gift this: best ever nut brittle

Like a lot of people, I'm going to try and cut back on Christmas gift spending this year. One of the best ways to show people you love them without spending a fortune is to cook treats for them (you know, you don't really love someone unless you fatten them up a little - one more proof point that I'm of Italian descent). My dad used to bring home the best nut brittle about a week before Christmas, from some vendor who gave out tins of it to all their clients. This stuff was like eating a heath bar - if you hadn't seen food in a week. I'll work on a chocolate-sided version next time, but for now, my research led me to this recipe by Tina Ujlaki (adapted from famous pastry chef Karen DeMasco). I adapted it further by trying a combination of almonds and pine nuts. I knew it was a winner when my dad said he'd gladly eat 2 pounds of it in one sitting.

Grocery list: 2 cups sugar, 1 stick butter, 1/3 cup light corn syrup, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 12 ounces nuts (slivered almonds and pine nuts were my choice, but you could use roasted salted cashews, peanuts, pistachios, pecans, or any combination), sea salt.



Mix the sugar, butter, corn syrup and 1/2 cup water in a heavy saucepan over medium-high heat.



Bring to a boil and stir occasionally. At first, it will be very light colored, but as the heat rises it will start to turn caramel-y. Using a candy thermometer is absolutely critical, because if you don't boil the caramel long enough (i.e. get it up to 300 degrees exactly), it will be chewy when it cools instead of snapping apart into pieces.



When it is finally 300 degrees (the original recipe said to boil for 10 minutes, but I think it took me at least 15 minutes to get the caramel to 300 degrees), turn off the heat and quickly stir in the 1/2 tsp baking soda.



Carefully stir in the baking soda; it will bubble for a few seconds.



I finally got to use my new kitchen scale - measure out 12 ounces of some combination of nuts.



Stir the nuts into the caramel mixture.



Spread the brittle onto a large rimmed nonstick baking sheet. This takes some muscle, since the mixture is thick and cooling quickly. Once it's evenly distributed, sprinkle sea salt over the top. Allow to cool at least 30 minutes, then break into big pieces. The original recipe notes that this brittle can be stored in an airtight container for up to a month - although I can't imagine this lasting for longer than 3 days once you've tasted a bite.

chocolate pudding with espresso whipped cream

I never thought pudding was something you can actually make at home; I guess that proves how powerful the brand association Jello has created (either that, or simply proof of my ignorance). This recipe from the November 2008 issue of Bon Appetit only took a few ingredients, things I keep in on hand anyway. The espresso powder is so simple but adds a "grown up" twist.

Grocery list: 1/4 c sugar, 2 T powdered sugar, 2 T cornstarch, 1 T + 1 tsp instant espresso powder, 2 c whole milk, 1 c bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips, 1 T butter, 1.5 tsp vanilla extract, 1/2 c heavy cream.



Mix 1/4 c granulated sugar, cornstarch and 1 T of espresso powder in a small saucepan, then add the milk. Set heat to medium and whisk to blend.



When the mixture starts to boil, it will thicken after only a couple minutes. Remove from heat, stir in the chocolate chips, vanilla and butter.



Divide into small ramekins (6 small, according to the recipe; I divided into 4 for larger servings) and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

To make the whipped cream, put the cream, powdered sugar and 1 tsp espresso powder in a bowl and mix with an electric hand mixer for 2-3 minutes, until it thickens to the right consistency. Serve the pudding with a big scoop of espresso cream on top.

5 pounds of chocolate cupcakes

I found this recipe in the most unlikely of places - by talking to a startup software executive at a conference. I immediately like people when it's apparent they have a love of food that rivals mine, and this woman was awesome. She had just moved back from Spain, and instead of talking about what I imagine most business people would (glad to be back to burgers or family or familiarity?), she talked about the olive oil, the bread, the markets, learning first the spanish words for basil and garlic... Wow. And then she tells me about this cake, her go-to, never-fails-to-disappoint cake made with "at least 5 pounds of chocolate" (her words). I prod a little deeper, and it turns out the recipe she uses comes from Orangette - the lovely blog I read on a daily basis - posted over 4 years ago. She sent me the recipe, which I immediately set to making. The only problem was my own impatience - not waiting for the cupcakes to cool enough before removing them = not nearly as photogenic as Orangette's, but by far the most delicious chocolate cake I've ever tried. Find someone who's birthday is near, or any other excuse possible, and make this cake. You can find the Orangette original here.

Grocery list: (cake) 3 oz semi-sweet chocolate, 1.5 cups brewed coffee, 3 c sugar, 2.5 c A/P flour, 1.5 c unsweetened cocoa powder, 2 tsp baking soda, 3/4 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt, 3 eggs, 3/4 c canola oil, 1.5 cups buttermilk (shaken), 3/4 tsp vanilla extract; (ganache frosting) 16 oz semi-sweet chocolate, 1 c heavy cream, 2T sugar, 2T light corn syrup, 1/2 stick unsalted butter.



To make the cake, chop the 3 oz of chocolate and pour hot coffee over it, and allow it to set for a while to melt. Grease or line 36 cupcake tins, or grease/flour 2 10-inch cake pans.



Next, work on your dry ingredients: sift the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl.



In an even bigger bowl, beat the eggs for 5 minutes with a hand mixer (or 3 mins w/a stand mixer) until they are thickened.



Then, slowly add in the oil, vanilla, buttermilk, and the coffee-chocolate mixture, beating until smooth.



Now, if you've got a stand mixer with one of those nifty attachments that keeps flour from poofing up into the air, good for you. I had to MacGiver it - I draped some towels over the top of the hand-mixer & bowl, and carefully dumped in the dry ingredients while beating on medium speed. I'm still finding chocolate powder in some crevices in the dining nook, so I'm just warning you here...



Then, pour your batter into the pans. This was an impressive sight wasn't it? Bake at 300 degrees for 20-25 minutes for cupcakes (or 50-55 for larger cakes). I think it helps to rotate the cupcake pans halfway through - meaning, move the pan from the bottom rack up to the top and vice versa. Otherwise the bottom cakes will cook way faster. Use a toothpick to tell when they're done.



While they're baking, make the ganache. Heat the heavy cream, sugar and corn syrup in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, until just boiling.



Chop the chocolate (or cheat, and use chips - but they were really really nice chips from WF so I think Orangette would approve) and stir into the cream, then remove from heat.



Cut the butter into pieces and stir into the melted chocolate mixture. Pour into a bowl and allow to cool - it will keep thickening as it cools. Whenever it's at frosting consistency, you can spread it on the cakes. Make sure you remove the cakes to a wire pan and allow them to cool to completely room temperature. I rushed the first few cupcakes, and literally poured the frosting over them instead of waiting, that's how excited I was about the cupcakes. You might want to enlist some moral support during this part, if you don't want to risk ruining the presentation in the heat of the moment...

Orangette, I agree with you - this was "the most deeply-flavored, moist-yet-fluffy chocolate cake [I've] ever tried."

peach & blackberry cobbler

This isn't my Gramma's recipe, but I still think she'd approve of this well-researched version from The New Best Recipe cookbook. The biscuit topping is made with yogurt, which I've never tried before. This gives it a chewy texture, less crumbly and, well, biscuit-y, than I'm used to. I love mixing in a handful of blackberries to keep the peaches from being too sweet.

Grocery list: (filling) 2.5 pounds peaches, peeled and sliced, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tsp cornstarch, 1 T fresh lemon juice. If you're going to use blackberries, you don't need quite as many peaches - I used 5-6 peaches and a quart of berries. (biscuit topping) 1 cup AP flour, 3 T + 1 tsp sugar, 3/4 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt, 5 T cold unsalted butter (cubed), 1/3 c plain whole milk yogurt.



Start by prepping the peaches and berries and transferring to a large bowl. Stir in the sugar and let stand 30 minutes, stirring several times.



Drain the peaches and berries in a colander over a bowl. Whisk 1/4 cup of drained juice w/cornstarch, lemon juice, and pinch of salt. Toss the peaches and berries with the juice mixture and pour into 8-inch square glass baking dish. Bake about 10 minutes at 425 degrees (till peaches bubble at the edges).



While the filling is baking, make the topping by first pulsing the flour, 3 T of the sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a food processor. Add butter cubes and pulse until it has the consistency of coarse meal.



Pour into a bowl and stir in yogurt with a spatula just until it holds together (careful not to overmix). Even though the recipe called for plain whole milk yogurt, I had some vanilla I needed to get rid of and didn't have any problems.



Pull the peaches out of the oven, break the dough into 6 equal sized mounds, and place evenly apart over the filling so they aren't touching each other. Sprinkle with the remaining 1 tsp sugar, then bake at 425 degrees until topping is brown, 16-18 minutes.



Cool the cobbler on a wire rack for about 20 minutes, until it's just warm.

cream cheese brownies

Another weekend, another request for homemade dessert... A finally got his hands on my copy of "The New Best Recipe" (from Cook's Illustrated), and started reading the dessert section. As an engineer, he was impressed with the thorough, scientific approach, which was all he needed to be convinced that their brownie recipes must be the best in the world. I had all the ingredients on hand, so we were digging in to hot gooey layered brownies about an hour later.

For the brownie base: 2/3 c AP flour, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 2 oz unsweetened chocolate, 4 oz bitter or semisweet chocolate, 8T unsalted butter, 1 c sugar, 2 tsp vanilla extract, 3 large eggs. For the cream cheese filling: 8 oz cream cheese (room temp), 1/4 c sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, 1 egg yolk.



In a medium bowl, melt chocolate and butter (start with 1 minute on high, stir, and keep heating in 30 second increments till melted). Stir the mixture till it's smooth, then whisk in sugar and vanilla.



Let this cool for a couple of minutes, then whisk in eggs one at a time till smooth.



Stir in the flour, salt and baking powder, then set aside.



In a separate bowl, make the cream cheese filling. Whisk all ingredients together till blended.



To assemble the brownies, layer half of the chocolate base into bottom of 8x8 pan (greased). Drop spoonfuls of the cream cheese filling into the base, reserving half of it. Repeat by spreading remaining brownie base, then dropping spoonfuls of the remaining cream cheese filling.



Use a knife and drag blade through mix to swirl filling and base together. Bake at 325 for 50-60 minutes, then allow to cool.

brownie cupcakes with peanut butter frosting (!!!)

Yes, these cupcakes are as good as the name suggests. Better yet, I'd wager you have all the ingredients in your kitchen right now. So maybe you should put down the laptop and just go see about making these right now, hmm?

Grocery (pantry) list: 6T butter, 8 oz semisweet chocolate chips + 3oz unsweetened chocolate [note - I just used semisweet only and they worked great], 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/3 cup sugar, 2 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1/2 cup AP flour, 1/3 cup walnuts (if you don't like nuts in brownies, skip them); for the frosting, 1 cup powdered sugar, 3/4 cup peanut butter, 1/2 stick room temperature butter, 1/4 tsp vanilla, 4 tsp heavy cream.



To make the brownie cupcakes, heat the butter + 1/2 the chocolate in a microwave or over a double boiler until smooth. Mix in both the granulated and brown sugar, then whisk in both eggs, the vanilla, flour, walnuts, a pinch of salt, and the remaining chocolate chips. Divide into cupcake liners - should make 8-10 cupcakes. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.



Use a hand mixer to mix the powdered sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla and cream together until very smooth. Keep in mind that the peanut butter will melt and get very messy if the cupcakes haven't cooled completely before you frost them (if you can wait that long...).

you don't have to skip dessert: strawberry shortcake

I like eating healthy, but I also don't like the idea of depriving myself of dessert. Not that I'm going to make chocolate kahlua cheesecake every night, but if I'm craving something sweet, I am going to have it. Sometimes that's a fun date to get a gelato, and sometimes that's making a healthier option at home. I picked up a pound of fresh strawberries from the farmers market earlier this week, so I knew I had the option to make a light and healthy dessert with that. In order to make the shortcake healthier, I decided to keep the ingredients exactly the same (yes, butter, cream, sugar), but just make smaller portions of the bread with a larger ratio of strawberries. It was perfect.

Grocery list: strawberries, lemon, sugar, flour, butter, whipping cream, milk, powdered sugar.

Start by washing, hulling and slicing the strawberries. Squeeze the juice of half a lemon over them, and sprinkle a couple of tablespoons of sugar over top. Refrigerate for an hour or more, stirring occasionally, so the strawberries release their juices and make a nice syrup.



For the shortcakes, the recipe I followed (from Epicurious) calls for 2 cups flour, 1/2 stick cold unsalted butter, 1/8 tsp salt, plus 2 T sugar (in order to make 6 shortcakes). I went for half this recipe, to make 4 smaller shortcakes, but I'll let you make that call for yourself. Anyway, after sifting together the dry ingredients, cut the butter up into small pieces and add to the bowl. With your hands, mix until the texture is course (like cornmeal). Then, pour in 3/4 cup milk and mix just until it turns doughy - don't over-mix.



Drop the shortcakes into 6 round shapes on a greased baking sheet. Using a pastry brush, brush the tops with heavy cream. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 400 degrees, until the shortcakes are golden on top.



Transfer the shortcakes to a wire rack to cool. To make whipped cream, beat 3/4 cup whipping cream with 4 T powdered sugar with a hand mixer for 2-3 minutes (this made plenty for 4 shortcakes, but if you made the full recipe you might want to make double the whipped cream). Slice the shortcakes in half, lay strawberries and their juices on top of the bottom half of the shortcakes, a dollop of whipped cream, then top with the other half. Garnish with more whipped cream and a whole strawberry if you like.

Next time I'll try one of the many variations on shortcake - possibly with Grand Marnier?

strawberry pie

This pie was featured in the June 2008 issue of Gourmet magazine - and the editors raved about it. I decided to try it because (a) there's an influx of local fresh strawberries down at WF right now (b) A loves cut strawberries with desserts, so I figured he'd like this and (c) a reasonably healthy, chilled, refreshing dessert for 95-degree-Atlanta weather. The reality: the recipe took a lot longer than described, and the finished pie was gorgeous but fell completely apart when serving. Maybe it needed more gelatin to hold everything together, and maybe I should have buttered the pie pan so the crust would release a little more easily. A did love it though, and it certainly was a refreshing change of pace from heavier desserts I've made recently.

Grocery list: (crust) 1 5-oz package shortbread cookies, 2 T sugar, 2 T cold unsalted butter; (filling) 2 pounds strawberries, hulled, 3/4 c sugar, 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice, 1 envelope unflavored gelatin (2 1/4 tsp); fresh whipped cream for serving.



This crust was my favorite part. Pulse the cookies in a food processor to make fine crumbs, then pulse in sugar and butter till combined. Press the mixture in the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch pie pan, then bake for 15 minutes until golden. (I included the shortbread packaging in the picture below - maybe this would be a way to use up any extra Girl Scout shortbread cookies though?)



To make the filling, select 20 of the hulled whole strawberries that are all the same size and set aside (this will give the finished pie more texture). Cut the rest of the berries into 1/4-inch dice and toss with the sugar and lemon juice. Let stand for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the strawberries have released a lot of their juice.



Drain the berries into a large glass measuring cup, then add enough water till you have 2 cups of liquid. Transfer the liquid into a medium saucepan and set the diced berries aside.



Sprinkle the gelatin packet into the saucepan and bring to a simmer, stirring continuously until the gelatin dissolves.



Stir in the diced berries and transfer the mixture to a bowl set inside an ice bath (I used 2 bowls - the bottom one filled w/ice packs and ice cubes, set the other bowl w/strawberry gelatin inside, then filled the empty space with cold water). Stir until the mixture begins to solidify. The recipe says this will be 20-30 minutes, but it was at least an hour for me.



Spoon 1/2 cup of the filling into the pie crust, then arrange the 20 whole strawberries (stem ends down) on the filling. Then spoon the rest of the filling around and on top of the whole fruit. Chill pie until the filling is set (the recipe says 4 hours - more like 8 for me).