Brown Sugar Ice Cream

There are no pictures of failure.

I hate custards.  Wait, no, that's a lie.  I love to EAT custards, I hate to make them, because apparently, I fail at them on a regular basis. see: Pots de Creme. The problem with this, however, is that lots and lots of ice cream bases are custards.  (especially the ones in this book)  So I am going to have to learn, come hell or high water.

I am fairly certain that this is user error, as opposed to cookbook error. 

The epic fail began when I was cooking the brown sugar in a saucepan until it "was a chestnut color"  so I was watching, and stirring, and approximating, and finally I figured it was okay (the sugar was bubbling up pretty crazily), and set it to rest for 15 minutes. I think that one of the things that may have helped me here is a temperature reading- I am pretty familiar with making caramel sauce, and am well acquainted with my candy thermometer, and I think knowing what temp I was aiming for would have been helpful. When the resting time was over, the sugar was melted,  but still a little gritty in the pan, so I'm not sure if i undercooked it or not.  (this would not matter, later)

While it was resting, I whisked the eggs, and set the milk in a saucepan to scald. I tempered the eggs, and poured the egg/ milk mixture back into the milk, turned the heat down,and then began to whisk.  I was looking for a spoon, so i could test the thickness of the custard, when I lifted the whisk out of the milk and egg mixture, and noticed that there were tiny pieces of scrambled egg attached to it. My heart sank, and I killed the heat on the stove, and thought, maybe, if the eggs hadn't scrambled toooo much, I could take my sieve, and pour the milk/egg mixture through it, and have a salvaged ice cream base. Which I guess was good in theory, but in practice, I had scrambled much more of the egg than I realized, and half of the mixture stayed in the sieve.  Cursing profusely, I trashed the entire thing.

I know I made a rule about not repeating recipes that I've made,  but i feel like i need to give this one a second chance.  Maybe next time with a double boiler.

Flat and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

When I don't make Compost Cookies, (my general, go-to cookie of awesomeness)  my default chocolate chip cookie is Alton Brown's The Chewy.  I should just say, these are my ideal chocolate chip cookies- they're just right. Chewy, with a little bit of heft (you make them on the larger side) and just a little bit underbaked in the center. They are cookies that I compare all chocolate chip cookies to. 

 I am generally not a fan of flat, or crispy, or cake-y chocolate chip cookies, I mean, I'll eat them, but they aren't my absolute favorite.

These cookies are excellent.  Just the right amount of chewy, with a nice hit of saltiness, I can definitely see adding them to my cookie repertoire.  This is one of the two chocolate chip cookie recipes in the book, and I can definitely see why this one made it- it's a classic.  Not quite as good as the ideal, but definitely close.

For someone that is relatively practiced at cookie making, this recipe's a snap. Mix together ingredients, chill, and then bake.  My friends were appreciative!

Chocolate Dump-It Cake- 2002

A link to the recipe in the NYT website is here

I have, up to this point, not been much of a cake-baker (this will change, shortly, as there are a ton of cake recipes in the book)  I tend to stick to cupcakes, because of the portability factor, and, to be honest, the cuteness factor. (who doesn't love a cupcake?) 

But! The book calls, and when it was my sister's birthday, and she requested chocolate cake,  I landed on this one, which, in the headnote says is a great birthday cake.  This, I can confirm.  It was easy to put together, melting the chocolate in a saucepan, stirring the ingredients together,  sifting the dry ingredients, and then pouring the batter into the pan.  I put it in the oven for the allotted time, and then didn't have any problems getting it out of the pan when it had cooled a little.

Putting together the frosting is super quick and easy-  you melt chocolate in a double boiler, and add sour cream. stir, and frost cake. The result is slightly tangy, chocolatey frosting.

I cut it in half,  to make two layers, frosted it, and served it as Birthday Dinner Dessert for my sister. This cake is an awesome, chocolatey cake- not too dark, with a lighter tasting frosting. It's a good go -to chocolate cake to have in your arsenal. So make it! It doesn't have to be for a  birthday, it can just be because you want cake!

And Happy Birthday, Jack!  It only took me a month after your birthday to get the post up.

Lemon Drops

Before this, the lemon drops that I was acquainted with came in a shot glass that was rimmed in sugar, and could MESS YOU UP. if you had too many of them.  ( I am now of the age where taking shots- of anything- is far less appealing than it once was) but these are a wholly different kind of lemon drop.

I was putting together Christmas baskets for some of my family members, and they are a combination of sweet:  shortbread cookies, crunchies, vanilla sugar,  and salty: Homemade chipolte salt. and both: compost cookies. I wanted to add something else, something different, that I hadn't made before, and I landed on Lemon drops.  I was initially wary of this recipe, because it involves things setting up and gelling (and we all remember how excellent I am with things like that)  but I love lemon flavored things, and so soldiered on.

you begin by bringing sugar and water to a boil,  and then adding gelatin that has bloomed in water, and bringing that to a boil, and then adding in lemon juice and (the recipe calls for orange zest, but I subbed out that for lemon zest, because that is what I had on hand) after the hour, they weren't quite set up, so i stuck the container into the fridge, sent some good thoughts out into the universe, and hoped that they would set up completely. 

I woke up in the morning, and lo! They were gummy! and awesome!  I turned the square of candy out onto a cutting board, grabbed my pizza cutter and ruler, and cut out squares of candy. I rolled them in sugar- and Ta-da! I had gummy candy!

When I went to buy the gelatin, I bought four boxes, because the recipe calls for "four packets of gelatin", and having never used gelatin, I thought that would be good. Four packets are in EACH box of gelatin, so I think will take this unexpected windfall and play around with different jellied candies. (My mom got me rosewater for Christmas- that would be interesting, in a Turkish delight kind of way) Ribena for blackcurrant flavored things, peppermint extract for mint candies!  My imagination is running wild.

Teddie's Apple Cake- 1976

Note: I know I haven't updated in a while, but I've still been cooking! Expect more entries soon, as my life gets a little less crazy.  For now, here's Teddie's Apple Cake.

At my workplace, we have a Holiday party every year, to which different departments are assigned different things to make. This year, my department got dessert, so I busted out the cookbook, and landed on something that I thought would be relatively easy and quick to make on a work night. I gathered my ingredients, mixed them, and set the cake to bake, and it made my apartment smell fantastic on a snowy night last week.

For some reason, I thought that Apple Cake would taste much more virtuous than this one does. In my head, it was kind of in the vein of banana bread, or a muffin, or something equivalent to that.  I seek to dispel any of those notions with this cake.  It is sweet, and nutty, and much more cake like than I expected.  The apples and raisins do a great job of keeping the cake moist, and the outside edge of the cake crackles a little with the sugar in the batter that caramelizes as it bakes in the tube pan. 

The headnote in the recipe suggests serving this with ice cream, which would not be out of place for sure, but as I was eating it I definitely could see it slathered with cream cheese frosting as well.  A great cake to add to my quickly growing arsenal of delicious cakes that I bake.  (Plus! I was asked for the recipe twice, which is always a good sign)

Lora Brody's Bête Noire (Intense Chocolate Cake) - 1983

So I was having a little bit of a problem. The book was so big, that I was feeling overwhelmed. With over a thousand recipes, and just one me, I was just kind of blindly landing on recipes in the book, and cooking them. Which works, but doesn't have very much direction. There were also recipes that I would come upon that I would think: "I should make that for my sister! Or that one for my cousin! or that one my mom!" 


So I got a pack of small post its, and went to town on the book.  The pink, orange and yellow recipes were ones that I thought "hey, that looks good!" when flipping through the chapter.  The green are ones that I want to make for others (with their name written on it, so I remember). 


All of this leads to Lora Brody's Bête Noire. When I read the recipe, my hand immediately reached for the green post-its, so I could write my friend Lisa's name on it.  She loves all, deep, intense chocolate desserts- Molten chocolate cakes, dark chocolate mousse, If it is dark, and chocolatey, and awesome, she's there.  I knew I had to make it for her. 

Chocolate cake with My friend Bryan's Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

So we were all getting together to watch Steel Magnolias, and Katie and Lisa were making pizzas. (Oh, MAN Lisa's pizzas are great)  I thought it would be a good opportunity to make this cake (and also flat and chewy chocolate chip cookies, which I'll be writing about later). 

When you look at this recipe, it can seem intimidating. It involves a candy thermometer,  and cooking sugar, and whipping lots of eggs. Do not be afraid! It is not as hard as it seems.  You cook sugar and water until it reaches 220 degrees. Then you mix in chopped chocolate (a combo of unsweetened and semisweet) and stir until the chocolate is melted. (The recipe says that it might seize here, but that's okay, mine did not seize though, so woo!)  after that, you mix in butter, slowly, until all the butter is melted.  It is at this point, when I began to hum in the kitchen (I always seem to be humming to myself when a recipe is going well)  I went over to my trusty stand mixer, and began to whisk the eggs, (and some more sugar) until they had tripled in size. I slowly added the chocolate mixture to the eggs, and then took it out  of the mixer and stirred it by hand until it was all incorporated. 

I put it into a parchment lined, buttered cake pan, that was set in my cast iron skillet, poured boiling water around it, and baked it for a half hour. 

I got my stuff together, and got into my car to drive to my friends' house. The cake smelled so delicious, that I was seriously tempted to rummage around and find a fork and dig in right there on the highway.  I should have put it in the trunk. 

Just before it was time to serve the cake, I stuck it into a 200 degree oven for ten minutes to warm it up, and served it along with my friend Bryan's awesome strawberry cheesecake ice cream (he also had blueberry).  The cake was amazing. Not too dense, but truly chocolatey, and dark.  The recipe said serves 6 to 8, and I cut it into eight pieces,  and even then, the slices were a little too big. The cake is so rich, that it would have easily been enough with half of the size slice I had. (not that that stopped me from eating most of it) 

So good. 

If you want to impress the chocolate lover in your life- make this, right now. 

Two Day Brown Butter Madelines- 2001

I have been doing more frowning in the kitchen,  When a recipe is not the way I imagined it would turn out in my mind's eye (mind's mouth? that sounds weird)  I tend to furrow my brow and think about it. Is it something I did wrong?  Was the room too hot/ batter not rested enough/did my butter not brown all the way?  I am frowning now, even as I am writing this.  Another problem with some recipes is that I've never had them before.  With, say the Corn chowder- I know what I like with Corn Chowder, and I can pinpoint X and Y.  With something like Madelines, which I've never had...  it's harder to put my finger on the problem. Or in fact, if it is a problem at all.

I think part of the issue is I was expecting it to be more like a cookie.  But it's not a cookie, so much- it's much more cake-like.  I also thought that the flavor of the lemon would be much more pronounced.  Tasting them right out of the oven, they seemed kind of bland.  Good with tea, though.  I was bringing the leftovers to work, and I thought that they needed a flavor bump, so i made a lemon glaze (with lemon, confectioner's sugar and lemon zest, and dipped the tops in that, and allowed them to dry overnight with the glaze.  That seems to fix the flavor issue- they've got a lot more flavor now-  But I worry. is it just because I don't appreciate muted and toned down flavors? hmm.  Something to think about.

My co-workers seemed to like them though, which is always a good thing.

The best part of the experience though, was using the Madeline pans.  I scored them at a garage sale for $1 each- easily my most awesome garage sale score.  I hadn't ever used them before this, and I had definitely been meaning to.

Coming up this week:  Butternut Squash Cider Soup, Roasted Cauliflower, Perfect Batch of Rice, Baked Mushrooms



Mrs. Raymond Schenk's Pumpkin Cake - 1980

This time of year I have pumpkin on the brain.  Sweet, spiced pumpkin.  I really liked this cake because it was simple, easy to put together, and tasty.  It wasn't too sweet, and had a nice crumb.  I subbed out crasin for the raisins in the recipe, because I didn't have any raisins on hand, and I think I would definitely do it that way again (I might also add some chocolate chips)

I don't know who Mrs. Schenk is, but she sure makes a delicious cake.  This recipe calls for a tube or bundt pan, but lacking one of those (I need to seriously start hitting some thrift stores to get baking supplies) I made mine in two loaf pans. That worked out though, because I brought one to work, and one to my theater company, so they could both enjoy some pumpkin goodness.

I think this would be a nice addition to thanksgiving dinner- especially for those people who like a more mellow dessert- this isn't too sweet, and is good with a cup of coffee.

Carmelized Brown Butter Rice Krispies- 2007

I love Rice Krispie treats, as do many members of my family. In fact, I've even made a whole triple layer "cake" out of Rice Krispie Treats for my sister for her birthday.   I've made a similar recipe from Smitten Kitchen earlier this year, which was also really good.  It also involved less butter than this recipe. This recipe? It is buttery heaven. 

This recipe is amazing. It takes the standard, bake sale Rice Krispie treat, and it knocks it out of the ballpark. It knocks it from Camden Yards ten minutes away, to my apartment.  I gave half of the batch to my sister to take home, and took the other half to work, where my co-workers demolished them in a matter of minutes.  This recipe is easy too- it only takes a couple extra minutes than regular Rice Krispie treats.  I think i could have even taken the butter a little bit browner, but I was impatient and wanted to get them done to get the rest of dinner on the table (I made these on the same night as the Beet Tzaziki and Chicken Fricassee)

English Tea Cart Wafers-1992

I got my cookie mojo back with these tea cookies, but they require a little trial and error.  In the headnote of the recipe, Amanda (is it weird to say Amanda? Amanda Hesser seems very formal.) says that this recipe takes a few times to get the proportions of cookie right.  The recipe also calls for a cookie press, which I don't have, but says that you can substitute a pastry bag with a tip.

I mixed together the ingredients, and put half the dough into the piping bag, and began to pipe out what I assumed to be three inch sections (still needed for the project: a ruler)  and once I had piped them out, put them in the oven to bake.  They were pretty big, significantly bigger than the suggestion of making them finger sized,  so when they came out of the oven, I piped the next batch out, and then sliced them in half.  That, proportionally seemed to work a lot better than the whole logs.

Once the cookies came out of the oven and cooled, I put together the chocolate glaze (using Ghiradelli chips- which I recommend!)  and dipped half of the cookies in the glaze and set to dry.  I  spread the other cookies with homemade raspberry jam that my mom made , and then sandwiched the cookies together.  I think if I make these again, I would take the extra step to put the jam in a piping bag and pipe it  on, because the  spreading method caused the jam to come out of the sides of the cookies a little too much.

They are really, really delicious. I love raspberry and chocolate combination, and the shortbread style cookie was really good as well.  Of the two cookies I made yesterday, they were the hands down winners.

Chocolate Quakes- 2002

 This recipe did not want to work for me.  I was going to a tea party for my friend Michelle's birthday, a  potluck, so I decided to take two kinds of cookies, that I thought would go well with tea.


The first batch I made, I mixed it all up, and then when I put it into the fridge to chill, then went to clean up, I tasted the batter on the whisk attachment for my mixer, and it became instantly apparent that there was an excessive alcohol-y rancid taste. I sniffed my bottle of vanilla, and cursed loudly. It appears the vanilla had gone off. I didn't even know that could happen!


I dumped that batch, and began again, melting, mixing, and stirring, and thinking that it didn't seem to make that much batter.  I am used to making large batches of cookies (my chocolate chip make 5 or six dozen)  so I chalked it up to the recipe yielding less cookies.  I put it in the fridge to chill, and then went to do the dishes, and realized that instead of the half cup measure that THOUGHT I was using, I was in fact using the 1/3 cup scoop. Annoyed, I tried to measure out (by eye... )  the remaining amounts of sugar and flour that the recipe needed.  Leaving that in the fridge, I began to make the other cookies that I had planned for today.


I contemplated making another batch of the cookies today, but I think I may try them again tomorrow night- My sister is coming over for dinner, and she can take the leftovers with her.


So I coated them in sugar, and baked them off, (I overbaked them, I think- the luck continues) and they look pretty nice.  I took them to the party, and people seemed to enjoy them, I think it went nicely with tea. 

Plum Torte- 1983

David Leite Posted a link to this recipe on his blog- If you want to make it yourself (If you don't have the book yet- Mine is on the way!)


Plums always remind me of the summer, of car trips, jammed into the back of my dad's tiny pickup truck, my cousins sitting alongside, heading to the beach or to Hacklebarney State Park.  The sweet-tartness of plums that make your mouth pucker a little and make you want another bite, and another one. I picked the plums that I used (black plums) because they are dark and looked like they would be on the more tart side, and I thought that would balance well with the sweet batter.

This recipe was one of the most requested to be put in the cookbook, and it was run in the paper a dozen times.  It's easy to see why!  The plums are sweet and a little tart, the lemon adds brightness, and the cinnamon adds a depth to a simple batter.  I don't know that I would have paired plums and cinnamon, but it is certainly a tasty match.


I was having a moment of panic when I realized that I didn't have a springform pan, and It turned out my mother didn't either, but I went to my Grandad's house, and he had one that he wasn't using, and lent it to me.  He also said he didn't mind if it went to Baltimore with me, which is good, because I'm willing to bet there are more recipes that require a springform pan coming.


The batter came together quickly, and made the house smell great.  I am definitely adding this to my culinary repertoire,  to make again and again.