Mocha Chocolate Chip Cookies

I must say I rarely meet a cookie I do not like.  These were wonderful.  Let's review - coffee and dark chocolate in a cookie - what could be better?  I broke down and bought espresso powder from the on-line King Arthur store.  Totally worth it.  I only used one tablespoon of the strong stuff not the 2-3 as suggested in the recipe.  Nathan also asked me to put in a little extra vanilla which I did. Hey I love vanilla!  The kids loved the mocha taste, I thought we might not get to baking the cookies!  I did have a little trouble with the cookies spreading a bit more than I would have liked, despite the fact that I did cool the dough for quite some time.  



Every great recipe starts with butter!



The dough was delicious.



They did spread quite a bit. But they were still crunchy and chewy.



We had another winter storm here in Connecticut today.  Here's to nicer weather coming soon! And the April recipes a celebration of the spring season.

Cheers,
Broad Brook Bakers

TWD: Croissants

I should not have been so scared of making croissants all these years. It was an investment of time but we did not find them to be overly complicated to make.

This was more of a family affair than usual; we were all Broad Brook Bakers this time around.  My husband and mother-in-law serving as photographers as well as assisting in parts of the croissant making. The kids as usual loved the dough making especially.

Nathan and Sarah are watching the video of Julia and Esther McManus. This video was so helpful every step of the way.



We did not have a problem finding the yeast at our local market (Big Y.)


















This was lots of fun and remarkably easier than I thought it would be; thought I would have butter all over the place.









Bought chocolate batons and almond filling from King Arthur Flour.







Our croissants did not look like they came straight out of a professional bakery but they were pretty in their own handmade way.





Well worth the time and investment.  Honestly, these were the best croissants I've had next to my memory of when I did my study-abroad in Paris.  I highly recommend the chocolate batons from King Arthur.  The chocolate was perfect, not too sweet, exactly how I remember. We ate the bulk of them for lunch along with cheese (fromage!), ham (jambon!) and strawberries (fraises!).  We felt very French.

A bientot!

Broad Brook Bakers 

TWD: Boca Negra

This dessert reminded me of those wonderfully rich Best-Ever Brownies we made not too long ago.  It is rare that I meet a sweet that is so rich and chocolaty that I can only have a small slice.  

Sarah and I had considerable trouble incorporating the butter. The butter simply may not have been completely room temperature. We ended up melting the butter and it was much easier.

We probably should have used the food processor method but we got our exercise instead.

Like many of our fellow bakers, we cooked the cake for longer than the 30 minutes; our went for about 15 minutes longer in fact.

I was close to sure that this would not come out of the pan and miraculously it did.

We let this sit at room temperature until the next evening when we had our slices.

Like the best-ever brownies, this dessert was not for the kids. It was simply too rich and dark chocolaty...for them.  My husband and I agreed that the white chocolate cream was more than this dessert needed.  Something more subtle and light would have worked. But the cake itself was divine and wonderful.  A very small slice is all you need.

Cheers,

Broad Brook Bakers

TWD: Foccacia

I’m so late to complete this post!  Last weekend, I did not read the recipe thoroughly enough so I did not realize that the dough needed 24-36 hours in the refrigerator.  So Sarah and I ended up making the dough on Sunday during the day with the plan to bake Monday night.  After getting out of work late and rushing home, Jason so kindly brought both Nate and Sarah to Sarah’s basketball practice while I baked the Focaccias.  We had a wonderful dinner when they got home.  I was scheduled to leave for a business trip to Florida the next morning.  Because of the distraction of packing I only was able to begin my draft post by placing the photos.  As I got on the plane on Tuesday, I thought to myself, I’ll get to that post this week.  Well unfortunately that did not happen.  My flight was cancelled on Friday back to Connecticut due to the Blizzard that left two feet of snow back home. Still no post.  Well without further adieu , here it is.

I took half of the dough and made a focaccia deep dish pizza using a stone pizza pan. This company Sassafras makes them and also loaf pans that work wonderfully.  I poured a generous amount of olive oil on the bottom of the pan which resulted in a wonderfully crunchy crust around the edge of the pizza. I took canned whole San Marzano tomatoes and squeezed them in my hand and placed on the dough.  I also added Penzey’s Pizza herbs, mozzarella cheese and a bit more olive oil.  It was fantastic.  We took the other half of the dough and make small pizzas cooked directly on our Stoughton Steel.

Warmly,

Broad Brook Baker

TWD: French Apple Tart

Having flipped through the pages of Baking with Julia for years, this is one of those recipes that I longed to make but just never got to it until now. I bought a bag of granny smiths and had four others in my refrigerator as these are a go-to-snack for Nathan before his indoor soccer games.




I like making this flaky pastry crust by hand.  It is really easy in the food processor but sometimes it's just fun to get messy.




I made the filling using the six apples as suggested.  I happen to have a deeper tart pan so I ended up having to make a second batch of the filling. Good thing that I bought that whole bad of granny smiths.  The ones I had were not that big so in the end I was not too surprised I needed to use more.  Apple slices were also getting eaten by Sarah and her friend!




I used rice (no dried beans in the house) to blind bake the crust.




I was running low on apples.  I hoped that the two I had left would do the trick and miraculously it did.  I was not able to make that nice center piece but I think it still came out nice.




I had to bake my tart for about 45 minutes because of the extra amount of filling.  




I love when I get to use this plate.  My mom bought it ages ago on the Cape in Brewster, MA at a shop called Snydenstriker (http://www.sydenstricker.com/) that makes pressed glass dishes and platters.  This one has this beautiful yet simple peacock feather pattern.  When we were teenagers, it drove my brother and I crazy to have to stop every year at this place.  She would spend what felt like hours there.  I appreciate it now.




We served the tart only slightly warm with a dollop of whipped cream.  It was wonderfully tart.  Sarah loved the crust as she does with all pie. Nathan had eaten too much dinner as usual so loved it but could not finish.  Jason is not a sweet tooth so for him so this was perfect.  I would make this again and serve with homemade vanilla bean ice cream.  I love the mashed apple layer.  I like apple pie when the apples are really soft.  This tart is beautiful and hits the right balance of sweet and tart.



Looking forward to celebrating next month which will be the one-year mark participating in this baking group!

Cheers,
Broad Brook Baker

TWD: Pizza with Onion Confit

Take two.  For anyone who did not read our post from last time, we made the wrong recipe. I'm glad that we went ahead to make this pizza. The sponge and dough had a great yeasty smell.  Sarah tried the sponge and asked me if there was lemon juice in it.  It had a wonderful almost sourdough taste; it also smelled like when we make homemade beer. God, I love making bread.







Jason is usually the pizza maker in the family.  It was a great switch for me and the kids to be in charge.



Sarah made her pizza with pepperoni and mushroom; her secret is putting most the cheese under the toppings and then only a little on top.  Nathan's recipe has double cheese with extra seasoning.

Instead of the onion confit (which did not appeal this weekend probably because I made it last weekend for the Onion Tart) I used thinly sliced onion.  I added chopped herb de Provence olives, goat cheese, and mozzarella cheese.



I loved the texture of the crust.  It was chewy and delicate.  NY style crust it was not but there is a huge role for this kind of pizza crust in my life.

Cheers,
Broad Brook Bakers

TWD: Oh my, the wrong recipe - not Pizza with Onion Confit

Well not the most optimal Tuesdays with Dorie start for me in 2013.  I made the wrong recipe - totally my own careless fault.  I remembered the onion part, clearly not the pizza versus tart part when I read the January recipes. I feel at this point the best I can do is post what I made and then go and bake the Pizza this weekend. It's really kind of amusing, I finished the tart at about 10:30 pm this evening.  After watching the premiere of Justified, I proceed to start my posting.  I pull up TWD and instantly notice that our host's recipe looks starkly different then mine.  Then I notice the Pizza with Onion Confit title.  Wait a minute, that sounds vaguely familiar.  I made the Alsatian Onion Tart. Oh my.







Until this weekend......
Cheers,
Broad Brook Baker