Archive for the 'Chocolate' Category

Peppermint Bark

Published on December 30, 2011 in Chocolate, Desserts and Holiday. 0 Comments

This is good stuff. It’s so easy to make (it’s really just melting, pouring and spreading), but very impressive to look at; if you can actually bring yourself to give any away, your recipients will be sufficiently wowed. Plus now that Christmas is over, I’m guessing that you probably have candy canes lying around (at least the ones hanging on the tree above child-finger height), so why not make some of this divine double-chocolate peppermint bark?

Truth be told, I’m not much of a white chocolate person, seeing as how it’s not actually really chocolate, but it works in this iteration. Next time I make this, though, I think I’m going to reverse the layers, so there are two layers of dark chocolate and one middle layer of white. That’s more my speed. Either way you do it, you’ll end up with chocolatey, creamy, crunchy, minty deliciousness. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

Oh, and if you still have left over candy canes, try these. One of my all-time favorites.

We had a lovely Christmas at home and will be doing more of the same for New Year’s with a few friends coming over to ring in 2012. I’m starting to mull over my resolutions for the new year…I like to ruminate over the course of the days leading up to January 1st and try to come up with things I’ll really attempt to do and are also actually worth the effort to attempt to accomplish. I may even write some down this year.

What about you? Any particular resolving going on in your house — besides making this peppermint bark, of course?

Here’s to the end of a wonderful year and the beginning of another new and exciting one. The happiest of happy new years to you and yours. Cheers!

Peppermint Bark

17 oz. white chocolate, such as Callebaut, finely chopped (make sure cocoa butter is listed in the ingredients)
2-3 candy canes or 20-25 peppermint candies, coarsely crushed
7 ounces dark chocolate (I used 70%), finely chopped
6 tablespoon heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract

Flip a large sheet pan upside down and cover with aluminum foil. Measure out and mark a 9- by 12-inch rectangle on the foil (I used a mechanical pencil keeping the lead inside).

Put the white chocolate in a metal (or other heatproof) bowl, and set it over a saucepan of barely simmering water (don’t let the bottom of the bowl touch the water.) Melt the chocolate until smooth, stirring occasionally. Remove  from the heat and pour 2/3 cup of the melted chocolate onto the marked rectangle on the foil. Using an icing spatula, spread the chocolate to fill the rectangle. Sprinkle with 1/8-1/4 cup of the crushed peppermints (a little goes a long way, so I used more like 1/8 cup). Chill until set, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine the dark chocolate, cream, and peppermint extract in a heavy medium saucepan. Warm over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until the mixture is just melted and smooth. Cool for about 5 minutes.

Get your cooled baking sheet from the fridge and pour the dark chocolate over the white chocolate, spreading the chocolate to completely cover the white rectangle (make sure your spatula is clean unless you want the marbled look!). Chill until very cold and firm, about 25 minutes.

Rewarm the remaining white chocolate, then pour that over the dark chocolate and spread  to cover completely. Sprinkle more peppermint candy over the top and chill again till firm, about 20 minutes more.

Carefully lift the foil from the baking sheet onto a large cutting board. Trim the uneven edges and eat immediately. Cut the bark crosswise into 2″ strips. Using metal spatula, slip the bark off of the foil and onto the cutting board.  Cut each strip crosswise into 4 sections, and then cut each section diagonally into 2 triangles. Or just cut it however you like.

Put in an airtight container with sheets of wax paper between the layers o prevent them from sticking to each other. Store in the refrigerator (preferably in the back where your husband won’t find it).

 

Merry Christmas!

Published on December 23, 2011 in Chocolate, Cookies, Family and Holiday. 1 Comment


It’s been awhile. I guess I’m not the supreme multi-tasker that I thought I was. I have a newfound respect for those full-time working mother bloggers who keep it up on a daily basis. It’s really hard to do that.

Nevertheless, I will carry on with my sporadic posting as that’s about all I can handle right now. Hopefully, I haven’t lost you, my faithful (and for the most part, completely silent) readers. All seven of you. :)

And now, it’s Christmastime in the city (sing it with me!) and man, do I love it. The city is lit up and bustling, the holiday cheer is spreading and most importantly, I’m on vacation! OK, only two days, but I’ll take ‘em. I get to read, watch this, pick up some last-minute gifts and most importantly, hang with my little man and do some cooking!

We had a little holiday open house last weekend, which was super-fun, but I was a total slacker in the cooking department — thankfully, my mom (and others) came to the rescue with three different kinds of Christmas cookies, including these and a few others which I suppose I now need to post about…especially her pecan balls, which went so fast that I never even got to try one. Humph. I did manage to make an amazing peppermint bark*, which I promptly forgot to serve. Oops. Our last few stragglers were the lucky recipients of little packets of that delicious treat.

We got our beautiful tree a few weeks back and had a great time decorating it with the G-man hanging everything at the same height and my mom directing the placement of the lights with the precision of MacArthur and the cinematic eye of Cecil B. de Mille. It smells great and nothing makes me happier than to come home and see it all lit up, waiting expectantly for all the presents to be nestled underneath (and for me to wrap said mountain of presents currently lurking in the closet).

What are you doing for the holidays…visiting family? Staying home? Snuggling up by a roaring fire? Or (like my amigos down in BsAs) going for a swim? Whatever you do or however you celebrate the season, hold your loved ones tight and be happy. Merry Merry everyone.

* Coming in the next post, which I promise won’t be a month from now…

Momofuku Milk Bar Compost Cookies

Published on November 19, 2011 in Chocolate, Cookies and Desserts. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

This is a cookie that I’ve been meaning to make forever and a day. Before we moved to Buenos Aires, we lived in the East Village and before it got all cool and fancy, Momofuku Ssäm Bar was our go-to take spot for Korean burritos. You see, it actually was a Ssäm Bar, as in a place where you could just wander in and order a Korean version of a burrito, but like, a ridiculous one with marinated tofu or Berkshire pork, edamame, kimchi…insanely good. And then, poof! It became the hottest restaurant in town and buh-bye burritos.

But I tried not to hold a grudge because next door to Ssäm Bar was Milk Bar, where take-out of the dessert variety was (and is) still in full swing. Crazy soft-serve ice cream with flavors like cereal milk and olive oil, crack pie (use your imagination) and the infamous star of this post.

The compost cookie is, as the name suggests, a cookie with all kinds of crazy stuff in it (in fact, the original has coffee grounds). What’s great is that it’s up to you to decide what goes in. But let me give you a tip: you need something salty. It can be potato chips, it can be pretzels (both are divine), but you need that saltiness to counterbalance the sweetness of the cookie itself and the other required stuff, like namely, chocolate. It is kind of a revelation as cookies go. It’s chewy, it’s crunchy, it’s sweet, it’s salty, it’s all things that are good and right in this world.

And it’s always nice to have a helper bring along his tools for smashing stuff up.


But I still have yet to make my dream version. I really must do one with the dark chocolate-covered pretzels from Trader Joe’s. Maybe throw in some corn flakes and, of course, bitter chocolate chunks. Am I nutty for thinking about dark chocolate-covered espresso beans? Oh, I’m onto something. This is fun. What would you add?

Momofuku Milk Bar Compost Cookies

recipe by Christina Tosi

1 cup/2 sticks unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 tablespoon corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups dark chocolate chunks or chips
1 1/2 cups savory/salty snacks, crushed (chips, pretzels, chocolate-covered pretzels, corn flakes)

Cream butter, sugars and corn syrup on medium high for two to three minutes until fluffy and pale yellow in color. Mix in eggs and vanilla. This part is important. Increase mixer speed to medium-high and beat for 10 minutes. Yeah, it’s a long time. But it helps the sugar to dissolve and it makes the mixture super-light and fluffy. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix until just incorporated.

Stir in chocolate chips, then add the snacks. Using an ice cream scooper, scoop portions onto a Silpat- or parchment-lined cookie sheet, Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour and up to a week (as if). Preheat the oven to 400ºF/204ºC shortly before the hour is up. Bake the cookies for 9-11 minutes. They’re done when the edges are brown and the top is just starting to brown.

Aunt Hazel’s Brownies

Published on October 21, 2011 in Chocolate and Desserts. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .


As promised, I’ve got some chocolatey happiness coming your way today. This is a longtime family favorite that came from my mother’s (yup, you guessed it), Aunt Hazel.

Aunt Hazel was a lean, mean baking machine. The woman had a serious thing for butter. According to family lore, she died of cirrhosis of the liver without having had a drop of alcohol in her life. We’ve always given my mother a hard time about this claim (“Come on, you know she was swigging from the vanilla extract, Mom!”), but it turns out that it may have been the case after all (nothing like Wikipedia to make you feel really guilty about teenage finger-pointing).


However she passed into the next realm, she left behind a damn good brownie recipe. It’s gooey, and, yes, it is indeed buttery. It has such a small amount of flour as to resemble a flourless chocolate cake in a way, which is a very nice thing to resemble.

However, over the years, I’ve started thinking it could be just a tad chocolatey-er, so I added another ounce of chocolate to the original recipe. A few times, I’ve used cake flour (on the suggestion of Erica Bruce’s recipe in Cooks Illustrated), which actually gives the brownies a nice consistency, but it’s not necessary. I’ve even used cocoa powder* when I was desperate (desperate for instant brownie gratification, that is), and it worked quite well, although it didn’t have the same gooeyness. But one addition that I’m definitely adding to the permanent update is a healthy pinch of Maldon sea salt sprinkled over the top before popping the pan into the oven. I think it adds a nice counterpoint to the sweetness of the brownie.

Whatever minor changes have been made, this is still Aunt Hazel’s brownie recipe at its core. And Aunt Hazel, wherever you are, please accept my sincere apologies (and those of my siblings who were complicit in this) for calling you a lush all these years.

Aunt Hazel’s Brownies

1/2 cup butter, cut into tablespoons
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, cut into small pieces
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
A generous 1/2 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
Pinch of Maldon sea salt or some other flaky salt (optional)

Preheat oven to 325ºF/163ºC. Line an 8″x 8″ inch baking dish with parchment paper, making sure one layer has an overhang of a couple inches (this overhang will become the handles you use to lift the brownies out of the pan).

Put the butter and chocolate in a heatproof dish on top of a simmering pan of water. Stir regularly until everything is melted. Add the sugar and continue to simmer to dissolve the sugar a bit. Take the pan off the heat and let cool until warm. Stir in vanilla. Add eggs one at a time. Add flour and salt and stir until batter is glossy. Stir in the nuts and pour into pan. Sprinkle top with Maldon sea salt.

Bake for 20-30 minutes. The brownies are done when a toothpick comes out crumbly (not wet — underdone and not completely clean — overdone). Let cool at room temperature (or you can put the pan in the refrigerator or freezer if you’re really impatient). Lift out by the parchment paper and cut into squares.

* 3/4 cup to substitute; also, FYI, the bottom photo is the version made with cocoa (note the smoother top vs. the crackly one made with solid chocolate).

G is Three!

Published on August 18, 2011 in Cakes, Chocolate, Desserts, Family, Kids and New York City. 4 Comments

My son just turned three. It’s very difficult to comprehend this, but as anyone with a child will tell you, “They grow up so fast.” And while it’s a cliché, it is quite true and not a little freakish. They start out as these little blobs, who lie around doing a whole lot of nothing and then in the blink of an eye, they’re walking, talking, and pulling your shirt up in public to slap your stomach and squeeze your love handles while singing, “Patty cake, patty cake, baker’s man.” I tell you; it’s shocking, the things they can do. Shocking…and ever so slightly horrifying.

But I wouldn’t trade this kid for anything. And that’s why, despite the stomach-pinching shenanigans, we threw him a party. But not just any party. A party with Big Toot. Big who? you may ask? Big Toot.

Who or what is Big Toot? Well, I’ll tell you. Big Toot (I can’t stop saying it) is, I believe, one of New York’s best kept secrets. And now I’m letting the toot out of the bag. Sorry. Big Toot is an adorable former Navy boat that’s been recommissioned as a pleasure cruiser for those wanting to enjoy the sights and sounds (and smells) of the Hudson River. And for a mere $10 for each adult (kids are FREE), you can cruise around the Statue of Liberty or Governor’s Island or, like we did once last fall, watch a sailing regatta from out on the water. The rides are about 50 minutes long, and they run on the weekends from May to October.


So due to the Big Toot factor, I decided that G’s party needed to have a classic red and blue nautical theme and subsequently lost my marbles accumulating and/or making all things seafaring. For the invitations, I used Paperless Post, which has gorgeous designs and you can customize your invitation, envelope and envelope liner. I used a design from Mr. Boddington’s Nephew in a navy envelope with the “Link” envelope liner in crimson. I love how when your guests click on the envelope, the invitation glides out of the envelope. Super-cool and very shipshape!

As for party supplies, I hit the jackpot at Target when I pounced upon the napkin of my dreams (red anchor *and* blue stripes = perfection) and some fantastic striped melamine bowls in the clearance section. (I also found these awesome acrylic glasses, but my mother forbade me to buy them. I’m still thinking about them. And look at these!)


I fashioned paper boat place holders, clipped miniature anchor-printed sails for cupcake toppers and created custom stickers. I also found some fantastic favor bags, which we stuffed with Toob boats, Lifesavers, Swedish fish, stickers and water gunssquirters). I knew things were spiraling out of control when I found myself recreating a “Happy Birthday” sign using the international maritime alphabet on the computer and contemplating buying fabric and sewing actual flags. Good thing I found a nautical-ish bunting at Target; stringing that $4 score up added another year or two to my life and (hopefully) convinced my husband that I’m not completely insane.

On the food tip, it wouldn’t be a nautical-themed party without Pepperidge Farm’s goldfish, of course (no, I didn’t even think about trying this). I even managed to find these, but then G put the kibosh on sandwiches and insisted on pizza, which was much easier anyway. We also had some appies including my hummus with carrots and chips, a lovely little watermelon bite thing (which I’ll do a separate post on even though it’s three ingredients), nuts, Prosecco, etc. — none of which I have photos of because I had to wait until we came back from the boat ride to put everything out, so all the guests were there and I didn’t have time to snap the food table (plus I got all self-conscious because most normal people, i.e., non-food bloggers, don’t take photos of the food at their children’s parties).

And then there were the cupcakes, made using Magnolia Bakery’s cupcake recipe and my chocolate frosting recipe with red and blue sprinkles.

And while I did go a little overboard (pun intended) with the preparation and planning, I have to say, it was really fun. I loved the coming up with the crafty elements and figuring out how to execute them, and, of course, the cooking and eating parts. And yes, we are all wearing navy and/or red. I even scored this fab anchor necklace at Forever 21.

Most importantly, my little monster had tons of fun with his buddies and really enjoyed his big day. Happy Birthday, G! We love you!