mix, mix… stir, stir

First things first - Happy Voting day! Here is a little cookie tribute to our flag in celebration of the big day.

photo by David Peterman

It was another cookie week for the Tuesdays with Dorie bakers as we all made rugelach. I have never made this type of cookie before and can only recall ever eating them once. David and I bought a big tub of them from Costco, and though it was years ago, I recall they were darn tasty.

photo by David Peterman

Rugelach is hard to spell, strange to say, and despite liking the ones I tried from Costco, has never been a type of cookie I have been drawn to. I suspect if it weren’t for this baking group I would have skipped right over this recipe in my book and unknowingly been missing out on a great easy to make baked delight.

Rugelach is made from a simple cream cheese dough that comes together with a few pulses of a food processor. Aside from needing a few hours for the dough to chill before rolling, these are quick and easy cookies to make and yet they look so complicated and impressive. I was expecting a very tedious task of cutting lots of triangles to make these, and yes triangles need to be cut, but not in a tedious way. Think pizza; a bunch of triangles cut in seconds! I was thinking of triangles as a quilter, and cutting fabric triangles is rather tedious work.

Typically rugelach is filled with a variety of fillings including fruit, nuts, jam, poppy seed paste, or chocolate. Dorie’s recipe gives a few suggestions and I made two varieties, one chocolate and for the other I used a fig cardamom and rose water jam (I would share the recipe, but I still have a bit more refining to do before it is finalized).

photo by David Peterman

The fig jam version also included currents, walnuts, and chopped chocolate. In the future, I would leave the chocolate out of fruit fillings. The chocolate took away from the bright tangy fruit flavor and worked much better as the solo star in the all-chocolate filling which also included a little hint of cinnamon and ancho chile. The chocolate filling also made for very tidy little cookies because the filling was smooth and uniform. I liked both versions very much, and I am thrilled to now know how to make this impressive looking little cookie. Thank you to Grace of Piggy’s Cooking Journal for giving me a new baking experience with her recipe selection.

You can find Dorie’s recipe for rugelach in her book Baking: From My Home to Yours. Here is the recipe I came up with for my chocolate filling. This was just a bit more than I needed to fill one 12 inch diameter round of dough.

3 oz. dark chocolate, chopped
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 egg
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ancho chile powder

Place the chopped chocolates in a medium sized bowl and set aside. Mix the sugars and egg together in a small bowl. Set the bowl over a pot of simmering water and stir until the mixture is about 120 degrees F. Pour the sugar mixture over the chocolate and let it stand for a minute. Begin whisking the mixture to melt the chocolate and combine the ingredients. If the chocolate does not completely melt, set the bowl over the pot of warm water and stir to fully melt the chocolate. Stir in the spices. The chocolate mixture will be thick, but still spreadable. Set filling aside and roll out dough. Place pieces of chocolate paste filling on the dough and press the filling out using fingers to create a uniform layer.

Rolling round dough

Rolling a uniform circle of dough can be a challenge because dough seems to prefer to take on free-form amoeba like formations rather than perfect circles. I find it helps to start with dough that is chilled as a nice flat and uniformly round disk. When rolling the dough roll from the center out in one direction, then turn the dough a quarter turn and roll again from the center out to the edge. Continue spinning the dough after each roll and it should grow in a uniform circular manner. The edges can often times get ragged and split apart, but just pinch and push them back into shape if they start to grow in odd directions. Turning the dough after each roll also prevents it from getting too stuck to the counter. Have a bench scraper or long spatula handy to free the dough between rolls if necessary and then toss a bit more flour down before continuing on if it is sticking. Running your hand over the dough you should be able to feel any bumps or thick spots that need to be evened out as you are rolling. Working uniformly in all directions should result in a perfectly round result.

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie baking adventure continues with more cookies. I wasn’t sure how these cookies would stay together with chunks of bittersweet chocolate, semisweet chocolate, and white chocolate, in addition to peanuts, and only a third cup of flour, even less cocoa powder and a couple of eggs acting as a structural binder. Impossible. The ingredient list just didn’t look structurally sound. It is deliciously confounding, and maybe I shall have another to further analyze the situation.

photo by David Peterman

Not only are these cookies structurally sound, they are so delicious. They taste like the cookie version of a Dairy Queen Peanut Buster Parfait. Sandwich a couple of them around some vanilla ice cream and you might have to pay a flavor royalty fee to DQ! The recipe also called for raisins, but I omitted them out of respect for David’s aversion to raisins, and no harm was done to the end result. I used honey roasted peanuts that I raided from David’s personal snack supply, which he wasn’t too happy with initially but seems to be enjoying his peanuts in the cookies just fine.

These powerfully chocolaty cookies deserve to be made with really good chocolate. With so many varieties of chocolate involved it is important to incorporate the full spectrum of chocolate flavors or the end result might border on sickly sweet. What I mean by the full spectrum is chocolates that are distinctly different from one another based on how sweet they are. If you are interested in the differences and learning how to decipher chocolate labels, read on… but first you need to know you can find this fantastic recipe in Dorie Greenspan’s book, Baking: From My Home to Yours and I would like to thank Claudia of Fool for Food for selecting such a winner of a recipe for this week.

Deciphering Chocolate Labels
The common terms used in describing different types of chocolate are cocoa powder, unsweetened, bittersweet, semisweet, milk, and white. It seems reasonable enough that these terms alone would sort out the different types of chocolate on the market, and in some situations that’s the case, but too often there are big differences between two chocolates that are both labeled “semisweet” for example. In a few instances the labels are pretty clear; with unsweetened chocolate you know it’s going to be bitter chocolate with no added sugar, but beyond that it can be a bit of a mystery.  The way to determine the difference between one bar and the next is to decipher the formula of cocoa solids, sugar, and total fat in the chocolate.

This has become easier with the increasing variety of specialty chocolates available on the market these days. More information is available on the chocolate packaging as manufacturers work to distinguish their product from all the others on the shelf and we consumers benefit from this additional information because it gives us some data to work with that is consistent across the board rather than relying on terminology that is open to interpretation. The data I am referring to are the numbers such as 58%, 61% 70% that are very common on chocolate packages anymore. You might also see a series of three numbers like this, 60/40/38. This is the key to knowing what you are buying. One company’s bittersweet might be another company’s semisweet, but when you are dealing with the numbers, the terminology doesn’t really matter.

The three ingredients in chocolate are cocoa solids (also called cocoa mass or cocao liquer), sugar and fat. Cocoa solids are simply cocoa beans ground into a fine paste. The numbers indicate the composition of the chocolate with regard to the percent cocoa solids, percent sugar and percent fat. A bar labeled 70% indicates that 70% of the weight of the chocolate is cocoa solids and fat, therefore 30% is sugar. A 62% chocolate will have more sugar and taste less bitter. When the numbers are shown as a series of three, such as 60/40/38, the first number is the percent cocoa solids, then the percent sugar, and the third indicates the percent fat. Knowing the percent fat is important when melting chocolate to dip candies or coat molds because the greater the amount of cocoa butter the better the melted chocolate will flow.

Referring to the percentage of cocoa solids in a chocolate is a more accurate indication of the sweetness of a chocolate than relying on a term. However, it does not determine the flavor because like coffee beans or wine grapes, cocoa beans are very complex and the flavor is influenced by where the beans grow, how they are fermented, roasted and processed in to chocolate. The best way to determine what kind of chocolate you like to eat is to taste a lot of it!

Milk chocolate is milder because it has added milk and a high percentage of sugar. Because of the added milk and large amount of sugar, the ratio of cocoa solids and cocoa butter are lower. This makes milk chocolate softer so it won’t have the crisp snap that a 70% dark chocolate has.

White chocolate doesn’t actually contain any cocoa solids at all, which is why it doesn’t taste like chocolate. It is made from purified cocoa butter, milk solids, and sugar. It has as soft creamy texture rather than the crisp snappy texture of dark chocolate.

Cocoa powder is made from the left over cocoa bean once the cocoa butter has been extracted. It is really a by-product of cocoa butter. It is this left over part of the cocoa bean that has all the flavor and color, so it provides a very intense chocolate flavor when added to foods. Cocoa powder is naturally very acidic so some cocoa powders are treated with the alkaline agent, potassium carbonate, to neutralize the pH. This is referred to as “Dutched” cocoa powder because the inventor of the process was Dutch. Dutched cocoa powder has a milder flavor and a darker color.

I hope this helps you sort out your chocolate choices the next time you are standing in front of a dizzying selection of chocolates trying to decide what to buy.

More delicious cookies are piling up in the kitchens of the Tuesdays with Dorie online baking clan. This week we indulged in Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops. Oh yes, it was off to the candy isle to stock up on a big carton of whoppers!

photo by David Peterman

I love malt and whoppers so I knew these would be a big hit with me, though I also know from experience that desserts with candy mix-ins run the risk of being cloyingly sweet. I am not a fan of the sickly sweet stuff, so I hedged my bets with extra bitter 70% dark chocolate chunks in place of the bittersweet chocolate or chocolate chips that Dorie calls for. I am happy I did. The cookies are rich and chocolaty, and the sweet hits of melted malt balls are nicely tempered by the bitter chocolate chunks. Additionally, I topped them with a light sprinkling of Murray River Flake Salt as a final counterpoint to the sweet candy and a flavor enhancer to the chocolate.

The biggest factor for these cookies slipping from “ooh-ahh” reviews to “eh” is baking time. They are a bit of a cakey cookie and the difference between soft and gooey or dry and cakey could be as little as an extra thirty seconds to a minute in the oven. Error on the side of underdone and they will be “ooh-ahh”‘ good.

photo by David Peterman

So now that I have a big jar of leftover malt powder in my cupboard what do I do? Oh, sure I could make more cookies, but it’s not like the extra whoppers are going to even last until tomorrow, so I thought I had better come up with another plan. My need for a future-use plan is due to the last time I had a jar of malt; it languished in the back of my cupboard for about five years and the remaining contents was so rock hard I finally tossed it out a few months ago. Feeling a bit guilty, I decided to put it behind me and move on. Then this recipe comes along forcing me to face my demons! I vow to use the entire jar of malt and not let a single bit go to waste. Or should I say every bit will go to waist!

The first thing that came to mind is a spicy malted hot cocoa. Like it or not the air is starting to have that crispy nip of fall, at least here in the Northwest where we never really even had summer this year, and hot cocoa is one of my favorite cold weather treats.

Wed. 8/17 - I have updated the recipe now that I have been drinking it for a few more days. I decided it needed more malt and more cocoa.

Spicy Malted Hot Cocoa Mix
1 cup malted milk powder
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup sugar
3 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons ancho chile powder
1 1/2 teaspoons allspice
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Combine all the ingredients together and mix well. Store in an airtight container.
To make a spicy hot beverage, heat one cup of milk and whisk in 3 Tablespoons of Spicy Malted Hot Cocoa Mix. Relax and enjoy.

This has a pretty good kick, so if you don’t like spicy cut back on both the ancho chile and cayenne pepper. Hot cocoa is the perfect place to use a high quality dutch processed cocoa powder if you can. After tasting this, I am not the least bit worried about that extra malt powder languishing in the cupboard this time. I may even need to buy another jar before the winter is over.

Thank you to Rachel of Confessions of a Tangerine Tart for this week’s recipe selection. You can find the recipe for Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops in Dorie Greenspan’s book Baking: From My Home to Yours.

More than any other dessert item people seem to be passionately loyal to their favorite brownie recipe. Maybe it’s because brownies are more diverse than most desserts. Do you like cakey, chewy, or fudgy? A crispy top, soft top, or frosted top? Are nuts a requirement or a crime? How about other mix-ins like dried fruit, chocolate bits, or spices? 

Maybe that is why Dorie Greenspan offers us twelve different chocolate brownie recipes and two blondie options in her book Baking: From My Home to Yours. This week Di, at Di’s Kitchen Notebook, had all of us in the Tuesdays with Dorie baking club whip up the French Chocolate Brownies. Interestingly Dorie developed this recipe with the intention of it being a French chocolate fondant cake, but when she served it to dinner guests and they excitedly exclaimed “brownies!” She wisely rolled with it and the recipe is now known as French Chocolate Brownies.

The unique characteristics of this recipe are rum-soaked raisins, cinnamon, and 3 eggs. More eggs than typical brownies, but this was originally intended to be a cake. Anyone who likes their brownies on the cakey side will like these, but don’t think these are dry fluffy cake-like brownies. No sir, they are still very moist and dense with the requisite crackly top. You may bristle at the rum-soaked raisins, but I tell you they are delightful little taste treasures that surprise the palate with each bite. The raisins dress these brownies up; like fancy French brownies!

I am no different than any of you and I have my favorite brownie recipe that this will not replace. A key criterion for brownies in my book is to only dirty one bowl during the process of making them. I have also come to realize that cocoa powder is what delivers that true brownie flavor I seek. The Chocolate French Brownies don’t meet either of my personal brownie criteria, so judging them not as brownies, but as a delicious chocolate dessert, I really like them.

I followed the recipe as written with a slight baking variation. I did not place my pan on a baking sheet in the oven and I baked them using the convection fan which cooked them a little quicker. I would have like them a little less sweet and next time would use a 70% chocolate or cut back the sugar a touch. To tone down the sweetness, I dusted them with a Mayan spiced Valhrona cocoa powder that complemented the hint of cinnamon in the recipe and added a little chile kick as well.

My ambitions got the best of me this week. With my preference for individual bite-sized desserts driving me, I spent more time than I care to admit pressing cookie crust into little mini muffin tins. What I didn’t anticipate about this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie selection that Elizabeth of Ugg Smell Foodmade, is it was a very light mousse-like filling that just didn’t have the structural integrity to be finger food. Thankfully I had some extra cookie crust and made six-inch torte shell while I was at it, which made for a very successful end result.

The mini muffin shells would have worked fine if I had not piped the filling to resemble a soft-serve cone. I was able to dip the little guys in the ganache and garnish them just fine, but when it came to eating them it was all over - as in all over your face and hands. The filling is like a cloud and just goes everywhere on the first bite. If they were small enough to pop in the mouth as a one-bite delight, problem solved. The other solution I discovered is they make a great frozen treat!

The unexpected surprise of my back-up torte shell is that the low profile increased the all important filling-to-crust ratio and though the filling is very good, I love crust! Other twists and spins in my version include: a chocolate wafer crust with a touch of ancho chile rather than Oreos, and candied spiced peanuts. The candied nuts worked really well adding another layer of subtle flavor (see previous post for my recipe).

If you like light, fluffy, mousse style fillings this recipe is for you. It is sweet and very rich and does not scream peanut butter, but comes across as a more subtle and refined peanut flavor.  As always you can find the recipe in Dorie Greenspan’s book Baking: From My Home to Yours.

 Chocolate Wafer Crumb Crust
1 1/2 cups chocolate wafer cookie crumbs
3 ounces unsalted butter (6 Tablespoons), melted
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ancho chile powder
pinch of salt

To make the cookie crumbs, place the cookies in a plastic zip bag and crush with a rolling pin to a fine even crumb.

Mix all the ingredients together in a medium bowl until well combined. Press mixture firmly and evenly into an un-buttered 9-inch pie pan or torte pan. Refrigerate at least 10 minutes and then bake for 10 minutes in a 350 degree F oven.