mix, mix…stir, stir

Personal sized desserts always look like they were more work to make, but really there is no difference and they are a lot easier to serve. This week for Tuesdays with Dorie it was Milk Chocolate Mini Bundt Cakes, and the recipe really got me thinking about ingredient substitutions.

Most notably I didn’t use milk chocolate. I much prefer dark, really dark, chocolate so I rarely have milk chocolate on hand and just did a straight substitution of dark for milk. The flavor was great. I often bend a recipe to suit my taste, or to work with ingredients I have on hand. If you don’t care for an ingredient in a recipe don’t be afraid to find an equivalent to substitute. The trick is to understanding the role of the objectionable ingredient so you substitute an alternate that serves the same purpose. David likes to mock me, “well I didn’t have any ground beef so I substituted peanut butter” or some other outlandish swap, but I rarely have a substitution related disaster. Notice I didn’t use the word “never”, hence the mocking.

This recipe gave an alternative that I wouldn’t have thought of off the top of my head, but will remember for future applications. The cake called for ½ cup whole milk and in the sidebar notes Dorie mentioned buttermilk can be substituted with the addition of 1/8 teaspoon of baking soda to the dry ingredients (the baking soda is important to neutralize the acidity of the buttermilk). I was happy for the option because I had buttermilk, but no whole milk, thus no special trip to the store needed!

These little cakes hold a surprise swirl of crunchy treats. Had I followed the recipe, it would be walnuts with cocoa powder and sugar, but I thought walnuts and cocoa nibs would be more interesting. The cocoa nibs were fantastic. They were actually the hit of the cake requiring vigilant attention to ward off intruding forks attempting to sneak over and steal them off of one another’s plates. There was an increased risk of nib pilfering because I over baked the cakes which made them crumbly and if a crumb contained a cocoa nib, be on guard it might get snitched. I think it’s because I baked them on the convection setting, but forgot to decrease the baking time. I’ll be interested to visit other Tuesday with Dorie baker’s posts to see if anyone else had dry cakes.

If you haven’t used cocoa nibs, I hope you will pick some up and give them a try. They make a great addition to most baked goods. They add texture that is crunchy but not gritty. Nibs crunch and then sort of  melt when chewed. They also lend a deep chocolate flavor the way unsweetened chocolate or cocoa powder would. Cocoa nibs are created very early in the chocolate making process. Once cocoa beans are roasted they are run through a machine called a winnoer to remove the outer husk. The pieces of bean that are kept for chocolate are cocoa nibs. The nibs are then ground and conched, which is essentially a grinding process to create a beautiful smooth texture before the chocolate is molded into bars or candies. My favorite cocoa nibs come from Theo Chocolate. They are a local Seattle company that is one of very few manufacturers in the US making chocolate from raw beans to finished bars. One of the reasons they have such a nice product is they process in very small batches so the quality of the roast on the nibs is carefully monitored.

Kristin of I’m Right About Everything picked the recipe for this week and will have it posted on her blog if you’d like to give it a try.

Over 350 baking bloggers are baking our way thorough Dorie Greenspan’s book, Baking: From My Home to Yours . 111 recipes completed 110 to go! Look we are over the hump!

If you want to eat chocolate for breakfast, here’s your ticket. This bread drives the deliciously bitter and complex flavors of cocoa front and center leaving the bananas to the finish as a hint that this is legitimate breakfast food.

A full cup of cocoa powder gives the bread a dark enticing appearance and bold flavor; it reminded me more of coffee than chocolate. What could be more perfect for breakfast? I would even consider leaving out the pieces of chopped chocolate next time. I added a generous ¼ teaspoon of freshly ground cardamom which created a beautiful lingering warm floral flavor that complimented both the cocoa and banana equally well.

It turned out I could have pulled my bread out of the oven a few minutes earlier because it was just on the boarder of being over baked. I may have been thrown off by the bits of chocolate in the batter making it look like the toothpick I inserted to check for doneness was coming out with wet batter attached, when I actually just stabbed a reservoir of chocolate. It’s probably a good idea to try pricking a few different spots before making a final assessment as to the doneness of the bread.

A parchment paper sling is my surefire way to be able to remove baked goods from pans. In the recipe, Dorie suggests placing the loaf pan on a sheet pan, but instead I used two nested loaf pans to create a little air space in the bottom for insulation. It worked great. The batter filled a 9×5 loaf pan perfectly. If you have a smaller 4×8 loaf pan, bake some of the batter in a separate ramekin or muffin tin.

I am so thrilled with this bread and can’t wait to make it again. I was really taken with the beautiful bitterness of the cocoa that came through. My favorite cocoa powder is Felchlin Cacaopulver. I buy it through The Chocolate Man who offers a fantastic selection of quality chocolates from around the world.

Steph of Obsessed with Baking made the recipe selection for this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie kitchen activity. She has the recipe posted on her wonderful blog. I encourage you to check out the recipe for Cocoa-Nana Bread and click around to see what other culinary adventures she has been on.

Over 350 baking bloggers are baking our way thorough Dorie Greenspan’s book, Baking: From My Home to Yours . 110 recipes completed 111 to go!

I have always had chocolate chip cookie baking inferiority complex because they never seem to turn out to be what I desired a chocolate chip cookie to be. I decided to conquer the chocolate chip cookie and search out the recipe of my dreams. After making dozens of different recipes and not finding what I was looking for I began to take various elements from one recipe or another to create my ideal cookie. It is soft and chewy with a nice crisp outside edge. It is not overly thick, not overly sweet, and not overly large.

photo by David Peterman

One of my favorite elements is a light sprinkling of flake salt on the top, an idea I learned from Jacque Torres’ comments in the New York Times article on the quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. Another key change for me was to use my favorite chocolate rather than chocolate chips. I like a 62% chocolate made by Guittard, but as long as you use a chocolate you love to eat, even chocolate chips, I bet you will be happy with the results.

A couple of factors that can affect the end result is temperature, creaming time, and measuring accuracy. Make sure the eggs aren’t cold and that the butter is right around 66 degrees F. Too cold and it won’t get light and fluffy, too warm and it won’t hold volume. Taking the time to add the sugar gradually builds volume in the batter as does allowing the mixer to run for a full minute between adding the eggs. Just for kicks, time yourself after adding the first egg yolk. You will be amazed at how long a minute is when you are standing over the mixer ready to add the next ingredient. Be patient, wash a dish, clean up the kitchen, let the mixer run. Accuracy in measuring the flour and portioning the dough is important as well. I work off a cup of flour weighing 5 ounces. If you have a scale, use that instead of a measuring cup.

It really doesn’t matter what size you make your cookies as long as they are all the same size so they bake evenly. The baking time will change with the size as well as if you have refrigerated the dough or not, so it is really best to set the timer on the shy side and then watch them to determine when they are done to your liking.

Chewy and Slightly Gooey Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Makes about 35 cookies

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour (11.25 ounces)
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
8 ounces unsalted butter (2 sticks), at room temperature about 66˚F
1 cup brown sugar, packed
½ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 egg yolk from a large egg
2 tsp. vanilla extract
½ tsp. water
10 ounces of semisweet chocolate, cut into chunks, or 1 ½ cups semisweet chocolate chips
Flake salt or sea salt for sprinkling

Adjust oven rack to the middle position and pre-heat oven to 375˚F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and set aside.

If the eggs are cold right from the refrigerator, place them in a bowl of warm tap water to take the chill off.

Measure the flour, salt, and baking soda into a medium bowl and whisk to combine then sift the ingredients together and set aside.

Using an electric mixer, cream the butter for a minute and then with the mixer continuing to run, begin adding the sugars a tablespoon or two at a time. Stop and scrape down the bowl at least once while adding the sugar and then again once it is all added. Let the sugar and butter cream for two minutes and then add the egg yolk and continue to cream for another minute. Add the egg and mix for another full minute to thoroughly combine. Measure the ½ teaspoon of water and two teaspoons of vanilla into a small dish and then drizzle it into the butter mixture with the mixer running. Continue to beat the ingredients for an additional minute.

With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients and stop mixing just before all the flour is mixed in. Remove the bowl from the mixer and stir in the chocolate by hand which should finish incorporating the dry ingredients as well.

Drop large walnut-sized balls of dough (about 1.15 ounces each) onto the parchment lined sheet pan. Sprinkle each cookie lightly with flake or sea salt. Bake for 9-11 minutes watching for a nice golden brown color to develop around the edges of the cookies. The centers will look undercooked. Remove cookies from the oven and let them sit on the hot sheet pan for 2-3 minutes before removing them to a cooling rack. They are especially good the next day, it’s just hard to make them last that long.

More cookies this week for the Tuesday with Dorie bakers. Ulrike of Kuchenlatein selected Grandma’s All-occasion Sugar Cookies as our task for the week. Sugar cookies are so festive and pretty, but often don’t actually taste very good. The two pitfalls most likely to doom adorable cut-out cookies to being just pretty decorations rather than something you actually want to eat, is too much flour in the dough and over-handling the dough. Dorie Greenspan’s recipe in Baking: From My Home to Yours, sets the baker up for success with a butter-rich formula that also uses an extra egg yolk for added tenderness. 

When it comes to rolling out dough, I say you get two shots and then it’s game over. Careful planning to minimize wasted dough between cut-outs is critical. Or, you can simply roll the dough into a log and slice off cookies, wasting nothing; efficient, but not quite as decorative. The problem with  butter-rich dough is it is very soft and sticky, so patients is required while giving the dough frequent chill breaks in the fridge. After last week, rolling dough out between waxed paper sheets is my new way to deal with rolled cookie dough. Not only does the dough not stick to the counter or rolling pin, but I don’t get flour all over the kitchen or work any additional flour into the dough which reduces the risk of ending up with tough cookies. The key to rolling out dough between paper is to flip it over every few rolls to smooth out any wrinkles that form.

Icing Cut-out Cookies

Working with a standard royal icing made of meringue powder (available at baking, cookware, or craft stores), powdered sugar and water, mix up the icing so it is thick enough to hold its shape if piped in a thin line. Pipe a thin outline all around the cookie with this slightly stiff icing (colored to match the background color of the design) to act as a boarder. Thin the remaining icing to the point that when drizzled on the surface, the ribbon of icing disappears after about 5 seconds. Color multiple portions as desired. Thin the portion of icing that is the background color to the point that a ribbon drizzled on the surface of the icing disappears almost immediately. Spoon enough of this thinner icing to flood the space inside the piped boarder. Spread the fill-icing out to the piped boarder with the help of a small knife and by simply tilting the cookie and letting gravity do the work. While the fill-icing is still wet, pipe on the color decorations. This slightly thicker icing will melt into the background icing creating a perfectly smooth surface, but still retain its shape and design. It ends up looking like a painted design.

Below is a great video on how to make a paper cornet. I think paper cornets are the easiest way to handle a multitude of different colors of icing. You don’t need to buy pre-cut parchment triangles, just tear off some parchment or waxed paper and fold the bottom right corner of the piece to line up perfectly with the left edge. You should have a double-layer triangle with an extra strip of paper sticking out one side. Trim off the excess paper and you have a perfect right triangle for making a cornet.

In addition to my “Good Little Kitten” mittens, I made Chocolate-Filled Ravioli Cookies. I have been thinking about this idea ever since coming up with the chocolate paste filling for the rughelach a few weeks back. The filling is rather stiff and bakes well because it holds its shape. I rolled the cookie dough a bit thinner than for standard cut-outs because it is double layered. Simply place small balls of the chocolate paste on one layer of rolled-out sugar cookie dough, cover with another layer of dough and gently press the dough together working out any air pockets around the filling. Cut the ravioli apart and bake at 350 degrees F for about 10 minutes, or until lightly browning around the edges.

photo by David Peterman

Chocolate Filling

First things first – Happy Voting day! Here is a little cookie tribute to our flag in celebration of the big day.

photo by David Peterman

It was another cookie week for the Tuesdays with Dorie bakers as we all made rugelach. I have never made this type of cookie before and can only recall ever eating them once. David and I bought a big tub of them from Costco, and though it was years ago, I recall they were darn tasty.

photo by David Peterman

Rugelach is hard to spell, strange to say, and despite liking the ones I tried from Costco, has never been a type of cookie I have been drawn to. I suspect if it weren’t for this baking group I would have skipped right over this recipe in my book and unknowingly been missing out on a great easy to make baked delight.

Rugelach is made from a simple cream cheese dough that comes together with a few pulses of a food processor. Aside from needing a few hours for the dough to chill before rolling, these are quick and easy cookies to make and yet they look so complicated and impressive. I was expecting a very tedious task of cutting lots of triangles to make these, and yes triangles need to be cut, but not in a tedious way. Think pizza; a bunch of triangles cut in seconds! I was thinking of triangles as a quilter, and cutting fabric triangles is rather tedious work.

Typically rugelach is filled with a variety of fillings including fruit, nuts, jam, poppy seed paste, or chocolate. Dorie’s recipe gives a few suggestions and I made two varieties, one chocolate and for the other I used a fig cardamom and rose water jam (I would share the recipe, but I still have a bit more refining to do before it is finalized).

photo by David Peterman

The fig jam version also included currents, walnuts, and chopped chocolate. In the future, I would leave the chocolate out of fruit fillings. The chocolate took away from the bright tangy fruit flavor and worked much better as the solo star in the all-chocolate filling which also included a little hint of cinnamon and ancho chile. The chocolate filling also made for very tidy little cookies because the filling was smooth and uniform. I liked both versions very much, and I am thrilled to now know how to make this impressive looking little cookie. Thank you to Grace of Piggy’s Cooking Journal for giving me a new baking experience with her recipe selection.

You can find Dorie’s recipe for rugelach in her book Baking: From My Home to Yours. Here is the recipe I came up with for my chocolate filling. This was just a bit more than I needed to fill one 12 inch diameter round of dough.

3 oz. dark chocolate, chopped
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 egg
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ancho chile powder

Place the chopped chocolates in a medium sized bowl and set aside. Mix the sugars and egg together in a small bowl. Set the bowl over a pot of simmering water and stir until the mixture is about 120 degrees F. Pour the sugar mixture over the chocolate and let it stand for a minute. Begin whisking the mixture to melt the chocolate and combine the ingredients. If the chocolate does not completely melt, set the bowl over the pot of warm water and stir to fully melt the chocolate. Stir in the spices. The chocolate mixture will be thick, but still spreadable. Set filling aside and roll out dough. Place pieces of chocolate paste filling on the dough and press the filling out using fingers to create a uniform layer.

Rolling round dough

Rolling a uniform circle of dough can be a challenge because dough seems to prefer to take on free-form amoeba like formations rather than perfect circles. I find it helps to start with dough that is chilled as a nice flat and uniformly round disk. When rolling the dough roll from the center out in one direction, then turn the dough a quarter turn and roll again from the center out to the edge. Continue spinning the dough after each roll and it should grow in a uniform circular manner. The edges can often times get ragged and split apart, but just pinch and push them back into shape if they start to grow in odd directions. Turning the dough after each roll also prevents it from getting too stuck to the counter. Have a bench scraper or long spatula handy to free the dough between rolls if necessary and then toss a bit more flour down before continuing on if it is sticking. Running your hand over the dough you should be able to feel any bumps or thick spots that need to be evened out as you are rolling. Working uniformly in all directions should result in a perfectly round result.