Crepes Kristina

This is a dish that I've helped Kristina assemble for office parties. Unbelievably yummy for any time of day. The recipe is easy to double or triple, if you've got a crowd on your hands.

Crepes Kristina

For crepes:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter, melted

For filling:
1 jar Nutella
4 bananas (or however much you like)

1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour and the eggs. Gradually add in the milk and water, stirring to combine. Add the salt and butter; beat until smooth.
2. Peel and slice bananas. Set aside.
3. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each crepe. Tilt the pan with a circular motion so that the batter coats the surface evenly.
4. Cook the crepe for about 2 minutes, until the bottom is light brown. Loosen with a spatula, turn and cook the other side.
5. Spread each crepe generously with Nutella. Lay banana slices, overlapping, down the center. Roll up and serve sprinkled with powdered sugar (or not, as you like).

Chocolate Waffles

Chocolate is good for what ails you. Or, more accurately, me. When I eat flavonol-rich chocolate or drink Cacao Royale, I feel endorphins surge through my blood. I feel awake, alive, and very sexy. I hope you do, too.

Chocolate Waffles

1 1/3 cups sifted cake flour (works with all-purpose flour, too)
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled
1/2 cup milk

Sift the flour together with baking powder and salt.
In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar.
Beat in eggs one at a time. Stir in vanilla and chocolate.
Add the sifted ingredients alternately with the milk.
Using a measuring cup, dip batter onto hot waffle iron. Close iron and bake 4 to 5 minutes or until steaming stops.

I love these topped with vanilla ice cream and strawberries. Yes, for breakfast. Mmmmmmmmm...

Sachertorte

Saturday night, my husband and I dined for the first time at a restaurant that specializes in central and eastern European cuisine. The place is charming, all tin ceiling, antique fixtures, and framed sheet music. On Saturday evenings, the restaurant features a pianist, so we were treated to Beethoven sonatas galore as we dined. At the end of our meal, I ordered a slice of Sachertorte, a recipe I have often read but never sampled. Here is a version of the famous dessert. I can't claim authenticity (the original recipe, from the Hotel Sacher in Vienna, is a closely-guarded secret); this is just one of many variations you'll find out and about in search of chocolate bliss.

From The Joy of Cooking, including the charming legend of Frau Sacher (I can't claim authenticity for the story, either).

Sachertorte

Makes one 9-inch cake

Frau Sacher, one of the great personalities of Vienna, fed the impoverished Austrian nobility in her famous restaurant long after they had ceased to pay. Today she is remembered throughout the world for her chocolate torte, for which endless recipes, all claiming authenticity, abound. We make no claims but think the following delicious. The extra egg white makes a lighter cake.

Have all ingredients at room temperature, about 70°F. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Grease and flour the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan or line with wax or parchment paper.

Grate:

6 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate

Beat in a large bowl at medium-high speed until light and creamy about 3 minutes:

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

Beat in one at a time:

6 large egg yolks

Add the grated chocolate and:

3/4 cup dry bread crumbs
1/4 cup finely ground blanched almonds
1/4 teaspoons salt

Using clean beaters, beat in a large bowl at medium-high speed until stiff but not dry:

6 or 7 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Fold one-quarter of the whites into the batter, then fold in the remaining whites. Scrape the batter into the pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 50 minutes to 1 hour. Let the cake cool completely in the pan on a rack. Remove the sides of the pan and slice the torte horizontally into 2 layers. Should the top be mounded, reverse the layers so the finished cake has a flat top. Spread between the layers:

1 cup apricot jam or preserves

Cover the cake with:

Bittersweet Chocolate Glaze, below

which should retain its glossy sheen. For a really Viennese effect, garnish each slice with a great gob of Schlag, or whipped cream.


Bittersweet Chocolate Glaze or Frosting

About 1 cup

A very sophisticated glaze or frosting to use on rich chocolate or nut tortes. For an even more bittersweet effect, substitute 1 ounce unsweetened chocolate for 1 ounce of the bittersweet or semisweet chocolate.

Heat in the top of a double boiler or in a microwave on medium, stirring often, just until the chocolate is melted and smooth:

6 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/ 3 cup water, coffee, or milk
pinch of salt

Remove from the heat. With a rubber spatula, stir in 2 or 3 pieces at a time:

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Continue to stir -- do not beat -- until perfectly smooth.

Optional: Stir in 1 to 2 tablespoons liqueur

For a pourable glaze, let stand at room temperature, stirring occasionally, until the mixture cools to 90°F. For frosting, let stand until spreadable. If the frosting becomes too stiff, set the pan in a larger pan of hot water and stir gently with a rubber spatula; or remelt and then cool to 90°F for use as a glaze. This keeps for up to 3 days at room temperature or up to 3 weeks refrigerated.

No-Bake Drop Cookies

My mother made these often. They never lasted long, especially once Daddy found them. He loved these. I still do, too. We just called them "drop cookies," so I was surprised while reading Mom's cookbooks, as a little girl, to see recipe after recipe for baked drop cookies. This recipe is nice for summer because it cooks on top of the stove. I don't know if these cookies are, like Big Boy restaurants, "a Michigan thing," but I've never encountered them outside my beautiful mother state.

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1 stick butter or margarine
1/2 cup milk (or evaporated milk; my friend Heather's mother used it)
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups "quick oats" oatmeal

In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, cocoa, butter or margarine, and milk. Bring to a boil and cook for 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and add peanut butter and vanilla, stirring until the mixture is no longer glossy. Stir in the oatmeal. Drop by spoonfuls (whatever size you like) onto a cookie sheet or waxed paper. Let cool until firm, and enjoy!

You might like less oatmeal, or you might like part oats and part chopped walnuts, or flaked unsweetened coconut. You could also use chunky/crunchy peanut butter.

Sometimes, when we were short of cocoa, my mother simply omitted it and we had peanut-butter fudge cookies. Mmmmmm!

Black Forest Brownies

Whether you start with a family recipe or a boxed mix, brownies are always wonderful -- at least, I've never met one I didn't like. My favorite way to serve and eat brownies, especially for "occasions," is a kind of rearranged (or disarranged) Black Forest gâteau.

Black Forest Brownies

Your favorite brownie recipe
OR: a "family-size" (9"x13") box of brownie mix
1 can of cherry pie filling
1 oz. Kirschwasser
1 half-gallon vanilla ice cream
whipped cream

Pour the cherries into a small bowl and stir in the Kirschwasser. Let stand at room temperature while brownies are baking.

Mix and bake brownies in a 9"x13" pan. Cool to lukewarm. Slice the brownies into your favorite size squares.

For each serving:
Place one brownie on a dessert plate. Top with a scoop of ice cream and a generous spoonful (or however much you like) of cherries. Place another brownie on top of the ice cream and cherries, pressing it down so that it sits securely (or not, as you like!). Pour another generous spoonful of cherries over the second brownie and top with a big fluff of whipped cream.

Now dig in and enjoy!

As with all my recipes (the ones not given to me by Kristina, that is), there's a lot of room to improvise with this one. Warm the cherry-kirsch mixture before serving. Try mint-chocolate chip ice cream and substitute hot fudge for the cherries. I've made this with chocolate cake, too; I baked a 9"x13" cake, cut it into squares, and split each square into two layers before proceeding as above. Mix it up and make it your own, but most of all, enjoy it!

Chocolate Chili Cookies

Feeling robust? I know I am, and not just because it's Sexy Girls Eat Dessert Friday. I seem to have turned the corner with my healing, and I feel really good, even though my tummy is still a bit sore and the incisions are itchy. Nourishing myself with good food and nurturing myself with long, guiltless naps have made me almost well again. I am amazed at and thankful for my body's power to heal itself.

With snow predicted for tomorrow, I think it's time to make another batch of these magical cookies. At Christmas, these were a big hit with the men in my family; my uncles snapped them up so quickly, I was lucky to have one for myself. Another smash hit from Kristina!

Kristina says:
"This recipe is from Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Chocolate Desserts. I tried to give the cookbook away to a friend who loves to make chocolate desserts but he forgot to take it home. Then I discovered the Chocolate Chili recipe, and this book’s not going anywhere now. I was in search of the perfect chocolate/lime combination in a dessert, and by adding lime juice to the cookies, I think I’ve found it."

1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
Pinch ground black pepper
Pinch cayenne pepper
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 sticks sweet butter
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup sugar
1 egg
Lime juice

Sift together the flour, cocoa, salt, pepper, cayenne, and cinnamon and set aside. In the large bowl of an electric mixer cream the butter. Add the vanilla and sugar and beat to mix thoroughly. Beat in the egg, then on low speed gradually add the sifted dry ingredients, scraping the bowl with a rubber spatula and beating only until mixed.

Shape the dough into a cylinder about 10 inches long and about 2 inches in diameter.

Wrap the dough in wax paper and place it in the freezer until firm. Or it may be kept frozen.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. With a sharp, heavy knife cut it into slices 1/4 inch thick.

Bake 10 or 11 minutes, reversing the sheets once during baking. Watch them carefully to make sure they do not burn.

Let them cool for a few seconds on the sheets until firm enough to be moved. Then, with a wide spatula, transfer cookies to racks to cool.

Brush the top of each cookie with lime juice.

Queen Mother Cake a la Kristina

It's Sexy Girls Eat Dessert Friday, and this is one of my favorites!

Kristina does it again with her adaptation of Maida Heatter's classic Queen Mother Cake. I feel sure that were you to look up "decadence" in the dictionary, you'd find this recipe. It's an ultrarich chocolate torte, and with Maida's thorough instructions and Kristina's notes (in italics), you can't make a mistake. I suggest reading it through once or twice before plunging in, just to be sure you have everything you need. Try adding your own "optionals" at the end. Most of all, savor the richness. Mmmmmmmm!

Queen Mother Cake

6 ounces (scant 1 1/2 cups) blanched or unblanched almonds (too much trouble, just buy almond meal)
6 ounces semisweet chocolate, cut into small pieces
3/4 cup granulated sugar
6 ounces (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
6 eggs, separated
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon lemon juice

First toast the almonds in a single layer in a shallow pan in a 350 degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes, shaking the pan a few times, until the almonds are lightly colored and have a delicious smell of toasted almonds when you open the oven door. Set aside to cool.

You know I love all the directions that Maida gives; She makes it mostly foolproof, but this is too much work for me. I just buy almond meal and use about 1 ½ cups. It’s worked so far with no complaints.

Adjust a rack one-third up in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9 x 3-inch springform pan and line the bottom with a round of baking pan liner paper cut to fit. Butter the paper. Dust the pan all over with fine dry, bread crumbs, invert over paper, and tap lightly to shake out excess. Set the prepared pan aside.

I don’t have bread crumbs and flouring the pan worked fine. Don’t skip the baking liner because you’ll die trying to get the cake out the pan without it. With the liner it just slides out.

Place the chocolate in the top of a small double boiler over warm water on moderate heat. Cover until partially melted, then uncover and stir until just melted and smooth. Remove the top of the double boiler and set it aside until tepid or room temperature.

Microwaves work wonderfully for melting chocolate. Just do it on a low power setting and make sure you pay attention and stir occasionally.

Place the almonds and 1/4 cup of the sugar (reserve remaining 1/2 cup sugar) in a food processor fitted with a metal chopping blade. Process very well until the nuts are fine and powdery. Stop the machine once or twice, scrape down the sides, and continue to process. Process for at least a full minute. I have recently realized that the finer the nuts are, the better the cake will be. Set aside the ground nuts.

In the large bowl of an electric mixer beat the butter until soft. Add 1/4 cup of the sugar (reserve the remaining 1/4 cup sugar) and beat to mix. Add the egg yolks one at a time, beating and scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary until smooth. On low speed add the chocolate and beat until mixed. Then add the processed almonds and beat, scraping the bowl, until incorporated.

Now the whites should be beaten in the large bowl of the mixer. If you don't have an additional large bowl for the mixer, transfer the chocolate mixture to any other large bowl. Wash the bowl and the beaters.

In the large bowl of the mixer, with clean beaters, beat the egg whites with the salt and lemon juice, starting on low speed and increasing it gradually. When the whites barely hold a soft shape, reduce the speed a bit and gradually add the remaining 1/4 cup sugar. Then, on high speed, continue to beat until the whites hold a straight point when the beaters are slowly raised. Do not overbeat.

Getting the eggs separated without any stray yolk in the whites is critical. I was lazy one time and tried to beat whites with a dab of yellow and the whites stayed soupy and wouldn’t hold a peak. The cake still tasted like chocolate but it was much denser.

Stir a large spoonful of the whites into the chocolate mixture to soften it a bit. Then, in three additions, fold in the remaining whites. Do not fold thoroughly until the last addition and do not handle any more than necessary.

Turn the mixture into the prepared pan. Rotate the pan a bit briskly from left to right in order to level the batter.

Bake for 20 minutes at 375 degrees and then reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and continue to bake for an additional 50 minutes (total baking time is 1 hour and 10 minutes). Do not overbake; the cake should remain soft and moist in the center. (The top might crack a bit -- it's okay.)

It must be my oven runs hot, but I’ve never baked it for even an hour. The cake always looks done when I check it early. I’ve never seen the top looking soft and moist so maybe my cakes have always been over cooked.

The following direction was in the original recipe, and although I do not understand why, I always do it. Wet and slightly wring out a folded towel and place it on a smooth surface. Remove the cake pan from the oven and place it on the wet towel. Let stand until tepid, 50 to 60 minutes.

Sounds crazy, but I am convinced that using the wet towel does something important. If anything, it makes a lovely sizzling sound when you put the hot cake pan on it.

Release and remove the sides of the pan (do not cut around the sides with a knife--it will make the rim of the cake messy). Now let the cake stand until it is completely cool, or longer if you wish.

The cake will sink a little in the middle; the sides will be a little higher. Use a long, thin, sharp knife and cut the top level. Brush away loose crumbs.

Place a rack or a small board over the cake and carefully invert. Remove the bottom of the pan and the paper lining. The cake is now upside down; this is the way it will be iced. Place four strips of baking pan-liner paper (each about 3 x 12 inches) around the edges of a cake plate. With a large, wide spatula carefully transfer the cake to the plate; check to be sure that the cake is touching the papers all round (in order to keep the icing off the plate when you ice the cake).

If you have a cake-decorating turntable or a lazy Susan, place the cake plate on it.

Icing
1/2 cup whipping cream
2 teaspoons powdered (not granular) instant espresso or coffee (recommended: Medaglia D'Oro instant espresso)

Ha, whatever. Espresso vs. Bailey's Caramel. Bailey's wins hands down. I use about 1/4 to 1/3 cup

8 ounces semisweet chocolate, cut into small pieces
Scald the cream in a 5- to 6-cup saucepan over moderate heat until it begins to form small bubbles around the edges or a thin skin on top. Add the dry espresso or coffee and whisk to dissolve. Add the chocolate and stir occasionally over heat for 1 minute. Then remove the pan from the heat and whisk or stir until the chocolate is all melted and the mixture is smooth.

Don’t eat it all before you frost the cake!

Let the icing stand at room temperature, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes or a little longer until the icing barely begins to thicken.
Then, stir it to mix, and pour it slowly over the top of the cake, pouring it onto the middle. Use a long, narrow metal spatula to smooth the top and spread the icing so that a little of it runs down the sides (not too much--the icing on the sides should be a much thinner layer than on the top). With a small, narrow metal spatula, smooth the sides.
Remove the strips of paper by pulling each one out toward a narrow end.

Do NOT carry the iced cake on a flat plate and tip it towards yourself and it slides into your shirt right at chest level unless of course you have a special someone handy. This caused a bit of marital tension at the last party to which I took the cake.

Optional:
Chocolate curls or chocolate shavings
Whipped cream
Fresh raspberries

Decorate the cake or individual portions with optional chocolate curls or chocolate shavings (try chocolate shavings formed with a vegetable parer and made with milk chocolate). Place a mound of optional whipped cream (lightly sweetened with confectioner’s sugar and lightly flavored with vanilla extract) on one side of each portion on individual dessert plates, and a few optional raspberries on the other side of each portion.

Chocolate Chip Scones - because sexy girls eat dessert!

It's "Sexy Girls Eat Dessert" Friday! Look forward to something sweet at the end of the workweek!

My friend Kristina brings these to the office sometimes, so I can vouch for the deliciousness of this recipe -- excellent with tea and berries, and great on their own, too. Kristina says the recipe was designed to be served as strawberry shortcake. Try it, and see what you think!

Chocolate Chip Scones

Ingredients:
3 ½ cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
¾ cup cold butter
2 cups chocolate chips
1 ½ cups buttermilk

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Mix together the flour, sugar, and dry ingredients. Cut the butter into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter or fork until it is well worked in and crumbly. Add the chocolate chips. Stir in the buttermilk and/or knead the dough until it sticks together in a loose ball.

Roll out to 1/2 inch thick and cut into scone portions. Bake on a greased cookie sheet for 12-14 minutes or until the tops begin to turn golden.

Spicy Hot Cocoa

Makes one 12 oz. mugful.

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa*
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
dash salt
dash cayenne
dash black pepper
very hot water
whipped cream (if desired)

Mix all the dry ingredients in a large mug. Pour in enough hot water to fill the mug halfway. Stir thoroughly before topping up the mug with more hot water. Add the vanilla and stir. Top with whipped cream and enjoy!

*To get maximum flavonoids (the antioxidants found in cacao), avoid Dutch-process cocoa. Flavonoids are good for your skin, as this study shows. Woo hoo!

This is how I make it. You might like more sugar (or a sugar substitute, if you must) or less spice, or you might like to substitute hot milk for the water (try almond milk for a thicker drink -- top notch!). Or you might like to cook it all together in a saucepan (just remember to add the vanilla extract after you've taken it off the heat). Improvise! That's what makes me happy -- you never know what wonder-full thing you'll discover.