Filed under: Dessert
I have a tiny pantry, but it has pull-out shelves that enable me to cram more than I should be able to in a very slender space. I was reorganizing my baking supplies the other day and found a 3.5-oz. bag of cooked, shelled chestnuts that I bought because they were on sale for 99 cents. Turns out, it was no bargain.
I decided to chop the chestnuts into a cookie, and I used these Back Bay Chestnut Cookies as inspiration. I’m sure the recipe didn’t expect my chestnuts to be a little mushy, and practically flavorless. I proceeded anyway, and used mini chocolate chips instead of the golden raisins.
The result was a cakey cookie, which on the day they were baked were OK with a cup of coffee, but not something I’d make again. The chestnut flavor was imperceptible (I believe this is due to the quality of my ingredients, not the recipe itself), but I did enjoy the combination of cinnamon and chocolate. The flavor actually reminded me of biscotti, though the texture was much softer than that. A. ate one but didn’t ask for more; G. had a bite and then told me he was full. Full of cookies! Impossible! I think he just couldn’t wrap his head around not liking a chocolate chip cookie.
By the second day, the chopped chestnuts had hardened, and were out of place in the soft surroundings. On the third day I threw the rest out. Next time, straight chocolate chip cookies — I promise.
February 24, 2010
A couple of years ago, I used Devil Dogs as decoration for a birthday cake I made for J.’s grandma. Even as I was making that cake, I realized that trying to replicate a Devil Dog with my own cake and frosting would have been a cool alternative. So I had big plans for GG’s birthday cake this year — I was going to follow Smitten Kitchen’s recipe for Homemade Devil Dog, Ding Dong, or Hostess Cake and make the cake and frosting from scratch.
However, I really didn’t take a good look at the recipe or directions until the morning of the birthday celebration, and I quickly realized I didn’t have the time to make the cakes from scratch, let alone freeze them before frosting (as Deb and my friend Jen — who has made Deb’s cake before — suggest). I decided I’d use a devil’s food cake mix instead, but still make the Marshmallow Frosting myself.
I divided the batter between ten 5-inch mini loaf pans, filling them each with only about an inch or so of thick batter. They puffed up while baking, but then settled back down to a nice, slightly-rounded top as they cooled. The cake was perfect — moist and deeply chocolaty, and not cloyingly sweet.
I started the frosting just before dinner, following the recipe with what I think wound up being two major changes: I didn’t use a metal bowl (I only had glass), and I used pasteurized egg whites (from a carton, but they are 100% liquid egg whites, not Egg Beaters) rather than separating the yolks out of fresh eggs. I beat the frosting for 6 minutes, then another minute, then another. Nothing. I got a little froth but overall it stayed in liquid form. With only a few minutes to go before I had to put a meal on the table, I threw out that batch and made a super-quick vanilla buttercream instead. With this successful batch, I made sandwiches out of the mini loaves (used whole) and the frosting, making five small Devil Dog-like cakes. A reasonable serving would have been to cut each filled cake into three servings. But you know, I can’t say we were too reasonable.
Overall I was very pleased with the way the Devil Dog Birthday Cake looked, even though it was created quite differently than I’d originally intended. Everyone loved them, especially the birthday girl. If you come to my house today, don’t expect any leftovers — I sent some home with GG and between the rest of us we polished these puppies off within 24 hours of them being baked.
February 9, 2010
I always like an opportunity to bake a cake, and to celebrate my dad’s birthday last month I decided to try something other than standard chocolate. He likes Jack Daniel’s whiskey, so I thought that would be a good starting point for this adults-only cake. A Google search led me to Jack’s Birthday Cake on a Paula Deen forum, but the same recipe — which seems to originate on the Jack Daniel’s site — has been copied around the Web under different names.
This is a dense, pound-like cake that works well in a Bundt pan. Everyone liked the cake, though J. and I felt the alcohol flavor was a little too pronounced in the glaze — it overpowered the cake, which was very good in its own right. If I made it again, I might try a chocolate glaze, or just sub out some of the whiskey in the glaze for water.
Even though it bakes for almost an hour, keep in mind this cake has a strong, distinct whiskey flavor. As I made it, it contains more than three-quarters of a cup of Jack — about 7 shots — in the whole glazed cake. I would not serve it to kids (mine had Carvel Flying Saucers instead). Remember to eat this cake responsibly!
Jack Daniel’s Cake with Buttered Whiskey Glaze
Slightly adapted from Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey
2 sticks (1 c.) unsalted butter
2 c. firmly-packed light brown sugar
4 large eggs
½ c. Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey
2¼ c. all-purpose flour
2½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1 c. pecans, roughly chopped
6 oz. semi-sweet mini chocolate chips
Buttered Whiskey Glaze (recipe below)
Preheat oven to 325° F.
Melt butter in a large pot over low heat. Once it is fully melted, turn off the heat and use the pot as your mixing bowl. Add in the brown sugar, eggs, and whiskey, stirring well after each one. Then add the flour, baking powder, salt, nuts, and chips. Mix until well-combined.
Pour batter into a greased 10-inch Bundt pan (a 9×13-inch pan will also work). Bake for about 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one side comes out clean, and the edges begin to pull away from the sides of the pan. The cake will *not* change color significantly, so don’t go by color alone.
Cool completely on a wire rack, then turn out of the Bundt pan. Drizzle with glaze.
Buttered Whiskey Glaze
Glaze can be made ahead and reheated briefly in a microwave (20 seconds or so) so that it can be drizzled right before serving.
½ stick (¼ c.) butter
2 c. powdered sugar
1/3 c. Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey
1 tsp. vanilla
Melt butter in a small saucepan, and then remove from heat. Add remaining ingredients, and mix with a whisk until glaze is completely smooth and no lumps of sugar remain.
February 1, 2010
The boys are still chuffed about the Wii they got for Hanukkah, and decided that the best birthday present they could give J. this year was another game (that they could play too, of course) — Wii Sports Resort. J. and I stayed up doing the archery module while the kids were asleep last night! It seemed natural that they wanted to make J.’s cake in the shape of a Wii controller.
I baked brownies in a 9×13 pan, and then cut them in half the long way to make two strips that I stacked to make the shape of the controller. Some vanilla frosting roughly covered the whole thing, and I did my best to draw on the details with blue gel icing. Thankfully, G. added his touch to the cake by covering everything I’d done with sprinkles. It wound up being the most attractive part of the decoration.
It might have looked a mess, but there were no complaints when we ate it!
January 10, 2010
The idea of cookie brittle is simple — spread your dough in one thin sheet across a lined baking pan, bake thoroughly, and then gently break the slab of cookie into small shards once it has cooled. Because the dough is eggless, the finished product winds up crisp and flaky like a shortbread or pie crust. (It’s a tiny bit greasy, too.) It really does break apart like peanut brittle. Because we used some open bags of chocolate chips — a little bit of white chocolate, a little bit of semi-sweet — G. said they looked like polka dot cookies. Who am I to argue? My friend Hillary passed this recipe on to me, and it’s a keeper — everyone that tasted the cookies adored them.
Polka Dot Cookie Brittle
Adapted slightly from Cookie Brittle in Kosher by Design Short on Time
You can substitute 8-10 oz. of any baking chip instead of the white and semi-sweet chips I used. Mini chips would work very well.
1 c. unsalted butter, room temperature
1 c. white sugar
1½ tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. salt
2 c. white whole wheat flour
4 oz. white chocolate chips
4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350° F.
Using a hand or stand mixer, cream butter, sugar, vanilla, and salt for several minutes on medium speed. Add in flour and continue mixing until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips by hand, being careful not to over-mix — it’s OK if the dough is still crumbly.
Line a cookie sheet with foil or parchment paper, and (with clean hands!) spread the dough as thinly and evenly as possible over the baking tin. The chocolate chips will limit how thin it can be spread, and it is OK to have rough edges.
Bake for 20-25 minutes (mine took 23 minutes), until the cookie is browned evenly and firm to the touch in the center. Remove and allow to cool thoroughly before breaking into pieces for serving.
November 19, 2009
I won’t turn away a piece of chocolate cake if you set it in front of me, but I’d prefer something like carrot cake most any day. (Better yet, give me some mac & cheese or homemade mashed potatoes, and I’ll pass on dessert completely.) So it’s no surprise that my absolute favorite cake in the world is filled with apples, not fudge. J.’s aunt usually makes this cake for Rosh Hashanah or Thanksgiving, so I don’t often get a chance to make it myself. But, it is my all-time favorite cake to bake… and eat. This is her recipe.
Ann’s Apple Cake
My Bundt pan takes about 2 quarts of batter, and measures 10″ in diameter. This recipe completely fills the pan.
3 c. apples, pared and thinly sliced (5 or 6 — I like Golden Delicious)
5 Tbsp. + 2 c. sugar
5 tsp. cinnamon
3 c. white whole wheat flour (or AP)
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 c. canola oil
4 large eggs
1/4 c. orange juice
1 Tbsp. vanilla
3/4 c. chopped walnuts (optional)
Preheat oven to 375° F.
Toss apple slices with 5 Tbsp. sugar and cinnamon, and set aside.
In a large bowl, combine flour, the rest of the sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add remaining ingredients EXCEPT for the walnuts, and beat well. The batter will be very thick, almost like a cookie dough.
Grease and flour a Bundt pan, then use a flexible spatula to layer in a third of the batter, then half of the apples, a third of the batter, remaining apples, and top with remaining batter. You can press the apples down lightly with clean hands to make sure they’re evenly distributed. Sprinkle with chopped walnuts, if you’re using them.
Bake cake for 50 minutes to an hour, or until a bamboo skewer or cake tester comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before unmolding.
October 7, 2009
I am a big fan of giving and receiving consumable gifts — tickets to a show, a gift certificate to a great restaurant, or a gourmet food item like really incredible olive oil. No one needs another tchotchke lying around. But for some reason, I don’t normally make food gifts myself.
I did today, though. This treat reminds me of a gourmet trail mix, in cookie form. It’s flourless, so the dough is a little crumbly but once they’re baked the cookies hold together surprisingly well and are pleasingly chewy. The slightly tart cherries, bittersweet dark chocolate, and mellow brown sugar dough are, to me, perfectly balanced and not overly sweet.
Dark Chocolate-Cherry Oatmeal Cookies
Inspired by Flourless Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes 30 cookies
1/2 c. butter (1 stick)
4 c. quick-cooking oats
3/4 c. light brown sugar, loosely packed
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. dried, unsweetened cherries
2 whole large eggs
2 large egg whites
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Baking Chips (or similar)
Preheat oven to 325° F and line two baking sheets with foil or parchment paper (this will help the cookies release easily without breaking apart).
In a microwave or in a small saucepan on the stove, melt butter and then set aside to cool.
Combine oats, sugar, salt, and cherries in a large mixing bowl. Beat eggs, egg whites, and vanilla together in a small bowl, and then stir into the oats mixture, making sure ingredients are well-combined. Once butter has cooled for a few minutes, stir into the rest of the ingredients. Finally, incorporate the chocolate chips.
Rinse your hands in cool water and shake them off — you’re going to roll the cookie dough into balls, and damp hands will help keep the dough from sticking to you. Repeat this step as needed.
Scoop about a soup spoon’s worth of dough from the bowl and roll it into a ball, flattening it slightly when you place it on your lined cookie sheet. (The cookies will not spread while baking.)
Bake for 20 minutes, or until the tops of the cookies are just turning golden brown. Allow to cool before removing from the pan, and store in an air-tight container.
September 5, 2009
I made these Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookies on Friday for the first time, and they will now be my go-to chocolate chip cookie — I think they are perfect. If you’ve never heard the urban legend about this $250 recipe, go to Snopes.
The key to the cookie is the espresso powder, which doesn’t lend a coffee flavor but rather tempers the sweetness of the sugar. It’s not that the cookies are less sweet, but rather more deep and well-rounded in their sweetness, not raw- or sharp-tasting. I used Medaglia D’Oro Caffè Espresso Instant — I love their regular espresso coffee so I figured the instant couldn’t be too bad. I used slightly less chips than the recipe called for, only because that’s what I had on hand.
As you can see, my cookie dough spread a lot. I over-softened the butter in the microwave, and didn’t throw it back in the fridge to firm up a bit before baking. I also used too much dough for each cookie — I used a heaping soup spoon, thinking it would be similar to the recipe’s 2 tablespoon measure, but I think it may have been almost double that. Next time I’ll just use a heaping teaspoon, and make sure my dough is not too warm.
Regardless, the cookies are awesome. Everyone that’s had one has loved it — even J. agreed they are the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever baked.
May 3, 2009
This is my last Passover recipe for 2009, and it served as a birthday cake earlier in the week. Originally I thought I’d be serving chicken for dinner, so I was looking for a pareve dessert. That limited my options, but I found this Passover Coconut Cake that looked like a good starting point. Although my meal later changed to a vegetarian Noodle Kugel, I stuck with the idea of a non-dairy cake.
I found that the finely shredded, dried coconut suspended in the whipped egg whites took on a cake-crumb consistency, which was a welcome result. The cake was not too sweet, which I like. The original recipe calls for baking it in a 9×13-inch pan, but I used two round cake pans instead.
I’d planned to melt and drizzle some chocolate on the top of the cake before serving, but we wound up eating it as a mid-afternoon snack instead of after dinner, and I was caught unprepared. Everyone liked it anyway (most importantly, the birthday girls enjoyed it). A ganache would probably be good on top, and I think the batter would work well as muffins.
Macaroon Cake
Adapted from Passover Coconut Cake
6 eggs, separated
1 c. white sugar
2 c. unsweetened, dessicated coconut
8 oz. dark chocolate, chopped (or about a cup of chocolate chips)
Preheat oven to 350° F.
With an electric mixer, beat eggs whites until soft peaks form — about 5 minutes. Add sugar and beat another minute or so. Set aside.
In a small bowl, beat yolks until they begin to lighten in color. Mix in coconut and chocolate. Then fold mixture into the egg whites and sugar.
Grease 2 round cake pans with non-stick spray. Bake for about 40 minutes, until the tops are lightly browned and a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean.
April 16, 2009
Lauren passed this recipe on to me, and said that it’s requested throughout the year, not just on Passover. That’s pretty high praise! As I assembled my ingredients this afternoon, I realized I’d bought chocolate that was close to, but not quite, what the recipe called for. It still turned out wonderfully, very fudgey with just the right amount of flaky crumb. My only complaint is that the fully-cooked brownie does feel a little greasy (not a surprise considering the amount of butter). This is not your typical Passover recipe, that’s for sure.
Passover Triple-Chocolate Brownies
Adapted from White Chocolate Brownies in Passover Made Easy
2 oz. bittersweet chocolate
1 c. unsalted butter (2 sticks)
4 eggs
2 c. sugar
1¼ c. cake meal
½ c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 3.5-oz. white chocolate hazelnut praline bar, chopped
Preheat oven to 350° F.
In a small saucepan, melt bittersweet chocolate and butter over low heat, whisking to combine. Set aside to cool, about 10 minutes (otherwise you’ll cook the eggs when you add it to the batter!).
In a medium bowl, beat eggs with sugar. Add cake meal and stir to combine. Then slowly add chocolate and butter mixture until a thick, uniform batter is created. Stir in chocolate chips and white chocolate.
Spread batter into an 8×8-inch pan and bake on the middle rack of your oven for about 50 minutes, until the center of the brownies feels firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Allow brownies to cool completely, and cut into 16 pieces.
April 12, 2009
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I'm Dara, the Chick in the Kitchen. Living in the suburbs of Manhattan with my two boys, ages 4 and 6, and husband. Trying to feed my family something more diverse than a different shape of pasta each night. Read more 