rice krispy treats

i don’t often think about rice krispy treats. in my generic list of favorite desserts, they probably wouldn’t crack the top 10. but everyone now and then, i see  one at a bakery or somewhere, get the urge to try it, and remember how much i adore them.

there’s something about the simplicity of the sugar-vanilla flavor. and the incomparable texture. and then there was that version i had a year or more ago with piece of dried fruit in it… wow.

so i don’t know what made me start thinking about them, but on a recent trip to whole foods, the ingredients just ended up in my cart!

these are high-class rice krispy treats. clearly.

start by melting 1/4 cup (generally half a stick) of butter in a large pot.

while that’s doing its thing, roughly chop (as in, into big chunks) some dried fruit. optional, of course, and you can choose your own favorite kind. i used prunes, cherries and mango. (since they come in bulk at WF, i think i bought 8 cherries, 5 prunes and 3 slices of unsweetened mango for a grand total of about 18 cents each. apricots would have been great, too, but they didn’t have any.)

when the butter is melted, add the whole bag of mini marshmallows

and melt them, too.

[mother’s warning!! melted sugar is especially hot and impossible to get off your skin while it’s burning you! be careful!]

when they’re just about totally melted, add a pinch of salt and a tablespoon of vanilla.

then add the fruit, stirring well

and 5 cups (almost a whole box) of rice krispies (generic or name brand, although we like this WP kind. they were denser than the name brand and had better “tooth”). mix well to cover the cereal completely.

now it’s important to work quickly. dump (or wrestle) the mixture into a brownie/cake pan. size doesn’t matter here – if the pan’s smaller, the bars will be thicker. if it’s bigger, they’ll be thinner.

spritz a spatula with some cooking spray and use it to smooth out the mixture. it’s the only way.

let cool for about 15 minutes (if you can!) and then flip out of pan.

cut into bars or shapes.

viva la simple, easy and kick-ass dessert! i don’t even miss the chocolate.

fortune cookies

i saw this blog on fortune cookies and thought they would be the sweetest thing to make for my friends on valentine’s day. when those plans didn’t quite pan out, this turned into a great three-generations baking project with my mom and grandma.

how cute?! the effort definitely took more than one set of hands, and didn’t turn out quite as well as i expected, but we certainly had fun, from writing “fortunes” to learning the best folding techniques to munching on them together.

but i don’t think i’ll make these again because the end result wasn’t as A+ as i’d like if i were making a gift. everyone who tried them did love the flavor (and some were actually positive about the texture), but they did not turn out crispy like traditional fortune cookies, and i found that disappointing.

that said, here’s how it went down:

first you mix up a batter of 4 egg whites (discard the yolks), one cup superfine sugar (if you don’t have superfine, throw a cup of regular sugar in a food processor and make it superfine!)

one cup flour, pinch of salt, five tablespoon unsalted butter (melted and lightly cooled), three tablespoons heavy cream (since you can’t buy this amount, i went to the coffee bar and poured three tablespoons into a take out cup, put on the lid, and paid for a cup of coffee), and one teaspoon almond extract. beat it all together with a hand mixer.

then you need a silpat on a cookie sheet (or parchment paper, although we found that it starts to warp after a couple turns in the oven, so you’ll need multiple pieces) and a four or four and a half inch found cookie cutter. you also need a spatula, a muffin tin and a glass. trust me. oh and fortunes, of course.

set the cookie cutter on the slipat and pour in about two-thirds of a tablespoon of batter.

with the back of a spoon, spread it out very thin. we found that it should be a tiny bit thicker on the edges than in the middle. but make sure there are no super thin parts, or the cookie will tear.

this one isn’t quite evened out enough yet.

you can do about three or four at a time, depending how good you get at folding. but you have to fold the cookies hot, so having too many baked at a time isn’t a good idea.

bake for about 5 minutes at 400 degrees until the edges are just browned. use the spatula to peel a cookie off as soon as you can handle it. i definitely burned my finger tips, but you really do need to work on these hot.

fold the cookie in half and insert the fortune. then hold the edges and use the lip of a glass to bend the cookie over.

when you have the general shape, put the cookie in a muffin tin, which will help it hold it’s shape. you can continue to wiggle the shape a little as the cookie cools.

the fortunes, we took from ad tag-lines in magazines. some are surprisingly profound if you think about it.

note: my mom let me know that several cookies she left out uncovered on a plate for about 48 hours were super crispy when she cracked them open. maybe this should be the final step in the process.

chocolate blancmange

for my almost-monthly dinner with my not-so-baby baby cousin last weekend, i was responsible for bringing dessert.

remember blancmange? easy, quick and delicious vanilla pudding.

always up for a challenge, i decided to try making a dark chocolate version. (“noirmange”?)

the original recipe wants you to melt 2 ounces of unsweetened chocolate in the hot milk to make it chocolaty, but since i didn’t have any of that, i had to take a different route. what i did have was some delicious “special dark” dutch processed cocoa.

as i have mentioned here before, dutch processed cocoa is different from regular cocoa and it’s not smart to substitute one for the other. regular cocoa has a raw flavor that is absent in dutch processed. for that reason, dutch processed is better in recipes where the cocoa doesn’t cook much or at all, like chocolate hummus. use it in this recipe, too.

so in my “dry” ingredients, i substituted 3 of the 4 tablespoons of sugar with cocoa and instant coffee powder.

instant coffee is known to be a great addition to any chocolate recipe. in the right amount, you don’t taste the coffee – it just makes the chocolate taste more chocolaty. and there’s nothing wrong with that, right?!

so if you happen to have it around substitute one teaspoon of instant coffee for one teaspoon of the cocoa.

to your cocoa/coffee powder, add 3 tablespoons corn starch, a pinch of salt, 1/4 cup milk and a teaspoon of orange liquor, if you have it. (if not, use vanilla extract) stir well.

heat one and 3/4 cups milk in a sauce pan until very hot but not boiling. add the cocoa mixture, stirring constantly.

keep stirring while you cook it on low heat for 15 minutes.

take off the heat and stir in another teaspoon of orange liquor (omit if using vanilla).

divide into four ramekins and chill until serving. if i had had whipped cream, i would have dolloped some on the top.

but since i didn’t, we added some orange zest and a pinch of sugar to a little ricotta cheese

and dolloped that on top instead!

margarita cookies

it was not surprising that when choosing a locale for birthday celebrations my bestie chose her favorite – mexican food.

however, it was an awesome coincidence that i just happen to have been gifted a margarita-shaped cookie cutter for christmas. what could be more perfect at a mexican birthday fiesta than margarita cookies?

i started with fannie farmers basic sugar cookie dough, and added two tablespoons of cointreau and the zest of one lime.

then i chilled the dough and tried to roll it out. fannie uses this dough for drop cookies (like the way you make chocolate chip cookies – roll balls with spoons) but said that if i chilled it i could roll it out and make cut cookies.

well, that might have been a little bit of an exaggeration – i ended up having to almost knead more flour into the dough. it was still very tender and difficult to work with, but the cookies turned out great, so i would probably use the recipe again.

there’s the margarita cookie cutter in action.

and there’s the silpat in action! ooh i love my kitchen toys!

after the cookies had baked (until just golden, not brown. at least that’s what i was going for!) i started decorating.

i just happened to have some left over green decorating sugar, which i thought would make lovely “salted” rims.

and my new cake decorating set came quite in handy, too. i had fun trying all sorts of different tips for different patters and styles of decorating.

the icing was about 2 cups of confectioners sugar, about a quarter stick of softened butter, enough milk to get the consistency i wanted, a teaspoon of mom’s homemade vanilla, a small squeeze of light corn syrup (for gloss and texture) and two drops of green food coloring. (frosting is a very dump-and-guess endeavor, you see.)

that’s a lime wedge :)

orange and bittersweet ganache tart

no matter how fancy this recipe may sound, it is shockingly easy. and always a big, impressive hit with guests.

start by making the crust. if you’re scared of pie crust or have never done it before, take comfort that this tart crust is much simpler and (almost) impossible to mess up. the recipe is adapted from fannie farmer. she suggests using a food processor, but if you don’t have one, never fear. you can use a pastry cutter or even a fork to mix instead.

you need one cup of flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt, the zest of one orange and one stick (1/4 pound) of cold butter cubed.

mix (or pastry-cut) until the butter is the size of peas.

then add 1 egg yolk (just the yolk now!) and two tablespoons of cold water. if you are using a food processor, just dump and turn it on. if you are doing it by hand, i’d beat the egg/water a little before adding it.

mix until the dough starts to come together or clump.

then pat together and wrap tightly in plastic. chill for at least 20 minutes.

here the recipe calls for a tart pan with a removable bottom (like the mini one i got for christmas) or a spring form pan. if you don’t have either, i think you could probably use a regular round pan, although you’ll have to remove it by the slice rather than all at once.

take pieces of the dough and press them into the pan evenly, going just about half an inch up the side.

cover with plastic and chill again while you preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

before putting the crust in the oven, prick it all over with a fork. this will let air out and keep it from puffing up.

then bake for 12 minutes, until it is just starting to get golden, not too brown.

let cool one hour.

at this point, i noticed that i had a small hole in my crust, caused by a thin spot i must have left while pressing the dough. do you see it? oops!

it was pretty small, but still, the very last thing you want is your ganache seeping out the bottom of the crust. i knew i had to plug it.

so i melted about 6 chocolate chips (the same bittersweet chocolate i was going to use in the filling) in the microwave and carefully filled the hole. (somebody got an extra bite of chocolate, but if they even noticed, they didn’t say anything!)

back in the fridge while i made the ganache just to harden up that spot.

for the ganache, put about 12 ounces of bittersweet chocolate chips or chunks in a bowl.

there are ghirardelli bittersweet 60% cacao baking chips.

bring one and a quarter cups of heavy cream just to a boil in a sauce pan, and pour it over the chocolate (through a strainer, if you have one, to get out any milk solids. no biggie if you don’t).

stir until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth.

(ick. sorry it’s blurry.)

then i added one teaspoon vanilla extract and about a tablespoon of cointreau (orange liquor) and mixed well.

pour the filling into the crust (again through a strainer if you have one to get out any last chunks of chocolate that didn’t melt all the way. you want the ganache to be smoooooth) and let sit on the counter for 2 hours or in the fridge for one hour (although i think it should be served at room temp).

a dollop of freshly beaten unsweetened whipped cream cuts the decadent richness of this dessert.

[ganache recipe adapted from john barricelli]

mint brownies

these tips come from my current favorite tv food personality, john barricelli from everyday baking on pbs. “try our delicious mint brownies… any day of week!”

start by prepping your pan. a small piece of parchment will help you get these (or any) brownies out of the pan easier.

then prep your peppermint patties. and by “prep” i mean take off all the wrappers in a 10 ounce bag and taste a few. for quality control.

then mix up your brownie batter.

i used to have such a stick up about using cake mix, but you know what i’ve learned? sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do, something is better than nothing and it’s the thought that counts. so go ahead, cut a corner! make sandra lee proud.

pour half the batter into your prepared pan

and “shingle” the patties across the batter.

then pour the rest of the batter over the patties. (i think i put too much on the bottom because i didn’t have quite enough to cover the patties on top, but the end result was still good. i’d probably rather have too much batter on the bottom than not enough.)

bake according to package instructions (about 25 minutes) and lift out easily with parchment “handles” once they have mostly cooled.

let cool entirely before cutting.

check out that mint layer!

virtual sweet swap

i may have mentioned before that i had an office sweet-swap… (identical to a cookie swap, just more inclusive) and it was so successful i wanted to share it with cyber space. we had no duplicate recipes and a ton of delicious variety.

peter's double chocolate brownie bites

gingerlicious holiday cutouts

pecan tassies

hoppy's double-baked love surprise

pecan sandies

snickerdoodles

toffee bars

dulce de leche surprise

christmas bark

fruit cocktail cookies

assorted sugar

’round the table you go until you have collected a whole plateful!

meringue “thin mints”

somebody told me recently they liked reading about my missteps in the kitchen.

well, happy birthday to you. here’s an epic failure.

the plan was to make chocolate-mint meringue kisses for my office sweet-swap (more about that later), and i looked up a few recipes to compare.

first mistake: my dependable fannie farmer cookbook called for superfine sugar, but my not-so-dependable trader joe’s didn’t have any. (they didn’t have any plain old white vinegar, either, but that’s a different story/recipe all together.) i had seen a recipe online that used powdered sugar instead, and since tj’s had that, i decided to substitute. even though my mother cautioned me not to. bad move.

second mistake: i tripled the fannie farmer recipe. (we owed 3 dozen cookies to the swap, the recipe made one dozen and it was already 8:30 at night) this turned out to be a terrible idea because it caused me to seriously over-beat my egg whites, totally deflating them.

anyway, to make meringue, you start with egg whites. remember how to separate them? i also recommend doing it into a small bowl so in case you make a mistake like this:

fortunately, i was able to fix this one without ruining the whole recipe.

better.

(i saved the yolks, we’ll have some kind of custard soon… and before you ask, YES, that is a wine glass  in the picture. i had a HARD DAY, ok? and NO, that is not why this recipe failed.)

then i measured out the sugar and cocoa and got my vanilla/mint extract ready. i like having everything ready to go before i start baking.

start by beating the egg yolks

until they form “stiff peaks” but are not dry.

at this point you are supposed to add your sugar/cocoa in batches, beating until mixed each time.

i sifted the sugar in because, since i was using confectioners sugar, it was very lumpy.

when you have most of it mixed in, you add the vanilla/mint extract and fold in the rest of the sugar/cocoa. i think at this point i was beginning to realize i had a disaster on my hands.

see how deflated and batter-looking this is now? bad bad bad. it should be fluffy fluffy fluffy. i think that because i had tripled the recipe, i had so much extra sugar/cocoa to beat in that i totally destroyed the egg whites.

but since it was now around 9 pm and these cookies were due IN THE MORNING, i had to soldier on.

i spooned the mixture into my improvised piping bag and cut the tip off.

when the “meringue” began to POUR out of this hole as soon as i cut it, i finally realized the enormity of this failure.

there was no way i could pipe kisses because it wouldn’t/couldn’t hold its shape.  instead i got turd-like puddles.

mistake three: i didn’t set out enough parchment-lined baking sheets (probably because i didn’t have any more!) so as the meringue mixture is pouring out of the bag and dripping down my arm, i’m yelling at him to lay out more parchment somewhere! anywhere! where? there’s no counter space left! THE FLOOR!!!!

oh yes. it was magical. and there are no pictures of that. thank god.

i ended up having to improvise to get all the turds – i mean, meringue thin mints – into the oven.

yes, i baked them on a cooling rack.

and to make matters worse, they didn’t all fit into the oven, so there was some stacking involved.

bake for one hour at 250 degrees, then let them sit in the oven for at least 6 hours to dry completely. don’t open the door! they have to sit undisturbed.

this is what you are going for:

credit all*you

HA!

reports from the tasters actually were somewhat positive. mine ended up like the inside of a girl scout thin mint – crisp, chocolaty and minty. if i had had time, i should have dipped them in melted chocolate to complete the effect.

tapioca cream

this heavenly dessert is worlds away from what you might think of when you hear “tapioca” – that cold congealed lump from the school cafeteria or a jello pudding cup.

no no. tapioca cream is fluffy and light and best served warm late at night.

[disclaimer! none of these pictures will be fabulous because tapioca is white on white on yummy and, not being a professional, i had trouble capturing it.]

tapioca cream is a two-step process, and a roommate or sous-chef comes in handy. but if you want it badly enough, you can certainly manage alone.

follow box instructions for proportions, but briefly, start by heating your tapioca in milk with some sugar and an egg yolk.

this needs to be stirred constantly, which is where the roommate comes in. while it is cooking, you also have to beat an egg white with sugar until soft peaks form.

not quite there yet…

(you can tell by now that making tapioca alone is hard enough, but trying to take pictures at the same time is next to impossible. everything i do, i do it for you.)

when the milk bubbles and the egg is softly peaking, mix the two together quickly, while stirring constantly. the heat of the milk just barely cooks the egg, and the egg in turn makes the milk fluffy and delicious!

it’s sad, really. this picture doesn’t do it the least bit of justice.

therefore i recommend you make tapioca for yourself immediately. if only for research and accuracy purposes… to.. um.. better understand this post. yeah, that’s why…

pecan pie

this one is from the archives! he found it in his email from march 2006.

they look like mini pecan pies, and i can tell from the setting it was taken at my mom’s house… but i don’t for the life of me remember the recipe!

pretty cute, though, huh? i could use one or two right about now…