Almost Traditional Bread Pudding, con't

  

Here's the promised photo, I'll post the recipe tonight.

Almost Traditional Bread Pudding

As I mentioned when I made the chocolate chip bread pudding, Pops didn't like the chocolate chips too much.  He wanted a more traditional bread pudding, so I made him one!  The main change I made was to substitute raisins for the chocolate chips.  I also added some Grand Marnier (instead of rum) and orange zest.  I realize this may be a step away from the traditional, but it was really good!  I tweaked some other things as well, stay tuned for that.  Pops whipped up some heavy cream to put on top of the hot pudding and that was that.

I'll be posting a photo and the recipe tomorrow!

Well, I just started my last semester of college...

My last semester of college started two weeks ago and, as you might have guessed from my absence, it has not been a slow start!  Having a long winter break is wonderful, but it makes it harder to get back into the swing of things.  I'm pretty sure I'm back, though, so you'll be hear plenty from me again!  

It's late and I have a ton of reading to do tomorrow, so I won't post anything new tonight.  But I'll give you a preview of what's yet to come: I will be posting a recipe for almost traditional bread pudding, I will be blogging about my new favorite scones (from Sarabeth's cookbook), and I will be giving a riveting English Lit presentation.  Hold on, that's not quite right, that last one's for school not my blog...  (See what I mean about being busy?!)

Jalapeño

I ate dessert out tonight.  It was very nice.  We tried a new Mexican restaurant (new as in opened recently and new as in we've never been there) called Jalapeño.  The food was excellent.  It wasn't quite Mexican, it was sort of New Mexican...in other words it definitely wasn't traditional Mexican and was actually a tiny bit fancy.

I had a chicken mole burrito which was excellent.  But that isn't what I want to talk about.  I want to tell you about the dessert I had.  I had the Mexican hot chocolate and a doughnut.  The hot chocolate wasn't chocolatey enough but was still very nice.  It was clearly made fresh, and not just heated in the microwave. It was definitely made in a pan; you could taste the sweetness of the scalded milk.  The doughnut was amazing. The menu said it was a cinnamon sugar doughnut, but I barely tasted cinnamon (though that could be because I'd already burnt my tongue on the hot chocolate.)  I didn't mind though...it was light and not at all greasy and really big! Plus it was coated in sugar...yum!

Chocolate Chocolate Chunk Brownies, con't

    

Here's a photo of the chocolate brownies I made.  Sorry the photo isn't great, I really wanted to eat them!

Chocolate Chocolate Chunk Brownies

As I alluded to, I may have found my new favorite brownies.  My old favorite being from Nigella Lawson's cookbook Feast, you can read about them here.  I never thought I'd find brownies I liked more than those squidgy, rich, intensely chocolatey brownies.  Yet, Nigella seems to have topped herself!  In her newest cookbook, Nigella Kitchen, she has a new brownie recipe.  It is really simple and incredible!

She calls for 6 oz of milk chocolate...I didn't have that, so I used the 2 oz I did have and then 2 oz of good white chocolate and 2 oz of semi-sweet.  It worked very nicely.  Plus, there's a ton of cocoa powder in them too, so they are not lacking in chocolate!  Nigella says to line a brownie pan with foil to make serving and clean up easier.  It certainly does!  I've always used parchment to line pans, but the foil is much easier to work with, albeit a little harder to serve from (but not hard by any means).

The reason I like these more is that they are slightly more brownie-like.  What I mean is the texture is more fudgy and dense than squidgy.  Not that squidgy isn't good--it's great--it just isn't quite what you expect from a brownie.  Plus these are really, really simple to make.  I don't mind complex recipes usually, but there is something so therapeutic about eating brownies, I don't see why that shouldn't extend to the baking of them and the simpler them more therapeutic I find a recipe!

P.S. I promise I'll post a photo soon!

News Flash

I think I have found my new favorite brownies!  I'm heading out tonight, so I'll tell you more tomorrow.  Suffice it to say that these rock!

Oh Christmas Tree, con't, update

We took down our Christmas tree today.  I realized I never counted how many cookie ornaments I had put on it, so I counted them as I took them off.  There were:

• 41 gingerbread (both iced and plain)
• 16 stained glass sugar cookies

Pretty impressive I think!  

My mom and I decided that it is so much easier to take down the tree without real ornaments on it that we've already decided we are going to do this again next year.  I can't wait!

Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding, con't

Oops, I forgot to blog about this yesterday.  You know, I'm not sure I like using the word "blog" as a verb...it feels very unnatural.  I digress.

This bread pudding was really excellent and incredibly easy to make...even easier than other bread puddings I've made.  The recipe, from Nigella Kitchen, replaced the traditional dried fruit with chocolate chips.  That isn't a problem for me as I prefer chocolate to raisins.  However my pops, being British, wanted raisins in it, so I added them to the recipe.  He still wasn't thrilled about the chocolate (that didn't stop him from eating it, don't get me wrong!)  Next time around, and that will be soon, I'll try it with no chocolate and see how it comes out.

Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding

Doesn't that look lovely?  Basically it's bread, cream, milk, eggs, sugar, liquor, raisins, and chocolate chips baked together in a pie plate.  I'll tell you more tomorrow...

Cocoa Brownies

     

It made a ton of brownies because I cut them into little tiny squares to give away, but usually I wouldn't make as many in a pan as are shown in this picture of part of the pan!

This is the final installment of the Christmas cookies.  These cocoa brownies, from the Fat Witch Bakery cookbook, get their chocolatyness from cocoa power rather than chocolate, as the name implies.  They're really good!  I'm a fudgy brownie fan, and these are quite fudgy and dense and very chocolaty.  They are also incredibly easy to make and clean up (you don't need a mixer or even a bowl!).

A few of my cookbooks lament that no one uses cocoa powder anymore.  I personally use it pretty frequently and I have a ton of recipes that call for it, so I'm not sure why they think that.  But if they are right and I'm the exception, I completely agree with them that it is a terrible shame that people don't use it.  My point is, if you see a recipe for something chocolate that calls for cocoa and no other forms of chocolate, don't be turned off.  Try it, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised!

Just to let you know...

As you may have noticed, I've redesigned my blog.  In addition to some reformatting and the new color scheme, I've also added two stand-alone pages.  These pages, one on cookbooks and one on restaurants, can always be accessed from the top navigation bar.  I hope they'll be useful or, at least, interesting!

I addition, I have decided to provide occasional links to Amazon; for example when I mention a cookbook, I will link it to Amazon's page on that book.  I am doing this for two reasons: one, when I really like a cookbook, I'd like to share it with you and this seems to be an easy way to do so; two, I earn a very small amount of money should you click on the link and then buy the book.  I will never link to a book that I have not used or don't like.  Should you want to know more about the cookbook (and my opinion on it) check out my page on cookbooks, where I will be slowly but surely posting about my favorite cookbooks.

Mocha Chocolate Chip Cake, con't

  

Here's the photo of the Mocha Chocolate Chip Cake.  I love that there are chocolate chips in the cake, not just the icing!   Yum!

Mocha Chocolate Chip Cake

Happy New Year!

This cake is from the Alice's Tea Cup cookbook.  The full name is "Jean's-Not-Yet-But-Soon-To-Be-Famous Mocha Chocolate Chip Cake."  Back before Alice's Tea Cup franchised and when the sisters (who own and started the store) were often seen in the restaurant, I used to go pretty frequently (I still go plenty, but not as much).  Back then, this cake was spectacular.  Apparently Jean, the owners' mother, actually made the cake at the restaurant when they first opened.  I know this because she told me.  You see, one day when I ordered the cake, I was saying how great it was and a woman at the next table turned around and introduced herself; she was Jean!

As the restaurant got busier and expanded, I'm sorry to say that the cake changed.   It wasn't as moist and the icing didn't have the chocolate chips mixed in it, just a few on top...which meant less icing and less chocolate.

So you can imagine how happy I was when the cookbook came out in time for the holidays and had the recipe in it.  I made it for New Year's Eve and I have to say I was disappointed.  The cake itself came out perfectly, just as I remembered it.  The problem was the icing.  It was too stiff and sugary and I found it very difficult to work with.  And today it started to get oddly dry in some spots and tiny patches of butter started to separate from it.  I think the problem was that there wasn't enough butter in it.  And I think it will be easier to spread (and possibly nicer to eat) with mini chocolate chips in the icing.  I thought I remembered that from the restaurant, but honestly that may have been because they used mini chocolate chips on top after they changed it, I can't remember (it's been years, literally).  Anyway, as disappointed as I am, it was still a great cake and it doesn't pain me to try it again with more butter!

P.S.  I'll upload the photo tomorrow.