Stowe Away!

Your blogger just returned from a few glorious days' vacation in Stowe, Vermont! The most memorable parts of this getaway involved winter sports and apres-ski relaxation, but a few desserts (obviously) found their way into the mix. So, what sweetened my vacation?

 

Let's start with a food item I have justified as breakfast as well as dessert: the apple cider donut. This classic New England donut may have found its most ultimate incarnation at Waterbury's Cold Hollow Cider Mill. The donuts are made mere minutes before they are served, with a rather interesting machine that is maybe a meter or so in length. A ring of dough is squirted into a bath of hot oil, which cooks the dough and sweeps it via some small current into a light glaze of shortening. This glaze soaks into the donut as it is pulled out of the oil by a conveyor belt, moved a short distance to help it dry and cool, and then dropped onto some waiting, oil-absorbing paper towels. The apparatus is rather efficient, as it kept up with the steady stream of donut-demanding customers. I understood why there were so many customers as soon as I tried a donut.

The treats are small, but they're positively bursting with apple and spice flavor. Apple varieties are so nuanced, and these donuts captured so many of those nuances, from the tangy and tart to the sturdy and sweet. (That's also a testament to Cold Hollow's wonderful cider, which uses multiple apple varieties in each batch!) Hints of cinnamon and nutmeg helped bring out the complexity. Many cider donuts use too little cider and therefore taste no different than a plain cake donut, or they go overboard with the spices. Cold Hollow avoids both traps and really lets their cider shine. The donuts' texture is unique, too. The edges were crispy, fresh out of the machine and even after a day or two post-making, while the inside remained chewy. It's no surprise that we brought a dozen of these little delights home!

 

After Cold Hollow, we stopped at the store that may be considered my life's introduction to specialty food emporia: Stowe's Harvest Market! Its enticing architecture (a barn-style building made modern, with floor-to-ceiling windows and exposed rafters/beams) and delectable contents (cheese, charcuterie, antipasti, bakery, chocolate, wine, beer, prepared sides) had me hooked from the first time I visited, years ago. As per usual, I left HM with a few containers of their homemade granola - oh so perfect with vanilla yogurt! - and a bakery treat. This year, it was a lemon square. The square had a somewhat-gooey shortbread base, which was delightfully buttery and sweet. The lemon filling was sturdy and tart, somewhere between a custard filling and the standard sugary glop used in most fruit squares. The topping was unusual; instead of the usual crumble topping or repeat of the base layer, it looked as though a basic sugar dough had been spread very thinly over the lemon filling, and left to harden and crackle as the treat was baking. I'm not usually a fan of sugar dough, but in this gooey setting I appreciated its grainy crunch. Turbinado sugar crystals also dotted that top layer, adding a little sparkle. The bakery case was overflowing with other equally tempting treats - muffins, brownies, cookie bars, miniature cakes, and so on. I would have loved to try them, but I knew that ample delights would be waiting at the top of the mountain!

Our lovely mountaintop resort was like heaven for the blissful few days I was there. Cold but not frigid temperatures, a fresh snowfall on top of existing snowpack, and cheerful sunlight all made for a wonderful time exploring the backcountry on skis and snowshoes. Inside, comforting European decor, cozy living rooms, roaring fires, fragrant fresh flowers, and quality locavore fare enabled an equally wonderful time spent relaxing and recharging. I'd like to call out four particular dessert experiences:

• Afternoon tea - every afternoon, the resort offered tea and cookies in the lounge. It felt so good, after a full morning and afternoon of exercise, to come in from the cold, sip something warm, and nibble something sweet. I reliably drank Harney & Sons' Red Raspberry herbal tea, and munched on whatever cookies looked best. I remember having cranberry oatmeal, chocolate chip, and chocolate cake cookies...and on Valentine's Day, a heart-shaped sugar cookie completely covered in red sugar. Yum!
• Lake Champlain chocolates - every evening, staff would come into the guest rooms, turn down your bed, and leave chocolates on your pillow. These heart-shaped Lake Champlain nibbles were so tasty, and the cutest way to end the day! Creamy milk chocolate came in a pinkish-purple wrapper, and smooth dark chocolate was wrapped in bold red.
• The ultimate fudge brownie - the resort's network of cross-country ski trails take you all sorts of interesting places, one of which is a rustic log cabin that offers hearty lunch fare. I skied the winding, uphill trails to the cabin twice during our stay, and was rewarded with one of the most epic brownies I've ever had. Imagine a THICK top layer of fudge, with a brownie underneath that had more textures than you thought was possible in a 3/4"-thick baked good. The part nearest the fudge absorbed the moisture from that fudge and became just as gooey, while the non-fudge surface was dry and crumbly. The intervening brownie fell anywhere on the spectrum between those two extremes. Such a delight! It had such a good chocolate flavor, too. This may become a more compelling reason to ski to the cabin than the beneficial exercise...
• Sachertorte - or, what one bakery staff member called a sachertorte. This Wikipedia article suggests that a genuine sachertorte has chocolate sponge cake and apricot jam, two things our dessert lacked. Still, it was delicious! The cake was very dense and chocolatey, like an extremely concentrated bittersweet chocolate mousse. I don't think it contained any flour, and there was no airiness at all; the cake was smooth enough, with maybe a little graininess from what I'm guessing was cocoa powder. In addition to the robust bittersweet chocolate flavor, the cake had a hint of sourness or tanginess about it, as if sour cream or yogurt were used as its liquid base. The cake was covered in an extremely thin layer of slightly sweeter chocolate; it crackled into eggshell-like pieces when I forked through it. I'm guessing it was applied as a melted drizzle rather than spread with a knife. The cake's top had the pleasant addition of white chocolate dollops, which had been swirled into the existing chocolate coating to make heart-like shapes on the surface. So sweet! You can see the cake here; to its right is a mug of the resort's homebrewed Vienna lager. Ah, dessert and beer. I was clearly happy with this repast, but I'm still in search of a genuine sachertorte.

That search will have to continue in the post-Stowe world, as I am now back in Boston. I miss the slopes and the invigorating mountain air, but a good dose of city life won't hurt! Here's to whatever dessert - and vacation! - may be next.

Nutella Cake Pops

Another Superbowl, another excuse to bake something fun and creative!

This year's unfortunate Patriots/Giants rematch fell on World Nutella Day, so I wanted to make a dessert incorporating that glorious chocolate-hazelnut spread. Then, I thought cake pops would be a perfect finger food for a party, and just like regular cakes they can be made in any number of flavors. I put my own recipe together from anecdotes of past "cake-poppers", which I have written down below. It's very straightforward, but multiple cooling and heating steps mean it takes several hours.

• 1 box chocolate cake mix (I used Betty Crocker's SuperMoist Chocolate Fudge)
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 C vegetable oil
• 1 1/4 C water
• 1 jar Nutella
• 2 bags Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips
• paper lollipop/candy sticks

1. Make the box cake as instructed on the packaging, with the next three ingredients. Bake it in a 13"x9" pan, and let it cool completely once it's out of the oven.
2. Take a fork and fluff the entire cake into crumbs.
3. Spoon the majority of the Nutella jar's contents into the crumbs, and blend the Nutella and cake crumbs together. The fork works well for blending, but I finished the task with my hands.
4. Form the mixture into spheres. Mine are about the size of golf balls, or a little smaller; I ended up with 31 balls.
5. Let the balls chill in the fridge for a half-hour.
6. While they are chilling, get a double boiler ready for melting the chocolate. Melt one bag of chocolate chips along with half of whatever Nutella is left in the jar.
7. Take the chilled balls out of the fridge.
8. Dip one end of a candy stick into the melted chocolate, and insert the dipped end into a chilled ball.
9. Dip the ball into the melted chocolate, coating it with the milk chocolate / Nutella mixture.
10. Once the ball is covered, set it on wax or parchment paper to dry.
11. Partway through this process, you will run out of dipping chocolate. Melt the second bag of chocolate chips along with the remaining Nutella - and continue coating those balls once the dip is ready!
12. Transfer all cake pops into the fridge for further cooling; the outer chocolate layer should harden.
13. Enjoy!

First, let's talk process. I rarely if ever use box cakes, since I pride myself on from-scratch baking - but, since this was only going to be torn apart and refashioned into something completely different, I didn't feel much remorse for taking a shortcut. It did feel odd to destroy something I just baked, but helping the cake transform from unruly crumbs into a soft, pudding-like mixture was rather satisfying. Nutella is a thick spread, so I'm guessing the blending part took significantly longer than it would when using regular frosting. I got a rudimentary assembly line together for sticking and coating the bites, but that last step took a long time! The melted chocolate/Nutella mixture is thick, so it did not easily run over the chilled cake as I had envisioned. I ended up manually spooning the mixture over the cake, and twirling the cake around and around in my spoon to make sure it was evenly coated. I had considered embellishing the bites with colored decors, but the coating hardened quicker than I had expected. They still look very pretty, though! 

And now, how did they taste? In a word, marvelous. The moist, almost pudding-like cake center was bursting with Nutella and deep chocolate flavors. The creamy coating was oh so smooth; with Ghirardelli milk chocolate, already a silky and even treat, and Nutella mixed together, how could it not be?! I especially loved how refreshing that chilled exterior was, like biting into cooled, hardened fudge. I'd definitely do cake pops as a party treat again, provided I had an entire afternoon to devote to them in advance.

So the Pats may have lost...but my baking definitely won. We kept on reaching for more pops throughout the game. Did you enjoy any exceptional Superbowl desserts?

The Consummate Chocolate Chip Cookie?!

I really enjoy well-crafted or "artisanal" versions of classic comfort foods. That's probably why Flour's creations appeal to me so much, and why I can never turn down a good gastropub mac 'n' cheese or pot pie. So, you shouldn't be surprised that, even though I love and respect the classic Toll House cookie, I wanted to find a recipe that kicked said humble chocolate chipper up a notch. A simple search led me to a well-loved food blog that referenced another well-loved food blog - Leite's Culinaria by way of Smitten Kitchen. If David Leite tells me that something is the consummate chocolate chip cookie, I am tempted to believe him. Still, I knew I had to make it and see for myself.

The actual recipe appealed to me for several reasons:

• All-purpose flour, be gone! The recipe requires near-equal amounts of cake and bread flours. These flours are supposed to yield an airier dough with a finer crumb.
• Sea salt sprinkled on top of each cookie? Yes, please!
• You get to bake with Valrhona chocolate. Consider this the chocoholic's equivalent of a violinist playing a Stradivarius, or a craft beer aficionado drinking Westvleteren on tap. Widely regarded as among the world's finest chocolate, Valrhona is distinctive, assertive, and complex. The recipe suggests any variety above 60% cacao; Manjari, at 64%, is the first variety to fit that bill. You may obtain this chocolate in oval-shaped baking discs called "feves"; I found them at one of Cambridge's larger Whole Foods.

I first made these cookies in the fall, following the recipe exactly. The hardest part was letting the mixture sit for hours; as I waited to bake it, I'm pretty sure I ate several cookies' worth of dough in my impatience. But, good things come to those who wait! Here is a plateful of the resulting delights, so bountifully large and chocolatey:

The cookies were unlike any I had ever encountered! The sturdy dough thinned out and spread rather far while being baked, resulting in large, flat discs. The dough was also fluffier and chewier than a standard-flour dough, even in its flattened state. Most significantly, the Valrhona feves caused the most unusual chocolate distribution and flavor I had ever seen or tasted in a cookie. Chocolate chips stay intact when baked; feves do not. They melt and spread horizontally within the dough, creating a marbled effect. This was advantageous for two reasons: (1) there were no chocolate-free bites, and (2) the pungent Manjari taste was diffused evenly throughout the cookie rather than being concentrated in overwhelming, mouth-coating chunks. What pungent taste, you ask? Manjari chocolate is very bitter and fruity, with tangy citrus notes detectable within the aggressive cacao punch. A little bit goes a long way, and even though there is no particular creaminess or thickness to the melted feves, they manage to coat your mouth and cause the flavor to linger much longer than similar high-percent-cacao chocolates' flavors. Lastly, I was ultimately indifferent to the sea salt. I would have appreciated its savory counterpoint if the chocolate had been sweeter, but the bittersweet Manjari never quite struck a balance with the salt, and their coexistence felt a bit uneasy.

Still, I considered these cookies a success, as did the many people who tried them. (My efforts yielded twice as many cookies as Leite's!) I could appreciate their distinctive, nearly-overwhelming nature. However, there was nothing comforting about them. To me, chocolate chip cookies are primarily about chocolate, warmth (both literal and figurative), and happiness, with their "art" value being secondary; I don't think Leite's priorities aligned with mine. So, I knew I had to re-attempt this recipe with a Julie-esque twist...and the perfect opportunity came toward the end of January!

That particular Saturday was just asking for a dessert like this, with freshly-fallen snow, hockey, a concert, and a delicious lamb dinner all in the plan! I prepared the dough the night before to accommodate Leite's recommended sitting time, following the recipe as written but with two key changes: I omitted the sea salt, and I used three different kinds of feves. A triple chocolate chip cookie is inherently more consummate than a one-trick treat, right? I stuck with Valrhona's exceptional chocolates:

• Manjari, 64% cacao - the same chocolate I used in Take 1, just 1/3 as much
• Jivara, 40% cacao - smooth, sweet milk chocolate, with pleasant caramel notes
• Ivoire, no cacao - creamy white chocolate, with hints of warm vanilla

Here are the feves in glorious abundance, waiting to be added to the dough...

...and here they are, being incorporated!

The recipe's oven and cooling times were not spot-on for the multi-feve dough. The Manjari melted and oozed as intended, but the milk chocolate barely got gooey, and the white chocolate retained its shape. Also, I was baking in a gas oven (as opposed to my apartment's electric oven), and was not prepared for how powerful it was. The cookies were significantly drier than they would have been if baked in my oven for the same time and temperature.

That said, I was very pleased with Take 2! A variety of chocolates with a variety of textures is better than only one type of chocolate; plus, the milk and white chocolates were actually enjoyable in concentrated chunks, so I didn't mind that they retained their shape while the Manjari oozed around them. This simple change made the cookies much warmer and me much happier, satisfying my comfort requirements mentioned above. Then, I solved the oven problem the following day by baking the remaining dough back home. I used my home-field advantage to slightly under-cook the cookies, which resulted in extra-moist, extra-gooey treats! Soft, brown-sugar-y dough with three exceptional softened chocolates in one bite? Oh, my, yes. I absolutely loved these iterations of the cookies, as did their fellow samplers.

So...

Are these cookies among the best I have ever baked? Yes, and they're definitely the fanciest. Are they really the "consummate chocolate chip cookie"? Well, I got them closer to that ideal with the triple-chip upgrade, but I'm still hesitant to bestow such a title when it can be interpreted in so many different ways. Who's to say that a refined, artistic cookie is the way to go? I'm still open to being blown away by a heaped, lumpy pile of dough that's bursting with delicious, gooey chocolate, and that only gets better when dunked in a tall glass of milk. If you have a chocolate chip cookie recipe that you think is worthy of this title, get it to me ASAP!

The Friday Night Burger Crew Does Dessert

The Friday Night Burger Crew, somewhat of a "thing" in December 2011, has come back in full force in January 2012 - though not always on a Friday, and usually with more than a burger. In fact, adding "Dessert" to our name would be appropriate! Let's review what we ate together this month.

Our first gathering featured a Fleming's burger and a Finale dessert, on a Wednesday, no less. If I had a picture of the burger, it would probably get blogged in this post, but I'll have to content myself with telling you all about a new item at Finale that combines two of my favorite things. This, dear readers, is Finale's peanut butter pie!

This immense dessert consists of a thin cocoa-peanut crust, one thick layer of peanut butter mousse, a thin chocolate ganache layer interspersed with peanuts, another thick mousse layer, and a substantive frosting-style topping of chocolate ganache. Garnishes include crumbled peanut brittle, chocolate gelato, and a creamy peanut drizzle.

The pie's crust is unremarkable. A dry blend of cocoa powder and peanut flour, it has less flavor than you would expect, and it crumbles too easily. The mousse itself is interesting, but not substantive enough to be the core, defining component of the dessert. It is extremely light and fluffy, with a very faint peanut butter flavor. It's more of a sturdy whipped cream than any mousse I've had, so I could more easily see it as a garnish on a cake or tart. The ganache layer separating the mousse layers is delicious, albeit too thin; fortunately, the topping makes up for that! The peanuts sounded like a nice touch but were actually disappointing. They had become too soggy in their proximity to the moist mousse, and as you may know, few dessert items are more unpleasant to me than soggy nuts. Moving on up the cake, we end with a gloriously thick topping of that chocolate ganache. Smooth, dense, and bittersweet, it is the perfect opposite to the airy, sugary mousse.

The garnishes are complex and interesting. The gelato, a chilly burst of bittersweet Valrhona chocolate, packs enough chocolate punch to compensate for any bites of pie lacking ganache. The peanut drizzle, seen at the tip of the pie, is boldly nutty and heavy with cream. The dessert as a whole benefits from the assertive peanut flavor; I only wish there was more of it on the plate! I do not recommend the peanut brittle, seen at the far side of the plate. Nuts, salt, sugar, and condensed milk do not make for a dessert, in my opinion, though the powdered brittle would be an interesting topping for the gelato or the ganache.

I'm not sure if I would order this pie again, but I appreciate Finale attempting a flavor pairing that is near and dear to my heart!

The Crew's next outing found us dessert-ing at an unexpected location. Firebrand Saints serves all manner of meats - the options include, and go beyond, mind-blowing burgers - in a bustling industrial space near Cambridge's Kendall Square. (I'm totally obsessed with the Kendall nightlife renaissance, btw.) I came to FS for the burger, and stayed for the cherry pie! They serve pies made from local fruits; we could choose from pear-cranberry, cranberry-nut, or cherry pie, to be served with chocolate or strawberry ice cream. The cherry/chocolate combination sounded the most appealing, and wow, did we make a good choice. Look at this beauteous slice, with its plump fruit, thick crust, and generous scoop:

The cherries were a delight, so tangy and juicy and bursting with flavor. I detected a hint of citrus in the filling, most likely to brighten the taste (as I have done with apples), and maybe even a faint nuttiness, though I saw no nuts. The crust was really unusual, giving me even more encouragement to try making a crust from scratch. It was simultaneously flaky and substantive, something I've never encountered. The surfaces browned so nicely, and you could taste the warm butter in every chewy, mouth-coating bite. The ice cream was a bit too dense on its own, but that became a non-issue when it was left to melt over and into the pie.

I would guess that FS switches up their pies based on whatever fruits are available on any given day; so, I'd love to go back and see what other varieties they serve. In the meantime, I have a renewed appreciation for fruit pies, particularly the cherry variety. I usually overlook that genre when considering what dessert to order or make, but I now have some compelling evidence to change my ways!

Boston's Best Winter Beverages

...and by winter beverages, I mean hot chocolate (or cocoa, if you prefer).

Hot chocolate is ideal for SO many reasons. First of all, it lets you consume chocolate and satisfy thirst. Secondly, it's a perfect canvas for additional assertive, dessert-y flavors. Then, it's warm, making it the perfect extension of our heavy cold-weather armor to keep winter's chill at bay. If we want to stretch a bit, we can even say that it's healthy, being milk-based and all. (Always skim for me!)

These reasons have prompted me to explore a variety of Boston's hot chocolate offerings, and choose four that really stand out. Why did these four make the cut? Read on.

• Diesel Cafe's turtle hot chocolate, pictured above - this may be the most beautiful drink I've ever seen, and it tastes even better than it looks! Diesel's milk chocolate drink is accented with hazelnut, almond, and caramel syrups. A dollop of homemade whipped cream tops it all off, along with a dusting of cocoa powder. I love everything about this, from the creamy, warm taste of the milk chocolate, to the smooth, silky caramel; the subtle nutty flavors, the cool yet melting cream on top, and the unabashed sweetness of it all (no artisanal x-percent-cacao stuff going on here!). If I lived in Davis Square, I would drink this beverage at a frequency near that of addiction. More than the other three drinks, this exemplifies the hot-chocolate-as-dessert idea.
• 1369's raspberry hot chocolate - little Julie grew up loving chocolate-raspberry combinations, most of them unique to the Midwest: raspberry Frangos, Portillo's chocolate-raspberry cake, raspberry starfish from the chocolate shop in Oakbrook, and so on. Grown-up, East-coast Julie still loves those two things together, hence my gleeful enjoyment of 1369's beverage. This quirky coffeehouse starts with a milk chocolate hot-chocolate mix, and applies enough tangy raspberry syrup so that the finished product is distinctly rose in color. So pretty, and so tasty. The tangy syrup really makes it - so often, fruit flavors can be cloyingly sweet, but 1369's syrup respects what a natural raspberry flavor is. It's strong, but it blends well with the milk chocolate, whose sweetness is a perfect balance to the not-as-sweet fruit. 
• Flour's fiery hot chocolate - as with so many things Flour-sourced, I have a soft spot in my heart for this drink: I ordered it the very first time I went to Flour, and it was the first of many spicy/Mexican hot chocolates I would try in the years following. All those drinks later, I still think it's the best! Instead of starting with a powdered cocoa base, Flour's baristas use large scoops of fudge-like solid chocolate, and blend it into a delicious, creamy froth with the steamed milk. Its appearance and taste remind me of the pastry chocolate used within croissants and finer cookies. Then, the "fieriness" comes from generous applications of cayenne pepper and cinnamon. Your mouth stings and burns at first, but it soon mellows out thanks to that smooth, deep bittersweet chocolate base. Most other spicy cocoas bring too much heat, or not enough; Flour's is the only one that strikes the perfect balance between spicy zing and quality chocolate.
• Paris Creperie's Nutella hot chocolate - I'll admit it: more than once, I have traveled all the way from Cambridge to Coolidge Corner explicitly for this beverage. (An incidental accompanying crepe only sweetens [or savories?] the deal, mmm.) Unlike the above drinks, which use some form of chocolate as a base, this drink is all about the Nutella. That's right - we're talking milk and Nutella, heated and mixed together, into one perfect chocolate-hazelnut elixir. The baristas are very liberal with the Nutella, so that the end result is thicker and richer than most skim-based beverages. A side note: don't think you're out of luck once the weather gets warmer. The creperie also offers a Nutella frozen hot chocolate, which is the best dessert smoothie you'll ever have.

Of course, it's not always practical to travel for hot chocolate. When I crave this drink within my abode, I turn to Lake Champlain's organic mix...and Bailey's. ;-)

Am I missing anything? I'd love to hear others' thoughts on where to get mind-blowing hot chocolate. After all, this weekend's cold spell will not be Boston's last!

Max Brenner Disappointed Me.

Happy 2012, fellow dessert fans! Before I jump head- (or, more specifically, mouth-) first into this year's desserts, let's serve, eat, and clean up a few outliers from the last weeks of 2011.

I was eager to eat at Max Brenner as soon as they opened a Boston location! I was familiar with the Max Brenner concept - serving elaborate chocolate drinks and desserts, with standard brunch and dinner fare also available, in a bustling brasserie-style space - thanks to their restaurant in New York City's Union Square; I've ducked in there multiple times to get a treat for the train ride home. But to actually sit down in Max's space, and linger over a dessert? It had yet to happen. I am happy to say that changed in December...though I could have been happier with the dessert in question.

Chris, Andrea, and I managed to find three seats together at their crowded bar on a Friday night - and so it began! Max's Sweets menu was smaller than I had anticipated, but the variety of cravings presented within were a challenge to deal with. I eventually chose the Deep Fudge Chocolate Cake & Shake, since it was essentially many desserts in one. Here it is in its multi-part glory; please forgive the dim bar lighting.

The two best parts of this dessert are pictured in the back - a few sips' worth of chocolate shake topped with whipped cream, at right, and a generous supply of warm chocolate ganache, at left. The shake was extremely rich, bursting with bittersweet chocolate flavor and a good amount of heavy cream. The tiny portion lasted a while, since each thick slurp took some effort. I then drizzled the ganache from the cocktail shaker over the rest of the desserts, and really enjoyed the flavor it added. It, too, was pungent bittersweet chocolate, of a somewhat grainy sort that really stood out against the treats it covered. I only wish it had been thicker. The desserts in front were less remarkable. The milky vanilla ice cream had an interesting garnish, flakes of sweet crepes. But the cake was supposed to be a molten chocolate cake, and it wasn't even molten; the center was barely gooey, and the edges were dry and comparatively tasteless. I would have expected a better signature chocolate dessert from, well, a chocolatier's restaurant.

Chris had the Chocolate Chunk Cookies, an inaccurately pluralized dessert - he only got one "cookie". It looked more like a flattened, dry brownie, and the taste was similarly disappointing. (For tips on how to do a cookie dessert, the Max Brenner folks should read this!) Andrea's White Russian, however, was exactly what she ordered!

Overall, I'd rate Max Brenner as average - workable, yes, but not outstanding in their supposed specialty. I'll go back to Finale if I want to dine on dessert, though I would give Max another try if encouraged. It's still chocolate, after all...

Julie Makes A Carrot Cake - or, Finger Food

I made my first carrot cake this past weekend! It was one of my more eventful baking sessions.

Bon Appetit's recipes are rather rewarding, since they force me to grow my kitchen skills (by requiring a new ingredient or technique in the preparation) and never end up less than delicious (a readership of foodies would expect no less!). So, I knew this carrot cake recipe was worth a try.

Preparing this cake felt more like cooking than baking.

• I had to use more counter surface and kitchen implements than the standard two-bowl baked good.
• You use oil, no butter. The initial mixture of oil, sugar, and eggs had a peculiar consistency, at once both gooey and stiff. They blended together effortlessly into a slick, grainy liquid base for the cake.
• I washed, peeled, and grated multiple carrots and ginger roots! Grating is a very satisfying and productive repetitive motion. I had three cups' worth of bright orange vegetable bits in no time, and a gloppy pile of ginger too. The ginger was an unexpectedly off-putting yellow.
• I chopped nuts with my beloved chef's knife. I couldn't find chopped walnuts at Whole Foods (?!), so I got to work with a cutting board, piles of entire nuts, and the 8" Wusthof. I was making good progress against the recipe's goal of 1.25 cups, and about ready to call it quits, when I decided the batter looked like it could use maybe a few more nutty bits. (Why would I ever think that? Stupid girl.) So, I put a few more nuts on the board and thrust the knife downward...

...into my left middle finger.

I didn't feel any pain at first. But then there was blood flowing onto the cutting board, and I understood that something bad was happening - because, why, look, that was a sizable flap of flesh hanging away from the finger itself. Cue running water over the wound. applying pressure to it, and holding the whole thing above my heart. After 20 minutes of that did nothing to staunch the flow, I switched to a hack-ish apparatus of bandaids, paper towels, and tightly wrapped rubber bands. While this ultimately did the job it was intended to do, it made my left hand useless. Your impatient blogger loved that! Buttering and flouring the pan, pouring the batter, and cleaning up the dinner-scale mess were all challenges. But I got it all done, with my finger throbbing out a frustrated heartbeat in accompaniment.

I also managed to whip up the maple cream cheese frosting! I especially love how the maple syrup replaced some powdered sugar.

So, how did it all turn out?

I was very happy with the output, as was its birthday-celebrating recipient! The cake had a pleasantly autumnal, slightly toasted taste. The toastiness came from the nuts, which surprised me a little; I did not roast them at all prior to baking. The spices I used - fresh and ground ginger; cinnamon, tripled - were pungent before I put the cake in the oven, but they mellowed out while baking and made a pleasantly even, subtly aromatic contribution. The carrots softened considerably, and weren't too noticeable in the finished product. The cake's edges were a tad crispy, while the insides stayed soft and chewy. I would not attribute this to overcooking - instead, the results were consistent with other oil-based baked goods I've seen (1369's peach granola muffin, anyone?), and I actually like that oily kind of crunchiness! The frosting wasn't too sweet, in keeping with the somewhat savory nature of the cake. It was very soft, both at room temperature and when chilled. The maple syrup only gave it a hint of maple flavor, which was just enough of a distinctive, sweet taste to offset the tang of the cream cheese - but, I would have liked a little more. You can't have too much maple syrup! 

The finger is also fine, healing marvelously. Consider my lesson learned re careful use of extremely sharp knives.

Lastly, I have recopied the recipe here in case anyone is interested in repeating it, with my minor modifications in italics. Happy (safe) baking!

• 2 C flour
• 2 t baking soda
• 1 t salt
• 1 T cinnamon
• 1 C sugar
• 1 1/4 C canola oil
• 4 large eggs
• 3 C grated peeled carrots
• 1 1/4 C coarsely chopped walnuts
• 2 T minced peeled ginger
• dash of ground ginger
• (frosting) 10 oz cream cheese, room temperature
• (frosting) 5 T unsalted butter, room temperature
• (frosting) 2 1/2 C powdered sugar
• (frosting) 1/4 C maple syrup

1. Butter 2 9"-diameter cake pans. Line the bottoms of the pans with wax or parchment paper. Butter and flour the paper.
2. Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and ground ginger together.
3. Whisk the sugar and oil together in a large bowl until well blended. Whisk in the eggs, one at a time.
4. Add the flour mixture to the oil mixture, and stir until blended.
5. Stir in the carrots, walnuts, and fresh ginger.
6. Divide the batter between the pans, and bake them for 40 minutes at 350 degrees F.
7. Cool the cakes in their pans for 15 minutes; then, turn them out onto cooling racks and remove the wax or parchment paper. Let them cool completely.
8. (frosting) Beat the cream cheese and butter together until light and fluffy.
9. (frosting) Add the powdered sugar and maple syrup; beat until well blended.
10. (frosting) Chill until just firm enough to spread, roughly 30 minutes.
11. Frost and assemble the cake. Keep it chilled until 30 minutes before serving; the flavors do best at room temperature!