The Baker and The Chef

So I've been away from the blog for a little while because I've been working on a special project and I didn't want the person I was doing it for to find out the surprise.  M2's best friend in the world is Morgan and yesterday was his 3rd birthday party.

His mom planned a "Mr. Man" themed party for him.  The invitations that Abbi made had a picture of him with a graphic of a necktie around his neck.  She decorated the room with neckties and she found chocolate mustaches on a stick for everyone to hold in front of their face.  Needless to say she's very creative.  So when she asked me to make cupcakes to serve at the party I was sweating!  My shtick is really yummy goodies but not necessarily anything cute and creative.  I thought maybe I would just make a variety of cupcakes and make some sprinkles using the colors from the invitations to coordinate; boring I know, but at least they would taste good.  And then, about a week before the party, I had a stroke of genius at 4:30 in the morning... and then couldn't fall back asleep because I was planning.

There's a fabulous site called Bakerella, featuring the most amazing, creative and fun goodies.  They say imitation is the best form of flattery so my mission was to emulate some of the cupcakes she makes but re-work them a bit to fit with my own tastes and of course the "Mr. Man" theme of the party.  I remembered that Bakerella had visited The Pioneer Woman and made cupcakes that Ree gave instructions for how to decorate, so I also visited that site.

The main thing I changed is that Bakerella uses fondant, and I have a major dislike for fondant, you might even say hatred.  I instead made and used chocolate clay.  I also used my own chocolate and white cake recipes instead of the recipe they used.  I had a blast making the cupcakes, and now all I can think about are other occasions that I can make them for.  I've been calling them "Capped Cupcakes" because of the chocolate clay cap.  I hope that if Bakerella ever sees my cupcakes she's flattered and not appalled!

Making all the decorations is a major undertaking, so get a cup of coffee and a muffin and sit down for a nice long read... at least there's lots of pictures!

-The Baker

CHOCOLATE CLAY:

• 10 oz Chocolate
• 1/3 C Corn Syrup

1. in a shallow bowl, melt the chocolate in microwave (be careful so that the temperature does not exceed 100 F) for approximately 1 minute; stir. if chocolate is not completely melted, return to microwave for 10 seconds at a time and stir until smooth
2. add corn syrup to the chocolate and mix well (scrape all the corn syrup into the chocolate with a rubber spatula)
3. using a rubber spatula, stir and fold mixture, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl well, until no shiny syrup is visible and the mixture forms a thick ball
4. knead the clay until oil begins to ooze out, this is called "milking'; a lot of oil will come out, keep kneading until the clay is still oily but is starting to melt and feel very sticky in your hands
   
5. pour mixture onto parchment paper (or waxed paper); let it sit and stiffen, uncovered, for at least 2 hours then roll into a ball and wrap in plastic until ready to use
6. use at once or store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 month
7. your cutouts will harden after a few days at room temperature and can be saved by storing in a cool, dry place
8. just remember to not overwork the clay or it will begin to lose oil again and become sticky and impossible to work with

BAKERELLA'S SIMPLE BUTTERCREAM:
(taken from The Pioneer Woman's site)

• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) salted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 pound powdered sugar
• Cream or half-and-half for consistency

1. cream butter and vanilla, then add powdered sugar in increments
2. add cream or half-and-half to reach desired consistency; color with gel food coloring as desired

Notes:  Definitely check out The Pioneer Woman's site for beautiful pictures of the making of the buttercream.  I had some pretty nice pictures of me making the buttercream but they were accidentally deleted... sniff sniff...  I'm still upset.

It's really hard to improve on a classic.  Especially one as ingrained in us as the peanut butter cookie.  There's no need to reinvent the wheel.  So the other day when M2 wanted to make some cookies I managed to talk her out of our old stand-by, the chocolate chip, and convinced her to make some Peanut Butter cookies.

We use a fairly standard recipe, but I do like to add some almond extract to the dough to boost the nutty flavor.  I like to make a flourless cookie, so this recipe is a nice option if you're gluten intolerant or just choosing to limit your flour intake.  These are nice and dense and full of peanut flavor.

Be sure to bake the cookies just until set and then leave the cookies on the pan to continue baking a bit before removing them to a rack to cool all the way.  For a really decadent cookie dip in some melted milk chocolate.  Grab a big cold glass of milk and enjoy these!

-The Baker

PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES:
    yield:  48 cookies

• 2 C Peanut Butter, creamy
• 1 C Sugar, granulated
• 1/2 C Dark Brown Sugar
• 2 Eggs, whole
• 2 t Vanilla Extract
• 1 t Almond Extract
• 1 t Baking Soda
• 1/2 t Salt
• 1/2 C Milk Chocolate Chips
  

1. Cream together the peanut butter, sugar and brown sugar
2. Add the baking soda and salt
3. Add the eggs, one at a time, stirring just until completely mixed in
4. Stir in the extracts
5. Stir in the chips
6. Scoop onto parchment lined pans
7. Bake at 350 F for 10 mins
8. Let cool on pan for 5 mins then move to a rack to finish cooling

A chocolate eclair is all that's good about French pastries... whole milk, butter, chocolate.  Is there any way that could result in something not delicious?  They're breath-takingly beautiful when you see them in a bakery display case.  At most bakeries when you order one they put it into a miniature box and tie it up with twine and it just screams elegance.

Maybe you've made these at home and they were a complete flop.  To make the pate a choux (the pastry dough) you are looking for certain things, and unlike most baking recipes a pate a choux recipe can't tell you exactly how many eggs to add.  If you've tried to make these and they didn't turn out, take a look at the recipe you used.  If it didn't explain to you that the number of eggs varies depending on a variety of variables then it will be hit or miss whether the recipe works out.

Why would the number of eggs vary?  Well, the first thing you do is bring the water (or milk) to a boil.  What happens when you boil water?  Some of it evaporates.  Most likely every time you make these the amount of water left after the boil is different.  Next, you add the flour to the boiling water and then you put it back over the heat.  The cooking again is affecting how much liquid is evaporating.  When you begin mixing the dough to cool it down you can see steam evaporating.  All of these things are affecting how much actual liquid is in the dough... and an egg is mostly liquid so you're replacing some of the evaporated liquid with the liquid from the egg, which is why it varies.

So, what are you looking for?  When you're cooking the flour over the heat the dough should come together as a ball and should look like mashed potatoes.  You want the pan to have a dried crust from the liquid evaporating.  Really what you're looking for is to get the pan to the point where you know it's going to be a pain in the butt to wash because it's all crusty.  (You won't get the crusty pan if you're cooking in a non-stick pan.)  Then you want to put the dough on the mixer and mix it to cool it down.  If you started adding the eggs right away you would end up with scrambled eggs.  When the mixing bowl is cool enough that you can comfortably rest your hand on it, you can begin adding eggs.

After you've added enough eggs, the dough is ready when it has a glossy surface, and is slightly yellow.  If it's not glossy and looks like mashed potatoes then you haven't added enough eggs.  If the dough is yellow but soupy, then you've added too many eggs.  When it's just right, you should be able to run your finger through the dough making a valley; the valley you make shouldn't disappear, but the edges should just barely start to fall in on themselves.  If the valley you make stands up rigid you're not quite there.

Next you pipe the dough onto your prepared pans and put them into a hot 400 F oven for 30 minutes.  It's important that the oven be hot because this will create the steam that will cause the dough to puff.  The opening inside the puff is where you're going to put all your luxurious filling, so you want as much space as possible!

Once the puffs have poofed up, and are a beautiful golden brown don't immediately remove them from the oven.  The insides are still a bit wet, and if you take them right out your beautiful puffs will collapse on themselves.  Begin turning down the temperature of the oven by 25 degrees every five minutes until you get to 200 F.  Then take them out of the oven and let them cool.

Once cool, poke a hole in the bottom of the puff.  Fill a pastry bag with your pastry cream and poke the tip of the bag into the hole.  Fill the puff until it starts to feel heavy.  When all the puffs are filled, gently warm the icing and dip the tops.  Set aside the dipped puffs to dry and then enjoy!

You can fill the puffs with lots of other things, and they can be either savory or sweet.  For example, you could pipe out round puffs and then cut the tops off and fill with a shrimp mousse for an elegant appetizer.  Once you master the dough let your taste buds go wild!

One word about the pastry cream.  Of course, anything that you cook or bake you always want to be careful to use clean utensils and wash your hands thoroughly.  However, with pastry cream those habits are even more important.  The ingredients are highly susceptible to food borne illnesses and you must be sure to keep everything clean and cool down the cream as quickly as possible.  The fastest way to cool the cream is to put it in a wide, shallow container and then set that container into an ice bath and then periodically stir the cream to even out the temperature.  This will quickly cool it down and keep it safe to eat.

Enjoy!

-The Baker

PATE A CHOUX:
yield:  24 - 2 1/2" eclairs

• 1 C Water (or milk)
• 4 oz Butter
• 1 t Salt
• 6 oz Bread Flour
• 10 oz Eggs (approximately)
  

1. In a heavy pot, bring water, salt and butter to a rolling boil, being sure the butter is completely melted
2. Take the pot off the heat and stir in all of the flour, using a wooden spoon; return to the heat; cook until it's smooth and the pot looks clean (the mixture should not be stuck to the bottom or sides of the pot)
3. Put on a mixer and on low speed begin mixing to bring the temperature down
4. When the mixture is no longer burning hot begin adding eggs, one at a time until a glossy, but stiff paste is achieved
5. Pipe or scoop onto parchment lined pans and bake at 400 F for approximately 30 mins; after 30 mins begin lowering the oven temperature by 25 degrees every five minutes; the reason for this is to dry out the inside of the puff so it's not soggy

PASTRY CREAM:

• 14 oz Milk
• 3 oz Sugar, divided (1 1/2 oz and 1 1/2 oz)
• 1 1/2 oz Egg yolks
• 3/4 oz Cake Flour
• 1/2 oz Cornstarch
• 2 oz Milk
• 1/4 oz Butter
• Vanilla, to taste
  

1. In a heavy pot, boil milk and 1st portion sugar; stir constantly so as not to burn the sugar
2. In another bowl whisk together the 2nd portion sugar, yolks, flour, cornstarch and milk until perfectly smooth
3. Remove the boiling milk from the heat; using a small ladle pour some of the hot milk into the yolks mixture, whisking constantly; continue adding the milk until the yolk mixture is warm (this is called "tempering" and it will prevent you from scrambling the eggs by dumping them into the hot milk all at once)
4. When the yolk mixture is tempered, pour everything back into the pot and put back over the heat, whisking constantly; bring back to a boil, letting it boil for one minute in order to cook out the starch; remove from the heat
5. Stir in the butter and vanilla; dust the surface with sugar to prevent a skin from forming as it cools
6. Place in a shallow pan and set into an ice bath to quickly cool the custard

CHOCOLATE ICING:

• 2 oz Semi-Sweet Chocolate
• 2 t Butter
• 2 C Powdered Sugar
• 4 T Water, hot
  

1. Over low heat, melt together chocolate and butter; remove from heat
2. Add powdered sugar and hot water and beat until smooth
   

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER:

1. Poke a hole in the bottom of the cooled pastry shells
2. Fill a pastry bag with the pastry cream; push the tip of the pastry bag into the hole in the shell; gently squeeze the filling into the pastry shell; when the shell starts to feel heavy it's full
3. Gently warm the chocolate icing; dip the tops of the filled pastry shells into the icing; set aside to dry; refrigerate any uneaten eclairs
   

I love cheesecake.  It's so satisfying to eat a slice.  Cheesecake is definitely not something I buy.  I always make it.  For some reason store bought cheesecake is insanely expensive.  Granted, it uses fairly expensive ingredients, but this is definitely one item you could make at home that will be just as good (and in my opinion, better), and if you buy your ingredients on sale you've saved even more.  Today, for example, I was at the store picking up a gallon of milk and I saw that the cream cheese was on sale for $0.84 for an 8 ounce pack.  That's a great price!  Right on the spot I decided to make a cheesecake.

A lot of people are intimidated by the process of making cheesecake.  Because it's expensive to make and it's time consuming it's not something you want to try to make only to have it not turn out.  I really believe this is a myth perpetuated by cookbooks.  They tell you that you have to bake in a special pan (a springform); you have to bake it in a water bath (a pan of water your springform sits in to gently heat the cake as it cooks to prevent cracking); unless your pan is brand new you usually have to wrap it in foil before putting it in the water bath (to prevent water from getting in and ruining your cake, or at the very least making your crust soggy); then after the cake is baked you must slowly, little by little, reduce the temperature of your oven so that your cake slowly cools and it doesn't crack.  Many cookbooks even recommend that you leave the cheesecake in the oven overnight with the oven door propped open with a towel to allow the water bath to slowly cool, and thereby allowing the cake to also slowly cool.

Jeez!  Just reading that makes me not want to make a cheesecake.  I used to think that's what you had to do... I mean, that's what the cookbooks all say.  But then I started thinking about it.  Did I really think that bakeries and restaurants allowed their precious oven space to be taken over by cheesecake production?  No way!  Oven space is money!  There had to be a better way.

So I stopped using a springform pan and just baked in a regular cake pan.  I stopped using the waterbath.  I learned that by cooking the cake at a lower temperature I could avoid cracking.  Another major cause of cracks is over-baking the cheesecake.  It can be tricky to know when a cheesecake is finished because the center should still be jiggly.  Most of the time when you bake a cake, if the center is jiggly you keep baking, but not a cheesecake!

I, of course, have a quick and easy method to get cheesecake whenever I want it.  I just send The Chef a text message to bring me a slice home with him.  Instant gratification!  The cheesecake they serve at the restaurant is great and is based on the recipe from Carnegie Deli.  The only problem is that I can't stand the crust.  They use a sugar cookie as the crust and I just don't like it.  I actually peel it off in order to eat the cake.  I knew I could make it better so I searched out the recipe to the Carnegie Deli's cheesecake and I basically make it exactly the way they say, except I substitute a graham cracker crust.  I also swirl in some ganache or chocolate chips or a fruit sauce... whatever I'm in the mood for.

The Carnegie Deli cheesecake is very unique in that it has a very dark top.  This is achieved by baking the cheesecake for a few minutes in a 500 F oven.  When it's as brown as you'd like it to be, remove it from the oven and let it cool for a good 30 minutes while the oven also cools down to 350 F.  Then put it back in the oven and let it finish baking for another 25 minutes or so.  What you're looking for is a small circle (about the size of a quarter) in the center of the cake to still be jiggly, but the rest of the cake to be set.

At this point you're probably wondering how on earth I get it out of the pan.  Easy!  I let the cake cool completely on a rack.  This is very important because drastic changes in temperature will cause cracks.  Give it as much time as it needs.  When it's completely cool stick it in the freezer and let it freeze.  After it's frozen take it out of the freezer and put it over a VERY low heat on your stove top, constantly turning the pan.  What you're doing is just slightly loosening up the butter in the crust so that the cake will slide right out.  What you don't want to do is leave one spot over the heat too long and burn it or liquefy the cake.  Have a small knife ready and periodically slide the knife around the edge of the cake.  When it easily slides between the cake and the pan and you feel the cake release it's ready to come out.  Then just flip it out onto a plate and because it's frozen you can flip it into your hand and to turn it over and then set it down onto it's serving dish.  Then let it thaw and serve.  You can also wrap it very well in plastic and put it back in the freezer for unexpected guests or for a slice every now and then.

If the cheesecake cracks it's not the worst thing in the world.  Lots of sins can be covered by whipped cream!  You can also make a sour cream glaze to pour over the top.  The key is to give yourself enough time to do all the different steps and allow the cake to cool and freeze for as long as it needs to.  If it cracks, just keep trying, you will get it, I promise.

-The Baker

CHEESECAKE:

Prep: set out cream cheese to come to room temp; prepare crust; preheat oven to 500
Yield: 1 – 8” x 2” cake

GRAHAM CRACKER CRUST:

• 9 full graham crackers, crushed (approx 1 ¾ c)
• ¼ C Sugar
• 4 oz Butter, melted

1. crush graham crackers as finely as possible using a rolling pin or a food processor; or you can buy graham cracker crumbs in the baking aisle
2. stir it all together and press into the prepared pan; set aside
   

GANACHE:

• 1 T (½ oz; 19 g) Corn Syrup
• 2 T (1 oz; 28 g) Heavy Cream
• 4 oz Chocolate (semi-sweet)

1. put all ingredients into a small pot over very low heat
2. stir constantly until everything melts together and is glossy; set aside
   

CHEESECAKE FILLING:

• 20 oz (467 g) Cream Cheese
• ¾ C (137 g) Sugar
• 1 ½ T (17 g) AP Flour
• 1 ½ t (7 g) Lemon Juice
• 1 ½ t (7 g) Vanilla Extract
• 3 whole Eggs
• 1 Egg Yolk
• 2 T (35 g) Heavy Cream
  

1. cream the cream cheese until very smooth and creamy (scrape down bowl)
2. beat in sugar until well incorporated (scrape down bowl)
3. beat in flour, lemon, vanilla, eggs, yolk and cream (scrape down bowl making sure there are no lumps)
4. bake at 500 for 12 mins until the top is dark brown and cake has slightly started to rise
5. cool cake for 30 mins while oven temp reduces to 350
6. return to oven and bake another 25 mins (cake should be bouncy in the center and slightly risen in the middle and sides)

Notes:  Constantly scrape your bowl during the mixing to get rid of lumps.  Lumps will not bake out and you'll end up with a lumpy cheesecake.  Have your cream cheese at room temperature.  Mix at a low/medium speed for two reasons:  1) if you whip too much air into your batter you will never get the dense consistency that most cheesecakes are; and 2) overmixing the cream cheese will cause it to become grainy, which will affect your final product.

I get my sweet tooth from my mother.  She always has a stash of something hidden in a drawer.  When I was a kid I didn't know about her stash and, except for holidays, my sisters and I didn't get candy or cookies all that often.  Mostly if we wanted some cookies someone better make some.

The other thing I get from my mother is my love for reading.  At the end of the day I love to lay in bed with a book and read until I doze off.  My mother and I used to get into her huge bed and burrow ourselves under the blankets and read.  Eventually she let me in on her secret.  I was a little bit older and not as inclined to pass out within five minutes of getting into bed and she couldn't disguise the crinkling of wrappers for the pages of a book!

I loved when she had M&M's because you could take a big handful and go back to your book without having to put your book down to unwrap something.  Twizzlers were pretty good too.  But what I hated was when she had Milano Cookies.  First of all, there weren't that many in the bag so you couldn't really pig-out on them.  But, secondly, they were filled with dark chocolate... ewww!  What kid likes dark chocolate?  I'm not even sure if my mother knows that I didn't really like the cookies.  I always managed to eat a couple because it was our special time and I didn't want to ruin it, but I sure appreciated it more when she had milk chocolate!

Now that I'm "growed" up (as M2 says), I have an appreciation for dark chocolate, and Milano Cookies.  I very rarely buy them though, because my kids don't share my childhood dislike of dark chocolate and they would eat the entire bag in a few minutes, and these cookies are way too expensive for that.  They're an indulgence and should be savored.  I decided that if I could figure out how to make them we could have them any time we, well I, wanted.  And that's how this recipe came to be.

To get the right texture you really need to let the dough mix.  Follow the mixing instructions carefully, otherwise you'll end up with a dough that is very crumbly.  It will still taste good, but it won't be a Milano cookie.  Bake them until the edges have turned a nice golden brown.  Usually with lighter colored cookies (like a sugar cookie, for example) if the edges have gone brown they're slightly over-baked, but not this time.  These are such delicate cookies that they need a little baked in sturdiness.  If you don't want to fill them with ganache, as I've used, fill them with a high quality jam, nutella, or top them with a quartered maraschino cherry before baking.  Or you could always eat them plain.

-The Baker

COOKIE DOUGH:

• 8 oz Butter, softened
• 1 1/2 C AP Flour, sifted
• 1 1/2 C Powdered Sugar, sifted
• 1 t Vanilla Extract
• 1/2 t Almond Extract
  

1. Cream the softened butter by itself on high for 5 mins
2. Stir in the Vanilla and Almond extracts
3. Add the sifted Powdered Sugar; slowly bring the mixer speed up to high; cream for 10 mins
4. Add the AP flour; slowly bring the mixer speed up to high; cream for 10 mins
5. Using a pastry bag and a star tip, pipe your desired shape onto parchment lined pans
   
6. Bake at 350 F for 16 mins
7. Let cool on the pan for 5 mins; then move to a rack to finish cooling
8. When completely cool fill one cookie with ganache and sandwich shut with another cookie; let the ganache set before stacking

*Notes:  If you don't have a pastry bag you can just scoop the dough onto the pan using a spoon.

GANACHE:

• 1 oz Heavy Whipping Cream
• 5 oz Dark chocolate
  

1. Gently warm the cream and chocolate; don't get it too hot
2. Stir together the cream and chocolate until it's very shiny

I know this will sound really dumb, and I debated whether or not to even admit it, but there are some things that would never occur to me to make.  I'll see something in a bakery and buy a piece and later if I want another I either make another bakery run or I kick myself for not having bought more.  Then it dawns on me that I can make pretty much anything I want.

I love those apple squares you get at the bakery.  It's a pastry crust loaded with apples and a nice sweet glaze.  Nothing fancy, but that's what makes it so good.  You don't always need fancy.

A couple of days ago The Chef came home with a bunch of apples and asked me to make some baked apples.  I wasn't very inspired by that and pretty much just let the apples sit while I tried to get motivated to bake them.  After a couple of days I came to terms with the fact I was never going to bake them.  So, what could I do with them?  Finally it came to me... I could make the Apple Squares I love so much!

It's been so long since I had one that I couldn't really remember what exactly went into it so I got on the Internet to start researching.  Good thing I did because the pastry crust is a pretty unique one.  I would have just made a traditional sweet pastry crust, but it would've been off the mark and I probably wouldn't have been able to figure out why.  The crust is in fact a yeast raised dough.  Once I tasted it I was thrilled because it was dead on!

Like so many baked goods there are a million recipes floating around, but the one that seemed to keep coming up was from the King Arthur Flour catalogue.  I read over several different blogs that all referenced that particular recipe, so I decided not to reinvent the wheel and used that one, with just a few minor changes.  I assumed I would make it once and see where it was wrong and then correct it and make it again.  Not so... it was spot on!  It really tasted just like the squares I've gotten at the bakery, but as an added bonus, not only did I get to eat a tasty pastry, but my house smelled wonderful!

The key to making this successfully is to be really organized.  There are a lot of steps and you need to prepare the different components.  Once you've got all your components ready it's a snap to put it together.  Making the whole thing start to finish took me about two hours of pretty consistent work, so you do need a chunk of time to get it finished.

I used eight medium sized Granny Smith apples, but you could easily increase the quantity of apples if you want the square to be really loaded.  Other good additions would be some raisins, craisins or dried cherries.  You could probably cheat and save yourself some time by using prepared apple pie filling, but keep in mind that those apples tend to be a little mushier and one of the things that makes the Apple Squares so good is that the apples stay fairly crisp.  I've never tried with the canned apples, so I can't give them a thumbs up or thumbs down.

-The Baker

GLAZED APPLE SQUARES
yield: 18" x 13" pan


Pastry:

• 1/2 C Milk, warm
• 2 Eggs
• 2 t Yeast, instant
• 4 C All-purpose Flour
• 1 t Salt
• 8 oz Butter, cold, cut into pieces

1. In a small bowl, beat the eggs and milk together, and set aside
2. In a large bowl, combine the yeast, flour, and salt
3. Cut in the butter with a mixer (or you could use a pastry blender or two knives) until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs
4. Add the egg/milk mixture, stirring until a soft dough forms
5. Divide the dough in half, form into thin rectangles, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for about 30 minutes

Apple Filling:

• 3/4 C Sugar, granulated
• 1/2 C All-purpose flour
• 1/4 t Salt
• 2 t Cinnamon, ground
• 10 C (about 3 lbs before peeling) Tart cooking apples; peeled, cored & very thinly sliced

1. In a small bowl, combine together the sugar, flour, salt, and cinnamon; set aside

Glaze:

• 3 C Powdered sugar
• 6 T Milk
• 2 t Vanilla Extract

1. In a bowl, combine the sugar, milk, and vanilla until smooth; set aside

Putting it all together:

1. Lightly grease a 13 x 18-inch baking pan
2. Cut a piece of parchment paper the size of the 1/2 sheet pan; remove one portion of the refrigerated dough and roll it over the parchment paper into a rectangle (the dough will be fairly thin); transfer the dough to the prepared baking pan by flipping it over into the pan and gently peeling the parchment off, then smoothing the dough where it needs it and working the dough up the sides of the pan
3. Spread the apples over the dough being sure they are level and not domed, then sprinkle with the sugar mixture
4. Roll out the remaining dough and place it over the top of the apples; pinch the edges together; cut steam vents in the top
5. Gently brush the top with melted butter and cover with plastic wrap lightly, and let rise in a cool place for about 1 hour
6. Towards the end of the rise, preheat the oven to 350 F
7. Bake the pastry for approximately 25 to 30 minutes, until it’s golden brown; remove from the oven and cool on a rack for 20 minutes
8. Drizzle glaze over the cooled bars; let cool completely; cut into squares
   

Chocolate Chip cookies may not be the most exciting cookie out there, but at our house when I say I'm going to make cookies, that's what is expected to come out of the oven.  If I make something else it's usually greeted with, "you didn't make chocolate chip cookies?"  Plus, I personally, have an affinity for chocolate chip cookies.  I survived my entire high school career by eating two chocolate chip cookies and a pint of chocolate milk every day from the cafeteria.  (How was I so skinny then, and not so much anymore???)  They were always fresh out of the oven and still mostly raw.  They were served on a couple of napkins and by the time I finished the napkins were soaked with grease... mmmm...  The cookies were so good that my older sister and her best friend snuck back into our old school several years after they graduated to go to the cafeteria to buy some!

Needless to say, I've had a lot of experience making chocolate chip cookies.  As a kid, during the holidays, we always made a variety of cookies to be given as gifts and I was always in charge of making the chocolate chips.  Sometimes they would turn out fantastic and other times they were so-so and I never knew why.  Many years (and many batches) later, I've learned some important points about cookie making.

The number one thing I've learned is the importance of creaming.  That's the single most important thing you can do to ensure you end up with good cookies.  If you don't thoroughly cream your butter you won't introduce the tiny air bubbles that are essential for the structure of your cookie.

Start with your ingredients at room temperature.  If you decide at the last minute to make cookies and all of your butter is in the fridge just pop it in the microwave for a few seconds until it softens up, but isn't melted.  Then put your butter in the mixer and let it start mixing, which is introducing air into the butter.  Then add your sugars.  Let the butter and sugars cream at high speed until they've become a lighter color and it looks to be about double in volume.  WALK AWAY IF YOU HAVE TO!  Seriously, it's that important.

The next very important step to keep in mind is to add all of your dry ingredients ALL AT THE SAME TIME.  Don't add a little of the flour, then mix, then add a little more, then mix... by doing this you're developing the gluten (a protein in the flour).  If you develop the gluten too much you will have very heavy bread-like cookies and not the tender cookie you're looking for.  Very slightly under-mix the flour and then add your chips and nuts (if you're using any).  The reason for this is that you'll continue to develop gluten when you mix in your chips, but if you under-mix the flour, by the time the chips are mixed in the dough will be perfectly mixed.

Then scoop and bake!  I use a small scooper to keep the cookies all the same size and that way they all bake in the same amount of time.  If you don't have a scooper just use two spoons.  If you don't want all the cookies you can scoop them into little balls, line them up on a cookie pan (they don't need any space between them), wrap them really well and freeze them.  Then you can just pop a few out at a time and bake them fresh for a nice little treat.  You can also roll the cookies into a log, wrap in plastic and freeze.  Then slice off a few or the whole tube when you're ready to bake.  (Neither of those methods have ever been used at our house.)

-The Baker

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
yield: approximately 6 dozen 2" cookies

• 1 C Butter
• ½ C Sugar
• 1 ½ C Dark Brown Sugar
• 2 ea Eggs
• 2 ½ C AP Flour
• ¾ t Salt
• 1 t Baking Powder
• 1 t Baking Soda
• 2 t Vanilla Extract
• 2 C Chocolate Chips (I use a mix of semi-sweet and milk chocolate)

1. Cream softened butter; add sugars until light and fluffy.
2. Add room temperature eggs, one at a time; just until incorporated.
3. Sift together all dry ingredients; add to mixer on low; mix just until incorporated.
4. Stir in chocolate chips.
5. Scoop onto sheet pans and bake at 350 F for 12 minutes.
   

The Chef was home yesterday and we decided to tackle cleaning out the refrigerator.  (Cue scary music.)  We found all sorts of things that we'd forgotten about.  Lots of expired salad dressing and moldy slop that was once food.  Yuck.  When we got to the freezer I found the blueberries that my friend Abbi had given me a while back that I stuck in the freezer and forgot all about.  Now that it truly is fall the produce isn't as tasty as it was just a few weeks ago and my mouth watered thinking about what I could do with them.

An obvious choice would be blueberry muffins, but Abbi and I (with the kids) did that already.  How about a bundt cake so I can use that bundt pan I insisted on buying but have never used?  I reached into the cobwebs of my mind for a recipe from a bakery I used to work at and stirred it all together and popped it into the oven.

This is such a versatile recipe, you could make muffins, mini-muffins, muffin tops or loaves out of it.  You also could use other fruit or even cinnamon chips.  (Unfortunately cinnamon chips aren't carried in many stores, although they used to be, but you can still find them at King Arthur's Flour, www.kingarthurflour.com, and several other online places.)

Fresh out of the oven the cake looked delicious, but I decided to add a lemon glaze since I'd also rescued a lemon in the "Great Refrigerator Clean-Up of 2009".  Blueberry and lemon is a match made in Heaven as far as I'm concerned!  If you use a different fruit that doesn't go with lemon, or a chip, just leave the cake plain or use an appropriate Streusel.  A nice neutral Streusel is:  2/3 C brown sugar, 1/4 C All-purpose flour, 1/4 t cinnamon, 2 T butter.  Mix with a fork until it has nice coarse texture.

This is a great dessert or a really decadent breakfast.  There's enough that you could have it for both, which is what we did!

-The Baker

It's easy to make a good brownie.  All it takes is some expensive, high quality chocolate.  More and more grocery stores are carrying quality chocolate, but if yours doesn't, just run over to your specialty food shop.  What?  You don't have one near you?  Well, with the internet the world is getting smaller every day.  So, hop online and order some chocolate to be shipped overnight to you.  Oh, but hopefully you're not in the midst of a brownie crave during the hot summer months, because a lot of companies won't ship chocolate to you for fear of it melting during transport.  Once you've tracked down your chocolate all you have to do is put your craving on hold until it arrives and then you can whip up a batch of brownies and pop them in the oven.  Almost instant gratification!  Yeah, not quite.  When I want instant gratification, I want it NOW, not tomorrow or the day after, or even worse at the end of the summer.

That just wasn't good enough for me.  I want to be able to make a killer brownie at the drop of a hat without needing to hunt down chocolate or keep expensive chocolate on hand, which let's face it, I'd just end up eating between brownie cravings.  So I began a quest to find a brownie recipe that would make luscious brownies out of regular ingredients most of us just have on hand.

How does a brownie recipe quest work, you ask?  Well, I'd find a promising recipe and make it and it would fall flat.  It would too dry, too cakey, too bland, too blah.  Believe me, I made a lot of bad brownies.  You know when people say things like, "well, even a bad xyz is still a good xyz", not true when it comes to brownies.  Look, I told you, I'm up front with myself when it comes to eating baked goods... they're loaded with fat and calories and I know I shouldn't eat them as much as I do, so when I do eat them I want them to be GREAT.  To die for, even.  So I kept trying.  Then I talked to my friend Wendy and told her of the "Brownie Quest" and she asked if I wanted to try her recipe.  So she sent it over to me.  And I made it.  And they were good, but not "fight to death over the last one" good.  So I started tweaking.  I put my culinary degree to work and really broke down the recipe and analyzed why each ingredient was there.  After several more attempts and several more changes I had completely re-worked the recipe and they're fabulous!

BROWNIES

yield 1 - 1/2 sheet pan(approximately 18" x 13")

• 6 oz (171 g) Butter, melted
• 1 ½ C (235 g) Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
• ½ C (50 g) Cocoa
• 1 C (216 g) Sugar
• 1 C (216 g) Brown Sugar
• 5 ea (250 g) Eggs
• ¼ t (1 g) Baking Soda
• 1 t (7 g) Salt
• 1 C (161 g) AP Flour
• ½ C (76 g) Milk Chocolate Chips
• (75 g) Miniature marshmallows

1. melt butter, 1st portion chocolate chips and cocoa (can be done in microwave)
2. whisk in sugar and eggs
3. stir in dry ingredients
4. stir in 2nd portion chocolate chips
5. pour in prepared pan
6. top with miniature marshmallows and push under batter
7. bake at 350 30 mins for ½ sheet

Chocolate Fudge Frosting:

• 1 C (180 g) Sugar
• 1/3 C (70 g) Milk
• 5 T (72 g) Butter
• 1 C (152 g)
• Milk Chocolate Chips

1. Scale sugar, milk and butter into a pot; bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
2. Remove from heat; add chocolate chips, stir until melted and incorporated.
3. Whip in mixer until creamy and cool.
4. Frost warm brownies or cover with plastic and put in cooler. When ready to use, warm in microwave for 15 seconds, stir and then frost.

-The Baker

It’s fall in Chicago and that means it’s time to start figuring out what to do with all the apples.  One of my favorite things is a delicious apple crostada.  It’s basically an individual apple pie with a pastry crust instead of a traditional pie crust.  Served warm with some homemade caramel sauce and vanilla bean ice cream and you’ve got a little spot of cozy heaven.

APPLE CROSTADAS

sweet dough (yield 2 1/2 lbs of dough):

• 1 lb (454 g) Butter, cold
• 1 lb 2 oz (511 g) AP Flour
• 4 oz (115 g) Sugar, granulated
• 1 3/4 t (12 g) Salt, iodized
• 3 oz (92 g) Water, ice cold
  

1. cut butter into 1” cubes
2. place 1/2 of the flour, sugar and salt in food processor and pulse to mix
3. add 1/2 the butter and pulse 10 times, until blended and the butter is pea sized (the flour and butter should not be completely mixed)
4. repeat steps 2 & 3 with the remaining ingredients
5. transfer to a mixer with a paddle, pour in water (strain out the ice cubes), while mixing on low (speed 1) just until incorporated for approximately 20 0 30 seconds; do not let it become a solid mass
6. roll dough into logs; wrap in plastic; chill overnight

Apple Filling (yield 1 lb 8 oz filling; enough to fill 2 1/2 lbs dough):

• 1 lb 4 oz Granny Smith apples, peeled and sliced
• 1 C Raisins, optional
• 2 1/2 oz Sugar, granulated
• 2 oz Butter, whole
• 2 T Cinnamon, ground
• 1/4 t Nutmeg, ground
• 1 T Cornstarch
• 1 T Water
  

1. in saute pan, melt butter, stir in sugar and cook until light brown
2. add apples and raisins (if using), increase heat, and cook until apples are slightly soft (approximately 5 - 7 minutes)
3. add spices, mix well and cook for an additional 5 minutes
4. mix cornstarch with water in a small mixing bowl and add to apple mixture and continue cooking for another 2 - 3 minutes, or until thickened, (don’t overcook)
5. remove from heat, spread evenly over parchment lined sheet pans and allow to cool

Notes:
6 small apples yields approximately 1 lb 4 oz of peeled and cored apples
1 lb 4 oz peeled, sliced and cored apples = approximately 5 cups (volume)

Putting it all together (this will yield 24 crostadas):

Assembly instructions:

1. roll 1 portion of dough into 3 1/2” round disk (a portion of dough is 2 oz; or just divide the logs into 24 equal pieces)
2. using 1/4 cup measuring cup, fill dough circle with 1 portion of filling (mounded)
3. form an open beggar’s purse using 8 folds and creating a 1” opening
4. transfer to a parchment lined sheet pan; cover with plastic; and freeze (the crostadas hold their shape better when baked from solidly frozen)

Baking instructions:

1. brush the entire crust of the crostada with warmed heavy cream; then coat the crust with either granulated sugar or crystallized sugar (just sugar the crust, not the opening)
2. bake in a 375 F oven for 50 minutes

-The Baker