Posted By Anna on February 8, 2010

Last week I had an ongoing craving for rocky road and tried three different versions of the candy.

First I made the popular condensed milk rocky road. It was very good – like Five Minute Fudge, but better because of the added marshmallow and peanuts. I stored it in the refrigerator, but it tasted best at room temperature so I took a few pieces out before serving. THis is a good recipe and I’m looking forward to trying a new version with butterscotch chips or peanut butter mixed in.

A couple of days later, I made rocky road with melted dark chocolate Dove Promises, peanuts and marshmallows. I didn’t post it then because the recipe seemed almost too simple, but I think it was my favorite and have included the technique for making it below.

Yesterday, I tried the old-school version of rocky road – the one that calls for raw eggs. I used pasteurized of course, and planned on keeping the fudge refrigerated. Of the three, the raw egg version was my least favorite. It had a softer texture than the condensed milk version, and for some reason I just didn’t like the flavor. So I’m striking that version off the list and will stick with either the condensed millk version or the type made with straight chocolate, marshmallows and peanuts. At least with the straight chocolate version you can have fun experimenting with different quality chocolate.

Here’s how I made the Dove Rocky Road.

Dark Chocolate Rocky Road

9.5 oz Dove Dark Chocolate Promises (unwrapped! Ha ha ha)
2 cups mini marshmallows
About 2/3 cup peanuts, lightly salted

Line a loaf pan or small (8 inch) square pan with non-stick foil.

In a heat-proof mixing bowl set over but not touching a pan of simmering water, melt the Dove chocolate. You could also do this step in a double-boiler or in the microwave using a low setting and stirring often.

When the chocolate is melted, remove from heat and stir in the marshmallows and the peanuts.

Press into pan and chill for 2 hours or until set. Remove from pan and slice. If you want, you can skip the pan and just spread candy on a lined pan.

Category: Rocky Road | 8 Comments »
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Posted By Anna on February 7, 2010

I took a day off from baking sweets yesterday, so today’ I’m going to share something a little different. This is a recipe for one of our favorite side dishes –baked potato chips. These should probably be in the snack category, but I always serve them as an accompaniment to BLT’s and California Chardonnay. Classy, eh? Don’t laugh until you try Chardonnay with a BLT.

Anyway, here’s how to make the chips. For a family of 3, I start with 1 pound of medium size potatoes, but that’s the bare minimum. These fly off the plate… or cookie sheet, in this instance. Fuzz has a hard time waiting for them to cool.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line two cookie sheets with non-stick foil or parchment paper. You can also use regular foil, but it will require a good coat of cooking spray or oil.

Using a mandolin set on 1/8 inch or your skills with a chef knife, slice the potatoes thinly until you have a big pile of raw potato chips.

Put the raw potatoes in a bowl and toss with the olive oil. You’ll be surprised at how far half a tablespoon goes. You can skip the oil altogether if you want, but the chips will be a little harder and chewier.

Arrange the potatoes flat on cookie sheets and sprinkle with salt. Bake at 375 F for 30-35 minutes, switching racks halfway through. Let the chips cool and crisp.  In this picture, they are jumbled up in a pile.  Don’t bake them in a pile.

Category: All-Time Favorites | 19 Comments »
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Posted By Anna on February 6, 2010

Congratulations to Nicole who will soon be the owner of a brand new digital kitchen scale and will never have to touch shortening, molasses, peanut butter, corn syrup  or marshmallow fluff again. And oh yes, her baked goods will be perfect!

This was one of my favorite giveaways because I got to see just how many people were pro-scale. I read the comments and agree with you all. And I have plenty to say about those push/plunge measuring cups….but won’t!.

I wish I could give everyone a scale and look forward to the day when all American baking books include weights.

Category: Contests | 4 Comments »
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Posted By Anna on February 5, 2010

Yikes! I can’t believe Super Bowl is this Sunday. Have you picked your snacks? Either way, check out  ABC’s Top 10 Super Bowl Foods.  They’ve made some very good choices .

My menu for the weekend includes Buffalo wings, nachos and the required dish of every Super Bowl watching home in Texas, queso! Queso is big here and most of my friends make it using the recipe off the Velveeta box. This year, I might do something a little better and go with Emeril’s Queso.  I’ll post a few more interesting ones from as they come.

Category: Uncategorized | 7 Comments »
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Posted By Anna on February 5, 2010

Last night I made a great cake which I think would be perfect for Super Bowl or Valentine’s Day. It’s easy, cool-looking, and chances are your friends have never seen it. Or maybe they have, because the original version won two contests…and perhaps more we don’t know about!

In 1993, the cake won Peggy Jenson an award in a contest sponsored by Crisco. Crisco published it in one of their little supermarket checkout books called “Best Recipes” with the name Bumpy Highway Cake.

Over a decade later, a contestant entered that same cake in an Accubake Cake Challenge which premiered on Food TV. She gave it a new name — My Bumpy Life Cake and took home a prize.

So I’d been eyeing this cake for a while, but wanted to make it without the shortening. Using one of my favorite chocolate bundt cake recipes as a base, the original condensed milk glaze as the topping/marshmallow glue and my favorite ganache for the chocolate drizzle, I re-built the cake.

Mine’s not as slick looking as the award winner, but that’s partially due to the fact my first glaze was too thin (I’ve adjusted it below) which led to problems tacking on the marshmallows.  Or I could stop blaming it on the glaze and just admit I’m klutzy and have bad fine motor skills.  Your cake will certainly look better. If not, no one will care because it’s so good.

Rocky Road Bundt Cake  (Please read through before making)

Cake Base:
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 cups all-purpose flour (9 oz)
1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder – (don’t use natural)
1 tablespoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup strong-brewed coffee
1 cup buttermilk

Glaze and Rocky Road:
14 oz can of condensed milk minus 1/3 cup (save the 1/3 cup for something else)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup powdered sugar
2-3 cups mini marshmallows plus more!
1/2 cup toasted pecans, chopped

Ganache Drizzle:
1/3 cup heavy cream plus more!
3 oz bittersweet chocolate
1/2 tablespoon corn syrup
1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter

Preheat the oven to 350°. Spray a 12-cup Bundt pan with baking spray. If using a black Bundt pan, use 325 degrees F.

Melt 2 ounces of the chopped chocolate over low heat, stirring constantly. Scrape the chocolate into a medium bowl and let cool slightly. If you’re using a microwave-safe mixing bowl to make the cake, you can just melt the chocolate directly in the bowl in the microwave. Whisk in the oil and sugar until smooth, then whisk in the egg.

Mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Add half of the dry ingredients to the chocolate mixture along with 1/2 cup of the coffee and 1/2 cup of the buttermilk; whisk until smooth. Add the remaining dry ingredients, coffee and buttermilk and whisk until smooth.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with moist crumbs. Let the cake cool on a rack for 10 minutes. Flip from pan onto a baking rack and set the rack over a cookie sheet or flat surface lined with wax paper, parchment or foil.

Beat the condensed milk, butter and powdered sugar until smooth. Spread it as evenly as you can over the warm cake, letting it fall into the hole and down the sides. I found myself constantly scraping it up and using it as “glue” to paste on the marshmallows. Mix together the marshmallows and pecans, then press into the top of the cake. Press marshmallows into the sides of cake covering it the best you can. What worked for me was to drag little handfuls of marshmallows through puddles of fallen condensed milk mixture and stick them on (that, plus scraping and drizzling).

Let cake cool – marshmallows and glaze will set. Make the ganache.

Bring the 1/3 cup cream to a boil in a microwave safe 2 cup glass measure or in a saucepan. Add 3 ounces of chopped chocolate, corn syrup and butter. Stir until melted and smooth. Mine started out lumpy, but smoothed out once everything had melted. At this point, it will probably be too thick to drizzle, so thin it out with a little more cream.

Drizzle spoonfuls of ganache over the marshmallows. If the ganache is too thick, you’ll get clumps, so (again) make sure you thin it out enough.

Let cake set. I’m storing mine in the refrigerator in a cake dome. We’ll see how it holds up.

Category: Bundt, Chocolate Cakes | 12 Comments »
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