TWD: Sour Cream Chocolate Cake Cookies Go Whoopie

Before we get into any fights and things get awkward around here, let me preface this by saying: there is nothing wrong with a cake cookie per se. Sometimes you might be craving a fluffy, soft dessert, and instead of hassling with cupcake pans and liners, you go with a cakey cookie instead. I get it.

But.



Maybe Undoubtedly this is my own issue, but I can't really get excited about a plain, unadorned cake cookie. These sour cream chocolate cookies were good, and moist, and I loved the hint of cinnamon... but they needed something more. They seemed a little naked. (Embarrassing!) So I decided to add some frosting to the mix, and you know what that means...



It's whoopie pie time, y'all! These cookies made the PERFECT layers for whoopie pies. They held their shape but weren't too hard or dry, and they made such lovely rounded tops for the pies.


I made a vanilla bean Italian meringue buttercream, with the seeds from two vanilla pods plus vanilla extract. It was vanilla-riffic. I toyed with the thought of adding mint or cinnamon, but decided to be true to classic Whoopie Pie-dom and keep things simple. Piping the filling with a giant rosette tip gave the sides those lovely swirls and made assembly super fast and tidy.

Did you know whoopie pies are having a moment? It's true, even the New York Times says so (two years ago.) The article may be dated, but I still think they're happenin'--how else to explain the fact that every time I walk into a bakery or grocery store, I just about trip over a whoopie pie display? For awhile I thought they were going to be "the new cupcake," and although the cupcake craze seems to be hanging on like grim death, whoopie pies are still weaseling their way into our hearts and stomachs slowly but surely.

I don't mind, I like 'em--even if they are even more of a pain to package and eat neatly!

With the addition of frosting, I give these cookies two frosting-smeared thumbs up. For the recipe please visit Spike, who had the brilliant idea of sandwiching these with ice cream. Yes please.

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TWD: Chocolate Biscotti

I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and first moved down to southern California to go to college. I was adamant that northern California (or "NorCal," for the obnoxious) was the superior side of the state, and I would never devolve into a southern California beach bum who wore cutoffs everywhere, read Us Weekly like it was Tolstoy and--worst of all--said "the 101" and "the 5" when talking about freeways.

Well, against my best predictions, I've lived in southern California for more than 11 years now, with seven of those years spent in Los Angeles itself. I still miss the Bay Area (and have dreams of living there, as soon as I obtain and then kill off a rich great-uncle so I can afford the real estate) but LA now feels like home as well.

I get annoyed when people make huge LA generalizations, like it's "so superficial" or "nobody in LA is actually from LA." The very fact that I defend it so stridently gives away my deep love for this crazy, complex, maddening, amazing city.

Right about now, you're probably wondering what this has to do with biscotti. Patience, pet.



I had a lot to learn when I first moved to LA, and these are things no movie or 90210 episode will teach you. I learned to always tell distances in minutes, not miles. I learned that no job is worth a soul-crushing commute to the Westside, and that the appropriate attitude during a celebrity sighting is casual disdain. And I learned about LA's seasons.

Oh ho ho, people from other parts of the country will sniff that "LA doesn't even have seasons," but they are absolutely wrong. We have Santa Ana season, the time in September and October where the hot winds blow west and whole mountain ranges combust in flames that last for weeks. We have that one freaky week that always happens in January or February where it's suddenly 90 degrees and folks take to sunbathing on the roofs.

And, best of all, we have May gray and June gloom, two delicious months when the marine layer hangs over the city like a shroud and doesn't burn off until the afternoon. I'm sure it's baffling and disappointing to tourists who come in the summertime expecting blazing sunshine and instead get overcast gray mornings, but I love it. It's the last pocket of civility before it gets blazing hot for four straight months, and I lap it up like a saucer of milk.

We are in the thick of June gloom right now, and every morning when I pad out to our living room and look out the balcony window, I see the San Gabriel mountains obscured by mist and palm trees barely peeking out of the fog. It makes me happy. It makes me want to sit by a fireplace and drink hot chocolate with pillowy whipped cream.

And that is why, in the middle of June, when much of the rest of the country is already sweltering, I, a resident of sunny southern California, enjoyed my chocolate biscotti with a big mug of hot cocoa.



These biscotti were richly chocolatey, with pockets of melted dark chocolate chunks and toasted almonds. They were perfect for dunking in hot chocolate and shoveling from mug to mouth just before they disintegrated from the heat and moisture.



But just as June gloom cannot be avoided, so too it cannot last forever. Soon--hopefully not this week, but quite possibly next--it will be sunny and warm when I first wake up, only to get sunnier and warmer with each passing day. Uch--that thought gives me the willies.

But even though I can't keep the sun away, I can figure out other ways to keep cool.



If hot chocolate's not in the cards, these biscotti are also great crumbled over a bowl of ice cream. You're looking at rich, creamy, calorie-riffic Haagen Daaz caramel ice cream with a little biscotti sidekick. Add some fresh berries, and the heat suddenly seems bearable.



Here's one final thing no one told me about LA: the jacarandas. These stunning trees bloom twice a year and paper our city with a thick layer of purple petals. My street is having a purple party and it makes me happy every time I see it. Oh, Los Angeles.



Jacque has the chocolate biscotti recipe and some great step-by-step directions on her blog. Check it out!

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TWD: Brown Sugar Bundt Cake

Back in my pre-blogging days, when I was a young idealistic lass, I thought that when I had a food blog, I would bake yummy foods and take pictures of them and write about how yummy they were. My eyes sparkled with naivete and hope.

Ah, foolish youth.

Instead, what I mainly write about is bundt cakes, and my lack of success with unmolding them. Seriously.

For reals.

I'm not kidding.

This happens all the time.

It's kind of a problem.

I got a new bundt pan and the past few attempts have gone swimmingly. I was confident--cocky, even!--that my days of bad bundts were behind me. Smoooooth sailing ahead. You see where this is going?




Weeping. Wailing. Gnashing of teeth.

Honestly, I'm not so young anymore. I don't know that I can take the heartbreak and the emotional rollercoaster of baking bundt cakes. It's exhausting. I'm happy--the batter tastes good! The bundt cake looks beautiful! What could possibly go wrong?! And then--DISASTER. Someone cover this cracked mess with powdered sugar, stat.

I am willing to accept some blame. Maybe the cake was a little underbaked, maybe I should have waited a little longer to unmold it. Perhaps. But maybe it's just a sign from the universe that I should never, no never, no NEVER make bundt cakes again.

Word.


Well, this was a pretty good cake to go out on. I nixed the fruit options and instead used ground pecans in the batter, and added mini chocolate chips and toasted pecan chunks as mix-ins. It was nice and moist, although perhaps I should have kept in some fruit for a bit more texture. But it makes a nice, low-key tea cake, assuming you don't have a conniption fit upon trying to unmold it like I did.

Want to try your luck at bundt roulette and make this cake? Peggy has the recipe and some lovely pictures over at her blog, Pantry Revistited.

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TWD: Chocolate-Orange Marbled Loaf Cake

Ahhh it feels good to be back in the warm embrace of Tuesdays with Dorie. I've taken more than a few weeks off lately, and although it was necessary, it's so nice to be back in a routine, blogging with some of my favorite people!

Fun fact: this week's recipe, a Marbled Loaf Cake, looks an awful lot like my first TWD post ever, for Black & White Banana Loaf! I remember that bread being a-mazing, although I do think the pictures have improved around here since then...

I flavored half of the batter chocolate, and added orange oil and orange zest to the other half, to make a subtly scented orange-chocolate loaf. Haters gonna hate, but I'll always love the orange-chocolate combo.

I had too much batter for my loaf pan, so with the extra I made the sweetest little 3" mini loaf. It was actually better than the full-sized one (didn't get as brown and crusty on top) and I wish I'd baked all mini loaves. The tiny tin is from Sur la Table.

This is a soft, fine-crumbed cake that seems perfect for afternoon tea, or a light dessert with maybe a touch of lightly whipped cream and some berries on top. You can find the recipe at Carol's blog, The Bake More.

Thanks also for the well-wishes about my big race last weekend! It was kind of epic. There were high highs and low lows, but overall it was wonderful and I finished feeling great, even though I couldn't stomach all of the chia I'd packed. By the end, I just wanted brownies and Coke. (Which, PS, is a very bad combination. Learn from my mistakes.)

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Mini Chocolate Doughnuts

I hope this doesn't make you uncomfortable, but I have to share. In January, we went to New York City, and I had a spiritual experience.

I went here, and my life was changed forever:

Prior to my trip to the Doughnut Plant, I was lukewarm on the question of doughnuts. Sure, I'd been known to eat them, but usually under conditions of extreme hunger or boredom or to win a bet.*

*That never actually happened. But how great would it be to win money for eating doughnuts?

Point being, I'd had a lot of mediocre doughnuts, and didn't think, in general, assembly-line fried dough was anything special. But then.

These doughnuts, at the Doughnut Plant? They are something special.

We actually made two trips to the shop, because the first time we went it looked like this:

MAYDAY MAYDAY. Doughnut Plant is closed on Mondays. Save yourself the heartbreak we experienced and check the days/hours before you go!

So after making two trips to the Lower East Side to try these doughnuts, we decided to go big and get a half-dozen flavors. Among those, we tried...


The distinctive square PB&J, filled with fresh raspberry jam and glazed with a chunky peanut butter glaze, which made Jason moan like this:




The Valhrona chocolate doughnut, full of chocolate pastry cream, which made me grin like this:

The carrot cake doughnut, packed with carrots, walnuts, raisins, and actual cream cheese frosting in the middle of the doughnut,

and the signature creme brulee doughnut, with a crackly, caramelized sugar top and a filling of vanilla pastry cream.

The Doughnut Plant's gotten a lot of buzz and I'm sure there's going to be a huge backlash soon (Magnolia Bakery anyone?) but for what it's worth, all of our doughnuts were excellent and we seriously considered making the hike across town the next day to pig out on more doughnuts.

So after my transformative doughnut experience, I was much more open to doughnuts in my life. And when I was at Sur La Table and saw this adorable mini doughnut pan, well...it had to be mine.

To be sure, the doughnuts you make with this pan aren't "real" doughnuts. They're cake-style, not yeast, and they're baked instead of fried. In taste and texture, they're really more like a doughnut-shaped chocolate cupcake. But what a cute doughnut shape they have!


These mini doughnuts have an intense chocolate taste that's enhanced by the chocolate ganache glaze on top. They're good for two (or possibly three, if you're dainty) bites, and we can say from firsthand experience that they're the perfect sweets for munching on during game or movie nights.



Okay, so they're not Doughnut Plant doughnuts. But they're still tasty, and they bake in five minutes, and they're a good excuse to go crazy with my sprinkle collection. And isn't that enough?





Chocolate Doughnuts
yields: about 4 dozen mini doughnuts

1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup buttermilk
1.5 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a mini doughnut pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.

In a separate small bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, buttermilk, and melted butter.

Stir the wet ingredients into the dry. Use a pastry bag fitted with a round 1/2" tip to pipe the batter into a thin layer in each doughnut mold. (It will rise a great deal, don't add too much or your doughnuts will puff out of the mold.)

Bake for 4-6 minutes, until they spring back when lightly pressed. Allow to cool in the mold for 5 minutes, then gently remove and cool completely.

Ganache glaze
1/2 cup cream
1/2 cup chopped chocolate

Heat cream to a simmer in a small saucepan. Pour hot cream over the chopped chocolate, and gently whisk to combine. Let ganache cool slightly so that it gets a bit thicker, then dip the tops of the doughnuts in the glaze. If it's getting too cool and thick, you can microwave it briefly to thin it out again. Sprinkle the tops of the doughnuts with sprinkles while the ganache is still wet.
1 In a bowl, mix flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. In a small bowl, whisk eggs, sugar, buttermilk, and melted butter to blend. Stir into dry ingredients until well blended. Chill until cold, at least 1 hour or up to 3 hours.

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Chocolate Pot de Cremes, A Cure For the Common Plague

I am back from the brink. Hallelujah and high-fives all around!



For the past two weeks I've been suffering from something I not-at-all melodramatically termed "the plague," which also not-at-all resembles the actual plague, either in symptoms or severity.

Nevertheless.

It was gnarly.

My body is recovering, my drugs are doing their job, my husband is no longer forced to listen to me complain for hours at a time and then go to work and read emails with more complaining, and--most importantly--I am feeling like myself again!



Today really felt momentous. I had a full day of kitchen work planned, and instead of dragging my feet and moping around and taking breaks to photograph the progression of the plague for posterity, I was happy to be back at work. Singing to my ipod, dancing in my apron and kitchen clogs, doing endless dishes with nary a grumble.

Wait, that last part doesn't seem like me at all. Must be the plague talking.



Honestly, how could I not be happy to be back cooking, when I had these adorable chocolate pot de cremes* to greet me? Pot de creme is like a baked custard--somewhat similar in concept to pudding, but with a smooth, firm texture that comes from being thickened with egg yolks instead of cornstarch or arrowroot.

*pots de creme? pot des creme? Probably not that last one



I'm not always a custard fan, but something about these little cups hit just the right note. Their petite size means their richness isn't overwhelming, and they were barely sweetened, letting the chocolate flavor really shine through. In fact, my husband asked if there was caramel (!) or peanut butter (!!) mixed in, because they had a depth of flavor you wouldn't expect from a simple chocolate custard.



The pot de creme recipe will be on Christine of Black Cat Cooking's blog. Make it, bake it, love it. No plague required.

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TWD: Chocolate Oatmeal Drops

This week's recipe, Chocolate Oatmeal Drops, is a toughie to explain. Imagine cookies with the flavor and texture of brownies. Yum, right? Now mix in...oatmeal.

It's weird, it's unexpected, but it actually kind of worked. Much like other unusual couplings--french fries with milkshakes, chocolate with bacon, Taylor Swift with Jake Gyllenhaal--sometimes it's the contrasts that make the pairing work so well.

Not so much with Taylor and Jake, though. That was just weird.
[Call me, Jake.]



Ahem. Back to the cookies! They were rich, and chocolatey, and surprisingly chewy from the oatmeal. They reminded me a bit of those oatmeal no-bake cookies that have oats, chocolate, and peanut butter, and that in turn made me think that these would be awesome with some chopped up Reese's pb cups in them. Am I a baking mastermind? Quite possibly.



Other things I can tell you from experience: these are awesome...
1) as dough before being baked
2) right out of the oven
3) a few hours later
4) the next day
5) three days after that
6) defrosted from the freezer a week later

Also, four of them in a baggie fit nicely into a slipper tucked in a suitcase...you know, just in case the rest of you were hoping to travel with these and wanted to know the best way to keep them from crumbling. The ole slipper trick hasn't failed me yet. Bon appetit!

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TWD: Outrageously Good Orange-Chocolate Bread Pudding

Few things make my heart pitter-patter more than bread pudding. Done properly, it's one of my top 5 favorite desserts. (Done wrong, it's borderline inedible, but I don't like to think about such scary things so close to bedtime.)

This week's TWD recipe was for Bourbon Bread Pudding, but being a teetotaler, I made a few necessary adjustments. Since my "Bourbon Bread Pudding" didn't contain any alcohol, I figured it needed a new, more accurate name. How about...

Bourbon-less Bread Pudding
or
The Bread Pudding That Bourbon Forgot
or
Bread Pudding: The Prohibition Years
or
Don't Tell Dorie The Pudding Has No Bourbon
or
Are you There, Bourbon? It's Me, Bread Pudding

Don't get me wrong, those are all great options, but I like it by this title best of all:

Outrageously Good Orange-Chocolate Bread Pudding


Instead of making a plain bread pudding (yawn) I infused the cream with the rind of one orange overnight, to make sure orange flavor permeated every bite of the pudding. For the bread I used stale challah, which might just be my favorite yet. I've used brioche, croissants, and cinnamon raisin bread to good success in the past, but the challah had the best texture and flavor, I think, and it stayed nicely moist throughout the baking. Holla for challah!

Here's my other secret weapon:

I chopped up strips of freshly candied orange peel and added them, along with a big handful of bittersweet chocolate chunks, to the bread-and-custard mixture. The orange peel softened during the baking, so I had large pockets of juicy orange peel and melted, gooey chocolate studded throughout the pudding. Chocolate, orange, rich custard, crunchy crust of bread on top? I'm calling this

America's Next Top Bread Pudding



The hungry hungry husband is out of town, so I forced myself to make a half batch in little baby ramekins, because a whole batch of bread pudding + unsupervised me = serious trouble.

You know what else is trouble?



The ginooooormous mound of oranges and grapefruit I have shoved in my (perilously overloaded) refrigerator! SEND CITRUS RECIPES STAT.



Okay, so the condensed milk has nothing to do with bread pudding, bourbon, oranges, or silly pop culture references. I just also happen to have a ridiculous amount of condensed milk as well (oh my poor fridge) and am soliciting condensed milk recipes too.

Q: Are you a bread pudding fan? If so, what's your favorite variation? And if not--come over! This bread pudding'll convince you.

Q: Any ideas for yummy orange/grapefruit/condensed milk recipes? (Definitely not all at the same time.) Aside from key lime pie, that is...

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Nutella Semifreddo for World Nutella Day

My Google Reader was a thing of beauty this morning: dozens of new posts from my favorite food blogs, bursting with delicious Nutella recipes in honor of World Nutella Day. It's the most wonderful time of the year...



I've already featured two different types of homemade nutella, and four-ingredient Nutella cupcakes, but trust me when I tell you, I've saved the best for last.



Nutella Semifreddo is perhaps the best thing I've eaten so far this year. This may not seem like an earth-shattering statement, but in the last month I've created 16 new recipes for the candy site, made multiple baked goods for this here blog, and eaten my way through the patisseries of Boston and New York.

(Also, I have vowed to start eating well aaaaaaany day now...just as soon as I find a diet that endorses Nutella and full-fat cheese.)



Semifreddo, if you're not familiar with it, is an Italian word that means "half-frozen" and it can refer to any number of desserts, most of them in the sorbet/frozen mousse/ice cream tart category. This Nutella Semifreddo is perhaps most similar in taste and texture to a frozen mousse. Slightly warm and liquid Nutella is stirred into well-beaten eggs, then soft whipped cream is folded into this mixture to lighten the texture and round out the flavor. The final touch is stirring in shaved dark chocolate and chopped toasted pistachios, for pockets of bittersweet crunch sprinkled throughout.



This semifreddo can be made in a loafpan and served in slices (easy way) or spooned into individual glasses or serving dishes (bonus credit). I liked it best after it had sat out of the freezer for about five minutes. The edges start to soften, the way good ice cream gets melty along the edges, but the rest of the dessert holds its body when you put it in your mouth, silky-smooth and lighter than air, where it ever so gently melts with your body heat until all that's left is the taste of chocolate and hazelnuts coating your tongue.



If you like mousse, you'll love semifreddo.
If you like ice cream, you'll love semifreddo.
If you like Nutella, you'll love semifreddo.
If you don't like any of these, you've probably come to my blog by mistake because you meant to type Death of Cake but got Cake or Death instead. I'm sorry. It happens. Perhaps some semifreddo will make you feel better.





Chocolate Nutella Semifreddo
Adapted from More Than Burnt Toast

4 large eggs, room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 13 ounce (400 gram) jar Nutella
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon chocolate or hazelnut liqueur, or vanilla extract
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, shaved
2/3 cup roasted pistachio nuts, coarsely chopped
Chocolate curls, for decoration

*****************
Line a mold of your choice with plastic wrap, taking care to leave about a 3 inch length hanging over the edge. I recommend a loaf pan about 8x4, or you can use individual serving cups and not worry about the plastic lining.

Gently whip the cream until it holds soft peaks. Be careful not to overwhip and cause the cream to break or become grainy.

Heat the Nutella in the microwave for about 20-25 seconds to soften it up. Set aside.

Place eggs and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Place mixing bowl over a pot of simmering water and whisk until the eggs are warm, about 2 minutes.

Place the bowl in a stand mixer. Using the whisk attachment, whip the eggs on high speed until pale and tripled in volume, about 5 minutes.

Add the softened Nutella and the chocolate or hazelnut liqueur, or the vanilla extract, to the egg mixture and mix on low speed until blended.

Gently fold in the whipped cream, half of the shaved chocolate and 1/2 cup of the chopped nuts.
Scrape mixture into the mold and spread evenly, or spoon into the individual serving cups. Top with the remaining shaved chocolate. Cover the top of mold with plastic wrap and freeze for at least 8 hours or overnight.

When you are ready to serve, unmold the semifreddo and flip it upside-down. Cut it into slices and top them with a few curls of chocolate and the remaining chopped nuts. Like ice cream, this would be bonkers with a warm chocolate (or chocolate-hazelnut?) sauce and/or whipped cream. But it's pretty epic just the way it is.

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