Dense Rich Brownies

I'm usually a cakey brownie girl but I wanted to try to achieve the dense brownies I get at Royal Bakery in Ventura. This recipe makes a super moist dark chocolate brownie. Last weekend I made a second batch for a bridal shower and cut them into hearts. Dipping them in ganache and decorating them with white chocolate hearts made them look fancy.

Ganache is just equal amounts of chocolate and cream. Heat the cream in the microwave and add the chocolate. I used Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Chips

Chocolate-Fudge Brownies

12 ounces best-quality chocolate (I used Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Chips)

3/4 cup butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350F and place rack in middle of oven.
Butter and flour a 13 x 9 inch baking pan.
Melt chocolate with butter, stirring, until mixture is smooth.
Let cool until lukewarm.
Stir in sugar, vanilla and eggs, one at a time, stirring well after each addition.
Stir in salt and flour, stirring just until combined.
Pour into prepared baking pan (release foile works perfectly for this) and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a tester comes out with a few crumbs attached.
Let cool completely and cut into 24 bars or cut into shapes.

Pumpkin Cake with Orange Glaze

worked itself into great muffins for bruch last month. The orange in the glaze is a nice compliment to the pumpkin. I think I'll do these again for a holiday breakfast.

INGREDIENTS:
Cake:
2 cups boiling water
1/2 cup raisins
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup butter
4 eggs
1 (16 ounce) can solid-pack
pumpkin
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 teaspoon salt

Orange Glaze:
1 cup confectioners' sugar
3/4 teaspoon grated orange
peel
4 teaspoons orange juice
Chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS:Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

1.Pour boiling water over raisins in colander. Drain. Press lightly to remove excess water.

2.Combine granulated sugar, melted butter, pumpkin and eggs in large bowl. Beat at medium-high speed of electric mixer 5 minutes.

3.Combine flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, salt and cloves in medium bowl. Add to pumpkin mixture, 1 cup at a time, beating at low speed after each addition until blended. Stir in raisins with spoon. Pour into muffin tin.

4.Bake at 350 degrees F for 10-15 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes before removing from pan.

5.Combine confectioners' sugar, orange peel and orange juice in small bowl. Stir with spoon to blend. Spoon over top of cake, letting excess glaze run down side. Sprinkle with chopped nuts before glaze hardens.

One Handed Cooking

I haven't been doing too much cooking this summer after breaking my wrist in July. I was wearing a contraption called a wristjack all summer.

Right before I got my device off I did some cooking for a friend's birthday party. It was a Hawaiian themed party and I wanted to see how gumpaste flowers would turn out. I consulted a baking 911 website. There was no way I could mix any from scratch and Confectionately Yours had Bakels gumpaste available Wire and the gumpaste flower tools also seemed like necessary purchases. I used paste food colors and mixed some green and some dark pink dough. It was like playing with play dough. My theory was that it was good therapy for my almost healed hand. Thankfully I was able to locate my pasta maker. Using a heavy marble rolling pin would have been dangerous with one hand. I might have wound up with a broken toe!

The pasta maker rolled out the dough perfectly after it had been sprinkled with a little cornstarch. I was experimenting so I wasn't at all sure how the flowers would turn out. I cut circles and then cut them in half for the plumeria petals. The tips of each petal were cut to make them look more realistic. Then 5 petals were put put together and squeezed at the bottom. The tool called the umbrella tool helped make the centers look pretty good. The petals were a little floppy so I had to prop them in tiny cookie cutters to dry. I free handed some leaves and got the bright idea of cutting the edges with some (brand new-never used) zig zag scrapbooking scissors. That worked great. Freehanding the edges of the hibiscus leaves worked fine. From a whole circle I cut 5 leaves, leaving them attached at the middle. I had molded some sort of a stamen for the hibiscus earlier. If I'd had two hands I might have tried to make them look more realistic, but they looked like the ones on my Hawaii towel. Good enough! I squished everything around these stamens. Bigger flowers were floppier flowers and I was fresh out of tiny cookie cutters, so I used quick release foil and molded it around the flower.

OK, one day later and the flowers really weren't drying very hard. Again, experimenting, I used my toaster oven at 150 for abount 20 minutes. 200 toasted the white flowers a bit. The hibiscus stamens flopped in the oven so I propped them up with more foil. Everthing came out nicely and looked good after I added some yellow to the centers of the plumeria, painted the stamen of the hibiscus yellow and added some red to the middle. Vodka and gel color worked great. Gumpaste holds up on fondant but melts into wet frosting. Adding the flowers to the cheesecakes right before serving would be recommended.

The only other thing I cooked this summer was this coffee cake. Pillsbury is one of my favorites and I've wanted to try this for years. It was a bake-off winner back in 1991.

Blueberry-Poppy Seed Coffee Cake

2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup margarine or butter, softened
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1 egg
1 1/2 cups Pillsbury BEST(R) All Purpose or Unbleached Flour
2 tablespoons poppy seed
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sour cream
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries, thawed, drained on paper towels
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons Pillsbury BEST(R) All Purpose or Unbleached Flour
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon milk, or as needed

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour bottom and sides of 9 or 10-inch springform pan. In large bowl, combine 2/3 cup sugar and margarine; beat until light and fluffy. Add lemon peel and egg; beat 2 minutes at medium speed.
Lightly spoon flour into measuring cup; level off. In medium bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups flour, poppy seed, baking soda and salt; mix well. Add to margarine mixture alternately with sour cream, beating until well combined. Spread batter over bottom and 1 inch up sides of greased and floured pan, making sure batter on sides is 1/4 inch thick.
In another medium bowl, combine all filling ingredients; mix well. Spoon over batter.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 to 55 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Cool 10 minutes; remove sides of pan.
In small bowl, blend powdered sugar and enough milk for desired drizzling consistency. Drizzle over warm cake. Serve warm or cool.
Yield: 8 servings

Enchiladas are not Manicotti

I am a native Californian. You'd have thought that I'd have enchiladas down cold. Growing up we ate them out, at Lupe's, not at home. Every attempt I've made resulted in mushy tortillas that fell apart. Apparently I was under the impression that enchiladas were manicotti and needed to be covered with sauce. Someone brought homemade enchiladas into the office and I realized that the sauce should only come about halfway up the enchilada. I made them for my dad and used queso fresco. They came out great. I tried them out on my significant other, who grew up eating at Sal's, and loves good Mexican food. He actually said these words "Yummy, yummy, yummy!" He's not exactly prone to flattery so I felt that I had a victory. I'm still not confident in sauce making so I used an authentic Select brand enchilada sauce and the recipe that came with it. Here's the technique:

1 jar enchilada sauce
water
corn tortillas
1 small can chopped green chilis
chopped or shredded chicken
8 oz Mexican blend grated cheese
4 oz queso fresco
chopped green onions for garnish

Pour 1/2 the jar of sauce into a pan along with half again as much water. Heat just until warm.

Pour enough sauce to cover the bottom of a 13x9 inch pan.

Take a corn tortilla and soften it in the warmed enchilada sauce. Lay it in in the pan. Sprinkle 1-2 TB green chilis, 1-2 ounces of the cheese blend and a handful of chicken. Don't oversuff. Roll up putting the seam on the bottom. Continue with the rest of the tortillas until the pan is filled. Pour more sauce over the rolled tortillas until it's about halfway up the enchiladas. Sprinkle with more cheese. Cook 20 minutes or so and sprinke with queso fresco. Cook another 10 minutes or so until the cheese is melted and the sauce is bubbly. Sprinkle with green onions.

A Tale of Two Coffeecakes

I'm not a big one on using biscuits from a can. As much as I love Pillsbury, those things always taste processed to me. For this recipe an exception will be made. The fact that it's really easy to make is a new concept to me. A few weeks back I went to a friend's house for a day of scrapbooking and was served this cake. After a whole week of no sugar this thing was heaven on a plate. It's a Paula Deen recipe and it's her picture here. Brown sugar was substituted for part of the sugar and plenty of orange rind was used. We speculated about adding marmalade to the cream cheese. Would it make it too sweet? Here's the recipe as we made it.

Nutty Orange Coffeecake

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 oranges worth of orange zest
2 (12-ounce) cans refrigerated buttermilk biscuits (10 count)
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese
1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter
1 cup sifted confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons fresh orange juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
In a small bowl, combine the granulated sugar, pecans, and zest; set aside. Separate the biscuits. Place about 3/4 teaspoon cream cheese in the center of each biscuit. Fold each biscuit in half over the cheese, pressing the edges to seal. Dip the biscuits in melted butter, then dredge in the granulated sugar mixture. Place the biscuits, curved-side down, in a single layer in the hollows of a lightly greased 12-cup bundt pan, spacing them evenly (do not stack). Place any remaining biscuits around the tube, filling any gaps. Drizzle any remaining butter over the biscuits, and sprinkle with any remaining sugar mixture. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until golden brown. Immediately invert the cake onto a serving platter. Combine the confectioners' sugar and orange juice, stirring well; drizzle the glaze over the warm cake. Serve warm.

I made this for an office brunch and also got rave reviews. I dipped the cream cheese in the sugar nut mixture before rolling the biscuit around it. One of the women I work with pointed out this recent recipe that is basically the same concept. It was in Food and Family, a free magazine from Kraft that always has a bunch of good recipes.

Pull Apart Maple Sticky Buns

3/4 cup PLANTERS Chopped Pecans
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, divided
1/3 cup maple-flavored or pancake syrup
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 cans (12 oz. each) refrigerated flaky buttermilk biscuits
1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, cut into 20 cubes

PREHEAT oven to 400°F. Spray 12-cup fluted tube pan or 10-inch tube pan with cooking spray. Sprinkle pecans evenly on bottom of prepared pan; set aside. Melt 2 Tbsp. of the butter in small microwaveable bowl. Add syrup; stir until well blended. Drizzle over pecans in pan; set aside.
MELT remaining 6 Tbsp. butter; set aside. Mix sugar and cinnamon in shallow dish; set aside. Separate dough into 20 biscuits; press each slightly to 1/4-inch thickness. Roll cream cheese cubes in cinnamon sugar mixture until evenly coated on all sides. Place 1 cream cheese cube in center of each biscuit circle; gather up sides of dough to enclose filling. Press edges of dough together to seal; roll into a ball. Dip top of each ball into remaining butter, then into cinnamon sugar. Arrange half of the balls, cinnamon sugar-sides up, in prepared pan. Repeat with remaining balls to form a second layer. Drizzle with any remaining butter; sprinkle with any remaining cinnamon sugar.

BAKE 30 min. or until golden brown. Cool 1 min. in pan; invert onto serving platter. Scrape any remaining pecans left in pan; spoon over buns. Serve warm.

Variations would be easy to create.

I've been away for a while now. Life can really interfere with blogging. I never stopped cooking though and since the whole idea of this blog was to keep track of my experiments, I want to go over some of recipes that have been successes.

Last December my friend Carol had an Italian themed Christmas party. I came up with an appetizer version of a Caprese salad. I love cute food that can be eaten in one bite. I took the tastiest cherry tomatoes I could find, cut off the tops and scooped out the middle. I tucked in a basil leaf and then stuffed them the small fresh mozzarella balls. There's a name for them, I don't remember it. I came across Rachel Ray's version which also looks delicious, and perhaps a littl easier. Mine's cuter though!


Braciole was a successful maindish - recipe courtesy of Alton Brown. An electric knife really helped cut it into nice looking slices.







Brutti ma buoni are my dad's favorite:
32 cookies
2 cups hazelnuts (10 ounces)
9 large egg whites
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarselychopped

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Line abaking sheet with parchment paper, andspread hazelnuts in a single layer on the sheet. Place in the oven and toast until nuts smell sweet and fragrant,about 10 to 12 minutes. Wrap the warm nuts in a coarse textured kitchen towel. Rub to remove skins from nuts, and discard. Coarsely chop hazelnuts; setaside.

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites on low speed until foamy. Add sugar gradually, beating on medium-high, until stiff peaks form andthe meringue is stiff and shiny, about 3 to 5 minutes. (You can also beat the egg whites by hand using a balloon whisk; the beating times will approximately twice as long.

3. Fold in chopped hazelnuts, vanilla extract, and salt using a large rubber spatula.

4. Transfer mixture to a shallow,heavy-bottomed saucepan. Set over medium-low heat and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture is lightbrown and pulls away from the sides ofthe pan, about 15 to 20 minutes.
Removefrom heat. Transfer to a medium bowl tocool slightly, about 5 minutes. Fold in chocolate chips.

5. Using two spoons, drop a heaping tablespoon of batter onto a baking sheet lined with a nonstick baking mat,repeat, spacing them 1 1/2 inches apart.Bake until cookies are firm to the touch but still soft and chewy inside, about 25 to 30 minutes. Remove to rack and cool.

One of the prettiest cookies I made, if not the tastiest, was
spumoni slice cookies - sugar cookies with layers that look like spumoni ice cream slices. Despite the cherries and pistachios these tasted like plain sugar cookies. Maybe I'll bump up the rum extract next time.