Aztec Brownies

I love sweet and spicy together and I love the combo of chocolate and cinnamon. These brownies fulfill all of those cravings.

If you don't like spicy foods, feel free to omit the cayenne. If you love, love, love spicy sweets, add an extra teaspoon. One teaspoon is enough to create a little bit of heat that builds as you eat but it's not so spicy that it becomes the focal point (or keeps you from eating more than is good for you, darn it.)

Ingredients

8 ounces of good-quality chocolate, chopped (try it with milk chocolate, try it with dark. Both are different and both are good.)
2 sticks of butter
4 eggs
1 1/2 cup of sugar (I use evaporated cane juice)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup flour (I use whole wheat)
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt

How To

Grease a brownie pan and preheat oven to 375 degrees. Begin by beating together the eggs, sugar, cocoa, cinnamon, cayenne and salt for about 5 minutes.

Melt the butter slowly over low heat. Once the butter is completely liquidated, pour over the chopped chocolate to melt.

Stir the chocolate and butter together. This is an easy way to both melt the chocolate and cool the butter.

Add the chocolate mixture to the egg mixture slowly, mixing very well. Lastly, add the flour and baking powder, mixing until just combined. Spread in your brownie pan:

Bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Look at the nice crackly top crust on this bad-boy:

You can either leave well enough alone, or you can sprinkle the top with additional chocolate while the brownies are hot.

Let the heat of the brownies melt the chocolate, then spread across the top with the back of a spoon. Num.

One last brownie beauty shot:

Patrick needs to take these to work tomorrow. I'm not to be trusted alone with them in the house!

Jalapeño Cheese Bread

We're getting close to "oven off" season in this household. In our apartment, the mere thought of turning the oven on increases the temperature within it by ten degrees. In the winter, this is great-- make a pot roast and heat the house! Yes! But the rest of the year, forget about it. The summer months are spent in the yard, using the grill and the smoker.

It's only April but it's supposed to be in the triple digits tomorrow. What better way to deny the coming of summer than to fire up the oven and bake some bread?

Ingredients
1 package dry, active yeast
3/4 cup warm water
pinch of sugar
3 tablespoons of butter, melted and cooled
2 eggs
4 cups of flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
3 jalapeño peppers-- one cut into slices and the other two seeded and chopped
3 big garlic cloves, minced

How To
People get all freaked out about making bread with yeast, which I've never really understood. What's so scary about it? Yeast is fun-- it's like filling a paper-mache cone with vinegar and baking soda to imitate a volcano.

First, you proof your yeast by combining your yeast, pinch of sugar and warm water. The water should be just warmer than room temperature. Here's the yeast just after being mixed:

And here it is five minutes later. Bubbly fun!

If it doesn't bubble, then it's time for a trip to the grocery store because your yeast is no good.

Pour the flour into a mixing bowl and make a little well. Fill the well with the eggs, butter and yeast mixture. If you have a mixer, use the dough hook to mix and kneed the dough for several minutes.

Now, I made lots and lots of bread by hand before I owned a mixer. It's time-consuming (but is that a bad thing?) and takes elbow-grease (again, why is that a bad thing?) but doable. I feel a little spoiled by my mixer (I've only had it for a year but use it weekly.) Here's a good tutorial on how to mix and knead dough by hand if you're working without a mixer.

But I've got my mixer so I used my mixer (the KitchenAid Professional 6-Quart Mixer, if you're interested) to work everything together. Here's the dough just starting:

And here it is after about 5 minutes. Magic! If your dough is still sticking to the sides of the bowl, add flour little by little until the dough begins to take shape but is still sticky:

Move the dough to an oiled bowl and cover to let rise. Here it is before mixing:

And here it is after letting it rise for about 30 minutes:

Neat, huh? Punch it down and let it go another round of rising.

One the dough has gone through two risings, it's time to heat your oven to 350 degrees. You want your oven nice and toasty once it's time to put in the bread.

Spread the dough out in a big rectangle. I use a combination of a rolling pin and my hands to massage it into shape. The nice thing about yeast doughs made with eggs and butter is they tend to be more glossy and elastic and a little less sticky than others doughs. I don't even use flour on my board while I roll it out:

Sprinkle the dough with the chopped jalapeños, minced garlic and handfuls of cheese. I'll confess that I don't measure the cheese when I do this, I just eyeball it. Don't go too crazy with the cheese though-- too much cheese and it will bubble out of the loaf and just make a big mess.

Now comes the tricky part. Roll the dough up like you would if you were making cinnamon rolls. One:

Two... (I am totally the one-armed dragon lady here, no?)

Three!

Pinch the final layer of dough to the top of the loaf and roll it around a bit to smooth out the seam. You want the dough to be fairly well sealed in on itself. The less sealed the dough, the more likely you'll have cheese on the pan and not in the bread like you want.

Center the loaf on a greased baking sheet. Cover and let it rise again for about 30 minutes. Press slices of jalapeño into the top and sprinkle with more cheese.

Bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Tap the loaf in the center. If it makes a hollow sound, it's done. Be sure to let it cool completely before slicing.

And then here it is... notice how rolling everything up makes yummy pockets of cheese:

Blueberry Something

I love blueberries. Love, love, love. I go through 2-3 bags of frozen blueberries a week. I know! It's excessive. You don't even want to know what I do when blueberries are fresh and cheap.

Lately, I've been craving blueberries baked with oats in layers-- a cookie-like bottom, lots of fruit in the middle, and a crumbly top. I got the top two layers right here but will keep working with the bottom layer-- this was less like a cookie and more like the richest, most flavorful oatmeal you've ever had. My final result was more "scoop" than "slice" but I will most definitely be making this for special brunches in the future and as a healthy (seeming) dessert.

Ingredients
4 cups of frozen blueberries, thawed and drained with the juice reserved
about 2 tablespoons agave nectar (you could use honey or maple syrup instead)
2 cups of oats
3/4 cup of flour
1/2 cup sugar (I used evaporate cane juice here)
1/2 cup butter, cold, cut into cubes
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract

How To

Combine the oats, flour, sugar, vanilla extract and butter. Work with either your hands or a pastry cutter to incorporate the butter. I prefer using my hands.

Pour half of the mixture into the bottom of a pie pan and flatten with the bottom of a glass:

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

While the bottom layer bakes, take the juice from the blueberries, almond extract and agave nectar. If your berries a especially tart, you may need to add additional agave nectar. Taste and see. Pour into a shallow sauce pan and reduce the juices to make a thick sauce that coats the back of a spoon. Pour this sauce over the blueberries.

Once the bottom layer has baked, pour the blueberries in and spread them out:

Add the brown sugar to the second half of the oat/flour mixture and pour over the berries:


Return to the oven and bake for an additional 25 minutes or until the berries are bubbling and the top crust is golden brown.

I think the next time I try this, I'll up the flour in the bottom layer, add a little leavening and extend the first baking time. I'll keep you updated! Gotta go now, the leftovers are calling...

Apple Crumble

I'm not a huge pie person. I guess I've had too many wooden pie crusts that left me wary. Besides, the star of any pie is the filling, right? I'd rather have a big portion of lovely fruit with a crunchy salty-sweet topping any day. Besides, then you don't have to feel guilty about pairing this with some vanilla ice cream. Yum.

Ingredients
For the filling:
6 medium apples, peeled, cored and chopped into large chunks (I like to use granny smiths)
1/2 cup raisins (optional)
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter, melted

For the topping:
3/4 cup old-fashioned oat meal
2 tablespoons flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons of cold butter

How To
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Combine all the ingredients for the filling and mix well, then pour into a pie dish. Place in the oven and let bake for 15-20 minutes or until the apples begin to soften and become fragrant.

While the apples bake, combine all of the ingredients for the topping, save for the butter. Combine very well. Chop the cold butter into small chunks and add to the topping mixture. Use your hands to incorporate the butter until the mixture is very crumbly. Once the apples are ready, sprinkle the oat mixture on top and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes or until the oats have a nice, golden color. Serve warm or hot.

Raspberry Jam Spots

Make more of these than you think you'll need. If you don't have a cookie gun (I like this one from Williams Sonoma, if you're looking to buy) just use two cookie cutters and roll the dough thickly after refrigerating until firm.

Ingredients
2 sticks butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
small jar of raspberry preserves

How To
Cream the butter ans sugar together until light and fluffy. Add egg, vanilla, almond and salt. Beat until well combines. Add flour and mix well but don't overmix.

Press the dough onto ungreased, non-stick baking sheets, using the "wreath" cookie plate. Fill a sandwich baggy with the raspberry jam and cut off one tip. Fill each wreath with a good dollop of jam. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Let the cookies rest on the cookie sheet for a few minute before
removie or the jam will stick to the tray, not the cookie.

Molasses Cookies

Don't be afraid of the black pepper in these cookies! It gives them a lovely, mild zing.

Ingredients
2 sticks of butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup molasses
3 1/2 cup flour
2 tablespoons ground ginger
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground clove
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
sugar (for rolling the dough in)

How To
Cream the butter and sugar together. Add egg. Add molasses. Combine the remaining ingredients together separately then slowly add to the molasses mixture, being careful not to overmix the dough. Refrigerate dough for at least 2 hours in order to make it firm enough to handle.

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Roll a tablespoon or so of dough into a ball with your hands. Roll in sugar and place on a baking sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes (the larger your balls, the longer it takes and the chewier the centers will be.)

The cookies are lovely and delicious as is but are also fun to decorate with royal icing.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Cupcakes

Yummy. If you're looking for a lower-calorie option, bake this up in a bundt pan and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Bonus: your home will smell wonderful as they bake.

Ingredients

1 box of spice cake mix
2 eggs
2 cups canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
8 ounces (1 box) cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 tablespoon orange juice
the zest of one orange
1 pound (1 box) of powdered sugar

How To

Preheat your oven according to the directions on the cake mix box. Combine the cake mix, eggs, pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice. Mix well and pour into cupcake holders in a cupcake pan. Bake according to the directions on the box. They may take slightly longer than stated on the box. Be sure to check them with a toothpick to make sure they are done.

After the cupcakes are baked and cooled, mix the remaining ingredients together to make the frosting. Frost and refrigerate to set the frosting.

Onion Pie

My sister taught me this recipe. This is a real love-it-or-hate-it dish but if you love it, you really, really love it. It's great as a side dish or as a light meal when you pair a slice with a green salad.

Ingredients
1 uncooked pie crust
1 6 ounce jar Dijon mustard
2 large, white onions, sliced thinly
1 tablespoon butter
1 can crushed tomatoes, very well drained
1 1/2 cup gruyere cheese, shredded
fresh ground black pepper

How To
Melt the butter in a pan and add onions. Saute until the onions are very soft. As the onions cook, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Spread the Dijon mustard thickly across the bottom of the pie crust and set aside. Once the onions are cooked, combine with the tomatoes and a good dose of pepper. Spoon the onion and tomatoes into the pie crust evenly. Sprinkle the gruyere over the top. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until the crust is golden and the cheese is very brown.

Your kitchen will smell amazing. Let cool slightly before slicing. Delicious warm or cool.

Everything Oatmeal Cookies

If it was at all reasonable to do so, I think I would live on these. And steak. And french fries. And martinis. But that's it.

Ingredients
3 cups oats
1 1/2 cup flour
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 sticks of butter, very soft
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup raisins
1 cup chocolate chips
1 tablespoon lemon zest

How To
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cream the butter, vanilla, and sugars until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs one at a time and mix well.
3. Combine the flour, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder in a separate bowl. Add to the egg and butter mixture and mix well.
4. Add the oats, raisins, chocolate chips, and lemon zest. If you're using a mixer, it's best to stir these in by hand. Otherwise, the mixer will bump along, as well as break down a lot of the raisin and chocolate.
5. Drop tablespoons of dough onto baking sheets, spacing each cookie at least 2 inches apart.
6. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Let cool on the rack for several minutes, then move to a cooling rack and let cool completely.