Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Chocolate Salon News: Taste TV

TasteTV announced its upcoming chocolate salons in Los Angeles and San Francisco, as well as the winners of the 2010 Luxury Chocolate Salon Award Competitions for Las Vegas, Boston, and Chicago.

Upcoming Chocolate Salon Events:

4th Annual LOS ANGELES LUXURY CHOCOLATE SALON
October 10, 2010 (Tickets on Sale now)
35+ chocolatiers, confectioners and more
Pasadena Center 

1st Annual SAN FRANCISCO FALL LUXURY CHOCOLATE SALON
November 14, 2010 (Advance Tickets Required)
For the Holidays, 30+ chocolatiers, confectioners and more
Fort Mason Center, Conference Bldg A


5th Annual SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL CHOCOLATE SALON
April 11, 2011
65+ chocolatiers, confectioners and more
Fort Mason Center, Festival Pavilion


I've been a Judge at the San Francisco International Chocolate Salon and the Napa Luxury Chocolate Salon. Check out my review of the Napa Luxury Chocolate Salon. Also, check out Jen of Urban Kitchen's review of the Boston Chocolate Salon, HERE. Great comments and fabulous photos. You'll want to lick the screen.


Video announcements of the Award Winners can be seen for Las Vegas and Boston.


Photo: Tiny Urban Kitchen with Permission: William Dean Chocolates

Checking out Blommer Chicago: Chocolate-Covered Caramel Corn

Nearly a month after getting back from Chicago, I still haven’t even come close to writing about (or for that matter, tasting) most of the delicious chocolate treats I picked up there. So today, let’s talk about a true Chicago institution: Blommer.

Since the chocolate is processed onsite, the delicious chocolate aroma is apparent from blocks away. Evidently, some neighbors complain about this. Having lived right next door to a Tootsie Roll factory in Cambridge, MA, I don’t understand the objection to smelling chocolate, sugar, or other confectionary ingredients at all hours of the day and night. Better than most city smells.

Blommer is kind enough to operate a factory outlet on site, which sells bulk chocolate, non-chocolate candy, and chocolate-covered-anything-you-can-think-of. I had a hard time deciding what chocolate covered goodie I wanted most, and while I wanted to take many of the creations home, my luggage space was limited. I settled on a bag of chocolate-covered caramel corn, since it seemed unique.

That whole bag only set me back $3. Not a bad deal. Especially not for that smooth, creamy milk chocolate coating.

Inside, there is crisp popcorn covered in a sweet and salty caramel.

I was truly amazed by the way the caramel corn stayed nice and crispy with the chocolate coating. The contrasts in just one piece – crispy and smooth, sweet and salty – made this bag easy to finish off. Forget about making it back to DC, this chocolate covered caramel corn barely made it back to my hotel room. I should have picked up more, especially for the price.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Covering Mistakes with Chocolate: Buttercream-filled Chocolates

Remember the attempts I made at a meringue based buttercream? Remember how they were entirely unsuitable for use on my mini cupcakes? Did you wonder what I did with it? I, of course, did what any reasonable person would do.

Throw it out? Nope.

Eat it straight? Nah.

Cover it in chocolate? Of course.

As tempting as it was to just take a slab of the buttercream and pour chocolate over it, I took a more refined approach by rolling the salty caramel buttercream and chocolate buttercream into 1 inch balls.

I stuck them in the refrigerator that that they could stand up to the heat of melted chocolate, and melted about 24 ounces of El Rey 41% Cocoa Caoba in the meantime.

To make the dipping easier, I stuck toothpicks in each of the buttercream balls.

I dipped each ball in the chocolate individually, and then removed the toothpicks.
Looks yummy, doesn’t it? Believe me, they taste(d) even better.

Chocolate Fondue & Toasted Marshmallows: National Toasted Marshmallow Day

You know I follow these food holidays, and today is National Toasted Marshmallow Day. Of course, S'mores come to mind, and goodness knows I've posted lots of S'mores recipes. National S'mores Day (a round-up), S'mores on the Grill, and S'mores Ice Cream Pie. I'm sure I've posted more, but that will get you started.

Today, though, I wanted to post a recipe from Across the Pond. This recipe for Toasted Marshmallows and Chocolate Fondue (BBC Good Food) is a simple recipe and one of my favorites. Fondue is coming back, and this easy recipe can be prepared on the grill, barbecue or stovetop. You can always torch the marshmallows with a blowtorch, one of the most useful tools in my kitchen. I've changed the measurements for the U.S., but you can always set your own proportions. This is not the same as just putting marshmallows in chocolate as in a fountain. The toasting really makes a difference in taste. Of course you can always put this between two graham crackers and have a variation on a s'more!

Want to make this even easier? Just melt chocolate without butter, milk or cream. Of course, I think it tastes better with all that butter and stuff, but if you're out in the woods, just toast the marshmallows and dip in melted chocolate.

And, one more thing. 'Real' marshmallows are superb used with this fondue recipe! You can either make your own or buy some great ones from a terrific marshmallow maker!

Ingredients:
400g (14 oz) dark chocolate (70-85% cacao)
85g (6 tbsp) sweet butter
284ml  (1 cup) double cream (whipping cream)
300ml  ( 1 1/4 cups) milk
bag marshmallows, for dipping

Recipe:
Put chocolate, butter, cream and milk into a saucepan, and heat gently, stirring occasionally, until chocolate is melted and the sauce is smooth (on the grill, fire or stove)
Thread marshmallows onto skewers, then carefully toast on the fire (or torch them)
Dip into the fondue and eat right away.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Almond Chocolate Mousse

Almond Mousse au Chocolate

1 envelope unsweetened gelatin powder
1/4 cup cold water
2 unsweetened baking chocolate squares
1 semisweet chocolate square
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 pint heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup blanched almonds, toasted & chopped
  1. Soften gelatin in cold water.
  2. Melt chocolate in milk over boiling water. Add sugar and stir until it dissolves completely. Let cool.
  3. Whip cream until it stands in soft peaks.
  4. Stir almond extract and chopped almonds into cooled chocolate. Fold 1/3 of the whipped cream into chocolate mixture. Then fold in remaining cream.
  5. Pour into serving bowl and let set in refrigerator, covered with plastic wrap, for at least 2 hours or overnight.
  6. Decorate with whipped cream, candied violets, grated sweet chocolate, or toasted almonds before serving. Serves 6.

Yogi Berry: Another Way to Cool off on a DC August Day

I don’t remember when frozen yogurt became a sexy national trend again. Perhaps it was a few years ago. This time around, the trend has apparently been centered about tart frozen yogurts. In DC, there is one such shop, Yogiberry, that is locally-owned and operated. One of their shops is near me on Connecticut Avenue, and since they carry a chocolate flavor, and since the heat is creeping back up in DC after a brief respite last week, today seemed like a great day to check them out.

In addition to chocolate frozen yogurt, they also offered several chocolate toppings, including a cocoa sauce that looked like it was complimentary, but I went with a simple dish of chocolate frozen yogurt to get a good sense of what it was like.

This “five ounce” dish that looked more like 6-7 ounces set me back $2.95 was the smallest portion offered. However, since the yogurt was light and fluffy, this wasn’t as overwhelming as it would have been if I’d gotten some ultra-dense gelato or ice cream. The texture, in addition to being light, wasn’t icy, though when melting it seemed a tad more watery than creamy. The chocolate flavor was noticeable and seemed natural rather than artificial, but it wasn’t strong enough to last more than a split second. The amount of sugar incorporated into the treat was just about right, but I could have used a stronger chocolate flavor. Still, at 25 calories an ounce, this is a pretty nice deal for a summertime treat.

Summary

Yogi Berry: Another place to grab a cool treat on a hot August day in DC.

Pros: Smooth texture, not too sweet.

Cons: A little watery and not too chocolatey. The cocoa syrup could help.

Price: $2.95 for “five ounces” that looks like more.

Salted Golden Caramel Bars

I found this recipe for Salted Golden Caramel Bars in Country Living. It's the perfect combination of sweet and salt that gives this childhood treat grown-up flavor. It's simple and takes about 10 minutes to prepare and an hour to bake! As always use the very best ingredients.

SALTED GOLDEN CARAMEL BARS

Ingredients:
Vegetable oil, for greasing dishes
8 cups puffed rice cereal
3/4 cups corn syrup
2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
4 tablespoons sweet butter
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 1/2 teaspoon Madagascar vanilla extract
1/4 cup dark chocolate (70-85% cacao), broken into pieces and melted

Directions
1. Liberally oil a large mixing bowl and a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Place cereal in bowl and set it and dish aside.
2. In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine corn syrup, condensed milk, sugars, butter, and sea salt. Allow mixture to come to a boil, while stirring continuously, until a light golden brown, 5 to 6 minutes.
3. Remove mixture from heat, stir in vanilla, and immediately pour over cereal. Stir to completely mix, and then evenly spread in prepared baking pan.
4. Set aside to let cool, about 45 minutes. Invert and release from pan. Drizzle with melted chocolate and refrigerate until set, about 15 minutes. Cut into 15 bars.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Celebrating Another Year: Mini Cupcake Extravaganza

Have you been wondering why on earth I’ve been going batty with the mini cupcakes and the buttercream frosting? Well, Thursday (8/26) happened to be my birthday, so I put together this set of mini cupcakes to hand out to all sorts of people.


1. Chocolate cake with dark chocolate frosting

2. Chocolate cake with salty butter caramel frosting

3. Salty butter caramel cake with salty butter caramel frosting

4. Salty butter caramel cake with dark chocolate frosting

There were over 180 mini cupcakes in all – what an experience! I took these up to New Jersey and Pennsylvania, to share with the folks on that outstanding work project with me, and also into my office in DC once I got back. They’re all gone now, but it made it possible for me to celebrate my birthday in the best possible way – with lots and lots of chocolate.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Classic Chocolate Buttercream Frosting: Milk or Dark?

After successfully making the salted butter caramel buttercream from yesterday’s post, it was necessary (yes, necessary) to follow up with a chocolate buttercream. I was torn between milk chocolate and dark chocolate, so I did the completely reasonable thing and made both.

I started out with the same buttercream base as I did in yesterday’s post, again leaving out the last cup of powdered sugar and the last half of the heavy cream to allow for texture adjustment at the end.

I divided the recipe in half, and for the first half, chopped up six ounces of milk chocolate (El Rey Caoba 41% cocoa).

For the other half, I chopped up five ounces of semi-sweet chocolate (El Rey Mijao 61% cocoa). I used a bit less because the flavor is more intense.

I melted each chocolate separately and incorporated them into their respective reserved buttercream, and adjusted the textures with the remaining powdered sugar and cream. The milk chocolate version barely needed any more cream or powdered sugar, while the dark chocolate needed it all, plus all the remaining powdered sugar. After a taste test, I decided that the milk chocolate version had a pleasing texture but just didn’t have enough chocolate flavor, so the dark chocolate version wins.

It looks and tastes more chocolaty, so for this mini-cupcake project, I’ll go with that version. The milk chocolate buttercream frosting will, uh, somehow get eaten.

Taza Mexican Chocolate Cookies

I'm a big fan of Taza chocolate, and I've reviewed their chocolate from time to time. Love the stone-ground texture. This recipe is from their website. These cookies are scrumptious! Want to make them even more chocolatey? Add some broken chunks of Taza Chocolate Mexicano to the cookie dough before baking.

Taza Mexican Chocolate Cookies

2 Packages of your favorite flavor of Chocolate Mexicano (approx. 5 ounces)
3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 heaping cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place chocolate in a small glass bowl; microwave on high for 1 minute or until almost melted, stirring until smooth. Cool to room temperature.
3. In a large bowl combine flour, cinnamon and baking powder.
4. In a separate bowl cream sugar and butter together. Add egg and beat well. Add cooled chocolate and vanilla. Beat until just blended.
5. Add flour mixture and beat until blended.
6. Drop spoon fulls of dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper or greased cookie sheet.
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until almost set.
8. Remove from oven and let cool for another 2 minutes or until set. Transfer cookies to wire rack to cool completely.
Yields about 25 cookies.

Photo: Taza Chocolate

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Salty Caramel Buttercream Frosting: Delicious Success

After experimenting with a new buttercream frosting recipe and finding that it made a delicious and fluffy frosting that would be perfect for a cake during cooler months, I went back to the familiar recipe that I’ve been making for over two decades. I learned the basics of this recipe from my mom, and it is loosely base on the Wilton buttercream frosting recipe, so it is perfect for holding shape after piping and can usually stand up to relatively extreme conditions – such as an August day in DC. I’ve made a few modifications to that base recipe, though. Namely, I swapped out the skim milk my mother used for heavy cream, and replaced the shortening with butter, because butter is just that delicious. I also added a bit of salt to contrast the sweetness.

Today’s buttercream creation is take two of the salty caramel buttercream. This recipe incorporates caramelized white chocolate (the stuff is amazing) and salted butter caramel sauce into my time-tested buttercream frosting recipe.

Ingredients (for one batch)

1 cup very soft butter

4 cups powdered sugar

½ cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ cup salted butter caramel (as made for the salted caramel mini-cupcakes), heated until soft

3 ounces caramelized white chocolate, heated until soft

Start out with your butter and powdered sugar.

Whip the butter until fluffy, then add the powdered sugar half a cup at a time, setting aside the last two additions to give you flexibility in the final frosting texture. Then, get the cream, vanilla, and salt.

Add the salt and vanilla, and half the cream – again, to allow for texture adjustment at the end. The buttercream base is about done.

Now, on to make this a salty caramel buttercream by taking out the heated caramelized white chocolate and heated salted butter caramel.

Mix this into the buttercream base, and then refrigerate it for about 30 minutes, stirring every five minutes, to let it cool off so that it could be whipped up to the proper consistency. Even though neither the white chocolate nor the caramel should be that hot, the frosting will still be well above room temperature and will need to cool before you can perfect the texture.

Once that is accomplish, add the remaining powdered sugar and cream in small increments until the perfect fluffy texture is reached.

This stuff will hold up well on cupcakes, even on a standard DC August day. It also has a salty punch to go along with the sweet caramel flavor.

Chocolate Pudding Cake

As I mentioned the other day, I like to try recipes I find in odd places. Now the American Heart Association isn't odd, but this recipe is a Diabetes-Friendly Recipe, and it is absolutely fabulous! There are two layers to this Chocolate Pudding Cake--one cakelike and the other gooey. Together they're just right! This is also a very easy cake to prepare. I've tweaked it a bit, but I didn't add anything unhealthy. The recipe mentions this is a very satisfying cake. I think it is, even if you're not diabetic or pre-diabetic. It does call for some sugar.

CHOCOLATE PUDDING CAKE

Ingredients
Cooking spray
1 teaspoon unsweetened dark cocoa powder

Cake Layer
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 chopped pecans
3 tablespoons unsweetened dark cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup fat-free evaporated milk
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 teaspoon Madagascar vanilla

Pudding Layer
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened dark cocoa powder
1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon Madagascar vanilla

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Lightly spray 9-inch square baking pan with cooking spray. Dust bottom with 1 teaspoon cocoa powder.

For cake layer, in a medium bowl, stir together flour, sugar, pecans, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Add evaporated milk, oil, and vanilla, stirring until well combined. Using rubber scraper or back of a large spoon, spread the batter in the pan. (The batter is very thick.)

For pudding layer, in another medium bowl, stir together sugar, brown sugar, and cocoa powder. Whisk in water and vanilla. Pour over batter. Do not stir.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until cake springs back when touched lightly in the center. (A cake tester or wooden toothpick doesn't work well for testing doneness.)

Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature, spooning the pudding over the cake.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Buttercream Experimentation: Dark Chocolate

In yesterday’s post, I described the semi-successful buttercream experiment that resulted in a recipe best reserved for DC’s cooler days. I tried to repeat this experiment, but with a chocolate ganache base instead. My hope was that the chocolate might firm up the frosting a bit. For the ganache, I used El Rey 61% cocoa Mijao chocolate, along with heavy whipping cream.

If you did a full batch of buttercream using this recipe, you would heat a cup of cream and 12 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate over low heat to make the ganache.

After heating the ganache and letting it cool, I always like to fluff it up a bit.

Now it was time to pull out the fancy-pants meringue-based buttercream.

I blended it with the whipped ganache, and still found a delicious icing that simply wouldn’t do on a typical August day in DC.

This is even after adding the emergency cup of powdered sugar. Again, back to the kitchen, but I at least came away with a great recipe for a fluffy frosting for a cake come fall. Perhaps this would go well on a spicy pumpkin cake. Summertime cupcakes, not so much.

Time to go back to the tried-and-true buttercream recipe. I have a mini-cupcake project to tackle, and the clock is ticking.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Pie

I'm a big fan of Stonyfield Organic Yogurt, and this pie is fabulous.  I find a lot of recipes on the back of cartons and boxes, but I also scour company and association websites. This recipe is from the Stonyfield site. Have a look. I'm sure you'll find lots of other recipes you'll want to try. I adapted the recipe a bit, and it came out great! I just love peanut butter and chocolate!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Pie

Ingredients
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup  Oikos Plain Greek Yogurt  (it's a staple in my refrigerator-Oikos is a Stonyfield line-original recipe called for a 1/2 cup  Stonyfield lowfat vanilla yogurt)
1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 cup heavy cream
6 oz-- about 2 1/2 bars--Madecasse 67% Smooth Sambirano Valley Madagascar chocolate because the original recipe called for a bag of milk chocolate chips but there was no size.  Break the chocolate into pieces
Chocolate cookie crust (Original recipe called for graham cracker crust) but I can never have too much chocolate
Chocolate shavings for topping

Directions
In a chilled bowl, whip 1 cup of the heavy cream until it forms soft peaks.
Melt chocolate and add 1/2 cup of whipped cream and mix well.
Spread the chocolate mixture over the bottom and up the sides of the crust and refrigerate until set.
In a food processor, blend peanut butter, yogurt and sweetened condensed milk.
Add the remaining whipped cream and mix well.
Pour into the crust and refrigerate overnight (or until set, about 2 hours).
When ready to serve, whip the remaining heavy cream and top each slice with a dollop of whipped cream and sprinkle with chocolate shavings.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Pigwiches: The Ultimate Oreo

Photo: Tasting Table with permission
I subscribe to Tasting Table because I love receiving "Food Culture Daily" in my inbox. Daily emails include recipes, reviews and news. Not all the emails are about chocolate, but there's more to life than chocolate!  Maybe. I subscribe to Tasting Table San Francisco, Tasting Table National, and twice a week I receive Tasting Table Chefs' Recipes. What a great site! Take your seat at Tasting Table today. Subscribe! It's free!

So today I really loved receiving this email because the featured recipe included several of my favorite food groups: cream, bacon fat and chocolate! Can't wait to try these PIGWICHES!

This recipe comes from Gerard Craft, Chef at the St. Louis small-plates spot, Taste. Yes, charcuterie and country ham feature prominently on his menu here but his most famous tribute to swine in my eyes is his Pigwich--a pair of milk-chocolate-shortbread cookies that hug a sugary, bacon-based cream, which he sells daily for $4. A steal! So, if you have any left over bacon fat from breakfast, here's a way to put it to use. Butter can be substituted for bacon fat in the recipe, but don't you think the cream filling is better with bacon fat?

I haven't made these yet, but I know I'll use dark cocoa.. because I really like dark chocolate. If that doesn't work out, I'll try 'regular' cocoa. But I won't really know if I got the recipe right until I visit Taste. Not planning on being in St. Louis until when Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention, is held there September 15-18, 2011. My mystery & chocolate worlds collide again. Hope Pigwiches are still on the menu.

Pigwiches
Reprinted with permission Tasting Table

Ingredients
Cookies:
1½ sticks (12 tablespoons) butter, at room temperature
½ cup light brown sugar, packed
½ cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
6 ounces milk chocolate, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1¾ cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Filling:
4 ounces rendered bacon fat
1/8 teaspoon salt
½ vanilla bean scraped, pod reserved for another use
1 teaspoon light brown sugar, packed
3½ cups confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons milk

Directions:
1. Make the cookies: Preheat the oven to 325˚. In the bowl of a standing mixer outfitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar and cocoa powder together at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the melted chocolate and vanilla extract and beat until combined.
2. In a bowl, whisk the flour with the baking soda and salt. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and beat at low speed until incorporated.
3. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and, using a floured rolling pin, roll it out until it is ⅛-inch thick. Using a 4-by-2-inch pig-shaped cookie cutter, punch out the cookies. Reroll the scraps and cut the rest of the cookies. (The dough may also be cut into 2-inch squares.)
4. Arrange the cookies on two parchment- or silicone-mat-lined baking sheets and bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until the cookies are set at the edges. Transfer the baking sheets to a cooling rack and let cool completely.
5. While the cookies cool, make the filling: Add the bacon fat, salt, vanilla seeds and brown sugar to a small saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Strain the mixture into a jar, cover and refrigerate until solid, about 2 hours.
6. After the bacon mixture has chilled, add it to the work bowl of a stand mixer outfitted with the whisk attachment and beat on medium speed until fluffy, about 30 seconds. Slowly add the confectioners' sugar and continue beating until fully incorporated. Add the milk and beat until the filling is the consistency of thick cake frosting.
7. To assemble the pigwiches, spread about 2 tablespoons of the filling on one cookie and top with another cookie; press lightly to seal. Repeat with the remaining cookies and filling. Serve immediately or store in a resealable container for up to one week.

"Heaven...I'm in pig heaven!"
http://tastingtable.com/chefs_recipes/index.htm

Using Caramelized White Chocolate: Salty Caramel Buttercream Frosting Experiment

Since I didn’t use all the caramelized white chocolate in the salty caramel mini-cupcakes, I needed another recipe. And cupcakes need frosting. The logical thing to do was use the remaining caramelized white chocolate to make some frosting.

Normally, I go with the standard buttercream recipe I grew up with, and tweak it from there if I want to do something flavored. But in reading around several recipe blogs, I found a recipe for “real” buttercream that asserted that my childhood-memory based recipe was not the best. This recipe seemed to have a bit of a meringue base, and I figured it was worth a try, with a few of my own modifications. I made a quarter batch, but if you made a full batch, here’s what you’d need.

Ingredients

1 pound unsalted butter, soft and cut into small pieces

1 cup sugar

¼ cup water

5 egg whites

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

1 cup of salted butter caramel sauce**

1 cup heavy cream

12 oz caramelized white chocolate

2 cups powdered sugar*

*added on an improvisational basis

**See description on making the caramel sauce in this post.

First, start out with the water and ¾ cup of the sugar.

Heat until the sugar is melted.

Once it’s melted, keep heating it, and pull out your egg whites and cream of tartar.

It’s time to make meringue. Whip up the egg whites until frothy, then add the cream of tartar, and gradually add the remaining ¼ cup of sugar.

By now, your sugar should have reached firm ball stage, which is where you want it. Slowly add it to the egg mixture while running the mixer on medium. After it’s all mixed in, pull out your butter.

Slowly add the butter, piece by piece, with the mixer continuously running on medium. You’ll wind up with something that looks like this when you are done.

Please do not lick the screen. Wait until after we add the caramel ingredients. First, we mix in the salted butter caramel sauce.

Next, take the cream and caramelized white chocolate.

Combine the cream and caramelized white chocolate over low heat until the chocolate is melted, allow it to cool slightly, and then whisk this in. It is now time to realize that this buttercream is too runny to stand up to the heat of a DC August day, and pull out the emergency powdered sugar to remedy the situation and get something that looks like this.

I stopped adding more powdered sugar, because it was already becoming a little sweeter than I wanted it to be. I was left with a tasty concoction that still wouldn’t be suitable for topping cupcakes in the unrelenting DC August heat, so I need to go back to the kitchen for this project. I was, however, pleased to have found a very nice recipe that would work very nicely on a cake.

In October, of course.


Monday, August 23, 2010

Soft and Smushy on the Inside

I am alive!!!!  I know I've been off the radar for the past month or so, but I have a great reason.

First, let me catch you all up.  Flower Man (the guy who I had a lunch date with and who sent me flowers the next day) disappeared.  He had said we might go out that weekend, but I heard nothing.  In the meantime, I had a date with someone else.  He and I have been going out ever since.  Flower Man e-mailed a week later, said he called and left a message on the wrong voice mail.  Seriously? 

The good news is the new guy does what he says he will and loves to eat almost as much as I do.  I feel I've found my soul mate when we're picking an ice cream flavor to share and he chooses Cake Batter.  He makes me laugh.  He even saw me speak before we went out so the dreaded Big Personality doesn't bother him.  He even took the time to read my book!  So things are good, but finding time to work, work out, date AND blog is tricky!  Thanks for not giving up on me!!!

In honor of my mutation into a big marshmallow, I thought I'd review this great new product:

As you all know, I've been railing that something like this should be made!  Those horrible chocolate "flavored" marshmallows are creepy.  Those marshmallows at Candy Expo with some dark chocolate drizzled on them (Zebras) didn't have enough chocolate.  Kraft finally got it together!!!  These are miniature marshmallows, which makes the chocolate to marshmallow ratio perfect.  They are addictive alone and would be great in trail mix, over ice cream, in popcorn - you name it!

Not only are they impossible to stop eating - I ate the whole bag today - but the whole bag has only 300 calories.  Yahoo!!!

One comment - Kraft has got to change the choking warning.  It says: Eat one at a time.  (HA!) For children under 6, cut marshmallows into bite-sized pieces.  Children should always be seated and supervised while eating. 

For God's sake, Kraft, lighten up!  These are MINIATURE marshmallows, after all!  And who wants to sit down and be supervised while eating marshmallows?  I want to eat them while running with scissors!

And speaking of marshmallows, the new guy and I went to a fondue place this weekend - ordered the Triple Play - peanut butter, caramel and chocolate in the fondue pot with pretzels, fruit and marshmallows to dip in.  He let me have almost all the peanut butter.  Is he a good man or what?

More Mini-Cupcakes: Now with Dark Chocolate

After using some of the caramelized white chocolate to make the salted caramel mini-cupcakes, I decided that I needed some dark chocolate mini-cupcakes to compliment them. I pulled out Nick Malgieri’s Chocolate, and adapted his recipe for Grand-Maman’s Chocolate Cake, which he says is “one of the simple desserts almost everyone prepares at home” in France. I made a triple batch – and this is because many people will be enjoying this mini-cupcake collection, not because I have a mini-cupcake addiction – but if you made a single batch, here’s what you’d need.

Ingredients

3 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

8 tablespoons of very soft butter

4.5 oz chopped semi sweet chocolate (I used El Rey 61% Cocoa Mijao

3/4 cup flour

After pre-heating the oven to 350 F and preparing the mini-cupcake pan with liners, take out the best ingredient: the chocolate, of course.

Melt it over very low heat, and set aside to cool. Then, get your eggs and sugar.

Whip them together for 4-5 minutes at medium speed until fluffy. Pull out the butter that you, of course, remembered to soften hours ago.

Whip in the butter until it is completely mixed in. Add the previously melted chocolate until mixed. Get the flour ready for some folding action.

Carefully fold in the flour by hand, being diligent against over-stirring, and stop when it is just incorporated.

Take the batter, pour it into the mini-cupcake liners until they are about ¾ full, and let them bake for 15-17 minutes.

They came out just a tiny bit dry, but the dark chocolate flavor comes through quite well. These will be perfect for the rich buttercream icing that I’ll be whipping up soon.

Almond Joy Chocolate Bark

1-1/2 cups dark chocolate chips 73% cacao
1/2 cup almonds, toasted
1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut (toasted at 350 degrees F for 6-8 minutes)
  1. Melt chocolate over very low heat.
  2. Pour chocolate into a parchment lined 8x8 inch baking dish.
  3. Scatter almonds and 3 tablespoons of coconut over chocolate.
  4. Using a spatula, spread the mixture evenly back and forth to 1/2-inch thickness.
  5. Sprinkle remaining tablespoon of coconut on top of mixture.
  6. Place bark in fridge for 2 hours to set.
  7. Break into square bars and serve.
Source: Elana's Pantry

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Using Caramelized White Chocolate: Salty Caramel Cupcakes

Last week, I caramelized some white chocolate, and promised that I would use it. Use it in a recipe, and not eat it all. I’m sure that some were skeptical, but today, I present you photographic evidence that it was used in a recipe; specifically, I used it to make salty caramel mini-cupcakes.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

6 tbsp butter, softened

1/4 cup sugar

¾ cup caramel sauce*

2 large eggs

4 ounces caramelized white chocolate, melted

1 tsp vanilla extract

¾ c cream

*In order to have time for the caramel sauce to set, you need to make that first, so here’s how it goes:

Ingredients

1.5 c sugar

½ cup butter

½ cup cream

1.5 tsp salt

Heat the sugar in a heavy-duty pot until just melted. Slowly add the butter, then the cream, and finally the salt, all while stirring the mixture.

You’ll have more than ¾ cup, but I am sure you can find another use for it. For reference, eating it straight up is a perfectly acceptable use of the leftovers.

Now that we have the caramel sauce slowly cooling off, we can get to work on the cupcakes. Pre-heat the oven to 325 F, and set out the cupcake liners in a mini-cupcake pan. Then it’s time to get down to business with your dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and salt).

Wisk those guys together, and set them aside, and also set aside the measured cream, as this gets incorporated at the same time. Meanwhile, get to work with your other ingredients – the butter, sugar, eggs, and the caramel sauce, which should be cooled down by now.

Cream the butter and sugar until light, then beat in the eggs one at a time. As you do this, heat up the caramelized while chocolate over low heat until slightly softened, and get your vanilla ready, too.

Once the eggs are incorporated, add the caramelized white chocolate and vanilla. You now have a delicious-looking mixture of sugar and fat.

Sounds yummy, right? Take this mixture, and, in three additions, adding in the cream and the flour mixture alternately. Stir until the flour is just barely incorporated to avoid overmixing.

Take the completed batter and distribute it into the mini-cupcake liners so that the liners are each about ¾ full.

Toss the pan in the oven (ok, don’t really throw it) for 13-15 minutes, and find yourself greeted with a wonderful caramel aroma.

The mini-cupcakes tasted buttery and just a little salty; the caramel flavor was fairly subtle. The texture was rich and overall, just amazing. I give credit to the caramelized white chocolate for the richness.