Coconut Kisses

Coconut Kisses - made June 5, 2011 from Rose's Christmas Cookies by Rose Levy Berenbaum (book #121)

The original recipe in this book is called Mom's Coconut Kisses, presumably to signify Rose Levy Berenbaum's mom.  I remember getting this cookbook after I got the Cake Bible, another book I've had great success with for excellent cake recipes.  Rose Levy Berenbaum gives directions for extracting the coconut from a real coconut and admonishes would-be bakers not to substitute packaged coconut for this recipe.  Alas, I have no inclination to track down real coconuts, roast them and pry out the coconut meat from them.  I'm sure doing so would make a far superior cookie and I've wanted to make this cookie for years but have been put off because of the whole find-real-coconuts thing.  So I've finally decided to just make the recipe and make the forbidden substitution just to try it out.

I only made a half recipe just for something quick to throw together.  After baking, I pressed a Hershey Kiss on top for a few of them like you'd do for a peanut butter blossom.  Nothing beats that coconut and chocolate combination.  After trying one, I have to admit Rose Levy Berenbaum was right - this would likely have been much better with fresh coconut.  Not that it was bad and I love coconut but since there are so few ingredients, the cookie is largely dependent on the quality of the coconut.  The packaged coconut was just okay so the cookie was just okay.  Someday I'm going to have to try it with the real thing or at least really fresh coconut meat that might be sold at an Asian grocery store.  Oh and her directions say to bake at 400 degrees but that browned the coconut really quickly, in under 10 minutes so I'd try it at 350 to give it more time to bake without the coconut burning at the edges.

3 ½ cups coconut, freshly shredded

9.75 ounces sweetened condensed milk

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

1.      Preheat the oven to 400⁰F. (I recommend 350 degrees instead)

2.      In a medium bowl, using a wooden spoon, mix all the ingredients together until well blended, but do not add all of the milk until you check the consistency.  The mixture should be moist and hold together.  If necessary, add up to 2 extra tablespoons of the condensed milk.

3.      Use a rounded cookie scoop, or a scant tablespoon and your fingers, to form 1-inch round mounds of the mixture about 1 ½ inches high.  Place about 1 ½ inches apart on the prepared baking sheet.

4.      Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until most of the cookie’s surface is light golden.  There will still be white spots.  For even baking, rotate the cookie sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through the baking period.

5.       Use a small, angled metal spatula or pancake turner to transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool completely.

Peanut Butter Fudge Bars

Peanut Butter Fudge Bars - made June 5, 2011 from Cake Mix Cookies by Camilla V. Saulsbury (book #120)

This is the type of baking book that if you wanted to bake with kids or you're a novice baker and want to make simple things without a lot of fuss, there are a lot of recipes in here that would be up your alley.  I must've gone through a use-cake-mix-as-an-ingredient phase as I have several baking books with this theme.  Which is a little baffling since I don't normally like cake mix flavor unless the other ingredients can overcome it and make it taste like something more than a box mix.  But the recipes aren't bad and their simplicity can't be beat.  I always recommend this type of baking book for people with kids who like to help them bake or are starting out in the kitchen since there's nothing easier than using a cake mix as a base.  If you find the right recipe, you're not sacrificing much on taste (says the baking snob).  Paired with measuring cups or spoons or little aprons for tykes plus a boxed mix itself to get them started, these make good gifts for busy parents and/or newbie bakers.

This recipe was super easy to put together.  Strain the cake mix first to get rid of any lumps then follow the directions.  The peanut butter batter was more like a stiff cookie dough batter than a cake batter but it wasn't crumbly.  I did "crumble" the topping by pinching off bits of the batter and dropping them randomly over the top.  The topping bits didn't spread out but stayed how I crumbled them.  I also added some chopped up Hershey kisses on top for additional texture and chocolate.  Overall, this was pretty good and didn't taste like cake mix. The peanut butter and chocolate combo help with the disguise.  This is like eating a soft peanut butter cookie with a layer of chocolate in the middle.  I'm glad I added the Hershey kisses and could've probably added even more.  If you're a peanut butter lover, feel free to add peanut butter chips.  There's no going wrong here.

1 18.25-ounce package yellow cake mix

1 cup creamy peanut butter

2 large eggs

½ cup vegetable oil

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk

2 tablespoons butter

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1.   Preheat the oven to 350⁰F.  Position oven rack in middle of oven.  Spray the bottom only of a 13 x 9-inch metal baking pan with nonstick cooking spray (I line with foil then spray).

2.   In a large bowl place the cake mix, peanut butter, eggs and oil.  Blend 1-2 minutes with an electric mixer set on low speed until well blended.  Reserve 1 ½ cups of the mixture.  Press remaining mixture into bottom of prepared pan; set pan and reserved mixture aside.

3.   Meanwhile, in a heavy saucepan set over low heat, melt the chocolate chips with the condensed milk and butter, stirring until blended and smooth.  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract; pour over crust.  Sprinkle with remaining crumb mixture.

4.   Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and topping is firm to the tough.  Transfer to wire rack and cool completely; cut into bars.

Snicker-ized Brownies

Harley's Brownies - made June 4, 2011 from The Mitford Cookbook & Kitchen Reader by Jan Karon (book #119)

You might notice that I'm participating in more link parties as evidenced by the button at the bottom of some posts that'll take you to the link parties.  Link parties are something I've only just discovered this year and it's been nice to be invited to join, find new foodie blogs and get exposed to so many different recipes and vice versa.  I know it's common in the blogosphere to link the same post to many different link parties but I'm an anomaly in that I try not to do that if I can help it.  Many of them have the same audience and I figure people will get sick of seeing the same thing from me on each of them.  I try to link only 1 or 2 link parties to the same post and instead find different recipes to link.  So if you ask me to link a particular post to your link party and I link something else, I'm not willfully ignoring you but chances are I've either already linked it elsewhere or plan to.  It's just a quirk.  Now on to this recipe....

I love Jan Karon's Mitford books about Father Tim, an aging Episcopalian priest, and his hometown friends in Mitford.  My favorite line from the very first book in the series, At Home in Mitford, is Father Tim's first thought upon waking was, "Father, make me a blessing to someone today...."  What a great way to frame your day and get yourself out of bed.

Food plays an important role in Mitford books and the Mitford Cookbook is a compilation of recipes of the food mentioned in the books as well as excerpts from the books themselves.  If you've read the series, it's a nice walk down memory lane to revisit the books.  Perhaps the most famous dessert in the series is Esther's Marmalade Cake.  In one instance, it even sent Father Tim into a diabetic collapse.  I always thought Esther's Marmalade Cake sounded delicious and toyed with the idea of making it (yes, the recipe is in this book).  However, although I like orange cake, I don't care for marmalade and that's what comprises the top layer or frosting in the recipe.  So I went with this brownie recipe instead (Harley is a character in the books in case you were wondering) as I needed brownies for giving away and I also wanted to try some chocolate from the Philippines.  My dad's cousin, Tita Aline, was there late last year and brought this back and her husband Allan was kind enough to send me some to try in baking.  At first I wasn't sure if it was a dark bittersweet chocolate or unsweetened chocolate but after sampling it, I decided to treat it as an unsweetened chocolate since it was pretty bitter when eaten "straight".

I didn't beat the egg mixture as long as 10 minutes but seeing that in the directions made me suspect this brownie would have a crust and a more delicate crumb than most brownies since beating it that much will incorporate a lot of air into it.  The crust forms because beating eggs for that long causes them to form a meringue-like top.  I omitted the nuts and chocolate chunks.  Instead, I "snicker-ized" these brownies, meaning about 5-10 minutes before they were done baking, I scattered chopped-up Snickers on top of them and let them bake until they melted into gooey madness over the top of the brownies.  Just for something different.

These brownies came out pretty well.  The brownie itself is a bit fragile with a delicate crumb so I'm glad I put the Snickers on top and not in the brownie itself.  I think any add-ins in the brownie itself would've been too much of a contrast and/or the brownie would've been too delicate to hold anything sturdy like nuts or even chocolate chips.  On top was just fine.  I made these and sent some home with my niece to share with her sister over the weekend - got a call from the kids later and this got a thumbs up as the favorite in the batch of 4 things I'd baked for them.

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped

¾ cup unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

4 large eggs, at room temperature

¼ teaspoon salt

2 cups granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup White Lily all-purpose flour (my area doesn't sell White Lily so I used Gold Medal)

1 ½ cups mini Hershey’s Chocolate Kisses or chocolate chunks

1 cup chopped pecans

1.       Preheat the oven to 350⁰F.  Coat a 9 x 13-inch pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside. 

2.       Place the unsweetened chocolate and butter in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave at medium powder for 5 to 8 minutes (or melt in the top of a double boiler over gently simmering water).  Stir and let cool completely.

3.       In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the eggs, salt, sugar and vanilla on medium speed until light and creamy, about 10 minutes.  Add the cooled chocolate.

4.       Stir in the flour with a wooden spoon until just combined.  Add the Kisses and pecans and stir until just combined.  Pour the batter into the pan, smooth out evenly and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs.  Cool completely before cutting into squares.

Search box not working

We interrupt all the baking posts for a public service whine that the search box for my blog isn't working!  When I input a search term which I often do when I need to link back to a recipe I've already posted, the search results return...nothing.  It was working a few days ago so I don't know what's going on.  If it is or isn't working for you, please let me know.  And if you know of a fix, please let me know that too.

I find it ironic that blogger is a Google (the SEARCH company) product and the search box isn't working.  I tried searching their help forum and find it spectacularly unhelpful.  I also couldn't find where I can log an issue or ticket with blogger/Google to notify them of the problem.  Their help link just refers me to the help forum and all the discussions on the subject are closed with no seeming fix.  Help! [/whine]

Orange Pound Cake

Orange Pound Cake - made May 30, 2011 from A Passion for Desserts by Emily Luchetti (book #118)

Just a thin layer of glaze adds a nice touch

Since I went back to work, I'm still baking only on weekends so far and I made this cake last weekend on Memorial Day.  I haven't quite adjusted to getting in a baking mood once I get home from work, especially since I'm getting back into the groove of working out in the morning before work and, when I'm motivated enough, doing a second workout after work.  Which doesn't leave much time or energy to bake too.  So for now, I'll load up on the baking on the weekends and dole out the blog posts during the week.

This baking book is responsible for the Pumpkin Upside Down Cake that I now make as part of our Thanksgiving desserts almost every year.  It was the recipe and the cake that made me realize I actually do like pumpkin (as long as it's not in a pie) and in the right recipe, I even like cranberries.  I don't use this book often enough as some of the recipes seem a bit too fancy but I should probably get over that because I suspect there are many more potential favorites in here that I could discover.

There are much fancier recipes in this book and this one actually comes with a Grape Compote but I elected to go for simplicity and left it out.  I'm still on an orange kick since I have a few more oranges to use up from my mom's orange tree.  I also added the glaze from the Orange Velvet Cake to dress this up a bit and add more orange flavor.  As you can see, I baked in this a Bundt pan, not a loaf pan.  Once I had it mixed up, there was too much batter for even a large loaf pan so I poured it into a Bundt pan.

This is a nice basic pound cake with a perfect pound cake texture.  If you like orange cake, it's a good version for a pound cake.  I liked it with the glaze I spread over it.  I spread the glaze while the pound cake was still slightly warm so that it melted a bit over and into the cake before it set.  Yum.  This is also perfect for summer picnics and barbecues not to mention sending in care packages.  If you're sending it somewhere warm, it's best to leave off the glaze or it'll just melt in transit.

Note the nice pound-cakey texture

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

6 ounces (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened

1 2/3 cups sugar

Grated peel of 2 oranges

4 large eggs

¾ cup sour cream

One 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan, buttered and floured

1.     Preheat the oven to 350˚F.

2.     Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

3.     Using an electric mixer, beat the butter, sugar and orange peel on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes with a stand mixer.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  On low speed, stir in the sour cream and then the dry ingredients.

4.     Spread the batter into the prepared pan.  Bake until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 60 minutes.

5.     Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes.  Run a small knife along the inside edge of the pan to loosen it.  Invert the cake onto a wire rack and remove the pan.  Let cool completely.

Texas Fudge Cake

Texas Fudge Cake - made May 29, 2011 from Birthday Cakes by Kathryn Kleinman (book #117)

Ever since I made Diane's Double Chocolate Sheet Cake, I've been looking for other chocolate sheet cake recipes (sometimes known as Texas chocolate sheet cake).  They're simple, easy to make and, with the right recipe, taste really good.  I'm also a fan of cakes that call for spreading frosting over the warm cake as an added measure of decadence.  Plus, the advantage of sheet cakes is they're easy to package and there's plenty for sharing.  So if you have end-of-school-year gatherings, graduation parties and summer picnics coming up, these are good candidates as a dessert made for a crowd.

I changed two things in this recipe.  First I added a teaspoon of cinnamon to the batter.  Diane's Double Chocolate Sheet Cake had cinnamon in it and I decided I liked that combination in a cake.  Second, I made the cake in a 9" x 13" pan instead of an 11" x 15" pan, both to make the cake a little bit thicker than the normal sheet cake thickness and because I don't have an 11 x 15" pan with sides high enough to bake even a thin cake.  Bear in mind though that makes it look less like the usual sheet cake that's supposed to be flat and thin.  If you bake it in a smaller pan, you also need to adjust the baking time accordingly.

I really liked this cake - it had the perfect chocolate taste and cakey texture.  The sweetness of the icing was a perfect complement to the dark chocolate flavor of the cake and had the added bonus of running down the sides for slightly more icing along the edges.  The icing sets so you can stack the pieces on top of each other if needed and it's not too thick of a layer, even baked in a smaller pan.  Remember to use a good, high quality cocoa for the best results.

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup water

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups granulated sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

½ cup sour cream or buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Icing

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

¼ cup milk

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

3 cups confectioners’ sugar

¾ cup finely chopped nuts of your choice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1.     Preheat the oven to 350˚F.  Butter an 11-by-15-inch pan. (I used a 9 x 13.)

2.     Put the cocoa in a medium saucepan and gradually stir in the water.  Bring to a boil, add the butter and let melt.  Remove from the heat and set aside.

3.     Sift the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt together onto a piece of waxed paper.  Gradually stir the dry ingredients into the cocoa mixture.  Add the eggs, sour cream or buttermilk, and vanilla to the cocoa mixture and stir until smooth.

4.     Pour the batter into the prepared pan.  Bake for 30 minutes, or until the cake is firm to the touch in the center.

5.     While the cake is baking, make the icing: In a medium saucepan, combine the butter, milk and cocoa.  Bring to a boil and stir to melt the butter.  Add the confectioners’ sugar and beat until smooth.  Stir in the nuts and vanilla.

6.     Spread the icing over the hot cake (still in the pan).  Let cool before cutting.

Golden Coconut Bars

Golden Coconut Bars - made May 28, 2011 from King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion (book #116)

This is a beautiful baking book full of lots of different cookie recipes.  It's exactly the kind of cookbook I love to browse through, own and adorn my bookshelf with.  Unfortunately, it's also the type of cookbook where I'm confronted with so many choices on what to make that I sometimes freeze in indecision and end up not making anything from it at all.  Yeah, I'm trying to break myself of that habit.

Despite, or because of, all the choices, sometimes you just want a simple bar cookie.  And I love coconut so this was a no-brainer.  A shortbread crust with coconut topping - what could be better?  If you want to make it more tropical or summery, throw in some macadamia nuts instead of pecans.  I omitted the coconut flavor which I took to mean coconut extract.  Love coconut.  Don't love coconut extract.  Don't even like it.  So vanilla extract it is.

The directions say the crust will be stiff after you mix it.  Mine didn't even gather into a dough.  It was more like a shortbread crust where you cut the butter into the flour and it was more of a crumbly mixture than actual dough.  I didn't sweat it though since some of the best crusts start off as a crumbly mixture before you bake it. This turned out pretty well.  It's pretty basic: shortbread crust, coconut-brown-sugar-flavor topping and macadamia nuts.  If you like that combo, you'd like this cookie.  It's also good for traveling and picnics as summer approaches if you need something to bring on the go.

Crust

4 tablespoons (½ stick, 2 ounces) unsalted butter

¼ cup (2 ounces) brown sugar

Heaping ¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon baking powder

A few drops of coconut flavor (optional)

1 cup (4 ¼ ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour

Topping

1 cup (8 ounces) brown sugar

2 large eggs

Heaping ¼ teaspoon salt

1 ½ cups (4 ½ ounces) shredded sweetened coconut, lightly packed

3 tablespoons (¾ ounce) unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon vanilla extract or a few drops of coconut flavor

1 cup (4 ounces) chopped roasted salted pecans (I used macadamia nuts)

1.     Preheat oven to 350˚F.  Lightly grease a 9 x 9-inch or a 7 x 11-inch pan. (I used an 8 x 8" pan to get a thicker crust.)

2.     To make the crust: In a medium-sized mixing bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, salt, baking powder, and flavoring, if using.  Add the flour, beating to combine; the dough will be stiff.  Press the dough into the prepared pan.  Bake the crust for 10 to 15 minutes, until it’s a light golden brown.  Remove it from the oven.

3.     To make the topping: In a medium-sized mixing bowl, beat together the brown sugar, eggs, and salt, then stir in the coconut, flour and vanilla.  Spread the topping on the crust, smoothing it out the best you can.  Sprinkle with the pecans.

4.     Return the pan to the oven and bake the bars for 25 minutes, or until the topping starts to bubble along the edge.  Remove from the oven, cool slightly and cut into bars.

Nutrition info: 1 bar, 52 g: 215 calories, 10 g fat, 13 mg protein, 10 g carbs, 19 g sugar, 1 g fiber, 35 mg cholesterol, 145 mg sodium, 155 mg potassium