Chocolate M&M Cookies

As I was taking my dinner out of the oven tonight it spilled and half of my beautiful casserole fell into the oven. Thankfully I had enough for dinner and leftovers for lunch tomorrow still left in the pan, but it was depressing and forced me to clean my oven. After an hour or so of scrubbing down all the walls of the oven, I wanted to test it to make sure it wouldn't smell like burned food when I turned it on.

I remembered I had to make some birthday treats for a friend and I found some chocolate baking squares and decided chocolate cookies would be the perfect thing. I really love holidays, particularly birthdays, and not even my own. My birthday is fine, but when a friend's birthday is coming up, I spend days and sometimes weeks planning what to get them or make them. Sketches of elaborate cakes and long ingredient lists are drafted and I'll spend hours preparing things. These were not labor intensive, but they are getting sent across the country, so I couldn't make my usual fare. I did brighten them up with some M and M's that I found in my pantry, and I'm happy to say the recipe made exactly 1 tupperware's worth: perfect for shipping.

Okay... so there were two extra that wouldn't fit, which I quickly devoured. Gotta test new recipes right??

Anyway, here's the recipe. I was surprised that it didn't call for any baking powder/soda but, they turned out quite nicely. It's a great blend of moist and cakey cookies that are chocolatey but not too rich. They're really easy to whip up and only have a few ingredients. Even if you weren't expecting to do any baking, these ones are within reach on a late night.

Chocolate M&M Cookies

4 1oz. Unsweetened Baking Squares

2 C. White Sugar

2 1/2 C. Flour

3 Eggs

3/4 C. Butter

1 tsp. vanila

1 Bag M and Ms

• Microwave unsweetened chocolate and butter in 30 second intervals until butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. 

• Add sugar and mix well. Blend in eggs and vanilla. 

• Stir in flour (careful not to overmix). Dough will be sticky.

• Refrigerate 45min-1hour or up to overnight until dough is easy to handle.

• Preheat oven to 350F 

• Shape into 1 inch balls, press 3-4 candies into ball.

• Bake 8 minutes or until just set. Let stand on baking sheet for 1 minute and transfer to wire rack.

• Devour.

Molasses Bran Muffins

As far as healthy things go, these little guys really take the cake in terms of breakfast muffins. They get a great amount of sweetness from the molasses, applesauce and raisins but have no added sugar or oil. I halved the recipe since which made the perfect amount of muffins for the rest of the weekend. I had some chocolate covered walnuts leftover from some baking the other night, which fed into my unending need for chocolate. But even with the added decadence, it’s still a breakfast/late morning snack to feel good about.

Moist Molasses Bran Muffins

1 cup Wheat Bran

1½ cups Whole Wheat Flour

½ cup Quick Cook Oats

¼ cup Golden Raisins

¼ cup Raisins

1 tsp. Baking Powder

1 tsp. Baking Soda

1 cup Milk

½ cup Molasses

3 Tbsp. Honey

¾ cup Applesauce

¼ cup chopped Walnuts

2 Eggs, beaten

Preheat oven to 400F

Combine the wheat bran, flour, oats, baking powder and baking soda in a medium bowl, stir in the raisins and nuts

In a separate bowl, blend the milk, molasses, honey, applesauce and eggs

Divide into muffin tin and bake for 12-15 minutes, makes 16 muffins

Enjoy right out of the oven with a nice cold glass of milk!

Spinach, Tomato and Fontina Sliders: No Assembly Required.

As you may notice from the one month break in posts, it's been a hectic few weeks. I went to Spain for a week and visited a friend. We had a phenomenal time sightseeing, dancing, and even embarked on a cannoli hunt that lasted several days and concluded with a cannoli of epic proportions, but that is a tale for another time.

After that, my mother and I began a week-long road trip to drive my harp along with all my other stuff up to New York so I could move in. Since arriving, I have been frantically setting up my new apartment. I've taken on all roles - locksmith, plumber, carpenter, etc. So needless to say when it came to cooking, I needed something that was indeed, No Assembly Required. It was also taking longer than expected to get my gas turned on, so I only had a toaster oven to work with when cooking which sparked a lot of toast, warm sandwiches, and when I was feeling a bit more creative, these cute and healthy little snacks.

The recipe is too simple. Slice a tomato, put it on the toaster tray, top with a slice of fontina (or whatever other cheese you prefer). Toast until nice and melty, put on a bed of fresh spinach, and top with herbs. I did go out and buy a sleek little planter and put some fresh herbs in, so I threw on fresh oregano and rosemary (my current spice-infatuation).

These require basically no ingredients, minimal prep, and are quite delectable. So next time you need a break from unpacking, bookcase building, and all the other stresses of starting a new semester, give these a try!

Cannoli-ventures: Please, sir, I want to go to Hoboken

For spring break this past year I once again found myself in New York and thus needed a cannoli. Julie casually informed me that the bakery where the show Cake Boss is filmed is in Hoboken, NJ which isn't too far from Manhattan. We decided to embark into the unknown world of New Jersey to find ourselves a real italian cannoli provided by the overly confident and cheesy Buddy Valastro.

There was one minor hiccup. We had no clue how to get to Hoboken.

However, that's what the helpful workers at the Port Authority are for. Thus we began asking anyone and everyone who seemed knowledgeable and found our way into Hoboken on the PATH.

It was a surprisingly windy day and I was sad to have worn such a flowy dress, but as Julie and I are prone to do, we had a small photo safari before finding the bakery.

The views of the city from across the river made a fantastic backdrop and the wind, when it behaved, gave some pretty cool effects.

Starving from our exhaustive photo taking, we wandered through the streets of Hoboken. My camera had died, but we could not stop documenting our adventure. At a walgreens we saw a case of disposable cameras that brought back so many memories of childhood, we opted to indulge in the nostalgia and document the rest of the trip with that. Be warned, picture quality decreases greatly. . .

Within a few minutes we had found Carlo's Bakery. We had also found the absurdly long line to get into Carlo's bakery.

I will do many things for a cannoli, but I will not wait in a line for 3 hours unless I will be receiving some divinely created tower of cannolis where a fountain stream of chocolate sauce drips down from the top. 

There must be another cannoli in all of Hoboken, right? So we began walking through the streets stopping in every Italian restaurant or general bakery we found. One Italian place even advertised cannolis but broke our hearts by not actually having any. They directed us to a small bakery which had many Italian cookies, but no cannolis. After trying what seemed like every bakery in town, we were lost and despondent. We saw a pizza place right near Carlo's Bakery that had some desserts. Fearing yet another rejection, I hesitantly asked the guy if they had cannolis. He nodded and mumbled some form of 'yeah' and our faces lit up with childlike joy. Julie also promptly took a picture of the man who made our dreams come true that day.

Now, this was a pizza place, so the cannoli was pretty generic. The shells were pre-made and were too crunchy so that after the first bite the cannoli had crumbled into a million pieces in your hand. The cream was at least seemingly made from scratch and was pretty good. I was proud of the guy for putting a mild amount of effort into its presentation and dusting it with powdered sugar.  Overall, even if the cannoli was a little sub-par, after walking everywhere through Hoboken it was gratifying to finally end the cannoli-venture and go back to Manhattan victorious. 

recap:

date - March 27, 2011

location - Tiny pizza place, Hoboken, NJ

company - julie

food - cannoli and slice of BBQ Chicken Pizza
review - premade shell was a disappointment, but cream was satisfactory

No blowtorch needed

Like most college students, I have a healthy passion for lighting things on fire.

A few years ago my friend showed me fire soccer, the incredible sport you play by dousing a tennis ball in rubbing alcohol, lighting it and then kicking the ball around for a while. I've never been a huge soccer player, but this was one game I was always ready to play. 

 

Fireworks are great too, but they require a bit more advanced planning since unlike rubbing alcohol and a tennis ball, you cannot run into a Walgreens any time of the year and buy them. Plus, they take a lot of open space and draw lots of unwanted attention. 

This week, I decided to try another one of my favorite ways to light things on fire that remains completely contained in the kitchen. The only thing better than cake and ice cream, is cake and ice cream that is covered in meringue and lit on fire. That's right, it's time to get going with some Baked Alaska. 

I've tried making it once before, but I did it in such a hurry that I did not make the cake from scratch and used store bought ice cream. It was not very good. This time I started the day before and planned it much more thoroughly.

There are 4 main components to a Baked Alaska:

Cake

Ice Cream

Meringue

Flame

First I dealt with the Ice Cream

I refused to let my lack of ice cream maker prevent me from making my own ice cream. It is totally possible and actually quite simple so long as you are not trying to get too fancy. I chose to make a vanilla ice cream with chunks of chocolate peanut butter chip cookie dough inside. 

So I made up a half batch of cookie dough without the eggs and rolled bite sized pieces. I shoved them in the freezer for a while so they could stiffen up while I made the ice cream.

While they chilled, I got out my crappy handheld mixer and made the ice cream. I decided to make 8 small baked alaskas, so I got out my ramekins and some regular kitchen mugs and lined them with saran wrap. I divided the ice cream between the cups and let it freeze for an hour. I wanted to let the ice cream solidify a bit before adding the cookie dough so that the pieces wouldn't all sink to the bottom. I put the mugs and ramekins in the very back of my fridge and that was it. 

Now to make the cake...

  Since the ice cream usually melts a bit into the cake, I wanted a denser chocolate cake to go with the ice cream and to prevent the rum soaking into it too much when we lit it on fire. I found a great recipe for a dark chocolate mud cake that seemed perfect, especially since I still had so much dark belgian chocolate to use!

 It made just enough to fit into a 10 x 13in rectangular pan, which was all I needed for my mini baked alaskas.

Conquering the Meringue

I have a slight aversion to meringues because they're so particular that it is almost not worth it. But you can't light the cake on fire unless its coated in a meringue, so I worked through my apprehension and whipped up an absurd amount of egg whites. It could've gone better, but I managed to coat every cake with the nice white fluff, even if the last few got a little droopy.

Assembly

 I cut the cake into little circles the same size as the ramekins and plopped the ice cream on top. I assembled them one at a time because once the ice cream was pulled out of the freezer, I had to work quickly because this ice cream was very soft (that's what I get for not having an ice cream maker...). I had the meringue ready to go and I used a spatula and spread it all around the sides, ensuring to cover all the cake and ice cream completely.

Let the Flames Begin!

Okay, so most recipes require a kitchen blow torch to toast the meringue and "bake" the alaska. However, as you may have guessed, I do not have a blow torch lying around for these purposes. But, as we learned above with fire soccer, alcohol can help with a very low temperature flame that's easy to produce. I don't have a bottle of propane for a torch, but I did manage to get my hands on a bottle of Bacardi 151, which might as well be the same thing. I wanted to pour a ladle of flaming rum onto the cakes, but they were small for that much rum and I didn't actually have a metal ladle that would work. I tried using my Max Brenner Hug Mug, but that became problematic when the cup was englufed in flames. After a few trials, we found the most effective method was to spoon a few tablespoons of 151 onto the meringue and light it with a zippo. Then, just let the flames do their job and toast the sides of the meringue.

It didn't work as well as a blow torch, but it certainly made a great spectacle. Plus, since its an alcohol based fire there was no smoke and it was not super hot, so there were no problems with lighting it or setting off the smoke detector.

 

Once you light it, just let the flames extinguish themselves on the meringue and make sure there are no little unburned portions of 151 on the cake. It's quite a strong flavor to add to the cake if it doesn't burn off. 

 Overall I was very satisfied with both the amount of flames we got and am very thankful that all the little bits of flame that dropped onto the floor were so easy to blow out. . . 

I'd recommend trying this, but just make sure you take the time you need to make it happen, and stay safe -  keep flammable materials far, far away.

Recipes:

 Vanilla Ice Cream (without Ice Cream Maker)

2 C. Heavy Cream

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 T. vanilla extract

add-ins

• Beat heavy cream until stiff peaks form
• Gently stir in sweetened condensed milk and vanilla extract. Pour into container, freeze overnight.
• If adding cookie dough (recipe follows) or other add ins, let the ice cream harden in the freezer for about an hour and then stir them in. 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookie dough pieces 

1 C. flour

1/3 C. cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2/3 C. brown sugar

1/2 C. (1 stick) butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 C. peanut butter chips

• Cream together butter and sugar, add vanilla extract. 
• Stir in flour, baking soda and cocoa powder, blend well. Add peanut butter chips and stir until evenly distributed. 
• Roll into dime-sized spheres and freeze for 30-40 minutes before adding to ice cream.

Chocolate Mud Cake from Almost Bourdain

375 g (13 1/2 oz) butter, softened

1 1/3 cups (230 g / 7 7/8 oz) brown sugar

3 eggs

2 cups (300g / 10 1/2 oz) plain (all-purpose) flour, sifted

1/2 tsp baking powder

2/3 cup (80 g / 3 oz) cocoa powder, double sifted

200 g (7 oz) dark chocolate, melted

3/4 cup (180 ml / 6 fl oz) milk

• Preheat the oven to 160C (320F).
• Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 8-10 minutes, or until the mixture is light and creamy.
• Gradually add the eggs and beat well.
• Fold through the flour, baking powder, cocoa and melted chocolate and stir in the milk.
• Spoon the mixture into a 22cm (8 1/2 in) round cake tin lined with non-stick baking paper and bake for 1 1/4 hours or until cooked when tested with a skewer.
• Cool in the tin.
• Cut into desired shape to fit ice cream molds

Meringue

I don't feel qualified to actually provide information on meringues since I'm not proficient with them yet. So if you don't know how to do it already....

For the meringue-challenged

Flames

Bacardi 151 Rum

lighter

• Spoon 2-3 T. of the rum onto the meringue, light on fire and let it burn

Cannoli-ventures: Cafe Roma in Little Italy

On my 16th birthday I brought two of my closest friends to New York with me for a weekend gallivanting around seeing shows and exploring. We went on a cannoli-venture back then, but were not forward thinking enough to fully document it all. The only remnant is this victorious picture of me finally biting into it.

Years later, one of those girls, Julie, moved to New York on her own to start working and now lives on the Upper West Side. We are both believers in taking tons of photos and are passionate about Italian desserts, so she is the perfect companion to hunt with.

Last October I spent a long weekend visiting my brother and Julie and since she had just arrived in the city, we did a lot of walking arond and seeing different areas. During an afternoon in Chinatown, we ended up in Little Italy and found an incredible looking bakery that boasted having won a cannoli competition. Needless to say we were determined to try this, but we had just eaten pounds of fried rice and noodles couldn't imagine having anything more. As difficult as it was to pass up, we decided to take our chances and try to come back another time before the weekend was through.

Two days later we spent the afternoon at Coney Island giggling like small children and strolling along the boardwalk. We hit it right at sunset and it made for some beautiful photo opportunities

And what's a trip to Coney Island without exorbitant amounts of fair food. The cotton candy was 2 for 1, okay...

We returned after dinner and somehow determined that the plethora of oil and sugar that we had eaten did not subdue our sweet tooths for the night. The long subway ride back to Manhattan convinced us that a trip to Little Italy was due.

 Also, we had sworn to go back and could not give up on this cannoli goldmine. So just as they were closing we burst into Cafe Roma on Mulberry and Broome St. and got some Tiramisu and of course the requisite cannoli.

It was just as gratifying as we anticipated and we sat as the only two people in the restaurant nibbling on our desserts as the older Italian man glared at us for asking for another glass of water.

I wish I could give a more in depth critique of the cannoli, but it was too long ago to remember the details. I do wish there had been chocolate chips on the cannoli, but the cream was probably rich enough as is. Believe me, it was tasty, and though tiramisu is a new thing for me, I thoroughly enjoyed that as well. Just writing about them is making me hungry.

This ended up being one of the easier quests, even if it did take a few days from start to finish. Victory was ours, and what a delectable victory it was.

recap:

date - October 23-25 2010

location - Cafe Roma, Mulberry and Broome st.

company - julie

food - cannoli and tiramisu
review - very tasty

Italian Herb Bread Bowls

I remember the first time I discovered a bread bowl when I was about 11. I was astonished at the ingenuity it. Not only is your bowl completely edible, but it automatically comes with bread to dip into your soup!

I think many people share this fascination and utter enjoyment. I have found that whenever I am at a restaurant offering bread bowls, most of the people I'm with, myself included, can't manage to pass it up.

 So I decided it was time to try and make my own and stop relying on restaurants to provide them. I hunted around and settled on a recipe from Mel's Kitchen for Italian Bread Bowls. I adapted it a bit and decided to add some herbs to them. Then I sprinkled sesame seeds on top to make them a bit more interesting.

I always bake late the night before I'm actually having people over, and it becomes problematic when the food smells as good as these did. The rosemary and basil came through really well and by about midnight I was ready to have one of the bowls as a bedtime snack. I was cooking dinner for 8 people so I stretched the dough a bit and made smaller bread bowls so everyone could have their own. Most people had 2 or 3 servings of the soup and just continued to nibble through the bread bowl as they ate. They were a huge hit with everyone and went beautifully both the clam chowder and the chili we had.

Italian Herb Bread Bowls

Makes 6-8 bread bowls

1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast (use 1 tablespoon instant yeast)

2 1/2 cups warm water

2 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp Rosemary
1 tsp Basil
1 egg, beaten
Sesame seeds for sprinkling

• In a large bowl (or bowl of an electric mixer), dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. (You can omit this step if using instant yeast.)
  
• Add salt, oil and 4 cups flour to the yeast mixture; beat well. Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, beating well with an electric mixer at medium speed after each addition until a soft but not sticky dough is formed. This bread bowl dough needs to be a bit firmer than a roll/bread dough so that the bread bowls rise up instead of out.
• When the dough has pulled together, add in the herbs and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 6 minutes (or let knead in an electric mixer).
• Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 40 minutes.
• Punch dough down, and divide into 6-8 equal portions. Shape each portion into a round ball. Place loaves on baking sheets lined with parchment paper
•  Slash the top surface of the bread bowl several times with a sharp knife or razor, brush with egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Cover and let rise in a warm place, free from drafts, until doubled in bulk, about 35 minutes.

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake in preheated oven for 15-18 minutes until golden brown and baked through.

• To make into bread bowls, used a serrated knife and cut a circle in the top. Wedge a large spoon inside and pull out the top piece of the bowl.

• Pour in some chowder, and devour mercilessly

Recipe Source: adapted from Mel's Kitchen