One of my current goals is to make more things from dough. Even though I bake a ton, I actually tend to only make things from batter, not from dough, and the truth is I have a bit of dough fear. It doesn’t always turn out well for me, and I kind of hate sticky dough hands, and I really have an aversion to the whole genre. Yet, I want to be a person who makes pizzas and pies and breads and all those wonderful things.

So, I’m trying to get over my dough issues. Therefore today I am very proud and pleased to present: buttermilk biscuits! Taa-daaaa! These technically might be cheating a little bit on the dough thing because they’re a drop biscuit and really more like a batter, but they’re also like a bread in the end so what the heck.

My mom told me she has never been able to make a good biscuit, and I myself have had many flat and lackluster attempts. I finally came across this recipe and it was amazing so I thought I’d share it here, in case any of you are looking for a good biscuit, even if you don’t consider yourself a dough-maker.

If you’re trying to give up carbs or gluten or anything like that, just click away now. Nothing to see here! Noooo ma’am, you do not want to look at the buttery-biscuit goodness coming up next. Definitely not.

So! Let’s get started. First of all, this recipe is a dream because it’s super quick, it requires only one bowl, and no mixer or anything complicated like that. It starts by whisking all the dry ingredients in a bowl. (Note: I’m making a half batch in these photos, so the quantities of ingredients are going to look small.)

Then you chop up cold butter into small squares…

…and blend the butter into the flour by rubbing the butter and flour together in your hands. It’s really more of a smooshing than a rubbing, actually–just pick up clumps of butter between your fingers and sort of smear it into the flour; keep repeating till the butter is evenly distributed within the flour, which will result in a soft sandy texture.

At this point, I put the mixture into the fridge for 15 minutes or so. The recipe doesn’t specify to do this, but I think it helps the biscuits to keep their shape and not flatten if the butter is very cold, and of course it warms up a bit when you work it with your hands–so I think a little chill is a good thing to do here.

Next just add the buttermilk–both times I made this recipe, I had to add more buttermilk than was called for. I just drizzled in a little extra, enough to make the dough come together.

Once you add the liquid, just stir a few times with a spoon (no need to use your hands! No dreaded dough-sticky-hands!). This is where I had to add a little more buttermilk because the dough didn’t quite come together.

And there it is, once it did come together–a nice little wad of dough!

Next, scoop the batter out in 1/4 cup chunks and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Don’t worry about forming the dough neatly–messy clumps are good here. Also, note that half recipe only yields five biscuits, which I think is fantastic. I love baking recipes that make tiny batches.

Pop ‘em in the oven, and boom! Mine had to bake for a bit longer than the recipe said, but I just let them go until they were golden and beautiful.

And this is why you want to form the raw dough in a messy clump–all those craggy bits turn into wonderful crunchy bits once baked, which is just divine.

Ooooooh. These biscuits are seriously good. They’re light, and so tender on the inside, with a gorgeous crumbly crunch on the outside. There is nothing more satisfying than breaking off a warm, craggy chunk…

…except maybe slathering said craggy chunk with butter. YES PLEASE.

These guys are really off the charts with bacon and eggs (and quick enough that you can easily whip them up on a weekend morning, without angst). I love them with soup too. I love them with everything. I’ve had a bag of them in my freezer for a while now and there is nothing better than popping one in the oven for myself whenever I need a little extra something with my meal!

{FREEZING TIP}
These biscuits freeze beautifully–drop them in a large plastic bag and just throw them in the freezer. When you’re ready to eat one or more, take the biscuit out and wrap it in foil, then pop it in a 350-degree oven for about 10 minutes, or until soft. Unwrap it from the foil and place the biscuit directly on the oven rack for another 3 minutes or so to crisp the exterior.

{SMALL-BATCH TIP}
This recipe divides in half very easily, for a tiny batch of only five biscuits!

{SPECIAL INGREDIENTS TIP}
Don’t you hate how buttermilk is one of those things that you have to buy in a big container, then you only use a little bit of it and you don’t know what to do with the rest? You can freeze it! Check out this post to read all about that. (I especially love the idea of keeping frozen buttermilk on hand so you can whip up these biscuits on spontaneous lazy weekend mornings.)

RECIPE: Buttermilk Biscuits
Originally printed in Bon Appetit, October 2000

INGREDIENTS

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
• 1 cup buttermilk (I used a bit more; just enough for the dough to come together)

If, like me, you are realizing that Valentine’s Day is here and you haven’t quite had the time you’d hoped to handcraft an amazing day of all things love and chocolate… I have a little something that I hope will help you out.

It’s my recipe for two (exactly two!) chocolate cupcakes! Ta-da!

I posted this recipe about a year ago and it has definitely stood the test of time. Originally I developed this recipe — which makes two perfect, delicious, moist dark chocolate cupcakes that take only a few minutes to whip up and require only basic ingredients that you are pretty much guaranteed to have in the house at all times — as a way to satisfy my own private late-night cupcake emergencies. Since then, it has come to my attention that many folks out there are using this recipe to make a treat for themselves and their loved one, especially a treat of the romantic dinner for two variety. If you know what I mean.

There’s one for you and one for them! It’s perfect!

So even if you’ve got no time and your cupboards are almost bare, you can still whip up a couple of cupcakes for you and your sweetie. (Or you and friend, or you and… you!)

Get the recipe here, and Happy Valentine’s Day! xoxo

If I could add a sound effect this post, it would be it would be the sound of Homer Simpson drooling over donuts. If I could somehow transmit a physical reaction via web site, it would be a shudder of delight. If I could post a smell–forget it, you’d be dead. Let me just tell you about these bad boys.

Peanut butter chocolate krispy bars!!! This recipe made the rounds a while back (it’s from the popular bakery Baked in Red Hook Brooklyn), and I’ve been wanting to try it forever now. Recently I was browsing around for something new to make to take to a party–but it was on a day when I didn’t have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen, so I wanted something quick-ish, yet still interesting. Finally I stumbled across this recipe, which I’d been saving, and I knew its moment had come! These bars require no baking, just a little bit of easy stove top cooking, chocolate melting, stirring, pouring, layering and setting. Nothing too fussy, and easy enough to do on a semi-busy day when you can manage to pop in and out of the kitchen a few times in between doing other things.

When I saw these bars posted elsewhere, I always thought the Krispy layer looked too skimpy, so I decided to increase it by 50%, which worked out great. I also swapped dark chocolate for milk chocolate and added more salt, because that’s just how I roll. (To me, milk chocolate is just… candy. Dark chocolate with salt? Food of the gods.)

These babies are good. The Krispy layer, of course, is reminiscent of good old Rice Krispies treats, but in this case the cereal is mixed with a caramel syrup instead of marshmallows, giving it a more grown-up (yet still very nostalgic) note. The middle layer of peanut butter and chocolate, plus the top layer of dark chocolate ganache, are creamy and silky and all-in-all very truffle-like. So really what you’ve got here is an amazing chocolate truffle mixed with a Reeses Cup on top of a grown-up Rice Krispy treat. Yeah. There’s no way that could go wrong.

I’m telling you, this is eyes-rolling-back-in-the-head kind of stuff. Make some. Now.

RECIPE: Peanut Butter Chocolate Krispy Bars
Originally printed in Baked: New Frontiers in Baking; adapted by Brett Bara

Rice Krispies Layer:

2 3/4 cups Rice Krispies cereal
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
5 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/4 + 1/8 cup water
5 tablespoons butter
pinch of salt

Butter an 8-inch baking pan or line the pan with parchment paper (I prefer using parchment, as it allows you to easily lift out the uncut bars and slice them perfectly). Place the cereal in a large bowl and set aside.

Combine the sugar, corn syrup and water in a small sauce pan. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring just until dissolved, until mixture reaches 236 degrees F (the soft ball stage). Use a candy thermometer to gauge the temperature.

Remove from heat and pour the sugar mixture over the cereal, mixing it thoroughly. Pour the mixture into the buttered pan and use a piece of wax paper to press the mixture into a flat, compact layer. Set aside at room temperature and allow to cool to room temp.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Later:

5 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine the chocolate and peanut butter in a large bowl and melt slowly over a pan of simmering water, stirring constantly. When melted, remove from heat and add salt; stir for about a minute to cool slightly. Pour the mixture over the cooled cereal layer, and place in the fridge to cool for about an hour.

Chocolate Ganache Layer

3 ounces dark chocolate (60-72% cocoa)
1/2 teaspoon light corn syrup
4 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and melt slowly over a pan of barely simmering water, stirring constantly. Once melted, remove from heat and stir too cool slightly. (Try to melt the mixture over very low heat so it doesn’t get too hot–after removing it from the heat, test it with your finger. If it feels “hot,” allow it to cool for several minutes, stirring occasionally. You want it to be warm and liquid–but not hot to the touch–when you pour it in the pan so it doesn’t melt the peanut butter layer.)

Pour the chocolate ganache over the peanut butter layer and roll the pan so that the ganache is evenly distributed. Cool in the fridge for at least one hour. Cut bars as desired; I sliced mine into 36 small squares which was perfect as dessert finger-food at a party. Prepare to be worshipped when serving.

Yesterday I joined some friends for an afternoon craft party and I promised to bring something sweet; since I knew I’d have a group of victims–I mean, willing testers, I decided I’d try out a new recipe. Meanwhile, I had a big bunch of basil leftover from something else I cooked this weekend, so I thought I’d try… a dessert made with basil! After a little searching I came across this intriguing recipe: basil chocolate cake. Basil plus chocolate? Fascinating! Let’s do this thing.

This recipe is pretty standard for a chocolate cake, except for one twist: it uses a full cup of fresh basil leaves.

What’s really interesting is that you pulse the basil with the sugar in a food processor, creating a beautiful emerald green basil sugar, which then gets incorporated into the batter just like regular sugar. (And makes me think about what other things I could add this magical basil sugar to…)

The rest of the batter is extremely simple. You don’t even need to use a mixer, just a whisk will do, and it’s one bowl only–which makes this a great summer cake, if you ask me. Yes, you have to turn on your oven, but it only takes 10 minutes to throw together this batter and you don’t have a lot of dishes to wash up in the end. Plus, obviously, you can use up some of your summertime basil crop (if you’re lucky enough to have such a thing).

The cake baked up into a perfectly-shaped dome of chocolate beauty! Bonus: you could really smell the basil while it baked–it kind of smelled like cake and pizza at the same time. Gotta love that.

I like a simple one-layer cake for casual afternoon affairs. It’s less decadent than a full-on layer cake, yet festive nonetheless. In a modest sort of way. As far as cake goes, you know.

The frosting fell a bit short for me. This recipe uses a standard sour cream chocolate frosting, which is easy to make, but I found it a bit too sweet and a bit too… ordinary. If I were to make this cake again I’d definitely try something more creative for the frosting, which I think would put the whole shebang over the top.

In the end, this cake had a great texture, but the basil flavor wasn’t as strong as I was expecting–all of us at the party really liked it, but we agreed that you only got hints of basil now and then. I would definitely like to take this up a notch by using a more flavorful frosting, like maybe a basil-infused dark chocolate ganache. And maybe serve it alongside something kooky like, hmmm…. pink peppercorn ice cream, perhaps? Or maybe embrace the whole pizza thing and serve it with this tomato, basil and ricotta gelati? Oooh, or this sweet corn ice cream would be amazing with the basil too.

Sigh. So much cake and ice cream, so little time.

Find the original recipe on the Enlightened Cooking blog here.

Yesterday after my weekly trip to the farmer’s market I unexpectedly reached total August nirvana. Forget Christmas, to me there’s no contest: August (and all the produce that comes with it) is the most wonderful time of the year.

You don’t even need recipes in August, all you need to do is get your hands on some fresh, locally-grown veggies and you’re good to go. This time of year, I pretty much eat the same thing over and over, and it’s a version of this salad. There’s no recipe for it, it’s really more of… a way of life. What you do is you take whatever beautiful produce you have, and you put it all in a bowl, and you eat it. And then you try not to die of happiness.

In this version: red and yellow cherry tomatoes, corn on the cob (boiled then cut off the ear), cucumber, red onion, basil, and a little quinoa just because I had some leftovers on hand. Then drizzle with olive oil, your vinegar of choice (I use a mixture of red wine and balsamic), salt and pepper. You can make a big batch and eat it till it’s gone–it’s great on its own, with feta or ricotta salata or goat cheese crumbled on top, alongside a protein, next to a hot dog, or with a good chunk of bread to soak up the juice. You really can’t go wrong.

Sigh.

Oh and can I tell you how much my new basil plant has changed my life? For some reason I’ve always been a slacker in the herb-growing department, but recently I picked up this basil plant and it’s been making me incredibly happy every day. As we all know, the laws of the universe dictate that if you buy fresh herbs in the grocery store, you’ll end up throwing 90% of them away before you can use them. So for that reason I only buy fresh herbs when I have a specific purpose for them, which means I don’t usually have basil in the house. But having this plant on hand and being able to pluck a leaf here and there has made such a difference in my summer salads. I don’t think I’ll ever be without a basil plant on my window sill again.

Fact: leprechauns make basil grow 10 times faster.

I don’t want to get ahead of myself or anything, but I think I may be one blog post away from declaring 2012 the Summer of Ice Cream. I tried a new ‘scream recipe over the weekend, and it was off the charts: brown sugar balsamic ice cream! WHAT? Omg!

Thinking of what to serve with said ice cream, I thought of the classic combination of balsamic and berries, and knew there was only one way to go: berry cobbler. Oh yeah.

I introduced the brown sugar balsamic ice cream to the mixed berry cobbler and they totally fell in love. Or maybe I just fell in love with them. But either way I’m pretty sure all of us were very happy together.

OK, so this ice cream. The recipe is Brown Sugar-Balsamic Swirl Ice Cream from Bon Appetit. It’s a fairly standard vanilla base, but made with brown sugar instead of regular white sugar, so it has a wonderful deep maple flavor. The swirly bits you see, which look deceptively like chocolate, are actually balsamic vinegar reduction, which is made by simply boiling down regular balsamic vinegar (just the cheap stuff will do; it mellows out and gets a nice complex flavor once it’s reduced to a syrup). You mix the custard base in the ice cream machine, then add the syrup and whisk it in the machine for just a few seconds at the end, and it gets this lovely balsamic swirl. Holy cow it is delicious. Sweet and tangy, and interesting without punching you in the face and screaming hey I’m a crazy ice cream! I couldn’t resist adding a sprinkle of fleur de sel when serving, because everything tastes better with salt. (In fact, if I don’t declare 2012 the Summer of Ice Cream, it will have to be the Summer of Salty Desserts. See also: Chocolate Salty Cake.)

One helpful hint, the recipe tells you to boil the vinegar for about six minutes until it’s reduced to about two tablespoons, but it doesn’t tell you what heat to boil it at. I did mine on high and burnt the heck out of it, creating a solid block of carmelized vinegar. No bueno. The second batch I boiled a medium-low, which was much better. So, the point of this paragraph is: boil the vinegar at medium low. It probably takes about ten minutes or so. Also, don’t lean over the pan and inhale directly, or you could pass out from vinegar fumes.

And now let’s talk about the cobbler. Oh the cobbler. This is the Mixed Berry Cobbler from Bon Appetit; the recipe tells you you can make it with any berry mixture you want; and I do think it would work with just about any berries at all. I used raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and strawberries. It was wonderfully tart and the perfect accompaniment to the sweet, tangy ice cream.

One recipe note about the cobbler, the instructions have you knead the dough topping and roll it out on a board then cut it into squares, but mine was way to loose to be kneaded. I suppose I could have added more flour but instead I just mixed the dough/batter in the bowl and spooned it onto the fruit. It worked just fine–and hey, I’ll take spooning over kneading any day, so I was happy.

These two gorgeous creations, when combined, were really just pretty amazing. I served them together at a small dinner I cooked for friends on Saturday, and then again over brunch with another friend the next day. Everyone kind of lost their minds over the combo, myself included. It hits just the perfect note between classic and surprising–you think you’re getting an old-fashioned dessert, just your basic cobbler and ice cream–but little do you know, something unexpected awaits.

So if you’re looking for a dessert that seems innocent but sneaks up on you and blows your mind, look no further. This is the good stuff. Just make it, you won’t be sorry.

Get the recipes here: Brown Sugar Balsamic Swirl Ice Cream + Mixed Berry Cobbler

And here’s the other ‘scream I made recently (s0 good!): Peppery Butter Pecan Ice Cream

My friend Dan threw his first barbeque of the season last weekend, and I whipped up one of my favorite summer side dishes: this southwestern-inspired, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink quinoa, corn and black bean salad. It’s so good. It’s fresh and light and healthy, and a nice change from the standard picnic-y sides. It goes great with hot dogs and margaritas, all while making you feel like you’re being somewhat virtuous.

This recipe is really super forgiving, you can add just about anything to it, and you definitely don’t need to worry about using exact amounts of any of the ingredients called for. And if you’ve never tried quinoa, this is the perfect recipe for giving it a shot. Even people who don’t think they eat things like quinoa (I’m looking at you, all the dudes in my life) usually gobble this up. I think they probably think it’s just rice, but whatever–this dish is a total summertime crowd pleaser.

Quinoa, Corn and Black Bean Salad
Adapted from Gourmet

2 cups cooked quinoa
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
corn kernels, either cut from two ears of fresh (cooked) corn, or about 1 cup thawed frozen kernels
chopped red bell pepper, about half a pepper or so
finely minced jalapeno (I use one pepper for a very mild kick; add more if you like spice)
1/4 cup chopped cilantro (use parsley if you’re not into cilantro)
chopped scallions, about 4 or so
chopped tomatoes, about one cup (I use grape tomatoes except when regular tomatoes are in season)

Dressing
the juice of 1-2 limes
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cumin
1/3 cup olive oil
salt and pepper

Chop and toss all the vegetables with the quinoa, then mix the dressing ingredients, whisking till emulsified. Stir the dressing into the salad, and you’re done! The salad can be enjoyed immediately but is even better after it sits for a bit; I often make it the night before a party. It keeps for several days in the fridge and only gets better with time.

I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure etiquette says that when you bring food to a party you’re supposed to leave it there when you go home, right? Well not me. When it was time to leave Dan’s bbq, I took my container of quinoa salad and snuck out of there like a thief. I wanted those leftovers!

I love to put a big old mound of this leftover salad over a bowl of leafy greens (my fave: chopped arugula and baby spinach dressed with olive oil and balsamic), then top the whole thing with goat cheese. It’s healthy heaven.

Last night a few friends came over for dinner, and I decided to go outside my comfort zone and experiment with a type of dessert I haven’t made much of–ice cream! I have had an ice cream maker for a few years now and have only used it once, back when I first got it. Yikes! That kind of thing is my worst nightmare because I’m kind of a minimalist when it comes to small appliances, so the fact that I have this ice cream maker sitting around and never getting used is just not cool. Plus there are so many interesting ice cream recipes out there to try.

So I clicked around in my Epicurious recipe box and found this recipe from Bon Appetit November 2007, Brown Sugar Ice Cream with Cayenne Spiced Walnuts and decided to give it a try. While I was on the site I also came across the recipe for Cardamom Butter Squares from Gourmet December 2004 which had also been hanging out in my recipe box. Recipes, check. Nice long Sunday to hang out in my kitchen, check. Friends on the way, check. Game on!

First up was the ice cream. The base of this recipe is super easy to make. It starts with some egg yolks, brown sugar and salt, which you mix together into a sort of paste.

You warm up some cream and milk, then slowly add the cream mixture to the yolk mixture and put it back on the stove to cook for just a few minutes, till it reaches 170 degrees. I loved that the recipe specified exactly what temperature to cook it to, because whenever a recipe says to cook something till it thickens, I never know exactly how thick it’s supposed to be. So this was a no-brainer.

Then the custard went into the ice cream maker to churn away!

Meanwhile, I prepped the nuts. The recipe called for walnuts but I decided to use pecans instead, which I think was a very good choice. Pecans are just so buttery and yummy, while walnuts could have created walnut-overload in this case. (I love walnuts, but only in small doses. Plus they irritate some peoples’ mouths, and I wasn’t sure where my friends fell on the walnut-consumption scale.) So, the pecans got mixed up with some cayenne and black pepper, along with a bit of oil (the recipe called for vegetable oil but I used olive, hoping it would add an extra savory note). I also added some course salt because I love salty desserts. I didn’t really taste the salt distinctly in the finished ice cream, but–this just occurred to me–a sprinkle of course salt as a garnish on the finished ice cream would be a really nice touch.

So the nuts go into the oven to roast for a bit (I think I kept mine in there for 10-15 minutes, just till they became fragrant but before they started to really brown).

Then, the nuts get added to the churning ice cream mixture about 5 minutes before the ice cream is done. (Make sure the nuts are cool–I popped them into the freezer for just a few minutes to be sure.) Now, here’s the thing about adding the nuts 5 minutes before the ice cream is done: the spices from the nuts separate from the nuts themselves and get fully incorporated into the ice cream, so you wind up with a spicy ice cream all around. Which is fine, except that I was imagining this to be a sweet ice cream with bites of spicy nut nuggets. In the end I don’t think one is better than the other, but if you wanted the spicy nut nugget effect, I’d suggest folding the nuts gently into the ice cream after it’s out of the ice cream maker. Either way is fine, it’s just subtlety that I didn’t think of beforehand, but is definitely something I’ll keep in mind for the future.

After churning the ice cream in the maker, it gets transferred to another container and frozen till it sets–mine took about 6-8 hours to fully harden.

We really loved how this ice cream turned out. The texture was just perfect–soooo creamy and smooth. And the flavor is like a classic butter pecan, with just the right amount of peppery kick that hits you in the back of the throat at the end of each bite. Definitely a grown-up ice cream… but with a nod to a classic, nostalgic ice cream flavor, good old butter pecan.

Overall, I give this recipe an A++ and I’m super psyched to make more ice cream!!

Peppery Butter Pecan Ice Cream
By Brett Bara, modified from Bon Appetit

I modified this recipe by adding more salt to both the base and the nuts, and by swapping the vegetable oil for olive oil, for more of a savory effect. I also swapped the walnuts for pecans, which made this delightfully buttery.

1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
6 large egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup pecan halves
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon course salt

Bring milk and cream just to a simmer in a medium saucepan, over medium heat. Mix together the sugar, yolks and salt. When milk mixture comes to a simmer, whisk it into the yolk mixture, adding very small amounts of milk at a time. When fully combined, transfer the mixture back to the saucepan and cook over medium heat till it reaches a temperature of 170 degrees (use a candy thermometer to measure). This will only take a few minutes. Transfer to a wide, shallow bowl and freeze for about 40 minutes, stirring about every 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat your oven to 375 degrees. Combine the pecans and all the remaining ingredients in a bowl and mix, then spread on a baking sheet. Roast in the oven, stirring every few minutes, until the nuts are fragrant and just lightly brown, about 10-15 minutes. (Watch closely in case your nuts brown more quickly.) Cool nuts completely.

Process the ice cream base in your ice cream maker according to your machine’s instructions, until thick and creamy and no longer watery. (My machine took about 40 minutes; yours may vary.) Add the nuts about 5 minutes before the ice cream is done (be sure the nuts are fully cool; chill in the freezer for a few minutes if necessary). Finally, transfer the ice cream to another container and freeze till set, about 6-8 hours, or up to 3 days.

Optional: garnish with a sprinkle of course salt.

Also, Cookies:

I wanted a little something extra to serve with our ice cream, so I also made these yummy cookies adapted from a Gourmet recipe I’d been saving forever. I altered this in a few ways, increasing the amount of spice while cutting the whole recipe in half (I just didn’t think we needed 6 dozen cookies, I mean, who does??). I also added the chocolate-dipped thing.

This recipe started with a simple butter dough, nothing crazy, no surprises, easy to whip up. After mixing the dough, you form it into a 12-inch log and wrap it in plastic wrap. Man, there’s just no way around it, logs of dough are creepy looking, right?

After chilling the log for an hour, it’s time to form it into a square-shaped log. This was super easy to do using my quilter’s ruler! (Seriously, I use my quilter’s ruler in the kitchen all the time. It comes in handy for so many things.) Anyway, I did this by unwrapping the log until there was just one layer of plastic on it (ie, not wrapped up in a bunch of layers, so that the dough would have some freedom to change its shape). Then I just used the ruler to flatten out the sides, rotating it and pressing several times, until it was a square. Super easy.

Square shape! Then it goes back in the fridge for at least one more hour, or up to five days, or even frozen, till you’re ready to bake. To bake, just use a sharp knife to slice the log into scant 1/4″ thick pieces, and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet, spacing them about 1″ apart. Just bake till they start to get golden around the edges.

The original recipe called for drizzling the cookies with an espresso glaze and a chocolate glaze, but that just sounded like a lot of trouble, and messy. So instead I melted some dark chocolate I had hanging around (I dunno, probably about 12 ounces), and dipped the cookies. It was quick and easy, and I liked the simplicity of the finished look. (I think the cookies would be fine without any drizzling or dipping, but they would be quite plain–more like a tea biscuit than a dessert cookie. Still, they would be nice that way, if that’s what you’re in the mood for.)

These were tasty little cookies. The spice flavor is subtle, but it interacts with the chocolate in a really nice way. I thought these were even better the next day, and they were super delicious with a cup of chai tea this morning. (Yes, I had cookies and ice cream for breakfast this morning while I was taking these photos. Oh the shame! Not really.) Anyway, this morning I realized what these cookies, with the layer of dark chocolate, remind me of: McVities Digestives, one of my all-time favorite store-bought cookies! A crumbly, buttery cookie with a semi-soft chocolate coating, not too sweet and not too rich, perfect with tea, and easy to eat by the dozen. Not too shabby.

I’m not sure this cookie was really the ideal pairing for the ice cream (my friend last night suggested that my rosemary shortbread would have gone great with the spicy ice cream, and I think he was right), but this was still a good little cookie that I’d make again… maybe for a tea party.

Chocolate Cardamom Cookies

I made these cookies following the original recipe rather closely, so I won’t repost it here in full. (The link to the full recipe is here.) The changes I made were:

• I cut the recipe in half completely.
• I used double the amount of cardamom, allspice and cinnamon (ie, I used the full amount of spice called for, while cutting all the other ingredients in half).
• I dipped the finished cookies in melted dark chocolate and skipped the drizzled-icing portion of the original recipe

We had such a lovely Sunday supper last night. And actually, we didn’t just eat dessert! Here’s the full menu of what I made, in case you’re looking for some new recipes. I really like to be able to relax and enjoy my guests when they arrive, so everything on this menu was chosen because it can be prepped in advance, with very little cooking on the spot:

• Green Olive and Goat Cheese Crostini — these were interesting; kind of weird but they got a thumbs-up in the end. Very easy to make and easy to make in advance, so I would consider these for a party in the future or just for a little munchie before dinner again some time. I skipped the fennel seeds because I’m not always a fan.
• Spring rolls brought by one of the guests who is an amazing cook; sorry no recipe!
• Pink Grapefruit, Avocado and Watercress salad — this was a nice little salad with a lot of stuff going on. It felt “special” enough for company while still being simple and easy to prep completely in advance. I’d make it again, definitely swapping out ingredients for whatever I have on hand. For example, I didn’t think the prosciutto was really worth it, given the cost of good prosciutto–next time I’d just cook up some sliced bacon and add that instead. (I actually think the bacon would be an improvement, texturally.) I also used almonds instead of hazelnuts, just because that’s what I had on hand. But the basic bones of this salad were great, and it’s a good jumping-off point for modifications.
• Roasted Cod on Saffron Mashed Potatoes — I made this exactly like the recipe, except that I mixed corn in with the mashed potatoes, which I highly recommend. I’ve made this entree before and I really like it. It’s simple, easy to prep in advance with minimal cooking right before serving, and hits a nice note of comfort-food-meets-fancy.
• Peppery Butter Pecan Ice Cream and Cardamom Chocolate Cookies, of course!

Happy Monday, all! Hope you had a nice weekend too. xoxo

I’m so pleased today to share this food feature I worked on with the amazing home goods store West Elm. Recently they asked me to develop a dozen deviled egg recipes for their spring catalog & blog, and being the egg fiend that I am, I was thrilled to egg-cept the challenge!

This was such a fun project. I came up with a basic deviled egg recipe plus twelve flavor variations that can be added to the base. All kinds of cool flavors like bloody mary deviled eggs, kim chi deviled eggs, beet & bleu cheese, bacon, asparagus, sriracha, and more!

West Elm photographed the eggs on their amazing serving pieces. Not only do they have some adorable spring-themed dishes, but they’ve got lots of egg-serving vessels as well. (I’m such a sucker for a good egg cup.)

And then, they put the whole package together on their web site with some really charming animation! So when you click through to view the feature, you’ll see eggs dancing around, ingredients marching on the tabletop, and bunnies and frogs hopping about. I’ve never seen deviled eggs look so cute!

Bonus points for some yarn making it into one shot!

The feature is also mentioned in the new West Elm catalog (the one with the Moroccan cover).

There’s me and my eggs, on page 42-43!

So click here to visit the West Elm site to view the cute animated feature and download my deviled egg recipes. I hope you’ll give some of them a try (especially if you find yourself with lots of hard-boiled eggs at Easter time)! I have to say, when I was creating these recipes I served a bunch of them at a party I hosted and they were a huge hit–they were literally the first thing at the party to go.

If you want to try several of the flavors, here’s a tip: mix up one batch of the basic deviled egg recipe, and divide the filling into four batches. Then pick four flavors you want to try and add 1/4 of the amount of the flavoring ingredients called for. It’s super easy to mix up mini-batches this way… so try a deviled egg tasting bar at your next party. It’s a real crowd pleaser!

Thanks again to West Elm for featuring my recipes! xoxo

What’s this, a snapshot from a gemstone display at the Natural History Museum?

Nope! It’s chocolate! Chocolate gems!

These little treasures may look fancy but they’re super easy to make yourself. Like a craft project you can eat (which is pretty much the most perfect thing in the world, if you ask me).

Ready to see how easy this is?

To start, simply melt yourself some chocolate. Be sure to temper it–if you’ve never tempered chocolate and need some advice, I like these instructions (which includes a video) explaining how the process works, in very simple terms. Tempering chocolate is one of those things that sounds intimidating but really isn’t, so don’t let that step stop you, okay? Please?

Then grab yourself some gem-shaped candy molds (you can pick them up here).

And pour a bit of chocolate into each mold. You don’t need to grease the molds first or anything like that–just pour the chocolate directly into the clean, dry mold. I like to use a small spoon or ladle for this, or even transfer the melted chocolate into a small squeeze bottle and squeeze it in. Just be sure to work quickly so your chocolate doesn’t get too cool (if it does, warm it back to the minimum temperature per the tempering instructions).

Place the filled molds into your fridge for about 5-10 minutes, just to allow the outer surface of the chocolate to begin to set. Then remove the molds from the fridge and place them at cool room temperature (away from sunny windows!!!) until they are set. They’ll be set after a few hours, but for best results, allow them to rest in the molds for 24 hours. (After the chocolate sets for 24 hours it will be less likely to pick up fingerprints when you handle it.)

Then just pop the chocolate pieces out of the molds, and the hardest part if this project is done!

Next it’s time to add the bling. Applying the sparkly color to the chocolate shapes is ridiculously easy–you just brush it on! I used Luster Dust–a powdered, edible pigment–in a few different hues of jewel tones and metallics.

Simply brush the Luster Dust right onto the chocolate with a small, soft brush–and that’s it! The dust will adhere right to the chocolate, you don’t need to use any kind of adhesive or anything. (As for what type of brush to use, I use small, soft artist’s brushes, and reserve them for food use only.)

(PS: Looking at this photo I just noticed for the first time that my gold highlighter is labeled “non-edible use.” Um, oops? Guess I won’t eat the gold gems.)

So just swipe your color of choice in a thin, even coat over the top surface of each chocolate piece, and you’re d-o-n-e! Crazy easy!

But when everyone freaks out over your gorgeous, fancy-looking confections, you don’t have to tell how easy they were to make. Go ahead and blow everyone’s minds–I won’t tell.

I can think of so many lovely uses for these little gems. Display them on an ornate platter at a party. Wrap them up in a fancy (velvet-lined!) box for a gift. Place a few in glassine bags for party favors. Stick them on top of cupcakes. Shove them into your mouth by the fistful and pretend you’re Marie Antoinette. The possibilities are endless!

Tell me, are you interested in working with chocolate? I’m thinking of doing more chocolate-molding posts in the upcoming weeks, and am wondering if that’s something you all are interested in. Do tell! xoxo