More Dessert...

I have a friend in Prague this summer who just spent her last year in London. I've been dying to bake something, but only if I have someone to share it with. I asked her what, if anything, I could maybe bake. Cookies? Brownies? Cake? She told me about this place called Ben's Cookies in London that apparently has the most amazing cookies. They're soft (not really crunchy) and they have some amazing flavors, including ginger and dark chocolate. Well, I had some ginger left over in my fridge, so decided to try it out!

Instead of using my standard Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, I decided to do a search for "Buttermilk cookies" Why? Because I know that when you make a cake with buttermilk, it is UNBELIEVABLY moist and soft. Also, I have 2 containers at home and wanted to use them before they went bad.

Ideally, I would have used candied ginger as well, but I was too lazy to go out and find it, so I stuck with powdered and freshly grated. Doing the buttermilk cookie search, however, was the best idea EVER. I am a complete convert and will use this recipe as a cookie base from now on. These cookies are AMAZING. But, if you like a crunchy cookie, then don't make these. You won't be happy. If you like soft, cakey cookies, then get thee to the kitchen ASAP and make a batch! They are to die for!

Buttermilk Cookies (with ginger and chocolate chunks, see note at bottom)
(adapted from Buttermilk Cookies, from epicurious.com)

125 g (1 stick) butter
120 g (1/2 c) packed, dark brown sugar
60 g (1/4 c) white sugar
1 tbs freshly grated ginger
1 tsp ground ginger
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
360 g (1 and 1/2 c) flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
80 g (1/3 c) buttermilk
200 g (7 oz) chopped bittersweet chocolate

Preheat oven to 150 degrees C (300 F)
Cream butter, sugar, and gingers together til light and fluffy
Beat in egg and vanilla
Add flour, baking soda, and salt while alternating with the buttermilk
Stir in chocolate chunks
CHILL dough for about 10 minutes in a freezer
Spoon rounded teaspoons onto a greased (or parchment lined) cookie sheet Bake for about 15 minutes or until cookies don't look wet on top.



NOTE: You can modify the flavors too if you like! I made another batch the next day, and used 200 g white chocolate chunks and about 100 g chopped roasted salted peanuts. Mmm mmm!!!

Flash:

Time for dessert...

The abundance of produce here, as I mentioned before, is amazing when summer comes. I went to the open air market the other day and bought a big container of red currants. For the US readers, a red currant has a taste a bit like a cranberry. Sweetish sour, but unlike cranberries, you can just eat red currants straight. What did I do with my currants?

First, I froze two icecube trays of them. I mushed some berries, left some others whole, and put them in the individual icecube slots. Then I poured a bit of water over it all, and froze them. I plan on putting them in vodka or soda water!!

Then, I wanted to really showcase the currants, so I decided to make a not too sweet pie dough, and put in the currants. Any pie crust recipe will do, but what I did was grind up some almonds, and replace about 1/4 c. of the flour with those. It added a delicious nutty taste, and the fat from the almonds added moist richness to the dough.
Then, I pressed balls of the dough into a muffin tin, about 1cm up the sides, to make little tartlet shells. I baked in a 350 (170 C) oven for about 20 minutes, and then popped the shells out. After that, I heaped red currants into the shells, sprinkled some sugar over them, and baked them at 350 for about 10 minutes.

With the leftover currants (yes, I still had more!!!) I combined them in a saucepan with chopped peaches, a sprinkling of sugar, and a tablespoon of light cream. I simmered on low heat for about 45 minutes, and then put it in a container in my fridge. I'll probably use it as a jam, or as a filling between biscuits.

More!

I have been COOKING!
Oh my goodness the things I've been cooking. It's spring/summer time, so the produce is positively BURSTING! For starters, here are a couple of salads I've made:

Chickpea Salad
2 cups cooked chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
1 tbs chopped summer savory
several handfuls halved cherry tomatoes
Sliced leek rounds
2 cloves of garlic mashed with a bunch of salt
4 generous tablespoons EACH of cilantro (coriander) and flat leaf parsley


Sopsky Salad
Chopped green pepper
Chopped tomatoes
Chopped cucumbers
Chopped onions
Mix with feta, vinegar, and a generous helping of salt and pepper

To make the Sopsky Salad really Czech, sprinkle a bit of sugar on it as well.

Flourless Chocolate Cake - STACKED

So my birthday was 2 weeks ago. I just had my party yesterday though. Birthday parties rock because you get to have CAKE. If you like baking and like cakes the way I do, it is pure bliss!

So originally, I had wanted to make a chocolate peanut butter cake, specifically this one from epicurious which looks SO. GOOD. I had 3 problems though:

1) no butterfingers in the Czech Republic
2) I knew that someone would inevitably be allergic to peanuts or hate peanut butter
3) I didn't have 3 of the same size (9 inch) cake pans.

So I had to have a substitute. When I go to restaurants and order dessert, I LOVE ordering dense, fudgy, flourless chocolate cakes if they're on the menu. I mean, I DO have a double x chromosome, that means love for chocolate runs in my GENES for heaven's sake! So I hit up epicurious again looking for a flourless chocolate cake with one other caveat: No separate beating of whites and yolks. Why? Truth be told, I'm really just lazy, and I have 1 hand mixer and not many bowls. I didn't want to have to go through the charade of separating eggs, getting many dishes needlessly dirty, and cleaning and re-cleaning my mixer blades. Besides, beating the whites and then folding them in makes for a more spongey cake, and I wanted FUDGEY, damnit!!!

So I found this recipe, and due to my living in Europe with European measurements, I had to modify it a bit. GOOD thing I did too, because I had been debating about whether I could stack two flourless chocolate tortes or not (I searched the net, but nothing seemed to come up) and eventually had to, due to the amount of extra batter I had. Why would anyone want to stack TWO already rich chocolate tortes? Because I like to do things to excess, and I wanted my cake rich, rich, and rich.

So here is the recipe that I modified a bit from the original:

500 grams bittersweet chocolate
500 grams unsalted butter
1 cup strongly brewed coffee
1 cup packed brown sugar
9 medium eggs, beaten


Preheat oven to 350 °F.
Line bottom of 2 9-inch-diameter cake pan with 2-inch-high sides with parchment.
Place all chocolate in large bowl.
Bring butter, espresso and sugar to boil in medium saucepan, stirring to dissolve sugar.
Add to chocolate; whisk until smooth.
Cool slightly. Whisk in eggs.

Divide batter into prepared pans. Place cake pan in roasting pan. Pour enough hot water into roasting pan to come halfway up sides of cake pan. Bake until center of cake is set and tester inserted into center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, about 30 minutes. Remove pan from water. Chill cake.

While the cake is baking, make the frosting:

120 grams butter

50 grams melted white chocolate

100 grams sour cream

3 tbs powdered sugar

dash of vanilla extract

Whip all ingredients until combined and stiff

Put the first cake on a platter. Spread it with the frosting. Garefully invert the other cake onto a different plate/platter. Slide it off carefully in your hands and place it top side down on the frosting. It took me quite a bit of banging and pleading to get the cakes out of the pans, but eventually they came. I had buttered and floured my pans instead of the parchment, but I would HIGHLY recommend the parchment...

Finally, I glazed it with bittersweet chocolate mixed with some light cream. SO. GOOD. I probably gained about 5 pounds though from it. The good thing too, is that this cake is so rich that it feeds a LOT of people. I think I served about 15-20 with it. :-) I wish I had a picture of it but I totally forgot my camera. Oh well.

Ok, that's a bit of a lie. Here's a picture cropped from another picture. It doesn't look so appetising, but it SO was....

Barbeque Sauce

I like barbeque. Who doesn't? My partner ESPECIALLY likes barbeque sauce; it's his ideal. Thick, spicy, sweet, tangy...it has everything he wants in a sauce. In the Czech Republic though, bottled barbeque sauce is either a) a bit expensive or b) overly sugary.

I've never been as obsessed with barbeque sauce as my partner, but I've always sighed in frustration at the lack of barbeque sauce recipes that DON'T contain ketchup. My goal, one day, is to make a barbeque sauce from purely basic ingredients (this includes omitting worcestershire sauce and getting down to the meat and bones of the sauce ingredients - one by one) While I didn't have time to omit the worcestershire, I definitely thought I could omit the ketchup. What more is ketchup than tomato paste, sugar, and salt? So I finally got in the kitchen and made a barbeque sauce without ketchup! I used only the back of a barbeque sauce ingredients label (and a few obvious additions) as a guide. The only problem is, I didn't measure the ingredients (like always) but I'll make a list of ingredients, and whoever wants to try this can adjust to their tastes. When I was done adding sauce ingredients, I put in some cubed pork shoulder for a good ol' American tasting barbeque treat on the stovetop.

Start:
Paste of 1 onion, 4 cloves garlic, 1 jalepeno with seeds (if you want it spicy)

After they sweated a bit I added:
50 g tomato paste
2 tbs mustard powder (I may have added more in later, I forget)
1 tbs of tamarind pulp
Several long glugs of tomato juice (maybe about 600-700 ml?)
tbs or two of maple syrup
3 de-seeded finely chopped tomatoes
2 finely chopped sundried tomatoes
bit of water
LOTS of worcestershire sauce
chile powder
garlic powder
onion powder
red pepper flakes
2 tbs mushroom flavored soy sauce
about a tbs of liquid smoke
splash of vinegar
Generous pinch SALT
pepper

Try it. Play with it. I guarantee you it'll be delicious. I left mine un-pureed and had little chunks of tomato and onion in it, which I thought was just fabulous.

Slecna Sara's Cheesecake

The creation of this cheesecake has a slightly interesting story. The other day, my mischievous cat learned how to climb on top of the refrigerator. Unfortunately for me, I had left 4 eggs in their carton on top of the refrigerator, assuming that he DIDN'T know how to get up there. Well, as I'm sure you can guess, he pawed that egg carton until it fell off the refrigerator and promptly cracked all but 1 egg. I was left with about 2 whole eggs and 1 yolk (the white had sadly seeped off onto the tablecloth) I put them into my fridge, knowing I would make something.
Another recent acquisition of mine is a springform pan (Cake!) So I decided I would use that and the eggs. What to make for the cake though? My friend Sara and I were talking the other day, and she loves the crusts of cheesecakes. So I decided that I would make a cheesecake with an extra thick crust, just for her. She also likes sour cream a lot, and I had some languishing in the fridge, so I thought I would include that as well. After searching epicurious.com, I found a recipe that seemed pretty basic and that didn't require many eggs. It's right here for those who want to read it.
I've just realised my mistake in making it, but it was a good one, so I'll continue. On with the crust! Here in Czechia, we dont really have graham crackers. We do, however, have lots of nilla wafers (detske piskoty) which I think are just as good (if not better) than graham crackers. Since I wanted the crust to be EXTRA THICK, I used a whole 240g bag, which yeilded about 300g of crumbs. However, as you will see the recipe, you can to this or double it for an XXL crust. Now here is my mistake: The recipe calls for 3 eight ounce packages of cream cheese. Simple enough. 8 ounces in a cup, 250 g in a cup, so 750 g of cream cheese. Now, the last time I made a cheesecake, I used about 1 kg of cream cheese, and this thought was automatically in my head. So I ended up using 1 kg of cream cheese PLUS 250 g of farmers cheese. I also whipped the eggs like crazy. This ended up giving me a super thick cream cheese batter, but it was fluffy and DELICIOUS, so if you want a big ass cheesecake (not dissimilar to a cheesecake factory cheesecake) use that. For a more normal cheesecake, follow the recipe.

Slecna Sara's Cheeesecake

Crust:
2 240 g bags of detske piskoty, crushed into crumbs
250 g melted butter
1 tsp salt

Cake:
2 eggs and 1 yolk
1 cup sugar
pinch salt
1 tbs vanilla
1 kg cream cheese
250 g farmers cheese
3 generous tablespoons sour cream
Zest of 1 lemon

To make the crust, combine all the ingredients and press into a 7 inch springform pan
Bake for about 10 minutes at 150 c or until dry to touch

Beat the eggs and the yolk with the sugar on high speed until light colored, thick, and voluminous
Beat in the other ingredients on high speed until thick and frosting like

smooth the batter into the crust (there will be LOTS)
Bake at 150 c for about an hour and 15 minutes, or until center of cheesecake seems dry to the touch


As a side note, I used plain old tesco brand "soft cheese", Tvaroh (0,5% fat) and detske piskoty. This cake was surprisingly cheap to make, I'd say probably about 80 crowns! It still tasted fabulous though, despite it's generic ingredients.

Don't forget to share you decadent cake, or you will become a fatty!

Wishlist

I've already mentioned my fondness for browsing cnet.com's kitchen gadgets blog. I'm sure that every cook, even the ones that thing they have everything, have a kind of "wish list" of gadgets. The following is my list, what are yours?

1. Donvier Ice Cream Maker Perfect for whichever country my wanderlust may take me to: this ice cream machine doesn't use electricity (no, it doesn't use salt either). It's so cool. So elegant. How can you not want one? One of the only things holding me back from this appliance is that I'm not sure I'd make that much ice cream. I probably WOULD however, try to make fro yo and sorbets.

2. Home Hot and Cold Smoker Simply put, smoked things taste better. I don't eat a lot of meat and LOVE fish, so I need a smoker that would do cold smoking (can we say smoked cheese galore?) as well as the occasional hot. However, this appliance is as big as a small fridge. And living by myself, I'd say the chances of frequent use for this one are nil. Sadly :-(

3. Kitchen Aid Mixer Who DOESN'T want one of these? I just found a place that sells them in Czechia, but no price listed. I shudder to think how much it would cost. Additionally, I shudder to think of what would happen if I decided to move to England, Canada, or anywhere else that has a different electrical plug system than mainland Europe. But Ach, all those amazing attachments! Pasta! Sausages! Cakes! A GRAIN MILL! This is the grandmother of all that is mixed in the kitchen. I think I want Boysenberry.

*~Update: I just found a place that sells them in the Czech Republic. How much? At today's exchange rate (CZK 20.5 / $1) a cool $761~*

4. Food Dehydrator I can make banana chips and apple chips and dried strawberries and...and...and...everything without the added sugar and deep frying. Besides, it'd be great if I ever decide to one day go Raw Foodie (don't laugh, I was vegan, and the Raw food diet DID cross my mind several times...)

5. Home Canner When summer comes, and there are so many fresh fruits and veggies (especially tomatoes) I am dying dying dying to make tomato sauces, preserves, etc., to just pop open whenever I may need (ESPECIALLY) tomato sauce/juice. And the jars. Love love love the jars. However, I don't really have the storage means for the canner OR the finished canned goods. Sad, really. However, one of the nice things about a home canner is that it doubles as a pressure cooker as well. But, a really large pressure cooker, meaning large amounts of food, meaning terrible choice for single female.

6. Le Creuset French Oven I know, many of you might think I have one already but I don't. I'm almost embarassed to admit it.

7. Set of 4 Cheese knives There's one for every type of cheese! Soft and crumbly cheese, unripened cheese, hard cheese and for medium soft to medium hard cheese. Why wouldn't I get this? Because when I have cheese I kind of hoard it. I don't like sharing (i.e., entertaining with cheese, which would inevitably lead to using these knives) Yes, it's a bit disturbing.

8. Mandoline I suppose I COULD get this, but I haven't because there are so many out there, I'm worried about picking the wrong one! I DO like this one though because it stands on it's own and has a fairly simple looking dial to adjust thickness...

9. Bamboo Steamer Steamed fish and veggies all day every day. What could be better?

10. Digital Scale No more converting from ounces to cups to grams to mililitres. *sigh*

Ok, I'll probably add to this list later, but now I must get back to work. If you haven't noticed, another favorite site of mine to browse these gadgets is The Brooklyn Kitchen

Finally one more: A thermometer that works for meat as well as candy!!!