Baking

Brown Butter Rum Chocolate Chip Cookies

Posted by Michelle on Oct 24, 2011 in Baking, Recipes | 1 comment

Brown Butter Rum Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yes, you read that correctly — browned butter rum. You see, I was going to make chocolate chip cookies from my favorite standby recipe — America’s Test Kitchen’s Chocolate Chip Cookies (subscription required for the ATK site; another adaptation here), in case you’re wondering — and I decided that I was going to be a bit rebellious.

First, I decided that since the original ATK Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe called for melted butter, I’d go a step further and brown it. Because, you know, there’s nothing that browned butter can’t make better, right?  (Except for maybe my fondness of double negatives.)

And then I figured since I like salted caramel so very much, I’d say hell to the standard baking wisdom to use unsalted butter and use salted butter. (Also? That’s what I have on hand at the moment. You use what you’ve got.)

And as I was in the midst of everything I discovered that I was out of vanilla. And I know from previous experience that a chocolate chip cookie without vanilla extract is a poor, sad thing indeed. Even with browned butter. Thinking quickly, I grabbed the nearest substitute I could think of. Dark rum. Cruzan Black Strap rum, to be specific.

Now I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not much of a drinker so I can’t comment on how this rum stacks up to other rums — though here’s a review by someone who knows what they’re talking about better than I do — I do rather like Cruzan Black Strap because it has this awesome aroma of molasses. It’s pretty heavenly.

Then I figured that I’d throw all caution to the wind and make the batter in a saucepan rather than in a bowl or mixer. I figure I needed to brown the butter over the flame anyway, so what’s the harm in making it in a large saucepan? As it turns out, the saucepan held on to heat far better than I gave it credit for (oops) so when I stirred in my chocolate chips, there was still enough latent heat to begin melting the chips. Not all the way, mind you, but I did have to work a little quickly.

But it wasn’t a disaster! The half-melted chips made for an impressive (to me) swirl of chocolate in each cookie.

Everything came together to make this pretty pretty heavenly, grown up cookie. The cookie itself is slightly savory and nutty, thanks to the salted brown butter with these great deep caramel taste. The cookies got rave reviews from my testers — both The Hubs ™ and Rainbow Dash, our roommate.  This may very well replace my usual cookie recipe.

Amish Friendship Bread – Two Variations

Posted by Michelle on Mar 30, 2010 in Baking | 0 comments

Amish Friendship Bread

At my daughter’s birthday party last weekend, my friend gifted me (and the other bakeristas in attendance) with a bag of Amish Friendship Bread starter. If you’ve never heard of Amish Friendship Bread, it is basically a kitchen chain letter, albeit a tasty one. Someone gifts you with starter which you care for and create more of. Eventually, you’ll bake off a few loaves and end up with more starter than you began with.

Like all chain letters, Amish Friendship Bread (hereafter known as AFB because I like acronyms) has a few legends and myths woven into it. Here are a few things I found out about AFB while taking care of the batter.

• Despite the name, AFB is not Amish in origin. It likely started in the early 1990s though there’s no way to verify that fact.
• If you want to make AFB but don’t have starter, don’t worry you can make it yourself.
• Traditional starter recipes note to to use metal utensils to handle the starter with or to store the starter as you can mess up the pH of the starter batter. However when  mixing up the final batter that you will bake, you can certainly use a metal bowl and/or spoon with no ill results.
• Starter batter is live with yeast and it is normal for it to ferment. Creation of gasses (bubbles in the batter/bag) and a pleasant, tangy smell are evidence of fermentation.
• If the batter turns pinkish or any other off color, it is rotten and needs to be thrown out.

After ten days of diligently caring for the starter, I was eager to bake my very own loaf of Amish Friendship Bread. The problem was, the recipe I was given with the bread had called for instant pudding mix. Not wanting to go to the store just for pudding mix, I decided to try to use up some apples I had around the house by making a low-sugar, low-fat apple cake.

AFB Apple Cake (low-sugar)

Dry Ingredients

• 2 c. flour
  1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
  1/2 tsp. baking soda
  1/2 tsp. salt
  2 Tbsp cinnamon

Wet Ingredients

• 1 c. AFB starter batter
  1/2 c. applesauce
  1/2 c. oil
  3 eggs
  1 c. diced apples

For sprinkling

• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 325F. Prepare a 9″ cake pan by spraying with non-stick spray and sprinkling lightly with half of the cinnamon sugar mixture.
Sift the dry ingredients to combine; set aside in a large bowl. Combine wet ingredients and beat well. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry and mix together until just combined.
Pour into prepared cake pan, spreading to make sure the batter is level in the pan. Sprinkle with the remainder of the cinnamon sugar.

Bake at 325F for 40 minutes to an hour until done. Let cool in the pan. Can serve warm or cold.

Makes 1 9″ apple cake

It wasn’t until I tasted it that I realized that I had forgotten a key ingredient — SUGAR!!! Doh! Sadly, there is no photo of the apple cake to commemorate my duncery.

The Hubs ™ thought the cake was fine and honestly, for a low-sugar, low-fat treat, it was decent, especially if you like apples. But I wasn’t happy with it so I decided to go ahead and pick up a package of pudding while I was out to find out what I was missing.

Here’s the “traditional” AFB recipe that comes with the starter batter.

Amish Friendship Bread

Dry Ingredients

2 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 package (5.1 oz) pudding, any flavor (recommended: vanilla)
2 tsp cinnamon

Wet Ingredients

1 c. AFB Starter
1 c. oil
1 c. sugar
3 eggs
1 Tbsp vanilla

For sprinkling

• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 325F. Prepare two loaf pans by greasing well and sprinkling with half of the cinnamon sugar.

Sift together dry ingredients in a large bowl. Combine wet ingredients and mix well to combine. Pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients and mix to combine.
Divide the batter between the prepared loaf pans. Sprinkle tops with the remaining cinnamon sugar. Bake at 325F for 1 hour. Remove to rack, let cool in pan.

Makes 2 loaves of Cinnamon Amish Friendship Bread.

Despite my original misgivings about using vanilla pudding in this recipe, I think it adds a certain something to the recipe that my previous apple cake was definitely missing. While I had expected a pronounced tang from the AFB starter, there really wasn’t much. But I didn’t mind. It has a great texture, not nearly as cakey as most quick breads can be but not doughy like a yeast bread, either. It is just effing delicious, either on its own or with a cup of coffee. So delicious, in fact, that I’m seriously considering keeping all this lovely starter to myself rather than sharing it just yet

Dulce de Leche Brownies

Posted by Michelle on Oct 14, 2007 in Baking | 0 comments

Bastardized from… um, I mean inspired by David Lebovitz‘s Dulce de Leche Brownie recipe and Cooking for Engineer‘s brownie recipe

• 6 oz bittersweet chocolate
• 6 oz butter, unsalted (1 1/2 sticks)
• 1 c sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 c flour
• 1 c dulce de leche

Preheat oven to 325F and butter and flour/cocoa an 8×8 brownie pan.

Beat eggs and vanilla together. Set aside.

Melt the butter and chocolate slowly in a double boiler. Once the butter and chocolate have melted together and are mixed together nicely, take off the heat. Mix in the sugar and then the egg mixture. Once that has been full mixed and incorporated, fold in the flour to form a thick batter.

Spoon 1/2 of the brownie batter in the bottom of the prepared pan. Spoon half the dulce de leche in blobs onto the brownie batter. Swirl with a skewer or knife. Spoon the rest of the brownie batter and repeat the process with spooning the dulce and swirling with a knife.

Bake for 35 ~ 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out with fudgy crumbs. Cool on a wire rack completely before cutting into 2×2 squares.

Makes 16 brownies

* *

The original Cooking for Engineers brownie recipe called for 1.5 c of sugar which I reduced to 1 c. I thought that the dulce de leche would add enough sweetness to the batter and I was right. The still slightly bitter dark chocolate is well offset by the dulce de leche. Any more sugar and it would have been far too sweet.

My dulce de leche had been made ahead of time and I had taken it from the refrigerator. As I suspected, it was pretty blobbish and unspreadable. That was easily rectified by warming gently in a double boiler. I also thinned it out with just a splash of milk which made it easy to make it the same consistency as the batter.

I love the dual layer of dulce de leche in the brownies from the two swirled layers. It’s nice to have dulce de leche both in the middle of the brownie and the top of the brownie. But I think I will make it in an 11 x 13 pan next time. Although I like the 2×2 size of the the brownies, they are much too thick for me and I think it would be better if they were thinner and larger (closer to 3×3) to really showcase the dulce de leche.

This is brownie is really rich and really needs milk to help offset its decadence. Oh and it’s even better the second day. If they last that long If you refrigerate your brownies to prolong the love, make sure to let it sit out at room temperature for at least 15 minutes before serving. It tastes much better at room temperature.

Better than Garlic Bread Focaccia

Posted by Michelle on Oct 14, 2007 in Baking | 0 comments

Adapted by Michelle from here


Even if it’s not very traditional, I assure you that it’s delicious. My rendition has dried herbs and chopped garlic in the dough and is topped with a savory crust of cheese and garlic salt. This is better than most garlic breads I’ve ever had and is delicious with soup. It would also make an excellent sandwich bread if baked in an 8×8 pan, cut into 4×4 pieces and split.

Ingredients

Yeast Proofing

• 1/2 c. warm water (100F ~ 110F)
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1 packet dry active yeast (not instant)

Wet Ingredients

• 1/2 c. water
• 2 garlic cloves, finely minced
• 1 tbsp. olive oil

Dry Ingredients

• 2 1/2 c. all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tbsp. dried basil
• 1 1/2 tbsp. dried oregano
• 1 tbsp. grated parmesan cheese

Topping

• 2 tbsp. grated parmesan
• 1 tsp. garlic salt
• Olive oil

Proofing the yeast:
In your work bowl, dissolve the sugar in the warm water and sprinkle your dry yeast over it. Mix well and let sit for 10 ~ 15 minutes. If the mixture is frothy and smells yeasty, congratulations! Your yeast is alive and ready for the next step!

Mix together your dry ingredients in a separate work bowl.

Making the dough:
Add your wet ingredients into the yeast mixture: the water, garlic and olive oil. Begin to incorporate your dry ingredients.

If you’re using a stand mixer, mix in about 1 cup of the dry ingredients at low speed. You could use your paddle attachment but keep in mind you’re going to have to switch to a hook for the dough kneading anyhow. Once the first cup or so is well incorporated, continue to add about 1/4 c. of the dry ingredients at a time until the dough comes together into a ball. Once the dough comes together, knead using the dough hook for about 3 to 4 minutes until smooth and elastic. Once this has been achieved, form the dough into a ball and place in a greased work bowl (your mixer bowl works fine), cover and set in a warm place to rise for 30 minutes.

If you’re doing this by hand, use a wooden spoon to mix in 1 cup of the dry ingredients to form a wet batter. After it forms a batter, gradually add the rest of the dry ingredients in 1/4 c. additions. It will get increasingly difficult as you reach the end. Once it forms a dough that can hold together, knead on a floured board until smooth and elastic. (And/or until your arms fall off, whichever comes first.) Form the kneaded dough into a ball and placed into a greased work bowl. Cover and set in a warm place to rise for 30 minutes.

Forming and proofing the dough:

Place an empty pan in the lowest rack of your COLD OVEN. Do not turn the oven on. You will proof the bread in a warm, moist environment provided by the boiling water. In the meantime, boil water.

Grease an 8×8 or 11×13 pan.

After the dough has risen, turn the risen dough out into the greased baking pan of your choice. There’s no need to punch it down because you will punch it down as you form it to the pan. If it very elastic and doesn’t want to get into the corners, don’t worry. It will rise a second time.

Place your formed dough on the higher rack in your COLD oven. Fill the pan below it with boiling water. Close the oven and let your bread proof in this environment for 30 minutes.

Topping and baking the bread:

After 30 minutes, remove the bread pan from your oven. Discard your pan of hot water; you no longer need it. Preheat the oven to 450F.

Dimple the top of your dough lightly with your fingers. sprinkle the top evenly with the grated cheese and garlic salt. Drizzle the top of the dough with olive oil.

Bake the foccacia for 15 minutes at 450F. Remove from oven when golden brown and delicious. Cool in pan for 5 minutes and then remove to a cooling rack for 10 minutes. Slice and enjoy.