Dark and Milk Chocolate Brownies

This blog post is killing me. I really wanted to get a nice Valentine's Day recipe posted before the day, but writing about brownies while I'm fasting for Ash Wednesday is agonizing.

Fasting is not my cup of tea. I spend my whole day thinking about food, especially when I'm home by myself. I keep flicking my eyes up to the clock, wondering when it would be appropriate to have another snack. I snack a lot. Confining myself to three meals is really hard. Confining myself to two small meals and one regular-sized meal is even harder. Especially when that "regular-sized meal" is a bowl of butternut squash soup that probably doesn't top 250 calories.

I'd like my delicious brownies back, please.

Fortunately, I don't have to fast tomorrow. Tomorrow will be about chocolate hearts, Triumph Brewing Company and the secret treat I made for Jeff. I just have to get through tonight . . .

Maybe I'll stay up until midnight and have a snack then!

Dark and Milk Chocolate Brownies
From Baking Bites.

1/2 c butter, cut into chunks
2 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 c sugar (I ran out  of granulated sugar so I substituted light brown - I didn't notice a big difference)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 c flour
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c milk chocolate chunks

Preheat oven to 350° F.

In a double boiler (aka a heatproof bowl set over boiling water), combine the butter and the unsweetened chocolate.

Melt the butter and chocolate together, stirring with a rubber spatula until they form a smooth mixture. Set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, prepare an 8 x 8" baking pan. (I lined mine with parchment paper, later using the overhangs to lift the brownies out, but I'm not sure they needed that treatment - cooking spray might work fine on its own.)

In a small bowl, whisk together the sugar, eggs and vanilla. Slowly pour in the chocolate mixture, whisking constantly, until smooth. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder and salt. Add the wet mixture to the dry and stir until moistened. Stir in milk chocolate pieces.

Pour into prepared pan and bake 35-40 minutes, until set. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack. Slice when completely cooled.

Chewy Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

Quaker's Chewy granola bars are the best, aren't they? I have eaten tons of them in my time. I always brought the variety pack, but the plain old chocolate chip ones were my favorites. These bars have always seemed like a good, healthy snack option, so there were several years in which I did not leave the house without one in my purse.

But even though Quaker claims on its product site that these are "a tasty option for your active family," the long and involved ingredient list suggests otherwise:

"Ingredients

GRANOLA (WHOLE GRAIN ROLLED OATS, BROWNSUGAR, CRISP RICE [RICE FLOUR, SUGAR, SALT, MALTED BARLEY EXTRACT],WHOLE GRAIN ROLLED WHEAT, SOYBEAN OIL, DRIED COCONUT, WHOLE WHEATFLOUR, SODIUM BICARBONATE, SOY LECITHIN, CARAMEL COLOR, NONFAT DRYMILK), SEMISWEET CHOCOLATE CHIPS (SUGAR, CHOCOLATE LIQUOR, COCOABUTTER, SOY LECITHIN, VANILLA EXTRACT), CORN SYRUP, BROWN RICE CRISP(WHOLE GRAIN BROWN RICE, SUGAR, MALTED BARLEY FLOUR, SALT), INVERTSUGAR, SUGAR, CORN SYRUP SOLIDS, GLYCERIN, SOYBEAN OIL. CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF SORBITOL,CALCIUM CARBONATE, SALT, WATER, SOY LECITHIN, MOLASSES, NATURAL ANDARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, BHT (PRESERVATIVE), CITRIC ACID."

Ok, I admit, it's not as bad as some other processed snacks out there, but there's still a lot of stuff I'm not interested in, like sorbitol, calcium carbonate, and BHT.  We can totally do better.

This recipe I found on Tracey's Culinary Adventures is a great copycat without all the icky preservatives. The flavor is spot on. My only criticism of the original recipe is that the honey made the bars a bit too gooey. Mine fell to pieces whenever I picked one up. In later batches, I subbed in brown rice syrup which creates a much firmer texture. If you hold one of the bars horizontally in the air, it will still start to sag, but it retains its integrity a lot longer than the versions I made with honey, making for a much better portable snack. 

Granola bars have become the staple snack in our house, so I've been trying out lots of recipes lately. This doesn't come in as the healthiest of the bunch (not with half a stick of butter! - my vegan pumpkin-apple granola bars are at the top of the health chart), but these crunchy, chewy bars are high on the yummy list. It's a good thing they're quick to make, because they don't last very long around here!

Chewy Chocolate Chip Granola Bars
Adapted from Tracey's Culinary Adventures.

2 c instant oats (Tracey's recipe says that rolled oats should not be used - I tried a batch with them and thought they were fine, however it was the instant oats version that got Jeff to stop in his tracks and exclaim that they looked like "real" Chewy bars!)
1 c crispy rice cereal (I use Whole Foods' organic brown rice crisps - the only three ingredients are brown rice, cane syrup and salt)
1/3 c light brown sugar
1/4 c brown rice syrup
4 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp mini chocolate chips (the only processed-sounding ingredient in my recipe is in here: soy lecithin)

Line an 8 x 8" baking dish with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on each side. Lightly coat with cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, combine the oats and rice cereal.

In a small saucepan, melt the butter. When nearly melted, add the sugar and brown rice syrup. Stir well to combine and dissolve the sugar. Bring to a simmer, then reduce the heat to low for about 1 minute, still stirring. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.

Pour the wet mixture onto the dry mixture and stir well to moisten everything.

Transfer to the prepared pan, pressing the mixture down firmly with a spatula and evening out the thickness. (Compressing the bars with the spatula will keep them from falling apart as much later, particularly when you're cutting them.)

Scatter the chocolate chips evenly across the top. Compress the top with your spatula one last time, so that the chips are firmly embedded within the mixture.

Set the pan aside to set for at least 2 hours. Then use the parchment overhang to remove the bars from the pan, slice them and store them in a tupperware at room temperature. (You can individually wrap them, but I saw no need, since we eat most of ours at home. I haven't had problems with the bars sticking together in the container either.)

Fudge-Dipped Cherry Shortbread Sandwich Cookies

I've been wanting to make these cookies for years. They've made it on my Christmas to-do list before, but somehow they never happen. I guess I thought they would be really time-consuming, what with the shortbread, the filling and the fudge dipping sauce. As it turns out, however, there is not much hands-on time at all. The recipe is extremely easy to throw together in little stages. The shortbread is tasty, the cream is awesome, and the fudge sauce is luscious.

The one problem I have with this cookie is the fudge sauce. It tastes delicious, but it's not very practical. It remains soft and drippy even after a night in the freezer. I placed some cookies on a plate for a few minutes in order to take the above picture, and they'd already left chocolate smears all over it. In the future, I think I'll dispense with the fudge sauce (who wants to eat corn syrup anyway?) and go for a hard chocolate coating, like what you would use on a truffle. I'm still including the fudge recipe here, but I'll update it when I come up with a better solution.

Fudge-Dipped Cherry Shortbread Sandwich Cookies
From Better Homes and Gardens November 2009.

Shortbread:
1/2 c dried cherries
1 1/2 c flour
1/2 c sugar
2 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 c butter, cold and cut into 1/2" pieces

Fudge:
1/2 c heavy cream
3 tbsp light corn syrup (I did find an organic, GMO-free one!)
4 oz semisweet chocolate chips

Cream:
1/2 c heavy cream
3 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 c powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325° F. Add the cherries to a small bowl and cover with boiling water. Let sit ten minutes, then drain.

In a food processor, combine flour, sugar, cornstarch, salt and baking powder. Pulse until combined. Add the butter and soaked cherries and pulse until the dough begins to clump together. Dump out onto a sheet of parchment paper. Mold the dough into a square, cover with another sheet of parchment paper, and roll into a 12 x 9" rectangle (I don't know how you roll things into rectangles - mine was more oval, so I sliced the edges off and rolled them out separately. That's what caused the different-sized rectangles in the picture below). Remove the top parchment and use a knife to slice the dough into 3 x 1" pieces (but don't separate them!). Slide the parchment onto a baking sheet.

Bake the shortbread for 30-35 minutes, until lightly golden. Remove and cool completely on a wire rack. Then use a knife to separate the rectangles and match them into evenly-sized pairs.

Meanwhile, make the fudge sauce. In a small saucepan, combine the cream and corn syrup. Cook over medium-high heat until hot. Remove from heat and add the chocolate chips, stirring with a spatula until the chocolate is melted and combined. Let cool for about an hour, until thickened.

To make the cream filling, combine the cream, cream cheese, sugar and vanilla in a medium bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Refrigerate until ready to use.

When everything is ready, assemble the cookies. Pick up a pair of shortbreads. Use a small spatula to spread the cream onto the flat side of one cookie. Top with the other cookie, flat side down. Dip one end into fudge sauce, then place on a piece of parchment paper to dry (since I was making these a week or so in advance, I put the parchment on a baking sheet which I could slip in the freezer. Once frozen, I removed them to tupperware containers). Repeat with the rest of the cookies.

Vegan Chocolate Cake with Un-Vegan Peanut Butter Glaze

What to do when a hurricane is raging outside? Cook! At least, that's what I chose this morning. To be fair, we were driving up and down I-95 all weekend, so some of these are weekend projects we never got to - I wouldn't normally plan to do all this during a storm. Still, it was a great way to use my time earlier this morning when the storm wasn't so intense. Now I have a new batch of vegetable stock (soup tomorrow), a batch of white beans (dinner today), a loaf of whole wheat bread, another of banana bread, and a batch of granola. I also cleaned and prepped most of the greens that are in my fridge. We're definitely prepared to spend several days holed up at home.

I did not make this recipe today, but I easily could have. It's a wonderful quick cake using ingredients you probably have on hand already. Jeff and I first made the cake a few weeks ago when, half an hour before Monday night football, we decided we wanted dessert. It came together and went into the oven before the game and was ready to eat by halftime. We made it again for a Halloween party on Friday, this time with a peanut butter glaze to give it a little orange-and-black Halloween spirit. Again, the cake was ready in under an hour, and the glaze took seconds to whisk together. If you're looking for a nice dessert to throw together with little mess and no fuss, whether before a football game or in the middle of a hurricane, this is it!

Note: while the cake is vegan, the glaze does have a little milk. You could easily sub in soy milk or almond milk to make it vegan as well.

Vegan Chocolate Cake with Un-Vegan Peanut Butter Glaze
Cake is barely adapted from Joy the Baker. Glaze is adapted from Pixelated Crumb.

cake:
2 1/4 c flour
1/2 c cocoa powder
1 1/2 c sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 c warm water
1/2 c + 1 tbsp canola oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 c bittersweet chocolate chips

glaze:
3/4 c powdered sugar
2 tbsp skim milk
2 tbsp smooth peanut butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350° F. Coat a 9" bundt pan with cooking spray and dust with cocoa powder.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In a smaller bowl, whisk together water, oil and vanilla.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and fold together until just moistened. Stir in chocolate chips, then spoon the thick batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pan for ten minutes or so, then invert onto a rack to cool completely.

Once the cake is baked, whisk the glaze ingredients together in a small bowl (you may need to sift the powdered sugar to remove chunks). Pour over the top of the cake, letting it drizzle down the sides. The glaze will harden a bit after a minute or two. Serve and enjoy!

Pumpkin-Apple Granola Bars with Chocolate Chips

I'm currently sitting on a train through the lovely snow-covered Hudson Valley, headed to Toronto for a weekend conference. One of my big worries leading up to this trip has been about food. This is the first traveling I've done since instituting my low cholesterol diet. To top it off, I'm not eating meat right now either. While a twelve-hour train ride is otherwise a rather enjoyable way to travel, I worried that the cafe car offerings would not work for me.

My solution was to bring a cooler bag full of food. I packed myself a chickpea and spinach salad for lunch. I brought a large chunk of the tasty focaccia I made the other day. I made some buttermilk ranch popcorn and a batch of these awesome granola bars. I was going to pack some clementines, and then I remembered the last time I took this trip, when customs officials confiscated the orange of the man sitting in front of me (don't try to bring citrus fruits across the border - it's not worth it). Now I sit on the train in comfort, worry-free. I will buy a cafe car salad for lunch, while they're still stocked (last time they ran out of substantial food by dinnertime), then eat the rest of my stash in comfort as the day goes on. Tricky diet + travel = no problem.

The granola bars are definitely the most important item in my cooler bag. Not only are they healthy and filling, but they keep really well. Most of my food won't last past today (the popcorn could, but it tends to get stale quickly), but these granola bars will keep me happy all weekend long. Besides binding things together, the applesauce keeps them nice and chewy. I think my homemade applesauce is really the key to these. I canned a big batch using tart Stayman Winesap apples from Terhune Orchards in October. The tartness and the fresh apple flavor are shine through more strongly than the pumpkin in these bars (my homemade pumpkin puree is also a bit weak). I don't think store-bought applesauce would pack the same punch.

I don't mean to deter you, of course, from trying this recipe with store-bought ingredients! I have made these with store-bought pumpkin as well and gotten a stronger pumpkiny flavor. They will be a delicious snack whatever your ingredients - I just get the added bonus of autumn memories with mine!

Now that we've passed through Albany and are heading down the Erie Canal, I think it's high time for my snack. Excuse me while I enjoy a chewy, spicy, appley, chocolatey granola bar and enjoy the view.

Pumpkin-Apple Granola Bars with Chocolate Chips
Slightly adapted from Comfort of Cooking.

3 1/4 c rolled oats
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 c light brown sugar
1/2 c pumpkin puree
1/4 c unsweetened applesauce
1/4 c honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 c chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray an 8 x 8 baking pan with baking spray.

Whisk oats, spices and salt together in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl (or Pyrex measuring cup), combine the sugar, pumpkin, applesauce, honey and vanilla. Pour over oat mixture and stir well until all the oats are coated. Stir in chocolate chips.

Spread the mixture in the prepared pan. (If your 8 x 8 pan is in use, like mine was, you can use a portion of a larger pan. The mixture stays where you put it.) Press the granola together firmly, or it will crumble when you try to cut it later! (I actually liked using a big pan for this very reason - it allowed me to pack everything together more tightly. I still had some bars fall apart as I cut them, but not as many as last time.)

Bake for 30-35 minutes(around 40 if you use a glass baking dish), until golden brown and set. Let cool completely before cutting.

Double Chocolate Ice Cream

I am loving my new ice cream maker. The process is easy and the results are fabulous. Above all, I appreciate having control over the ingredients. As we learned with this batch, high quality ingredients make a stupendous ice cream!

This ice cream was thick and rich and set up well in the freezer. I had some a little early on the first night and it was rather melty, but since then it has stayed at the perfect firm but scoopable consistency. I must warn you, though, that the chocolate flavor was rather intense - it actually gave me a caffeine buzz! (Bear in mind that I don't drink any caffeinated drinks, so I'm more susceptible.) Jeff, who professes to dislike plain chocolate ice cream, has also been savoring this batch. Definitely a winner in my book. I know I'll be making this recipe over and over again.

Double Chocolate Ice Cream
From Cooking Light January 2012.

1 1/3 c sugar
1/3 c cocoa powder, unsweetened (I used Valhrona)
2 1/2 c 2% milk, divided (the milk I buy is low-temperature pasteurized, which lets it retain its creaminess and flavor - I think the quality of the milk made an enormous difference in the quality of the ice cream)
3 egg yolks
1/3 c heavy cream
2 1/2 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped (I used Valhrona 66%)

In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, whisk together the sugar and cocoa powder. Add 1/2 c milk and egg yolks and whisk well to fully combine.

When there are no lumps left, stir in the remaining 2 c milk. Cook until a thermometer registers 160°F, about ten minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat.

Place cream in a microwave-safe bowl (I used my pyrex measuring cup for this entire step) and microwave about 90 seconds, until it comes to a boil. Add the chopped bittersweet chocolate and stir until smooth. Add this to the hot milk mixture and stir to combine. Place pan in a large ice-filled bowl (I transferred mine back into the Pyrex cup first, so I wasn't starting with a hot pot that would melt the ice instantly). Cool completely, stirring occasionally (when it gets down toward room temperature, you might want to place it in the fridge to speed things up).

Pour the mixture into your ice cream machine and freeze according to the instructions (mine needed to churn for about 35 minutes). Transfer into a freezer-safe container and freeze for a few hours, until firm (the original recipe says at least an hour, but mine was still rather soupy at that point). Enjoy!

Foodie Resolutions and Double Chocolate Cookies

2011 was a great year for food. It will be hard to surpass.

2011 was the year when I shifted to organic, became a militant locavore, and taught myself to can. After trying out a vegetarian diet for Lent, I found ways to drastically reduce my household meat consumption. Inspired by my 30 by 30 list, I left behind my lifetime of picky eating to explore a whole new world of foods. I joined an organic CSA, which helped with most of the above enterprises. I endeavored to make whatever I could from scratch.

On the negative side, that very willingness to try things was stymied at the end of the year when stomach problems forced me to eliminate acid from my diet. Fortunately (considering my pantry full of high-acid canned goods), acid was not ultimately the problem, and I can eat tasty things again. A separate issue with my gall bladder, however, limits my diet in a good way: I can't eat fatty, processed meats and cheeses. This experience has shown me how important my dietary changes have been. The local, organic meats and cheeses I normally buy don't bother me - it's the factory-produced, chemical-ridden meats and cheeses of the supermarket that I have to avoid. That three half-dollar-sized Purdue chicken nuggets could ruin my New Year's Eve says a great deal about how harmful our industrial food system has become to our collective health.

2012 does not come with any new food resolutions for me. Rather, it comes with a reaffirmation of the course I embarked upon last year. There will be more vegetables, particularly the fresh, local variety. When those vegetables are in season, I will work harder to preserve some for later (no more binging on quarts of fresh-picked snow peas - some will go to the freezer!). I will make whatever I can from scratch so that I know exactly what I am putting into my body. I will buy local organic meats as much as possible, regardless of price, because my health is worth it.

These resolutions ought to be followed by some light, colorful vegetable dish, rather than a rich, decadent batch of cookies. But cookies, the last holdover from my holiday baking, are what I have for you. I made these as a gift for my brother-in-law-to-be. Although he chose not to participate in the family gift exchange this year, I thought he deserved a little something. Something chocolate.

Rich and decadent seem like soft words to describe these cookies. Just look at the ingredients - 24 oz chocolate, 3 eggs and 1/3 cup of flour?!?! I was skeptical that this would even work. There is barely enough flour to hold the dough together. The recipe makes up for this by refrigerating the dough (more like a batter, really) in plastic wrap to form sliceable logs. The slicing is still a bit difficult and sloppy, but the cookies bake up so beautifully that the struggle is worth it. They have a delicate crispy crust, almost gooey interior and deep chocolate flavor. The leftovers that didn't fit into my cookie tin disappeared lightning-fast.

While these don't quite fit with the January purge everyone seems to be on, you might want to keep them in mind for your Valentine!

Double Chocolate Cookies

Adapted from a Ghirardelli ad.

12 oz bittersweet chocolate chips (I used Valhrona 66%)

6 tbsp butter

3 eggs

1 c sugar

1/3 c flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

12 oz semisweet chocolate chips (I used Whole Foods generic brand - there was no Ghirardelli to be had in the store after Christmas)

1 c chopped walnuts

In a double boiler, melt the bittersweet chocolate and butter, stirring with a rubber spatula until smooth. Set aside to cool slightly.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sugar until thickened.

Slowly stir in cooled chocolate mixture. In a small bowl, whisk together flour and baking powder. Stir into chocolate mixture. Gently mix in semisweet chocolate and walnuts.

Using a sheet of plastic wrap, form the dough into two or three logs, two inches in diameter. The "dough" has more of a batter-like consistency, so use the plastic wrap to force it into the shape you want, then twist the ends tightly closed (mine had big air bubbles as I wrapped them, but while twisting the ends, I forced them into a more compact shape). Refrigerate for several hours until firm (freezing might be even better, but I didn't try it myself).

When the dough is firm, preheat the oven to 375°F. Remove the plastic wrap, slice the dough into 3/4" rounds and place on a greased baking sheet (my dough sliced very poorly - my knife was a sticky mess! - so a number of my cookies were hand-formed on the baking sheet, which worked fine). Bake 12-14 minutes, until shiny on top and soft in the middle (12 minutes in my convection oven was perfect). Cool and indulge!

S'mores Cookies

This post has been a long time coming, due to end-of-semester business and subsequent illness. I rarely ever fail to be sick during the holidays. This case of bronchitis was more severe than usual - I can't remember the last time I had a triple-digit fever! Fortunately, I had no Christmas-specific recipes planned to blog about. These cookies did not suffer from the wait, since they are suitable for any chilly night, Christmas or not, in a snug armchair with a steaming mug of hot cocoa.

While these are easy cookies to make (just a normal cookie recipe, popped out of the oven a bit early to add the toppings, then popped back in), I did run into one hiccup. The cookies need to be removed from the oven while the middles are still squishy so that the chocolate and marshmallows will stick. I baked the first batch using my convection oven function, which usually turns out more consistent golden-brown cookies. But when I removed them after seven or eight minutes, the middles had already set to the point where I couldn't add any toppings. I switched to the normal oven settings for the next two batches, and even then they were a little firm at seven minutes, though I was able to add the toppings. The next time I make these, I will not rely on a timer, but rather watch for the appropriate level of doneness myself.

The fun part comes once the cookies are back in the oven, chocolated and marshmallowed. The marshmallows puff up with steam until they look like little balloons (see the last picture below), and then deflate as they cool, creating a neat bubbly effect (see the top picture above). I also think that it's cute that the Hershey's logo doesn't melt away in the oven. It makes for a more authentic s'more.

So whether you're gathered around an open fire or not, s'mores can be enjoyed all winter long. And unlike traditional s'mores, these cookies can be dipped into your hot cocoa for extra goodness!

S'mores Cookies
Slightly adapted from Obsessed with Baking.

1 3/4 c flour
1 c graham cracker crumbs
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 c butter, softened
3/4 c sugar
3/4 c light brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 c mini chocolate chips
miniature marshmallows (the recipe I used said 1 1/2 c, but it depends on how many you put on each cookie)
2 Hershey milk chocolate bars, roughly chopped

Whisk the flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.

Cream the butter and sugars together in the bowl of a stand mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla, mixing until well combined. Slowly add the dry mixture, then stir in the chocolate chips. Refrigerate dough for 1-2 hours.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Coat baking sheets with cooking spray.

Roll the dough into tablespoon-sized balls and place onto the cookie sheets (you might want to spread yours out more than I did - I tend to crowd my pans, which can result in uneven baking).

Bake between 5-8 minutes (depending on your oven) until edges are set and middles are still moist. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and quickly top with chopped milk chocolate and mini marshmallows.

Return to the oven for another 2-3 minutes until cookies are fully baked. Cool on a wire rack.

Peanut Butter Birthday Tart

Behold, Jeff's birthday tart!

This post is rather late because I got caught up with work and Thanksgiving. Que sera sera.

This is a recipe that I've been working on since his last birthday. Last year, I made the peanut butter pie pictured in this post, from my Bride and Groom First and Forever Cookbook. As I mentioned in the post, I liked it, but it wasn't perfect. I thought peanut butter filling with a peanuty crust was overkill and, while the Hershey's kisses were pretty, the chocolatey flavor was not well-integrated into the rest of the pie. Jeff and I both loved the concept, but I was sure I could do it better.

As I made other peanut buttery things over the year, I kept this tart in mind, thinking about how I might alter it. These peanut butter cup bars from Brown Eyed Baker were pretty awesome. I thought that a layer of ganache like this could go well on my pie, but while the filling, blended with graham cracker crumbs, mimicked a peanut butter cup perfectly, it was a little heavy for a pie portion.

With that in mind, I decided to make this peanut butter cup tart from Confections of a Foodie Bride for a late summer party. It had a nice layer of ganache, a creamier peanut butter cream and a chocolate crust - all the elements of a perfect peanut butter tart, in my estimation. The ganache was perfect, the peanut butter cream good (although I thought my original recipe was better), but the crust, made from chocolate cookie crumbs, did not meet expectations, as it crumbled into nothingness when the tart was sliced. It was a bit of a mess, really. While everyone thought it was delicious, I still felt I could do better.

So when Jeff's 30th birthday rolled around earlier this month, I decided to put together my own version of the peanut butter tart. I would combine the chocolate ganache, peanut butter cream and a more substantial chocolatey crust. It would be the perfect storm of peanut butter tarts. I chose the chocolate short dough recipe from The Secrets of Baking, the peanut butter cream from the Bride and Groom cookbook, and the ganache from the Foodie Bride tart (although, at the last minute, I thought it would be a bit too rich, so I went with some whipped cream instead).

The result? Excellent. The crust had just enough heft to balance out the lightness of the peanut butter cream. I missed the ganache a bit, but for a tart that the two of us would have to finish in a few days, the lighter whipped cream was a better option. If I were to make this again for a group, for which smaller slices would be preferable, I would totally go for it. And since this is definitely going into my repertoire of bring-to-a-party recipes, I'm sure that day will come soon!

Peanut Butter Tart
Chocolate short dough:
1 1/2 c flour
1/2 c cocoa powder
1 c butter, softened but still cool
1/2 c powdered sugar

Peanut butter cream:
1 1/2 c heavy cream
3/4 c powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 c smooth peanut butter

Whipped cream:
1 1/2 c heavy cream
1/2 tsp cornstarch (I like a little cornstarch to stabilize my whipped cream, but adding too much will affect the mouthfeel)
1 tsp sugar (most recipes prefer powdered sugar, but I usually use granulated. Since I only lightly sweeten my cream, it is not hard to get the granulated sugar to incorporate)

Chocolate short dough:
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour and cocoa powder. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat butter on medium speed until lightly creamed. Scrape down the bowl, add the sugar and mix for about 30 seconds. Scrape down the bowl again.

Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed until the dough just comes together (about 30 seconds).

Remove the dough and pat it into a disc shape. Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours and up to 3 days. (I am not sure I like this method - I refrigerated mine overnight and it was hard as a rock - I had to over-warm it to get it soft enough to roll out. Next time I might shorten the refrigeration period.) Lightly flour your work surface, then roll the dough into a 12" circle. Lay the dough onto a 10" tart pan, press into the crevices, and cut off the excess.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Adjust the rack to the lower third of the oven. Prick the bottom of the pastry shell with a fork. Line the tart with parchment paper (crumpling the parchment paper first helps it to lie flat)and fill with pie weights or beans. Bake 15-18 minutes. Remove the weights and parchment and bake another 6-8 minutes. Cool completely.

Peanut butter cream:
In a stand mixer with whisk attachment, combine the cream, sugar and vanilla. Beat on medium-high speed until soft peaks form.

In another bowl, combine the peanut butter with about half of the whipped cream mixture. Fold together with a rubber spatula until well combined (the peanut butter will want to stay lumpy, but keep stirring and spreading it with the spatula and it'll get there). 

Then add this mixture to the remaining cream and beat on low speed until just incorporated. Do not over mix!

Pour the filling into the cooled crust and spread evenly.

Whipped cream:
In a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, combine cream, sugar and cornstarch. Whip until stiff peaks form. Spread cream on top of peanut butter filling.

Enjoy right away or refrigerate until serving!

New York Chocolate Show

Yesterday, Jeff and I went up to New York to attend the New York Chocolate Show with his sister Andrea. When Andrea had mentioned it last year, I had sighed with jealousy. This year, when the time came, she was good enough to remember my sighing and invite us.

We arrived at the Metropolitan Pavilion in Chelsea promptly at 10 am, when they began letting people in. We were disappointed to learn that no re-entrys were allowed - we had been planning a lunch break at a local restaurant to cleanse our palates before another round of chocolate. Instead, we had to push back our reservation a bit in order to get the most out of the show.

Nearly every booth had samples to try. I thought most of the samples were fairly commonplace - white, milk and every possible percentage of dark chocolate. The Granada Chocolate Company, pictured above, offered a 100% bar. That was too bitter for me to even try, but Andrea enjoyed it.

More to my taste were these Prestat truffles. The middle box of truffles has luscious, liquidy caramel with sea salt surrounded by a creamy chocolate shell. I took this picture to remind me to go back and buy a box . . . unfortunately, I still forgot. I might have to try and get some online!

There were mouth-wateringly delicious French macarons from Francois Payard. I love this pyramid, designed to protect the delicate shells. We bought ours from a different vendor - Mad Mac - who had them in chocolate and salted caramel flavor.

Andrea commented that there were not nearly so many molded chocolates as last year. I only noticed a few vendors who had them, but every one I saw was gorgeous. Look at the top row of the above picture - check out the glossy finish on those chocolates!

And this vendor, 2 Chicks with Chocolate, made such colorful ones! I don't think this picture, with all those shadows in the way, does them any justice. Besides being delicious, these were works of art!

I did taste some delicious things that I did not get pictures of. One was the white chocolate strawberry bar from Co Co. Sala. The dried strawberry was absolutely packed with flavor, which was a beautiful complement to the creamy white chocolate. They also had a very interesting white chocolate with salt and pink peppercorn. Another was a white chocolate with poppy (not poppy seeds, but actual poppy flower) from, I believe, Des Lis Chocolat. It had some of the flavor you would expect from poppy seeds, but much lighter.

Everything wasn't straight-up chocolate - this patisserie had a wide variety of tasty little treats. It's too bad that, by the time we got over there, were were all suffering from palate fatigue and sugar shock. There is, sadly, only so much chocolate you can eat in a day (especially when they won't let you leave the show to take a break!). I left the show feeling that if I didn't see another piece of chocolate until Christmas, it would be too soon. (Of course, having had more than a day to recover, I've already changed my tune!) It was nice to pass this spice vendor on the way out and be refreshed by the savory scents!