September's Cupcake of the Month: Devil's Food Cupcakes

Recently I came to the startling realization that I have never made chocolate frosting of any kind. In the interest of embarking on a personal journey to learn about the wonders of chocolate frosting, this month I chose Devil's Food Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache Frosting from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone's Favorite Treat.
The cake part of the cupcakes are really fantastic: moist, yet light. Before I had a chance to make the frosting, we'd already eaten these without frosting for desert two nights in a row. And they baked up with beautiful, even, dome tops. My independent taste tester said, "Those cupcakes came out of the oven actually looking the correct shape for cupcakes. I don't think any of the others did." Which I'm pretty sure is true.

The book features five chocolate toppings: Chocolate Ganache Glaze (paired with six different recipes - possibly second only to Swiss Meringue Buttercream for topping dominance), Dark Chocolate Frosting (paired with five different cupcakes), a chocolate variation of Swiss Meringue Buttercream (paired exclusively with Monkey Cupcakes), a Chocolate-Sour Cream Frosting (paired exclusively with Graduation Day Cupcakes), and Chocolate Ganache Frosting (paired exclusively with this month's Devil's Food Cupcakes). The differences between Chocolate Ganache Glaze and Chocolate Ganache Frosting are the ratio of the three ingredients and the temperature at which each is applied. I've already lost too many hours of my life to Martha's Swiss Meringue Buttercream to bother with the chocolate variation, which just requires folding 4 1/2 oz. melted and cooled semisweet chocolate into the buttercream along with the vanilla extract. So I limited my survey of chocolate frosting to the Chocolate Ganache Frosting, Chocolate-Sour Cream Frosting, and Dark Chocolate Frosting. After trying to taste test these on three different cupcakes, I decided to take the slightly more diabetic friendly approach. As you can tell in the pictures above, I put a sampling of each frosting on top of these cupcakes. But the images below show each frosting flying solo.

The Dark Chocolate Frosting recipe is flawed. I followed it to the letter and ended up with chocolate soup. In one of the pictures in Martha Stewart's Cupcakes this frosting is piped. There's no way one could pipe the frosting the original recipe makes. I added three times the confectioner's sugar and it just barely made it spreadable, still not pipeable. Thickness aside, I got a kinda grainy consistency. This I won't blame on the recipe. The grains are definitely little bits of chocolate. I use cheapo bulk bin unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder. I didn't measure the water/cocoa powder sufficiently carefully. The water/cocoa powder mixture turned out very dry, unlike when I did basically the same procedure to make the cupcakes when it turned out very liquidy and smooth. I tried to solve the problem not by resolving the consistency of the water/cocoa powder mixture prior to adding it to the batter, but rather by beating the batter for a longer time. That said, if my water/cocoa powder mixture had been the same consistency for this frosting as it was for the cupcakes, the frosting would have been even more liquidy, so the recipe is still messed up. All that aside, this frosting tastes awesome. It's not too dark chocolate-y even though I used 73% cacao chocolate bars. Granted, some of that is due to the addition of so much confectioner's sugar. It is also glossy and pretty, which a lot of homemade chocolate frosting isn't.

The Chocolate Ganache Frosting is fantastic. Basically it's like a soft layer of chocolate on top of the cupcake. I made mine with extremely dark chocolate (the aforementioned 73% cacao chocolate bars), which makes it a bit grown up. But I bet you could use something closer to milk chocolate and make small children very happy with this decadent frosting. You might even be able to get it to just the right consistency for piping a big swirl on top of a cupcake. The tricky part is that as this cools in the fridge it gets more and more solid (though never entirely solid), so you have to use it immediately or figure out a way to warm it up to the consistency you want it. I just took it out of the fridge and warmed it in a bowl over a pot of simmering water until I could stir it to the right consistency. No problem. Like the Dark Chocolate Frosting, the Chocolate Ganache Frosting looks glossy and pretty. It's darker in color and flavor than the inaptly named Dark Chocolate Frosting.
The Chocolate-Sour Cream Frosting had the most frosting-like consistency of the three. Definitely pipe-able. I used the same suspect cocoa powder as in the Dark Chocolate Frosting and it worked out just fine with zero graininess. The downside is that it is VERY sour creamy. I used the same 73% cacao chocolate bars, which almost overwhelmed the other two. But even 73% cacao chocolate could not stand up to the mighty flavor of sour cream and cream cheese. Mind you, if you're cool with that and you want to frost a whole cake or pipe big florets on the top of some cupcakes, this one is the hands down winner. But I wonder if it's only used in one recipe in the book because the editors are put off by the flavor.
Above you can see photographic evidence of my chocolate curl fail atop, from left to right: Dark Chocolate Frosting, Chocolate Ganache Frosting, and Chocolate-Sour Cream Frosting. The recipe calls for a garnish of chocolate curls on top. The directions tell you to heat a block of good-quality chocolate in microwave for 5-second intervals, checking after each, until "just warm to the touch" before using a vegetable peeler to slice strips from the block. I tried to make a curl at room temperature, but it fell into a zillion slivers. Well, the baby was napping so I didn't want to risk waking her up with the microwave and the Santa Anas are blowing, so the thermometer in the shade on my porch said it was 107 degrees. I figured I'd bring out the block of chocolate to the porch with me while I took the other pictures of the cupcakes and it would be "just warm to the touch" by the time I was ready for my grand finale picture of the cupcakes with chocolate curls. First, the block of chocolate was not even warm to the touch before it started melting in my hand. Second, even once I succeeded in getting a curl off the block it immediately melted in the heat. I haven't mastered chocolate curls yet, but it's a big block of chocolate . . . I shall persevere.

Devil's Food Cupcakes adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone's Favorite Treat

Ingredients

• 3/4 C unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
  
• 3/4 C hot water
  
• 3 C all-purpose flour
  
• 1 t baking soda
  
• 1 t baking powder
  
• 1 1/4 t salt
  
• 1 1/2 C (3 sticks) unsalted butter
  
• 2 1/4 C sugar
  
• 4 large eggs, room temperature
  
• 1 T plus 1 t pure vanilla extract
  
• 1 C sour cream, room temperature
  
• Chocolate Ganache Frosting (recipe below)
  
• 1 block good quality chocolate (for chocolate curls)
  

Procedure
1. Preheat oven to 350. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together cocoa and hot water until smooth. In another bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

2. Melt butter with sugar in a saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring to combine. Remove from heat, and pour into a mixing bowl. With an electric mixer on medium-low speed, beat until mixture is cooled, 4 to 5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add vanilla, then cocoa mixture, and beat until combined. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in two batches, alternating with the sour cream, and beating until just combined after each.

3. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool 15 minutes. Turn out cupcakes onto rack and let cool completely. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature or frozen up to 2 months in airtight containers.

4. Use a small offset spatula to spread cupcakes with frosting. Refrigerate up to 3 days in airtight containers. Bring to room temperature before garnishing with chocolate curls just before serving.

5. Heat block of good-quality chocolate in microwave for 5-second intervals, checking after each, until just warm to the touch; do not overheat. Using a vegetable peeler, slice strips from the block, starting from the far edge of the chocolate, moving the peeler toward you, right onto the cupcakes.

Chocolate Ganache Frosting adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone's Favorite Treat

Ingredients

• 1 lb. good-quality bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
  
• 2 1/3 C heavy cream
  
• 1/4 C corn syrup
  

Procedure
1. Place chocolate in a large heatproof bowl. Bring cream and corn syrup just to a simmer over medium-high heat; pour mixture over chocolate. Let stand, without stirring, until chocolate begins to melt.

2. Beginning near the center and working outward, stir melted chocolate into cream until mixture is combined and smooth (do not overstir).

3. Refrigerate, stirring every 5 minutes, until frosting just barely begins to hold its shape and is slightly lighter in color. Use immediately (ganache will continue to thicken after you stop stirring).

Dark Chocolate Frosting adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone's Favorite Treat

Ingredients

• 1/2 C plus 1 T unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
  
• 1/2 C plus 1 T boiling water
  
• 2 1/4 C (4 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
  
• 3/4 C confectioners' sugar, sifted
  
• 1/4 t salt
  
• 1 1/2 lbs. good-quality bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
  

Procedure
1. Combine cocoa and boiling water, stirring until cocoa has dissolved.

2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter, confectioners' sugar, and salt until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low. Add melted and cooled chocolate, beating until combined and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in the cocoa mixture.

3. If not using immediately, frosting can be refrigerated for up to 5 days, or frozen up to 1 month, in an airtight container. Before using, bring to room temperature, and beat on low speed until smooth again.

Chocolate-Sour Cream Frosting adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone's Favorite Treat

Ingredients

• 1 lb. (4 C) confectioners' sugar, sifted
  
• 1/2 C unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
  
• 1/4 t salt
  
• 12 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
  
• 3/4 C (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
  
• 18 oz. bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
  
• 1 1/2 C sour cream
  

Procedure
1. Sift together confectioners' sugar, cocoa, and salt.

2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat cream cheese and butter until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low. Gradually add sugar mixture; mix until combined. Mix in melted and cooled chocolate and then sour cream, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Continue beating until smooth.

3. If not using immediately, frosting can be refrigerated for up to 5 days, or frozen up to 1 month, in an airtight container. Before using, bring to room temperature, and beat on low speed until smooth again.

Previous Cupcakes of the Month:
January's Cupcake of the Month: Streusel Cupcakes
February's Cupcake of the Month: Martha's Meyer Lemon Cupcakes
March's Cupcake of the Month: Flourless Chocolate Cupcakes
April's Cupcake of the Month: Tres Leches Cupcakes
May's Cupcake of the Month: Strawberry Cupcakes
June's Cupcake of the Month: Flock of Sheep Cupcakes
July's Cupcake of the Month: Lavender-Iced Brownie Cupcakes
August's Cupcake of the Month: Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes

Click here to see the rest of this post...

CSA Basket 13

This week's basket included: Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Kale, Cilantro, Summer Squash, Green Beans, Basil, Long Beans, Melon, Purple Bell Pepper, Jalapeno, Lettuce, Apples, White Nectarines, Yellow Peaches, Grapes, Avocado, and Butternut Squash. I hit the trade-in basket to unload the cukes, summer squash, and long beans for another avocado, more tomatoes, more peaches, and another butternut squash.

The green beans, apples, nectarines, and peaches have been turned into baby food. While feeding said baby lunch today I thought, "How cool is it that these beans were growing in a field Tuesday and are in my baby's tummy by Thursday?" The grapes, avocado, and butternut squash will likely be split 50/50 between grown ups and baby.

This week's cilantro and basil will likely meet the same fate as last week's cilantro and basil: each in their respective pesto. This week's kale will likely meet the same fate as last week's kale: fried up with a little garlic and olive oil and layered into our homemade version of The Grit's Golden Bowl.

The unspecified melons are totally spherical and about the size of a large tomato. The skin doesn't resemble any melon I've seen before. I'll try to snap a picture of one when we slice it open.

Very excited for my purple bell peppers. Not sure what to do with them other than just slice 'em and chomp.

Click here to see the rest of this post...

September's Cookie of the Month: Potato Chip Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe caught my eye on my very first perusal The Ultimate Chocolate Cookie Book. But it wasn't until I heard Prairie Home Companion's highlights of shows performed at state fairs called State Fair on a Stick that I decided the time was right for Potato Chip Chocolate Chip Cookies, which seem tailor made for the state fair feed lot along side the deep fried Twinkies and the much lauded hamburger with doughnuts instead of a bun.

But these cookies are much more edible than all those questionable comestibles on a stick. My independent taste tester adored them and celebrated the return of yummy cookies with chocolate chips after the previous two months of chiplessness. I liked these cookies more after they cooled as they struck me as a bit greasey when they were warm. This is a bit of a backhanded compliment as so many cookies are only good warm, but the whole point of cookies is that they should be portable, which usually means served room temperature.

You could try to make them a little weirder by substituting flavored chips, like barbecue potato chips, as the authors suggest. I used Sea Salt Kettle Chips, which was probably not the wisest choice. I felt the cookies lacked salt. There is no salt called for in the recipe as it relies on the potato chip to provide the salt. I think my chips weren't sufficiently salty. Now that I'm reading the description of the chip on the Kettle website my suspicions are confirmed,

Our original Lightly Salted just got better! We now use sea salt in our recipe to provide a more natural alternative to regular salt. The sodium content has not changed, and you'll still find the same great Kettle Brand® flavor that you know and love.

Mumble. The next time I make these, and I probably will as they are super yummy, simple, and a bit of a novelty, I'm going to use full-salt high-sodium chips. Or barbecue, as I think the nutmeg would really set off the barbecue flavor well.

Heed the instruction to space the cookies 2 inches apart. These cookies spread, but not ridiculously so. Only such that their crispiness is maximized. Also, the recipe estimates a yield of 4 1/2 dozen cookies, but I only mustered about 30, though mine could have been smaller. But since when is state fair food about appropriate serving sizes?

Potato Chip Chocolate Chip Cookies adapted from The Ultimate Chocolate Cookie Book: From Chocolate Melties to Whoopie Pies, Chocolate Biscotti to Black and Whites, with Dozens of Chocolate Chip Cookies and Hundreds More by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 C all-purpose flour
  
• 1/2 t baking soda
  
• 1/2 t grated nutmeg
  
• 1/2 lb. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cool, cut into small pieces
  
• 1 C granulated sugar
  
• 3/4 C packed brown sugar
  
• 1 large egg, room temperature
  
• 1 large egg white, room temperature
  
• 2 t vanilla extract
  
• 5 oz. potato chips, crushed
  
• 3 C Ghiradelli 60% Cacao chips
  

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift the flour, baking soda, and nutmeg into a medium bowl.

2. Soften the butter in a large bowl, using an electric mixer at medium speed. Add both kinds of sugar and continue beating until the mixture is homogeneous but grainy, not smooth, with no bits of butter visible, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, beat in the egg, then the egg white and vanilla.

3. Add the prepared flour mixture and beat at low speed just until a sticky and thick but nonetheless soft batter is formed. Stir in the crushed potato chips and chocolate chips, just until evenly distributed.

4. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto two large baking sheets lined with silicone mats, spacing about 2 inches apart. Bake for 8 minutes, then rotate the baking sheets top to bottom and back to front. Bake for another 7 minutes, or until lightly browned and somewhat firm to the touch. Cool on the baking sheets for 2 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Cool the baking sheets for 5 minutes before baking further batches.

Previous Cookies of the Month:
January's Cookie of the Month: Soft Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
February's Cookie of the Month: Chocolate Cream Sandwich Cookies
March's Cookie of the Month: Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies
April's Cookie of the Month: Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies
May's Cookie of the Month: Butterscotch Chocolate Chip Cookies
June's Cookie of the Month: Honey Chocolate Chip Cookies
July's Cookie of the Month: Big Soft Chocolate Cookies
August's Cookie of the Month: Viennese Chocolate Pepper Cookies

Click here to see the rest of this post...

Raspberry Bars

 

 

These are seriously yummy. I don't usually like raspberry flavored desserts that much but I had raspberries from my berry CSA that needed to be used. I only made half a recipe because I only had 8 ounces of berries. It worked just fine. Also, I only greased the pan (without also flouring it or using parchment) and things were just fine.

Quick lunch

 

This soup is quick to make and kept me from eating too much junk for lunch this week. (Except for Friday when I left for work without eating lunch and ended up just having many cookies at the tea...)

White Bean and Kale Soup

Saute a couple of cloves of garlic in a little olive oil. Add some diced carrots and cook a few minutes. Add two cans of white beans, a large bunch of kale and 3-4 cups of vegetable or chicken stock. Cook until kale is soft. Smash some of the beans to add body to the soup. Season with salt and pepper.

Carrot and Walnut Muffins

 

These muffins were originally made for the math tea. They were so good that Bob and I ate more than a couple and so I had to make a second batch. The second batch was accidentally made with half the sugar but they were just as tasty. You could easily make these without the nuts. I think they would also be good with raisins, especially if you used the smaller amount of sugar.

Recipe from Williams Sonoma's Muffin Cookbook

4 large eggs
1 cup canola oil
1 to 2 cups sugar
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
3 or 4 carrots (12 oz) peeled and shredded
1 1/2 cups walnuts

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease 24 muffin cups or line with liners.

In a large bowl combine the eggs, oil and sugar. Whisk until smooth and slightly thickened, about 1 minute.

In another bowl, stir together dry ingredients. Add to the egg mixture and stir until smooth. Fold in the carrots and the nuts.

Spoon batter in the muffin cups. Bake until golden, dry and springy to the touch, 20-25 minutes. Cool in pan 5 minutes.

Click here to see the rest of this post...

CSA Basket 12

This week's basket contains: Tomato, Lettuce, Basil, Cilantro, Summer Squash, Cucumbers, Long Beans, Lemon Cucumbers, Grapes, Kale, Apples, Cabbage, Corn, Reed Avocado, Nectarines, Peaches, Melon, and Grapefruit.

August's Cookie of the Month: Viennese Chocolate Pepper Cookies

As the last hours of August were waning, I realized I had only one egg and no cookie of the month. Panic stricken, I flipped through the pages of The Ultimate Chocolate Cookie Book, inserting a finger to hold a place for every recipe requiring one egg or less. I was out of fingers on one hand, but hadn't quite found the recipe that spoke to me, and my dearth of pantry items (did I mention I have no chocolate chips or baking chocolate in the house?). Then I found it: Viennese Chocolate Pepper Cookies.

Not only does the recipe require just one egg and no chocolate chips or bakers chocolate, it also uses an ingredient that I don't normally associate with baked goods: ground black pepper. Like the lavender in July's Cupcake of the Month: Lavender-Iced Brownie Cupcakes, I had been reading up on black pepper in The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America's Most Imaginative Chefs by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg. Black pepper is in some ways the opposite of lavender in its ubiquity. It is called for in almost every recipe and is probably sitting in a shaker on your table right now. But like lavender, black pepper is relatively unexpected in desserts.

The real clincher was a gift from fellow blogger Rebecca of a small container of ground black pepper from Penzey's Spices. I must confess my ignorance: I knew nothing of Penzey or his or her spices until Rebecca suggested their Chili 9000 as a remedy for lackluster chili. The Chili 9000 has changed my life, or at least my chili, for the better. Now I thought I'd put Penzey's ground black pepper to the test.

The pepper comes through not as a flavor so much as a temperature. The flavor is unquestionably chocolate, though it seems like a deeper chocolate due to the pepper and allspice. My independent taste tester said the cookies reminded him of winter. Indeed, they would complement the flavors of traditional winter foods nicely. They're a bit on the dry side, so a cup of milk, or maybe eggnog, is a must. I would call these more grown up cookies, but I don't think kids would reject them as tasting weird, though I didn't test them out on any kids prior to posting. Take that, August!

A note on the dusting of confectioner's sugar and pepper: I was out of confectioner's sugar, along with everything else, so I took 2 T granulated sugar and 1/2 t pepper and ran it through my Cuisinart for a few minutes to make super-fine sugar and pepper. If you take this route, be sure to let the dust settle before opening your Cuisinart because, as my still slightly burning lungs can attest, you will have just weaponized your ground black pepper. Despite the chemical burns to my alveoli, I think this worked as well or better than confectioner's sugar would have. And I think the tiny crystals look classier than the traditional powder. Wow, my powers of rationalization for ingredient substitutions due to laziness have inflated to new heights . . . classier? Really? But this step is not to be missed. The additional pepper in the dusting increases the heat significantly. Without it, they'd taste a lot like plain ol' yummy chocolate cookies.

Viennese Chocolate Pepper Cookies adapted from The Ultimate Chocolate Cookie Book: From Chocolate Melties to Whoopie Pies, Chocolate Biscotti to Black and Whites, with Dozens of Chocolate Chip Cookies and Hundreds More by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 C all-purpose flour, plus additional for dusting the work surface
  
• 3/4 C cocoa powder, preferably Dutch-processed
  
• 1 t baking powder
  
• 1/4 t salt
  
• 12 T unsalted butter, cool, cut into small pieces
  
• 1 C granulated sugar
  
• 1 1/4 t Penzey's ground black pepper
  
• 1/4 t ground allspice
  
• 1 large egg, room temperature
  
• 2 t vanilla extract
  
• 2 T granulated sugar
  

Procedure

1. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.

2. Soften the butter in a large bowl, using an electric mixer at medium speed, about 1 minute. Add the granulated sugar and beat until light and fluffy, if still a little gritty, about 2 minutes. Beat in 3/4 t of the pepper and the allspice. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then beat in the egg and vanilla until smooth, about 1 minute. Stir in the prepared flour mixture, and beat at low speed just until there are no white streaks in the batter.

3. Dust your work surface lightly with flour, then turn the dough onto it. Roll gently into a 9-inch log, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate until firm, about 3 hours.

4. Position the racks in the top and bottom thirds of the oven. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with a silicone baking mat; set aside

5. Slice the log into 1/4-inch-thick cookies. Place these about 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 6 minutes, then rotate the baking sheets top to bottom and back to front. Bake for another 6 minutes, until the cookies are slightly puffed and the tops feel springy when touched. Cool for 2 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Cool the baking sheet for 5 minutes before baking further batches.

6. Put 2 T granulated sugar and the remaining 1/2 t ground black pepper in a food processor and grind for about 2 minutes, or until the sugar crystals are super fine. Let the dust settle before opening your Cuisinart because you have just weaponized your ground black pepper. Once all of the cookies are fully cooled, place this mixture in a fine-mesh strainer and sift it lightly over the cookies, giving them a fine coating.

Previous Cookies of the Month:
January's Cookie of the Month: Soft Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
February's Cookie of the Month: Chocolate Cream Sandwich Cookies
March's Cookie of the Month: Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies
April's Cookie of the Month: Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies
May's Cookie of the Month: Butterscotch Chocolate Chip Cookies
June's Cookie of the Month: Honey Chocolate Chip Cookies
July's Cookie of the Month: Big Soft Chocolate Cookies

Click here to see the rest of this post...

August's Cupcake of the Month: Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes

I was looking for something quick and easy to whip up in the waning days of August to keep this "of the month" business on track. I'd never made a cheesecake before, so I had skipped over the various cheesecake cupcakes in Martha Stewart's Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone's Favorite Treat. But in my search for simplicity I noticed the short ingredient list and sparse instructions for how to make Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes, so I thought I'd make my cheesecake debut.


If I had known cheesecake making was this easy, I would have made a habit of it long ago. Certainly the small scale makes it even easier, as there's less worry that the center will be undercooked while the edges become overcooked. Also the paper liners alleviate any concerns about getting the cheesecake out of the pan in a presentable fashion. The single Oreo crust is both simple to execute and handy for eating. And if all that weren't enough, they're also delicious. I am definitely going to make these little cheesecakes again.

The recipe says it yields 30 cupcakes. I easily go thirty two, and could have made 34 if I hadn't eaten those two Oreos the night before. Now, the trick with this yield is that the instructions say to refrigerate the finished cupcakes in their tins until it's time to serve them. Well, that means you need sufficient tins for 30 cupcakes AND sufficient space in your refrigerator for said multitude of muffin tins. I kinda looked twice at the picture that accompanies the recipe because it shows a six-cup muffin tin. I thought maybe these were mega-muffins, but no, they were standard muffins. But if you're going to make 30 of these bad boys, you need two twelve-cup muffin tins and at least another six-cup muffin tin. So the recipe is subliminally trying to get you to buy a six-cup muffin tin, which is something no one needs. I threw caution to the wind and took a dozen little cheesecakes out of their tin and put them on a rack to cool so I could reuse the tin for the remaining cupcakes. They turned out just fine. The only warning I would give to anyone else daring to make this recipe with only two (or dare I suggest one) muffin tins, is that you might want to underfill the cups so it's easier to pinch the top edge of the paper liner to lift them out while they're still not completely cool. If they're super full you're likely to smoosh them more.

Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone's Favorite Treat

Ingredients:

• 42 cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies, such as Oreos, 30 left whole and 12 coarsely chopped
  
• 2 lbs cream cheese, room temperature
  
• 1 C sugar
  
• 1 t pure vanilla extract
  
• 4 large eggs, room temperature
  
• 1 C sour cream
  
• Pinch of salt
  

Procedure
1. Preheat oven to 275. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Place one whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup.

2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat cream cheese until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Gradually add sugar, and beat until combined. Beat in vanilla.

3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in sour cream and salt. Stir in chopped cookies by hand.

4. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each almost to the top. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until filling is set, about 22 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate in tins at least 4 hours (or up to overnight). Remove from tins just before serving.

Previous Cupcakes of the Month:
January's Cupcake of the Month: Streusel Cupcakes
February's Cupcake of the Month: Martha's Meyer Lemon Cupcakes
March's Cupcake of the Month: Flourless Chocolate Cupcakes
April's Cupcake of the Month: Tres Leches Cupcakes
May's Cupcake of the Month: Strawberry Cupcakes
June's Cupcake of the Month: Flock of Sheep Cupcakes
July's Cupcake of the Month: Lavender-Iced Brownie Cupcakes

Click here to see the rest of this post...

Hermits, the kind you eat

 

The fall semester has started and with it, the weekly math tea. Inspired by the delicious hermit bars at our local coffee shop, I decided to try to make some at home. While these were good, they weren't as good as the ones at the coffee shop. I'll have to see if I can acquire the recipe. In the mean time, these will have to do.

 

Adapted from Martha Stewart


* 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 2 teaspoons ground ginger
* 1 3/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
* 1 3/4 teaspoons ground cloves
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 cup (1 stick) plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, room temperature
* 1 cup loosely packed light-brown sugar
* 1 large egg, room temperature
* 1/4 cup unsulfured molasses
* 3/4 cup raisins (I used golden raisins because that's what I had)
* 2 cups powdered sugar
* 2-3 tablespoons of milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and salt; set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and brown sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add egg; beat until combined, scraping down sides of bowl once. Add molasses; beat until combined, and scrape down sides of bowl. Add the flour mixture and raisins; beat on low until dough just comes together, about 1 minute. Cover with plastic wrap; place in refrigerator to chill 30 minutes.
3. Remove dough from refrigerator, and turn out onto a clean work surface. Divide into 2 equal pieces, and shape each piece into a 12-inch log about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Place on prepared baking sheet, at least 3 inches apart.
4. Place in oven, and bake until logs are golden but still very soft to the touch, 20 to 22 minutes. The logs will flatten out and lengthen as they bake and get slightly puffy in the center. Transfer baking sheet to a wire rack to cool completely.
5. Mix milk and powdered sugar. Spread on the cooled logs. Let the icing set for about 30 minutes. Slice logs into 1-inch-wide bars. Hermit bars can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week.



Read more at Marthastewart.com: Hermit Bars Recipe - MarthaStewart.com

Click here to see the rest of this post...

CSA Basket 11

This week's basket contained Carrots, Basil, Lemon Cucumbers, Purple Long Beans, Green Beans, Beets, Grapefruit, Nectarines, Peach, Pluots, Cabbage, Apples, Corn, Reid Avocado, Grapes, Lettuce, Tomato, and Parsley. Contemplating various Asian inspired dishes for the purple long beans and cabbage. Really not sure what to do with lemon cucumbers. Carrots, green beans, beets, nectarines, peaches, apples, some avocado, and some grapes are going to be baby food in one form or another.

July's Cupcake of the Month: Lavender-Iced Brownie Cupcakes

[Yes, I know it's August. July got away from me. Let's see if I can finish another batch of cupcakes and a batch of cookie in the next week.]

Lavender, especially paired with chocolate, was a major flavor trend in 2009, and Martha Stewart's Cupcakes (published in 2009) is nothing if not trendy. Trendiness aside, I've been reading up on interesting flavor combinations in The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America's Most Imaginative Chefs by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg, so this month's Lavender-Iced Brownie Cupcakes intrigued me.

Of course, the clincher was that my local grocery store actually carries lavender in its bulk herbs section so I could purchase 1/2 teaspoon dried lavender quite easily. Then again, the ease with which I could purchase only the required amount of dried lavender was countered by the purchase of a tub of violet gel-paste food color that I will likely never use again (see June's Cupcake of the Month, re: the great Martha Stewart/Wilton kickback conspiracy).

Gastronomic Lavender Links Roundup:
Max Falkowitz posted about lavender in his Spice Hunting column over at Serious Eats.
Design*Sponge recently posted about harvesting lavender.
Cathy Erway posting on Mark Bittman's blog suggests making herbed butter with lavender.
Mike Hawley posting on Mark Bittman's blog suggests making limeade with lavender.
Angry Chicken made a lavender caramel tart with sliced banana and chopped almonds.
Carey Jones over at Serious Eats suggests making Rhubarb and Lavender Crumble.

A note regarding crystallized flowers. Martha Stewart's Cupcakes describes Martha's intensive flower crystallization procedure. It involves tweezers and a small paintbrush. It is one of the crazy ideas that initially attracted me to that Svengali that is Martha Stewart. But Momma didn't raise no fool. I bought Candied Violets on Amazon. O.K., my actual mother would think she did indeed raise a fool if she found out I spent $9.19 + $4.99 shipping for candied violets to put on top of cupcakes that taste like soap. But I did not waste days of my life trying to make crystallized flowers to put on top of cupcakes that taste like soap. So while I may be a fool, I feel like I could have been even more of a fool. That's got to count for something.
The original recipe claims to yield 24 cupcakes and says to, "Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each two-thirds full." There isn't enough batter to fill 24 cups two-thirds full. I actually aimed to fill the cups one-half full because I wanted to leave room for the icing to pool on top, which is impossible if the cupcakes rise too high in the cups, kind of like the Tres Leches Cupcakes. Even aiming to fill the cups only halfway I could only stretch the batter to eighteen cups. And despite my stinginess, most of the cupcakes rose too high and then collapsed, creating craters too large to fill with icing, as you can see on the left in the picture above. So the yield is inaccurate, and to be absolutely safe, you might want to aim for filling the cups only one-quarter full - which is about three tablespoons.
I finally had the opportunity to deploy my Snapware 2-Level Cupcake Storage Carrier, as recommended by Eartha in a comment to May's Cupcake of the Month: Strawberry Cupcakes.
The little cylindrical holders on the cupcake insert are perfect for holding these in place.

Said cupcake transport was deployed for a party on Saturday evening where an array of taste testers found the cupcakes "good and interesting." Even the admittedly adventuresome seven year old liked them. Though the three year old did not. I forgot to check whether the five year old liked hers. Honestly, I wasn't sure the adults would like them given the unique flavor combination. But the lavender was very subtle and the icing VERY sweet, so at least one taste tester found the sweetness so dominant that he hardly noticed the lavender. And the violet gel paste food coloring made the icing look a bit like blueberry yogurt, so one taste tester insisted it tasted of blueberries. Silly taste tester. I thought the lavender was really compelling and did not remind me of soap at all, which was my big fear. I was not a huge fan of the flavor or texture of the brownie cupcakes, so I might use the icing on something else, like a cherry clafoutis or a lemon pound cake.

Lavender-Iced Brownie Cupcakes adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone's Favorite Treat

Ingredients:

• 3/4 C plus 2 T all-purpose flour
  
• 1/2 t baking powder
  
• 1/2 t salt
  
• 1/2 C plus 2 1/2 T unsalted butter, cut into pieces, room temperature
  
• 3 1/2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
  
• 1 1/3 C sugar
  
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
  
• 1 t pure vanilla extract
  
• 1/3 C milk
  
• 1/2 t dried lavender
  
• 3 C confectioner's sugar, sifted
  
• Violet gel-paste food color
  
• Crystallized Flowers
  

Procedure
1. Preheat oven to 350. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.

2. Place the butter and chocolate in a medium bowl that fits quite snugly over a medium saucepan with about 1 inch of simmering water in it. Stir with a heat-safe rubber spatula or a wooden spoon until half the chocolate is melted, then remove the bowl from the heat and continue stirring until all the chocolate has melted. Set aside to cool for 5 minutes.

3. With an electric mixer on medium speed, beat chocolate mixture and sugar until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture and beat until just combined.

4. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each two-thirds full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 17 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely.

5. Bring milk and lavender just to a boil in a saucepan. Remove from heat and cover; let steep 10 minutes. Strain through a fine sieve into a bowl and discard lavender. Whisk in confectioner's sugar until smooth. Strain again. Add food color, a little at a time, stirring until desired shade is achieved.

6. To finish, use a small spoon to coat cupcakes with icing, covering tops completely. Let set, about 1 hour. Top with crystallized flowers. Iced cupcakes can be stored up to 2 days at room temperature in airtight containers.

Previous Cupcakes of the Month:
January's Cupcake of the Month: Streusel Cupcakes
February's Cupcake of the Month: Martha's Meyer Lemon Cupcakes
March's Cupcake of the Month: Flourless Chocolate Cupcakes
April's Cupcake of the Month: Tres Leches Cupcakes
May's Cupcake of the Month: Strawberry Cupcakes
June's Cupcake of the Month: Flock of Sheep Cupcakes

Click here to see the rest of this post...

Pluot Flaugnarde

As I have sufficiently documented here, I have had it with pie. While most of my stone fruit has recently been steamed and pureed into baby food, I was inspired by Robin Bellinger's Cherry Clafoutis at Serious Eats to reserve this CSA basket's pluots for a Pluot Clafoutis. If nothing else, it might be the most fun dessert to say. But then I discovered that a clafoutis made of fruit that is not cherries is not a clafoutis, but a flaugnarde. The French always rain on my parade.
This was so much easier than a pie. Also, it's more scalable. We often only get two or three of one particular type of stone fruit in our CSA basket. Not enough for a whole pie, but if you use a smaller baking dish, you can make your clafoutis whatever size fits your fruit. I wonder if this would even work with individual ramekins.

Pluot Flaugnarde adapted from Robin Bellinger's Cherry Clafoutis at Serious Eats (which she adapted from Susan Hermann Loomis's French Farmhouse Cookbook) and Mark Bittman's Clementine Clafoutis

Ingredients:

• 6 pluots, halved and pitted
  
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
  
• 1/2 C sugar
  
• 1/4 t salt
  
• 1 C milk
  
• 1 C heavy cream
  
• 2 t pure vanilla extract
  
• 1 C flour
  
• confectioner's sugar for dusting
  

Procedure
1. Preheat oven to 375. Butter and flour a ceramic or glass baking dish (the size here seems to be determined by the size dish your halved and pitted fruit will fill). Put the pluots in the dish, cut side down.

2. In a large bowl, whisk eggs until frothy. Add granulated sugar and salt and whisk until combined. Add milk, cream, and vanilla extract and whisk until smooth. Add flour and stir just to combine.

3. Pour the batter over the pluots, filling as close to the top of the dish as you feel comfortable. Bake for 40 minutes, until lightly browned and a knife in the center comes out clean. Sift some powdered sugar over it and serve warm or at room temperature.

Click here to see the rest of this post...

Evening Expiration

On the ride, home, I listened to the On Board Games interview with Alex Yeager, which was very exciting. Yeager is Mayfair's Educational Outreach guy, and the interview is about his experiences with programs bringing games to schools, after-school programs, and Girl Scouts, and the challenges of demonstrating the educational value of games and Mayfair's efforts to meet those challenges.

The biggest challenge of introducing games into schools, according to Yeager is convincing administrators that the games address the particular standards of that state's curriculum.

It occurred to me that this might be a situation where trying games in education at the relatively unfettered higher ed level could be implemented more easily, and then as it produces results and research, it could "trickle down" to the K-12 level. (Lately, I've been doing the opposite: learning what education advances have been studied/implemented at the K-12 level, and trying to update my college instruction to that.)

Giles (the interviewer) asked about categorizing games by which of Gardner's multiple intelligences they develop, and I would really like to pursue an idea like that. Which cognitive/pedagogical scheme is in vogue seems to shift, but analyzing which cognitive processes a game requires of the player appeals to me as a good scholeological thing to do. Where could I publish something like that?

(Incidentally, in response to the question, Yeager mentioned Mayfair's done some academic content-based categorization, which is probably helpful to teachers trying to select an appropriate game to introduce, but isn't at the level of abstraction Giles was talking about.)

Morning Expiration

See, I was inspired by something this morning, and so my comments in response are my expiration, get it? No one is dying, exhaling, or running out of time. (Any faster than normal, that is.)

Anyway, the inspiration was Stephen Fry's Podgram on Language. My expiration is about math.

Stephen (I call him Stephen, 'cause we're friends. On Twitter, but still) refers to language as intrinsic to humans. Those children purposely raised without exposure to any language went and invented their own. The capacity for language, and more, the capacity to express and enjoy the beauty of language, is inside you from the moment you're born. Also, he briefly laments how not very many enjoy language. "Words, it seems, belong to other people...The free and happy use of words appears to be considered elitist or pretentious." Those few who bother with language, Stephen asserts, "bother with it in quite the wrong way." He then mounts a tirade against the "pedants" who write letters to the editor complaining about grammar errors in the grocery, "in which they show off their own superior `knowledge' of how language should be".

Of course, while on the road to work, this reminded me of math. First, math is as innate, perhaps more intrinsic, than language. Math is physically innate: you are born with counting hardwired at the ends of your limbs -- your digits, naturally. I don't think it's too bold to say that the fundamentals of number and division, for example, are fundamentally ingrained in our minds, too. When we think kids have to "learn to count", really we mean that they need to learn we call the numbers (tying the math to the language), but the numberness of numbers is that "this many" of my fingers is the same as "that many" of sheep or rocks or other kids or what have you.

Second, if the deft use of language is derided, and enjoying language is elitist...then using math suffers doubly, triply, a thousand times moreso. I know of no society, no matter how anti-intellectual, in which it is socially acceptable to say "I'm illiterate". And if you're being picky, "illiterate" implies writing; the claim "I can't do English" is nearly unthinkable (and nearly self-contradicting). But "I can't do math" is as acceptable as commenting on the weather.

Third, I can't avoid wondering if there isn't a frighteningly stark parallel between the pedants Stephen detests so much and...well, are those few who bother with math showing off their superior `knowledge' of how math should be? Are we, also, bothering with it in quite the wrong way? There's a natural response about the "correctness" of math being critical to its mission -- a message can be communicated even with incorrect grammar, but math is too fragile to hold on to its meaning in the face of error. But still, that's math in the small...we overlook "arithmetic errors" in higher level math all the time. Is it really so impossible to focus on the "big picture" in algebra, geometry, arithmetic? Or are we pedants and sticklers as much by inclination and tradition as by necessity?

Click here to see the rest of this post...

Love Carrots

I found a little budding romance in my CSA basket.

Click here to see the rest of this post...

CSA Basket 10

This week's basket contained Cucumber, Basil, Lemon Cucumber, Ambrosia Melon, Carrots, Tomatoes, Green Beans, Summer Squash, Grapefruit, White Nectarines, Cabbage, Corn, Lettuce, Pluots, Grapes, Valencia Oranges, and Peaches. There's a trade in basket at our pickup location so if you've got something you don't want you can switch it for something in the trade in basket. Usually the trade in basket is full of chard. But this week there were lots of tomatoes. So I traded in two cucumbers (we're kinda tzatziki-d out around here) and the cabbage (ditto for coleslaw) for three more tomatoes.

Mom was in town last week and she was on a mission to use up every last item from the last basket. We juiced all the citrus I'd accumulated. The Valencia oranges have a lot of seeds, so they're not great for eating, but they make fabulous juice. And the grapefruit juice was much more sweet than I ever recall grapefruit juice being. She was not game for Barbara Kingsolver's Eggs in a Nest because she's not a fan of poached eggs. But she sauteed all the kale she could find with some onion and garlic and it makes a wonderful side dish to pretty much anything. She also read Animal, Vegetable, Mineral while she was here. She's on board with everything short of livestock. I did make about a 1/4 batch of Kingsolver's Family Secret Tomato Sauce. I chickened out of canning it and just froze it since it was only like two and half jars. We just had some over pasta and spicy Italian sausage and my independent taste tester LOVED it.

I used my trusty KitchenAid FVSFGA Fruit/Vegetable Strainer and Food Grinder for Stand Mixers to strain steamed peaches, carrots, green beans, and summer squash for baby food. This week the carrots, peaches, green beans, and white nectarines will meet that same end.

The summer squash (some of which is really zucchini this time) and some tomatoes are headed for Tomato, Zucchini, and Leek Galette with Roasted Garlic Goat Cheese from Emeril Lagasse's new book Farm to Fork: Cooking Local, Cooking Fresh which I found over at Serious Eats. I didn't make this galette from the last basket as I had planned because there were actually only two summer squash in the basket and they were the yellow kind, not zucchini. So those got turned into baby food (of which said baby is not a fan . . . winter squash, yes, summer squash, no). Meanwhile, I did make something akin to mozzarella using Guinevere's raw milk and half a rennet tablet from Bridget. It is really awesome and going on top of this week's galette if I don't melt it on toast first. [Updated 8/12/2010 to add: This Galette is AWESOME! I substituted grilled onions for sauteed leeks and dried thyme for fresh thyme. My independent taste tester LOVED it, too.]

In addition to the tomatoes in the CSA basket, my friend Bridget brought me a bunch of tomatoes and some hot peppers from her garden, so I'm going to make a vat of salsa. I cannot envision us ever being salsa-d out around here.

Click here to see the rest of this post...