TWD Chocolate Souffle

There's dessert and then there's DESSERT, souffle falls into the latter category. The magic of eggs and sugar whipped and folded together to create a puffy dessert that must be served immediately. Fun to make, serve and especially to eat. Thanks to Susan of She’s Becoming DoughMessTic for choosing this recipe. You can find the recipe for the chocolate souffle on her website.

Souffle's are amazingly easy to make. Some people find them nerve-wrecking, but as long as your ingredients are room temp, and you can whip your whites properly; it's a piece of cake (or souffle in this case). The only change I made to the recipe was I halved it because I was making it for two. I also added a pinch of salt to the egg whites and reduced the overall sugar by 1 tablespoon to bring out the chocolate flavor.


(Souffles as soon as they came out of the oven)


The souffles were just lovely. Airy and very chocolaty. Joe liked them so much he ate two! We pair the souffle with Schweiger Port VII which was perfect with the souffles.





For dinner that night we made a simple risotto with just a bit of finely chopped asparagus topped with an asparagus bacon garnish and buttery seared scallops. We paired our risotto with Patrick Bouland Chiroubles 2006, which was a perfect wine for this dish. Though most people wouldn't pair a red wine with a scallop dish we chose it because it was a nice light Beaujolais. We prefer reds to whites in general, so we frequently drink Beaujolais with meals that are more white friendly. As far as meals go, our scallop risotto and chocolate souffle night will go down as one of the top 10 meals of 2009.

Chocolate Cake with Mocha Icing

At Sofra we make a cake that I like to call a mayo cake. We whip eggs and sugar together then we whip in olive oil very slowly creating an emulsion very similar to an aioli. The resulting cake is amazing. It's moist with a beautiful crumb structure.

The emulsion in that recipe reminded me of some of the older cookbooks I have which contain recipes for cakes with Mayonnaise. Never one to fear mayo, I decided to try out a chocolate cake recipe fromThe Wooden Spoon Dessert book. I tweaked the recipe a bit, but mainly stayed true to it. It's a great recipe to make if you're in a pinch and need to whip up something fast (as is the following icing recipe from the same book). The cake tastes lovely and you would never know the "secret" ingredient.



Chocolate Cake adapted from The Wooden Spoon Dessert Book by Marilyn Moore
Preheat oven 350F
Grease a 9x12" pan (I used mini bundt pans)

Sift together:
2 cups AP flour
4 Tablespoons cocoa powder (I used Vahlrona)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

In another bowl mix together:
1 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup granulated sugar

Add alternately (3 dry:2 coffee), blending after each addition
reserved dry ingredeints
1 cup cold coffee (I had instant espresso, so I made 1 1/2 cups of hot espresso; chilling one cup and reserving the other half for the icing)

Fold in:
3 oz 70% chocolate (I used Lindt)

Bake in a 9x12 pan fro about 30 minutes or in mini bundt pans for 23.

Quick mocha frosting
again adapted from The Wooden Spoon
Sift into mixing bowl:
1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
1 tablespoon cocoa powder

whisk together, then add

4 tablespoons soft butter
pinch salt
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
4 tablespoons of warm espresso (from extra brewed for cake)

I wanted this icing to be runny, so I increased her recipe from 2T coffee to 4T espresso.

TWD Katherine Hepburn Brownies

Lisa of Surviving Oz chose Katherine Hepburn brownies as this week's TWD recipe. I had made these once before using the optional cinnamon and wasn't thrilled. Today I decided to make them without the cinnamon, and kept my fingers crossed that I would like them.

Shockingly enough, I'm a bit chocolated out. After the brownies I made for my dad, and the grandmother's cookies from Martha… I'm ready for some vanilla or fruit.

The recipe was very easy to make. You melt your butter then add cocoa powder and espresso powder. Next beat in your eggs and vanilla; followed by dry ingredients and chocolate chunks. I love that this recipe is done by hand so quickly. The resulting batter is dark, dark, dark studded with bits of lovely bittersweet chocolate.





I left the brownies in the oven for an additional 5 minutes because they were still liquid after 30 minutes of baking. After reading a bit online, it seems like I should have used a metal pan instead of a glass for them to bake in the 30 minute zone. Regardless, these brownies are good. Their intense fudginess almost screams for vanilla ice cream. Luckily, I didn't have any on hand...these are so fudgy that you can't eat too many. As far as brownies go, I still prefer the Scharfenberger recipe to this one. That being said, I would be proud to serve these to company.

 

(Not my) Grammy’s Chocolate Cookies

Martha strikes again. Grammy's chocolate cookies are addicting, chewy, crunchy (from the turbinado) and insanely chocolaty. They spread a lot while baking and become very flat; making them the perfect cookie for sandwiching with some vanilla ice cream.

For the recipe, please reference Martha Stewart's Cookies or visit Martha's website here.

The only difference I saw between the two recipes is the book calls for an additional 2 tablespoons of AP flour; and it calls for rolling the cookies in sanding sugar (not granulated). I highly suggest rolling the cookies in either turbinado or sanding sugar. Sanding and turbinado sugars add a nice crunch to baked items because they typically don't dissolve in the oven.



Another suggestion I have is use the best cocoa powder you can get your hands on. The cocoa flavor dominates this cookie, so the better the cocoa powder the better the cookie.

My Dad’s Brownies

I take after my mom for my never ending desire to bake; and my dad for my never ending desire to eat baked goods. Growing up, we used to hide boxes of cookies under a basket turned upside down on top of the fridge, so that he couldn't find them. The funny thing is for all the cookies he ate back then, he was still in great shape (why didn't I take after him for that!). Now, my dad is over 50 and eats much healthier than back then. No more sweets for him, he's taking care of his heart. Every now and then though, he will indulge; and the following brownies are the perfect reason. They are dense, chewy and chocolaty.

A little over two years ago, I made 16 batches of these brownies for my wedding reception. That's when my dad fell in love with them. I can't tell you have many times during the wedding weekend he said how good they were, or better yet; how many times he's brought them up since the wedding. He LOVES these brownies. So, for Father's day this year, I decided to send him something he would actually like (I bet you can guess what).

The brownie recipe comes from The Essence of Chocolate by John Scharffenberger and Robert Steinberg. It is a beautiful cookbook full of great chocolate recipes and really interesting information on chocolate. I highly recommend it. The recipe can also be found here.

TWD Chipster Brownies

Beth of Supplicious decided on Chipster-Topped Brownies as this weeks TWD recipe. What exactly are chipster-topped brownies you ask? Only a brownie with a chocolate chip cookie layer on top! If it sounds like a dream come true, you should go over to Beth's blog for the recipe.

I was fortunate to have people to serve these extremely rich brownies to. My parents threw a memorial day party at the log cabin they are building in North Hero, VT. Joe and I loaded the dog, all the my baking ingredients and a ton of other stuff into the car on Sunday after work and drove to VT. We were so lucky because the weather was perfect, and most of my mom's side of the family was able to make it. It was fun to see all my relatives, and nice to bake something so appealing for all of them.

Both batters were easy to make and the bar was fast to assemble. First you make the brownie layer and then the chocolate chip cookie topping.






I baked it for about 50 minutes.



The brownie part was a little underdone, but that was intentional. Everyone loved these bars, even my dog, Mason wanted some:


I thought they were okay, but way too sweet for me. I loved the brownie layer, but the cookie topping was lackluster. If someone asked for them, I would make them again; but I think I prefer my cookies and brownies separate.

Chocolate Cream Tart (TWD)

There are some desserts that need little to no explanation. Introducing today's TWD chocolate cream tart. Slightly bitter tart shell with silky chocolate pastry cream and sinful whipped cream.

For this recipe please visit Kim of Scrumptious Photography. Her photography truly is scrumptious.

Enjoy.

TWD Four Star Chocolate Bread Pudding

I am no stranger to bread pudding. It is something I have made on countless occasions while working in the baking and pastry field. At Sofra we make a special brown butter bread pudding on weekends that people swoon for. While at Henrietta's we made a chocolate bread pudding with a banana rum caramel sauce. At Bouchon we made hotel pans of chocolate bread pudding and would cut them into cylinder shapes and top with a canele of caramel whipped cream. So much bread pudding in such a short career (now almost 4 years).

Since I've had so much exposure to bread pudding I wasn't planning on making this recipe. Also, the truth is bread pudding doesn't really do it for me. I'm not a huge custard fan, and I usually find it to be a bit boring. I decided to make this because I had a little bit of stale bread left over from the Oatmeal Bulgur bread I made on Sunday. I couldn't stand to see this bread go to waste, so I decided to make a very small batch based on Dorie's recipe. I made 1/6 of the recipe and changed it a bit. I didn't have whole milk or heavy cream, so I subbed skim and evaporated milk. Also, I read in the P&Q section of TWD that it wasn't chocolaty enough, so I added a little cocoa powder. Here's the recipe as I made it. For the actual recipe was Dorie would make visit Lauren of Upper East Side Chronicle. She picked this TWD recipe.

Extra Chocolaty Chocolate Bread Pudding

2 ounces of cubed bread

A small handful of dried cherries

½ cup of skim milk

2 Tbsp plus 2 tsps Evaporated whole milk

1 scant Tbsp Valhrona cocoa powder

1 large egg

1 Tbsp plus 2 tsps sugar

1 ¼ ounce Scharfenberger 70% finely chopped.

Put the cubed bread and cherries in a bowl large enough to hold about 2 cups. Bring skim milk, evaporated milk and cocoa powder just to a boil in a small sauce pan whisking frequently. Once the liquids come to a boil whisk together the sugar and egg. In a very slow stream pour the hot liquid into the egg sugar mixture whisking constantly. Once all your liquid is in the bowl. Strain the hot liquid onto the chocolate. (Side note: I have no idea why she doesn't say to strain the custard, as a rule of thumb it's a very good idea to always strain custards). Whisk the custard/chocolate mixture till all the chocolate melts. Pour the mixture onto the cubed bread and cherries.



Let sit for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bring some water to a boil for your water bath. Carefully take your soaked bread cubes and cherries out of the custard putting it into a ramekin (I used an 8 oz ramekin). Try not to man handle your cubes too much or else they will disintegrate. Pour your custard remaining custard up to the line in the ramekin (not the very top).



Place your ramekin into a larger dish that has tall sides and is oven safe (I used a larger ramekin). Pour your hot water into the larger dish to create a water bath.



Carefully put your dishes into the oven and bake for 33 minutes (till a knife comes out clean).

When the bread pudding was in the oven, I realized the recipe didn't call for salt. I'm a huge fan of salt, so I decided to make a salted caramel to go along side the pudding. Unfortunately, I didn't measure it out, but essentially all I did was I put about 3/4 cup of sugar in a pan and brought it to the caramel stage. Then I poured in some evaporated milk (maybe ¼ cup), added a touch of butter and a very healthy amount of fleur de sel. Whisked all that together, and there was my salted caramel sauce.

We ate the bread pudding and caramel sauce warm. They were very nice together, but I think next time I would also add some vanilla ice cream to even things out. Will I make this again? Sure, if I have left-over bread. I think the Oatmeal Bulgur bread was perfect in this, there was no hint of "healthiness" (from the bread) in this chocolate bread pudding. It was all about indulgent chocolate, custard and caramel.

Chocolate Amaretti Torte

Today's TWD recipe 15 minute chocolate amaretti torte was chosen by Holly of Phe/MOM/enon.

I went to Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge, MA looking for Amaretti cookies. Formaggio is one of the places I've been trying to go to for a while, but because of parking issues haven't. The weather on Saturday was pretty bad, so I decided to take my chances and park in a resident only spot. I have found that in Cambridge there is a direct correlation between weather and parking tickets. Good weather = tons of tickets. Bad weather = less tickets. I knew I would be in and out quickly, so I wasn't too worried. They had an assortment of amaretti cookies, but not the ones Dorie suggested. I purchased Doria Amaretti cookies, and I'm glad I did. I am surprised how much I liked these little cookies. They are so crisp and slightly over baked; in the extra-caramelized-kind-of-way that I love. The back of the bag suggests dipping the cookies in red wine. We tried this, but decided they are much better alone or dipped in milk. We like our red wine without cookie crumbs.

The torte truly lived up to it's name. From start to finish it was in the oven in 15 minutes. Making it reminded me of why I splurged on a food processor last year. It made the whole "process" so easy. The recipe says the cake takes 25-30 minutes to bake. My cake ended up baking an extra 4 minutes (34 total) with a knife coming out with some streaks.


The next morning I made the chocolate glaze, which was easy too. I love that the recipe suggests putting the chocolate in a "pourable" container. It makes glazing the cake so easy.

Overall, this was a delicious cake. Since I knew it would be extremely rich; I cut the cake into 12 slices. The portion size was just perfect; anything bigger would have resulted in leftover cake on plates (ugh!). As far as cake goes, I prefer traditional cakes to tortes. To me, traditional American style cakes (think devils food with vanilla butter cream) are more satisfying because you can eat more! That being said; I will make this cake again because other people loved it; and well, it's not always about me.

 

 

TWD Caramel Crunch Bars

Whitney of What's left on the table? chose Caramel Crunch Bars as this week's TWD recipe. I made these delicious bars a while back and sandwiched them with ice cream. They were truly decadent. Today, I made a half batch knowing how addictingly good they would be. There's no sense in setting myself up to eat a 9x13 pan of these goodies.

One thing most people don't know about me is that though I am a pastry chef, I can't find a thing at the grocery store. Honestly, I used to know my way around a grocery store till I move to St. Helena. Anyone who's ever been to the Stop and Shop (or is it a Star market?) knows what I'm talking about. The butter is in the beer isle. THE BUTTER IS IN THE BEER ISLE!!!! That makes no sense at all, and one day I spent a good 15 minutes looking for butter! Once I finally got used to grocery stores in Northern California, we moved back to Boston, so here I am lost once again. The only place where I can get in and out quickly is Trader Joe's, and that's only because it's so small. All that being said, I decided that rather than spending an hour looking for Heath Toffee bits at the grocery store, I would be better off making toffee at home. I'm not sure where I got this recipe, but it's pretty good, and really easy. The only change I would make for next time is to cook it a little longer. I cooked the candy to 294F, but I think I should have gone up to at least 300F. After reading some recipes afterwards I discovered some people cook their toffee to as high as 310F. Here's the recipe I used:

½ # Butter

1 cup Sugar

1 Tbsp Corn Syrup

1 tsp Kosher Salt

3 Tbsp water

Method: Put it all in a heavy bottomed pan. Stir frequently and bring mixture to 300 degrees (see above). Pour onto a silpat and let harden.

This toffee recipe will make more than enough toffee for the caramel crunch bars (full size).

The recipe for the bars is super easy. Basic creaming method followed by vanilla extract then dry ingredients and chopped chocolate. I love that this recipe calls for instant espresso powder for two reasons. One is that the bitterness of the espresso powder balances the sweetness of the bar itself. Second I'm happy to be using one of the obscure items in my pantry.

These bars are very good. I think I prefer them sandwiching vanilla ice cream then on their own though. Next time I make them with the intention on serving them as bars, I will use less chocolate on top and I'll sprinkle some sea salt in addition to toffee on top of the bars.

TWD Baked or Unbaked Deliciousness

World peace cookie dough is the best unbaked dough I've ever made at home.** Friends who knows me really well (especially in a work environment) know the years of research and caloric intake it took to make such a bold statement. Prior to culinary school I was a bit squeamish about tasting anything raw, but my friend and schoolmate Erin clued me in to how good doughs and batters were raw. Erin even went so far as to eat raw yeasted dough-more than once! (Side note-Erin, maybe you're actually growing a chocolate cherry loaf in your belly?) Thanks to Erin, I've been trying raw cookie dough ever since and I'm proud to say that I think it's made my immune system stronger!

So yes, World peace cookies are amazing raw (no raw eggs to worry about either, so you can go crazy). They are also amazingly simple to put together. Good ingredients are key to making these cookies amazing.


I made my cookies with Valrhona cocoa powder, fleur de sel from Brittany and a combo of Scharffenberger 70% and Callebaut milk chocolate. Those ingredients with fresh butter and King Arthurs flour combined to create an addicting chocolate cookie.




The salt in these cookies really brightens the flavors of the chocolate, and makes them feel more "adult." Thanks to Jessica of Cookbookhabit for chosing this recipe. You can find the recipe at her website.

 

**Sofra employees know that the best unbaked cookie dough in a bakery is either Maureo or Chocolate Chunk (the debate will never end-they are both that good).

 

TWD Caramel Peanut Topped Brownie Cake

How fabulous is this cake?

1. I've made it 4 times in the past year.
   
2. Peanut butter, caramel and chocolate.
   
3. Beautiful, shiny caramel topping for extra sparkle.
   
4. It's impossible to have just one piece.
   

Someone had to pick this recipe, and I'm glad that Tammy of Wee Treats by Tammy did just that. I can't wait to see how much the other TWD'ers loved this recipe.

The recipe is very straight forward. I have a few pointers to help anyone who is going to make this cake based on my own experience.

1. Make sure to not overcook your cake. When you think about it, it's a brownie cake, and honestly; who doesn't love a brownie that's a little underdone? I made the mistake of drinking a little too much vino while making the cake for Thanksgiving last year. Oops, I left it in the oven a little too long. It wasn't burned, but it was too dry for my liking.
   
2. Watch your caramel very closely. It can go from beautiful amber to bitter black very quickly. Also, never add cold cream to a caramel. It results in major caramel eruptions. Instead, slightly warm the cream, or at least make sure it's room temp. The caramel will still sputter when the cream is added, but not nearly as much as it would if adding cold cream.
   

I hope everyone enjoyed this cake as much as I have in the past.