Among other things, I am a dessert-a-holic. When I find a restaurant that serves really good desserts, it's not unlike me to work my way through their entire dessert menu, except for those sacrilegious ones that have embedded nuts, or other undesirable flavor combinations. While I did craft a dessert tonight, I don't think I'll be sharing it with the masses, e.g., my division. It's relatively inexpensive to make, easy to do, and has very little prep time. The dessert output is what I would call a limited edition batch, which, contrary to my other posting about how I eat less than 10% of any batch; I shall have to make another exception. As I stare at my dozen cookie rejects, in their misshapen forms, they still smell delicious and just make me want to brew some decaf to scarf these down before bed. I made madelines.. with real butter, organic sugar, a touch of lemon juice (from a real lemon!), and grated lemon peel in the batter. Mmmm.. and then! I dipped them in melted dark chocolate. I'll have to see if the chocolate sets okay in the morning. With this particular dessert cookie, they just might not make it out of my apt; if they do, the cookies'll be shared with a small handful of people.
Yield: 4 dozen
Material cost: low
Mad scientist factor: **
Food rebels
Like most people, I make daily sacrifices to my stomach. There are some types of food that just rebels against being digested in a pleasant and nourishing fashion. There is a rather short list of substances that disagrees with me (onions, colorants, preservatives, most dairy especially skim milk, although I can drink and eat organic dairy, so I must be allergic to the other-chemicals-the-dairy-industry-doesn't-want-you-to-know-about, and oil, with the least offensive oil being extra virgin olive oil); the other list are foods that I just avoid because the texture is horribly wrong, no amount of deep frying can make it taste good, or eating it reminds me that it is far worse than the worst of the sci fi scenes that show alien consumables.
I should also add that tastes evolve over time and for whatever reason lurking in my subconscious, I only started using (and enjoying) yellow mustard as a condiment at age 26, and very recently started using ground black pepper. I love nutmeg, and no I haven't consumed enough in one sitting to actually have hallucinations. I like oregano in my tomato soup instead of basil. Oregano, salt, and pepper taste really good on fried eggs. I also like a pinch of cayenne pepper in my hot cocoa. That's some tasty schtuff! Heavens forbid I should become allergic to dead side of cow, or the shucked masses of the phyllum mollusca!
(Update: 2/27/08) I only recently started using (and strangely enough, liking) powdered milk in my tea. Hmm. It's very peculiar since I'm a full-fat milk drinker.
Wahaa...!
The chisel does an interesting job of chipping blocks of chocolate into usable baking bits, although it not only went through the parchment paper, but also through several layers of junk mail.
Tonight's batch are aptly named Health-defying Chocolate Chunk Cookies, since it has three types of chocolate in the mix: dark European chocolate, dark Ghirardelli chocolate, and organic baking cocoa. The chocolate, since I use quality ingredients in my desserts, costs more than the sum total of material costs for all other ingredients combined. Unbelievable but true, this batch is still slightly cheaper than a batch of rice krispies treats.
I'd still like to try this recipe with an axe. But, I'd need to devise a way for the chocolate to not go flying everywhere when I imagine that I'm beheading despondent postal chickens or foul database processes with said axe.
Yield: 3 1/2 dozen
Material cost: moderate
Mad scientist factor: **
Tonight's batch are aptly named Health-defying Chocolate Chunk Cookies, since it has three types of chocolate in the mix: dark European chocolate, dark Ghirardelli chocolate, and organic baking cocoa. The chocolate, since I use quality ingredients in my desserts, costs more than the sum total of material costs for all other ingredients combined. Unbelievable but true, this batch is still slightly cheaper than a batch of rice krispies treats.
I'd still like to try this recipe with an axe. But, I'd need to devise a way for the chocolate to not go flying everywhere when I imagine that I'm beheading despondent postal chickens or foul database processes with said axe.
Yield: 3 1/2 dozen
Material cost: moderate
Mad scientist factor: **
Chunks vs. chips
When Ruth Wakefield first made what are now called chocolate chip cookies, she hacked a chocolate bar to pieces to as a substitution for a chocolate ingredient she lacked. Ooh that rhymes. Anyhow. The cookies should have been called chocolate chunk cookies since she used small chunks of chocolate. Having been recipe-thwarted by people's misunderstandings over what constitutes a chunk vs. how chips are used, I have crafted my own methodology of what chocolate chunk cookies are supposed to be. Daily frustrations at work, like being asked to go hunt down datasets that don't exist in our database from people who know even less about the database than I do, just make me want to beat something to a bloody pulp. I had this creative spark during lunch where it would be neat, if not frighteningly cool, if my roommate were to come home while I was madly hacking blocks of Ghirardelli chocolate to death... with an axe.
I didn't find the axe I was looking for, so alas, I didn't buy an axe tonight. However, I did acquire a 1" chisel and a strange hammer to go with it, which I will be using the hack apart this chocolate. I was quite disappointed that I couldn't find any ice picks. Those would be neat to have in my collection. Snipping apart chocolate with utility shears just doesn't seem right at all.
I want an enchanted chisel. This one is only a meager Craftsman 1d4 chisel.
Kitchen madness
So I have a little obsession with food, epicurian to be exact. No, this is not an inference to sex, but rather the devotion to the pursuit and enjoyment of good food. Thursday nights, it seems, I have spent crafting desserts in my kitchen.
I am still working on the creme bruleé recipe. My last batch came out with the consistency of densely thick soft cheese. It did bake in a water bath, I think the quantity of heavy cream was too much. I started on creme bruleé as a practice mechanism for my latest kitchen toy, a mini torch. The test of a good batch is when the sugar layer of the custard makes the sound of breaking glass with the deft strike of a spoon. I have yet to a) get the sugar to melt evenly, and b) make the custard edible.
Tonight's dessert batch is the oatmeal cookie, with a secret (no wait, I meant to say special) ingredient. Although, I doubt anyone at work will notice. They might if I ever make stollen and bring that in. I try really hard to read and follow instructions, even ones that I wrote myself. But, alas, some deviation occurred while I was madly cackling and mixing ingredients. It all started when I melted the butter entirely instead of softening it. That one step makes a big difference in the consistency of the cookie dough.
Total cook and prep time: 1.5 hours
Yield: 3 dozen
Material cost: low
Btw, one of the most expensive desserts to bake for work is rice krispies treats, by material costs alone. And, it only has three ingredients! So simple, so delicious that I have polished off entire batches by myself. Usually, I eat less than 10% of any batch. Most of it is fed to unsuspecting subjects. (insert mad cackling)
post.script. The raisins were rehydrated in dark rum. That should be interesting flavor.
I am still working on the creme bruleé recipe. My last batch came out with the consistency of densely thick soft cheese. It did bake in a water bath, I think the quantity of heavy cream was too much. I started on creme bruleé as a practice mechanism for my latest kitchen toy, a mini torch. The test of a good batch is when the sugar layer of the custard makes the sound of breaking glass with the deft strike of a spoon. I have yet to a) get the sugar to melt evenly, and b) make the custard edible.
Tonight's dessert batch is the oatmeal cookie, with a secret (no wait, I meant to say special) ingredient. Although, I doubt anyone at work will notice. They might if I ever make stollen and bring that in. I try really hard to read and follow instructions, even ones that I wrote myself. But, alas, some deviation occurred while I was madly cackling and mixing ingredients. It all started when I melted the butter entirely instead of softening it. That one step makes a big difference in the consistency of the cookie dough.
Total cook and prep time: 1.5 hours
Yield: 3 dozen
Material cost: low
Btw, one of the most expensive desserts to bake for work is rice krispies treats, by material costs alone. And, it only has three ingredients! So simple, so delicious that I have polished off entire batches by myself. Usually, I eat less than 10% of any batch. Most of it is fed to unsuspecting subjects. (insert mad cackling)
post.script. The raisins were rehydrated in dark rum. That should be interesting flavor.
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