Marble Loaf

During my hunt for some recipe ideas and suggestions for banana bread, I came across a Marble Cake with White Chocolate Glaze recipe in The Martha Stewart Baking Handbook. It looked really, really good, so I decided to make it – with my own variations, of course.

I’ve also been into miniaturising recipes for full-size quick breads, because mini-sized ones are easier to distribute, and most of my baking gets given away.

marble loaf

Marble Loaf
1 stick (1/2 c) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 3/4 c cake flour (not self-rising)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 c sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 c buttermilk, at room temperature
1/4 c + 1 tbs cocoa powder
1/4 c + 2 tbs boiling water

1. Preheat the oven to 350oF. Generously butter a loaf pan.
2. Whisk together the flour, bakingg soda and salt and set aside.
3. Beat butter and sugar on medium speed until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add egs, one at a time, beating until combined after each addition. Mix in the vanilla. Add the flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with the buttermilk and beginning and ending with the flour. Set aside 1/3 of the batter.
4. In a bowl, mix together the cocoa powder and boiling water until smooth. Stir into the smaller portion of the cake batter and mix until well-combined.
5. Spoon the 1/3 of the white batter into the prepared loaf pan. Then make a checkerboard pattern on top with the remaining white batter and the chocolate batter. Run a knife through to create a marbled pattern.
6. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, 40-50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto the wire rack to cool completely. Glaze.

White Chocolate Glaze
3/4 c sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 tbs buttermilk
2 1/4 oz melted and cooled white chocolate

Whisk together the buttermilk and sugar. Sitr in the white chocolate and mix until smooth.

Banana-Honey Bread

When I came back from Costa Rica, I bought some plantains, intending to make some fried plantains. Sadly, the plantains were not yet ripe enough for this venture, and by the time that they were, I was no longer in the mood for fried plantains. Now I was left with some overripe plantains that I did not particularly want to eat. Instead, I decided that I would whip together some banana bread in mini-loaf pans and distribute it to people!

banana honey bread

Banana-Honey Bread
2 1/4 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c + 2 tbs unsalted butter
1/2 c light brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 c honey
2 eggs
2 bananas, peeled and mashed
2/3 c nuts, chopped (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 350oF. Butter and flour 2 large loaf pans.
2. In a bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. In a large bowl, beat together the butter and brown sugar on medium speed until creamy. Add the honey and beat until blended. Add the eggs, increase the speed to medium-high, and beat until smooth. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in 2 additions, alternating with the mashed bananas. Beat on medium speed after each addition until smooth.
3. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pans. Sprinkle with nuts, if using.
4. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaves comes out clean, 35-40 minutes. Let cool in the pans on a wire rack.

French Macarons

While sitting at dinner last Friday, my darling Cassandra asked if she could pick the cookie of the week. As I had no internet and thus could not peruse the web for suggestions, I assented. And then she said, “French macarons”. Now, the last time that I attempted French macarons was back in 2005 – and let me just say, it was a disaster.

If you do not know what a French macaron is, here goes: imagine an Oreo. Now replace the cookies with meringue. Now replace the filling with ganache/buttercream. There you go. They’re pretty much ubiquitous in Paris. So the problem that we are faced with is: we must make lots of equally sized meringues and make sure that when they are baked, they are absolutely dry so that they slide off of the baking sheets and can be properly iced. This time, I experimented and finally found a method that worked (I could have taken a better picture, though). We managed to make 4 flavours: vanilla, mocha, chocolate and cherry.

macarons

French Macaroons
4 large egg whites, at room temperature (IMPORTANT)
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 superfine sugar (you can use granulated, but superfine is better)
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 oz ground blanched almonds or almond flour – this is approximately 1 cup
2 c sifted confectioners’ sugar

1. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper (again, IMPORTANT). Sift together the confectioners sugar into a medium bowl and whisk in the almondd flour.
2. In a large bowl, combine the egg whites and cream of tartar. Beat on medium speed until the whites begin to thicken, then increase the speed to medium-high and beat just until soft peaks form. Slowly add the superfine sugar and beat until stiff peaks begin to form. Beat in the vanilla until well-blended, then fold in the flour mixture.
3. Scoop the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2″ tip and pipe into mounds 1 1/2″ in diameter, spaced about 1″ apart. Gently smooth any point tips with a damp fingertip. Let sit, uncovered at room temperature, for about 35-45 minutes. [It is important to really follow this par because, firstly, using a plastic bag with a hole cut in it does not work and secondly, letting the cookies sit gives them their characteristic crispy exterior.]
4. Preheat the oven to 300oF and bake the cookies 1 sheet at a time for 20-25 minutes, rotating halfway through, until the tops and bottoms are firm and golden.
5. Remove from the oven and let cool on the sheets for 3 minutes. Then peel the cookies off of the parchment paper and transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes about 30 cookies

Variations:
For cherry, add 2 drops of red food colouring with the vanilla.
For chocolate, sift 3 tbs of unsweetened cocoa powder with the confectioners’ sugar.

For mocha, add 2 tbs instant coffee with the vanilla, and sift 3 tbs of unsweetened cocoa powder with the confectioners’ sugar.

Fillings
Ganache
6 oz (185 g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
2 tbs unsalted butter
1/2 c (4 fl oz/125 mL) heavy cream

1. Place the butter and chocolate in a heat-proof bowl. In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, bring the cream to a boil. Remove from the heat and pour over the chocolate and butter.
2. Stir with a whisk until the chocolate and butter melt and are smooth. Let cool until spreadable.

Makes about 1 1/3 c

Variation: For mocha, add 2 tbs instant coffee powder.

Vanilla Meringue Buttercream
6 large egg whites
1 1/4 c (10 oz/315 g) sugar
2-2 1/2 c (1-1 1/4 lb/500-625 g) softened butter
1 tbs vanilla extract

1. Mix together the sugar and egg whites. Place in a double boiler and continue to mix until the mixture is quite warm and the sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat.
2. Beat the mixture on high speed until it is stiff and glossy (this will take awhile).
3. Add 2 c (1 lb) of butter and continue to beat on high speed until the frosting begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl, adding more butter as needed. The mixture should be smooth and satiny. If it looks curdled and the bowl feels old, warm slightly over hot water.
4. Beat in the vanilla.

Makes about 2 c

Variations: Whip in some flavour of jam (e.g. cherry) or food colouring.

Bounty Cookies

This fall, my one and only little sister joined the ranks of thousands of American college freshmen, as did my one and only girl cousin in my mom’s family. Now, from years of camp and college, I know that it is always a welcome surprise to receive a care package – especially a care package containing food. So, I promised them that I would bake for them. This cookie is for my sister, who requested something containing COCONUT.

Now, I have yet to find an actual cookie made with coconut that I really like – so I just invented my own, inspired by Bounty. Originally, I was making a recipe from the Gourmet Cookbook by Ruth Reichl for something called “Snowballs”, but when those ended up being just ordinary macaroons, I decided to spice things up a bit by encapsulating them in chocolate dough!

bounty cookies

Bounty Cookies
For the coconut part:
3 c sweetened flaked coconut
1/2 c granulated sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 large egg whites
2 tsp water

1. Preheat the oven to 350oF. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Either finely chop the coconut or pulse it in a food processor until it finely chopped. Place in a bowl and stir in the sugar and salt until they are well mixed. Then stir in the egg whites and water until well mixed.
3. With damp hands, scoop 1 tbs. sized mounds of coconut. Roll into balls and place on the baking sheets, about 1″ apart. Bake 13-15 minutes, until the balls are puffed but not coloured. Slide them on the parchment onto a wire rack to cool completely.

For the chocolate part:
1 1/2 c flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 c white sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
3 oz unsweetened chocolate
1/2 c softened butter

1. Preheat the oven to 350oF and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a double boiler over gently simmering water, melt the unsweeteened chocolate. Let cool slightly, then beat into the softened butter until well-blended. Beat in the sugars until they are well-mixed in, then add in the flour and baking soda.
3. Take out a tablespoon-sized lump of dough and pat it as thin as you can between your hands,about 1/16″ to 1/8″. Place a coconut ball in the middle and pull the dough up around it so that it is completely encapsulated. Put the chocolate covered coconut ball on one of the prepared baking sheets. Repeat until all of the balls are covered, spacing them about 1″ apart.
4. Bake for abouut 10-12 minutes, until the outside of the dough feels firm. Remove from oven and transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes about 30 cookies

Meringue Tartlets

After a summer of not doing all that much baking, I decided to kick off the school year with something a bit special.  And I was also in the mood to can things.  So, I decided to make Lemon Curd Tartlets and then jar the extra curd – but this set me wondering, what kinds of other curd are out there?  Ultimately, I ended up with lemon and mango curd.  But the tartlets just looked a little bit bare, so then I made hats of meringue for them.

I have been using the same tartlet dough recipe for years, but I’ve never really been pleased wtih the results, so I decided to try a different recipe this time.  I felt that the new recipe produced a less oily texture, and they held together better.

Also, I should add that I used a really awesome baking implement, which I’ve had for about 2 years – namely, the silicone mini-muffin tin (mold?).  It’s just great.  It does not require greasing or anything, and the tartlet shells (and mini-muffins, if I am using it for them) just slide right out!

meringue tartlets

Meringue Tartlets

Pastry
3/4 c chilled butter
2 c flour
1/4 c sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 c ice water

1.  In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, sugar and salt. Cut the butter into chunks and place into a large bowl.  Using a pastry cutter, cut the flour mixture into the butter until it begins to resemble coarse cornmeal.  Sprinkle with water, let rest 30 seconds and then either process very briefly or cut in with about 15 strokes of the pastry cutter, just until the dough begins to stick together and come away from the sides of the bowl. Turn onto a lightly floured work surface and press together to form a disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for about 15-20 minutes.
2.  Roll into small balls about 1″ in diameter and place in miniature muffin tins. Press the balls in to form the shells.  Refrigerate the filled tins for at least 20 minutes.
3.  Preheat oven to 350ºF. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Cool completely before filling.

Lemon Curd</em
3 eggs
5 tbs butter, melted
1 c granulated sugar
Juice and finely grated zest of 2 lemons

1.  Beat the eggs into the melted butter; then stir in the sugar. Beat until thoroughly combined.  Add the lemon juice and rind gradually.
2.  Cook in the top of a double boiler over gently simmering water until thickened, stiring constantly to prevent separation.  Let cook before pouring into the baked tartlet shells.

Note: Extra curd can be canned and stored in the fridge for about 2 weeks.  It goes really well in sandwiches and on digestives.

Mango Curd
1 15-ounce ripe mango, peeled, pitted, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Pinch of salt
4 large egg yolks
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1.  Beat the eggs into the melted butter; then stir in the sugar. Beat until thoroughly combined.  Add the lemon juice.  Chop the mango into 1″ chunks and puree in a food processor or blender.  Stir in the mango puree into the butter mixture.
2.  Cook in the top of a double boiler over gently simmering water until thickened, stiring constantly to prevent separation.  Let cook before pouring into the baked tartlet shells.

Meringue
5 egg whites, room temperature
½ tsp cream of tartar
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp vanilla extract
¾ cup granulated sugar

1.  Preheat the oven to 325ºF and line 2 baking sheets with parchment [Make sure you do not skip this step, otherwise the meringues may not come off of the baking sheets]. Using an electric mixer beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar, salt and vanilla extract until soft peaks form. Add the sugar gradually, beating until it forms stiff, glossy peaks. This could take some time, maybe 10 minutes or more.
2.  Fill a pastry bag with the egg white mixture and pipe into 1″ circles on the baking sheets.  Bake for about 28 minutes, until the meringues appear brown and dry [I like mine really dry].  Let cool completely, and then top each filled tartlet with a meringue.

Hiatus

Well, if you may have noticed, this blog is experiencing something of a hiatus – not good, I know.  This is because I have chosen to spend my summer doing an internship, research, and taking a class, leaving me with little free time for baking.  Who knew that working 9-6 could be so tiring?  Anyway, I intend to resume my regular posting in end of August or maybe beginning of September.  That’s not to say that there won’t be anything new showing up between now and then, but it won’t be the same as during my school year.

Inside-Out Brownie Cookies

So this is a cookie that I acutally baked several weeks ago, but I never got around to posting the entry for it because it was the same week that I baked the Kitchen Sink Cookies.? Anyway, I made a few edits to the recipt below which I have not put in because I did not feel like complicating it.? In my version, I used Droste pastilles (milk chocolate and dark chocolate).? The cookies with the milk chocolate pastilles inside were glazed with white chocolate, and the ones with the dark chocolate were glazed with milk chocolate.? In the glaze recipe, you can just substitute white chocolate for the semisweet chocolate chips in the same amount – it will still work fine.

brownie cookies

Inside-Out Brownie Cookies
2 c semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 c butter
14 oz sweetened condensed milk (1 can)
2 c all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
32 each Hershey’s chocolate kisses, unwrapped

For topping:
2 oz semisweet chocolate chips
1 tsp vegetable oil

1. Preheat oven to 350o F. In a medium bowl, sift flour.
2. In medium saucepan, combine chocolate chips and butter stirring over very low heat until chips are melted and smooth. Add sweetened condensed milk and vanilla to chocolate mixture and mix well. Transfer to a large bowl and add flour mixture.
3. Shape 1 tablespoon of dough around each candy kiss, covering it completely. Shape into a ball and place 1 inch apart on un-greased cookie sheet.
4. Bake at 350o for 6 to 8 minutes. Cookies will be soft but will firm up as they cool. Remove from cookie sheets and transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

For topping:
Melt chocolate chips in a small saucepan with vegetable oil and stir until smooth. Drizzle over the top of the cookie and set on rack to cool and firm chocolate.

Makes about 32

The Great Chocolate Chip Cookie Experiment

Sooo, I have my computer science exam on Monday, but I do not really know where to begin studying.  Instead, I am joining the quest of baking bloggers around America to recreate the Levain Bakery cookies.  The ironic thing is that I could get on a subway, go uptown, and buy a Levain cookie , rather than looking at pictures online.  I would not even have to change trains, BUT I’m just not that motivated.

Here is an original Levain cookie:

levain cookie

Anyway, the purpose of this cookie is size. SIZE MATTERS. These cookies are supposed to be seriously ginormous and chock-full of nuts and chocolate. In fact, they sort of look more like scones than your typical chocolate chip cookie. So, I attempted several approaches (6, actually) based on 3 recipes and I 1/4-sized the batches, since these were really testers.  Without further ado, here are my mini-batches:


a)


b)

Recipe #1
2 oz (1/4 c) unsalted European butter, slightly softened
4 1/2 tbs granulated sugar
1 1/4 tbs brown sugar
1/2 egg (just beat it and use half)
1 1/4 tbs molasses
1 c plus 1 tbs sifted flour
1/4 tsp Kosher salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 c chocolate chips
1/4 c walnut halves (you want them big)

1. Preheat oven to appropriate temperature (see Step 4). [I toasted the walnuts for 7 minutes here because I prefer toasted nuts but it is not necessary.] Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda. In a medium bowl, beat the butter with the granulated sugar and brown sugar. Add in the egg and molasses and beat until well mixed. Slowly add in the flour mixture.
3. Stir in the chocolate chips and walnut halves.
4. Form into 4 large balls. Place on baking sheet and:
a) bake for 18 minutes at 350oF
b) set oven to 375oF and bake for 8 minutes, then lower to 325oF and bake 12 minutes more.
5. Cool on baking sheet 1 minute and transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Review: These tasted very molasses-y (not a real word, but you get the idea). They were really moist, but…they tasted very molasses-y. That is not a bad thing if you like molasses, but when you are striving for a huge classic chocolate chip cookie, it kind of is.

a)

b)

Recipe #2
1/4 c unsalted European-style butter, slightly softened
3 tbs granulated sugar
3 tbs brown sugar
1/2 egg
pinch of vanilla extract
3/4 c plus 1 tbs all-purpose flour
pinch Kosher salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of baking soda
1/2 c chocolate chunks
1/4 c walnut halves

It’s a very similar procedure to above:

1. Preheat oven to appropriate temperature (see Step 4). [I toasted the walnuts for 7 minutes here because I prefer toasted nuts but it is not necessary.] Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. In a medium bowl, beat the butter with the granulated sugar and brown sugar. Add in the egg and vanilla extract and beat until well mixed. Slowly add in the flour mixture.
3. Stir in the chocolate chips and walnut halves.
4. Form into 4 large balls. Place on baking sheet and:
a) bake for 18 minutes at 350oF
b) set oven to 375oF and bake for 8 minutes, then lower to 325oF and bake 12 minutes more.
5. Cool on baking sheets 1 minute and transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Review: These were really awesome. Before baking them as indicated in part b), I refrigerated the dough for about 10 minutes, and they held their shape. The difference between a) and b) is that a) produces a cookie that is crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside, whereas b) yields a cookie that is mostly chewy throughout. Although I am usually partial to a chewy cookie, I really enjoyed a).

a)

b)

Recipe #3
(This is actually a half recipe. It is basically a variation on Reicpe #2 with the addition of cake flour.)

1/4 c unsalted European-style butter
1/4 c plus 2 tbs granulated sugar
1/4 c plus 2 tbs brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 c plus 1 tbs all-purpose flour
3/4 c plus 1 tbs cake flour
1/8 tsp Kosher salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1 c chocolate chunks
1/2 c walnut halves

1. Preheat oven to appropriate temperature (see Step 4). [I toasted the walnuts for 7 minutes here because I prefer toasted nuts but it is not necessary.] Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. In a medium bowl, beat the butter with the granulated sugar and brown sugar. Add in the egg and vanilla extract and beat until well mixed. Slowly add in the flour mixture.
3. Stir in the chocolate chips and walnut halves.
4. Form into 4 large bowls. Place on baking sheet and:
a) bake for 18 minutes
b) set oven to 375oF and bake for 8 minutes, then lower to 325oF and bake 12 minutes more
5. Cool on baking sheets 1 minute and transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Review: These spread a bit more than the other ones, even after some refrigeration. The ones baked at 325o first spread less than the ones baked only at 350o. Taste-wise, I believe that the ones baked according to b) come the closest to the Levain cookies (cake-like texture, that is) – hardly a surprise, considering that half of the flour was cake flour. I think that if I added more chocolate, they would be Levain doppelgangers.

So, after all of that, what was my conclusion? Either Recipe 2b or Recipe 3b. (To be honest, Recipe 1 made me slightly nauseous.)

Kitchen Sink Cookies

Yes, that’s an odd name but these really do have “everything but the kitchen sink” in them. I started by reading a recipe for “Chewy Chocolate Coconut Cashew Cookies,” which I eventually managed to mutate into “Pecan Butterscotch White Chocolate Coconut Cookies”. I really wanted something with butterscotch and toasted pecans (I’m literally so in love with them that I make them and freeze them), but I ended up basically opening my cabinets and tossing stuff into a bowl.

kitchen sink cookies

Kitchen Sink Cookies
2 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 c (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 c brown sugar
3/4 c granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 c sweetened flaked coconut
1/2 c butterscotch chips
1/2 c white chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli, woot woot!)
3/4 c chopped pecans

1. Preheat oven to 350oF. Toast the pecans on a baking sheet 8-10 minutes, or until fragrant. Set aside to cool. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour and baking soda.
3. In a large bowl, beat butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until creamy. Add the vanilla followed by one egg at a time and beat until light and fluffy.
4. Stir the flour mixture into the larger bowl. Stir in coconut and pecans, followed by the pecans and white chocolate chips.
5. Drop heaping round tablespoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake ten minutes or until cookies have spread and are done on the outside and a bit moist on the inside. Cool about a minute on baking sheets, then move to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes about 2 dozen

Candy Bar Cookies

Generally if people, such as myself, enjoy cookies, they generally enjoy other kinds of sweets, like CANDY!  In terms of non-chocolate based candy, I really like Skittles, jelly beans and a particular type of Eastern European candy called “Krowki” (that’s the Polish spelling – it means cow,  I think).  Pure chocolate is rather different.  For example, I typically prefer Cadbury’s to Hershey’s, except for s’mores, although the Cadbury’s recipe has been  perverted for distribution in America.  I also like Krasniy Oktyabr’ products (and the smell they give to certain areas of Moscow).  For baking, I typically use Baker’s chocolate, I recently discovered a brand called Scharffen Berger which is really good for things that really emphasize the flavour of the chocolate, like the torte I made for Passover.

Anyway, this cookie is a Mars-product themed creation, using Snickers bars and Dove chocolate.  Ordinarily, I do not use Dove but someone I know was describing her love of Dove to me, so I decided to give it a try.  I was pleased. These are really simple to make, which is nice – I started them at 10:30pm after coming home from a concert and I was completely done by midnight.

candy bar cookies

Candy Bar Cookies
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup honey
1 Tbsp. milk
24 miniature candy bars (I used Snickers)
about 3-4 oz of chocolate of your choice (I used Dove)

1. Preheat oven to 350oF. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. In a large bowl, beat the peanut butter and butter together until well mixed. Beat in the sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add in the egg followed by the milk and honey.
3. Mold about 1 tbs of dough around each piece of candy. You do not want there to be a lot of extra dough because then the cookie will spread when you bake it, and if there is too much dough, then it will overwhelm the candy center.
4. Place on the prepared cookie sheets and bake for 12-14 minutes. Remove and transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
5. After the cookies have cooled, melt the chocolate in a ziploc bag. Cut a small hole in one
corner and squeeze in drizzles over the cookies. It will set after it cools.

Makes 24 cookies