Posted By Anna on February 4, 2010

If you haven’t entered the scale giveaway, check out the previous post. The giveaway ends Saturday. As for today, I do have a cookie recipe.  Hooray!

This recipe seemed unusual, which of course was why I had to try it. It’s adapted from an old Southern Living Annual, and what caught my eye were the ratios of butter and sugar to flour and the addition of 1/3 cup milk. I could tell from the ingredient list the cookies would be very tender.

The recipe was a pretty straightforward slice and bake, and I ended up with two neat cylinders which sliced quite easily when fully frozen — no thawing required and bake-time was only about 12 minutes.

When they came out of the oven, the cookies had held their shape. There was very little (if any) spreading and you could tell by the appearance the cookies had been cut off a roll. I liked that because it reminded me of the old cookies I used to eat in the public school cafeteria, but similarities to cookies of my youth ended with appearance. Instead of being crunchy and sandy, these were very tender and not too sweet. I wouldn’t call them “floury” but the high proportion of flour to other ingredients made them almost biscuit-like…but not necessarily bad. Just not as rich as usual cookies or shortbread.

They weren’t what I expected, but after a few bites I realized I liked the contrast between the rich chocolate chips and the light and tender cookie. Without the chocolate chips they wouldn’t have been rich enough, but with the chips they were quite satisfying. I kept going back for more and the kids loved them.

Someone posted the original recipe on Cooks.com but I re-did a few things and typed it as I made it. 

Freezer Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies.

1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup (5 oz) crunchy peanut butter
3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1/3 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon plus a big pinch of salt (omit pinch if using salted butter)
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 1/4 cups all purpose unbleached flour (10.1 oz)
1 cup semi-sweet or dark chocolate morsels (or use more if desired)

Beat the butter, peanut butter and brown sugar together until light and creamy. Beat in the egg and milk. Scrape sides of bowl and beat in vanilla and salt. Stir in the baking powder, making sure there are no lumps and that it’s evenly distributed, then add the flour and stir until it’s fully blended. At this point, the dough might be too soft to shape (mine was). Chill it for about an hour.

Dump the dough onto a big sheet of waxed paper or non-stick foil, divide into two sections, and shape each section into an 8 inch log. Wrap the logs individually in waxed paper and freeze overnight.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Slice the dough into ¼ inch thick slices and place slices on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 F. for 12-14 minutes. Let stand one minute on cookie sheets, then remove from wire racks to cool completely.

Makes about 3-4 dozen.

Category: Peanut Butter | 6 Comments »
Tags:

Posted By Anna on February 4, 2010

After 5 years of imploring my fellow home baking enthusiasts to buy kitchen scales, I finally have the opportunity to help you get one for free! Thanks to the folks at EatSmart products, I’m hosting a giveaway of one EatSmart Precision Pro – Multifunction Digital Kitchen Scale w/ Extra Large LCD and 11 Lb. Capacity.

Now in full disclosure, I did  accept a scale valued at $25.00 for review.  I wanted to compare it to my other two scales, and it did have advantages.

Here’s what I like about this scale.

– It’s very  lightweight. At only 1 pound, it’s perfect for traveling chefs. But it’s also convenient for the casual cook who needs to stash the scale somewhere after cleaning the kitchen. Then again, that might not be necessary because it is quite sleek. I like silver appliances, but the scale comes in a few different colors.

– Another great feature is the 11 pound capacity. The point of weighing is precision, but scales also save dishes because you put things directly in the bowl rather than use measuring cups. A glass or ceramic bowl can weigh a couple of pounds on its own, so a good scale needs to hold at least 5 pounds. This one holds 11.

– I like the LCD. My eyesight is still pretty good, but I appreciated the big digital display more than I expected. It helps to have a big easy-to-read numbers when you’ve set a fairly large bowl on the scale or when you’re in a hurry.

– And finally, the scale takes two regular AAA batteries. EatSmart throws some in with the scale, but you may want to have a pair of extras on hand. My batteries didn’t work, but I can’t complain because the scale itself was fine with fresh batteries.

So this is a good scale and since I have this vision of every kitchen with a scale and all home bakers measuring perfect cups of flour, I’m so happy you might get one too!  Really.

*****For your chance at the scale, go to the comment section and tell me one ingredient you dread measuring. For me, it’s peanut butter. I love peanut butter, but it dirties up measuring cups. With a scale, I just set the bowl on the scale, check the weight of peanut butter (you can always find the gram weight per volume on the nutrition panel), set the tare to zero and spoon in the peanut butter until the right weight appears on the scale.*****

Hey, I’ll even give you another ingredient I hate measuring — shortening. Who wants to touch it? That’s why they invented those shortening sticks, right?  Well, forget the sticks. If you have a scale you just put the bowl on the scale, set the tare to zero and spoon the shortening into the bowl until it hits your target weight.

I’m keeping the entry period short so those who enter have better odds so THIS GIVEWAY ENDS THIS SATURDAY FEB 6 AT NOON CST.

If you comment after that, your comment will be visible but the winner will already have been drawn randomly.

Category: Contests | 379 Comments »
Tags:

Posted By Anna on February 3, 2010

I’ve been eating biscotti for days. You’d think I’d be tired of it but no,  I’m still craving the flavor and the crunch with my noon hour coffee– crunch being the key word here.  I now prefer the oil-free, hard, Italian style biscotti over the more tender, less tooth-cracking type made with butter or oil.

Last week I made a great batch based on Foodblogga’s Italian Mom’s biscotti recipe, but I substituted coconut palm sugar for granulated. It worked out so well that I
I decided to test it in another favorite biscotti recipe — one with a heavier vanilla-almond flavor which I suspected would go well the burnt caramel flavor of the coconut sugar. It did! These biscotti were fantastic and with the coconut palm sugar, heart healthy almonds and whole grain flour, the nutritional profile is not half bad. The problem is, I keep going back to the cookie tin.

Small Batch Whole Grain Almond Biscotti

1 1/3 cups white whole grain flour (170 grams), spoon and sweep
2/3 cup coconut palm sugar (80 grams)
3/4 teaspoon baking soda (3.75 ml)
1/4 teaspoon salt (1.25 ml)
2 large eggs
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (3.75 ml)
3/4 cups roasted unsalted almond (60 grams)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or non-stick foil.

Stir flour, coconut sugar, baking soda and salt together in a mixing bowl. Set aside

In a second bowl, using an electric mixer or whisk, beat the eggs until light and foamy. Beat in the vanilla. Mix the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients by hand; the dough should be heavy and sticky.

Add the nuts and using your hands, knead them into the dough so they are evenly distributed. The dough will be thick and possibly crumbly depending on what type of flour you used and if you measured it right.  It will should hold together, though.
Using slightly wet hands, shape the dough into 9 x 2 ½ inch log. Place log on the baking sheet.

Bake log at 300 degrees F. for 50 minutes. It will spread a bit in the oven. Remove from the oven and cool for about 5 minutes. Leave the oven on.

Transfer log to a large cutting board and using a sharp serrated knife, cut the log every 1/2 to 3/4 inch on the diagonal. Lay the cut biscotti on the baking sheet and bake at 300 for about 30 minutes. If you sliced the biscotti thinly (1/2 inch thick or less) check at 20 minutes. Cool on a rack.

Makes about 12-15 biscotti plus stubby ends for sampling.

Category: Biscotti | 7 Comments »
Tags:

Posted By Anna on February 2, 2010

I was eating a Rocky Road brownie last week when it occurred to me I’d never made actual old Rocky Road, a homemade candy modeled after a famous candy bar called Annabelle’s Rocky Road.

There are several versions of Rocky Road and all of them include either a combination of peanuts or tree nuts and marshmallows mixed together with chocolate then cut into squares or dropped. An early version posted on RecipeCurio, includes the above plus raw eggs and butter. But the most popular modern version is made with condensed milk, which lets you skip the raw eggs.

Since condensed milk Rocky Road candy seemed to be the most popular, I decided to make a half batch of it yesterday. It was easy to prepare and after a two hour stint in the refrigerator, sliced perfectly and looked quite pretty with sharp corners. It satisfied my rocky road craving, but I’d be interested in trying other versions. Do you have a favorite Rocky Road recipe? Otherwise, I will move on to the raw egg version.

Rocky Road Candy with Condensed Milk

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (12 oz package)
2 tablespoons butter
1 (14 oz.) can Eagle Brand® Sweetened Condensed Milk
2 cups dry roasted peanuts
7 cups miniature marshmallows

Line a 13 x 9-inch baking pan with wax paper or non-stick foil. Non-stick foil is more expensive, but it’s worth having for recipes like this.

Melt chocolate chips and butter in heavy saucepan over low heat with sweetened condensed milk. Remove from heat.

Combine peanuts and marshmallows in large bowl. Stir in chocolate mixture. Spread in prepared pan.

Chill 2 hours or until firm. Remove from pan by lifting edges of wax paper; peel off paper. Cut into squares.

Alternatively, you can make the recipe in the microwave. Heat the condensed milk and butter for 1 minute in a microwave-safe bowl. Add the chips and stir well. Microwave for another 30 seconds, stir until chips are melted and smooth. Then stir in peanuts and marshmallows. Press into the lined pan.

Category: Rocky Road | 22 Comments »
Tags:

Posted By Anna on February 1, 2010

After last week’s confidence boosting batch of pretzels, I decided to try making bagels. With inspiration from an Emeril recipewhich didn’t require special bread flour or pre-planning (e.g. making a sponge that has to sit for a day), I made the bagels with a few minor changes. I halved the recipe, increased the sugar, replaced some all purpose flour with whole wheat, added olive oil plus the sweet flavors of cranberries, orange zest and vanilla. I also added pistachios, but didn’t like their texture in the finished product and wouldn’t do that again.

Since measuring flour by volume can be dicey, I listed the weight of the flour I used next to the volume measure. Hopefully that will help, but you should definitely go by the feel of the dough rather than precisely by the recipe because different brands of flour yield different results. In my experience, getting the amount of flour just right is the hardest part of making yeast bread and the part that takes the most practice.

So I didn’t make a sponge or use diastolic malt powder or any other fancy bagel making techniques, but I got big, fat, chewy bagels which were worth the time it took to make them.

Whole Wheat Cranberry & Golden Raisin Bagels

1 cup warm water, about 110-115 degrees F
1 packet active dry yeast (.25 oz) — I’ve been using Red Star
2 tablespoons granulated sugar, plus 1 tablespoon reserved for water
1 cup scooped cup whole wheat flour (5.2 oz)
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (5.7 to 6.7 oz)
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon light olive oil plus extra for greasing bowl
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon orange zest
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup Golden raisins
1 egg beaten with about a tablespoon of water for brushing

Mix the water, yeast, and 2 tablespoons of the sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Let stand for about 10 minutes or until the yeast is bubbly. With a mixing spoon, stir in the whole wheat flour, 1 cup of the all purpose flour and the salt; add remaining 1/4 cup of flour and stir to make stiff dough. Turn on mixer and mix with the dough hook and let it go for a few minutes; if dough seems sticky to touch, add another 1/4 cup of the flour.

With mixer on medium and dough hook in action, add the oil, vanilla and orange zest. Continue kneading with the mixer for another 5 minutes. The dough should be thick, but neither sticky nor dry. See photo below. Continue kneading with dough hook and knead in the cranberries, and raisins.

Grease a large bowl with some extra olive oil. Place the dough in the bowl, cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap and let rise in a warm spot for an hour.

Punch down the dough and divide into 6 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a 6 inch log and join the ends to make rings. Place rings on non-stick foil lined cookie sheet and let rise for another 30 minutes – you can cover the bagels if you want, but I didn’t and they still rose.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Have a second cookie sheet lined with non-stick foil ready to go.

Bring about 12 cups of water and the remaining tablespoon of sugar to a boil in a large pot. Add the bagels about 3 at a time to the water and boil for 1 minute, turning halfway through Lift the bagels out with a spatula, letting any water drip back into the pot, and place on the non-stick foil lined cookie sheet so that the “pretty side” is up. Brush bagels with the egg/water mixture and sprinkle with a little sparkly sugar if you’d like.

Bake pretty side up on center rack of oven for 15, minutes, turn bagels and cook another 10 minutes ugly-side-up, then flip them back so the pretty side is up and bake another 10-15 minutes or until nicely browned.

Makes 6

Note: if you don’t want/have cranberries and golden raisins, these would probably be great with ½ teaspoon of cinnamon and 2/3 cup of regular raisins.

Bagel Dough

Bagel Dough Risen

Boiling Bagels

Category: Bagels | 10 Comments »
Tags: