SECRET RECIPE CLUB: EARTHQUAKE COOKIES!

Posted in Cookies, Desserts, Sweets, Secret Recipe Club by sallybr

After one month break, we are back with “The Secret Recipe Club“, and our group even has a new moderator, April, who did a great job coaching us through the changes that took place during the break. For those who are not familiar with the event, a few weeks before reveal day, each member is assigned a food blog (in secret) to cook a recipe from. This time I was paired with My Judy the Foodie. When I get an assignment, I jump straight to the “About” page, to get to know my fellow blogger. Shari describes herself as a “kitchen-clueless person”. But one who is ready for a challenge, the challenge of creating new traditions for her own family, inspired by her mother’s cooking. The whole blog is in fact a beautiful tribute to her Mom. Her page “About Judy” was particularly touching to read.

I next browsed through her recipes, and it didn’t take me very long to choose her beautiful “Earthquake Cookies“. Considering the fact that while living for one year in Los Angeles we didn’t have a single earthquake, but the very week we moved back to Oklahoma the earth shook three days in a row, I felt these cookies were the perfect choice! 😉
JUDY’S EARTHQUAKE COOKIES
(from My Judy the Foodie)

8 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 squares unsweetened chocolate
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking powder
2 cups sugar
4 eggs beaten
2 cups flour, sifted
1/2 tsp salt
1 + 1/2 cups of confectioner’s sugar

Melt chocolate and butter in a microwave safe container, stirring every 15 seconds.

Beat the eggs in a large bowl, add the sugar, vanilla extract, and melted chocolate/butter mixture. Add the baking powder, flour, and salt and beat until very smooth.

Place bowl in fridge and chill as long as 24 hours.

Heat the oven to 350 F. Cover two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Place confectioner’s sugar in bowl large enough to roll out the fudge balls. Take a teaspoon of the cookie dough and form into balls. Coat the ball with confectioner’s sugar by rolling it around in the sugar many times.

Place on baking sheet with enough room for each ball to “explode” open. Bake for approximately 12 minutes (mine took longer). Cool and then remove cookies to wire rack (make sure to place foil under the rack as powdered sugar can be quite messy).

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: When you make these cookies, don’t forget the cookie dough must sit in the fridge for 24 hours. Once you mix the dough, it will be very soft, the only way you can shape them is by refrigerating for several hours. As far as taste goes, a full day in the fridge seems to be the best option.

Here you can see the dough right after mixing it…

and next day, ready to finish the job…

My cookies did not explode the same way Shari’s did, her cookies looked a lot more “interesting” than mine. Not sure what happened, I suspect the geologic fault that runs near our home was fast asleep when I put them in the oven. Bummer! However, exploded or not, these cookies were VERY tasty. They have a slightly fudgy consistency, and as they melt in your mouth the chocolate flavor will force you to close your eyes and indulge in extremely happy thoughts. My kind of cookie!

Shari, nice to meet you through The Secret Recipe Club! Looking forward to checking out what was your assignment this month! 😉

ONE YEAR AGO: A Soft Spot for Chevre

TWO YEARS AGO: Seared Tuna, My Own Private Idaho

16Feb2012

CARAMELIZED BANANAS

Posted in Desserts, Sweets by sallybr

First, let me to introduce the world’s expert on caramelized bananas, my Mom!
If I had to select one recipe to always associate with her, I’d pick caramelized bananas. When I was a child she’d make a batch almost every week, using different types of bananas from the street markets of Sao Paulo. Sometimes, depending on the variety she found at the market, the “doce de banana” turned almost purple when she cooked it, which was quite interesting. For my Brazilian readers, “banana prata” was the one that acquired the reddish-purple color. But, the regular Brazilian banana, which is the one on the shelves here in the US, was her top choice, because both me and my Dad loved it the most. It gets dark brown, with an intense, sweet flavor and a splash of freshness from the lemon juice squeezed at the end. So, when I saw this recipe in the February issue of Food and Wine I immediately went to work, making a batch of caramelized bananas, and using some for this delicious frozen yogurt treat.

CHOCOLATE FROZEN YOGURT WITH CARAMELIZED BANANAS
(adapted from Food and Wine magazine)

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 large ripe bananas, cut into 1-inch rounds
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
squeeze of lemon juice
1 tablespoon dark rum
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons 2 percent milk (divided)
2 + 1/2 tablespoons Dutch-process cocoa powder
2/3 cup granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 + 1/3 cups nonfat Greek yogurt
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

In a nonstick skillet, melt the butter. Add the bananas in a single layer and sprinkle with the brown sugar. Cook over moderate heat, turning once, until caramelized, about 8 minutes. Squeeze a little lemon juice all over. Remove the pan from the heat, add the rum and swirl the pan to completely dissolve the sugar. Scrape three-quarters of the bananas into a food processor and add 3 tablespoons of the milk. Puree until smooth. Transfer the puree to a small bowl and freeze until chilled, 15 minutes. Chop the remaining bananas and freeze until chilled.

In another bowl, whisk the cocoa with the granulated sugar, salt, vanilla and the remaining 1/2 cup of milk. Whisk in the yogurt until smooth, then the banana puree.

Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and churn until nearly frozen. Mix in the chopped bananas and pieces of chocolate. Scrape the frozen yogurt into an airtight container, cover and freeze until firm, at least 2 hours.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Food memories are so powerful! As the bananas cooked down in the skillet, their aroma whisked me back to my parents’ home. Suddenly I was 17 again and rushing home from school, dashing to the kitchen, all tantalized by the smell of Mom’s caramelized bananas. Back home people like to pair them with farmer’s cheese or some vanilla ice cream, but I’m a purist: just a small bowl of “doce de banana,” and a tiny spoon to make sure the pleasure lasts longer… 😉

I never imagined using them as part of a frozen dessert, but it is sublime! The yogurt reduces the sweetness, but the bits of banana and the chunks of chocolate bring it back, just enough to make you happy. It is still a light dessert, much lighter than ice cream, and perfect for someone who’s not wild about sugary concoctions. Come to think of it, the other day I found a recipe online for burnt orange ice cream, and my antennas immediately went up. But I found that it called for a cup and a half of heavy cream, a cup of whole milk, a ton of sugar, and 5 egg yolks. It’s easy to make a decadent dessert with such a surplus of fat, but as David Lebovitz points out in his book “The Perfect Scoop,” it’s really not necessary, and this frozen yogurt proves his point. 😉

ONE YEAR AGO: Roasted Lemon Vinaigrette

TWO YEARS AGO: Whole Wheat Bread

1Feb2012

BROWN BUTTER MAGIC

Posted in Cookies, Desserts, Sweets by sallybr

I got to know “Beautiful Disasters” through The Secret Recipe Club, when Casey, a very fit and active high school student, made a recipe from my blog. She hit the jackpot: her post was the most popular of our group! I always look forward to her articles, not only for the recipes, but for the “Random fact of the day“. Did you know that the average shoe size of a gorilla is 17? Well, I didn’t, but learned on her site. 😉

Recently Casey wrote this enticing post about her favorite chocolate chip cookie, and the description and photos got my immediate attention. At first glance, the recipe seems pretty straightforward, using the usual suspects for this traditional American favorite: butter, sugar, baking soda, walnuts, and chocolate chips. But, what sets it apart is the browning of the butter, and the toasting & grinding of the walnuts. Brown butter. Ground walnuts. Who would imagine they could make a simple cookie so decadent and delicious?
BROWN BUTTER CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
(from Beautiful Disasters)

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 + 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 + 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 + 1/2 cups chocolate chips
1 cups walnuts, toasted and ground
1-2 teaspoons of milk, as needed

The day before (or at least 3 hours before making the cookies), heat the butter over low heat in a small saucepan. It will foam and bubble, slowly acquiring a tan color. Keep stirring, watch it carefully so that the solids won’t burn. Cook until the butter is a deep caramel color (it took me over 12 minutes). Pour into a pyrex type dish, and refrigerate until solid.

Heat the oven to 300 degrees F, and toast the walnuts on a baking sheet for 12 minutes, or until fragrant and starting to get some color. Transfer to a small food processor and turn it on and off a few times, to grind the nuts. Reserve. (You can also finely chop them by hand, but it’s a bit cumbersome).

Cut the brown butter in small cubes, place it in the bowl of an electric mixer, and cream it with both sugars. Beat in the egg, vanilla, and baking soda. Add the flour and salt, mixing gently. Finally add the ground i nuts and chocolate chips. If the dough is too crumbly, add a couple of teaspoons of milk.

Scoop the dough onto cookie sheets lined with parchment paper, and bake in a 300 F oven for 18 minutes. Let cool on wire rack.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

These are some amazing cookies! Hot from the oven, they were simply irresistible… I had THREE cookies. Now, keep in mind that when I make a batch of cookies I eat one, and that is pretty much it for me. I had three. One, then another. And then another. (sigh)

My moment of pure joy, on a Sunday afternoon…

A cup of steaming spiced almond milk…. (for recipe, click here)

With bites of insanely good chocolate chip cookies…

Thank you, Casey!

ONE YEAR AGO: Tidy Sourdough

TWO YEARS AGO: Vienna Bread

26Dec2011

SECRET RECIPE CLUB: WHITE CHOCOLATE DIPPED COOKIES

Posted in Cookies, Desserts, Sweets, Secret Recipe Club by sallybr

My third assignment for the Secret Recipe Club! When I clicked on my assigned blog – Kudos Kitchen by Renee – I melted on the spot: the front page was a post composed by her three dogs (Ivy, Nutmeg and Nell), and they had a lot to bark about! 😉

Renee is an artist (check her store at Etsy), and that alone leaves me in complete awe, because I cannot draw a tree to save my own life! In fact, back in middle school two things terrified me to the point of losing sleep: physical education and art classes. I was absolutely horrible at both, and wanted to disappear from the planet when it was time to face them. Back to blogging. I fell in love with Renee’s 4th of July cookies, and adapted them for a Christmas time motif, switching the colors to green and red. And, since I’ve always wanted to make shortbread cookies, this was a perfect excuse to bake a batch. Without further ado, and with apologies to Renee, here is my very first attempt at playing Jackson Pollock. You can understand why I was not very popular with the art teachers… (sigh)

WHITE CHOCOLATE DIPPED COOKIES
(adapted from Kudos Kitchen by Renee)

for cookies
1 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 cups flour
3/4 cup ground hazelnuts
zest of 1 lemon
2 teaspoons vanilla
pinch of salt

for dipping cookies
1 + 1/2 packages white chocolate morsels
3 tablespoons Crisco, divided
1 tablespoon milk
red and green food coloring

In a large kitchen Aid type bowl, beat together the butter with the brown sugar until creamy. Add the flour, ground hazelnuts, vanilla, lemon zest, and salt. Beat until smooth. Remove the dough from the bowl, form it into a log and wrap with plastic. Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Heat the oven to 325 F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. When the dough is firm enough to handle, remove 1 inch balls and shape as a cookie, flattening the surface. Alternatively, you can slice pieces straight from the log, 1/4 inch thick. Smooth the surface and edges, and place on prepared cookie sheet. Bake for 15 minutes on until set and very lightly browned on the bottom. Remove from pan and place the cookies to cool on a rack. Before icing, place them in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Dipping the cookies: melt 1 cup of the chocolate chips and the 2 + 1/2 tablespoons of Crisco in your microwave. Check on it often and stir it occasionally until the chocolate is smooth and completely melted.

Using a fork and working with one cookie at a time, dip each cookie, turning it over to coat both sides nicely with chocolate. Place your dipped cookies on a baking sheet that has been lined with parchment paper. Follow this step until all of the chocolate is used up. This amount of chocolate will be enough to coat about 12 cookies.

With the remaining 1/2 cup of morsels, melt them in your microwave again, using 1/2 Tbs Crisco and 1 tablespoon of milk to keep the consistency thinner and better for drizzling.

In two separate small bowls, divide the chocolate and color them with the red and green food coloring. Drizzle the cookies with both colors of icing, using the tines of a fork dipped in water, or if you have the right skills, a little improvised piping bag made with parchment paper.

Place the cookies in the fridge until time to serve them.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

A few things I learned from this baking adventure…

1. Run away from the small tubes of food coloring gel, because even if you squeeze the full tube of green gel in 1/4 cup of melted chocolate, the resulting icing will have a pale lime color. Go for the real McCoy, the type that you need to use a toothpick to grab the tiny amount that gets the job done.

2. White chocolate is not for sissies. When Renee says to make sure the chocolate is fully melted and smooth, she knows what she’s talking about. Lumps get together and seem to multiply at a fast rate. Then, right before your eyes, the whole thing turns into a solid mess.

3. White chocolate is not for sissies. Melted chocolate, when smooth and fluid, has a remarkable tendency to splatter. Certain types of dog fur catch droplets of icing with high efficiency, and don’t wash easily.

4. Have I mentioned that white chocolate is not for sissies? Buy more than you think you’ll need. Have a cup of chamomile tea before icing your cookies. You may need three shots of tequila after.

But it will all be worth it, these cookies were amazing! You can play with the colors to match your favorite football team, or go real artistic and draw something over the white chocolate canvas, like red hearts for Valentine’s Day! 😉

Renee, it was great to get to know your blog, hope you had as much fun as I did with your assignment this month!

ONE YEAR AGO: Sourdough Focaccia, with a Twist

TWO YEARS AGO: Merry Christmas!

18Nov2011

A BLONDIE FOR CARMEN

Posted in Cookbook Reviews, Desserts, Sweets by sallybr

As I promised in my review of “Short and Sweet,” here is the recipe I selected to break in the book, so to speak. Most people would imagine I’d choose a bread, and indeed many were calling my name. But when I set my eyes on this recipe, I became like a Jack Russel chasing a squirrel, oblivious to everything else. How could I possibly resist? In his opening remarks, Dan states that if Carmen Miranda had some ripe bananas laying around, she would bake these blondies. The rich, white chocolate & banana cake hide little jewels inside, toffee bits made with Brazil nuts. Cannot go more Brazilian than that, unless you throw in some coffee, but I suppose that would give the blondie too much of a tan. 😉

BANANA BLONDIES
(published with permission from Dan Lepard)

to make the toffee:
75g superfine sugar
2 Tbs cold water
75g Brazil nuts, chopped

for the blondies:
100g unsalted butter
250g fine sugar
200g white chocolate
1 egg
2 ripe bananas, peeled (200-250g)
2 tsp vanilla extract
200g all purpose flour
¼ tsp baking powder

Lightly coat with oil a small baking sheet. Reserve. Place the fine sugar and the water inside a small pan. Turn the heat to medium, bring the water to a boil, and gently let it boil until the sugar turns a very dark golden color, but don’t let it burn. Immediately drop the chopped nuts inside, and stir with a silicone spatula or another appropriate tool. Carefully but quickly pour the mixture over the prepared baking sheet, spreading it around. Let it cool completely, then chop the toffee into small bits. Reserve.

Resist the temptation to try the toffee. Do not touch it!

Line the base and sides of an 8 inch (20 cm) square baking dish with parchment paper and heat the oven to 375 F. If using a non-stick pan you can skip the parchment paper, but coat the pan with a little butter to prevent sticky issues.

Heat the butter and white chocolate stirring gently in a pan over very low heat until melted (or use the microwave in short 10 second cycles of heating), then transfer to a medium size bowl. Add the remaining (250g) sugar and beat with the egg, bananas and vanilla until smooth. Sift the flour and baking powder, add to the batter together with the toffee bits, folding it all gently.

Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish and bake for about 35 minutes, until golden on top. If you shake the pan slightly, the center portion should still be slightly wobbly, but mostly set. Cool it completely before slicing in small squares.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

This was my first time making toffee, and quite likely the first time tasting some made from scratch. I had no idea it would be so amazing! I am not that fond of Brazil nuts, so I tried a small bite of the toffee to decide whether to add it or skip it. The stars in the sky had never been so bright! It was unbelievably tasty: sweet, crunchy, nutty, enough to make me lose all my composure and disregard my own motto of “everything in moderation.” Moderation and this toffee don’t match.

Back to the blondies. These are certainly worthy of Carmen Miranda‘s approval, tropical bits of tender cake, with intense banana flavor, the creaminess of the white chocolate, and the sweet crunch of the toffee surprising the palate at every bite.

Pointers for success: Check the weight of the banana(s) so that you don’t go over the 250g mark. Do not use over-ripe bananas from the freezer, because they tend to release too much liquid and the cake may not set properly.

Here’s what Carmen would tell you:

Make a double batch of the toffee. Sprinkle some over vanilla ice cream.
Close your eyes and take a spoonful.
Repeat.

Carmen Miranda (1909-1955)