pudding skin.

[serves 4-6]

*if you use valrhona cocoa (available in bulk at whole foods, near the cheeses) you will not be disappointed - valrhona cocoa turns this pudding almost black.

**i like to use callebaut bittersweet, which i think is 64% cacao? anyway, it gives good chocolate flavor, isn't fruity like scharffenberger (do not get me started), and isn't too expensive. also available at whole foods unless you live in tribeca.

hostess cupcakes done right

when i was growing up there were tons of things that my sister and i weren't allowed to have: twinkies, hostess cupcakes, tv dinners, all manner of synthetic food. this was all for my own good, of course, but when i was ten years old i was much too young to realize that. while i didn't have an all-consuming desire for these packaged cake products, i would watch the commercials or see images of them and wonder what they tasted like. they always looked soft and dense, but not too dense; filled with some kind of delicious whipped cream.

now that i've taken charge of my own nutrition, i know that these fake cake products are actually pretty gross. the cake is too soft and doesn't taste like it should (ie, chocolate or butter), the filling is some sort of synthetic, gritty sugar parade, and the icing is more like plastic than anything else. but the idea is still a good one - it's the execution that's lacking.

so these cupcakes are everything a hostess cupcake isn't: moist cake that actually tastes like chocolate, but has enough body to stand up to being clutched in your fingers; whipped cream filling with flavor; ganache frosting that adds to the chocolate punch. i'm usually not a fan of all-cocoa chocolate cakes (as opposed to cocoa and chocolate chocolate cakes, or cocoa and oil based chocolated cakes) - this is basically the only one i'll use. it's a regular list of ingredients with a really easy set of directions, and you should feel free to halve the recipe if you don't want a million cupcakes, or feel completely grossed out at the thought of using an entire pound of butter in one cake recipe - it's essentially a doubled recipe anyway.

best of all, if you do make the full 48 cupcakes, you can eat them all: they stay good for two weeks, in an airtight container.

best chocolate cupcakes

cake
2c stout (I used guinness)
2c (1 lb) butter
1 1/2c cocoa (preferably valrhona)
4c flour
4c sugar
1T b soda
1 1/2t salt
4 eggs
1 1/3c sour cream or greek/strained yogurt

ganache
2c cream
1 lb bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine

whipped cream filling
1 1/2c cream
3-6T bailey's or other liqueur flavoring
1t unflavored gelatin
3-8T sugar

1. preheat oven to 350F. line a regular 12-cup cupcake pan with cupcake liners (you could also make 4 9" cake layers, but you'll need to grease the pans, line the bottoms with parchment paper, and grease the parchment paper to prep the pans). bring stout and butter to a simmer in a medium saucepan over medium heat. add cocoa powder and whisk until smooth. cool to room temp.

2. in a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. in large bowl, whisk together the eggs and sour cream until blended well. make sure that stout-chocolate mixture isn't hot enough to cook the eggs, then pour into egg mixture in a steady stream, whisking as you pour. add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and fold batter together until completely combined - do not overmix.

3. if making cupcakes, fill each muffin cup about 2/3-3/4 full (closer to 3/4); if making cakes, divide batter among pans. bake until tester comes out clean, about 20-25 min for cupcakes and 25-30 min for cakes. cool cakes completely.

4. when cupcakes have cooled, take a sharp serrated knife and cut out the middle of each cupcake, so that you leave a large whole walnut-sized hole in each cupcake. do not cut through the bottom of the cupcake, and leave at least 1/2" margin around the edge of the cupcake top to leave enough area for ganache to adhere to. reserve the cupcake leftovers for some other use (they make a great trifle...); freeze in an airtight container up to 1 month. refrigerate the cupcakes while you're making the frosting and filling.

4. for icing: place chopped chocolate in a medium bowl, if you haven't already. bring cream to a simmer in a heavy medium saucepan. remove from heat and pour over chocolate. let stand 1 minute, then stir with a rubber spatula or whisk until smooth. let cool until spreadable, stirring frequently to let it cool evenly, about 1 hour.

5. while the icing cools, make the filling. pour the cream into a large bowl, then beat it to soft peaks with an electric mixer or whisk. sprinkle cream with gelatin, let stand 1 minute, then beat cream to stiff peaks. add liqueur and sugar to taste, then fill cupcakes. the gelatin will set when the cupcakes are refrigerated.

6. frost cupcakes with the ganache. you'll want to work quickly because it can really stiffen up at the end, though you can rewarm it in a double boiler over the stove (don't use the microwave). i'm not a master of technique with cupcakes, but i did a thin coat of ganache while it was still moderately runny, to cover over the cream filling, then after that cooled a bit, i did a thicker layer of frosting.

7. store the cupcakes in the refrigerator, in an airtight container. to keep the icing looking good, you really can only do 1 layer of cupcakes in the container. the cupcakes stay pretty soft, so you can eat them out of the fridge (my empirical observation). otherwise, leave them out for about 30-60 minutes to bring them to room temp. don't bring them straight into a really warm temp or the condensation will be really noticeable.

[makes 48 cupcakes]

poundcake II

i vaguely remember having promised to update you all on the longevity of the pound cake. i also vaguely remember having forgotten - ok, i very distinctly remember having forgotten to do so. so with respect to elvis' poundcake, i'd like to report that the texture improved over the next several hours or so. its crusty exterior stayed crusty, but as egg-ful things are wont to do, it tasted much less eggy after the cake cooled and set completely. i think it had about a week's shelf life?

and onto bigger, better things, or at least, more chocolatey things: chocolate pound cake. i can't remember why i made a chocolate pound cake; i guess just because. this is a recipe i'd made before, generally in loaf pans to make a pound cake for chocolate raspberry trifle. i also wanted to test the efficacy of beating the butter and sugar to provide the cake's structure, and i have to confess and bite my tongue - it really helps. in fact, it's pretty amazing how much it helps. the chocolate pound cake that i made relies heavily on the butter and sugar for its tight crumb, and cake flour for its tenderness, and brown sugar for spicy caramel overtones. i would recommend billington's dark brown sugar for the best spicy caramel overtones - i'm pretty sure that 95% of said overtones come from this particular brown sugar, which i've used before to great effect in brown sugar pudding. this particular cake is fantastic plain, but if you need to fancy it up, just drip a chocolate glaze over it. don't bother with powdered sugar, which i hate with a passion on cakes and tarts because you just end up inhaling it and choking, just as you're about to take a bite. it's annoying at your dinner table when you're with good friends, and embarrassing in social situations as you cough and hack.

this is one of the few cakes that i would recommend using good ingredients for: get the cake flour, the valrhona cocoa (sold in bulk for not too much more than regular cocoa at whole foods), the good brown sugar, etc. don't skimp on beating the sugar and butter or your pound cake won't have as soft and beautiful a texture as mine did.

chocolate pound cake
2 1/4c cake flour (not self-rising)
3/4c unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder (i used valrhona from whole foods)
1/2t salt
1/4t baking soda
1c sour cream (8 1/2 oz)
2 1/4 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2c sugar
1 1/2c dark brown sugar, packed
6 eggs

2T butter, melted
2T cocoa powder

1. Do not preheat oven. Mix together the melted butter and 2T cocoa powder, then brush on a 12-cup bundt pan, making sure the entire surface is covered well. You can also use a 10-cup bundt pan but the bottom of the cake will not be flat.

2. In a bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, and salt. In a small bowl, stir together baking soda and sour cream.

3. In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat butter until homogenous. Add both sugars and beat until light and fluffy, about 10 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping the bowl's sides with a rubber spatula each time.

4. With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture and sour cream mixture alternately in batches, beating until just combined.

5. Pour batter into the bundt pan, tap it a few times to get rid of the air bubbles, and put in the middle of cold oven. Set oven to 350F and bake cake 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Cool cake in pan 15 minutes and then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.

Pound cake keeps, wrapped in plastic wrap, at room temperature 1 week. Alternatively, pound cake may be frozen, wrapped well in plastic wrap and foil, 3 months.

[makes 16-20 servings]

orange-scented banana layer cake

carrie : and when we go to star, we could get -
me : pork loin!
carrie : yeah, that too...but i was thinking of ice cream.
(24 hours later)
carrie : last night i had a dream about rare meat...i think it was the pork loin.

* * *
i am having a minor allergic reaction to the tiny bit of chocolate-hazelnut shortbread dough that i ate. hmph. well, now the shortbread is in the oven and it shall be mine. hopefully the tea i'm drinking will make the itch in my throat go away. i sweetened it with lyle's golden syrup, which i used last sunday to make a caramel sauce. it's one of those british things you'll only understand when you use it. but it's perfect for caramel sauce - it just has this kind of caramel-sweet flavor to it. it's also the thickest liquid i've ever seen in my life. shake it, and it just doesn't move at all. wonder why it's so viscous. it's not as good a sweetener as honey, but it does the job, and when else am i going to use it?

the story about the pork : a couple days ago i came home to find carrie scarfing down some focaccia from star. while browsing, she came upon a pork loin sale - huge pork loins for $1.99/lb. we didn't go last night, but as of last night's desperate-must-have-ice-cream-and-tosci's-is-closed run, we are proud owners of a ten-pound pork loin. it was the runt of the lot, but had the best marbling and the least fat on top. we have plans for this pork loin...

* * *
(the shortbread comes out of the oven.)

carrie : we're missing one thing.
me : what?
carrie : milk.
me : we have cream...

* * *

whoever combined chocolate and hazelnuts was a genius. a genius. such a genius. the recipe we used was from the past issue of gourmet (which still has ugly covers, by the way), and the only substitution we made was hazelnuts for almonds. the almonds are probably a little more subtle and don't whack you upside the head like the hazelnuts, and certainly wouldn't draw as many comparisons to the ferrero rocher candy, but in all reality i prefer hazelnuts. they do taste a bit like the candy, but so does every other chocolate-hazelnut combination. the shortbread is tender but crumbly (note that this is when the shortbread is about 15 minutes out of the oven), and has, in addition to the chocolate-hazelnut flavor, a nice, rounded buttery flavor, and a bit of a crunch from the granulated sugar. i really like recipes like this one, where each ingredient has a clear and simple role in the flavor of the finished product, whether it lends something to texture, smell, or aesthetics.

to go back a few days to the place where i left off in my previous post, let's talk about the banana cake i made for alice's potluck. it was saturday night, i was tired and had no intention of going anywhere, but i wanted to make a banana cake. so...after perusing epicurious, i found a cake that perfectly suited the ingredients i had on hand. more specifically, i combined two recipes - one for a banana layer cake that used oil (not butter, of which i had half a stick left in the house) and one for a chocolate buche de noel. i used the layer cake from the banana cake recipe, and the gelatin-stabilized, orange-zested whipped cream from the buche de noel. the whipped cream is fantastic because it has very little sweetener in it, and so it's really a fantastic foil for anything that's heavy or really intense. i didn't have any vegetable oil, so i used olive oil and crossed my fingers (it was fine). i also didn't have any vanilla, so i used orange oil instead, thus making the commitment to a banana-orange cake rather than a straight banana cake. the original idea had been a boston cream pie, essentially, with banana cake in place of the vanilla sponge cake - kind of like bananas foster as a cake. i thought the pure flavors of the cream and a caramel sauce would be great with the banana cake. as it happened, i added another flavor that maybe wasn't really the right thing to do, but it went over fine at the potluck.

i had bought the cream - four pints of it, mind you - when it was on sale at star market, 2 pints/$3. quite the deal, though perhaps not when you go through said pints of cream in a week and a half. good thing i didn't eat all of it myself, huh? anyway, the abundance of cream gave me the vision of thin layers of cake sandwiched with layers of pillowy whipped cream. it was saturday, though, and the potluck was on sunday, so i stabilized the whipped cream for two reasons - one, so that it would hold up overnight, and two, so that the cream would withhold the pressure of the heavy cake.

we also made a quiche. i made the crust from richard sax's home desserts, and i was afraid the dough would never come together. finally it did, and then i worried that it would be tough. well, it was fine. it was flaky enough - it could have had a bit more butter - but quiche is rich enough without having equally rich pastry. this quiche was also made from what we had on hand on sunday afternoon (by which time my parents had replenished my stocks of butter) - a mixture of parmesan, cheddar, gruyere, and herbed goat cheese; eggs, cream, and milk; and broccoli, onions, and caramelized onions leftover from making pizza. it turned out well, though, despite the slapdash nature of putting it together. i like quiche and bread pudding because you can really mess with the ratio of eggs and cream before it ruins it. quiche is certainly more susceptible to mediocrity than bread pudding, because the egg-cream custard is front and center, but it's still pretty flexible. i can't remember the last time i've ended up with a bad quiche with respect to the filling.

life in the cutcat kitchen has been fairly uneventful since the potluck. yesterday carrien and i made dinner, though. we made a spinach-cream sauce for pasta (bucatini rigate) from our incredibly sandy boston organics spinach, our remaining pint of cream, parmesan cheese, onions, and rosemary that we sneaked home with us from central kitchen - it had had a former life as a garnish. the sauce, loosely based on the spinach cream sauce from how to cook everything, was fantastic. i really like the combination of spinach, cream, and onions in the first place, and the rosemary was a surprise welcome addition. add the salt of the parmesan cheese, which also thickens the sauce, and you have a great, viable pasta sauce that's more than creamed spinach. we also boiled some green beans and broccoli and tossed 'em with olive oil. can't go wrong there.

and without further ado, here are some recipes.

orange-scented banana layer cake
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup mashed ripe bananas
1/2 cup olive oil or vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1/4 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon orange oil
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

4T boiling water
2t gelatin
2 1/2c cream + 1/2c cream
1/8c to 1/4c sugar
2t orange zest

caramel sauce (optional)

1. mash the bananas coarsely, add sugar, and whip with an electric mixer until smooth. add the oil and beat until smooth. add eggs, buttermilk, and orange oil, and beat until smooth.

2. sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. add to the wet ingredients and mix until combined. grease and flour two 9" cake pans and divide the batter between the pans. preheat the oven to 350F and bake the cakes for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown on top and a tester comes out dry. cool the cakes and then split into two layers each.

3. to make the whipped cream, sprinkle the gelatin over the boiling water. let stand 10 minutes. heat the 1/2c cream until warm and then slowly stir into gelatin mixture. let the gelatin mixture cool to room temperature. whip the 2 1/2c cream until it reaches soft peaks. add the orange zest and sugar and whip until combined. add the gelatin mixture and whip to stiff peaks. if the gelatin mixture is not at room temperature, the whipped cream will curdle; stirring the gelatin mixture will help it cool down.

4. assemble the cake : place one layer on the cake platter. smooth about 1/4c caramel sauce on the layer, if you're using it. spread a quarter of the whipped cream (1 1/2 to 2 cups) on the layer and repeat until you have used all of the layers. you'll have four layers of cake and four of cream, ending with a layer of cream on top. refrigerate at least two hours, and preferably overnight. before you serve the cake, drizzle it with caramel sauce.

[makes 10-12 servings]

caramel sauce (from the pie and pastry bible, via epicurious)
1c sugar (7 ounces = 200 grams)
1T Lyle's Golden Syrup (refiner's syrup) or corn syrup (0.75 ounce = 21 grams)
1/4c water (2 ounces = 60 grams)
1/2c heavy cream, heated (4 ounces = 116 grams)
2T unsalted butter, softened (1 ounce = 28 grams)
1t pure vanilla extract (i generally omit this)

1. in a heavy saucepan (with a 5-cup or larger capacity), stir together the sugar, syrup, and water until the sugar is completely moistened. heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar dissolves and the syrup is bubbling. stop stirring completely and allow it to boil undisturbed until it turns a deep amber. immediately remove it from the heat and slowly and carefully pour the hot cream into the caramel. it will bubble up furiously.

2. use a high-temperature heat-resistant rubber spatula, or a porcelain or wooden spoon to stir the mixture until smooth, scraping up the thicker part that settles on the bottom. if any lumps develop, return the pan to the heat and stir until they dissolve. stir in the butter. the mixture will be streaky but become uniform after cooling slightly and stirring.

[makes about 1 cup]

store at room temperature, up to 3 days; refrigerated, at least 3 months. to reheat: if the caramel is in a microwave-safe container at room temperature, microwave it on high power for 1 minute, stirring twice. if cold, it will take a few seconds more. alternatively, place it in a bowl in a pan of simmering water and heat, stirring occasionally, until warm, about 7 minutes.

notes
* refiner's or corn syrup helps to prevent the caramel sauce from crystallizing when stirred. It also lowers the caramelization temperature.

* unrefined sugar, which contains a small amount of natural molasses — which caramelizes at a slightly lower temperature — provides a flavor that is deliciously reminiscent of butterscotch. the "impurities" in unrefined sugar can cause crysallization so if you use it, care must be taken not to stir the caramel too much.

* to further prevent crystallization, try not allow any sugar crystals to get on the sides of the pan, and be sure to moisten all the sugar with the water. stop stirring entirely as soon as it comes to a boil.

* use a pan that conducts heat well (such as unlined copper, aluminum, or anodized aluminum) so that cooking stops soon after it is removed from the heat. do not use a pan with a tin or nonstick lining, as its melting point is below that of caramel.

* soaking utensils in hot water will remove hardened caramel.

* after the caramel is prepared, do not stir it too much, as this may eventually cause crystallization.

pasta in a spinach-cream sauce
2T olive oil
1 large onion, sliced thinly into rings
10 oz fresh spinach, washed
1c cream
salt + pepper, plus a bit of sugar
1/2T fresh rosemary, chopped fine (optional)
1/2c microplaned parmesan cheese (please don't use pregrated or kraft parmesan cheese)
1/2 lb to 1 lb pasta (preferably a ridged long noodle pasta)

1. heat the olive oil in a medium skillet, over medium heat. when it's hot, add the onions and stir. saute until soft and translucent, about 5-7 minutes. add the spinach (it might overflow the pan but pack it down) and cover it. let the spinach cook until it's wilted. remove the cover and let cook uncovered.

2. add the rosemary. in a separate large pot, start heating water to cook the pasta. when the water is boiling, add the pasta and cook it (drain it when it's done). let mixture cook until the water has almost completely evaporated. as it cooks, break up the spinach into bits with a spatula (it should be soft enough for this to be easy).

3. add the cream and simmer until the mixture is fairly thick, about 10-15 minutes. add salt, pepper, and sugar to taste. stir in the cheese until it's cooked. toss the sauce with the pasta and serve.

[serves 4]

chocolate hazelnut shortbread
1/2c whole hazelnuts
1c flour
5T sugar
2T cocoa (preferably valrhona - this is not a recipe in which you could use cheap cocoa)
1/4t salt
1/2c butter

1. pulse nuts with flour, sugar, cocoa, and salt in a food processor or blender until very finely chopped. if you're using a blender you might have to stir up the ingredients a couple times so the mixture is fairly homogenous.

2. if you're using a food processor, add the butter in small pieces and pulse until a dough forms. if you're using a blender, dump the dry ingredients into a medium bowl and cut in the butter until a dough forms - don't overwork the dough.

3. press dough evenly into an ungreased 9" square baking pan. cut dough into 16 squares with a sharp knife, then cut squares diagonally to make a total of 32 triangles (optional - you can make whatever shapes you want, but follow this cutting process).

4. bake until cookies are dry to the touch, 15 to 17 minutes. while cookies are hot, recut in the pan. cool completely in the pan.

[makes 32 small cookies]

moroccan@44

(sorry, no witty title; i think i'm just not gifted in that respect.)

one of these days, i will actually get around to planning a real dinner party, where all of the details are planned out, but the whole shebang is still nice and relaxed. specifically, what i really want is a coffee table to put in the middle of the living room, so we can eat around it instead of on plates in our laps. i also believe in carpets (or at least a swiffer to clean our circa-1900 hardwood floors).

the menu last night:
* djej m'chermel (chicken tagine with lemon and olives)
* vegetable tagine
* vegetable couscous
* ice cream with homemade hot fudge sauce, fresh cherries, and fresh blueberries

i had intended to go to star (how is it that i end up going there every other day? i'm so spoiled...) on wednesday evening, before heading over to lmf to make cookies. instead, i fell asleep for an hour. then, i intended to go to star on the way back from lmf - i was going to leave at 10 p.m. instead, i left at 11:30 and crashed into bed. so before my head hit the pillow, i set my alarm early enough to get myself to work at 8a.m.

it's surprising how different it feels to leave work early (at 4 p.m.). i don't feel that i arrived at work significantly earlier (i usually arrive between 8:30 and 9, depending on when i can drag myself out of bed), but i sure felt like i got to leave really early, as if i were on holiday or something. anyway, short trip home to change, and off to star i went.

when i got back, i started my mise-en-place right away. usually i wouldn't bother, but given the time restraints (about an hour and a half to make dinner), i needed to actually be efficient. in general, anyway, a mise-en-place is useful when cooking, not as useful when baking. at any rate, it's usually separating eggs and measuring out spices that's the annoying part, rather than chopping things.

once i had chopped everything for the vegetable tagine, josh arrived with allie, to help cook. :) with their help, dinner was ready by 7:30, on our slightly lame stove with only 3 working burners. lots of pot and pan juggling there - between the two tagines (which you can think of as stews), the vegetables for the couscous, and the couscous itself - there was a lot to do.

not so much was remarkable about the actual preparation of the food - both tagine recipes are from the new york times, and the couscous recipe is from epicurious. we put extra cooking liquid from the vegetables for the couscous in the liquid (vegetable broth instead of water) for cooking the couscous. (not only is it fun to say "couscous," it's such a fun grain to eat...)

in regards to the vegetable tagine, i think this is the first time that i've eaten fully cooked chickpeas. i had never really liked their texture before when people put them in chili and various other dishes, and last night i realized that is was because they weren't cooked through anyway. instead of being hard, they were firm on the outside, but creamy on the inside, with a remaining bit of bite. small food revelation there. :)

i think the vegetable tagine went best with the couscous; i didn't quite like it on its own. i'll have to go back and taste it, but it just didn't seem like it had enough depth of taste. maybe the spices weren't quite right; it was the sort of thing where you just want to add a whole bunch of potatoes - as a whole, the stew just didn't have enough oomph. it could have also just needed some salt. i'll have to try it again and see (lucky for me that things with so many spices in them only get better as they age - until that threshold of impending mold, of course). oops, i just realized that i told fred the wrong spices when he asked which ones were in the chicken. since i had no idea where to get zaatar (i have a vague inkling that formaggio kitchen might have it, as they have the most exotic spice collection i've ever seen), i used the suggested substition - ground sesame seeds and dried thyme. unfortunately, i only had regular sesame seeds, so i pretended to grind them a bit in a bowl with a spoon for a while...anyway, the zaatar went into the vegetable tagine, not the chicken tagine.

i really liked the chicken tagine, though. the addition of the lemon zest at the end added some depth to the flavor, and in my opinion, really improved it. since i like olives, the addition of olives was also a good thing. the spice combination was also just right - gotta remember that one. the chicken had simmered for a long time, so it was almost falling off the bones.

the vegetable couscous was good as well; we used zucchini and carrots as the vegetables for it. it was a great base for the rest of the meal, in which everything really just got mixed together. we used regular raisins instead of golden, but if you make it, go for the golden - i don't think there's really a taste difference, but there is a psychological difference. somehow i like eating golden raisins with couscous, much more than regular raisins. hmm. they look prettier, too.

dessert was just ice cream with some toppings. when i went to star, i bought yet another carton of ice cream - vanilla - to join the grashopper pie, butterscotch blast, and chocolate. currently we have a wall of ice cream in our freezer... i made a hot fudge sauce (also from the new york times) to go with the ice cream, and it turned out quite well. it had a bit too much cocoa powder in it even though i put in less than the recipe called for, but as it cooked a bit more, got better, and was really good over the ice cream. there's nothing healthy in that sauce, of course, but it acted just like it should have, which is just very pleasing, for some reason - it hardened as it hit the ice cream and everything.

as a whole, i enjoyed this evening more than i've enjoyed any of our past gatherings at 44 columbia (including our enormous parties, where all i seem to be able to do is tire myself out for the 10 hours preceding our party, so that i feel antisocial during the actual party; gotta work on that one). probably because it went so smoothly kitchenwise - we even got to clean up as we went, so there wasn't an enormous pile of dishes at the end of the night. i think choosing a simple dessert (read: no work) was a good thing as well. guests were lmfers, plus caitlin from 4.101 and her boyfriend steve, who's course 6 at harvard (giving him, keith, josh, AND mary lots to talk about).

and now, the recipes. this is the first time i've tried any recipes from the new york times (there are no readers' reviews!), and i'm quite happy with the way things turned out.

NOTE: all spices are always ground, unless otherwise specified (ie, "1/2t cumin seeds"). all ginger is ground ginger (the spice) if a teaspoon or tablespoon measure is mentioned. raw, fresh ginger would be something like "1" worth ginger, minced." parsley should always be flat-leaf, rather than curly.

djej m'chermel (chicken tagine with lemons and olives)
3-4 lbs chicken (either thighs and drumsticks, or an entire chicken, cut into 8 pieces; you can add the liver and giblets if you want)
4T butter
2 large onions, minced (because more onions never hurt)
2 cloves garlic, finely minced (i omitted this due to a lack of garlic at the apt)
2t paprika
1t ginger
1/2t cumin
1/4t turmeric
4T cilantro, chopped
4T parsley, chopped
1t salt
1/2t freshly ground black pepper
1/4c extra-virgin olive oil (i would recommend using a bit less)
1 1/2c water
peel from 1 preserved lemon, pulp discarded, cut into long narrow strips (use zest of 1 lemon if you can't get preserved lemons)
1c green olives, pitted
juice of 2 lemons

[1] in a large saucepan or dutch oven, over high heat, brown the chicken in the butter, skin side down, until the skin is golden brown. reduce the heat to medium low and add the liver + giblets (if using), onion, garlic, all spices (including salt and pepper), and olive oil.

[2] warm gradually, turning the ingredients for a few minutes, then add enough water to cover (don't add too much more than 1 1/2c though). bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer uncovered, occasionally turning the chicken in the sauce, until almost tender, about 30 to 40 minutes.

[3] add the lemon peel or zest, olives, and lemon juice and continue to cook until the chicken is very tender, about 15 minutes longer. (this recipe can be prepared in advance up to this point; allow to cool, refrigerate, and serve within a few days). taste the seasonings and adjust if necessary. serve immediately.

[serves 4, generously]

vegetable tagine
2T butter
2 onions, diced
2 fresh small chili peppers, thinly sliced (i substituted a teaspoon or two of ground chili peppers, available in any indian food store)
1T paprika
1/2t cayenne pepper
1t ground cumin
1c dried lentils
4 tomatoes, chopped
1/2c tomato puree
1 can chickpeas, drained
1c carrots, cut into a 1/2" dice
3 small zucchini, sliced into 1/2" disks and quartered
3/4c green peas, frozen
1/2c parsley, chopped
1T zaatar (use equal amounts ground sesame seeds and dried thyme as a substitute for this)
salt and pepper to taste

[1] in a medium or large saucepan over medium heat, warm the butter. add onions and chilies and cook until the onions begin to soften, about 10 minutes.

[2] add the dried spices and continue to saute until the onions are tender and fragrant, a few minutes longer.

[3] add lentils, tomatoes, and tomato puree, then water just to cover. simmer for about 20 minutes.

[4] add chickepeas, carrots, zucchini, and peas. simmer until tender, 15-20 minutes more. add parsley and zaatar during the last five minutes of cooking. season to taste and serve immediately.

[serves 6 to 8]

moroccan couscous
1T olive oil
3c mixed cut-up vegetables (red onions, carrots, zucchini, cauliflower, etc)
1 1/2t cumin
1 1/2t coriander (i had none, so substituted with a bit of turmeric and a bit of ginger)
1c dry white wine
1/3c golden raisins
3/4c canned vegetable broth
extra cans of vegetable broth
1 5- to 7-oz box couscous

[1] heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat. add vegetables, cumin, and coriander; saute until vegetables just begin to soften, about 3 minutes. add wine and raisins. boil until wine is reduced by half, about 3 minutes. add broth. partially cover skillet, and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 6 minutes. season with salt and pepper.

[2] make couscous according to package directions, substituting vegetable broth (and leftover liquid from vegetables if there is too much liquid) for the water.

[3] mix together vegetables and couscous in a large bowl. serve immediately.

[serves 4]

hot fudge sauce
2c heavy cream
4T butter
1/2c dark brown sugar
3/8c sugar
4-6 oz bittersweet chocolate (i used chocolate chips so i wouldn't have to chop refrigerated chocolate)
3/4c good-quality cocoa
1/2t vanilla

[1] in a medium saucepan, combine cream, butter, and sugars. bring to a simmer over medium-low heat (this takes about 10 minutes). simmer 45 seconds, then add 4 oz of chocolate and whisk to dissolve. reduce heat to the lowest setting, and add the cocoa powder, whisking to get rid of lumps.

[2] taste the sauce (it will thicken) and add more chocolate if there is too much of the cocoa taste. simmer for a minute or two longer, whisking constantly to prevent lumps from forming. remove from heat and whisk in vanilla. serve immediately. to reheat sauce, warm in a saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly (do not let boil).

[yield : 3 cups]

web links to recipes:
djej m'chermel
vegetable tagine
quick vegetable couscous
homemade hot fudge

a side note: i have officially fallen in love with the tour de france. i suppose it's a combination of my love for les triplettes de belleville, as well as patriotism regarding lance armstrong, but i've become addicted to the new york times' live multimedia dealie...