Chocolate Stout Cake

This rendition of Garrett McCord’s (Vanilla Garlic) version (posted on Simply Recipes) of Nigella Lawson’s Chocolate Guinness Cake finshed off the evening. This simple to make cake is dense and satisfying with a not too sweet cream cheese frosting. Whenever you have a stout or porter in the house, hide a bottle from the beer drinkers and make this cake. It takes only 1 cup of beer so you can have the rest of the bottle for you! 


Bow Ties (aka Dahn-Sahn)

Called "dahn-sahn" in Cantonese (the term translatres to shattered eggs, which these pastries somewhat resemble as they bubble and expand when fried in hot oil), these are the ultimate in Chinese pastries.  Melt-in-your-mouth crisp sweetness, nuttiness from sesame seeds, and deep-fried - what's not to like about dahn-sahn?  Loosely resembling bow ties, dahn sahn are made with an egg and wheat flour dough dipped in syrup and sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds.  There are several steps, and while making them takes several hours and causes a mess, there's no better way to enjoy the time with the loved one who enjoys making them for you.

Steps:
1.  Toast sesame seeds
2.  Start syrup
3.  Make dahn sahn
4.  Deep fry dahn sahn
5.  Coat in syrupSprinkle with sesame seeds
6.  Get the water going for the tea

Orange Sorbet

 

Who needs vanilla ice cream?

4^th of July.  It’s sweltering in Sacramento.  No delta breezes in the evening to cool off the day.  Anything under triple digits is considered a “cooling trend”.  The air conditioner is working on overtime.

Time to bring out the ice cream maker. 

Great-Aunt Ellen's Upside Down Lemon Pudding Cakes

Ooohh....these are good.  These are really good. Almost as good as limoncello. They taste like they're time-consuming to make but they're not. They're sooooo fast to put together! They keep for a couple days in the fridge (so you can dazzle unexpected dinner guests). And, they can be enjoyed warm, at room temp, or straight from the fridge. What could be better?

America's culinary history talks about pudding cakes and somehow the lemon version morphed into an automatic two-layer job - as the concoction bakes, a soft lemon pudding separates from the light layer cake (how does that work?). Someone’s Aunt Ellen must have staked her reputation on these refreshing desserts as cookbooks and the web talk non-stop about that Aunt Ellen.  By the time this recipe trickled down to this blog, it became Great-Aunt Ellen's Upside-Down Lemon Pudding Cake.  The pudding's a little softer than in other versions floating around - the lack of structure adds to the old fashiony feel and luscious taste of this delicious dessert.

Don't let the bain-marie scare you off, it's a piece of cake (uh, sorry for the pun).

Snowballs

Pecan Bells. Mexican Wedding Cookies.  Butterballs.  Russian Tea Cakes.  Called many names but always yummy, these rich not-too-sweet nutty shortbread cookies are particularly popular around the winter holidays.  They look great on a cookie tray!

Tip:  when making several cookie doughs for your Christmas baking sessions , write the name of the cookie when wrapping up the dough to put in the fridge.  Egg nog can cause blurry vision and after awhile, cookie doughs start looking alike.

Sugar-Coated Spiced Pecans

When these nuts are baking in the oven, your house will be the best smelling place in your neighborhood.  The aromatic cinnamon and vanilla aromas take you to the European Christkindlmarkts where street vendors sell these warm sugar-coated nuts in cone-shaped bags to shoppers bundled to stay warm in the crisp wintery temperatures.

Toffee Walnut Butter Crunch

Ooooh...this is the stuff that the gourmet food stores sell for mega bucks.  Crunchy, buttery walnut toffee coated in chocolate and dusted with walnuts.  It’s a food group all by itself! And, it's easier to make than it looks. 

Peppermint Bark

This peppermint bark has only two ingredients - peppermint candies and white chocolate.  That’s it?  Very easy to make and makes a nice hostess gift during the winter holidays.

Five-Minute Fudge

It's true.

You can really make this fudge in 5 minutes.  It's foolproof and the results are, well, this smooth and rich  fudge will satisfy anyone's wild chocolate craving no matter what time of day or for any reason, certifiable or not. 

Double Jolts

To easily line pans with foil, turn pan upside down and place foil on the outside.  Smooth sides to made neat corners.  Gently remove foil, turn over pan, and guide foil into pan, ensuring corners "fit".

Spray bottom and sides of pan with a non-stick coating.

If your butter is cold, cut up butter into small pieces and put into a non-metal mixing bowl.  Soften butter in microwave for 30 seconds, check, and re-microwave if needed in 15 second increments. 



An easy way to toast a small amount of nuts is to toast them in a frying pan over medium-high heat on the stove. Watch carefully and stir often.  When the nuts are finished toasting, place nuts into a dish so that they don't continue cooking in the pan.

After creaming the butter and brown sugar, add the coffee, molasses, egg yolk, and vanilla extract.  Mix well with an electric beater.











Add the salt and flour to the wet ingredients and mix well by hand. Spread the dough as evenly as possible into prepared pan.  Using a couple of wet fingers can help spread the dough. The surface doesn't need to be smooth as it will even out during baking.

See how smooth the surface is after baking?  Smooth the chocolate chips over the surface using an offset spatula.











Sprinkle almonds over the melted chocolate and give the nuts a gentle nudge into the chocolate.

Cool completely on a wire rack and cut with a sharp knife.

Double Jolts

3     Tbls. instant espresso powder or 3 1/2 Tbls. dark instant coffee, dissolved in 2 Tbls. hot 

        water

1      cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1      cup dark brown sugar, packed

1/2   cup unsulphered molasses

1      egg yolk, large

2      tsp. vanilla extract

1/2   tsp. salt

2      cup unbleached flour

1      cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2   cup sliced almonds

Dissolve instant espresso or coffee in hot water; set aside to cool.  Toast sliced almonds; set aside to cool. Line a 13"x9" baking pan with foil; spray with non-stick coating.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine butter and brown sugar in a medium bowl and mix with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.  Add molasses, egg yolk, vanilla extract, and dissolved espresso; mix well.  With a wooden spoon, stir in salt and flour.  Spread dough evenly in prepared pan.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the sides pull away from sides of pan and center springs back when gently depressed.  Remove pan from oven and turn off oven heat.  Evenly sprinkle chocolate chips over top of bars and return pan to oven for 2-3 minutes to melt chips (chips will look shiny).

Remove pan from oven and with an offset spatula, swirl chocolate chips, covering tops of bars.  Sprinkle with toasted almonds, gently pressing nuts into chocolate.  Cool completely on a wire rack.  When completely cool, remove bars from pan by lifting the opposite ends of the foil onto a large cutting board.  Smooth the foil and cut with a sharp knife using a downward cut.

Store in a tightly covered container between sheets of wax paper for up to one week.  Makes about 24-36 bars.

Biscotti

While listening to holiday music, Pachabel's Canon in D was included in the play set and I thought of biscotti.  Hmmm.. Italian biscotti and German Baroque composer...somehow in my head they're related.  Anyway, like in most countries, every micro-region has its own version of culinary dishes, and these differences are often driven by the ready availability of ingredients or the cook's preferences. 

This biscotti recipe provides a reliable dough base to invent your own micro-regional version.  Using olive oil instead of butter, it is more rustic (less cholesterol so that you can eat more) and holds up well when dunked into hot coffee or tea. If you prefer softer middles, slice and then bake for a lesser amount of time than specified or don't second bake at all.  Create your own favorites by substituting your add-ins - orange zest and almonds dipped in bittersweet chocolate; rosemary, pecans and lemon zest; cinnamon, walnuts and raisins - the opportunities to design your signature biscotti are endless! 

No mixer needed!