TWD: Granola Grabbers

So, I always think that I hate raisins. Always, always, always. And then they’ll wind up in a cookie or a cake and I’ll be like… damn… that’s what a raisin tastes like? I remembered them tasting grosser than that. This weeks Tuesdays with Dorie recipe called for raisins. Granola Grabbers was the recipe chosen this week. A granola based cookie with raisins, nuts and wheat germ thrown in for good measure. Initially I thought that maybe I’d sub out the raisins for some dried cherries. Cause, I’m a fool for dried cherries. But, I didn’t anticipate liking this recipe… and I didn’t want to use my prized (and expensive) dried cherries in a recipe that might just get thrown out.

Yeah, it seemed like a LOT of ingredients...

So… I used up some golden raisins that I had lying around.

I also made a couple of adjustments to the recipe… I added some vanilla extract to the whole batch and then after the first batch came out of the oven, I decided to throw in some cinnamon to the remaining cookies and that was a great decision, because that really made them delicious.

These remind me of like a breakfast cookie. Very delicious. Moist and chewy, with just the perfect crunch from the nuts. I highly suggest adding vanilla and cinnamon to yours, though. They make these cookies irresistible.

For the recipe check out Michelle's Blog... Bad Girl Baking

Chewy White Chocolate Chocolate Cookies

It would appear to you, my beloved blog readers, that I haven't really been baking much lately. And I guess that's true. I haven't been baking a whole lot, lately. And I'm not really sure why that is.

I'm sure part of it has to do with the fact that I'm in full training mode for my 4th marathon and I'm at that stage where I'm concerned about my caloric intake (every pound matters when you're running) because I'm not quite at the mileage yet where I can just eat whatever I want and not gain weight (give me about 2-3 weeks and there will likely be tons of fattening recipes I've been holding onto to try).

But, I couldn't resist giving this recipe a try for now. I had seen it on a ton of blogs lately and I'm always a fan of chocolate cookies and anything with the word "chewy" in the recipe name is going to grab my attention. This past weekend I went to Louisville to visit my friend Sara. Her birthday was wayyy back in June, so I was going to take her some of my newly appointed favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies, but I also decided to give these chocolate cookies a whirl, too. The dough was really salty and that worried me. I popped the dough in the fridge for a little bit, hoping that the salty flavor would mellow out a bit (I'm not even sure if thats actually possible, but it seemed like a good solution at the time).

After I baked these off, I thought... ehhhh... they're okay. They definitely weren't sweet enough for my tastes and they were more like a brownie cookie, than a chewy cookie. And, frankly, I've had better brownie type of cookies (oops I just realized there's still no recipe on that link. I'll fix that tomorrow, I promise!).

They are good. But they're not great.

(And jeez... sorry about the photo, my lighting must have been terrible... they did taste better than they photographed, that's for sure).

Chewy White Chocolate, Chocolate Cookies
from Picky Palate, but I first saw it here

1 3/4 cup flour
1 1/4 cup cocoa powder( Hershey's dark chocolate cocoa powder)
1 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup butter
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. salt
2 cups white chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350F and grease cookie sheet(I used a silpat liner)
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition. Add the salt and vanilla.
3. In another bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, and baking soda and gradually add to the creamed mixture. Fold in chocolate chips. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheet.
4. Bake for 8-10 minutes until fluffy, but still soft. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

TWD: Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream

Dorie, Dorie, Dorie... you just love all your kitchen appliances, don't you? Most recipes call for a standing mixer or a food processor (neither of which I have). And this week called for an ice cream maker and a blender (yup, you guessed it, I don't have them, either)! I always seem to make do, though. And this week was no exception.

Doing things the old fashioned way is kind of right up my alley. I mean. Let's face it. I'm a low tech girl. My lack of kitchen appliances is nothing in comparison to my lack of now commonplace technological gadgets and gizmos. Take for instance the fact that I don't have internet at home. That's right, no internet and you want to know why? Because, I don't have a computer.

**crickets chirping**

Did you just fall over dead? That's right. I'm a blogger on two blogs and I don't even own a computer.

And I won't even get into the fact that my Zack Morris cell phone doesn't have even have a camera function...

So, technology be damned. I can make some ice cream the old fashioned way, dammit. All thanks to David Lebovitz. Because of him, I was still able to participate in this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe chosen by Dolores of Chronicles in Culinary Curiosity: Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream (click on Dolores' blog to get the recipe).

On the one hand, I was super excited about this recipe. I mean, not only have I never made ice cream... I've never even eaten homemade ice cream. Ever. On the otherhand, I have recently come to terms with the fact that I don't like the flavor of cooked blueberries. Quite the conundrum, no?

I decided to give the cooked blueberries one more chance (plus, I had some frozen blueberries in the freezer...) and stayed with the recipe. (Big mistake for my tastebuds, but a lifesaver for my waistline).

The recipe was really easy. You basically just cook down some blueberries give them a good whizz in a blender (or in my case with your hand mixer, Betty).

And then you start the chilling process.

This recipe turned out awesome! The texture is great. The ice cream is so smooth and creamy. But, the flavor.... uggghhhh... it's official. I hate cooked blueberries (fresh ones, I adore, though).

I'm so glad I went through with this recipe though... because now I know I can make ice cream anytime I want (wait... is that *really* a good thing?)!!! I will be making ice cream again, just not blueberry flavored.

TWD: Black & White Banana Loaf

I have this love/hate type of relationship with bananas. I go through phases where I love bananas. And then the love phase is immediately followed by a phase where I just don’t like them at all. And lately… it seems like the hate phase has been in full swing. Basically, the only way a banana sounds really good to me right now… is if it’s sliced into a bowl a cereal. I love bananas with my cereal. Mmmm.

So, when I saw that Ashlee of A Year in the kitchen chose Black and White Banana Loaf for this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, I was less than thrilled. And then I read the recipe and saw that it had chocolate in it. Chocolate and Bananas, you say??? Now, that’s a recipe I can get behind.

This recipe is a banana bread with chocolate banana bread swirled through it. It calls for two things that I NEVER have in my kitchen… dark rum and nutmeg. Thanks to our knowing the recipes further in advance, I was able to actually borrow some dark rum from my parents booze stash awhile back and the nutmeg… well… it will continue to not step foot in my kitchen. Yuck. I hate nutmeg. My bread is sans nutmeg.

The recipe came together very quickly. Although Dorie kept saying in the recipe that the batter would be lumpy. But, mine was never lumpy. I’ll tell you one thing though, I felt like there were a lot of bowls. I mean, I know a lot of recipes use a lot of bowls, but this one I actually noticed… Jeez… this is a lot of bowls on the counter...
(and in the sink).

When it came to the swirling part… well, my bread batter was as thin as pancake batter. So, it basically just kind of all melded together, except there was a little middle spot that stayed purely chocolatey. The rest of the bread looked like muddled crap.

I halved the recipe and came out with one mini loaf and 3 muffins.

The results? Ehhhh… I liked the crispy/chewy edges and I liked the chocolate part of the batter. But, I wasn’t super thrilled with the rest of the bread. The white/banana part of the bread was very tough. I must have mixed it too much, but the chocolate part was tender, moist and fluffy.

If you’re a huge banana fan, then you’d probably like this recipe. The only way I’d make it again, is to make it all chocolate (because that marbling technique is just too fussy for me), and to make it MORE chocolate-y.

Be sure to get the recipe at Ashlee’s above linked blog and check out the other Dorie Guys and Gals at the link above.

Chocolate Chip Cookie

This time it wasn’t my fault.

You see… I’m not the only one with a chocolate chip cookie obsession. A couple of weeks ago a little publication called The New York Times (maybe you’ve heard of it?) published this article along with a recipe for what it considered to be the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe (written by Jacques Torres no less).

The article talks about the wonders of chilling your dough. Which, I’ve been a big believer of, anyway. It suggests chilling your dough at least 24 hours, but 36-72 at best. Which is definitely longer than I’d chilled doughs in the past. Usually I would just chill my dough for 2-3 hours to let the butter firm back up.

I decided to not just make these cookies to test them; I decided to bake them along with the recipe that I had previously loved David Lebovitz's Chocolate Chip Cookies (recipe link below): So, I’d have a real comparison.

I made both batches at the same time and stuck them in the fridge where they chilled out for the full 72 hours (I know, I could BARELY stand it, but I can’t deny sneaking bites of dough every once in awhile when I walked by the fridge… god, I love chocolate chip cookie dough).

The recipes are pretty different. The Torres recipe calls for a mixture of bread flour and cake flour. The butter proportions were also different… but, I used the same chocolate chips in both recipes. I didn’t have those fancy dancy chocolate disks and I didn’t need them. My Ghirardelli semi sweet chocolate chips are good enough for me. And it was only fair to use the same chocolate in each recipe.

Both doughs were delicious. I mean, really… I couldn’t say that I liked one more than the either. The Torres dough seemed to be thicker, I think it had more flour than the Lebovitz recipe, but they both tasted great. I LOVE cookie dough, so it’s hard for me to pick a clear favorite there.

Then it was time for the baking. The Lebovitz recipe calls for a much lower temperature, so I baked them first and then cranked the oven up to bake the Torres cookies. I used a cookie scoop and tried to make both cookies the same size (about two scoops of dough per cookie, I have a small scoop). A note on the Torres recipe.. it calls for a sprinkling of sea salt on top. Which, I did do…. But, I didn’t do it to the Lebovitz cookies.

Okay enough with the recipe differences, etc… I know what you’re really here for…

the RESULTS.

Appearance:

The Lebovitz cookies came out huge and thin.

The Torres cookies came out thick and pretty. I have to admit, the flecks of sea salt kind of threw me off, but aside from that, they looked beautiful.

Appearance Winner: Torres cookie.

Taste:

Who cares about appearance, I mean the taste is what really matters with a chocolate chip cookie right?

The Lebovitz cookie tasted just as good as it always does. Slightly crunchy edges, very buttery flavor and super, super chewy. I love chewy, so this is a bonus for me.

The Torres cookie tasted absolutely phenomenal. It’s like the grown up version of the Lebovitz cookie (and admittedly…. I totally didn’t want to like this fancy recipe, I wanted Lebovitz to totally knock this cookie on its fancy French ass). The cookies are thick and crispy edged and crispy edged all around, but chewy in the center. With just enough chew… not too much (after eating this cookie, I felt that maybe Lebovitz’s were TOO chewy… maybe your jaw doesn’t have to hurt after eating a cookie for it to be perfectly chewy). And the salt... Wow. As soon as your tongue hits the salt, the saliva bursts in your mouth (sounds dirty, huh… kinda felt that way, too, but in an oooohhh so good way) and allows you to taste the sweetness of the cookie. It’s like the salt amplifies the flavors of the cookie… the sugar, the chocolate, the vanilla. It’s all amplified by the salty pockets on top.

Taste Winner: Torres Cookies

Milk Dunking and Milk-laden taste:

I’m a milk drinker, so this is an important category for me. I like my cookies to stand up in a glass of milk and for the flavor of the cookie to barrel through the milk flavor. It’s a delicate matter.

The Lebovitz cookie has a tendency to crumble into the glass, which I don’t like. And since it’s a thinner cookie with more butter proportionally, the milk doesn’t get absorbed too well into the cookie.

The Torres cookie… well, eating this cookie dunked in a glass of milk was seriously one of the best taste experiences I’ve ever had. And I’m not kidding. The cookie was thick enough to hold up to the milk and not crumble and held a good amount of milk within the cookie. Perfection. Sheer perfection.

Milk Dunking Winner: Torres Cookies

So, there you have it folks. In my opinion, the Torres cookies are the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever had. Better than bakery cookies, better than toll house tube cookies, better than your mom’s recipe (sure, I’ve never had her cookies, but I can assure you that they aren’t this good). They are my perfect cookie.

Maybe my quest is finally over…

Here is the recipe for the Lebovitz cookie. Which, is a DELICIOUS cookie. Don’t get me wrong. If I needed to whip up a quick batch of cookies or didn’t have bread flour or cake flour on hand, I’d make these cookies.

But, this recipe for the Torres cookies…. is the best. Give it a try and let me know how it holds up against your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe.

TWD: Summer Fruit Galette

Well played, Dorie... well, played, indeed.

Just when I was feeling a little disheartened... you come back with a vengeance. I felt like we'd gone through some rough patches lately. I'm not sure who's to blame, honestly... whether it's my inexperience with baking catching up with me, or possibly we just have different tastes. Whatever the case, I hadn't been too thrilled with the finished products for the bulk of the last few recipes. Sure, some of them were good. But they weren't anything special. The cobblers, the blueberry pie... none of those turned out well for me. I was starting to get frustrated...

Food Processor?? Bah! Who needs it when you got a pastry cutter?

When I saw that the latest Tuesdays with Dorie pick was a Summer Fruit Galette chosen by Michelle of Michelle in Colorado Springs, I set my expectations low... since I'd been bombing with the fruit selections lately.

A galette is kind of like an open faced pie. You use a pie crust, dump some fruit in the center and then fold up the sides around the fruit.

Cherry Preserves... so pretty and so damn tasty!

I decided to halve the recipe (per usual with me) and started preparing it Sunday. It came together pretty easily. We got to choose our own fruits and fruit preserves for the recipe and I chose fresh sliced peaches and cherry preserves. And yes, I was worried about the combination... I'd never had peaches and cherries together... but I was hopeful that my love of the two separately would also translate to a love of the two together.

Even after a quick blanch, these peaches didn't want to lose their peel.... ornery little buggers.

Everything came together quickly and easily... This was my first time with a galette and I gladly welcomed it's free-formedness (yeah, you're right, it's not a word).

No pinching required... just folding.

I did do one kind of stupid thing though... after I smeared the dough with the preserves, I decided to be smart and pop the pan in the freezer, while I peeled my peaches.

All folded and ready for the first trip to the oven

And yeah, great idea, you're thinking, right? Well... wrong. It got a little hard and dry in the freezer and so I had a little bit of a time folding it up without it just straight up cracking on me. I had to do some minor touch ups with water... and hey... it's free-form, it's supposed to look rustic, right?

The galette cooked in the oven for about 20 minutes and then the recipe instructed us to pull it out and spoon in a "custard" mixture into the center of the filling. Weird sounding, right??

Yes, I admit, I was nervous spooning this custardy mix into the center of the Galette...

When it came to making the custard, that was a breeze and I was able to fit about 2 tablespoons into my galette.

Thank god for Silpats.

But by the time I pulled the galette out of the oven for the last time, the custard had set (not weird looking anymore!) and looked like it belong there. The pan was all oozy and bubbly when I set it down on the counter. And the smell. Ohhhhhh the smell of peaches.

At this point, I admit.... I started to get a little excited. I mean, it looked so damn good and it smelled good. I couldn't wait for it to cool off.

This dessert, is absolutely amazing! The mixture of the fresh peaches with the cherry preserves and the sweetness of the custard in the center that just blends effortlessly into the filling. Yum! Yum! Yum! The crust was of course flaky, yet tender (god, I love that pie crust recipe). I will definitely, definitely be making this recipe again. Next time, I'll use more cherry preserves and maybe I'll even throw a few cherries into the filling as well.

This was a home run. Thank you, Dorie and thank you, Michelle for picking this recipe!

Check out the blogroll at Tuesdays with Dorie and if you want the recipe (and yes... trust me, you do) buy Dorie's Book... Baking: From My Home to Yours or go to the above link to Michelle's blog.

Coconut Cake

My Grandma loved coconut cake. It was her cake of choice for birthday, mother’s day, etc. And usually someone would bring one to Christmas, too. She liked the big, tall kind that you get at the grocery store that comes in the big plastic container with the cherry on top. Those cakes were basically just butter cakes with a marshmallow-type filling that had coconut inside it and then coconut pressed all along the sides.

At the age of 89, my Grandma passed away this past Tuesday morning. She lived a happy, long life. I mean, 89 years! That’s fantastic! And the bulk of those 89 years she was healthy and happy. Having a grandparent around for 28 years is a blessing that a lot of people don’t get in their lives, so, I am very thankful for that. And thankful for all the memories I have of her.

With that being said, though.... this has been a really hard week for me and my family. My heart is completely broken and unfortunately, there really isn’t anything that can make it better, besides time.

So, I’ve tried to figure out how to deal with the grief. And that’s where the coconut cake comes into play… it was a nice distraction… first, I spent an hour or so at work on friday (sorry, boss, I know I should have been working, particularly since I missed a lot of work this week) trying to find just the right recipe (more on that later). And then the recipe took me to the grocery store Friday after work… seeking out the ingredients and then once home: the measuring, stirring, and baking… But, it wasn’t just a distraction, it was also therapeutic.

I entered into the recipe with trepidation… I knew this had the potential to be a disastrous situation. I mean, here I am, mourning the loss of my grandma, trying to bake her favorite cake two days after her funeral. I had to remember, that this cake wasn’t a tribute to my grandma, so it didn’t have to be perfect. It was more of an honor to her memory and a celebration of her life and the way she lived it.

The cake that I finally decided on, seemed like the perfect recipe. It appeared to be much like the simple, basic cakes she loved from the grocery store. It’s not your fancy restaurant type of cake. Though don’t get me wrong, this cake sounds divine and I will certainly be making it one day… it wasn’t the right recipe for this occasion. I wanted to come up with a regular coconut cake recipe to make on special occasions to honor her.

This recipe seemed to headed in the right direction. I didn't want to make a huge cake, so I halved the recipe and tweaked it a bit for my tastes. I ended up with one cake pan layer that I split into half and then iced. It turned out delicious and you know what? It kinda worked. Making this cake and sharing it with my mom and dad made me feel a little better. And I know that this would be a cake that grandma would love.

Coconut Cake - Grandma Style

This recipe is adapted from the above linked recipe for Nee Nee's Prized Coconut Cake on Recipezaar. I only made a half recipe, and half a recipe only fit in one 9 inch cake pan, so instead of a 3 layer cake full recipe, I think this is actually only a two layer cake full recipe, FYI. I'm posting the full recipe.

Also, FYI, this is what I consider a traditional coconut cake. Very sweet and very moist. If you don't like your cakes full of sugar and sweetness, then you won't like this cake.

Oh, and another FYI... this recipe is easy, but it dirties up a lot of bowls!

For the Cake:
2 tbsp boiling water
1 cup butter, softened
1 lb Powdered Sugar
4 eggs, separated
3 cups sifted cake flour
2 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup coconut milk (i used lite)
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup coconut
1/4 tsp coconut extract

For the layers: (you might need more of this, depending on how many layers you make your cake)
1 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Icing:
2 egg whites
1 1/3 cups sugar
1/2 cup light karo syrup
6 tbsp of water
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp coconut flavoring
2 cups of coconut (I used frozen kind-defrosted)
Additional Coconut for outside of cake (the dry shredded kind)

For the cake:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour two 9 inch cake pans.

In a large bowl, combine boiling water to butter and sugar. Cream well with mixer (2-3 minutes). Add 4 egg yolks (reserve all the egg whites in a separate bowl), one at a time, beating well with each addition. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder, and salt together 3 times.

Alternate adding your dry ingredients with the coconut milk to the creamed mixture. Add vanilla and coconut extract. Set aside.

In another bowl, beat your egg whites till stiff and then fold them and the coconut into the cake batter gently by hand. Pour into cake pans and put in the over for about 20-25 minutes.

Take the cakes out and allow to cool.

Layer Glaze:
Combine the coconut milk and powdered sugar in a bowl. Whisk till smooth. With a pastry brush, brush the mixture over each layer before you but a layer of frosting down. The more generous you are with this glaze, the moister your cake will be.

Icing:
Combine egg whites, sugar, syrup, walter, salt and cream of tartar. Place in a double boiler over boiling water. Beat with a hand mixer until mixture stands with peaks (approximately 7 minutes or so). Remove from heat, add vanilla and coconut flavoring and continue to beat until thick enough to spread. Place a layer of the icing on top of the glazed layers and then sprinkle with the defrosted frozen coconut before placing the next cake layer and repeating process.

Frost entire cake in icing and cover with shredded coconut. Put in the fridge for at least 2-3 hours. The cake gets better the longer it sits in the fridge.