Some Experimenting: Gluten-free Carrot Cake, Tartine Brownies and Chocolate Chip Cookies

So I tried some things. I tried to do a little gluten-free baking, tried a new brownie recipe (one of the peculiar dislikes of mine) and I tried a variation of good old fashioned chocolate chip cookies. Out of the three, I would only make one again.

For the Gluten-free carrot cake, there was a major problem. It came out super dry. It tasted delicious, but the consistency was all wrong. When I made a trip to target and was browsing through the cookbooks, I looked at a few gluten-free recipes and they had a lot more wet ingredients in their recipes than the one I used. (Goes to show internet doesn't know everything). So I won't post the recipe until I tweek it a bit. It did look pretty though:

Next I made brownies, from Divine Baking. Now, you all should know that I do not like brownies. I am picky (as seen from my dislike of oatmeal and peanut butter cookies and brownies). BUT, but, these are delicioussss. I won't say anymore, just that you must make these the next time you think about making brownies:

Tartine Brownies Recipe

Adapted From Tartine

3/4 cup butter
1 pound bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 large eggs (the original recipe calls for five eggs, but I don't like tall brownies)
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups nuts, optional for topping

Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter a 9-by-13-inch glass baking dish.

In a small saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate. If the heat from the butter does not fully melt the chocolate, put the pan back over the heat for 10 seconds and stir until melted. Set aside to cool.

Sift the flour into a small mixing bowl. Set aside. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the eggs, sugar, salt, and vanilla. Using a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat on high speed until the mixture thickens and becomes pale in color and falls from the beater in a wide ribbon that folds back on itself and slowly dissolves on the surface, 4 to 5 minutes. Using a rubber spatula, fold the cooled chocolate into the egg mixture. Add the flour and fold it in quickly but gently with the rubber spatula so that you don’t deflate the air that’s been incorporated into the eggs.

Pour the batter into the prepared dish and smooth the top with a spatula. If you are using nuts, evenly distribute them across the batter. Bake until the top looks slightly cracked and feels soft to the touch, about 25 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack.

Using a sharp knife, cut into 12 squares, or size desired. The brownies will keep in an airtight container in a cool place for up to 1 week.

*I also added some instant espresso to enhance the chocolate!

Then I made chocolate chip cookies. Instead of the normal cookies, I whipped the butter. This made them a little but more cakey. I don't like cakey cookies, cause they can't be doughy and cakey. But if you like cakey cookies, definitely whip the butter and then follow the original recipe.

But enough of that, I'm returning to my roots and makin some fluffy buttermilk biscuits and gravy! Check back for more recipes!

Oatmeal Mania

I've gone a little crazy. For oatmeal. I have made oatmeal for breakfast 5 days in a row, and I made oatmeal cookies. Oatmeal cookies...

So, as most everyone knows, I love cookies. But what most don't know until it comes up, I don't like oatmeal or peanut butter cookies. Now oatmeal, I never really liked that much to begin with, so it was understandable, but now I'm having an oatmeal phase, which I will get to later. Now peanut butter. Peanut butter is a different story. I absolutely cannot live without peanut butter. I have always loved it, ever since I was little and I can kill a whole 16 oz. jar in one sitting (try me, I'll beat you in a contest any time) and I have a somewhat unhealthy relationship with peanut butter, having it around all the time would put me in grave danger of having clogged arteries and lead to a heart attack. But back to the point, I don't like peanut butter cookies, and I didn't like oatmeal cookies until now. I think I have found the one; the recipe that is the perfect recipe for oatmeal cookies. So here it is adapted from Day Dreamers Desserts:

President Clinton’s Oatmeal Cookies

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

7 ounces (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg

3/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 large eggs, at room temperature

3 cups rolled oats

1 1/2 raisins

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix flour with baking soda and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer beat butter until fluffy and light yellow. Add sugar and beat until combined. Add eggs, cinnamon and nutmeg and mix until just combined. Then mix in oats and raisins. Roll into log on parchment paper and chill until firm. Cut into 1/2 pieces, or however thick you'd like and bake for 8 minutes, rotate the tray and cook for 2 more minutes. Remove from oven and move immediately off of the cookie tray to cooling rack.

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is one of my go to cookie recipes that I acquired I want to say 8 or 9 years ago, but I can't be sure. A friend of my aunts had come to California for skin cancer treatment and we offered her a place to stay for the weekend for her consultation.

During her visit she told us stories of herself as a kid visiting family in Greece, of her two young boys at home, and about her delicious double chocolate chip cookies. Unfortunately, the medical treatment was not helpful and Helen passed away shortly after her visit to California. Every time I make these cookies, I think of her and what she taught me about cooking that day. Here is a recipe for some of the best cookies you'll eat:

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cup flour

1 teas baking soda

1/4 teas salt

2/3 cup cocoa powder

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 teas vanilla

1 12-oz bag of chocolate chunks (if you can find them, but you can use chocolate chips as well)

Directions:

preheat at 350 degrees

In a medium bowl sift together flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder. Set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. With the mixer on low, gradually add the flour mixture until just combined. Add chocolate chunks or chips, and mix until evenly distributed in dough. Plop on greased cookies sheets, (I make them pretty big) and bake for *8 minutes.

*The original recipe says to bake for 9-11 minutes, but I prefer my cookies doughy.

Making these cookies reminds me of home and the comfort of my silver stand mixer and (almost) unlimited supplies. Make and enjoy!

I'm Back With Thumbprint Cookies

As I finish my second year of college, study for finals, figure out the details of my living situation for next semester, apply for the study abroad program, apply to jobs (bakeries!) and prepare to say goodbye to Chicago for a couple of months, I have realized that it has been way too long since I have posted an entry. With all the goings on of the second semester I have been so caught up in all the new experiences, good, bad and weird, that I have done some baking, but not nearly as much as I usually do.

I have found a new outlook from all my many mistakes, successes, relationships and schoolwork I have been so enveloped with. To say the least, the semester was trying and has left me in uncertainty. I am now 20, half way through college, time wizzing over my head,and I have a pestering omnipresent thought that I have to out myself in the "real world" and actually do something with my life. So I have researched and am applying to numerous bakeries for a summer job (something I have been planning to do for a while, but am just getting to now).

Being finals week I don't think much baking will happen, but I have some coconut, raspberry jam and LOTS of BUTTER, so I might have to make some thumbprint cookies. One of my favorite foodnetwork stars, Ina Garten, has a delicious recipe for thumbprint cookies. The cookies are moist, have a crunchy shell and have the soft center that I find necessary for a cookie to be considered an actual cookie.

Jam Thumbprint Cookies from Ina Garten

3/4 pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash
7 ounces sweetened flaked coconut
Raspberry and/or apricot jam

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until they are just combined and then add the vanilla. Separately, sift together the flour and salt. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture to the creamed butter and sugar. Mix until the dough starts to come together. Dump on a floured board and roll together into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.

Roll the dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. (If you have a scale they should each weigh 1 ounce.) Dip each ball into the egg wash and then roll it in coconut. Place the balls on an ungreased cookie sheet and press a light indentation into the top of each with your finger. Drop 1/4 teaspoon of jam into each indentation. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the coconut is a golden brown. Cool and serve.

On another note, though I haven't kept the usual baking quota these past few months, I have been scouring countless food blogs and have saved A LOT (988 to be exact, not counting) of recipes to try when I get back into the swing of things. But more about those later a little of what I have baked (recipes to come later):


My Nana's chocolate bunt cake that was published (an altered version) to boston.com. It was delicious! I hope that I got all of her baking genes!


The bunny cake I made for a adorable little girl's first birthday. She ended up being sick so, her party was cancelled, but I hope she got a little piece of it. This is also the most MASSIVE cake I have ever made. I used the Primrose Bakery frosting and cake recipes.

And of course my staple cookie recipes (double chocolate chip, original and espresso cinnamon chocolate chip) have been baked (or cookie dough eaten) several times.

Must return to my studies, be ready for baked goods galore!

Los Doyers

Last night we (Dad, Andy, Chiaki, Tara and I) went to the Dodger-Giant game. It's been a few years since I had been there. When we used to go as a family Tara and I would just walk around looking at all the paraphernalia, get froyo in a baseball hat and eat yummy dodger dogs, pretzels and nachos. This time we actually stayed to watch the game, but upon getting our tickets they gave us a free voucher for a dodger dog and drink! Meaning that Tara had no reason to try her first dodger dog. After all these years she has never had one, and last night was the night. She claims that she doesn't eat a lot of things like cheeseburgers and hotdogs and peanut butter (I have come to learn through a very reliable source that she is a peanut butter freak like me, thank you Vanessa) but she doesn't give them a chance. But thats beside the point; we all enjoyed our dodger dogs and teaching Chiaki some american, very american traditions.

Earlier that day I made some "healthy cookies" from 101 Cookbooks that have oats, coconut, banana and chocolate chips, so I thought how bad could they be? Well... Tara liked them. They weren't my cup of tea. But here is the recipe if you feel like being good and not eating real cookies:


Nikki's Healthy Cookies

3 large, ripe bananas, well mashed (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup coconut oil, barely warm - so it isn't solid (or alternately, olive oil)
2 cups rolled oats
2/3 cup almond meal
1/3 cup coconut, finely shredded & unsweetened
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
6 - 7 ounces chocolate chips or dark chocolate bar chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, racks in the top third.

In a large bowl combine the bananas, vanilla extract, and coconut oil. Set aside. In another bowl whisk together the oats, almond meal, shredded coconut, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until combined. Fold in the chocolate chunks/chips.The dough is a bit looser than a standard cookie dough, don't worry about it. Drop dollops of the dough, each about 2 teaspoons in size, an inch apart, onto a parchment (or Silpat) lined baking sheet. Bake for 12 - 14 minutes.

101 cookbooks also has a recipe for carrot cookies that I really want to try... we'll see how it turns out.

Lemon Drops and Kahlua Cake

Making dessert's for Kenny's graduation got me my next job! Our other neighbor asked me to make some desserts for a Lemon Drop party she was having. So once I called and talked it over I decided to make 4 items. I made lemon bars, lemon ice box pie, mexican wedding cookies and a chocolate kahlua cake. For the lemon bars I used Ina Garten's recipe, from her 1999 cookbook. I absolutely LOVE Ina. Everything that I've made from her has turned out super delicious. I recommend any book of hers. The only thing bad I've heard about her is that her coconut cupcake recipe is pretty bland, but I have my own so no worries! Then for the lemon ice box pie, which is a classic southern dessert, I used a recipe that my family has been using for years. A lot of people have never had lemon ice box pie, which is really strange for me because my mom made it a lot over the years. It's a creamy and tart lemon filling, kind of like the consistency of pudding, inside a graham cracker crust covered with a fluffy meringue. Now my mother loves to have a super big meringue on top because she thinks its more "impressive" but I think that it's better without a huge meringue on top, so I make mine a lot smaller. Anyways I had a little left over so I made a mini pie and it was sooooo good. I want some right now. Next is the irresistible mexican wedding cookies. I tried the recipe from the huge orange Bon Appetite book that we have and is my favorite recipe thus far. They are super moist and just enough cinnamon sugar on the outside so that they aren't too sweet. Then one of the Daly classic desserts, the chocolate Kahlua cake. MMMMMM. It smelled so good while I was making it, but I couldn't sneak a piece, it would have been too noticeable. I put the glaze on while the cake was still a little warm, and then made another batch of the glaze too put on later. I cut the cake into slices so it would be easy to grab a slice at the party. But, alas I have a confession. This is one out of the two cakes I don't make totally from scratch. I got the recipe from my Grandmama Dale and I use a package of cake mix and a package of pudding mix, and the other cake, Rum Cake, is the same situation but with vanilla cake and pudding mix. So I'm always a little ashamed when people tell me how good the cake is because I don't make it from scratch, but I'm making it a mission to figure out how to make it scratch. (I'll keep you updated :)). . Since making desserts for that party, I have made molten chocolate lava cakes and a batch of my favorite double chocolate chip cookies. mmmm.

On another note, I've started babysitting and have a few jobs lined up so I can make some monaayyy! But I'll still be baking :)

Graduation Time (And my first job!)

After a temporary hiatus I'm back on track. My friend Val had me make a collection of desserts for her sons graduation party. My first job! So I worked for about a day and a half and managed to crank out 3 batches of cookies, 3 batches of cupcakes, a cake, banana bread, and brownies. I used most of my favorite recipes that I make again and again, but never get sick of, like Ina Garten's Outrageous Brownies or Emeril Laggase's carrot cake. I made my all-time favorite cookie recipes (espresso-cinnamon and double chocolate cookies) which I think were a big hit and enjoyed by all. I actually think that cookies are my favorite dessert, because the batter is the best! Anyways, on to the cupcakes. I made Martha Stewart's chocolate- caramel cupcakes. I have made them before and Mama Daly loves them, so I figured they would be a good choice. They are really good, but I could only finish half of them for my after-lunch sweet treat. Then I made vanilla raspberry cupcakes. I combined a recipe from Gourmet Girl. She used a recipe for strawberry shortcake from Gourmet Magazine. I used the same vanilla cake recipe and used the frosting recipe but added about 5-6 tablespoons of raspberry jam, and topped it with a raspberry. For my last batch of cupcakes, I used my great-grandmother's coconut cake recipe. This recipe has caused true frustration, and extreme irritation for me. The cake is super moist (and delicious, don't get me wrong) and the frosting is like super sticky melted marshmallow fluff. Making a layer cake with this recipe may cause insanity. The cake falls apart and the layers begin to slip every which way so that it looks like a huge pile of white-goopy mess. But I had hope for these cupcakes, and it turned out that they were they were super easy to make! The icing, being thick and sticky, would with the help of gravity sorta fall into place. Then I dipped them in the coconut and they were ready to eat. My mom told me that my great grandmother didn't have any of the tools that I have for baking. I have alot of respect for my great-grandmother who made this recipe without and electric mixer, a timer or skewers to somewhat hold the cake in place. After finishing the cupcakes I started out on the carrot cake, which was scrumptious if I do say so myself. Emeril knows a good cake. I made the layers quickly the night before and wrapped them individually in saran wrap and refrigerated them. I whipped up the frosting as well the night before and when assembling the cake the next morning, it was so easy and made the cake a lot easier to work with. I think it was one of my best looking cakes. I was really happy with it :) Thanks Val for giving my first job!
Next i made the only brownies I have ever liked, Ina's Outrageous Brownies. Absolutely delicious. Everyone should make them right now. Heres the recipe:
1 pound unsalted butter
1 pound plus 12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate
6 extra-large eggs
3 tablespoons instant coffee granules
2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter and flour a 12 x 18 x 1-inch baking sheet.

Melt together the butter, 1 pound of chocolate chips, and the unsweetened chocolate in a medium bowl over simmering water. Allow to cool slightly. In a large bowl, stir (do not beat) together the eggs, coffee granules, vanilla, and sugar. Stir the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and allow to cool to room temperature.

In a medium bowl, sift together 1 cup of flour, the baking powder, and salt. Add to the cooled chocolate mixture. Toss the walnuts and 12 ounces of chocolate chips in a medium bowl with 1/4 cup of flour, then add them to the chocolate batter. Pour into the baking sheet.

Bake for 20 minutes, then rap the baking sheet against the oven shelf to force the air to escape from between the pan and the brownie dough. Bake for about 15 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Do not overbake! Allow to cool thoroughly, refrigerate, and cut into 20 large squares. (I don't usually refrigerate them, and when I did this time, I didn't like them as much, but they were still irresistible.)

My last and final dessert I made banana bread. The graduate and my brother liked it, but I was a little iffy about it. It was slightly bland for my taste, but then again I prefer super rich dessert's that other people have trouble eating without feeling sick. I also got this banana bread recipe from Gourmet Girl. In addition to my baking-filled day and a half, 3/4 of the cousin twins were reunited here in LA!! It was sooooo good to see Carolyn. She had a conference for work at UCLA, and now she is off to New Zealand (the homeland really) with her boyfriend Ben. Seeing her made me miss my cousin twin, Mag-rat, so I have made it a mission to make enough money (by baking for parties) to fly to Boston so that cousin twins can be together again, it's been way too long!

(I just really liked this picture)

Back again soon! My next job is in five days! getting ready to serve 35 women at a Lemon-Drop Martini Party!

Strawberry Day

After some delicious and infamous Papa Daly pancakes with fresh fruit, sausage and bacon we were ready to head out to Oxnard to the Strawberry Festival. Once my brother, my sister, Collin, Christine and Mary Jo are all in the car, we start towards the freeway and hit some major traffic that we weren't really expecting, but we had faith it would soon fade out. We get onto the 101, which the iPhone has directed us to take, and realize that after taking the 405 for a considerably long time, we have to spend more than 28 MiLES on the 101. So we continue to sit in the bumper to bumper traffic and wait for our exit (christine and I were rooting for an In-N-Out pit stop, but no one else agreed). Finally we reach our exit, and Collin looks at the directions on his iPhone and sees we have 23 miles to go on roads of Oxnard before we get to the Strawberry Festival. After taking a bathroom break at McDonald's (where my brother opted to buy a cheeseburger and extra large sweet tea... gross) we start to get close and see signs for the festival. We have a sign on the left of the road telling us to turn left for the Festival, and a sign on the right pointing us towards the shuttle. We decide to park closer, and not take the shuttle. Long story short, we make 3 wrong turns and have to make some semi-illegal U-turns to get back, but we made it. We finally enter and, all starving for food, we head to the food section of the festival. We split up, and meet back up for some lunch.
It was pretty good, classic fair food. After walking around, listening to a Journey cover band and middle-aged women and men dance in an unsightly manner, meeting a hippie most likely native to Santa Cruz and trying out some strange hammocks, we headed home. I slept the whole ride home, and was extremely tired from all our eating and strugglefest traveling, I almost didn't make anything (Tara was very rude by encouraging me NOT to make anything), but I finally got up off the couch and picked up some rhubarb, for a strawberry rhubarb crumble. I think everyone appreciated my efforts because it was half gone by within 15 minutes of coming out of the oven.

I used a recipe from 101 Cookbooks, but changed a few things. Instead of using spelt flour I used regular and I used regular sugar. I didn't make the topping into patties because it was a little too dry for that, but I also had left over topping. Next time I think I will half the topping and add a little bit more butter. But other than that everyone loved it.

While I was at the store I figured I'd pick some ingredients up for my recipe for tomorrow. But my bestest-estest Amanda friend came home for the night and I decided that I should just make the cookies that night. I got the recipe for white chocolate macadamia nut cookies from the blog Joy The Baker. It was pretty good; I am not a big fan of white chocolate, but they were pretty delicious. I cooked them the first time for as long as the recipe called for, but for anyone who knows me knows that it is very unusual for me to bake cookies for the time called for in the recipe. I only eat my cookies when they are appropriately gooey. So they were perfect for me after 8 minutes. mmmm. And the house smelled really good too.

Well excuse me for now because I'm spending l=time being fat with Amanda and eating menchies and chocolate peanut butter milkshakes. I'm in the mood to make something else... (against my sisters wishes).




Me and Amanda circa 1996. Proof of my chubbiness.