BakeSpite.net

After a mediocre (if that) attempt at tackling baguettes from scratch (not to be attempted by the faint of heart) and a frustrating day of work, I was reminded of a scene from the movie Julie and Julia where Julie remarks, “You know what I love about cooking? I love that after a day when nothing is sure and when I say nothing, I mean nothing. You can come home and absolutely know that if you add egg yolks to chocolate and sugar and milk, it will get thick. That’s such a comfort.” What better way to make yourself feel better than with chocolate brownies? By adding chocolate chips!

If you don’t have a double boiler, find a sauce pot, fill with water and place a heat-proof bowl on top. Fill the bowl with semi-sweet chocolate chips and what else? Butter. Continuously stir until the chocolate and butter start to melt into each other. If your bowl doesn’t fit snugly (as mine didn’t), use a pot holder to keep your bowl in place. I did this, but managed to put the pot holder on fire. If this happens to you, stay calm and throw the pot holder in the sink!

Fire aside, the recipe is pretty simple (thanks to Southern Food on About.com ):

Ingredients:

8 ounces semisweet chocolate
1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 to 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preparation:

Heat oven to 350°. Grease and flour a 9-inch baking pan.
Melt chocolate with butter in a double boiler over simmering water until smooth, stirring frequently.

In a mixing bowl with an electric mixer, beat the sugar with eggs and salt until thick. Stir in vanilla and flour.

Stir in the chocolate and butter mixture. Stir in chocolate chips.

Spread in prepared pan and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.

Today was Cat’s birthday, so I wanted to do something nice for her. “Nice” as in, “make her a cake.” Her request was strawberry shortcake, which was something I’ve never made before. So, I grabbed a somewhat random recipe off the Internet and ran with it. For better or for worse!

The results were… interesting. I went with this particular recipe because it seemed fairly simple and looked like a novel change of pace from the usual spongecake style of strawberry shortcake, which I’ve never been a big fan of. When I think strawberry shortcake, I generally think of bland, spongy, wannabe angel food cake, which is no way to celebrate a birthday!

What I didn’t realize — probably because I suck at reading recipes — is that this cake is less of a cake and more of a pastry. The texture of the cake is almost like a shortbread cookie, except lighter and airier. It’s also only mildly sweet, which is nice. It’s a rich, crisp, light, buttery wafer, which ended up being a great complement to the sweet berries I picked up on the way home. Bringing the two together was hand-whipped heavy cream, which I sweetened slightly with vanilla extract and two teaspoons of brown sugar.

I thought it was surprisingly delicious, one of the very few strawberry shortcakes I’ve ever enjoyed. Cat, on the other hand, seemed initially taken aback by the uncharacteristic texture and consistency of the cake. She liked it, thankfully (because it sure would suck if the birthday girl hated her cake), but only after she warmed up to it.

All in all, a modest success.

I don’t know why this makes me so happy, but it does. It totally does.

Photo by Jeremy

For the past, I dunno… nine months or so? For however long, since sometime last summer, every time I’ve gone to Andronico’s (the local, overpriced, yuppie, snooty-food grocery store which much to my wallet’s detriment is the only real supermarket within walking distance of my apartment), I’ve walked through the bakery area and seen these frog cookies. They come in a box of eight and cost something like $9, because Andronico’s is an overpriced, yuppie, snooty-food grocery store. And every time I see them, I want badly to buy a box. But they’re nine bucks, and also they’re not exactly diet food, so I really can’t afford them on two different levels.

Yesterday  I finally took the plunge, ostensibly because it was Mother’s Day and I wanted to do something nice for Cat’s cousin Nancy for her first Mother’s Day and she likes random cute things… but mostly because I really wanted the excuse to try the frog cookies. Frog cookies! Look how happy this guy is to know he’s about to be consumed:

Photo by Jeremy

I was not disappointed. They turned out to very tasty, kinda shortbread-y with frosting that wasn’t too sweet, and a partial semi-sweet chocolate coating. Really quite good. Worth the cost in money and calories? Eh, probably not. But look! Frog cookies!

I have no regrets.

Literally uphill, in fact, as I took a lengthy walk this morning to see if I could earn redemption from the mortal sin that is Beard Papa. I’ve lived in my current apartment for three years but until now have never really explored the neighborhood behind us. Today, I learned that behind my house is a very, very hilly area with lots of twisting roads that lead absolutely nowhere, and also a great many staircases inset into the sides of the hills.

And when I got home, here’s what was waiting for me:

Photo by Jeremy

Sweet rolls in the making. Hey, no problem, I thought; I don’t really like sweet rolls. These’ll be no problem to resist.

Then Cat took them out of the oven and I remembered the dark reality of her baking: She has a strange ability to bake dishes I normally hate in a way that I somehow love. And sadly (or… not sadly, really) these are no different. Soft, doughy, slightly sweet but not cloyingly so… basically the perfect sweet roll.

Photo by Cat

Golden brown, too. I don’t know how she does this, making it so hard to stay away from foods I feel like I should really not want, but it’s kind of infuriating! But my mouth is too happy for me to be able to complain. I think… it’s time I surrender.

On one hand, it’s pretty great to be marrying a woman who has discovered a sudden passion for baking, and is in fact quite good at it. On the other hand, my Balance Board keeps scolding me for missing my weight deadline targets. I am torn between love and guilt.

I even feel guilty when I’m not eating; this morning I woke up to Cat baking buttermilk biscuits. I did the necessary thing and said, “No thanks” — which wasn’t terribly difficult, to be honest, aside from the fact that I felt lousy spurning the fruits of her early morning kitchen labor. I’m not really a fan of biscuits. They seem like a really cruel thing to do to innocent bread.

Cranberry shortbread, on the other hand….

Yeah, I can’t really say no to that.

Shortbread is one of those things I don’t eat often, partly because I only learned to love it a few years ago. I always preferred softer, cakier dessert breads growing up. But a good shortbread — all crisp, crumbly, and slightly buttery — is irresistible. Bad shortbread, I’d rather eat the wax paper it’s baked on. But done right, I love it.

Unsurprisingly, Cat does it right.

She somehow even managed to make dried cranberries plump and moist, a trick I’ve used to make Thanksgiving dressing one sad year when all the fresh cranberries were sold out… but not quite this well.

I think she’s a little disappointed that the shortbread turned out so crumbly that you can’t really eat it without a fork and plate, but to me that simply indicates that this is quintessential shortbread. I mean, shortbread is meant to be crumbly; this stuff crumbles if you merely look at it; ergo, this is the definitive shortbread.

Also, it tastes great. That makes this a plot twist the Balance Board will not approve of.

Maybe because it’s Saturday, or because I can’t seem to sleep past early morning these days, but the oven’s fired up at 375 and cranberry shortbread is a-baking. The shortbread marks the second time baking today. It’s some sort of compulsion lately. I should be getting paid to bake this much, but instead, I have to figure out new things to bake each time. (The popover incident seems to have been a minor crave-until-you-can’t-eat-anotheroneitis.)

This morning’s jaunt in the kitchen was inspired by last night’s experiment with Julia Child’s hollandaise sauce recipe. That, in turn, was inspired by two lovely artichokes ripe for the steaming. Despite some unclear direction on Julia’s part (sorry Julia) regarding whether or not to whisk eggs in a sauce pot (with or without heat?) while adding cold then melted butter (this is no small matter when it comes to hollandaise sauce), the sauce was a success. Of course, due to the fact that I had nearly no idea what I was doing, I almost destroyed the sauce. Luckily, Julia adds a section on troubleshooting (and here you thought troubleshooting only involved computers). Once my sauce started curdling, yes curdling, I realized I probably 1) added the butter too quickly and/or 2) heated the mixture above its emulsion point. The way to fix this is to take out a tablespoon of the mixture and add a teaspoon of lemon. You whisk this, then slowly add the mixture again, whisking all the while until you see the consistency is creamy once again.

I woke up this morning with what amounts to enough hollandaise sauce for four brunch plates and thought, “I should make biscuits and poached eggs for the sauce.” I turned to the handy Better Homes and Gardens and found an easy recipe for biscuits.  On my first try, they were pretty delectable. Another mystery uncovered: biscuits do not have to come from the Pillsbury factory! Unfortunately, the biscuits were so good that I ate them with butter straight from the oven and had no time to make poached eggs for the hollandaise sauce. (Is it weird to eat hollandaise sauce and eggs biscuits for dinner?)

And here we are at a quarter to nine on a Saturday night. I needed to figure out something to do while Jeremy was working out. I guess the only way to successfully combat his uphill battle is to make the hill into a mountain. Tonight, this mountain involves cranberry shortbread thanks to the Joy of Cooking. So far, the sauce may have suffered a temporary setback as I had dried sweetened cranberries rather than fresh. Why is this an issue? After adding the 1/3 cup of sugar and 3 tablespoons of water to roughly 2 1/4 cups of the cranberries on the stove, nothing resembling boiling was happening. When you have fresh cranberries, the liquid from the cranberries releases from the fruit when you heat it up. The starch in the berries mixes with the water and sugar to form a syrup. Lacking its own berry juice, I added extra water and when this didn’t thicken, I added about 1 tablespoon of cornstarch. This seems to have formed a cranberry sauce that is more fruit than sauce, but tastes good, so how bad can the result be? We’ve got about 15 minutes before I find out, so stay tuned for pictures and an update.

Happy Saturday. Enjoy the good eats. (more…)

OK, so after all my lamentations and protestations about watching my weight, I get home and she’s made donuts, of all things!?

Photo by Cat.

We need to have a talk. I mean, I don’t even like donuts, and these are fantastic. This isn’t good at all.

The only solution… is to pawn these off on my coworkers. Next time you see the 1UP crew on video and everyone has an extra chin, you’ll know who to blame.

(Photo: Cat)

By popular request, following is the recipe link for these delectable muffins!  The recipe has been taken from the Ghirardelli double chocolate muffin recipe with an addition of frozen dark cherries.  Yum.

Double Chocolate Chip Muffins

As Jeremy mentioned, for some reason, I can’t stop baking and/or cooking. Add to this my lifelong love of doughnuts and well, there you have it. The perfect marriage of my love of things yeasty and other things I can cook (or in this case, fry). Don’t get me wrong, I know doughnuts along with french fries and other fast food are among the worst foods you can eat, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t loved them from not-so-afar. Today, you may learn to love them from up close as well.

Today’s doughnuts are thanks to Donna Hay’s Modern Classics. If you haven’t heard of Donna Hay, you’re in for a happy surprise. She takes what Julia Child started for “servantless” cooks in America and simplifies it.  (It doesn’t hurt that she was a food stylist and that the photography by Con Poulos is fantastic.)  Somehow, she takes what looks like Martha Stewart cooking (Con Poulos shoots for Martha Stewart Living as well.) and actualizes the simplicity of the images.  Each page of ingredients and steps is limited to one page, not counting full size pictures.

Sugared Doughnuts

Recipe from ‘Modern Classics 2′ by Donna Hay.

This recipe can be adapted to make doughnuts with any type of filling. Try custard, Nutella, chocolate ganache or any kind of jam you like. To do so, at step three, omit the step of cutting out the middle hole and fry as instructed. Pipe your desired filling into your doughnut using a small piping bag. Don’t toss them into the sugar, dust with icing sugar instead, or leave them be.

4 teaspoons active dry yeast

¼ cup lukewarm water

1 cup lukewarm milk (I just combine the two liquids in a jug and nuke it in the microwave for a bit)

3 tablespoons caster sugar

100g unsalted butter, melted

4 ¼ cups plain flour

3 eggs

vegetable oil, to deep fry

1 cup caster sugar mixed with 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, to coat

1. Place the yeast, water, milk and one tablespoon of sugar in a bowl and set aside for 10 minutes. The mixture will start to foam, indicating that the yeast is active.
2. Add the butter, flour, eggs and remaining sugar to the yeast mixture and mix with a butter knife until a sticky dough forms. Bring the dough together by kneading on a lightly floured surface. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with a tea-towel and set aside in a warm place for 45 minutes or until doubled in size. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for five minutes or until it feels smooth and elastic.
3. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until 1cm thick. Cut 8cm rounds with a cutter. Cut a 3.5cm hole in the middle of the rounds. Place a tray lined with non-stick baking paper, cover with a tea-towel and set aside in a warm place for 30 minutes or until risen.
4. Heat the oil in a saucepan until the temperature reaches 180C. Cook the doughnuts a few at a time until golden. Drain briefly on paper towel and toss in the combined sugar and cinnamon.

I lost a lot of weight last year. When I tell people how much I lost, they usually respond by asking how I could possibly shed so much mass in the space of 14 months. The real question, though, is how I managed to put it on in the first place, since at my lightest point last fall I was still a good 20 pounds above my weight in high school. Doing the math, this means I somehow managed to add an additional 50% to my body mass in about 15 years, which is kind of embarrassing… especially since I haven’t added an inch to my height since I was in middle school.

I’ve actually gained back some of that weight over the past six months, because they’ve been a really difficult and trying six months that have left me little time for taking care of myself. Now, though, I’m back on the exercise treadmill (or rather, elliptical), and everything is getting back into order, but there’s this new complication to deal with — namely, this site. Cat and I launched BakeSpite because we like good food and the process of creating it, which is of course completely contrary to my ambition of hitting and maintaining a target weight through the strategic application of caloric deficit. And Cat has been on a wild baking kick lately. And she’s getting really good at it. Meanwhile, I’m trying to sweat myself down slim enough that I can fit into a certain tuxedo for New Year’s Eve (it’s a 1911 vintage creation, so I want to celebrate its centennial birthday in style).

This is known as “working at cross purposes.” Let me share some of my pain and misfortune with you.

Photo: Jeremy

This here is the cake Cat’s cousin Nancy baked me for my birthday last month. As you might be able to gather from the photo, it’s a cheesecake, which is far more fattening than the normal, boring kind of cake. On top of that, it’s a chocolate cheesecake. And to make matters worse, we didn’t really have the correct tools for making it, so its density was nearly that of a neutron star, i.e. one teaspoon of the cake containing roughly the same mass as that of the planet Earth. Though I doubt most neutron stars are quite so tasty.

We also added some cherry pie filling as a topping, just to make sure that each slice contained our USRDA of calories. Most of the weight I’ve gained back was accumulated in March, incidentally. I don’t think it’s a coincidence.

Photo: Jeremy

And here is Cat’s cheesecake, baked last week. Ostensibly, I think it was meant as a test of the new kitchen gear we bought with some gift certificates we were given as an engagement gift. Mostly, though, Cat just really loves cheesecake.

Mercifully, this cake was much lighter than the last thanks to our new mixer and springform pans. Something I’ve learned recently is that the quality of the cookware you use makes more of a difference to the final product than I ever realized. Meanwhile, Cat is learning that baking is more of a science than an art, and that (unlike with other forms of cooking) you have to master the basic form of a recipe before you can begin improvising. All that mysterious chemistry, with the yeast and the bicarbonate of soda and the crying and the collapsing, oy.

There are many different kinds of cheesecake in the world: The gross Sara Lee-style frozen cheesecakes that are more like a pudding than anything else rank at the very, very bottom. On the other hand, the ultra-deadly Cheesecake Factory style cakes, which are extremely smooth and contain two days’ worth of fat calories per slice, are a little too decadent and feel like too much even if you share a slice with a few people.

But this cheesecake was perfect, falling somewhere between the two extremes. I think Cat used a recipe very similar to the one my mother uses, as the flavors were extremely similar. The difference with this one is that the texture was light and airy — not quite as silky smooth as a high-end cheesecake, but also not as likely to sit like a dense rock at the bottom of your belly for a few days. And the crust was super-buttery, which was probably unnecessary but nevertheless welcome.

We also added cherry pie filling on top. After all… why not?

As you can see, this is a terrible, terrible fate I face: A sisyphean mission to lose weight while being plied with delicious desserts by the woman I love. I’ll be sure to post my travails and sorrows in great detail. Because I do so love writing about good food.