Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

So life has more than caught up with me and has not allowed me to be baking or blogging like I want to. My poor hubby has Bronchitis and is super miserable. Unfortunately for him(and me) he coughs all night, so sleep is not much of an option. This week he started back to work. We only have one car(trying to help out mother Earth) and he usually walks to the park and ride. But being sick I now get up and drive him in the morning. I am horrible at going back to sleep after I get up and so I have been averaging about 3 hours of sleep or less a day for over a week now. Luckily the weekend came and I got to get a little more sleep and therefore start to function once again. Sadly, all week, due to being so tired, I had NO inspiration for my blog. Nothing, nada. Last night I had a girls game night to go to and so I had to force myself to make something.

I turned to the book that I agreed to review as well as post a couple recipes about, Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. Sara from I Like to Cook asked me if I would be interested and I jumped all over the chance. The nice thing about this cookbook is that it is truly for everyone. It is well written in everyday speak so that non-foodies can understand. But also has great recipes that would inspire any level of cook. The book is HUGE, weighing in a 6 pounds and is chalked full of recipes. I have spent the last few weeks going through the book and breaking them down into categories, the two main ones being: stuff I want to make and stuff my husband will eat…which are usually very different. Since my hubby is sick I decided to make something from his category. I ran across a recipe for Chipster-Topped Brownies. I thought how perfect, my husband loves brownies and he loves chocolate chip cookies and this combines the two. It is a fairly simple recipe with the only hard part being the spreading out the cookie dough over the brownie batter. I must admit that I did not do that well on that part. I think the next time I make these(and I will make them again) I will make a little more cookie dough because I definitely needed some filler around the edges. I’m not sure what I was expecting of these but they did not turn out how I expected. I guess I just assumed there would be a brownie layer and then a cookie layer. But this is really more brownie than cookie and the cookie part forms the most yummy crispy top that is very addicting. My hubby loved them, the girls at game night loved them and the small amount I had(evil diet) was wonderful.

The good thing is now that I have baked, had a little more sleep and will go play hockey tonight….the world is starting to get back to normal. I have a list of things I want to bake now, many of them from this book. So if you don’t own this yet, I highly suggest that you get on Amazon or go to your local bookstore and purchase this cookbook, you wont be sorry.

Chipster-Topped Brownies

For the Brownie Layer

6 oz bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
3 oz unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into chunks
1 2/3 cup sugar
4 large eggs
1/2 tsp salte
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup walnuts

For the Cookie Layer

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 sticks of butter, room temperature
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract
6 oz bittersweet chocolate, either chips or chunks

Getting Ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350F. Butter a 9×13 inch pan, line it with wax or parchment paper and butter the paper. Put the pan on a baking sheet.
To Make the Brownie Batter:
Put both chocolates and the butter in a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. Stirring occasionally, heat just until the ingredients are melted, shiny and smooth. If the mixture gets too hot, the butter will seperate from the chocolate. Remove the bowl from the heat.
Working with a stand mixer, preferable fitted with a paddle attachement, or working with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the sugar and eggs on medium-high speed for about 2 minutes, until pale, thick and creamy. Beat in the salt and vanilla extract. Reduce speed to low and mix in the melted chocolate and butter, mixing only until incorporated. Scraped down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, then, still on low speed, add the flour, mixing only until it disapperar into the batter. Using a spatula, fold in the walnuts, and scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Set aside.
To Make the Cookei Dough:
Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.
Working with the stand mixer in the cleaned bowl or with the hand mixer in another large bowl, beat the butter and both sugars together on medium-high speed until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. One at a time, add the egg and the yolk, beating for 1 minute after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing only until they disappear into the dough. Still on low, mix in the chocolate. Drop the cookie dough by spoonfuls over the brownie batter and, using a spatula and a light touch, spread evenly over the batter.
Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until the cookie top is deep golden brown and firm and thin knife inserted into the brownie layer comes out with only faint streaks of moist chocoalte. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool to room temperature.
When the brownies are completely cool, carefully run a knife between the sides of the pan and the brownies, then invert them onto another rack, remove the paper and turn right side up onto a cutting board. Cut into bars about 2 inchesX1 inch.

Source: Adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, Houghton Mifflin Company, November 2006

I was rearraging my cookbooks once again today….have gotten a few new ones so had to reorganize. It got me thinking about which ones are my cookbook staples. Now keep in mind I have well over 150 cookbooks, so to be a stand out says a lot. I mostly looked for wear and tear on them and maybe a splatter or two. Hands down my most used book comes from an unlikely source and that is Caprial Pence and Melissa Carey’s Caprial’s Desserts. I say unlikely because I own a ton of baking books and yet I seem to go to this one on many an occasion. It’s a great book because it gives “master recipes” and then gives you ways to modify them to your liking. I think this is great because I feel that so many new cooks think that if they stray from the recipe that it wont turn out right. Oh sure if it calls for three eggs and you decide to put in six, then yeah, that is a bad idea. But if for example you make the Angel Food Cake, you get the master recipe plus four suggestions including: coconut, chocolate, hazelnut and orange. I love her Mom”s Peanut Butter Cookies and the Chocolate-Hazelnut-Caramel Bars. I use her pie crust recipe and pastry cream too. My husband loves her cinnamon rolls. I realzied that I have made close to everything in the book and liked it all…some more than others of course…like the Gingersnap-Mascarpone sandwiches…..so yummy.
The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook by Ina Garten is my go to for more simple but delicious dishes. I know some would argue that they are not that simple, but most are to me. This was her first book and it is still my favorite of her cookbooks. I think that in general the first cookbook that someone puts out is their best. Take Rachel Ray for example. Nothing against her, I think she is doing a great job of getting people back into the kitchen and she is just adorable…she laughs like the Pilsbery Dough Boy..how cute is that. But Rachel has also spit out a ton of cookbooks lately and you know some of those recipes just have to be mass produced crap. Back to Ina. Love her, her books and her Food Network show. For almost every party we use her pan-fried onion dip as well as the sun dried tomato dip. The fresh corn salad is a great accompaniment to any summer dish. I made her version for beef bourgunon countless times…always a crowd pleaser. I make the roasted vegtable torte for my veggie friends. Her outrageous brownies are exactly that. And she gives away the secret that makes all chocolate recipes better….coffee. Add coffee to your chocolate item and you will be very happy with the results. There are yummy coconut cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting and some divine pecan squares. There are many things to love about this book.
My last cookbook is for when I want to wow people. It is not a cookbook for a novice by any means. Many of the recipes take hours to prepare….but oh so worth it. The Trellis Cookbook by Marcel Desaulniers is named after his restaurant in Colonial Williamsburg, VA. I had the pleasure once of dining there and it was more than memorable. I had a wonderful dry jack cheese cheese cake with duck confit and scallop served with a “salad” of pears and caramelized onions with wheat berries, currants, walnuts nad basil-parmesan dressing. The salad is in another one of his cookbooks called Salad Days which I also recommend. All of his dishes are very innovative and highly original. It is broken down in to the seasons to ensure that you are using fresh ingredients. A few of my favorties are the Chilled Stilton and Pear Soup; Curly Endive, Spinach, Fresh Corn, and Roasted Peppers with Smoked Bacon Dressing; Grilled Duck Breast with Raspberries and Macadamia Nuts; Grilled Breast of Chicken with Wild Mushrooms, Applejack and Pears; and last but not least his signature dessert(which they made a cookbook about) Death By Chocolate. All through out the cookbook, Marcel offers up what he call a “chef touch” but really it is just ideas on how to make the dish better. If you have the time and the culinary skill level, I highly recommend this book.