My 17th Birthday Soiree

We kept it classy with "mocktails."

California has more than just beaches…

I was browsing through the hundreds of pictures I took during my trip to California over the summer and when I came across this beauty, I just had to share this miraculous creation with the world.  The night I experienced this miracle of a dessert, we were having a delightful dinner at a sea-side restaurant named Moonshadows near Los Angeles.  Now, I must compose myself before I go into the description of this dessert because of all these sensory memories that are bombarding me right now.

Okay, thank you for giving me a moment to compose myself.  Now let me begin:  When it arrives at the table it looks like your typical molten chocolate lava cake elegantly sprinkled with powdered sugar and decorated with an adorable sprig of mint.  The scoop of coffee ice cream is melting off to the side, just begging you to dig in as soon as possible.  The cake itself sits in diminutive pond of spiced coffee sauce that takes the luxurious flavor of coffee in this dessert to a whole other level (which you can barely see because I have devoured into near extinction).  And when you just can’t seem to stare at the melting ice cream a moment longer you dig into the cake itself, unleashing a flood of hazelnut flavored cream mixed with a perfectly gooey chocolate center.  Oh my lordy.  What perfection.  And the hazelnut cream, it’s no wimpy cream that barely tastes of hazelnuts.  It’s an explosion of hazelnut flavor.  In your mouth.  It’s pretty awesome.

Well, now that I have revealed to you my desperate love for this dessert maybe one of you, yes you dear readers, will be inspired to try something similar instead of your ordinary molten chocolate lava cake (not to say that those aren’t amazing)?  I know I am.

Sticky Peanut Cookie Bars

I’ve always thought I’ve been a decent person.  I try not to talk about people behind their backs.  I try not to be mean.  I try not to make things more dramatic than they need to be.  I try to be nice and stick by that pre-school mantra of treating others the way you want to be treated.

But do you know how stressful school can be?  Well, it is, especially in this day in age.  Now stress – like the stress you feel when your friends might pressure you to drink or the stress you feel as finals seem to be approaching as quickly as a train with failed brakes hurtling down a train track (the logic behind this simile will be explained in a later post) – this stress, it can make one do irrational things.  Irrational things in my case like being irrationaly mean.  Let me elaborate.

My AP english class this past year was not exactly a walk along a sunny beach.  There were also no ice cream cones to make it more pleasant.  Regardless of how difficult the class seemed though it was my favorite because I finally felt challenged at a level where I could learn and improve.  Unlike math where I am challenged but cannot learn or improve because the part of my brain which processes all things math related is dysfunctional.  Also, math is stupid.  I apologize if I offend any math lovers.  My point is I like english, otherwise I probably wouldn’t be writing such an elaborate story.  Anyway, near the end of the year we were given an extra credit assignment to write a letter to the rising juniors on how to survive my teacher’s class.  Of course nothing as epic as an extra credit assignment at the end of the year could go unannounced on facebook.  I’ll spare you the tragic details and just say that there were some statuses posted and some comments made that were offensive but obviously sarcastic towards the class and teacher.  And some genius came up with the novel idea to print out this conversation and to put it in my english teacher’s mailbox anonymously.  Some people are just so noble and smart, aren’t they?  Well it ended up with an emotional breakdown for all of those involved.  There was sadness, regret, anger, and apologizing.  Lots and lots of apologizing.  One week’s worth of apologizing.  There were flowers, letters, emails, conversations, and baked goods.

Specifically this scrumptious batch of baked goods.  Despite the story that comes along with them, don’t hesitate to make these sticky peanut cookie bars. These are out of this world AMAZING.  You know these are good because I just used capital letters.  They are like a candy bar taken to a whole new level.  With their crumbly, peanuty shortbread base, thin but distinct layer of chocolate, and a sticky gooey caramel topping studded with lightly salted peanuts, these bars will dispel all negative feelings.  I can only hope that this is exactly what they did for my english teacher.  And I hope they will do the same for you; no matter how you are feeling these bars make life worth living.

Sticky Peanut Cookie Bars from Chow

Ingredients

For the shortbread:

• 1/2 cup unsalted roasted peanuts
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 8 tablespoons cold unsalted butter (1 stick), cut into small chunks

For the topping:

Note:  You could use any caramel you have on hand, I had some leftover that I made for a recipe – it was about 3/4 cup worth and it was the perfect amount.

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup finely chopped bittersweet chocolate (about 2 ounces) – I used about 3 times as much; it was the best decision I’ve made in my life.

Directions

For the shortbread:

1. Heat the oven to 350°F and arrange a rack in the middle. Butter an 8-by-8-inch glass baking dish and set aside. Combine peanuts, flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until peanuts are ground and mixture is well combined. Add butter and pulse again until mixture resembles coarse meal.
2. Press mixture evenly into the prepared baking dish and prick it all over with a fork. Bake until lightly golden, about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack.

For the topping:

1. Combine sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of the salt, and water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring often until sugar is completely dissolved. Continue to boil mixture, swirling the pan occasionally (but not stirring), until it turns a deep caramel color, about 8 minutes. Remove the pan from heat and carefully stir in cream and vanilla extract (mixture will bubble up and steam).
2. Sprinkle chopped chocolate evenly over cooled peanut shortbread.
3. Stir peanuts into caramel mixture and immediately pour over shortbread and chocolate base. Sprinkle remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt over peanut bars and allow to finish cooling. Cut into rectangles and serve.  Eat and enter the realm of sugar high bliss.

Ina’s Outrageous Brownies

A pound of butter.  More than a pound of chocolate.  3 tablepoons of coffee granules.  More chocolate chips.  Only 1 cup of flour.  What could these ingredients possibly make?

Ina’s fudgy, chocolaty, mocha-y, outrageous brownies.

Out of the oven these were quite crumbly, but yet fudgy.  It was like it was a crumbly mess but then it melded together into delicious fudgy goodness in my mouth.  Surprisingly the coffee flavor wasn’t as prominent as I thought it would be and it really brought out the chocolate flavor.  What I missed in these brownies though was the signature crispy brownie crust and chewy edges.

Fresh out of the oven these brownies were quite crumbly and didn’t have that crispy crust that is unique to brownies.  Strangely, half of my pan of brownies rose more than the other half.  Very bizarre, but who am I to question the science of brownies.  To my distress the brownies were still pretty crumbly the next day even after refrigeration, although they did become very dense and fudgy.  In denial, I ate brownie after brownie to make sure they weren’t as crumbly as I thought, nuking a few to try them warm which only made them crumblier and put me further into “denial”.  Beside their crumbliness that I could not get over these brownies were soooo good. They were fudgy and chocolaty and mocha-y and brownie-y.

In the quest for my perfect brownie I’d say these were good but not the best.  They were too crumbly for my taste, but the flavor, as their name promises, really is outrageous.

Ina’s Outrageous Brownies from here

Ingredients

• 1 pound unsalted butter (4 sticks)
• 1 pound plus 12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
• 6 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• 6 extra-large eggs
• 3 tablespoons instant coffee granules
• 2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups chopped walnuts (I didn’t add these)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Butter and flour a 12 x 18 x 1-inch baking sheet.
3. Melt together the butter, 1 pound of chocolate chips, and the unsweetened chocolate in a medium bowl over simmering water. Allow to cool slightly.
4. In a large bowl, stir (do not beat) together the eggs, coffee granules, vanilla, and sugar. Stir the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and allow to cool to room temperature.
5. In a medium bowl, sift together 1 cup of flour, the baking powder, and salt. Add to the cooled chocolate mixture. Toss the walnuts and 12 ounces of chocolate chips in a medium bowl with 1/4 cup of flour, then add them to the chocolate batter. Pour into the baking sheet.
6. Bake for 20 minutes, then rap the baking sheet against the oven shelf to force the air to escape from between the pan and the brownie dough. Bake for about 15 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Do not overbake! Allow to cool thoroughly, refrigerate, and cut into 20 large squares.

Daring Bakers: Piece Montee

I highly recommend baking with best friends some time.  It’s quite something.  That’s what made this challenge the most fun yet.  If my life weren’t in danger of being attacked by three hungry girls I would post pictures of exactly how much fun we had “drizzling” (more like drenching) the cream puffs with chocolate glaze.  And waiting for the glaze to set was most definitely not an option.  Not with my friends there.

The moment after the pictures were taken the piece monte was demolished into little more than a few chocolate drizzles and a few blobs of espresso pastry cream.

Come on, how could you resist this for more than a few seconds?

Thanks so much Cat from Little Miss Cupcake!!

Pate a Choux (Yield: About 28)

• ¾ cup (175 ml.) water
• 6 Tbsp. (85 g) unsalted butter
• ¼ Tsp. salt
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 cup (125 g.) all purpose flour
• 4 large eggs

For Egg Wash: 1 egg and pinch of salt

1. Pre-heat oven to 425◦F/220◦C degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Preparing batter:
3. Combine water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and stir occasionally. At boil, remove from heat and sift in the flour, stirring to combine completely.
4. Return to heat and cook, stirring constantly until the batter dries slightly and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.
5. Transfer to a bowl and stir with a wooden spoon 1 minute to cool slightly.
6. Add 1 egg. The batter will appear loose and shiny.
7. As you stir, the batter will become dry-looking like lightly buttered mashed potatoes.
8. It is at this point that you will add in the next egg. Repeat until you have incorporated all the eggs.

Piping:

1. Transfer batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large open tip (I piped directly from the bag opening without a tip). Pipe choux about 1 inch-part in the baking sheets. Choux should be about 1 inch high about 1 inch wide.  (I piped mine MUCH larger.  I actually ended up with 13 large puffs.)
2. Using a clean finger dipped in hot water, gently press down on any tips that have formed on the top of choux when piping. You want them to retain their ball shape, but be smoothly curved on top.
3. Brush tops with egg wash (1 egg lightly beaten with pinch of salt).

Baking:

1. Bake the choux at 425◦F/220◦C degrees until well-puffed and turning lightly golden in color, about 10 minutes.
2. Lower the temperature to 350◦F/180◦C degrees and continue baking until well-colored and dry, about 20 minutes more. Remove to a rack and cool.

• 1 cup (225 ml.) whole milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons espresso poweder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons boiling water
• 2 Tbsp. cornstarch
• 6 Tbsp. (100 g.) sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 large egg yolks
• 2 Tbsp. (30 g.) unsalted butter
• 1 Tsp. Vanilla

Directions

1. Dissolve cornstarch in ¼ cup of milk. Combine the remaining milk with the sugar in a saucepan; bring to boil; remove from heat.
2. Dissolve the espresso powder in the boiling water.
3. Beat the whole egg, then the yolks into the cornstarch mixture. Pour 1/3 of boiling milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly so that the eggs do not begin to cook.
4. Return the remaining milk to boil. Pour in the hot egg mixture in a stream, continuing whisking.
5. Continue whisking (this is important – you do not want the eggs to solidify/cook) until the cream thickens and comes to a boil. Remove from heat and beat in the butter, vanilla, and espresso.

Filling:
When you are ready to assemble your piece montée, using a plain pastry tip, pierce the bottom of each choux. Fill the choux with pastry cream using either the same tip or a star tip, and place on a paper-lined sheet. Choux can be refrigerated briefly at this point while you make your glaze.

Use one of these to top your choux and assemble your piece montée.

Chocolate Glaze:
8 ounces/200 g. finely chopped chocolate (use the finest quality you can afford as the taste will be quite pronounced; I recommend semi-sweet)

Melt chocolate in microwave or double boiler. Stir at regular intervals to avoid burning. Use the best quality chocolate you can afford. Use immediately.