ANCHO CHILE CHOCOLATE RUB: National Barbecue Day!

Today is National Barbecue Day. This Ancho Chile Chocolate Rub is great on Brisket or Flank Steak--or whatever! And, with Memorial Day coming up, you'll want to Bookmark this recipe. It's so easy and so delicious!

ANCHO CHILE CHOCOLATE RUB

Ingredients
1 Cup Cocoa Powder
1/2 Cup Ancho Chile, ground
1/2 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Kosher Salt
1/4 Cup Black Pepper, freshly ground
1/4 Cup Cumin, ground

Directions
In medium size bowl, add all ingredients and mix with whisk, until you have uniform mixture.
Put in quart size jar and seal until ready to use on brisket (or other meats). Or take the jar to the barbecue as a gift for the chef!

CHOCOLATE CHIP BUNDT CAKE: National Chocolate Chips Day

I love a good Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake This cake, adapted from Southern Living, May 2010, is delicious and easy -- two of the most important components of any recipe for me. It's also the perfect cake for National Chocolate Chip Day. BTW, my favorite chocolate chips are from Guittard. They're so rich that they elevate any recipe. 

The original recipe has a nut crumble 'crust', but I don't think it needs it--and it sometimes sticks to the pan. Have a look, though, and decide for yourself. I rarely garnish Bundt Cakes. I don't think they need anything more. This cake is great toasted with morning coffee or tea.

CHOCOLATE CHIP BUNDT CAKE

Ingredients
2 + 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
12 ounce semisweet chocolate chips (I do a mix of milk and bittersweet chocolate chips)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour 12-cup Bundt pan.
Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt.
Beat butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and vanilla at medium speed with stand mixer 3 to 5 minutes or until fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended. Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition, stopping to scrape bowl as needed.
Fold in chocolate chips. (Mixture will be thick.)
Spoon batter into prepared pan.
Bake at 350° for 50 to 55 minutes or until long wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
Cool in pan on wire rack 10 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack, and cool completely (about 1 hour).

CHOCOLATE BUTTERMILK BISCUITS: National Buttermilk Biscuit Day!

Today is Buttermilk Biscuit Day. American biscuits are nothing like British Biscuits which are cookies. No, our biscuits are more like scones, only fluffier. Buttermilk Biscuits are great with breakfast or gravy and chicken or just about anytime. I love biscuits.

I couldn't pass up this great Retro Space Age Ad for Puffin Biscuits. I think Sterling Cooper (Mad Men) could easily have created this ad. I, of course, suggest you make your biscuits from scratch, and they truly will be "So light they almost fly!"

And, if you're so inclined, add chocolate. Following is a recipe for Chocolate Buttermilk Biscuits. 

First, though, a few biscuit making tips from the Bisquick site. These apply if you use Bisquick or if you make your biscuits from scratch.

BISCUIT MAKING TIPS

1. Leave an inch or two space around the biscuits on the cookie sheet. They'll heat more evenly and cook better.
2. In a pinch, a straight-sided plastic glass can also substitute for a rolling pin.
3. For crunchy top, skip kneading and rolling and drop biscuit-sized spoonfuls directly onto baking sheet.
4. Loosen freshly baked biscuits from tray with spatula so they don't stick.
5. Count to ten; kneading biscuit dough too much can make biscuits tough.
6. If you don't have a biscuit cutter, either use a knife to cut squares or cut rounds with an upside-down drinking glass. A little flour or extra Bisquick on the knife or glass will help keep things from sticking.

CHOCOLATE BUTTERMILK BISCUITS

This recipe is great served with whipped cream and strawberries! Or just grind some Trader Joe's Chocolate Coffee Bean Sugar -- or some Cinnamon Sugar-- over them just after you brush with the melted butter. Yum! Another variation: add chocolate chips to the dough.

Ingredients
2 cups of flour
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
5 Tbsp DARK cocoa powder
4 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
8 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cubed
3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp cold buttermilk (no buttermilk?add a tsp of vinegar to whole milk)
2 Tbsp melted butter for top of biscuits

Directions
Preheat oven to 450
In food processor: Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, cocoa powder, and salt. Pulse. Add cubed butter. Pulse until butter combines to create grainy mixture.
Put contents of food processor in bowl. Make well in center and pour in chilled buttermilk. Mix to form sticky dough. Place dough on well floured surface. Fold dough a few time. DO NOT OVERWORK.
Roll out dough with floured rolling pin to one inch thickness.
Using biscuit cutter, cut out biscuits in straight up and down motion. Do not twist when cutting out the biscuits. Hint: Twisting will seal sides of biscuits preventing biscuits from rising and consequently make for tough, flat biscuits.
Put cut out biscuits on parchment paper lined baking sheet so that they are close but not touching.
Once all of biscuits are on baking sheet, bake for 10-12 minutes in center of oven until golden brown. Brush with melted butter.

CHOCOLATE APPLE PIE: Apple Pie Day!

One of my favorite children's books by Alison Murray

Today is National Apple Pie Day, and it's only fitting that it comes a few days after Mother's Day. "As American as Apple Pie" and "for Mom and Apple Pie" are two American catch phrases, but what's the origin? 

 From Wikipedia: 
Although apple pies have been eaten since long before the European colonization of the Americas, "as American as apple pie" is a saying in the United States, meaning "typically American". In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, apple pie became a symbol of American prosperity and national pride. A newspaper article published in 1902 declared that “No pie-eating people can be permanently vanquished.” The dish was also commemorated in the phrase "for Mom and apple pie" - supposedly the stock answer of American soldiers in World War II, whenever journalists asked why they were going to war.

My Grandmother made an awesome apple pie. I've written about this pie before. My grandmother's apple pie did not contain chocolate. She baked her pie in a huge rectangular pan (she was feeding a lot of family). For our weekly big family dinner, she made apple pie because it was "American" and when she came to these shores, she became an American! It was a symbol of freedom. My grandmother was born in Ukraine (then part of Russia), married in London, and settled in Philadelphia, the Cradle of Liberty. She took her new citizenship to heart, and she baked apple pie for her family every Friday night. She did it because she saw herself as a true American. 

CHOCOLATE APPLE PIE

Ingredients
Pastry for a double-crust 9-inch pie, unbaked
8-10 tart apples (peeled, cored and sliced thinly--number of apples depends on their size)--Gravensteins aren't available this time of year, but they're my favorite, especially for pies!
1/3 cup sugar
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
1 cup 65-70% dark chocolate, chopped

Directions
Apples: peel, core, and slice thinly.
Combine cinnamon & sugar = cinnamon sugar. (you may need a tiny bit more). I've also used the chocolate cinnamon sugar from Trader Joe's
Place 1 layer apple slices on bottom crust. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons cinnamon sugar. Repeat twice.
Spread chopped chocolate pieces over top.
Using remaining apples, make 3 more apple/cinnamon sugar layers.
Top with 2nd crust and seal edges. Make cut on top--or prick with fork in a few places.
Bake in preheated 450 F oven for 15 minutes (until golden).
Lower heat to 350F and continue baking for another 25-30 minutes, or until apples are tender.