NYTimes Brownies

I love all things I can make with chocolate. I only use the very best quality chocolate that I can buy and it makes such a difference. Same rule goes for fresh baking powder and baking soda, pure vanilla extract, organic free range eggs, etc.

When Mark Bittman posted a new brownie recipe to his Bitten Blog in the New York Times last May, I saved it away and decided today was the day to put it to good use. What appealed to me in the first place about this recipe specifically was that it didn't call for any nuts. I guess if you like them, you could probably add some, but I think brownies are way better fudgy and not tampered with!

Not only are these brownies delicious, they were so easy to make. I double the recipe and used a bigger pan. It calls for unsweetened chocolate, but I used bittersweet and it was fine; I just used a little less sugar.

Ingredients:

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate

8 tbsp. (1 stick) unsalted butter, plus more for pan

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup flour

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract, optional

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine chocolate and butter in a small saucepan over very low heat, stirring occasionally. When chocolate is just about melted, remove from heat, and continue to stir until mixture is smooth. Meanwhile, butter and line an 8-inch square pan.

Transfer mixture to a bowl, and stir in sugar. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add flour and vanilla if you are using it, and stir to incorporate. Stop stirring when no traces of flour remain.

Pour into pan, and bake 20 to 30 minutes, or until set and barely firm in the middle. Cool on a rack before cutting.

Nom Nom Nom

I went down to Seattle for a long weekend last month and did some serious eating. For breakfast everyday we walked down for Top Pot doughnuts. You have not eaten a doughnut until you've had Top Pot. Promise. On the first day we each had a cake doughnut and they are super heavy, so every day after that we opted for yeast doughnuts. They're amazing, almost the size of your head! I am still craving their lemon-filled...

Top: Raspberry Bullseye Bottom: Lemon-Filled Ovaltine Lattes

It was really hard to try to get a shot of ALL the doughnuts from my spot in the lineup!

View from the street.

I saw Trophy Cupcakes featured on Martha Stewart's show last year and have been dying to check it out ever since. I think we went there three of the four days that we were down, and ate cupcakes to the ridiculous point.

Clockwise from top left: Cafe au Lait, Lemon, Red Velvet, Triple Chocolate.

We sat down with a pot of tea and actually ate ALL of them in one sitting. We cut them each in half and shared and we were doing pretty good until we were left with the chocolate one, but we still went for it. OMG - big mistake! Know your limits!

They feature different flavors on different days of the week. Their website has all the information you need so you don't miss out on your favorite flavor!

Really cute shop. We went to the location in Wallingford.

Low Fat Blueberry Muffins

Bottom to Top: LowFat Bluberry Muffins, Zucchini Muffins, leftover Vanilla Cupcakes.

I love blueberries. I love them fresh, in scones, in crumbles, in smoothies, pretty much any way I can get 'em! But my most favorite thing to do with them is turn them into muffins. There are so many different recipes out there, and I love trying new ones to see how they're different. My old stand-by is my Mom's recipe which is delicious, but not exactly the healthiest.

Going through my collection, I found a "low fat" recipe. I'm always super skeptical about "low fat" anything when it comes to baking, it's been my experience that I should just suck it up and use full fat whatever is called for.

That said, there are some great tricks and substitutes that work great without compromising flavor, like soy milk (but not light, I always use Silk brand plain and it works quite well wherever you would use milk because it doesn't have a strong taste and it's got a pretty creamy consistency), applesauce in place of eggs (doesn't work all the time, but great for loaf cakes where there's generally a pretty dominant flavor ingredient like bananas), or sour cream instead of butter (but still, I always use full fat sour cream, and again, it doesn't work in every recipe).

However, I was pleasantly surprised by how these muffins turned out. They are very moist and fluffy, I haven't yet been disappointed by a blueberry muffin!

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 cup non-fat milk (I used soy)

2 tbsp. canola oil

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1 to 1 1/4 cups blueberries (I always go a little heavy on the berries)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 12-cup muffin tin or line with papers.

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a small bowl, whisk together milk, oil, and the egg.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add wet ingredients. Stir just until blended. Fold in blueberries. Batter will be lumpy.

Fill muffing cups 2/3 full and bake 18 to 20 minutes, until golden. Cool on a wire rack.

Makes 12 muffins.

Hmmmm... What To Do With A Giant Zucchini?

Ah, summer! A friend gave me a huge zucchini earlier this week (it's bigger than my dog!), and I've been trying my best to use it in as many different ways possible. Something that clearly should have been picked long before it was, has actually turned out to be quite a fun project for me. So far I've made fritters (twice, they were awesome), stirfry, oven roasted with tomatoes, and finally muffins.

It took me a while to find the right recipe to bake with, they all ask for a barrage of spices, chocolate, nuts, etc. I'm not crazy about some nuts and almost everything I found called for walnuts or pecans. I was looking for something a lot simpler, so as not to stray too far away from the main ingredient. I ended up choosing one that has the spice flavor I love - cinnamon! - and adapted it a little to my own preferences.

They turned out light and moist, with lots of flavor, perfect for breakfast or a tea snack.

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 cup canola oil

3/4 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 tsp. pure vanilla

1 cup shredded zucchini

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray or line with papers a 12-muffin tin.

In a small bowl, beat together the oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light and thick, about 3 minutes. Stir in the zucchini.

Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined, do not overwork.

Fill cups about 2/3 full and bake 18 to 22 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted comes out clean.

Makes exactly 12 muffins.

The Black and White

When I make Black and White Cookies, I don't mess around. I make enough to fill my freezer so that in a moment of weakness (which incidentally is often), I have no stress in knowing I have a secret stash! I wrap them individually with plastic wrap. Black and White Cookies are a New York City trademark. They're highly publicized, talked about, and advertised by characters on shows like Seinfeld and Sex and the City.

The perfect Black and White Cookie is moist, cake-like, and not too sweet. I think that's why I love them so much. They're iced but the recipe I like the best calls for real chocolate instead of cocoa powder, and I use the very best 72% bittersweet chocolate I can find so the icing comes out very rich and glossy.

I have tried many recipes for these cookies from many sources and the one I find the closest to an authentic NYC Black and White is the recipe from Glaser's Bakeshop on 87th Street.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

4 large eggs

1 1/2 cups milk

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 tsp. lemon extract

2 1/2 cups cake flour

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

4 cups confectioners' sugar

1/3 to 1/2 cup boiling water

1 ounce bittersweet chocolate

1 tsp. light corn syrup

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl, combine sugar and butter. Mix by machine or by hand until fluffy. Add eggs, milk, and vanilla and lemon extracts until smooth.

In a medium bowl, combine both flours, baking powder and salt. Stir until blended. Add dry mixture to the wet in batches, stirring well after each addition. Using a soup spoon, place heaping spoonfuls of dough 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake until edges begin to brown, 18 to 20 minutes. Cool completely.

Place confectioners' sugar in large mixing bowl. Gradually stir in enough boiling water to the sugar to make a thick, spreadable mixture.

Put half the frosting in the top half of a double-boiler. Add the chocolate and corn syrup, and set over simmering water. Warm the mixture, stirring, until chocolate is melted and frosting is smooth. Turn off the heat, but leave chocolate frosting over hot water to keep it spreadable. With an offset spatula, ice half of each cookie with the chocolate frosting, and the other half with white frosting. Let dry, and store in an airtight container.

Makes about 2 dozen large cookies.

Geroy's Birthday

Silly, I know. A friend decided at the last minute to celebrate her puppy's first birthday. She asked me along with my little dog, and it was a great afternoon with friends and too many snacks. It also gave me an excuse to do some baking! I decided on trying the Magnolia Bakery's Vanilla Cupcakes. I found the little bears at a craft store, they're very cute.

Most of Magnolia Bakery's cupcakes are frosted with an offset spatula, but I took the opportunity to test out my new Ateco #828 piping tip. I had to search high and low to find one, and I've been itching to use it.

The icing is white, so it would be a great opportunity to get creative with colors!

The buttercream in particular is extremely easy to work with, sometimes they can be challenging.

The recipe is also available online at marthastewart.com.

For the Cake:

1 1/2 cups self-rising flour

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs, at room temperature

1 cup milk

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners; set aside. In a small bowl, combine flours; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth and creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating until fluffy, about three minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla, and scraping down sides of bowl in between each addition; beat until ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat.

Divide batter evenly among liners, filling about three-quarters full. Bake, rotating halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool in tins for 15 minutes. Remove cupcakes from tins, and cool completely on rack. Once cupcakes have cooled, frost the tops by using a small offset spatula.

For the Vanilla Buttercream:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

6 to 8 cups confectioners' sugar

1/2 cup milk

2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Directions:

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter, 4 cups sugar, milk, and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until smooth and creamy, 3 to 5 minutes. Gradually add remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating for about 2 minutes after each addition, until icing reaches desired consistency; you may not need to add all the sugar. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Lemon Curd

Not quite baked, but definitely sweet!

It doesn't really get much better than fresh lemon, and I just found a fantastic recipe on the Saveur website for curd that is as delicious as it is easy to make. I made only a small amount this first time, I'm going to make it again later this week and try to incorporate it into a cake or pie. There is seriously nothing I love more than a lemon dessert, and this recipe will be so versatile for so many other things in the future.

Here's what you need to do:

In a heatproof bowl, whisk together 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice, 1/2 tsp. lemon rind (I used way more than that and it was awesome), 6 tbsp. sugar, 2 egg yolks, and 1 whole egg until well combined.

Set the bowl over a pot of simmering water over medium-low heat and whisk constantly until it has thickened, about 8 to 10 minutes. It should be able to coat the back of a wooden spoon.

Whisk in 5 tbsp. cold butter, cut into small pieces, a few pieces at a time until smooth.

Transfer to a clean bowl and cover with plastic wrap so a skin doesn't form on the surface, and set aside to cool.

Can be refrigerated for up to two weeks, but I doubt it will last that long! This recipe makes about 1 1/4 cups.