Sweet & Savory

Squishy Japanese Balls

My company sent me to Tsuruoka, Japan for a business trip. The long work hours (at least 12 hours daily) and the language barrier intensified the stress brought on by the tight schedule. But no matter how bad the situation was and how late we had to work, I could always look forward to the food.

A particularly exciting food find was this package of sesame mochi! I brought back a box for A. We enjoyed it so much that we finished more than half of the mochi before we got around to taking their picture! These beautifully packaged snow white mochi balls are placed in a mixture of ground up black sesame seeds, sugar, and what we suspect to be sea salt. A little wooden pick is provided to roll the mochi around, so as to fully coat them with the sesame mixture, and to convey the delicious treat to your mouth.

As you can see, there were only three or four mochi left when we took the picture. And not long after the picture was taken, these survivor mochi joined their fellow mochi in our stomachs. It is a good thing A and I are going to Japan next week as there are so many different types of mochi in Japan we have yet to try. Before I left Japan, I recall seeing some edamame mochi that I am quite anxious to have the pleasure of making their acquaintence.

Welcome Home Surprise

Sunday went something like this:

12:30 am - J lets A know she's flying home the next day. She was feeling worn out from her business trip, and demanded a surprise to cheer her up.

12:34 am - A scratches his head and wonders what would instill an sufficient amount of warmth and fuzziness, in the form of a dessert (which if you haven't noticed, is about all he makes).

1:07 am - Still brainstorming, A opens the fridge to the sight of six zucchini sitting on a shelf (there had been a big sale at the market this week, and A loves to stock up, almost more than he loves dessert).

1:11 am - A's lightbulb goes off, and he looks no further than Clotilde's pairing of chocolate with his secret ingredient of choice.

1:16 am - A sleeps (he does sleep).

11:00 am - A wakes (it would have been earlier, but he likes sleep too.. so, it goes dessert, then stocking up, then sleep).

12:00 pm - Voila!

A in the Kitchen!

With J on a business trip in Japan, I had the kitchen all to myself! This is not to say that J doesn't usually share, but more that it seemed to be fitting to make something special. I decided to make a variety of snacks for my sweet-toothed coworkers. On the menu were (left to right, top to bottom) russian tea cakes, chocolate covered brown butter blondies, chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese and chocolate filling, and mendiants.

Russian Tea Cakes, aka Mexican Wedding Cookies, aka Snowballs, aka ..., were a common request amongst my coworkers. I made a batch for them about a year or so ago, and they have been asking for another batch ever since. So, I finally decided to oblige them. There are as many recipes for these little treats as there are aliases, but I used the one from Williams-Sonoma's Essentials of Baking.

Next up were the chocolate-covered brown butter blondies, which I adapted from a recipe I picked up while visiting the Scharffen Berger chocolate factory last April (adapted recipe included below). Not being a great fan of milk chocolate, I did not have the six ounces that the recipe asked for. Instead, I improvised by mixing some bittersweet Michel Cluizel with some Toblerone milk chocolate candy. This substitution complemented both texture and taste, as the bits of almond nougat in the Toblerone were chewy and agreed well with the buttery caramel flavors in the blondie layer.

Next, I made a recipe that I had previously found on someone's blog when I was searching for a cupcake idea for Nancy's birthday last Februray. The blog owner Chris proclaimed it to be the "World's Best Cupcakes". I wanted to see if the cupcakes could live up to their name. I made the cake and filling batters by hand, since I was cautious of overworking them. The assembled cupcakes went into the oven, where the cream cheese and chocolate chip filling melted and melded into the ooey gooey centers of the final product.

The cupcakes were definitely different from others I've had so far, mainly in the fact that it has a filled center instead of a homogeneous batter, both with and without chunky ingredients mixed in. I haven't gotten any word back on my coworkers' tastings, so the verdict is still out on whether these are really the world's best cupcakes. In any case, I've linked the recipe above, so you can try them out for yourselves. And if you know of a recipe for tastier cupcakes, please do share it with me!

Finally, mendiants! Mendiants are essentially tempered chocolate disks embedded with various nuts and dried fruits. For the chocolate, I once again used bittersweet Michel Cluizel. For the nuts, I toasted hazelnuts, slivered almonds, pecan halves, and pine nuts, to really bring out the nutty aromas. For the dried fruits, I used apricots, black cherries, figs, and cranberries. Arranged together, the ingredients made quite an impressive array!

Chocolate-Covered Brown Butter Blondies
adapted from a recipe by Scharffen Berger

• 1 stick unsalted butter, cubed
• 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
• pinch salt
• 1 large egg
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup flour
• 3 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 3.5 oz bar Toblerone milk chocolate candy, broken into chunks
• 25 pecan halves, toasted

Preheat the oven to 350°F and position a rack in the center. Butter a 9" x 9" baking pan and set aside. Place the brown sugar in a large heat-proof bowl and set aside.

In a small pot over low heat, melt the butter. Tilt the pan every now and then and watch the butter carefully — it will first sizzle, then the solids will separate from the fat, before finally turning a light nutty brown color while developing a nutty, toasty aroma. Right when the browning begins (after about five minutes), remove the pan from heat and pour the butter over the brown sugar. Add the salt and stir (the mixture may appear greasy, but this is normal).

Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat until smooth. Stir in the flour and gently mix until just combined.

Turn the batter and spread it (it will be sticky) into the prepared pan. Bake until the top is shiny and a toothpick inserted in the center of the pan comes out clean, about ten to twelve minutes.

Immediately distribute the chocolate pieces on top of the warm blondie layer. Return the pan to the oven for one to two minutes, just enough time to allow the chocolate to soften. With a small offset spatula, spread the melted chocolate in an even layer. Arrange the pecan halves in five rows of five. Let cool completely.

Cut into 25 pieces, one pecan half per piece. Store in a tightly covered container for up to one week.

It's What's For Breakfast!

Inspired by the banana wheat germ pancakes that we always order from Stacks, I decided one morning to whip up my own banana pancake breakfast. For the batter, I used the Arrowhead Mills buckwheat mix without deviation from their instructions. Having made these pancakes several times before, sans banana, I knew that the batter would cook up to fairly fluffy pancakes. So, I sliced the banana into thick slices, about half a banana per six-inch pancake. When the bananas just caramelized, I stacked the finished pancakes three tall, as with a full stack order at Stacks. A few slices of pan-griddled canadian bacon and a light drizzle of maple syrup completed this delicious breakfast!

Hot delicious soup noodle!

We celebrated Thanksgiving and then promptly got sick! But to help cure our nasty cold, we went for some nice big bowls of savory Japanese ramen with our good friends Joy and Mike.

We had seen lots of great reviews on Santa Ramen, a ramen shop located in San Mateo. The reviews also forewarned about the long lines. We arrived around 1:45, hoping to miss the lunch crowd. So while the line was not exceedingly long, there was still a wait. It turns out that Santa either close by 2pm or when the soup stock runs out, which ever one happens first! We arrived just in time to be the last customers. Whew!

The menu was posted on the wall for easy viewing by all. We agonized over all the possible choices and narrowed it down to two (to share of course)!

I picked the pork-flavored ramen with roasted pork while A picked the soy sauce flavored ramen with bean sprouts. Both bowls were satisfyingly delicious. The pork flavored ramen with slices of roasted pork was very rich and savory with just a hint of ginger from the bright red slivers of ginger added to the soup. The soy sauce flavored ramen with bean sprouts did not have as complex soup flavor as the pork flavored ramen with roasted pork but still very rich. A enjoyed the bite in the noodles and the abundance of bean sprouts but felt the soup was a little too salty from too much soy sauce, but I thought it was fine.

We slurped and munched our way to an empty bowl. Well, mostly empty. :) All done!

Spicy Hot!

How many padrone peppers does it take to set my mouth, lips, and throat on fire? According to statistics, 1 out of every 10 peppers will be spicy hot. Nobody knows how to tell which one or why this happens so every pepper is a surprise. For me, it was lucky number 7!

We were first introduced to the padrone peppers at Manresa and found them to be particularly exciting! A culinary gamble if you will. So imagine our delight when we found them being sold at the Mariquita Farm stall at the SF Ferry Building Farmers' Market. We bought a bag of them and cooked them immediately upon arriving home. We heated up about a half an inch of vegetable oil in the tall pot and tossed in the peppers. The peppers were cooked until the skin appear soft and blistered all round. We sprinkled the peppers liberally with fleur de sel and consume them immediately with a big glass of cold milk nearby. :)

Pizza à la Antica

Sunday night, we had dinner with some friends (Joy & Mike) at Pizza Antica over at Santana Row. They had apparently become regulars there on weeknights when they'd had to work late. This thin-crust pizzeria, which prides themselves on using artisan ingredients, had also made its way into our own favorites list.

On this particular visit, J, being the fervent fig fanatic that she is, was on a mission to try one specific pizza on their menu — one whose season was almost over — the Proscuitto de Parma, Black Mission Fig, Gorgonzola and Fontina pizza. And, even though I am allergic to figs (unfortunate, I know), I was sure I'd find one of their other pizzas more than adequate to satisfy me.

We were definitely not disappointed. The four of us shared an equal number of small pizzas, so that we could enjoy a variety of flavors. The fig/proscuitto pizza (we got it with fresh mozzarella in place of the gorgonzola) was a big hit with the other three diners, as expected, and we all agreed that the Spicy Fennel Sausage, Portobello Mushroom and Roasted Onion pizza might just be our all-time favorite. It was news to me, but they apparently make fresh mozzarella in-house and use it on their classic Tomato Sauce, Housemade Mozzarella and Fresh Basil pizza. (I just realized that it says so in the name, but I guess I never noticed that before.. but it does make sense, since I always felt the cheese on this pizza tasted very pure, characteristic of fresh mozzarella.)

Dining at Pizza Antica seems always to inspire me to try my hand at making my own thin-crust pizzas at home. In fact, when we first discovered the restaurant in early summer, J and I had tried to reproduce the flavors in our own oven. I even took pictures and started an entry, but never finished it. Well, here it is now..

We tried to mimic a variety of the ingredients that Pizza Antica used: various meats (Italian sausage, grilled chicken, thinly-sliced soppressata), yukon gold potato and caramelized onion, and tomato and fresh mozzarella.

It was really a time of experimentation, so we ended up with four pizzas with different combinations of toppings:

First, our Potato Onion Pizza got good reviews. It turned out to be quite close to the original Heirloom Potato, Caramelized Onion and White Truffle Oil we had at the restaurant. The only thing we were missing was the truffle oil, but the potato and onion were intense enough to hold their own. This one was definitely a thumbs-up for me. I think J said she was neutral on this one.

Next, our Margherita Pizza disappointed us. It was a bit soggy in comparison with the restaurant's version. This was probably due to the difference in our furnace temperatures. Whereas the restaurant had a wood-fired furnace, which is easily capable of producing that nearly-blackened crisp crust we were after, we had to rely on a pizza stone heated in a home oven. Although the flavors were well blended, the lacking texture got this pizza two thumbs down.

Then, our Meat Lovers' Pizza wowwed us. It was not exactly like the restaurant's Spicy Fennel Sausage, Portobello Mushroom and Roasted Onion pizza, but it had similar flavors. The Italian sausage I'd used was a premade mix, but we could taste a strong fennel seed presence in addition to the pepper that we could visibly see. This got a thumbs-up from both of us.

Finally, we combined the remaining toppings to make a Chicken Potato Onion Pizza, which surprised us. The potato/onion combination was mild, and while J gave this pairing a neutral review before, the addition of smoky-flavored grilled chicken bumped her opinion up to a thumbs-up. I originally thought the addition of grilled chicken would bring down the flavor of the potato/onion original that I already liked, but it was actually not unpleasant. This pizza got two thumbs up as well.

Some other toppings I'd like to try next time include olives/chevre/walnuts, fig/proscuitto (for J), and pesto or garlic with grilled chicken. I think in the to experience great flavor combinations, then perfect the crust, and eventually host a gourmet pizza party to share our it all with our friends.

SHF 13 - Valrhona "Mi-Cuit", Cacao Nib Tuile, Strawberry Sauce, and Yogurt Sorbet

The Valrhona "Mi-Cuit", Cacao Nib Tuile, Strawberry Sauce, and Yogurt Sorbet is our contribution to Lovescool's SHF 13, whose theme is dark chocolate!

The inspiration came from a lovely chocolate mi-cuit we had at Marinus a couple months ago. Not having been so bold as to ask their pastry chef for their guarded recipe, we instead made these molten chocolate cakes, from Jean-George Vongerichten. Despite being accustomed to the darker Scharffen Berger baking chocolates (70% bittersweet and 80% extra dark varieties), we decided to stay true to the recipe and use 61% Valrhona chocolate.

After sitting for a mere minute out of the oven, each molten chocolate cake is inverted and topped with a chocolate cacao nib tuile. As a finishing touch, we added a few drops of strawberry sauce and a scoop of yogurt sorbet, made from Straus' whole milk vanilla yogurt (recipe courtesy of Claudia Fleming's The Last Course).

We could hardly wait for the photos to be taken to dig into this delicious looking and smelling dessert. The molten cakes were cooked slightly more than intended, probably because we didn't have 6 ounce ramekins but had instead used 4 ounce ramekins, but yet forgot to reduce the baking time to account for this change. So, some of the centers were set like the mi-cuit we had hoped to duplicate, much to our delight. We had been a little afraid that the tuiles would turn out to be too thick or inconsistent buttery messes, but were relieved in the end. They were delicate yet crisp, adding a little texture to the otherwise smooth combination of cake and sorbet.

Two things we might do differently when we make this again — to use raspberries instead of strawberries for a more intense and contrasting flavor; and to use our 80% Scharffen Berger chocolate for an extra dark decadence!

A Momentus Feast!

A and I have been really bad about posting. *sheepish* Trying to stay on a healthy well-balanced diet and exercising every day can make maintaining a food blog a wee bit difficult. :( I mean, who wants to see or hear about all the turkey and cucumber whole wheat sandwiches we ate?!

However....

We did have one particularly exciting dinner, about a week ago, that is worth posting. Our friend Joy invited us over for an eight-course extravagant meal that she had prepared. Nope, this wasn't take-out or from a caterer. I am in awe of what she accomplished considering how much prep goes into a meal like this! Look at how many plates we went through!

spicy gazpacho shooter
watermelon-tomato skewer "ferran adria"

blistered corn soup
corn foam, roasted corn, white corn ice

fig, prosciutto, and arugula salad
manchego cheese, marcona almonds, balsamic reduction

seared sea scallop with edamame puree

trio of duck
pan-seared duck breast with quince-onion-potato puree and quince jus
duck confit with caramelized quince
duck hash with yukon gold potatoes, onion, and sauteed quince

pomegranate sorbet

confit of peach with petit suisse

warm chocolate ganache cake
bruléed bananas, yogurt sorbet, chocolate dentelle

And that concludes the end of our fabulous meal. Now who is going to do the dishes? :)

Beautiful Bounty!

If only it's Friday! Gosh. I came home a little cranky and tired but so glad to be home. Wandering around our backyard, A and I found our fig tree abound with tasty little black mission figs. We reaped our bountiful harvest and sat down to eat it as is. Sweet and plump with pretty pink crunchies in the middle. :)

Boulettes' Beignets

Ever since Sam's tip about the delicious beignets offered at Boulettes Larder over in the San Francisco Ferry Building, A and I have been checking in every time we're at the Ferry Market to see if we could perhaps sample the treats. We never seem to have the right timing, because there are never any beignets when we go. Finally, the bright boy, A, asked one of the counter people when they usually offer beignets. Silly us, they only do it on Sundays and we've always been visiting on Saturday!!

So, at long last, we made a special trip this Sunday to have us some beignets with their European hot chocolate. The beignets were little puffs of batter, about twice the size of gnocchi, deep fried and then rolled in cinnamon sugar, yielding a crisp sweet shell that easily gave way to the lightest bite. The texture inside was like that of French-style eggs — creamy, smooth, and, above all, moist. We also had pinolati and russian tea cookies.

Sablés Florentins

While in New York City for J's and my anniversary trip, I picked up a copy of one of Pierre Hermé's early (read: pre- Dorie Greenspan) works, Secrets Gourmands. During the two hours that we spent inside Kitchen Arts & Letters, I used my fading knowledge of the French language, unused since my high school foreign language classes, to browse this fully-French cookbook, from cover to cover. What snippets I could translate greatly inspired me. I bought the cookbook and resolved to start learning French again.

Since that trip, I have bought a decent French-English dictionary and set to translating which ever recipe interested me at bedtime (yes, at bedtime, I read nearly exclusively cookbooks). It was a slow process for a month or two, but I think I've finally built up an adequate French vocabulary as applied to baking.

One night last week, I sat in bed and admired the Sablés Florentins pictured on page 175. In one session, I translated the whole recipe.

I made the pâte sucrée the same night J and I made our tart for SHF 9. The next day, I rolled and baked the pâte and covered it with a layer of almond brittle, which was actually more like taffy than brittle. After the whole sheet cooled, I cut it up into 90 squares of about 2.5 to 3 cm on each side, and then dipped each of them in tempered dark chocolate.

It was all I could do to allow them to cool, before eating the finished sablés. They were absolutely divine! The crust was crumbly, a perfect companion to the chewy almond and caramel. The slightly bitter dark chocolate helped to cut the sweetness of the caramel.

I think J and I ate about 30 pieces in the end, before deciding to share with our friends and family. My coworkers got to share 20 pieces, and J's coworkers got the same. My parents got about 10. And the remaining 10 pieces, I'll chalk up to "quality assurance". *wink*

Bountiful Harvest Continues

The bountiful harvest of summer is so exciting! First we played with 7+ pounds of strawberries and now we have moved onto CHERRIES! The multitude of vendors selling sweet Bing and Rainier cherries convinced us without a doubt that the cherry season has arrived.

The lesson learned from the abundance of strawberries we bought earlier was that as much as you LOVE a fruit, you CANNOT finish several pounds of it before it goes bad. We practiced a bit of restraint this time by only buying 1.5 pounds of cherries, which ended up being just about the right amount. After we had satiated our cherry craving, we still had a bit leftover.

Our friends had invited us to a BBQ at their house, and it's impolite to show up empty-handed so we modified the fig and concord grape clafouti from Claudia Fleming's The Last Course (an absolutely FABULOUS book) to a cherry clafouti.

I'm afraid the picture is not as pretty as I would like. The cherry-dotted golden puffy clafouti had already sunken slightly by the time I got the camera ready. In spite of its mishapen appearance, the clafouti was delicious. The egginess and the texture reminded me of the dutch apple pancake I like to order at Original Pancake House. The halved cherries gave some sweetness and tartness to this "pancake". Though next time, I think I will serve it for breakfast instead of as a dessert at a BBQ. :P

Slurpy noodle soup

A friend invited A and I over to his house for lunch a year ago. His mother made a big stock of unbelievably clear chicken stock lightly flavored with ginger. He used the stock and tossed in vegetables, seafoods, and wide rice noodles and boiled for a minute or two. The flavor was adjusted by adding a sauce composed of fish sauce + sugar + sliced thai bird chili. I recall amusing myself by setting my mouth on fire.

Last night, after a bout of tennis, i found myself craving this delicious noodle soup dish. I cheated by using canned chicken stock instead of making my own. I tossed in chopped napa cabbage and green onions, enoki mushrooms, fish balls, thinly sliced pork, bean sprouts, and cilantro. The sauce was made up of some unknown ratio of fish sauce + sugar + serrano chili as I didn't measure anything. In 15 minutes dinner was served. We enjoyed our version of the Burmese rice noodle soup with spicy sauce. :)

Strawberry waffles galore!

A and I went off to Watsonville with some friends to pick strawberries. We arrived around 11am, a litte anxious about the amount of strawberry left at such a late hour. Fortunately, we were able to reap a bountiful harvest not only in our basket but in our tummy as well. At the end of it all, we were left with 7 pounds of freshly picked strawberries. Seven pounds of strawberries is really TOO much for two people to eat in one or two days so we made LOTS and LOTS of buttermilk waffles topped with macerated strawberries and creme fraiche + heavy whipping cream. How's that for a fabulous Sunday morning breakfast?

Parisian Macarons

Suppose that you wake up on a Saturday morning and you stretch out your kinks. Suppose also that upon looking out your bedroom window, you see a gorgeous blue sky and birds twitterpating about. This inspires you to go somewhere - somewhere exciting - instead of staying cooped up in your house all day. It has been a while since you visited your neighborhood farmers' market. A good start of the strawberry season could compel you to buy a flat of the cute delectable fruits and to make yourself an army of petite strawberry tarts. A thought crosses your mind: "why don't I go and visit the Ferry Market in San Francisco instead?" As exciting as your neighborhood farmers' market could ever be, the SF Ferry Market is dependably at least 10 times more exciting!

The outdoor booths display all sorts of food goodies and fresh produce, from the commonplace to the exotic. The temporary tents are set up as the sun rises and taken down around two o'clock in the afternoon, when the outdoor Ferry Market officially closes. Outdoor is the key here because, just when you think you've amassed the best collection of tasty tidbits from the artisan vendor booths, you notice the masses of people bustling in and out of the Ferry Building, in whose shadow the Ferry Market is set up. The Ferry Building houses merchants and restaurants of many specialties, including bread, cheese, meat, poultry, seafood, pastries, ice cream, chocolate, cookware, and gardening.

Well, suppose on this beautiful Saturday morning, you've filled your shopping bags with organic butternut squash, several bunches of dinosaur kale, and a few jars of June Taylor jams. Your stomach is grumbling, so you head inside the Ferry Building in search of the perfect appetite pleaser. The line at the Hog Island Oyster Bar looks to be way too long on said Saturday, doubled back and out the door. So you settle for a quick meal at Delica-RF1, a delicatessen with Japanese flair. The arugula and fuyu persimmon salad and chicken dumplings were delish and you attacked them with such fervor that you forgot to take pictures of the food for your devoted readers to drool over. This just means another visit another day to get photos!

Your appetite is satiated for the time being, but as you pass the numerous pastry shops, you cannot help but stare longingly at the displays. You finally cave to your sweet tooth and decide to buy some Parisian macarons from Miette. Situated between Tsar Nicoulai Caviar and Ciao Bella Gelato, this organic patisserie happens to have five glass jars filled with lovely macarons on display. While purchasing one of each flavor to try, you pine for the pretty cakes in the display case upon which the macarons sit. Quickly you contemplate whether you could finish an entire Chocolate Cream Layer Cake on the spot, seeing as your hands are already filled with bags. For a moment, you even consider gifting your dino kale to the ladies at the Miette counter and taking home the cake instead. In the end, you resolve to come back the following week with no bags, or else an extra pair of hands, to get your cake and maybe some of the other cute items in the store, including pastel-colored scallop-edged cake stands and assorted candies.

About halfway home, while in the car, you can no longer resist the alluring pull of the macarons so you start nibbling on them. The hazelnut one is your favorite - the organic nut flour used in place of the standard flour enhances both the flavor and texture of the macaron. Before you know it, there is but an empty bag in your hands. Too late once again, you realize that you forgot to take photos of the macarons for your readers. Oh well - there will be plenty more photo opportunities, since you will be going back the following week!

Hot Cocoa!

It was a gloomy and raining morning in the rolling city of San Francisco. We had roused ourselves from the confines of the warm bed and made our way to the San Francisco Ferry Building for a little adventure. Going to the Ferry Building on a Saturday morning to browse the shops and the fresh produce in the stands is always fun. You never know what new things you will be introduced to!

On this trip, we were especially delighted to make the acquaintance of the hot chocolate from the fairly recently opened Boulette's Larder, a beautiful store inside the building. The shelves to one side of the entrance housed an enormous variety of colorful spices in apothecary jars, most of which I've never heard of but would love to try. The counter to the left of the cash register featured tempting array of desserts. (Try the chocolate hazelnut tart. It's really good!) There were so many other interesting products on display that I had to practice great willpower to refrain from buying one of everything in sight.

After seeing three customers in front of me buy the same thing - a steaming cup of hot cocoa - I had a lemming-esque moment, my willpower caved and I bought one too.

I am by no means a connoisseur of hot chocolate as I must confess that my hot chocolates normally originate from those brown unidentified powders sealed in a paper pouch that you mix with hot water. This time, my taste-buds told me, the hot chocolate was different. It was wonderful. Chocolatey. A little bitter. Not too sweet. Creamy. Hot. The perfect hot drink to ward off the dreary February weather in San Francisco. The cup was empty all too quickly.

Masa Harina Pancakes

I know we've been unable to post a new entry for a while now, due to the internet connection being down at home. But that doesn't mean we haven't been cooking and eating!

Here's a quick warm breakfast idea - Masa Harina Pancakes - which we tried a couple weeks ago. Let tinyfork's entry and photo inspire you to drool, and then go make a batch to satisfy your craving for these delectable flapjacks.

I personally enjoyed the delicate crunch presented by the addition of corn meal and the creamy flavor of the masa harina. And don't forget the blueberry syrup and a hot cup of tea! It was the perfect meal to start the day off with a smile.

Ode to Chocolate Sour Cherry Bread

chocolate sour cherry bread
fresh from the store
J took lots of big bites
then there was no more

A and I recently discovered the chocolate sour cherry bread from La Brea bakery and it was fabulous!! The bread itself is chocolatey with large chunks of chocolate liberally sprinkled throughout the loaf. A chocolate bread with chocolate chunks -- that's just TOO much I'd say (yes, there IS such a thing as too much chocolate) but it's not! And the tartness of the cherries was a nice complement to the sweet chocolate.

This sweet bread has been my breakfast treat for the last couple of mornings along with a steaming hot cup of jasmine tea. Delicious breakfast! A girl needs a special little somethin' before she goes out to face the cold and wet commute to work, wouldn't you say?

chocolate sour cherry bread
really fills my heart & head
whenever i smell its scent
i must admit i'm always bent
on finishing it to the very end
-- courtesy of A's creative juices in the wee hours of the morning

Chocolate & Confiture Tart

It turned out that the quantity of Hazelnut Sweet Shortcrust Pastry I had made was a bit more than was needed for the 9" square fluted pan. So, I did what any person would do, I made a few extra tartlets. This allowed me to use some new fluted tartlet tins that I recently purchased. Although these did not have the convenience of lift-out bottoms, they did claim to be nonstick, so I gave them a try. As soon as I slid the crusts into the oven, I started making the filling.

The smell of chocolate wafted up to me as I stirred to melt it in heated heavy cream, forming a chocolatey lake. I used heavy cream in place of the single or pouring cream called for by the recipe only because that was what I had on hand. When I later combined the chocolate-cream with the seven whipped egg yolks, I realized just how rich this filling was going to be. Thick ropes of batter clung to my whisk as I pushed it through the now chocolatey swamp. The guilt began to build again, just as sure as the drool began to form in my mouth.

My conscience got the better of me and left me with no choice but to come up with a way to feel better about consuming this sinful dessert! By the time the crusts were done baking to a golden color, I had my plan formulated. Rummaging through the fridge, I found what I was looking for - a jar of black currant jam, still two-thirds full, leftover from some other culinary adventure. I spread a thin layer of this chunky confiture in the bottom of the square hazelnut shortcrust. I did the same with some adriatic fig spread and some strawberry jam to the two extra tartlet shortcrusts I had baked. Then, I ladled the chocolate filling into each crust, making sure to fill it up as high as possible, for I wouldn't want to any of the chocolate to go to waste!

Try as I might, I simply could not get all of the chocolate soup to fit in the crusts. Once again, I was not going to just throw it out. Grabbing a few ramekins, I filled them with the remaining filling and decided to make some impromptu pots de crèmes.

Finally, into the oven everything went. I kept testing the surface for firmness - a sign to indicate the filling had set properly, and found that my baking times were much longer than the original recipe - I think that it might be due to steam from the layer of confiture at beneath the chocolate. This also caused small craters to form in the surface of the chocolate as the bubbles of steam rose to the top and popped. This resulted in a slightly-less-than-perfect-looking chocolate tart, but it tasted great all the same! The one with the adriatic fig spread was the favorite for both J and myself. Its texture was just right - not as runny as the black currant jam and not as stiff as the strawberry. Next time, we'll be sure to make a larger tart with the fig.

The impromptu pots de crèmes also turned out well. I had to leave them in the oven, turned off, overnight to dry them out. The end result - a few spoonfuls of heaven in each ramekin. This, alongside a healthy slice of the tart, was more than satisfactory for any chocolate craving.

Chocolate & Confiture Tart
adapted from Modern Classics 2
by Donna Hay

Serves 10-12

• 1 quantity hazelnut sweet shortcrust pastry, rolled and baked
• 7 egg yolks
• 2 tablespoons caster (superfine) sugar
• 2-1/3 cups (18½ fl oz) heavy whipping cream
• 200 g (7 oz) bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• ½ cup confiture of choice

Set the oven temperature to 150°C (300°F). Place the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and whisk until the sugar is dissolved. Place the cream in a saucepan over medium heat, bring just to the boil and remove from the heat. Pour the heated cream over the chopped chocolate and let sit for 1 minute, then stir until smooth. Pour the chocolate-cream over the egg yolk mixture and stir to combine.

Spread the confiture in a thin layer on the baked shortcrust shell. Pour the chocolate filling over the confiture and bake for 30-35 minutes or until just set. Cool completely before serving with thick (double) cream and berries if desired.

A Method to Free a Stubborn Bundt Cake

My 10" Calphalon bundt pan finally arrived earlier this week. Inspired by the arrival of this new plaything, I was determined to bake a fantastic marblized swirly bundt cake, one that would even rival anything Martha, the high priestess of all things domestic, could whip up. After much mixing, buttering, toasting, measuring, pouring, chopping, melting, egg-cracking, shifting, and beating, the lovely bundt cake was set to bake for 55min in the 350ºC oven. The tentalizing tendrils of aroma coming from the oven hinted at how great this cake would be.

When pulled from the oven, the cake appears slightly browned and firm to the touch. Very much like how a well-baked cake should look. The cake was left to cool on the kitchen counter as I went off to bed thinking how we'd would have something nice to go with the coffee in the morning.

[screen pans to the next morning]

AAaaHHHhhhh!!! The cake is STUCK to the pan!

It took many tries of whacking the pan against the floor (don't worry, we put paper-towels everywhere) before the cake and pan separated. The cake, for the most part, came out intact. However, the death-like grip of the pan took out a couple of chunks out of my cake. I am sad. Surely there must be some way to dislodge insufficiently buttered bundt cake from the pan! Once again, Martha, the high priestess of all things domestic, reigns supreme! *sigh*

Just For Fun!!

One lazy Saturday afternoon , I was filled to the brim with whimsies. And my whimsies said it was a good day for cookies. So I baked cookies.

One hundred twenty four chocolate chip cookies to be exact. They were warm, soft, and filled with gooey chocolatey domed goodness when it first came out of the oven. There is something extra special about cookies that just came out of the oven. It invokes images and memories of childhood, X'mas , cute kitties/puppies and all things happy and all in the world is good again. But the cookies must eventually cool as such is the nature of warm cookies. So... We ate the no-longer-warmed-but-equally-nice chocolate chip cookies dunked into a nice BIG glass of frothy milk.

What a very nice Saturday afternoon.