TWD: Thumbprints For Us Big Guys

This week's TWD was chosen by Mike of Ugly Food for an Ugly Dude : thumbprints for us big guys!  The recipe is considered "grown-up" because of the ground hazelnuts used in the dough and the raspberry jam used to fill the cookies.  My dislike of nuts is well-documented on this blog but since cookies are easy to share with others, I went ahead and made these anyway.  I had no problem convincing my mom to take them home to share with my stepfather, a man who, fortunately for me, is more than happy to help eat the many goodies I make!



While I had hazelnuts in the house, I went with almonds for these cookies instead.  I didn't bother blanching them before I ground them up so there were little specks from the skin in my finished cookies.  The dough comes together easily, with just a few ingredients - flour, ground nuts, butter, sugar, vanilla extract and almond extract.  Though I don't particularly like almonds, almond extract is one of my favorite scents ever and I'm always happy when a recipe calls for it.  I made half of the recipe and ended up rolling the dough into 25 little cookies.  A lot of the TWD bakers mentioned problems with really crumbly dough but mine didn't give me much trouble.  I used the end of a wooden spoon to make the indentations in my cookies. 



The cookies spread quite a bit in the oven, so I probably should have refrigerated the dough before baking them.  The indentations also became less deep in the oven so when I took the cookies out, I used the end of the wooden spoon to redefine the impressions.  I dusted all of the cookies with confectioners' sugar as they sat on the rack cooling.  I didn't bother putting anything under the rack, though, and the effect was actually pretty cool (if not a bit of a pain to clean up): 



There were so many options for fillings for the cookies!  My friend Kayte mentioned lemon curd as a possibility and I thought that sounded wonderful, but I ran out of time to make it so I went with the raspberry jam.  I warmed the jam in the microwave until it was quite warm and very thin (about 45 seconds) and then spooned it into the cookies.  It thickens as it cools and makes a wonderful filling.  The cookies were buttery and quite delicate - almost crumbly like shortbread.  I liked the contrast of the sweet jam too but at the end of the day, this kind of cookie just doesn't hold a lot of appeal for me.  I'm sure they'll be much more popular with my stepfather though!  Many thanks to Mike for hosting this week!  You can find the recipe for the thumbprints on his site.

Saucepan Fudge Drops

 

Well, it's Monday again and I think we all could use a pick-up to start the week, couldn't we?  Today that pick-up comes in the form of one of the easiest chocolate cookies I've ever made.  From the time I began pulling the ingredients out until I popped these in the oven, not more than 10 minutes had passed.  Even better, almost the entire recipe is made in a saucepan, which eliminates all of those dirty dishes I hate washing!  The only thing I'd note is that you do want to work quickly first to get all of the ingredients combined and then to get the dough onto the baking sheets.  If the dough cools before you get the cookies into the oven, they won't be as thin and their texture won't be as nice.  I was slow (I'm a perfectionist and took too long shaping my cookies) so mine are on the thicker side.

Regardless, they were still delicious chocolate cookies!  They're wonderfully fudgy in the middle and crisp on the edges with loads of chocolate flavor.  They were reminiscent of a few other chocolate cookies I've tried, but faster and easier to make so definitely a repeat for us.

 

Now, if you'll excuse me, unseasonable 60 degree weather has arrived in New England and I'm going to soak up some fresh air and sunshine before the cool winter air makes its way back into town!

 

Saucepan Fudge Drops

adapted from Bittersweet by Alice Medrich (as seen on Blue Ridge Baker)

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon salt

5 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup light brown sugar, tightly packed

1/3 cup yogurt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 F and place racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven.  Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk flour, baking soda and salt together in a small bowl, and set aside.  Place the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat and melt.  Once the butter is melted and sizzling, remove from heat and whisk in cocoa until smooth.  Add both sugars and stir until blended - the mixture will be stiff and sandy at this point. Stir in yogurt and vanilla.  Add the dry ingredients and stir gently until just combined. Scoop rounded tablespoons of dough onto prepared baking sheets, about 1 1/2 inches apart.

Bake the cookies until they look dry on top and are cracked all over, but are still slightly soft when pressed, about 10-12 minutes. Rotate baking sheets from top to bottom and front to back about half way through to ensure even baking.  Slide the parchment, cookies and all onto racks to cool.

SMS: Brown Butter Cupcakes with Orange Whipped Cream

This week's SMS was chosen by the fabulous Leslie of Lethally Delicious: roasted pecan cake with caramel orange marmalade and burnt orange buttercream.  As you could probably gather from the title of my post and my photos, I strayed from the recipe a bit a lot.  I just made a layer cake last weekend and I really didn't have the motivation to make another one so soon, nor did I have enough mouths to feed to justify it.  That said, I didn't completely want to skip Leslie's selection so I modified it to work for me.



The first change I made was to scale the recipe way back and make cupcakes instead of a cake.  The recipe called for 12 egg whites and I happened to have 3 in my fridge leftover from another baking project so I went with 1/4 of the recipe, winding up with 7 cupcakes.  Second issue - the recipe involved toasting pecans and then grinding them to make a flour to incorporate into the cake batter.  I really don't like nuts in most things, cake included, so I decided to skip the nuts entirely.  I didn't figure I could ignore the nut flour completely though and unfortunately, the recipe didn't indicate how much flour would be yielded by grinding the nuts, so I estimated and added 3 tablespoons of all-purpose flour to my batter as a substitute.  The recipe has you combine the nut flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt and then add browned butter and vanilla before incorporating egg whites that have been beaten to stiff peaks.  When I added the butter to my dry ingredients, the result was essentially a paste-like substance and I wasn't all that confident that my substitution was going to work.  I wish the book had included more information at that point to indicate what the texture of the batter should be.  I folded in the meringue the best I could, put the batter into the cupcake pan and hoped for the best! 



To my surprise, 14-ish minutes later, the cupcakes had baked up nicely!  I let them cool on a wire rack and then tried one.  I figured no sense in frosting them if they weren't any good, right?  I found that I really like the cupcake, though!  I know it wasn't at all what was intended by the author, but it was still tasty.  It had a nice, tight crumb but it was still light and very flavorful.  I decided not to fill the cupcakes (early reports from the other SMS bakers indicated that the orange marmalade filling was overwhelming and much too sweet) and also took the easy way out on the frosting.  I like buttercream but I LOVE whipped cream and it was quicker.  I whipped about 1/3 cup of heavy cream until it thickened some, then added a little less than 2 teaspoons of sugar as well as 1 tablespoon of freshly squeezed orange juice and some orange zest.  I didn't measure the zest but would guess it was about 1/4 of the zest from 1 large orange.  I whipped until stiff peaks formed and then piped onto my cupcakes, with just enough for all of them.  I love the specks of orange zest in the whipped cream and it had just enough orange flavor to announce its presence without being overwhelming.



While I did enjoy these, they probably aren't something I'd make again.  I would like to try the layer cake eventually though, when I have folks who like nuts that would be willing to eat it!  Many thanks to Leslie for hosting this week!  You can find the recipe on her blog as well as photos of the cake as it was meant to be baked :)

Chocolate Cake with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Happy Friday!  Last week I shared the brown butter banana cake I made for my birthday and today I'm sharing the second cake I made to celebrate.  I mulled over the decision of what kind of cake to make for far too long.  It's rare that I have the opportunity to make a layer cake so it always feels like I need to pick exactly the right cake for the occasion.  In the end, there were too many options and no one that stood out as the clear winner, so I called my mom and had she and my step-dad decide.  They requested chocolate cake, and I went from there.  



The chocolate cake was wonderful - moist and light, but still sturdy, with a wonderfully fudgy chocolate flavor.  It retained its lovely texture even when refrigerated.  The recipe, which comes from Rose's Heavenly Cakes, was developed to be used as part of a German chocolate cake recipe and the addition of the unbeaten egg whites to the batter accounts for the cake's terrific structure.  For the frosting, I had originally planned to go with a cream cheese frosting, which is always a popular choice at my house, but at the last minute I saw a recipe for white chocolate cream cheese frosting that intrigued me.  I only had enough white chocolate on hand to make 2/3 of the recipe below and it really wasn't quite enough to frost my cake (and I had none left over to decorate the top of the cake) so I recommend making the full recipe.  The frosting is sweet but also tangy and I thought it complemented the cake nicely.  As I was making the cake I noticed a few strawberries in my fridge that needed to be used so I sliced them up and stuck them between the layers of the cake.  They were a fantastic addition - adding much more strawberry flavor than I expected!  The only thing I'd do differently next time would be to cut them a bit smaller.  Otherwise, this was a wonderful birthday treat and definitely something I'd make again!



Chocolate Cake
from Rose's Heavenly Cakes by Rose Levy Beranbaum

2.3 oz (3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons) Dutch process cocoa powder
4.2 oz (1/2 cup) boiling water
3.7 oz (1/2 cup) canola oil
2.6 oz (1/4 cup) egg yolks (about 4 eggs), at room temperature
6.3 oz (3/4 cup) egg whites (about 4 eggs plus 2 whites), at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2.6 oz (3/4 cup) cake flour
2.6 oz (2/3 cup) all-purpose flour
10.6 oz (1 1/2 cups) superfine sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Grease the bottoms of two 9x2-inch round cake pans (leave the sides uncoated) and line with parchment rounds.  Preheat oven to 350 F with a rack in the bottom third of the oven.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, use a whisk to combine the cocoa and boiling water until smooth.  Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 30 minutes so the mixture can come to room temperature.  Add the oil and egg yolks to the mixer bowl and beat with the whisk attachment, starting on low speed and then increasing to medium.  Beat on medium for 1 minute or until shiny and smooth.  Beat in the vanilla for a few seconds.

In a medium bowl, combine the cake flour, all-purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Sift half of this mixture into the chocolate mixture in the stand mixer's bowl and then beat on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl and then repeat with the other half of the dry ingredients.  Raise the mixer speed to medium-high and beat for 1 minute.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl - the mixture will be very thick.  On low speed, add the egg whites and beat at medium-high speed for 2 minutes. 

Transfer the batter to the prepared cake pans.  Each pan will hold about 17.5 oz of batter and be one-quarter full.  Bake for 25-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centers come out clean.  Remove the cakes from the oven and immediately run a small metal spatula between the sides of the pans and the cakes.  Invert the cakes onto wire cooling racks that have been lightly sprayed with cooking spray.  Remove the parchment from the bottom of the cakes and then invert them onto the racks so they are right side up.  Cool completely.

White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
from Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott (as seen on A Whisk and a Spoon)

6 oz white chocolate, finely chopped

12 oz (1 1/2 cups) cream cheese, softened

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups confectioners sugar

In the top of a double boiler or a heatproof bowl, melt the white chocolate, stirring often. Remove from the heat once melted and let cool to lukewarm. Transfer the melted white chocolate to a large bowl, and add the cream cheese, butter and vanilla. Beat together at medium speed until you have a smooth sauce. Add the confectioners sugar and beat until smooth.

To assemble the cake, transfer one of the cake layers to a cake platter (or plate or cardboard circle) right side up.  Spread about a 1/4-inch thick layer of white chocolate cream cheese frosting on top of the cake.  Layer with fresh strawberry slices.  Place the second cake on top of the frosting and berries, with the flat side (the bottom) up, and press gently.  If you want to crumb coat the cake to seal it, frost the entire cake with a thin layer of the frosting and then refrigerate to set.  Once set, apply a second layer of frosting on top of the first to cover the cake completely.  Garnish as desired.  Refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving. 

Cinnamon-Filled Scones

I had another post all lined up to go today but then I made these scones this morning and decided I'd rather share them instead!  They first came on my radar when Jen of My Kitchen Addiction posted them a few weeks ago.  I'm not usually a big scone person (ok, with the exception of these scones, which are amazing!!), but the idea of a scone stuffed with a cinnamon-sugar-butter mixture sounded too good to resist!  The recipe comes from the King Arthur Flour Whole Grains Baking cookbook and while Jen made some interesting substitutions to the recipe (you can see her version here), I made it almost exactly as written since I had the ingredients on hand.



The recipe uses three types of flour - all-purpose, whole wheat and oat.  I've had good results using white whole wheat flour in my baking so I went with that.  For the oat flour, I pulsed old-fashioned oats in my food processor and then weighed them to get the correct amount.  I needed about 1 1/2 cups of old-fashioned oats to yield the 3 1/4 ounces of oat flour the recipe called for.  If you want a bit of extra cinnamon flavor, you could add cinnamon chips to the dough - just throw them in when you add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients. 



To say this dough was sticky would be a major understatement.  I won't lie - it was tricky to work with and I used a lot of flour so I could handle it.  It was easier for me to put the dough into the cake pan and then pat it to form a 9-inch circle as opposed to forming the circle on a work surface and then transferring it to the pan.  The recipe calls for cutting the scones before you bake them, which I thought was interesting and I struggled a bit here too due to the stickiness of the dough.  It was fine though - when the scones came out of the oven the lines I'd cut were still visible and I just used the knife to re-cut them before flipping them out of the pan.  Speaking of taking the scones out of the oven, mine were done in about 35 minutes, which is less than the suggested baking time, so you may want to start checking yours a few minutes early.



The house smelled absolutely amazing as these baked and I couldn't wait to dig into one!  Fortunately, they did not disappoint!  I had one warm and it was delicious.  The brown sugar/cinnamon filling was definitely the best part and added a lot of flavor.  My scones were moist and tender, which wasn't surprising given the texture of the dough.  I'll definitely make them again, and as Jen mentioned, this recipe would be a great base for playing around with other flavor combinations.  I shared these with Shane's dad and his coworkers, which was probably a good thing or I might have eaten them for lunch! 

Cinnamon-Filled Scones
from King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking

Filling
2/3 cup (4 3/4 oz) sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons (1 1/2 oz) unsalted butter, softened

Dough
1 cup (3 1/4 oz) oat flour
1 cup (4 oz) white whole wheat flour
1 cup (4 1/4 oz) all-purpose flour
1/3 cup (2 3/8 oz) sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick, 4 oz) cold unsalted butter
1 large egg
1 cup evaporated milk (or half-and-half)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping
milk for brushing
sparkling or turbinado sugar for sprinkling


Preheat oven to 375 F.  Spray a 9-inch cake pan with cooking spray or line the bottom with parchment paper.

To make the filling: Stir the sugar, flour and cinnamon together in a small bowl.  Add the butter and combine to form a spreadable paste.

To make the dough: Whisk the flours, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.  Using a pastry cutter (or your fingers), cut the butter into the mixture until it resembles coarse sand, with some pea-sized chunks of butter.  In a measuring cup, combine the milk, egg and vanilla.  Add to the dry ingredients and use a fork to stir just until the dough comes together. 

Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface.  Divide it in half, knead each half and then gently form each into a 9-inch circle.  Put one of the circles in the prepared cake pan then spread the cinnamon filling on top.  Place the second circle of dough on top of the filling and press down lightly to remove any air bubbles.

With a floured knife cut the scones into 12 wedges.  Brush the tops with milk (I used some of the extra evaporated milk) and sprinkle with turbinado or sparkling sugar. 

Bake until golden brown and firm to the touch in the center, about 40 minutes.  Remove from the oven and cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes.  Run a knife around the outside edge of the pan then invert the scones onto a cooling rack and invert again onto a plate so the scones are right side up.

Parker House Rolls

It probably doesn't come as a surprise to anyone who reads my blog regularly that I have a major sweet tooth.  I bake a lot of desserts and while I give most of them away to friends, family and Shane's coworkers, I almost always save a little for us.  If I've made something that Shane loves, the dessert probably won't make it out of the house (he exercises A LOT and calories aren't really something he needs to worry about) and then I have to work extra hard not to over-indulge.  My sweet tooth doesn't stop at desserts though.  I love sweetness in savory dishes too; whether it's a marinade for meat or just a dish of roasted veggies, I'm going to find a way to add a touch of sweetness. 



I was thrilled of course when I made these Parker House rolls I'd seen on Joy the Baker's site and discovered upon taking my first bite that they were sweet and wonderfully buttery.  I'd made them to accompany a big pot of chicken and rice soup we had for dinner last week and the combination was perfect!  The rolls are made entirely by hand, which is my favorite way to make bread - it's just so gratifying!  My rolls turned out a bit more flat than I'd like and I'm not completely sure why, but since they were still so tasty, it didn't really bother me.  I made 1/2 of the recipe and baked them in a 9-inch square pan but were I to make a 1/2 batch again, I'd use a smaller pan so the rolls were more closely packed.



Parker House rolls originated at the Parker House Hotel in Boston and despite having previously lived and worked in Boston, I've never been there.  We still live only about an hour outside of Boston so I'm adding a trip to this hotel to my to-do list.  I stopped by their site and noticed that they provide a recipe for Parker House rolls, which differs a bit from this one so I'm eager to try that one out next!  You can find the recipe here.

Parker House Rolls
from The Gourmet Cookbook by Ruth Reichl, John Willoughby, and Zanne Early Stewart (as seen on Joy the Baker)

3 tablespoons warm water (105 - 115 F)
3 tablespoons sugar
1 (1/4-ounce) package (2 1/4 teaspoons) active dry yeast
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter
1 cup whole milk (I used 1%)
2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3/4 - 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Stir together warm water, 1 tablespoon of the sugar and yeast in a small bowl until yeast in dissolved.  Let stand until foamy, about five minutes.  Melt 6 tablespoons of the butter in a small saucepan.  Add the milk and heat until lukewarm.  Pour into a large bowl and add yeast mixture, remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar, bread flour, and salt.  Stir with a wooden spoon until just combined.

Stir in 3/4 cup all-purpose flour then dump the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and begin to knead and bring the dough together.  Knead the dough until it is smooth, satiny and elastic, about 10 minutes.  If your dough is too sticky to handle, add up to 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour a tablespoon at a time until the dough is just slightly tacky.  I ended up adding a little more than 1/4 cup of flour to mine.  Form the dough into a ball and place in a large oiled bowl, turning to coat entirely.  Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm, draft free place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.  You'll know it's doubled in size if you press two fingers into the dough and they leave a dent which does not spring back.

Butter a 9×13-inch baking pan.  Divide the dough into 20 equal pieces.  Roll each one into a ball and arrange evenly in 4 rows of 5 in a baking pan.  Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm, draft free place until almost doubled in size, about 45 minutes.

Using a floured chopstick or the edge of a ruler, make a deep crease down the center of each row of rolls.  Let rolls rise, loosely covered for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 F.  Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and cool slightly.  Brush the tops of the rolls with the butter and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown.  Cool rolls in the pan for 5 minutes before serving.

Makes 20 rolls

TWD: Toasted-Coconut Custard Tart

This week's TWD was chosen by Beryl of Cinemon Girl: toasted-coconut custard tart.  For the longest time I really didn't like coconut at all.  I remember those candy bars with coconut (Mounds maybe?) that used to end up in my Halloween candy and I really wanted to like them, but ewww, no.  I can't remember exactly when, but at some point in the past few years a switch flipped and suddenly I was a huge coconut fan!  It reminds me of being on vacation in the Caribbean and that makes me very happy. I still haven't developed a love for custard though - something about the texture just doesn't work for me (same with pudding, mousse, etc).  Fortunately, I wasn't too concerned about whether I'd enjoy this dessert.  I've eaten a ton of sweets over the past few days in celebration of my birthday so more sugar and butter is probably the last thing I needed!



I scaled this recipe back, making just 1/3, which was enough to fill two 4-inch tarts.  I had some dough left over from the sugar cookies I made recently and used that to create the shells for my tarts, which explains their pale color.  Though I baked them fully, they just didn't brown the way Dorie's sweet tart dough would have.  Other changes I made to the recipe were to use 1% milk, skip the coriander and use rum (I used dark) in only the custard and not also in the whipped cream - I was trying to avoid having the alcohol overpower the other flavors in the dessert.  This is a quick and easy recipe and definitely one that would be nice for company since you can get the components ready ahead of time and throw it all together at the last minute. 



The verdict?  I offered my mini tarts to my mom and when she stopped by to pick them up we each had one bite so I would be able to review them here.  My mom was a fan though she didn't jump up and down with excitement so this one probably isn't among the top desserts I've shared with her.  I didn't get a lot of coconut flavor and I'm not sure if that's because the rum was so overpowering or because the coconut flavor was lacking.  If I were to make this again, I'd use less rum or leave it out altogether.  Actually next time maybe I'll just fill my tart shell with homemade whipped cream, since I can't get enough of that stuff.  Thanks to Beryl for her selection this week!  You can find the recipe on her blog or on pages 344-345 of Baking: From My Home to Yours.