I’m always up for a challenge. I thrive on trying something I’ve never done before and seeing how good I can be. When the challenge involves taking a risk with large, potentially negative, consequences, I’m obviously not as likely to partake. But when it’s all in good fun, you can count me in!

Which brings me to today’s blog post. I feel like there are so many things I haven’t attempted to make in the kitchen. I’d be much more likely to make some of them if I had a larger working space, but regardless I definitely find myself sticking with what I know. And whenever I ask someone (ahem, Nate!) for suggestions to try something new, I always get boring request like chocolate chip cookies and scones.

It’s for this reason that I decided to become a member of a website known as The Daring Kitchen.  What began as two bloggers trying to challenge themselves to bake pretzels for the very first time using the same recipe, eventually catapulted into a huge blogging experience. Each month members are told the “secret” recipe they must each make and blog about exactly 27 days later.

I was a bit scared of what they could throw at me, but I was pretty confident I could handle anything that came my way. I took a look at some of the past recipes: Maple Mousse served in an Edible Container, Yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake, Panna Cotta and Florentine Cookies…nothing, I thought, that seemed too complex or time-consuming.

Little did I know that the first challenge for the month I decided to join was something so complicated! It figures, right?

I’m not sure if I did it all exactly as I was supposed to, but the results were amazing. Unless you’re as daring as I was in the kitchen, you probably won’t be making this dessert anytime soon, but as least you can enjoy the photos and picture me dripping sweat rushing to get all the pieces of this masterpiece together before it deflated, melted, or otherwise got destroyed.

Now comes the reveal: The May 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Emma of CookCraftGrow and Jenny of Purple House Dirt. They chose to challenge everyone to make a Chocolate Marquise. The inspiration for this recipe comes from a dessert they prepared at a restaurant in Seattle. 

For further clarification, imagine “a cube of…creamy chocolate resting on a tuft of something that tastes like burnt marshmallow cream…”

The members were able to put their spin on any flavor additions to the chocolate, meringue or accompanying sauce. The one Emma and Jenny gave the recipe for had a tequila caramel and spiced nut addition, along with some pepper added to the chocolate. I, however, wanted something to cut the sweetness of the chocolate, so I made a Grand Marnier Cardamom Orange sauce and decorated with mandarin orange slices. I also added a tad of Grand Marnier to both the Chocolate Marquise and to the meringue, but I’m not sure if you could even taste it.

I brought this over to my friends’ apartment as a belated birthday celebration and it got two thumbs up. If anything, it was too rich and none of us could finish our whole servings (except the little pig named Amy), but wished we could. If you ever want to spend 8 hours prep to seriously impress your mom, dad, date, fiancé, cat, imaginary friend…then by all means give this recipe a shot!

*Note: All photos were taken with haste so as not to let the magnificent dessert melt before being tasted!

Chocolate Marquise

Servings: Nine- 2.5×2.5″ cubes

6 large egg yolks at room temperature
2 large eggs
1/3 cup (75 grams/ 2⅔ oz) sugar
2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons (1⅓ fluid oz/ 40 ml.) water
Chocolate Base, barely warm (recipe follows)
1 cup (8 fluid oz./ 250 ml.) heavy cream
1 cup Dutch process cocoa powder (for rolling) (Note: Make sure it’s a Dutch processed cocoa, not a natural cocoa powder.)
Torched meringue (recipe follows)
Orange Cardamom Sauce (recipe follows)
Mandarin orange segments, canned (optional)

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the egg yolks and whole eggs. Whip on high speed until very thick and pale, about 10 – 15 minutes.

When the eggs are getting close to finishing, make a sugar syrup by combining the sugar and water in a small saucepan. Bring the syrup to a boil and then cook to softball stage (235F/115C). If you have a cake tester with a metal loop for a handle, the right stage for the syrup is reached when you can blow a bubble through the loop (as seen in the following pictures).

With the mixer running on low speed, drizzle the sugar syrup into the fluffy eggs, trying to hit that magic spot between the mixing bowl and the whisk.

When all of the syrup has been added (do it fairly quickly), turn the mixer back on high and whip until the bowl is cool to the touch. This will take at least 10 minutes.

In a separate mixing bowl, whip the heavy cream to soft peaks. Set aside.
When the egg mixture has cooled, add the chocolate base to the egg mixture and whisk to combine. Try to get it as consistent as possible without losing all of the air you’ve whipped into the eggs. We used the stand mixer for this, and it took about 1 minute.

Fold 1/3 of the reserved whipped cream into the chocolate mixture to loosen it, and then fold in the remaining whipped cream.

Pour into the prepared pans and cover with plastic wrap (directly touching the mixture so it doesn’t allow in any air).

Freeze until very firm, at least 2 – 4 hours (preferably 6 – 8 hours).
When you’re ready to plate, remove the marquise from the freezer at least 15 minutes before serving. While it’s still hard, remove it from the pan by pulling on the parchment ‘handles’ or by flipping it over onto another piece of parchment.

Cut it into cubes and roll the cubes in cocoa powder. These will start to melt almost immediately, so don’t do this step until all of your other plating components (meringue, sauce, orange segments) are ready. The cubes need to sit in the fridge to slowly thaw so plating components can be done during that time. They don’t need to be ready before the cubes are rolled in the cocoa powder.

Plate with the torched meringue and drizzled orange sauce, and toss orange segments around for garnish. You want to handle the cubes as little as possible because they get messy quickly and are difficult to move. However, you want to wait to serve them until they’ve softened completely.

Chocolate Base

Not meant to be used on its own, only as part of the Chocolate Marquise.

6 oz (170 grams/ ¾ cups) bittersweet chocolate (about 70% cocoa)
¾ cups (180 ml/6 fluid oz.) heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dried ginger
1/8 cup (30 ml/ 1 fluid oz.) Grand Marnier
1/8 cup (30 ml/ 1 fluid oz.) light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 cup (2 tablespoons/less than 1/2 ounce) cocoa powder (must be Dutch-processed cocoa, do not substitute natural cocoa powder.)
1/2 oz unsalted butter (1 tablespoon/15 grams), softened

Place the chocolate in a small mixing bowl.

In a double-boiler, warm the cream until it is hot to the touch (but is not boiling). Remove from the heat and pour over the chocolate.
Allow it to sit for a minute or two before stirring. Stir until the chocolate is melted completely and is smooth throughout.
Add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine.
Set aside until cooled to room temperature. Do not refrigerate, as the base needs to be soft when added to the marquise mixture. If you make it the day before, you may need to warm it slightly. Whisk it until it is smooth again before using it in the marquise recipe.

Torched Meringue

Servings: Makes about 2 – 2½ cups of meringue. If you aren’t planning on serving *all* of the marquise at once, you might want to scale this recipe back a bit. Excess can be frozen.

6 large egg whites
¾ cup + 2 tablespoons (210 ml) (7 oz or 200 gms) sugar
Splash of apple cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon Grand Marnier

Combine the egg whites, sugar and vinegar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Using your (clean, washed) hand, reach in the bowl and stir the three together, making sure the sugar is moistened evenly by the egg whites and they make a homogeneous liquid.

Over a saucepan of simmering water, warm the egg white mixture. Use one hand to stir the mixture continuously, feeling for grains of sugar in the egg whites. As the liquid heats up, the sugar will slowly dissolve and the egg whites will thicken. This step is complete when you don’t feel any more sugar crystals in the liquid and it is uniformly warm, nearly hot.

Remove the mixing bowl from the saucepan and return it to the stand mixer with the whisk attachment. Whisk until you reach soft peaks. In the last 10 seconds of mixing, add the Grand Marnier to the meringue and mix thoroughly.

When you’re ready to plate the dessert, spoon the meringue onto a plate (or use a piping bag) and use a blowtorch to broil. If you don’t have a blowtorch, spoon the meringue into piles on a baking sheet and broil until tops are toasted. Remove carefully with a spatula to plate.

Orange Cardamom Sauce

Yield: 1/2 to 2/3 cup sauce

1 cup fresh orange juice (from 2 or 3 fresh oranges)
zest from 1 orange
6 tablespoons sugar
Seeds from 4 Cardamom pods
1 Tbsp Grand Marnier
1.5 tablespoon butter

Mix the orange juice, zest, sugar and cardamom seeds in a small saucepan.

Simmer the juice mixture over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for about 25 minutes, until a thick, syrupy sauce has formed. (At this point you should still be able to pour the sauce, but if you like, continue reducing the sauce to make it even thicker)

When the sauce is a consistency you like, stir in the butter and simmer the sauce for another 2 or 3 minutes.

Remove from the heat and leave to cool. Serve the orange sauce chilled, at room temperature or warm.

*Beware: It’s so good you’ll want to eat it with a spoon!

Do you ever do/say something to someone and you don’t quite have it in you to apologize with words, so you bake cookies instead? That’s never happened to me ;)

With all of the stress that comes with looking for a new apartment, finding a mover, scheduling time for painters to come, figuring out where the furniture will fit (actually, my mom took care of that- Thanks, Mom!), etc, you can imagine, perhaps, that my behavior over the past week or two hasn’t been stellar. Nate can attest to this.

Luckily, I have a patient man on my hands. He’s put up with my stressing, yelling, and ordering him around. And although he hasn’t helped me to take care of any of the details (except for getting his beloved FIOS set up), I can’t say that he deserves the rage I’ve let loose on him on several occassions.

So I thought that when he got home from work yesterday, I’d surprise him with the sweet smell of cookies wafting from the oven.

This is a recipe I came across online, although I’ve seen several variations in recent months and have been intrigued- Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies.

I was skeptical at first. How could 5 ingredients create such a moist, tender and delicious cookie? But one bite of the final product and I was a believer.

Try these for when you want to surprise someone special…or even to treat yourself. They take 25 minutes max from start to finish. Give them to the appropriate person and all will be forgotten…right, Nate :)


Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from Southern Living

Print this recipe!

Makes 2 dozen

1 cup chunky peanut butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup mini semisweet chocolate morsels

 Preheat oven to 350°. Stir together peanut butter and next 4 ingredients in a medium bowl until well blended. Stir in chocolate morsels.

 Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto parchment paper-lined baking sheets.

Bake at 325° for 15 to 20 minutes or until puffed and lightly browned. Cool on baking sheets on a wire rack 5 minutes. Transfer to wire rack, and let cool 15 minutes.

One of my dearest friends, Erica (and the one I’ve known the longest!), celebrated a special bday this past weekend- the big 3-0. Because I wasn’t able to make it to her bowling bday bash, I did what I always do and baked her a cake :)

It’s so nice to love cooking and baking, because it makes giving presents so easy, enjoyable and special (I also sometimes paint/draw/crochet my gifts). I mean who doesn’t love some homemade treats? Plus, it’s so nice to put some thought and effort into a present and give it that handmade touch rather than just picking up a random gift from the store because you’re “supposed to” give presents on bdays.

And I have to say, I think my gifts tend to be much more appreciated! So when it came time to get thinking about what type of cake Erica wanted, I went straight to the source. I like to be creative, but Erica wanted the basics: yellow cake with chocolate frosting. I suppose that IS the traditional bday cake combo.

Of course, I had to add my touch and make it a little different and more gourmet- adding white chocolate chips to the batter and making a sour cream chocolate frosting. But I also have been so busy  that I took a few shortcuts- using a boxed cake mix that I jazzed up.

Yes, Erica is wearing scrubs in those pics. She works in tv and is currently filming a show and is in the hospital all day long. I wish I could wear such comfy clothes to work!

Anyways, the cake result was nothing short of amazing…a birthday tradition from now on, to be sure.

Happy 30th Birthday, Erica!!!

I’m so happy to have you as my friend and I can’t wait to celebrate many more birthdays with you :)


Yellow Birthday Cake with White Chocolate Chips and Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting

Cake recipe by me, Frosting recipe taken from Smitten Kitchen adapted from The Dessert Bible

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# of Servings-who cares, it’s your birthday! (Makes one 2 layer bday cake)

Cake:

1 box Classic Yellow Cake mix
1 cup water
1/3 cup oil
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
1/2-1 cup white chocolate chips
1 recipe Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting, recipe below

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Butter two 9-inch round cake pans (or two 8-inch, depending on how high you want the cake to be) and line with circles of parchment paper, then butter parchment.

Place cake mix, water, oil, eggs, and vanilla in a bowl. Beat well. Add eggs and beat to incorporate, 2 min. Stir in 1/2-1 cup of white chocolate chips, depending on how much you like.

Spread batter evenly in cake pan, then rap pan on counter several times to eliminate air bubbles. Bake until golden and a wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 30 min. Cool in pan on a rack 15 minutes. Invert onto rack and discard parchment, then cool completely, about 1 hour (put in fridge if you want them to cool faster. Sometimes they’re easier to frost when cold). Do not frost until cakes are completely cool.

Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting

15 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 1/4 teaspoons instant espresso (optional, but can be used to pick up the flavor of average chocolate)
2 1/4 cups sour cream, at room temperature
1/4 to 1/2 cup light corn syrup
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine the chocolate and espresso powder, if using, in the top of a double-boiler or in a heatproof bowl over simmering water. Stir until the chocolate is melted. (Alternately, you can melt the chocolate in a microwave for 30 seconds, stirring well, and then heating in 15 second increments, stirring between each, until the chocolate is melted.) Remove from heat and let chocolate cool until tepid.

Whisk together the sour cream, 1/4 cup of the corn syrup and vanilla extract until combined. Add the tepid chocolate slowly and stir quickly until the mixture is uniform. Taste for sweetness, and if needed, add additional corn syrup in one tablespoon increments until desired level of sweetness is achieved.

Let cool in the refrigerator until the frosting is a spreadable consistency. This should not take more than 30 minutes. Should the frosting become too thick or stiff, just leave it out until it softens again.


Well, this was supposed to be a Cinqo de Mayo post, but Nate took the pictures I needed off of his camera and put them on his computer before I had a chance to get them. I was excited about being so blog-conscious, doing a mexican-inspired meal on Cinqo de Mayo, but he screwed it up :( (don’t worry, Nate, I forgive you, but you better not do it again) …so instead, I bring you dessert.

I decided on a whim the other day to reward Nate with some homemade brownies. I rarely make them from scratch, as I find the boxed ones to usually be superior. However, i thought I’d give them a shot.

Nate loves chocolate-mint, so my first inclination was to make an andes mint brownie. Sounds tasty, right? But then I remembered that we had tons of leftover, stale cookies that are basicaly the TJ’s version of Tagalongs. They were ok, but I thought that in a brownie, they’d taste much better :) To amp up the peanut butter flavor, I also decided to make a layer of pb swirl on top.

Let me tell you, these turned out totally delicious. You could definitely substitute another cookie  in here…although I happen to think that a chocolate covered cookie would work best so that it melts a little.

And you could easily omit the pb topping. But that would be stupid.

Enjoy!


Peanut Butter Tagalong-Wannabe Brownies

Recipe by Me

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Makes 16

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, melted + 2 Tbsp, butter melted
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour + 2 Tbsp flour
1/3 cup Cocoa
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
12 Tagalong (or similar) cookies

1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup confectioners sugar

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 8-inch square baking pan.

Whisk together 1 stick melted butter, sugar and vanilla in bowl. Add eggs; whisk well. Stir together 1/2 cup flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt; gradually add to egg mixture, beating until well blended.

In a smaller bowl, microwave peanut butter and 2 Tbsp butter for 30 sec – 1 min or until melted. Whisk in confectioners sugar and 2 Tbsp flour.

Pour 1/3 of chocolate batter into pan and spread out. Place the 12 cookies evenly over the batter and press lightly down. Put rest of chocolate batter evenly over cookies and lightly spread without disturbing the cookies.

Put blobs of the pb batter on top of the chocolate. Don’t worry about it looking nice. Using a knife, drag it through the pb and chocolate batter, creating a marbling effect. Tap pan on counter to get all air bubbles out.

Bake 25-30 minutes or until brownies are set and a toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely in pan on wire rack before cutting.

A lot of people dread the week-long holiday of Passover because of its slightly restrictive dietary rules. In all honesty, it’s really not all that bad. Sure, if you eat a lot of matzo all week long, you may end up being so bloated you resemble a matzo ball. But in reality there are many foods that you’re still able to eat during the holiday, not involving the dreaded matzo.

The key is to find recipes that you make during the year that happen to involve all ingredients allowed on Passover. The fewer Passover substitutions, the better. For example, potatoes are fine, as are eggs, meat, fruits and veggies..or your favorite flourless chocolate cake recipe ;) If you have a recipe that involves a scant amount of flour, replacing it with matzo flour (see below for description) or potato starch is fine. Obviously trying to bake a regular cake wouldn’t work, as flour is a primary ingredient. Catch my drift?

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the holiday, Passover commemorates the story of the Exodus, in which the ancient Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt.  When Pharaoh freed the Israelites, it is said that they left in such a hurry that they could not wait for bread to rise. In commemoration, for the duration of Passover no leavened bread is eaten. Matzo (flat unleavened bread) is the primary symbol of the holiday.

Thus, many passover foods revolve around this dry (and not very tasty) cracker. Although you can’t use flour during the holiday, the way of getting around this is to use something called Matzo Flour/Matzo Meal which is simply ground-up matzo in a powdered/coarsely ground form. Again, this is only recommended in recipes in which there is not a HUGE amount of flour, but for the most part, it should work.

Which brings me to one of my favorite recipes ever: Apricot Chocolate Torte. This recipe actually calls for regular flour and is not a passover recipe at all, but when the simple matzo flour substitution is made, it tastes identical to real thing. This is one of my all time favorite desserts and I often find myself making it at Thanksgiving as well. My mom has been making this for years and I had no idea where it came from (and I’m not sure if she did either) but when I googled the title, it turns out she must have found it on the back of the apricot box :)


Apricot Chocolate Torte

Recipe adapted from the back of the apricot box!

Print this recipe!

Ingredients:

Filling

11 oz. dried apricots, chopped
1-1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup water
3 Tablespoons matzo CAKE meal-not matzo meal (or regular flour)*
Juice from ½ fresh lemon

Crust
3 oz. Unsweetened chocolate
2 cups whole walnuts
1.5 cups matzo CAKE meal (or regular flour)
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted margarine, chilled, cut into pieces **
2 tablespoons cold water
2 teaspoon vanilla
1 oz. shaved semi-sweet chocolate for garnish

Directions:

Filling
Combine all ingredients in heavy saucepan. Bring slowly to a boil over low heat. Reduce heat & simmer, stirring frequently and mashing any large pieces of apricot, until mixture resembles thick jam – about 25 minutes.

Crust
Preheat oven 350°F

Place chocolate in bowl of processor and chop roughly. Add nut and chop coarsely. Add flour, sugar & salt then blend. (Bits of chocolate and walnut should be clearly visible). Add butter & process to blend. Add water and vanilla then mix, pulsing the on/off button of your food process until mixture is crumbly.

In an 8 or 9 inch Springform pan, pat 2/3 of dough into the bottom and 1 inch up the sides. Add filling. Crumble additional dough over the top to cover. Bake 40 minutes. Let cool.

Decorate top with shaved chocolate if desired.

*Feel free to use regular flour in place of the matzo flour and use this recipe all year long!
**Use butter in place of margarine when not making for Passover.