Best(& easiest) chocolate pudding ever

First, the news. Personal news. My family is moving cross-country to upstate New York. Very exciting. Very crazy. It also means time to cook -- whether from scratch or not -- is getting less, and less, and less, and less. I am still doing it though, but I am not sure how often I am going to post here. I already have a backlog of recipes, but my moving-related to-do list is also growing by the mile every second. My insanity-cum-stress level is shooting through the roofs and I am stopping every other second to pick up my eyeballs from the floor and popping them back into their sockets.

Whatever it is, I will come back here. If I am true to my word about posting recipes we have liked here, and if my bad habit of having to try yet another new recipe never dies, I could be posting until the cows come home. You just wait.

Does it look like the butterfly wants chocolate pudding too?

Second, more news, and exciting too: easy to make dessert that your kid(s) will love to help, can easily help, and they don't even have to wait to eat it (if you choose to eat it warm). This is totally delicious to me, and every time I think of this chocolate pudding recipe I rub my hands with glee for all its goodness. This recipe came from the no longer existing Organic Style magazine, and they called it "The Best Chocolate Pudding Ever" and I whole-heartedly agree with all my chocolate mustache. They also say if you want it less intense and more kid-friendly, to reduce the chocolate from 4 ounces to three instead. Well, that I respectfully disagree. I make it with four ounces of chocolate (maybe even a tiny bit more, to compensate for all that brown stuff that gets left behind on hard-to-reach places like the whisk and the pot) and have never received complaints. But of course, it is up to you to decide how much chocolate will be too intense for you and your family. Proceed with responsibility.

Best-ever Chocolate Pudding

The Best Chocolate Pudding Ever

Recipe from Organic Style magazine (Feb 2005)

Serves 4

• 2 cups whole milk
• 1/4 cup packed dark-brown sugar
• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 3 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa
•  3 Tbsp cornstarch
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 4 ounces fine-quality semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup lightly sweetened whipped cream (optional, but highly recommended)

1. Combine 1/2 cup milk with sugars, cocoa, cornstarch, and salt in a 1-pint jar. Screw lid on tightly and shake vigorously until blended (a few lumps are OK, and this is something kids will love to help with).
2. Heat remaining 1 1/2 cups milk in a medium heavy saucepan over medium heat. When small bubbles appear on side of pan (kids love the assignment of watching out for bubbles!), pour cocoa mixture into saucepan and whisk to combine. Cook, whisking, until pudding thickens, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk in chopped chocolate and  vanilla extract.
3. Spoon pudding into 4 heatproof cups. Serve hot, warm or chilled with whipped cream, if desired. (I just pour into a large glass bowl, cover and chill. And portion out accordingly into small bowls.)

Got chocolate pudding?

 

The Triple-C Cookie

Actually, since "chocolate chips" is technically two words, this cookie recipe should be called the quadruple-C cookie. It is: Coconut Cranberry Chocolate Chip Cookie. It is an alliteration cookie. It contains lots of good stuff, it tastes heavenly and it is addictive. And, it is a straight-forward, easy recipe. I love it!

This is bite-sized heaven.

I adapted this from a Martha Stewart recipe (originally named "Coconut-Cranberry Cookies" and appeared in the December 2003 issue, I was not able to find it online). When I saw that the recipe required grated orange zest, I knew it would not fly with me. For some reason, I do not mind zesting lemons, but I just do not like zesting oranges. It also called for sweetened shredded coconut, which I did not have on hand and did not wish to buy. So I made a few changes, including reducing the amount of sugar, using orange-flavored cranberries (from Trader Joe's), and adding orange extract, coconut extract and chocolate chips. However, I think this recipe will still be plenty wonderful with regular dried cranberries and sans orange extract. It should still bring you to your knees and have your friends and family begging for more.

Don't ask me why but I just felt like taking a picture of the cookie dough. I thought the dotted jewels of red amongst the pale dough was rather alluring.

Oh, and I forgot one more thing: I made the balls smaller, simply because I like bite-sized indulgences. (And it's easier to pop an entire one into your mouth whilst alone in the kitchen, with no one realizing what you have done, ha!) This cookie leans towards the "crunchy" category. Very crispy, but the center has a tad of chew provided by the coconut and cranberries. It's quite a perfect balance, I have to say.

 

Coconut Cranberry Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe

Makes about 60 cookies

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups sugar (I would even reduce it to one cup next time, the chocolate chips added plenty of sweet to this recipe)
•  2 tsps vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp orange extract (optional)
• 1/4 tsp coconut extract 
• 1 1/2 cups dried orange-flavored cranberries (or use plain ones if you prefer) 
• 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 cups shredded coconut

1.  Preheat oven to 350F. Line two baking  sheets with parchment paper and set aside. 
2. In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in the extracts. Add flour mixture, beat on medium-low until mixture comes together. Beat in cranberries, shredded coconut and chocolate chips.
4. Form dough into 1-inch balls and place them 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges begin to brown, about 15 to 17 minutes total.
5. Let cool on baking sheets 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Ugly but Good Chocolate Cookies

This is possibly the ugliest cookie I've ever made. They looked like cow poop with mold growing on it.

I am not trying to be rude here, just being honest with the first dismal thoughts that entered my head when I took the cookies out of the oven. Nevertheless, we let them cool, and tasted them and they were good. Chewy and fudgy, and the texture did not betray the presence of flaxseed meal. They are truly like bites of brownies. This is another cookie that I baked for my friend K. It is again from Elizabeth Gordon's "Allergy-free Desserts" and in her book she named them "Chocolate Crinkle Cookies." But as those of you on Facebook already know, these cookies did not look one bit like those shown in the photo in her book: even-sized, rather flat and perfectly round, with cracks on them that look like how a dry cracking ground does, during a drought.

Maybe it's because I did not use palm fruit oil shortening as Gordon did. That was her replacement of choice for butter, but K is thankfully not allergic to dairy, and since I do not have any palm fruit oil shortening and am terribly in favor of butter, I used glorious yellow butter. Another thing I did different was to reduce the sugar a tad. I did not pack the light brown sugar and took out about 3 tablespoons of the granulated sugar. (I still find this cookie a touch too sweet for my taste, but I tend to not like my baked goods too sweet.) I found that the dough did not form into balls as easily as I thought they would, so I used fingers dusted with powdered sugar to form them into balls, then coat them with the powdered sugar, shaking off excess before placing them on the cookie sheet.

The truth is, with familiarity (having looked at the cookies more than 24 hours now) and with repeated tasting, I have come to accept this cookie. I fondly call it "The Dark Horse," but here I shall call them "Ugly but Good Chocolate cookies." They are a great gluten-free, egg-free choice and I am glad they turned out delicious. I can imagine how hard it is to be on a restricted diet, and having something good and somewhat familiar to put into one's hungry belly is a blessing. It makes me grateful that we can eat almost anything in our household.

So my friend M wisely told me to post a picture of the ugly cookie, as it would be a great life lesson to learn not to judge by looks. How true! I remember once I made a salad dressing with minced tomatoes and when I first poured it onto the salad leaves it looked like vomit to me. Maybe I have visual issues. But in any case, I am sure this example is not isolated, I am sure others have looked upon visually replusive food, and then tasted it to realize the virtue of its good taste. What is good for you may not look good either (example: kefir grains. But I won't tell you how I describe them, for otherwise this post will be composed of too many off-putting descriptions!).

To play off the ugliness of the cookie, I chose a dainty plate with one of my favorites flowers -- the peony. I actually had fun photographing it. I hope this recipe gives some food for thought, and may come useful one day for someone yearning for some chocolate goodness with no allergens in it. Below is the original recipe, with my modifications in parenthesis.

"Beauty and the Beast"

Gordon's Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
(hereby affectionately known as Ugly but Good GF, egg-free chocolate cookies)
original recipe by Elizabeth Gordon, "Allergy-free desserts"
  Ingredients:

• 6 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed meal
• 1½ cups Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free All-Purpose Baking Flour
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1 cup organic palm fruit oil shortening (I used one cup butter, at room temperature)
• ¾ cup packed dark brown sugar (I did not pack it in)
• ¾ cup granulated sugar (used a bit less, probably 3 tablespoons less)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ cup confectioners sugar, sifted

  Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a small bowl, combine the water and flaxseed meal and allow to thicken for 3 to 5 minutes. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and xanthan gum.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the shortening (butter), brown sugar, and granulated sugar. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add in the vanilla and the flaxseed meal mixture, and beat until it is fluffy and the flaxseed is thoroughly mixed in. Add in the flour mixture and mix the batter until thoroughly combined.
4. Drop rounded tablespoonfuls of the dough into the confectioners sugar, rolling the cookies around to form balls. (If this does not work, dust fingers with powdered sugar, lightly form dough into balls and then roll in sugar.) 
5. Place the balls 2 inches apart, to allow for spreading, on the prepared baking sheets. 
6. Bake for 14 minutes or until the tops of the cookies no longer look wet (I baked both sheets at the same time, rotating about halfway through.)
7.  Transfer the baking sheets from the oven to cooling racks and cool for 10 minutes, then transfer the cookies directly onto the racks to cool completely. 
8. Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

 

Quest: the perfect brownies

Actually, I've never tasted brownies until after we moved to the United States. And then I learned new things, and new words: cabinet, not cupboard. Cookies, not biscuits. Biscuits, not scones. Band-aid, not plaster. And so on. And I was introduced to brownies, the food. Dessert, they call it. Yum. I liked it, very much.

When my firstborn was a little over a year old, we made a road trip to Santa Barbara to visit my professor from grad school. There, I tasted the perfect brownie, at a cafe that I can no longer recall the name of. It is odd, as we visited the cafe a couple times more during our trip (on top of that tacos place so loved by Julia Child), just to savor the brownie again. I know that after the trip I also talked about that brownie with a fellow mom online and she looked up a book she had containing recipes of famous dishes from Santa Barbara restaurants, but that brownie recipe was not in there. I even wrote the chef at the cafe, and she wrote me back a few months after, thanking me for my compliments but politely declining my request for their brownie recipe. She did promise that she would send me a copy of the recipe should they decide to go public with it.

So I am waiting. For those dreamy, perfect brownies. A thin crust, just enough for you to experience the crispiness from being perfectly baked. Then a chewy, delicious chocolate layer beneath, with just the right touch of sweetness, held in balance by a slight hint of bitter chocolate. Those brownies were enjoyed with a wonderful cup of coffee, sitting out on a sunny and crowded patio.

I cannot keep count how many brownie recipes I have made since, in those nine long years. Some were good, some mediocre, some failed. None were exactly like those Santa Barbara ones. Almost everyone, it seems, claims to have a perfect brownie recipe. I am just not finding it yet, but I am beginning to suspect that it is in my memory that its championship place had never been swayed. And that perhaps my tastebuds are just biased.

Recently, I made two different recipes of brownies. One was adapted from Carole Walter's "best brownies" recipe, which my family thoroughly enjoyed. In fact, R felt those were the best and that I should stop hunting for more brownie recipes. The other is a gluten-free, egg-free version that I tried for my friend K. It uses flaxseed meal to replace the eggs, and I am not particularly thrilled with the results. The brownies had a good flavor, but a bit on the dry side, and kind of crumbly. K reported that they paired perfectly with vanilla ice-cream. She thought too the flavor was good, but the texture was not the chewiness that she enjoys in brownies. I am posting the recipe below in case anyone wants to try, or improve upon it, or make it using another egg replacement. Please report back if you do!

(And also, I am trying to do better with my photos. It's a challenge, because I am rather impatient with the technical aspects of excellent photography, and also I feel the real test is in the eating, and I just want to get to the eating part quick quick quick! If you have useful tips for taking droolicious photos of food, I would love to hear!)

I like to cut them bite size so I can keep popping them into my mouth!

 Almost-perfect brownies
Adapted from Carole Walter's recipe

• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 5 oz bitterwseet (or dark) chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 cups powdered sugar (sifted)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup plus 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans, toasted
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions: 

1. Position rack in middle of oven and heat to 350F. Butter a 13" by 9" baking pan.
2. Melt butter over low heat in a medium saucepan. When butter is almost melted, add the chopped chocolate. Remove from heat after one minute and let stand until chocolate is completely melted, stir occasionally.
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs lightly, then stir in sugar in a steady stream. Add the warm chocolate mixture, and stir lightly with whisk to blend. Mix in vanilla extract and salt.
4. Sift the flour over the chocolate mixture in three additions, folding the flour gently in each time with the whisk. Whisk till flour is just incorporated. Fold in the nuts and the chocolate chips with a spatula.
5. Immediately transfer batter to the baking pan, spreading evenly and smoothly the top with the back of a large spoon. Bake for 28 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out slightly moist, a few crumbs attached. DO NOT OVERBAKE.
6. Cool brownies in pan on a wire rack for at least 4 hours before cutting. (Get out of the house if you cannot resist temptation! -- I did.)
7. Store brownies in an air-tight container, up to 5 days. They can be frozen.

Gluten-free, egg-free brownie

Gluten-free Egg-free Fudgy Brownies
Recipe taken from Elizabeth Gordon's "Allergy-free Desserts"

• 3 tablespoons plus ½ cup freshly brewed espresso, cooled
• 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed meal
• 1¾ cups Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free All-Purpose Baking Flour
• 1 cup granulated sugar (I did find this recipe a tad sweet, you may want to reduce the sugar a tiny bit)
• ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2½ teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon xanthan gum
• ½ cup canola oil (I used melted coconut oil)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ cup gluten-, soy-, dairy-, egg-, and nut-free semisweet chocolate chips (I added a handful more, it didn't seem enough! :-) )

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F and lightly grease a 9-inch round cake pan with oil.
2. In a small bowl, combine 3 tablespoons of the espresso and the flaxseed meal and allow to thicken for 3 to 5 minutes.
3. In another small bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and xanthan gum. Pour in the cconut oil, vanilla, and the remaining ½ cup of espresso. Stir with a wooden spoon until thoroughly combined and smooth. Fold in the chocolate chips.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 40 minutes, or until the brownies are firm and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the brownies cool completely in the pan on a rack before cutting them into triangles.
5. Store the brownies, tightly wrapped and refrigerated, for up to 5 days.

The batter before being sent into the oven, yum!

Two ways to pecan

So I was burrowing through the fridge, weeding out unintentional “science experiments” and gathering up candidates for the big “leftovers medley” when I chanced upon an unopened bag of pecans. I must have bought it thinking I would use it, but didn’t. What to do now? ---

I went burrowing through my pile of to-be-organized recipes, and came up with: “rustic maple pecan cookies” by Carole Walter, a gluten-free “Pecan Sandies” recipe from "Incredible Edible Gluten-Free Food for Kids" and a Brussels sprouts recipe that included buttered pecans (yum!). I have made the first two recipes but not the last, as the Brussels sprouts season may be over (they can be harvested through June in some places though, so I am going to keep my eyes open!).

The Carole Walter recipe can be found here. I did not make any changes, but I did not have imitation maple extract and did not want to get any, so I increased the vanilla extract to 11/2 teaspoon, and added another ½ tsp of the Fiori de Sicilia extract from King Arthur Flour. Note that if you bake these cookies with your windows thrown open you will soon have neighbors knocking your door down! They smell divine, and taste delicious! Another thing I will change when I make it next time is to toast the pecans before hand, to enhance the flavor of the cookie.

I was happy to discover the Pecan Sandies recipe. I have friends who need to eat gluten-free and most times when I have them over I reach for the Pamela Product’s Chocolate Chip Cookie mix. They are very good indeed and I always stock up on them so we eat them not infrequently ourselves. Still, it is nice to be able to make something different from time to time. I had my friend K in mind when I made these cookies, which from the sound of the recipe, resemble Pecan Crescent cookies. Well, these turned out much better than I had expected! The ingredients are simple and the process pretty straight-forward too. The dough does seem to be rather wet and sticky, so I had to re-flour my hands with rice flour every time after I finish shaping one cookie. The recipe called for the cookies to be shaped into elongated balls but I decided to make them crescent shaped instead. The cookies spread out quite a bit during baking and became flatter. They are also rather fragile, so when I picked them up and tossed them in powder sugar, bits and pieces kept breaking off, so I kept eating them- yeah, they were scrumptious! For the second batch of cookies, I decided to leave the cookies on the baking sheet and dust them over with powdered sugar instead, and then left them to cool completely on the cookie sheet. That worked better!

I did feel the cookies were a bit grainy, though I guess that is why they are called “sandies”! No one else complained about the texture though! I gave K a tin of the cookies and she thought they were simply delicious. My picky husband also thought them good and the texture was fine by him. The girls wished there were more of the cookies. One said to the other, “Mmmmmmm, these were made in heaven!” and the other replied, “Mom made them in heaven!” I hope you will enjoy this recipe as well!

 Gluten-free egg-free Pecan Sandies

adapted from "Incredible Edible Gluten-Free Food for Kids"

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 Tablespoon water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup rice flour
• 2/3 cup potato starch flour
• 1/3 cup tapioca flour
• 1 cup chopped pecans (I recommend toasting them first)
• 1 cup sifted powdered sugar 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 F. Place rack in middle of oven.
2. Beat butter until soft, then gradually add the sugar, beating until light and creamy. Blend in the water and vanilla.
3. In another bowl combine the flours with the chopped pecans.
4. Add flour mixture gradually to the creamed mixture. Mix well between additions.
5. With lightly rice-floured hands, shape one-inch size balls of dough into crescent shapes, flattening a little. Place them at least one-inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet.
6. Bake cookies in oven for 25-30 minutes, until very light brown. Let cookies sit for 10 minutes on cookie sheet, then sift powdered sugar over the cookies.
7. Let cookies cool completely on cookie sheet before carefully removing with spatula. 

Make about 40 cookies.

 

And before I sign off, can I tell you about the series of unfortunate events that occurred in my kitchen last Friday? First, my toddler decided she wanted to help with baking, and before I could say “one”, she had pushed her chair to the counter-top, grabbed one of the eggs (set out to warm to room temperature) and smacked it flat on the counter-top. The lemon pound cake I made nearly burned when I had to run out to help my husband, and when I opened the oven, I discovered some of the batter had managed to seep out of the bundt pan and cooked itself on the oven floor. While preparing to make dinner, I opened the freezer to have a chunk of frozen lamb fall to hit a glass bowl of egg whites (fridge door was open as well and the glass bowl was close to the front) and shatter the bowl. There goes more macaroons, and another glass bowl! Dinner was late, with many interruptions from my toddler and during dinner, after three big gulps of red wine I announced that the kitchen gods wanted me to stop cooking, so I will not even boil water the following day! And with the trend of things, perhaps if I tried to toast a bagel I will manage to set our entire street on fire. And indeed I did not cook at all on Saturday! That was a bit long, but I thought some of you may commiserate! Share your kitchen disasters, if you will!