National Dessert Day + Florentine Chocolate Bars

Last Thursday, October 14th, was National Dessert Day.  To celebrate the day, I baked several things:

Chocolate Pecan Biscotti • Carole Bloom - intensely chocolate

Florentine Shortbread bars • Fine Cooking Magazine

Lemon Drop Cookies • my recipe

Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes • my recipes

The Florentine Shortbread Bar were "sick".  These bars are so good, that I couldn't decide it they were a cookie, a candy or a pastry.  They were  all that, wrapped into one.  I love a good Florentine cookies and have been known to make Rose Levy Beranbaum's from time to time.  I think it is the caramel aspect of it all.  Caramel is my 5th food group.  So, if I see caramel anything on a menu I am sure to order it.  Finding a recipe with a caramel element, is no different.

In honor of National Dessert Day, I salute all of you chefs, bakers, home cooks, cookbook authors, and fellow food bloggers who continue to inspire me and motivate me to get into my kitchen pretty much seven days a week!

Chocolate Drizzled Florentines
adapted from Fine Cooking Magazine
yield: about 60 pieces (depending upon how you cut them)

ingredients:
for the dough
14 oz. unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 tsp. lemon zest (about 2 lemons)
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. table salt
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4 1/2 cups ( 1lb. 5oz.) all-purpose flour

for the topping
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 Tbls. light corn syrup
7 oz. unsalted butter
3/4 cup honey
1 cup heavy cream
17 oz. sliced blanched almonds, lightly toasted
1/2 cup chopped dried apricot
3 oz. each semisweet chocolate + bittersweet chocolate

instructions:
make the dough:
• in the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter, zest, sugar, and salt and beat until light and fluffy.  add the egg, scraping down the side of the bowl after mixing.
• add the flour, in three batches, mix until well blended.
• form the dough into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap.  chill for 1 hour.
• preheat oven to 350*.
• line a jelly roll pan with heavy duty foil.  butter the foil and set aside.
• between two pieces of parchment, roll the dough to 1/4" thick.  remove the top layer of the parchment from the dough and flip it into your prepared pan.  once in the pan, remove the second sheet of parchment and with your fingers or with the palm of your hand, spread dough so it evenly rests inside the sheet pan.  make sure to get it into the corners of the pan.
• chill until firm.
• lay a piece of parchment on top of the chilled dough.  set a second jelly roll pan on top of the parchment lined dough (this is a better method than using pie weights) and press gently.  the second sheet pan acts as a weight, creating a very even crust when baked.
• bake for 20 minutes and then remove the foil and the sheet pan and bake for an additional 10 minutes.
• cool completely on a wire rack.

for the topping:
• in a large heavy saucepan, combine the sugar, corn syrup, and 3/4 cup water and bring to a boil.  cook until the mixture becomes amber in color.
• the recipe in the magazine says 350* on your candy thermometer.  yet, I found that cooking it until about 315-320* was perfectly amber in color.  my was starting to smell "burnt" at this point, so I removed it from the heat.
• carefully add the butter and the honey, return to heat and stir until dissolved.
• bring the mixture back to a boil and carefully add the heavy cream ( it will bubble and this is very hot sugar, so be careful not to burn yourself).
• boil the mixture until it reaches 250* on a candy thermometer.
• remove from the heat and stir in the almonds and dried apricots.
• quickly pour the hot caramel over the cooked baked sugar cookie crust.  spread mixture evenly with a greased, off set spatula.
• bake until the top begins to bubble, about 20-25 minutes.
• let cool completely. once cool remove from pan and cut into desired size pieces.
• set cut Florentine bars on 2 parchment lined cookie sheets.
• melt both chocolates on top of a double boiler.  once melted add about a tablespoon of corn syrup.
• fill a pastry bag fitted with a very small tip, with the warm chocolate.  pipe chocolate onto cookies in whatever pattern you desire.
• set on wire racks so chocolate can set ( you may have to stick in the fridge for a bit).

Enjoy these bars!

Coffee, Coffee, and More Coffee

Yesterday was National Coffee Day.  I am not a huge coffee drinker.  If I do drink it, I get something like an iced latte.  Feels more like a milkshake rather than a coffee drink.  Kind of like a snack rather than a vice or a morning habit.

So, I decided to turn my coffee creation into a sweet.  No duh ( as Levi has been known to say).  These bars pack a huge jolt.  With that said, I decided to cut them into small portions.  Eat them sparingly!

Coffee Crunch Bars
adapted from here
yield: 48 pieces

ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup plus 2 Tbls. unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar
2 Tbls. instant espresso powder
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup sliced almonds

instructions:
• preheat oven to 325*.  set aside a 9 x 13" baking pan
• whisk flour, baking powder, and salt.  set aside.
• in the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until blended.
• add espresso powder and vanilla.
• add flour, in 3 additions, mixing until well combined
• stir in chocolate and almonds
• turn dough into baking pan.  spread evenly with an off set spatula.  pierce with a fork
• bake until edges are lightly browned and beginning to crisp, 45-50.  cool on a rack and after one minute,
score.
• can store in an airtight container for 5 days.

David Lebovitz's Chocolate Crack Cookies

I don't have an addictive personality, however I could become addicted to these.  "Crack" is the perfect descriptive for these cookies.  


The majority of the dry ingredient is ground almonds or almond meal ( like to buy a huge vat of ground almond meal at Surfas-makes life so much easier).  These cookies look heavy, but they are so incredibly light.  They did not sit in my stomach or give me a temporary sugar high.  


These cookies could take me to the other side -the other side meaning, using alternative flours and organic sugars.  I loved these so much that I took Heidi Swanson's book, Super Natural Cooking, with me to Whole Foods the other day.  I spent $95.00 dollars on all kinds of whole grain, organic flours and sugars.  I am gearing up to test a new and approved way of giving my kids sweets and treats.

I made the dough and let it rest in the fridge for 3 days.  When I went to roll them out, the dough was a little dense.  I broke my small ice cream scooper, scooping out the dough..  I would suggest letting the dough rest for a few hours rather than a few days.

Regardless, these cookies are going to be a cookie jar staple!


ingredients:
8 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
3 Tbls. unsalted butter
1 1/2 Tbls. liquor or strong coffee (I used espresso)
1 cup ground almonds (or almond meal)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
2 eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar, plus more for coating
powdered sugar for coating


directions:
• add chocolate, butter and liquor to a medium heat-proof bowl.  set over simmering water, stirring occasionally until melted and smooth.  remove from the heat.
• in a food processor, pulse the almond powder (I buy 2 lbs of ground almond meal at Surfas), flour, baking powder, and salt until finely ground.
• in a standing mixer, fitted with the whip attachment, whisk the eggs and the sugar on high speed, until the mixture forms a well defined ribbon.  Using a rubber spatula, mix in the melted chocolate mixture and then the almond mixture.  Chill dough until firm, about 2 hours.
• preheat oven to 325*.  line 2 baking sheets with parchment.  
• have a bowl of sugar and a bowl of powdered sugar ready.  shape dough into one inch balls.  roll in sugar and then powdered sugar.  set on baking sheet, spacing 1" apart.
• bake, rotating the pans midway, until firm (they will slide on the sheet).  it is very easy to burn chocolate cookies, so don't over bake!  
• let them cool and then transfer to a wire rack.

David says (from his book Ready for Dessert) these are best eaten the day they are baked, yet, I disagree.  These were still sitting around my house on day 3.  I popped one into my mouth and it was pretty darn good.

Cappuccino Brownies

The baking marathon continues. I was planning on making these mini Reine de Saba's for the chocolate portion of the "break fast" dessert-fest. I had every intention of doing so until I was surfing the net for a recipe for white chocolate ganache. My idea was to dip or drizzle this over the chocolate cakes. However, while searching I found this recipe for Cappuccino Brownies. They looked so good that I scratched the mini idea and decided to make a double batch of these. So glad I did! They were easy and delicious.

A few people asked my friend where she "bought" the brownies from. She happily said, "I didn't buy them anywhere", my friend made them! Hee hee!

What made these unique was the sprinkling of cinnamon on the top. Had I not done that, I personally don't think they would have been as special.

I also whipped up a double batch of my all time favorite ginger molasses cookies (see older blog entries). These are so delicious.

The goodies were a hit. Now I can rest (at least until my next urge to concoct something in the kitchen)!

Rainbow Goodness

Part II, Yom Kippur Break Fast desserts for 100.

My theme this year is pick desserts that will feed a crowd and won't keep me in the kitchen all day and all night. Rainbow cookies are the perfect cookies for this occasion. I have made these in the past and although everyone else loved them, I didn't. Maybe me not loving stuff with almond paste has something to do with it! None the less, I wanted to make them again.

This time I used the recipe from Sherry Yard's Desserts by the Yard and this could not have been simpler to make. Reading the recipe, it looks complicated, yet it isn't. The layers only bake for 20 minutes and then cool for 10 minutes. Assemble and put in the fridge. Bars are so much easier than drop cookies. I need to remember that when December rolls around!

Ingredients:

12 oz. almond paste

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/12 pounds unsalted butter, softened

6 large eggs, separated

3/4 cup almond flour

3 cups all purpose flour

1 drop of red food coloring or more

1 drop of green food coloring or more

2 drops of yellow food coloring (i used 5 drops)

Simple Syrup

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

(bring to a slow boil until sugar is dissolved. let cool to room temp).

3/4 cups apricot jam

3/4 cups raspberry jam

Chocolate Glaze

6 oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

4 oz unsalted butter

5 tbls. light corn syrup

1 1/2 tbls. grand marnier

Directions:

Cake

1. Place racks in the upper & lower third of oven. Preheat oven to 325*. Spray three 12 x 17 inch half sheet pans with pan spray. Line with parchment paper and spray parchment.

2. Place the almond paste in a large food processor fitted with the steel blade and blend for 2 minutes. Add the sugar and pulse until the mixture looks like wet sand.

3. Add one quarter of the softened butter and pulse until it is blended with the almond paste. Blend a quarter of the butter at a time until all incorporated.

4. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the egg yolks and pulse to blend. Pulse in the almond flour, then the all purpose flour. Transfer to a large mixing bowl.

5. Beat egg whites to soft peaks then fold into batter.

6. Divide the batter between three bowls (I weighed the entire batter and then divided accordingly). Add the red food coloring to one bowl and mix, then add the green to the other and the yellow to the last bowl (I needed alot of yellow to make the yellow vibrant).

7. Scrape all of one color into one of your prepared baking sheets. Use an offset spatula to spread evenly (this is the hard part). Then slide your finger along the edge of the baking sheet to remove the excess batter from the edges. Repeat with the other two colors.

8. Place the pans in the oven(I did it in two batches) and bake for 10 minutes. Switch the pans, top to bottom and back to front and continue baking for 10 more minutes. Bake the third pan repeating the process.

9. Put an empty baking sheet in front of you, upside down. Spray lightly with pan spray and top with a piece of parchment. Invert the yellow cake onto the baking sheet. Remove parchment. Using a pastry brush, brush evenly with one third of the simple syrup. smear the apricot jam evenly over the cake. Top with the pink layer and remove parchment. Brush evenly with the syrup and spread the raspberry jam evenly. Complete with the green layer, brushing with the remaining syrup. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

10. Make the glaze: Combine the chocolate with the butter in a glass bowl over simmering water. Stir with a rubber spatula until smooth. Stir in the corn syrup and the grand marnier.

11. Remove cake from the fridge and unwrap. Pour the glaze over the top and using an offset spatula, spread the glaze evenly over the top, stopping just before the edges. Allow to cool 1-2 minutes, then, just as the shine disappears from he glaze, run a pastry comb or fork in a squiggly motion over the top to create a pattern.

12. Refrigerate the cake for 30 minutes or until the glaze sets. Remove from he refrigerator and cut into 1 1/2" squares, using a serrated knife.

Can be frozen, wrapped tight for up to two weeks.

Beyond Brownies

I knew these were going to be good right when I looked at the recipe. Another winning bar recipe from my guy Nick (Malgieri). Sooooooooooo good!

The same day we were going to friends for breakfast (challah bread pudding), we were also seeing other friends for dinner. I totally overbooked us. What was I thinking? This was more socializing in one day than I usually do over a two week period!

Regardless, I had to bring treats. I wanted something I could do the day before and the Pecan, Coconut Chocolate Chunk Bars. These were somewhat similar to the dream bars that I make yet with a twist.

These melted in your mouth. They are the perfect balance between sweet, salty, crunchy, soft. Mmmm Mmmm good!

This is yet another recipe from my bible; The Modern Baker.