Dark Chocolate Granola

A happy mid-week to everyone!

I'm still playing the role of bad blogger this month. I decided to take yet another mini break, this time to the Oregon and Washington coast. Meaning, I've spent just about every weekend on the road these past two months and no where near a kitchen. I'll justify this behavior by pointing out the brief Pacific Northwest summer and that I really need the vitamin D.

So, I've been out and about hiking rather than baking but that's healthier, right? After all, testing and evaluating all these baked goods has the potential to be hard on the hips. Running around outside--and inside I suppose, after children--lends a healthy balance.

I also balance healthy with the not so healthy in my diet, so let's talk granola. I love the stuff. I eat oats in the form of oatmeal or granola almost every morning as part of my breakfast routine. I really like a little ordinary low fat granola sprinkled on my cup of non-fat yogurt. I like to pretend it is really good for me, even though I--like those of us who eye-ball nutrition lables--know better.

Granola is one of those foods that is generally perceived as being healthy, but in reality, kind of isn't.

Sorry to dash any illusions there, but just seeing granola on this blog should have been a sign.

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Lemon Snickerdoodles

Happy Monday, folks!

Back in the kitchen today baking cookies. After all the cake, frosting and fondant I was working with last week, simple cookies sound wonderful. In fact, perhaps I'll make a theme of it this week. Nothing but cookies.

I can do that and recharge my exhausted baking batteries.

So this recipe is an adaptation of one of the first cookies I ever baked. A basic Snickerdoodle recipe from my ancient, tattered Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. Mother Humble taught me how to make cookies with this recipe, demonstrating that how you make and bake cookies makes all the difference in the end result. She taught me to use high quality ingredients, how to properly cream butter and how to aim for slightly under-baking chewy cookies to give them the best texture when fully cool.

When my own batch of the ubiquitous Better Homes and Garden's recipe took a place for best in show for baking at the state fair when I was seven or eight, it cementing into my child-brain that good technique and quality ingredients are key to baking well.

Today we're taking that same old recipe, and putting a citrus twist on it. These lemon snickerdoodles are fragrant with lemon, soft and chewy, yet pack a big sugar crunch.

Simple and delicious.

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Baked Fruit Leather

Happy Thursday, all.

Yesterday, I found myself very busy using up all the wonderful summer fruit I have hanging around. Fruit that was in desperate need of a purpose, and soon.

Usually, when faced with an excess of fresh fruit I do two things: make purée to freeze and save for future baking and candy making or I make fruit leather.

Fruit leather is so simple to make and a great way to take advantage of the summer markets that are flooded with inexpensive fresh fruit. Kids love the stuff too... who will be going back to school soon, right? They might need a reasonably healthy treat in their lunchbox. Something better than the usual fare I supply on this site.

While fruit leather is generally made in a dehydrator, you can make it at home in your oven too. All you need is plenty of time, a blender or food processor, an oven that can hold a temperature more or less around 150°F, and since most ovens don't have a mark on their dial for that, an oven thermometer too.

That's all you need to turn all this into this...

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Freezer Jam

Happy Monday, all!

Today we're going to talk a bit about jam, because I spent a good part of my weekend making it with Mother Humble and I don't have anything else ready.

Mother Humble has this thing about jam, while other mothers might worry about their children's health, finances or career. My mother seems primarily concerned with how much jam we have.

It is so obsessive, that I seriously feel I could tell her some crazy story about my life being in total chaos and the first thing she would ask me would be, "...but sweetie, do you have enough jam?"

She asks about it during each of her visits. She never believes it when I say we're stocked, that we have tons of jam. Instead, she checks my supply and determines--regardless of how much is actually in there--that my supply is woefully inadequate. Inadequate, only if I want to serve scones to all of South Asia.

Maybe that's the life lesson she's gleaned from her half century of existence, you must stockpile jam.

A lot of jam.

War? Societal collapse? Armageddon? Llamas?

No problem. I have a lot jam. I'm going to make it.

You can make it too. Freezer jam requires no cooking or canning know-how and since it isn't heat treated the fruit flavor stays bright and fresh.

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Omnomruffles

I apologize for the uncharacteristic lack of posts this last weekend. I've been working hard in the kitchen playing with new recipes and churning out the baked goods. My latest obsession is tarts and they will all be making an appearance on the blog over the next week, but for now I am going to start Monday off right, with truffles.

Omnomruffles!

A mouthfull I know, but I am all sugar-charged at the moment and the name amused me. Perhaps when I come down off this truffle induced sugar high, I'll wonder what I was thinking. However, since I created the recipe, I can make the name as silly as I please. After all there is no regulatory body stopping me from naming my creation something so absurd as Rabid Polka-dot Badger Truffles. Which, now that I think of it...


Naw.

So this is one of the recipes I've created to deal with the pounds of dulce de leche I have sitting around. These were inspired by Not So Humble reader Marina and her tart suggestion (which by the way were delicious, thank you!).

The truffles are delicious! Rich with chocolate and hazelnut flavors that finishes with the silky hint of milk caramel.




I've reworked this recipe. The truffles are now less fudgy and more inline with a traditional truffle center. It requires more work, but the end result is an incredibly smooth, melt in your mouth truffle.


Not So Humble Omnomruffles:
132 grams of finelly chopped dark chocolate (I'm using 54% cacao)
6 tablespoons heavy cream
1/4 cup Nutella
1 heaping tablespoon dulce de leche

dutch processed or natural powder for dusting

Place the chopped chocolate into a heat safe bowl and set aside. Bring the heavy cream to a simmer over medium heat and then pour over the chocolate. Allow the mixture to stand for one minute and then stir until melted.

Using a fine mesh sieve, strain the mixture into a second bowl. Add the Nutella and dulce de leche and mix well. Chill the mixture until firm and no longer glossy.

The ganache mixture at room temperature.
It is still slightly glossy and will need to be chilled prior to handling.

Roll balls of the mixture between your palms, working quickly not to warm the centers and set onto a tray. Chill the centers for a hour in the refrigerator before rolling in cocoa powder.

You can use either dutch processed cocoa or natural, according to your preferences. I prefer the brighter flavor and acidity of natural cocoa, but dutch processed works equally well.

The truffles should be kept chilled in an air tight container. Bring to room temperature before serving.

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Ms. Humble's First Cake

I was a big fan of playing chef as a young girl. I started out with some very artfully made mud pies and lawn clipping salads... that I forced my younger siblings to taste. Something they are still touchy about. Ms. Humble served us dirt! Ms. Humble told us grass was food! Ms. Humble made us eat cat kibble! Whine, whine, whine.

I'll never live any of it down.

Of course, if I had something like an Easy Bake oven, maybe I would have served brownies or cupcakes! Clearly the fault lies with Mother Humble, since she denied me the easy bake oven, citing some sort of 'fire hazard' nonsense.

Perhaps someday, with enough therapy, I'll get over the grudge I hold against her for denying me the delights of light bulb-baked goodies.

So being the grossly deprived child that I was, I had to make due.

My first cake--one that wasn't made from dirt--was a simple ice box cake. One that is actually good enough to warrant a mention on the blog. It utilizes chocolate whip cream and graham crackers, that's it. You simply layer the graham crackers with generous amounts of the whip cream and allow to chill. After several hours the crackers have absorbed the chocolate cream and have softened, creating a very simple multi layered cake. Kids love it, and this is one dish that they can create all on their own.

As for how it goes over with adults, I forced Mr. Humble to try it (I haven't changed) and though he was skeptical of the cake at first, he ended up eating most of it. Not the portion served, most of the cake. If that isn't a stamp of approval, I don't know what is.



Not So Humble Chocolate Graham Cracker Ice Box Cake:
serves 8
2 packages Graham Crackers
2 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2-3 tablespoons sifted cocoa
splash vanilla

Combine the whipping cream, cocoa, and sugar in a bowl. Chill this mixture for an hour, giving the cocoa time to dissolve.

When ready, add the vanilla and beat your cream to stiff peaks.

Using an offset spatula, spread a layer of cream onto the base of what ever platter you will be using and set two crackers onto it, side by side. Apply a generous dollop of cream and spread it evenly over the crackers, you're aiming for about 1/4". Top with two more crackers and repeat until you've used up all the graham crackers.

Now spread the remaining chocolate whip cream onto the top and sides of the cake. Thats it! So easy even my husband could do it.

Cover the cake in such a way that you don't disturb the cream and place in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours, up to over night. This cake can absorb odors, so if you have a fridge full of onions and cabbage it's best to chill it in an air tight container.

When ready to serve, whip up an additional cup of cream with a tablespoon of sugar and pipe on the decoration. Hopefully you'll be able to pipe evenly, something I had trouble doing today as my daughter was pulling on my skirt, already angling for cake before it was ready.

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