Chocolate-almond bark

Continuing from the last post, we also decided to make a holiday bark to add to our collection of cookies to give colleagues and friends. Turns out, everyone loved the goodies, and this will mostly likely be an annual tradition here on out!

Ingredients:

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tbsp butter

3/4 cup almonds

1/2 lb 60% cacao chocolate

sea salt for sprinkling

Directions:

1. Line a baking sheet with foil. Place sugar in saucepan and make caramel out of it under low heat. Do not stir; wait for edges of sugar to turn brown. Swirl slightly. After about 20 minutes, after the sugar has turned brown, remove from heat. Add in the almonds, and the butter. Stir until well coated. Transfer to baking sheet. and break to form caramel coated almonds. Set aside nuts to top bark. 

2. Stir chocolate in a bowl set over simmering water. Stir chocolate is completely melted. 

3.  Remove from heat and add in nut mixture. Spread chocolate nut mixture on the baking sheet. Top with the reserved nuts and sprinkle with salt.

4.  Chill until chocolate is set, around 3 hours. Break bark into pieces.

Cardamom crescent cookies

As part of making holiday cookies for colleagues and friends, we picked out recipes from last month's issue of Bon Appetit. These cardamom cookies looked especially delicious and capture the holiday spirit marvelously, while looking great too. I was sold on cardamom. It must be the Indian in me. As a kid, I remember drinking this great cardamom- milk drink sold at train stations. I can still taste it. I digress. I was mostly pleased with this cookie recipe, but I would have made the cookies a little smaller for next time around.

Ingredients( 24 cookies):

1 1/4 cups flour

3/8 tsp ground cardamom

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup pecans

1 stick unsalted butter

1/2 tbsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. 

2. Whisk flour, cardamom, cinnamon and salt in a bowl. Then combine, the sugar and pecans in a food processor and pulse until a coarse meal forms. 

3. In a mixer, beat the butter and vanilla extract until creamy for about 2-3 minutes. Add nut mixture and beat to blend. Then add dry ingredients and blend well. Then transfer to work surface and knead to form a ball. 

4. Form small balls and shape into crescent. Space the cookies about 1 inch apart on the baking sheets on the parchment paper. . 

5. Bake for around 12- 15 minutes until the bottoms are golden.

6.  Sift the powdered sugar. Roll the warm cookies in the powdered sugar. Transfer to wire rack and let cool.

Almond-oatmeal crisps

For the holidays, we wanted to make a collection of cookies to share at work and with friends. Inspired by recipes we saw in last month's issue of Bon Appetit, we decided to try them out. I had never tried making oatmeal crisps before, but I remember eating them when my family bought them at Costco. They are still delicious, by the way. This particular recipe is super easy, and the results were super too. And they're pretty, and dainty, who are we kidding?

Ingredients(Makes 24):

1/2 cup whole almonds

2 tbsp oats

3/4 stick unsalted butter

6 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp honey

1 tbsp flour

1/4 tsp salt

Melted chocolate to brush on

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. 

2. In a food processor, chop and pulse the almonds and oats until a coarse meal forms.

3. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the sugars and the honey and whisk until well blended and the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat. Add nut mixtur, flour and salt. Stir until well-blended.

4. Spoon the batter into 2 tsp portions onto baking sheets, spacing around 2 inches between each cookie portion. Bake the cookies for 12 minutes until they are dark golden and form a think layer.

5. Slide cookies onto parchment paper and let cool.

6. Brush half of each cookie with melted chocolate. Let stand until the chocolate is set, about 2 hours.

Chocolate Espresso Kahlua mini-cupcakes

For my friend Miranda's birthday, we decided to surprise her at midnight with cupcakes. I personally think that regular cupcakes are way too big and rich, but mini-cupcakes almost always do the trick for me. They are almost bite-sized, and quite a bit cuter too. I also wanted to recipe that had a considerable amount of alcohol in it, and seeing as how I love Kahlua, I figured this recipe would do the trick.

Ingredients (for 24 mini cupcakes):

For the mini-cupcakes:

 3/8 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tbsp. instant espresso powder

3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cups sugar
3/4 tsp. baking soda
3/8 tsp. baking powder
3/8 tsp. salt
1 large egg

3/8 cup warm water
3/8  cup buttermilk

1 1/2 tbsp. vegetable oil

1/2tsp. vanilla extract

Kahlua, for brushing the mini-cupcakes

Frosting:

1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
5 tbsp. Kahlua liqueur
1 1/2 tbsp. heavy cream

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line the mini-cupcake pan with liners. 

2. Combine the cocoa powder, espresso powder, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a mixer. Then add the egg, warm water, buttermilk, vegetable oil and vanilla extract to the mixer and mix on on Medium for about 2-3 minutes until the mixter has a runny and smooth consistency. 

3. Using an icecream scoop or spoon, divide the batter evenly into the 24 mini-cupcake liners. It should be about 2/3 full. Bake for about 18 minutes, and rotate the pans halfway through baking. Let the mini-cupcakes cool for around 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack. 

4. Using a fork, poke holes on top of each mini-cupcake. Brush on the kahlua onto each mini-cupcake while still warm. Then allow the minis to cool completely.

5. To make the frosting, beat the butter in a mixer, until the butter is smooth and fluffy, for around 2 minutes. Mix in the confectioners' sugar. Add in the Kahlua and beat some more until the Kahlua is well-blended. Add in the heavy cream and beat on medium-high for around 4 minutes, until the frosting is light and fluffy.

5. Frost cupcakes and serve.

Hiatus, part two; and some pictures

Once again, for the second time this year, I've been away from from this blog for longer than 2 months. That doesn't make for a very good blogger, I suspect. I am still having trouble getting into the rhythm of blogging, and being comfortable enough to share it all so openly on a public platform. I suspect that is also my issue with writing. I can feel that there is a lot in me I want to express, but I sometimes struggle with how best to do it, or get bogged down while beginning to do it. I am going to try to make this blog a more personal blog from now on- with writing vignettes and other random postings about things I find interesting. It is after all about expressing myself- not to show anyone else, but see what I can do and achieve with this space, at least for myself.

I struggle with being organized and disciplined. Therefore, it is hardly surprising to me, that I cannot remember some of these recipes. Most are simple enough that a picture can inspire me enough to recreate, I hope. Here is a photolog of my food adventures only through pictures in the last couple months.


Tomato pesto goat cheese pizza

Beignets

Pasta with a tomato corn salsa

Rose hazelnut macarons with chocolate ganache

So if you've been on Foodgawker long enough, you'll know that anyone who maintains a food blog is obsessed with macarons. I don't mean to imply that I consider mine a full fledged professional food blog, but given that all my entries so far are mostly food-related, it's the closest parallel for now. So yes, after months of macaron exposure and overdose, I decided I had best try this monster out. I'd heard horror stories on how difficult they are to make; how you had to be super careful with preparation and execution. I pretty much followed Eat.Live.Travel.Write 's recipe. She does a great job of describing exactly what worked for her, and what didn't. 

To add a bit of a twist, I added some rose essence instead of the regular vanilla, and paired the cookies with some chocolate ganache. I, for one, am totally addicted to macarons- both eating them and making them. Simply thinking of all the combinations and permutations makes me just so happy! 

Ingredients:

French Macarons

115 g hazelnut flour

230 g powdered sugar

144 g egg whites (I used 5 eggs)

72 g sugar

rose essense

1/2 tsp salt

Chocolate ganache

1 cup whipping cream

3/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Sift the dry ingredients. TWICE.

2. Dump the egg whites and the sugar into the mixer. I followed her instructions exactly. 3 minutes at level 4. 3 minutes at level 6, 3 more minutes at level 8. One minute at level 10. The meringue should be stiff.

3. Add the sifted mixture to the meringue and add in the rose essence.

4. Pipe the mixture into waxed or parchment paper.

5. Bake for 12 minutes at 350 F. I baked my second batch for longer- around 16 minutes. I liked the second batch better.

6. I had to make sure the cookies didn't stick to the pan. Baking them for longer helped. The cookies tasted great, but the shells were not perfect. Not bad for a first attempt though!

7. Heat the whipping cream to a simmer and add the chocolate chips forming a thick mixture.

8. Assemble by piping the ganache on one side of a cookie and attaching the other end to another cookie.