Posted By Lindsay on November 1, 2011
Peanut butter and chocolate have a unique relationship. And most of the time, it’s bliss. Candy? Reese’s are my all time favorite. Ice cream? Pretty please with a cherry on top. Cookies? I’ll take 12. Cake? Er, I’ll pass.
Not sure if it is the texture of cake that just doesn’t quite mesh with the peanut butter, but it’s just not the same for me. Granted, maybe I just haven’t tried the right chocolate peanut butter cake. That could very well be it.
Luckily, these chocolate brownies are so dense and rich, not cakelike at all, that they fall into the realm of heaven in a square. No skimping on frosting here, these babies are smothered with a thick layer of sweet (but not too sweet) peanut butter frosting. The salt on top is just the icing on the cake, er, brownie.
I made these particular treats for a Nashville food blogger potluck last month. To such events I’ve been told I’m not allowed to bring anything BUT dessert. I wonder why? Apparently I have a reputation as a sugar pusher.
Peanut Butter and Fleur de Sel Brownies
Yield: 16 brownies
Total Time: 1 hour
Ingredients:
For Brownies:
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) butter
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (natural or Dutch-process)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cold large eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
For Frosting:
6 Tablespoons (3/4 stick) softened butter
3/4 cup peanut butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon Maldon or Fleur de Sel.
Directions:
Prepare an 8 inch square pan. Butter and line the bottom and sides of the baking pan with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on two opposite sides. Butter parchment.
Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F.
Combine the butter, sugar, cocoa, and salt in a heat-proof bowl and place over a large pot of simmering water. The bottom of the bowl should rest in the pot but not touch the water.
Stir over medium heat. When the butter is just about melted, remove the bowl and let the residual heat continue do the rest. Stir until smooth. At this point the mixture should feel warm, not hot to the touch. If hot, wait until warm to add the eggs.
Add the eggs, one at a time, stirring until each egg is fully incorporated before adding the next. Stir in the vanilla. Add the flour, and stir about 40 times until the flour is completely incorporated and the batter is smooth and shiny.
Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan and bake 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out with a few moist crumbs. Let cool completely on a wire rack.
To prepare the frosting, cream the butter and the peanut butter until combined. Slowly stir in the powdered sugar until completely incorporated. Spread over cooled brownies and sprinkle with flake salt (Maldon) or Fleur De Sel. Cut into squares.
Posted By Lindsay on October 27, 2011
I finally cracked open a can of pumpkin.
I figure if it’s cold enough to have the heat running, I can stop holding on to the last rays of summer light and finally accept that it’s gone, and subsequently drown my sorrows in canned pumpkin. It’s the only thing that makes fall bearable, in my opinion.
Pumpkin crème brûlée seemed like an obvious choice, especially now that I finally have a crème brûlée torch to my name (yay, cookbook for giving me an excuse to get one!) Throw in some swoon-worthy Uganda vanilla beans from my Food Blog Forum swag bag (thanks, Beanilla!) and you have yourself one heck of a fall dessert.
Call it a gateway dessert, if you will, paving the way for many more sweet amber treats to come. I have a feeling there will be a lot of them.
Pumpkin Crème Brûlée
Yield: 4 servings
Total Time: 4 hours
Ingredients:
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 vanilla bean
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup turbinado or granulated sugar
Directions:
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Bring a pot of water to a gentle boil (this will be used for the water bath later).
Scrape out the seeds of the vanilla bean with a paring knife. In a small bowl, whisk together egg yolks, brown sugar, pumpkin, and vanilla until light in color.
Heat cream in a small saucepan until it starts to steam. Gradually pour warm cream into bowl with egg yolks, 1/4 cup at a time, whisking vigorously, until incorporated. Skim off foam. Pour into 4 (4-ounce) shallow ramekins. Arrange ramekins in a baking pan and place pan on oven rack. Carefully pour in just enough boiling water to reach halfway up the sides of the ramekins.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until just set. Remove from water bath and allow to cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or overnight.
Just before serving, sprinkle a generous tablespoon of sugar evenly over the top of each ramekin. Use a kitchen torch to caramelize the sugar, moving torch evenly across the tops of the custards to keep the sugar from burning. Alternatively, you place the custards on the top rack of a broiler set to high, and broil until sugar is golden brown and caramelized, 2 to 3 minutes. Serve immediately.
Posted By Lindsay on October 25, 2011
I am so excited to announce the 1st Annual Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap, hosted by myself and Julie of The Little Kitchen.
The premise is this: sign up. Receive the addresses of three other food bloggers. Send each of them one dozen delicious homemade cookies. Receive three different boxes of scrumptious cookies from other bloggers. Eat them all yourself (or, you know, share. If you want. No judgement either way.) Post your cookie recipe on your blog. See everyone else’s cookie recipes. Salivate. Get lots of great ideas for next years’ cookie swap. Rinse and repeat.
Sounds awesome, doesn’t it? Want to join in the fun?
Sign ups are now CLOSED. If you missed out this year but are interested in participating in the future, please sign up here to receive notification when next year’s swap begins!
Sign ups are open through Tuesday, November 15th. Matches will be emailed to you on Monday the 21st, and we ask that you please get your cookies in the mail no later than December 5th. Blog posts with your cookie recipes should be written and ready for publication on December 12th. Julie and I will be posting a full round-up of all the participating bloggers and their cookie recipes shortly thereafter. Please note these deadlines and make sure you are able to meet them before signing up. We have no tolerance for flakes or no-shows in this swap.
Currently this swap is open to US and Canadian food bloggers, but we are willing to open it up to bloggers in other countries, as long as you can convince at least 4 bloggers from that country to sign up. Email us if you’d like to add yours. We will do our best to match folks with others in the same country to keep shipping costs reasonable.
Grab a badge:
If you’re participating, spread the word! The more bloggers we have participating in this swap the more fun it’ll be. Please use the code below to add the official cookie swap banner to your blog:
<a href="http://www.loveandoliveoil.com/cookieswap" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.minus.com/ibeWiZs0zpqIS1.jpg" border="0" alt="The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2011"></a>
And if you want logos to use in your own posts to promote the swap and whatnot:
White Background
Blue Background
Wide Blue Background
Tweeting? Instagraming? Use the hashtag #fbcookieswap.
Sign up! Spread the word! Start planning your cookies!
And just in case you were curious….
(This is how many bloggers have signed up so far! That’s a lotta cookies!! Seriously, what are you waiting for?)
Posted By Lindsay on October 23, 2011
You might be wondering what happened to the rest of our watermelon surplus. You know, the 1 1/2 watermelons that were left after we made popsicles. Let’s just say they are now jarred and jiggly versions of their former selves.
Maybe it’s the fact that I missed the majority of the canning season this year. But as the summer dwindled I was prepared to stick just about anything in a jar. And watermelon just happened to be one of those things.
Apparently it’s not that common, because I couldn’t really find a tested recipe for it. So I improvised, using a basic recipe for mint jelly on the pectin pack (I figured watermelon juice couldn’t be any different than minty water, and substituting it would be fine).
So I now I have all these little jars of sunset-colored jelly. And no clue what to do with it. Since it is such an unusual preserve, I’m stumped. What would YOU do with it? Most creative idea just might win a jar from me.
Watermelon Jelly
Yield: 6 to 7 (4-oz) jars
Ingredients:
2 cups watermelon juice (from about 1 small or 1/2 large watermelon)
3 tablespoons fresh or bottle lemon juice
3 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 pouch Certo liquid pectin
Directions:
To make watermelon juice, roughly chop watermelon. You'll need about 6 cups of chopped melon to produce about two cups of juice. Run melon through a food mill (if you have one), or crush and then strain through a fine mesh sieve to remove any seeds or pulp.
Prepare canner and wash/sterilize 8 4-ounce canning jars. Keep jars in hot (not boiling) water until ready to use.
Combine watermelon juice, lemon juice, and sugar in a 6 to 8-quart nonreactive saucepan. Bring to a full roiling boil (a boil that doesn't stop bubbling when stirred) over high heat, stirring constantly.
Quickly stir in pectin. Return to a full rolling boil and boil exactly 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim off any foam with a metal spoon.
Ladle hot jam into jars, leaving 1/4-inch of headspace. Wipe the rims clean and top with lid; screw on ring until finger tight. Process in a boiling water bath for 7 minutes. Remove from water and let cool completely, 12 to 24 hours. Check seals. Any unsealed jars should be refrigerated and used within 1 month.
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