Sunken Treasures...

I think many of you out there know the famous Peanut Butter Kiss Cookie, a peanut butter cookie with a Hershey's kiss added right out the oven.   These cookies are a favorite to many combining the love of peanut butter and chocolate, however have you ever thought what you can bake with the other flavours of Hershey's kisses.  They have come out with a cookies and cream kiss.  Cookies and cream makes me think of my childhood and ice cream.   When I was young this was my all time favorite ice cream; rich, creamy and filled with Oreo cookie crunchy goodness.   It reminds me of camping weekends and ice cream stops at the boat marina or day trips to port dover, playing mini golf and hanging out at the beach.  I don't have as much Cookie's and cream ice cream as I once did but I eat similar chocolates it brings me right back.
I originally had planned on making chocolate cookies with the kiss on top but I decide to make mini brownie cupcakes with the kiss falllen inside the brownie. Okay, so maybe the plan wasn't always to have them sunken inside but they still tasted just as good. I also had extra batter so I made brownie bars with a cream cheese topping with crushed Toblerone on top.

Cookies and Cream Brownie Bites

(Adapted from Fine Cooking)

INGREDIENTS:

• 4oz (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, cubed
• 4 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 4 large eggs, room temp
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 5 3/4 oz (1 1/4 cups) AP flour
• Cookies and Cream Kisses

Cream Cheese topping for Bar version

• 6 oz cream cheese, soft at room temp
• 3 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 large egg yolk
• chopped Toblerone

INSTRUCTIONS:

1) Preheat the oven at 350F and line mini cupcake pans.   Unwrap the Hershey's kisses so they are ready to go.

2) Make the Batter : Combine the butter and chocolate in a bowl and melt over a double boiler, stirring frequently until the butter and chocolate are melted and smooth.  Set aside.  With a stand mixer with the whisk attachment or hand mixer beat the eggs and salt in a bowl on medium speed until foamy, about 2 minutes. Continue to beat while gradually adding the sugar and beat until thick and pale, another 3 minutes.  

3) Scrape the chocolate mixture into the eggs, add vanilla and fold the two mixtures together.   Add the flour and continue to fold until just incorporated.
4) Fill each muffin cup about 2/3 full.   Bake about 13 minutes then take out quickly add the kisses on top of each brownie.   Place them back in the oven for 5 min. The kisses will melt a little and sink into the cupcakes.

Let the brownies cool in the pan before carefully lifting them out.   Store at room temp or freeze  in an airtight container.

For the cream cheese topped version: 

I was able to do 1 - 24 muffin tin and put the rest of the batter 

1) Instead of putting the brownies into mini cupcake tins, spray a 9 inch pan.  I was able to do 1 - 24 muffin tin and put the rest of the batter into the 9 inch pan.

2) In a small bowl, beat the cream cheese and sugar with a wooden spoon ( I used my braun whisk) until smooth and creamy.  Add the egg yolk and mix until blended.   Pour on top of the brownie batter and smooth out on top. 

3) Add the chopped Toberlone all over the top and bake for 18 minutes.

Both options were a success.   The brownie bites are just the right amount of chocolate, with the little kiss in the middle.   The bar style had a nice creaminess to it.  They were soft,  rich and the toblerone chunks added a nice texture and slight crunch.   I don't think this is the best brownie recipe I have tried or out there but it's good to have.

MEG's RATING: D-EEE-LICIOUS!

Cooking with Gas....

For the last two years I have been living in a world of renovations.   The good thing about these renovations are the following:

1) the renos are in the basement so they do not disrupt my kitchen (9 out of 10 days)

2) we added in a gas line for a basement fireplace that we extended to the kitchen

3) I will eventually have a beautiful basement to spend time in. 

Now why is #2 so important, you wonder.    The picture says it all, a new gas stove!  Thanks to some very wonderful connections we were able to get a deal on this stove and we were able to sell the old stove.  Check and Check!  

I have yet to bake in it yet but I am excited to see if there are any differences from the good old electric.  Lots of exciting baking to come...

The Iconic Cookie.

You will find this item on every baking blog, potentially even every food blog.  What is it?   The one and only Chocolate Chip Cookie.   I imagine this won't even be the only time you will see it on this blog.  The origins of the chocolate chip cookie seems to have several different variations. One of the most popular theories beings at the Tollhouse Inn where it was created by the Tollhouse owner, Ruth Wakefield,  who then sold it to Nestle in exchange for a life time supply of chocolate chips.  Pretty good deal if you ask me.  The Nestle Tollhouse recipe is now the most widely known recipe.

 I think a really good chocolate chip cookie might be my all time favorite dessert, in any possible combination.   One of the reasons the chocolate chip cookie is the Ultimate cookie is because you get the great cookie base with so many different and delicious choices.   You can use chocolate chips, dark  chips, white chocolate, Reese's pieces, nuts, oatmeal, chunks, candy bar pieces, the options are endless.     You can even turn cookies into bars and make bite size cookie squares.

Now who has the best chocolate chip cookie recipe and what constitutes the optimal chocolate chip cookie? Depending on the what style of cookie you like, soft, chewy, crispy or flat, your ingredients, mixing methods and cook times can change.   I am a fan of the soft, chewy and big cookie.  I bet most of you out there reading this blog think you have the best recipe, know someone who does or are on the continuous hunt for the best recipe.
Here is my two senses.  Currently my favourite base recipe for a chocolate chip cookie is from Cooks Illustrated.   I guess that makes sense doesn't it.  Cooks Illustrated prides it self on testing, testing and even more testing different recipes until they find what they deem to be the best recipe.  In most chocolate chip recipes I have tried over the years, the fews thing I always find that create the best flavour is more brown sugar over white sugar and generally more butter than shortening.   Cooks illustrated satisfies both of these requirements.

Adapted from Cooks Illustrated

INGREDIENTS :

• 2 1/8 cups all purpose flour (about 10 1/2 oz)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 6 oz unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
• 1 cup brown sugar (7 oz)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1-2 cups of chips, nuts whatever

INSTRUCTIONS: 

1) Heat oven to 325F. Mix dry ingredients and set aside

2) Mix sugars and butter with electric mixer or by hand until throughly blended.   Mix in egg, egg yolk and vanilla. Add dry ingredients and mix until just combined.  Add chips/nuts etc.

3) Cooks illustrated has detailed diagrams on how to make these cookies look jagged, by rolling them into a ball, pulling it apart and then turning each section 90 degrees so that the pulled part is on top and then put these two pieces together.   Trust me these cookies will still taste good if you drop them.     Place them on parchment.

4) Bake the cookies, reversing the sheet half way through about 15 min or until edges become golden

Dough can be refrigerated 2 days or frozen for a month.   Cool cookies on cookie sheet and store in air tight container.  

MY VARIATION :  My major variation to this cookie recipe was instead of using chocolate chips I used chocolate almond bark and chopped up mini mars bar. (It's amazing how far Halloween candy can go).  I also forgot to melt the butter and did the typical creaming method, probably just force of habit in baking so many cookies.    These cookies did spread more than expected however they still came out soft, chewy and utterly wonderful.   I brought them into work the next day and once everyone tried the first one,  the second one wasn't too far behind.

I will continue to search for and create the ultimate chocolate chip cookie, frankly with so many recipes out there to try and tweak and perfect it's rather impossible not to.   

 MEG's RATING: D-EEEEE-LICIOUS!!

Baking with Bourbon

There is always something nice about getting your own dessert, not a slice but a cute little cake just for me!   Our good friends Kevin and Lauren gave us some bourbon, maple syrup and butter as a gift at our Christmas party.   The intent was to make "Hot Buttered Maple Bourbon", which may still happen one day, however my first thought was how can incorporate these 3 items into a dessert.   So I did some searching and then some tweaking and tweaking and found Pumpkin Bourbon Cakes with a Maple Bourbon Glaze.  Oddly this uses my new favorite baking obsession Pecan Pralines, well at least that is what I told my self.    I digress.. so Kevin, Lauren and our Ottawa friends Stephan and Danielle were coming over for dinner so what better time to make these little cakes and crack open the bourbon.   


INGREDIENTS:


Pumpkin Cake

• 1 1/2 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 1/3 cup unsalted butter
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/3 cup bourbon
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 cup chopped pecans  (again I used the praline pecans)

Bourbon syrup:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tbsp Butter
• 2 tbsp Bourbon
• 1 tsp. vanilla

INSTRUCTIONS:1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly spray a bundt pan or mini bundt pan.  In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together brown sugar, butter, and eggs until very light and fluffy.  Add sweet potato and vanilla; beat to combine.
2) Combine flour, baking powder, spices, and salt in a bowl. Add half the flour mixture to the mixer and mix until just incorporated. Add the milk and combine. Add the remaining flour and combine.
3)  Finally, add the bourbon and 1 cup chopped pecans and stir in just until incorporated.  Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, 50 to 60 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes.
Remove from pan; cool completely on wire rack.
4) Make Bourbon syrup:  Bring sugar and water to boil and boil for 5 minutes. Add butter, bourbon and vanilla and boil for another 2 minutes until it begins to thicken.   Remove from heat and brush cake with syrup.

These were quite nice, moist and just the right amount of bourbon.   I tried the cake with and without the glaze and enjoyed it both ways, even after the boiling the bourbon flavour was there but not over powering and the pecans added a nice crunch. 


MEG's RATING:  D-EEEE-LICIOUS   (Cakes with pumpkin just always come out so nice)

Chocolate tarts

Every and any holiday dinner with my Dad, it is a requirement that I make my apple crumble. However I also find it a requirement to make another dessert, preferably with chocolate for my non fruit eating Husband.   I rifled through my many baking magazines to see what I could create...cookies, brownies, bars, cheesecake, tarts?  Yes, Tarts!  The recipe I found was actually for a s'mores tart that had a graham cracker base, chocolate pastry cream and a marshmallow meringue on top, however I wasn't in the mood for a marshmallow meringue so I choose to do my own Christmas spin.

Chocolate Hazelnut Tarts

Adapted from Cuisine at Home, Holiday Baking

INGREDIENTS:

Crust:

•  3 oz hazelnuts, toasted & skinned (1/2 cup)
• 9 2 1/4 x 5 inch graham crackers
• 2 Tbsp white sugar
• 1 stick unsalted butter, melted

Pastry Cream 

• 2 eggs
• 3 tbsp hazelnut syrup or liqueur, divided
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 cups milk
• 1/2 sugar
• 2 oz each bittersweet and milk chocolate, chopped
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened

My Variation

• 3 oz praline pecans
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 oz mint chocolate chips
• Small handfull mini eggs

INSTRUCTIONS:

1) Make the Crust : Preheat the oven to 375F.   Put the hazelnuts, graham crackers and 2 tbsp sugar in a food processor and run until fine.  With the processor running, drizzle in the melted butter.   Divide the mixture evenly amoung eight 3 inch tart pans with removable bottoms.  Press the crumbs up the sides and press the bottoms with a flat object similar to a cheesecake base to make the firm crust,   Bake the tartlets crusts for 10 min and then let cool.

2) Make the Pastry Cream : Whisk together the 2 eggs, 2 tbsp hazelnut syrup, cornstarch and salt.  Set aside. Heat the milk and sugar in a medium sauce pan over medium heat until steam rises. Gradually whisk in both chocolates until melted and fully combined with milk.
3) Whisk half of the heated mixture into the egg mixture; return the chocolate egg mixture to the remaining milk chocolate mixture in the pan.   Continue cooking on medium heat, whisking often until it thickens.    Boil for 1 more minute constantly whisking to avoid scorching.
4) Stir in the 2 tbsp butter and remaining hazelnut syrup.  Divide pastry cream evenly amoung cooled crusts.   Let tartlets cool to room temp, cover them with plastic wrap touching the filling to prevent a film.

MY VARIATION:  I did make a few tweaks based on what I like and had in the cupboard.
1) My crust variation involved pecan pralines instead of hazelnuts.   Good call # 1.
2) My pastry cream variation involved removing from the hazelnut syrup/liqueur, although I do enjoy amaretto since I removed the hazelnuts from the crust, I just decided to go with just pure vanilla extract.   I also did use all milk chocolate.   I used semi-sweet chips for some and then mint chocolate chips for half.   After the cream  thickened I split the mixture in two and added some mint chocolate chips and stirred until they melted.  Once it was all combined then I added that mixture to some shells and the non mint to the other shells.
3) My topping variation:  Instead of the marshmallow topping, I added some of the crushed mint chips to the mint tarts and some Christmas mini eggs to the plain chocolate tarts.

Another great dessert. I think this crust could have lots of possibilities, especially in a cheesecake.   The praline pecans are a great addition to the typical graham crust.   I am oddly not a big mint chocolate fan but the rest of the dinner table gave them a thumbs up.    You can pre-bake the shells and cream and cover them with saran wrap overnight if needed or to save time on a busy night.   An interesting thing I am finding about this blog is that when I start to write about something I baked I begin to think of all these other variations I could do.  Lots more tarts to come, I guess.....

MEG's RATING: D-EEE-LICIOUS!

Rolling Rolling Rolling, Part 2

The love for chocolate and peanut butter together runs deep in many people, my brother in law happens to be one of them.   If I sign my self up for desserts at family dinners with the in-laws, which I do quite often.   I try to make two desserts and ensure one has chocolate and peanut butter.   Back when I was planning my Christmas party desserts I had the idea to make a chocolate roll cake with orange chocolate pieces but instead I made the orange brownie cheesecake.   So when I was trying think of a dessert that I could create that used peanut butter cups, the light bulb went off.   What about a Chocolate Peanut Butter Roll cake, Genius!

I did a bit of searching for this recipe through the web and my cookbooks with several little variations across them all.  I was actually trying to find a recipe that did not involve egg separation but that does not seem to exist for chocolate, so I randomly choose a recipe from the web that seem to have several good ratings attached to it.

 INGREDIENTS : 

 Cake

• 1/3 cup cake flour  ( I used AP)
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 
• 2 tbsp cornstarch 
• 1/2 tsp baking soda 
• 1/2 tsp baking powder 
• 1/4 tsp salt 
• 4 large eggs - whites and yolks will be separated
• 1 cup white sugar, divided 
• Icing sugar  

Filling

• 2 cups (226 g) Icing sugar, sifted
• 1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 4 oz of dark or semi-sweet chocolate
• 2 oz peanut butter
• Peanut Butter Cups , chopped (Not to be melted)

INSTRUCTIONS: 

1) Make The Cake: Preheat oven to 350F. Spray and line with parchment  a 15 x 11inch pan. In a bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Separate egg yolks and whites.  Using your mixer or electric mixer set on a medium speed, beat separated egg yolks and 1/2 cup sugar until fluffy. 

2) In a small bowl using a electric whisk (see my product plug below) beat egg whites on high until foamy. Gradually add 1/2 cup sugar, beating until semi stiff peaks form. 

3) Fold 1/3 beaten egg whites into egg yolk mixture. Alternately fold in remaining whites and flour mixture. Pour batter in pan and spread evenly.  Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 15 minutes. 

4) Similar to the pumpkin roll cake, sprinkle a towel with a generous amount of icing sugar and turn the cake out onto the towel.  Remove the parchment and sprinkle the cake with icing.    Roll up the cake in the towel and place seam side down on a rack to cool. 

5) Make the Icing : while the cake is cooling melt the chocolate and peanut butter together using a double boiler ( a bowl sitting on top of a pot with simmering water, do not let bowl touch water).    Let cool slightly.   Beat the butter and icing sugar until smooth.   Add the vanilla and chocolate until combined.    If the icing is too stiff to spread nicely on the cake add a teaspoon or two of milk. 

6) Unroll the cake and spread the icing over cake leaving about 1/2 inch at the edges.  Add the chopped peanut butter cups op top of the icing.  Re-roll cake; place seam-side down on a plate. Dust with icing sugar or cocoa before serving. 

Similar to the pumpkin when I quickly peeked at this cake in the oven I thought this was not going to work as it looked puffy, however once I turned it out on the towel I could see it was pliable.   This cake can try out fairly quickly though so do not over cook this or it can crack easily in the roll.   Although this cake was amazing, I think it was really the peanut butter icing and cups that made it.  I might try to find a better chocolate sponge recipe in the future.    I will also let you know that I don't always measure my icing recipes and I often piece it together by taste so the recipe for filling is really just a base where start and then make adjustments from there. I may add more or less chocolate, sometimes I use cocoa instead of chocolate or even use part shortening, part butter at the same starting weights.   I like to fine tune depending on what I am using the icing for.   

MEG's RATING : D-EEEE-LICIOUS!    (only 4 E's b/c I want to change the cake layer)

MEG's PRODUCT REVIEW :

The Braun Hand Mixer with whisk attachment

Now I am sure everyone has seen the hand blender and used it to make soup or shakes but that is not the best thing about the hand blender.    What is you ask?    The WHISK attachment.   This is seriously one of my favorite kitchen friends.   It is so useful, easy and fast!    It can whip eggs into a stiff peak in no time and make whipped cream in less than a minute it seems.   If I ever need to whip or whisk anything super quick I just "whip" this out right away and it's done.  (Ha. Bad joke) If you don't happen to have a hand blender and you are considering getting one make sure it has the whisk attachment.   You won't be sorry!