More chocolate please

I've been doing a lot of crafting in the last few months. I never really got into knitting (too ADD?), but when a friend recently showed me how to wire wrap my own earrings, I went a little nuts. And once I had an absurd amount of dangly earrings, I needed a better place to store them than on the bathroom counter. Here's my solution. Fine black plastic mesh in a picture frame. I feel so clever. Now I have to stop making earrings. I am also planning to make a wedding quilt in lieu of a guestbook. Not that I've ever made anything using a sewing machine unless I was supervised by a pro seamstress. We'll see how that goes in a few months.


I'm always looking for a cookie/brownie that maximizes chocolate per bite while not getting dry or otherwise unpleasant. I've had this recipe on my "to bake" list for a couple of months now. Not sure how I only just made them. Yes, they do take the equivalent of two normal-sized bags (24 oz.) of chocolate chips per batch. I didn't try the recipe that calls for 42 oz. Patience, grasshopper.


Chocolate Chubbie's
adapted from Sarabeth's Bakery

• 1 stick (8 Tbsp) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 12 oz. semisweet chocolate chips (or 9 oz. bittersweet + 3 oz. unsweetened)
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 eggs, at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 12 oz. (2 cups) semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 cups coarsely chopped walnuts (or with half pecans)

1. Position racks in center and top third of oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper
2. Bring 1 inch of water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Put the butter in a metal bowl and melt over the water. Add 12 oz. of chocolate and stir until melted and smooth. Remove from heat and let sit for 5 minutes to cool.
3. Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt in a little bowl.
   
4. Whip the eggs with your fancy mixer or whisk until foamy. Add sugar and vanilla and whip for 3 more minutes until very thick and pale yellow. Beat in the lukewarm chocolate mixture. Gradually stir in the flour mixture by hand. Stir in the remaining chocolate chips and nuts. Dough will be softer than most cookie dough.
   
5. Scoop batter by 2 Tbsp-fulls onto pans, placing them 1-1/2 inches apart. Bake, switching positions halfway through, for 17-20 minutes, until the edges are set. Don't overbake them (though the batch I overbaked was delicious once you gummed them a bit. . .). Cool completely before storing.
   

Oops. The cookie that broke obviously needs to be culled from the pack.

Madness

I am so excited to spend this summer in Boulder. Last summer was awesome (Cape Cod Micro Boot Camp), but Boulder is such a beautiful place, it seemed a shame to be away. I haven't been out on my bike yet, but I'm playing ultimate again. It's like crack. I know it's not good for my body and I can't play it forever, but it makes me so darned happy. I can't stop. I'm hoping to play with a club team this year and make it to a bunch of tournaments. And practice. I miss practice. Sometimes when the Colorado women are practicing behind my building, I sit and stare. I might look creepy, but I don't really care.

This month has been and will continue to be insane. Thesis proposal defense, getting concrete samples made and into my field site for the summer, conference poster in May, trying to get two different types of sequence data. Etc.

On another note, we saw the Atlas Shrugged movie last night. It was entertaining, though the acting and casting was a little off. It was rough to see my favorite character in all fiction portrayed as shaggy and chubby. But a lot of scenes were pretty good. And the sleazeballs sure were sleazeballs.

Matt likes to make mochas in the morning to take to work, and usually used Hershey's dark chocolate syrup. We happened to run out, and I happened to run across a recipe. I get serious pleasure from making simple things at home that other people just buy. Bread. Jam. Pasta Sauce. And now chocolate syrup.


Chocolate syrup

• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp vanilla

1. Mix sugar, water and cocoa in a small pan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and cook for 30 minutes.
   
2. Remove from heat and add vanilla.
   

You can cook it longer or shorter to get the consistency you want. I also added a handful of chocolate chips to make it extra delicious. I put it in a cute squeeze bottle I'd saved.

The most ridiculous cake you've ever seen.

I'm in the middle of nowhere at a lab in Illinois for a relatively lame conference that is causing me to miss yet another summer weekend in Colorado. On a scale of 1 to excited, I'd say I'm hovering around a -2. The security is pretty stupid and they have to escort cabs into the premises with these fancy official black escort cars. And we need to have a badge and photo id at all time. Oh, the things we do for funding. I did get to see some cool stuff though, including an electron microscope with 1/2 angstrom (10^-12) resolution and a supercomputer with 5 petabytes of disc drives and 160,000 processors. Scientists get the coolest toys.

Last week was my first week back and work. Things went really fast. The postdoc who was partly in charge of me left for good, so I spent some time frantically figuring out what she got done in the past 2 months while I was away. Colorado is still beautiful, and I got out on my bike a few times to enjoy the (somehow still green) scenery. And I can now get my puppy fix as someone with a dog moved in with my friends.

My friend E e-mailed me this recipe last week, and I was immediately convinced that we needed to make it. Soon. I had planned to go to a band concert on Monday night, but when we got an invite to T and E's for dinner, I decided to bail on the concert and make this cake instead. And what a good decision that was. E was even borrowing a super fancy Nikon from a friend, so I got to play with taking fun pictures of the cake and of everyone eating it.

It's pretty much a flourless chocolate cake topped with hazelnut and chocolate studded meringue. I don't know why I haven't though of that before. Yum.

Chocolate Hazelnut Cake

from Tartelette

• 10 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 6 large eggs, separated
• 12 oz. bittersweet chocolate, melted over double boiler
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 Tbsp rum
• 1/4 tsp salt

• 4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 cup hazelnuts, toasted, skinned, and roughly chopped
• 1 Tbsp cornstarch
• 4 egg whites
• 3/4 cup sugar

1. Toast hazelnuts in oven for 10 minutes at 350 and rub when cool to remove skins. Chop the skinned nuts. Melt chocolate over boiling water in double boiler or metal bowl placed over a saucepan.
2. Preheat oven to 350. Butter sides and bottom of a 9" springform pan. Line bottom of pan with parchment paper. Butter the paper too.
3. Whip butter and brown sugar in stand mixer until pale and smooth (3 minutes). Add 6 egg yolks one at a time and beat until smooth. Add melted chocolate, rum, vanilla, and salt. Beat until combined.
4. Carefully clean the mixer bowl to ensure not fat particles remain. Beat the 6 egg white until soft peaks form. Fold a third of the whites into the chocolate mixture. Fold in remaining whites.
5. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 25 minutes.
6. Beat egg whites on medium until frothy. Increase to high and slowly add sugar. Continue to beat until stiff peaks form (about 4 minutes). Don't overbeat!
7. Combine chopped chocolate, hazelnuts, and cornstarch in a bowl. Fold into beaten egg whites.
8. Remove cake from oven. Spread meringue mixture atop warm cake, being careful not to deflate it. Bake for another 25 minutes.
9. Transfer pan to cooling rack and let sit for 10 minutes. Remove the outside ring of the pan. Let cool another 30 minutes before cutting.

Dijon (it's not French for mustard)

Admission: I've been meaning to food blog for a long time, and have always come up with some excuse. My camera is too old, my kitchen's lighting sucks, my food isn't pretty. And so on. But here I am, ready to take the plunge. Luckily, I have an immensely charming sister who also spends way to much time reading blogs (of another sort) and was willing to go in together. Also, I got a cute little lamp to improve the lighting in my kitchen.

Doesn't it remind you of the Pixar lamp?

To start off, I figured I should make something fantabulous and unusual. Enter dijon + pretzels + caramel + chocolate. I've always been partial to mustard as a condiment, and to salty sweet things, so I figured this recipe from Gourmet's website would be a good excuse.

The recipe instructs you to make a wet caramel with water and sugar. As you can see, my first try didn't turn out so well. And it actually looks better than the second try. I think they all got the idea to crystallize and it spread like. . . a prion?

Caramel fail.

But finally, success!

Thanks to David Lebowitz though, I tried making the caramel without water, which worked much better. When it gets nice and smooth, stop the caramel with the butter, cream, mustard, and 2 Tbsp water (because I didn't add it at the beginning)

Mmmmm. Dijon.

Line your pan with foil (I used a 9x9) and lightly grease it, then lay in your pretty pretzels in an organized fashion. Though less organization would certainly taste good too. A third of the pretzels should be crushed/chunked up.

Naked pretzels

with the caramel

When the caramel is done, pour it over the pretzel layer and let is hang out for about 20 minutes until it's hard. Meanwhile, melt your chocolate in a bowl over a pot of boiling water. Spread it over the caramel and sprinkle the crushed pretzels over it. Then let it cool in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Mustard Caramel Crunchies with Chocolate Glaze
adapted from Gourmet

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/8 cup water
• 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon heavy cream
• 6 oz thin pretzel sticks, divided
• 8 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1. Line baking pan with nonstick foil, leaving an overhang on 2 sides. Arrange two thirds (4 oz) of pretzel sticks in baking pan, all in same direction.
2. Heat the sugar in a saucepan over medium heat, folding and stirring as the bottom begins to melt. Keep stirring to keep the caramel from burning. When the caramel is smooth and dark-amber colored, remove from heat and add mustard, butter, cream, and water . It will bubble a lot, but keep stirring carefully until incorporated
3. Pour caramel over pretzels as evenly as possible. Let caramel set, 20 to 30 minutes.
4. Put remaining 2 oz pretzels in a resealable bag and crush with a rolling pin.
5. Melt chocolate in a bowl over a pot of boiling water and pour over caramel layer, spreading evenly. Sprinkle with crushed pretzels. Chill 30 minutes.
6. Lift out confection using foil overhang and transfer to a cutting board. Let stand about 10 minutes, then cut into 36 squares. Invert to serve caramel side up (lift squares off foil to serve).