Sponsored Schtuff
More Cooking Schtuff
RSS Schtuff
The Recipes
Main dishes. Side dishes. Desserts.
Over 155 recipes for you to peruse - and more coming all the time!
The Photographs
Pictures, pictures and more pictures.
Join me in my journey with a Nikon D90 (and a very tolerant family).
The Rest
Spin Cycle. RTT. Family.
Click here for a sampling of everything else. A little of this, a little of that...
Posts Tagged ‘chocolate’
Happy Monday everyone! It’s the start of a new week, a new month, a new blog layout and a new recipe. And a new feature – from now on, all recipes will be available in a printable format. I’ll work on getting all of the archived recipes put in a printable format as quickly as possible.
Because I’m just all about the “new” today.
I like my new layout a great deal; it gives me lots of room for modification so I can change the look in the form of new headers and colors and buttons on a regular basis without having to take the time to design and code a new theme every time I want to change it. I hope y’all like it too; I welcome any feedback you might have.
Okay – Boston Cream Pie. It’s one of Beloved’s favorite desserts and the one I made on Valentine’s Day. When made from scratch it’s not a complicated recipe by any means, but it is a tad time consuming. It is also one of the yummiest cakes you’ll ever eat.
The origins of the name – to say nothing of the recipe – differ depending on the source, but it’s generally accepted that it’s called “pie” when it is really a cake because in the mid-nineteenth century, pie tins were more common than cake pans so many people baked cakes in them. The Parker House Hotel in Boston claims to have served these cream “pies” since their opening in 1856, hence the “Boston” part of the name.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the dessert (I have quite a few readers outside of the U.S.), it consists of two layers of sponge or butter cake that are sandwiched together with pastry cream. A chocolate glaze is then poured over the top of the cake and allowed to drip down the sides. My version uses a simple butter cake, baked in two thin layers and filled with classic creme patisserie; a thick, rich, vanilla-flavored custard that consists of egg yolks, butter and milk thickened with flour or corn starch and flavored with vanilla. I spread the top with an easy chocolate ganache consisting of heavy cream, bittersweet chocolate and a little butter.
It is oh, so very yummy, and it should be: The cake is adapted from the 1975 edition of The Joy of Cooking, the creme patisserie is adapted from the 40th Anniversary Edition of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and the chocolate ganache is adapted from Rose Levy Berenbaum’s The Cake Bible.
I am nothing if not an equal opportunity adapter.
Note: The creme patisserie will hold up to being sandwiched between the cake layers much better if it has been refrigerated a bit, so make it first. The cake recipe is for two 8″ or one 9″ cake layers - since I prefer a 9″ cake for this recipe I bake two thin layers; that way I don’t have to worry about splitting a single layer with a knife and risk it falling apart. If you make two 8″ layers or a single 9″ layer, increase the baking time about 5 minutes. Also allow the ganache to cool until just barely warm to the touch before spreading on the cake – it will thicken, but still run down the sides of the cake without pooling at the bottom.
Boston Cream Pie
serves 8
Creme patisserie (or vanilla custard)
1 cup granulated sugar
5 egg yolks
1/2 cup flour
2 cups very hot milk (almost boiling)
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1½ tablespoons pure vanilla extract
In the 3-quart bowl of a stand mixer, gradually beat the sugar into the egg yolks with the paddle attachment and continue beating for 2 or 3 minutes until the mixture is pale yellow and forms a ribbon when the beater is lifted. Gradually beat in the flour until completely smooth.
With the mixer running on low/medium low, gradually pour the hot milk into the egg yolks in a thin stream. Pour egg/milk mixture into a clean, heavy-bottomed saucepan and set on the stove over moderately high heat. Stir constantly with a wire whisk, making sure to reach all over the bottom of the pan. As the custard heats, it may become lumpy, but will smooth out as you beat it. When it reaches a boil, lower the heat to medium and continue beating with the wire whisk for another 2 minutes or so, taking care not to scorch it at the bottom of the pan.
Remove from the heat and beat in the butter and vanilla. Scrape into a clean bowl, cover the surface with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming and refrigerate until ready to use.
Gold butter cake
2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted before measuring
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup milk
Preheat the oven to 375º F; grease and flour cake pan(s). Have all ingredients at room temperature before beginning.
Sift the flour together with baking powder and salt; set aside. Cream the butter until soft and gradually add the sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks, one at a time, then add the vanilla.
Add the flour mixture to the egg/butter mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the milk and scraping down the sides of the bowl and stirring until the batter is smooth after each addition. Pour the batter into the cake pan(s) and bake 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center of the layers comes out clean.
Remove pans to a wire rack; cool cake completely before removing from pans.
Chocolate ganache
4½ ounces bittersweet chocolate
1/2 cup heavy cream, at room temperature
1 teaspoon unsalted butter, at room temperature
In a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan, melt the chocolate over low heat. Add the heavy cream and raise the heat to medium. Heat and stir, trying not to create any air bubbles, for a few moments. Remove from heat; add the butter and stir well. Allow to cool until barely warm to the touch.
Assembly
Place one cake layer, top side up, on a flat serving dish at least an inch or two larger in diameter than the cake. Spread the creme patisserie thickly and evenly over the surface of the cake; top with the other layer, bottom side up (if the cake layers “domed” during baking, shave the tops with a sharp serrated knife until flat). Pour the ganache on top and gently spread with a spatula until the chocolate coats the top of the cake evenly and begins to drip down the sides.
Cut into wedges to serve. Wrap leftovers with plastic wrap and refrigerate; bring to room temperature before serving.
Printable version (requires Adobe Reader)
I’m not a big bread eater. Oh, every now and then I’ll get a hankering for a good sandwich or I’ll have a piece of toast with my Sunday brunch or a warm roll with dinner, but I’m not one of those people who can’t do without bread – to be honest, I’d miss cornbread way before I’d miss sandwich bread or dinner rolls.
Nor are Beloved and the Young One all that fond of bread – they both enjoy a good sandwich (more than I do) and those warm dinner rolls (again, more than I do), but that’s about it. There are weeks I buy or bake bread where it more or less sits there in its designated spot on top of the microwave, just getting stale. This is further compounded by the fact that Beloved prefers whole grain bread and The Young One will only eat white sandwich bread or cheese bread when I bake it – I often have two loaves of bread just…sitting there.
The bread exception – for me, anyway – is bread pudding. I LOVE the stuff. If it is on the menu at a restaurant, Beloved knows we will be ordering dessert; in fact, he’s been known to tell the waiter, “Don’t bother asking – just bring the bread pudding.” For me, it is one of the ultimate comfort foods (Pho Bo and Sticky Rice with Mangoes is also on that list…I know, but I never claimed to be normal, now did I?).
Anyhoo, this weekend I found myself with half a loaf of white sandwich bread that was fit for nothing but toast, and it wasn’t going to be good for that much longer either. I certainly didn’t want to throw it away, so I stood there, pondering it, while I fried bacon for our Sunday brunch, when it occurred to me – French toast! But there was only the two of us, since Beloved is in California on business, so that would only use three pieces of bread. Where did that leave me? With a lot more stale bread, that’s where.
Ah-hah! I thought. Bread pudding! And not just any bread pudding – a chocolate bread pudding! But all of the chocolate bread pudding recipes instructed melting the chocolate and adding it to the eggs and milk, and I wasn’t sure I wanted that. So I ended up substituting chocolate chips for the raisins in a more traditional bread pudding recipe. I also skipped the sauce, which is made of butter, sugar, eggs and usually some sort of booze – I wanted The Young One to be able to have some, and it was quite rich enough without the sauce anyway.
I plated the pudding and took the picture of it about 10 minutes after it came out of the oven, and it was very tasty hot, but not so pretty and the cinnamon seemed a tad overwhelming. However, I ate some for breakfast this morning, after heating it for about 30 seconds in the microwave, and I have to tell you I preferred it this morning. So let the pudding rest for at least an hour before you serve it, to allow it to set up and the flavors to meld.
Also, most bread pudding recipes are going to call for French or Italian loaves, or a sweeter bread such as Challa. Sandwich bread will be just fine for this recipe if you further dry it out in the oven a little before soaking it in the milk.
Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding
serves six, or me
4 cups cubed stale, white sandwich bread
2 cups whole milk
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1 tablespoon butter
Preheat the oven to 350° F.
Place the cubed bread in a large mixing bowl; pour the milk over it, allowing it to soak for about 15 – 20 minutes. Push the bread down into the milk with a spoon occasionally.
While the bread is soaking, use the tablespoon of butter to grease a 1 1/2 quart baking dish. I used my soufflé dish, but a 9″ x 9″ square baking dish should work well, too.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the eggs, sugar, vanilla and spices and beat with the whisk attachment until frothy, about 2 minutes. (This can be done by hand if you don’t have a stand mixer; it will just take longer.) Gently stir the egg/sugar mixture into the bread and milk until thoroughly combined, then gently fold in the chocolate chips.
Pour the bread mixture into the buttered dish and bake for 35 – 45 minutes, or until set. The pudding is done when the edges start getting a bit brown and pull away from the edge of the pan.
You can serve the pudding right away, but it is best if allowed to rest for at least an hour. If it cools off too much, you can reheat it gently in the oven for a few moments.
Once again, the topic for this week’s Spin Cycle is recipes, and I’m participating every day until Friday. Just thought I’d get that out of the way.
I asked Beloved what kind of a dessert he’d like me to make recently, and to my surprise the answer was not carrot cake. However, it didn’t really surprise me when he said, “German chocolate cake.”
I was more than happy to comply – I love German chocolate cake, myself. In fact, I only know three people who don’t, and all three of them are my offspring or a reasonable facsimile thereof. Oldest Son dislikes coconut, Jolly dislikes nuts and coconut and The Young One dislikes just about everything.
It’s okay; I love them anyway.
In years past, I’d have made a chocolate cake from a box and topped it with the German chocolate cake frosting from a can, but unless I’m in a pinch and/or hurry I try not to make anything pre-prepared or from a mix these days. That being said, I’d never really made coconut-pecan frosting from scratch and now I’m kind of peeved with myself, because it’s not hard.
Now, I have to admit I was a little skeptical when I chose the recipe from Rose Levy Berenbaum’s newly published Rose’s Heavenly Cakes to make, because her recipe called for sweetened condensed milk. I was a bit taken aback, actually, because sweetened condensed milk has such a distinctive flavor – one I’d never really tasted in any coconut-pecan frosting before. But I’m nothing if not thorough, and knowing that sweetened condensed milk is just evaporated milk that’s been cooked with sugar to a thick consistency, I did a little research and found that almost all coconut-pecan frosting recipes call for evaporated milk cooked with sugar to a thick consistency.
To say that I was astounded would be an understatement: Mrs. Berenbaum, whose recipes are known for the exactness of their ingredients (she weighs her ingredients within a tenth of a gram), took a shortcut. You could have knocked me over with a feather.
At any rate, I took her recipe for the frosting and tweaked it a bit to make it my own, but her cake recipe just turned me off; I’ve had some experience baking her cakes and they are not only extraordinarily exacting but, sadly, are often dry (I’m sure the fault is mine). While the original recipe for this cake calls for Baker’s German’s Sweet Chocolate, modern recipes seldom do; here is mine – it is a moist, tender cake so make sure your coconut-pecan frosting is very soft (refrigerate the cake and heat the frosting slightly if you have to) or it will tear up the cake when you spread it. I also bake it in a 13″ x 9″ pan, instead of layers and leave the cake in the pan when I frost it; it just makes it easier to serve (and keep) unless you’re making it for company or an “occasion” – in that case, I’d bake it in layers, spread the coconut-pecan frosting between the layers and on top, then frost the edges with a good chocolate ganache.
Note: the recipe calls for Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa, which is a blend of regular and Dutched cocoa; I like the taste it gives recipes calling for cocoa. If you can’t find it or don’t want to use it, regular cocao will be fine.
German Chocolate Cake
makes 10 – 14 servings
Cake
2 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water
Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 13″ x 9″ x 2″ pan (or 2 – 9″ round pans).
Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pan(s).
Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes and remove from pans to wire racks, if making layers. Cool completely.
Frosting
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans
1 – 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
3 large egg yolks
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1″ cubes
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups sweetened flaked coconut
Whisk together the sweetened condensed milk and egg yolks in a medium, heavy bottomed saucepan. Add the butter and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a thin, plastic or silicone spatula, making sure to scrape the bottom and edges of the pan. When the mixture starts to simmer (just under a boil), lower the heat to low and simmer for about 5 minutes, continuing to stir constantly, or until thickened enough to pool slightly on the surface before disappearing into the mixture when dropped from the spoon or spatula (it will still be pourable).
Stir in the vanilla, coconut and pecans and continue to cook on low heat while stirring continuously for about 1 more minute. Scrape the mixture into a large bowl; cover with a towel or plastic wrap and allow to cool to room temperature; this will take about 2 or 3 hours. If you make it ahead and need to refrigerate, it will need to be softened over hot water or heated in a microwave for a few seconds to make it spreading consistency.
Spread over the cooled cake (and between layers if making a layer cake) and serve. Refrigerate leftovers.
The bastard.
Because, yes, it’s that time of the year again – time of the inexpensive candy.
Not cheap candy, mind you – if all I had to deal with was candy corn, candy pumpkins and that gawd-awful peanut butter taffy that comes in the orange and black wrappers and yanks your fillings out if you’re foolish enough to attempt to eat it, everything would be just hunky dory.
No, I’m talking about the vileness that is M&M/Mars, Nestlé and Hershey, et al.
Yeah, YOU guys. With your “fun size” Snickers and Crunch Bars and, heaven help us, Almond Joys – which is an evil enough invention as it is. I mean, really – the person who decided to put milk chocolate, almonds and coconut all in one mouthful should be shot (or at least have to supplement my ever expanding wardrobe). But to make them in a “fun size” then stick them in a 2-pound bag and put them on sale for $1.77?!?!?
I hope there’s a special level in Hell. Just. For. You.
And then there’s your strumpet cohort, the Grocery Store, who puts 10-foot-tall displays of chocolaty goodness right inside the entrance doors, decorated with huge, brightly-colored signs proclaiming their reduced-priced status. Sometimes they really sink low and station sweet, little old blue-haired ladies next to the monumental displays, waving 50-cent-off coupons under the noses of their hapless victims shoppers.
And you expect me to stick to something resembling a sensible diet. <insert derisive snort here>
Really, though, if it were just the Halloween season (read: the two months actually leading up to the damn holiday), it wouldn’t be so bad.
But no.
Because this isn’t going to be over any time soon. For as soon as all of this candy, in it’s brown and orange and black wrappers, gets even cheaper come November 1st, there will be shelves and shelves and shelves of the self-same confections presented in shiny dressings of green and red and gold, shamelessly using Jolly Old Saint Nick to hawk these sugary wares.
At the same $1.77 per bag.
After the first of the year, not only does it all get tarted up in red and pink and covered in hearts, but then companies like Russell Stover and Whitman get into the act, with their be-ribboned, fancy boxes, to say nothing of the massive guilt trips aimed exclusively at the male population – and before you know it, you’re staring at the second most evil invention on the planet:
Chocolate-covered cherries.
For 99¢ a box.
I’d like to say that Valentine’s Day sees the end of all this chocolate excess, but not even the Lenten season does much to deter it, for Easter is right around the corner and not only do the evil saboteurs of diets everywhere deck their goodies out in pastel wrappers, but Cadbury makes their evil entrance and before you know it I’ve eaten more creme eggs than real ones in a 6 week period.
After that, mercifully, it all winds down. Oh, the candy companies will try to push it through Mother’s Day, but I don’t know how successful they are. Honestly, I don’t know about you, but anyone who tries to give me candy on Mother’s Day is likely to be severely beaten about the head and neck with their own gift.
By then I’ve just had enough.
I’ve been in a funk lately.
A funk I’m sure is hormonal; I’ll spare my male readers detailed descriptions of the increasingly bizarre fluctuations of my menstrual cycle – let’s just say it ain’t pretty. At any rate, yesterday afternoon my entire body, to say nothing of my brain, began screaming:
CHOCOLATE!!!!
Realizing that this hormone-driven chocolate obsession is neither going to fade any time soon nor be satisfied with several dozen a bite-size Snickers bar, my feverish middle-aged brain began to look for ways to enjoy some rich, chocolate-y goodness for more than 30 seconds.
The answer was nearly immediate, to say nothing of delightful:
Texas Sheet Cake.
Texas Sheet Cake is often known by other names, depending on your geographic location – simply Texas cake, Texas Brownies, Texas Brownie Cake, Texas Sheath Cake (no, we won’t touch that one with a ten-foot pole). What it is, though, is a pan of moist, sweet, chocolate-y goodness that is extremely easy and super-quick to whip up from scratch.
Which is the only way to make it, really.
This is my tried-and-true recipe – the way Texas Sheet Cake is supposed to be enjoyed. You don’t even have to get out your electric mixer; you can mix up this cake by hand in a jiffy. There are all sorts of recipes for this cake all over the internet, so if you find one you like better, that’s fine – but if it calls for sour cream and walnuts, it just isn’t the real deal.
Note: This recipe calls for regular, salted butter. I don’t normally use salted butter, so if you’re like me and use unsalted butter, add 1/4 teaspoon table salt (or 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, which is what I use).
Texas Sheet Cake
makes a big, wonderful cake
2 cups sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), melted
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup canola or other vegetable oil
1 cup water
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease and flour a 13x9x2-inch baking pan.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda and cinnamon, and set aside. Stir together the remaining ingredients in another bowl. Gradually add the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients, stirring until you have a smooth, rather thin batter.
Pour into your prepared pan, and bake at 400°F for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
While the cake is baking, prepare the frosting.
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk (whole, 2% or skim – doesn’t matter)
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 cup butter
1 pound confectioners’ sugar, sifted (about 4 cups)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans
Mix the milk and cocoa in a large, heavy saucepan, stirring very well to mix. Add the butter and, over medium heat, stir until the butter melts. Remove from heat and gradually stir in the sugar and vanilla until smooth. Stir in the pecans.
As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, carefully spread the frosting evenly over the hot cake.