Tag: Chocolate Chip

Weekend Finds 12:15:13

It’s time for weekend finds!

1. Chefs Feed

Chefs Feed // Serious Crust by Annie Fassler
The Chefs Feed homepage

My latest neat food-oriented website discovery is Chefs Feed, a website where you can look up chef recommended dishes, restaurants, and chefs in your town. Who better to trust than these experts themselves?

2. Winter Fruit Whiskey Mash

Winter Fruit Whiskey Mash from A Beautiful Mess // Serious Crust by Annie Fassler
Winter Fruit Whiskey Mash from A Beautiful Mess

This winter drink looks delicious. If I were in a rush, I would probably skip the persimmon simple syrup (though I think I need to give persimmons another try), and head straight for the muddled orange and pomegranate.

3. Reclaiming Provincial

Reclaiming Provincial // Serious Crust by Annie Fassler
Reclaiming Provincial

I found this blog through another blog (now I can’t remember which one), and I’m pretty happy about the discovery. With recipes like smoky cardamom ginger-molasses cookies and crispy sweet potato roast with herbed coconut creme fraiche, they seem unique, interesting, and the photos are beautiful.

4. Easy roasted chicken

Chicken Legs inspired by FoodSwoon // Serious Crust by Annie Fassler
Chicken Legs inspired by FoodSwoon

The other day Jonah and I bought some whole bone in, skin on chicken legs, and it was my job to figure out what to do with them. After some research, I based my creation on this recipe from FoodSwoon, except instead of doing either garlic or herbs or butter, I did all three. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Peel a few garlic cloves and cut each one into a few pieces, and pick a  few herb leaves (I used sage). Peel back the chicken skin and place the sage and garlic underneath (I did probably 3 cloves and 6 sage leaves per leg), then tightly and carefully re-wrap the skin. Rub each leg with half a teaspoon of butter, and season with salt and pepper. Roast for 45-55 minutes, until chicken is cooked through. (Also, FoodSwoon looks like it will quickly become a recipe resource for me.)

5. Mulled Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Mulled Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies from London Bakes // Serious Crust by Annie Fassler
Mulled Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies from London Bakes

I went out for drinks and a white elephant gift exchange with some former co-workers the other night, and the place we went had some mulled wine, which I promptly ordered. When they asked what I got, and I said “mulled wine!” with all the enthusiasm that one ought to have when you say that phrase, all I received in return were blank stares. THEY HAD NEVER HEARD OF MULLED WINE. I was sad for them. We’ve made mulled wine and cider a couple times this year, and I can’t get over how much I love mulling spices in anything. So this recipe for chocolate chip cookies with mulled brown butter from London Bakes seems pretty decadent and incredibly perfect. I love the idea of using orange chocolate for the chips as well, just to tie everything together. (Also, the inspiration recipe from Top with Cinnamon also sounds wonderful.)

Friday Finds 6:28:13

1. Chocolate Chip, Apricot, and Espresso Cookies

Friday Finds: Chocolate apricot espresso cookies by Orangette // Serious Crust by Annie Fassler
Chocolate apricot espresso cookies from Orangette

I made these chocolate chip cookies with apricot and espresso from Orangette while in Seattle. They were warm and rich and oh so lovely. I definitely recommend for a cooler than usual summer day.

2. Homemade Ice Cream

Friday Finds: Ice Cream Recipes from Food52 // Serious Crust by Annie Fassler
Ice Cream Recipes from Food52

I can’t wait for it to get hot enough that all I want to do is make ice cream. It has to be pretty warm for me to not want to use my oven, but I have faith that it will happen. I need it to, so I can try some of these amazing looking flavors.

3. Homegrown Garlic!

Friday Finds: Homegrown garlic! // Serious Crust by Annie Fassler
Homegrown garlic!

Jonah harvested our first head of garlic, and it just makes me so excited! Jonah gets any and all garden credit. He took the initiative, drove me to the garden store, and did most of the digging around in the dirt. And man oh man, have I been reaping the rewards! Fava beans? Broccoli? Kale? Lettuce? Garlic scapes? And now garlic? Yahoo!

4. Bollywood Theater

Friday Finds: Bollywood Theater // Serious Crust by Annie Fassler
Bollywood Theater

Bollywood Theater, probably my favorite Indian restaurant in all of Portland is opening a second location near my office (and it’s crazy reasonably priced!). So… that’s a dangerous thing.

5. Corn

Friday Finds: Mexican Street Corn Salad by Love and Lemons // Serious Crust by Annie Fassler
Mexican Street Corn Salad by Love and Lemons

Corn is back, and with it, lots of corn filled recipes: My roommate Carmelle has the most amazing cornbread recipe that we made for commune dinner this week, I made risotto with fava beans and corn (recipe coming soon), and this tried and true corn salad. Next up? This Mexican street corn salad looks crazy good.

Simple Brownies with Almond

Simple Brownies

Simple Brownies

My co-worker Kelly, who I’ve written about before, has a commune dinner every Monday night. He lives near a bunch of his friends and all of them and their kids (and their pets) all convene for dinner every week. A few weeks ago, Jonah and started joining in. It’s really nice to have that sense of community, which I think can be hard to find when you’re in your 20s and you don’t live near your family.

Going over to Kelly’s on Mondays is so calming. Every member of this group is so kind and funny. They have been having these meals for I’m not sure how many years, but they weren’t even phased when Jonah and I started showing up every week, and have been so incredibly welcoming, pulling up chairs to the table and always making sure we have a drink in our hand. It immediately feels like we’re a part of this family, with the two little boys running around the house and the dogs barking outside. And they feed us delicious food, so I can’t complain.

The first night we went, instead of just grabbing a bottle of wine and heading over (which I was later scolded for not doing), I decided to whip up a batch of brownies. There’s a relatively quick recipe in An Everlasting Meal, so I pulled it out and made a couple of adjustments (mainly replacing half a teaspoon of the vanilla extract with almond extract), and they turned out to be a huge hit. The almond was a really nice and unique flavor with the chocolate.

Simple Almond Brownies

Ingredients

4 oz unsweetened chocolate
2 sticks butter
3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 cup flour
a handful (or 2) of chocolate chips, or walnuts

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease a 13×9 inch baking dish or pan. In a double boiler on the stove (or a heat proof bowl or a pot over a pot of simmering water), melt the chocolate and butter together, stirring so it’s all nice and smooth. Remove the bowl or pot from heat and let it cool. Once it is cool, add the eggs, beating after each addition. Add the sugar, vanilla, and almond, stir, and then add the flouring, stirring until combined. Pour the batter into the pan and sprinkle the chocolate chips (or walnuts, if you’re using them) on top. You can put on as many as you like or as few. Bake for about 30 minutes, but do the clean knife/toothpick check at 20. Mine took roughly 35 minutes. Enjoy!

Jonah’s Birthday: Mint Chocolate Chip Cake

I wasn't able to catch it before it was thoroughly enjoyed by our house, but hey, it still looks delicious!

Jonah’s birthday was a little over a month ago, but I am just now getting around to posting about his birthday cake. It has been a little busy around here! We are finishing up the recording of Jonah’s first solo full length album – I was in the studio Friday afternoon, Saturday afternoon, and am going back today. Let me tell you guys, it sounds amazing. I’ll tell you all more about it when we get closer to the release. But big cool things happening, I promise.

Anyway, for Jonah’s birthday, my roommate Carmelle and I made him a mint chocolate chip cake, a recipe I’ve been eyeing for quite some time. And let me say, of our birthday treats, this one has been my favorite. This chocolate cake recipe was definitely one of the more perfect ones I’ve made. It was perfectly chocolatey, light, and moist. In the future, I will use this cake as a base for many exciting things, I can tell. The frosting was wonderfully minty, but not overpowering. Overall, the flavors were really nice, and it’s definitely a good occasion cake because it’s unique.

Mint Chocolate Chip Cake

Ingredients

Cake

9 Tbl unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups cake flour (If you don’t have cake flour and don’t want to buy a whole bag for 1 1/2 cups, use plain flour and replace 3 tbsp with cornstarch)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup coffee
1/2 cup milk

Frosting

2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
~4 cups powdered sugar
2-3 tsp peppermint extract (plus some for taste)
Milk, if necessary
150g dark chocolate, very finely chopped
green food coloring

Instructions

Cake

Butter and line with parchment paper two 9-inch cake pans and preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, sift together the cocoa, flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. In an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar fora  few minutes until it’s smooth. Add the eggs, mixing after each addition until fully combined.

In a cup, mix the milk and coffee together and set aside. Add half of the dry ingredients and the coffee/milk mixture to the butter mixture, and stir. Add the second half of the dry ingredients and mix until smooth. Split the batter into the prepared cake pans, and bake for about 25 minutes, or until you’ve had a successful toothpick test. Remove from the oven and allow the cakes to cool for about 5 minutes in their pans, then remove them onto a wire cooling rack and allow them to cool completely before icing them.

Frosting

Now it’s time for the icing. I will give full disclosure: Carmelle and Mac made the icing, iced the cake, and decorated while I was out… doing something… I can’t quite remember at the time. I advise rinsing out the bowl of your electric mixer and using that again. Cut the butter into smaller pieces and put them in the mixing bowl. Beat until it’s fluffy. Now add the powdered sugar one cup at a time (or 1/2 cup at a time once you’re getting closer to the right consistency), beating between each addition until combined. If it gets too stiff, you can add a little bit of milk (think 1 Tbl at a time) to get it back to the right consistency. Add the peppermint extract and enough green food coloring to get it to that pretty mint green color. Slowly add the chocolate pieces until it looks the way you’d like and, more importantly, there’s a good amount of chocolate.

Put the first cake on whatever you’re going to use to serve: a cake stand, a plate, etc. Using about 1/4 of the icing,  frost the top of the first layer. Place second cake one top of the first, and cover the whole dang thing with the rest of the icing. Carmelle pointed out that one of the beauties of this cake was that if little crumbs came off the cake and got in the icing, it didn’t really matter, because there were already little brown bits of chocolate in it. Mac used the extra chopped chocolate to make a lovely little design op top. Serve with candles and a glass of milk!