Mendiants

Oh my, it feels like forever since I've posted anything, though it has only been a couple of days! This has been a crazy last week. First the snowstorm, which severely crippled sales at my store (which have been terrible anyway because of the economy), not to mention knocked out the power at my house for three days, and now here we are just 3 days from Christmas! Thankfully, the sun came out yesterday, and people have started braving the still icy sidewalks and shopping, hallelujah!

In case you missed my last post, I recently hosted a 5-course chocolate meal as part of the December version of Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24. As party favors, I made bags of these mendiants to give to my guests.

Mendiants are wonderful confections, because if done right you get a different and distinct flavor with each bite. There are limitless options for toppings, so you can really get creative. They are such fun treats to make, and surprisingly easy!

Go to it! There's still plenty of time to include these in holiday goodie bags!

Chocolate Mendiants

10 oz best quality semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

A few tablespoons of your choice of toppings, such as candied citrus peel, crystalized ginger, nuts (toasted or not) dried fruits, cocoa nibs, sea salt, fresh cracked pepper, culinary herbs, the list goes on!*

To temper chocolate:

Place 8 oz of chocolate in heat-proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir occasionally until melted, and measuring about 100 degrees. Add remaining 2 oz of chocolate and stir to melt, stirring until it reaches about 90 degrees.

Drop spoonfuls of tempered chocolate on parchment and use the back of spoon to swirl chocolate into a circle. When chocolate has begun to set but is still soft, add toppings. Use 3 - 4 toppings per disk, but don't overdo it. Alice Medrich calls mendiants an ode to simplicity, which is a lovely and perfect description for these heavenly disks.

* Some combinations I made were: nib, dried cherry and cracked pepper; candied orange peel, fig and lavender, candied lemon peel, crystalized ginger and almond; candied orange & lemon, fig and walnut.

Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24: Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate!

This is a very special post about a very special event that I was a participant in this weekend. I was lucky enough to have been chosen to take part in this month's Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24 - a food blogging event that takes place every month. Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24 is a great concept - 24 food bloggers from around the world are chosen to each host a unique meal on the same date and blog about it on the same date. I had thought it would be fun to take part in it for a while but couldn't think of a meal concept. Then it came to me - chocolate! I can't believe that one took so long to come up with...

I constructed a 5-course meal, each course including chocolate in some form. It was so much fun to plan and make, and of course, wonderful to eat. The event went incredibly well, despite some hurdles I had to cross. Thankfully, I'm pretty good at taking things as they come...

So, as I mentioned, the meal was yesterday. I had planned on hosting it at my mom's house. She lives in a beautiful house in the woods that was originally built as a church in the late 1800's. Then in the early '80's it was deconstructed and rebuilt in it's current location as a house. It is incredible. It has 17 foot ceilings in the living room, a 2-tiered antique chandelier, a 10 foot tall Gothic window, as well as leaded glass windows, floors and wainscoting that are all original to the church. It was the perfect location to hold a meal about the love - worship in my family - for devout chocolate lovers. However, Mother Nature had other plans.

Friday morning, we woke up to several inches of snow which only increased as the day went on. We were unable to get our car out of our driveway (still can't actually) and we lost power Friday night which we still don't have. How am I writing this post, you may ask? Thankfully, we have friends (who attended the meal, by the way) who's dad owns an apartment in downtown Asheville that he keeps for visiting friends to stay in, and it was empty this weekend, so we've been staying there. Actually, it is so nice, I wouldn't mind if we never got our power back at home!

So, with the car in the driveway, we had no way to get to my mom's to have the meal. We went ahead and did it at our house. This was possible because I had done a lot of prepping in the days leading up to the meal, and we have a gas stove that was unaffected by the power outage. Also, we held it at 2:00PM, so we had the benefit of natural light - or at least as much light as we could get on a cloudy, snowy day. This brings me to an apology.

The photos. The photos, the photos, the photos. I had visions of beautiful photos of my beautifully styled beautiful food. That is not what I got. Despite all of my planning and prepping, there was still a lot of work to be done the day of the meal, not to mention keeping my 1 & 3 year olds out from underfoot. I was a harried frantic mess up until I sat down to eat (when everyone else was on the fourth course). I was making ganache while my guests were eating their main course, and the best I could do was snap a few shots just as I was slinging the food on the plates. So, please forgive me for the un-styled, flashy (as in, taken with flash) shots of my food, which was actually quite beautiful. I'm planning on doing a couple of posts as an amendment to this one focusing more deeply on individual menu items that I will be able to photograph properly, so at least I'll have some redemption...

Now, the chocolate meal course by course:

First Course:

Baby Arugula Salad with Grilled Pears, Cocoa Nibs, Sheep's Milk Feta and a Cocoa Balsamico (Pictured above)

I had hoped to have pomegranate seeds in this salad, as well, but couldn't find one. The salad, though very simple was very delicious. I had also hoped to find mache, but the baby arugula worked beautifully. The Cocoa Balsamico was a huge success, and something that I'll be making again.

Cocoa Balsamico

1 cup balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Place vinegar in small saucepan and cook over very low heat until it becomes a thick, though still pourable syrup. Remove from heat and stir in cocoa powder. Use immediately.

Second Course:

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup Topped with Nib-Infused Cream

This soup (minus the nib cream) is a specialty of mine. I make it for holidays and dinner parties on a regular basis, and it is always a crowd pleaser. The Nib-Infused Cream is an idea that came from Bittersweet by Alice Medrich. She is the Queen of Chocolate, after all! The nibs add a great crunch to the soup, and the slightly bitter cream is a wonderful foil for the sweet squash. Definitely a wonderful and simple way to make a dish extra special. I'll make it again soon, photograph it properly and give you the recipe, I promise.

Third Course:

Mole Enchiladas Filled with Roasted Sweet Potatoes, Fingerling Potatoes, Whole Garlic Cloves, Sauteed Lacinato Kale and Monterey Jack Cheese

This was my first time making mole, and I don't think anyone who tasted it will allow it to be my last! It was amazing, heavenly! Just the right amount of spice and heat, great depth of flavor and perfect texture. The recipe makes a lot - a little over a quart - so I need to come up with some ways to use mole over the next week or so. Send your ideas forth! I'm going to photograph the mole and do a proper post on it, but here is the recipe for the enchiladas (which I basically made up as I went along...)

Roasted Vegetable & Sauteed Kale Enchiladas

4 cups of diced potatoes and sweet potatoes, any variety

8-10 cloves of garlic

zest of 1 lemon

1 teaspoon coriander

1 teaspoon sea salt

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 bunch of kale (I prefer lacinato or red russian, but any variety will work. Chard would also be tasty)

olive oil for pan

salt to taste

2 cups grated monterey jack cheese

8 corn tortillas

1 cup mole sauce

Preheat oven to 450. Grease all surfaces of roasting pan. Place all ingredients in pan and toss well, coating all sides of potatoes & sweets. Roast for about 40 minutes, until everything is soft and slightly browned. Check on veggies every 15-20 minutes, turning them over so all sides brown. Remove from oven to cool. Remove stems from kale and chop finely. Heat about a tablespoon of oil in skillet. Add kale and salt. Cook until kale is soft.

To assemble:

Preheat oven to 350. Place about 1/4 cup roasted vegetables down the center of a tortilla, top with thin layer of kale, followed by thin layer. Gently roll tortilla so that sides just overlap, and place seam-side down in large rectangular baking dish. Continue with this process until pan is full. Spoon mole over tops of enchiladas, followed by the remainder of the cheese. Bake for about 20 minutes.

Fourth Course:

Chocolate & Cheese Plate

The three chocolates I chose for this plate were a white chocolate bar with nibs that I really love by chocolatier Askinosie, which I paired with a subtle, creamy manchego; a 65% milk chocolate that went with a local brie; an 80% dark single origin that was lovely with a pungent bleu cheese. I served the plate with two locally-made flatbreads as well as my chocolate lavash. I highly recommend doing this for your next gathering. Everyone loved all of the selections, as well as the experience of eating it.

Fifth Course:

Chocolate Caramel Tart and Cocoa Nib Ice Gelato

A few months ago, we made this beauty for Tuesdays with Dorie. It was probably my favorite TWD recipe to date, so I immediately thought of it when deciding on my dessert for this little fete. Then I thought of a similar tart from Saveur that I had wanted to make. I went with the Saveur version, because it had a chocolate crust, I was curious about the addition of creme fraiche in the caramel recipe, and because it got rave reviews. Unfortunately, the tart was my least favorite part of the meal. It wasn't bad, it just didn't wow me as much as I had wanted it to. There wasn't a high enough chocolate to caramel ratio, and the caramel itself was inferior to Dorie's. Also, the chocolate crust didn't add anything for me. I missed the shortbread-like crust that Dorie uses - the flavor is better, and I think it allows the ganache topping to shine, as then it is the only chocolate in the tart. Don't get me wrong, this one was good. Really, really good. It's just that I know there is something better out there, and will stick with that one from now on. Once again, the moral of the story is always, always, always trust Dorie.

Now the gelato is another story. Wow. I mean wow. This is ice cream that I would eat any time, anywhere, with anything. It is that good. The recipe calls for straining the nibs from the custard base, but really, why? I love nibs. I think they added a huge dimension to this ice cream. Leave in the nibs! The thing that is most amazing about this frozen delight is that it us flavored entirely with the nibs. It is incredible to eat ice cream that is so light in color, yet so deeply chocolate in taste. What I have left of this ice cream is buried in the foot of snow on my deck, but if it survives, I will take a proper photograph of it and devote an entire post to it. It deserves it. Until then, here is a link to the recipe.

I also made Chocolate Mendiants (disks of tempered chocolate topped with dried fruit, candied citrus peel and nuts) which I gave out in little bags as party favors. The mendiants are one of the items that I'll do a separate post on in the coming days. They were beautiful, fun, delicious and easy, and they make great gifts. I didn't get a chance to photograph them before having to escape my cold, dark house, but the post will be coming soon. I promise.

Thanks so much to Foodbuzz for selecting me as one of their December participants! This was such a fun event to be a part of, my mind is churning with ideas to propose for the next one!

BBA Challenge: French Bread

Now that I'm back in the bread-baking groove, I can't stop! Fresh on the heels of my focaccia, I whipped up a batch of this French Bread. I am so happy to be baking bread again, because I just love it.

Earlier this year, before I started my blog, I had never baked a loaf of bread. All of a sudden, however, I decided it was something I was going to get into. I was a little nervous, the whole thing seemed daunting. I bought a few bread books, but didn't really make anything. Until I joined The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge.

Since joining, I've made things I never thought would be coming out of my oven; Brioche, English Muffins, Ciabatta, Focaccia, Cinnamon Rolls, the list goes on and on! I am so grateful for this group, especially the Slow & Steady sub-group, because when I've been dragging my heels, inevitably one of the lovely ladies inspires me to forge ahead. I also think I'm very fortunate to have gotten into bread baking through this amazing book, because it is so specific in its instructions that it really gives you the confidence to make anything!

I love making bread, especially kneading by hand. It is amazing to feel the dough transform over the course of a few minutes from something stiff and restricted to something smooth, elastic, relaxed. It is such a gratifying experience to mix the ingredients together, knead and nurture the dough over a period of time - often two days with Peter Reinhart's recipes - form it into loaves and then entrust it to the oven, where it becomes that nourishing, satisfying thing we call bread. How in the world did someone figure out how to make this stuff?!

I have a difficult time describing the taste of bread, but this French Bread is among the best I've ever had. It had such a depth of flavor that I kept thinking there were things in and on it that weren't there - cheese and butter, namely. The crust was very thick and crunchy as French Bread crust should be, the inside tender and creamy.

I ate a lot of it plain, but also made some into superb crostini topped with olive oil, goat cheese, roasted cherry tomatoes, onions and garlic with coriander and sea salt. Oh my goodness was it amazing. It was gobbled up so quickly I didn't get any photos, but I will definitely make it again so that I can share it with you.

The recipe for this bread can be found in The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart. A must-have book for every home baker.

Even the littlest member of my family loved it!

Dried Fruit & Nut Cake

This is the fruitcake that will redeem the name of fruitcake. It is a beautiful mess of dried fruit and nuts held together by some flour and eggs. The small amount of batter forms a delicious sugary coating across the surface of the cake that is simply addictive. This fruitcake is so good. Now those aren't words you hear every day, are they? Read on, my friends, read on.

The recipe comes from Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich. I love this book. I have never made anything from it that wasn't fantastic. If you don't have it, it isn't too late to put it on your Christmas wish list! This was one of the first recipes that really jumped out at me when I got the book, though I didn't have a chance to make it until recently. A shame, because I have seriously been missing out!

If you've been wanting a wonderful, flavorful, complex, dynamic, creative, delicious fruitcake recipe, look no further. Here it is.

This recipe is very versatile, in that you can use any combination of dried fruit, plus it is perfect for so many occasions. Certainly great for the holidays, but equally as wonderful as a breakfast treat. Especially if baked in bar form, which I'm planning on trying sometime soon.

It does look a little lop-sided, I know, but don't hold that against it! I didn't do the greatest job of leveling out the batter, but it is so craggy it is rather difficult to do...

I used a combination of dates, apricots, figs and cherries. Next time, the only change I would make fruit-wise would be to use a slightly higher proportion of cherries, because they added a delightful tang to the cake. Everything else was great - the crunch of the fig seeds, the chewy gooeyness of the dates, the soft sweetness of the apricots. Really, this is so good.

The recipe calls for 3/4 cup sugar, which isn't a whole lot under other recipe circumstances, but this has so much dried fruit in it, which is naturally so sweet, I think the sugar could be reduced considerably. Don't cut it out entirely, though, or you won't get that yummy coating.

I used part whole wheat, simply because I ran out of unbleached, but there is so little flour in this, I think you could use just about any kind. I think buckwheat would be fantastic, or kamut, or all whole wheat. I think this cake could very easily be made gluten-free as well.

In addition to being unbelievably, incredibly delicious, this recipe is also ridiculously easy. I made it for brunch last weekend, and threw it together in a matter of minutes after our guests had arrived. Easy, delicious, what more could you ask for? And a fruitcake at that!

Dried Fruit and Nut Cake

adapted from Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich

1/2 cup unbleached white flour

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup palm sugar (though next time I will use more like 1/3 - 1/2 cup)

1 cup dried fruit (I used un-sulphured apricots, cherries and figs) chopped into medium-sized pieces.

2 cups medjool dates, quartered

3 cups walnut halves

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 large eggs

Preheat oven to 300. Line a 9" x 5" loaf pan with parchment. Combine flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt and palm sugar in large bowl. Add dried fruit and nuts and toss with your hands. In a small bowl, whisk together eggs and vanilla extract. Pour into large bowl, toss until all of the fruit and nuts appear well-coated. It will not look like there is enough batter to form a cake, but trust me, there is. Pour into prepared loaf pan, and smooth as well as you can. Bake for about 1 hour 15 - 1 hour 20 minutes. If it looks like it is browning too quickly, place a foil tent over it. After removing from oven, let the cake sit in the load pan for about 5 minutes, then, using the edges of the parchment, lift the loaf out and cool on rack for 45 minutes before cutting into it.

TWD: Cafe Volcano Cookies

Meringues are not really my thing. If these cookies weren't so incredibly easy to make, I probably would have skipped them, as these are a coffee-flavored meringue cookie. A few things persuaded me to go forward anyway: as I mentioned, they are incredibly easy - mix chopped nuts, sugar, espresso powder and egg white in pan until just warm, spoon onto baking sheet, bake; they are coffee flavored - I'm pretty much a sucker for coffee-flavored anything; Dorie describes them as higgledy-piggledy. How could I possibly skip something with such a wonderful description?! So, I whipped them up in about 5 minutes + baking time.

They aren't the most attractive cookies - Dorie pretty much hit the nail on the head with "higgledy-piggledy" but what about the taste?

It took 3 cookies for me to figure out whether I liked them or not. Actually, I'm still not entirely sure. I guess the thing is this - I didn't immediately love them, but I didn't necessarily dislike them either. I enjoyed the melt-in-your-mouthiness of them, but they were a little crunchy for my taste. The coffee could have been a bit stronger, as it was it added a bitterness that wasn't necessarily discernible as coffee. I think a little cocoa could have improved things. I found these cookies interesting, but given my lackluster reaction to them, they probably aren't something I would make again. As a side-note, they are gluten-free and they would be easy to flavor in different ways, so they might be something to think about for the holidays if you are avoiding gluten.

I am glad I tried them, because I found the technique fascinating and fun, so thanks to MacDuff of The Lonely Sidecar for choosing this recipe. Visit the TWD blogroll to see how everyone else's cookies turned out.

Mesquite Chocolate Chip Cookies

I recently read David Lebovitz's latest book The Sweet Life in Paris. In it, he makes an off-hand remark about using mesquite flour in his chocolate chip cookies. When I read that, I was immediately intrigued and wanted to make them. Though there are many recipes in the book, those cookies are not one of them. I could have done a quick online search and gotten the recipe, but I forgot about them... Until a couple weeks ago, when Nancy emailed me a link to the very cookies! I was so excited to try them out! Mesquite flour is not something I had ever tasted before, though I was eager to.

Once we both had our mesquite flour, we made the cookies together via Twitter along with Wendy. I hadn't gotten to do a bake-a-long for a long time, so it was especially fun!

Mesquite flour is a very fine powder that is tan in color, and to me it smells very similar to carob. It has a natural sweetness, so you can reduce the sugar in recipes you use it in. It also has a number of vitamins and minerals, and it is gluten free. I've heard of mesquite pancakes, breads, etc... Now that I have a big bag of it, I'm sure you'll see more mesquite recipes on here. But, the cookies. The cookies, the cookies, what to say about the cookies.

I didn't really like them.

I wanted to like them. I tried to like them. I just couldn't like them.

It's funny, because by most people's definition I'm a health nut when it comes to food. I'm a life-long vegetarian, I only eat organic food, a typical meal for me is steamed vegetables with quinoa, my favorite food is broccoli, my 3 year old has never had refined sugar, you get the idea. When it comes to desserts, however, that all basically goes out the window. If I'm going to eat something sweet, I want it to be incredible. I don't want to sacrifice the deliciousness of the dessert just to make it a little healthier. While I will substitute whole wheat flour for unbleached on occasion, and use palm sugar in place of cane, I only do that when I feel the outcome will be enhanced by these changes. What I'm getting at is that these were a bit too much of a health-food cookie to me. I'll take the NYT chocolate chip cookies over these any day.

My husband was crazy about them, however, so I'll let you make up your own mind.

Mesquite Chocolate Chip Cookies

adapted from Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson

2 1/2 cups unbleached white flour

1 cup mesquite flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon sea salt

8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/4 cups sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups rolled oats

2 cups coarsely chopped semisweet chocolate

Preheat oven to 375. In a medium-sized bowl, combine flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter. Add the sugar and beat until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until incorporated. Add the vanilla. Add the dry ingredients in 3 batches, each time mixing until just incorporated. Stir in the oats and chocolate. If the dough is too stiff for your mixer at this point, use your hands to combine the ingredients thoroughly. Form dough into balls about 1 1/4" in diameter. Place them about 1 inch apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until cookies have just begun to set, and the tops have browned a bit. Let cookies cool completely on baking sheet. This recipe makes A LOT of dough. You can freeze some, like I did, or you may want to scale the recipe.

Gingersnaps

I have always loved ginger cookies of all varieties - the more ginger the better! Especially this time of year. What better way to warm up than with a spicy cookie and a hot beverage! I don't usually go for crunchy cookies - I tend to prefer those of the chewy variety. As soon as I saw these, however, I just knew I had to make them. I am so glad I did, because though they don't look like much, they are fantastic!

These are gingersnaps that have a great snap to them, but they aren't hard. Just incredibly crispy. You slice them very thin, so they have a wonderful lightness to them. Of course, that does make it very easy to eat 5 in a row without noticing, but hey, that's what New Year's resolutions are for right?

The original recipe called for cinnamon, but I didn't have enough so I used all spice which added a great depth of flavor that I don't think I would have gotten with the cinnamon. I also used more ginger and black pepper than the recipe called for, but they still weren't as spicy as I would have liked them to be. Next time I make them, I'll use 4 teaspoons of ginger and 3/4 teaspoon black pepper, and we'll see if that does the trick.

These are great holiday cookies - who doesn't love a gingersnap?

Gingersnaps

adapted from simplyrecipes.com

8 oz (two sticks) unsalted butter

1 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 large egg

1/3 cup molasses

3 cups unbleached white flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons all spice

3 teaspoons ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Before starting: line a 9x5 loaf pan with plastic wrap so that it covers the entire interior of the pan and hangs over the edges. In a medium-sized bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Set aside. In bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter until soft and smooth. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs and beat until fluffy. Add molasses and mix until well combined. Add dry ingredients to mixer in 3 batches, mixing only until just incorporated. Transfer dough to prepared loaf pan, and press in tightly and as evenly as possible. Bring overhanging edges of plastic over dough so it is covered, and freeze until very firm, preferably overnight. When you're ready to bake, preheat oven to 350, and cut dough into very thin slices, about 1/8" thick (no more). Place about an inch apart on parchment lined baking sheet, and bake for about 10-15 minutes, or until the edges have turned dark brown. Let cool completely on baking sheet.