Not Julia

Glazed Mini-Rounds

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 02:53:00 +0000

Ah prep bowls, I've missed you.

I think it's a good idea when you get to the end of this post if you scroll back up and see how pretty and organized I began this recipe. In fact it ended so messily and not yummy that I'm not even going to post the recipe. I doubt this will inspire anyone to try to make these buggers anyway.

I've never used my sifter/strainer so much in one recipe. I often skip sifting ingredients - I know, bad baker, bad! This icing sugar was pretty chunky looking so I gave it a go:

The recipe specifically said to make sure you smoothed the top of the cake batter prior to baking. I really thought I had, but looking back at this photo (and the final product) I'm beginning to think otherwise.

You see, this here, this isn't smooth.

After baking I was to cut the cake in half, smear with a (strained!) apricot jam and place the pieces back together again. Julia off-handedly told me to use my 1 inch circle cookie cutter. Yeah, I don't have one of those. My dear husband made a run up to Degrees to help me out. I told him before leaving that it didn't need to be more than an inch high because my cake would be cut in half. I forgot that I had to put the cake back together again before cutting out the circle shapes. So I had the brilliant idea to just cut out the circles on the halves separately and then stick them together. It sort of worked, sort of didn't. I think the main problem was the top of the cake was a little rough and firm, so I didn't achieve perfect circles.

Next up we melted a bunch of chocolate. First the white chocolate was turned into a glaze and poured over the little wee cakes.

Next I melted the dark chocolate and poured it into a Ziploc bag with a wee hole snipped in the end. This was my ghetto way of decorating, not the most accurate thing in the world. And holy crap, did you know that melted chocolate held in your fist is HOT? Because it is. You have to trust that my hand is burning in this photo.

This it the mess I made:

And this is the final product:

And those are glazed mini rounds. I don't know if I am the best judge, because I don't care for white chocolate - but these weren't that great. They tasted like pound cake coated in chocolate. But worse.

I Miss Julia

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 00:20:00 +0000

When I started this blog it was with Julia Child in mind. Tina started a group called "Baking Beauties" where we baked our way through the recipes in "Baking with Julia". I missed many challenges. Eventually the group slowly stopped participating as a whole. Recently for Christmas my brother and his girlfriend gave me a load of awesome baking supplies. Inspired by this gift I've decided I'm going to continue this challenge as a solo mission.

I've gone through the cookbook and made a list of the recipes. I've omitted anything that was a base dough or filling as they'll be tackled within larger recipes in the book. I've also ignored the Wedding Cake... because, seriously? I'm not making a wedding cake just for the fun of it. That's just crazypants.

In the end that leaves me with 128 recipes. I entered that list into random.org and it spat me back a randomized list that I will now follow like gospel. Some of these recipes I've already completed back with the Baking Beauties. I won't be retrying those.

Let's get baking!

Caramelized Onion and Goat Cheese Pasta

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 23:11:00 +0000

Sorry Michelle, you weren't the only one that did this recipe, I'm just even later than you were.

I halved the recipe and substituted cherry tomatoes for plum tomatoes. Otherwise this was pretty straight forward.

I love goat cheese, so this pasta was a winner for me. However, the onions totally make this dish. Wanna know what's not fun though? Cooking onions in boiling balsamic vinegar. My eyes were burning for hours.

Caramelized Onion and Goat Cheese Pasta
Adapted from "Bite Me"
makes: 3 servings

Ingredients

Caramelized Onions

1 T olive oil
1 T butter
1 large white onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
Pasta
7 oz penne pasta

1 garlic clove, minced

1/3 cup white wine

1 cup grape tomatoes cut in half

2 cups baby spinach, stemmed and thinly sliced

1 T finely diced sun-dried tomatoes

1/2 T chopped fresh basil

1/4 t kosher salt

1/4 t ground black pepper

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup soft goat cheese, crumbled

For the onions, in a large skillet, melt oil and butter over medium heat. Stir in onion, sugar and salt. Sauté 15-20 minutes. Stir in balsamic vinegar and cook until liquid has evaporated, this took me 2 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
In a large pot of boiling salted water cook pasta until al dente. Drain and set aside.
In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic and sauté for 30 seconds. Turn heat to high, stir in white whine and reduce for 3 minutes. Reduce heat to medium, add pasta, caramelized onions, tomatoes, spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, basil, salt and pepper, cooking for 2 minutes.
Remove from heat & stir in Parmesan. Plate dishes and top with goat cheese.

TLT Salad

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 02:01:00 +0000

Thanks for letting me know this post disappeared Claudia, here it is again :)

I started this week's challenge a little negatively. I'm not sure I've ever followed a recipe for a salad before. Sure, I take tips on ingredients, but no measuring, no real direction following occurs when I make a salad.

This salad went something like this.

Throw it all in a bowl:

Toss with dressing, top with croutons and serve:

Okay, I skipped over the two things that actually took me any time in this recipe. The lovely dressing, simply mayo, basil & white wine vinegar. The homemade croutons. This is something my mother has perfected. Always made with stale bread, many seasonings and several glugs of oil. These were not those croutons. When I picked up the bread at the grocery store it was so fresh it was still warm. This made for a slight chew to the middle of the little bread cubes, which was actually quite nice.

The moment I ate this salad any lingering thoughts of "who needs a recipe for a salad?" disappeared. This salad is delicious. I don't know if it was the bacon or the dressing, but it was definitely one of the two. Having given up red meat for unknown reasons far too long ago to remember I often miss out on that bacon salad combo. This recipe called for turkey bacon, which added a lovely crunchy salt to this salad.

We paired this with some grilled fish for dinner, but that wasn't necessary - this could have been an entree all by itself.

TLT (The Larry T) Salad
Adapted from "Bite Me"
makes: 6 servings

Ingredients

Croutons

1/2 mini baguette, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 T olive oil
1/4 c Parmesan cheese
1 tsp kosher salt
Creamy Basil Dressing
1/4 c light mayonnaise

1 T finely chopped fresh basil

1 T white wine vinegar

Salad

1 romaine heart, coarsely chopped or torn into bite-size pieces

1 c cherry tomatoes, halved

4 slices turkey bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled

1 avocado peeled and chopped

For the croutons, preheat the oven to 350F. Coat a baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray. In a large bowl, toss bread crumbs with olive oil. Add Parmesan and salt, tossing to coat. Spread pieces on baking sheet and bake 15 minutes, stirring every 5.
For the dressing, in a small bowl, whisk mayo, basil and vinegar.
In a large bowl combine the salad ingredients.
Add dressing, toss to coat. Top with croutons.

Crunchy Tortilla Chicken with Avocado Dip

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 00:02:00 +0000

So the Baking Beauties are no longer baking. Sort of makes the title of this blog a little odd, but I'll get over it. We've moved on to the wonderful cookbook "Bite Me". I don't know how I'm going to stop myself from cooking from this every day. All the recipes look ah-maze-ing.

This week's challenge is "Crunchy Tortilla Chicken with Avocado Dip".

I only used two chicken breasts, since there are only two of us and not six. I only halved the rest of the recipe though, since it's a little easier on my brain.

Marinade tasted good all by itself. It would have made a lovely chip dip.

While that was marinating I made the breading. Since I don't have a proper food processor this is how I crush the tortilla chips.

This is the first breading I've ever done that involved jalapenos and cheddar. I'm pretty sure it won't be the last. However, I did feel a little weird doing this:

When this was looking at me from the window:

I didn't want to improvise too much on the first recipe, so jarred peppers it was. Here are all the ingredients together for the breading:

That previously mentioned lack of a proper food processor? Became a bit of a problem when the instructions for the avocado dip include the words "food processor". I have this little hand held one, and it mostly did the trick. We just had a few giant chunks of avocado within the dip. Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

Finished result:

I loved it, and so did Craig. It did have many of his favourite things in it: jalapeños, nacho chips & cheese.

Crunchy Tortilla Chicken with Avocado Dip

adapted from Bite Me

Ingredients

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

3/4 c sour cream

1 T brown sugar

1 t chili powder

1/2 t chopped fresh thyme

1/2 t kosher salt

1/4 t fresh ground black epper

1/4 t garlic powder

1 c Panko bread crumbs

1 c crushed tortilla chips

1/2 c shredded cheddar cheese

1/4 c jarred jalapeño peppers, dried off and chopped

Avocado Dip

1/2 c mayonnaise

1/2 c sour cream

2 ripe avocados, pitted and peeled

2 T fresh lime juice

1/4 t ground cumin

1/4 t cayenne pepper

1/2 t kosher salt

1/4 t freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. Pound chicken breasts to even thickness, about 1/2 inch thick

2. In a large cowl combine sour cream, brown sugar, chili powder, thyme, salt, pepper and garlic powder. Add chicken, toss to coat, cover and marinate in the fridge for 2 hours.

3. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with foil and coat with non-stick cooking spray.

4. In a large bowl combine the remaining ingredients (minus the avocado dip). remove chicken from marinade and coat each piece with the breading mixture, pressing down so that it coats each piece well. Place on baking sheet and bake 20-23 minutes.

5. For the avocado dip combine the listed ingredients in a food processor. Blend until smooth, about 30 seconds. Serve alongside chicken.

Serves two, albeit with a lot of extra dip.

Earl Grey Ice Cream

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 02:29:00 +0000

So it's been a while, yes, yes. Tina announced a relaunch of Baking Beauties and it inspired me to write a post on my ice cream adventure today.

It all started because the nice folks at Culinarium gave us a container of fresh cream as a thanks for being "Milk Maid" customers.

I love green tea ice cream and chai ice cream, so I figured why not try Earl Grey ice cream!

A Google search basically brought up the same recipe over and over again. So without further ado, here's my attempt at Mac & Cheese's Earl Grey Ice Cream recipe.

First, I didn't follow the dairy guidelines. I used 1 cup of 48% fresh cream provided by Culinarium, 1 cup of skim milk and 1 cup of whipping cream.

This might not have been the best idea, but more on that later.

This cream that I used, this cream was thicker than sour cream. I held the container upside down for at least 30 seconds before anything came out. Then it looked like this:

I warmed it and steeped 5 tea bags off the heat for an hour.

I whisked 5 egg yolks and mixed the milk mixture into that bowl. Back on the heat, the direction was to keep stirring until it achieved a custard like consistency. I don't know if this is weird or not, but I don't really know what that means. I mean I've heard of custard, and I think I've had custard filled pastries, but I can't just imagine a custard consistency in my mind. So I don't know if I did this part correctly, but this is what I ended up with.

Throw it in the ice cream maker et voilà:

This tastes good, but I think I really shouldn't have used that heavy of a cream, even with the skim milk offset. A couple of bites, good. A bowl? It coats your mouth like you've been eating butter straight. Not that I know what that feels like.

All photos are iPhone created because I keep forgetting to charge my Rebel's battery.

Craig Cooks Chicken Wings

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 02:23:00 +0000

Ohhai blog. It's been a while. Sorry 'bout that.
So, several months ago Craig made chicken wings. From what I remember they were amazing. They also involved tossing the wings and transferring pans and things I'd never done whilst making chicken wings. Unfortunately since this was the end of the September that's all I really recall.
Nevertheless here is photographic proof that the wings existed.

Chicken Wings, Six Ways (though we just did one)
Adapted from "How to Cook Everything"
makes: 6-8 servings

1/4 c relatively mild hot sauce
4 T butter, melted
2 T white wine vinegar
1 T minced garlic
3 lbs chicken wings, rinsed and patted dry with paper towels, cut into 3 pieces each
2 T neutral oil

Heat the oven to 375 degrees F. Combine the hot sauce, butter, vinegar, and garlic in a small bowl.
Put the chicken wings in a large roasting pan, drizzling with the oil, and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Toss to coat, then spread the wings out in a single layer. (it's okay if they're a little crowded, they'll shrink.) Put the wings in the oven and roast, undisturbed, until teh bottom of the pan is coated with fat and the wings are beginning to brown, about 30 minutes. Use a spoon to bast the wings with the drippings, then carefully pour them out of the pan. If the wings are still sticking to the bottom of the pan, return them to the oven until they release easily, another 5 to 10 minutes.
Turn the wings over, baste again, then carefully pour off any more fat. Return them to the oven until nicely browned, another 20 minutes or so (again, they'll release easily from teh pan when they're ready).
Raise the oven temperature to 450 degrees F. Carefully pour off any accumulated fat, then drizzle the wings with the hot sauce mixture and toss to coat. Spread them back out into a single layer and return them to the oven. Cook, tossing once or twice, until crisp all over, about 10 more minutes.

Smoky Chile Lime Variation (which these were)
Omit the hot sauce, vinegar, and garlic and replace the butter and neutral oil with extra virgin olive oil. make the tossing sauce by combining the olive oil with 2 T freshly squeezed lime juice, 2 T chili powder and 1 T smoked paprika. Proceed with teh recipe, using this sauce to coat the wings in Step 3. Garnish with lime wedges and cilantro and serve with Avocado Yogurt Sauce.

Avocado Yogurt Sauce
1 cup yogurt
1 t minced garlic
salt and freshly ground pepper
Freshly squeezed lemon juice if necessary
1/2 avocado

Combine the yogurt with garlic, a pinch of salt and a grinding or two of pepper. Taste and adjust the seasoning, adding some lemon juice if necessary. Stir in 1/2 a ripe avocado or more.

Craig Cooks Broiled Fish and Potato Salad

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:32:00 +0000

Once again Craig triumphs in the kitchen. I come home from work and Craig's standing in the middle of the kitchen with his cookbook in his hands. "Oh, you're home early!" We were out of mayo. So rather than go to the store (which by the way is IN the building we live in), Craig decided to just make mayonnaise. I don't know who this guy is, but he's pretty fabulous.

More chopping, no more injuries:

Potatoes were chopped up and boiled:

Mayo was mixed with a bunch of stuff:

To make this potato salad:

Somehow in all the hoopla of potato salad-ing, I didn't take any pictures of the fish until it was plated. It was broiled:

Broiled Fish Fillets
Adapted from "How to Cook Everything"
makes: 4 servings

3 T extra virgin olive oil
about 1 1/2 pounds thin fish fillets
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Chopped fresh parsley leaves for garnish
Lemon wedges for serving

1. Heat the broiled until quite hot. Move the rack as close to the heat source as possible (3 or 4 inches is good). Put a sturdy pan on the rack and heat it for about 5 minutes.
2. When it's hot, remove the pan and pour in the oil, then put the fillets in the oil and sprinkle with the salt and pepper. Time under the broiler (for salmon or 1 inch thick pieces will be 10 minutes) for thin fillets 2 minutes 30 seconds.
3. To serve, carefully remove the fillets with a spatula, sprinkle with parsley, if you like. Garnish with lemon wedges.

Potato Salad
makes 4 servings

1 1/2 pounds waxy potatoes
salt
1/2 c minced fresh parsley
1/4 c chopped scallions or onions (we used shallots)
1/2 c mayonnaise
3 T white wine vinegar

1. Peel the potatoes if you like, then cut them into bite-sized pieces. Put them in a pot with enough water to cover them and add a large pinch of salt. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat so the water bubbles gently. Cook the potatoes until tender but still firm and not all mushy, 15 min or so, depending on the potato. Drain, rinse in cold water for a minute, then drain again.
2. Whisk together the mayo & vinegar. Toss the still-warm potatoes with the parsley and scallions. Add the mayo mixture until it is dressed as you like. Season to taste with black pepper. Serve as is or refrigerate to chill first. (At this point, you may refrigerate the salad, covered, for up to a day)

Leaf Shaped Fougasse

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 15:19:00 +0000

Many things could have gone horribly wrong with this recipe.

For instance I might not have stood beside my mixer for the 10 minutes it stirred around the dough. If I hadn't been standing there it probably would have vibrated onto the ground, killing my dog. You're welcome Cooper.

One hour, doubled, check.

This is where I should have read the recipe a little more carefully.

Oh, what's that? I should have used 3 bags? Then they wouldn't end up looking like this 24 hours later:

All night I thought I was going to hear an explosion from the fridge.

It was at this point that I got a little pissy. You see, I had everything listed in the ingredients. Then you read the recipe and it says something about corn meal dusted baking sheet. Where is the corn meal in the ingredients, huh? Also, I need a water bottle to spray the oven, maybe there should be an equipment list... if something is required it should be listed without me having to read the whole damn thing.

I kind of feel like I'm doing it wrong at this point. It doesn't look as smooth as the pictures in the book. OOoooohhhh, I skipped the part where I let it sit out for an hour and a half. Which I really didn't realize until just know while blogging. Damn, how did this bread actually turn out?

I'm not sure how I was supposed to fit three of these on two baking pans. So I didn't.

Something tells me the one on the right is going to turn out a little better. Without the pictures in the book I never would have been able to tell what the hell Julia was trying to tell me to do with the dough. I barely understood with the pictures for God's sake. Also what does "spray the oven with water" mean exactly? Am I supposed to be spraying over the baking, or straight into the bottom. I did both just in case.

I probably should have pulled those holes just a little bit bigger. Pretty much tastes the way it looks. Like bread.

Leaf Shaped Fougasse
Adapted from Baking With Julia

Makes 2 large or 3 medium breads

1 recipe Focaccia dough, chilled for at least 24 hours
Olive oil, for brushing
Fresh herbs or dried herbes de Provence, for topping
Coarse sea salt, for sprinkling

Focaccia Recipe
2 1/4 -2 1/2 cups tepid water
2 T active dry yeast
1/4 c olive oil
6 1/2 c unbleached all-purpose flour
4 t salt

Mixing the dough: Whisk 1/2 c of the water and the yeast together in the bowl of a mixer. Set the mixture aside for 5 minutes, until the yeast dissolves and turns creamy.
Meanwhile, pour 1 3/4 c warm water into a large measuring cup, add the olive oil, and whisk to blend; set aside. Whisk the flour and salt together in a large bowl and set this aside as well.
Pour the water-oil mixture over the yeast and stir with the whisk to blend. Add about half of the flour and stir with a rubber spatula just to mix. Attach the dough hook, add the remaining flour, and mix on low speed for about 3 minutes or until the dough just starts to come together. If the dough appear dry and a little stiff, add a few drops of warm water, scraping the bowl and hook if necessary to incorporate the water and create a soft dough. Increase the mixer speed to medium-high and continue to mix for about 10 minutes, scraping down the hook and sides of the bowl as needed until you have a soft, slightly moist, extremely elastic dough that cleans the sides of the bowl. You will know that the dough is properly mixed when a piece can be stretched, without tearing, to create a "window", an almost transparent patch of dough.

First Rise: Transfer the dough to a work surface and form it into a ball. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, turn it around to cover it with oil, and cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap. Allow the dough to rise at room temperature until doubled in bulk, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Second Rise: Fold the dough down on itself to deflate it and let it rise again until doubled and billowy, 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Shaping and Resting: Fold the dough over on itself again to deflate it (as you do this, you can hear the bubbles squeak and pop) and turn it out onto a work surface. Using a metal dough scraper or a knife, cut the dough into 3 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a ball.
Place each ball in an oiled gallon-sized lock-top plastic bag and refrigerate 24 - 36 hours.
About 1 1/2 hours before you plan to bake, remove the dough from the refrigerator and gently take the balls out of the oiled bags. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface, dust the tops of the balls with flour and cover loosely but complete with plastic (to avoid having the tops go crusty). Let rest for 1 hour, until the dough reaches a cool room temperature and feels spongy when prodded.

Position the oven racks to divide the oven into 3rds and preheat the oven to 450 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment and dust the paper with cornmeal; keep the sheets close at hand. Fill a spray bottle with water and set it aside.

Shaping the Dough: Working with one piece of dough at a time (keeping the others covered), and working with the dough as you do with all focaccias - that is, gently, taking care not to knock out all the air you've worked into it - put the dough over your left fist (your right if you are left handed) and lift and circle it around your fist with your other hand. Pull it little and pinch the edges slightly as you work your way around - you're aiming for a teardrop or triangular shape about a foot long and 10 inches across at the base. Put the dough on the cornmeal-dusted baking sheet and cover it while you work the other pieces into shape.

Use a single-edge razor or a sharp serrated knife, held perpendicular to the dough, to create the leaf pattern in the dough: Position the teardrop with the broad base parallel to you and cut 3 vertical slashes in a line down the center of the teardrop, plunging the razor straight down into the dough. With these as your guide, cut 3 slanted cuts in both halves of the teardrop, angling the cuts between the slashes that clip the long sides. Nick the sloping sides, cutting at an angle and cutting only about half the length of the razor blade into the dough. Starting with the diagonal slashes on either side of the vertical cuts, work your fingers into all of the openings and stretch them evenly to double or triple their original size. (they must be opened now so that the holes won't close when the dough rises.)

Rest: Brush the loaves with olive oil, sprinkle with herbs, and dust with coarse salt. Let rest for about 10 minutes before baking.

Baking the Bread: Bake the fougasse for 15 to 18 minutes, or until they are golden and speckled with small surface bubbles, spraying the oven with water 3 times during the first 8 minutes of baking. If the breads aren't browning evenly, rotate the pans, top to bottom and front to back, halfway through the baking period. As soon as you remove the fougasse from the oven, brush them with a little more olive oil, and transfer them to a rack to cool before serving.

Storing: The fougasse are best the day they are backed, but once cooled, they can be wrapped airtight and frozen for up to 2 weeks. Thaw the breads, still wrapped, at room temperature and warm them in a 350 F oven before serving.

Double Chocolate Cookies

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 01:48:00 +0000

When this recipe said that these would taste like a mixture of cookies and brownies I wanted to french kiss Julia Child... because that sounds like my idea of heaven.

Seriously though, that's a lot of fucking chocolate:

When you get right down to it... there's a pound of chocolate in these cookies.

I have never before purchased instant coffee. I wasn't even really sure what it looked like. Apparently something like this:

I melted down half of that chocolate while whipping up things in my mixer:

This is the first recipe I remember where they haven't said "or using a hand held mixer"...

Everything was all mixed up and put in the fridge overnight. It was quite the transformation from fluffy chocolate-y marshmallow-y bowl of yummy to this:

All that stuff that looks like it's dripping down the sides? It's just frozen in time there. Totally hard. The dough itself, and I have a hard time calling it that, was mostly just hard on top and then it was pliable under that surface.

Let's be real. Basically this is melted chocolate, re-hardened and melted again into cookie shape. It's a POUND of chocolate. Did I mention that?

I was quite serious with my measuring. I didn't want to end up with one giant cookie. Because I'd eat it. By myself. In two seconds. And no one wants to see what I look like after eating a POUND of chocolate in two seconds.

My pictures are getting progressively worse because normally I rely on natural sunlight in my shots. This is what it looked like outside:

So after measuring and baking I was to rotate 5 minutes after putting them in the oven. This is what the cookies looked like half baked:

Honestly, I know this is a food blog and all... but if you took that and put it on the floor... I would take my dog to the vet.

I think the detailed directions of what the cookies should look like made me overcook my first batch. I kept waiting for them to fall, instead they stayed all puffy... until I took them out of the oven. Also while scooping dough in from the bottom of my bowl I noticed there was flour visible around all the chocolate chunks. Which surprisingly didn't affect the taste at all. I think I ate about 6 of these today. If they weren't making me feel nauseous I'd eat the rest because they are exactly a cross between cookies and brownies - heaven.

Double Chocolate Cookies

Adapted from "Baking With Julia"

½ cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
12 ounces bittersweet chocolate, cut into larger than chip size chunks
1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1½ cups sugar
1½ tablespoons instant coffee powder
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside until needed. Divide the bittersweet chocolate in half and set half aside.

2. Place the butter, the remaining bittersweet chocolate, and the unsweetened chocolate in the top of a double boiler over, but not touching, simmering water. Heat the mixture, stirring occasionally, until the butter and chocolates are melted and smooth. Remove from the heat.

3. Meanwhile, put the eggs, sugar, coffee and vanilla in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and beat at high speed for about 10 minutes, until the mixture is very thick and forms a slowly dissolving ribbon when the whisk is lifted and the mixture is allowed to drizzle back into the bowl.

4. With the mixer on low speed, very gradually add the warm butter-chocolate mixture. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and work your rubber spatula around the bottom of the bowl, then continue to mix just until the chocolate is thoroughly incorporated. Add the dry ingredients and the remaining bittersweet chocolate chunks and mix thoroughly. The mixture will look like a thick, marshmallowy cake batter.

5. Chilling the dough: Cover the bowl with plastic and chill for several hours, or overnight. The dough can be made ahead and kept refrigerated for up to 4 days.

6. Baking the cookies: When you are ready to bake, position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 350˚F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.

7. Using a heaping tablespoon of dough for each cookie, drop the dough onto the lined sheets, leaving at least 2 inches of space between each mound of dough – these are spreaders. Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes, rotating the pans front to back and top to bottom halfway through the baking period. The cookies will puff, then sink and crinkle and wrinkle around the edges. These cookies are better underdone than overbaked, so if you have any doubts, pull them out of the oven earlier rather than later. These shouldn’t appear dry and they won’t be crisp. Use a wide metal spatula to transfer the cookies to cooling racks to cool to room temperature. Repeat with the remaining dough.

8. Storing: The cookies can be wrapped in plastic and kept at room temperature for 2 days or frozen for up to a month. Thaw, still wrapped, at room temperature.

A Week Late - Blueberry Nectarine Pie

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 00:55:00 +0000

I didn't make this until Wednesday... I've been majorly slacking in the Baking Beauties involvement. I couldn't let this one go by though. So very in season... In fact all the filling came straight from the farms for the Blueberry Nectarine Pie:

Really I have no excuse for being late with this project. Remember back to the French Apple Tart, when I made too much dough? Well, these were still in the freezer, so I didn't even make the dough, just thawed some.

Although while they were still frozen I was convinced one was pizza dough, I really need to start labeling my freezer contents.

I love that I use Redpath Sugar on Redpath Ave. Technically I live on Eglinton, but the view out my window is named after this little sugar factory.

My first hesitation with this recipe came here:

What the crap do you mean I'm supposed to "boil" this? That's not liquid, Julia.

And that's about 10 seconds later. Oh, I see! It turns to liquid.

I was jealous of Kristina's butterfly, so I added a little star. I obviously had some problems with the top of the dough, where I had to add little pieces to cover up places where it ripped. Also, I will never understand how to form the crust. They try to explain, but I can't picture it... I'm going to have to find a video somewhere.

So that's about it... I just cooked the fruit and stuck it in the pie. Turns out I had a secret hidden LOVE for blueberries. Hidden from myself I mean. This pie is totally amazing. I would have sat down by myself and eaten the whole thing with a fork if I had no shame. In fact if I had no shame I'd forgo the fork as well.

Blueberry Nectarine Pie

1/2 Recipe Flaky Pie Crust
3 cups fresh blueberries, washed
2 cups sliced nectarines
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
large pinch of lemon zest
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

While your dough is chilling before you roll it out, start your filling. Put half of the fruit in a medium saucepan, keeping the remaining fruit close at hand. Add the sugar, flour, and lemon zest and stir to mix. Bring the mixture to a soft boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. The fruits will release their juices and the liquid will thicken. Turn the mixture into a bowl and stir in the uncooked fruit. Cool the filling to room temperature. Taste, and add lemon juice as needed.

Spoon the cooled filling into the pie shell and dot the tip with butter.

Roll out your second ball of dough. Transfer it to the top of the pie, aligning the edges of the top crust with the bottom crust. Trim any ragged edges.

Fold both layers of overhanging dough under to create a thick edge around the rim of the pan. Crimp the edges by pushing the thumb of one hand against the thumb and index finger of your other hand, creating scallops every 1 - 2 inches around the rim. Using a sharp paring knife, cut 4 - 6 slits in the top of the crust, brush egg wash over the top, and chill for 20 minutes.

Placing the pie on a jelly roll pan in the center of the oven, bake at 375 for about 40 - 50 minutes. Let the pie cool for 30 minutes before serving.

Craig Cooks Pad Thai

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 02:18:00 +0000

Ladies and gentlemen, we have our first dinner fail. I know Craig would say Sausage and Beans was, but I disagree. You see, we ate the sausage and beans - on Pad Thai Night we ordered pizza.

It all started out well enough. I was working late, Craig was chopping up peanuts.

He was measuring things out and refilling the bean sprouts bowl after he munched a few too many.

I got home and eggs got a crackin'.

This is where it starting going off the rails a little. You see our closest grocery store is a Sobey's Urban Fresh store. This means a lot of times they don't have exactly what we're looking for. Such was the case with our noodles. The recipe said to soak them for 15 minutes, but since they weren't the right kind they were still quite.... stiff at that point.

The recipe also said to turn the heat up to high and dump in some garlic. We weren't using the shrimp it called for so that garlic pretty much instantly burned. That's me getting rid of the evidence.

Did I mention Craig accidentally bought flavoured tofu? Luckily it wasn't anything weird, like peach flavoured - just herb.

Doesn't that look totally awesome?

All those black bits you see? Burnt garlic. But it was actually just the uncooked noodles that made it inedible.

I think I'm going to get the right ingredients one day and we'll attempt this again.

Adapted from How to Cook Everything:

Pad Thai

Makes 4 servings

Time: 30 minutes

12 ounces dried flat rice noodles, 1/4 inch thick

5 tablespoons peanut or neutral oil, like grapeseed or corn

3 eggs, lightly beaten

4 garlic cloves, minced

4 ounces small shrimp, peeled

4 ounces pressed tofu, or extra-firm tofu, blotted dry, sliced

2 scallions, cut into 1-inch lengths

1 cup bean sprouts, rinsed and trimmed

2 tablespoons nam pla (Thai fish sauce)

2 teaspoons tamarind paste or ketchup

2 teaspoons sugar

1/4 cup chopped peanuts

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves

2 small fresh green chiles, preferably Thai, seeded and sliced (optional)

1 lime, cut into wedges

1. Put the noodles in a bowl and pour boiling water over them to cover. Soak until softened, at least 15 minutes; if you want to hold them a little longer, drain them, fill the bowl with cold water, and return the noodles to the bowl.

2. Put 2 tablespoons of the oil in large skillet over medium heat. When hot, add the eggs and scramble quickly for the first minute or so with a fork almost flat against the bottom of the pan; you're aiming for a thin egg crêpe of sorts, one with the smallest curd you can achieve. Cook just until set and transfer the crêpe to a cutting board. Cut into 1/4-inch strips and set aside.

3. Raise the heat to high and add the remaining oil. When hot, add the garlic and shrimp and cook, stirring occasionally, until the shrimp lose their raw gray color, about 2 minutes. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and transfer to a plate next to the stove. Add the tofu, scallions, and half of the bean sprouts to the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, for 3 minutes. Transfer with a slotted spoon to the plate with the shrimp.

4. Put the drained noodles, eggs, nam pla, tamarind, and sugar in the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until the noodles are heated through, then add the stir-fried tofu mixture. Toss once or twice and transfer the contents of the pan to a serving platter. Top with the peanuts, cilantro, chiles, and remaining bean sprouts. Serve with the lime wedges.

Vegetarian Pad Thai.

Omit the shrimp and increase the tofu to 8 ounces. Substitute soy sauce for the fish sauce.

Craig Cooks Fish Tacos

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 00:56:00 +0000

Anything that involves jalapenos is okay by me. Honestly, I've never made fish tacos before, only ever ordered them in restaurants. Craig tends to order red meat when we go out since I don't cook it at home, so I don't think he's ever had them. I was surprised at the amount of people who had never even heard of fish tacos before.

This week Craig practiced much safer chopping skills. Look at that with the fingers tucked and everything. I'm happy to say the splint is gone and there's barely a mark left from the Great Knife Incident of '09.

When I first saw that you just threw the onions, jalapenos and fish into the pan with a tablespoon of water I was concerned that we would end up with one giant stuck to the pan mess. I guess I don't know so much about cooking then because it wasn't even close to sticking.

Yummy tortillas and salsa from Culinarium.

Pretending to be happy about cooking.

Condiments. Really quite needed since the fish is kind of bland. I found the inclusion of cucumbers weird, but I was wrong, they totally made the taco.

They were messy, as tacos often are - but delicious. The salsa was amazing and the fish was soft and moist. We could have used more and/or larger tortillas, but otherwise perfect.

Adapted from "Fish Tacos" - New York Times

Fish Tacos

Yield 4 servings

Time 20 minutes

Ingredients

1 medium onion, roughly chopped
1 jalapeño, stemmed and roughly chopped
1 1/2 pounds cod or other thick white-fleshed fish fillet
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
12 6-inch corn tortillas, or 8 12-inch corn or flour tortillas
Fresh salsa
Hot sauce or chili paste (optional)
Sour cream or grated cheese (optional)
Chopped lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber and cilantro sprigs (optional)
Lime wedges

Method

1. Put onion and jalapenos in nonstick skillet. Add 1 tablespoon water and the fish; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover and place over medium heat. Cook about 6 minutes, or until the fish is done.
2. While the fish cooks, heat the tortillas. Toast them in a skillet, one at a time, over medium heat, flipping once or twice until hot, a minute or so. Or heat in a microwave, a half a dozen at a time wrapped in a slightly damp towel, for about a minute.
3. To serve, put a portion of the fish along with a bit of the onion and jalapeno in a warm tortilla. Top with salsa, hot sauce, cheese or sour cream and vegetables. Squeeze lime juice over all. Repeat with remaining tortillas.

Ka'kat

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 00:20:00 +0000

I've never heard of ka'kat before this week's Baking Beauties assignment. Unlike some folks thought, this was not something a cat coughed up. According to Julia this is an Eastern Mediterranean street food, much like a soft pretzel.

There's something lovely about this packaging:

I think it's the word "traditional" on there... twice.

Have I mentioned how much I love my prep bowls? It means that I don't have piles of crap laying on every surface while I try to find my measuring spoons for the 756th time.

Julia is nothing if not specific in her directions. My favourite? "Stirring in one direction with a wooden spoon, add 2 to 3 cups of flour, a cup at a time, mixing until incorporated."

She seriously just told me what kind of spoon to use and to only go in one direction. For about 100 strokes. I like that because then if I fuck up, I blame Julia Child personally for not telling me that it should have been 110 strokes.

After all that stirring, we had the first rise. Which I got to punch. Awesome.

Now comes the part where I have to cut it into 32, that's right THIRTY TWO, pieces. Roll out each piece into a rope 6 - 7 inches long and make a circle:

That dough scraper thingy is coming in handy. Not only does it scrape dough (which is excellent all by itself), it is exactly six inches long.

There were two baking sheets that looked like this:

There was a brief second rise and then all this glorious Ka'kat goodness

I liked them, but they weren't totally fantastic. I basically ate them like a dinner roll. I didn't add the mahleb as it said it was optional and I had no idea what it was. Perhaps that would have elevated from tiny bagel like thing to something incredibly popular on the streets of Lebanon.

Tina's posted the recipe here.

Craig Cooks Thai Coconut Soup with Chicken

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 23:41:00 +0000

Mmmmm... Thai. I love Thai food. It's probably the main thing keeping me in Toronto. You can't get good Thai in the 'burbs.

Once again this recipe required a lot of chopping. I think I need to start picking recipes that will stretch his skills a little past chopping and throwing stuff together in a pan or pot. Although that is about 90% of the cooking I perform as well.

We may have overestimated the size of pot needed.
Craig concentrating on the chopping. More on that later.

I should mention, he hates mushrooms.

Chop, chop, chop, nom, nom, nom.

Chicken waiting to be dumped in the giant pot.

Ginger, lemongrass, chile peppers, all removed from the giant pot after simmering for a while.Craig pouring fish sauce in giant pot.

gSaid Giant pot bubbling away.

Craig pouring lime juice into giant pot.

Mostly I just thought this picture looked gross. Like worms or something.

Oh my god.

I love this soup. It tastes almost exactly like my favourite soup at Lime, but without all that laborious walking across the street to get to that restaurant. That's valuable time that could be spent eating more soup.

Now, about all that chopping:

Turns out practice does not make perfect. This sucker bled for over 24 hours until we resorted to this ridiculousness. Craig promises to be more careful around sharp knives in the future. We'll see when we resume with Craig's adventures in chopping.

Craig Cooks Curried Eggplant & Potato

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 00:32:00 +0000

Last week Craig made Curried Eggplant & Potatoes. I'm not sure all that much was learned this week, since things were basically just chopped and thrown in a saucepan.

He is getting pretty good at that chopping though. I think this was the first time he'd ever touched an eggplant with his hands.

All thrown into a saucepan as I said:

Then you had to cook it until the potatoes were soft. Craig brought me a couple of spoonfuls every once in a while. Though he did admit that he really wasn't sure what was potato anymore.

Craig plating.
This tasted pretty fantastic. Not curry in the traditional sense, as there was no actual curry added. In the end I'm glad we didn't make the rice to go with it as it was plenty filling by itself.

French Strawberry Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 22:26:00 +0000

Finally, a seasonal recipe! I mostly used my strawberries from our CSA, but had to supplement with some from the grocery store at the last minute. Also used some eggs from KEG.

I'm not a baker, I don't know what Genoise is, and I don't think it's what I made. Julia put the time at 4 -5 minutes before the egg & sugar mixture was whipped to the proper consistency. Mine was more like 15 minutes... or at least I stopped counting at that point. All I know is that I hate sifting flour, but I did it twice for this recipe.... and it still didn't turn out properly.

I do however want to point out that I love these Mario Batali prep bowls my brother and his girlfriend got us. That way I didn't have to stand there hovering with 1 teaspoon of vanilla for the "final moments" of whipping, unable to put it down. I could just stick it in this bowl and do dishes while it took FOREVER to whip.

So obviously I did something wrong is this is my cake that I'm supposed to cut in three:

I'm not sure if the scale comes across in that picture, but it's about an inch high. I have a problem with the direction of "fold". I don't really understand what that means. Especially with this mixture, since it was mostly like foam, which would hide giant pockets of flour that I wasn't aware of until I tried to stir in the butter.

I did manage to somehow cut that cake in half.

And now behold, the world's ugliest cake:

I didn't even bother with the rosettes and decorating directions. At the point of decorating it was obvious this was a little beyond saving. It tasted as good as ugly cake and cream and strawberries could. Which is to say, amazing!

Craig Cooks Baked Mac & Cheese

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:55:00 +0000

This week Craig learns how to whisk and how to butter a casserole dish.

Water was boiled.

Pasta was weighed.

Cheese was shred

A roux was made, though the book didn't call it that.

Sauce was poured on pasta:

Pasta was poured in a casserole dish and baked

Then we ate it. It was good, creamy and crunchy at the same time. Held up well as lunch the next day as well.

Cantuccini

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:34:00 +0000

Yeah, I'm a week late with this post and didn't make the Fruit Focaccia this week. I'm the worst Baking Beauty, but whatever.

Mostly I found this recipe a little boring. I've never made biscotti before, so it was new to me. It just wasn't all that challenging.

This was the worst part. Julia says the dough is going to be a little dry, but this was like the freaking Sahara dessert or something:

This is me measuring out my 12 inch log before I realized it was supposed to be 2 logs.

And, well then there was biscotti, sorry cantuccini

I dipped some haphazardly in chocolate. The chocolate ones have not survived.

They tasted like biscotti - which I'm not terribly fond of, but they were alright.

Also, I made a strawberry rhubarb pie with some of my leftover pastry dough crust.

Craig Cooks Sausage & Beans

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 17:03:00 +0000

There really wasn't much to this recipe. Store bought sausage, boiled beans, thrown in the oven with some spices and olive oil.

Here's the part where Craig feels like Jon Gosselin in "Jon & Kate + 8 + Emeril" (you really need to have seen that episode to get my joke at all here):

However, Craig's a little happier than Jon was... and let's face it, a little less high:

The beans were boiling for about an hour. Neither of us have cooked dried beans before, so we were really sure what we were doing and had to follow the book exactly. There was actually a point where I said out loud "Why is he trying to make us burn these?" Seriously, it told us to drain the beans and put them back in the pot for another 10 minutes. No liquid, no heat reduction. What the crap, Mark?

Craig basically just stuck the sausages in a pan, no brainer there:

Cooper gets a little concerned when we cook sausage. Or hungry, hard to say really:

And ladies and gentleman, I hate to say it, but we have our first dinner fail.

It was alright, it's just the beans were really dry. Craig followed the recipe exactly, it's just that boiling them for an hour and then leaving them in a pot with no liquid for 10 minutes and then putting them in the oven for an hour with bread crumbs... well they'd have to be made entirely out of liquid not to be dry at that point.

I think of this as our penance for the very tasty and very quick salmon from last week.

French Apple Tart

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 01:45:00 +0000

I made this yesterday, I promise. I just got sleepy and went to bed before posting. Maybe that has something to do with this taking FIVE HOURS to complete.

First I heeded Kristina's advice to make half the pie crust dough recipe. The actual Tart recipe says to make a quarter of the recipe, but I can't do that kind of math. If you want to know what 6 minutes and 30 seconds minus 2 minutes and 45 seconds is I'm your gal. If you want to know what a quarter of 5 1/4 cups is I can't help you.

Trouble is, I got distracted watching my mixer to see what the constitency of the dough was... Then I read "ice cold water" and panicked because I needed to pour it in and it was not ice cold. So I start running the water and dump it in. Then I read "just mix until combined" and I thought, "geez, that's going to take forever... why is this so wet?" Ah crap, I forgot to halve the water amount.

So I started again, and at the point of adding the water I just threw in the sopping wet dough.
I froze the other 3/4 of the recipe. I guess I need to make three pies this month.

Problem #2 - apparently the only difference between a pie and tart is sloping edge vs. straight edge of the crust. I made a pie.

Problem #3 - that's a lot of apples to peel. Whoever made my peeler didn't take into account that metal piece stabbing into my thumb while I peeled 8 apples.

Problem #4 - I really should have taken heed when they said "large bowl". Basically I should always use a bowl one size larger than I think. If only to help with my clean up later.

I don't think this is what Julia had in mind when she said to use a potato masher to mash up the baked apples, but this is my potato masher:

I thought I'd bake the apples while the pie chilled, but then didn't realize the crust was supposed to bake at 400 degrees, while the apples were 375. So after baking my crust looked like this:

Not exactly flaky and golden brown. So I threw it back in for about 15 minutes.

Mandolin sliced up apples (thanks Jackie!):

Mashed apple filled crust:
Putting the slices on the tart/pie:

Craig likes the look of this:

And, five hours later (with Craig's urging of peace in the background) she's DONE:

Just missing a small part of the crust that fell into the oven:

Craig Cooks Salmon

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 02:06:00 +0000

We skipped one week in there, but Craig's back and he's making awesome salmon. And this is how he feels about it:

Our very own herbs from our very own window sill:

Essential kitchen tool - measuring tape:

Rubbing some oil on the salmon:

Sprinkling with herbs:

Getting the asparagus ready to grill:

Et Voila:

Foil Packed Fish with Herbs & Lemon and Grilled Asparagus:

It was the best fish ever served in this home.

Ginger Snaps

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 01:32:00 +0000

Tonight's going to be busy over here at Not Julia.

First up - last week's Baking Beauties assignment was Ginger Snaps, which I did last Sunday but totally forgot to post.

I have no fond childhood memories of ginger snap cookies. Mostly it just reminds me of this movie
Turns out I might not have had these because my mother hates them. I mentioned the project and she said that she had them constantly as I child and didn't like them.

Have I mentioned that I hate mollasses? I hate it. It's just sticky. And annoying. And it doesn't even taste all that good. So I end up using tonnes of flour to stop it from sticking to everything. Including, apparently, the dog:

In the end I wasn't overly impressed. They were alright, we ate 'em.
They were "snappy" at first but then I stored them in the fridge and they became just thin chewy ginger cookies.

Craig Cooks Chicken

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 30 May 2009 17:25:00 +0000

This week's menu was Broiled Chicken and Baked Potatoes.
I'm trying to start him off easy and then I'll throw the hard stuff at him. Of course if I want it to be easy I should probably read the recipes first, not just the titles.

Apparently broiled chicken involved things like herb pastes and butchering a whole chicken. Whoops!

I did learn how to do this in high school "foods" class. My vegan teacher showed us how to break the chicken's back, and that's all I really remember.

Work was horrible on Friday (I blame Andy Samberg and Lauren Conrad personally) so unless you see Craig's hands in the picture it's a pretty good bet that they were taken by him.

Ladies and gentlemen the final meal:

Loved the lemony flavour of the chicken!

Also a big thank you to Amanda Laird - after this post, I woke up to an amazing breakfast, courtesy of my newly cooking husband:

Lemon Loaf

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 25 May 2009 02:16:00 +0000

I love lemon loaf, but for some reason I've never made it. I used to eat it at my grandparent's house where my Papa would chastise me for dipping it in tea.

This recipe was ridiculously easy.

The zest of 3 large lemons seems like a lot of zest, but it made the loaf just lemony enough. I think this is a good time to share The Kitchn's article on what to do with naked lemons.

I bought the eggs at Culinarium. I like getting eggs there because they don't all look the same, and because I have to check and make sure I'm getting chicken eggs.

Mmmm, sugar and eggs - the basis of any good recipe

Then I just mixed a couple of things and next thing I knew I was done. I always forget how liquidy these types of recipes are. If it weren't for my previous banana bread experience I would have thought I'd done something wrong at this point:

Once again I had to cook it for the maximum amount of time suggested. I don't know why I even bother checking at the minimum time.

Craig and I both liked the crunchy top crust.

I ate this with a cup of Earl Grey, but I didn't dip.