In Honor of My Texan Sister: Cornbread

Okay, so she's not really Texan. But she lives there now, and very close to Mexico as well, and so I write this post in her honor.

I love Mexican food, which is a little strange since I don't think we ever ate it growing up. However, I have found that I love the spices and the flavors, and am always happy to integrate them into my diet. Burritos, enchiladas, tacos-- you name it, and I probably love it.

So I decided to have Mexican night for Shabbat dinner this week, which meant chili, along with the subject of this post-- cornbread! I really love cornbread, but something I have learned is that it is very hard to do well. Often, recipes come out dry and crumbly, and either too sweet or too bland. However, this time I seem to have found a truly excellent recipe.

This recipe is from the Kosher By Design series by Susie Fishbein. It's from the Short on Time cookbook, and unlike some of the recipes, which take much longer than claimed, this one is actually really easy. She says that the secret is the orange, which solves the too dry problem. I'll take her word for it, but trust me-- if you like Mexican, this cornbread is for you.

Orange Cornmeal Bread, from Kosher By Design Short on Time:

1 cup flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 large eggs
1 navel orange
1 cup soy milk
1 tablespoon lemon juice
4 tablespoons butter

Preheat the oven to 400. Heavily grease and flour an 8 by 8 square baking pan. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.

In another bowl, whisk together the eggs and the juice of the orange. Add the soy milk and the lemon juice. Whisk in the melted butter. Then add the dry mixture to the egg mixture, using a wooden spoon to combine.

Pour the mixture into the baking pan. Bake, uncovered, for 25-30 minutes, or until lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry. Cool and slice.

Adventures with the Ice Cream Maker: Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream

I have not bought any ice cream since getting my ice cream maker.  Homemade ice cream is just that good.  However, one of my favorite flavors of ice cream is Haagen Daaz Deep Chocolate Peanut Butter.  I thought this ice cream, from the wonderful and talented David Lebovitz, would be similar and boy was it goooood.  It was not exactly like the Haagen Daaz flavor, since the peanut butter was blended into the ice cream instead of in chunks, but it was still tasty. I am thinking about ways to boost the chocolate flavor a bit (the peanut butter is really strong), so if you have any ideas let me know.

Here is the recipe, from The Perfect Scoop:

Ingredients:

• 2 cups heavy cream
• ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• ½ cup sugar
• Pinch of salt
• ½ cup smooth peanut butter

*The original recipe calls for 2 cups of half and half. Since I only had heavy cream, I used that and thinned it out with milk.

Recipe:

1. Whisk together the half and half, cocoa powder, sugar, and salt in a large saucepan.  Heat the mixture, whisking frequently, until it comes to a full, rolling boil (it will start to foam up).  Remove from the heat and whisk in the peanut butter, stirring until thoroughly blended.
2. Chill the mixture thoroughly, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Cute as a Brownie Button

The first time that I made these, it was for my seven-year old campers at Camp Yomi, and I feel like that is the best possible use for these. I don't mean that as a slight - it's just that these brownies are cute and simple and manageable, perfect for little kids. Yet they also can be sophisticated when arranged prettily on a dessert plate.

This time around, I just made them for fun, because they're also fun. It's fun to pop them out of their little pan holes. It's fun to dip them in white chocolate and give them a little twirl. It's fun to eat them! (And you don't have to feel guilty because they're so small.) Taste-wise, they're good, though nothing that special, but I kept them in the fridge, where they attained a fudgy consistency that compounded the richness of the white chocolate. Yum!

Brownie Buttons
from “Baking From my Home to Yours” by Dorie Greenspan

Grated zest of 1/2 Orange
1 teaspoon Sugar
1/4 Cup plus 2 Tablespoons Flour
Pinch of Salt
1/2 Stick (4 Tablespoons) Unsalted Butter, Cut into 4 Pieces
2 1/2 Ounces Bittersweet Chocolate, Coarsely Chopped
1/3 Cup (Packed) Brown Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
1 Large Egg

For the optional Glaze:
2 Ounces White Chocolate, Finely Chopped

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly butter two miniature muffin pans, each with a dozen cups, and place them on a baking sheet.

If you’re using the orange zest, combine the zest and sugar in a small bowl, rubbing them between your fingertips to blend: set aside. Whisk together the flour and salt.

Melt the butter, chocolate, and brown sugar in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan over very low heat, stirring frequently with a heatproof spatula and keeping an eye on the pan so that nothing overheats or burns. When the mixture is smooth, remove from the heat and cool for a minute or two. Stir the vanilla, egg and the zest into the chocolate mixture. When the mixture is well blended, add the flour and stir only until it is incorporated. You should have a smooth, glossy batter.

Spoon the batter into 16 of the muffin cups, using about a teaspoon of batter to fill each cup 3/4 full. Put 1 teaspoon of water in each empty cup.
Bake for 14-16 minutes, or until the tops of the buttons spring back when touched. Transfer the pans to racks to cool for 3 minutes before carefully releasing the buttons. Cool to room temperature on the racks.

To make the glaze: Melt the chocolate over a double boiler. Stir constantly and don’t leave the chocolate for even one minute- white chocolate scorches easily. As soon as the chocolate is smooth, remove from the heat.

One by one, dip the tops of the buttons into the chocolate, twirling the buttons so that you get a little swirl at the center of each one and the excess chocolate drips back into the bowl. Refrigerate the buttons for 15 minutes to set the glaze.

The Search for the Chocolate Chip Cookie

I have a confession to make: I, too, am a stress baker. Big time. My parents and roommates have benefited from this in the past, and now that I am back to being as stressed as ever I decided it was time to break out the ole cookie sheet.

Baking in foreign countries is tricky. There's the Fahrenheit to Celsius conversion. There's the grams to cups conversion. Then there's the UK cups to US cups conversion. Then there's the fact that sugar here is less finely granulated, that eggs are smaller, that butter is measured in grams rather than tablespoons...all in all, it's a tricky endeavor. But it can be worth it for its stress-alleviating properties, and so I had baked a couple of things based on American recipes. None of them turned out very well, and so I went hunting for British recipes. The first thing I looked for was chocolate chip cookies. I know they are an American invention, but they're some of the easiest, homiest things to make, and having a good solid recipe is essential.

From what I can tell, baked goods don't enjoy the same popularity here that they do in America. Occasionally I will come across a recognizable cookie or cake, but for the most part it's fruit compotes with custard and these things called digestive biscuits. So it took some considerable digging, but at last I found a Web site for women (natch) which had some appealing-looking recipes, including one for chocolate chip cookies. I adapted it a bit (i.e. I creamed the butter rather than melting it, I added some mixing time in between the egg parts and I lessened the baking time). I also added the American equivalent measurements, in case you want to make it. I have to say, it tasted just like home - sweet and buttery and chewy and delicious. A wonderful find on a stressful day!

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from SoFeminine's Recipe Section

Ingredients :
250g/2 cups plain/self-raising flour
2g/scant 1/2 tsp. baking soda (not necessary if using self-raising flour)
3g/2/3 tsp. salt
170g/12 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
220g/1 cup packed brown sugar
100g/scant 1/2 cup white sugar
15ml vanilla extract (I don't know what this is - I just used a little over 1 teaspoon)
1 egg
1 egg yolk
335g/1/2 cup chocolate chips

Recipe :
1-Preheat oven to 165°C/330°F, grease baking sheets or line with baking parchment

2-Sift together flour, baking soda and salt, set aside.

3-In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter and sugars until well blended.

4-Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy, mixing for a minute between after each egg addition. Mix in the sifted ingredients 1/3 at a time, stirring until just blended.

5-Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookies 1 tbsp at a time onto baking sheet about 3 inches apart.

6-Bake for 13-15 minutes, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring onto wire racks.

See the World in Black and White...

I love cookies. I do. I love everything about them-- I love that they taste delicious hot, room temperature or frozen; I love that they are a snack-sized pile of sweetness just waiting for me whenever I'm ready for them; I love that they come in individually sized pieces and so they last for sooo long without getting stale. However, despite living in my apartment for three and a half years now, I had no dairy cookie sheets. Instead, I had yucky disposable pieces of aluminum that I was constantly covering in tin foil and vowing to replace, just as soon as I remembered to do so. Every time I baked, my roommate would say, "Why don't you just get cookie sheets?" And I would wave her off and the cycle would continue.


However, that day has come at last! The cycle has finally been broken! (Better late than never, right?) So today, in order to dedicate my new cookie sheets, I decided to make an old favorite-- White Chip Chocolate Cookies.


The recipe for these cookies are found (in a slightly modified way) on the back of Nestle premier white morsels. They're easy to make, and if they're cooked for the right amount of time, they are light, moist and rich without being too heavy. I've actually found that they taste best either hot or frozen (as opposed to at room temperature) because they are very sweet, but no matter what, I guarantee you will enjoy them.

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 1/4 cup skim milk
  
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) Nestle Toll House Premier White Morsels

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, milk and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels. Drop by well-rounded teaspoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until centers are set. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes 3 dozen large cookies, or 4 dozen smaller ones.

Stress Baking: The Baked Brownie

My husband claims that I do something called stress baking.  When there is a lot going on, and I am stressed out, I bake.  I guess it is better than stress eating or stress shopping, since I send most of the baked goods to my husband's office, but I think he might be right about the stress baking.  There is a lot going on in my life right now, a lot of which I can't control, so baking it is!

I recently got the Baked cookbook (ok, I do engage in some stress shopping, but it is mostly books) and they claim to have the best brownie in America.  I have never been there to taste the version in their bakery, but they have the recipe in their book, so I decided to make them. 

This was, hands down, the most complicated brownie recipe I have ever made.  I am the "put everything in a bowl and stir" kind of girl and these brownies were definitely not those.  It involves melting, putting things in side bowls and folding things with a spatula.  That being said, since the purpose of making them was stress relief, it was better that they took a long time.  

I don't know how these were supposed to look (they were less shiny on top than other brownies I have made) but they smelled really good.  I didn't taste them the day I made them and I sent most of them to my husband's office, but I ate one out of the freezer.  It was good, but I'm not sure if it is better than other brownies out there.  Maybe that is because it was frozen?  Not sure.  I'll have to do a taste test when I am patient enough to let them defrost.   

Here is the recipe:

The Baked Brownie from Baked – New Frontiers in Baking

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons dark unsweetened cocoa powder
11 ounces dark chocolate (60 to 72% cacao), coarsely chopped
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
5 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the sides and bottom of a 9 x 13 glass or light-colored metal baking pan. 

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, salt and cocoa powder. Put the chocolate, butter, and instant espresso powder in a large bowl and set it over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and smooth. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water and add the sugars. Whisk until completely combined, then remove the bowl from the pan. The mixture should be room temperature. 

Add 3 eggs to the chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Add the remaining eggs and whisk until combined. Add the vanilla and stir until combined. Do not overbeat the batter at this stage or your brownies will be cakey. 

Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate mixture. Using a spatula (not a whisk), fold the flour mixture into the chocolate until just a bit of the flour mixture is visible. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake in the center of the oven for 30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies comes out with a few moist crumbs sticking to it. 

Let the brownies cool completely, then cut them into squares and serve. Tightly covered with plastic wrap, the brownies keep at room temperature for up to 3 days.

The Best Thing I've Ever Baked: Chocolate Cinnamon Bread

About three years ago, I was waiting on line at a Starbucks and I saw that they were giving out recipe cards for various baked goods that they carry.  I picked up one for chocolate cinnamon bread, something that I had never tried but since I love the combination of chocolate and cinnamon, I thought I would give it a try.  It languished in my recipe box until this week when I decided to go for it, and make it.  

And I am SO GLAD I did.  This is one of the best things I have ever made and eaten, hands down.  Usually I send baked goods to my husband's office, but this was too good and I hoarded it all to myself (I froze some for later).  I don't know if it was the moistness of the cake or the crunchy cinnamon/sugar/spice topping, but it was utterly delicious.  Please, please make this cake.  It is super easy and very satisfying, and since it is called "bread" you can eat it for breakfast :).

The only issue is that the recipe makes two loaf pans worth of cake.  I split it in half, but since the recipe calls for five eggs, I had to use half an egg to make just one loaf (although if I had known what it tasted like, I might have made two).  To make half an egg, I cracked it in a glass, beat it a little with a fork and poured half into the batter and threw out the rest.  It worked fine.  Yummy!

Here is the recipe:

Starbucks Chocolate Cinnamon Bread 

Chocolate Batter:

3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature 

3 cups granulated sugar

5 large eggs, at room temperature

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/4 cups dutch-processed cocoa 

1 TBSP ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cocoa-Spice Sugar Crust

1/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon Dutch-processed cocoa powder

Pinch ground ginger

Pinch ground cloves

1/4 cup decorating or sparkle sugar

Preheat the oven to 350.  Grease two 9x5x3 inch loaf pans and line the bottom of the pans with parchment paper.

Make the chocolate batter:  In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar with the paddle attachment on medium speed until light and creamy, about 5 minutes.  Add eggs one at a time, beating until each egg is completely incorporated before adding the next and scraping down the sides of the bowl several times.

Meanwhile in a medium bowl: Sift together the flour, cocoa, cinnamon, salt, baking powder and baking soda.  In another bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, water and vanilla.  With mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture to butter, beginning and ending with the flour and beating just until blended.  Divide the batter between the two pans, shake the pans to even the tops and set aside.

Make the Cocoa-Spice Sugar Crust: In another small bowl, whisk together the sugar, cinnamon, cocoa, ginger and cloves.  Sprinkle the surface of both batters with the decorating sugar (I didn't have any, so I just used regular sugar).  Sprinkle with the cocoa sugar mixture, dividing evenly.  Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 45-50 minutes.  Let cool completely, run a thin knife around the sides to release the breads and remove from pans.