Batter-Splattered

Giant Chocolate Toffee Cookies

These cookies were featured prominently this week on the main page of Epicurious. Their photo -- it called to me. And then I read that this is the site's most popular cookie recipe. And then I read that the ingredients include five chopped-up Heath bars.

How could I not make them?

I thought the other ingredients were really interesting compared to your average cookie recipe -- this has only half a cup of flour, four eggs, and a whole lot of brown sugar which translates to moist, moist, moist. Mine flattened out alot more than the ones in the official photo -- probably because I didn't let the dough chill for a full 45 minutes as instructed.

But who can wait that long?? I set the bowl of dough out on the back porch, willing Mother Nature to cool it off lickety-split because I had a bee in my bonnet over getting these cookies into the oven, or more specifically, taking them out of the oven.

They turned out really nice all the same. Chewy yet soft and a little crispy. And, it goes without saying, very very chocolate-y.

Giant Chocolate Toffee Cookies

Makes about 18 cookies

1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 pound bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

1 3/4 cups (packed) brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
5 1.4-ounce chocolate-covered English toffee bars (such as Heath), coarsely chopped
1 cup walnuts, toasted, chopped 

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in small bowl; whisk to blend. Stir chocolate and butter in top of double boiler set over simmering water until melted and smooth. Remove from over water. Cool mixture to lukewarm.

Using electric mixer, beat sugar and eggs in bowl until thick, about 5 minutes. Beat in chocolate mixture and vanilla. Stir in flour mixture, then toffee and nuts. Chill batter until firm, about 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment or waxed paper. Drop batter by 1/4 cupfuls onto sheets, spacing 2 1/2 inches apart. Bake just until tops are dry and cracked but cookies are still soft to touch, about 15 minutes. Cool on sheets. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Store airtight at room temperature.)   

Chocolate stout cupcakes

My friend Angie was kind enough to bring over a bunch of clams and halibut -- dug and caught, respectively, in Homer and we had some people over to my place for a great big clambake, complete with mimosas and baked corn and asparagus and white wine and strong coffee served in fancy cups and saucers.

The clams simmered in a big pot of white wine with butter, shallots, and garlic. The halibut was coated with blackening spices and then roasted in the oven.

I should have taken photos but you know how it is at feasts like this. Time flies and the mimosa (er, mimosas in my case) goes straight to your head and the food has a way of disappearing just like that.

I contributed some sloppy gloppy chocolate stout cakes made with Guinness:

The cake part is rich and chocolate-y and begins with a bottle of Guinness and some butter simmering in a copper pot on the stovetop. As you stir, the Guinness fizzes and puts off the loveliest yeasty bread smell. The glaze is drizzled on top of the warm cupcakes.

These are so sloppy that everyone ate them with forks.

Oh so good. I had every intention of making these a few days ago for entering in this month's Cupcake Hero mingle calling for cupcakes made with liquor. My mocha cupcakes with walnuts were crowned the queen last month, thank you very much, but I just didn't make the deadline this time around.

The original cake recipe is here, concocted by the Barrington Brewery in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Rather than a layer cake (three layers!) I really liked the idea of chocolate-drizzled cupcakes. I cut the recipe in half and it yielded 16 cupcakes. Perfect for a crowd and, lucky me, I still have five bottles of Guinness gracing my refrigerator door.

Here's my version:

Chocolate Stout Cupcakes

Yields 16 cupcakes

1 cup stout (such as Guinness)

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)

2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

3/4 cup sour cream

1 cup whipping cream

1/2 pound bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cupcake pans with paper cups.

Bring stout and butter to simmer in saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Divide batter equally among cupcakes cups. Bake until tester inserted into center of cakes comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Transfer cakes to rack; cool 10 minutes. Turn cakes out onto rack and cool completely.

Meanwhile, make icing. Bring cream to simmer in heavy medium saucepan. Remove from heat. Add chopped chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth. Refrigerate until icing is spreadable, stirring frequently, about 2 hours. Drizzle over cupcakes and enjoy.

Korean-style pork tenderloin

Here's another recipe from my cousin. It has the most beautiful marinade and sauce, full of garlic and dark sesame oil and red pepper flakes and ginger. I'm a sucker for a pretty marinade.

My cousin says she buys a few tenderloins when they're on sale just to make this recipe every once in awhile. And she says this sticks to the 60-40 rule, whatever that means. I didn't want to ask because she just threw that phrase out there like I should know. Can someone please explain?

Be sure to use low-sodium soy sauce otherwise it's just too salty and none of the other flavors come through.

Korean-Style Pork Tenderloin

Serves six

1/3 cup low-sodium soy sauce

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger

3 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 tablespoon dark sesame oil

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 1/2 pounds pork tenderloin, trimmed

Combine first 7 ingredients in a large zip-top plastic bag; add pork. Seal and marinate in refrigerator 8 hours or overnight, turning occasionally.

Preheat oven to 425°.

Heat a large ovenproof skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Remove pork from bag, reserving marinade. Add pork to pan; cook 6 minutes, browning on all sides.

Place pan in oven; bake at 425° for 15 minutes or until meat thermometer registers 160° (medium) or until desired degree of doneness. Let stand 5 minutes before slicing.

Bring reserved marinade to a boil in a small saucepan. Reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes.

Cut pork into 1/4-inch-thick slices; serve with sauce.

Big soft ginger cookies

It's snowy and windy outside but that didn't stop me and the dog from having a rollicking good romp around the backyard. It's the perfect sort of weather to come inside to tea and cookies -- but more on that later.

Even Richard was impressed with the amount of tracks through the freshly-fallen blanket of snow. As he looked out the kitchen window at our rompiness I think his exact words were: "My god."

She's awfully pretty but I have a confesstion to make: my dog is a great big bully. Her ambush of choice? Body-slamming little old ladies at the dogpark.

She's just so excited to see them. And they're so excited to see her. She does this flying leap towards you out of nowhere and somehow manages to punch you in the gut with all four paws in mid-air. She's done it to me a few times, but usually she saves it for the little old ladies. Why, you might ask? Well, because they're easier to knock over.

If a gal were to tackle a 200-pound full-grown man, she's likely to get herself injured.

It's something we're working on but we have yet to talk a granny into kneeing her viciously in the chest mid-body-slam.

And here's something else I was working on this morning. Big soft ginger cookies:

It's another recipe off the list of top twenty rated recipes on All Recipes. I didn't change a thing and they turned out just wonderful.

Big Soft GInger Cookies

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup margarine, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2 tablespoons white sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the water and molasses. Gradually stir the sifted ingredients into the molasses mixture. Shape dough into walnut sized balls, and roll them in the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. Place the cookies 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet, and flatten slightly.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Chicken Cordon Bleu

 

The translation for chicken cordon bleu / blue ribbon chicken posted at All Recipes* has me snickering over a story my friend told me about her appearance on this show. The camera crew filmed her at her home in Baton Rouge and made her stand around her house saying 'things I would never, ever say on television.' Such as stiffly announcing to a national audience: "Baton Rouge means RED STICK." Thankfully, they didn't actually bring along a red stick for her to hold up for the camera although I'm a little surprised they didn't think of it.

This is another one of All Recipes' top 20 best-rated dishes (I thought I'd make my way through the list). And I have to tell you: ordinarily, if I lay eyes on a recipe that includes chicken bouillon cubes in the list of ingredients, I usually go looking for a different recipe. I don't know why. It brings out the food snob in me. And I'm not much of a food snob. But the bouillon seems like cheating to me. Like adding more than one kind of cream-of-something soup. Or a packet of dry onion soup mix. Too many mystery ingredients lurk in those cubes and cans and packets.

But I decided to give this a try because I just found some all-natural chicken bouillon in the natural foods section of my grocery store. And boy, am I ever glad I did because these were really, really tasty. There's a decadent white wine creamy saucy gravy included in the recipe and the searing-and-simmering combination of cooking on the stovetop had these cooked to perfection. The perfect thing to haul the big blue dutch oven out of the cupboard for.

There's still one breast left in the fridge and I kept waking up last night thinking about it.

The original recipe is here and it calls for 6 breasts. I cut it down to two breasts but made a full recipe of the sauce. Any of you health nut alarmists out there who are reeling back in horror at the fatteningness of so much delicious decadence, all I have to say to you is: come on, live a little! Go ahead and indulge. You can have oatmeal for breakfast tomorrow and carrot sticks for lunch to make up for it.

Here's my version:

Chicken Cordon Bleu

2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts

4 slices of swiss cheese

2 slices ham

1 T flour

1/4 heaping teaspoon paprika

2 T butter

2/3 c dry white wine

1 t chicken bouillon

1 T cornstarch

1 c heavy whipping cream

Pound chicken breasts to a somewhat even thickness using a mallet and covering the breast with saran wrap. Layer each breast (the rough side) with slices of swiss cheese and ham. Roll not too tightly and secure with toothpicks. Mix flour and paprika in a shallow bowl and coat the chicken with the mixture.

Heat butter in a heavy dutch oven or skillet over medium-high heat and brown chicken on all sides. I got mine to a nice dark brown. Remove breasts to a plate. Add wine and bouillon to the pan and mix together, deglazing the pan / scraping up all the bits.

Reduce heat to low, return breasts to pan, cover and simmer for 30 minutes until chicken is cooked thru (I sliced one of mine in half to make sure it was done). Remove chicken to plates and keep warm.

Blend the cornstarch and cream in a small bowl and then whisk slowly into pan. Cook and stir until thickened. Serve chicken with sauce poured over it.

*"'Cordon Bleu' is a French term, literally translated as 'blue ribbon', that originally referred to an award for culinary excellence given to women cooks!

Banana Crumb Muffins

These banana crumb muffins boast five stars and 2,097 reviews by other cooks, making it one of All Recipes all-time most popular recipes.

I had to make these muffins even though I'm crumble-challenged. For some reason, whenever a recipe calls for a crumble topping, what I end up with is a sweet and crunchy crust. I don't know why. Perhaps one of you could come over the next time I make these (and I will) and maybe you could look over my shoulder and critique my cutting in of the butter. I'm pretty sure that's where I go wrong.

Luckily, I'm a fan of the sweet and crunchy crust. I'm also a fan of these muffins. And so is my husband. And so are his friends. I had one for breakfast -- warm! -- straight out of the oven first thing this morning and the men polished off the other eleven just like that. I'm told that they're really good with a glass of cold milk on the side. I had them with my standard morning cappucino.

Here's my version (I added a slosh of vanilla and some chopped nuts):

Banana Crumb Muffins

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 bananas, mashed
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 1 t vanilla
• 3/4 c chopped walnuts or pecans
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon butter

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease 10 - 12 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.
2. In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg, melted butter, and vanilla. Stir the banana mixture and nuts into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
3. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.