A bouquet of muffins

Today's muffins were inspired by using up stuff in my fridge.  I had a bunch of cream that needed to be used in something.  What does that have to do with muffins?  Well, with the help of a bit of buttermilk and a bunch of time, I turned the cream into creme fraiche.  Of course, once I had that on hand, I had to find some recipes to use it.  Eat Your Books to the rescue!  When I searched for creme fraiche and muffins, one of the first recipes to come up was Chocolate Chunk Muffins from The Essence of Chocolate by John Scharffenberger and Robert Steinberg.  As much as I love chocolate, I don't pull that book off the shelf often enough.

Baking muffins also gave me a chance to try out something new that I bought recently.  I've eyed the tulip-shaped cupcake papers in the KAF catalog on more than one occasion, but couldn't decide if I wanted to get them.  Then recently, my local grocery store started carrying these from PaperChef.  As I've mentioned before, I have a habit of saving things instead of using them, and I'm trying to do better. =)

The verdict?  The muffins are quite rich, definitely not something for every day.  But they are quite tasty, and Brianna & Gillian certainly approved.  The best thing, though, may have been the tulip papers.  I really like the fact that they're taller, which makes them perfect for batters that might spread.  It drives me crazy when muffin or cupcake tops run into each other and stick to the top of the pan.  The papers neatly prevent that issue.

If you'd like to give these muffins a try, you can find the recipe in The Essence of Chocolate, or here online.

Some assembly required

I've decided that I like this whole wrap-around vacation thing that I did this time.  I was off starting on the 4th, and went back to work yesterday.  It was long enough for a good rest, and I got to have two short work weeks!  I can definitely see myself doing this again, especially since we don't usually go anywhere when I'm off--I'm just making sure that I use my vacation time so I don't lose it.  

It's amazing how getting somewhat caught up on sleep can improve your whole outlook on life.  As I mentioned in my last post, I was totally stressed out by everything that was going on in my life.  I was having a great Twitter conversation with my friends Rebecca & Abby on Tuesday (before I went back to work) about the fact that I was mostly in need of an attitude adjustment.  Work is what it is, and I need to pay the bills.  Heck, I actually mostly like what I do, and I'm darn good at it.  But I need to learn to leave work at work.  I don't mean that I actually bring stuff home, since my job isn't the sort where I can really do that.  I mean that I need to do a better job of shifting gears mentally so that I don't bring the stress home with me.  Easier said than done, I'm sure, but I have to start somewhere.  

One of the things that I've been doing this summer is participating in an online course that focuses on bringing more play, rest and kindness into our lives on a daily basis.  I realized that my worrying about work so much was interfering with my rest for sure, and meant that I was seldom in the mood for any play.  And I need to be kinder to myself.  One of the messages from earlier this week was, "You are enough. (it's true)"  Too often, I feel like I'm not at all close to being enough.  But if I keep telling myself that I am, maybe I'll start to believe it.

So what does the dessert pictured here have to do with all this?  Well, it was part of my attempt to "play" more.  I bake for a couple of reasons.  For one, I really enjoy making things for others--I like seeing them happy, and enjoy the compliments I receive, too. =)  But I also bake because I like to "play around," as Dorie Greenspan says.  I like to see what will happen if I change things up a bit with a recipe, or take components from different places and put them together in new ways.  

I have to admit, the mini parfait idea was inspired by a show on (I think) Cooking Channel.  They profiled a bakery called Vanilla Bakeshop that does these in a variety of flavors.  My first thought was that it was a cool idea.  My second was, "I can do that!"  I treated myself to a visit to Crate & Barrel while I was on vacation, and among other things, I came home with several 3-oz shot glasses.  So then I just had to figure out what to put in them.  I could have used crumbled cookies or bits of cake, but then I remembered these Cocoa Crumbs that Dorie posted about recently.  Naturally, I had to experiment--I did two half-batches, one with Valrhona dutch-processed cocoa, and one with Scharffen Berger natural cocoa.  For the pudding-y part, I turned to Dorie again, this time pulling out my copy of Baking, which has a recipe for creamy chocolate pastry cream in the back of the book.  I whipped up some cream, and started layering.  (A pastry bag & piping tip make it much easier to get the pastry cream and whipped cream neatly into the tall, skinny containers.)  At the last minute, I also drizzled in some raspberry sauce, since I love the combination of raspberry with chocolate.  

The verdict?  Mmm, we really enjoyed these delightful desserts.  The small size is just enough to get a good taste of everything without feeling like you're overindulging.  The crumbs made with the Dutch-processed cocoa are very reminiscent of Oreos, which isn't a bad thing, but I really enjoyed the ones with natural cocoa, too.  They had a more interesting character.  I hope you'll experiment for yourself to see which you like better.  I'll be making more of these soon--I can't wait to try different flavor combinations.  

Heart of darkness

I didn't have Valentine's Day in mind when I made these brownies.  I just really wanted some chocolate.  The heart shape came about because brown squares aren't terribly photogenic. =)  I feel a little like a copycat, posting these Sweet and Salty Brownies relatively soon after my friend Tracey did. I admit, she was the immediate inspiration, but I've actually made them about 4 times in the past year.   Unfortunately, until this most recent batch, I didn't manage to take any pictures of them so I could actually post about them.  We were too busy eating them. =)  The brownies come from a cookbook that I picked up after Christmas last year--Baked Explorations.  This was actually was the first recipe that I made from the book.  (And I really need to delve into it more than I have so far.)  The recipe makes a 13"x9" pan, and since the brownies are really rich, I always cut them small, so there are plenty to share.  

To make the brownies, the first thing you do is make a salted caramel sauce.  I've mentioned before that I became a much bigger caramel fan after I discovered what a difference it makes to add salt to it.  With a full teaspoon of fleur de sel as well as some sour cream, this particular caramel sauce has a complexity to it that I really enjoy.  The next step is to make brownie batter.  I like mine bittersweet, so I used some 70% El Rey for the chocolate.  The recipe also calls for dark cocoa powder, like Valrhona.  I prefer natural cocoa; since there isn't any leavening that would be affected, I went with my preference and used Scharffen Berger cocoa powder.  Once the brownie batter is made, you spread half of it in your prepared pan--I line my Pyrex pan with non-stick foil rather than parchment.  Next you drizzle some of the caramel over the batter, and spread it to form a thin layer.  Finally, you top it with the remaining brownie batter, then stick the pan in a 350º oven.  (My brownies took 30 minutes to bake.)  Once they come out of the oven, you sprinkle the top with a mix of fleur de sel and coarse sugar; I used turbinado sugar for mine.  

The verdict?  Well, as I mentioned above, these brownies are very rich, and very delicious.  I love salt with chocolate as well as with caramel.  I also prefer fudgy brownies (as opposed to cakey ones), and these are definitely in my favorite category.  Everyone here loved them, as did my coworkers.  They've also been a hit at the daycare when I've taken them there in the past.  

If you'd like to try these for yourself, you can find the recipe in Baked Explorations.  You can also find it all over the web, but I encourage you to check out the cookbook (maybe your local library has it!) since there are lots of other great recipes in it.  Hopefully I can manage to make and blog about some more of them soon. =)

One little word

Happy New Year!  Hopefully 2012 is treating you all well so far.  My year started with house guests and a busy work schedule, so I haven't had much time for blogging.  But I had this weekend off, which means time to bake, so I now I have a bunch of stuff to share.  First, though, I wanted to write about my ideas for what I want for my life in 2012.

I don't do New Year's resolutions.  But last week, I read an intriguing post on my friend Anandi's blog. Rather than starting off the year with resolutions, she came up with a single word to use as her theme for the year.  She shared a post from Ali Edwards, who has been doing One Little Word for a number of years now.  The idea is to come up with one word that stands for what you want for yourself for the year.  I started reading through the comments on Ali's post where others had shared the words they picked and why they chose them.  Some were interesting, but after a little bit of reading I found the one that really spoke to me.  FOCUS.  That's what I want for my life this year.  

I struggle a lot with stress and anxiety--I'm a worrier by nature.  The more things that are going on, the more I feel overwhelmed and unable to figure out where to start.  So I don't.  I just shut down and avoid dealing with anything.  I also worry way too much about being perfect and about what others think, instead of figuring out what's right for me.  Already, I see my daughter Brianna (who'll be nine this month) struggling with these same things.  I want to provide a better example for her.  I need to focus on doing a better job of taking care of me so I can do a better job of taking care of everyone and everything else.  I need to focus and handle one thing at a time.  Heck, I need to slow down and figure out which things really need to be handled by me, which can be handled by someone else, and which things just aren't that important.  

Sometimes I feel like I'm forty years old and I still don't really know what I want to be when I grow up.  I tend to go with the flow and do what's expected of me, instead of figuring out what I really want.  I've struggled with that a lot in the past year.  It's really hard for me to say no when someone else wants me to do something, and even when I do say no, I end up feeling really guilty.  I need to focus on that inner voice, listen to it, and give up the guilt.  I suspect it's going to take me the entire year (maybe longer) to get good at all these things.  And that's okay.

When I shared with Anandi that I was going to do One Little Word this year along with her, she asked if I was going to write about it, or "maybe bake a cake with FOCUS iced onto it?"  Well, here you go!  It was too good an idea to pass up.  The great thing about this cake is that it's really quick and easy to make, and it's delicious.  It was published in Fine Cooking in 2004, and I've made it quite a few times since then, but have never blogged about it.  The recipe is from one of my favorite authors of chocolate recipes, Alice Medrich.  One reason I love her is that she most often uses natural cocoa, which I prefer. I broke out the good stuff--Scharffen Berger--since cocoa provides all the chocolate flavor in the cake itself.  Once the cake is cooled, you top it with ganache for another punch of chocolate flavor.  To be honest, I've topped the warm cake with ganache and promptly eaten it with vanilla ice cream, and it's quite fabulous that way.  This time, though, I made sure the cake was cool and then let the ganache set for several hours so I'd be able to decorate it.  

The verdict?  Anything with chocolate is well-received in this house, and this was no exception. =)  As soon as Brianna and Gillian saw it, they wanted to know how soon they could have some.  One thing I really like about this cake is its size--just the one layer, so we actually get through all of it while it's still at its best.  

If you'd like to try the cake for yourself, you can find it here at Fine Cooking.  (The recipe appears to be available to all, not just website subscribers.)  If you're thinking of picking a word for yourself, Ali compiled a list from the comments on her post--you can find it here, and see what speaks to you.  

Stay tuned for more posts this week.  I've come up with some ideas for what I want to focus on here on my blog this year.  I want variety, as well as the chance to share lots of things that I like, and I think I've come up with a good way to do that.

Army of Darkness

One of the things I didn't mention in my "summer vacation" post was why Dorie was in Austin to begin with.  She was here for the annual IACP conference.  I'm sure all the members of Tuesdays with Dorie and French Fridays with Dorie were very excited to see that Around My French Table won for both best general cookbook and cookbook of the year.  This isn't the first time that Dorie has won an IACP award, either.  The IACP featured her as part of their celebration of 25 years of cookbook awards.

I love Dorie's cookbooks--I have 5 of them--not just because she writes great recipes, but because of the way she writes them.  I buy cookbooks because I like to read them, not just to bake or cook from them.  Dorie puts great stories in hers, about the recipes and where they came from, but she also includes lots of great information about ingredients and techniques.  I love how descriptive she is in her instructions.  One of my favorites is when she is talking about making tart dough in the food processor.  "The dough...forms clumps and curds. Just before you reach this stage, the sound of the machine working the dough will change--heads up."  Dorie's books are filled with lots of little tidbits like that. 

Jacque of Daisy Lane Cakes picked Chocolate Biscotti for us to make this week.  We've made biscotti once before (which I happened to post on G's 2nd birthday--my, how she's grown!).  I was excited to see how this chocolate version would turn out.  I remember from last time that there was some confusion and discussion because in that recipe, Dorie instructs you to "stand them [the biscotti] up like a marching band" for their second bake.  To me, it was clear that she meant to have the biscotti in the same orientation as they were in the log, just cut apart, as opposed to laying them down on the cut sides.  (That way both sides dry out at once and you don't have to flip the cookies over partway through the baking time.) But it confused a few people.  In this week's recipe, the instruction is a bit different--you're supposed to "stand the slices up on the baking sheet--you'll have an army of biscotti."  Marching bands and armies, how many cookbooks have those? =)

I decided to pass on the nuts for my batch of cookies, and turned to the Playing Around section for other ideas.  I'm not a big fan of dried cherries, but decided to go with another dried fruit that I've subbed for cherries in the past--cranberries.  I went with 100 grams of sweetened dried cranberries and about 120 grams of mini chocolate chips.  I used some of my stash of Scharffen Berger cocoa and reduced the espresso powder to just one tablespoon.  And I topped my biscotti with some Swedish pearl sugar (which you can find at IKEA).

The verdict?  These were really tasty!  I love the look of the pearl sugar on top of the dark biscotti.  As many times as I've tried the combination now, I'm still amazed at how well the tart cranberries pair with dark chocolate. If you haven't tried them together, you should.  I shared my army of biscotti with some daycare teachers and some coworkers, and everyone liked them.

If you'd like to try these for yourself, Jacque has the recipe in her post.  And to see what everyone else thought of this week's recipe, check out the Links!

Reflections

There are times when I really wish I was fluent in a second language.  For work, and life in Texas in general, Spanish would be the obvious choice.  Through listening to some of my Spanish-speaking bankers, I've gotten to the point where I can at least understand some very basic banking terms.  Through Gillian's fascination with Dora (and some faint memories of my one semester of Spanish in junior high), I know some numbers and colors and a few other words.  But that's about it.  Spanish just didn't appeal to me early on.  So instead, I took four years of French in high school, and another year in college.  I've never been that good at speaking it, though.  My shyness and lack of self-confidence worked against me there.  I have a really hard time opening my mouth unless I'm certain I know what I'm talking about.  Not the best approach for learning to speak a foreign language.

While I wasn't that good at speaking, I could read and write somewhat competently.  I've lost a lot of that now, since it's been....umm....over 20 years since I actively studied it... Eek.  But some of it's starting to come back to me, since some of my blogging friends post in French, and it's fun to try to read their posts before resorting to a translation.  And of course, French is used so much in cooking and baking.  This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe is a good example.  Dharmagirl of bliss: towards a delicious life picked Tarte Noire for us to make this week.  Noire, meaning black, refers to the dark color of this elegant chocolate tart.  

It wasn't until I was talking with Nancy on Twitter that I realized that this tart recipe is quite similar to the Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart that we made last fall.  It's just the ganache layer and crust, without any other distractions.  Because of that, Dorie recommends using your favorite chocolate, since it will really stand out.  I went with Scharffen Berger 62%, which I really enjoy eating plain (and I can get the 6oz packages for $4.50 at my grocery store, so the price isn't as outrageous as it could be).  The filling is simple to make--cream, chocolate, and softened butter.  

For the crust, I went out on my own.  I've made Dorie's Sweet Tart Crust a number of times, and like it.  But I couldn't resist making this tart with my new favorite crust.  It's the one that Alice Medrich uses for most of the tarts in Pure Dessert, including the Lebni Tart I made recently.  The recipe uses melted butter and the dough is simply pressed into the tart pan and baked, no fussing with chilling or pulling out the food processor.  And it tastes fabulous.  Once the tart crust was baked and cooled, I filled it with the ganache.  I actually didn't refrigerate it at all, but the filling set up nicely at room temperature.

The verdict?  Yum.  This tart didn't last long around here.  Unlike the chocolate caramel version, it was eagerly devoured by all the members of our household, since it didn't have nuts.  In fact, I've already been asked by Brianna when I'm going to make it again. =)  The great thing is, it's so easy to make, it probably will make an appearance again soon.  It looks so elegant--I love the shiny surface of the tart.  This would make an simple yet impressive dessert for guests (if I can find any willing to brave the mess that is my home).  

Want to try this tart for yourself?  Head on over to dharmagirl's blog for the recipe.  The tart crust I used can be found in this recipe for Alice Medrich's Lebni Tart.  To see what everyone else did this week, check out the TWD Leave Your Links page for this week.  

Reese's (and TCHO) Peaces

I'm lazy when it comes to making cookies.  Bar cookies and drop cookies are my cookies of choice.  Once or twice a year, I will actually make the effort to bake cut-out cookies.  But most of the time it seems like way too much trouble.  And while many people would say that slice and bake cookies are even easier than drop cookies, I don't like making them.  I'm not even quite sure why.  =)  They just seem fussy to me for some reason.  I think part of the problem is that you usually have to chill the dough log for several hours before you can get to the slicing and baking part.  So I've got lots of recipes for that sort of cookie that sound good, but I've only made one of them.  

That being said, I think I've found the recipe that will get me to make slice and bake cookies much more often.  Thank you to Jessica of cookbookhabit for picking this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, World Peace Cookies.  And since Dorie mentions in the book that these are "the brainchild of Pierre Hermé," thank you to him for inventing them!

On paper, they seem pretty straightforward--flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, butter, sugars, salt, vanilla and chocolate.  Nothing that really stands out in the ingredients list, except that there is more salt than you usually see in a cookie recipe.  But I think this is definitely a cookie that is affected by the quality of the ingredients.  So I got out my favorite cocoa powder, from Scharffen Berger.  I also had several add-ins that I wanted to try, rather than just the chocolate chunks called for in the recipe.  The difficulty was in narrowing the choices.  Thanks to Caitlin, I knew I wanted to make some with peanut butter cups.  (Caitlin--we can still get the Reese's baking pieces here in Texas.)  For another variation, I decided to use some items from TCHO that I was lucky enough to sample.  I had both nibs and some chocolate in their Citrus flavor.  

After mixing up the dough, I split it in half and stirred in my additions.  I find that it's easiest to roughly form the dough into a log, wrap it in plastic wrap, and then roll the wrapped log back and forth, tightening the plastic wrap to even out the shape of the dough log.  Another handy tip is to place the dough logs inside empty paper towel rolls to keep the logs in shape while they chill.  (Plus the diameter of a paper towel roll is just right for most slice and bake cookies.) Edited to add:  I've been reading that a number of people had trouble with the dough being very crumbly.  So another tip I have is to weigh the flour if you can.  Too much flour might be causing dry dough for some.  I use a weight of 4.5 ounces per cup of flour for Dorie's recipes, and it seems to work well.

After chilling the dough for several hours, I sliced it into thick rounds and placed them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  (My serrated bread knife worked really well for slicing.)  I only got 30, rather than the yield of 36 listed in the recipe, but I went with thicker slices to help prevent any crumbling.  I baked them for 12 minutes as directed, and took them out to cool.

The verdict?  Wow, these are a keeper.  The extra salt really brings out the flavor of the chocolate.  You really can't go wrong with chocolate and peanut butter, so those were really good.  And I really enjoyed the flavor of the TCHO chocolate (everything I've tried from them has been very good).  I've made cookies with nibs before--I find that the cookies are usually better the second or third day as the flavors blend, and that was the case with these.  Jamie liked the peanut butter ones better.  Brianna and I prefer the chocolate ones.  And I just realized that Gillian hasn't tried any yet--I'll have to remedy that this evening. =)

If you haven't made these, I definitely think you should.  You can find the recipe on Jessica's blog.  And be sure to check out what all the other TWD bakers did this week!

After school snack

People have been asking me if I was going to have a hard time seeing Brianna go off to school for her first day of kindergarten.  While it is a rite of passage, the day I first took her to day care (at 8 weeks old) was much, much harder.  Honestly, for me, the hardest part of all of this is trying to figure out how to coordinate drop-off and pick-up with my children in two different places, especially now that one of them has to be there by a certain time.  For today, Jamie took Gillian to day care so I could take Brianna to school without any distractions.  (And being of sound mind, I made sure I had the day off from work today.)  Tomorrow will be the real test...

Another thing that didn't really occur to me until last week is that now I have to figure out what to feed Brianna for lunch.  At day care, that was included.  Sure, she can buy lunch at school (and probably will occasionally), but I figure that I can come up with something that she's more likely to eat for less money.  Brianna's main concern?  "Can you put some dessert in there?" That led to the discussion about how not all of her friends would have dessert and they might be sad if she had some and they didn't.  Of course, I'm a big fan of dessert myself, so I thought it would be nice to make something for after school today.  It was easy to figure out what--Brianna's favorite (and mine) is brownies.

Then the question became "which ones?"  I have a lot of fantastic brownie recipes.  Since I wanted something easy, I pulled out my copy of The Essence of Chocolate and went straight for Robert Steinberg's Fudgy Brownies.  All this recipe takes is a bowl and a wooden spoon.  Six simple ingredients--butter, chocolate, sugar, salt, eggs and flour--and a bunch of stirring. Ironically, I didn't have any 70% Scharffen Berger chocolate in the house.  So I substituted El Rey 70% (Gran Saman), which I buy in bulk (along with several other percentages).  And I left out the walnuts, since Brianna doesn't like anything in her brownies.  Want to try them for yourself?  You can find the recipe here or here.

Update:  They were definitely a hit--Brianna liked them very much.  Her first day went well, though I can definitely tell that they don't have nap time...  Early bedtime for everyone, I think. =)