Banana Oatmeal Cookies with Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chips

Last weekend after Alex and I returned from Whistler we went on something of a baking bonanza because we returned to an entire bunch of overripe bananas.  I was originally planning on making banana bread but we always make banana bread so I decided to be a little more creative.  Let's just say that Alex wasn't thrilled with the whole idea but I was pretty pumped to be in the kitchen.  It has been so long since I had time to bake/cook that I got a little excited and overambitious (we had stock going and dinner to prep while I was baking).  These cookies were the perfect breakfast cookie - they weren't too sweet and who doesn't love oatmeal and bananas for breakfast?  I have no shame in admitting that I ate one or two cookies most mornings before work.  I also had a few after work, but that's beside the point.  Unfortunately I didn't do a very good job of mixing the dough (it is a pretty thick dough and I got a little lazy) so the distribution of chocolate chips and peanut butter chips wasn't very even, but I thought the cookies were still pretty delicious.

Recipe after the jump!

Chocolate-Bourbon Tart

This year Alex and I were responsible for bringing dessert for dinner on Christmas Eve with his cousins.  Given Alex's love of all things bourbon and my love of all things chocolate, this dessert seemed like the natural choice.  Note to self - next time I decide on a "simple" dessert recipe based purely on the number of ingredients, I should also take a gander at the steps.  Because this recipe wasn't hard, but it took a LONG time to put together.  First you make the pastry for the tart shell, then you chill, then you blind bake, then you cool, then you bake some more, then you chill again...  It goes on more like that for awhile.  But, this tart has one of the best tart shells that I have ever tried.  It has a lot of steps, but it is totally worth it.  It has great rich, chocolatey flavor and just the perfect amount of sweetness/saltiness.  It also had a really lovely texture - flaky, without being dry.  I know that I'm not doing it justice, but I honestly can't think of the right words to use to describe it.  Pastry just isn't my forte.  I am definitely going to save it for future tart-making experiments.  I was a little nervous that the filling would be too bourbon-y, but it wasn't at all.  The filling was darkly chocolate-y and the bourbon added a nice smoky flavor and depth.  If I didn't know that the bourbon was in there I'm not sure I would have recognized it, but I would have known that it was definitely not a straight-up chocolate filling.  The filling isn't too sweet and it has nice smooth texture.  Some tart fillings are too ganache-y, while others are too custard-y.  This filling was almost like a textural cross between a custard and a brownie.  It was interesting.  I didn't like the filling quite as much as I liked the crust, but it was quite pleasant and I would make it again.  It would be a really good addition to any potluck or holiday dinner with multiple desserts.  I might try it with other flavors and/or liquors - some orange zest or Grand Marnier would be an interesting twist.  And stout could work with a few minor modifications.  We served the tart with vanilla ice cream, which provided some additional creaminess and sweetness.  I thought it was a really nice and festive combination.

Recipe after the jump!

S'mores Pumpkin Bread

Given how well our S'mores Banana Bread turned out I have been contemplating making other s'mores breads for a little while now.  S'mores pumpkin bread seemed like the obvious next step.  This afternoon while working from home I had a break and all I could think was s'mores!!!!!!  I started rummaging through the cupboards and we literally had everything we needed, except eggs.  So I ran to the grocery store quickly for eggs and threw together a batch of s'mores pumpkin bread.  As I was stirring in the marshmallows and chocolate chips I started getting a little concerned about how much batter I was creating, but I decided that I was just being silly.  And then I started to fill the loaf pans and realized it totally wasn't going to fit.  So I abandoned about 1/4 cup of batter (which I made sure to taste and it was delicious) and filled the loaf pans as full as I dared.  I got a little scared at the last second and put the loaf pans on top of a sheet pan just in case there was an exploding/oozing pumpkin bread situation.  Luckily, nothing exploded (more on that later), but better safe than sorry.

As the pumpkin bread baked it smelled amazing and I kept getting more and more excited.  After the timer went off the first time I checked it, noticed it wasn't fully cooked and put it back in the oven for another 5 minutes.  Alex then went and checked it out, stabbed it with a toothpick, which he brought over to me, and pulled the pumpkin bread from the oven.  After I finally finished up my work for the evening and ate some dinner at my laptop I decided that I deserved a slice of pumpkin bread for dessert.  And then I looked at the pumpkin bread and saw that my beautiful loaves of pumpkin bread were crazy and cratered.  Turns out the pumpkin bread wasn't fully cooked and it sank like the Titanic.  Womp womp.  But I promise that the end pieces that I did try were delicious.  And I promise that I will make the pumpkin bread again, but I will make sure it is fully cooked.

Recipe after the jump!

S'mores Brownies

There is something so wonderful and nostalgic about s'mores.  And how can you resist brownies?  I have been thinking about making s'mores brownies forever and ever.  I kept thinking through recipes and coming up with different brownie alternatives - using marshmallow fluff instead of mini marshmallows, graham cracker crust versus no graham cracker crust...  And then every time it came down to it I ended up going with something else.  But this past weekend we were supposed to bring dessert to a friend's apartment and I FINALLY made my s'mores brownies.  I ended up going with the recipe from Brown Eyed Baker even though I second and third guessed her brownie recipe.  The idea of adding boiling water to cocoa powder and then throwing in chunks of bittersweet chocolate at the very end was seemed totally bizarre to me.  But I did it anyway because in the end, why not?  I was going to make the Chewy, Fudgy Triple Chocolate Brownies from Baking Illustrated, but I didn't feel like modifying the recipe for a 9x13x2 pan.  And once I realized that the base recipe from Brown Eyed Baker was from Cook's Illustrated I decided to go with it.

These brownies might be my new favorite brownie recipe.  And they are probably the best thing I have ever baked and brought into work.  A few of my coworkers and I are obsessed with the combination of salty and sweet flavors.  I was a little worried that the brownies would be too sweet, but they had an ideal level of saltiness and sweetness.  Once these brownies had sat around for a day the balance of flavors with the saltiness and the sweetness got even better.  And the day after that the balance of flavors evolved even more.  Of course I made sure to taste them every day to ensure that they aged well.  Bad for the waistline, but so very delicious. 

Recipe after the jump!

Salty Chocolate Chunk Cookies

This past Sunday I was suddenly struck with an urge to bake.  It happens from time to time, but I'm usually struck with the violent desire to make a particular type of baked good (like pumpkin bread) or I happen to have something in the apartment that I need to use before it goes bad (this happens pretty regularly with bananas and banana bread).  This time I just wanted to bake something for dessert.  I had a bunch of chocolate in the apartment so it was a foregone conclusion that I would make something chocolate-y.  I was originally going to try to make something with the heavy cream or whole milk we had in the apartment, but I gave up on that idea pretty quickly.  I briefly considered making brownies (because who doesn't love brownies), but this cookie recipe was too delicious-sounding to ignore.  The funny thing about these cookies was how much the cookies changed from Sunday night (when I baked them) to Monday morning.  Both versions were delicious, but I wasn't expecting them to turn quite as crispy on day two.  I wish they had stayed a little softer, but c'est la vie.  Watch them carefully in the oven because you want to pull the cookies when they are just starting to turn lightly golden around the edges.  Don't wait until they are golden brown or they will be too hard.  These cookies are definitely an adult version of chocolate chip cookies - if you want to make them kid-friendly I would suggest leaving out the Maldon sea salt.  I think the combination of sea salt and chocolate is an acquired taste that is more appealing to adults than to children.  Then again, I know that some adults (like my mother) do not enjoy the combination of salty and sweet, so it is definitely a question of personal taste.  My officemates and I regularly inhale Lindt's dark chocolate with sea salt by the truckload and so I knew I would have a rapt audience if I brought them in to work.  They disappeared pretty quickly so I think they were a success.  If I were to make them again in the future for a different group I might sprinkle half of the cookies with sea salt and leave the other half salt-less so that everyone could enjoy. 

Recipe after the jump!

My Mom's Fudge

Growing up this fudge was a holiday tradition in my house.  There were a few years where my mother made butter cookies around the holidays, but she made this fudge each and every single year.  I remember helping Mom wrap each individual piece of fudge in tiny little wrappers she bought specifically for that purpose - sometimes they were holiday themed, sometimes they weren't.  I don't think it needs to be said that I probably ate just as many pieces as I successfully wrapped along the way.  What I love about this fudge is that it is really easy to make and it isn't too sweet.  So many fudge recipes are so sweet that they make my teeth hurt - this one is nowhere near that sweet.  It also doesn't do the instant crazy melty thing that a lot of store-bought or homemade fudge does once you put it in your mouth.  I guess I like my fudge to be a little sweeter and a little less traditionally fudgy?  I don't know.  What I do know is that Christmas doesn't quite feel like Christmas without some of this homemade fudge in the kitchen.

Recipe after the jump!

Thanksgiving 2012 Desserts - Salted Chocolate Pecan Pie, Peanut Butter Cup Pie and Lemon Curd Tart with Olive Oil

This post is almost ridiculously overdue.  But I forgot my camera at home when I went down to Maryland for Thanksgiving so I had my father take pictures of our dinner.  He helpfully uploaded all of the pictures to my trusty external hard drive, which I then promptly forgot to bring back to NYC with me.  So the pictures languished in Maryland until Dad came up to visit for Christmas and brought my hard drive with him.  Yay!  So I am finally ready to post about the dishes we made for Thanksgiving this year.  Better late than never, right?  And I guess that having a picture of at least one of the items, is better than not having any pictures at all.  Oops.

This salted chocolate pecan pie was my first attempt at making my own pie crust and I think that I really should have added a little more water to make it hold together.  My pie crust needs a little work.  I need to practice making the crust itself and then folding the edges so they are pretty.  For the record, the pie crust looked a little better before we packed it in the car for the drive down to Maryland and Alex squished it with his laptop bag.  Twice.  The filling was really tasty (and rich, which pecan pie should be), although I didn't really get the salt as much as I wish I had.  Also, the pie never really set up.  We baked it for the recommended time and then added a tiny bit more time, but when we cut into it that evening there was some serious oozing.  As for the peanut butter cup pie, I don't think I have ever served a richer dessert.  If you think pecan pie is rich, you have never experienced this peanut butter cup pie.  It was good but it was really sweet and really really rich.  The crust also didn't hold together as well as I would have liked - perhaps I need more butter if I ever make it again?  The lemon curd tart was perhaps my favorite of the desserts.  The lemon curd filling was lovely and I loved the flavor of the olive oil in the dessert.  I thought it was a really nice touch.  But if you are looking at the recipe and thinking about using a 10-inch tart pan instead of a 9-inch tart pan, don't do it.  We unwittingly made that mistake and then had to double the filling because the amount the recipe produced just wasn't going to cut it.  And then our crust was too thin.  Of the three recipes I would be most likely to make the lemon curd tart again (and make it exactly as written).  If I were to make the salted chocolate pecan pie again it would take some additional cooking time and perhaps a different crust...  If I am being entirely honest, I probably wouldn't make the peanut butter cup pie again.  I just think there are better peanut butter pie recipes out there.

Recipes after the jump!

Salted Caramel Pretzel Bark and Candy Cane Pretzel Bark

This past week at work was a tough one - we were crazy busy and there were goodies everywhere.  So I sat at a desk and ate lots and lots of cookies.  And candies.  And candied apples.  My absolute favorite goodies were the chocolate-dipped and candy cane-dusted pretzels that someone received as a gift and left out for all of us to snack on.  I snacked on several of them.  After we ran out of goodies I decided to try to make them at home, only the grocery store didn't seem to have any large pretzels (or pretzel rods).  I ended up buying mini pretzels instead and decided I would make a lazy pretzel bark with them.  And while I was thinking pretzel bark, I thought why not make a salty-sweet pretzel bark as well.  The obvious choice was salted caramel pretzel bark.  And it's a good thing we made that salted caramel pretzel bark because I love it.  Of the two pretzel barks, it is my favorite.  I love the combination of salty and sweet.  It totally does it for me.  I wish we had salted the candy cane pretzel bark a little more, but I barely dusted it with sea salt (and I'm pretty sure that most of the sea salt fell off along with some of the pretzels and the candy cane bits) so really it was just sweet with sweet.  Sweet with sweet is yummy too, but nowhere near as good as the combination of sea salt, buttery caramel and chocolate.  Yum.  There is one problem with the salted caramel pretzel bark - you need to keep it cold or the caramel gets all melted and sticky.  I thought it was amazing right out of the freezer.


Recipe after the jump!

S'mores Banana Bread

I know that I promised you guys two new banana bread recipes, but we got lazy and just made one.  Actually, that's not entirely true.  Alex shot down my second idea.  I wanted to make one loaf of s'mores banana bread and one loaf of pb&j banana bread.  Alex made stink face at the pb&j idea.  And since this was the second time I tried to talk him into a pb&j banana bread I just let it go.  I figure I will make it sometime when he's not home to shoot down my pb&j idea.  In the end I wasn't all that disappointed - who doesn't love s'mores?!  I came up with this idea because I really wanted to make s'mores brownies, but we had those bananas to use.  So I decided to make s'mores banana bread instead.  It turns out I am not the first person to have this idea, but then again I never am.  I'm just not that cool/creative.

Anyway, this banana bread is amazing.  And it's totally decadent - sweet (but not too sweet), rich and chocolately.  I gave a loaf to our neighbors who told me that it is delicious with coffee and I gave a nice thick slice to one of my coworkers, who promptly devoured it in front of me even though she kept trying to set it aside to save it for later.  It really is that hard to put down.  So it's not just me who thinks the banana bread is amazing.  All of the flavors just work together so wonderfully - although the marshmallows basically disolved into the banana bread, their sugary, creamy flavor is still well represented (and the charred ones on top are just heavenly), and then you have the mixture of the semi-sweet chocolate chips and the milk chocolate Hershey's bars, the mellow banana flavor...  It is just fantastic.  And very moist.  I think that the melted marshmallows really upped the moistness factor, but there was also some sour cream in the batter to ensure that everything stayed moist.  It is just so good and reminds me of being a kid again (not that my mom ever baked anything like this banana bread).  I know that two loaves of s'mores banana bread sounds a little excessive, but trust me when I say that you really do need to make both loaves (although you could split the recipe in half pretty easily if necessary).  Your kids/friends/neighbors/coworkers/spouses will love you for it.

Recipe after the jump!

Jacked-Up Banana Bread

This banana bread was really right in Alex's wheelhouse for a number of reasons.  First (and definitely most important), it contains one of his favorite substances in the world - bourbon.  Second, I left out the pecans that I was DYING to add to this recipe.  I love nuts in banana bread.  And chocolate, bourbon and pecans are the most natural pairing in the world!  Unfortunately, we all know Alex's stance on nuts in baked goods.  It's totally maddening sometimes.  But I will survive.  Things I liked about this banana bread - it was moist and it was different.  Things I didn't like about the banana bread...  Actually, I can't think of any specific things that I didn't like about it.  I was worried that the bourbon flavor would be overpowering since I am not a huge fan of bourbon, but it really wasn't that strong.  You certainly smell/taste it, but it didn't bother me.  And yet I think (and Alex agreed) that we have made other banana breads that we enjoyed more - either we thought they had better flavor or were more interesting.

P.S. Get ready for a banana bread extravaganza this weekend.  We have 6 more bananas that should be ready by this weekend for more banana bread experiments and I have a ton of different ideas percolating!  I'm hoping to knock at least one of the three loaves we made this week out of the park, but we will see...

Recipe after the jump!

Festivus Chocolate Salami

Once upon a time my parents and I used to go to a restaurant called Il Pizzico in Rockville, Maryland for all special occasions.  Actually, when we first started going to Il Pizzico it was more of a cafe than a restaurant and it wasn't restricted to special occasions.  But as time went by it became fancier and more expensive, so it was relegated to the special occasion category.  But back when we first started going there they had this desert called chocolate salami that I used to love.  The first time I ordered it the waiter had to convince me that it was a legitimate dessert and not some weird meat product.  The dessert looked like 3 or 4 chocolate cookies in a small puddle of creme anglaise (or a similar sauce).  I loved it.  Unfortunately, as the restaurant got fancier the chocolate salami disappeared from the menu.  I guess it wasn't fancy enough.  I recently decided that I wanted to try and recreate the chocolate salami I remembered from Il Pizzico at home.  But once I started playing around online I realized that there were all sorts of different chocolate salami recipes out there.  Giada De Laurentis's recipe uses walnuts, almonds, coffee, orange zest and biscotti, La Mia Vita Dolce's recipe uses rum, hazlenuts, almonds and pistachios, Pink Bite's recipe uses raisins, cognac and condensed milk...  I could go on forever, but I think you get the picture.  The only constants in the recipes that I found online were butter, egg, cocoa, sugar, and some sort of cookies. 

In the end I decided to go with the "Festivus Chocolate Salami" recipe that I found on the Saveur website, not because of any enduring love of Seinfeld or the Festivus holiday, but because it sounded the most interesting to me.  I really think it was the cocoa nibs and the orange liqueur that got me.  Anyway, I really thought the chocolate salami were yummy.  It had good texture and really good flavor - chocolately, sweet (but not too sweet) with a hint of orange.  The gingersnaps we used had a really strong ginger flavor that almost made the chocolate salami taste... minty.  I know that doesn't make sense, but both Alex and I noticed it.  We served the chocolate salami thinly sliced (and you want to make sure it is thinly sliced, otherwise it is a little too much) with some strawberries.  I wish I had made some creme anglaise or something else to go with the chocolate salami to provide some creaminess and sauce, but it worked pretty well with just the strawberries!  I think if you had a small pool of creme anglaise under the chocolate salami, along with the strawberries it would have been a really elegant, yet fun dessert appropriate for a dinner party.  One of the best things about it is that you don't have to bake it so it works really well for the summer when turning on the oven is the very last thing you ant to do! 

Recipe after the jump!

Mexican Brownies

I served these brownies as dessert during a recent dinner party with a Mexican theme.  I had a bunch of different dessert ideas but Alex requested that I make the "easiest" dessert option as we were already trying out 3 other new dishes.  So I went with brownies because I figured brownies were easier than either a Mexican Chocolate Tart with Cinnamon-Spiced Pecans or Mexican Wedding Cookies.  I took a really basic brownie recipe (one that is fairly similar to the Cocoa Brownies with Browned Butter and Walnuts recipe I made awhile back) and added cinnamon, cayenne and chocolate chips to give it a little extra something.  I spent a few minutes deliberating about the use of cayenne versus ancho chili powder or another type of chili powder, but Alex and I decided that we wanted a hint of heat more than we wanted the smoky flavor of chili powder.  I also used Dutch-processed cocoa powder because I thought it would be smoother (and less bitter) than regular unsweetened cocoa powder.  I briefly debated that decision too until I realized that all we had was Dutch-processed cocoa powder.  I wanted to use bittersweet chocolate chips instead of semisweet, but Alex was busy and I couldn't reach the bittersweet chocolate chips so I just went with semisweet.  I also thought about adding pecans, but Alex is not a fan of nuts in baked goods so I decided to leave them out.

I thought that the brownies had a really nice smooth chocolate flavor and creamy texture with just a hint of cinnamon and cayenne.  I would say that the brownies were fudgy, rather than cakey (although they weren't super fudgy).  I liked the addition of the chocolate chips for a little texture and richness, although I wish that I had added the pecans for a little more texture.  We served the brownies with some nice vanilla ice cream and I thought they were a very nice ending to a successful meal (more on the rest of the meal later).

Recipe after the jump!

Lemony Olive Oil Banana Bread

I'm not sure how I found this banana bread recipe (I'm going to "blame" it on Tastespotting), nor am I entirely certain what drew me to it.  I have that problem from time to time because I find recipes months and sometimes years before we actually get around to making them.  When I realized that we had 3 bananas that were verging on overripe last week, I set them aside to finally make this banana bread.  I also warned Alex not to touch them because he has a bad habit of eating my banana bread bananas, but that is beside the point. 

My initial thoughts on the first bite I took of banana bread was that the glaze was overpowering and the bread itself wasn't as tender or moist as I would have hoped.  Granted, we were eating an end piece, which is like eating the corner piece of cake - there's always too much icing/frosting/graze for me and it tends to be a little on the drier side than the rest of the cake.  Unless we're talking red velvet cake or carrot cake with cream cheese frosting (or Carvel cake for that matter), I want a very light layer of icing/frosting/glaze on the top of my cake and nothing on the sides.  Otherwise it is just way too saccharine sweet for me.  So I tend to avoid the ends and corners of all square or rectangle cakes.  So I wanted to reserve judgment on the banana bread as a whole until I had another slice.  Then I had another slice for breakfast the next morning and I still didn't love it.  The bread just isn't very tender - which I attribute to the use of whole wheat flour, but you can let me know if you disagree.  And the glaze is still a bit overpowering.  I guess I'm just not into glazes.  Oh well.  It was a fun idea while it lasted and it's not actually a bad banana bread, it's just not my kind of banana bread.  I guess it's back to the drawing board (or at least back to the banana bread recipes we already know and love)!

Recipe after the jump!

Chocolate Candy Cane Kiss Cookies

This cookie recipe marks my first baking experiment of 2012.  Hurray!  And probably my last baking experiment for awhile because Alex and I have been eating entirely too many cookies recently.  We should at least pretend to be a little healthier.  But I found these Hershey's candy cane kisses that I am absolutely obsessed with so I was desperate to make a cookie with them.  The sad thing is that the gym was where I first encountered these kisses.  So I go there to sweat and lose weight, and instead end up scarfing down Hershey's kisses and daydreaming about cookie recipes.  Ironic, isn't it?

I originally wanted to do a riff on Peanut Butter Kisses using the candy cane kisses, but ended up making these instead.  The cookie itself is a little brownie like in flavor (with a hint of mint) and crispy/chewy, rather than soft.  I really like them because they are an excellent vehicle for my candy cane kisses.  Plus they look (and taste) really festive and fun!

Recipe after the jump!

Ming Tsai's Double Chocolate-Ginger Shortbread

Happy New Year!  And what better way to celebrate 2012 than with a baked good?  A group of friends came over last night to celebrate so I decided to bake my remaining two logs of butter shortbread cookie dough.  I knew I was going to make these Double Chocolate-Ginger Shortbread cookies, but I also wanted to make chocolate-dipped shortbread.  Sadly, I ran out of time to make the chocolate-dipped shortbread, so we ended up with one batch of plain and one batch of Double Chocolate-Ginger Shortbread.  I had the same problem with these cookies that I had with the Five-Spice Shortbread - the topping just doesn't stick very well.  But I got around that by sprinkling the chocolate-ginger mixture on top of the cookies before putting them in the oven (after dipping them individually in the mixture).  Another problem I had with the cookies was that it was almost impossible to get all of the ingredients in the chocolate-ginger mixture evenly distributed (both in the mixture itself and on the cookies).  Some cookies had a lot of chocolate and no ginger, others were a little more balanced, whereas some were so loaded down with ginger that they were almost harsh.  I think that if I make these cookies again, I will mix the chocolate-ginger mixture into the dough, rather than using it as a topping.  I think that will leave you with a more even distribution.  Alex said that the plain shortbread cookies are still his favorite, followed by the Five-Spice Shortbread.  I thought both of those were really good, but I thought the flavors were really good too.  I liked the candied ginger element a lot.  I just have to play with it a bit to perfect it...

Recipe after the jump!

Chocolate Almond Bark with Sea Salt

I'm not sure if people outside of NYC are familiar with Jacques Torres, but they have this amanzing hot chocolate there that they call Wicked Hot Chocolate.  It is very rich and deeply chocolately, but it has this really nice spice to it.  I personally happen to think that dark chocolate works wonderfully with spice (and salt, but that's another story altogether).  A few months ago I stopped at Jacques Torres with a friend to grab some hot chocolate and my friend told me I had to try this pumpkin seed bark/brittle that they only make around the holidays.  It was amazing - just as good as the hot chocolate!  They paired pepitas (roasted pumpkin seeds), with some dried cranberries, chocolate, caramel...  It was so good.  And I wanted to make it at home.  But when it came down to it, Alex wasn't a huge fan of the idea of dried cranberries and I was too lazy to try to recreate the recipe from a memory that was several months old.  So I decided to make this Chocolate Almond Bark with Sea Salt instead.  Things in the Boyne appartment often end up a little loosey-goosey like that.  I had this really nice brick (it literally looked like a gold brick) of dark chocolate from L.A. Burdick that I had been saving for future baking experiments and we always have sea salt in the apartment.  The only thing we needed was Marcona almonds (although I'm sure you could substitute hazelnuts and this recipe would still be delicious).  So I swung by Zabars on my way home and we were in business.

Although there were several steps involved, this bark was really easy to make.  You have to really enjoy the combination of dark chocolate and sea salt to like this bark (which I do so I really enjoyed it).  There isn't a lot of sweetness to the chocolate itself and the caramel only provides so much sweetness, so if you are into sweet chocolate barks you will need to combine semisweet and dark chocolate.  I really like the bittersweet taste of dark chocolate so I wouldn't use semisweet, but that's just me.  Make sure to use good-quality dark chocolate.  The recipe calls for it but there are plenty of times when I'm not sure that you could taste the difference.  Since this recipe is so simple and relies so heavily on the flavor of the chocolate itself, you really need to make the effort to track down some high-quality chocolate.  Trust me when I say that it will make all the difference in the world if you do.

Recipe after the jump!

Salted Caramel Six-Layer Chocolate Cake

So I know this picture is lame.  The pictures I took of the whole cake were even worse so I'm not even going to bother posting them.  I was in such a rush to get to the event that I was bringing this cake to that I didn't have time to really set up and take some pictures.  And to be perfectly honest, I don't have a very good set-up for taking pictures anyway.  I really need to get a better spotlight so I can take better pictures of our food for the blog.  We can make that my super early New Year's Resolution.  If you want to see good pictures of the cake, you should just go to Martha Stewart's website here and commence drooling immediately.  For more pictures, you can go to The Bitten Word.

You might be curious why I am posting about this cake while in Hawaii.  The reason is that I have been thinking about how delicious it was and couldn't wait until my return to share the love.  It was delicious.  When I read the name of the recipe, I assumed that the caramel itself would be salted and that the sea salt I could see sprinkled on the top of the cake was just, well, the icing on top of the (already salty) cake.  The caramel had a hint of salt to it, but not as much as I had been expecting.  But man, it was delicious.  The cake was very moist, almost a little brownie-like in texture.  And then the caramel soaked into the cake, making it even more moist and delicious.  And the frosting was deeply cocoa-flavored and chocolately.  I really liked that it wasn't as sweet as most frostings are because that level of sweetness totally turns me off (and actually makes my teeth hurt).  But this frosting was just rich and delicious.  You totally have to listen to Martha when she says to let the frosting sit for 30 minutes before frosting the cake.  After we first finished making the frosting I was convinced that it was a total bust because it was more like a ganache than a frosting.  I had no idea that it would set up that much in the 30 minutes (well, in our case it was more like 60 minutes) that it rested.  I guess Martha Stewart really knows what she is talking about, huh?  Anyway, try this cake.  I am totally planning on making it again for some special occasion.  It was amazing.  Mine came out a little lopsided (I guess I need some more practice assembling layer cakes), but so be it.  I will take amazing-tasting cake over pretty, but dry/boring cake any day!

Recipe after the jump!
 

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Scones and Pumpkin Buttermilk Biscuits

It occurred to me on Saturday that I hadn't baked anything in some time.  Since fall is finally here I knew exactly what I wanted to bake with!  So I went through the cupboard and found a can of pumpkin puree that I knew was in there (and have been saving).  Then I had to decide what to make.  I originally wanted to make some pumpkin whoopie pies with maple-flavored cream cheese frosting, but I didn't have everything I needed.  I thought about making pumpkin bread, but that seemed a little boring.  So I decided to bake some pumpkin scones and some pumpkin biscuits.  What can I say - I go a little crazy sometimes.  This is what happens when I haven't had time to bake in awhile.  

Out of these two recipes, both Alex and I preferred the scones.  I thought the combination of spices really worked and it came through very clearly, without being overpowering.  I also thought the crumb was nice - soft and crumbly, without being dry.  And I liked the crunchy sweetness of the turbinado sugar topping.  I think that bittersweet chocolate is perfect for these scones.  The bittersweet chocolate gave the scones a really nice deep, chocolatey flavor that worked really well with the pumpkin and the spices.  Semisweet chocolate would work too I guess, but I don't think I would use milk (or white) chocolate because it would be too sweet.  The biscuits couldn't seem to decide if they were supposed to be sweet or savory.  Topped with butter and honey they were pretty good, but we thought they needed more salt to both accentuate and balance out the sweetness of the honey and sugar in the biscuit batter.  And I thought the texture wasn't as flaky as I would have liked.  They almost seemed a little doughy and heavy in the centers, rather than flaky and light.  I'm thinking that I might not have mixed the batter as evenly as I could have.  Oops.  The blog where I found the recipe suggested serving them with butter, some bacon and a drizzle of maple syrup.  That might be enough to really make me love the biscuits, but I'm not there just yet.

Recipes after the jump!

Banana Chocolate Chip Cake with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

Sometimes when you're me recipes come about by accident.  Take this cake for instance.  I wasn't planning on making a cake this weekend.  It was actually the very last thing I had in mind this weekend.  But when I went to break off a banana from our bunch on Sunday for breakfast I ripped the stems off the entire bunch.  Oops.  Which meant all of those four bananas had to be used or eaten.  Stat.  So I was going to make banana bread, but after making a loaf of Zucchini Cornbread Saturday I wanted to do something a little different.  I decided that the logical thing to do was to make the banana cake that I remembered from Susan Spicer's cookbook.  I grabbed the cookbook to make sure we had everything and somehow we did.  It was clearly meant to happen.  Everything from the unintentional banana demolition to the Zucchini Cornbread was pointing me towards this cake.  So I baked a cake.  And for the record, this was my very first attempt at a layer cake  So any issues with frosting, etc. should be excused.  I tried.  It might not be pretty but I should get some points for effort.  One thing I will say is that I wish I had just a little more frosting to spread between the layers of cake.  There just wasn't enough to cover the whole cake and still have a nice layer in there in the middle.  Oh well.

My cake was yummy.  Really yummy.  I had two pieces.  And I know that I have a sweet tooth, but I never have two pieces of cake.  I typically don't like cake that much.  Cupcakes yes, cake no.  Cakes are never moist enough for me and I don't like most frostings.  But this cake was very moist and the peanut butter cream cheese frosting was delicious.  I licked my fingers after frosting the cake.  A lot.  I love peanut butter and chocolate together.  With or without banana that flavor combo is a winner in my book.  But when you add in the banana here it all just comes together so well.  It's delicious.  I briefly considered eating a piece for breakfast, but I decided that was entirely too gluttonous.  I guess that I'm just going to have to wait until after dinner.

Recipe after the jump!

Chocolate Glazed Chocolate Tart

Easter Sunday we had a few friends over for dinner.  They were bringing the ham and we were in charge of everything else.  So of course I went a little overboard and planned out a variety of different sides and appetizers.  And then I got to dessert and was a little stumped.  I knew that one of our guests loves flan, but Alex isn't a big fan of flan.  I also knew that she hates peanut butter and loves chocolate flourless cakes and molten chocolate cakes.  So I decided that chocolate was probably the safest option.  After consulting a few different cookbooks and a few different websites, this tart was what I chose.  It has several steps, but it's pretty easy overall and it looks impressive.  This is the type of dessert that you totally need in your repertoire for potlucks and dinner parties because you can make it entirely in advance (which is great when you're running around like a chicken with your head cut off trying to get the food on the table) plus it's really good.  My other favorite dinner party dessert is a Cranberry-Orange Cheesecake with Chocolate Crust (recipe below).  Like the tart, the cheesecake needs to be made entirely in advance.  I think the cheesecake is fabulous around the holidays, but I would make this tart year-round. 

The chocolate here is deep and very rich.  The texture of the filling is very luscious, balanced out with the crispy crust.  It all just seems very luxurious.  I might try adding a small pinch of espresso powder to the filling or perhaps a bit of orange liquor just to play with the flavors a little, but overall I'm not sure this tart can be improved.  I would definitely serve it with some fresh berries (we used raspberries, but strawberries would probably work too) and if you're feeling really ambitious you could also make some homemade whipped cream to go with it. 

Recipes after the jump!