Molasses Cookies

Molasses cookies are a favorite in our house, probably second only to chocolate chip, although Briton would probably say it ties with snickerdoodle. But while I have a good, solid chocolate chip recipe and several yummy snickerdoodle ones, I've never found a really good recipe for molasses cookies and so I usually just end up buying them when I want one with my evening tea.
Last night I got a wild hair to make some cookies, well past cookie making time, into get everyone into bed time in fact. The jar o' chocolate chips was running a little low and I wasn't in the mood for sugar cookies or snickerdoodles so I did a what-the-heck websearch and landed on a recipe that looked promising. And boys howdy was it. Yum. I mean YUM. They came out of the oven long after the kids were asleep (that one hour wait is crucial I think, so don't skip it!) and Will had crashed our on the couch so it was just me and my knitting and my cookie with a mug of eggnog (I know, I'm early on that one but it was just sitting there staring at me at the grocery store! I couldn't help it!) At some point Will must have woken up though and helped himself because there were several missing when I got up this morning.
If you like molasses cookies, make these. Tonight. They have that perfect chewy but crunchy from the sugar coating texture. It's been very hard not to eat a few this morning. The original recipe called for margarine but I'm just a butter girl so I substituted and I can't imagine that they could have been better with the margarine, so I'm sticking with it.

Molasses Cookies
adapted from All Recipes


3/4 cup of melted butter
11/2 cup white sugar - 1/2 cup reserved
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 cups of all purpose flower
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

Beat butter, 1 cup of sugar and the egg until smooth, add molasses until well mixed. Fold in the flour, soda, salt and spices and chill for 1 hour.

Preheat your oven to 350 and pour the remaining 1/2 cup sugar into a bowl. Roll chilled dough into walnut sized balls and then roll in sugar. Place 2-3 inches apart on a lined cookie sheet and bake 9 minutes (you want them puffed up, starting to crack and just barely browning around the edges. Remove the pan from the oven and allow the cookies to cool for 15 minutes on the pan.

Makes 2 dozen

A St. Patricks Day Treat

Back when Will, Briton and I lived in Dublin, we were lucky enough to have an incredible bakery in the little village within the city where our flat was located. Well, lucky and unlucky. Because it was so good. And so handy, it was hard not to go every day for a fresh baguette, a gingerbread man, a hand sized Pavlova stuffed with dense cream and blueberries. It didn’t take us long to become regulars. The woman who ran the shop knew that Briton liked to choose his gingerbread man based on the color of his candy buttons and she always wrapped it in it’s own little waxed paper bag, bringing it around the counter to him, even on the busiest days. She good-naturedly explained what the different desserts were to me whenever I asked, and she introduced us to Banoffee Pie.

Will actually discovered them. He came home from work one day describing a pie they had had for a birthday. Sweet, carmely, with cream and a weird crust, good weird. It sounded wonderful, but for the life of me I couldn’t figure out what he had eaten. A few weeks later he spotted it at our bakery, miniature versions the size of a saucer. We brought one home and devoured it. In fact, I don’t think we even shared any with Briton.

When I quizzed my friends about this miraculous dessert one piped up and claimed it was a delicacy from the North, which didn’t really surprise me since she, a Belfast girl, generally claimed any treat as being a native of “The Narth”. But whether it’s a true Irish dessert, a product of Belfast or, as a recently read, a tradition of the American South, it’s good, and even better, it’s simple.

I will give you one word of warning (well two, you are going to get addicted, I’m just telling ya) DO NOT use the sweetened condensed milk that has a pop tab. I tried an old camping stick it in the coals trick and it exploded, fortunately not harming anyone (there were some singed sweater) but I still have nightmares about it. Use the old kind of can and make sure the water stays topped OVER the edge of the can. But don’t let this scare you, it’s worth the weird cooing method.

Banoffee Pie

2 cans of Sweetened condensed milk

1 large package of Digestive Biscuits (you could use graham crackers in a pinch, but I wouldn’t:

3/4 stick of butter, melted

Heavy cream

3-4 ripe bananas

You want to start this in the morning to give yourself plenty of time for the caramel to cook and cool. Put the cans of milk into a large pot and cover them with water. I don’t like the cans to touch, but that’s just me. Pop them into the oven and bake them at 300 degrees for four hours, keeping an eye on the water level to make sure it doesn’t boil off. Remove the cans from the water and allow them to cool for a bit. Open one can to check the doneness. If it’s too light ( you want it the color of a Kraft caramel candy) put the other can back in for another hour. Cool and set aside.

About two hours before serving, whiz 3/4 of the package of biscuits in a food processor until you have fine crumbs. Spread some of the remaining biscuits with a teeny bit of butter and a slice of cheddar (trust me!) for a snack while you are whizzing away. Pour in the melted butter and mix until you have a somewhat moldable texture. Press this into a pie or tart pan using the bottom of a glass. You want it firmly packed with a nice thick wall on the sides.

Pour the caramel into the crust (mixing first if you had to cook it longer to get a consistent color and flavor) and shake slightly to achieve a smooth surface. Pop this in the fridge until just before you want to serve. If you want you can prepare up to this point several days in advance and freeze the crust until you are ready. Some bakeries in Dublin sell just the shell and caramel so you can add the amount of bananas and cream that you like.

When you are ready, slice the bananas in 1/4-inch slices and heap onto the top of the pie. Whip the cream, unsweetened, and mound on top of the bananas.

This is deadly sweet, although the unsweetened cream helps but I bet you will find yourself groaning that you can’t possibly eat one more bit while at the same time piling more onto your plate. I only make it once a year just for that reason. Plus calories from Banoffee Pie don’t count on St. Patrick’s Day, I’m sure of it.

Oh and PS - No photos of the pie with the banana and cream on top because, well, it was just too tempting to wait, even for a photo break :) Happy St. Pat's everyone!

What's Better than Cake Balls? Oh yes I did!

That's right, Brownie Balls. And can I just say. Yuuuummm. And also the next day. Even Yummmier.

Last week I was writing an article about Cake Balls and had this thought that involved chocolate and chocolate ganache, and more chocolate and maybe some chocolate liquor and some more...uh, you get the picture. All of that wrapped up in cake ball form. So when some friends invited us over for dinner and a Ponyo viewing, I jumped at the chance (excuse) to try my idea out.

This is basically that brownie recipe from last week with the butter and chocolate reduced a bit to make it cakier, the chocolate chips removed from the batter and used instead in the drizzle and a little fun in the form of some Vanilla Rum (not chocolate liquor on hand, so sad, I'll just have to make it all again...)

The one thing I will say is that, while they were good-rich, moist and seriously chocolaty, the next day the rum had soaked into the cake and created an almost truffle like denseness. So if you can keep away from them, hide them if you must, let them mellow for a day before diving in. Trust me...it's worth it (But I wont tell if you eat one or two before hand)

For the Brownies

4 T butter, diced
2.5 ounces chocolate 70% or better
1/2 c + 2 T flour (I used bread flour and liked the results, but AP flour would be fine I think)
1/8 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup sugar

For the Ganache

4 ounces chocolate 70% or better
3 ounces half and half or cream (since these were going to be pretty rich, I went with half and half instead of cream, just to lighten it a bit)

For the Coating

12 ounces chocolate (I used a mix of chocolate chips, good chocolate and bittersweet bakers chocolate)


Preheat the oven to 325

Melt the chocolate (for the brownies) with the butter in a double boiler. remove from heat and allow to cool a little before adding the sugar and then the eggs, one at a time.

Mix the flour, baking soda and salt in a large bowl and then pour in the chocolate mixture, stirring just until combined. Pour into a well greased cake pan and bake 30 minutes.

While the cake is cooling (all the way, don't crumble it too early!) melt the ganache chocolate in that double boiler and mix in the cream (warm it up a little first or it will seize the chocolate) Stir briskly until the chocolate is smooth and glossy.

Fold the ganache into the cake and add a shot of vanilla rum (that would be a bottle of rum with a vanilla bean soaking in it) Roll the sticky cake chocolate concoction into 2 inch diameter balls.

As with the cake balls, chill the brownie balls in the fridge for a bit while you melt (again, I know) the last batch of chocolate and roll the balls around one at a time until they are evenly coated, removing them to a wire rack or freezer paper to harden. Drizzle any excess chocolate (add a little milk if you need to thin it out) over the top to pretty them up if you like. I'm sure they would be tasty without but hey, you can never have too much chocolate

Almost Spicy Brownies

Ever since I read (and saw) Chocolate, I've been fascinated by the idea of chocolate with chilies in it. And come to think of it, my favorite chocolate bar, the one that I'd rather have than a whole box of Hershey's, is a slightly spicy coconut curry variety from 3400 Phinney. But I've never used anything spicy with chocolate when I've baked with it. And since I was in the mood for brownies last night, and I had some decent chocolate bars, one of which had chilies mixed in, I figured, hey, why not. The proportions for this recipe come from the Cooks Illustrated Brownie Recipe. I've halved the recipe and made a few changes to incorporate the type of chocolate I had. It make a cake pan or a 8 by 8 brownie pan full of lovely, dense and just barely spicy (more warming) brownies. Just the thing for a cool, crisp weekend.

6 T butter, diced
3 ounces of 85% cocoa chocolate.
5 ounces of chili chocolate (I used Lindt)
1/2 c + 2 T flour (I used bread flour and liked the results, but AP flour would be fine I think)
1/8 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 T flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 325

In a double boiler melt the chocolate and butter. Set aside to cool slightly. In a medium bowl mix the flour (minus the 1 T at the bottom) the baking powder and salt. Add the sugar to the melted chocolate and then whisk in the eggs one at a time. Fold the wet mixture into the dry ingredients. In a small bowl toss the remaining 1 T flour with the chocolate chips until they are well coated. Discard any excess flour and add the chips to the brownie mixture. Pour into a well greased pan and bake until a toothpick comes out almost, but not quite, clean. For my oven this was 27 minutes. Check every 2 or 3 minutes after the 20 minute mark so they don't over cook. Cool for about 30 minutes before removing from pan and slicing.

Oh My Panna Cotta

Long, long ago, (well four years at least), in a land far away, Will and I went to a strange and slightly wild late night party at a rooftop flat in Temple Bar. Strange because although the party didn't start till 9 or so and planned to go till the wee small hours, it was a bring your kids kind of shin-dig. Also because the guest list could have doubled for a meeting of the EU. Wild because, well, I'll just say- Temple Bar and Italians. Do I really need to go further?

Anyway, after the dancing on the roof, artichoke flavored liquor (I don't recommend it) and watching the children, including ours, spin in circles until they collapsed on the floor and went to sleep, the desserts came out.

Now, it's no secret that I love dessert. My waistline would thank me if I didn't, but as Will has said of my thought process - the whole point of dinner is to get to dessert, right? And I've never really met a dessert that I didn't like (other than ice cream which - eh, I'll eat it but it's not really my thing) but every once in a while I'll eat something that totally blows my mind. The first time it happened it was the Hot Chocolate sold in the hostel in Rome where I stayed at the end of my high school exchange. Incidentally, I also bought a nightlight in the shape of the Pope's face there for a friend who wanted to be a priest. Just so you understand that it wasn't a fancy smancy place. I could have drunk gallons of that hot chocolate, it was incredible. And at this particular party, I had the same reaction to the Panna Cotta.

If you've never had panna cotta, and I hadn't, it's like jello for grownups. creamy and vanilla-y and only slightly sweet. I seriously considered stealing the plate and sneaking out to the terrace to snarf down the whole thing. Our host, one of those charming and carefree Italian women who always looks like a million bucks but still manages to be sweet and generous, shrugged off the accomplishment. It was just an ordinary dessert.

I've tried out a few panna cotta recipes since then, never with great success. They wouldn't set all the way or weren't creamy enough or were too sweet. Eventually I gave up. Then, yesterday I was dashing through the grocery store grabbing a few forgotten items when I buzzed past a curry products display. Normally this would induce instant cravings for Chicken Korma but for some reason this time I stopped at the coconut milk and that, humm, coconut panna cotta? Why not.

The recipe is based on this very basic Italian one. I liked the simplicity of it and adjusted it for the size of my mold (an SPCA charity shop find - love it!) and the inclusion of coconut. If I'd had time or sense, I probably would have made a chocolate sauce to drizzle over it, but instead I sat on the couch looking at Will who had fallen asleep watching a movie and contemplated eating the whole thing while he dozed. He'd never have known. Don't worry, I held back. But I at my portion without any garnish or toppings, and it was lovely. Not the same as my Italian friends, but just as good. Smooth and melt in your mouth creamy and just the right hint of sweetness. And just what I needed after the Ducks lost the Rose Bowl. Sigh... Maybe in another 15 years they'll try again....

Coconut Panna Cotta
fills a 2 cup jello mold - if you don't have a mold, custard cups or espresso cups make a great alternative for single servings

1 cup coconut milk (shake the can before you open it)
1 cup half and half (you could use cream for a more decadent version)
1/4 cup sugar
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
2 T cold water
1 T vanilla

In a small bowl, mix the gelatin and water to allow it to soften. Set aside. Heat the Coconut milk and half and half with the sugar on medium heat until it just begins to steam, add the vanilla and then stir in the gelatin until it has completely dissolved. Pour into lightly oiled molds (use an unflavored oil) and let set in the refrigerator until set. A two cup mold takes about 3 hours to firm completely, individual servings will be faster. Invert (if you want) to slide the panna cotta out and serve. Berries or chocolate (or both if you want, who am I to decide!) would be great served over this but it's great plain too.

Boozy Pears

Like you need more things to indulge on. But these are way yummy.

Over the past few weeks I've seen a recipe for Vanilla Roasted Pears floating around the blogosphere. They popped up in at least three of the blogs I read so who knows how many people out there are drooling over them. And for good reason. Just the idea makes my mouth water. But alas, mid snow storm and needing something to take to a party one evening, I realized that, while i had the pears, I had no vanilla beans. At least no whole, unused vanilla beans. What I did have was an old bottle with six or so de-seeded vanilla pods bobbing around in a few cups of rum.

This all started when Will and I were pooooooor and needed Christmas gifts. And because even when your poooooor just out of college students you still somehow manage to have enough money to afford booze and beer, we decided to make our own vanilla rum and a triple sec-ish drink called "44". The "44" was a little complicated involving 44 cloves poked into an orange and dunked in a bottle of vodka with 44 sugar cubes for 44 days. We only just made it in time to set for the month and a half it needed before bottling it up for our friends.

The vanilla rum was much easier. Throw a vanilla bean - split down the middle - and a handful of brown sugar into a bottle of rum and give it a shake and a few days to ripen. After that Christmas it occurred to me that the same thing could probably be done with empty pods, the way you make vanilla sugar. And so started the empty pod in a rum bottle tradition. Now I'm not going to lie. I have no idea how long some of those pods have been in there. Every time I use a vanilla bean for something, and sadly, that's not that often, I toss in the pod, top up the bottle, shake it up and back in the cupboard it goes. We mix it with drinks and use it in place of vanilla in recipes and generally enjoy it when we can.

For this dish I peeled and cored (a teaspoon works great to get that neat little circle in the core - and don't forget to cut out the straight part of the core that leads to the stem) four Bartlet pears and put them cut side up in a casserole dish. In addition to the half cup of rum, I mixed in 1/4 cup of brown sugar, 2 T lemon juice, a shake of cinnamon and half a stick of melted butter. The whole thing was drizzled over the pears and baked at 375 for about 50 minutes, turning the pears over half way though.

Although these would be great over almost everything from oatmeal to ice cream, we ate them sliced on crackers over some kind of gooey cheese and it was lovely. The best part is that, while they are certainly a sweet, they are not overpowering. In fact, they are almost light, which makes a nice change from all the dense and sticky sweet (but no less wonderful) treats that abound during the holidays. Now I just have to decide, would it be so wrong to make them for breakfast this week? Nah, I didn't think so either.

Candied Orange Peel

So yesterday I mentioned that I had candied orange peel strips cooking away on the stove and today I was able to get them just about finished, they still have some more drying to do but for the most part, they are officially candied.

I've never candied anything in my life. At least not that I can remember. But I have this fantasy that one day I will candy all the fruit necessary to make my annual batch of fruit cakes (which reminds me, I forgot to buy boxes for those things today, darn!!) I will probably never be organized enough to get all the cherries and lemon peel and pineapple and odd little bits and pieces of things that are red and green and sweet candied that I would need, but a girl likes to dream.

The recipe for these comes from the River Cottage Handbook #2, which is all about preserves and is my cookbook de jour (even though it's pretty much past time to preserve anything, I still enjoy reading jam and chutney recipes, laugh, go ahead) Having fallen in love with the River Cottage Family book and in like with the River Cottage Cookbook, I was pleased to see that this handbook is just as good, if not better, than the others. If you have any interest in making jam, I highly recommend it. It's not as exhaustive as the giant Stocking Up tome that I have been using (circa 1975) but since a lot of what is in that is beyond what even I would be interested in preserving, I think the handbook is a better bet for the every day jammer.

Candied Orange Sticks adapted from the River Cottage Handbook #2

4-5 large oranges
2 cups of granulated sugar (500 g)
Water

Run a knife around the oranges so the peel is split into quarters. Carefully remove the peel from the orange in whole, quartered pieces, a spoon inserted under the peel helps if they seem to be ripping. And really, you can use them ripped into little chunks if you want, they just wont be sticks, they'll be chunks.

Slice the peels into thin strips and put them in a heavy bottomed pot with enough water to cover. Bring the water to a boil then reduce to a simmer for 5 minutes. Drain completely then add fresh water to just over half covering the peels. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook, covered, for 45 minutes (stir every once in a while or you'll end up with blackened bits like me :)) Add the sugar and stir until dissolved, put the lid back on and simmer another 30 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave the whole thing for 24 hours.

The next day, bring to a boil again, reduce to a simmer and cook uncovered 30 minutes or until the liquid is a thick syrup. Remove the strips of peel with tongs onto a wire rack (with a drip pan beneath) and allow to dry 24 hours or, if you're impatient like me, pop them in the oven at your lowest setting (170 for me) for 2-3 hours.

I tossed about half of mine in granulated sugar to see which I would like better. The plan is to dip these in chocolate closer to Christmas for gifts. If they make it that long. They are yummy little snacks.

The leftover syrup is pretty tasty to, I added a little to a jar of vodka that I have soaking with a lemon and sugar on my windowsill and mixed the rest with the same amount of honey which, by the way, was divine dribbled over a chunk of Stilton with apricots for a little late afternoon pick-me-up. In fact. Even if you don't want candied fruit, I'd say it's worth it to boil a few orange peels in sugar and water just so you can mix the syrup with honey for your cheese eating pleasure. That good. I'm tellin' ya.

Now, I'm off to make a Pumpkin Pie for tomorrow's festivities. I hope everyone out there has a very happy and tasty Thanksgiving!