4 posts tagged “baking”
I used a recipe from my new baking cookbook, Baking Illustrated. It's by America's Test Kitchen, and I absolutely love their recipes because they always turn out amazing. You can buy a copy of Baking Illustrated here.
These Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies turned out excellent, tasty and very chewy and moist. Here's how to make them:
Ingredients:
1.5 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (16 tablespoons) unsalted butted, softened but still cool
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
3 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1.5 cups chocolate chips (or 1.5 cups raisins)
1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper (or spray with non-stick cooking spray).
2. Whisk the flour, baking powder, nutmeg, and salt together in a medium bowl.
3. Either by hand or with an electric mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy. Add the sugars; beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time.
4. Stir the dry ingredients into the butter-sugar mixture with a wooden spoon or large rubber spatula. Stir in the oats and chocolate chips.
5. Working with a generous 2 tablespoons of dough each time, roll the dough into 2-inch balls. Pat the balls lightly so they are slightly flatter than a circle. Place the balls on the prepared baking sheets, spacing them at least 2 inches apart.
6. Bake until the cookie edges turn golden brown, 22 to 25 minutes. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes. Transfer the cookies with a wide metal spatula to a wire rack. Let cool at least 30 minutes.
Makes about 18 large cookies.
My tips: Make sure to use Old Fashioned Oats, not Quick Oats. Old Fashioned Oats are larger and give the cookies the best texture. The cookie balls are quite large, so I only put 6 per tray. Keep an eye on them in the oven, you don't want to over bake. They should be a very light brown. I found the baking time to be about 16 to 18 minutes in my oven.
My favorite cupcake bakery in New York is Magnolia Bakery. They are little cups of heaven. I used to think my favorite kind was vanilla with chocolate frosting (the same as my favorite kind of cake, in general) but after trying the Vanilla/Vanilla ones I've decided those are my favorites. I also loved the chocolate cake with vanilla frosting.
A few weeks ago, I decided to try baking them myself. You can find the recipes in their second cookbook, More from Magnolia. You can also find the recipes posted online. I found the cake recipe here, and the chocolate frosting recipe here.
My frosting did not turn out as fluffy as it should have, which I'm sure is because I don't have an electric mixer and had to beat by hand. But it still tasted great, so no harm done.
The cupcakes turned out extremely well; I'll definitely continue to use this recipe. The cake had an excellent flavor, much better than any boxed mix. I think next time I'll make the vanilla frosting. (The vanilla frosting recipe is also available on the links above.)
One tip I have for any cupcake baker: try tinfoil cupcake papers. The lovely thing about them is that you don't need to use cupcake trays to make them, you can just set them on a regular cookie sheet. This cuts down the total baking time a lot for me, because you can prepare the next batch while the current batch is in the oven. Also, because the sides of the cupcake aren't touching the metal pan, the don't get browned on the sides, they stay light. Therefore, the sides of the cupcake taste just like the middle, which is very nice.
Here are some more pictures from my baking evening:
Part 2 of my cooking extravaganza (see part 1 here) was more ambitious: Ooey Gooey Chocolate Cakes.
You may be wondering why I decided to make Ooey Gooey Chocolate Cakes when I was already making a yellow cake with chocolate frosting. (Very possibly you were not wondering this, but let's humor me.) There is a very good explanation. The Ooey Gooey Chocolate Cakes came first. I saw this recipe weeks ago on Design*Sponge, and knew I wanted to make them for dessert for Ryan's birthday dinner. A while later, I decided I wanted to make him a regular birthday cake too. Especially since the Ooey Gooey cakes only made 4 tiny individual serving sized cakes. Plus, what's better than 5 cakes?
Ooey Gooey Chocolate Cakes
6 oz bittersweet Ghiradelli chocolate (One and a half bars)
4 oz unsalted butter
2 tablespoons cake flour
1/3 cup cocoa (unsweetened)
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
3/4 cup granulated sugar
Heat oven to 325 degrees. Butter and sugar 4 (4 oz) ramekins. Melt butter and chocolate in a double boiler. (or do what I do since I don’t have one: put ingredients in smaller saucepan, fill a larger saucepan partway with water and float the smaller saucepan inside the larger one). Sift cake flour, cocoa and salt in a small prep bowl. Whisk eggs and sugar in a larger prep bowl. Add melted chocolate and butter mixture to egg and sugar mixture a little at a time. Fold in dry ingredients with a whisk. Fill ramekins and place in large glass pan and pour hot water from double boiler around them. Bake about 35-40 minutes until slightly cracked on top and soft on the inside. Serve with Häagen-Dazs Vanilla Bean ice cream and fresh or frozen raspberries.
These were absolutely incredible. I got really worried, because mine didn't crack on the top. They hadn't cracked at 40 minutes, so I left them in for 10 more. Then I got really worried that I had over-baked them and decided to take them out anyway, despite the fact that they still hadn't cracked. I then worried that I left them in for far too long and that they were dry (the tops look a little dry). The moment of truth came after dinner, when I dug my spoon into one. As soon as I saw what came out, I stopped worrying. It was very black, ooey gooey chocolate cake. It was a little ramekin of heaven. The recipe says to serve with Vanilla Bean ice cream and raspberries, and it's not kidding. These little guys are rich. My photos don't show the toppings, because after you put ice cream and raspberries on an ooey gooey cake, who stops to take a picture?
The original post on Design*Sponge is definitely worth checking out if you're interested in making these. It includes a cute intro by Matte Stephens, one of my favorite indie artists who was the one to submit this recipe to D*s. There are much better photos than I took on the original post, and they are even doodled on by Matte. (He even did stop to take a photo of the treats with their toppings. Amazing!)
Additionally, if you want to make this recipe, but don't have ramekins (like I didn't) there's a very good set of six on Amazon for only $8.39.
Ryan's birthday was Sunday, and we celebrated all weekend. I wanted to cook him a nice dinner, and we decided to do that on Saturday, since it meant me being in the kitchen all day. Then we could relax on the actual day of his birthday, and play video games and watch the Oscars.
Saturday morning I started with the cake. I had never made a layer cake before. In fact, I'd only made sheet cakes that never left the pan. I'd also never made a cake from scratch before; I'd only used the boxed mixes.
I used this recipe for four egg yellow cake. It turned out pretty well, it had a nice flavor and was fairly moist. Both layers also came out of the round pans easily. I sprayed the pans with non stick cooking spray, and put a circle of wax paper on the bottom of the pan. (Trace the bottom of the pan onto the wax paper with a pencil, and then cut on the inside of your line.) I let the cakes cool for over 3 hours before removing them from the pans, but that was just because I was busy. Just make sure they're completely cooled.
Four Egg Yellow Cake
INGREDIENTS
* 1 cup shortening*
* 2 cups white sugar
* 4 eggs
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 3 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 3/4 cups milk
*I read in the comments that you can also use 1/2 cup shortening and
1/2 butter. I used all shortening, but next time I'm going to try
50/50. I think it will make it much more (surprise) buttery, which
would be an improvement.
DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour one 9 x 13 inch pan.
2. Cream together shortening and sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to creamed mixture alternately with milk. Mix well. Pour batter into prepared pan.
4. Bake for 45 minutes, or until cake tests done. Cool.
For the frosting, I used a recipe that my mom always uses, the one on the inside of the Baker's unsweetened chocolate baking squares box. It was a good recipe, the frosting has a great flavor, and is very easy to make. The best part is you have a while between making the frosting and actually applying it to the cake. A lot of other frosting recipes I've seen say that they harden quickly, and you have to use it right away.
Baker's One Bowl Chocolate Frosting
INGREDIENTS
4 squares (4 ounces) unsweetened Baker's chocolate (I actually used Ghiradelli - one bar is 4 ounces)
16 ounces powdered sugar
1/2 cup of softened butter or margarine
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/3 cup milk
Put chocolate in microwave on high for 2 minutes. Stir until completely melted (put back in microwave if needed). Cool five minutes or until room temperature. Add powdered sugar, butter, and vanilla. Beat (or stir by hand) until well mixed. Gradually add milk, beating until well blended.
This recipe will make 3 cups of frosting, a good amount for frosting a full sheet cake or an 8 or 9 inch two layer cake, including the middle layer and sides.
