Red's Ultimate M&M Cookies: National M&M Day

Today is National M&M Day! Celebrate with Red's Ultimate M&M Cookies or just eat a handful of M&Ms. 

M&Ms originated in the United States in 1941, and are now sold in as many as 100 countries. The candy-coated chocolate concept was inspired by a method used to allow soldiers to carry chocolate without having it melt. They are produced in different colors, some of which have changed over the years, with special ones for holidays and celebrations. 

Red's Ultimate M&M Cookies

Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1 12-ounce package M&M® MINIS®

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F.
In large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy
Beat in egg and vanilla.
In medium bowl combine flour, baking soda, and salt; blend into butter/sugar mixture.
Stir in M&M® MINIS® Milk Chocolate Candies.
Drop dough by heaping teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake 10 to 13 minutes or until edges are lightly browned and centers are still soft. Do not overbake. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; cool completely on wire racks.
Store in tightly covered container.

MAKES ABOUT 50 COOKIES.

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS & CHOCOLATE: Recipe for Super Rich Spanish Hot Chocolate

Today is Columbus Day (as well as Indigenous People Day). In terms of chocolate, Christopher Columbus was the first European to come in contact with cacao. On August 15, 1502, on his fourth and last voyage to the Americas, Columbus and his crew encountered a large dugout canoe near an island off the coast of what is now Honduras. The canoe was the largest native vessel the Spaniards had seen. It was "as long as a galley," and was filled with local goods for trade -- including cacao beans. Columbus's crew seized the vessel and its goods, and retained its captain as his guide.

Later, Columbus' son Ferdinand wrote about the encounter. He was struck by how much value the Native Americans placed on cacao beans, saying: "They seemed to hold these almonds [referring to the cacao beans] at a great price; for when they were brought on board ship together with their goods, I observed that when any of these almonds fell, they all stooped to pick them up, as if an eye had fallen."

At first, however, the cocoa beans were neglected. Despite the bitterness of the drink produced, Columbus claimed the resulting concoction was a "divine drink which builds up resistance and fights fatigue. A cup of this precious drink permits a man to walk for a whole day without food". 

What Ferdinand and the other members of Columbus' crew didn't know at the time was that cocoa beans were the local currency. In fact, in some parts of Central America, cacao beans were used as currency as recently as the last century.

While it is likely that Columbus brought the cacao beans he seized back to Europe, their potential value was initially overlooked by the Spanish King and his court. Far more exciting treasures on board his galleons meant the cocoa beans were ignored. It was his fellow explorer, the Spanish Conquistador Don Hernán Cortés, who first realized their commercial value. He brought back three chests full of cocoa beans to Spain in 1528 and very gradually, the custom of drinking the chocolate spread across Europe.

It was still served as a beverage when the Spanish first brought chocolate back to Europe. Cortez, described chocolatl as "the divine drink ... which builds up resistance and fights fatigue," and his countrymen, conceived the idea of sweetening the bitter drink with cane sugar.

The recipe for the sweetened frothy beverage underwent several more changes in Spain, where newly discovered spices such as cinnamon and vanilla were added as flavorings. The original chili pepper that made the spicy drink was replaced by sugar to make a sweet beverage. The sweetened chocolate beverage was a luxury that only a few could afford.

By the 17th century, the drink became common among European nobility. In London, chocolate was more widely available, and those who could afford it could enjoy the drink in coffee and chocolate houses.

Super Rich Spanish Hot Chocolate 
Makes two mugs!

Ingredients 
5 Tbsp good quality unsweetened DARK cocoa powder
4 Tbsp sugar
1/2 Tbsp corn starch
1 tsp Mexican vanilla extract
1 cup water

Directions 
Combine cocoa powder, sugar, and corn starch in small bowl.
Pour COLD water into small sauce pan, add vanilla extract and cocoa mixture, and cook at medium low heat, stirring constantly.
Cook until it thickens and serve immediately.

CHOCOLATE TRUFFLE COOKIES WITH SEA SALT

I love cookies! Here's an easy recipe for Chocolate Truffle Cookies with Sea Salt from local San Francisco chocolate company Ghirardelli. Ghirardelli has some great recipes online and in their Cookbooks.

Ghirardelli

In 1849, during the California Gold Rush, Italian-born Domingo Ghirardelli moved to America and opened a store in a mining camp. After discovering the miners were starved for luxuries and needed something to spend their gold dust on, he starting stocking chocolate delicacies. In 1852, the enterprising immigrant founded a confectionery shop in San Francisco, which eventually became the modern-day Ghirardelli Chocolate Company.

Today, Ghirardelli is America’s oldest continuously operating chocolate maker. Their products are sold in stores everywhere and online, and they also have their own chocolate and ice cream shops across the country.

CHOCOLATE TRUFFLE COOKIES WITH SEA SALT

Ingredients

1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Baking Chips, for melting into the cookie dough
2 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 eggs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Baking Chips, for mixing into the prepared cookie dough
2 to 3 tablespoons coarse sea salt

Directions
In heatproof bowl over double boiler, melt chocolate and butter until smooth. Turn off stove and let chocolate sit over warm water.
Combine flour, baking powder, and salt and mix to combine.
In another bowl, mix together sugar and eggs, combine thoroughly with whisk and slowly add warm chocolate mixture. Stir to combine. Add vanilla extract and mix. Stir in flour mixture.
Cool for a few minutes (if batter is warm, chocolate chips will melt). Stir in chocolate chips. Chill for 10-15 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Scoop rounded tablespoons of batter and place on baking tray. Sprinkle each cookie lightly with a pinch of sea salt.
Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 7-8 minutes until the outside looks slightly cracked. Be very careful not to over bake cookies because they will continue to bake as they cool once removed from the oven. Cookies should be soft and gooey in the center.

For a chunky and different twist add one of the following: 3/4 cup toasted pecans or pistachios, 1/4 cup chopped candied ginger, or 1/3 cup sweetened coconut

CHOCOLATE ANGEL FOOD CAKE: National Angel Food Cake Day!

Today is National Angel Food Cake Day. In case you were worried that there would be no chocolate, I have a go-to recipe for Chocolate Angel Food Cake. Recipe from Martha Stewart! This cake is light and airy and delicious... truly angelic!

Angel food cake is a cake made with a lot of egg whites and usually no shortening or leavening agent. It has the consistency of a sponge cake.

From WhatsCookingAmerica.net comes this piece of information about Angel Food Cake: 

Angel Food Cake is also known as ice cream cake (a Pennsylvania Dutch wedding cake). And, because there are an abundance of cake molds in southeastern Pennsylvania, one of the major producer of cake molds, angel food cake may have originated there in the 1800s. Some other historians think that the first angel food cakes were baked by African slaves in the South because making this cake required a strong beating arm and lots of labor to whip the air into the whites (pre-egg-beaters 1865). Angel Food cakes are also a traditional African-American favorite at funerals. You decide, but whatever the origin, you'll love this cake!

CHOCOLATE ANGEL FOOD CAKE

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups sugar
Scant 1 cup cake flour (not self-rising)
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 ounce dark chocolate, grated (about 1/2 cup)
12 large egg whites
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp pure almond extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place oven rack in center.
Sift together onto piece of parchment paper: 3/4 cup sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Add grated chocolate; set aside.

In bowl of electric mixer fitted with whisk attachment, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until soft peaks form. With machine running, add remaining 3/4 cup sugar in slow steady stream, beating until fully incorporated and stiff glossy peaks form. Add vanilla and almond extracts; beat to combine.

Remove from mixer. Gradually add flour mixture, gently but thoroughly, folding into egg-white mixture until fully combined. Pour into nonstick angel food cake pan. Tap pan on counter to remove air bubbles. Bake until cake springs back when depressed with finger, 30 to 35 minutes.
Cool, inverted, 1 hour before removing pan.

BLUE CHEESE TRUFFLES: Moldy Cheese Day!

October 9 is Moldy Cheese Day. Don't you just love the name Moldy Cheese Day? Perfect for October! 

For me, Moldy Cheese means Blue Cheese. O.K. I know there are a lot of other moldy cheeses out there, but give me a good Stilton or Gorgonzola any day. So in honor of Moldy Cheese Day, I'm making Blue Cheese Truffles. Simple and delicious.

Scroll down for an easy recipe for Blue Cheese Truffles (I'd call them Moldy Cheese Truffles, but I fear no one will eat them).

No time or inclination to make your own? There are several Chocolate companies that offer fabulous Smokey Blue Cheese Truffles. I really like Lillie Belle Farms from Southern Oregon. I've tasted them at the San Francisco International Chocolate Salon, and they're delicious. Organic milk chocolate, Rogue Creamery's smoked blue cheese and toasted almonds. It's an awesome combination.

My other favorite blue cheese truffles are Bissinger's Chocolate-Covered Point Reyes Original Blue Cheese Wine Grape. They're a great combination of sweet and savory. I'm a sucker for chocolate and cheese, and local Point Reyes Original Blue is one of my favorite blues. Add a wine grape to that, and I'm in heaven.
 
But, of course, you can make your own Blue Cheese (Moldy Cheese) Truffles! This recipe is adapted from Harold McGee's Cookbook On Food and Cooking. Remember that the taste will change depending on the chocolate and cheese you choose! Choose a mild blue cheese to start.

BLUE CHEESE TRUFFLES

FILLING
2 ounces Blue Cheese, room temperature
1 Tbsp superfine sugar
2 ounces Dark chocolate (70% cacao), finely chopped

COATING
6 ounces dark chocolate (70% cacao), finely chopped

Make sure the cheese is at room temperature.

In mixing bowl, combine cheese and sugar and mix until sugar dissolves.
Melt filling chocolate in top of a double boiler (or saucepan over saucepan) over simmering water.

Use 2 ounces for blue cheese fillings. Make sure cheese is at room temperature and very soft. If it is too firm, microwave very briefly to soften.

Combine melted chocolate, superfine sugar, and cheese and work together with a wooden spoon or flexible spatula until the mixture is homogeneous. (This may be easier if you add a few drops of water or a little butter.) If mixture is too soft to shape, refrigerate 15 to 20 minutes.

Roll portions of mixture into 1/2-inch balls and refrigerate 15 to 20 minutes.
Melt and temper coating chocolate. Dip cheese balls in tempered chocolate, letting excess drain off. Allow to set at room temperature. Keep in cool place and serve on same day.

Note: Cheese will resume fermentation if left at room temperature, so this is one case where truffles should be refrigerated if kept for more than a day. Place on a sheet or tray and wrap snugly in waxed paper, then plastic wrap, before refrigerating. Allow to warm to room temperature before unwrapping.

National Fluffernutter Day: Chocolate Fluffernutter Sandwich

I post about Fluffernutter Sandwiches most every year, because I meet people who don't know what a Fluffernutter Sandwich is, and I feel I should enlighten them. LOL. The Fluffernutter sandwich—a classic New England treat-- is made with white bread, peanut butter, and Marshmallow Fluff. 

Today is National Fluffernutter Day. Fluffernutter sandwiches must contain Marshmallow Fluff. I always have a jar in my pantry. 

Marshmallow Fluff is not just any marshmallow crème. Fluff has been manufactured by Durkee-Mower of Lynn, Massachusetts since 1920, and is the preferred brand of the northeast. This gooey, spreadable, marshmallow-infused confection is used in countless recipes and found in a variety of baked goods—from Whoopie Pies and Rice Krispies Treats to chocolate fudge and beyond.

And beyond that lies the best concoction of all: the Fluffernutter sandwich—a classic New England treat made with white bread, peanut butter, and Fluff.

History of Marshmallow Fluff:

A sweet marshmallow-like spread called Marshmallow Creme was invented in 1917 by Archibald Query in Somerville, Massachusetts. In 1913 during World War I, Emma and Amory Curtis of Melrose, Massachusetts invented Snowflake Marshmallow Creme and published a recipe for a peanut butter and marshmallow creme sandwich, which is the earliest known example of a Fluffernutter. Query sold his recipe for Marshmallow Creme to Durkee-Mower, Inc in 1920, who renamed it Marshmallow Fluff. Over 100 years later they continue to sell it under that name today.

It was in 1960 that the term Fluffernutter was created by an advertising agency for Durkee-Mower in an attempt to effectively market the peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich. See the 1960s ad and jingle explaining the recipe below. How Retro!

So if the Fluffernutter sandwich is a classic New England treat made with white bread, peanut butter, and Marshmallow Fluff, it can only be better if you add chocolate. And, for me, press the sandwich in a panini press! 

Want to make your own Marshmallow Fluff? https://livforcake.com/homemade-marshmallow-fluff/

Chocolate Fluffernutter Sandwich:

Chopped dark chocolate, Marshmallow Fluff, Chunky peanut butter, soft good white bread - pressed hot in a panini press!

Have a Chocolate Fluffernutter Sandwich today!  

Starbucks CopyCat Oreo Frappucino: Frappé Day

Today is Frappé Day. Most of us have a frappé of one kind or another in our lifetime.

A frappé is an iced beverage that has been shaken, blended, or beaten to produce a foamy cold blended drink, often with whipped cream and toppings. Ice can be added before or after beating the coffee and adding other ingredients such as sugar, milk, vanilla, and sweet sauces. It really depends on what you are shaking or blending it in - a shaker, frappe maker, or blender. According to one source, an ice-crushing blender is better than a shaker for blending a frappe. Traditionally frappés are made with coffee, but you can make other frappé drinks with tea, juice, or hot chocolate.

The word Frappé comes from the French word Frapper - which means to slap, knock, or beat. Cold coffee drinks named "café frappé" go back to the 19th century.

Which leads me to the Italian term: Frappuccino. In the last few years, I've had numerous types of Frappuccinos at Starbucks, most with chocolate. Here's a recipe for Starbucks' Oreo Frappuccino I found on StarbucksSecretMenu.net There are several 'Starbucks" secret menu recipes that you can order at Starbucks (you may need to know the recipe), but you can also make this at home. As always use the very best chocolate.

Starbucks CopyCat Oreo Frappucino

Ingredients
8 ounces whole milk
1 cup ice
2 scoops vanilla bean ice cream
2 Tbsp semisweet chocolate chips
1 Tbsp mocha syrup or chocolate syrup
1 Oreo
Whipped cream, for garnish
Crushed Oreos, for garnish

Directions
In a blender add milk, ice, vanilla bean ice cream, chocolate chips, mocha syrup, and an Oreo.
Blend until smooth. Pour into a glass, and garnish with whipped cream and crushed Oreos.

MAD HATTER CHOCOLATE CHIP SCONES: Mad Hatter Day!

Celebrate Mad Hatter Day with Mad Hatter Chocolate Chip Scones at a Mad Hatter Tea Party.

The unofficial Mad Hatter holiday was created in 1986 in Boulder Colorado by a group of computer technicians who were inspired by the Mad Hatter and his antics in Alice in Wonderland. In Lewis Carroll's book, the Mad Hatter is an eccentric milliner for whom time is forever stuck at a tea party with his friend the March Hare.

The date for the holiday was chosen because of how John Tenniel illustrated the Hatter in Alice in Wonderland. The English illustrator who was also a political cartoonist depicted the Hatter wearing a hat with a piece of paper that has 10/6 written on it. The 10/6 refers to the cost of a hat – 10 shillings and 6 pence. The creators of the holiday who are from the United States where the date is written in the month/day (mm/dd) format took this to set the date for the holiday on October 6 (10/6). For those who write the date in the day/ month (dd/mm) format, the holiday would fall on June 10.

Planning to host a Mad Hatter Tea Party? Then be sure and serve Chocolate Chip Scones (not that the Mad Hatter offered Alice anything at all!). Add some clotted cream and jam, don your hat, and you're good to go!   

MAD HATTER CHOCOLATE CHIP SCONES

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
5 Tbsp unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
1/2 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
3 Tbsp orange juice (without pulp)

Directions
Preheat oven to 400. Spray baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray.
In large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. With pastry blender or large fork, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in chocolate chips. Mix in orange juice to form dough.
Turn out dough on floured surface. Pat or roll into 9 inch circle about 1/2 inch thick.
With 2 -1/2 inch fluted biscuit cutter, cut out 12 scones, pushing dough scraps together for last few, if necessary.
Transfer scones to baking sheet.
Bake in preheated oven until golden brown, about 12 minutes.
Move to wire racks to cool.
Serve with clotted cream and jam!

CHOCOLATE APPLE BROWN BETTY: Apple Brown Betty Day!

Now that it's Fall, it's time for Apple Brown Betty, one of my favorite classic desserts. A Brown Betty is a traditional American dessert made from fruit and sweetened crumbs. Similar to a cobbler or apple crisp, the fruit is baked, and, in this case, the sweetened crumbs are placed in layers between the fruit. Since this is a chocolate blog, I'm adding chocolate, of course. So celebrate National Apple Brown Betty Day today with this Chocolate Apple Brown Betty!

CHOCOLATE APPLE BROWN BETTY

Ingredients
2 pounds apples, peeled, cored and chopped (roughly)
3/4 cups packed brown sugar
3/4 cups fresh breadcrumbs
3 1/2 ounces dark chocolate, roughly chopped
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 Tbsp golden syrup
1/2 tsp salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Mix apples, 1/4 cup sugar, and 2 Tbsp water in buttered 8 x 8 ovenproof serving dish. Bake for 40 minutes, or until apples have started to soften, then mash roughly with fork. Mix remaining sugar with breadcrumbs, chocolate, butter, golden syrup and 1/2 tsp salt. Spoon on top of the mashed apples. Return to oven for 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.

VANILLA MACADAMIA NUT FUDGE: Macadamia Nut Day!

Today is National Macadamia Nut Day. Celebrate! Here's a great and easy recipe for Vanilla Macadamia Nut Fudge. This fudge reminds me of Hawaii!

This recipe comes from the Nestle Toll House site, but I've adapted it by using  pure vanilla extract and Guittard White Chocolate. Make sure you're using 'real' white chocolate and not the fake stuff!

VANILLA MACADAMIA NUT FUDGE

Ingredients

Unsalted Butter
2 1/2 cups sugar
2/3 cup unsweetened coconut milk
1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 cups White Chocolate chips or 2 cups chopped white chocolate (make sure it's 'real' white chocolate)
1 jar (7 oz) marshmallow crème (marshmallow fluff)
3/4 cup macadamia nuts, chopped (must be fresh)*
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp coconut extract

Directions

LINE 9-inch-square baking pan with foil, extending foil over edges of pan. Grease foil with butter. Butter sides of 3-quart heavy-duty saucepan.

COMBINE sugar, coconut milk, and 1/2 cup butter in prepared saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until mixture boils. Clip candy thermometer to side of pan, making sure bottom of thermometer doesn't touch bottom of pan. Reduce heat to medium-low. Continue boiling at moderate, steady rate without stirring, until thermometer registers 238° F, softball stage (about 15 minutes). Adjust heat as necessary to maintain a steady boil. Remove from heat.

STIR in white chocolate until melted and smooth. Stir in marshmallow crème, nuts, vanilla, and coconut extracts until well combined. Transfer mixture to prepared baking pan; cool for 3 to 4 hours or until firm.

LIFT from pan; remove foil. Cut into 48 pieces. Store tightly covered.

COCONUT CREAM PIE FROM SCRATCH: International Coconut Day!

Today is International Coconut Day! Here's a great recipe for Coconut Cream Pie from Scratch. Even though I love this advertisement on the right is from 1947 for "A Dreamy Creamy Coconut Pie You Can Make At Home-in Minutes," believe me when I say take a few more minutes to make your own Coconut Cream Pie from scratch, and it will be 100% better!

The following recipe is adapted from Southern Living (April 2005) and also appeared in one of the Best of Southern Living collections. It's worth the time to make this great Coconut Cream Pie from Scratch.

COCONUT CREAM PIE FROM SCRATCH

Coconut Cream Pie Filling
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 cups half-and-half
4 egg yolks
3 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups whipping cream
1/3 cup sugar
2 1/2 tsp vanilla
Garnish: toasted coconut

Directions

Chocolate Pie Crust
2 cups chocolate wafers
6 Tbsp unsalted butter

Melt the butter.
Put chocolate wafers in plastic bag. Close bag and crush with spoon or rolling pin until you have tiny pea-sized chocolate bits.
Combine melted butter with chocolate bits.
Press ingredients into 9-inch buttered pie pan. Be sure and go up sides.
Bake 10 minutes at 325°F. 

Filling:
Combine 1/2 cup sugar and cornstarch in heavy saucepan. Whisk together half-and-half and egg yolks. Gradually whisk egg mixture into sugar mixture; bring to boil over medium heat, whisking constantly. Boil 1 minute; remove from heat.

Stir in butter, 1 cup coconut, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Cover with plastic wrap, placing plastic wrap directly on filling in pan; let stand 30 minutes (or put it in the refrigerator). Spoon custard mixture into prepared crust, cover and chill 30 minutes or until set.

Beat whipping cream at high speed with an electric mixer until foamy; gradually add 1/3 cup sugar and remaining 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla, beating until soft peaks form. Spread or pipe whipped cream over pie filling.

Garnish with toasted coconut

*To make toasted coconut, heat oven to 350. Put coconut in a pie pan and spread out to about 1/4 inch thick. Toast in oven for about 3-5 minutes.. check to make sure it doesn't burn. 

HAPPY COCONUT DAY!

Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Chip Quick Bread

October 1 is National Pumpkin Spice Day. Pumpkin Spice is definitely a flavor associated with Fall, and sometimes overused, but this Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Spice Quick Bread is an easy and great way to celebrate the day -- and the season! Pumpkin spice (sometimes called pumpkin pie spice) is available in the market, but you can also make your own (scroll down for recipe). If you do make your own, remember to use the freshest spices to create your Pumpkin Spice blend.

The following recipe for Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Chip Quick Bread is from the Land O Lakes website. Want to 'spice' up the look of this pumpkin quick bread? Use a NordicWare Pumpkin Loaf Pan.

Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Chip Quick Bread

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup mashed cooked pumpkin (or 1 cup canned pumpkin)
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pumpkin spice**
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cups mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions
Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 9x5-inch loaf pan; set aside.
Combine all ingredients in bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until well mixed.
Stir in chocolate chips so evenly distributed.
Spoon batter into prepared pan.
Bake 45-55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Cool 10 minutes; remove from pan.
Cool completely.

**Make your own Pumpkin Spice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Cartoon of the Day: Pumpkin Spice

 

ELSIE'S FUDGY MOCHA BROWNIES: Coffee Day & Mocha Day!

Today is National Coffee Day and National Mocha Day, so here's a great recipe to celebrate: Elsie's Fudgy Mocha Brownies that add coffee to the batter!

Great places for new recipes are "Brand" sites or  in this case a Vintage Brand Cookbook. I've posted recipes from Hershey's and Baker's and Godiva, as well as various food associations, so today I thought I'd post a recipe from Eagle Brand Condensed Milk (Borden's). I always have condensed milk around for baking. And, you've got to love Elsie the Cow, the Borden's Mascot. Elsie made her debut in 1939, and after 90 years, Elsie still symbolizes trust, quality and freshness for the products Borden creates.

Did you know that Gail Bordon patented his invention for making condensed milk in 1856 and that his company was the first manufacturer of condensed milk? Follow this link to an article from Smithsonian Magazine to learn more about this miraculous food product.

I love this recipe for Fudgy Mocha Brownies. Sometimes I use ground espresso beans instead of coffee granules, and you can substitute a few other things such as DARK cocoa. And, you can never have too many Brownie recipes.

ELSIE'S FUDGY MOCHA BROWNIES

Ingredients
No-Stick Cooking Spray
1 1/4 cups All Purpose Flour, divided
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 (14 oz.) can Eagle Brand® Sweetened Condensed Milk
2/3 cup unsweetened DARK cocoa
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 tsp instant coffee granules
1 tablespoon hot water
3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Optional: Pillsbury® Chocolate Frosting (or make your own)

Directions
Heat oven to 350°F. Spray 8 x 8-inch pan with no-stick cooking spray.
Combine 1 cup flour and sugar in medium bowl. Cut in butter with pastry blender or 2 knives until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Press firmly into prepared pan.
Bake 12 to 15 minutes.
Combine sweetened condensed milk, cocoa, egg, 1/4 cup flour, vanilla, and baking powder in large bowl. Dissolve instant coffee granules in hot water and add. Mix well. Stir in nuts. Spread over baked crust.
Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until center is set.
Cool.

Frost (optional)

Double Chocolate Cream Cheese Brownies

Today is National Cream Cheese Day. Here's a great recipe for Double Chocolate Cream Cheese Brownies. Philadelphia Cream Cheese is usually my cream cheese of choice since I grew up in Philly, but I've been known to substitute local rich California Cream Cheese. The extra dark chocolate chips are a great addition to these Cream Cheese Brownies, and you can actually add more than 1/2 cup. I often chop up high quality chocolate rather than chips, but both work! Celebrate! Make Double Chocolate Cream Cheese Brownies today. You can never have too many brownie recipes!

Double Chocolate Cream Cheese Brownies

Brownies
1/2 cup unsalted butter
4 ounces 65-70% good quality chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup dark chocolate chunks or dark chocolate chips

Cream Cheese Layer
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg

Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Line 9 x 9 inch square baking pan with aluminum foil across the bottom and up two opposite sides of the pan.
In stainless steel bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water, melt butter and chocolate.
Remove from heat and stir in sugar and vanilla. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Use a spoon. Stir in flour and salt and beat, until batter is smooth and glossy and comes away from the sides of the pan (about a minute).
Remove 1/2 cup of the brownie batter and set aside.
Fold chocolate chips (or chopped chocolate) into remainder of brownie batter and then pour batter evenly onto bottom of prepared pan.
Using mixer or food processor, whip cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar, vanilla, and egg and process just until smooth.
Spread cream cheese mix over brownie layer. Spoon small clumps of reserved brownie batter on top of cream cheese filling. Then with knife or wooden skewer, swirl two batters without mixing them.
Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes or until brownies start to pull away from sides of pan and edges just begin to brown.
Remove from oven and place on wire rack to cool.
Refrigerate brownies until firm enough to cut into squares (at least two hours).
Once chilled, remove brownies from pan by lifting with ends of foil and transfer to cutting board.
Cut into squares.

PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE BROWNIES

Libby's Pumpkin Ad, November 14, 1949

Fall is Pumpkin Time! Add chocolate! 

Here's an easy recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Brownies adapted from Libby's Pumpkin. My mother's name was Libby, so I always use Libby's Pumpkin in recipes."Libby, Libby, Libby, on the Label, Label, Label." You can always substitute home-made' pumpkin puree. 

FYI: These brownies are more cakelike than chewy. With that in mind, enjoy!

PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE BROWNIES

Ingredients
Nonstick cooking spray
1/2 cup LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1 large egg
2 large egg whites
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon DARK unsweetened Cocoa
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions
PREHEAT - 350° F. Spray 8- or 9-inch-square baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.
COMBINE - pumpkin, sugar, egg, egg whites, and oil in large mixer bowl. Beat with electric mixer on medium speed until blended. Add flour, baking powder, cocoa, cinnamon, allspice, salt, and nutmeg.
BEAT on low speed until batter is smooth. Stir in chocolate chips (or chunks). Spread evenly into prepared pan.
BAKE for 25 to 30 minutes or until wooden pick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack. Cut into 2-inch squares.

Do you have a favorite Pumpkin Chocolate Brownie recipe? Leave a comment and link!

CHOCOLATE CHERRIES JUBILEE & CHOCOLATE CHERRIES JUBILEE CAKE! Cherries Jubilee Day!

Today is National Cherries Jubilee Day! Cherries Jubilee was created by Chef August Escoffier in honor of Queen Victoria's Jubilee celebration. Cherries were her favorite fruit. The original recipe featured cherries poached in syrup and warmed with brandy that was set afire just prior to serving.

But this is a chocolate blog, so here are two recipes that include chocolate - one for Chocolate Cherries Jubilee Cake and one for Chocolate Cherries Jubilee. The cake is moist and scrumptious. You can also pour the Cherries Jubilee sauce over your own favorite chocolate cake!

CHOCOLATE CHERRIES JUBILEE CAKE!

Cake:
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
1- 1/2 cups cake flour or 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1- 1/2 cups granulated sugar, divided use
1/2 cup unsweetened DARK cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup Canola oil
2 large eggs, separated
1/2 tsp purevanilla extract

Cherry Sauce:
1 (16 or 17-ounces) can/jar pitted dark sweet cherries, drained (reserve 3/4 cup liquid)
1 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 Tbsp Kirsch or Cherry Brandy
1 Tbsp cornstarch
Dash salt

Vanilla ice cream

Directions
Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan.

For Cake:
Stir baking soda into buttermilk in medium bowl until dissolved; set aside.
In large bowl, stir together flour, 1 cup sugar, cocoa, and salt. Add oil, buttermilk mixture, egg yolks, and vanilla and beat until smooth.
In small bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form; gradually add remaining 1/2 cup sugar, beating until stiff peaks form.
Gently fold egg whites into chocolate batter. Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until cake springs back when touched lightly in center. Cool in pan.

For Cherry Sauce:
In medium saucepan, stir together reserved cherry liquid, cherry liqueur, sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils, about 1 minute. Remove from heat and add cherries and orange peel.

Serve cake with a scoop of ice cream and Cherry Sauce spooned over the top.

CHOCOLATE CHERRIES JUBILEE

Ingredients
1/2 cup dark cherry preserves (I love Bonne Maman)
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
3 Tbsp Cognac or Kirsh

1 pint chocolate chocolate chip ice cream

Directions
Melt preserves in heavy small saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently. Mix in cinnamon and Cognac.
Scoop ice cream into bowls. Spoon sauce over (you can ignite it for special effects and then pour :-).

Pride O' Pumpkin Cake: Add Chocolate Chips! Retro Ad with Recipe

Here's an easy recipe for a Pride O'Pumpkin Cake to "spice up your autumn." This Ad appeared in 1953. I just love Vintage Recipes! The original recipe did not include chocolate chips, but I add them! After all, I'm always dying for chocolate. Another note: Use pure canned pumpkin, not pumpkin spiced puree. You're adding your own spices. Make sure they are fresh. Happy Fall.

 

1953 Ad 

Ingredients

2-1/4 cups sifted cake flour 

3 teaspoons baking powder 

1/2 teaspoon salt 

1/4 teaspoon soda 

1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon 

1/2 teaspoon ginger 

1/2 teaspoon allspice 

1/2 cup butter or other shortening 

1 cup firmly-packed brown sugar 

1/2 cup granulated sugar 

1 egg and 2 egg yolks, unbeaten 

3/4 cup buttermilk or sour milk 

3/4 cup canned pumpkin  (unspiced)

1/2 cup finely-chopped walnuts 

1/2 cup chocolate chips (or more if you like it that way!) 

Directions

Measure sifted flour, add baking powder, salt, soda, spices. 

Sift together three times. 

Cream butter, add sugars gradually and cream well. 

Add eggs and egg yolks, one at a time, beating until light. 

Add flour alternately with buttermilk in small amounts, beating after each addition until smooth. 

Add pumpkin and nuts. 

Mix well. 

Bake in 2 round 8-inch layer pans, line on bottom with paper, in moderate oven (350 F) for 30 to 35 minutes, or until done. 

Cool.

Frost with fluffy frosting, tinted orange (or not) or a nice fluffy pumpkin frosting

Apple Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake: Fall Equinox

Happy Fall Equinox! I love Autumn with its infinite variety of apples.  Here's a great way to make the most of the apple harvest. This fabulous Chocolate Chip Apple Bundt Cake (recipe originally from Sunset Magazine) is a great way to celebrate the Fall Equinox. I use tart apples in this recipe because I like the combination of tart and sweet. Try different apple varieties. You can use your favorite dark chocolate, chopped, instead of chocolate chips.
Apple Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake

Ingredients 
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup water
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
2 cups apples - peeled, cored and diced
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (or chocolate chunks)

Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Grease and flour one 9 or 10 inch Bundt Pan.
In large bowl, cream butter with sugar. Beat in eggs. Add water and vanilla.
Stir flour, cocoa, baking soda, ground cinnamon, and ground nutmeg together. Beat this mixture into creamed mixture.
Fold in chopped apples and semisweet chocolate chips (or chocolate chocolate chunks).
Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake at 325 degrees F for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until cake tests done when toothpick is inserted near center. Do not overbake. Start checking at one hour.
Transfer to a rack to cool.

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE PECAN COOKIES: Go nuts on Pecan Cookie Day!

Pecans and chocolate are a marriage made in heaven! I've posted recipes for Chocolate Pecan Sandies, definitely a pecan cookie, but this recipe for Double Chocolate Pecan Cookies is one of my favorites and the perfect way to celebrate National Pecan Cookie Day!

This recipe is adapted from Woman's Day, April 1, 2006. As always, I suggest you use the very best ingredients. I use chopped pecan toffee in the recipe, and I use 15 ounces of 70% chocolate in place of the original 2 10-oz milk chocolate bars. I also use DARK cocoa. And, FYI, there are over 1000 varieties of pecans. Whichever you choose, you'll go nuts for this recipe!

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE PECAN COOKIES

Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2⁄3 cup packed light brown sugar
2⁄3 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
3⁄4 tsp baking soda
3⁄4 tsp salt
2 1⁄3 cups all-purpose flour
2⁄3 cup unsweetened DARK cocoa powder
10 oz chopped pecan toffee 
1-1⁄2 cups coarsely chopped pecans
15-oz dark chocolate (70% cacao), chopped coarsely (or dark chocolate chips)

Coarse Kosher salt (optional)

Directions
Heat oven to 375°F. Have baking sheets ready.
Beat butter, sugars, and vanilla in large bowl with mixer on medium speed 1 to 2 minutes until fluffy. Beat in eggs, baking soda, and salt until combined. Add flour and beat on low speed until blended.
Stir in cocoa powder, chopped toffee, pecans, and chocolate.
Drop rounded tablespoons dough about 1 1⁄2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.

Optional: sprinkle lightly with coarse Kosher salt.
Bake 8 to 9 minutes until edges are golden brown.
Cool on sheet 1 to 2 minutes before removing to wire rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Chip Noodle Kugel: Breaking the Fast

The Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, starts tonight. This is a fasting holiday. The day, and the fast, is over at Sundown tomorrow night. This is a great dessert to make in advance for the Breaking the Fast at the end of the day.  Note: If you're taking this to a kosher household for the Break Fast, check with your host if they are having a dairy meal. I love this Chocolate Chip Noodle Kugel (aka Noodle Pudding). FYI: It's great any time!

A bit of  history about Kugel. Kugel is a traditional Ashkenazic Jewish dessert or side dish. Kugel is Yiddish for ball, but it is sometimes translated as pudding or casserole, and related to the German Gugelhupf. The first Kugel were plain -- made from bread and flour, and salty rather than sweet. About 800 years ago, the flavor and popularity changed when cooks in Germany replaced bread mixtures with noodles or farfel. Eventually eggs were incorporated. The addition of cottage cheese and milk created a custard-like consistency which is common for today's dishes. In the 17th century, sugar was introduced, which gave the option of serving kugel as a side dish or dessert. In Poland, Jewish women sprinkled raisins and cinnamon into recipes. Hungarians took the dessert concept further with a hefty helping of sugar and sour cream.

Today many people add corn flakes, graham cracker crumbs, ground gingersnaps, or caramelized sugar on top. Some people layer the dish with sliced pineapples or apricot jam, but since this is a chocolate blog, here's a recipe that includes chocolate chips! Enjoy this for the Break Fast or any time!

Chocolate Chip Noodle Kugel

Ingredients:
12 oz pkg medium wide egg noodles, boiled & drained (I use Manischewitz)
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
8 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 pint (16 oz) cottage cheese (large curd)
2 cups sour cream
1 tsp pure vanilla
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.
Butter sides and bottom of 9 x 13 Pyrex or another Pan.
Beat together eggs and sugar. Add cottage cheese, sour cream, melted butter, and vanilla, and mix with wooden spoon.
Fold in cooked noodles and chocolate chips.
Pour mixture into buttered pan.
Bake at 350°F for 40-60 minutes until just set.

CHOCOLATE MARBLE COFFEE CAKE: Breaking of the Fast- Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is the most important holiday in the Jewish calendar. It starts Sunday night and concludes Monday evening. This holiday involves fasting, but at the end of the holiday there's a Breaking of the Fast that usually involves a big feast. Chocolate Marble Coffee Cake is perfect for the Breaking of the Fast. You can make it ahead and have it ready when the group assembles at the end of the day. The following recipe includes butter and sour cream, so if you're bringing something for the Breaking of the Fast, check to see if your hosts are Kosher and whether or not they're planning a meat or dairy meal. Everyone else, this is a fabulous chocolate marble coffee cake for just about any time! It even tastes great sliced and toasted for breakfast!

This recipe is adapted from Carole Walter's recipe for Chocolate Ripple Coffee Cake in Fine Cooking, October 29, 2008. You're going to love it! It's one of my favorite go-to recipes! I'll bet you have most of the ingredients in your pantry and fridge. This coffee cake also freezes well.

CHOCOLATE MARBLE COFFEE CAKE

INGREDIENTS

For the cake:
3 cups sifted cake flour
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1-1/4 cups unsalted butter, slightly softened
1-1/2 cups superfine sugar
4 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups sour cream

For the filling:
1/2 cup toasted pecans
6 oz coarsely chopped dark chocolate (64-75% cacao)
3 Tbsp granulated sugar
3 Tbsp light brown sugar
3 Tbsp Dutch-processed or natural cocoa powder  (Tip: Natural vs Dutch-processed) 

For the streusel topping:
4 Tbsp unsalted butter
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup toasted pecans, coarsely chopped
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
2 Tbsp light brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp table salt  

DIRECTIONS

Position rack in center of oven -- 350ºF.

Butter and flour 10-inch tube pan with removable bottom.

Make topping: In 2-quart saucepan, heat butter over medium heat until almost melted. Remove from heat and cool to tepid. In medium bowl, combine flour, pecans, both sugars, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt, and stir with fork. Add flour mixture to butter and stir until evenly moistened and crumbly.

Make filling: In food processor, pulse pecans, chopped chocolate, both sugars, and cocoa until chocolate is finely chopped, 12 to 14 pulses. Set aside 1/2 cup of mixture as additional topping.

Make cake: In medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter on medium speed until smooth and creamy, 1 to 2 minutes. Add sugar slowly, beating until combined. Scrape bowl. Beat in eggs one at a time, blending each one completely before adding each. Scrape bowl and blend in vanilla. On low speed, alternate adding dry ingredients and sour cream, adding flour in four parts and sour cream in three parts, beginning and ending with flour, and scraping  bowl as needed.

Layer and marble batter and filling: Spoon 2 cups of batter into prepared pan. Smooth with back of big spoon, spreading batter to side of pan first and then to center. Sprinkle 1/2 cup filling evenly over batter. Cover filling with about 2 cups batter, dropping chunks around pan and smoothing with spoon. Sprinkle another 1/2 cup filling evenly over batter and cover with 2 more cups batter. Layer on another 1/2 cup filling and then remaining batter. (four layers of batter and three layers of filling.) Insert table knife 1 inch from side of pan straight into  batter going almost to bottom. Run knife around pan two times, without lifting up blade, spacing circles about 1 inch apart. Smooth top with the back of spoon.

Top and bake the cake: Take a handful of streusel crumbs and squeeze firmly to form a large mass. Break up mass into smaller clumps, distributing streusel evenly over batter. Repeat with remaining streusel. Clump reserved chocolate filling mixture together with your hands and sprinkle over streusel. Press both toppings lightly into surface of cake. Bake until top of cake is golden brown,  sides are beginning to pull away from pan, and skewer inserted into center of cake comes out clean, 70 to 75 minutes. Transfer to wire rack and let cool for an hour before removing from pan.

RED VELVET CAKE THE NATURAL WAY: Beets!

Today is National Red Velvet Cake Day! Most red velvet cakes use red dye. You use red food dye, the kind in the little bottles, if you want to get that really red color (even the Wilton's doesn't quite do it), but for fabulous flavor, beets do the trick! They're full of great natural sugar. Following are three recipes for natural red velvet cake. The first cake uses lots of real beet juice and the color comes very close to a true red. The cake is delicious. The second is a great Red Velvet Cake, too, although not quite as red. Most red velvet cakes I've made call for buttermilk and/or vinegar in them, so that one is perfect in taste. The first two recipes come as close as it comes to a 'natural' Red Velvet Cake. The third recipe is more of a 'vegetable' cake...as in zucchini or carrot cake. Still delicious, but not really red. As always, the quality of the chocolate or cocoa will really make the difference!

1. RED VELVET BEET CAKE

Ingredients
2 large beets, fresh, (enough to make 1-1/2 cups of beet purée)
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 Tbsp white wine vinegar
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
24 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
2  1/4 cup sugar
4 large eggs
2-1/2 tsp pure vanilla
2 cup  flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup natural cocoa powder, unsweetened (not dark or Dutch processed)

Icing
4 cups confections sugar
2 Tbsp heavy cream
1 tsp almond extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line bottom of 3 8-inch cake pans with parchment paper. Use vegetable spray on sides and bottom of pans.
In small baking dish, roast 2 fresh large beets, fresh (enough to make 1 1/2 cups of beet purée) use 1/2 cup water. Cover with parchment paper and foil, and roast until tender, about 60-90 minutes. When beets have cooled completely, peel and cut into small chunks. Place beets in food processor and pulse until smooth with: 1/4 cup lemon juice. There should be 1-1/2 cups of purée. Stir in: 1 Tbsp white wine vinegar.
In mixer with paddle attachment, cream together 1/2 cup butter, 8 ounces cream cheese. Mix until smooth and fluffy: Add 2-1/3 cup sugar.  Mix in, one at time: 4 eggs.  Mix until incorporated: 1-1/2 tsp vanilla.
In separate bowl, whisk out lumps of 2 cup flour, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1-1/2 tsp kosher salt, 1/4 cup natural cocoa powder. In batches, mix flour mixture into wet ingredients. Measure out 1-1/2 cups of the beet puree mixture, and fold into cake batter. Divide batter evenly between 3 cake pans.
Bake at 350ºF for 20-35 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center of  cakes comes out clean. Invert cakes onto cooling racks, and allow to cool completely.

Icing
In electric mixer fitted with  paddle attachment, combine 16 oz cream cheese, 1/2 cup butter, 4 cups confectioners sugar, 2 Tbsp heavy cream, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1 tsp almond extract. Switch to whisk attachment, and mix until smooth and slightly fluffy. Frost cake.

***

I found the following recipe posted on the chowhound.com site in a discussion about 'natural' Red Velvet Cake. I love the story that goes with it. It's close to a 'real' Red Velvet Cake because there's buttermilk and vinegar and/or beet juice (but not as red). I make a cream cheese frosting (see above) because that's what goes with Red Velvet Cake, in my opinion. But it's up to you.

2. Chocolate Red Velvet Cake with Chocolate Icing
Since Red Velvet Cake probably came from the South, the original 'red velvet beet cake' probably had a 'boiled frosting' rather than a cream cheese or butter cream frosting.

"When I was growing up, I always wanted a simple chocolate cake for my birthday. I still do. This velvety chocolate cake gets its name from its smooth texture and reddish hue. The original recipe called for red beet juice—in some parts of the country it is called beet cake—but was altered by manufacturers who added red food coloring to the cake. "Red coloring is evil and dangerous for children and other living things," Carole Greenwood, a chef in Washington, D.C. told me. She refuses to use food coloring but loves this buttermilk-based velvety chocolate cake, and uses red wine vinegar or beet juice for the color. She also makes her version less sweet, using both good-quality cocoa powder and bittersweet chocolate."

For the cake:
1 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup good-quality cocoa powder
2 extra-large eggs
1 Tbsp pure vanilla
1 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
2 Tbsp pickled beet juice or red wine vinegar
1 1/2 cups bleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cake flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

For icing
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 Tbsp sugar
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease two 9-inch round cake pans.
Melt butter in small saucepan over low heat. Remove pan from the heat, stir in water and cocoa powder, and allow mixture to cool.
Beat eggs in bowl of electric mixer, then add vanilla, buttermilk, baking soda, and beet juice or red wine vinegar and stir well.
Sift together all-purpose flour, cake flour, cornstarch, salt, and sugar into bowl. Pour in butter and then egg mixture and blend thoroughly on low.
Pour batter into prepared cake pans. Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until cake pulls away from sides of pan and toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
Cool cakes for a few minutes, then turn out onto wire racks, and frost and fill the center with chocolate icing.

Directions for Chocolate Icing
Place cream, butter, and sugar in  small saucepan and stir over medium heat until hot and bubbly.
Remove pan from heat and add chocolate, stirring slowly until smooth and silky. Add  vanilla and  salt. Taste and adjust sweetness to your taste. Cool for about 15 minutes before frosting the cake.

***

3. Chocolate Beet Cake 
This third recipe is closer to a vegetable cake just like a carrot cake or zucchini cake. 
(Adapted from Diana Rattray --Southern Food at About.com)

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 - 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1- 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder (use regular not Dutch Process)
3 large eggs, beaten
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp vegetable oil, Canola or corn oil
1-1/2 cups grated cooked beets
2 teaspoons vanilla
powdered sugar, optional

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°
Combine flour, soda, salt, sugar and cocoa in bowl; set aside.
In mixing bowl, combine eggs and oil. Beat in vanilla and continue beating until well blended. Slowly beat in dry ingredients until well mixed; stir in beets.
Pour into greased and floured 9x13-inch baking pan. Bake at 350° for 25 to 35 minutes, or until cake bounces back when touched lightly with finger.
Cool in pan on a rack. Frost cooled cake or dust with powdered sugar.

Cartoon of the Day: Magritte at the County Fair

 

VELVET ALMOND FUDGE PIE: Retro Ad with Recipe

I just love these Retro Ads with recipes, don't you? 

VELVET ALMOND FUDGE PIE

Ingredients 

1 cup almonds 

3/4 cup light corn syrup 

1 egg, slightly beaten 

1 unbaked 8" pie shell 

1 pkg. Jello brand chocolate fudge chocolate pudding pie filling 

3/4 cup evaporated milk 

1/2 cup chocolate chips, melted 

Directions

Chop almonds and toast at 350 degrees for 5 minutes. Set aside. Blend together until smooth; pie filling mix, corn syrup, milk, egg and chips. Add almonds and pour into pie shell. 

Bake at 375 degrees about 45 minutes or until top is firm and begins to crack. 

Cool at least 4 hours. 

Before serving, garnish with whipped topping, if desired.

A RECIPE FOR DELICIOUS DEATH: AGATHA CHRISTIE BIRTHDAY CAKE

Happy Birthday, Agatha Christie, the Queen of Crime! I posted a bit about Agatha Christie today on my other blog, Mystery Fanfare. Be sure and check it out. It includes a link to a

1955 BBC interview with the Queen of Crime.

As many of you know, I collect 'literary' cookbooks, tie-in cookbooks, theme cookbooks, and the like. I have two Agatha Christie cookbooks: Cremes & chatiments: recettes delicieuses et criminelles Agatha Christie by Anne Martinetti et Francois Riviere (in French). It's been reissued, so I actually have both an original and a new issue. I also own Recipes for Murder: 66 Dishes That Celebrate the Mysteries of Agatha Christie by Karen Pierce, with a Foreword by John Curran. An interesting side note, Agatha Christie, herself, contributed two recipes -- neither chocolate-- to the 1940 Cookbook: A Kitchen Goes to War, a collection of recipes from famous chefs, food experts, and other well-known people. She also contributed to at least two other cookbooks. For more on Agatha Christie's Cookbook contributions, go to Collecting Christie (a fabulous website).   

When I think of Agatha Christie, chocolate doesn't come to mind. I think more scones and finger sandwiches, perhaps, an omelet or two, but not chocolate, although certainly for Poirot there might be some Belgian chocolate?

For Agatha Christie's 120th birthday celebration (it's now her 136th birthday), Jane Asher created a chocolate cake she called Delicious Death. Jane Asher, a long-time fan of Agatha Christie and actor in many Christie productions, was asked by Christie's grandson, Matthew Prichard, to create a recipe for the celebration.

"There is nothing more indulgent than afternoon tea. I have particularly fond memories of the lazy afternoons spent with my grandmother at Greenway as she tried out her latest ideas on us over a pot of tea and delicious cakes," said Prichard, calling Asher's invention "truly decadent".

Asher's cake was inspired by a passage in Christie's Miss Marple novel A Murder is Announced in which émigré housekeeper Mitzi bakes it for Dora Bunner's birthday tea. "'Impossible to make such a cake. I need for it chocolate and much butter, and sugar and raisins,'" she tells her employer, Miss Blacklock, who suggests using a tin of butter sent from America and raisins that were being kept for Christmas, along with a "slab of chocolate and a pound of sugar".

Mitzi is delighted. "'It will be rich, rich, of a melting richness! And on top I will put the icing – chocolate icing – I make him so nice – and write on it Good Wishes. These English people with their cakes that tastes of sand, never never, will they have tasted such a cake. Delicious, they will say – delicious'" - but is not so impressed with the name which is dubbed Delicious Death because it's so rich. It becomes an apt name though when Dora Bunner is found dead from poisoning after her birthday tea.

Basing her recipe on the ingredients mentioned in the 1950 novel, Jane Asher created her own version of Delicious Death. From The Guardian: "It has an intense, forbidding dark Belgian chocolate centre which is lifted by the unexpected sharp zing of its brandy-soaked cherry and ginger filling," she said. "The glorious assault on the senses doesn't end there: the cake is decorated with flecks of pure gold, sprinklings of crystallised rose and violet petals, and swirls of ganache piping. This paragon of a cake is as beautiful to look at as it is delicious – and deadly? – to eat."

So in honor of Agatha Christie's Birthday, I am reprinting this recipe.

This cake was served at Greenway in Devon throughout Agatha Christie Week in 2010. It is also  on the menu at Brown's Hotel in Mayfair, said to be the inspiration for

At Bertram's Hotel. Not sure about today, but I bet it's served somewhere in England!

Agatha Christie's Delicious Death by Jane Asher

Ingredients
175g dark chocolate drops (50-55% cocoa solids)
100g softened or spreadable butter
100g golden caster sugar
5 large eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract


100g ground almonds
1/2 tsp baking powder

For the filling:
150ml rum, brandy or orange juice
150g raisins
55g soft dark brown sugar
6-8 glacé cherries
4-6 pieces crystallised ginger
1 tsp lemon juice

For the decoration:
175g dark chocolate drops (50-55% cocoa solids)
150ml double cream
2 tsps apricot jam
10g crystallized violet petals
10g crystallized rose petals
A small quantity of gold leaf

Directions
Pre-heat the oven to 150C, (300F, 135C fan-assisted). 
Grease an 8" deep cake tin and line the bottom with baking parchment or silicone.

Prepare the filling: in a small saucepan, combine all the ingredients and stir over heat until the mixture is bubbling. Allow to simmer gently, while stirring, for at least two minutes, or until most of the liquid has evaporated and the mixture is thickened. Allow to cool.

In a small heatproof bowl, melt the chocolate drops over simmering water or in a microwave, being careful not to let it overheat. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.

Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until very pale and fluffy. Separate the eggs, setting aside the whites in a large mixing bowl, and, one by one, add 4 of the yolks to the butter/sugar mix, beating well between each one.

Add the melted chocolate and fold in carefully, then stir in the vanilla extract. In a separate bowl, mix together the ground almonds and baking powder, then stir them into the cake mix.

Whisk the egg whites until peaked and stiff, then fold gently into the chocolate cake mix.

Spoon the mix into the prepared cake tin, leveling the top, and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 55-65 minutes, or until firm and well risen. Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning it out on to a rack to cool completely.

Using a serrated knife, slice the cake in half horizontally. Spread the cooled fruit filling onto one half and sandwich the two halves back together.

To decorate: put the chocolate and cream in a heatproof bowl and melt them together over simmering water or in a microwave. Spread the cake all over with warmed apricot jam and place on a rack over a baking tray. Keeping back a couple of tablespoonfuls, pour the icing over the whole cake, making sure it covers the top and the sides completely, scooping up the excess from the tray with a palette knife as necessary. Add any surplus to the kept back icing. Carefully transfer the cake to a 10" cake board or pretty plate.

Once the reserved icing is firm enough to pipe, place it in a piping bag with no. 8 star nozzle and pipe a scrolling line around the top and bottom edges of the cake. Leave for two to three hours to set.

Place the violet and rose petals into a plastic bag and crush them into small flakes. Sprinkle these liberally around the chocolate scrolls. Finally, with a cocktail stick, pull off some small flakes of gold leaf and gently add them to the top of the cake.

BLACK AND WHITE COOKIES: Black and White Cookie Day!

Black and White Cookies are everywhere in New York, so much so that they're often consider the official cookie of New York City.  These iconic cookies are thick and more cake-like and covered with frosting that hardens. Usually half the cookie has white icing and half has chocolate (vanilla & chocolate), ergo: black and white cookies!

Check out the history of the Black and White Cookies on Eater NY. 

Following is a great copycat recipe for Black and White Cookies.

BLACK AND WHITE COOKIES

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 egg
1/3 cup buttermilk

Black and White Icing: 
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
3 Tbsp plus 2 tsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp Dark cocoa powder

Cookies: 
Heat oven to 350.
Cover 2 baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.
In medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt.
In large bowl, beat together sugar and butter until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute. Beat in egg until well combined. On low speed, alternately beat in flour mixture and buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture.
Drop 1/4 cupfuls of dough onto prepared baking sheets, spacing 3 inches apart and spreading into large circles, about 4 inches across.
Bake for 13 minutes or until toothpick inserted in centers tests clean (they're like small cakes). Remove cookies to rack to cool.

Black and White Icing: 
In medium bowl, stir together confectioners’ sugar, 3 Tbsp milk, and vanilla until smooth but thick enough to coat cookie.
Set aside 1/2 cup icing in small bowl; stir cocoa powder and remaining 2 tsp milk into bowl until smooth.
Turn over cookies.
Spread white icing over half of each cookie, and chocolate icing over the other half.
Let stand at room temperature until set, about 1 hour.