Cranberry sorbet vodka frozen cocktail

Cranberry sorbet vodka frozen cocktail

This was delicious.  I have a “crush ice” function on my blender that made this concoction a breeze.

What I used:
Two big handfuls of ice
¼ cup cranberry sorbet
1 tablespoon water
2 tablespoons Ketel One vodka

Crush ice cubes using “crush ice” setting on blender about 10 pulses.  Add sorbet and water to ice mixture and stir using lowest blender speed.  Put ice mixture in a cocktail glass and pour vodka over the ice.

This drink is delicious even on a cold winter’s night.  I can’t wait to try it in the dead heat of the summer, though!

Molten chocolate cake

Molten chocolate cake (Can you see the yummy ooze seeping from the bottom?)

Molten chocolate cake, yet another Martha all-star recipe….

WOW.   These were incredibly easy and I will definitely make them again.  It was the perfect Valentine’s Day indulgence.  I served them with a scoop of Haagen Daz vanilla ice cream.  I used Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate, but next time I’d like to try Callebaut or some other top-tier brand.

SJ loved it, too.  He even licked his plate.

Molten chocolate cake, pre-plate, just out of the oven.

In search of the ultimate brownie: round 1

The ultimate brownie, round 1

I’m attempting to come up with the perfect brownie formula—and by perfect, I mean my perfect brownie.   I want a go-to in the same league as the Jacques Torres Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.  I’ve used brownie recipes from different sources, including Cooks Illustrated, Cooks Illustrated Light, Saveur, AB, Chow.com, Hershey’s and others.  I decided to cobble together my own recipe based on principles I’ve seen used elsewhere.  I had a bad experience making the much-hyped CI chewy brownie.  Maybe I did something wrong, but those things were not very tasty.  Yes, they were chewy, but I thought too much so.  And they weren’t chocolatey enough.  The CI staff wanted to match the chewiness of brownies from a box mix, but with none of the chemically aftertaste.

I want it all: the deep, complex flavor of a classically decadent brownie, like AB’s cocoa brownies, a but a little chewiness instead of fudginess.  Also, I’d love it if the brownie wasn’t a sugary fat bomb.  I know it’s possible to make a delicious, low fat, chocolately brownie—the Cooks Illustrated “Light Brownies” are absolutely divine.  I don’t want the brownie to be cloyingly sweet, too buttery, crumbly, cake-like, too moist or too dry.

I think I have a few more renditions to go.

These brownies were a tad too sugary, not chocolatey enough, and a teensy bit underdone.  Changes for next time:

1) I’ll use Ghirardelli bittersweet chips instead of those nasty Toll House morsels I had on hand.  Did you know Nestle Toll House morsels came in last place in a dark chocolate morsel blind taste test?  They have more sugar than nearly any other dark chocolate morsel on the market, plus they are so darned waxy, and they taste cheap and only faintly of chocolate.  Makes sense: they are 57% sugar and only 30% cacao!  I knew it was a risk to use Toll House given their dead-last ranking, but I could make up for it by adding a tablespoon of Droste dutch-process cocoa to the mix…right?  Nope.  I thought the tablespoon of cocoa would help add chocolatey authenticity, but it didn’t do enough.  Ghirardelli’s’60% cacao chips came in first place in that tasting – 40% sugar, 60% cacao.

2) I’ll use a vegetable oil and butter combo, but not the 71% oil to 29% butter ratio CI used for their chewy brownie recipe.  My brownies don’t need to be as chewy as theirs were.

3) I want to bloom the cocoa and add 1 teaspoon of espresso powder with a little hot water, just like CI does for their absolutely delicious light brownie recipe.  In adding hot water, I think I’ll use a little less fat.  Problem with the CI light brownies recipe is the painstakingly detailed and fussy directions.  Mix these two ingredients in one bowl, then these two in a different bowl, whisk combo 1 with combo 2 in combo 2’s bowl, then slowly add combo 3 and combo 4 into a different bowl and slowly add stuff 1 and 2 into bowl  4.  It’s a brownie, let’s keep things in perspective!  (Says me…ha.)

4) Use a little less sugar.  These were awfully sweet.  So sweet that they didn’t taste chocolately enough.  I’ll drop the sugar by around 2 tablespoons and see if that helps.

5) Check brownies with toothpick for doneness.  I went by the appearance of the edges for these brownies, but I should have left them in 3-4 min longer.  I don’t like slightly underdone baked goods.  Never have.  Soft and chewy is one thing, underdone is another.  There is a subtle but distinct difference.  I either like raw dough or fully cooked—nowhere in between.  I believe I underbaked these brownies by about 3-4 minutes.

Brownie recipe,  round 1

1 stick unsalted butter, plus more for greasing
4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate morsels
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 handful walnut pieces

1. Heat oven to 350° and grease 8×8″ baking pan with butter and coat in powdered sugar.

2. As soon as butter is done melting in medium bowl, add chocolate to it, stirring, until melted and smooth, a couple minutes. Set aside.

3. Whisk together eggs in a large bowl. Add sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt; whisk to combine. Stir in chocolate mixture; fold in flour. Pour batter into prepared pan; spread evenly. Sprinkle walnuts evenly over top.  Bake until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, 30–35 minutes. Let cool on a rack. Cut and serve.

Brownie recipe, round 2, to be tested in the next week:

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon hot water
½ teaspoon espresso powder
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 cup flour
handful of walnuts

1. Heat oven to 350° and grease 8×8″ baking pan with butter and coat in powdered sugar.

2. Whisk espresso powder, cocoa and hot water in medium bowl.  Whisk in the sugars, then whisk in melted butter and chocolate combination. Next, slowly add slightly beaten  eggs and vanilla .  Fold in flour.

3. Pour batter into prepared pan; spread evenly. Sprinkle walnuts evenly over top. Bake until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, 33–35 minutes. Let cool on a rack. Cut and serve.

Chile-lime peanuts from Chow: Super Bowl Grub

My chile-lime peanuts: little burnt, lotta still tasty!

When SJ and I were in FL, I also looked for game food  to make for the Bears-Packers game.  I found a great recipe on Chow: Chile-Lime Peanuts.  I used with the hacked version of the recipe which called for adding lime juice in place of half the oil.  That ended up being a great decision!  The extra lime juice added sourness I enjoyed.

I kinda burnt these suckers, unfortunately.  Trying to do too many things at once in the kitchen, and I think I underestimated how long they’d already been in the oven when I turned on the timer!  The red herring was that my aluminum foil garlic/oil sling from yesterday dripped oil, creating a black sticky and smoking mess at the bottom of the oven.  Still today a bunch of smoke poured out of the oven, so the smell of smoke from the oven burning off the oil masked the smell of my a-little-overdone peanuts.  Darn it anyway.  I shoulda known better than to bake them at 400 degrees when my peanuts were already cooked.  They don’t really taste burnt, though – I picked off the black ones and the rest just got a teensy bit dark.  (Denial?)

Variants:
1) Used cocktail peanuts since I cannot find spanish peanuts at the grocery store anymore.  Had the same problem when I made peanut brittle over the holidays.  Also used about 1/3 ratio of cashews.
2) Used canola oil instead of peanut oil
3) Used half the salt since my nuts were lightly salted
4) Used some kind of dried red chile I bought at the Naples Super Wal-Mart store.  There are no words on the package describing its contents.  Thankfully the bag was clear.  I ground the chile in our coffee bean grinder (SHHH!)

Recipe and directions re-written as they appear on Chow:

Ingredients:
2 pounds raw, shelled Spanish peanuts
20 whole unpeeled garlic cloves (about 2 whole heads)
6 tablespoons peanut oil
4 arbol chiles, crushed
3 tablespoons finely grated lime zest, packed (from about 4 medium limes)
4 teaspoons kosher salt
4 teaspoons granulated sugar

Instructions:
1. Heat the oven to 400°F and arrange a rack in the middle. Toss together peanuts, garlic, peanut oil, and chiles until evenly coated.

2. Spread ingredients out on a baking sheet in a single layer and roast, shaking and stirring halfway through, until nuts are toasted and beginning to crack open, about 25 minutes.
3. Remove from the oven and transfer to a large, heatproof bowl. Toss with lime zest, salt, and sugar and serve.

Spicy-sweet pretzel mix recipe from MSL: Super Bowl grub

Spicy-sweet pretzels and almonds

Martha Stewart recipe: Spicy-sweet pretzel mix
I browsed a few Super Bowl food recipe galleries last week I spotted a recipe I wanted to try: spicy-sweet pretzel mix from Martha Stewart Living (MSL).  The pragmatist in me was glad to see a fresh way to jazz up pretzels.  I had just the pretzels that needed such jazzing.  I doubled this recipe to use up all my pretzels.

Variants:
1) used twists rather than pretzel sticks
2) used fresh-ground mysterious dried red chile left over from the chile-lime peanuts recipe I also made today
3) didn’t line the baking sheet
4) sprinkled on about 1/8 teaspoon of cumin and 1/2 teaspoon coriander for more of a grown-up, complex flavor.

Ingredients:
2 cups thin pretzel sticks
1 cup natural almonds
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons dark-brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions:
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. In a large bowl, toss together pretzels and almonds. In a small saucepan, bring butter, sugar, cayenne, and 1 tablespoon water to a boil, stirring constantly. Pour over pretzel mixture in bowl; gently toss to combine. Spread pretzel mixture in a single layer on prepared sheet. Bake until almonds are crisp, about 20 minutes, tossing occasionally. Cool on sheet before serving. (To store, keep at room temperature, up to 5 days.)

SJ’s assessment: He couldn’t stay away from it.
“Tastes like monkey bread.”
“I don’t want to share this if we take it over to DC’s house to watch the Super Bowl.”
My assessment: Tastes great, and finally I’ve used up the pretzels left over from making party mix over the holidays!

Juicy, flavorful turkey burgers

Once again, I have to salute the Cooks Illustrated crew: they came up with a way to make the dry, tasteless, colorless ground turkey an exceptionally juicy and delicious burger.

Look at the brown crust on that burger!

According to the CI cookbook write up on turkey burgers, they tested 25 different seasonings and many different ways to improve texture and juiciness.  They settled on ricotta cheese for texture and juiciness (who woulda thought?) and Worcestershire and Dijon mustard for flavoring.

Best of all: these patties come together quickly and easily!  No pre-work required.

RECIPE:

1 1/4 pounds 93% lean ground turkey
1/2 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard (I used Grey Poupon)
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

DIRECTIONS:

Combine ingredients in medium bowl.  Divide meat into 4 patties, or 8 patties if you’re making sliders.  Flatten a bit.

Sorry for the skillet close-up, but seriously--look at the yummy crustiness!

Heat large, heavy uncoated skillet or Dutch oven over medium heat.  Swirl oil in pan and add burgers.  Cook over medium heat without moving until dark brown, 3-4 minutes.  Flip and cook another 3 minutes.  Drop heat to low, partially cover pan.  Cook 8-10 more minutes.

I wasn’t sure what to do with the remaining ricotta cheese, but I settled on  a really great recipe for ricotta spread on Chow.  I switched it up a little and ended up going with something like this:

1 1/2 cups ricotta
1/4 cup chopped parsley leaves
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
3 cloves of roasted garlic
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Granola

I’m on a huge granola kick.  My typical breakfast fare has been plain, nonfat yogurt with a generous handful of this granola mixed in.  Sometimes I’ll even have yogurt and granola for lunch.  Toasting the oatmeal, the coconut and the nuts separately before assembling gives it a deep, caramely flavor.  It’s relatively healthy, preservative free and more delicious than any store-bought granola.  The variations are endless.  I’ve made it extra-cinnamony, mixed in dried fruit, and even exchanged butter for the canola oil for extra decadence.  I like to mix in a quarter cup each of nutritious flax seeds and chia seeds.

My basic recipe:

3 cups old-fashioned or quick rolled oats
2 cups of any combination of nuts, e.g. peanuts, cashews, pecans, walnuts, sunflower seeds, pistachios
3/4 cup shredded sweet coconut
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup of either honey or real maple syrup (not pancake syrup), or a combo if you want
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 teaspoon salt (use only ½ teaspoon if the nuts are salted)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon

OPTIONAL AD-INS:
1 cup dried fruit, such as raisins, cranberries, apples, or apricots – add after baking granola
2-3 tablespoons flax seeds
2-3 tablespoons chia seeds
up to 1/4 cup wheat germ
2-3 tablespoons corn meal
1/2 cup bran flakes or Fiber One

Note that the more dry options added, the less sweet stickybinding the cereal will have.  You can add a couple more tablespoons of brown sugar.

Spread the oatmeal, nuts, coconut and wheat germ (if using) on a large cookie sheet.  Toast in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.   (No need to preheat oven. . .baking time and temperature doesn’t have to be precise)

While the dry stuff is toasting, combine honey/maple syrup, oil, salt, vanilla and cinnamon.  Pour on top of toasted dry ingredients in cookie sheet and stir to combine.  If using flax seeds, chia seeds, cereal, or cornmeal, mix in now.  Drop the oven temperature to 275 degrees and bake for another 45 minutes, stirring and rotating pan at the halfway mark.

Remove from oven and transfer into a large bowl, then add dry fruit if using and mix until evenly distributed.

Granola can be stored at room temperature for about 5 days, or in the freezer for at least 3 months.

 

Jacques Torres’s Secret Chocolate Chip Cookies – the all-time, absolute best chocolate chip cookies. Ever.

I’ve baked at least 15 variations of chocolate chip cookies over the years.  As a 4H member, I won a blue ribbon at the Iowa State Fair in 1992 for “Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie,” a recipe using butter-flavored Crisco.  I’ve baked CI’s thin and crispy chocolate chip cookies, and also their thick and chewy ones.  Plus I’ve made the Nestle Toll House recipe probably 100 times in my life.  I’d never been dissatisfied.

Perusing the Martha Stewart “cookies, cookies, cookies” photo gallery, I was taken by the Jacques Torres’s Secret Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe, described as “one of Martha’s all-time favorites.”  I’m never disappointed by a recipe Martha endorses, and I HAD to try one of her all-time favorites.  I mean, that’s some serious street cred.  The recipe intrigued me: a combo of pastry flour and bread flour.  I’d never seen such a thing.  I regularly stock at least 5 types of flour, but nary a pastry variety.  Fortunately a ratio of 2 parts AP and 1 part cake flour is a viable sub for pastry flour.  I divided this massive recipe in two and gave it a whirl.
OH.  MY.  WORD.

Chewy.  Scrumptious.  Delectable.  Mindblowing.

The recipe won me over as my go-to choc chip cookie recipe.  I’ve made 3 batches of these cookies in the past 9 or so months.

Recipe re-written here, as I make it (divided in two, since original recipe is humongous)

2 sticks unsalted butter
7/8 cup granulated sugar
1 1/8 cups light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon cake flour
1 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, or 1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
12 – 16 oz. semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or nonstick baking mats; set aside.
2. Whisk together dry ingredients in medium bowl. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugars. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Reduce speed to low and dry ingredients.  Mix until combined.
3. Use a 3-ounce scoop to scoop cookie dough onto prepared baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Bake until lightly browned, but still soft, about 17-18 minutes.  Remove cookies from pan cool on wire racks.

   The texture of this cookie best lends itself to a larger cookie.  I don’t recommend making minature cookies with this recipe.

Spiced biscotti

I love baking biscotti, and it can be a great alternative to butter-laden cookies or other dessert.  It’s a great breakfast on the go, and it’s terrific for gifts given its low moisture content and relatively long shelf life.  I make a batch of chocolate-almond biscotti for my cousin and cranberry orange pistachio for my mom every Christmas.  Biscotti has an air of sophistication about it, but it’s one of the easiest baked goods to make.  The only trick is shaping the dough, but it’s easy if you know how it should look.

Recently I decided to branch out from my go-to chocolate-almond and cranberry-orange-pistachio variety.  I was flipping through my Cooks Illustrated cookbook and saw a “spiced biscotti” recipe I’ve wanted to try.  This recipe is similar to my two stalwarts, but calls for two additional egg yolks and no nuts or chocolate.  According to CI, the additional egg yolks give the cookies were richer and more cookie-like than those with eggs only, yet they keep much longer than doughs made with butter.  Since this recipe calls for no high fat chocolate or nuts, it keeps at room temperature for at least one month.

Notes/next time: since spices can be adjusted to taste, I added about a quarter teaspoon of extra cinnamon, and used allspice instead of cloves.  I loved the idea of white pepper–I think next time I make it I’ll add several turns of black pepper set to a fine grind.  I also think red peppercorn would be fabulous, though it’s harder to come by.  I might use a quarter teaspoon of almond extract, too, and try this with just one extra yolk.  This biscotti seemed more sandy and crumbly than my others.  The yolk added richness, yes, but I don’t know that I need two extras.

Recipe:

2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs, plus 2 large egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1. Sift first eight ingredients together in a small bowl.
2. Mix sugar and eggs and yolks in a stand mixture fitted with paddle attachment for 4-5 minutes, scraping bowl as needed.  Stir in vanilla extract. Sift dry ingredients over egg mixture, then fold in until dough is just combined.

   

3. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Halve dough and turn each portion onto parchment paper or a Silpat. (I freeze the halved dough for about 10 minutes right on the pan before shaping it, since it’s pretty sticky.  Using very lightly floured hands, quickly stretch each portion of dough into a rough 13-by-2-inch log, placing them about 3 inches apart on the cookie sheet. Pat each dough shape to smooth it.  Bake, turning pan once, until loaves are golden and just beginning to crack on top, about 35 minutes.
4. Cool the loaves for 10 minutes; lower oven temperature to 325 degrees. Cut each loaf diagonally into 3/8-inch slices with a serrated knife. Lay the slices on the cookie sheet, cut side up, and return them to the oven. Bake 10 minutes, then turn over each cookie and bake an additional 10 minutes.  Transfer biscotti to wire rack and cool completely. Biscotti can be stored in an airtight container for at least 1 month.

 

(Second of the) 12 bags of cranberries: Cranberry bread

Cranberry bread – Shortly after I bought the 12 bags of cranberries, I stumbled on a photo gallery of 43 cranberry recipes on the Martha Stewart website.  Jackpot! I found one recipe for cranberry bread that I thought looked easy and tasty.  That it was.

I added a teaspoon of vanilla extract, a teaspoon of cinnamon, and a tablespoon of orange rind.  I’d grated the orange rind a few weeks ago and froze it.  That’s definitely the way to go!  I will continue to stockpile citrus rind in the freezer.  I’m obsessed with freezing things for later use.

The bread turned out fabulous – it’s tart, but the vanilla and orange rind round out the tartness, and the brown sugar gives it a warm caramelly taste.  I thought of topping it with a simple powdered sugar orange glaze, but I decided against it.

Recipe, (adapted from Martha Stewart’s Cranberry Bread)

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg, lightly beaten
3/4 cup whole or 2% milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon grated orange zest
2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for pan
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 12 oz. bag cranberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees; butter and flour a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan (8-cup capacity), and set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In a medium bowl, combine butter, egg, and milk. Add wet mixture to dry mixture, and whisk to combine; fold in cranberries.
2. Pour batter into prepared pan; sprinkle top with turbinado sugar, if desired. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of loaf comes out clean, about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack; let bread cool 30 minutes. Invert onto rack, then immediately turn right side up to cool completely.