Salted Double Chocolate Cookies

I've made these a few times over the last few weeks.

At the loud requests of friends and co-workers (and husband).

Fair Warning: These are clean-the-plate cookies. Oops-I-just-ate-ten cookies. Where-did-all-the-cookies-go? cookies. 

If you make them once, you'll be making them again. Perhaps because they ended up eaten before they got to the event they were supposed to be at.... Bringing crumbs to a party is in really bad taste. Make sure you have a back-up plan.

Not that I have any experience in that sort of thing. 

I will now, however, know where the closest grocery store is to any given party location..... 

Back to the cookies. They are super easy - 

Butter, sugars, vanilla. Beat.

Add eggs. Beat.

In another bowl, whisk flour, dark cocoa powder, salt, baking soda.

Add half the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Beat.

Add the other half. Beat.

The dough gets pretty stiff.  Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl. 

Now, add your chocolate chips and chunked up candy bar. Mix them in with a wooden spoon.

Next up, ball that dough. About a tablespoon a ball.

Cook for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately grind one twist of salt over the top of each cookie. 

And I mean immediately. Don't put the other pan in the oven. Don't run to the bathroom. Don't try to finish that last chapter of the book you're reading. 

Sprinkle the salt. QUICK!

And you're done! Serve to your adoring fans.

Salted Double Chocolate Cookies

Serves: a party

Adapted from the Original Nestle Tollhouse Cookie recipe - yes, the one on the bag.

1 c. (2 sticks) butter, softened

1 c. sugar

3/4 c. brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

2 1/4 c. flour

1/4 c. dark cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda 

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 c. chocolate chips

1 dark chocolate candy bar, chunked into small pieces

Coarse-ish salt for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. 

In a large bowl beat the butter, sugars, and vanilla until fluffy. Add in eggs and beat. 

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. 

Add half of the dry ingredients to the wet. Beat until combined. Add the other half. Beat until combined.

Add the chocolate chips and candy bar. Stir them in with a spoon until evenly distributed. 

Roll tablespoon-sized balls and place on a cookie sheet. Cook for 10 minutes. Immediately upon taking them from the oven, sprinkle with salt. 

Serve.

Coconut Pistachio Bread Pudding

There's a fine line between bread pudding and french toast. 

I initially called this french toast, since it isn't super sweet. But, it's really more similar to bread pudding. Not that that stopped us from eating it for breakfast. Where is that line? To me, it's at the cinnamon usage. There isn't enough cinnamon in here to call it french toast. But if by calling it that it makes it an acceptable breakfast food? I'm all for changing the name.

I imagine that this could be served as a dessert, or for brunch. Whichever you prefer really. No judgement here. 

Also - know up front that this takes a long time. You could get away with several hours, but I let mine sit overnight.

Start with the bread. Crusty, dry old baguette.

Cube it and divide it between two ramekins. Mix in some chopped pistachios.

Next, prepare the other ingredients. 

Eggs, milk, vanilla, salt, brown sugar, coconut milk. It all goes in the bowl. 

But back to that coconut milk, don't shake the can. You want 3/4 c., but you want to scoop off all the delicious fatty butter part and use that first. Spoon the coconut butter into the measuring cup first. Dig down and get all you can. Then top it up to the 3/4 line. 

Ok, so you've got all that together. Toss in some regular shredded coconut. You could toast it too, if you want. That would make it extra yummy.

Gently pour the mixture over the bread and pistachios.

Let sit to absorb for several hours. Preferably overnight.

Then, when you're ready to bake, top with a bit of brown sugar and cinnamon.

Place the ramekins on a baking sheet. Bake until they puff up and turn golden brown on top. About an hour.

Drizzle with maple syrup. Take a deep breath. Dive in!

Coconut Pistachio Bread Pudding

Serves 2-4, depending on ramekin size

1/2 stale french baguette

4 eggs

1 c. milk

3/4 c. coconut milk (mostly the coconut butter)
1/2 tsp vanilla

1/8 tsp salt

1/4 c. brown sugar

1/4 c. chopped pistachios

1/4 c. sweetened flake coconut

2 tbsp brown sugar

Sprinkling of cinnamon

 Maple syrup (for topping)

Take the baguette and cut it into large cubes. Place the cubes into 2 10-oz ramekins or 4 6-oz ramekins. Sprinkle the pistachio pieces even over the ramekins. 

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, coconut milk, milk, vanilla, salt, and 1/2 c. brown sugar. Add the flaked coconut. 

Distribute the milks mixture evenly among the ramekins. Allow them to rest in the fridge for at least 3 hours, preferably overnight. 

Remove ramekins from fridge, and allow to warm up as the oven preheats to 375 degrees. Top the ramekins with the 2 tbsp of brown sugar and dust with cinnamon. Place the ramekins on a baking sheet.

Bake until puffed up and golden brown on top, about 1 hour for the 10 oz ramekins. 

Drizzle with maple syrup and serve!

Chili Colorado

 

This is a dish we discovered recently. I know, I know, I was raised in Texas. How could I not know about Chili Colorado??

The question the rest of you could be asking - Wow! Does Colorado really have a state chili?

Well, um..... *munch munch munch*

Who cares?? This stuff is delicious. It's like the best Latin style beef stew that you've ever eaten. With refried beans and a tortilla. (You can't leave these out. Pop open a can of beans and warm up those tortillas.)

You start off with the veggie chopping. Tomatoes, onions, and tomatillos. What's that last one, you ask?

These guys. Peel off the papery shell, rinse them off, and chop them up. Adds a good amount of acid and tang.

Now the roasting. In a very hot oven. They should get pretty browned.

And since you've already got the oven hot, toss the dried chiles on a pan and put them in. It gets the oils all happy.

Next, the chiles go in a bowl of chicken stock. You're basically making chili tea... And then you blend the sucker to smithereens.

Make sure you strain the blended mixture, you'll have lots of chili skin bits.

Once you've got your beautiful puree, toss it into a blender with the roasted veggies. Blitz until smooth.

Now, dry roast the spices in a pan on the stove.

Even if they are ground up, they'll still toast up nicely. And smell divine.

Pour the toasted spices into a small bowl with olive oil, salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly.

Coat the meat well with the oil and spices. Let it marinate for awhile.

Then you have to brown it off. Get the cubes nice and golden. 

Then the cubes go in a 9x13. With all the rest of the marinade.

Now, cover with the chili and veggie mixture.

Cover the whole pan in aluminum foil and slide it in the oven for 2 hours or so. 

Serve with refried beans and tortillas. Or cilantro lime rice.  Or cardboard, really. This stuff is delicious!

And having one of these around is typically a good idea too...

Chili Colorado

Makes 6-8 servings

Adapted from Aaron Sanchez

4 tomatoes

4 tomatillos

2 white onions

3 garlic cloves

olive oil

6-8 gaujillo chiles, dried

4-5 pasilla chiles, dried

3 c. chicken stock

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 lbs beef stew meat, in chunks

1 tbsp dried ground mustard

1 tbsp ground cumin

1 tbsp ground coriander

1 tbsp mexican oregano

1/4 c. vegetable oil

salt and pepper

cilantro and queso fresco (topping)

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Quarter the tomatoes and tomatillos. Chunk the onion up in large pieces. Place the vegetables on a lined baking sheet and drizzle in olive oil. Roast for 30-45 minutes, until slightly blackened. Allow to cool on the sheet.

Cut open the dried chiles. Remove the stems and seeds. Once the veggies are out of the oven, put the chiles on a different baking sheet and dry roast them in the oven for 1 minute. Literally one minute.

Remove the chiles from the oven and place in 3 c. of chicken stock. Allow chiles to steep for 30 minutes.

Once the time is up, blend the chiles with an immersion blender or regular blender. Strain the liquid back into the blender. Add half the roasted veggies. Blitz till smooth. Add the other half and blitz till smooth. (If you have a small blender, you may need to do this in 2 batches).

In a small saucepan, dry roast the mustard, cumin, coriander, and oregano for 3 minutes, until fragrant. Mix spices into a small bowl with oil, salt and pepper. Coat the beef cubes in the oil mixture. Allow to marinate for 20-30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sear beef off in the sauce pan, browning each side. Place finished beef in a glass 9 x 13 pan. Pour the chili and vegetable sauce over the beef. Cover in aluminum foil and roast for 2 hours, until beef is tender.

Spoon onto a plate and top with crumbled queso fresco and chopped cilantro. Serve with tortillas and refried beans.

Fudgey Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Meringue Icing

I made this as my birthday cake last week. I wanted a dark (almost black) chocolate cake, and a white icing. But not just any typical buttercream - a fancy, grown up icing. Suited for a fancy, newly-27 Megan.

The cake turned out well! Perhaps this getting older and wiser thing is not a complete falsification.

You start off with the dry ingredients. Just like you're making any other chocolate cake.

Now, for the wets (most of them). Whisk together till homogenous.

Here's where things get a bit odd. Mix butter (cut into tablespoons) into a cup of hot coffee.

Get it to melt. Involve a microwave if necessary.

Alternating between the two liquid mixtures, add them to the dry mix slowly. 

The batter is basically chocolate soup at this point.

Take your sprayed and lined pans....

And fill them equally with batter.

Gently move them to the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Then rotate the pans. Bake for another 15 minutes.

Let them cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then flip them out and allow to cool completely.

Which gives you just enough time to make the icing. 

Over a double boiler, whisk egg whites and sugar until the mixture reaches 140 degrees.

Once you've hit the magic number, move the eggs to the bowl of your KitchenAid and turn the speed to high.

Beat them until you form medium peaks and the mixture cools to as near room temperature as you can wait for it to get to.

Take a stick of butter and chop it into small chunks. Beat it in gradually with a bit of vanilla. 

Pound up a bunch of pistachios.

You're ready to layer!

Cake - icing - pistachios. Repeat 2 more times. 

The leftovers don't keep very long - mostly because they get eaten. Otherwise, I imagine they'd definitely keep for longer than a day....

 

Fudgey Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Meringue Icing

Cake adapted from Food & Wine Magazine, Icing from Use Real Butter

For the cake:

1 1/2 c. sugar

1 1/4 c. flour

3/4 c. dark unsweetened cocoa

2 1/2 t. baking powder

1 1/2 t. baking soda

pinch of salt

1 c. buttermilk or substitute

3 eggs

2 1/2 tsp vanilla

6 tbsp butter, soft

1 c. hot coffee

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray and line each of three 9" or 8" round cake pans with parchment. Spray the pans again.

In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk together buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla. Melt the butter in the coffee in a different small bowl. Alternating between the two liquids, slowly combine them into the flour mixture. 

Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 15 minutes. Rotate pans and bake for another 15 minutes. Remove pans from oven and allow cakes to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Flip the cakes out of the pans and allow to cool completely.

For the Icing:

6 oz egg whites

1 c. sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 stick of butter (1/2 c.)

Crushed pistachios (for topping)

As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, start the icing. In a double boiler, whisk the egg whites and sugar until the mixture reaches 140 degrees.

Remove from heat and pour into the bowl of your KitchenAid. Whisk on high for several minutes until firm peaks form. Continue to beak on medium speed until the mixture cools to near room temperature. 

Cut the butter into small cubes. Beat into the meringue in small installments (don't dump it all in at once). Beat in vanilla.

To compose the cake, start with a layer of cake, add a layer of meringue, then a layer of crushed pistachios. Repeat 2 more times. It gets messy, so I'd put out a bit of parchment first.

A Nor Cal Birthday

 This past Saturday was my birthday. My 27th birthday.

Apparently, I'm growing up. 

Not that had any influence on my desire for a birthday celebration.

And Mr. S had a special adventure planned....

It was an amazing weekend.

Back to recipes as soon as I can find my way back to the kitchen.