Palmer House Brownies

Palmer House Brownies

recipe can be found HERE

1 pound semi-sweet chocolate
1 pound butter
1 pound granulated sugar (3 1/2 cups)
8 oz. cake flour (2 cups)
1 tablespoons baking powder
4 whole eggs
1 pound crushed walnuts

Glaze: (Optional)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup apricot preserves
1/2 teaspoon unflavored gelatin

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Melt chocolate with the butter in a double
boiler or in a bowl set over barely simmering water. Mix dry ingredients
except the walnuts-- in a large mixer bowl on low speed for 4-5 minutes.

Add the eggs and mix until blended. Pour into a greased 9 x 13 baking
sheet and sprinkle with the walnuts, pressing nuts down lightly into
the mixture with the palm of your hand. Bake in the preheated 300 degree
oven for 40 minutes. You will know when it is done because the edges
start to become a little crispy and the brownie has raised about ¼ inch.
Note that even when the brownie is properly baked, it will test "gooey"
with a toothpick in the middle due to the richness of the mixture.

After removing from the oven, allow to cool at least 30 minutes.

To make glaze: Mix together water, preserves and gelatin in a saucepan,
mix thoroughly and bring to a boil for 2 minutes. Use while hot. Spread
the glaze in a thin layer over the brownies using a pastry brush.

The brownies are easiest to cut if you can place the whole pan into the
freezer for 3 - 4 hours after glazing, then remove and cut with a serrated
knife.

Chocolate Fudge Cake

The following recipe was prepared during my International Chefs Dinner. You can read about it and check out the other recipes that were made for the event HERE.

Chocolate Fudge Cake

shared at the event by Jen

recipe courtesy of Nigella Lawson

For the cake:
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup best-quality cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sour cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/2 cup corn oil
1 1/3 cups chilled water

For the fudge icing:
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, minimum 70 percent cocoa solids
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 3/4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

For the cake:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and line the bottom of 2 (8-inch) cake pans.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugars, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl or wide-necked measuring cup whisk together the eggs, sour cream and vanilla until blended. Using a standing or handheld electric mixer, beat together the melted butter and corn oil until just blended (you’ll need another large bowl for this is using the hand mixer; the standing mixer comes with its own bowl), then beat in the water. Add the dry ingredients all at once and mix together on a slow speed. Add the egg mixture, and mix again until everything is blended and then pour into the prepared tins. And actually, you could easily do this manually; I just like my toys and find the stand mixer a comforting presence in itself.

Bake the cakes for 45 to 50 minutes, or until a cake-tester comes out clean. Cool the cakes in their pans on a wire rack for 15 minutes, and then turn the cakes out on the rack to cool completely.

For the icing:

Melt the chocolate in the microwave – 2 to 3 minutes on medium should do it – or in a bowl sitting over a pan of simmering water, and let cool slightly.

In another bowl beat the butter until it’s soft and creamy (again, I use the stand mixer here) and then add the sifted confectioners’ sugar and beat again until everything’s light and fluffy. I know sifting is a pain, the 1 job in the kitchen I really hate, but you have to do it or the icing will be unsoothingly lumpy. Then gently add the vanilla and chocolate and mix together until everything is glossy and smooth.

Sandwich the middle of the cake with about a quarter of the icing, and then ice the top and sides, too, spreading and smoothing with a rubber spatula.

Fall Snacks Adventure Round Up!

It was a beautiful fall day in Chicago and a perfect time to get together with girlfriends. Our foodie theme du jour is fall & game day snacks! One snack that’s great during fall (and well, all year round,) and a must for game day is… popcorn. We soon learned how popcorn is quite versatile for both sweet and savory flavors. Read on to see how we transformed this simple snack into something even more delicious!

Homemade Caramel Corn

The first thing we made was caramel corn due to the length of time for it to bake. You can find the recipe I used HERE. To give it a twist, you can also add your choice of nuts (walnuts, pecans, almonds, etc) too.

Old Taylor St. Cheese Popcorn

This cheese seasoning is one I picked up from my favorite spice shop, The Spice House. Just add 1 1/2 teaspoons of this flavorful seasoning to 3 cups of popcorn for a great cheese & herb flavor!

Buffalo Blue Cheese Popcorn

The Spice House also carries this amazing Blue Cheese seasoning, which we used. Using 1 1/2 teaspoons of the seasoning with 3 cups of popcorn, we drizzled 1/8 cup of buffalo wing butter and tossed to coat. The buffalo wing butter was made but combining 1 cup Frank’s hot sauce and 3/4 cup melted butter. Unfortunately, this popcorn was such a hit I couldn’t get a picture of it!

Chocolate Popcorn

For some sweet snacks, we got creative with various kinds of chocolate and nuts. I provided three types of chocolate including: peanut butter and chocolate; semi sweet chocolate and white chocolate. For the nuts, we had: almonds, walnuts, and pecans. I also had some dried cranberries as well. To prepare the chocolate, I used large packages of melting chocolate and white melting chocolate. Simply melt the chocolate in the microwave or double boiler until smooth. For the peanut butter chocolate, I combined creamy peanut butter and 1/3 package of melting chocolate. Heat both the peanut butter and chocolate in a saucepan over medium heat and stir until smooth.In a gallon sized plastic zip bag, add 3 cups of popcorn, 1/4 cup of melted chocolate, 1-2 tablespoons chopped nuts of your choice. Zip bag closed and shake until popcorn is fully coated.

Here are the chocolate popcorn creations I made:

Peanut Butter Chocolate Pecan Popcorn

White Chocolate Walnut & Cranberry Popcorn

To add to the fall snacks line up, we also made some chocolate covered pretzels with the chocolate we used for the popcorn!

Chocolate Covered Pretzels

For lunch, I stuck with the game day theme and offered some of my favorites including:

Fresh Vegetable Pizza Squares

Baked Buffalo Wings

Fresh Fruit Dessert Pizza

To join in the fun, my fellow bloggers have submitted their favorite muffin recipes! As I do with each blogging event I host, a lucky blogger receives a giveaway related to the food theme. This event’s winner is Karen of Loves to Eat Weblog! Karen will be receiving packets of the same seasonings we used today for popcorn including Old Taylor St. Cheese seasoning and Blue Cheese seasoning! Congratulations Karen and thanks to all those who participated. Read on to check out the recipe submissions!

Karen of Loves to Eat Weblog
from Florida
Cheese Ball with Blue Cheese
If you’re a cheese fan like me, then you definitely have to check out Karen’s Cheese Ball with Blue Cheese. She and her husband love this snack and is perfect for watching the big game. Check out her blog for the recipe and give this a try for the next game you’ll be watching!

Kate of Paved With Good Intentions
from California
BBQ Tortilla & Tortilla Dog
Kate gets creative with tortillas as she uses them for a BBQ Tortilla & Tortilla Dog! I love that these are not only a fun twist on traditional recipe ideas, but are perfect snacks if you’re craving for something quick and easy! Check out Kate’s blog for the recipes!

Chocolate Raspberry Swirl Muffins

The following recipe was featured in my Muffin Swap event. You can read about it and view other muffin recipes HERE.

Joelen’s Chocolate Raspberry Swirl Muffins
made with Hershey’s Chocolate RaspberryCream Filled Chips

Recipe adapted from HERE

2 cups white whole wheat flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 cup Vanilla soy milk (Silk brand)
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 raspberry puree (thawed & mashed frozen raspberries)
1 package Hershey’s Chocolate RaspberryCream Filled Chips

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Stir together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Make a well in the center. In a small bowl or 2 cup measuing cup, beat egg with a fork. Stir in milk and oil. Pour all at once into the well in the flour mixture. Add the Hershey’s Chocolate RaspberryCream Filled Chips.

Mix quickly and lightly with a fork until moistened, but do not beat. The batter will be lumpy. Pour the batter into paper lined muffin pan cups.

Bake for 25 minutes, or until golden.n.

Banana Chocolate Chip Almond Muffins

The following recipe was featured in my Muffin Swap event. You can read about it and view other muffin recipes HERE.

Joelen’s Banana Chocolate Chip Almond Muffins

Recipe adapted from HERE

2 cups white whole wheat flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 cup Vanilla soy milk (Silk brand)
1/4 cup canola oil
1 rip banana, mashed
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup toasted slivered almonds

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Stir together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Make a well in the center. In a small bowl or 2 cup measuing cup, beat egg with a fork. Stir in milk and oil. Pour all at once into the well in the flour mixture. Add the mashed banana, chocolate chips and almonds.

Mix quickly and lightly with a fork until moistened, but do not beat. The batter will be lumpy. Pour the batter into paper lined muffin pan cups.

Bake for 25 minutes, or until golden.

Mini Peppermint Patti Muffins

The following recipe was featured in my Muffin Swap event. You can read about it and view other muffin recipes HERE.

Joelen’s Mini Peppermint Patti Muffins
made with Hershey’s Mini York Peppermint Patti Chips

Recipe adapted from HERE

2 cups white whole wheat flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 cup Vanilla soy milk (Silk brand)
1/4 cup canola oil
1 package Hershey’s Mini York Peppermint Patti Chips

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Stir together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Make a well in the center. In a small bowl or 2 cup measuing cup, beat egg with a fork. Stir in milk and oil. Pour all at once into the well in the flour mixture. Add the Hershey’s Mini Peppermint Patti baking chips.

Mix quickly and lightly with a fork until moistened, but do not beat. The batter will be lumpy. Pour the batter into paper lined muffin pan cups.

Bake for 25 minutes, or until golden.

Saltine Toffee Candy

I prepared the following recipe for my Book/Movie club. You can read about my event and view other links to recipes I made for it HERE.

The Saltine Toffee Candy has been popping up in a few other blogs I frequent. I thought this was a perfect dessert to use up the extra package of saltines my husband bought. There are numerous sites and blogs that provide the recipe, including AllRecipes & Recipezaar. Both are similar and here’s the recipe I used: 1 stick butter
1/2 cup light or dark brown sugar
saltines – enough to line your baking sheet
1-2 cups semi chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used peanuts)

Preheat oven to 400.
Line your baking sheet with foil.
Neatly place your saltines on the foil lined baking sheet.
In a sauce pan, melt butter and add brown sugar.
Allow butter & sugar to caramelize and boil for 2-3 minutes.
Pour mixture over the saltines.
Bake saltines in the preheated oven for 5 minutes.
Remove from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips over the saltines.
Allow it to rest for 2 minutes – enough for chocolate chips to melt.
Using a rubber spatula or spreader, spread the melted chocolate over the saltines to evenly coat.
Sprinkle the top with chopped nuts.
Refrigerate to harden the chocolate.
Break into random pieces and enjoy!

Best Brownies

I prepared the following recipe for my Book/Movie club. You can read about my event and view other links to recipes I made for it HERE.

I found this recipe in a thrift store, believe it or not. I was shopping around for a nice glass pitcher for cheap and there lost with the piles of books was a copy of a Cook’s Illustrated. Inside this whopping $.40 gem was Cooks Illustrated’s recipe for Best Brownies. I made their recipe verbatim, but to put a twist on it, I topped the brownie with pecan halves… and drizzled the top with buttery caramel. Here is Cook’s Illustrated’s recipe for Best Brownies to which I added some caramel over the top for a little more indulgence:

1 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped medium
1 1/4 cups cake flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 baking powder
6 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped fine
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into 6-1 inch pieces
2 1/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
caramel sauce (optional)

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position; jeat oven to 325 degrees. Cut 18-ince length foil and foild lengthwise to 8 inch width. Fit foil into corners and up sides of pan; allow excess to overhang pan edges. Cut 14-inch length foil and, if using extra-wide foil, fold lengthwise to 12-inch width, fit into width of baking pan in same manner, perpendicular to first sheet. Spray foil lined pan with nonstick cookin spray. (Basically, line your baking pan well with foil, allowing some excess foil to hang off the edges for esay removal once its baked.)

2. If using nuts, spread nuts evenly on rimmed baking sheet and toast in oven until fragrant, 5-8 minutes. Set aside to cool. (I didn’t bother toasting the nuts because I knew it would bake up in the oven.)

3. Whisk to combine flour, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl; set aside.

4. Melt chocolate and butter in a large heatprood bowl set over saucepan of almost-simmering water, stirring occassionally, until smooth. (Alternatively, in microwave, heat butter and chocolate in large microwave-safe bowl on high for 45 second, then stir and heat for 30 seconds more. Stir again, and if necessary, repeat in 15-second increments; do not let chocolate burn.) When chocolate mixture is completely smooth, remove bowl from saucepan and gradually whisk in sugar. Add eggs one at a time, whisking after each addition until thoroughly combined. Whisk in vanilla. Add flour mixture in three additions, folding with rubber spatual until batter is completely smooth and homogeneous.

5. Transfer batter to prepared pan; using spatula, spread batter into corners of pan and smooth surface. Sprinkle toasted nuts (if using) evenly over batter and bake until toothpick inserted into center of brownies comes out with few moist crumbs attached, 30-35 minutes. Cool on wire rack to room temperature, about 2 hours, then remove brownies from pan by lifting foil overhang. Cut brownies into 2 inch squares and drizzle caramel generously over the top before serving. (Store leftovers in airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days.)

Beat the Heat!

Now that I’m settling back into the daily routine, I spent the day playing with my ice cream maker and using some new popscicle molds I purchased over the weekend. Just my luck though… the weather cooled off this week in Chicago, but at least I have some great frozen treats to enjoy!

Mixed Berry Ice Cream

1 1/2 cup frozen mixed berries (raspberry, blueberry, blackberry mix)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup whole milk
2 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup granulated sugar

In a small bowl, combine the frozen mixed berries and 1/4 cup granulated sugar. Stir gently and allow the fruit to macerate in the juices for 2 hours at room temperature or overnight in the fridge.

In a medium mixing bowl (preferably with a spout), whisk the milk and remaining sugar until the sugar is dissolved. Stir in the heavy cream plus any accumulated juices from the berries.

Turn your ice cream machine on and pour the mixture into the freezer bowl. Process the mixture per your ice cream machine’s directions. During the last 5 minutes of processing your ice cream, add the macerated berries.

Enjoy the ice cream when finished processing or transfer ice cream into a freezer safe container and freeze for 1-2 hours to “ripen.”

I’m also submitting this recipe to the Key Ingredient Cook’s Kitchen contest for their berry recipes!

Vanilla Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup whole milk
2 cups heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla paste (or extract)
1-2 tablespoons mint chocolate liquor
1 cup chocolate chips (or mini chips)

In a medium mixing bowl (preferably with a spout), whisk the milk and sugar until the sugar is dissolved. Stir in the heavy cream, vanilla paste and liquor. Turn your ice cream machine on and pour the mixture into the freezer bowl. Process the mixture per your ice cream machine’s directions. During the last 5 minutes of processing your ice cream, add the chocolate chips.

Enjoy the ice cream when finished processing or transfer ice cream into a freezer safe container and freeze for 1-2 hours to “ripen.”

Mango Strawberry Fruit Pops

1 cup frozen mango chunks
1/4 cup fresh sliced strawberries
1/2 cup peach nectar

In a blender, process the frozen mango chunks and peach nectar until you reach a smoothie consistency and mango is no processed through. Add strawberries and process on low, just enough to incorporate it into the mixture. Pour the mixture into popscicle molds and freeze until set, 1-3 hours.

Blondies Have So Much Fun!

Its afternoon and the sweet tooth is acting up. My husband has it too. So how do we satisfy the cravings? Blondies, of course!

I’m going to throw out yet another recipe from the 2005 America’s Test Kitchen Live! cookbook because as you may have guessed, this is where I got the blondie recipe from. What we wanted: Bakers like blondies because they are so simple to prepare, but many recipes are pretty flavorless. Is there a way to make a great blondie that’s still quick and easy?

What we learned: Use melted butter than creamed butter to create dense, chewy blondies. Light brown sugar (rather than dark brown sugar) and vanilla are the keys to creating a rich butterscotch flavor.

The verdict? Heaven. I used the cookbook’s Blondie recipe (pages 297-288) as the base for my Milk Chocolate Caramel Blondies and you can use pretty much any type of chocolate chip, flavored morsels and/or chopped nuts. Here’s my adapted recipe for Milk Chocolate Caramel Blondies:

1 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, melted & cooled
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup milk chocolate caramel morsels (Nestle brand)
1 cup walnuts, chopped

1. Adjust an oveen rach to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 13 by 9 inch baking pan with two pieces of foil. Spray the foil-lined pan with nonstick cooking spray.

2. Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a medium bowl; set aside.

3. Whist the melted butter and brown sugar together in a medium bowl until combined. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix well. Using a rubber sptula, fold the dry ingredients into the egg mixture until just combined. Do not overmix. Fold in the morsels and the nuts and turn the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing thetop with a rubber spatula.

4. Bake until the top is shiny and cracked and feels firm to the touch., 22 to 25 minutes. Place the pan on a rack and cool completely. Cut into bars.