Cupcakes!

Sometimes you just need a cupcake. Or rather, when you're boyfriend is working until 2 am one night, he needs a cupcake.

Last night turned out to be a late one for Daniel, so I thought I'd perk up his office-mates with some late night chocolate goodness.

I pulled the recipe from one of my all-time favorite cookbooks, and a real piece of Americana, The Fannie Farmer Cookbook. Considered the status quo cookbook for all things classically American, it really is a fullproof volume of traditional dishes. Plus the recipes have great names, like this one: Little Light Chocolate Cakes.

Little Light Chocolate Cakes 

1/4 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 cup boiling water
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin pan or spray with non-stick coating.

Combine the shortening, sugar and cocoa in a mixing bowl; pour over the boiling water and beat until smooth.

In a separate bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda. Slowly pour the dry mixture into the wet; beat until well blended.

Add the egg, vanilla and sour cream to the batter until smooth and creamy. Spoon into the individual muffin tins until about 3/4 full. Baking for about 20 minutes. Let cool before frosting.

Chocolate Frosting

4 tablespoons butter at room temperature
1 egg yolk
1 cup powdered sugar
4 oz. semisweet chocolate

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler, stirring regularly so it doesn't burn. (If you want tips on how best to do this, check out my earlier post)

In a separate bowl, beat the butter until light and creamy. Stir in the egg yolk and continue to beat, adding the sugar 2 tablespoons at a time. Slowly add in the melted chocolate. Beat until all the chocolate is incorporated and the frosting is fluffy. Allow the frosting to cool to room temperature before applying to your cupcakes.

The Dinner Party

So the dinner party was a success! Our friends brought over their lovely little puppy Gable so it was more of a doggie play date / dinner party, but thoroughly our kind of vibe.

For the starter, I made a mixed green salad with grapefruit segments, goat cheese, walnuts and dried cranberries with a balsamic and chive vinaigrette. For the entree I made a mushroom tart with tofu, parsley and chives, accompanied by a steamed artichoke with a caper and garlic aioli. Our friends are vegetarians, hence the veg main course.

For dessert, I went out on a limb to try a recipe I found from the Golden Door Spa. It's a flourless chocolate cake without the guilt, i.e. without fat or sugar.

I didn't take many pictures (thoroughly distracted by puppy playtime) but here's a look at the dinner table in action and our dessert. I topped the flourless chocolate cake with a blackberry coulis I made by blending fresh blackberries with some frozen raspberries, a little honey and lemon juice.

Here's the recipe for the flourless chocolate cake. Cooked yam and banana replace the typically "guilty" fat and sugar in the original recipe and, I must say, this was a surprisingly light dessert.  The recipe for the mushroom tart came from a vegetarian cook book I have, but here's a similar recipe you can try.

Now that the holidays are over, are you planning any dinner parties? I want to hear all about it! Leave a comment below or email me.

Bacon Pretzels

UPDATE: We finally decided to name our new dog Walnut but Bacon came in at a very close second! So, without a Bacon to play fetch with, I needed to do some kitchen work with bacon to get my fix.

We had a holiday party Saturday night and I figured I'd dress up some plain pretzels with a little chocolate and bacon. Because, why not? I dipped salted traditional pretzels in melted chocolate, which I brought to a liquid consistency in a double boiler, and then sprinkled on some bacon bits.

I think the phrase "double boiler" makes some people nervous, but it's really very easy. You don't need any fancy equipment, just a pyrex glass bowl (which is the most common type of glass that can withstand really high temperatures) in a size that fits over the top of a pot. Fill the pot with at least two inches of water and place chocolate chips (or any bar chocolate) in the bowl.

Here are my tips for using the double boiler method to melt chocolate (which is far superior to using a microwave):

• Always keep your burner to medium or low heat, never high
• Check the water in the pot every few minutes to make sure you have enough to keep your steam going
• Use a spatula to constantly move the chocolate around in the pyrex bowl; if you leave it for more than a 15-20 seconds without stirring, the chocolate can burn
• Wear an oven mit on one hand while the other hand does the stirring; the bowl will be slippery underneath from the steam and can move around easily, so it's important to be able to hold it in place
• Prepare your foods to dip and your drying surface before you even get started with melting the chocolate; once you get started there's no going back
• This process has a fancy named called "tempering" which basically just means melting

Once all of your chocolate chunks have dissolved into creamy goodness, start dipping!
To make my life easier, I only dipped one side of the pretzels, then placed them individually on sheets of parchment paper laid out on the counter. Every few pretzels I would stop to sprinkle some delicious bacon bits (store bought, I know, I'm a cheater!) over the top so they could adhere to the chocolate before it dried.

I left the pretzels about 20 minutes to make sure they were thoroughly dried before removing them from the parchment and placing them in an airtight container in advance of my party.

You can definitely "bacon-ize" any sweet or salty snack with some chocolate and bacon. I'm sure your friends will appreciate the porky punch you are providing.

Everything But The...Butter

Chocolate Chip Shortbread!

This is a literal "everything but the butter" recipe - our packaged baking mix will come with everything you need to make this delicious shortbread cookie, all you have to do is add 2 sticks of butter.

Here's the dry mix:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips

In a medium sized bowl, simply stir in a cup (2 sticks) of room temperature butter into the dry ingredients until it becomes a crumbly consistency with the butter fully incorporated.

Press the mixture (it will be more of a crumble, not a dough) into a 8" by 8" or 9" by 9" glass pan, using a piece of wax paper to help you push it down flat without it sticking to your fingers. You can also use the bottom of a plate or pot to help you get a super flat top.

Place the pan in a pre-heated 300 degree oven for one hour. Just leave it alone, no need to check on it and no need to open the door if you followed the directions.

After one hour, remove the shortbread from the oven and use a sharp knife to cut it into squares, allow to cool for 10-15 minutes before trying to remove the squares from the pan. The cooling allows them to solidify, reducing the potential to crack when you go to remove them.

Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies

A fun alternative to cutting the shortbread into squares is using a cookie cutter. Use a sharp edged metal cutter in a simple shape (intricate cutters features smaller angles which won't turn out as well due to the thickness of this recipe). Arrange on a platter and enjoy with a glass of eggnog, as I did last night!

BUTTER

Today I tested two "Everything but the butter" recipes I've been meaning to bake. The first is a twist on shortbread, the second a low-fat brownie.

Chocolate Chili Shortbread
This take on a classic shortbread incorporates cocoa powder and chili powder (as well as a few red pepper flakes) to really build the flavor. After mixing my dry flour/sugar/etc. mixture, I folded in a stick of butter and pressed the mixture into a round metal pan.

Chocolate Chili Shortbread

The results were not exactly what I hoped for, and I'd like to list them (this recipe came from Epicurious so I blame them for the fail. J/K).

• Shortbread, though much easier on the home cook to press into a pan, really needs to be rolled out to a thin consistency to reduce the baking time and provide uniformity. 
• I may be crazy for using chili flakes because I inhaled a flake on first bite, setting off a coughing fit. Lovely. 
• Cooking time was about 50 minutes, way too long for a leisurely home chef. I need to think of ways to reduce this. 
• Crunchiness - part of me feels I overbaked it, but it has a really nice crunch that I like. I think I need to eat more mass market shortbread to see what people are generally used to. 

Do you have any favorite shortbread recipes / ideas / flavors you want to share with me? Leave a comment below.

Chocolate Chili Shortbread

Low Fat Brownies
I've tasted some great "just add yogurt" boxed brownies in the market and, though not as gooey or decadent as a full-fat brownie, I feel like there's a great market for a simpler, lighter brownie mix.

To doll mine up I added a teaspoon of cinnamon and a 1/4 cup of chopped walnuts. The walnuts were a great, crunchy addition but the overall consistency of the finished brownies was a bit too cake-like. I'm looking for that super dense kind of brownie mouth-feel. Must keep testing!

Low fat brownies

In looking at some additional yogurt-as-fat brownie recipes online, I saw some commercial producers use wheat gluten and egg white powder to create a more batter-like consistency. I've started my bulk buying list and will be ordering these soon. We'll see what the future testing produce...other than a growing waistline.

So, how do you feel about cinnamon with chocolate?
Are you a brownie purist and only the traditional will do?
Does chili-spiced chocolate get your mojo going?

Leave your reply in the comments below - would love to hear your thoughts!