Author: Amy

Flourless Chocolate Cake

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our fun with interfaith baking continues, as both Passover and Easter are upon us!  I’m no Torah scholar, so I’ll leave the explanation of the symbols, foods, and rituals of Passover to the fine folks at www.chabad.org.  As a baker, though, I can speak to the creativity that Passover requires; observant bakers turn to matzoh meal, potato flour, and all manner of unleavened ingredients to produce cakes, cookies, and other treats for this special time of year.

Tomorrow night, Mike and I will celebrate the beginning of Passover with a Seder, and for the next eight days, Mike won’t eat chametz, or anything that contains leavened grain, like bread, cereal, pasta, even beer.  I don’t abstain from chametz for two reasons; as a Catholic with Eastern European roots, Easter bread is an important component of my faith tradition, and (to be totally honest) I’m nowhere near disciplined enough.

This cake is an excellent flourless option for Passover; it is very rich, so I recommend slender slices served with fresh whipped cream.  You can omit the espresso powder if you don’t have it and use unsweetened American-style cocoa powder instead of Dutch-process, but if you’d like to stick to the traditional recipe, you can get both ingredients from King Arthur Flour; Williams-Sonoma also carries Dutch-process cocoa.

A note about the chocolate glaze: mine didn’t turn out as smooth as I’d like, which means I need to spend more time stirring it once the chocolate has melted to make sure all of the tiny bits of chocolate are incorporated evenly.

Cake

Ingredients

  • 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
  • ½ cup butter
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon espresso powder
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 3 eggs
  • ½ cup Dutch-process cocoa powder

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Grease a round cake pan; line with parchment paper and grease the parchment.

Cut butter into chunks and combine with chocolate chips in a medium-sized microwave-safe bowl.

Microwave in 30-second intervals until butter melts and chips become very soft, stirring after each interval.  Stir to melt chips completely and transfer to a mixing bowl.

Add sugar, espresso powder, and vanilla and beat until just combined.

Add eggs and beat until incorporated.

Add cocoa powder and beat until just combined.

Gently pour batter into pan and bake for 25 minutes, until the top of the cake has formed a crust.

Cool in the pan for 5 minutes; loosen edges with the tip of a knife and invert onto a cake stand or serving plate.

Allow to cool completely before glazing.

Garnish with toasted sliced almonds, if desired.

Chocolate Glaze

Ingredients

  • 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
  • ½ cup heavy cream

Preparation

Combine chocolate chips and heavy cream in a saucepan and heat until cream is very hot, but not simmering.

Remove from heat and stir until completely smooth.

Pour over cake, allowing to drip over the sides.

Allow the glaze to harden for several hours before serving.

Oh, how I love cookbooks…

Last weekend, while visiting family in Ashton, Maryland, I flipped through the Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook and knew instantly that I had to have it.  Back in the Day Bakery is actually located in Savannah, Georgia, and it will definitely be on my list of places to visit should Mike and I ever travel there.

I spent a good part of the drizzly Saturday afternoon reading recipe after recipe, making mental notes of which ones I wanted to try.  My first experiment will be the cinnamon-sugar doughnut muffin, which I cannot wait to bake after I get through my Passover/Easter projects.  Other gems on my list are a lovely lemon loaf, sweet potato cupcakes, chocolate mint cookies, and buttermilk chess pie.

I own 30 cookbooks; of those, 13 are specifically dedicated to baking.  I’ve been fortunate that both Mike and my sister-in-law Kristin tend to give me cookbooks for my birthday and holidays; I’ve amassed quite a collection varying from the sophisticated tastes of Martha Stewart to Warren Brown’s fun, quirky United Cakes of America.

Please share with me – what is your favorite cookbook, and which ones should I add to my collection?

 

Almond Cookies

 

 

 

 

 

Meet my favorite cookie ever.  All I need is a cup of tea, a plate of these, and I’m in heaven.

This recipe is another gem from my grandma Zella; it is simple, with only five ingredients, and the cookies have a slightly crumbly texture reminiscent of biscotti.  They pair very well with coffee or tea, and yes…I have eaten them for breakfast.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 ¼ cups shortening
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon almond extract
  • 3 ¼ cups flour

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Measure out flour into a medium bowl and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream together sugar and shortening.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each.

Add half the flour, along with the almond extract, and beat to combine.

Add the remaining flour and beat until well combined.  The dough should be soft, but easy to roll into balls.  If your dough is too soft or sticky, add one to two tablespoons of additional flour to achieve a firmer texture.

Using a small cookie scoop, scoop out dough and roll into balls.  Place on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 15 minutes, or until light golden brown.

Cool on a wire rack.

Vanilla Buttercream

 

 

 

 

 

Vanilla buttercream is the little black dress of the baking world.  It goes with everything, from a chocolate birthday cake to a strawberry-filled almond wedding cake.  You cannot go wrong with this smooth, mellow, just-sweet-enough frosting.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 3 to 3 ¼ cups powdered sugar, sifted
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1 to 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoons milk

Preparation

Place butter in a mixing bowl and beat for a few minutes using the paddle attachment.

Add 3 cups powdered sugar.  With your mixer on low, incorporate the powdered sugar into the butter.  (Hint: I find that placing a kitchen towel over the mixer during this stage prevents a powdered sugar blizzard.)

Increase speed and add 1 tablespoon vanilla, salt, and milk.

Beat for 3 minutes, then taste.  If you’d like a stronger vanilla flavor, add the second tablespoon of vanilla, along with the additional ¼ cup of powdered sugar.  Beat until combined.

For thinner buttercream, add additional milk, one tablespoon at a time, until you reach the desired consistency.

Lemon Vanilla Glaze

 

 

 

 

 

Glaze icings pair well with dense cakes, like pound cakes or butter cakes.  They’re very easy to make and embellish; you could use orange juice as an alternative to the lemon juice below, or omit the citrus and stir in some cocoa powder for a chocolate glaze.

The most important part of a glaze icing is its consistency, which needs to be thin enough to drizzle, but thick enough to set.  Remember that you can always add more liquid to make the icing thinner, so start with the smallest amount and gradually stir in more liquid until you’ve reached the desired consistency; if you do add too much liquid, add one additional tablespoon of powdered sugar at a time to thicken it.

Ingredients

  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2-4 tablespoons water

Preparation

Combine powdered sugar, lemon juice, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons water in a large, 4-cup glass measuring cup.  Continue adding water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until you reach the desired consistency; glaze should be drizzly, but not too thin.  Pour or drizzle over cake, allowing glaze to drip down the sides.

Cream Cheese Frosting

 

 

 

 

 

Cream cheese frosting is a classic companion to carrot cake and red velvet cake, but it can certainly be used for a variety of cakes or cupcakes.  I’m not sure who decided that blending cream cheese with powdered sugar, butter, and vanilla extract would be a good idea, but thank goodness they did, eh?

Ingredients

  • 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 4 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract

In a mixing bowl, cream together cream cheese and butter.

Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, beating after each addition.

Add vanilla and beat well.

Store frosted cake or cupcakes in the refrigerator to be on the safe side.  We are talking about cream cheese, after all.

Nut Roll

 

 

 

 

 

Food is a powerful link to heritage and cultural tradition.  My paternal grandparents, Andy and Zella Kozusko, prepared many Slovak and Hungarian foods at holidays, and while I refused to eat pig’s feet, hrudka (eggs and milk cooked together to make a sort of “cheese”), and hard-boiled eggs soaked in beet juice, I always loved nut roll.  Zella made nut rolls and poppy seed rolls each Christmas and Easter, and I planned to use her recipe, which called for fresh yeast, for this baking adventure.  I did a bit of reading about fresh yeast, and learned the hard way that when the yeast experts say fresh yeast is highly perishable, they really mean it.  The cake I bought went moldy in less than a week, even though it wasn’t anywhere near its expiration date.  Oh well.

Since I had plenty of active dry yeast, I found another recipe online and used jars of nut filling instead of making my own from scratch.  While these turned out to be very tasty, all but one of my four rolls split while baking, oozing filling out the sides.  Next time, I think I’ll make my own filling, not roll the dough as thin, and not spread the filling on as thick.  I also hope to learn the secrets of perfect nut roll preparations from a friend of my mom’s who bakes them each Christmas with his family, which Mike jokingly called my “nut roll internship.”  I can only hope!

Ingredients

  • 6-7 cups flour
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 2 packages active dry yeast (1/4 ounce each)
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 8 ounces sour cream
  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • ½ cup water
  • 3 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 3 jars nut filling

Preparation

Grease a large bowl and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, combine two cups flour with the sugar, yeast, and salt.

In a medium saucepan, combine butter, sour cream, and water.  Heat to 120 – 130 degrees, then combine with flour mixture and beat for two minutes.

Add ½ cup flour and eggs.  Beat for two minutes.

Using a wooden spoon, stir in enough flour to make a soft dough, then turn onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes.

Place in greased bowl, turning over once to coat, and let rise until doubled in size.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Punch dough down and divide into four portions; form each portion into a ball, then press it down and roll it into a 12×12 square.

Spread each square with a thin layer of nut filling, leaving an edge of about 1 inch on each side.  Roll up into a log, pinching the seam to seal it and carefully tucking the ends under.  Place seam-side down on the baking sheet.

Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size; I preheat my oven while the dough is rising to help it along.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, until lightly browned.

Cool on parchment on wire racks.

Sugar Cut-Outs

 

 

 

 

 

Several Thanksgivings ago, I delighted my family with an array of pumpkins, acorns, and what my cousins Barb and Robb called anatomically correct turkeys.  In truth, the turkeys weren’t quite anatomically correct, but rather decked out with sprinkles and colored sugar to make them look as festive as real toms do.

Since St. Patrick’s Day is this Saturday, and I’m baking up a storm for Mike’s Masonic lodge meeting tomorrow night, I decided to do some shamrock cut-outs.  You could easily sprinkle these with green sugar, but I iced them with the almond-vanilla frosting recipe that was passed down to me by my grandmother, Zella.  For the icing recipe, check out Zella’s Icing.

Ingredients

  • ½ cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

Preparation

Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.

Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy.

Add egg and beat well.

Add vanilla and about half the flour mixture, beating until combined; beat in remaining flour.

Note: if your dough is too crumbly, you can add just a bit of water or another ¼ teaspoon of vanilla.

Divide dough in half and knead each just slightly until dough sticks together.  Form each half into a disc and wrap in plastic.

Refrigerate until just barely firm, about 20-30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Roll dough to 1/8 inch thickness and cut into desired shapes.

Bake for 8-10 minutes, until just golden.

Cool on a wire rack.

Zella’s Icing

 

 

 

 

 

This icing frosted my childhood.  My grandmother, Gizella Bodnar Kozusko, used it on each birthday cake and sugar cut-out; it was her frosting of choice for nearly every treat that required, or could simply benefit from, an icing.

Zella was born in Budapest and came to the United States when she was about seven years old; she and my grandpap, Andy, lived conveniently five doors down from my childhood home.  Much of what I learned about baking, I learned from Zella; she was the primary baker in our family, the one who made the birthday cakes, the holiday treats, the desserts for every day.  No visit to their house was complete without a cupcake, cookie, Rice Krispie treat, slice of nut roll, or other confection from her many recipe boxes.

This recipe can be very easily doubled or tripled, when necessary.  It is a sturdy frosting that holds up well for decorating cakes.

Ingredients

  • 1 egg white
  • 3 tablespoons shortening
  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • Dash of salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon almond extract
  • 1-2 teaspoons water

Preparation

Combine egg white, shortening, salt, and one cup powdered sugar in a mixing bowl.  Beat on low speed until combined, then increase speed to medium, then high, and beat for one minute.

Add additional cup powdered sugar and beat on low speed until combined, then on high speed for one minute.

Add vanilla and almond extracts.  Beat on high speed for one or two minutes, until very well combined.

Check the frosting’s texture; it should be like very, very soft peanut butter and very easily spreadable.  If necessary, add one to two teaspoons of water to thin the frosting and beat well to combine.

Note: when doubling or tripling the recipe, it’s very important to beat the mixture well after each addition of powdered sugar, then for a few minutes after the additions of extract and water.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Home.  Comfort.  Family.  Love.  The chocolate chip cookie embodies these concepts unlike any other baked good.  Let’s thank Ruth Graves Wakefield, proprietor of the Toll House Inn, for the invention of this iconic treat, a staple in the baking repertoires of moms, grandmas, aunts, godmothers, kind neighbor ladies, and bloggers.

I could bake chocolate chip cookies in my sleep.  They’re Mike’s favorites from my arsenal, always his answer when I ask what I should bake.  The recipe below is based on the Toll House recipe, with a few very minor tweaks.

Ingredients

  • 2 ¼ cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • ¾ cup brown sugar (very generously packed)
  • ¾ cup white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2-3 teaspoons vanilla extract*
  • 1 12-ounce bag milk chocolate chips

*I like a lot of vanilla in my cookies, but you could stick to the standard 1 1/4 teaspoons that the original recipe calls for if you like.

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugars until fluffy.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Add vanilla, beating well.

Add half the flour mixture and beat; add remaining flour and beat until well-combined.

Stir in chocolate chips.

Using a two-inch cookie scoop, place on cookie sheets about two inches apart; I bake six cookies at a time on each baking sheet.

Bake for 11-12 minutes, until nicely browned.

Cool on a wire rack.