23 June 2011

How to Elevate a Brownie (with help from Anna Bondoc)

This summer, I'm working as an intern for Anna Bondoc, a really swell artist (and my 6th grade English teacher) based in Los Angeles.  Yesterday I made some brownies, and Anna decorated the using a hand-cut paper stencil.  For a tutorial on how to make your own, check out her blog.

Normally you wouldn't serve brownies at a fancy event, but when they're this darling, who could object?

This will work with any favorite brownie recipe, but I used the opportunity as an excuse to try out a recipe I've been reading about: The Baked Brownie.  I already have a go-to brownie recipe, but when I read about this brownie on Brown Eyed Baker, it sounded irresistable.  Having made them, I can say that they ARE pretty special--thick and soft and fudge-y--but I dunno if they'll replace my old stand-by.

I'll let you be the judge: here's the recipe.

1¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons dark unsweetened cocoa powder
11 ounces dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup (8 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
1½ cups granulated sugar
½ cup packed light brown sugar
5 eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the sides and bottom of a 9×13-inch glass or light-colored baking pan. Line the pan with parchment paper.

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

Put the chocolate, butter and instant espresso powder in a large bowl and set it over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and smooth. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water and add the sugars. Whisk until completely combined, then remove the bowl from the pan. The mixture should be room temperature.

Add 3 eggs to the chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Add the remaining eggs and whisk until combined. Add the vanilla and stir until combined. Do not overbeat the batter at this stage or your brownies will be cakey.

Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate mixture. Using a rubber spatula (not a whisk), fold the flour mixture into the chocolate until just a bit of the flour mixture is visible.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake in the center of the oven for 30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies comes out with a few moist crumbs sticking to it. Let the brownies cool completely, then lift them out of the pan using the parchment paper. Cut into squares and serve.

Store at room temperature in an airtight container or wrap with plastic wrap for up to 3 days.

17 June 2011

Chocolate Chip Cookies That Make a Great Second Impression

So here’s a secret:

When I want to make chocolate chip cookies, do you know what recipe I use? I use the one on the back of Tollhouse chocolate chips. It is a solid recipe that has never steered me wrong in all my life.

But for some reason, when I saw this recipe from the New York Times, labeled “Thick-and-Gooey Chocolate-Chip Cookies,” I was overcome by the urge to try it.

The dough (yes, I eat raw cookie dough, salmonella be damned) was delicious, so I had high hopes when I pulled the first tray from the oven. But when I tasted one, I found it bland. Not bad, exactly; just average.

I was all prepared to go back to the good old Tollhouse recipe, but then the next morning…something happened. I ate another cookie, and it was incredible. It was the best second-day cookie I’d ever eaten. It was wonderfully soft, and the flavor was significantly better than it had been the night before. I can’t explain it, I can only say that those cookies were damn good.

Here’s my final verdict on the subject of chocolate chip cookies: if I were making cookies for a lot of people, and knew they were al going to get eaten the very first day, I would use the classic Tollhouse recipe. But if I knew these cookies were going to be sitting around for a couple days, this is the recipe I would use.

The recipe:
2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. kosher salt
8 oz (two sticks) butter, softened
1 1/2 c. packed light brown sugar
1/4 c. sugar
3 eggs
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
3 c. chopped bittersweet chocolate (chunks and shavings)
2 c. chopped walnuts (optional; I of course chose to forgo the nuts)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat (we were out of parchment, so I did without. It didn’t seem to create any problems). Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In a mixer fitted with a paddle, cream the butter and sugars until fluffy, 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, then the vanilla. Add the flour mixture all at once and blend until a dough forms. Fold in the chocolate and walnuts. Chill the dough.

Roll 1/4 -cup lumps of dough into balls (I prefer smaller cookies. Mine were a generous tablespoon, and I cooked them for about 11 minutes), then place on the baking sheet and flatten to 1/2 -inch-thick disks spaced 2 inches apart. Chill the dough between batches. Bake until the edges turn golden, 14 to 17 minutes. Let cool slightly on the baking sheet, then transfer to a baking rack.
 Oh, and here's a friendly tip: if you take two of these and put some ice cream in the middle, you've got yourself a killer ice cream sandwich.

Enjoy!

10 June 2011

Minimalist Bread with a Crispy Crust

 This week, I made bread. I made no-knead bread, and it was great. It wasn’t just great “for no-knead bread,” or great “for homemade bread.” It was just great.

My mom makes delicious bread from the La Brea Bakery cookbook (our favorite is rosemary olive oil), so I am a bit of a bread snob. I refuse to eat pre-sliced bread of any kind. However, despite my high bread standards, I had never made bread before. But when I found this recipe, which is originally from Mark Bittman’s column The Minimalist for the New York Times, I just had to try it.
I frickin' love bread
If you aren’t familiar with Mark Bittman, familiarize yourself.  We have two of his books at our house: How To Cook Everything (which I recently recommended to a friend who, in the fall, is going to be cooking her own meals for the first time in her life) and The Best Recipes in the World.  If I need a good, simple recipe on the fly, Mark is always the guy I turn to.  As much as I love avant-garde chefs, I always trust Mark Bittman to give me straightforward, delicious recipes.

So when he says that this bread “is incredible, a fine-bakery quality, European-style boule that is produced more easily than by any other technique I’ve used, and will blow your mind,” I pretty much have to trust him.

I really recommend reading the original New York Times article, because it explains very articulately why the bread is so special. I will simply tell you that the dough is so wet that it would be impossible to knead, so you have to have patience and let time do all the work for you. It takes some planning, but trust me: it's worth the wait.
Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran (optional)
 
1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.
Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

And, 24 hours later, there you have it!  I was very pleased with the results, and best of all, it goes with everything: butter, olive oil, jam, honey, or meatballs and marinara sauce.
I also love meatballs.  Anyhow, enjoy the bread!

04 June 2011

In Summer You Eat LEMON SQUARES

You heard me.  It's summer.  And while chocolate is good year round, summer is specifically the season of fruit desserts.  To kick this off, I made you some lemon squares.

This recipe comes from Smitten Kitchen, and it is pretty delicious, although I found the directions a little unclear at times.  So I'm re-writing them a little, all for you, after this triptych of lemons.
Ooh, art.
Crust
1 c. (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
1/2 c. granulated sugar
2 c. flour
1/8 tsp. kosher salt

Custard:
6 extra-large eggs at room temperature
2 1/2 c. granulated sugar
2 tbsp. grated lemon zest (4 to 6 lemons)
1 c. freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 c. flour
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Grease a 9"x13"x2" casserole dish (you know like the ones you make brownies in?) and set aside.

For the crust, cream the butter and sugar until light in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Combine the flour and salt in a bowl and, with the mixer on low, add to the butter until just mixed (my dough at this point was a little flaky; that’s okay, just smoosh it later). Dump the dough onto a well-floured board and gather into a ball. Flatten the dough with floured hands and press it into the greased casserole dish, building up a 1/2-inch edge on all sides.

Chill for about half an hour.  While the crust is chillin’, heat the oven to 350°F.


Bake the crust for 15 to 20 minutes, until very lightly browned. Let cool to room temperature on a wire rack (leave the oven on).

For the lemon layer, whisk together the eggs, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and flour.  Pour over the crust and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or about five minutes beyond the point where the filling is set. Let cool to room temperature.

Cut into squares and dust with confectioners’ sugar.
Look, a reamer!
My final word of caution: my oven doesn't cook evenly.  The back gets much hotter than the front.  This means that some of the bars are more solid than others.  If you have a similar problem with your oven, I recommend rotating the baking dish halfway through.

Enjoy your lemon-ing, friends!

02 June 2011

Guacamummus (Hummus + Avocado)


Before we get to today's killer recipe, let me tell you something.

I grew up in Los Angeles, but now spend most of my time at school in Portland.  I prefer Portland to Los Angeles in every way.  Every way, that is, except one.

You can't get good avocados in Portland.

You can get avocados, sometimes, but they are neither as delicious nor as abundant as they are in Los Angeles.  So when I get back home in the summers, I practically gorge myself on avocados non-stop.


Yesterday I decided I would finally make this recipe from Gimme Some Oven, which I discovered months ago but haven't had the means for until now.  It's simple, delicious, and requires only a food processor to make it!  So here goes, with my personal tweaks added:

1 avocado, peeled and pitted
1 (15 oz.) can of chickpeas, drained
1/2 c. fresh cilantro, chopped
1/4 c. chopped red onion (n.b.: you may need more or less depending on the strength of the onion)
3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
2 tbsp. tahini (optional)
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 lime, juiced
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. chili powder
Salt, to taste

Thoroughly combine ingredients in a food processor.


Easy-peasy!  And it really does taste like guacamole, with the texture (and protein) of hummus!  I wish I could tell you how long the guacamummus keeps in the fridge, but we ate this batch in the first day.  I guess someone will have to report back.

Happy hummus!