Julia Child Brownies, a.k.a. Chocolate Heaven

I first had these brownies at a book club a couple of weeks ago. We were discussing Julia Child's autobiography, "My Life in France" (and, as is the highly entertaining habit of this book club, by "discussing," I mean that after about an hour of talking, we mentioned the book and chatted about it for 10 minutes or so before returning to other topics). They were divine, and I almost killed myself by eating three or four of them.

Here is a link to the recipe. And here's a quote from the site to whet your appetite:

"Those who are passionate about brownies argue in defense of their favorite type, cakey or fudgey. If you're a cakey fan, go on to another recipe. These are the epitome of soft, dark baked-just-until-barely-set brownies. Their creamy texture makes them seem wildly luxurious and very much a treat to be meted out in small servings (just small enough for a scoop of ice cream and some chocolate sauce). The mixing method is unorthodox for a brownie. Half of an egg-sugar mixture is stirred into the melted chocolate and butter, while the other half is whipped until it thickens and doubles in volume. The lightened eggs are folded into the chocolate with a delicate touch, as are the dry ingredients--tricks that enhance the brownies' lovely texture."


I baked them for about 30 minutes, and they were definitely fudgey. As you can see, some of them are still oozing chocolatey goodness. Personally, I loved them that way. But I also loved them the way I had them at the book club, which were a little more cooked. I'm guessing the baker that time followed the review recommendations on the site and baked them 40-50 minutes instead of 25. I think these are my favorite brownies now. And I'm never going back to the boxed kind! (Unless I'm feeling exceptionally lazy...)

Pocket Pies a.k.a. "Love Pies"

For those of you who read my "Love Pies" post and actually wanted to make love... pies yourself, here you go.

Of course, it helps to have a Williams-Sonoma pocket pie mold. But I'm sure you could just cut heart shapes out with a cookie cutter and pinch the edges together.

Here's the recipe, basically copied and pasted from the Williams-Sonoma website:

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. salt, plus a pinch (divided)
  
• 2 Tbs. plus 1/2 cup granulated sugar (divided)
  
• 16 Tbs. (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch dice
• 6 to 8 Tbs. ice water
• 1 1/2 Tbs. cornstarch
• 2 cups fresh or frozen pitted sour cherries, thawed and drained if frozen (or raspberries, blueberries, or any other berry. I made it with raspberries and just stirred carefully, and it was scrumptious, like fresh homemade jam.)
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 egg, lightly beaten with 1 tsp. water
• Coarse sugar for sprinkling
• Vanilla ice cream for serving (see related recipe at left)

Directions:

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the flat beater, beat together the flour, the 1 tsp. salt and the 2 Tbs. granulated sugar on low speed for 10 seconds. Add the butter and beat until the mixture resembles coarse meal, about 30 seconds. Increase the speed to medium-low and beat for 1 1/2 minutes more. Add the 6 Tbs. ice water, reduce the speed to low and beat for 20 seconds. The dough should hold together when squeezed with your fingers but should not be sticky. If it is crumbly, add more water, 1 tsp. at a time, and beat for 5 seconds after each addition. Divide the dough in half, wrap with plastic wrap and shape each into a disk. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to overnight.

In a saucepan, whisk together the 1/2 cup granulated sugar, the cornstarch and pinch of salt, then add the cherries and vanilla. Set over medium-high heat and cook until slightly thickened, about 15 minutes. Let the filling cool.

Let the dough stand at room temperature for 5 minutes. On a floured surface, roll out 1 dough disk into a round 1/16 to 1/8 inch thick. Brush off the excess flour. Using a pocket pie mold, cut out 8 of each shape (4 solid and 4 with the decorative cutout). Reroll the dough scraps, if necessary, and cut out more shapes. Repeat with the remaining dough disk.

Place a solid dough shape in the bottom half of the cutter and gently press the dough into the mold. Fill the center with 1 to 2 Tbs. cherry filling and brush the edges of the dough with some of the egg wash. Top with a shape with a decorative cutout. Press the top half of the cutter down to seal and crimp the edges of the pie. Remove the pie from the mold and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough and filling. Freeze the pies for 30 minutes.

Preheat an oven to 400°F.

Brush the top of the pies with egg wash and sprinkle with coarse sugar. Bake until the crust is golden brown and the filling is gently bubbling, about 20 minutes. Transfer the pies to a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes. Serve with vanilla ice cream. Makes about 8 pocket pies.

Grown-up Grilled Cheese

Over Christmas break, while we were up in Sun Valley with the Browns, we had a fun morning of cross-country skiing followed by lunch at the lodge. Jeff and I shared an order of "Grown-up Grilled Cheese," a yummy concoction of sourdough bread, fancy cheese, bacon, and apple slices.

Today, as we scrounged around for lunch, we decided to try to replicate it. What resulted was a truly delicious treat.

I present our version of Grown-up Grilled Cheese:


It's basically pieces of garlic bread (the frozen Costco kind) topped with an apple slice and some shredded cheddar cheese (though slices white cheese would have been better). We broiled it until the cheese melted and the apple softened. Then we dipped it in balsamic vinegar. Yum!

Blackberry Jam Cake with Caramel Icing

Sounds crazy, No? But it's so good!

I keep telling Jeff, "I've learned how to make desserts that taste really good. But how do you make desserts beautiful?!" Even when I start with something beautiful, I can usually ruin it by cutting it. The pieces snag and come out all jagged. The icing smears. You get the picture.

This is how my "Blackberry Jam Cake with Walnuts and Caramel Icing" (courtesy of Cuisine Magazine) first looked:


Either I didn't let the icing (Caramel icing - so good) harden in the fridge long enough, or I didn't add enough powdered sugar to it to make it thick enough. Whatever the cause, after I put the icing in between the layers it started sliding, and when I put the icing on the top and sides it shlumped right off. I let it sit in the fridge until it really hardened, then sliced off the extra icing and saved it for future graham cracker sandwiches. The resulting cake was slightly more presentable:


I only try these recipes in the first place because I see some gorgeous Cuisine magazine photo that makes me drool. I worry that my second-rate attempts won't elicit as much desire to try the recipe. But you should! Cause it's good!

Here it is:

Ingredients:

Cake:
3 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. cardamom (I used ginger)
1/2 tsp. cloves
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
2 cups (packed) golden brown sugar (light)
6 large eggs
1 cup seedless blackberry jam
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 cup walnut pieces, toasted and chopped

Icing:
1 1/2 cups (packed) dark brown sugar
1 cup evaporated milk (which you can totally make with 3/4 cup water + 2/3 cup powdered milk)
3/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/2 T. mild-flavored molasses
1/4 tsp. salt
6 1/3 cups (about 1 3/4 pounds) powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

For cake: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter and flour two 9-inch diameter cake pans with 2-inch-high sides. Sift the first 6 ingredients into a medium bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat butter in a large bowl until fluffy. Gradually add sugar, beating until well blended. Beat in eggs one at a time. Beat in jam. Beat in dry ingredients in 4 additions alternately with buttermilk in 3 additions. Fold in walnuts. Divide batter between prepared pans.
Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool cakes in pans 10 minutes. Run knife around pan sides to loosen cakes. Turn cakes out onto racks and cool completely.

For icing: Combine brown sugar, evaporated milk, butter, molasses and salt in a heavy medium saucepan. Whisk over medium-low heat until blended and smooth. Transfer mixture to large bowl. Cool to lukewarm, whisking occasionally, about 15 minutes. Working in batches, sift powdered sugar into mixture, beating until smooth after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Cover and refrigerate icing until firm enough to spread, about 30 minutes. (Or longer! Make sure it's firm!)
Place one cake layer, flat side up, on serving platter. Spread 1 1/2 cups icing over top. Top with second cake layer, flat side down. Spread remaining icing over top and sides of cake. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover cake and refrigerate. Let cake stand at room temperature 2 hours before serving.)

Nanaimo Bars and Hatch's Hot Chocolate

Well, I'm back to desserts. They are my favorite, after all.


These brownies are nummy. The coconut flavor is nice, and the very vanilla-y frosting is delicious. They're the ones I was talking about in my summer mish-mash post where the first time I made them I didn't have graham crackers and so I substituted with honey nut cheerios (painstakingly hand-ground with a garlic press by Jeff). You can make them with cheerios, but they're a little too sweet. I've since acquired graham crackers, but I was still silly enough to crumble all the crackers by hand, only remembering at the end my Aunt Vicky's good advice about making crumbs with a food processor. Sigh...

Anyhoo, here are Nanaimo Bars, from the Sunset Magazine best-ever cookies issue.

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, at room temperature
2 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 large egg
1 3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 cup sweetened flaked dried coconut
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 T. milk
1 T. vanilla
3 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped

Directions:

1. In a 1- to 2-quart pan over low heat, melt 6 T. butter; let cool. In a bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat melted butter, 1/4 cup powdered sugar, and the egg until well blended. Stir in graham cracker crumbs, coconut, pecans, and cocoa powder.
2. Press dough evenly into a buttered and floured 8x8-inch baking pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven until slightly darker, about 20 minutes. Let cool completely.
3. Meanwhile, in a bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat 1/2 cup butter, remaining 2 cups powdered sugar, the milk, and the vanilla until smooth. Spread mixture evenly over cooled crust.
4. In a 1- to 2-quart pan over very low heat, stir remaining 2 T. butter and the chocolate until melted. Spread over filling. Cover and chill until the filling is firm enough to cut neatly, at least 2 hours. Cut into 25 squares.

(196 calories, 13 g fat per square).

I find that most baking mishaps I have come from not following the directions exactly. Maybe I didn't have enough time, maybe I thought that direction (preheating, cooling, whatever) couldn't really matter that much. Whatever it was, some silly little thing is what usually messes me up. The first time I made these, I didn't let the brownies cool before putting on the frosting, so of course the frosting melted, and then when I poured the chocolate on top it all melted together. It actually gave it a kind of cool marbled effect, but I like it better the way it was intended.


This next one is for anyone who has been to Hatch's family chocolates in Salt Lake. They sell the most amazing hot chocolate. Jeff and I went there once after I'd made him a birthday dinner before he went on his mission. We split a hot chocolate but we still had to lie on the couch and moan for a while. It's extremely filling. This isn't quite as rich, but it's close, and it gives you an idea of what must be in the real thing.

Simple enough recipe. Jeff made it up, which makes me extremely proud of him (for being such a chocolate lover, not for making up a recipe):

Heat up enough water or milk to make a normal serving of hot chocolate (milk is creamier, of course).
Empty a hot chocolate packet or scoop a serving of hot chocolate powder into a cup. Add a whole Hershey's chocolate bar.
Pour the hot water or milk into the cup and stir until everything is dissolved.

Enjoy!

Not Pictured Here: Roast Beef and Balsamic Onion Panini

I didn't take a picture of this one because I burned the top and bottom and it came out pretty mangled. Once I scraped off the charred outer crust, though, this panini was amazing. The recipe comes from a Williams-Sonoma catalogue, and, no, I didn't buy the $430 worth of fancy specialized cooking gadgets and pre-made ingredients the recipe required, but it still turned out great.

First, here's a recipe I found online for the 'wichcraft balsamic onion marmalade, which I could have bought for $14. I made a quarter recipe for the panini, which made just over 5 T. :

Balsamic Onion Marmalade:

- makes 2 to 3 cups -

Adapted from 'wichcraft by Tom Colicchio with Sisha Ortuzar

Ingredients

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
4 medium onions, thinly sliced (about 8 cups)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup balsamic vinegar

Procedure

1. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat until it slides easily across the pan. Add the onions, salt, and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes, until the onions are soft. Add the sugar and reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook, stirring frequently, for about 10 minutes, until the onions appear dry. Add the vinegar and reduce the heat to low. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, for about 1 hour, until the onions are soft and dry. Serve warm or at room temperature. Store the marmalade in the refrigerator. It will keep for several weeks.

As for the panini itself:

Ingredients:

1 piece ciabatta bread, about 9" long, halved horizontally
5 T. 'wichcraft balsamic onion marmalade
4 tsp. Dijon mustard
8 oz. thinly sliced roast beef
2 oz. white cheddar cheese, grated
4 oz. mild blue cheese, crumbled (I don't think our blue cheese was mild. It was pretty strong, and I would have halved the amount.)

Directions:

Preheat electric panini press (or, if you're me, frying pan for the bottom and oven on broil for the top) to medium-high heat. Brush outside of bread halves with oil. Lay bread, oiled side down, on work surface. Spread onion marmalade on bottom half of bread; spread mustard on top half. Arrange roast beef on bottom half; top with cheeses. Cover with top half of bread. Place sandwich on panini press; close lid. Cook 7-9 minutes (or fry/broil until browned, watching carefully so your fire alarm doesn't go off). Transfer to cutting board; cut into 4 pieces. Serves 4. (Served 2.5 for us)

Beautiful Soups

My family once rented a live version of Alice in Wonderland that was full of celebrities. Whoopie Goldberg was the Cheshire Cat, Christopher Lloyd was a wandering knight, and Gene Wilder was the Mock Turtle. In the movie he sings a song called "Beautiful Soup" that has become one of my very favorite ways of bothering Jeff. The chorus of the song (if you imagine big and little Us as the top and bottom notes of an extended trill) goes like this:

"BeuUUuuUUuuUUuuUUuuUUuuUUuuUUuuUUuuUUuuUUuuUUuuUUuuUUuuUUuuUUuuUUuuUUuuUUuuUUtiIIfuUUl SouUUuuUUuuUUuuUUuup."

It drives Jeff totally bazonkers. If I start singing it he'll recognize it and yell Stop! before the second syllable. It makes me feel pretty powerful.

Anyhoo! This is relevant only because we've been eating a lot of good soup lately. The only one I have a picture of is the African Sweet Potato Stew with Red Beans from Cooking Light. But I'll also include the recipes for Braised Lamb Stew with Ginger (so yummy! and also from Cooking Light). These were both really delicious. I know it's a little too hot for soup right now, but I'd recommend them anyway.

African Sweet Potato Stew with Red Beans:


Ingredients:

2 tsp. olive oil
1 1/2 c. chopped onion
1 garlic clove, minced
4 c. (1/2 inch) cubed peeled sweet potato (about 1 1/2 pounds)
1 1/2 cups cooked small red beans
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
1 c. chopped red bell pepper
1/2 c. water
1 tsp. grated peeled fresh ginger
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 (14.5-oz) can diced tomatoes, drained
1 (4.5-oz) can chopped green chiles, drained
3 T. creamy peanut butter
3 T. chopped dry-roasted peanuts
6 lime wedges

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic. Cover and cook for 5 minutes or until tender.
2. Place onion mixture in a 5-quart electric slow cooker. Add sweet potato and next 10 ingredients. Cover and cook on Low 8 hours or until vegetables are tender.
3. Spoon 1 cup cooking liquid into a small bowl. Add peanut butter and stir well with a whisk. Stir peanut butter mixture into stew. Ladle stew into individual bowls, top with peanuts, and serve with lime wedges. Yield: 6 servings. Calories: 308. Fat: 8.8g. Fiber: 10.2 g.


Braised Lamb Stew with Ginger:

This was, I think, my favorite of the soups. So soothing. And BeauUUuuUUuutiful.

Ingredients:
1 lb. lamb stew meat
2 T. cornstarch
1 T. soy sauce
1 T. dry sherry
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1/2 c. boiling water
6 dried shiitake mushrooms (I used one 4-oz can with its liquid instead of dried mushrooms and boiling water)
1 T. canola oil
2 T. minced peeled fresh ginger (I used 1 T. grated)
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 c. chicken broth
1 1/3 c. sliced carrot
2 T. oyster sauce (I omitted this since I didn't have any)
4 c. hot cooked rice noodles (I didn't have these either, so I put a package of Ramen noodles minus the seasoning in with the soup for its last 5 minutes of cooking).

Directions:

1. Combine first 5 ingredients in a bowl.
2. Combine 1/2 c. boiling water and dried mushrooms in a bowl. Let stand 15 minutes; drain, reserving soaking liquid. Discard stems; thinly slice caps.
3. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add ginger and garlic; saute 30 seconds. Add lamb mixture; saute 4 minutes. Stir in broth; bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat; simmer 40 minutes. Uncover; bring to a boil. Add carrot, mushrooms, and reserved liquid. Cook 5 minutes or until slightly thickened. Add oyster sauce. Ladle into bowls; serve with rice noodles. Yield: 4 servings. Calories: 451. Fat: 10g. Fiber: 4g.