I could stare at the mesmerizing trickle of falling rain drops, stirred about in the gentle breeze accompanying the cement-grey clouds hovering high above, for hours. Bare feet carry me about a warm, dim house so my fingers can click, tap, switch and toggle what little noise-making devices remain on. Now I can watch and listen.

I slide open a tricky window and sit on the paint-chipped sill. A warm, damp breeze rushes over me; the metallic smell of a summer storm floods my nostrils. Nothing accompanies the sight and sound of a gentle storm like the infrequent smells of rain and gentle caressing touch of a dewy gust of wind.

My hand wraps around the edge of the sill. I lean out from the window as far as I can, struggling to clear the overhang. My arm shakes slightly under a struggle to control my own oddly-balanced weight. I open my mouth and stick my tongue out, hoping to catch a raindrop.

Nothing but the rain fills my senses now.

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Chocolate Chip Cinnamon Cookie Stack Cakes

Difficulty: Easy
Yield: 3, 3″ stacked  cakes
Prep Time:  20 minutes
Baking Time: 20 minutes
Assembly Time: 30 minutes

Tools:

12 x 17″ baking sheet
parchment paper
Stand mixer with paddle attachment
Cookie cutters
Icing spatula

Propane torch, optional

Ingredients:

8 oz. unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 oz. light brown sugar
6 oz. granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
10 oz. all-purpose flour
3 oz. whole-wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. baking soda
12 oz. dark chocolate chips

2 cups italian meringue frosting

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line the bottom of the pizza pan with parchment paper and grease the paper and sides of the pan; set aside.

2. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about five minutes.

3. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each.

4. Add the vanilla and mix in well.

5. Add the flour, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda and mix until a batter forms.

6. Add the chocolate chips and mix until they are evenly distributed.

7. Spread the dough into the pizza pan.

8. Bake in a preheated oven for 20 to 22 minutes until the edges begin to brown and the center has set. In the meantime, prepare the italian meringue according to the instructions below.

9. Cool in the pan for 10 to 20 minutes until cool enough to handle.

10. Remove from the pan carefully and cool on a wire rack until completely cool.

11. Using 3″ round cookie cutters, cut out 12 circular cookies from the sheet.

12. Place one cookie layer on a plate. Using a large star tip, place a ring of icing on the top. Place a cookie on top and repeat until you have four layers or cookie and icing.

13. Using a propane or kitchen torch, lightly torch the edges of the meringue to give it a charred look.

14. Serve immediately. This recipe is best stored separately and should be eaten right after assembly.

Italian Meringue: While italian meringue may be the most difficult and time consuming of the frostings, it is by far, in my opinion at least, the best. If you’re not up for making italian meringue, you can substitute in traditional buttercream frosting instead for a still delicious treat!

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Italian Meringue

Difficulty: Intermediate
Yield: 1 quart meringue
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Tools:

Heavy bottomed pot
Candy Thermometer
Stand Mixer with whisk attachment*

i Ingredients:

8 oz. sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup egg whites

n Instructions:

1. Place the sugar and water in a heavy bottomed pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Bring the sugar to 240°F.

2. While the sugar is heating, begin whipping the egg whites until the are fluffy and have expanded 2 to 3 times in volume.

3. Once the sugar is at 240°F and the egg whites are foamy, immediately begin slowly adding the hot sugar into the egg whites while whipping at medium-high speed. Be sure to add the sugar very in a needle thin stream in between the whisk attachment and the side of the mixer bowl.

4. Once the sugar is added, whip the mixture at high speed until it is completely cooled and the egg whites form stiff peaks, about 1o to 20 minutes.

5. Store in an airtight jar in the refrigerator for up  to 2 weeks.

What’s your favorite chocolate chip cookie and cake mashup? Share it with us in the comments! 

Chasing Delicious -

Today is my brother’s birthday. He turns 25. He’s my younger brother. So I’m not too happy about what this means for my own age. Besides, didn’t we just turn 9 and 11 last year? I digress. It’s his birthday and that means I, the resident baker, and tasked with creating something extravagant, decadent, over the top and grossly fancy.

Cue the cookie cake. Without fail, for the last 25 years (okay, for the last 20 or so where my brother actually has had a say in his birthday dessert of choice), my brother has asked for a cookie cake. A large, thin, disk of oversized cookie. Not the most extravagant or decadent of desserts but who am I do deny my boët his crumbly, chocolate chip filled, icing-ladened flat cake of baked-to-perfection cookie batter.

If you’re going to make someone a cookie cake for their birthday, you need to go overboard on two things: the chocolate chips and the icing. My ideal cookie cake is one where you can’t even see the cookie underneath the icing. I was taught this rule of cookie cake etiquette by my bother himself. Again, who am I to try and urge him over to a mile-high five chocolate layer cake drizzled with a sweet red wine reduction and topped with grilled pears.

Fine. Cookie cake it is.

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Birthday Cookie Cake

Difficulty: Easy
Yield: 1, 12″ cookie cake
Prep Time:  20 minutes
Baking Time: 20 minutes
Decorating Time: 1 hour

Tools:

12″ 3/4″ deep pizza pan
parchment paper
Stand mixer with paddle attachment

Ingredients:

8 oz. unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 oz. light brown sugar
6 oz. granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
13 oz. all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. baking soda
6 oz. milk chocolate chips
6 oz. dark chocolate chips
4 oz. white chocolate chips

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line the bottom of the pizza pan with parchment paper and grease the paper and sides of the pan; set aside.

2. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about five minutes.

3. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each.

4. Add the vanilla and mix in well.

5. Add the flour, salt, and baking soda and mix until a batter forms.

6. Add the chocolate chips and mix until they are evenly distributed.

7. Spread the dough into the pizza pan.

8. Bake in a preheated oven for 20 to 22 minutes until the edges begin to brown and the center has set.

9. Cool in the pan for 10 to 20 minutes until cool enough to handle.

10. Remove from the pan and cool on a wire rack until cool enough to decorate.

11. Decorate with frosting as desired and serve.

Multi-Color Fluffy Frosting: To achieve the frosting I’ve shown here, you will need 5 piping bags, each with a separate color (see frosting recipe below). Start in the center by placing a ring of icing stars, one of each color, so that they are touching. Taking care not to place any of the same colors next to each other, work out from the center, adding stars of the same size and assorted colors to the cookie cake.

Stars: To create small 11-pointed stars you will need a #32 piping tip. With the bag held tightly in your hand, hold the tip about 1/2″ above the cookie cake. Holding the tip in place, squeeze the bag slightly until the frosting starts to fan out on the cookie cake. Once the star is about 2x wider than the tip itself, stop squeezing and lift up carefully to create a pointed tip to the star.

Buttercream: Buttercream frosting, made at home, is one of, if not the, simplest frostings to make. Throw some butter, powdered sugar, a little vanilla, and a spot of cream, mix, and voila, frosting! When you mix in the colorings, take care not to over mix the frosting or it may begin to breakdown, making it unsightly and difficult to pipe.

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Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Difficulty: Easy
Yield: 2 lb. frosting
Prep Time:  10 minutes

Tools:

Stand mixer with paddle attachment
Bowls
Spoons
5 piping bags
5 #32 piping tips

Ingredients:

1 lb. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 lb. 12 oz. powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
4-6 tbsp. cream

Blue, pink, purple, teal & yellow food coloring

Instructions:

1. Beat the butter until it is light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

2. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla and mix until the frosting comes together and is fluffy.

3. Divide the frosting evenly into 5 separate bowls or one for each of the different colors you wish to create.

4. Add respective food coloring, a couple drops at a time to each bowl, and mix in, adding more food coloring until you achieve the desired color.

5. Place each color of frosting in different piping bags with a #32 piping tip, or piping tip of your choice. Pipe right away or store in the refrigerator for up to a day, with the tip wrapped tightly in cellophane wrap.

 Do you like cookie cakes? Have you ever tried making one at home? Share it with us in the comments!

Chasing Delicious -

I am a sucker for pizza. Next to hot dogs and cheeseburgers, pizza is my all time favorite food – and yes I will likely die of a heart attack at a young age but at least I will die a delicious death. One of my favorite ways to prepare pizza is over the grill. Grilling pizza adds a delicious char and smokey flavor that kicks up an otherwise traditional pie.

For this pizza I replaced the tomato sauce with sliced tomatoes. I used one cheese, a smokey provolone, and then kept the toppings simple as well, opting only for onions and then two herbs: rosemary and oregano. This simple pizza lets each ingredient shine. The sweetness and floral notes in the tomatoes and herbs respectively play off of the smokiness from grilling the pizza.

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Grilled Herb Pizza

Difficulty: Intermediate
Yield: 2, 12″ pizzas
Prep Time:  20 minutes
Rising Time: 10-30 minutes
Cooking Time: 1o minutes

Tools:

Rolling pin
Grill
Pizza Peel

Ingredients:

1 lb pizza dough, recipe below

1 tomato, sliced
8 oz. Provolone cheese
4 oz. onion, sliced
1 tsp. rosemary leaves, finely chopped
1/4 tsp. oregano leaves, finely chopped
Salt & pepper to taste

Oil

Instructions:

1. Prepare the pizza dough according to the instructions.

2. Prepare the grill, heating it about 30 minutes before you plan to grill the pizzas.

3. Divide the dough into two portions. Roll out each portion of the the pizza dough to  12″ circle.

4. Lightly oil the top of the dough.

5. Place the tomato slices on top of each pizza. Sprinkle the cheese, onion slices, and herbs on top. Season with salt and pepper.

6. Slide the pizza onto an oiled grill grate and grill over high heat, covered, for 8 to 10 minutes until the dough has puffed up and began to brown; the cheese should also be melted and bubbly around the edges.

7. Remove from the grill and serve immediately.

Pizza Dough: While pizza dough requires an initial rising like most breads, the second rising isn’t necessary as pizza is cooking at incredibly high heat, which will speed up the second rising process, essentially combining the second rise and the baking step together. Add your favorite herbs, seasonings, or flavorings to this dough to make it unique!

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Multi-Grain Pizza Dough

Adapted from a Jeff Hertzberg, M.D. and Zoe Francois recipe.

Difficulty: Intermediate
Yield: 4 lbs. pizza dough
Prep Time:  20 minutes
Rising Time: 2 hours

Tools:

Large Proofing Tub
Spoon

Ingredients:

1 tbsp. active yeast
3 1/2 cup warm water (105-115°F)
1 lb 14 oz. all-pupose flour
2 oz. oat flour
3 oz. kamut flour
4 oz. whole-wheat flour
1 oz. honey
1 tbsp. salt

Oil

Instructions:

1. Dissolve the the yeast in the warm water.

3. Add the flours, honey, and salt. Mix together until a dough forms and all dry patches are gone. The dough should be sticky but not wet. If needed, add a little more flour.

4. Liberally oil the outside of the dough and place in a covered bowl or proofing tub at room temperature until it has doubled in volume about 2 hours.

5. Once doubled in volume, the dough is ready to use. You can also refrigerate the dough and use it over the next two weeks.

What’s your favorite type of pizza? Feel free to share your recipes in the comments!

Chasing Delicious -

I sit in a bored stupor, staring at blank pages in front of me. I count the moments I’ve achieved nothing. This won’t do. I hop up, trek across my unkempt backyard, and out the old wooden gate that requires more effort than a 45 pound bench press – that’s a lot for me.

I ignore the tickle of dry, scratchy, wind-tossed grass biting at my ankles, and the unpleasant smush I get with each step in my now soggy-from-the-creek tennis shoes. I disregard the spiderweb I walked through moments ago, pushing my face and arms further into it’s clingy tendrils. I shake off rogue fire ants from one leg and swat at a wasp warning me I am in his territory.

With my eye planted to the worn eyepiece of my heavy, chunky rangefinder, I take one slow step after the other, pushing forward until I am happy with the framing I see through the 15mm lens. Now I stand and wait. I wait, count, daydream as the sun makes it gradual climb over the horizon.

In my head I begin to recite Tchaikovsky’s The Swan Lake, Dances with Swans: Andante violin solo, over and over – my favorite rendition of course, as performed by Ida Haendel under the conduction of Andre Previn and the backing of the London Symphony Orchestra, circa the 1970s. I even whistle a few parts, but I stop myself, afraid to get carried away and miss the moment I wait patiently for.

I whistle quieter. I can see the sun peaking through the overgrown prairie. My finger slides over the shutter. Click. I smile and retreat back up the slope in the gully, to the rickety gate, and through my backyard. I sit down at a small wooden table on a worn wooden deck, set my camera near by, and take a sip from the now barely warm, insipid coffee.

Now I can start my day.

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Lemon Marmalade Topped Citrus Cheesecake

Difficulty: Easy
Yield: 1, 9″ cheesecake
Prep Time:  1 hour
Baking Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Resting Time: 4 hours

Tools:

1, 9″ round springform pan
Parchment paper or foil
Pie weights or dried beans
Standmixer with paddle attachment

Ingredients:

1 lb. Sweet Lemon Short Dough, recipe below
2 cups Lemon Marmalade, recipe below

2 lb. cream cheese, at room temp.
6 oz. sugar
1 tbsp. orange zest
1 tbsp. lemon zest
1 tsp. orange juice
1 tsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. salt
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream

Instructions:

1. Prepare the Sweet Lemon Short Dough and the Lemon Marmalade according to their instructions and set aside in the refrigerator to chill. The dough needs to rest long enough until it is firm enough to roll out.

2. Preheat the oven to 375°F.

3. Roll the Short Dough out to a 1/8″ thick circle about 9″ in diameter, using as little flour as possible. Place the rolled out dough gently in the bottom of a springform pan. Remove any excess dough that is left above the edge of the pie pan. Line the dough with parchment paper or foil, and fill the center with pie weights or dried beens.

Note: Short dough is a fragile dough; it is best to work quickly as the dough will become too soft to work with once it has warmed up.

5. Blind bake the tart dough in the preheated oven for 14 to 16 minutes until the visible edge of the dough begins brown and feels firm. Remove from the oven, carefully remove the weights and parchment paper, and set aside.

6. Reduce the oven to 325°F.

7. In the meantime prepare the cheesecake filling by placing the cream cheese in the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat over medium speed until the cream cheese is light and fluffy.

8. With the stand mixer running, slowly add the sugar and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy.

9. Add the citrus zests, orange juice, and zest and beat in until combined.

10. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until each is mixed in thoroughly.

11. Add the sour cream and mix until blended in completely.

12. Pour the filling into the springform pan.

13. Bake in an oven at 325°F for about 1 hour and 15 minutes or until the cheesecake is set.

14. Turn the oven off and open the door slightly. Let the cheesecake cool in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the interior of the oven is near room temperature.

15. Remove onto a wire cooling rack and cool to room temperature. Once at room temperature, place the cheesecake in the refrigerator and let chill and set for at least four hours.

16. Once set, remove the cheesecake from the springform pan, top with the lemon marmalade, and serve.

Marmalade: Marmalade, like jam, can be a simple process but one that requires patience and a little trial and error. While temperature is the best indicator for when a jam, jelly, or marmalade is ready, sometimes feel and intuition will guide you better. Lemons have a high amount of natural pectin, so there’s no need to add artificial pectin. This will increase the cooking time however.

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Lemon Marmalade

Difficulty: Easy
Yield: 2 cups lemon marmalade
Prep Time:  20 minutes
Cooking Time: 45 minutes-1 hour
Resting Time: 1 hour +

Tools:

Paring knife
Heavy-bottomed pot
Candy thermometer

Ingredients:

1 lb. lemons
2 cups water
1 lb.  sugar

Instructions:

1. Using a paring knife, slice the zest (yellow skin) from the lemon. Remove any pith (white tough portion) from the zest and slice the zest into 1/8″ strips. Set aside.

2. Remove any pith from the fruit of the lemon. Slice the lemon fruit into 1/8″ slices, careful to remove any seeds. Set aside.

3. Place the zest slices in a heavy-bottomed pot with the water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes to soften the zest.

4. Add the lemon fruit slices and the sugar and bring to a boil. Once the mixture reaches a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low and boil slowly until the mixture reaches 220°F, about 30 to 45 minutes.

Note: Be sure to adjust the heat as needed to keep the mixture boiling. Also, stir the mixture occasionally, especially if the thermometer  reaches 230°F. If after stirring, the temperature falls, the marmalade needs to continue cooking.

5. Remove from the heat and let cool. Once cool, pour into a jar or bowl and store in the refrigerator, tightly covered, up to a week.

Short Dough: Most tarts use a form of short dough to create the base. Short dough is essentially a cookie dough (butter, sugar, eggs & flour). Unlike pie dough that is flaky, short dough becomes firm and rigid allowing the tart to stand on its own without the aid of a pie dish. Because short doughs often contain a lot of butter and sugar in relation to flour, they are a very wet and soft dough and thus short doughs must be refrigerated for an hour or more before rolling out. The lemon in this recipe gives this dough a tangy, floral sweetness while the oat flour gives it a wonderfully earthy, nutty flavor.

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Sweet Lemon Oat Short Dough

Difficulty: Easy
Yield: 1 pound or enough for 1, 9″ square tart
Prep Time: 10 minutes

Tools:
Stand mixer with beater attachment or
Large bowl & spoon
Parchment paper

Ingredients:
5 oz. unsalted butter, at room temp.
4 oz. sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp. lemon zest
1/4 tsp. salt
5 oz. all-purpose flour
2 1/2 oz. oat flour

Instructions:
1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the sugar, butter, egg, lemon zest and salt together until combined.
2. Add the flour and mix until a dough forms.
3. Form the dough into a disk and wrap in parchment paper.
4. Place in the refrigerator and chill for a couple hours.

What’s your favorite cheesecake recipe?

Chasing Delicious -

Of all the doughs (bread, pie, short dough, and pasta), pasta dough may be the simplest – aside from a few bread recipes. Most pastas are a mix of just flour and water. Enriched pastas add eggs to the mix, giving the pasta a richer color and flavor. And then there are specialty doughs like this one that add flavorings and other ingredients to change the color and add flavor. Here the spinach adds a beautiful green, and a hint of earthy greens in the flavor.

So, the recipes are simple enough. What about the process to make pasta? While it can be time consuming (you have to knead and then continuously roll the pasta out, folding it in on itself, to create a tough structure that will hold up to boiling) it is easy and quite fun, especially when you get to the cutting and shaping stage. Every time I make pasta at home, my kitchen-hating friends and family will inevitably find themselves next to me at the island, working away on the dough and creating one of dozens of pasta shapes. There’s just no getting around it; pasta may be the most fun item to make in the kitchen.

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Spinach Pasta Dough

Difficulty: Intermediate
Yield: 2 lb fresh pasta
Prep Time:  30 minutes
Pressing Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time: 2-5 minutes minutes

Tools:

Heavy-bottomed pot
Bowl
Food processor
Pasta press
Pasta cutters (or cookie cutters)
Paring knife

Ingredients:

3 1/2 ounces spinach
12 ounces semolina flour
8 ounces all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
4 whole eggs

Extra all-purpose flour

Instructions:

1. Blanch the spinach by cooking it in boiling water for about 1 minute before removing it to a bowl filled with ice water. Squeeze all liquid from the spinach and set aside.

2. In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flours, salt, and spinach.

3. With the food processor running, add the eggs one at a time and blend until a coarse dough begins to form.

4. Remove the dough to a lightly floured work surface.

5. Knead until the dough is even throughout and somewhat elastic. The dough should be very tough and on the verge of difficult to manipulate. Add flour as needed.

6. Process the dough in small batches through  your pasta maker according to the instructions.

Note: It is during this step that you will run the pasta through the pasta press numerous times, folding it in on itself and adding a little flour each time, to build the structure in the dough. I suggest doing this 5 or so times before rolling the pasta out in increments to get it to the appropriate thickness.

7. Once the pasta is rolled to the appropriate thinness depending on the type of pasta you are making, lay it out on a lightly dusted surface and cut out the shapes for the pasta you are making (for ravioli, farfelle, and other broad pastas). For pastas like capellini, spaghetti, or fettuccine, use the appropriate attachments on your pasta press or a sharp paring knife.

8. To sore, wrap pasta in a barely-damp paper towel, and the paper-towel wrapped pasta in parchment paper. Keep the pasta in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. You can also freeze the pasta in an airtight container and store for up to a month.

7. Depending on the thickness and shape, cook the pasta in boiling water for 2-5 minutes, or until al dente.

What is your favorite pasta shape? Have you ever made pasta at home? Share your recipes in the comments below!

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