fuzzyred: Me wearing my fuzzy red bathrobe. (Default)
About two weeks ago, I made Midnight Brownie Cookies from Sally's Cookie Addiction by Sally McKenney.

Ingredients
4-ounce (113g) bar semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup (120mL) canola or vegetable oil
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups (210g) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups (300g) granulated sugar
1/4 cup (21g) unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Instructions
1. In a large heatproof bowl, melt the chopped chocolate in the microwave in 15-second increments, stopping and stirring after each until completely smooth,. Allow to cool down for 5 minutes. Whisk in the oil, eggs, and vanilla extract.
2. Whisk the flour, granulated sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt together in a separate medium bowl.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and, using a handheld mixer or stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat together until combined. The dough will be very thick and a little greasy.
4. Cover and chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours (and up to four days). If chilling for longer than 3 hours, allow it to sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before rolling and baking because the dough will be quite hard.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius). Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
6. Roll balls of dough, about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough per cookie, and place 3 inches (7.5cm) apart on the baking sheets.
7. Bake for 13 to 14 minutes, or until the tops begin cracking.
8. Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
9. Cookies will stay fresh in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Makes about 20-22 cookies.

In the book, there is a note that says these cookies go well the the caramel sauce from another recipe; she is right. I made the caramel sauce (sorry for not including the recipe) and drizzled it over about half the cookies. The cookies were easy enough to make, and the batter still comes together even if you use a wooden spoon. I did, because I was worried about a thick dough clogging the beaters and overtaxing the motor of my handheld mixer. The caramel was just sugar, butter, and heavy cream, with a little salt at the end and came together rather quickly and easily.

The cookies were delicious! Rich and chocolatey, with the best kind of brownie crust/chewiness. The caramel was a very good complement to them and I think it added that little extra that the cookies needed, though they are still tasty on their own (just a touch dry). These are definitely going on my bake again list, though I may or may not doing the caramel next time.
fuzzyred: Me wearing my fuzzy red bathrobe. (Default)
For this prompt, I decided to bake a cake, and to do a little write up about the flavour. I chose to make an Orange Sponge cake, but the lack of appropriate pan means I ended up with two square layers, instead of one big cake. One 'layer' was topped with salted dark chocolate ganache and the other was topped with orange zest whipped cream. The whipped cream was a last minute decision, though a yummy one; the original plan was just to use the salted dark chocolate ganache. My reasoning for choosing an Orange Sponge cake with a salted dark chocolate ganache was that I wanted to combine all five 'basic tastes' in one dish if I could, and I'm more comfortable baking than cooking. I managed four out of the five: Sweet (because of course the cake has sugar), Sour (from the citrus, though it was a rather subtle orange flavour), Salty (the main reason it was a salted ganache, though it did help cut the bitterness too), and Bitter (from the unsweetened chocolate I used in the ganache). I couldn't find a way to add Umami to the dessert, so I decided that it was still perfectly acceptable even with only four or the five tastes.

Below the cut will be an image of the cake(s), and my thoughts on the taste.

picture of the cake and a description of the taste )

Help!

Dec. 21st, 2018 05:25 pm
fuzzyred: Me wearing my fuzzy red bathrobe. (Default)
Baking in Canada is exceedingly frustrating at times. Most of the recipes I find give measurements in ounces, frex 10oz can condensed milk. Which is fine except the products sold here don't give me a measurement in ounces, we have mililiters. Which is annoying to convert but ok. Now is where we get to the part where I need help. Does anyone know if a "16 oz can of maraschino cherries" is in fl. oz, or regular ounces? My can is in mililiters, a volume measurement. It matters weight or volume because the conversion is different, unless it's water, then it's pretty close.

Who decided having the same unit for weight and volume was a good idea? Confusing imperial system...

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