May 5, 2011 · 9:47 pm

Dulce de Leche Brownies

Hello, nice to meet you, my name is Dulce de Leche Brownie and I am everything that is good in the world. My luscious caramel center provides a nice contrast to my cakey fudgey hybrid cocoa exterior. I’m deep and dark and brooding, full of depth and elaborate taste bud puzzles. I’ll leave you wanting more.

Yeah, I’m that brownie.


Required before/ during consuming me:

-ice cold cup of milk and/or nice hot cup of coffee

-yearning to be swept off of feet

-willingness to succumb to cravings for a second / third / fourth

-smile / desire to smile

Needless to say, these brownies are superb. A nice twist on an overdone, but timeless, classic. Welcome them into your life.. it’s a good choice. There is a good chance you’re still unsure of what exactly Dulce de Leche is- it’s caramel made from slowly cooked sweetened milk, instead of just sugar and butter. It  comes from Latin America, and is possibly my favorite ingredient to cook with. In France, it’s Confiture de Lait. In Norway, it’s Hamar pålegg. In brownies, it’s genius.

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Filed under Brownies, Caramel, Chocolate

May 2, 2011 · 4:16 pm

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

Once upon a time, I made three cakes in one night.

Three.

50% of which was fed to my ever so voracious garbage disposal.

It was traumatic.

I had been dreaming of lemon cake for weeks. Weeks! Lemon layers, lemon curd, and some fluffy cloud frosting. That’s all. Not that huge of a request, right? Wrong. I had a promising recipe for a two layer cake… but I had been dreaming of three. You can just spread out the batter into three pans, right? They’ll just be uber thin. Wrong! They’ll be crunchy and ew. When you’ve got sketchy cake layers, take my advice and stop right there. Don’t try and stack them with too-thin-but-really-good lemon curd and don’t make last minute cream cheese frosting instead of meringue. Just don’t do it. It’s really a poor choice all around. It tastes good, yes, but it’s a soupy flop hot mess mush cake lemon thing. No one really wants one of those.

If you’re anything like me, it’ll be close to midnight when you assemble your disaster. You might eat a decent amount of it out of shame, and then sit on the kitchen floor and cry. Through your tears you will then decide that it’s a great time to start making a redeem-yourself lemon poppy seed bundt cake. When you realize you’re one and a half egg yolks short and don’t have authentic buttermilk, stop. Don’t make it anyways. Go to sleep, and make it in the morning.  Don’t use extra egg whites and butter instead of the missing yolks. Don’t take it out of the oven before it’s done, and above all, do NOT let your impatience get the best of you and take it out of the pan while it’s still hot. It will come half out of the pan and taste/feel like spongy supermaket angel sponge food cake.  And by then, it will be two in the morning, your feet will hurt, and your tearstained cheeks will be covered in abstract drippy eyeliner art.

Apparently, the whole “third time’s a charm” deal is pretty valid. When you’ve passed the two failed cakes mark, it’s about time to make some cupcakes. Cupcakes are invincible.

These are a bit on the laborious side of things, but they’re worth every mix and scoop and fill and toast. They’re filled with my favorite ever lemon curd and topped with the meringue of your dreams. These are time-to-make-amends cupcakes. They’re sorry-I-forgot-to-pack-your-lunch cupcakes. They’re look-at-my-fancy-cupcake cupcakes.

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Filed under Cake, Cupcakes, Lemon

March 22, 2011 · 9:08 pm

Maple Pots de Crème

Hello. I’m sorry. You’re welcome. You love me.

If you…

-Are suffering from a dreadful case of the Rainy Day Blues

-Enjoy maple

-Would like to eat your feelings

-Are trying to savor the last moments and flavors of winter

-Would like a decent sized addition to your thighs/midsection

-Have any interest in tasting what is quite possibly the best dessert of all time

…I may or may not have just the thing for you. It’s name is Maple Pot de Crème and it will change your life.

I might be mad at you if you don’t find a way to obtain these as soon as possible. Make them, have your mom make them, pay your neighbor to make them.. find me, and I’ll make them. For heaven’s sake, if you have any decency, indulge yourself in these golden blessings.

Let me back up a bit- I’m guessing at least half of you are about about to google ‘pot de crème’ because, well, you are regular people. ‘Pot de Crème’ [poe duh krem] is simply a fancy shmancy French way of saying pot of custard. I described these to my friends as “like crème brulée but maple and without the torch on top.” I’m afraid to torch my food. Am I the only one? Anyways, these are smooth as velvet and make your tongue want to dance and throw confetti. Have I suggested that you try them? Because you reeeeeeally, reeeally should. For real guys. This is not a laughing matter. Continue reading →

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Filed under Custard, Maple

Tagged as custard, maple, pot de creme

March 15, 2011 · 9:12 pm

Brown Butter Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

If you were given only one dessert to eat for the rest of your life, what would you choose?

I choose chocolate chip cookies.

They may not be debonair, suave, or classy. They might not buy their chocolate chips at Fendi or their brown sugar from Saks. They far too often find chalky, lame imitations of themselves in unfortunate lunchboxes across America. Some call them trite, overdone, even cliché. I call them home.

Raise your hand if you’ve ever eaten a chocolate chip cookie and it made you sad. No? No hands? Told you so.

When I was little, I didn’t think there was anything better than a Pepperidge Farm chocolate chunk cookie, microwaved on a paper towel for 18 seconds. Not on a paper plate, not on a grown up plate, those ruined everything. All I needed was a paper towel, melty cookie, and a mini glass of milk just sufficient enough for dipping and I was set for life. Well, at least for the 9 seconds it took before I was standing on a kitchen chair trying to reach the cookie bag on the waaay-too-high-up 3 foot shelf. The memories I can round up, solely in regards to chocolate chip cookies, are unbelievable.

When I first started feeling my way around the kitchen, I wouldn’t dare stray from the back-of-the-bag Nestle Tollhouse cookie recipe. Now, especially with something so ordinary as chocolate chip cookies, I like to experiment. Want to know what I’ve found? Whole wheat flour is actually better than white flour in cookies like these. I know! And it’s better for you too! Additionally, brown butter is like a secret spy ninja in a really nice peacoat who just slips into any given baked good and makes things a whooole lot better. I mean, caramelized butter? Is that a joke? Nope. Not a joke. Do it friends.

PS… Follow me on Twitter!!

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Filed under Chocolate, Cookies

Tagged as brown butter, chocolate chip, cookies, Whole wheat

March 3, 2011 · 7:19 pm

Buttermilk Biscuits with Lemon Curd

I generally feel as if I’m not where I’m supposed to be. It’s 2011 and I’m in southern California. Something’s up. Early 1960’s Georgia seems just about right.

Sweet tea and honey and firefly skies- it’s all so unadorned, so beautiful.  I dream of wrap-around porches and peaches for days. I wish I could live in The Secret Life of Bees. For now, the closest I can get is in my kitchen. I make things like buttermilk biscuits and lemon curd and I close my eyes and feel the sticky air.

Of course three-tiered cakes and lavish pastries hold a mighty fine piece of my heart, but it’s always the simplest things that win me over. You can boast and brag all you want about your citrus dacquoise and your hazelnut praline, Mr. Fancy, but I’m sorry to say I’d rather a buttermilk biscuit. Is it safe to say that most of you would, too?

These are for those moments you spend wishing things were simpler. For those days you can’t stop thinking of Lily, Rosaline, August, and May.

These biscuits are golden and buttery, soft and flaky, and most importantly serve as a beautiful backdrop for some show-stopping lemon curd. Raise your hand if you agree that it’s super unfortunate that lemon curd is called lemon curd. Yeah, I know, I wish they picked a more attractive name, too. But please don’t let its title fool you- this lemon curd is arguably the best thing that’s ever come out of my kitchen.

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Filed under Breakfast, Lemon

February 24, 2011 · 6:35 pm

Oatmeal Sweet Potato Banana Everything Bread

Please allow me to introduce to you a certain highly celebrated, nutrient rich, infinitely adaptable, and downright delicious friend of mine, the Loaf.

My obsession with this special loaf began around this time last year. I wanted banana bread. Bad. I wanted something moist and bursting with flavor, yet humble enough for every day enjoyment. I also wanted something that wouldn’t pitch a tent on my thighs three days later. So, my crafty little banana loving brain went to work and out popped the loaf of my dreams.

It’s hearty and satisfying (healthy too! fiber!) from the oatmeal and whole wheat flour, but still chock full of flavor from the banana, sweet potato, and buttermilk. And remember how I said this was infinitely adaptable? Yeah. One time, this was avocado-banana-coconut milk bread. It’s been cranberry apple carrot bread. Fancy yourself some chocolate? Banana chocolate chip bread is awfully splendid. Zucchini date yam banana bread has happened. You can literally throw in whatever floats your boat, and this bread will not fail you. However! Be careful when adding lots of mushy add-ins- if your ratio of wet to dry is too high, your bread might never really cook through. If I’m adding a truck load of banana and yam and various other fun things, I’ll add in an extra tablespoon or two of flour.

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Filed under Banana, Breakfast, Oatmeal, Quick Bread, Sweet Potato

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February 19, 2011 · 5:08 pm

Espresso Chocolate Mousse

Last night, it rained.

It sounded like magic and love and dreaming and soup and kittens. I put on my fluffiest sweatshirt and cuddled up in bed and watched super classy shows like Jersey Shore and Teen Mom 2. Keepin’ things elegant, you know. I was joyous; absolutely blissful. Until, without any warning, some scary evil malicious malevolent forceful force came over me and I was craving chocolate frosting something fierce.

No amount of Gossip Girl was going to help me and I knew it, so I gave in. But chocolate frosting? Really? I couldn’t just eat chocolate frosting off of a spoon, that’s so unsophisticated. Thankfully, the Heavens have blessed us with chocolate mousse. Espresso chocolate mousse. It’s acceptable the eat that off of a spoon, let me tell you. Basically, when the Queen of England and every Manhattan socialite ever get together for dessert, they eat this. So classy I can’t even handle it!

It’s like eating chocolate clouds off a spoon. Heaven in a bowl. I could on and on, but I’d rather you just make it for yourself.

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Filed under Chocolate, Mousse

February 14, 2011 · 8:38 am

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Hello sweet world, I’m Jordana. I’m a sprightly seventeen and have a fabulous affection for dessert.

Today is a lovely day, it’s Valentine’s Day! A day to celebrate love, the only thing more important than a KitchenAid mixer. The one day of the year it’s acceptable to cover everything in roses and chocolate and kisses and pink and get away with it, oh what a beautiful thing!

My valentine’s day this year was a pinkie’s up, no elbows on the table, please pass the scones style tea party with some of my nearest and dearest friends, and it was out of this world delicious.

There was tea. Lots of tea. Lots of tea on the tablecloth.

There were buttermilk scones, which were really buttermilk biscuits cut in triangles, shhhh.

These truffles happened. My first truffle making experience ever! By the time they were finished I looked like a little boy playing in the mud.

Obviously, there were sugar cookies.

Let me tell you something about royal icing– it’s worth it. It’s without a doubt more annoying than a bug bite on the bottom of your foot in knee-high boots, and it doesn’t even taste all that amazing, but the Wow Factor is unbeatable.

Here’s what our out-of-an-unrealistic-movie-or-american-girl-craft-book table looked like ! :

Above all, this cake happened.

Strawberries + Rosé Champagne + a lot of butter = Great success. Make this cake! It’s dense and almost gooey from the moisture of the strawberries, super sturdy and easy to assemble, and the frosting is fluffy and bubbly and sweet with just enough tang from the champagne to make you giggle.  It’s a good thing, this cake.


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Filed under Cake, Holidays, Strawberry