People love to give me things that they have bought and have no idea what to do with. I almost always never have to buy saffron because someone almost always seems to buy it, not know what to do with it, and then gives it to me. So my friend bought some Mexican chocolate and she wasn’t sure what to do with it, and well, neither was I. Ibarra Chocolate is primarily made for making hot chocolate I found out but that seemed a little too boring for me. It has a weird texture, almost like a Crunch bar and has a super strong cinnamon taste to it. I decided to experiment and try to come up with something to compliment it. I chose to make a quick bread/coffeecake type concoction. I also half way through decided that I should take one third of the batter and add 1/3 cup of pumpkin to it and drop the pumpkin randomly throughout. Oddly enough, most of the pumpkin coloring faded away in the cooking process. I think next time I will make it with an all pumpkin batter.

On a side note, many of my friends made comments on how happy there were to read my last post with the suggestion on what to do if your cheesecake cracked and so I plan on trying to come up with something for each recipe from now on that could go wrong and how you could possible fix it. I’m sure there will be many repeat ideas and somethings will simply be un-fixable, but I will do my best to come up with solutions to your food problems.

As it would have it I made two loaves, one large, one small. The large one turned out beautifully but the smaller one after a night of sitting out sank in the middle. This got me to thinking what would I do. I would slice it into pieces and let it sit out and get a little stale. Then I would make a bread pudding egg mixture and dunk the bread into that. Bake them off and top them with a nice chocolate sauce that was maybe spiked with cinnamon schnapps and some whipped cream with some pumpkin spice in it.

Cinnamon Chocolate Pumpkin Whatever Bread

4 oz semisweet chocolate

4oz Ibarra Mexican Chocolate, grated with either microplane or regular grater

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 TBSP vanilla

3 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

4 oz unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

4 eggs

2 cups sour cream

1/3 cup pumpkin

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Combine the chocolate chips and grated Ibarra chocolate in a food processor. Chop medium fine. Add the brown sugar and 1tsp of vanilla. Process until just combined.

3. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.

4. Cream together the butter, sugar and remaining 2 tsp of vanilla until they are smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add in the eggs, on at a time, blending after each addition.

5. Add in a third of the flour mixture with one cup of sour cream. Mix to blend. Repeat with a third mroe of the flour and the last cup of sour cream. Lastly, mix in the remaining thrid of the flour mixture. Mix until you have a smooth batter. Take 1/3 of the batter and put it into a seperate bowl. Add the 1/3 cup of pumpkin and blend together.

6. Grease a loaf pan. Spread one third of the plain batter into the pan(it might be sticky). Drop a couple TBSP of the pumpkin batter. Sprinkle 1/3  of the chocolate mixture. Repeat making 2 more layers using up the reamining ingredients.

7. Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool for 20 minutes. Remove from pan.

All text and images on this site have ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Copyright (c) 2006 by Peabody Rudd.

 

So, I know that I already posted my mother’s banana bread recipe. But back when I wrote it I had about in June of this year when I had about 5 people reading my blog and I had no idea how to use my camera and the pictures were dreadful(not that the new ones are so great, but they are much better). So I thought I would give it another go. I like her recipe because it is like no other that I have ever had. She uses graham flour, which is a whole wheat flour, but better with a very distinct taste. If you are thinking, do they make graham crackers with graham flour….the answer is yes. Lots of people have used this recipe and choose not to use the graham flour because they can’t find it….please try to find the graham flour, it makes such a difference.

So when World Bread Day was featured on Kochtopf I decided that I would dust it off and throw out the banana bread recipe again since you really can’t get the bread anywhere that I know of(I’m sure somewhere, some bakery makes it). My mom was not much of a bread baker in the traditional sense….she was not one for yeast breads, mostly quick breads. This is the bread she was known for(now known for her coconut bread which I will post one of these coming months). It was always a special treat for us because back then it was extremely hard to find graham bread(not like today where grocery stores carry all sorts of different flours). Now you can find it at the more upscale grocery stores(I buy mine at Central Market). If you can’t find it at a store you can purchase it here.

Graham Flour Banana Bread

1/3 cup shortening(don’t use butter…it isn’t the same in this recipe)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup graham flour
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup mashed ripe bananas
1 cup or more of chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 F
In a large bowl cream together the shortening and sugars. Add the eggs and beat well. Sift together the flours, baking soda, salt, baking powder and add to creamed mixture. Stir until mixed. Stir in bananas and walnuts.
Pour into well greased(and lightly floured) 9X5X3? pan. Bake for about 50 minutes or until done.

Source: my mom

All text and images on this site have ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Copyright (c) 2006 by Peabody Rudd.

If I were ever to have my own Food Network or PBS cooking show I would want to do one about how to fix your mistakes in the kitchen. That is what I miss about Julia Child, she made mistakes and showed them. Now a days, everything turns out perfectly and nothing ever seems to need more seasoning or get dropped or have a giant crack in it. So unrealistic and what forces people I feel not to want to cook. They see the recipe, they get excited, try it, and it didn’t turn out perfect and they get discouraged. What the show really needs to say is: the first time we tried this cake it spilled over, the second time it cracked down the middle the third time it sunk and on the fourth time it was perfect….but all they show you is the perfect. Sad really. I think more people would cook if they knew even the best of the best made mistakes too.

The majority of my friends who have a cooking question are usually calling me in a panic about something going wrong and how can they fix it. Last week was no exception when my friend(who broke my rule and kept opening the oven while it cooked) was making a cheesecake and when it came out it had a large crack in it. Everything else about it was fine except for how it looked. She sent me a picture of it so I could see the problem. The crack was too big to do what I usually do. If the crack is small I usually make some mousse and pipe it on top and no one is the wiser, but this was a big crack. So I told her to cut away the crust. Stick it in a piping bag and pipe it into a fancy champagne glass and top with whipped cream. She called back later to tell me that it was a huge hit. So I got to thinking what would I do if my cheesecake got a huge crack in it, and thus came the invention of my Pumpkin Cheesecake Towers. 

Pumpkin Cheesecake Towers 

Wontons:
package of wontons
cinnamon and sugar mixture

Caramel Sauce:
1 ¼ cup sugar
2/3 cup heavy cream

Pour the sugar into the center of a deep saucepan. Carefully pour 1/3 cup water around the walls of the pan, trying not to splash any of the sugar onto the walls. Do not stir; gently draw you finger twice through the center of the sugar, making a cross, to moisten it. Over high heat, bring to a full boil and cook without stirring, swirling the pan occasionally to even out the color, until the mixture is medium caramel in color, 5 to 10 minutes. Immediately turn off the heat and use a wooden spoon to slowly and carefully stir in the cream(it will bubble up and may splatter).

Pumpkin Cheesecake
Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups pumpkin
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ginger
1-1/2 lbs. cream cheese
1/2 Tbsp. vanilla
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
2 Tbsp. sour cream
1/4 cup half-and-half

Instructions:

In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, sour cream and half-and-half. Using an electric mixer, beat mixture until light and fluffy. One at a time, beat eggs into the mixture. Add remaining ingredients; beat until well blended. Pour mixture into the springform pan until the filling comes 1/4 inch from the top of the pan. Wrap outside of the springform pan twice with aluminum foil. Place the pan in another pan that has been partially filled with water. Place the cheesecake in the water bath in a 300-degree oven for 1 hour. Remove pan from the oven. Remove springform pan from the water bath. Let cheesecake cool before removing it from the springform pan.

To Assemble:
Fry wontons in oil(in either deep fryer or in a pan filled about 3 inches with oil). Take out when golden brown(place on paper towel) and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar while still warm.
Place one wonton on a plate.
Scoop your cheesecake into a piping bag and pipe a single layer of cheesecake. Place another wonton on top, and again follow up with the cheesecake. Place another wonton and repeat with cheesecake and finally top with a wonton. Drizzle caramel sauce over the top of the dessert.

Let this be a lesson to go ahead and make a mistake, you just might get something even better.

All text and images on this site have ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Copyright (c) 2006 by Peabody Rudd.

Blog party madness is upon us and though I had much fun last time making circus cookies for kid’s party, I think this month’s theme is just as fun. Literary Party is this month’s theme and you must pick a book that you have read and make a food item inspired by it. Though my book club had recently read Julie and Julia, I had no desire to do anything in aspic, so I looked for a different option. I read a book a couple months back that I immediately fell in love with. It’s called Candy and Me by Hilary Liftin. It is a overview of her life and the role that sugar and candy have played in it. I could totally relate to this book, for I am a sugar-aholic and a candy freak. Now amazing as it is to some people I prefer gummy candies and licorice to chocolate(I know, I know). But I love Red Vines and Swedish Fish. However, I didn’t see that as an appeasing dessert. So in honor of my husband I once again made something with peanut butter and chocolate….though with a slight twist for me.

I love cookie dough. I am guilty on many an occasion of eating it out the bowl before it even makes it to the pan(and you have too). So I some how wanted to incorporate cookie dough into this dessert. I started by making peanut butter cookies. Instead of making them into a cookie, I spread them out on to a 9 X 13 inch pan. It makes for a pretty thick cookie bar, which is exactly what I wanted. I baked them for 20 minutes. They had a nice bottom and outside crust but were still pretty doughy in the inside(perfect for what I was going for). If you are not happy with the idea of eating cookie dough, then bake for another 10 minutes. Next I made a layer of cream cheese peanut butter frosting and finished off with a peanut butter chocolate ganache.

Mom’s Peanut Butter Cookies(Source: Caprial’s Desserts)

1 cup cold unsalted butter, diced

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup peanut butter

3 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat Oven to 350F. Grease a sheet pan and set aside.

Place the butter and both sugars in the bowl of a mixer and beat on high speed, scraping down the sides of the bowl often, until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs and vanilla, then add the peanut butter and mix well. Add the flour, baking soda and salt and mix on low speed until the ingredients are incorporated. Increase the speed to medium and mix just until the dough is smooth.

Using a 9 X 13 spread the cookie dough evenly. Bake for 20 minutes. If you want a less doughy cookie, bake for 10 minutes longer.

Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting Layer

4 oz cream cheese

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup powdered sugar

milk(for thinning)

In a mixer combine the cream cheese, peanut butter and sugar. Mix on medium speed for about 3 minutes. Add the milk slowly until it becomes a spreadable consistency.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Ganache

1 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup cream

1/2 cup peanut butter

Place the chocolate chips and peanut butter in a bowl. Heat the cream up to a boil. Once it starts to boil, pour it over the chocolate chips and peanut butter. Let sit for 5 minutes. Stir until smooth.

Assemble: Once the cookie dough layer is out of the oven, let it cool completely. Spread the cream cheese layer. Then follow up with the ganache layer.

All text and images on this site have ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Copyright (c) 2006 by Peabody Rudd.

I almost forgot my drink. I do not have a picture of it, as I do not have any ingredients for it. I really don’t know when it came out but we use to drink the virgin version of these when I was a kid. To make the virgin version just substitute Coca-Cola for the Kahlua.

Tootsie Roll
- 2 parts Kahlua
- 3 parts Orange juicePour ingredients over ice into martini glass and garnish with tootsie roll.