Raspberry White Chocolate Scones

Scones — like the best part of muffins — are crispy on the outside and around the edges, buttery and flaky on the inside and not overly sweet. And when knocked up with tangy raspberries and white chocolate chips, they’re to die for.   This recipe is easy to make and the result is sooo much better than the soggy, sad bakery items hanging out in the case at your neighborhood coffee shop.

Raspberry White Chocolate Chip Scones

2 cups flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 stick cold butter (1/4 cup)

1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries

3/4 cup white chocolate chips

3/4 cup heavy cream

1 egg

(1) Mix dry ingredients and cut in butter.  Then add berries, tossing to mix.

(2) Beat together cream and egg, then slowly add to the dry ingredients, stirring gently until dough comes together.  The key is to not over handle!

(3) Divide the dough in half and shape each into a 6-inch round on a lightly floured surface.  Cut into wedges.

(4) Bake for 20 minutes at 375 degrees.

Read Full Post »

Cookies and Cream Cake

This cake — itself a take on the Oreo cookie — is so much fun to make and utterly amazing to eat. Layers of rich, moist chocolate cake sandwich creamy vanilla filling that’s blended with crumbles of Oreo cookies. A thick and decadent dark chocolate frosting made of butter, confectioners sugar and ghirardelli cocoa podwer coats the entire cake. Kudos to fellow food blog Annie’s Eats for the recipe!

Read Full Post »

Coconut Cake with Chocolate Chunks and Coconut Drizzle

This cake was my baptism into the world of Bon Appetit magazine. And as I’m sure any of its devourers can attest, the surviving sister of Gourmet Magazine offers up some pretty sweet stuff (no pun intended). The January issue names this recipe among its “top desserts of the year,” and while I might not go that far, it is indeed wonderfully decadent and delicious. The cake is moist, fluffy and coconutty, laden with scattered, irregular fragments of Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate.  The top of the cake is an amazing minefield of toasted coconut, gooey chocolate and a creamy coconut glaze. I served it as a coffeecake for a brunch but it could easily have been a dessert course for a fancy dinner party.

Read Full Post »

“Award-Winning” Almond Florentines

The revered judges of the annual Washington bureau holiday bake-off have spoken…. and they’ve crowned these almond florentines as king in 2009!  Sources tell me it was the “ooooh” factor that tipped the scale vis a vis some of the formidable competition.  And that reaction is not all that surprising, since these are indeed surprisingly tasty (read: addictive) cookie-candies.

The florentine is not quite a “brittle” or a “bark”:  it’s a thin, carmel-sugary crisp with a hint of chewiness and a light layer of bittersweet chocolate on the outside. It’s virtually all sliced almonds held together by a honey-butter-sugar mixture that gets golden brown when baked for 10 minutes.

Almond Florentines

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup honey

1/3 cup whipping cream

4 cups sliced almonds

1 cup semisweet chocolate

6 foil pans

(1) Preheat the oven to 375. Grease the aluminum pans.

(2) Over medium heat, combine the butter, sugar, honey and cream. Cook until boiling — stirring constantly for 1 1/2 mins at boiling.

(3) Remove from heat and add almonds.  Then, divide the mixture between the 6 pans. The layer should be very, very thin.

(4) Bake at 10-14 minutes until bubbling around the edges and a rich golden brown. Watch closely so as not to burn!

(5) Cool the florentines completely in the pans, even refrigerating or freezing if needed. After 5-10 minutes, pop them out onto wax paper.

(6) Melt the chocolate over low heat and then spread a thin layer atop the florentine discs. Allow chocolate to cool and harden completely.

(7) Slice using a sharp, long knife and serve!

Read Full Post »

A Cook-Along With Friends

What do you get when you give a bunch of professional journalists sharp knives, a couple bottles of champagne, and instructions to work together to prepare a gourmet meal?  An incredibly lively — and dangerously unpredictable! — dinner party that you’ll never forget. Some of the best times among friends are spent in the kitchen, and this night proved that once again.  Check out this rockin’ menu we compiled and prepared with help from our friends at the DC-based cooking school “Company’s Coming:”

Appetizers: Portuguese Tuna and Beans; Goat Cheese Spread; Sizzling Lemon Shrimp with Garlic; Selection of Grilled Gourmet Sausages

Entree: Flat Iron Steak with Shallot Confit; Rissotto with Red Wine, Pancetta, and Parmesan; Boston Lettuce Salad with Pine Nuts

Dessert: Molten Chocolate Cake with Raspberries

Wines: Montelliana, Prosecco, ‘Montello e Colli Asolani’; 2007 La Carraia, ‘Orvieto,’ Classico; 2007 Banfi, ‘Chianti Classico’

And now the winning take-away recipe from the evening….Molten Chocolate Cake!  ( This is not, repeat not, a healthy dessert, but it’s a divine re-creation of a classic steakhouse favorite that I love to order when I’m out.)

Molten Chocolate Cake from Ed and Jinny Fleischman

1 cup butter

8 oz bittersweet chocolate

4 eggs

4 egg yolks (in addition to the 4 whole eggs!)

1/2 cup white sugar

4 teaspoons of flour

(1) Prepare ceramic ramekins or other small baking cups by buttering the inside and dusting with flour.  Repeat twice for each cup – this is key so the cake will pop out.

(2) Melt butter over low heat in saucepan. Add chocolate and stir until just melted.

(3) Beat eggs, yolks and sugar until light and thick. Stir the butter and chocolate together and add in the egg mixture. Quickly beat in the flour.

(4) Divide mixture evenly between ramekins. Either refrigerate for later baking or continue by baking.

(5) Place ramekins on a baking sheet and bake for 6-7 minutes at 450 degrees. (Note: the center will not be firm but the sides will be set.)

(6) Remove from oven and let cool for about 10 seconds before flipping out of the mold.

Read Full Post »

Stoia “Morning Glory” Bread

In the wonderful world of breakfast bread baking, rarely have I strayed so far into unfamiliar territory as the amalgamation of ingredients in this recipe.  Grated zucchini, sweet potato, carrots, banana, nuts, raisins, olive oil…. What on earth was all-star New York Front Runner Chris Stoia thinking when he first folded the entire kitchen garden into a sweet bread batter?!

The result, ladies and gentlemen, is an incredible — and healthy — treat packed with moist, hearty flavor.  Slices of the warm “morning glory” goodness are irresistible!

Chris tells me you can tweak the fruit and veggie ingredients as long as you keep the ratio to around 2 cups.  With the 3 cups of flour, feel free to swap in a cup of oats or flaxseed meal or whole wheat flour.

Stoia “Morning Glory” Bread

2 cups sugar — I used 1 cup white, 1 cup brown sugar in the raw

3 eggs

3/4 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

3 teaspoons cinnamon

2 cups grated zucchini, sweet potato, carrot, bananas, etc.

3 cups flour — I used 1 cup flaxseed meal

1 cup chopped nuts

1 cup raisins or dried fruit

(1) Cream together eggs, sugar, vanilla and oil in a large bowl.  Add grated veggies and fruits.

(2) In a separate bowl, mix together dry ingredients.  Gradually stir into the wet mixture to create a batter.

(3) Add nuts and dried fruit and combine lightly.

(4) Divide the batter between two greased, floured loaf pans.

(5) Bake at 350 for one hour, or until a knife comes out clean and top is golden brown.

Read Full Post »

Strawberry Rhubarb Pudding Cake

Strawberry and rhubarb season has come and gone, but that doesn’t mean we can’t reminisce about this Peanutbuttermilk favorite combination! This quick and easy dessert (Gourmet, April 2007) is a cross between a cobbler and a cake: The gooey, sweet and tart fruit mixture is topped with a buttery, moist vanilla cake. Scooped up warm and into your bowl, it’s perfect with a dollop of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.  Takes about 15 minutes to prep and 30 minutes to bake.

Even though the fresh rhubarb is long gone, you can usually find frozen rhubarb in your grocer’s freezer.  Strawberries are the easier ingredient to find (although a bit pricier in the off season), with most produce aisles stocking the fresh, red berries year-round. Fresh or frozen fruit, this cake is a crowd pleaser!

Read Full Post »

Iced Apple Coffee Cake

I haven’t made it out to pick apples this fall, but I did recently endeavor to do the next best thing: picking apples from among the mounds of varieties in wooden crates that line the tents just outside the Eastern Market on weekends. The apples — Gala, Jonagold, Golden Delicious, and Fuji — are trucked in directly from the orchards of West Virginia and rural Maryland.

Returning home with a bag full of the fall fruit is then the perfect reason to break out the recipe book and cook up all but a handful to be saved for lunchtime eating. This iced apple coffee cake is great for putting your fresh-peck of tart apples to good use and makes an awesome breakfast sweet to accompany your coffee or tea. It’s moist and semi-tart on the inside with a light, vanilla sugar glaze on top. Vanilla yogurt and cinnamon add a dimension of flavor.

Iced Apple Coffee Cake

For the Cake:
1 3⁄4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1⁄2 teaspoon baking powder
3 tart cooking apples peeled, cored and chopped
2 tablespoons orange juice
1⁄3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 stick unsalted butter
1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
1 1⁄2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs

For the vanilla glaze:
3/4 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

(1)Preheat an oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 9-inch round springform pan.

(2) Toss the apples with the juice. Then, in a small bowl, stir together the brown sugar, cardamom and cinnamon. Add to the apples and toss to coat. Set aside.

(3)  Combine the butter, yogurt, granulated sugar and vanilla and beat together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

(4) In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the flour mixture in 2 or 3 additions to the creamed mix. Beat well until smooth before gently folding in the apples until evenly distributed.

(5) Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly.  Bake until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, 60 to 70 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes.

(6) Meanwhile, make the glaze: In a small bowl, whisk together the confectioners sugar, the  milk and the vanilla until smooth and pourable. While the cake is warm, drizzle with the glaze. Let the cake cool to room temperature.

Read Full Post »

Oatmeal Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love a crunchy cookie with lots of “stuff” in it — nuts, chips, oats, raisins, coconut, peanut butter… Certainly not all those things at once.  But, the combination of a few of those ingredients in a single cookie always pleases the palate. These oatmeal-coconut-chocolate chippers are crispy and hearty. Delicious with a cup of hot chocolate or coffee!  This recipe makes about 3 dozen cookies:

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Coconut Cookies

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/8 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet, mini chocolate chips

1/2 cup flaked coconut

(1) Preheat oven to 350.

(2) Cream butter and sugars in a bowl until light and fluffy. Then add the egg and vanilla.

(3) Whisk dry ingredients together and then fold into the butter mixture. Add chocolate chips and coconut.

(4) Drop tablespoonfuls of dough on a cookie sheet, spacing about 2 inches apart.  Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown. Cool cookies on a baking rack.

Read Full Post »

Buttermilk Chocolate Chip Cake

Buttermilk is one of those ingredients that I usually cook with in streaks: It’s sold in quart or half gallon sizes at the grocery store but I usually end up only needing a little bit to add tang or richness to a particular dish, meaning lots leftover for something else.  After playing with buttermilk for my sticky biscuits last week, I’ve had some hanging out in the fridge — hence the inspiration for this dessert making its debut on PBMilk.

This buttermilk chocolate chip cake has an emphasis on the butter — there are two (!) sticks in this large loaf cake.  One whole stick is used to create a streusel/crumble topping with brown sugar and flour that bakes down into the cake.  The result is a a crispy, buttery shell and a rich, dense, dry pound cake.  The bittersweet chocolate chips — added when it comes out of the oven — show some love by getting all warm and gooey.

This is a yummy dessert, but something is missing to my taste.  The buttermilk flavor is too subtle and there aren’t enough chocolate chips in the batter.  In my next crack at this one — and my recommendation to those who decide to try this at home — I’ll up the chippage in the batter by at least 1/4 cup and also juice up the buttermilk factor by a 1/8 to 1/4 cup.

Read Full Post »