guinness chocolate cake

It’s fair to say Guinness and chocolate are two of my favorite ingredients. They are significant contributors to my chili recipe; how they have a cake of their own.

Preheat the oven to 350. Grease and flour two nine-inch round cake pans.

1 1/2 cups Guinness (or other dark beer or stout)
1 1/2 cups butter
1 cup cocoa powder (use Dutch-press cocoa)

Heat the butter and Guinness together until the butter melts; remove from the heat and whisk in the cocoa powder until the mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

In a separate bowl, whisk together

3 cups flour
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

In the bowl of your mixer, combine

3 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

Add the Guinness-cocoa mixture, and stir until combined. Put the mixer on slow speed and add the dry mix, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary. Once everything is in the bowl, mix on medium speed for about one minute.

Divide the mixture between the two cake pans. Bake the layers for 45-50 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Remove the cakes to a rack for at least ten minutes before turning them out of the pans and returning them to the cooling rack. Let them cool completely before icing, which is easy because the icing has to cool for a couple of hours.

1 pound semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 cups heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla

Put the chocolate chips in a large heatproof bowl. Bring the cream to a simmer in a heavy saucepan or in the microwave. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and stir until the mixture is velvety smooth. Add the vanilla and stir again. Refrigerate until the icing is both stiff and spreadable -- about two hours.

When you get ready to ice the cake, make sure the bottom layer is flat on top, so it doesn’t crack when you invert it on the cake plate. Place it bottom side up and use almost two-thirds of the icing on the top of the bottom layer. Place the second layer top side up and use the remaining icing for the top and sides.

I found it helpful to put the entire cake in the fridge to let the icing set -- the layers can slide around a bit.

Peace,
Milton

oatmeal, apricot, and cardamom cookies

My quest for both sweet and savory continues. Here's the latest effort.

1 cup butter (two sticks0, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup white sugar

Cream the ingredients in a mixer for five to seven minutes, then add

2 eggs

and mix until combined. In another bowl, mix

1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground cardamom (see note below)
1/2 teaspoon salt

once combined, add to butter-sugar mixture. Then add

3 cups rolled oats (not instant0
1 1/2 cups diced dried apricots (unsulphured is best -- I got mine at Trader Joe's)

Drop on a cookie sheet and bake in a 350 oven for 15 minutes (for a 2-oz. cookie). Makes about two dozen.

Note: I bought whole cardamom seeds. I roasted them on the stovetop by heating to medium heat a small saute pan and adding the seeds. I let them cook for several minutes, until they became a little brown and fragant. I then let them cool and ground them up in my coffee grinder. The cardamom will have a different taste if you don't roast the seeds.

Peace
Milton

apple hand pies with cheddar crust

This recipe is a variation on this recipe. I made it recently for a book gathering.
Cheddar Crust:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 cup (firmly packed) coarsely grated sharp cheddar cheese
5 tablespoons (or more) ice water

Combine flour, sugar, and salt. Cut butter into small pieces and work into flour mixture with your hands or a pastry cutter until the flour looks and feels like wet sand. Mix in cheese in the same manner. Start by adding three tablespoons of water and mixing the dough. Add the last two one at a time so the dough holds together but is not too wet. Pour it out on a cutting board (you will still have some dry pieces) and fold it over on itself five or six times, just until it comes together. Wrap in plastic wrap and put in the fridge for at least thirty minutes.

Apple Mixture:

4-6 Granny Smith apples
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
pinch of salt
1/4t cinnamon
2 tablespoons lemon juice
butter

Peel, core, and thinly slice the apples. You want the apple pieces to be about a half inch square so they will easily fit in the muffin tins. Combine sugars, salt, and cinnamon and toss with apples. Add lemon juice and toss again.

Divide the crust in half and roll out to about an 1/8 of an inch thickness and cut with biscuit cutter about the size of the muffin tin. You should be able to get twelve. (you may have to re-roll the scraps for the last couple.) With your hands, press the disc out so it fits in the bottom of the muffin tin and comes up the sides almost even with the top. Fill each crust with enough of the apple mixture that it mounds above the muffin tin, then dot the top of each one with butter. Then roll out the other half of the crust and cut twelve more rounds and place them on top of the apples. Press then down to form the top of the pie, but you don’t have to make sure they are sealed; they are more like little lids. Brush the tops with an egg wash and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

Bake in a 350 oven for about 20-25 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool before trying to remove from muffin tins.

Peace,
Milton

white chocolate coconut and cinnamon chip oatmeal cookies

1 cup butter
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs

In a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy (5-7 minutes) and then add eggs and mix well. In a separate bowl combine

2 1/4 cups flour
1 1/4 cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter and sugar mixture until blended then add

1 1/2 cups cinnamon chips
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips
1 12 cups shredded sweetened coconut

Using a one ounce scoop, drop the cookies on a baking sheet lined with a silpat or parchment paper. Bake at 375 for 9-11 minutes.

Peace,
Milton

crystallized ginger and cheddar shortbread

1 cup butter, cut in small pieces
2 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup crystallized ginger, chopped
1 cup cheddar cheese, grated

Mix flour and salt. Cut in butter until the mixture has the texture of small pebbles. Add brown sugar, ginger, and cheddar and mix the dough until it holds together. Roll out to about 1/3 of an inch thickness and cut with a 2 inch biscuit cutter. Reshape left over dough without working it too much and keep cutting cookies. Place on a baking sheet and cook at 325 for about 20 minutes, or until the edges begin to brown a bit. Let cool for ten minutes on the sheet and then move to a cooling rack.

Peace,
Milton

sweet potato biscuits

After five years in the South, I've learned to make a pretty good biscuit.

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour,
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
6 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3/4 cup mashed sweet potatoes

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Cut the butter into small pieces and work it into the flour usint a pastry blender or two knives (I use my fingers) until mixture resembles coarse meal with some pea-sized lumps of butter remaining. Mix in the mashed sweet potatoes and then add the buttermilk; stir quickly into flour mixture until is barely combined. Don’t overmix.
Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface, and work it very gently until dough comes together but is still slightly lumpy. If the dough is too sticky, add a little additional flour. Shape into a disk, and pat to an even 1-inch thickness. With a floured 2-inch biscuit cutter, cut out biscuits as close together as possible. Gather together scraps, and repeat to cut out more biscuits (do not reuse scraps more than once).
Preheat oven to 425. Arrange the biscuits on a baking sheet lined with a Silpat or parchment paper. Brush the tops with melted butter. Bake until golden, twenty-two to twenty-four minutes.

Peace
Milton

vietnamese caramelized catfish

I heard about this recipe listening to The Splendid Table on NPR a couple of Sundays ago. The original is here.  I made it tonight for a neighborhood dinner and put it on a sweet potato biscuit with wilted arugula.

First, make the caramel sauce.

3/4 cup water
1 cup sugar  

In a small, heavy saucepan with a long handle put one quarter cup of the water and all the sugar in the saucepan and place over medium-low heat. To ensure that the sugar melts evenly, stir with a metal spoon. After about two minutes, when the sugar is relatively smooth and opaque, stop stirring and let the mixture cook undisturbed. Small bubbles will form at the edge of the pan and gradually grow larger and move toward the center. A good seven minutes into cooking, bubbles will cover the entire surface and the mixture will be at a vigorous simmer. As the sugar melts, the mixture will go from opaque to clear. While you're waiting, fill a bowl or a roasting pan with cold water deep enough to come up halfway on the side of the saucepan.

If a little sugar crystallizes on the sides of the pan, don’t worry. After about fifteen minutes, the sugar will begin to caramelize and deepen in color. You will see a progression from champagne yellow to light tea to dark tea. When smoke starts rising, around the twenty-minute mark, remove the pan from the heat and slowly swirl it. Watch the sugar closely as it will turn darker by the second; a reddish cast will set in (think the color of a big, bold red wine) as the bubbles become a lovely burnt orange. Pay attention to the color of the caramel underneath the bubbles. When the caramel is the color of black coffee or molasses, place the pan in the bowl of cold water to stop the cooking. The hot pan bottom will sizzle on contact. Add the remaining one half cup water; don’t worry, the sugar will seize up but later dissolve. After the dramatic bubble reaction ceases, return the pan to the stove over medium heat.

Heat the caramel, stirring until it dissolves into the water. Remove from the heat and let cool for 10 minutes before pouring into a small heatproof glass jar. Set aside to cool completely. The result will seem slightly viscous, while the flavor will be bittersweet. Cover and store the sauce indefinitely in your kitchen cupboard.

Now on to the catfish.

4 catfish fillets cut in half
2 teaspoons light brown sugar, tightly packed
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons caramel sauce
1-1/2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 large cloves garlic, sliced

On a dinner plate or in a bowl large enough to hold the fish, stir together the brown sugar, pepper, salt, caramel sauce, and fish sauce. Add the catfish and coat with the mixture, turning the steaks to make sure that all surfaces are evenly exposed to the seasonings. Set aside for fifteen minutes to marinate.

Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in the pan and add the garlic. When the garlic is fragrant, add the catfish and all the sauce from the plate to the pan. There may be some intense bubbling. Adjust the heat to a simmer, cover, and cook for ten minutes to develop the flavors; during this initial period, the fish will more or less cook in the steam trapped in the pan. Expect the liquid to bubble vigorously. A little bit of steam may shoot from under the lid.

Uncover, add water to almost cover the fish, and bring to a gentle simmer. Cover and cook for about thrity minutes, or until the liquid has reduced by half and has thickened slightly, forming a sauce. Taste the sauce and adjust the flavor with a pinch of brown sugar to remove any harsh edges, or a sprinkling of fish sauce for more savory depth.

Slice the sweet potato biscuits in half. Put a piece of the catfish on each biscuit, drizzle with the pan sauce and top with wilted arugula (that's arugula you threw in a hot pan with a little bit of oil) and serve.

Peace,
Milton

butternut squash hummus

3 cups roasted butternut squash
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons tahini (sesame paste)
8-10 pitted green olives
2 cloves roasted garlic
salt and pepper to taste

Cut the butternut squash in cubes and toss with olive oil. Place on a baking sheet and roast in a 400 oven. Check after about fifteen minutes. You want it to be soft and browned a little. Remove and let cool. Then put it in a food processor and add the other ingredients. You can also add a couple of tablespoons of water, if it seems too thick. Process until it is creamy -- two or three minutes, at least.

Peace
Milton

white chocolate macadamia nut cookies

Today is the last day for one of my favorite people at the computer store. When I asked for his favorite cookie, he said, "White chocolate macadamia nut." A man of great taste. I went searching for a recipe and found this one here to be the most helpful. And now I share it with you.

1 cup butter (unsalted, room temperature)
1 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs

Beat butter and sugars until smooth and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. In a separate bowl combine

2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Add gradually to butter mixture. Then add

1 12 ounce bag of white chocolate chips
1 cup macadamia nuts, coarsely chopped

Drop in 1 ounce scoops on a lined cookie sheet (parchment or Silpat) and bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes. Makes about four dozen.

Peace,
Milton

super duper doodles

There are Snickerdoodles and then there are Super Duper Doodles -- same dough, with mix-ins.

1 cup butter (unsalted, room temperature)
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream the butter and sugars until they are smooth and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine

2 3/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Add gradually to butter and sugar mixture until blended, then add

1 cup cinnamon chips
1 cup Heath Toffee Bits
1 cup crushed sweet potato chips

 Chill the dough for at least an hour. Bake at 350 for 9-10 minutes. Makes about 4 dozen 1 oz. cookies.

Peace,
Milton