The Baked Brownie

I made these at home--I think this is the last recipe I'm posting that I made at home, the rest will be from my new kitchen. They were definitely very good brownies, probably my favorites, though a kid tried them and didn't like them and that may be because of the coffee flavor (everyone else loved them).

Okay so funny story, I had the chocolate melting over the stove and got out the instant espresso powder to make this recipe, only to notice that it was a solid block dried to the bottom of the container. Wow. And I couldn't make these brownies without a coffee flavor for fear that they would not turn out as good, since these brownies were supposed to be some of the best...so I looked online for a substitute, only to find really, none. So I decided to take out some coffee from a bag (It was ground, though not as finely as the powder...okay so I have nooo clue about anything coffee except that I like my skinny flavored lattes from Starbucks) and ground it with my mom's mortar and pestle. And it seems to have worked, though I don't know how the flavor will change when I try this recipe with instant espresso powder. I think they taste great, and I ground the coffee fine enough so that there was no textural difference.

The Baked Brownie
Recipe from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking
Recipe found on Cakespy

1 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons dark cocoa powder
11 ounces quality dark chocolate (60-72%), chopped coarsely
8 ounces butter (2 sticks), cut into 1 inch cubes
1 tsp instant espresso powder
1 ½ cups sugar
½ cup light brown sugar
5 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Butter the sides and bottom of a glass or light colored metal pan 9x13x2 pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, the salt, and cocoa powder.

Configure a large sized double boiler. Place the chocolate, the butter, and the instant espresso powder in the bowl of the double boiler and stir occasionally until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and combined. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water of the double boiler and add both sugars. Whisk the sugars until completely combined and remove the bowl from the pan. Mixture should be room temperature.

Add three eggs to the chocolate/butter mixture and whisk until just combined. Add the remaining eggs and whisk until just combined. Add the vanilla and stir until combined. Do not over beat the batter at this stage or your brownies will be cakey.

Sprinkle the flour/cocoa/salt mix over the chocolate. Using a spatula (DO NOT USE A WHISK) fold the dry into the wet until there is just a trace amount of the flour/cocoa mix visible.

Pour the mixture into the pan and smooth the top with your spatula. Bake the brownies for 30 minutes (rotate the pan half-way through baking) and check to make sure the brownies are completely done by sticking a toothpick into the center of the pan. The brownies are done when the toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs.

Cool the brownies completely before cutting and serving.

Chai Snickerdoodles

I cannot begin to tell you how delicious these cookies are. I like chocolate, but not as much as something different. Snickerdoodles in general are okay. But these are snickerdoodles with a chai twist, and they are SO. SO. Good. And easy. So if you want something different from the regular chocolate or the regular snickerdoodle, try these.

Chai Snickerdoodles
Recipe from My Madison Bistro

1 ¾ cups granulated sugar, divided
½ cup room temperature unsalted butter*
½ cup non-hydrogenated shortening*
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon ginger
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon ground cardamom

Preheat oven to 400*F

Sift the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

Cream 1 ½ cups sugar, the butter, and shortening on medium speed. Add eggs, 1 at a time, until mixed.

Reduce speed to low and slowly add the flour mixture until just combined, scraping down the bowl with a spatula as needed.

In a small bowl, mix the remaining ¼ cup sugar with the spices

Form dough into 1 ¼ inch balls and roll in sugar mixture. Place 2 inches apart on parchment lined baking sheets. Bake 8-10 minutes; cool 5 minutes on baking sheet before removing to wire rack to thoroughly cool.

*You can use all butter for this recipe, or substitute coconut oil for the non-hydrogenated shortening.

Sugar Cookie Cutouts

I was trying to think of something to do with my friends (I live somewhere where there is never anything to do) and came up with cookie decorating. For this, I use a recipe I've used before (to make pokeball cookies) and baked a variety of shapes, and then one of my friends brought over frosting and we mixed colors and decorated. The best thing about these cookies was how they were decorated--the recipe itself was okay, but personally I prefer my mom's christmas sugar cookies, which are a little crispier. The frosting was store-bought. Below, the 3rd picture (first of the decorated ones) were decorated by me. The last picture (the one below that) are cookies decorated by my friend Kristin.

Sugar Cookie Cutouts
Recipe from Allrecipes

1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

New York Style Cheesecake with Strawberry Sauce

Lastly for my mom's bookgroup retreat, I made a New York Style Cheesecake with a strawberry sauce. They were reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: A Novel, by Jonathan Safran Foer, and since that's based in New York it seemed appropriate. This cheesecake is based off a recipe my mom used to make, so I don't know where it's from originally, but she has adapted it over the years. The strawberry sauce is just made by letting strawberries sit (either defrosted strawberries or fresh strawberries) and cut them up together and then mixing them with sugar to taste. It turned out great!!

Because I'm no longer home, I don't know the recipe...so if you want it, I'll post it later, so comment if you want it & keep checking back!

Nutella Marbled Banana Bread

The second thing I made for my mom's bookgroup retreat is this Nutella Marbled Banana Bread. It was really good and pretty easy--though I'm not very good at marbling. If you like nutella, I still very much reccommend these Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies, which I've made 3 or 4 times already and everyone always loooves. I go back to the East Coast in less than a week, and school shortly after that, and that'll probably be the first thing I bake in my new kitchen for my friends back at school!

Nutella Marbled Banana Bread
Recipe from Sugar Plum
2 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cups mashed ripe banana
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1/2 cup Nutella
Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 9-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.

In a medium mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In a large mixing bowl, using a mixer on medium speed, beat together banana, butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla until creamy and well combined - about 2 minutes. Beat in eggs until well combined - about 2 minutes. Reduce mixer speed to low and beat in flour mixture until just combined. Divide 1/2 of of the batter into a medium bowl; stir in Nutella until combined.

Alternate spoonfuls of batter into loaf pan until all of the batter is used up. Swirl batter gently with a knife (not too much!). Bake 1 hour or until well risen, deep golden brown, and a toothpick inserted into bread comes out with moist crumbs attached.
Makes 1 loaf

Mushroom Onion Quiche

This year my mom had another book group retreat. Last year, I made Lemon Cake with Chocolate Buttercream and Vanilla Yogurt Cake with Orange Glaze. This year, I made 3 different dishes. The first one is this Mushroom Onion Quiche, a quiche that my mom used to make back when she went to college. It's super easy and you can easily use a frozen crust (which I did, and then baked it and let it cool ahead of time) to cut down the time even more.

My Mom's College Mushroom-Onion Quiche

1 prebaked, 9-inch pie crust
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 cup chopped onions
1/2 cup grated swiss cheese plus 1 tsp flour
3 eggs
1 1/2 cup milk
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper

Saute onions and mushrooms. Remove when onions are soft and transparent. Cool and spread on bottom of prebaked pie shell.

Toss cheese with flour and sprinkle over mushrooms and onions. Beat eggs with remaining ingredients until well mixed, and pour over mixture.

Bake at 375F for 30-35 minutes, or until a knife inserted at center and edge comes out clean. Let stand for 10 minutes.

Chinese Pork and Egg Stir Fry

I got this recipe from Chinese One Dish Meals, a book my mom had at home, and it turned out really great. I think adding more egg and maybe some broccoli would have been good too. I'm not sure if the version you can buy at amazon (linked above) is the same that my mom has, but basically you marinate pork with soy sauce, cooking wine, and cornstarch; stir fry that, scramble some eggs, stir fry some spinach, and then some veggies (I followed the recipe and added onions, mushrooms, and carrots), and gradually add them all together with water, salt, sugar, cornstarch, sesame oil, and pepper. The exact recipe you can look for in the book, or you can probably whip up something similar yourself. I just thought everything went together well and it tasted great!