Dark Chocolate Orange Olive Oil Cake with Cinnamon Chili Powdered Sugar

The other day I was making brownies for a bake sale for my son’s swim team.  Nothing special, just plain box brownies; but I started thinking about why it is that the only time I use oil in baking is in box brownies.  All the other baking I do calls for butter.  Was this just because it makes something as simple as box brownies, even simpler? Curious as to why that is, I searched on finecooking.com (one of my favorite websites) J to see what they had to say about it.  It turns out that I was missing out on quite a bit of interesting baking recipes! But as true with many ingredients, it seems that all oils are not created equal.  Not that this was any surprise to me from the cooking end of things, but it seems to have a difference in baking as well.

T\According to the article that I read , The Secret Ingredient for Tender Cakes, by Leslie Revsin, “the olive oil versions were moister and had a more tender, refined crumb (I’ve since learned that olive oil contains natural emulsifiers, which improve moisture and texture), but even more striking was their richer, deeper character,” than cakes made with vegetable oil.  Curiosity compelled me to give this a try.    The article had a link to a recipe for a dark chocolate cake made with olive oil.  Sounded good to me!  I did make a few changes to the recipe.  I got the idea, as did another baker, by their review at the bottom of the original recipe, to substitute blood orange infused olive oil for the plain olive oil because I like the combination of dark chocolate and oranges.  The flavor is just enough, without overpowering the chocolate in the cake.  My olive oil came from Sedona Olive Oil Company, that I purchased on a recent trip to Sedona, Arizona.  If you have a chance, you really need to check them out.  Another really good place for this is Fiore Artisan Olive Oils and Vinegars.  I discovered them on a trip a year ago to Bar Harbor, Maine.  Both of them have outstanding selections of artisan olive oils and vinegars.  (And they didn’t even pay me to say that!)

Anyway, back to the recipe.  I only had Hershey’s cocoa powder on hand, a mixture of regular and dark chocolate cocoa powder.  I used both and was just a little shy of half a cup, so I melted a few dark chocolate squares and added that to the mixture.  After reading the note about the size of the pan, I went with a 9” round cake pan.  It made the cake a little thinner, so I reduced the baking time a little as well.  I baked it for 45 minutes, but probably could have taken it out a few minutes sooner.  My edges were not burnt, by any means, but were a little crispier than I would have liked.   I also played around with the powdered sugar that I put on top of the cake.  I added just a hint of cinnamon and chili powder to the sugar, not a lot, just enough to cut some of the sweetness. I would not recommend using frosting on this cake unless you have a huge sweet tooth.  The cake is very sweet without frosting.  It was very moist, almost fudgy. Not quite like what you get in a flourless cake because there is flour in this recipe, but moister than a regular cake made with butter.   

It turned out amazing!! I gave each of my kids a piece and just told them it was chocolate cake; otherwise they never would have tried it.  It was a huge hit! More than that, I loved it! This will definitely be a recipe that I make again and again.  Perfect with a cup of tea, (or coffee) or a cold glass of milk!  

The recipe listed here is with the changes that I made.  For the original recipe and the nutritional information, follow this link.

Dark Chocolate and Orange Olive Oil Cake with Cinnamon Chili Powdered Sugar

Olive oil and flour for the pan
1-1/4 oz. (1/2 cup) cocoa powder (I used a mix of Hershey’s regular and special dark)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. almond extract
4-1/2 oz. (1 cup) all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
3 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
2/3 cup orange olive oil
1-1/3 cups sugar

Cinnamon Chili Powdered Sugar -

1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp chili powder 

---

Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Heat the oven to 325°F. Generously oil an 9-inch round cake pan with olive oil and line the bottom of the pan with parchment or waxed paper. Oil the paper and dust it lightly with flour.

In a small saucepan, boil about 1/2 cup of water. Meanwhile, sift the cocoa powder through a strainer over a small bowl. Stir 6 Tbs. of the boiling water into the cocoa until it's smooth and glossy. Stir in the vanilla and almond extracts. Set aside to cool slightly. In another small bowl, mix together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the eggs and yolk, olive oil, and sugar. Using the whisk attachment, beat on medium-high speed until thick, lemon colored, and creamy, 2 to 3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Reduce the speed to low and gradually add the warm (not hot) cocoa mixture until it's well combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl once. Gradually mix in the dry ingredients until just combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake in the center of the oven until a toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs clinging to it but with no wet batter, about 40-45 minutes. Put the pan on a rack and carefully run a paring knife around the inside edge to release the cake. Let cool for 10 minutes. Using a second rack to sandwich the cake pan, flip the pan over. Carefully lift the pan from the cake, gently peel off and discard the paper liner, and let the cake cool completely.

Before serving, dust the top of the cake with the Cinnamon Chili Powdered Sugar.

Macaroni and Cheese, Panera Style

I can't believe it has been over two years since I started this blog!  I have been an undedicated blogger to say the least.  Hopefully with the start of the new year, I will find a renewed dedication to this blog and actually get some followers.

Some of you who know me, know that the title of this blog pretty much sums it about.  I love food, I love to find great recipes.  Sometimes I follow them to the letter because I figure, why mess up a good thing? Others, I recreate, doctor them up, make them my own.  I also love to come up with my own concoctions.  Most of the things I cook are healthy, some not so healthy.  Hey, a girl needs to indulge every once in a while, right?

So at the restart of this blog, I am sharing a recreation of the hugely decadent macaroni and cheese that my boys love from Panera.  Here is the link to Panera’s website for their recipe.  I made this to take to a big family dinner with my dad’s extended family.  If I was making this at home I would definitely cut it in half.  The original recipe said it served 4-6, so I doubled it and state at that bottom of the recipe that it serves 8-12, but I filled a 9x13 tray and was able to serve it as a side on the buffet table to a huge crowd of about 40 people.  I changed it up a little to cater to my own tastes, and I had to improvise a little because I ran out of milk this morning and made the mac and cheese before heading to the store. 

I am a firm believer in a well-stocked pantry.  It has gotten me out of more cooking jams and ingredient faux pas then I can count and today was no exception.  So, while the recipe says 4 cups half and half, I used a 15 oz. can of evaporated fat free milk because I didn’t have enough half and half.  Basically, when making a white sauce, the higher the fat content in the milk, the creamier it is going to be, but when using that much butter and half and half, the evaporated milk was still thick enough to keep it creamy.  Believe me, the substitution wasn't used as a way to lower the fat content of the recipe.  I look for ways to make a recipe healthy but for something that is being served as part of a (belated) holiday party, and it’s macaroni and cheese with all its cheesy goodness, I let the fat stay right where it is.  Everything in moderation…

If this is the first time you have made a white sauce, a couple of pointers.  When adding the flour to the butter to make the roux, don’t panic when it forms a big mass.  Once you incorporate the milk it will dissolve.  The trick that works for me is to remove the pot from the heat and SLOWLY whisk in the milk.  And a whisk is key; it will break apart the roux and help it dissolve into the milk.  Once I have added the milk and began to whisk it into the roux, I return it back to the burner and stir constantly to prevent sticking.  Once it gets good and thick and begins to bubble, I turn off the burner and stir in the cheese.  Once the cheese is melted I add the pasta.  I then transferred to a 9x13 baking dish to transfer it to the party, but it is ready at this point and could just be served from the pot.  I think another easy way to transport, and serve this would be a crock pot.  Wish I would of thought of that earlier!  

Macaroni and Cheese, Panera Style

Ingredients
2 (16-ounce) package of medium pasta shells

½ cup butter

1 cup all-purpose flour

4 cups half and half

1 cup chicken broth

5 oz shredded swiss cheese

3 oz cream cheese cut into pieces

8 oz shredded extra-sharp white Vermont cheddar

2 tablespoon Dijon mustard

2 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions
1. Prepare pasta according to package directions.
2.Melt butter over low heat. Whisk in flour and cook 1 minute, whisking constantly.
3.Gradually whisk in half and half and chicken broth; cook over medium heat, whisking until mixture thickens and bubbles. Remove from heat.
4.Add cheeses, mustard, and salt, stirring until cheese melts and sauce is smooth.
5.Stir in pasta and cook over medium heat for 1 minute (or until thoroughly heated).

Serves 8 to 12

Teacher Appreciation Week...

This week, was Teacher Appreciation Week at my son's elementary school.  Today, to show our appreciation, the PTO hosted a Teacher Breakfast to thank the teachers for all their hard work.  Cooking breakfast, right up my alley!!

I immediately volunteered to make two casseroles.  What a perfect chance to try out my new double ovens! (Side note, I have not done a very good job keeping up with this blog, between moving out of one house, building another, and the entire family moving in with my parents for two months, things have been a little crazy.)  So, equipped with a new kitchen and the need to get back to cooking, I looked through my recipe archives to get some ideas for breakfast casseroles that would be tasty, easy to make (I still had to get two boys and myself ready this morning) and easy to transport.

What I found was a recipe I made on Christmas morning, Christmas Day Baked French Toast Casserole with Maple Syrup courtesy of Paula Deen and Food Network. I knew this recipe would be good, but because I had it before, I already knew of a few minor adjustments that I would make to the recipe. This recipe is great because it is mostly prepared the night before and just baked in the morning.  Perfect considering I needed to prepare a breakfast and still get two kids ready for school!  After the first time making this, I decided that rather than slice the bread and arrange it in rows as directed in the recipe, I would dice the bread into cubes, making it a little more like a bread pudding, but still keeping everything else the same so it was still "french toasty" in it's flavor.  I also found that the easiest way to add the praline topping was with a small scoop.  I arranged the scoops over the casserole and part way through the baking, I pulled the casserole out, spread the topping over the spots not covered, put it back in to continue baking.  Lastly, I omitted the maple syrup.  The praline topping is so sweet, I didn't think it needed the syrup.

The second recipe I found is called Oven Omelet Brunch.  It is from a recipe collection of my grandmother's and courtesy of the Betty Crocker Recipe Card Library.  I decided it was a good base, but I wanted to adjust the recipe as well, make it a more inclusive dish.  So I have the recipe in its original form, and then in the notes are my modifications.  I am a little leery of posting this recipe since I didn't have a chance to taste it, but it smelled very good, so I think I am OK!

Christmas Day Baked French Toast Casserole with Maple Syrup
Paula Deen, Food Network
1 loaf french bread (13-16 oz)
8 large eggs
2 cups half and half
1 cup milk
2 T sugar
1 t vanilla
1/4 t cinnamon
1/4 t nutmeg
dash of salt
Praline Topping (recipe to follow)
Maple Syrup

Slice bread into 20 slices, about 1 inch each.  Arrange slices in a generously buttered 9x13 baking dish in two rows, overlapping slices.

In a large bowl, combine the eggs, half and half, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt and beat with a rotary beater or whisk until blended but not too bubbly. 

Pour mixture over the bread slices, making sure all are covered evenly with the milk-egg mixture.  Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.

Prepare Praline Topping
1/2 lb butter (2 sticks)
1 c packed brown sugar
1 c chopped pecans
2 T light corn syrup
1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and blend well.

The next day, preheat the oven to 350F.  Spread the praline topping evenly over the bread and bake for 40 minutes, until puffed and lightly golden.  Serve with maple syrup.


Oven Omelet Brunch
Betty Crocker Recipe Card Library
1/4 c butter
1 1/2 dozen eggs
1 c sour cream
1 c milk
2 t salt
1/4 c chopped green onion

Heat oven to 325F.  In oven, melt butter in 9x13 baking dish, tilt dish to coat.  In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs, sour cream, milk, and salt until blended.  Stir in onion.  Pour in dish.  Bake until eggs are set but still moist, about 35 minutes. 

Modified recipe -
Omelet Casserole with Red Peppers, Potatoes and Bacon
Cooking Spray to coat pan
1 1/2 dozen eggs
1 c sour cream
1 c milk
2 t salt
1 red pepper, chopped
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 potato, peeled and chopped
about 8 slices of bacon (the small pack), fried and chopped
1 t fresh ground pepper
1/2 t cayenne pepper
2 T fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped

Saute onion and pepper in a little olive oil.  Remove from pan.  Saute potatoes in pan, add a splash of chicken broth or water with the potatoes to deglaze the pan.  Cover the pan to finish cooking potatoes.  Add onion and pepper back to the pan, season with salt, pepper and cayenne pepper. 

I made this the night before, refrigerated until the next morning, then mixed eggs, sour cream and milk, added sauteed veges, chopped parsley and bacon.

Spray pan with cooking spray, pour egg mix into pan.  Bake at 325 for about 45 minutes.  I cooked for 35 minutes as recommended in the original recipe and it was not set.  I continued to watch it until set, which was about 45 minutes. 

Enjoy!

Baby it's cold outside...

For the most part, I am a summer person.  I have friends and family living in areas where there is little to no change of the seasons.  They say I would miss the colder seasons, I say, "Try me!"  I don't like to be cold, to have to wear sweaters and coats and scarves and hats and gloves and socks and boots and... well, you get the picture.  Granted, it isn't that cold here yet, but it's coming.  I know some of my friends living even farther north than me will tell me these winters are nothing compared to theirs, but still, I am not a fan of cold weather.  I would much rather wear flip flops than socks and t-shirts than turtle necks.  But one thing I do enjoy about the change of seasons and the cold weather is making big pots of hearty soup! I love soup; for me it is the epitome of comfort food and when it is cold outside, it warms me up!  That's not to say the only time I make soup is in the winter and fall, I make it all year, but in the cold weather, my soups, like most cooks', tend to get thicker and heartier. 

I think I can attribute my love of soup to my mom.  Growing up we had homemade soup a lot.  But during the holidays, especially Thanksgiving we have certain recipes that we never change, one being the stuffing.  Every year mom makes this fantastic Oyster Stuffing that she is never allowed to alter.  So one place that she really shows her culinary flair is in the soups she serves.  We have had some wonderful soups over the years, carrot soup, pumpkin soup, and apple soup to name a few.  These soups always have some unique quality to them that make them more than just a puree that resembles baby food.  Her soups always pop; not necessarily a hot and spicy pop, but always a flavorful wow.  I will eventually dig up those recipes from her archives and will add in later posts.

As kindred spirits in soup making, mom and I share soup recipes but also share our thoughts with each other on yummy soups we have found while dining out.  Mom was the first to point out the great Won Ton soup at a local Chinese restaurant in Hanover.  This soup is out of this world!   I have had other Won Ton soups that use stock that is too heavy and sometimes greasy.  While flavorful stocks are always a plus in my book, there are differing degrees of flavorful, full and robust to light and mild and a large variety in between, but greasy is never ok. The broth in this favored Won Ton Soup is light and clear, yet it has a wonderful flavor to it that I hope to one day recreate.  I haven't yet figured out all of the flavors I am tasting in their broth, so I may need to keep going back until I figure it out! The other thing they do right is the dumplings.  Some dumplings are chewy and thick, these dumplings are made with thin sheets of dough that are cooked to just the right consistency.  The dumpling filling is mild so as not to overpower the delightfully light broth.  While their broth and dumplings alone make this soup a step above other Won Ton soups, it doesn't end with just broth and dumplings.  They also have thin strips of chicken breast that are tender and juicy,  You can tell that this chicken has not been sitting in a pot of soup that was allowed to boil all day on the stove and loose its flavor.  It is chicken breast that has been sliced or pounded thin, cut into strips (but not julieened), sauted and added right before it is served.  It also includes snow peas that still crunch when you eat them and spring onions to finish it off. It is so light and fresh and just delightful.  As I said, I really like this soup. :)  I plan to try and recreate this lovely soup someday, but that will come later. 

The most recent soup to come out of my kitchen was after Thanksgiving, but before getting to the soup, let's first talk stock.  I confiscated the turkey carcass from Thanksgiving dinner at my mother-in-law's and use it to make stock.  If you have never done this before, it really is not that difficult.  It is time consuming, but I think well worth it.  A book that I refer to a lot for soup ideas; Dairy Hollow House - Soup and Bread, A Country Inn Cookbook is a great tool for learning how to make great stocks and how to build on that to make great soups.  Keep in mind that this process is not a fast one, give yourself plenty of time and some very large pots and bowls with which to work.  If you have no desire to make your own stock, there are some good quality store bought versions available that can be used to make a tasty soup.  But if you give yourself a day, you can make large quantities of stock to freeze and have available for soup recipes whenever it is needed.

When making stock, I start with a pot that has a built in strainer, the kind you typically use to cook spaghetti.  I use this for ease in removing the soilds from my stock at the end of the cooking process.  I had an "a-ha" moment last year to use this type of pot for easier clean up.  I take the carcass and break it up to fit in a pot.  This includes snapping some of the thinner bones to realease the marrow for flavor.  I know to some breaking up the carcass and breaking the bones may seem rather gross, but hey, I am a carnivore.  (If this really is something you can't do, there are some great receipes in the above mentioned book for vegetable stock.)  After I fit the bones in the pot, I add a few stalks of celery cut in big pieces, a few carrots cut in big pieces, a few onions quatered, but not peeled.  That is my base, if I have peppers, leeks, spring onions, I add that too.  I then take a fresh parsley, rosemary and thyme sprigs, tie it with kitchen string and add it to the pot along with a few bay leaves, sea salt and fresh ground pepper.  I then fill the pot with water to cover the ingredients, let it simmer for about three or four hours.  I will skim the fat and scum off the top every 30 minutes or so.  Do not boil, this is how it gets cloudy, just let it simmer (tiny bubbles).   

When the stock is ready, take the pot to the sink and bring your trash can close to the sink so you don't make a huge mess on this next step.  Pull up the strainer insert and let all the stock drain into the pot, dump the contents of the strainer into the trash, that easy! Well, not entirely because you still need to strain the tiny solids from your broth, but certainly easier than trying to fish out all the solids by other means, believe me I know from experience!!  It is usally at this point that I have to immediately tie up the trash bag and remove it from the house because the lovely smells have caught the attention of Maggie, our golden retreiver/yellow lad mix who stations herself next to me in the kitchen to catch anything that drops on the floor!

Next, set up a large measuring bowl beside your pot, get a hand held strainer and line it with a damp cheese cloth.  Holding the cheese cloth lined strainer over the bowl, ladel your stock into the strainer, this allows your lovely stock to pass through but those little bits to stay behind.  At this point I usually wash the pot I used to make the stock, and return the stock to the pot.  I will admit that I then allowed the stock to cool in the pot to room temperature and then stuck it in the refrigerator and never had any problems with getting sick.  After reading on several websites that this is a breeding ground for bacteria I decided that while I never had a problem before, better safe than sorry so from now on will use the recommeded methods to cool the stock. 

To cool the stock, sit the pot in the sink and surround it with ice and water, stirring occasionally to get the temperature of the broth to cool down faster, this takes about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.  Once the stock has cooled completely, cover and refrigerate.  I usually let it refrigerate overnight.  The next morning any additional fat has risen to the top of your stock and hardened, simply scoop that off the top and you are left with a flavorful stock that is not greasy. 

One additional thought on making stock...  I have made stock for many years, but the past two times I have made it, the next day it was very gelatenous.  I don't remember this happening to me before.  I originally blamed this on the type of turkey carcass used.  The past two years at Thanksgiving dinner at my in-law's we fried our turkey.  It was very good, but I thought that perhaps the increased amount of fat from frying caused the gelatenous consistency.  When I researched this, I found, on several sites, that the collagen in the turkey bones naturally turns to gelatin in the simmering water.  My only thought on this is that in the past I used a very large pot that could hold the entire turkey carcass without breaking it up and less collagen was released.  The past two years I have used the pot with the strainer insert, that while just as big in volume, is narrower and required me to break the carcass into several pieces.  I am guessing that by doing that, more of the collagen was released into the water, making the broth have a more gelatenous consistency when chilled.  Rest assured that when it is heated, it looses that consistency and is a silky, tastey stock.  :-)

The following recipe can be used with left over turkey from Thanksgiving along with your stock, or with left over chicken and chicken stock.  If you have no left over chicken or turkey, just saute some chicken breast and shred.  I prefer shredded chicken or turkey to big hunks, I think the big hunks take away from the other flavors in the soup. 

Southwestern Turkey Corn Chowder with Cilantro
1 lb turkey or chicken, cooked and shredded
2 qts turkey or chicken stock
4 small potatoes, scrubbed, peeled and sliced
3 cups corn
1 T honey
2 t Worchestershire sauce
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 red pepper, finely chopped
1 T chili powder
2 t cumin
3 T flour
2 T butter
1 c milk
1 c heavy cream
Fresh Cilantro

In a large pot, bring broth to a boil, add diced potatoes and cook until fork tender, ~10 minutes.  Stir in honey, worchestershire and corn, simmer for additional 10 minutes. 

Meanwhile in another pan, saute the pepper and onion in a little olive oil.  Melt butter, then add flour, chili powder and cumin.  Cook until thick and bubbly, gradually add milk, stirring until thickened, ~1 minute.  Add to corn and potato mixture.  Transfer a few ladelfuls to a blender or food processor and puree.  Return to the pot, gently stir in the heavy cream.  Add chicken.  Chop cilantro - a good handful, or less depending on your likeness - and add to pot. 

Enjoy!  I always believe in giving credit where credit is due.  While there are basic ingredients to all chowders, this recipe is an adaptation of a corn chowder recipe from Dairy Hollow House - Soup and Bread, A Country Inn Cookbook.

I like this soup because it is creamy, but not so thick that you think you are eating dip rather than soup.  Also, the spice adds a nice flavor to the soup but not so spicy that my kids can't eat it.  Of course, they still complain about the leaves!

To blog or not to blog...

I have contemplated blogging for awhile now, but have always stopped short. Call it insecurity, call it humility, but as I get to the point of setting up a blog I always ask myself, why would anyone read this? With all of the information out there on the web, why would any one care what I have to say about cooking? But as the holidays roll around, I am again inspired. I have been keeping a journal of recipes I make and activities I do with the kids during the holiday season and decided that if I blog, I can share it with other family and friends that may want to see it. :) If others find interest, great! If they don't, so be it! My first few entries will probably recipes from my journal that others have wanted me to share.


It is always this time of year that I get inspired to bake and cook enough food to feed the town and think I should cook professionally, but for now, it is enough to know that I make others happy with my treats and that I have started to pass on the love of baking and cooking to my two sons.


Happy creating everyone!