This month’s Sugar High Friday 31 is hosted by Seven Spoons and the theme is — “Shades of White.” Fun! Of course, it would have been nice if I had realized that my post was supposed to be up at the beginning of the week but I read the announcement wrong…Hopefully, I can sneak my entry in!

This is a neutral shade and S-I-M-P-L-E to make. Chocolate. Nuts. Assorted flavor whatnots (lavender + orange zest). That is all.

White Chocolate Clusters with Lavender & Orange Zest
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup cashews (edited to add: I used roasted, lightly salted)
1/2 tsp dried lavender
1/2 tsp orange zest

To begin, put the chips, orange zest and lavender in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat in 30 second increments, stirring between each time, until the chocolate is melted. You could also, of course, use a double-boiler for this.

Add the cashews to the melted chocolate and mix until all the nuts are coated.

Scoop 3-4 cashews out in a cluster. I found using two spoons worked well for this. Drop the clusters on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Let cool for about 15 minutes, then pop into the refrigerator to completely firm up — about 30 more minutes.

Because of the orange zest and Spring weather, I would store these in the fridge. I doubt they will last longer than a few days (because you will eat them all, not because they will go bad).

Thanks again to Seven Spoons for hosting SHF31!

Look, strawberry season is upon us, so says the new issue of Bon Appétit (June 2007), which is where this delicious recipe comes from. I made these little chocolatey shortcakes for dessert when jwa’s parents were over for dinner Saturday night. Making the biscuits one day ahead worked well and it was also easy to make the strawberries a couple of hours before serving. All the make ahead possibilities are very helpful when having guests over.

You may notice that recipe calls for whipping cream to make the biscuits. Oh, my. Now, I normally would have subbed the cream with 2% milk (and not whipped it) but since this was for company, I went ahead and used the cream. That’s what makes it decadent! I also drizzled a little extra Grand Marnier onto the biscuits before covering with the strawberries.

Biscuits
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup chilled whipping cream (and perhaps 2-3 tbsp more)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Strawberries
2 pounds small strawberries, hulled, quartered (about 3 1/2 cups)
4 tbsp powdered sugar, divided
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
2 tbsp Grand Marnier or other orange liqueur (optional: 6 extra tsp of the liqueur)
1/2 tsp finely grated orange peel
Pinch of salt

1 cup chilled whipping cream
Orange zest for garnish

For the biscuits
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment. Whisk first 5 ingredients in large bowl. Using electric mixer, beat cream and vanilla in medium bowl until firm peaks form.

Stir cream into flour mixture until moist clumps form. Transfer mixture to lightly floured surface and knead gently until dough forms ball, about 10 turns.

Too crumbly…

I found that I needed more moisture here, so I added a couple of tablespoons more cream until I managed to knead a ball.

Just right…

Pat the dough out to 3/4-inch thickness. Using 3-inch cutter, cut out biscuits. Gather dough, pat out again, and cut out total of 6 biscuits. Place biscuits on prepared baking sheet.

Bake biscuits until toothpick inserted into centers comes out clean, about 15 minutes. Transfer to rack; and cool. Let stand at room temperature until serving or cool completely and store in an airtight container until using.

For strawberries:
Stir strawberries, two tablespoons (I decreased this from the recipe’s original six tablespoons) powdered sugar, and next four ingredients in medium bowl. Cover and chill at least two hours and up to five hours.

Next, using electric mixer, beat chilled whipping cream and remaining two tablespoons powdered sugar until soft peaks form. You could also add a little more (one teaspoon or so) of the Grand Marnier. You know, just for fun. Now, place one biscuit on each of your plates. I popped the biscuits in the microwave for about 30 seconds to warm them up just a bit. Then, after plating four of them, I drizzled about 1 teaspoon of Grand Marnier on each biscuit.

To finish it, place a few large spoonful of berries with juices atop the biscuits. Top with whipped cream. Now, whatever will we do with the leftover two chocolate biscuits?

Here’s a picture of the huge lamb platter I made for dinner — red wine, rosemary & garlic grilled lamb tenderloin over lentils and carrots with sauteed zucchini and asparagus on the side. Oh and the awesome toasted Parmesan flatbread from Eating Well magazine.

This month’s Sugar High Friday is hosted by Chocolate in Context and the theme is — wait for it — chocolate. But, ha, not just any chocolate, raw chocolate — “an unrefined cacao product, such as cacao beans, cacao nibs, cocoa butter, or cocoa powder.” After some thought, I chose nibs, as I thought they would be easy to find. However, the store I was completely sure would have nibs (Pasta Works) did not. So sad. And I didn’t really feel like trudging over to Zupan’s searching for nibs.

*Sigh*

I was nibless.

But, I did have a box of cocoa powder in the cabinet. So, that’s what I used. I also utilized some crushed almonds as a coating. About half in the powder and half in the almonds. Everyone’s happy. Especially me because these are delicious.

The flavor is smooth, rich and cool. And oh so good. Definitely use Meyer lemons. All tarty sweet, no bitterness. The combination with the dark chocolate and hint of thyme flavor is out of this world. I upped the lemon juice content on advice from the Epicurious reviews and decreased the cream. I found the ganache smooth and very easy to work with. This is the first time I’ve ever made truffles and I have to say, I can’t wait to make some more!

Meyer Lemon & Thyme Truffles
Adapted from Bon Appétit magazine.
1 cup heavy whipping cream
9 ounces high–quality bittersweet chocolate chopped
1 1/2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
3 tbsp fresh Meyer lemon juice (this will be about 1 lemon)
1 tsp Meyer lemon peel zest (yellow part only)
cocoa nibs (broken up into small pieces or cocoa powder or chopped almonds (or a combination)

Bring the cream and thyme to simmer in heavy small saucepan.

Let sit for 15 minutes, then bring back to barely simmering, remove from heat and strain the hot cream over the chocolate pieces.

My extremely “foodie” mix of Trader Joe’s bittersweet chips and pieces of Dagoba 50-something% chocolate

Add the zest and juice and stir until all the chocolate is melted.

Refrigerate for at least 3 hours, until ganache is firm enough to work with. Use a small ice cream scoop (you can also use a tablespoon or two spoons, and shape little balls of chocolate.

Roll the truffles in the broken nibs, crushed almonds or cocoa powder. Try to touch the truffles as little as possible, trying to use mostly just your fingers (your fingers are cooler than your palm). Place on a parchment lined sheet to store.

I found it helpful to do half, then stick the ganache back in the fridge for about 15 minutes.

Store the truffles in the fridge, on parchment paper, in a covered container. To serve, let sit at room temperature for a little bit before eating. Or not. Seriously, these are really good no matter what, I’m sure.

Thanks again to Chocolate in Context and The Domestic Goddess, the originator of the SHF event. Now, what to do with those extra lemons, as I bought three at the store. Hmmm, I think there will be a Meyer Lemon Drop with my name on it tonight after work!

For Christmas this year, one of my presents from jwa was a creme brulee torch. It’s awesome. I used to always use the broiler for caramelizing the tops, and that works fine, but it’s just so nice to whip out the torch and do it quickly, without heating the custard up as much as putting it under the broiler does. Plus, it is kind of fun to burn things!

Here’s a recipe I adapted from Bon Appétit magazine. When making creme brulee at home, I tend to use half and half, rather than heavy cream. I know, I’m deluding myself there, but it does make me feel a little better.

Oh and I also added a little orange zest to the half and half while it simmered on the stove top. I like to think that added a little extra something. In addition, I chopped my ancho very roughly (okay, I just cut it in half) and then strained all the floaty things from the cream after it had simmered. That worked very well rather than dicing things smaller and leaving them in the custard, I think.

This wasn’t strongly spicy but it did have a slight after taste of heat. I liked it a lot. So did jwa.

Ancho Chocolate Creme Brulee
3 cups whipping cream (or half and half)
1 cinnamon stick
1 dried ancho chili with seeds, stemmed and roughly chopped
Pinch of ground cumin
1 strip of orange zest
1/3 cup plus 6 tsp sugar
6 ounces bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped
6 large egg yolks
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine first 5 ingredients and 1/3 cup sugar in heavy large saucepan and bring to boil, stirring occasionally. Let simmer for a minute or two and then remove from heat.

Strain the hot mixture into the chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth. Whisk egg yolks in large bowl to blend.

Gradually whisk in hot chocolate mixture.

Divide custard among eight 3/4-cup custard cups or soufflé dishes. Place cups in heavy large baking pan. Add enough hot water to pan to come halfway up sides of cups. Bake custards until almost set in center, about 35 minutes. Remove cups from water and cool completely. Cover and refrigerate overnight. I had a few bubbles on the top of my baked custards from the pre-bake whisking, but since I was covering with sugar and bruleeing I wasn’t too concerned.

Preheat broiler. Mix remaining 6 teaspoons sugar and ground cinnamon in small bowl. Sprinkle sugar mixture over custards. Broil until sugar melts and caramelizes, watching carefully and turning often, about 2 minutes.

Alternatively, if you have a handy-dandy kitchen torch, use that to caramelize the tops of the custards.

Let it sit a minute or two to make sure the top hardens and then crack it with a spoon. Ahhh. Now that’s a great sound. And it tastes very good too!

This month’s Sugar High Friday is Sweet Seduction and is hosted by Confessions of a Cardamom Addict. In honor of the theme, I have made a batch of brownies that have a little bit of everything. Sugar. Spice. Chocolate. Nuts. Coffee. Something for everyone — hopefully one of those ingredients will work for you (or your intended).

This recipe is kind of based on something a co-worker brought into work during the holidays — except different. After finding a recipe that was similar to those gingerbread brownies, I added espresso, pecans and extra chocolate chips and the result was a little spicy, a little chocolatey, very moist and completely addictive.

I bet if you baked someone a batch of these you could have your wicked way with them. Or something like that… Or maybe just sit on the couch, turn out the lights, snuggle and watch Tron together. It’s all good.

Chocolate, Gingerbread and Pecan Brownies
3/4 cup milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup butter (softened)
1 cup AP Flour
2 large eggs
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp instant espresso
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 cup toasted pecans
pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Melt the butter and 1/2 cup of the chocolate together in a double boiler (or some sort of glass/metal bowl set over simmering water). Stir in the espresso and set aside.

Combine eggs, sugar and spices (salt too) and place in an electric mixer — mix until it gets all ribbon-like.

Mix the chocolate and butter mixture into the sugar and egg mixture. Sift flour and combine into brownie mixture in 1/3 increments continue to fold until well incorporated. I just used my stand mixer for this part too. Add the 1/4 cup remaining chocolate chips and the pecans. Mix just to combine.

Pour into a buttered and floured 9 inch X 9 inch baking pan. Bake at 325 degree oven and rotate every 15 or so minutes. Continue cooking for 35-40 min.

The top should be all nice and crinkly when you remove from the oven. Test for doneness with a toothpick. Let cool and then cut into pieces.

Enjoy with someone you love. Thanks again to Confessions of a Cardamom Addict for hosting this month’s event!

Actually, a better name would have been, “Sugar High I’m an Idiot Day.” I thought it was due on the 26th, (Friday) but entries were due yesterday.

*sigh*

I need to read directions better. Regardless, food bloggers everywhere (with good reading comprehension skills) have posted their recipes and they have been rounded up here. Please give it a read and feel the chocolate love!

What I chose to make was a recipe from the current Eating Well Magazine — Chai Chocolate Pots de Creme, using Dagoba organic chocolate from Ashland, Oregon. The type I used was Milagros 68% - Peru - Single Origin — two bars, $8.00 total at a store by my house. Well worth it, in my opinion. And actually, it was jwa’s $8 as he paid for the chocolate and a bag of rigatoni at Pasta Works last weekend.

A quick note on chocolates — if it doesn’t specifically say 68% cacao or some higher percentage like that right on the package, it’s most likely under 65%, so you’d use more chocolate and less sugar as noted below in the recipe.

Chai Chocolate Pots de Creme
It says this makes eight pots de creme but I say six — I guess it depends on the size of your ramekins.
2/3 cup whipping cream
4 cardamom pods, crushed
7 whole cloves
4 slices fresh ginger
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate (if your chocolate is under 65% cacao, use 4.5 ounces instead), shaved, chips or other small pieces
1 1/2 cups fat free milk (or 2%)
1/4 cup sugar (again, if using less than 65%, use 3 tbsp sugar instead)
1 large egg
3 large egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract
Garnish: Whipped cream
Garnish: Crystallized ginger

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place ramekins in a baking dish — if there’s a lot of extra room, place the ramekins on top of a tea towel or a few paper towels to keep the ramekins from moving around.

Heat the cream, cardamom, cloves and ginger in a small pot. Bring to a boil, remove from heat and let sit 10 minutes. Return to the heat and briefly bring back to a boil.

Place the chocolate in a large measuring cup and pour the hot cream through a strainer and down over the chocolate. Press down on the spices to extract as much of the cream as possible. Let the cream/chocolate mixture sit for three minutes. Don’t stir.

After the inactive three minutes, stir away until the chocolate melts and it is all smooth and you just want to slurp it up with a straw. If it’s not melted completely, pop it in the microwave for about 15 seconds.

In the pot you used to boil the cream, add the milk and sugar and bring to a simmer. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Slowly pour about 2/3 of the hot milk into the chocolate while stirring.

In another bowl, whisk the egg, yolks and vanilla in a small bowl. Slowly, while whisking, pour the remaining 1/3 hot milk into the egg/milk mixture. Strain that into the chocolate mixture and mix it all to combine.

Evenly divide the custard among the ramekins. Place the baking dish on a low oven rack and slowly pour hot water into the baking dish so that it comes up about 3/4 inch up the sides of the ramekins. Bake until the tops of the custards are barely set — about 16-20 minutes.

Let cool for about 1 hour and then refrigerate for about three hours until well chilled. Or, enjoy them at room temperature — that’s what we did. Couldn’t wait for refrigerator time. So good.

Garnish with whipped cream and sliced crystallized ginger.

This month’s Sugar High Friday is hosted by Habeas Brulee and the theme is a great one — sugar art. Of course, with it being the holidays and everything, I kind of took the lazy way out and made cookies decorated with sparkly sugar. These are very much like chocolate shortbread and are very good. I actually found them to be even tastier the day after baking.

The recipe is from the book, Christmas Cookies, edited by Susan Hernandez Ray. I received it a couple of months ago when I accidentally forgot to decline the monthly selection at the Good Cook’s Book Club. Oops.

Chocolate Star Cookies
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups AP flour
1 cup Dutch process cocoa
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
8 ounces white chocolate chips
1/4 cup granulated sugar

Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add the powdered sugar, combining well. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until blended.

Combine the flour and next three ingredients and gradually add to the butter mixture at low speed. Divide dough in half and wrap each potion in plastic wrap. Chill at least one hour.

Roll one portion at a time to 1/4 inch thickness on a floured surface. Cut with a 4-inch star cookie cutter and place on parchment-lined baking sheets. I used both a star cookie cutter and a small gingerbread man cutter. Feel free to use your cookies cutters of choice.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. Remove to wire racks and cool completely. Next, place chocolate chips in a small double boiler (or a heat-proof bowl over simmering water) and melt. Stir until smooth and use a spoon to drizzle over cooled cookies. I’ve found that a good way to do this is to place a cooling rack over a cookie sheet, so that all the extra drizzled chocolate falls through the rack and onto the cookie sheet. I believe I got that idea from Alton Brown and the chocolate eclair episode.

Sprinkle the granulated sugar on top of the warmed chocolate and let set.

Enjoy with milk. Although — watch out for falling gingerbread man heads.

Thanks again to Habeas Brulee for hosting this month’s event!

It’s a good thing they are damn tasty. I’m participating in a “cookie exchange” at work for Friday and there are nine bakers involved. That means 10 dozen cookies — one for each person making cookies and one for the “table”. When I signed up, I was told six to seven people typically participate. Riiiight. Oh well, it’ll be fun.

To get a jump start, I’ve measured out all of my dry ingredients and have that stored in freezer bags, as well as my chopped white chocolate, diced apricots and almonds. I’m all ready to go except for the eggs, vanilla, butter and almond extract.

I found this recipe on the Food Network site, easily influenced by the promise of an easy recipe. Well, aside from being easy these are absolutely delicious. I’m even going to make a few extra so that we have some at home. I kept it pretty much the same, except for adding the almonds. I also decreased the apricots a bit, (now there are equal ratios of fruit to chocolate). The recipe says this makes around 24 cookies but they’d have to be pretty small cookies. I’d say it’s more around 15 - 18 cookies.

White Chocolate, Apricot & Almond Cookies
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 oz dried apricots, coarsely chopped
4 oz white chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 oz slivered almonds, toasted and coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a mixer, beat the butter and brown sugar until blended. Beat in the egg and vanilla and almond extracts until combined. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt, and mix until combined.

Next, mix in the apricots and white chocolate. Drop the batter by heaping tablespoons onto parchment lined cookie sheets, spacing 2 inches apart.

Bake until the edges are lightly brown, about 10 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

The plan is to make four dozen tomorrow night, three dozen Wednesday night and the last three dozen Thursday night. Then I just have to wrap them up all pretty-like and I’ll be ready to go on Friday morning!

Now these were a last minute addition to a pot luck that I needed to attend for work. The crust is made up of toasted, ground walnuts and graham cracker (with a little orange zest) and the filling part is all dark chocolate ganache. Mmm! I finished it off by drizzling some white chocolate on the top all Jackson Pollock-like.

Little Chocolatey Orange Walnut Squares
Crust:
4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2/3 cup toasted walnuts
1 cup graham crackers, broken into pieces
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp orange zest
Filling:
1 cup whipping cream + 1 tbsp more
12 ounces dark, bittersweet chocolate, chips or finely chopped (I used Ghirardelli 70% bittersweet chocolate chips)
1 tbsp grated orange zest
1/4 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 8-inch square baking dish with cooking spray. Line with parchment (or aluminum foil), leaving a 2-inch overhang on two sides. I just folded by aluminum foil down around the edges of the dish.

In a food processor, finely grind the walnuts and graham cracker pieces, sugar and zest. If you don’t have a food processor, you could place the nuts and graham crackers in a zip lock bag and pound with a rolling pin. Blend butter into graham cracker mixture and press into the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Go up the sides about 1/2 inch. Bake until lightly browned, 8-12 minutes. Cool crust about a half an hour.

When the crust is cool, start on the filling. Heat the 1 cup of cream in a pot until it is at a simmer. Turn off the heat and stir in the dark chocolate and orange zest. You can also have the chocolate and orange zest already in a bowl and pour the hot cream over that — mixing it all together. I typically just use the pot I heated the cream in as it saves a bowl from being dirty and I am lay. Continue to stir until the chocolate is completely melted. Pour into the crust and refrigerate until it is all set, a couple of hours to overnight.

When you can lift the chocolate and crust out of the dish it should be good to go.

Wait…there’s more
I decided that the squares need a little something more. Something a little fun. After some rummaging around the cabinet I came up with a bag of white chocolate chips. Excellent! At this point, I took the lazy route and melted the white chocolate chips and the 1 tablespoon of cream in the microwave. I used 30 second increments and stirred well after each blast of microwave power. When it was mostly melted but still a little lumpy, I stirred and stirred until there were no lumps. I then drizzled it onto the squares (with a spoon) for a little decoration.

Next, return to the fridge for about an hour, giving the white chocolate a little time to firm up. Cut into 16 squares (then cut those in half so that you have 32) and serve. They are very rich. What? Okay, fine, have two then.

This was a great theme (imho) chosen by Ono Kine Grindz, as I currently like to use tofu in things like sauces and soups. It’s just so easy to use in place of cream or other high-fat, unhealthy creamifyers. Instead of making one dish (a sweet one) for both IMBB and SHF, I chose to make two separate tofu dishes. Kind os a two-for-one theme deal. Besides, I used 1/4 of a block of tofu for the peanut sauce and used the 3/4 remaining for the mousse. Perfect!

The IMBB dish, Honey-Garlic Peanut Noodles with Vegetables and Chicken, came from the cookbook, Tofu Mania. Now, I know I’ve made two peanut noodles dishes before but honestly, I think this one is my favorite. How about that?

The recipe in the book is just for the sauce, so I will give that and then just list what else I did. Because really? You could use this sauce for anything. It’s delicious! What I ended up doing was to serve the peanut sauce with grilled chicken, vegetables and soba noodles.

I:
IMBB27: Honey-Garlic Peanut Noodles with Vegetables and Chicken
Sauce:
1/4 cup firm tofu (I pretty much sliced off about a 1/4 of a block of tofu and called it 1/4 cup).
juice of 1 orange
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup peanut butter
2 tbsp honey
3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup fresh basil
1 tbsp ginger, chopped
2-4 tbsp soy sauce
red pepper flakes to taste

Other:
Cooked chicken
Soba noodles
Vegetables of your choice (I used bell peppers, onions and green beans)
More basil for garmish, as well as some chopped green onions.

Add the tofu and juices to a food processor. Puree until smooth. Next add the peanut butter, basil, honey, garlic, ginger, pepper flakes and soy sauce. Process a bit more, until creamy annd smooth. Taste and adjust any seasonings.

The sauce can be set aside until you are ready to use it or refrigerated or up to 3 days. Just reheat gently, in a pan, over low heat. I let the hot cooked soba noodles warm my sauce up.

I served my honey-garlic sauce with soba noodles, grilled chicken and sauteed bell pepper, onion and green beans.

Toss everything together and serve with more fresh basil leaves.

II.
The SHF dish came from the Scharffen Berger Web site. It’s a tofu chocolate mousse and it turned out really good too — very rich, chocolatey and creamy! I’ve always heard that using tofu in chocolate mousse works well — I was anxious to see this for myself. I am now a convert!

SHF20: Tofu Chocolate Mousse
(I made a half recipe by using 3/4 of a block of tofu and a little bit less than half the other ingredients. It made two generous-sized servings.)
from Scharffen Berger
2 (12.3-ounce) packages extra firm silken tofu
4 ounces Bittersweet or Semisweet chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli 60% Cocoa Bittersweet Chocolate chips, sorry sb…)
1/2 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
3 tbsp instant espresso or coffee powder
3/4 cup good-quality maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla
Optional: 1 to 2 tablespoons coffee-flavored or orange-flavored liqueur
Garnish: Fresh raspberries or strawberries

Drain the tofu in a colander for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, melt the chocolate in a double boiler or use your microwave — just give it 30 seconds at a time and stir after each turn in the microwave. When it hot and almost melted all the way, stir until the last remaining pieces melt.

Place the tofu in a food processor or blender and puree until creamy. Scrape down the bowl as needed. Add the cocoa and espresso powder and process until well blended. Next comes the syrup, vanilla, melted chocolate, and liqueur. Puree it all until smooth.

Transfer to individual dishes, cover and chill several hours or overnight. Serve with the fruit.

III.
Thanks again to Ono Kine Grindz for hosting this duel IMBB/SHF event!

Tagged with: IMBB27 and SHF20.