Intense orange-chocolate-almond cookies

I had the idea to make these cookies a few weeks ago.  I call them intense orange-chocolate-almond cookies.  That's quite a mouthful for a title but it sums them up.  They look like ordinary chocolate chunk cookies but they're filled with a strong burst of orange flavor and embedded with bits of almonds, surrounding by that dark chocolate.  Some special chocolate bars provide a shortcut to achieving those flavors but to boost it further, I added fresh orange zest and almond extract to the cookie dough.

I snuck in a little bit of whole wheat pastry flour and you really can't tell one bit.  For half of my batch, I also added additional chunks of toasted almonds.

I got the idea to make these cookies after seeing a cookie recipe using chopped Toblerone chocolate bars.  Now, Toblerones and I go way back and they have a very special place in my heart.  I think they're pretty perfect on their own  and while I'd be thrilled to taste them in a cookie, I got to thinking about what other chocolate bars would work and hold up well baked in cookie form.  Right away, I thought of these...

I'll restrain myself from calling the Lindt Intense Orange chocolate bars one of my favorites because, while I do love them, anyone who knows me well knows I am a chocoholic and, thus, my list of favorites is rather long.  That said, they are really delicious both in flavor and texture.  The thin dark chocolate bar has bits of orange peel in it that really makes it deserving of that "intense-orange" description.  Plus, there are slivered almonds embedded within them.  I mean, what better combination is there than chocolate and orange, and with nuts as a bonus (well, okay...I could think of others like, say, chocolate and mint)!

I was confident these chocolate bars would be great in a cookie, and they really were!  The flavors stay intact and you get texture with the pieces of chewy orange and almond slivers already provided by the chocolate bar.  To heighten the flavors, I added orange zest and some almond extract.  I divided my cookie dough in half and added toasted, chopped almonds to one portion of the dough.  We actually preferred the ones without the additional almonds more since it really allowed the orange and dark chocolate flavor to shine.  

If you like the combination of dark chocolate and orange, I think you would enjoy these very flavorful cookies.  My family and I really did!

My 7-year old called this my "fractured recipe".  You see, his second grade class just finished a fairy tale unit at school.  They've been reading fairy tales and writing their own versions, basically creating "fractured fairy tales" with their own spins on the classics.  When we sat down to eat these cookies and I told him how I started off with a chocolate chip cookie recipe that I really liked but changed ingredients and added different components to alter the flavor, he said "Cool!  It's like a fractured recipe!"  It gave me a good laugh, and I think he's absolutely right in his description.  I don't often "fracture" recipes, if you will, but I'm so glad I tried this idea.  It took me just a little outside my box and led to a rewarding result!

Singapore (curry) rice noodles

Besides chocolate, I have an extreme weakness (or should I say, fondness) for pasta and noodle dishes.  I'm still trying to get over the fact that a mere two ounces is considered a proper portion!  Although I do practice portion control these days (ignorance - and youth - was bliss), I'd go with Nigella and say that 4-ounces seems to be a more realistic parameter, particularly if it's being treated as a main course.

I adore all kinds of Italian pasta dishes and I also love Asian noodles - whether in soup or stir-fry form.  This Singapore rice noodle is one of my (many) favorites, something I crave and order often from Chinese restaurants.  The beauty of the dish is there's plenty of room to bulk up with add-ins (from vegetables like onions and peppers to different types of protein) if you are looking to stick to that framework of 2-ounces of noodles per person.

Singapore rice noodles is essentially just curry rice noodles.  From what I hear, it's not an authentic Singaporean dish at all but a Chinese/Cantonese invention.  Aside from being delicious, it may have been created as a way to repurpose leftovers because you can largely throw in leftovers or what you happen to have in the refrigerator to make this stir-fry. 

You'll often find sliced onions, peppers, and scallions in Singapore rice noodles, along with eggs, chicken, shrimp and/or roast pork and ham. The flavor (and golden color) comes from curry powder and aromatics like ginger and garlic, along with pantry items like soy sauce and a maybe a dash of vinegar or fish sauce to round things out.

Shrimp, chicken, eggs, and ham - some of the ingredients I added to my Singapore noodles

It dawned on me one day while browsing around Penzys Spices that I could make this dish at home.  I bought a jar of sweet curry powder (I've since "graduated" to hot curry powder for when we want a little more heat), which became the impetus for making this dish.  Another way to save on take-out!  And this dish isn't difficult to make - you need to be generous with the curry powder and because of the various ingredients you're likely to add, mise en place is essential before the actual stir-fry takes place. 

This recipe makes a big portion thanks to all the add-ins I like to throw in.  The good news is this dish is ideal for leftovers!  The curry flavor deepens and melds into all the ingredients.  It is super tasty, very flavorful, reheated a day or two after!

Chocolate olive oil cake

I hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day!  I had a lovely, lovely day.  It's been seven years but I can still hardly believe I'm a mom and get to celebrate Mother's Day as such.  Now, here we are in the midst of May already...

Last week, I made a cake for my family and I to snack on.  I had never made (nor do I remember eating) an olive oil cake before so when I saw Nigella's chocolate olive oil cake in her latest book, I thought I'd give it a try.  I think what's held me back from making olive oil cake is the very idea itself; I had qualms about olive oil and cake together.  I really wasn't sure the additional combination with chocolate was the best idea either but since I do love chocolate, I figured that if all else failed, the chocolate flavor would hopefully carry me through.

The result was nothing overly dramatic (which I'm happy about).  This cake turned out to be extremely moist - thanks to that olive oil.  Plus, almond meal instead of flour (though you could use flour if you wanted to)  made for what Nigella calls a "squidgy" interior and I think that sums up the texture exactly.  I'm not sure I would've been able to tell the cake was made with olive oil, rather than vegetable or canola oil, if I hadn't made it myself.  It adds a little bit of a fruity background but using a mild, ordinary (as opposed to extra-virgin) olive oil makes for a more neutral impact.  I think that's a good thing.  Despite the somewhat rich texture, this cake is actually pretty light, without dairy and with just cocoa powder contributing to the chocolate flavor.

Since I cook with olive oil all the time, I don't necessarily need to incorporate it into my baking.  But this cake did finally satisfy my curiosity about it.  It was a fun experiment that resulted in an enjoyable everyday cake.  The one thing I wish I'd done was to substitute some of the vanilla extract with almond extract in this cake.  I think that could have been good given the almond meal and how nicely almond goes with chocolate.

I am still enthralled with strawberries and picked up some more the other day.  I had some with this cake and instead of using whipped cream, I was oh-so-good and topped my slice with some Greek yogurt instead (boy, have I changed!)  But my son will tell you that the cake is far better eaten with vanilla ice.  

Simple strawberry shortcakes

I've never been the person to order a fruit dessert if given a choice.  Growing up, when my friends ordered strawberry ice cream or milk shakes, I was always the one asking for chocolate.  The only thing I liked about those strawberry or fruity desserts was the color.  I'm a creature of habit and, unfortunately, not a very adventurous eater.  Luckily, I've branched out a little in recent years.  Though fruity desserts may still not be my first choice (though I do love lemon tarts), I've come to appreciate them like I never have before.

Can I tell you something?  A couple of years ago, I noticed that my mid-section (and other places) had expanded when I wasn't paying attention.  I'd never been concerned about my weight before then, just assuming my metabolism would straighten things out.  Blame it on getting older but I had to do something about it and trim down a bit.  Ironically, that was near the time I started this blog but, luckily, moderation seems to work.  Now, I don't want to get bogged down talking about weight or "diets".  What I did want to get at was the good thing that came about from paying attention to my weight and scaling back: I learned to eat (to love to eat) a lot healthier.  I enjoy fruits and vegetables like I never did before.  In trying new things and becoming more educated, I discovered that I actually like many of the healthier stuff, like whole grains, that we hear so much about.  Plus, I learned to cook more.  Of course, I still love treats and chocolate in particular, and I fully embrace it, but I have also discovered the pleasure of a plain strawberry or blueberry.

That said, I'm going to segue into dessert because while plain, in-season strawberries might be great all by themselves, sometimes you want to turn it into a special dessert (otherwise, there'd be no blog...)!  The occasion could well be Mother's Day.  A bright, colorful dessert always seems appropriate.

Now, remember those lighter and easier buttermilk biscuits I raved about?  The ones where you don't need any equipment or to roll anything out.  The last time I made them, I stowed a few away in the freezer.  I picked up some gorgeous organic strawberries from the market and made old-fashioned strawberry shortcakes.  If you go ahead and make the biscuits ahead of time, putting these shortcakes together is pretty simple.  Just bake the frozen biscuits straight from the freezer, adding a couple extra minutes to the bake time.  While the biscuits cool, macerate your strawberries with a little bit of sugar.

A dollop of whipped cream comes next.  I lightly whipped the cream with a just a bit of sugar and a touch of pure vanilla extract.

The result is a great combination of flavors and textures.  Believe it or not, the old me wouldn't have even tried it; the new me loved it!  The berries seem to bring out the buttery flavor of the biscuit.  The crunchy edges of the biscuits contrasted with the silky whipped cream.  The strawberries are just sweet enough and add a lightness to it all.  I am a fan! 

My husband has always been a fan of strawberries and shortcakes (he loves getting waffles with strawberries at the diner), and I'm happy to say he adored the ones I made here.  I just have to figure out how to get my 7-year old on board.  I think he might have inherited some of his mom's tendencies when it comes to eating (i.e., he would like to exist on a dark chocolate diet).  It makes me laugh when I think back to his first birthday when I made a strawberry shortcake - not with biscuits, the cake kind with sliced strawberries in the center and whipped cream icing.  I think I read somewhere that strawberry cakes were proper for a first birthday.  It was not a very pretty-looking cake and I don't think I took more than a bite.  Needless to say, my son wouldn't pick that now for his birthday cake but I have hopes that he'll become more adventurous in time.  For my part, I know I would take more interest in that cake now than I did then.

I think I've rambled on enough for today.  Let me just wish all you loving and well-meaning moms, future-moms, and lovely people a very Happy Mother's Day this coming weekend!

Nigella's cappuccino pavlova

For the most part, we've been enjoying a lovely spell of Spring weather.  It almost makes the memories of all the snowfall and storms of the winter fade away.  Apart from (and despite of) seasonal allergies plaguing the fellas in my household, it's been a beautiful time to be outside and to even fire up that grill!  The kitchen is my domain but my husband is in charge of outdoor cooking.  But since I am the "Commander in Sweets" at my house, I like to make sure we end our meal on a sweet note. 

To cap off our recent inaugural barbecue of the season, I made a pavlova - but not the typical kind topped with fruit.  Maybe that would've been an appropriate way to go given the season and warmer temperature but I'm just naturally drawn towards deeper, darker flavors.  So I made Nigella Lawson's cappuccino pavlova, topped with just a bit of whipped cream and a sprinkle of chocolate shavings.   You could very well serve it with a scoop of ice cream on the side and I have to admit, I did just that.

I've said it before, I'm a big fan of Nigella's.  I love her wit and, above all else, her wholehearted love of food and eating.  I also appreciate her relaxed style - anyone who has no qualms about using paper napkins at a dinner party is my kind of girl!  I watch her shows all the time...when Hurricane Sandy came along and we were without cable connection for over 2 weeks (not to mention virtually housebound because of the lack of gas), I took to watching episodes of Nigellissima via youtube on my iPhone!   Sounds crazy, I know, but watching the shows made me feel a little more sane somehow.   And the few episodes I caught were really good! I wish I'd been able to watch more but for whatever reason, the shows disappeared after a few days and I moved on...

This cappuccino pavlova recipe comes from Nigellisma, the cookbook that's filled with Italian inspired recipes.  Looking through it, I was taken aback (in a good way) by how modern it looks compared to Nigella's other cookbooks.  There's a photo of every dish (a huge selling point for me) and I enjoyed ogling over the luscious pastas and wicked-looking desserts.  This pavlova jumped out at me possibly for the fact that my fellas enjoy coffee flavored desserts and because it's so easy to put together.  With the warmer weather, ice cream making has begun in this household, and that means leftover white eggs to deploy for projects like this one.

I scaled down the recipe by half and what you see here is a 6-inch version that's better suited for a small group.  This being my first pavlova, I was a little worried about nailing the texture - achieving a soft and slightly chewy pavlova rather than a teeth-shattering kind of crispy meringue.  Luckily, it worked!  I think a touch of vinegar does the trick.  While the sides may be crisp and crackly to the point of breakage at the lightest touch, the center is reassuringly soft and almost marshmallow-like, with a chewier edge around the sides.   

I'm no expert on pavlovas and it may not be something I'd necessarily crave, but we enjoyed this cappuccino spin of Nigella's.  For his age, my 7-year old has a somewhat unusual affinity for coffee flavored desserts!  The instant espresso powder adds bitterness to this "cap pav" that offsets some of its natural, inevitable, sweetness.  It is a good substitute for that cup of joe or cappuccino that some of us enjoy at the end of a meal, just without an actual cup involved.

Something to munch on...hazelnut biscotti

I consider learning how to make biscotti one of my earliest accomplishments from starting this blog.  I'm a big fan and used to buy them all the time from the supermarket and order them at coffee shops.  When I tried making them at home and realized it was actually easy (and far tastier than the ones you buy), I was thrilled! 

So ever since then, I bake biscotti pretty regularly.  It's just one of those lighter treats I like to make, to have something crunchy around the house to munch on.  My sister loves it too and I like to make some to share with her if she's around.  We both love our biscotti super crunchy (unlike my husband who is definitely more a dunker and a soft-cookie lover in general).  So when I make biscotti, I go with traditional recipes that do not call for butter.  We just  prefer them super dry and with plenty of nuts.

This time, I made a very simple, plain hazelnut biscotti.  It's a recipe from Alice Medrich that I found in Baking with Julia.  We recently went to Washington, D.C. during Spring Break and I got a chance to peek into Julia Child's kitchen at one of the Smithsonian museums.  That inspired me to check out some of Julia's cookbooks from the library and this recipe caught my attention because unlike other recipes I've made where I start the process with the standmixer, this can be done by hand, very quickly and simply.  I call it "two-bowl biscotti" because it's very much like a muffin recipe where you mix the dry ingredients into the wet and you're halfway there.

Not everyone in my extended family is a big dessert lover but I find that biscotti works for those who prefer something less decadent.  I like serving it with coffee after dinner, like we did this past Saturday night.  But I rarely serve biscotti alone - that night, some homemade mint gelato (and lemon sorbet) joined us at the table too.  It's always nice to have options, right?

Here's to crunchy foods and homemade meals shared with good company!

Lighter, easier buttermilk drop biscuits

If you like biscuits, I have a little discovery to share with you.  This is an incredibly easy recipe for buttermilk drop biscuits.  They can be whipped up in about 20 minutes - no need to cut butter, roll out dough, or haul out any machinery.  As an added bonus, they are also lighter - a little bit better for you -than the average biscuits!

In the words of my 7-year old: "these biscuits are so good!"

This recipe really caught my attention though I was a tad skeptical at first because it sounded maybe a little too good to be true.  Lighter, easy and quick-to-make buttermilk biscuits...and they taste good?  Luckily, it really turned out to be all those things!

I found this recipe in the latest issue of Cooking Light magazine.  I automatically thought about giving them a try for one of our leisurely weekend breakfasts.  We love our pancakes and dutch babies on any given Sunday but I'm always on the lookout for something new to cook up for my family.  These biscuits were a snap to get on the table.  I was able to make them fresh and serve them warm, alongside some scrambled eggs and turkey bacon for an early Sunday breakfast this past weekend.

The easy part of this recipe  was what really lured me in.  The process literally requires simply stirring everything together and dropping the batter onto the baking sheet with a spoon.  There is no butter to cut or roll pin to contend with!  The secret is to stir melted butter into cold buttermilk.   You know how warm, just melted butter will get rather unattractive and clumpy when it hits cold liquid?  That's precisely what you want to happen here.  Those clumps of butter will help create a fluffy, moist buttermilk biscuit!  It's kind of like pancake batter.

And these biscuits are lighter, and a little better for you, by having less butter (just 4 tablespoons for a dozen biscuits) and just a bit of canola oil in them.  And rather than purely all-purpose flour, these have some white whole-wheat flour in them, and you could even use fat-free buttermilk (I used the typical low-fat kind).

These biscuits are fluffy and tender.  I love the bit of whole wheat nuttiness you get from white whole-wheat flour.  I'm not necessarily always looking to cut fat or "go light" if it means sacrificing flavor but I don't usually want a super heavy biscuit that leaves my fingers completely greasy and feels like a meal unto itself.  Plus, I think a lighter biscuit makes a lot of sense given all the stuff we're likely to put on or have with them - whether it be butter, honey, jam, or bacon and eggs as in my case here.

These biscuits are good all by themselves and doesn't even need all those accompaniments.  The little guy's reaction was "mmm..." at first bite and my husband and I were impressed by how good they tasted!  This is a great way to use up buttermilk and I plan to make this recipe a part of my regular repertoire.  In fact, it has not only shown up at breakfast but also been a part of dinner this week!  I'm really glad I clipped the recipe out of the magazine and gave it a try.  It's turned out to be a great little discovery (I'm not often this enthusiastic about a non-chocolate recipe)!

Chocolate crunch bars (no bake)

This is another recipe I kind of fell in love with when I first saw it.  Checking into one of my favorite websites, the kitchn, I saw a post about chocolate hazelnut crunch bars...

Base layer of thin, crispy crepes encased in chocolate and hazelnut spread, topped with ganache

What caught my attention was the use of feuilletine - those crispy, paper-thin, caramelized shards of pastry flakes that are used in many of my most favorite restaurant desserts.  As much as I love pure chocolate, I'm a huge fan of texture and love it when I discover some contrast in my dessert, like a layer of nutty crispiness embedded into a chocolate torte.

The milk chocolate coated "crispy crepes" I used as a substitute for feuilletine

The emphasis here is definitely on the crunch but it is a delicate crunch, a toothsome crispiness that is very pleasant underneath a contrasting, creamy layer of soft ganache on top. 

When I made almond and hazelnut dacquoise, I mentioned a favorite dessert of mine at a nearby restaurant.  It's essentially a small, round chocolate torte - the bottom layer is a "praline croustillant", a combination of smooth chocolate-hazelnut that has a wonderful crispy element to it.  On top of that is a layer of chocolate mousse, and the whole thing is covered in a thin coating of chocolate ganache.  It's all wonderful but the crispy bottom layer is my favorite and what makes it so memorable.  These chocolate bars - far simpler - come really close to that dessert.  The crispiness at the bottom totally makes it!  And the good news is they are easy to make; you don't even have to turn on the oven. 

I had intended to buy pailleté feuilletine online because I didn't particularly want to make them.  But not only do they cost about $12 a pop, I'd have to invest another $10 for shipping, not something I wanted to do for a first-time recipe.  It was time to get a little creative! 

So I used "crispy crepes" - super thin, crispy, wafer cookies coated in milk chocolate.  It is essentially feuilletine coated with milk chocolate.  I crushed them up and it worked beautifully here, with just a minor tweak to the recipe.  I'm proud to say I saved a solid $18 by doing that!

Technically, these are chocolate-hazelnut crunch bars.  A combination of semisweet chocolate and Nutella are stirred together before adding the crispy wafers for the bottom layer.  But in tasting the finished bars, I think the hazelnut flavor is minimal after being mixed with the dark chocolate.  For a deeper hazelnut flavor, I think hazelnut praline paste would be a good choice.

I do love these bars with even more texture, by adding some actual hazelnuts and cocoa nibs on top.  Okay, I may have copied the round design from a tart I had from Bouchon Bakery...I'm rather adept at imitation.

I'm usually pretty good about tasting my baked goods and enjoying them in careful moderation (sharing is key) but I could barely stop myself from eating these once I start. They're addicting and the texture really makes you want more.

And isn't it amazing how we can change something from simple to dressed-up just by how we slice it.  You can go with elongated bars or squares, which make it easy to pick up and gobble up.  Or, to fancy them up a bit, I used a round pastry cutter to make something like a dessert torte or a mini crustless tart.  I think these are also wonderful sliced into 1-inch squares and presented as homemade chocolate petite fours.  Anyway you slice it (literally!), they are very delicious bites!