Recipes

Gee Whiz. I guess I should write a post just to move those Happy Easter pictures into the past, huh? Not much going on around here to post about. It’s tax time you know. That means cleaning out files and wasting time looking for tax stuff. Yoyo production has slowed down as a result, but I’m gaining on the little devils. Yoyo Count: Yoyos: 290 Me: 578.

In the meantime, how do you take your Chocolate Chip Cookies? Cake-y or Chewy? Regular or Jumbo? I’m not a huge Chocolate Chip Cookie fan (Oatmeal Raisin any day baby!), but I try to do my part to keep the Chocolate Chip Cookie lovers in the family happy. For years I’ve made a recipe that a friend gave me when the boys were in high school. She kept the sports teams happily supplied with after practice snacks. When she moved away I begged her to give me the recipe, you know, for the boys. She’s a sweetheart, and very kindly obliged. They’re tender and cake-y and almost everyone loves them.

But, a few people prefer chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies and recently, I found a recipe that fit the chewy bill. Last time I made them, I made them regular size, but today, I made them jumbo sized. They’re a little more cakey in their jumbo form, but they’re still really good. (In other words, if you prefer them even more chewy, make the jumbo sized recipe, but scoop them into smaller cookies.)

In the event you’d like to experiment, here are the two Chocolate Chip Cookie recipes that we love. You’ll notice they’re almost the same recipe. A big difference in the cakey vs. chewy technique appears to be oven temperature.

Regular Chocolate Chip Cookies

3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl and set aside. Using an electric mixer, cream butter, sugars and vanilla together. Add eggs, one at a time. Add flour mixture to the butter mixture in thirds. Stir in chocolate chips.

Line 4 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Scoop the cookie dough onto cookie sheets. Bake until cookies start to brown, 8 – 10 minutes. Makes 24 cookies.

Jumbo Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, cream the butter, sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla. Mix well and scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Mix into the creamed butter, scraping again. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Scoop the cookie dough into 12 large (1/3 cup) mounds. Bake until cookies are flat and very light golden brown 15 – 20 minutes. Makes 12 jumbo cookies.

And here’s another bonus to the Jumbo cookie recipe:

It’s fun to stack them in the cookie jar!

XOXO,
Anna

Wait! Before we talk about Ice Cream — I’ve been terribly remiss in my Aurifil Block of the Month duties. Miss June is none other that Pam Kitty Morning! I’m so sorry it’s taken me so long to mention your adorable block PKM — in my defense, I’ve been a little distracted with daughter duties this month. BUT — I LOVE the June block — How cute is this???

I think PKM might be putting this cute basket on a little hand towel — and now I have a hand towel on my to-do list.  I love all the vintage-y goodness about this cute little basket of flowers.  Very Fun!

Now, back to ice cream.  Is is hot where you are?  It’s been pretty steamy (and DRY — send RAIN!) here in the middle parts of the US.  Perfect for some ice cream pie.  This is an old family favorite that we put into our family cookbook a few years ago.  

MyDadLovesMeBestSister used to request this pie in lieu of birthday cake every year.  I love it for the nut crust which is awesome.  And the sauce.  I know lots of people don’t like raisins, and they can easily be left out of this recipe.  I LOVE raisins though, so they stay in for me.  This piece of ice cream pie is looking all melty, but it’s still good.  You have to eat it pretty quickly in this heat if you don’t want a big yummy puddle.

Ice Cream Pie

1 egg white
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 pt. coffee ice cream (I hate coffee anything, so I substitute Maple Pecan Ice Cream)
1 pt. vanilla ice cream
Raisin Sauce

Beat egg white until frothy. Add salt, then sugar gradually, beating until egg white is stiff. Fold in vanilla and pecans. Spread meringue in greased 9-inch pie pan, building up sides to form a shell. Bake at 325 degrees, 12-15 minutes. Cool.
Spread slightly sofened coffee ice cream in shell, then vanilla ice cream. Freeze. Remove from freezer 20 minutes before serving time. Serve with warm raisin sauce.

Raisin Sauce

3 tablespoons butter
1 cup brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup raisins
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt
Heat butter in saucepan until bubbly, then add sugar and cream, stirring until well blended. Add raisins, vanilla and salt and slowly bring sauce to a boil. Cook about 5 minutes. Cool. Spoon sauce over each pie serving.

Enjoy! It’s a fun, decadent treat for a hot summer day!
XOXO,
Anna

Every year for Christmas, my in-laws give me an Amazon Gift Certificate.  I finally ordered my books a few weeks ago, and among them was Miette – Recipes from San Francisco’s Most Charming Pastry Shop.  Part of the reason it took me so long to cash in my gift certificate was because I had a hard time deciding on this book.  It had mixed reviews — mostly due to mistakes that went to press with the first two editions.  But really, how could I pass up a cookbook with such an adorable little cake on the front cover?

After pouring through the book, I decided to try a few of the recipes for our Easter dinner.  These are small cakes — only 6″, so I reasoned we’d need two cakes for our family.  I decided on the Lemon Debutante Cake and the Tomboy Cake (aka, the cake on the cover.)  (Don’t they look cute with my Little Cotton Rabbits?)

Oh.Emmm.Geeee.  These cakes were SO fun to make and they were really good.  They’re not for the faint of baking heart however — they’re very labor intensive.  But Oh. So. Worth the effort.  In case you love to bake like I do (Hi Linda NoBlog and Brigette!), or if you’ve landed here looking for info on these cakes (the internet was really helpful to me with info about these cakes), I thought I’d share a few observations.

• When I went to buy the 6″ cake pans, instead of buying 2 – 6″ x 3″ pans, I bought 3 – 6″ x 2″ pans.  Each recipe makes 2, 3″ high cakes and then you split each 3″ cake into 3 sections.  Since I had three pans, I decided it should work to make three of them and split each in half, still having 6 layers in the end.  One of the biggest complaints on the internet about these recipes is that they sunk in the middle.  Both of my cakes also sunk a little, but I’m sure it wasn’t as bad as if I’d been using the 3″ pans.  The white (lemon) cake didn’t rise nearly as high either, so I didn’t really end up with a second set of three layers, which was fine.  Either way, I think I’ll stick with making the layers in the shorter pans.
• I heard that someone on cupcake wars tried to make the European buttercream frosting and ran out of time. No Kidding! I’m thinking they should have been disqualified for even trying it. It is very time consuming and patience is the key. The recipe said to add the boiling sugar water slowly to the meringue and then whip at high speed for about 10 minutes while the mixture cooled down. The whole time, I was thinking “How is this going to cool down? Whipping creates friction, right?” After 10 minutes, it definitely wasn’t cool enough to add the butter, so I turned the mixer off and just let it set for 20 minutes. Then you add the butter 1 Tbsp. at a time. Patience.  If you rush it, your buttercream will be ruined. The recipe was surprisingly easy, if you just follow the instructions — and your instinct!
• The pink frosting in the Tomboy Cake is actually raspberry flavored.  (And boy, is it ever good.  When you take a bite of the cake, you taste the deep, rich chocolate first, and then the raspberry hits you.  Yummmo!)  You have to boil raspberries to get some raspberry juice to add to the frosting. While my juice was cooling, my arm accidentally caught the sieve and the juice flew everywhere. Try not to be such a klutz like me!
• Our local cake shop is a great resource for the 6″ cake pans. Much more reasonable than amazon.
• These cakes may be small, but they’re rich. One cake would probably serve 12 people and would have been plenty for the 9 of us.

So, this little cookbook is a BIG hit with me! The recipes are very detailed, with lots of tips to help you be successful. Plus, they’re delicious. I took the leftovers to work on Monday morning and everyone loved them.  If you decide to get the book, be sure and get the errata sheet — one of the errors is in the buttercream recipe.

Off to pack my gym bag for tomorrow — I need to make a feeble attempt at working off that buttercream!
XOXO,
Anna