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sweet bakes

Brownies from Baked NYC

September 18, 2009

Super Rich, Fudgy, Gooey, Intensely Chocolatey Baked Brownies
Okay, so these really aren’t from Baked, NYC, but from their book, Baked: New Frontiers in Baking. And truth be told – these are the best brownies I’ve come by in a long, long time; I have fallen in love with brownies all over again! (If you think I’m exaggerating, go check with Oprah). As if the brownies weren’t delicious on their own, I gilded the lily by making three variations of them – walnut, chocolate chip, and hold your breath – Dulce de Leche! I’ve gobbled down too many brownies to publicly admit and I only wish I had the foresight to save a piece just so I don’t miss them terribly while writing this post.
Super Rich, Fudgy, Gooey, Intensely Chocolatey Baked Brownies

just look at the pockets of Dulce de Leche!

I absolutely loved how the Black Forest Cookies turned out the last time I tried a recipe from the Baked book so I blindly followed the recipe without making any major changes ( I granulated sugar instead of ½ a cup of light brown sugar because of lack of availability). Love this book – strongly recommend it!

I began by putting things for the recipe and squealed as I weighed out the ingredients – 11 heavenly ounces of 60% cacao chocolate. Oh the joy, the joy! And 5 eggs? This has got to be R.I.C.H.! And don’t forget, we’re making three types to make it all the more fun!
Cocoa, chocolate and brownie batter
three type – walnut, chocolate chip and Dulce de Leche!

Just look at the ooey-gooey brownie – I mean, really, how can you not feel like running to the pantry to check if you’ve got enough chocolate or flour to make this? Go ahead, you know everyone wants you to. And then thank me, the baked boys and everyone in between.

Here you go…!

Super Rich, Fudgy, Gooey, Intensely Chocolatey Baked Brownies
Adapted from: Baked
Yield: 24 bars

1 1/4th cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp dark unsweetened cocoa powder
11 oz. / 310g dark chocolate (60-72% cacao)
1 cup / 2 sticks / 225 g butter
2 cups / 400g granulated sugar
5 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract

Additional toppings:
Walnuts
Chocolate chips
Dulce de Leche

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F/175°C. Butter a 9×13 baking pan or line it with baking parchment (I used a 9×9 square, light coloured tin).
  2. Whisk the flour, salt and cocoa together. If you’re going to be using salted butter, you should skip the salt here.
  3. In a large bowl put together the butter and chocolate and set it over a pan of simmering water until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and smooth. Add the sugar and stir so that it dissolves faster and is well combined.
  4. Once the mixture is at room temperature, add in 3 eggs and whisk until combined. Add the remaining two eggs and vanilla.. Do not overbeat!
  5. Fold in the flour mixture into the bowl ful of chocolate goodness until just combined. Again, don’t overdo – better to have a few streaks of flour than an overmixed batter.
  6. Pour the batter into the tin and top a third with chopped walnuts, another third with the chocolate chips and the final third with dulce de leche spooned over (this being dense will sink into the brownie batter giving you gorgeous pockets of South American goodness in every bite).
  7. Bake for 30 minutes until a wooden skewer comes out without being drippy (it won’t be all that clean in the dulce de leche section – this will always be gooey!)
  8. Remove from the oven and let it cool completely before cutting into pieces.
Tip: A brownie will continue to cook even after you’ve removed it from the oven. So it’s okay to remove it when it’s just slightly underdone. Wait until it’s completely cooled to cut.

Storage: Tightly covered, these will keep for 3 days. Sometimes these even get better after 24 hours. But don’t really bother because they’ll be gone in a flash.
Update: Try grinding the sugar in a food processor so that  you attain a finer texture. This way you won’t have any sugar that sink to the bottom.

{ 70 comments }

Crispy Apple Crumble Anyone?

September 5, 2009

You: So what is this apple thing that you’ve made today?

Me: Umm, apple crumble (or is it crisp?). I think they’re kinda the same thing.

Crispy Apple Crumble

You see, the thing is, I’m not sure what the difference between a Crisp and a Crumble is. With a little help from Google, I’ve come across various explanations – each one having a tone of being the ultimate authority on the subject. And in spite of reading so much, I was left more confused than educated about the difference between the two. So I tweeted (Oh thank goodness for Twitter! It’s way better than a search engine).

Apple + crumb topping

The result: There was a consensus about the ingredients involved – that is, a Crumble topping is more buttery and a Crisp has oats and even nuts in it.[The Kitchn has the exact opposite stand though]. But the most straightforward point was that you need to take the names quite literally – a crisp is, well crispy (oats+ nuts) while a crumble is softer, more with the texture of shortbread. Why didn’t I think of that! *smacking my head* On the other hand, Helen highlighted what was playing on my mind: Crisps are American and Crumbles are English. And this to me seems like the safest bet, given that the ingredients used differ from person to person.

People involved in the discussion: Alice, Ashley, Helen, Kamran, Tom, Fnord, Kristin, Harvester Crew – Thank you, guys! And for those of you who are not on twitter, do you need another reason to hop on?

So how will I conclude this Crisp vs. Crumble debate? Well, let’s just call this a Crispy Apple Crumble, shall we?

Crispy Apple Crumble

Crispy Apple Crumble Recipe

Recipe source: The recipe is loosely based on recipes I’ve seen in Crumbles and Cobblers by Maxine Clark (I bought the book simply because the photographs of the juicy, rich desserts were so alluring). I’ve used them as a base for the recipe with addition of ingredients on a whim and using up my last two apples.
Yield: 2 servings

2 Granny Smith apples, cored and diced
2 tbsp Brown sugar
½ tsp ground cinnamon (I much prefer grating a cinnamon stick with a microplane to get the most potent fragrance)
2 tbsp / 30g / 1oz. cold butter, cut into cubes

Topping:
½ cup oats
½ cup flour
1/4th cup granulated sugar
1/4th cup brown sugar
1/4th cup walnuts, chopped
5 tbsp / 75g / 2.65 oz. cold butter, cut into cubes

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F/175°C.
  2. In a bowl, toss together apple, brown sugar and cinnamon, until well coated.
  3. Grease an ovenproof dish with butter and transfer the apples to it. Dot with cold butter. Set aside.
  4. In another bowl mix together the ingredients for the topping. Cut the butter into the mixture with a pastry cutter. Refrigerate this for about 10 minutes if you’ve got the time.
  5. Spread chunks of the topping mixture over the apples and bake for 35-40 minutes until the apples are done.
  6. If the apples are rather juicy, you might have to drain off the excess juices halfway through baking.
  7. Sneak in a few bites while still in the oven, under the pretext of making sure there isn’t too much liquid in there.
  8. Serve the apple crumble with vanilla icecream with caramel sauce or even better, Dulce de Leche.

And there you have it, folks. Crispy Apple Crumble for everyone!

{ 45 comments }

Chocolate Chip Pound Cake

September 2, 2009

Chocolate chip pound cake

It’s established. This chocolate chip pound cake is comfort food. You know why? Because I ate this cake for three meals straight. Only this. Just so you know I’m not exaggerating, I will tell you the sequence of events. I ate this for dinner the evening I made it. Then, for breakfast the next morning, slathered with Nutella and sliced bananas in a sandwich (a fulfilling breakfast, to say the least). And then more slices of the chocolate chip pound cake later for lunch.

Most people have their favourite recipe for pound cake. And how drastically different can it get, anyway? It’s POUND cake. So this cake is clearly not something people would gush about and say “OMG I have got to add this to my list!” But what makes this humble cake something quite wicked is how its limits are stretched to make a delicious sandwich. You could even toast the slices slightly before spreading the Nutella. Here is how:

Chocolate Chip pound cake sandwich for breakfast

Chocolate Chip Pound Cake

Yield: 1 large loaf
Adapted From: Baking From My Home To Yours

2 cups / 240g all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt (omit if you’re using salted butter)
2 sticks / 225g butter
1 cup / 200g granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ – 2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F/175°C. Butter a 9×5 inch loaf pan.
  2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together.
  3. In a stand mixer or with a hand held mixer, beat together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
  4. Add the eggs 1 at a time, beating for a couple of minutes in between additions.
  5. Add the vanilla extract.
  6. Either fold in the dry ingredients by hand with a spatula (always better, so you don’t end up over mixing) or reduce the speed and mix in the flour.
  7. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips.
  8. Bake the cake for 40-60 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
  9. Once baked, let the cake rest for about 15 minutes before you remove it from the pan to transfer to a cooling rack.
  10. Slice it. Eat it.

Chocolate chip poundcake - crumb

If you liked this chocolate chip cake, don’t forget to check out my Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe!

{ 59 comments }

Chocolate Chip Cookies

April 17, 2009

Chocolate Chip Cookies

For five years I’ve been using a chocolate chip cookie recipe I’ve tweaked and tested so many times that it has become my favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe. If I ever needed to make chocolate chip cookies I would never look elsewhere. I had tried too many recipes and I knew the pain that I’d gone through to find that one reliable recipe. I happily kept baking the same chocolate chip cookies. This was until today. After my first successful Dorie Greenspan recipe I was all geared up to step out of my comfort zone and try her chocolate chip cookies.

I halved the recipe and skipped the walnuts. I used the huge Ghirardelli 60% cacao chocolate chips. I had no idea what I was in for! *big grin*

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from: Baking From My Home to Yours (excellent baking book!)
Yield: 10-12 cookies

1 cup flour
½ tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
4 oz/100g/1 stick butter
½ cup sugar
1/3rd cup light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 cup chocolate chip

  1. Sieve the flour, salt and baking soda together. Keep aside.
  2. In a bowl, beat the butter for about a minute. Then add the sugars and beat for another 2 minutes until well blended and creamy. Beat in the vanilla.
  3. Add in the egg.
  4. Reducing the mixer speed to the lowest setting, add in the flour a little at a time, until evenly incorporated.
  5. Stir in the chocolate chips. Reserve a handful for later. Refrigerate the cookie dough for half an hour.
  6. On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or on a Silpat, spoon rounded tablespoonfuls of the cookie dough.
  7. Bake them in a preheated oven at 375°F/190°C for 10-12 minutes.
  8. Something that I *love* to do is open the oven half way through baking and dot the dough that has spread with MORE chocolate chips!
  9. Then a good idea would also be to turn the sheet the other way round so that the cookies will bake evenly.
  10. Let cool on a cooling rack. Have them with a tall glass of milk.
Chocolate Chip Cookies
These cookies turned out to be absolutely delightful. Crisp around the edges and soft and chewy in the middle. The butter was a little on the higher side, so the next time around I’d probably reduce it by 20-25g. The extra chocolate chips were a bonus! And given that they were 60% cacao they beautifully balanced the sweetness of the cookie. Now I have two favourite chocolate chip cookie recipes!

If you liked this, I think you would love my Chocolate Chip Cake recipe!
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Still craving for more Cookie Recipes?!
Nutella Pinwheel Cookies
Black Forest Cookies
Buttery Buckwheat Nibby Cookies
Valentine Linzer Cookies
Milan Cookies
Cheddar Cheese Biscuits

{ 86 comments }

7 Experiments

December 31, 2007

Yes I managed to complete my December POA. Most dishes turned out to be brilliant, some mediocre and some (just one actually) simply appalling. I made some in beginning of the month (chocolate chunk cookies, chicken quesadillas, Lasagna) and rest of them were last minute. Some were a breeze to make and required simple assembling of ingredients, while some required a mix of a dozen spices and other ingredients. I followed some recipes to the T, some were made on the whim and some were modified depending on availability of ingredients and taste. Here is an account of each of them (sit back, you’re going to be here a while!)

Focaccia:

This is my favourite. I always like baking Focaccia. I put a lot of toppings on this and this turned out to be a meal in itself. I used the recipe from Paul Hollywood’s 100 Great Breads for reference.

Ingredients:

500g strong white flour
15g active dry yeast
1 tablespoon dried Italian herbs
300 ml water
Olive oil
Sprigs of rosemary water

Toppings: Black olives, rosemary sprigs, thinly sliced tomatoes, deep fried garlic, onion rings, rock salt and mozzarella cheese.

  1. Soak the yeast in warm water with a little sugar for 10 minutes (till it has become frothy).
  2. Form dough with flour, water and olive oil and yeast. (I deliberately did not add salt to this as salt reduces the efficacy of yeast. Instead sprinkle rock salt generously before baking).
  3. Let it rise for 1 hour. Place flattened dough on the baking sheet and let it rise for another hour.
  4. Make indentations on the surface with the finger.
  5. Brush with olive oil (I love my new silicone brush for this. It does the job and is so easy to clean. I’d recommend this instead of using the fibrous type).
  6. Ok back to the focaccia – Put all the toppings except the cheese and bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 20-30 minutes. Just when it looks almost done top it with the cheese and bake till it has melted.
  7. Have it warm with a generous amount of butter!

Chocolate Chunk cookies:

I chose to make the thick and gooey chocolate chip cookies These were a lot of fun to bake. I must admit, I tweaked the recipe a bit, but the results were marvellous nonetheless (No major modifications, I halved the recipe and cut down on the chocolate).

The sad part was that one batch of cookies slipped from my hand and crumbled on the floor leaving me with only half the amount to enjoy.

I think it’s appropriate to say that my new year’s resolution is going to be to work on my photography.

Lasagna

I got the time to make an entire post on it earlier this month. You can check it out here


Chicken Quesadillas:

The mix of colours of the filing made it look very visually appealing.

For the flour tortillas, you can check out a step by step guide at La Gringa’s Blogicito However, that’s not the exactly the method I followed. I made my tortillas in a more local fashion (like making rotis) that you can understand about here.



Salsa:
2 big tomatoes, chopped
1 small red onion
1 green chilli finely chopped
Juice of half a lime
Chopped coriander


Mix all the ingredients and refrigerate for the flavours to meld till the quesadillas are ready.

Filling:
Grated Monterey Jack/Cheddar cheese
Diced boneless chicken (marinated for an hour with garlic, olive oil and salt and then pan fried)
Sliced black olives
Jalapeños
Strips of yellow and red pepper
Oregano and salt for seasoning
Cherry tomatoes, halved

After filling the tortillas, heat oil in a pan and toast it. Serve it with the salsa.

Other things that could be added: kidney beans, corn.

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Jerk Chicken:

This was modified to quite an extent. Not the ingredients, but the cooking method. I needed to make this real quick, so didn’t have the time to roast it in the oven for 50 minutes. Instead, I pan fried it.

I used the recipe from Bon Appetit.

The vinegar made it a little too tart, but the chicken turned out to be very soft and moist.

Modifications made:

  1. Used boneless chicken
  2. Omitted the rum
  3. Used a Scotch bonnet chilli sauce instead of the chillies, due to lack of availability.

Chocolate Chip Sponge:

By far the richest sponge I’ve made. And I didn’t use tiny choc chips but huge chocolate chunks. :D

I used the same recipe like every time, only difference being that instead of the sugar, I added the leftover mixture of icing sugar and almonds from the Yule Log challenge. This is what made the cake so rich; and of course, a generous amount of buttah! You can check the recipe here.

Fruit Ham Sandwich:

I feel I’m missing something here. I just don’t see how fruit with meat is a likeable mix. Even at the Christmas Brunch there was the traditional Roast Turkey served with assorted fruit sauces (apple, cranberry). I found it to be quite unpalatable. I guess it’s probably not acceptable to the heavily seasoned Indian palate. I enjoyed the turkey just by itself.

Inspired by Sticky Creamy Gooey Chewy I made the sandwich with the following:

  • Sliced cheddar
  • Thinly sliced apple
  • Chicken Ham
  • Apple preserve
  • Honey mustard

I couldn’t even finish my sandwich. But I’m glad I tried it.

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