RIDICULOUSLY GOOD COCONUT BRIGADEIROS

Posted in Desserts, Sweets by sallybr

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Originally, this post would have a simple and straightforward title: “Coconut Brigadeiros”. I made them late on a Sunday evening to take to our department next day. Phil tried one, and was silent for a while. Then, he said “Sally, these are ridiculously good”. And that, my friends, is how a new title for my post was born. I could not let that one pass… 😉

Those of you who do not know what is a “brigadeiro” are invited to jump here and read a post I made a couple of years ago. It explains everything you need to know about the most traditional sweet served at Brazilians parties and kids’ birthdays (particularly kids younger than 91 years old). Coconut brigadeiros are simply a variation on a classic, but wow… they ARE ridiculously good. Make a batch. And you will be hooked.

COCONUT BRIGADEIROS
(adapted from Fine Cooking magazine, original recipe from Leticia Moreinos Schwartz)

1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 oz)
1/2 cup coconut milk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 teaspoons light corn syrup
2 cups shredded unsweetened coconut (divided)

Add the condensed milk, coconut milk, unsalted butter, corn syrup, and 1/2 cup of shredded coconut to a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Turn the heat down to medium low and cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the mixture thickens. Depending on your stove, it should take 15 minutes or a little more. If the mixture boils too furiously, lower the heat. Keep stirring at all times or you might end up with brigadeiros that are not totally smooth. The mixture is ready when you can see the bottom of the saucepan as you stir. Slide the mixture out into a bowl, avoid scraping the stuff that glued to the pan. Let the mixture cool completely or until it is cool enough to handle.

Spread the remaining 1 + 1/2 cups of the shredded coconut out onto a rimmed baking sheet and toast in a 350 degree oven for 10-15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes to ensure even browning. Remove from the oven when most of the coconut is golden brown. Place into a bowl and let cool.

Scoop the coconut mixture with a small spoon (it helps to wet the palm of your hand with cold water) and roll into 3/4″ diameter balls. Drop each ball into the shredded coconut and toss gently to coat. Serve right away at room temperature, or chill until ready to serve.

This recipe will make 26 to 36 brigadeiros. I tend to like them a little bigger, so I normally end with less than 30. The recipe can be doubled. For a different take, roll the coconut brigadeiros in chocolate sprinkles.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: A friend of mine from Brazil goes to the extent of sautéing the shredded coconut in butter for the coating. I think toasting in the oven is good enough. Sometimes you can find shredded coconut in smaller pieces than the ones I used. It will work fine too.

Brigadeiros can be served at room temperature, or straight from the fridge. They will have a different texture, some people (me included) prefer the soft, room temperature version. While we were in Brazil a couple of months ago, my niece Raquel served us a variation on brigadeiros that might very well be my favorite: brigadeiros de cupuaçú.

Now, I don’t expect too many Americans (or Europeans for the matter) to know what I’m talking about. Cupuaçú is a fruit native of the North of Brazil, the same region where açaí grows and where my Dad was born back in 1920. He absolutely loved both fruits! It has a very unique taste, sweet and sour at the same time. In São Paulo you can easily find cupuaçú pulp in frozen form, which is what Raquel used for her brigadeiros. One of the best things I’ve ever had! Here in the US I settle for coconut, so you can make it too… 😉

Love Brazilian cooking? Consider getting Leticia Schwartz book, The Brazilian Kitchen. For my review of her book, click here.

ONE YEAR AGO: A bewitching move ahead… (from OK to KS!)

TWO YEARS AGO: Double-hydration focaccia

THREE YEARS AGO: Pierre Nury’s Rustic Light Rye: Bougnat

12Apr2013

CLEMENTINE CAKE

Posted in Desserts, Sweets by sallybr

Clementines will always remind me of my stepson Alex, as he and his Dad would sit together devouring a few of them after dinner or mid-afternoon on weekends. We made sure to keep a backup bag stored away, just in case. In our neck of the woods, they are sold as cuties, a well-chosen name. This cake – made in the food processor – is supposed to be very easy. Of course, Sally + Cake = Drama. But it ended reasonably well, except for a burn on my right hand. Actually, two burns. A sticky kitchen floor. And a major spill of orange extract.

CLEMENTINE CAKE
(From Razzle Dazzle Recipes)

Cake:
3 clementines
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup softened butter
3 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt

Icing:
1 clementine
2 tablespoons softened butter
1 1/3 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon orange liqueur (I used orange extract, about 1/4 tsp)

Grease an 8-cup bundt pan. Peel clementines; cut into quarters. If there are seeds, remove them (they are normally seedless). Process with sugar in food processor until smooth. Add butter, then eggs; processing after each addition until smooth. Add flour, baking powder, and pinch of salt; process until combined. Spoon into prepared pan. Bake in 350-degree oven for 40 to 50 minutes or until golden. Cool on rack for 10 minutes. Remove cake from pan.

For icing: Grate and squeeze juice from clementine. In food processor, measure 1 teaspoon rind and 2 tablespoons juice; add butter, confectioners’ sugar and liqueur. Process until smooth. Drizzle over cake.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

At some point I would like to be able to bake a cake smoothly. No bumps, no boo-boos. In this particular case, the cake part went fine, except for the fact that since our oven is a perverse piece of equipment, I had to keep moving the pan around to try to cook it evenly. Burned my hand twice in the process, touching the grids. I thought I was off the hook, and proceeded to make the icing. Knowing how powdered sugar has a tendency to make a mess, I was extra careful measuring the first cup, and then, all confident in my flawless technique, grabbed the 1/3 measuring cup but the bag literally Poltergeisted on me! Powdered sugar everywhere, counter, floor, rug, my shoes… Truth be told, not the first time it happened, and I suspect it won’t be the last. (sigh) No time to clean then, just chased the dogs away, failing to notice I had the bottle of orange extract already open next to the food processor. I bumped it. Double mess to clean up, a sticky mixture of powdered sugar and orange extract. Its smell lingered for a looong while…

Although I greased the pan well, some parts of the cake stuck while unmolding. I went Zen, and carefully lifted the stuck parts, patching them nicely back on top of the cake. I expected the icing to hide my poor baking skills. That takes me to the icing part. Since I did not have orange liqueur and the orange extract seemed quite strong, I reduced the amount to 1/4 teaspoon. Eyeballed a little water to compensate. It seemed too thick, so I added more water. That was a mistake in judgment. The icing ended up too thin and failed to cover the cut and paste job on the surface of the cake. It explains why you only see a close-up photo of my production… I may not know how to bake a perfect cake, but I can point the camera like a pro! 😉 Anyway, I took the cake to the department already sliced, so the boo-boos were less evident.

The cake has a very intense clementine flavor, if you like cakes that are not too sweet, this is a great option. Of course, it does have a lot of sugar in it, but the clementine juice and zest comes through loud and clear. A perfect cake to make graduate students happy. And lots of staff and faculty members too…

ONE YEAR AGO: Springtime Spinach Risotto

TWO YEARS AGO: The end of green bean cruelty

THREE YEARS AGO: Torta di Limone e Mandorle

25Feb2013

SECRET RECIPE CLUB: OATMEAL FUDGE BARS

Posted in Desserts, Sweets, Secret Recipe Club by sallybr

Mondays keep coming, rushing over me, but the toughest day in the week is made brighter when it’s…. Reveal Day of The Secret Recipe Club! This club is getting more and more interesting, as new food bloggers join in. I heard the waiting list is huge, so if you have any interest in this type of group event, get yourself in line! This month I was paired with the blog Everyday Insanity. The name describes my days quite closely… 😉 I also love her tag line: Tackling life, one brownie recipe at a time! Everyday Insanity is hosted by Cindy, and her choice of name for the blog might be due to her having 6 kids and 14 grandchildren! My life all of a sudden feels like a walk at the park. Seriously. Her blog is full of tasty recipes, not only sweets. I was very tempted to make her Thai Coconut Chicken soup, but these bars won me over. Plus, the timing was perfect: I brought them to our department on Valentine’s Day!

OATMEAL FUDGE BARS
(from Everyday Insanity)

1 cup quick-cooking oats
1+1/4 cup light brown sugar, divided
1 cup all-purpose flour, divided
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt + 1 pinch, divided
10 tbsp unsalted butter, divided
1 + 1/2 cups chocolate chips
1 egg

Heat your oven to 325 degrees. Line an 8 inch square baker with aluminum foil, allowing excess to hang over the edges of the pan. Grease foil; set pan aside.

Combine the oats, 1 cup of brown sugar, ¾ cup of flour, baking powder, baking soda, and a pinch of salt. Stir together in a bowl to combine. Melt 8 Tbsp butter and stir into the oat mixture until combined. Reserve ¾ cup of the mixture for the topping. Sprinkle the remaining oat mixture over the bottom of the prepared pan and press into an even layer. Bake until light golden brown, about 12 minutes. Cool completely, about 1 hour.

Combine the remaining ¼ cup flour, the remaining ¼ cup brown sugar, and the remaining ¼ tsp salt in a bowl. Set aside.

Melt the chocolate chips and the remaining 2 Tbsp butter in a large bowl, microwaving at 50% power in 30 second intervals, stirring after each. Let cool slightly. Add the egg and whisk until combined. Use a rubber spatula to fold in the flour mixture, stirring until just combined.

Pour the chocolate filling over the cooled crust and sprinkle with the remaining oatmeal mixture. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, 25-30 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack. Using the foil overhang, lift the bars from the pan and cut into squares. Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: Valentine’s Day this year fell on a Thursday, so I bravely decided to tackle this recipe the evening before. After work. After dinner. Not a smart move. I completely overlooked the instruction to “reserve part of the mixture for the topping”, and of course got into full-blast panic mode when I noticed my mistake. By then the base of the bar was already in the oven. I rushed to make a little more topping, calculating proportions of all ingredients quickly in my mind, hoping for the best. Probably due to my level of stress, the chocolate seized in the microwave, prompting me to throw one of those fits that brings Phil back into the kitchen, already holding a box of Kleenex. To make a long story short, without him, there would be no bars. Unbearable thought.

So, when you make these absolutely delicious bars, do yourself a favor and follow the recipe as written. That way the base of your bar will the thinner, and the crumb topping will be lighter, as intended.

Cindy, it was wonderful to get to “meet” you through this baking adventure! Thanks to you (and also to the imperturbable man I married), I could take a platter full of sweetness to work on the sweetest day of the year!

To see what others in my group prepared for Reveal Day, click on the funky little frog smiling at the end of the post. Do you want to know who got my blog and what she cook from it? Jane, from The Healthy Beehive picked a favorite recipe of mine, check it out by clicking here

ONE YEAR AGO: Cauliflower Steaks

TWO YEARS AGO: Soft Spot for Chevre

THREE YEARS AGO: Quick sun-dried Tomato Crostini

12Feb2013

ALMOND BUTTER CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Posted in Cookies, Desserts, Sweets by sallybr

I am not very fond of peanut butter. Its sticky, gooey nature manages to turn me off. I like to cook savory dishes with it, but I shy away from desserts that call for it as an ingredient. Until now, I had placed almond butter in the same category. But, truth be told, I never bothered to try it. Then, I read Lynda’s post about Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. A quote about this nut spread made me re-evaluate my position. Here’s what she had to say about it:

It’s not as pronounced in flavor as peanut butter which can overwhelm a cookie. Almond butter is mellower with notes of deeply roasted nuts, adding a subtle, golden background to the dough.

It was worth a try… 😉

ALMOND BUTTER CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
(from Taste Food)

makes 36 cookies

1 + 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup unsalted creamy almond butter (not raw)
1 cup dark chocolate chips or chunks

Whisk the flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl; set aside. Cream the butter and both sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer for a couple of minutes or until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla. Mix well. Mix in the almond butter until smooth. Add the flour and mix to combine, then stir in the chocolate. Refrigerate the batter for at least one hour, or up to 24 hours.
Heat oven to 350 F. Drop rounded tablespoons of dough on baking sheets lined with parchment. Bake until light golden, about 14 minutes.

Optional: Sprinkle a few flakes of sea salt on the cookies before baking.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: I am so glad I did not allow prejudice to prevent me from trying this recipe! Lynda was absolutely right, the almond butter gives these cookies a very unique flavor. You won’t quite know what it is, they just taste rich and intense. I omitted the sprinkle of salt on top. However, I think the flavor of the salt added to the dough was assertive enough for us. Now, for the best part… I fell in love with almond butter! It is creamier, has a much more pleasant texture and mouth feel. All of a sudden, a new favorite concoction in my life: Toasted Ezekiel Sprouted Grain bread + Almond butter + Banana Slices. It has it all, the crunch of the bread, the sweetness of the fruit, and the rich almond butter to tie them together…

Lynda, once again your blog pointed me in a tasty direction! Thank you!

ONE YEAR AGO: Dan Dan Noodles

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THREE YEARS AGO: Antibiotics and Food

1Feb2013

BRAN MUFFINS, TAKE TWO

Posted in Breakfast & Brunch, Desserts, Sweets by sallybr

Bran muffins make Phil very very happy, so I tried a new recipe for his favorite morning treat. On a whim, I went with the “back of the bag” recipe in the Bob’s Red Mill Wheat Bran product. I reasoned that they probably tested and re-tested the recipe to make sure whoever baked a batch would love it and buy another bag. 😉 I also thought that using applesauce in the batter would make it moist and flavorful. I was right.

MOLASSES BRAN MUFFINS
(from Bob’s Red Mill)

1 cup wheat bran
1 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup raisins
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup milk
1/2 cup molasses (or honey)
3/4 cup applesauce
1/4 cup chopped walnuts (toasted is best)
2 Tbsp. oil
2 eggs, beaten

Heat the oven to 400°F. Combine wheat bran, flour, baking soda and baking powder. Stir in nuts and raisins. In a separate bowl, blend applesauce, milk, molasses, oil and egg. Add to dry ingredients and stir just until moistened. Spoon into a muffin pan lined with paper muffin cups) and bake for 20 minutes. Makes 12 regular-size muffins.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: Between these bran muffins and the first one I blogged about, I think I prefer this batch because of the prominent apple taste that mellows the “hippie factor” of the wheat bran. Did I hit the jackpot with them? And by jackpot I mean bran muffins that match the ones of Phil’s past. Not quite yet there. However, after almost 13 years of marriage, I finally got a hint on one of the issues: size. The muffins he loved so much were bigger. Size does matter after all! A shocking realization. But, here is the tricky part, in those days they did not make them gigantic. They were just slightly bigger. So, now I am on a mission to find a pan that will make a muffin somewhere between “regular” and “jumbo”. As to taste, I am on the right track. Raisins and walnuts, yes. But next time, less apple, and honey instead of molasses.

I do not go down without a fight, my friends! One day, I will bake the bran muffin of his dreams…

ONE YEAR AGO: Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

TWO YEARS AGO: Breville Sourdough

THREE YEARS AGO: Vienna Bread