Your Mom wants cake!

This year my sisters and I are doing a cookout for my mother - she hates to go out on mother's day because it can get hairy (you all know...the waiting in lines and the food that's not so great because it's rushed and a thousand other people are waiting to eat)...

Anyway, at first I was all gung ho about going out - but my mother insisted that we stay in and so I quickly volunteered to end the meal with something sweet (this is surprising - not).

I needed something that wouldn't be too much fuss and would be easy to put together.  I am posting the following in case you, the reader, needs something quick and summery for your future get togethers, barbeques and cookouts (wait, is that the same thing?  Haha).

Strawberry and Pudding Pound Cake

You will need:

2 loaves of pound cake (because this is quick - I store bought mine, but certainly feel free to make your own)

1 pint of heavy cream

2 boxes of vanilla pudding (once again, make your own, but I opted for Jello brand!)

2 packs of fresh strawberries

To do:

Cut the loaves of pound cake into bite size squares.  Then take a small casserole dish (I used my smallest, but it just depends on how many layers you want.)  Line the bottom with a layer of the pound cake squares.

Prepare the pudding according to the directions on the box and let it cool - then layer the cake with the pudding.  

Clean and slice the berries, and put one layer on top of the pudding layer.

Add the remaining cubes of pound cake on top of the berries and pudding.  

Whip the heavy cream until stiff and top the cake with the whipped cream.  

Put on the remaining berries.  

Viola - your mom will thank me.  ;)  

Happy Mother's Day!

Mascarpone Almond Torte

A month or so ago, Elaine and I went to dinner at a little place called The Evolution Grill.  (by the way, are you looking for a nice, differently and rather affordable place to eat in the Pittsburgh area? Click on the link - it's worth it!)

Now that I've done my product/restaurant placement, let me get back to my originally intended post. :)

We went to dinner, and she was lovely enough to buy me dessert!  (Always so nice. :) ).  Dinner had been very good, and when the waitress read over the desserts, I was hooked immediately on the almond torte.  I have a weakness for this type of cake, and the last time I had indulged in a really GOOD one was several years ago (Almost five actually!)  There are almond tortes, and then really excellent almond tortes.

Now that I'm done rambling incessantly, I'm sure you figure I'm posting this because it was another fabulous torte, right?  Well, maybe.  It wasn't a "traditional" torte, really.  There were minimal layers and no real frosting. (Although I suppose the massive amounts of mascarpone could be called frosting, but when the layer is over an inch thick I no longer call it frosting)  It was dusted with Italian lady finger cookies laced with toasted almonds.

Frosting or no frosting, it was really, really good.  Because it seemed rather simple, I inquired after the chef on how he had made it.  I was given the gist of everything, and what follows is my version of this, with a few modifications. 

I wanted a little more almond flavor to the filling, and I made my own topping for it, using almonds “seats” and a cake that has more almond flavoring and is lighter in texture (although still quite dense)


Mascarpone-Almond Torte

You will need:

For the filling/topping

1 small tub of mascarpone cheese (room temp-makes it easier to work with)
1 Tbs sugar (although if you like it sweeter, please don't hesitate)
2 1/2 cups of heavy cream
1Tbs of almond extract (although I like to experiment, so if this is too much, cut it down)

For the almond seats:

½ cup of sugar
½ cup of almonds, sliced, or ground up, just not into tiny chunks – make sure they are pieces
1/4 cup water

For the cake:

1 1/2 cups cake flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup brown sugar (you can use regular)
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 can almond paste
7 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 teaspoons almond extract (although if you like less flavor, cut it down to 1tsp)

To do:

I always make the topping first (and in this case, it's the least tricky)

Beat the heavy cream in a chilled bowl with the sugar and almond extract until it holds stiffly.  Beat in the cheese and continue to blend until well mixed.  Store in the refrigerator

The almond seats: (this recipe is a modification of the one used by Sherry Yard in her cookbook Desserts by the Yard)
Line  a baking sheet with foil.

Stir sugar and water in heavy medium saucepan over medium-low heat until sugar dissolves.
Mix in nuts. Pour onto foil and bake, checking every five minutes ( see my recipe for the candied nuts for the similar technique – but really just stir every five minutes and bake for no longer than half and hour)

This gives you a bunch of sugared almonds – which Sherry uses to keep her ice cream from sliding when she makes desserts and wants them to look pretty – but I used them for the topping of this cake, since if you chop them up even finger you get a really nice almond sugary powder, or you can just sprinkle them as they are.


Make the cake:

Preheat oven to 350.

Butter a 12X17 inch (half sheet pan) and then line the whole thing with parchment paper.  Flour it lightly. 

(Note: you can use three rounds if you want, do the same thing, to make a three layer cake, however I've taken to using half sheet pans and I love them more.  They make a square cake, longer, and often times thinner, but it bakes quicker and it's much easier to work with)

In a food processor, grinder the sugar, almond paste and 1/2 cup of the flour until a sandy mixture forms.

Whisk the remaining flour, baking powder, and salt in bowl.

Using a stand mixer (or whatever you have, though I admit not having to stand there and hold the mixer is a huge plus), blend almond paste mixture, brown sugar and butter in large bowl, and process until smooth and fluffy (or somewhere around there)

Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, stopping and scraping down the sides as necessary to fully incorporate.

Fold in the rest of the dry ingredients (preferably by hand because you don't want to overmix).

Pour the cake onto the half sheet pan.  Make sure you don't fill to the top of the pan - you need room to rise.  However, if you have too much, make a mini cake for yourself.  This should be plenty of batter however, for a half sheet and more.

Bake until you stick a fork in the center and it comes out clean, which usually takes somwhere around 10 minutes (depending on your pan, and your oven).  If you use the rounds, it will take 25 minutes to bake.

Remove from oven and cool.

Assembly: (for cake using half sheet pan)

Once the cake is cool, cut it evenly across the half sheet.  Lift out one side carefully and place it on your final serving platter.  Spoon up the cream filling generously (you should have enough so don't be stingy, but remember to save more for the topping than for the in between layer).  Sprinkle a generous handful of the seats.  Cover with the second half of the cake, making sure, of course, to make them as even as possible.  Finish topping with remaining cream, and then the seats. 

That’s about it, but if you want, add your own toppings – I dust with cinnamon, but really it’s your call.  At the restaurant they used a bit of homemade caramel sauce which was delicious.

Refrigerate until serving, although this is best made a day ahead to let the flavors fully combine.  The cake is time consuming (in my opinion) and it can get pricey (with the nuts, cheese and the paste) but I think it's visually impressive, and tastes much more complicated than it is to make, and it's a little different than your average almond torte. 

By the way, I made this for Nicole, my work friend turned real friend who is leaving for a new job.  She was nothing short of speechless.  ;)

Best Brownies in the World!

Incidentally, no, that's not what the recipe is called.  However, allow me to convince you that the recipe is indeed, one of the best brownies recipes I've ever made.  (And seeing as I have the epic chocolate drawer in my fridge and I make a lot of chocolate desserts, I should know right?  Well, at least I should have a better idea than some).

Anyway, last week my friend Tracy came back to work after a long (too long) maternity leave.  She gave up cake for Lent, however, brownies don't count.  Either to cupcakes.  Or cookies.  (hehe)

She wanted brownies, and so I flipped through my trusty book (Thanks David!) because I remembered these were in one of the chapters.  Try them - the recipe is easy, and the brownies are so dense and moist it's almost like eating solid chocolate.  I made them in a long pan, although they would be much better in a small brownie pan, because they'd be thicker.  Mine were thin (although to make up for that, there were more of them).

The most important step in this recipe is that you beat the flour mixture into the liquid mixture for exactly one minute.  I know it seems unimportant, but I've done this recipe twice, and I wrote it off as shit-erm I mean, not so good the first time, because they were too dry.  I realized that what makes them moist for whatever reason is the beating step.  Set a timer, your cell phone, iphone, whatever technological device you have on hand, and beat vigorously without stopping.  The batter will become dark and glossy and pull away from the bowl.  (I actually put my bowl on the floor so I'd have better leverage, lol)

Once that's done, you're ready to bake!  There's no pictures this time - everyone knows what a brownie looks like.  The difference with this one is the way it tastes!  I dare you to try them and not love them!

BROWNIES (from David Lebovitz's Ready for Dessert):

6 tbs unsalted or salted butter, cut into pieces

8 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped

(I actually didn't cut or chop at all, I just tossed everything into a saucepan and stirred until it was smooth - it might be quicker if you do chop and cut though)

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs at room temp

1/4 cup flour  (no, this is not a mistake - there is almost no four in this recipe)

1 cup walnuts (or whatever nut you like - I don't think it matters) toasted and chopped fine (I tossed everything into a bag and did a dance on it.  ;) )

Preheat oven to 350.  Line the inside of a 9 inch square pan with foil, so that it overhangs (will be easy to lift out).  Then lightly grease the foil.

In a medium saucepan melt the butter, then add the chocolate and stir over low heat until the chocolate is melted and smooth.  Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar and vanilla until combined (At first it will be grainy, just keep stirring; it took me about five minutes)  Beat in the eggs one at a time until completely combined.  (I did this in my stand mixer, and not by hand).  

Once this is finished, you'll have a liquid chocolate mixtue.  Add the flour to this and stir VIGOROUSLY for ONE MINUTE, until the batter loses it's graininess, becomes glossy and pulls away from the bowl.  

Stir in the chopped nuts.  

Scrap the batter into the prepared pan and bake until the coneter feels almost set, about 30 minutes.  Don't OVERBAKE. 

Let cool completely in the pan before lifting out the foil or parchment to remove brownies.  You can cut them at this time, but I often freeze mine to make them "perfectly" cut.  It's up to you.  Either way, the brownies will keep well for four days, or up to a month in the freezer.  

Apparently this recipe takes well to add-ins.  So go crazy!  Enjoy!

Chocolate Pave

Because I love my coworkers (most of them) and I love to bake, when their birthdays roll around, I find it hard not to bake them some kind of treat for their special day.  This Valentine's Day my coworker Jason had a birthday. :)

Last year, I had made him a white cake with strawberry frosting, and this year I decided to dig into my chocolate drawer again.  What follows is one of the easiest and richest flourless cakes I have made in a long time.  David calls it a chocolate pave cake.  In French, pave means paving stones, and the cake was named thus for it's 'cobbled' appearance after baking. 

The cake itself took about 20 minutes to put together, 35 minutes of baking time and 5 minutes to decorate.  Not only is it rich, luscious and totally into chocolate overdrive, but it looks pretty decorated with powdered sugar and melted chocolate, so it's simple from beginning to end, and really, really simple to eat.  :)

From Ready for Dessert:

Chocolate Pave

You will need:

Chocolate/cocoa powder for preparing your baking pan

1 cup salted or unsalted butter, cut into pieces

4 ounces of unsweetened baking chocolate

4 ounces of semisweet baking chocolate

6 large eggs, separated

1/2 cup plus 1/2 cup of sugar

pinch of salt

Powdered sugar, for dusting (decorating)

melted chocolate for decorating

How to:

Preheat oven to 350.

Butter the bottom and sides of your baking pan well.  Dust with cocoa and shake off excess.  Line the bottom of your pan with wax/parchment paper.

In a large heatproof bowl, combine the butter and both chocolates.  Set the bowl over a pan of simmering water, stirring occasionally until the mixture is melted and smooth.  Remove the bowl from the heat.  (Now, I just melted the chocolate and butter in a saucepan until it was smooth making sure it wouldn't burn.  It was easier this way for me.)

IN a stand mixer fitted with the whip attachment, whisk together the egg yoks and 1/2 cup of sugar on high speed until it ribbons when you remove the whisk.  It took six minutes for me.

Fold in the melted chocolate mixture until fully combined.  Since the chocolate is hot, this will "curdle" the egg mixture, but just keep stirring.  It won't ever be silky smooth, but as long as it is completely mixed you are fine.

In a clean bowl, beat the whites with the pinch of salt until it forms wet peaks, about two minutes.  Then you add the 1/2 sugar gradually until the mixture is white and stiff, about 8 minutes or so.  

Fold the whites into the chocolate mixture.  It will seem like a lot of whites, but trust me, just keep incorporating until the whites are gone.  Do not overmix.  Just mix until you no longer see streaks of white.

Pour mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 35 minutes.  The center will still be jiggly.  Don't panic if your cake cracks.  Mine had a crater size crack in it, but once I took it out of the oven, the crack closed in on itself as the cake fell.  It will look cracked, it's supposed to.  ;)

Let it cool for fifteen minutes and run a knife around the sides to loosen it.  Invert the cake onto a platter and remove the paper, and re-invert onto a new platter.  The first platter doesn't matter, but you should re-invert onto your serving platter so you don't have to worry about it breaking if you use your hand to transfer.  If you use two plates, you can sandwich the cake between them to avoid any breakage.

Melt chocolate for decorating and using a fork, wave it over the cake to drizzle it with the chocolate.  Then add the powdered sugar.  

And that's it!

Spiced Candied Pecans

Happy Steeler Sunday!

Today I spent the better part of my afternoon not watching the Steeler game.  Instead, I got it into my mind that I wanted to create a variation to the chocolate chip cookie recipe that I posted awhile back.  I happened to be flipping through Ready for Dessert (the best dessert book ever, by the way, and I'm not biased) and David suggests replacing the regular pecans or walnuts in his cookie recipe with a version of what he calls "candy" pecans.

This very short and very EASY (do you read that people, this is EASY) recipe was found in the candy section of the book.  I wondered why at first.  Now I know.  There's no eating just one of those babies.  You're supposed to use four cups of pecans to make this treat, but I only had two (thank God for that because I needed those two cups for the cookies).   So I just halved the recipe. 

Believe you me.  It takes four minutes to toss the stuff together and thirty minutes to bake.  Then you have to cool them.  If you are in any way a nut lover, trust me, you need to make these.

They are perfectly, sweet, spicy, crunchy and just a teeny bit hot.  The flavors come together amazingly well in this thick, caramel like sauce that you toss your pecans with.  I suppose you can use other types of nuts.  I prefer walnuts. 

As I'm writing this, I actually only have one cup left.  Shame on me.  I guess those cookies will have to wait!

Spiced Candied Pecans

adapted just slightly from Ready for Dessert by David Lebovitz

1 large egg white
1/2 cup of PACKED light brown sugar (do pack it)
2 Tbs ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp cayenne or pure chile powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 cups pecan halves

Preheat the oven to 300 F. 
Spray the baking sheet you will be using with nonstick cooking spray or oil it just slightly
In a large bowl, whisk the egg white until frothy, only 10 seconds or so
Toss in the rest of the ingredients, adding the nuts last
Coat the nuts well
Distribute nuts on your baking sheet and bake until the nuts are toasted, about 30 minutes, stirring every 10 to prevent sticking
Let cool, separating the pecans as they cool.

My notes:

I used walnuts, not pecans

In the deep recesses of what is the cave of spices in my kitchen, I found both chile and cayenne powders (thank God I have a use for the cayenne now!), so I tried both.  I prefer the cayenne world's over!  It gives the nuts a bigger punch, in my opinion.

Use real vanilla.  I tried both real and imitation and there was a huge difference.

Lastly, these are so easy, it's NUTS.  (Haha. I had to say it)

Brownies for Baby

I know.  It's been forever!  In my defense, I must say that this will (if successful) be the fourth time I have actually sat down to make a post.  Ce la vie.

The other day, my two best girlfriends visited me for a belated birthday celebration.  They made all manner of yummy foods which I normally do not eat, but was glad to (simply because it was them who made it).  It made me laugh, because the dreaded "cheese drawer" conversation started again, for probably at least the fiftieth time!  To clarify, each of the girls has a drawer in the bottom of their fridge, which is full of cheese.  All kinds of cheese.  Block cheese, sliced, shredded, I think even maybe spreadable cheese.  It's because they use cheese as a staple.  Every dish that they made me the day they visited had cheese in it.  I still have a bag of cheese that they left behind!

I make fun of them (jokingly) of course, because of their cheese drawers.

The sad reality was that today, I realized something.  That same bottom drawer in my fridge is filled with chocolate.  Not only do I have eight different kinds of chocolate chips, there are several large bars of solid brick chocolate, and three boxes of baking chocolate.  Semi sweet, bittersweet, and all precentage of cacao content.  I sat back, laughing.  I suppose we all have our thing.

Speaking of my thing...

My friend Tracy is having a baby next week.  For her going away on maternity leave, she requested brownies.  Since I have an epic chocolate drawer in my fridge, it was easy to come up with something.  With a little help from David of course.  :)

The following is a homemade recipe for brownies, using just butter, sugar, flour, eggs, vanilla, and of course, three different kinds of chocolate.  They're probably better than any brownie I've ever had - complete chocolate overload with very little sweetness.  Although I've never tried, I'm pretty sure I can house a pan of these by myself, plain jane.  For Tracy though, I might frost them.  Cheescake cinnamon frosting, with maybe just a few drops of red food coloring.  Pink icing for baby girl.  Enjoy!

Cheesecake Brownies

One 9-inch (23cm) or 8-inch (20cm) square pan

Adapted from David's website.

For those of you who like higher brownies, use an 8-inch pan.

Maggie's note:  I used this recipe, opting out of the cheesecake part.  I know, sounds crazy, but these are better plain!  By all means however, give the cheesecake part a whirl if you want, and decide for yourself.  The only thing better than one batch of brownies, is two!

6 tablespoons (85g) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
4 ounces (115g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
2/3 cup (130g) sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup (70g) flour
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup (80g) chocolate chips

For cheesecake:

8 ounces (200g) cream cheese, at room temperature
1 large egg yolk
5 tablespoons (75g) sugar
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Line a 9-inch (23cm) or 8-inch (20cm) square pan with foil, making sure it goes up all four sides. Use two sheets if necessary. Mist with non-stick spray or grease lightly.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (180C).

3. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter and chocolate over low heat, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and beat in the 2/3 cup (130g) sugar, then the eggs.

4. Mix in the flour, cocoa powder and salt, then the vanilla and chocolate chips. Spread evenly in the prepared pan.

5. In a separate bowl, beat together the cream cheese, the yolk, 5 tablespoons (75g) of sugar, and vanilla until smooth.

6. Distribute the cream cheese mixture in eight dollops across the top of the brownie mixture, then take a dull knife or spatula and swirl the cream cheese mixture with the chocolate batter.