Baked By Anna

A quick note...

noreply@blogger.com (Baked, By Anna) — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0000

I will be getting some late Daring Baker posts up tonight!!

BBA Pannetone

noreply@blogger.com (Baked, By Anna) — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 03:32:00 +0000

Moving on with the BBA Challenge, I made pannetone. Not my favorite rich holiday bread, but it was pretty tasty the first day. A rich, eggy dough is studded with fruits and candied peel, and flavored with vanilla and lemon extracts. You can't get much more flavor out of bread, frankly. It's definitely a Christmas loaf.
I didn't manage to get my hands on the candied peel, which was too bad. I'd never baked with them before, but I couldn't find them. I did use lots of dried fruits, soaked liberally with whiskey--but that backfired on me. I don't really care for whiskey...I am more of a rum girl. I figured I would use whiskey because the flavor should mellow in the baking, right?
NO. Not even a little bit. In fact, after the second day, it was almost inedible! The raisins and cranberries were lousy with whiskey, and it somehow became stronger day after day. I definitely would have used rum if I knew the effect it would have on the final dough.
I think this would have been an okay component to something else, like a bread pudding, but all in all it wasn't my favorite thing. Maye pannetone-style bagels, with bits of candied peel and rum-soaked raisins would be good...but this one probably won't be seen again in my kitchen in its original form. What can I say, I'm not Italian!

You Want Pie With That?

noreply@blogger.com (Baked, By Anna) — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 22:41:00 +0000

This is my first entry to the blogging event, You Want Pies With That? At least, the first to its new "official" blog site. It's being hosted this month by last month's winner, Branny of Branny Boils Over. She chose a personalized theme--what does your blog say about you? We were instructed to sum up our blogs with a pie--sweet, nutty, fruity, silly, classy?
I have a lot of things I can say about my blog--at least I hope. I try to be funny, sure, I try to bake beautiful desserts that are delicious, all-natural, and sophisticated. I like to branch out occasionally and make complicated, fussy deserts that challenge me. I also like to teach my readers about why things work the way they do (although I couldn't think of a pie that represented "nerdy".)
In the end, I decided to go with a couple of things that are really important to me--seasonal, and simple. My usual dessert is not a fussy croquembouche or 5 layer torte. No, my favorite pie remains a rustic, simple galette, not even baked in a pan. I love these for many many reasons. First, I can use my favorite pie dough of all time, Rose Levy Beranbaum's cream cheese pie dough, which you can find right here. I don't have to prepare a mountain of apples or pears or peaches, which makes it a much more accessible pie for everyday or after dinner. It also makes a smaller amount, if you just use one crust recipe and a few piece of fruit--perfect for a light dessert for our small family, and it won't hang around for a week and be wasted. It's also very beautiful, in a rustic sort of way, and I like the crust-to-filling ratio. Baking it on a pan on a hot stone ensures a crisp crust, and the lesser amount of juicy fruit prevents it from becoming soggy. You can even eat it on-the-go, if that's how you roll. (This is how I roll.)
I will also throw in my baking-science tips, because this one actually didn't turn out as great as some of my others! I was a bit rushed at the time, and I didn't roll it properly--I had some thick spots on the outer edges, and didn't work hard enough to keep it a circle. Perfection isn't required, but it does help the pie bake up evenly it it's more or less the same thickness.
Also, I only rested this half an hour in the fridge, didn't give it my customary half hour-fridge plus half hour freezer, to really firm up the crust, and I got some slippage and cracks. This was not helped by the fact that I didn't turn the oven up high enough. I have been getting some scorches lately when I bake on the stone--ruined a batch of bread recently--so I tried a lower temp, but that didn't work. Frozen pie crust + surface of hell oven temperature = set pie crust edges. That way, the fat melts very quickly, and doesn't have time to slip and slide around, melting your crust and making it droop. It's like the figures frozen in time when Pompeii exploded--instantly hot, scorching heat will set whatever it's baking with a minimum of movement. I should have started high and turned down immediately, then moved it to a higher shelf halfway through. Live and learn--still working the kinks out of my new oven.
But this is why I love this recipe--even with the mistakes, the casual nature makes for a pie that tasted just as good, anyway.

Rustic Peach and Blueberry Galette

One recipe Cream Cheese Dough for 9" pie *use all-purpose flour
3 peaches
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar (or less is peaches are very sweet, adjust this to your taste)
juice of one lemon
pinch kosher salt
handful fresh blueberries
heaping teaspoon or so of cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp tapioca flour (or cornstarch)
1 tbsp butter

Peel peaches with good peeler, or blanch and then peel. Slice into 1/4 inch slices. Toss with lemon juice, sugars, salt, cinnamon and blueberries. Place in a strainer over a bowl. Let rest 30 mins to1 hour. Preheat oven to 475. If you have a stone, place it on the oven floor. If you don't lower a rack to the bottom-most setting. In both cases, leave a rack in the upper-middle as well.
Prepare pie crust as directed, roll out to a little less than 1/4 inch thickness, about a 12" circle. Try to be round, but imperfect edges are fine. Transfer to a large baking sheet lined with parchment--if the edges overlap the pan at this point, that's fine, they're getting folded later.
When crust is ready and fruit has given its juices, place the juice in a saucepan and reduce to just a few tablespoons, or by half if you don't have much. Pour back over fruit, and stir in tapioca flour. Pile fruit in center of dough.
Working form the outside, fold edges over onto themselves so that they mostly cover the fruit, but not all the way, and continue folding dough over until you've gone all the way around. (See this tutorial if you need a visual--skip to 3:20 for the assembly, minus the frangiapane.)
Brush with 1 egg mixed with water, and then sprinkle with sugar (coarse sugar is better, and crunchier). Place in oven, and immediately turn heat down to 450. Bake for 15 minutes on the stone, then move to upper rack and lower heat again to 400. Bake another 20-30 minutes, til pie is bubble and golden brown. If if starts to overbrown before it's done, tent with foil for the last 10 minutes or so. Remove on pan and set on rack to cool--this is the hard part! You must wait 2 hours at a minimum to cut it. 4 hours is better. Then, top with ice cream and enjoy!

* Be sure to use all-purpose flour here, or at least 50& all-purpose to 50% pastry. If you have a pie crust or tart dough recipe you prefer, go ahead and use it, just be sure you are using one that is sturdy enough to handle not being in a pan. Really delicate pie doughs made with all pastry flour and tons of butter don't have enough gluten to hold this up, and will crack and just not work. Try substituting all-purpose flour in your favorite pastry dough recipe, if you have one you really like.

Gale Gand's Butterscotch Pudding

noreply@blogger.com (Baked, By Anna) — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 20:36:00 +0000

I recently discovered the joy of buying used books on Amazon. I have no less than 200 books on my Wish List (I'm not kidding) and most of them are cookbooks--most of those being dessert books. I am a bit of a book hoarder, I must admit. I am the type who would buy a Kindle for novels I'll read once, but 99% of the books I buy will teach me something. Cookbooks, how to books, design books, history books...I am very much a gatherer of instructions. In short, a big fat nerd.
But the used books are now my addiction. In the last week I have ordered 4 of the books that have been on my list for ages. But I can hardly justify spending $30 every time a new cookbook gets mentioned in Bon Appetit. This way, I get them for 5 bucks or less, plus a few dollars shipping, and they are just like new. It's a perfect marriage of frugality and obsessive compulsive book-buying.
One of my new ones has been on my top-ten list forever! Gale Gand is one of the nation's best and most well-known pastry chefs. She's lived abroad in the UK and frequently uses fruits in her desserts, and they sometimes have a European flair. She can usually be counted on to provide the weights for her recipes--not so in this book, but I found a recipe that called for a pound of flour that was equal to 3 1/2 cups, and did the math myself. Close enough! And I'm sure I could find another recipe of hers to compare it to.
The book is divided by main ingredient--Butter, Sugar, Flour, and Eggs. Cookies, cakes, pies, puddings and more fit neatly into most of her chapters.
The first up--Butterscotch Pudding. I have been wanting to try a recipe for this since it hit the blogosphere awhile back. David Lebowitz has a recipe, as well as a few others I found. My husband requested pudding, and I figured it would be a fine time to try.
A few more steps than a regular cornstarch custard, but simple nonetheless. The flavor comes from caramelized butter and brown sugar, which you allow to cook until the butter browns. If you've never had brown butter, you're misisng out--it's nutty, and rich, and fragrant, and there's nothing quite like it. A brown-butter-brown-sugar-caramel is divine.
Added to a simple custard base, it is cooked for a minute, then cooled. Her instructions are clear and very easy-to-follow. I think I may have left it on for just a minute too long--it was smooth, but not as silky as it could have been. I'll try again and see if it makes a difference.
This may be the best thing to come out of my kitchen. It was, pardon my French, really fucking good. This is NOTHING like packaged, artificially flavored butterscotch pudding, the flavor reminiscent of the fake chips you can buy, and tasting nothing like butter or brown sugar. No, this is the real deal.
I topped it with softly whipped cream that I spiked with rum--although of course you could use scotch, to be authentic.

Butterscotch Pudding

2 1/4 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
6 tbsp butter
265g (1 1/4 cups packed) light brown sugar
35g (1/4 cup) cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

Combine milk and cream in a large saucepan and bring to just simmer, then turn off heat.
In a nonstick skillet, melt butter and add brown sugar. Cook over medium heat until butter browns and sugar caramelizes, about 5 minutes--you'll smell the nuttiness when it's ready.
Add the butter-sugar to the hot cream while whisking constantly. If it's not quite smooth, blend with an immersion blender. Or leave it, it will dissolve later on.
Put eggs in a small bowl. Add cornstarch, then salt, and add 1/2 cup of the hot cream-sugar. Stir til dissolved. Pour back into hot milk.
Stirring constantly, bring to just a boil--a few large bubbles is all you're looking for. The ideal temp is 185, I believe, if you're checking-you don't really want it to boil, so turn the heat off before it really gets going.
Remove from heat, whisk in vanilla, and pour into custard cups. Chill as long as you like, 6 hours to get really cold, but I'll admit to being a big fan of warm pudding.
A couple notes--Mine turned out just the tiniest bit grainy. I probably cooked it a tad too long, and will be trying it again. Also, this is a very firm custard, so be aware--it is pie-filling quality firmness. I think I would prefer it a little looser--but then, it may be that when I took it too far, I made sure the cornstarch bonds would completely activate, and may have firmed up more than the original recipe intended. Give it a try, let me know how yours turns out!

I made pudding!

noreply@blogger.com (Baked, By Anna) — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 07:31:00 +0000

Butterscotch, to be precise. It's in the fridge. Pics and the recipe review coming soon--it's from a new cookbook by Gale Gand, Butter Sugar Flour Eggs. I am very excited about this one, and I'm looking forward to trying a few new ones.
I also have a backlog of recipes...Sourdough English Muffins, Chocolate Cream Tartelettes, Pain a l'Ancienne again...I've been busy! Panettone is planned for this week out of the BBA...I've got quite a bit to do!

Up to my old tricks...the BBA Challenge Returns

noreply@blogger.com (Baked, By Anna) — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 05:34:00 +0000

Do you know what semolina is? If you don't, and you are a bread baker...you are missing out. It is probably my favorite type of flour, and I like to add some to just about every recipe. It's a fantastic secret ingredient. I looked around a little, and I didn't really find an explanation for why it's magic, except that it's supposedly very high in gluten. This will make for a very strong network of gluten, which means your dough can rise higher, the air inside stretched to its maximum by the balloon-like gluten-y dough. To paraphrase an excellent movie, "It's so fluffy I'm going to die!"
I made a sandwich loaf, my favorite fast, and slow pizza doughs feature it, and it just lightens whatever it's baked with. It leaves a golden color, a moist crumb, and an airy feel that can't be duplicated in any other way. If you can't find it at your grocery store, the health food store will definitely have some.
But the point I'm reaching is the bread I finally got around to making, the Pane Siciliano. This is of course out of The Bread Baker's Apprentice, by Peter Reinhart, and continues my alphabetically ordered journey into his world.
This is a lean dough, meaning no eggs or milk, and hardly any fat. If properly baked it will have a nice crisp crust, and give a very chewy, but light loaf that is wonderful for sandwiches. (Yes, I can attest to this.) It's a fairly straightforward bread, made with his standard pate fermentee the night before to develop the exquisite flavor it has, then mixed, risen, cold-proofed one last time, and risen again and baked as usual. The only curveball is a high percentage of semolina flour--about 25% of the total flour used, I believe.
When I make this again, I'm going to use my Dutch oven, I think. That's the only way I've ever gotten an acceptable crust on an artisan loaf I've baked. I do have a perforated French bread pan, and that works alright for my torpedoes--but honestly, I prefer the boule shape anyway. Much better for sandwiches, garlic bread, and generally more versatile. It does leave less crust, but after the first day, it's never as good anyway!
Oh, one other thing I learned from this particular loaf was how to shape the "S" shape. It was very simple, clearly illustrated I the book, and after one try I had a perfectly shaped loaf. Beautifully spiraled, very pretty, all but one kept its shape during baking.
This dough would make sweet little "S" shaped dinner rolls, too--I think I might like to give them an egg wash if I did that, though. Some more color, more shine! I kept them plain on this go-round, just for simplicity's sake. The "S" shape makes this perfect for sandwiches, especially if you're toasting the bread or pressing it--it's slightly flat but still with enough bite to make an interesting sammy.
As per the instructions of the challenge, I won't post the recipe, but If you'd like it, just leave a comment, and I'll get it to you!

This post is also submitted to YeastSpotting!

Recipe Review--Chewy Chocolate-Raisin Cookies By Martha

noreply@blogger.com (Baked, By Anna) — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 04:27:00 +0000

I spotted this recipe for ooey-gooey-and-chewy chocolate raisin cookies awhile ago in a Martha magazine. I have been sort of into the combination of raisins and chocolate lately. It's not something I would consider a really delicious combination, since I'm not a huge raisin fan, but then I remember eating Raisinettes by the pound as a child. They are SO good, and raisins + chocolate is pretty much great any way you slice it.
It was between this recipe and Dorie Greenspan's Raisin Brownies, which are also due for a trial run in my kitchen. But having just made brownies a few days ago that I sent to a friend, I thought cookies would vary things up a bit.
This is a unique recipe--no eggs, and instead of two sticks of butter you have one stick (half a cup) and then half a cup of honey, in addition to half a cup of brown sugar. What this does is to give plenty of sweetness (duh) but also, sugar replaces the fat that would tenderize the dough. A standard chocolate chip cookie dough has two sticks of butter, but not so here. It's just like in the 90's, when everything became low-fat, but no one lost any weight? The cookie manufacturers replaced the fat with sugar because it functions in a similar way. Although it has just as many calories (compare a box of low-fat Oreos to the original and you'll see) and is actually worse for you, because the fat will keep you fuller longer than sugar will.
Sorry, didn't mean to go off on a nutritional tangent there...but it's true. In this cookie, the honey is not meant to lower the fat, but to increase the chewiness, because any type of syrup (honey, molasses in brown sugar, etc) will make for a chewier cookie. The syrups are hygroscopic, and attract water, keeping them soft. This recipe uses an astonishing 1/2 cup of honey. Chewy it is.
It also omits any egg. What an egg will do in a cookie recipe is provide structure (from the proteins) and therefore lift. It will be a more cakey product, less dense, if you add an egg or two. Since the recipe writer wanted a flat cookie, no egg is used.
The cookie dough has Dutched cocoa, making it deep, dark and very chocolate-y. It also throws in some raisins soaked in brandy, and white chocolate. I did deviate here-I had no brandy, and also haven't ever tried brandy, so I wasn't sure about the taste. I thought of using dark rum but I was also fresh out! So I just used water to rehydrate them, and added vanilla to the dough. It will change the flavor if you use the brandy, but the flavor isn't really a problem. It tasted pretty good.
I just wan;t sure about the texture. It was really chewy, as promised. But sort of odd...I can't describe it. The big chunks of raisins were a little unpleasant here. I liked that it was chewy, but maybe not so chewy! I liked the crackle of the raw sugar on the outside. Like I said, flavors were good-just the texture bugged me.
So, I will leave it at that. A decent recipe if that's what you like. I may tinker here and there with the concept of a Raisinette Cookie, because I believe it's a great idea. We'll see!

You can find the recipe for them here on Martha Stewart.com...I'm not going to repost this one, since it's wasn't truly fantastic.

Coming Soon...

noreply@blogger.com (Baked, By Anna) — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 05:48:00 +0000

I will have a chocolate recipe for you in the next day or so...I am also in the middle of some sourdough English muffins. New post soon!

Fig and Pecan Quick Bread

noreply@blogger.com (Baked, By Anna) — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 22:49:00 +0000

I am a victim of the weirdest cravings sometimes. I'll think for days, weeks even, of satisfying a particular and random craving that I just can't place my finger on. It's sometimes not just a craving for a certain thing--chocolate, or carrot cake, or BBQ. No, I'll get an idea to use an ingredient in some inventive way that will satisfy whatever it is. Then I'll hem and haw for a long time before finding just the right thing. I would rather go without and shoot and miss the mark.
So I've had it with figs for ages. At least a year, because I remember buying these dried figs when I was pregnant! Don't worry, they've been in the fridge and have kept beautifully. But I'm being honest when I say....I could not find the right way to use these in all that time. I went over the common applications--fig bars, obviously. Not in the mood, and if I was, Trader Joe's has a killer fig cereal bar. Plus all the recipes have vast amounts of butter and sugar.
Fig cookies? Nah. Cake? Maybe...but no. Yeast bread? Someday. I have actually emailed a bakery in Pennsylvania when I found their menu last night in my internet travels, looking for a good fig recipe. Theirs is a fig, cornmeal, and nut boule...I'm hoping they get back to me.
This time I was determined to find the right application. I had even bought another tub of the dried black mission figs from Trader Joe's in anticipation. I began to search for fig quick breads, but came up short.
Then Captain Obvious paid me a visit, and the light bulb went off, and I had the biggest DUH moment of my entire life. I had a well-reviewed recipe for Date-Nut Bread in my America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, and had for two years. Not being much of a date fan, I had always passed it by. But figs and dates are really, really similar, and I realized I could just do a simple swap.
This put my fig fascination into the realm of fruit-filled, almost-good-for-you breakfast fare, which made this even better. It was going to be an incredibly hearty, chewy, somewhat dense (but in a good way) loaf, deep with flavor and packed with figs and roasted pecans. I even thought I could get away with using 50% white wheat, since it wasn't meant to be an airy, light, muffiny bread.
The swaps worked fabulously. I could hardly wait to slice it after it had cooled. It was spectacular plain, and unspeakably better when smeared with some honey-almond cream cheese I had leftover from the last bagel run.
If you like fig newtons, figs in general, or dried fruit at all--TRY THIS. It is so, so amazing. I finally have a favorite fig recipe that isn't at all boring or overdone--search for fig bar recipes, if you don't know what I mean by that. It is already half gone, as my children and I have devoured it. Yep--it even gets the Picky Kid Stamp of Approval. And because it's so hearty and filled with such good stuff, it is an almost guilt-free breakfast. You could probably swap out some of the butter or sugar with a little extra yogurt if you felt like making it a bit healthier, but it's really perfect just the way it is.

Fig and Pecan Quick Bread

1 cup boiling water
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups coarsely chopped dried black mission figs
5 oz (1 cup) all-purpose flour
5 oz (1 cup) white wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
160g (3/4 cup packed) dark brown sugar
160g (2/3 cup) yogurt
6 tbsp butter, melted and cooled
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2-1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350.
In a medium bowl pour boiling water over chopped figs, and stir in baking soda. Let sit for 30 mins, til room temperature.
Line a regular loaf pan or tea loaf pan with parchment on the bottom, and spray the bottom and sides with nonstick spray.
In a small saucepan, toast pecans over low heat until golden brown and fragrant, about 5 minutes.
In a very large bowl, mix together flours, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
In a medium bowl whisk together egg, yogurt, vanilla, melted butter, and sugar.
Pour figs and water into sugar-yogurt mixture and stir til combined.
Pour wet ingredients into the flour mixture, add pecans, and stir with spatula just until no streaks of flour remain. Do not overmix.
Pour into loaf pan, smooth top, and bake for 1 hour to an hour and 10 minutes, until bread is very dark brown and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Birthday Cake!! And the Best Chocolate Frosting, Ever.

noreply@blogger.com (Baked, By Anna) — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 07:16:00 +0000

Excuse me for being presumptuous, but that kid is cute. I never think he'll get cuter, and then I wake up in the morning, and he's done it again. He's now a big one-year-old boy!! I counted, and I have made far less posts in the year since he was born--far, far less than I made the last year! Having a third child didn't increase my domestic duties by another 33%...no, it increases exponentially with each child. Why that is, I'm not sure. More fights to break up, I'll bet.
I am here to discuss of course, the birthday cake. I had a hard time choosing, waffling between chocolate and strawberry in the end--I couldn't help it, June and July are the BEST months for the local berries here. They are big, deep red, and taste like candy. But my oldest son already has a strawberry cake for his birthday, usually, and I didn't want to seem repetitive. Besides, then I wouldn't get that smeared-chocolate-frosting picture that always makes them seem so much more adorable.

I made a simple two-layer round cake, and I used one of my favorite easy yellow cake recipes, This One Here by my buddy Joe Pastry. It's one that uses the two-stage or reverse creaming method, virtually guaranteeing you a tender, melt-in-your mouth satiny cake while still being light and fluffy. I could talk more about the merits and techniques of this method, but since he does such a fabulous job in his posts, you really ought to hop over there and check it out.
For the frosting--oh, frosting. I have a love-hate relationship with frosting. I LOVE frosting, used judiciously and properly on a cake. By this I mean no frosting angel food with ganache--it just can't hold up. No pouring buckets of powdered sugar into your cream cheese frosting to make it stiff enough to hold up that carrot cake. No, I am really, really picky when it comes to frosting, and I always have the worst time deciding what to use.This is especially true with chocolate frosting. You want it to be thick, rich, glossy, deeply chocolatey, spreadable, and thick enough to use for a layer cake. It's also a bonus if it can be stored at room temperature, although that's not always a requirement. I've been through quite a few chocolate frosting recipes, but I think I found a really great one. I used King Arthur's Super-Simple Chocolate Frosting. I would stop at the link for to this, but we have a problem.It is not super-simple. In fact, I think they named it as an inside joke, because this is actually a bit of a chore. Also, not to knock KA, but the recipe is weirdly written and confusing.
Some tips here--give yourself some time. This frosting is very goopy and loose right when you finish mixing it, though it firms up really nicely. If you're doing a layer cake, I recommend taking a heaping cupful of it (because this batch is a very generous amount of frosting) and spreading it on the bottom layer, and just stashing it right in the fridge for say, 15-20 minutes before you place the top layer on . Give the middle layer enough time to firm up, or you'll be fighting a sliding cake layer the whole time, and you won't have any left in between. ( I was in a rush and skipped this, and you can see how it oozed out to become frosting on the sides. I also skipped leveling the layers, which is why I have a mounded cake. But oh well, he's one.) As a bonus, the rest of it will set up a little better, and be easier to control.After completing the crumb coat ( a thin layer to seal in any crumbs) give it another 5-10 in the fridge, then pile the rest on at will. You can cut it right the, but if you're doing it ahead of time, be sure to give it 20-30 minutes to come up to room temperature, as you should do with all cakes.
I would say this frosting is pipeable. Just chill it until it will hold a shape. And you can add a few tablespoons of cream cheese, like I did--not only will it help it being a bit firmer, it adds a really wonderful tang to the frosting. If you like that sort of thing. He did.

Even More Super and Definitely More Simple Chocolate Fudge Frosting
adapted from King Arthur

5 1/4 ounces (1 3/4 cups) natural (not Dutch!) cocoa
8 ounces heavy cream
8 ounces unsalted butter, very soft
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 tbsp cream cheese, softened
14 ounces (3 1/2 cups) powdered sugar, divided

1) Sift the cocoa, confectioners' sugar into a bowl. Blend well.
2) Bring the cream to a simmer on the stove or in the microwave, and whisk into the cocoa mixture. Keep whisking until it appears smooth and glossy, set aside to cool to room temp (about 20 minutes.)
3) In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, salt and 2 cups (8oz) of the powdered sugar until light and fluffy with no lumps. Beat in vanilla and cream cheese.
4) Beat in cooled chocolate mixture with mixer running on low. Be sure to scrape the bowl a few times. Set aside to cool if frosting is too loose to use immediately.
5) Use any leftovers to make graham cracker sandwiches immediately. Seriously, do this. Those are out of this world with leftovers.

noreply@blogger.com (Baked, By Anna) — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 22:53:00 +0000

This is a bit of a cheat..but I was filing some recipes and wanted to share this one. This is now my go-to chocolate cake recipe. I have had some outstanding favorites--the Sourdough Chocolate Cake, the Cook's Illustrated Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cake, and of course I am always tinkering with my own recipes. But this one outshines the other two for ease of preparation (no feeding starters or laboriously adding chunks of butter that may or may not be too soft. This cake has it all--incredibly deep chocolate flavor, fluffy and tender texture, moist to the extreme thanks to the mayonnaise, and best of all it's a cinch to prepare. It's just phenomenal. I don't have a picture to share (I recycled an old one--sorry!) but it looks about the same. The recipe is available for free on Bon Appetit.com, so I don't feel bad about re-posting it. I also added the exact weights of the measurements I used. I just thought I would share--you will NOT be disappointed!

I'll have a new post for you in the near future...today is my little Dread Pirate Robert's 1st birthday!

Mayonnaise replaces the oil that's typically used in chocolate cakes. It gives this cake—which would make the ideal birthday cake—an incredibly moist and tender texture. Serve with glasses of ice-cold milk.

10 to 12 servings

by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito

Photograph by Stephen Lewis

April 2010

Ingredients

cake

2 ounces bittersweet chocolate (do not exceed 61% cacao), chopped
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (1.75oz)
1 3/4 cups boiling water (14oz)
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour (13.75oz)
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup sugar (200g)
1 cup (packed) dark brown sugar (210g)
1 1/3 cups mayonnaise (do not use reduced-fat or fat-free) (320g)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

frosting

10 ounces bittersweet chocolate (do not exceed 61% cacao), chopped
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

special equipment

Three 8-inch-diameter cake pans with 1 1/2-inch-high sides

Preparation

cake

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour three 8-inch-diameter cake pans with 1 1/2-inch-high sides. Combine chopped chocolate and cocoa powder in medium metal bowl. Add 13/4 cups boiling water and whisk until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.
Sift flour, baking soda, and baking powder into another medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat both sugars and mayonnaise in large bowl until well blended, 2 to 3 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating until well blended after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Add flour mixture in 4 additions alternately with chocolate mixture in 3 additions, beating until blended after each addition and occasionally scraping down sides of bowl. Divide batter among prepared cake pans (about 2 1/3 cups for each).
Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, 30 to 32 minutes. Cool cakes in pans on racks 20 minutes.
Run small knife around sides of cakes to loosen. Carefully invert cakes onto racks and let cool completely.

FROSTING

Place chopped chocolate in medium metal bowl; set bowl over saucepan of simmering water and stir until chocolate is melted and smooth. Carefully remove bowl from over water; let melted chocolate cool until lukewarm, stirring occasionally.
Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until smooth and creamy. Sift powdered sugar over butter and beat until well blended, about 2 minutes. Beat in vanilla. Add melted chocolate and beat until well blended and smooth, occasionally scraping down sides of bowl.
Place 1 cake layer on platter. Spread 3/4 cup frosting over top of cake layer to edges. Top with second cake layer; spread 3/4 cup frosting over. Top with third cake layer. Spread remaining frosting decoratively over top and sides of cake. DO AHEAD Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover with cake dome and let stand at room temperature.
Cut cake into wedges and serve.

BBA Pain a 'Ancienne, reboot

noreply@blogger.com (Baked, By Anna) — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 23:58:00 +0000

So the first new post is....an old post recycled! No, I'm not kidding, but it's only for a little bit. In going through the Bread Baker's Apprentice, I had a few repeats that I'd already made at other times. Pain a l'Ancienne is one of those. I can't remember where I got the idea but I think I got the recipe at Wild Yeast or the Fresh Loaf.... Here's a linky... I might actually try this one again--it's so easy, and it didn't turn out quite right the first time. Plus I got a lame picture.
I currently have in the fridge the pre-dough for the next one, Pain de Campagne. (Literally, Country Bread.) So you'll have to wait til tomorrow to hear about that one. Gotta love Reinhart and his delayed-fermentation techniques.
And in case you're wondering what the fuss about that is..I'll try to explain. When water hits yeast and flour, several things happen. The yeast "wakes up" and begins to feed on the sugars from the flour. Also, the sugars in the flour are released and enzymatic action starts to occur on a microscopic level. This allows the flavors to deepen and mature, and the yeast begins a process as well that also lends flavor. Reinhart has said that good bread tastes like flour, truly like flour, and not like the "yeasty" flavor we may associate with it. I am sure I am getting this wrong on some level, because I am quoting from memory--but the bottom line is, if you mix a dough and stick it immediately in the fridge, beautiful things happen. Not only can you control the timing of the bread to fit your schedule, it will have a fantastic texture and flavor that you just can't duplicate any other way. TIME is a key ingredient in good bread, especially lean rustic doughs like this one.
So I am going to link you HERE, to my Pain a l'Ancienne post from a year or two ago. Seeing my old posts makes me miss the kitchen at our rental--it was HUGE and had a giant island. I would almost trade the crappy sink and stove for all that space. I could cook with the kids all the time, something I haven't been able to do here. Our kitchen now only fits one person, and though we're remodeling to make it bigger, you still can't fit a bowling ball in a baseball glove. Can't wait to see our "long flip" and move!!
Anyhow...enjoy, and I'm planning on the Pain de Campagne post tomorrow.

Away too long...

noreply@blogger.com (Baked, By Anna) — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 08:43:00 +0000

...and I'm sorry for that. It's been weird here.
I have a plan, and this plan is to post a couple of new blogs this week. I am diving back into the BBA Challenge and the Daring Bakers, both of which I have been out of for 2 months. I haven't baked hardly at all--and I've missed it dearly. My kitchen remodel was supposed to have been done by now, and some days I just don't have the heart to cook in my torn-up, ragged, too-small kitchen. So I wait for it to be completed.
Been going over some hard choices, life's big decisions, and lots of other crap, too. Pondering my place in the universe. Looking down roads I did not take, and wondering what might lay at the end of them.
So, baking hasn't been in the forefront. Running everyday and not consuming sugar so I can fit in my skinny jeans has been in the forefront.
Stay tuned, if you are still reading. I'm dipping my toes back in.

Catching up...

noreply@blogger.com (Baked, By Anna) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 16:39:00 +0000

New post later today!

Well, I made muffins.

noreply@blogger.com (Baked, By Anna) — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 05:42:00 +0000

I know I said I'd follow up on the sprouted wheat thing, and I will--but I made muffins yesterday that are almost gone. I've had to keep my kids' hands out of them, which doesn't happen often--so hell, yeah! These suckers are, as most muffins that come out of my kitchen, pretty good for you. (Exceptions being those amazing cream muffins with the pears. Good lord.)
Carrots, applesauce, dried apples, whole wheat flour, yogurt, canola oil...but that's not the best part. They are gooooood. Even the husband had more than a few. He's the true test--he only has a few favorites here and there-- a picky man I married. But he loved these.
I went in a different direction than usual, being out of my favorite accompaniment to carrot cake, pineapple. I used dried fruit, because fresh fruit in muffins bugs me. With the exception of fresh blueberry, because it seems made for baking into little non-gummy pockets of blue goodness, fresh fruit is never good in baked goods. (Phew!) Yes, I said it. Fresh fruit, used as-is, will ruin a good muffin or cupcake.
Let's think about it. Fruit is like 90% water, most of it. When you cook it, it gives off lots of moisture, and will create pockets or streaks of gummy, unappetizing mush in your baked good. (I'm not talking about pie.) There are ways around this, though. You can use dried fruit--raisins or others like it will actually absorb moisture from the batter to rehydrate itself, so be sure you either have enough moisture in the batter to not get dry muffins, or give them a brief soak in water or a flavorful liquid first. You can sugar or lightly salt your fruit (or vegetable, in the case of zucchini bread), which will draw out the moisture before you use it--a technique I call the Juicy Fruit Pie Method because I never, ever make an apple or peach pie pie without doing this first. You can save and reduce the juice to use as part of your liquid later.
Something I have experimented with lately is using freeze-dried fruits. I used these and finally cracked the secret to a tasty, powerfully-flavored strawberry cupcake without any mushy bits or weak cooked fruit puree. (I saw a recipe recently in Desserts Magazine using the freeze-dried berries, too. You saw it here first, folks!!) They come in all sorts of flavors and whole, chopped or ground, make a terrific addition to your dessert.
But back to our muffins today. The basic recipe is out of a book my mom bought me a few years ago, the so called Ultimate Muffin Book. It scores high points for good tips (Always bake muffins at 400 at least) and a plethora of interesting recipes, even if it doesn't give the ingredient weights. I found that 5 oz to a cup of flour to works okay here. I chose carrot muffins, because I didn't get my birthday cake this year, and it's been awhile. I know, I know, I owe myself a good one, but I've been so busy, and so tired of doing dishes. Don't tell them, but I haven't even done the last 4 Daring Baker Challenges out of bad time management and budget. And one of them was Nanaimo Bars!!! (Please don't kick me out. I'm doing April's, I promise.)
I justified the time it would take to make muffins, with a baby making unhappy whiny-tired noises in the background by the time I was done, because it makes a wonderful grab and go breakfast. Also, the little man has two teeth now, and he's VERY into people food. Not that baby food isn't people food but really...would you eat most of that stuff?
It's a wonderful way to get carrots into your children (and husband). Plus all the other good stuff--packed into a spicy, sweet, hearty muffin or loaf bread.

Carrot-Apple Quick Bread

7.5 oz all-purpose flour (1 1/2 cups)
2.5 oz white wheat flour (1/2 cup)
2 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp kosher salt
2 tbsp granulated sugar
2 cups shredded carrots--4 medium, shredded on a box grater, measured 230g
1/2 cup dried unsulphured apples (50g), chopped
2 eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup golden brown sugar (105g)
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup plain yogurt (120g), liquid measure
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

Preheat oven to 400. Line muffin pans with papers and spray with nonstick spray, or just spray and flour tins.
Soak apples in 1 cup boiling water for 10 minutes. When plump and cool, drain very well, squeezing out all excess liquid with your hand.
Whisk dry ingredients together, including granulated sugar, in a large bowl. Mix in carrots and apples with your hands until no clumps remain and everything is coated evenly with flour.
In a medium bowl, whisk eggs and brown sugar until pale and ribbony.
In a separate bowl, mix yogurt, eggs, and vanilla and oil.
Add yogurt mixture to carrot-and-flour mixture, stir well. Gently fold in sugar-and-egg mixture, and stir until no pockets of flour remain, but do not overmix.
Portion into cups 2/3 to 3/4 full. Bake until lightly browned and toothpick comes out clean, about 20-22 minutes for standard muffins or 15-17 for minis. If doing in a loaf or tea loaf pan, this will take longer, and I really don't know how well they'd hold up...if you try it, let me know.
Makes about 24 muffins. These are totally better the next day.

If you liked this, check these out...
about Carrot Cake
Carrot Cake Cheesecake (Cheesecake Factory Copycat)
Homemade Z Bars (Breakfast Cookies)
Yeasted Carrot Loaf
Spicy Apple Quick Bread

I have...

noreply@blogger.com (Baked, By Anna) — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 20:21:00 +0000

...just-sprouted wheat berries that I'm going to let sprout a little bit more. I was inspired when I bought a yummy bag of Sprouted Grain bagels at Trader Joe's.
I'm stalling, because I haven't quite pinned down a recipe to try.
I'll let you know in a few days how this recent experiment has turned out.
Oh, and Happy Spring Holiday!

Pain a l'ancienne

noreply@blogger.com (Baked, By Anna) — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 04:33:00 +0000

OK...I'm cheating just a little bit here. It's been a busy week, with all kind of birthday stuff coming up--so I haven't had a lot of time. I promise to post my son's G I Joe Birthday cake after this Sunday's party--but for now, I'll direct you to an an old post.
The next bread in the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge is Pain a L'ancienne--Ancient Bread. It's a very, very lean dough, meaning it contains mostly just oil, water, yeast, and salt. It's a delayed cold-fermentation in the fridge that lets the flavor really come out, and is ideal for baguettes and crusty rolls--or pizza!! I made it a long time ago, so I'll send you right there--Here you go! Newer post soon, kids.

No-Bake Raspberry Cheesecake

noreply@blogger.com (Baked, By Anna) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 05:51:00 +0000

I have, for you all, a perfect warm-weather dessert. Appropriate, considering that it was 85 degrees in my town today--my coastal town. Those nasty Santa Ana winds came rolling in, hot and dry and fierce. I hate the Santa Anas...and someday, won't have to live with them any more.
Life has been hectic here. Kids are sick. I finally finished up my big giant semester report in my college class-so that will free up some time. Dogs are unfortunately causing a lot of problems too--turns out, neither of them like children. We had a dog bite recently, and the sweetest dog in the world turned out to have zero patience for my four year old. That's that. More on the dog drama later.
Back to the cheesecake! This sucker was so good. We kept at it for days, taking just a bite or two at a time--well, that was my approach. My raspberry-loving husband ate a bit more than me.
This recipe is truly a no-bake--it just has a press-in graham cracker crust, and sort of a cheesecake-flavored mousse filling. It's not as stiff as a normal cheesecake would be, but it's still excellent. Individual portions would be really excellent here, because you wouldn't have to slice it. Although you could pop it in the freezer for an hour, and that would make your life a bit easier.
This is from one of my son's favorites, the Mommy and Me Cookbook, by Annabel Karmel.

No-Bake Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake

Crust:
1 stick butter
9 oz graham crackers (one whole package plus about 2 sheets)
pinch salt
1 tbsp sugar
Raspberry Sauce:
2/3 cup powdered sugar
2 1/2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries
1/2 tsp lemon zest
Filling:
2 (8oz) packages cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1 2/3 cups whipping cream

Line a 9" springform pan with plastic wrap. (I did this. It was kind of messy, and next time I'm skipping it. Your call.)
Make crust: Crush the graham crackers until coarsely crushed, in a food processor or a ziploc bag. Melt butter in a big bowl, sprinkle in salt and sugar, and crackers, stirring til moistened. Pour into springform pan, and press firmly, until bottom is covered. Don't go up the sides--it's not getting baked, and won't hold up. Refrigerate at least 1/2 an hour.
Make raspberry sauce: Combine all ingredients in saucepan, and bring to low boil. Simmer 10 minutes, then press through a sieve until all seeds are caught. Let cool in fridge until cold. (Easier--use your favorite seedless raspberry jam, thinned with a few tablespoons of lemon juice.)
Make filling: In a mixer bowl or with stand mixer, beat cheese and sugar til smooth and lump-free. Add zest and vanilla.
In a separate bowl, whip cream until soft peaks form. Fold 1/4 of cream into cheese mixture to lighten, then fold in remaining cream til light and fluffy.
Remove crust from fridge, and pour half the filling into the pan. Pour half the raspberry sauce over that, and swirl with a skewer. (The kids love this part.) Repeat with remaining filling and sauce. Let chill at least 3 hours, and if you'd like it to slice nicely, pop it in the freezer for 30 minutes or so after that.

This is a completely delicious, easy, and oven-free dessert, perfect for summer BBQ's and dinner parties alike. If you are afraid of cheesecake--and some are!--this is the one for you. No gelatin in this one!

And yes, if you don't like raspberry, feel free to substitute strawberry puree, or peach, or lemon curd, chocolate, or caramel...mmm, that could be very tasty indeed.

Almost forgot! This is my entry for the Spring edition of Sugar High Friday, hosted this month by The Expatriate's Kitchen and created by Jen, the domestic Goddess.

Triple-Chocolate Mousse Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Baked, By Anna) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 05:31:00 +0000

I finally had a few free moments to make this beauty. I saw it on an episode of Cook's Illustrated, the TV show on PBS on the weekends, and died of lust. I waited for a month, the recipe tacked up on my fridge, before I just said the hell with it, and made the cake for no one and no occasion in particular. And I am SO glad I did. This was completely amazing.
The bottom layer--decadent in itself, a flourless chocolate cake moist enough to be served alone, maybe with a little sauce. The middle layer, an egg-free, simple chocolate "mousse" that a child could make. The same with the top--a gelatin-enhanced white chocolate "mousse" that sweetened and lightened the airy, ethereal dessert. It tastes so light, you almost forget that nearly a quart of cream and a pound of chocolate went into its creation.
I say mousse with quotes because, of course, it's not a real mousse. It's actually a type of ganache, I guess you could say, lightened with whipped cream instead of hot. It's purely chocolate and whipped cream, giving it the stability to be sliced but still maintaining that fluffy texture of a true mousse. And I'm glad the folks at the Test Kitchen faked it, because a real mousse contains raw eggs. And over here at Baked, we just don't use unpasteurized raw eggs. We are very strict about food safety! I know odds are low with salmonella and everything, but it just icks me out to think of eating them uncooked. If you would like a true mousse recipe, I hear there's a stellar one over at Smitten Kitchen, and of course my fellow food geek Joe Pastry has an excellent one .
The other think that excited me about this cake was the possibilities. They modeled it after the classic triple-layer mousse cake, dark, milk and white. But you can do soooo many things here. I immediately though of making a raspberry-flavored mousse for one of the layers, ensuring that my husband would love me forever. Oreos, my processed and hydrogenated guilty pleasure, might feature in there someday. Booze would be a welcome addition--as would a coffee flavor, a caramel note, a hint of mint, or any other flavor you might wish. Change the middle, change the top, or just add a fourth--make it your own. But do try it in its intended form first, just to get the technique down.
Though it looks impressive, this cake is easy-easy-easy, and doesn't take much actual time. If you can whip stuff and fold stuff, you have it made. Only the bottom layer gets mixed--whip and fold--then baked. Then you wait for it to cool. Melt and whip and fold the second layer. Wait. Melt and whip and fold the top. Wait. Then unmold this stunner to a chorus of impressed ooh's and ahhh's. It's definitely a dinner-party kind of cake, not only for the beauty and sophistication of it, but for the fact that it's so rich, you won't make a dent unless you have eight people to share it with!

The recipe can be found online for free, at America's Test Kitchen. All you need to do is give them your email--totally worth it for the free recipes. I have an online subscription that costs me $25 bucks a year that gives me access to the private magazine site and online magazine--and that's worth it, too!

New Post later today....

noreply@blogger.com (Baked, By Anna) — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 22:00:00 +0000

... I promise!

Reinhart's Marble Rye

noreply@blogger.com (Baked, By Anna) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:52:00 +0000

I'll admit--I was not raised on rye bread. I have never actually bought it at the store. Despite being 1/8th German, I am not a huge fan of the flavors of German food. Sauerkraut, pickles, corned beef, dill and caraway--just not among flavors you'll see pop up here. So I'll warn you now, this may not be an authentic Rye bread. I didn't use the caraway. I'm not breaking any Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge rules here--it was optional.
However, it was delicious. It had the hearty, deep flavor of a peasant or harvest bread that I absolutely adore, similar to my Boston Brown Yeast Loaf. Rye flour, molasses, cocoa powder, makes this deeply colored, moist, delicious loaf. Put together with the other loaf that leaves out the cocoa and molasses for contrast, and you have a beautiful bread as well as a tasty one.
Reinhart said about swirled breads, the most important thing is that you must use two doughs that are similar, or they won't cook up evenly. Here he actually uses pretty much the same dough, with just an addition or two.
It's only a little more difficult than a regular bread recipe, despite the gorgeous results. Just a matter of properly working with the rye flour, and then layering the doughs. One tip I would have for the bakers is to hold off on adding all the flour--my dough was a bit dry, and I had to add some water in to prevent the bread from being too stiff. And do take care when kneading--rye flour contains pentosans, a gummy substance that can ruin your bread if you're not careful. It gets kind of squishy and sticky, and can be hard to work with. Most rye breads aren't 100% rye flour, as they wouldn't have a very good texture at all, and this recipe isn't, either. So only knead for the recommended time--don't overdo it.
I won't post the recipe, as per the rules of the Challenge, but I found it Here for you if you want to try it yourself. (Do! It's delicious.)

Reinhart

noreply@blogger.com (Baked, By Anna) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:52:00 +0000

Soft and Chewy Semolina Pizza Dough (Fast!)

noreply@blogger.com (Baked, By Anna) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 20:49:00 +0000

As much as I love the simple, brilliant dough Reinhart offered in his Bread Baker's Apprentice, I can't help but tinker with it. I have my usual standby up til now, the Best Overnight Dough, but I think I may have improved upon it with one simple change. At least, if you listen to my husband, I have.
In a hurry and without a dinner plan, I made up my favorite recipe, but I knew that the lack of overnight refrigeration would give me a less than terrific dough. (I'm serious about pizza.) I've made it and used it right away before, and it just isn't as good. The overnight fermentation creates so much flavor, softens the texture, and makes for such an awesome dough--give those little yeasty beasties some time to party, and let the enzymes out to play, and you've got fabulous pizza dough. (Any dough, actually. More on that later.)

But adding just a smidge of dry milk will offer the benefits of adding fresh milk--softer texture, even crumb, nice color--without inhibiting rise. Dry milk has been treated at a high temperature, disabling enzymes that can interfere with the rise. Plus, it's darned convenient. I keep a plastic storage container of it in my fridge, to toss into bread doughs.
So sorry Peter, but I think I may have found something that suited my taste just a bit better!

Soft and Chewy Pizza Dough
by Anna

100g semolina flour
350g bread flour
45g oil
2 tbsp honey
1 1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 packet (2 1/4 tsp) instant yeast
300g warm water
8g (2 tbsp) powdered milk

Mix all ingredients together in mixer bowl, and knead by machine for 8 minutes, until dough clears the bottom of the bowl but still clings to the side when the mixer is off, and your fingers when touched--it should still be quite tacky. You can add more bread flour as needed by the teaspoon if dough is too sticky. You can also do this by hand, for about 10 minutes, but it helps to oil your hands and your board rather than flour it, or the dough will become too dry.
Divide dough into three even pieces, oil and cover each with plastic wrap, and let rise for about an hour, until doubled. (You can also divide this into three pieces, place each in an oiled bag, and refrigerate overnight up to three days. This will make the dough even better! Remove from fridge two hours before you need it.) Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 500 degrees, and place a stone on the floor of your oven, or the very bottom rack.
Working with one piece at a time, roll to about 1/2 inch thickness, which should be about a 12-inch round. Dust a piece of parchment with semolina flour or cornmeal, and place dough on it. Brush dough with olive oil. Using a peel or the flat back of a sheet pan, slide parchment and dough onto hot stone. Let bake 5 minutes, and remove from oven. Top with sauce and toppings of choice (go easy with the toppings, overloading it will lead to a denser pizza) and place back in oven for 5-7 additional minutes. The cheese should be melted and just browned, and the edges should be nicely colored. Check underneath, you should see nice dark spots and a nice crisp crust, but no blackened areas. (This may take trial and error to get it right in your oven, sometimes the bottom will burn too fast, or the top won't be done--you can try different positions until you find the right configuration.)
Remove and let rest for 5-10 minutes before slicing.

This post proudly submitted to Yeast Spotting.

Dark Chocolate-Almond Cookies

noreply@blogger.com (Baked, By Anna) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 16:49:00 +0000

I finally made these cookies. I have had Bakewise for a long time, and I finally made the chocolate chip cookies.
I made them in this:

My new baby. Isn't she gorgeous?
Of course, before she went in we had to do this:

because this awful and barely functional thing was in the way, circa 1977:

Along with its mate, a wall-mounted Magic Chef oven and broiler, also from 1977, that would consistently burn the outside edges of every cookie while leaving center ones pale and underdone, no matter how many times I turned the trays. You wouldn't believe some of the misshaped loaves of bread I pulled out of that thing--and it didn't even go up to 500 for decent pizza. It's still installed, though unplugged, and the rest of the remodel will take place in March. Point is, I got my new convection oven in, and I'm very happy. Of course, having it gives me motivation to bake, but not much more time, since I still have this to take care of:

which is actually great-- look at that face.

I changed the recipe just a little from the original, using purchased nut meal to save a step and some time, but next time I might toast and grind them myself, to see if there's much flavor difference. I also swapped almond meal for pecans, and didn't add more nuts (though I would have liked to, they were going to work with the husband and you can never can tell about nuts.) I used my favorite chocolate chips in the world, Ghirardelli 60% dark chocolate. They are bigger than tollhouse, creamier, and just taste so good. One more thing--I have made a lot of Shirley's recipes, and she has "an extreme sweet tooth" as she puts it. I reduced sugar by 1/4 cup, because I hate cookies that are too sweet.
These are incredibly tender cookies. Replacing some of the flour with nut meal not only adds a wonderful flavor that you can sneak by the nut-haters, but it inhibits some of the gluten from forming and leaves you with a fantastic texture. Of all the tinkering I've done with my own recipe, I'm just mad I didn't think to do this sooner.

Dark Chocolate-Almond Cookies

150g (1 1/2 cups) almond meal
285g (2 1/4 cups) all-purpose flour
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp baking soda
pinch cinnamon
2 sticks (8oz) butter, softened to about 65 degrees
250g (1 1/4 cups) white sugar
1 tbsp molasses
1 tbsp vanilla
2 eggs, room temp
12 oz (2 cups) 60% dark chocolate chips

In a medium bowl mix flour, nut meal, salt, soda, and cinnamon well.
In a large mixer bowl, cream together the sugar and butter til very light and creamy, about 4-5 minutes. Add molasses, then eggs, and vanilla, scraping well. Turn speed to low and add dry mixture in about 3 additions, beating til just blended. Remove from mixer and beat in chocolate chips.
Cover and chill dough for 30 minutes, or up to 2 days. (Can also portion into cookies, freeze on a tray, and pack into a ziploc for future baking at this point.)
Preheat oven to 350.
Line tray with parchment or silicone, and arrange 2 inches apart, 12 to a sheet. Bake for 9-12 minutes, until just colored. You wat them to look just slightly underdone--they will stay nice and soft that way. Leave on hot tray at least 5-10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool.
Makes about 3-4 dozen, depending on size.

This has become my new favorite cookie recipe....at least until my uncle can find it in his heart to share his.

A Daring Christmas, a Loaf of Bread, and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

noreply@blogger.com (Baked, By Anna) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 23:37:00 +0000

You must excuse me--I've stepped away from my computer for a bit. Through the holiday ruckus, a sick baby, my own brutal winter cold, and now a mystery ailment that has taken a lot of the function from my right hand--I haven't kept up as I should. And I feel bad, because the holidays are a prime baking time. I have baked some, but not as much as I should have. And blogging is a bit more difficult now that my hand is quite painful to use.
But I wanted to catch up on a few little things I managed to snap photos of. One being my Daring Bakers post for December, which is dreadfully late. I had a lot of fun making a gingerbread house with my kids--although it won't win any awards for either architecture or aesthetics. I was hurried as usual, and distracted (also as usual these days) and my construction materials didn't exactly line up. We used a lot of icing mortar, let's say. I let my kids do all the decorating for each of their houses. I had originally intended to make another house and get it right, do it nicely, but ran out of time and frankly, lacked motivation. I've been sick almost the entire month of December.

Second project--Reinhart's Light Wheat Bread, for the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge. This was a simple loaf, using what I normally use in my own recipes--most similar to my Everyday Bread. It's an easy, lightly sweet, straightforward loaf of sandwich bread, and it was delicious. Made me remember last year, or the year before, when I had the time to bake bread three times a week. Life before baby.

I hate to be one of those people who has lots of excuses. I started this blog with two older kids, living in a rental. I now have two kids in school and a baby, we're homeowners trying to remodel and I'm going to take a class this Spring--back to college. So I just don't have the spare time I used to. Not so much excuses, but reasons for my long gaps between posts. I'm not abandoning the blog--but I'm busy!

Baked By Anna

A quick note...

BBA Pannetone

You Want Pie With That?

Gale Gand's Butterscotch Pudding

I made pudding!

Up to my old tricks...the BBA Challenge Returns

Recipe Review--Chewy Chocolate-Raisin Cookies By Martha

Coming Soon...

Fig and Pecan Quick Bread

Birthday Cake!! And the Best Chocolate Frosting, Ever.

Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake

Ingredients

cake

frosting

special equipment

Preparation

cake

FROSTING

BBA Pain a 'Ancienne, reboot

Away too long...

Catching up...

Well, I made muffins.

I have...

Pain a l'ancienne

No-Bake Raspberry Cheesecake

Triple-Chocolate Mousse Cake

New Post later today....

Reinhart's Marble Rye

Reinhart

Soft and Chewy Semolina Pizza Dough (Fast!)

Dark Chocolate-Almond Cookies

A Daring Christmas, a Loaf of Bread, and a Partridge in a Pear Tree