Different than the day before

Costco had raspberries for about $4 for 12 ounces the last time I was there.  I bought 3 packages, with the intent of making Jeni's raspberry sauce with a lot of them.  I made a double batch of the sauce, and ended up with about 2 pints.  Some will almost certainly end up inside or on top of ice cream, and I'll probably eat some with yogurt, but I've been looking for other things to make as well.  I was in a brownie mood today, and decided to try swirling some sauce on top of the batter before it went into the oven. The brownies are the Classic Brownies from Cook's Illustrated--I made half the recipe (in an 8" pan), throwing in some chocolate chips instead of adding nuts.  I dolloped about 50 grams of raspberry sauce on top of the batter and swirled it in with a chopstick.  I baked the brownies for 30 minutes.  

The verdict?  Quite tasty!  Raspberry and chocolate is one of my very favorite flavor combinations.  The girls thought they were good but weren't totally thrilled.  That's okay, since that means more for me! =)

Wordless Wednesday - Let them eat cake

Kitchen math

One of the things that Gillian has gotten into is doing Bedtime Math.  We don't get to it every day, but she's definitely getting better at the Little Kids problems over time.  We kind of did our own version in the kitchen today.  G asked me if we could make treats for her teachers (classroom and after-school).  At her request, we settled on David Lebovitz's Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies.  (Okay, I just realized that when I wrote that post, I also talked about Bedtime Math, but totally forgot that I had done so!)

The math didn't come in with the measuring this time.  It was after the cookies were baked & Gillian was trying to figure out if we had enough for all the teachers plus some for us.  So, there are three classroom teachers and four after-school teachers.  There are two pans of cookies, one with fifteen cookies and one with eleven.  How many cookies can we package up for each teacher, and will there be enough left for a family of four to have dessert? =)

Have flour, will travel

Gillian and I were looking for something fun to do on Sunday afternoon while Jamie and Brianna went to the Tennis Center.  We started off at the park for a bit, but it was still a little too damp after some overnight thunderstorms.  I remembered that some folks from King Arthur Flour were going to be in town for a baking demonstration on yeast breads.  G had been to another cooking/baking demo with me a couple months ago, and was game to try out this one.  It turned out not to be the best for her--it was a much larger group, so it was hard for her to see, and she spent most of the time playing games on my iPad.  We only stayed for about an hour before her attention span hit its limit.  But I enjoyed the part of the presentation that I did get to hear, including some entertaining stories.  With my level of experience, I didn't learn a lot of new stuff, but I'm intrigued by some of the classes that KAF offers at their Baking Education Center in Vermont.  I'm going to add a trip to Norwich to my Mondo Beyondo list.  It would be a great opportunity to meet my blogging friend Rebecca, too.  Maybe I can convince some of my other baking/blogging friends to meet up with me there and we can all take a class together.  Anyone interested? =)
 

When we got to the demo, we each got a booklet of recipes.  G immediately pointed out the recipe for Double Fudge Brownies.  When we got home, J & B still weren't back, so I suggested that we could bake something together.  G quickly suggested the brownies.  I knew it wouldn't be a problem to get my employees to eat some of them, so we made the full 13"x9" pan.  The recipe calls for brown sugar, which I think helps keep the brownies moist.  I used natural cocoa powder rather than the Dutch-processed that was called for (I prefer the way it tastes) but did keep the espresso powder to boost the chocolate flavor.  The somewhat sneaky ingredient is white whole wheat flour.  Granted, these are brownies, so there isn't a whole lot of flour, but a little extra whole grain is always a good idea, right?

The verdict?  You would never guess that there was whole grain flour in these brownies.  They are fudgy and a bit chewy, and altogether yummy.  The change in cocoa worked out fine.  We added a mix of chocolate chips and m&ms to our batter, but next time, I'll put the m&ms on top instead.  The candy shells sort of melted into the brownies when we let them rest overnight.

If you'd like to try these for yourself, you can find the recipe in the KAF Whole Grain Baking cookbook.  And if you think you'd like to join me on a trip to New England, let me know!

p.s. We got this nice KAF bowl scraper to take home with us--you can never have too many of those!

Should you be dancing?

I'm running a little behind this week.  I started this post last night, but was too tired & unfocused to finish it.  And now I'm trying to get it done before I need to get to bed (early, since I have a very early start tomorrow).

Watching:  Well, at the moment Monday Night Raw is on--background noise for me, but J is watching it.  It's scary how much I've picked up by association. =)  J fully admits, it's basically a soap opera for guys.  I'm a little afraid to admit that my girls can recognize a remarkable number of wrestlers just by their theme music.

Reading:  168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think by Laura Vanderkam.  I was inspired to read it after reading my friend Anandi's review--which you can check out here.  I'm not done yet, so I'll have to report back on what I think of it next week.  But I figure it's worth reading, since I'm trying to manage my time/life better.

Listening:  Nothing special.  I've got a playlist of upbeat songs to get me--and sometimes the girls--moving.  One of the ones they really like is You Should Be Dancing, thanks to Despicable Me.  I got some other Bee Gees songs, thinking they'd like them, but I get complaints when I play anything else.  

Making:  The main thing this week was scones.  For the end of the week, I made some for the girls--Triple Chocolate, at G's request.  This particular KAF recipe doesn't call for freezing them like a lot of the others do, but I did it anyway.  I mixed up the dough and shaped the scones on Wednesday night, then popped them in the freezer.  That made it easy to bake them off on Thursday morning.  I made scones again Friday morning to take to work, though I only froze them for about 30 minutes while I showered.  Those were savory, with cheddar cheese and scallions.  I tweaked the recipe a bit, by subbing a little cornmeal for some of the AP flour.  I was also lazy and used my #16 disher to make round scones, instead of making triangles or squares.  

Ooh, and I made ice cream on Sunday, too.  Jeni's Salty Caramel.  I crumbled up some Biscoff cookies, being sure to leave some larger pieces, and layered them in with the ice cream as I packed it into its freezer container.  I was going for something similar to Haagen Dazs Spiced Caramel Biscuit.  I enjoyed that flavor, but thought it needed more, bigger pieces of cookies.  And I always like salted caramel better than unsalted.

Feeling:  Sore.  I went and got a massage yesterday, and had my massage therapist work on my lower back and right hip.  Not surprising that they were bothering me, since I was standing and running around all day on Friday.  (When the 1st of the month & Friday coincide, things are really crazy in banking.)  I've been trying to get better about getting a massage on a regular basis.  As long as I schedule my next appointment before I leave, I do okay.  My goal is to go every couple of weeks; any less and I undo all of the good that was done before I go in for another session.  Sure, it's a little expensive, but I don't spend a lot of other money on myself.  And it's kind of a healthcare expense, right?  

Planning:  I should be planning for my trip, but I'm too busy with work right now to think all that much about it.  I did tell the girls that I'm going out of town that weekend, and that they'd have to keep their father out of trouble.  G thinks for some reason that it's totally hilarious to ask me to bring her back a saxophone as a souvenir.  (Your guess is as good as mine where that came from.)

Loving:  Spending some time with my girls this weekend.  Nothing big, but we had lunch out together at Blue Baker in Austin.  Then we went to a book fair at Barnes & Noble, benefiting the girls' elementary schools.  As if we need an excuse to buy books... =)

Check out more Currently links at Kristin's blog.  

The darkest hour

Do any of the rest of you get up early to bake?  I've always been more of a morning person than a night owl.  Plus, there's something so nice about being up before the sun, when the day is still so quiet and undisturbed.  I get so much more done then than if I stay up late to finish something.

Today, it was getting up to make a batch of Swiss meringue buttercream.  (Dorie's recipe from BFMHTY.)  I've made it so many times now, I could practically do it in my sleep. =)  It helps that I had leftover egg whites in my fridge.  I made the cupcakes last night--the Ultimate Chocolate Cupcakes from Cook's Illustrated, minus the ganache filling--and this way they had plenty of time to cool completely.  B surprised me by saying that if she had to pick just one frosting flavor, it would be vanilla.  (She originally wanted me to do a chocolate/vanilla swirl.)  She picked the wrappers, and we decided pink edible glitter would coordinate nicely.

It's so fluffy!!!

Merry Christmas to all...

...and to all a good night.  May you all have more than enough marshmallows for your hot chocolate. =)

Peace on earth, and in cookies

Happy blogiversary to me!  5 years and 485 posts later, I'm still here. =)  I'd hoped to be closer to 500, but it's been a busy month.  I've been on vacation for the past few days and have finally had time to do some holiday stuff.  We finally put up the Christmas tree last weekend, and finished putting ornaments on it today.  Yes, it's been that kind of week.  On Wednesday I baked lots of cookies to take to G's kindergarten holiday party.  The kids had fun decorating the cookies (and eating lots of the decorations straight up, since I brought stuff like chocolate chips and m&m's).  B's party was Thursday, and at her request I made brownies for her to take.  Then on Friday I made a batch of caramel snack mix to bag up for my employees.  Right now I'm working on chocolate sponge cake that will be one component of a chocolate mousse cake (G's request for a holiday dessert).  Tomorrow I should finally get to cookies for us--and Santa Claus--now that I've finally gotten my hands on Hershey's kisses after looking at three different stores.  

Along with all the other baking, I wanted to make something for teacher gifts.  The girls were in favor of something chocolate.  I wanted something without nuts, since there are allergy issues at the schools.  I also wanted a dough that was easy to make ahead if necessary and bake off as needed.  I've never been a big fan of slice & bake cookies, but I may have changed my mind this year, after settling on Dorie's World Peace Cookies as the recipe to make.  I've made them before, of course, but not in as large a quantity as I did this year.  To make them more festive, I substituted peppermint crunch baking bits for part of the chopped chocolate, and used mini chocolate chips for the rest.  

The verdict?  I've made three batches so far, and will make at least one more to ship, since these should be sturdy enough to travel.  I got a couple of notes from the teachers, saying that they really liked the chocolate & peppermint combo.  I've stashed away several bags of the mint baking bits so I'll be able to make a bunch more of these if we want.  I've also passed out the recipe to several people, and I hope they'll give them a try for themselves.  If you'd like to, you can find the recipe online at Bon Appetit.

I've really enjoyed sharing both my baked goods and my life with all of you over the past 5 years--I've made lots of great friends, which is without a doubt one of the best things about blogging.  Here's to many more wonderful years!

December decompression

December has barely started, and I'm already stressed.  I have too much that I want to do, and no idea how I'm going to find time to do it all.  Thank goodness I have vacation time later in the month, though that adds to the stress a bit, since I have so much to do at work before then.  But somehow or other, it will all get done--probably with the aid of not enough sleep and lots of caffeine.

Since I don't drink coffee, the caffeine comes from Coke or tea.  I bring a big mug of tea from home in the morning, but sometimes I want more during the day.  A walk to Starbucks gives me the chance to get out of the branch for a bit and decompress.  Unfortunately, our weather right now isn't always conducive to hot drinks, so I'm still drinking a lot of ice tea.  However, I've also discovered that you can get them to make a Gingerbread Latte with tea rather than espresso, and it's quite tasty.  (Ask for an Awake Tea Latte with gingerbread syrup.)

And sometimes I forego the caffeine in favor of chocolate.  During the fall, the seasonal hot chocolate drink is Salted Caramel.  I'm not sure if it's actually still available in the shops, but I've discovered that I can buy boxes of Starbucks hot chocolate in various flavors at Target.  For the salted caramel one, the caramel flavor seems to come from little chips of some sort.  That gave me the idea to add butterscotch chips and some extra salt to my homemade hot chocolate to see if I could duplicate the flavor.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, so I can make it whenever I want.


Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate

45 grams (about 1/4 cup) chocolate chips
15 grams (about 1 tablespoon) butterscotch chips (I used Guittard)
60 grams (1/4 cup) boiling water
225 grams (1 cup) milk
1/8 - 1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 - 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
whipped cream or marshmallows (optional)

Place the chocolate chips and butterscotch chips in a small saucepan and pour the boiling water over them.  Let sit for about 5 minutes, until the chips melt.  Whisk the mixture until smooth.  Place the saucepan over medium low heat and bring to a simmer, whisking occasionally.  Whisk in the milk, and bring the mixture to a simmer again.  Whisk in kosher salt and sugar to taste.  (The amount of sugar needed will depend on the sweetness of the chocolate chips used.)  Pour into mugs and top with whipped cream or marshmallows if desired.  Makes 2 servings.

Let sleeping monkeys lie

I don't have a whole lot to write about today.  As my husband said when I asked him how he was doing, "It's Thursday."  That day when we're all exhausted but it isn't quite Friday yet.  And I do mean exhausted.  I went upstairs to check on Gillian, because she was taking forever to come downstairs after taking her shower.  I found her lying on the bathmat, wrapped up in her hooded monkey towel, sound asleep.  I admit, I thought about taking a picture. =)  But instead, I manage to rouse her enough to get the towel off and her pajamas on.  She pretty much sleepwalked to her room--I'm not sure she was actually awake.  

In other news, I took cake to work today for one of my employees, since it was her last day with us.  She loves yellow cake with chocolate frosting.  Since that's a favorite of mine as well, I was happy to make it for her.  I actually tried two new recipes for this one.  The cake is the Golden Vanilla Cake from King Arthur Flour.  I made the full recipe and ended up with two 8" rounds and half a dozen cupcakes.  For the frosting I wanted something that wouldn't overpower the cake.  I went with the Foolproof Chocolate Frosting from Cook's Illustrated.  It uses milk chocolate, which seemed like a good match for the vanilla cake, and also cocoa powder, so it's still really chocolatey.  (I was actually a little short on milk chocolate, so I made up the difference with a bit of bittersweet.)  The final combination of cake and frosting was really good, and well-received by everyone at work.  I'll be making this one again. =)

Forgot to add--the stars are edible glitter, which you can find here.

  

Hey, Mikey!

Yesterday, our loan officer bought lunch for the branch, which was really nice of her.  It was pizza, which always goes over well.  The only problem for me was that every single pizza had stuff on it.  Stuff like pepperoni, or sausage, or bell peppers.  I'm that crazy person that likes plain cheese pizza.  (I'll also eat it with just mushrooms.)  But there wasn't any plain cheese.  The closest was a pizza with fresh tomatoes on top.  One of the bankers asked me, "Can't you just pick them off?"  Of course I can.  I just don't want to.  So I ended up leaving the branch in search of something to eat for lunch.  (I usually bring my lunch, but didn't yesterday because I knew in advance about the pizza plan.)  Fortunately, I figured out before I actually ordered any food that I didn't take my wallet with me.  *sigh*

I've always been picky, mostly about textures.  I do try new things, because I do find new things that I enjoy, but more often I stay with what I know I like.  If I'm going to spend money (or ingredients) on something, I want to know that there's a pretty good chance that I'm going to enjoy it.  Most of the time I'm a pretty good judge of what I'll like.  But I probably shouldn't try out new recipes when I'm already in a crabby mood, because I don't listen to that inner voice that warns me when a recipe probably isn't the one for me.  Because in the end, I'll just be that much crabbier when it doesn't work out.  Case in point, the Cream Cheese Chocolate Snacking Cookies from Baked Elements.

There were several clues in the recipe that I should have paid attention to.  There's liquid, in the form of cream.  Liquid usually means cakey texture.  The Baked authors also call for Dutch-processed cocoa in their recipes, and I'm not really a fan, even of the good stuff (Valrhona).  The leavening was a whole bunch of baking soda, which made things even more alkaline.  The end result?  Cake-like cookies that spread like crazy and had a flavor that I didn't care for.  I do like the idea of using cream cheese in the dough, but if I make these again, I'll definitely tinker with the recipe.  The good news is that there are lots of other recipes in the book that sound good, so hopefully the next one will turn out better for me.

Wordless weekend - Birthday girl

Weekend wind-down - Signs of the season (9/30)

It was still September today, but I decided it was close enough to October to get out the Halloween mugs.  A friend commented that it was possibly even almost cool enough for hot chocolate.  That's sort of true, since it was a rainy, cloudy, somewhat cooler weekend.  But the real truth is, Brianna & Gillian ask for hot chocolate year-round.  I make it from scratch, and pretty much wing it.  I put an ounce or so of bittersweet chocolate (30-40 grams) in a small saucepan & cover it with about a quarter cup of boiling water (I usually have some already made for tea).  I add a pinch of salt and about a tablespoon of sugar.  I bring the mixture to a simmer and whisk in about a cup of milk.  I then heat the mixture until it's hot but not too hot.  It makes enough for a couple of kid-sized mugs.  Marshmallows are served along side.

I've been seeing lots of signs lately that we're changing seasons.  It's still way too early to be thinking about December holidays, but I admit that I'm already welcoming a few things that seem to come along with the holiday baking season.  This weekend I found several seasonal items at Costco--vanilla beans, parchment paper, and bundt pans. =)  I bought a roll of parchment even though I still have some left from last year.  It's not like it goes bad, right?  I missed the vanilla beans last year--I hesitated when I saw them later in the season, and when I checked again, they were gone.  So I grabbed them as soon as I saw them this year.  They seem to be pretty good, and I'm sure I'll try to pick up more before they disappear.  I don't actually know if they have specialty baking pans every year, but I couldn't help buying one when I saw it.  I got a very pretty Nordic Ware Fleur de Lis pan along with a cake keeper for only $20--no way could I pass that up.  I'm almost as excited about the storage container as I am about the pan, since I didn't have anything like that (hard to believe, I know).

I love fall (and winter), but the one downside of the changing season is the shortening of good daylight hours for taking pictures of baked goods.  I'm starting to realize that part of the reason I haven't been blogging much is that I'm not happy with the pictures I'm taking, if I manage to take any at all.  And I want to have good photos.  So I'm pondering solutions to that problem (both for better lighting and more time).  I've been baking quite a bit--really!--and I want to get back to sharing those things here.  If you have any good suggestions about what works for you, I'd love to hear them!

Do the math

Well, school starts tomorrow.  I think the girls are somewhat excited and also somewhat sad that summer break is done.  Gillian starts kindergarten this year, and some anxiety about has definitely been showing.  She's been much more clingy than usual, to the point of driving me totally crazy.  Brianna, on the other hand, is starting to worry a little about stuff like not remembering her math facts as well as she should.  Of course, that may just be because she wants an excuse to do flash cards on my iPod. =)  

We've been having fun with math in another way as well.  A month or so ago, someone from a parenting group I belong to introduced us to Bedtime Math.  The idea behind it is that we all focus on reading to our children at bedtime, but we don't teach them that math can be fun, too.  You can subscribe via email or just follow the blog, and every day you get a new problem to solve.  There are actually several problems in each email, for "Wee Ones," "Little Kids," and "Big Kids."  So far Gillian does fine with the easiest problems while Brianna has to help her with the Little Kid ones, and the Big Kid problems just enough of a challenge for B.  I love that they make it real, tying in a variety of different topics.  For example, during the Olympics, there were problems that had to do with different sports.  Some are more random, like today's problems about escalators.  I hope you'll check it out for yourself!  (I'm not affiliated with them in any way, btw.)

One of my favorite ways to use math in our everyday activities is to bring it up in the kitchen, of course.  My girls love to help me bake, as I've mentioned here before.  So far I think I have them pretty convinced that all baking is done by measuring ingredients with a scale, preferably in grams.  For now, I'm the one doing the math, since many of my recipes only give volume amounts, and the ones that do give weights often just use ounces.  I know how much a lot of ingredients weigh, but I also sometimes refer to tables like this one.  I'm getting pretty good at converting from ounces to grams in my head--I've memorized a lot of the common ones, like the fact that a cup of sugar weighs 7 ounces, which is about 200 grams.  I need to start putting Brianna to work figuring out the numbers, though. =)

With some authors I get lucky, and they publish recipes with metric weights.  That was the case for these Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies, from David Lebovitz's Ready for Dessert.  I made them a few weeks ago, during a rough week at work when it seemed like we all needed some chocolate to get through the days.  Any recipe that starts off with a full pound (about 450 grams) of chocolate has got to be good for that!  I didn't tinker around with the recipe much, other than to substitute dried cranberries for the nuts.  The recipe says to do the cookies as slice & bake, but I haven't ever done that.  Instead, I scoop the dough out with my #40 disher and let it set up on the pans.  If you're going to go that route, I recommend scooping all the dough (it's more like a batter) out at once, otherwise the later cookies don't look very pretty.  I end up with about 45 cookies doing it that way, and bake them for 10 minutes.  

The verdict?  These are very intense, and very tasty.  They were definitely just the thing for a pick-me-up during a stressful work week.  Gillian is happy any time she can convince me to make chocolate chocolate chip cookies, but was kind of annoyed that I added the cranberries.  I, on the other hand, think that I should use more cranberries next time.  The tartness cuts through some of the richness of the chocolate.  

If you'd like to try this recipe for yourself, I encourage you to get your hands on a copy of Ready for Dessert.  I also found an older version of the recipe (a half-recipe, actually, without ingredient weights and missing the salt) online here.  

Al dente

One of the time-honored traditions of parenthood is feeling like an idiot when you finally figure out what's going on with one of your kids that you think you should have realized much sooner.  Case in point, Gillian being "not that hungry" all the time lately.  It seemed really odd, since she wasn't even eating some things that she really likes.  One of the things was this ice cream.  Last weekend, I asked the girls for suggestions on what kind of ice cream to make next.  Gillian--"Chocolate!"  Brianna--"Can you make cookie dough ice cream?"  We decided to have the best of both worlds and combine the two.  But once it was made, Gillian didn't want to eat it.  That's when I finally realized that she wasn't eating much because she couldn't, sort of.  Poor kid has two loose teeth in front and has molars coming in in the back.  No wonder she didn't want to eat big pieces of cookie dough that had really firmed up in the freezer!  Not to mention bagels, croutons, sandwiches with chewy bread...  It all makes sense now.  I made sure to stock up on lots of her favorite yogurt flavors, and she's been eating the raspberry sorbet since I made that.

Now back to the cookie dough ice cream.  I was inspired by this recent post from Michelle of Brown Eyed Baker.  I like cookie dough ice cream, but sometimes it's just too sweet for my taste.  For the strongest contrast, I decided to go with the Darkest Chocolate Ice Cream in the World from Jeni's.  The recipe calls for bittersweet chocolate in the 62%-70% range, so I went with 70% El Rey chocolate.  I've made the recipe before and was turned off by the strong underlying coffee taste (probably because I used Starbucks VIA).  This time I simply subbed water and a teaspoon of instant espresso powder for the half cup of coffee in the chocolate syrup part of the recipe.

For the cookie dough, I used the recipe that Michelle posted, with a small variation.  I didn't use the mini chocolate chips that she suggests.  I don't like regular chocolate chips in ice cream--they're way too hard when frozen.  I borrowed a trick from Alice Medrich and made my own chocolate bits.  I melted 85 grams (3 oz) of 60% chocolate and spread it in a thin layer on a small metal pan lined with non-stick foil.  I put the pan in the freezer for about 15 minutes, and once the chocolate had hardened, I chopped it into small pieces.  Because the chocolate is no longer in temper, it melts more readily (so work fast with the chopping), especially in your mouth.  I used a small scoop to make balls of the cookie dough and stuck them in the freezer while I churned the chocolate ice cream.  Once the ice cream was done, I layered it in the container with the chunks of cookie dough so that there would be lots of cookie dough in every scoop.

The verdict?  We're all sad that we finished this one off this evening (well, except for G).  I can't believe I didn't think to add cookie dough to chocolate ice cream before this.  I'll definitely make this one again, and am already thinking of other combinations to try.  Like maybe peanut butter cookie dough in chocolate ice cream. =)

As I mentioned before, Michelle has this great post where you can find the recipe for the cookie dough (as well as her version of the chocolate ice cream).  You can find the Darkest Chocolate Ice Cream recipe in Jeni's book or here at Saveur.  This is my final recipe for my friend Phyl's Ice Cream Week.  Be sure to check out his post for some links to other yummy flavors.

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.  

Be good to yourself

So, do any of you totally beat yourselves up after making a mistake?  I just can't seem to stop.  Logically, I know that I just need to learn from it and move on, since I can't change what's already happened.  But emotionally, I can't let it go.  I go over and over things in my head, finding all of the things that I think I should have noticed at the time.   Of course, hindsight is 20/20, and the more I think about it, the more stupid I feel. (And of course none of this is helped by the fact that I've been really, really tired due to my crazy work schedule the past couple of weeks.)

I really need to stop being such a perfectionist.  Yes, it's important to do a good job.  But the world won't end if things aren't totally perfect.  I'm that way about way too many things in my life, including baking.  I can't seem to help apologizing for everything, including things that other people wouldn't have any clue about if I didn't say anything.  I'm starting to realize that it keeps me from blogging more, too.  I worry that my pictures don't look good enough.  I worry that what I write about isn't interesting enough.

So how do you deal with this sort of stuff?  How do you get yourselves out of a funk and back to being more productive?

I debated whether to share these cookies.  After all, I've already blogged about the base recipe, the Cook's Illustrated Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies.  Why would anyone be interested a relatively small change that I made?  But what the heck--I like the way they turned out, and maybe you wouldn't think to do it on your own, or wouldn't know how to go about it.  It may have seemed to me like an obvious thing to try, but not everyone thinks like me.  (Thank goodness, or we'd all be too busy worrying to ever get anything done!)

I've altered cookie doughs in the past by substituting cocoa powder for some of the flour in the recipe.  You don't want to just add cocoa, or you'll end up with dry cookies.  Cocoa has a starchy quality to it, so it can fill in for part of the flour.  I decided to swap out about half a cup.  I prefer the flavor of natural cocoa, so that's what I used.  I wanted to bring out as much of the chocolate flavor as possible, so I took a tip from some of the chocolate cake recipes I make--a number of them mix cocoa with boiling water so the flavor can "bloom."  I didn't have water in this recipe, so I whisked it into the warm browned butter before adding the sugars.  Other than that, I followed the recipe as written.  For the mix-ins, I wanted a couple different types, so I split the dough in half.  Both portions got chocolate chips, but one half also got peanut butter chips while the other got white chips.  I like chocolate and peanut butter, but Gillian recently informed me that she does NOT like the PB chips.  Plus I wanted to be able to pack some of the cookies in Brianna's school lunch (this was about a month ago), and she really shouldn't take things with peanut butter.

The verdict?  Well, happily, I'm doing a lot better than when I started writing this post this morning.  I got past the sick feeling in my stomach and got mad at the situation, instead of just at myself.  And the cookies?  They were much appreciated both at home and at work.  I'll definitely be making this chocolate version again.  If you'd like to give it a try for yourself, here's the ingredient list I used.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies
(adapted from Cook's Illustrated)

200 grams all-purpose flour
45 grams natural cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
14 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
100 grams granulated sugar
150 grams dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon table salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
340 grams mix-ins of your choice

For the recipe instructions, head over to Cook's Illustrated.  The recipe is also in the new Cook's Illustrated Cookbook.

Wordless Wednesday - Birthday cupcakes for J

(these chocolate cupcakes, with this frosting)

Tooth Fairies and sweet teeth

It's been a busy week for the Tooth Fairy at our house.  Between them, my children managed to lose three teeth in the span of four days.  Brianna lost one last Wednesday (I had to help that one along a tiny bit).  Then on Friday when I picked Gillian up from daycare, she proudly showed me the tooth that came out at naptime (she managed that on her own).  But the most dramatic was on Saturday night, when B bit down on the piece of chocolate that she was eating for dessert and another tooth came out with it.  Much more of this, and the Tooth Fairy is going to start demanding overtime pay!

Maybe I can bribe her with some danish instead.  I know how powerless I am at resisting the buttery, flaky goodness that comes with laminated dough.  I've made danish and croissants the traditional way, wrapping dough around butter, and doing lots of folds and turns.  There's no question that the end result is fantastic.  But I'm not always in the mood for something that finicky.  That's why I was glad to see a recipe for Rough Danish Dough in Dan Lepard's column in the Guardian last weekend.  First you make a quick sponge with water, instant yeast and bread flour, and let that sit for about an hour to get bubbly.  The final dough calls for 00 flour but I didn't have any, so I used all-purpose flour instead.  Being danish dough, there's a little sugar and a couple egg yolks added to the dough as well.  Instead of forming the butter into a big block, you leave it in large cubes and mix it into the dough.    

As you roll the dough out, the butter is flattened out into thin sheets.  As you fold the dough (like a letter, in thirds) and roll it out again, layers are formed.  The dough goes into the fridge for half an hour between the turns so that the dough can rest (which makes it easier to roll out again) and the butter can firm up a bit (so it doesn't get squished out all over the place).  For some tips and great step-by-step photos of folds and turns (for traditional croissants), check out my friend Tracey's blog.  She and I actually made the danish dough together via Twitter.  One tip that I found helps with the rough version is to keep extra flour handy.  If the dough is sticky and the butter is trying to break through, coat that spot with some flour and keep going.  I also kept my bench scraper nearby to pick up the dough and make sure there was enough flour underneath as well.  The first turn is kind of a mess, but don't be discouraged.  The second will be better, and by the third, the dough will look a lot like traditional laminated dough.

The recipe says you can shape the dough right after the chilling after the third turn, but I left my dough in the fridge overnight.  You don't want to leave it for much longer than that; the yeast in danish dough keeps fermenting and it gets pretty puffy.  When I was ready to use the dough, I divided it in half.  One half I wrapped really well (plastic wrap and then a freezer bag) and put it in the freezer.  The rest I made into rolls filled with chocolate.  I ended up making half a dozen, and dressed them up with a drizzle of chocolate glaze after baking.

The verdict?  So, so delicious.  Brianna and Gillian loved the chocolate-filled danish.  The glaze was a bit over the top for me, but still really good.  I eventually ended up making a raspberry-filled danish braid with the other half of the dough, and it was amazing.  I'll definitely be making this recipe again.  I even bought some 00 flour when I was at Central Market this weekend so I can try the recipe with that.  

If you'd like to try your hand at danish dough, you can find the recipe here in the Guardian.  You can also find lots of other great recipes from Dan Lepard in their How to Bake series.  Also, check out Yeastspotting for lots of other amazing yeasted treats!

The mother of invention

I lost count.  I was really excited last month when I realized that I had a blogging milestone coming up.  I knew it would be sometime in February.  But I apparently wasn't paying attention.  So instead of happily announcing that I am at post #400, I can now tell you that I'm at post #402.  Oh, well. =)

Even though I already posted some this month, I figured such a momentous event called for celebrating with brownies.  Who am I kidding?  I don't need an excuse to make brownies.  But it is a good opportunity to make some new brownies.  Ones that I won't have that much competition for, since I have a feeling my kids won't eat them.  The one category I had left for this month was magazine focus.    It's not usually the first place I look, but I thought I'd try Bon Appetit.  I like a lot of what I read in the magazine, but don't search their website all that often.  The recipe that quickly caught my eye was the Cocoa Brownies with Browned Butter and Walnuts.  It's from Alice Medrich, and I've made enough of her recipes to be pretty confident that I'd like the brownies.

I only made a couple of small changes to the recipe--I used pecans instead of walnuts, and I added salt--half a teaspoon.  I also took a shortcut and simply lined my pan with non-stick foil.  I may try another cocoa powder in the future, but for this round I went with plain old Hershey's.  The batter was easy to mix up, and I love the fact that you can make it in one pot.  The suggested baking time of 25 minutes worked great for me.

The only downside is that I was making the brownies last night after dinner.  So I knew it was going to be challenging to get decent pictures.  Sometimes I can manage to take pictures in the morning before work, but I had a very long day today.  I left the house before the sun was up, and knew that I wouldn't be home again until long after it set.  Then inspiration hit--I took a page from my friend Abby's book (she likes to take dough on field trips), and took the brownies to work with me.  Now you're probably thinking, she takes baked goods to work all the time.  That's true, but not with the intent of taking pictures of them in natural light.  Which meant, in my car:

The verdict?  The pictures turned out better than I expected. =)  I need to work on the setup if I do this again, but at least the color in the pictures is good.  The brownies were really good, too.  Jamie and I both like them a lot.  I'm not usually in a nuts-in-my-chocolate mood, but I love pecans, and they worked really well in these brownies.  I think the salt was a good addition, too.  I did share the brownies with one of my coworkers, who thought they were fantastic.

If you'd like to try the recipe for yourself, you can find it here at Bon Appetit!  So what's the most unusual thing you've done to get good blog pictures? =)