Peppermint Bark Cookies - Or, An E for Effort

I've been searching for an innovative Christmas cookie recipe that I can bake and bring home for the holidays. Bon Appetit's peppermint bark cookie recipe immediately grabbed my attention, since it combines two favorite treats - shortbread and peppermint bark - in one bite! So, I tested the recipe this weekend. My eagerness for the recipe's end result caused me to overlook the unusual amount of effort required to get there, which was hinted at in the recipe but proved to be even greater in execution. The recipe is below, along with my commentary in italics.

• Nonstick vegetable oil spray
• 2 C all-purpose flour
• 1/4 t salt
• 1 C (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 C sugar
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 1 large egg yolk
• 6 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped (This is about 3/4 C, but I put 1 C in and still could have used more.)
• 1/2 C finely chopped red-and-white-striped hard peppermint candies or candy canes
• 2 ounces high-quality white chocolate

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray 13x9x2-inch metal baking pan with nonstick spray. Line bottom of pan with long strip of 9-inch-wide parchment paper, leaving overhang on both short sides of pan.
2. Whisk flour and salt in medium bowl.
3. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until creamy, about 2 minutes. Gradually beat in sugar. Continue beating until mixture is light and fluffy, stopping occasionally to scrape down sides of bowl, about 3 minutes. Beat in vanilla, then egg yolk. Gradually add flour mixture, beating on low speed just to blend. I beat well beyond a "just blended" state in an effort to achieve a dough-like consistency - no such luck.
4. Drop dough by tablespoonfuls into prepared baking pan, spacing evenly. Using moistened fingertips, press dough to form even layer over bottom of pan. Pierce dough all over with fork. The dough was so crumbly, I didn't think it would form into a continuous layer. The moistened fingers, plus a few minutes of pressing, made all the difference. I've made shortbreads before, but none have been this resistant to forming proper dough or easily spreading throughout a pan.
5. Bake cookie base until light golden brown and slightly puffed and edges begin to come away from sides of pan, about 30 minutes. Place pan on rack when done.
6. Immediately sprinkle bittersweet chocolate over cookie base. Let stand until chocolate softens, about 3 minutes. Using small offset spatula, spread bittersweet chocolate over top of cookie in thin even layer. Immediately sprinkle chopped peppermint candies over. My semisweet chocolate chips took over 3 minutes to cool enough for spreading. The melted chocolate was easy enough to spread, but of course I did not immediately reach an even chocolate distribution. I hammered candy canes to get peppermint shards, but the canes resisted the force well and left me with peppermint powder and larger-than desired candy chunks. I ended up taking a sharp knife to the bag of candy, which was slightly more effective at creating small pieces than the hammer. Still, I wish the pieces were consistently smaller.
7. Stir white chocolate in medium metal bowl set over saucepan of simmering water until melted and smooth. Remove from over water. Using fork, drizzle white chocolate all over cookies. Chill until white chocolate is set, about 30 minutes. I enjoyed using the double-boiler method to melt the white chocolate, and I even added some candy cane powder to the chocolate for additional color and flavor, However, the chocolate did not drizzle particularly well. Also, it took the melted chocolates more than the recipe's suggested half hour to cool. The cookies were ready for removal from the pan approximately 2 hours after I applied the white chocolate.
8. Using paper overhang as aid, lift cookie from pan and transfer to work surface. Using large knife, cut cookie into pieces. The parchment paper was a great idea - cookie removal was a breeze. I cut 28 total cookies.
   
   

I had never put so much time and effort into making cookies! Fortunately, the results were pleasing. The shortbread was buttery and surprisingly chewy for such a thin cookie - the immediate application of chocolate on top must have kept a lot of moisture in! The semisweet chocolate layer was smooth and tasty, though it did not consistently stick to the shortbread. The candy pieces were also surprisingly chewy, so what initially concerned me about their size was a non-issue upon eating. Of course, the mint-and-chocolate combination was a winner. Lastly, the white chocolate drizzle with hints of peppermint powder was delicious! Ghirardelli chocolate is so sweet and smooth, and the hint of peppermint taste and cool crunch was the perfect finishing touch on this multifaceted delight.
I would make these cookies again, but I hope an easier yet equally delicious recipe will come my way!

Not Your Average Thanksgiving Dessert

My family challenged me to make a “lighter” Thanksgiving dessert. This was a reasonable request – Thanksgiving dinner is a huge affair, and even I have trouble coaxing the “dessert stomach” open after heaps of delicious turkey and plentiful, delectable sides. So, it was out with the pumpkin pie, and in with a flavorful, holiday-appropriate, and deceptively light treat from Martha Stewart’s Great Food Fast cookbook. Here’s how to make the Cranberry Upside Down Cake:

• 8 T unsalted butter
• 1 C sugar
• 1/2 t ground cinnamon
• 1/4 t ground allspice
• 1 3/4 C cranberries
• 1 large egg
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 C all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 t baking powder
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/2 C milk
• Sweetened whipped cream

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Rub the bottom and sides of an 8" round cake pan with 2 T of the butter. (Note: this degree of buttering is not necessary, but give the pan a better-than-normal coat.)
2. In a small bowl, whisk together 1/2 C of the sugar with the cinnamon and allspice. Sprinkle the mixture evenly over the bottom of the pan, and arrange the cranberries in a single layer on top.

3. Cream the remaining 6 T butter and 1/2 C sugar until they are light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla; beat until well combined.
4. In another bowl, whick the flour, baking powder, and salt together.
5. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in three batches, alternating with the milk, until well combined.
6. Spoon the batter over the cranberries in the pan, and smooth the top. Place the pan on a baking sheet, and bake it until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (30-35 minutes). Then, let it cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes. When it is time to remove the cake from the pan, run a knife around the edge of the cake and invert it onto the platter.

There was not enough bursting of cranberries to significantly soak the cake with juice – so, this is more of a tea cake with a well-secured cranberry-sugar topping than an upside down cake proper. You can see from the post’s first image that the recipe’s recommended amount of berries did not completely cover the pan. I wonder if adding additional cranberry coverage would improve the juiciness - I'll test that out when I bake this next. The topping is a refreshing combination of sweet and tart, with the allspice providing a hint of bite that initially catches you off guard. The caramelized sugar is somewhat crunchy, and that plus the warm, soft berries is a textural treat. The cake below has a pleasant buttery vanilla flavor, and its texture is somehow creamy and light. Whipped cream is not necessary, but it doesn't hurt to add another light, sweet flavor (and texture!) to the dessert.

It goes without saying that I was able to make room for this after the holiday meal!

How About Them Apples!

Oh, the fun of baking with apples! I must share two treats made with this fall’s Londonderry Cortland harvest.

My classic apple dessert is apple crisp. It’s hard to find a dessert that’s easier to make than this. Cut four peeled, cored apples into thin slices; array the slices within a greased 9x9 square baking dish; cover in a crumble topping made of ½ cup (each) oats, flour, and brown sugar, with cinnamon to taste (oh, a tablespoon?) and enough butter to make coarse crumbs when blended with the other crumble ingredients (usually 1 stick). Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees, let cool, and enjoy! Doesn’t it look tasty?

Once the obligatory crisp was baked and consumed, it was time to branch into new dessert territory. I made my first apple pie this fall, and the results were promising enough that I look forward to making more. I wanted something slightly different than the standard apple pie, so I turned to Ina Garten of Barefoot Contessa for inspiration. This citrusy apple pie recipe yielded an unusual dessert that grew on me with each bite. The lemon and orange zest and juice added so much citrus that the filling resembled an apple chutney more than simple spiced apples. Fortunately, scoops of vanilla ice cream tamed the tang when needed. Apart from the citrus, the pie filling was conventional - flour, sugar, and warm, cozy spices. You can see the pie in its various stages of progress below. To start, note the heap of fruit! This was only 5 apples; though the recipe called for 8, I didn't want to deal with an even taller mountain. Then, it was difficult to secure the top crust over the mound, but we succeeded and even brushed it with the recipe's sugary egg wash for extra cripsness and sweetness. Next, the steaming finished product is removed from the oven, juices dribbling. Lastly, we have a slice of pie with ice cream at the ready.




And, I must share a postscript. I revisited this cake for 2009's Thanksgiving breakfast, but added one recipe component I had previously ignored: a brown sugar sauce for drizzling and dipping. The result was like a thin caramel, which I poured over the warm cake as soon as the cake came out of the oven. This added delicious, sweet, chewy moisture to the cake, and the caramel taste went really well with the spiced apples. The glaze recipe made a lot of extra sauce, which I saved and poured over individual slices at breakfast time. I also dipped the occasional piece of chocolate in the pseudo-caramel, which was a most welcome treat! I might make the glaze again, cool it, and roll balls of it in melted chocolate in an attempt at caramel truffles.

An Ode to Athan's

Athan’s Bakery was originally a curiosity to be observed from the windows of the C line while traveling downtown from college. Since then, I have realized its utility as a perfect way to complement meals eaten (or beverages purchased) in Brookline’s Washington Square. Regardless of what type of dessert you want, and what quantity, Athan’s has something that will make you happy. Cakes, mousses, butter cookies, gelato, chocolates, candies, Greek pastries, and cream desserts are all there, along with café beverages to wash them down. I can’t help but rave about the sweet treats I have had there.

Let's start with the Cookie Crème confection (above left). Light, airy barely-chocolate cake alternates with smooth, deeply-flavored, and well-whipped chocolate mousse to create a pleasing dessert of various chocolate textures. The dessert is shot through with miniature chocolate chips and small chunks of chewy cookie dough; both of these exist in a higher density at the center. Dark chocolate ganache frosting drizzled with a thinner chocolate sauce enrobes the cake and mousse layers, and the whole thing is topped with a dollop of vanilla cream and a chocolate wafer. With so many chocolates, how can this dessert not deliver? I was very pleased with its rich flavors and deceptive lightness. The cheesecake, to the right of the Cookie Crème, is another example of a heavy cake made light and bearable. The packed graham cracker crust is covered in a layer of strawberry cream, which in turn is topped with sweet, whipped meringue cheesecake. This airy, creamy confection was a true delight, especially after the filling cheeses I had eaten with my dinner before! I cannot advocate enough for a bakery that creates lighter yet equally flavorful versions of traditionally-filling desserts.

Athan’s chocolates, on the other hand, are black holes that fit in your hand – but one would expect that from fine truffles. The chocolates’ best advantages are their size and truffle fillings. These confections are larger than the average piece of chocolate, but smaller than a candy bar, brownie or cookie. In other words, if you want something sweet after a filling meal, and don’t want to burst but still feel like you had a legitimate dessert, these are the way to go. Also, the flavors! I have seen Nutella, fig, mint, amaretto, marzipan, caramel, and ganache fillings in these truffles. The Nutella filling was delightful, and I have a mint truffle awaiting me at home. I’m sure it will be delicious…just like I’m sure I will be back for more. I may not be in college anymore, but the C line is still worth traveling for these treasures!

California Dessertin': Baked Beauties

This baked-good entry is entirely devoted to Kara's Cupcakes...6 particular cupcakes, to be exact. If you recall the multitude of cupcake entries written thus far in this blog, you can easily imagine my glee at stumbling upon a cupcakery in Ghirardelli Square that rivals my favorite East Coast cupcake haunts! We snacked on Kara's excellent baked treats twice in San Francisco:

• Fleur de Sel- a moist chocolate cupcake was filled with soft, sweet caramel and topped in thick, dark, creamy chocolate ganache. The ganache, in turn, was dusted with crystals of fleur de sel. I really enjoyed the bits of salt in an otherwise smooth and silkily sweet cupcake. One of the best cupcakes I have ever had!
  
• Vanilla Chocolate - a vanilla cupcake was topped with sugary chocolate buttercream frosting. This simple treat was tasty, but could have used some additional moisture.
• Meyer Lemony Lemon - a dense, somewhat dry vanilla cupcake was injected with tart lemon filling. The frosting was a smooth, barely-lemon vanilla buttercream whose potential citrusy tartness was negated by its creaminess. Fortunately the tart filling more than made up for the lack of lemon flavor elsewhere in the dessert.
  
• Passion Fruit - the same vanilla cupcake had intensely sweet...yet tart...passion fruit filling within, and vanilla buttercream frosting on top. The filling provided the moisture necessary for the cake, and the passion fruit flavor's strength stood out against the cake and frosting's comparatively mild vanilla.

Four cupcakes, however, apparently were not enough! We were surprised to see a second Kara's outpost a few days later in downtown Napa.

• Raspberry Dazzle - the same moist chocolate cake used in the Fleur de Sel cupcake was filled with sweet raspberry preserves and topped with smooth raspberry buttercream frosting. Here, the frosting's creaminess worked well with its fruit flavor, as berries are more easily made sweet than citrus fruits. This cupcake dazzled me, for sure.
  
• Banana Caramel - a banana cupcake, whose texture walked the line between banana bread and cake proper, was filled with sweet caramel and topped with cream cheese frosting. The frosting was reminiscent of carrot cake topping, but silkier; the caramel was smooth against the comparative roughness of the cake. These three flavors went unexpectly well together, and made this cupcake the most (pleasantly) surprising.

Overall, Kara's cakes were better than the average Boston cup cake, with frosting to rival Sweet's. If you travel to the San Francisco area and need a delightful dessert to go, make a stop - or two - or even three! - at Kara's.

California Dessertin': Feeling Fruity

Peach Cobbler at The Monk's Kettle

This dessert ended my favorite meal of the vacation, and one of my favorite meals of the year. The Monk's Kettle features Belgian-style beers and fresh, quality interpretations of comfort classics. Bostonians, imagine a smaller, Californified Publick House. I wasn't sure if their desserts could reach the same degree of excellence as my pot pie of the day, but our dessert choice definitely did. The cobbler was served in a small crock fresh out of the oven; the juices dribbling out of the crock may have been bubbling! The peach slices within the cobbler were a variety of thicknesses and the perfect degree of ripeness. Some sugar was mixed in, clearly, but not enough to mask that fresh peach tartness or make the dessert overly syrupy. The crumble topping was thick and oaty with a hint of cinnamon. It may have walked the line between savory and sweet, which I historically consider perfect for peaches. The crumbly dough was then topped with vanilla bean ice cream and garnished with mint. The ice cream melted rather quickly given the oven freshness of the dessert - so, each bite was a delightful combination of tart peaches, buttery cinnamon crumble, and cool vanilla. Does it get better than this?

California Dessertin': Chocolate, (Not So) Plain and Simple

I will not waste your time with excuses for why I haven’t updated since…July? Consider this notification that I am alive and well, and have been consuming desserts at just as alarming a rate as when I posted more regularly.

A week-long October vacation to San Francisco and Napa Valley yielded plenty of dessert-sampling opportunities, organized into Chocolate, Fruit, and Baked Item posts for your reading pleasure!

• Ghirardelli Peanut Butter Squares – Ghirardelli chocolate is made in San Francisco, and while their factory is not open to the public, they still provide a treat for visitors in the form of an extensive gift shop and chocolate restaurant at Ghirardelli Square. Shoppers receive a complimentary chocolate square upon entering the store, so we were able to sample their recently-released peanut butter squares. The milk chocolate was smooth and creamy, as always. The peanut butter was thicker than the average creamy peanut butter, without much salt or buttery flavor. I would have preferred a tad more salt, as few desserts are as joyous as those that combine salty and sweet tastes. Some buttery smoothness would have been welcome as well, rather than bland solidity enrobed in tastier chocolate. I’m sure Ghirardelli will refine their recipe over time – after all, I can find no fault with their long-tenured mint and caramel squares.


• Ghirardelli World Famous Hot Fudge Sundae – The chocolate restaurant had oh so many ice cream delights to choose from, but in the interest of being as objective as possible we ordered the classic Ghirardelli sundae. The dessert was a massive quantity of French vanilla ice cream drizzled in chocolate sauce made from ground and melted Ghirardelli candies. The chocolate-to-ice-cream ratio was among the best I’ve seen, which you would expect from a chocolatier! The milk chocolate sauce had a creamy taste and was mostly smooth, with a hint of cocoa-y graininess that may be a result of its freshness. Whipped cream and a maraschino cherry topped off the sundae.


• Tcho Chocolate – In wandering the Embarcadero area, full of old piers and warehouses converted to trendier ends, we stumbled upon Tcho’s chocolate factory and shop. Instead of marketing their chocolates by percent cacao, or bean origin, or added flavor, Tcho makes chocolate from beans with unique flavor profiles. So, a bar of Citrus chocolate didn’t have lemon extract added to the melt – instead, the source beans are just naturally tart and tangy, and those properties are drawn out in the chocolate-making process. The Citrus was my favorite, though Fruity was an effective complement to nuts and dried fruit (ha). I returned to Boston with a Citrus bar, some Fruity-covered cashews, and Chocolatey organic baking chocolate! A side note: coffee drinks featuring Tchocolate are extraordinary…and pack a lot of caffeine. We enjoyed the Tcho Shot (equal parts espresso and chocolate) and Tchocha (replace “Tch” with “M”).



• Milat Chocolate Port Sauce – The Milat winery in Napa Valley is a small, family-operated business that partners with a Napa chocolatier to make this dessert. A basic chocolate sauce is fortified with Milat’s port-style wine. The excellence of this sauce owes more to the sweet port than the barely-dark chocolate; the black cherry, assorted berry, and brandy flavors really assert themselves. This would be a good sauce for drizzling over vanilla ice cream, berries, or flaky pastries. I wonder which we’ll do!