Dessert By Candy

Hoarder Of Baking Chips

I have a confession to make: I am a hoarder of baking chips. When I go to grocery stores in different cities, I make a beeline to the baking aisle to check out which baking chips are available. Obviously I have plentiful supply of everyday chocolate chips because you never know when the craving for chocolate chip cookies may strike. I also have a selection of fancy chocolate chips that I save for special occasions. But the fun begins when I go through my collection of novelty chips. White chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, zebra chips with white and milk chocolate, butterscotch chips, peanut butter chips, mini chocolate peanut butter cups, toffee bits, Andes mint chocolate bits, cinnamon chips, the much-coveted mint green chips, and my latest find lemon chips. I love them all.

I wanted to make something special with those pretty pastel lemon chips. I’m pretty sure my search would come up short if I look for recipes specifically calling for lemon chips. My inspiration began with lemon and rosemary, a classic flavour pairing. The butterscotch undertone of a classic chocolate chip cookie dough would overwhelm the fresh taste of lemon. However, I do enjoy the soft chewy texture of a big fat cookie loaded with chips. Recalling my success with America Test Kitchen’s Chewy Sugar Cookies last year, I set to work.

The Scoop

My two-tablespoon size cookie scoop received a good workout last week. After months of hard work, I finally began tapering for World Masters Championship. I cut back on the volume of my training while keeping the intensity high. It is now time to rest so the body will be fresh on race day Sunday. Regular readers may recall that I was so tired the last few weeks that I barely had enough energy to feed myself. A side effect of tapering is that I return to my energetic self. All I wanted and all I did was bake, bake, bake!

Plenty of cookies and cakes were made last week. Drop cookies that were conveniently shaped with my cookie scoop, in particular. The scoop was that I wanted to create a beautiful assortment of cookies for Boyfriend to enjoy when I visited him in Virginia over the weekend. Mission accomplished! But let me tell you, it was a labour of love. When you see a small box of cookie assortment, never under-estimate the amount of work involved. For every different cookie in the box, there is one whole batch that you cannot see. It is just as much work to make one cookie versus twenty. These textbook-perfect Oatmeal Chocolate Cookies were part of the mix.

Legitimate Cramming

Some trends come and go while others have staying power. For me, the whole dessert in a jar trend was cute the first few times but by now it’s already a little tired. I am just as guilty for jumping onto this bandwagon with my take on Cherry Almond Cobbler (in a jar!), Rhubarb Big Crumb Coffee Cake (in a jar!), and Rice Pudding with Roasted Rhubarb (in a jar!). Well, you get the idea.

Last weekend, I finally have a legitimate reason to cram a dessert into canning jars. I treated Boyfriend to a special Birthday Bento which I lovingly prepared (more about that in coming days but here is a preview). He’s a meat-and-potato kind of guy so I created an appropriately meat-and-potato kind of bento for him. For dessert, I took inspiration from a childhood favourite. Once upon a time, KFC used to sell single-serving cheesecakes in little plastic cup containers. Cherry or blueberry? Cherry of course.

I created this no-bake cheesecake with the standard 125mL/4oz canning jars in mind (Ball and Jarden and Bernardin all makes them). It is the perfect treat size for lunch on the go. Most cheesecake recipes would yield way too many servings. My recipe is scaled down specifically to create only four servings with the least hassles. It is a dessert that I can easily whip up in between attending to other tasks in the kitchen. That’s the way a weeknight dessert ought to be.

Whole & Raw Meet Short & Sweet

One highlight of my weekends is reading Dan Lepard’s How To Bake column in The Guardian. His recipes are written in his signature no-nonsense style with an even simpler list of ingredients yet never fail to deliver on taste. That’s good value to me. Last weekend’s article on bare banana cake caught my attention effortlessly. When Lepard posted the shopping list midweek calling for lots of bananas, I subconsciously stocked up before I even realized what I was putting in my basket. Needless to say, the fruit bowl was overtaken by spotty bananas this week and I knew just what to do about them.

The ingredient list for Dark Banana Ginger Cake is as bare as can be: muscovado sugar, bananas, sunflower oil, eggs, candied ginger, whole wheat bread flour, and baking powder. Problem is that I am running low on pantry staples after my week-long baking bender. Among this list, I only had enough bananas, candied ginger, and baking powder I needed for the recipe. I don’t even have a baking pan of the right size! Improvisation was in order.

Pretender

You have to be living under a rock to think that muffins are the good-for-you breakfast food that we so desperately want them to be. They may be packed with fruits and nuts but there are also copious amount of butter and sugar. Diet food they are not. Exactly how did they earn the Healthy Breakfast Badge? A good PR?

Good for the body or not, I still love muffins. They are easy to put together using ingredients that do not require a special trip to the store. For the little effort that they require, they instantly add wow factor to any breakfast spread. A good friend of mine still rave about the time she woke up to a batch of blueberry muffins fresh out of the oven when we had a sleepover. I can easily take one on the road if a leisurely breakfast is not possible. This blank canvas can morph into any flavours, sweet or savoury, with or without toppings. The sky’s the limit.

Having said all that, nothing can stop me from pretending to make a healthy muffin. I disguised my Chocolate Chip Muffin with Streusels using whole wheat flour and oat bran. I doubt that it is a very good disguise though because the muffins still turned out tender and buttery thanks in no small part to melted butter, full-fat buttermilk, bittersweet chocolate chips, and crunchy almond oat streusels. Well, at least I tried.

Candy Days

There are three important Candy Days in the calendar year: February 15, Easter Monday, and November 1. While most bargain hunters look forward to Black Friday or Boxing Day sale, I pin my hopes on half-priced chocolate in seasonal packaging that is just one day past their prime. It’s a good thing that my gym is located inside a grocery store because I never miss those sales. My finds this year included a 2lb bag of Cadbury Mini Eggs, a couple of Crème Eggs, and some classic yellow Peeps chicks.

Marshmallow is my weakness so it’s no surprise my post-Easter haul always include a sleeve of Peeps. As far as Easter candies go, they don’t rate high on the desirability scale. Unlike popular choices such as Reese’s Peanut Butter Bunny/Egg or M&M’s Speckled Eggs, I can always find a pile of colourful Peeps even a whole week after the Easter long weekend. Some people like to play with their food and I am no exception. Although I don’t make anything as elaborate as a Peeps diorama, a little colour coordination using the bright yellow chicks as cake toppers can’t hurt. I’m in a spring kind of mood so an Almond Tea Cake with Tangerine Glaze is an appropriate choice.

Coincidental Celebration

Every day is a different food holiday, it seems. My twitter stream never fails to remind me about Grilled Cheese Day or Hot Dog Day or Chocolate Day or whatnot. As silly as the notion is, as a food blogger I don’t mind these theme holidays since they provide good inspiration for what to make. Well, you know, even the most creative cook may need a bit of nudge from time to time when ideas run low. And then there are those strange moments when all the stars align. I realize after baking my Drunken Cherry Almond Brownie this morning that I celebrated National Amaretto Day. What are the chances? I rarely break out my bottle of amaretto and I did it on the most appropriate day of the year.

The inspiration for this brownie comes from Boyfriend’s love for all things cherry and chocolate. We haven’t seen each other since February and I’m excited to finally see him this weekend in Austin! My new favourite brownie recipe takes well to add-ins. Since I last made it in Fort Lauderdale, I’ve been itching to make it again at home.

The night before, I soaked a cup of dried sour cherries in amaretto to plump them up. When I woke up this morning, all the little morsels were drunken with the almond liqueur! I complemented them with half a cup each of coarsely chopped roasted almonds and white chocolate chips. The brownie recipe as written would be a better fit in a 8x8 square cake pan. With all the extras, I bulked up the batter enough to fill a 9x9 square cake pan nicely. It finished baking at exactly the 30 minute mark.

I wish I can tell you what it tastes like. If all goes according to plan, Boyfriend and I are not digging in to the brownies until Sunday noon! Good thing this is a good keeper. What I can tell you though is that my kitchen smelled absolutely amazing with the mix of deep dark chocolate and sweet almond and tart cherries. Happy Amaretto Day!

Baking In My Cubicle

I recently moved from an open space set up to a cubicle at the office. The novelty factor hasn’t worn off yet and I’m still enjoying the additional privacy. However, it does get a little lonely compare to the old days when chatting with my teammates is a simple matter of cranking my neck a little to the left. Since I spend much of my waking hours at the office, it makes sense that there are certain elements of “living” that I do in my space. For example, I keep a set of toothbrush, toothpaste, and floss within easy reach. I also have my music collection and a few small plush toys lying about. Pretty normal stuff.

Eating at the desk can be a controversial issues at some office. Thankfully it is not frown upon at mine. Today, I took it one small step further. A Mocha Pudding Cake is baking right next to me at this very second. If it turns out well, you can thank the cool people at America’s Test Kitchen. I adapted their slow cooker chocolate pudding cake recipe from Slow Cooker Revolution adding a touch of coffee flavour.

It all began with meticulous mise en place. Before I left home, I scaled out the ingredients in individual containers and greased the slow cooker. It’s all about being prepared! All that was left to do once I got to the office was the final mixing.

Excitement Over A Pan

I must be living a pretty boring life because I get excited over a new cake pan I bought on Saturday. For the longest time, I do not own a classic bundt cake pan. My star shape bundt pan gave me plenty of beautiful cakes but it was getting a little monotonous. Every time I saw other people’s photos of bundt cakes, I experienced a bad case of pan envy. Well, envy no more. I finally bought my own classic bundt pan and it’s not just any bundt pan. I got the Cadillac of all things bundt: Nordic Ware Original Platinum Collection Bundt Pan made with heavy weight cast aluminum. Ooooooh yeeeeeaah.

You don’t have to ask what I did with the pan the very same day I brought it home. Of course I baptised it with cake. Not just any pound cake but a buttery one made with brown sugar and studded with juicy pears, prunes, and ground hazelnut. You see that deep brown crust? That’s the reason I don’t buy flimsy supermarket cake pans. The even gentle heat that a heavy cast aluminum pan holds cannot be rivalled.

Easter Discovery

I discovered two things when I indulged in my layer cake cravings and made a centrepiece-worthy Mango Coconut Carrot Cake for Easter. First, I can ice a cake like it’s nobody’s business. I bet my Art of Cake culinary school instructor would be proud. The other thing is that I miss my crafty days. Making an edible Easter Bunny cake topper completed with carrots reminded me how much I love to make figurines. I sense a trip to my local craft store this weekend to pick up some moulding clay.

Sometimes I can be unnecessarily fussy. Carrot cake is good on its own but it’s just not the same if the cute little miniature carrots are missing. I made them with marzipan before with a little ruffle of green icing. Since Easter is coming up this weekend and the promise of spring is in the air, those little carrots were calling my name. I am not particularly attached to any carrot cake recipe as long as my cake comes out tall and regal with plenty of tangy cream cheese icing! With the help of Eat Your Books, I unearthed an interesting variation from 2008 issue of Best Of America’s Test Kitchen. This Cook’s Country recipe of Tropical Carrot Cake combines the wholesome profile of carrot cake with dashes of tropical flair like coconut and pineapple. I could not locate frozen pineapple nor pineapple juice concentrate at my local supermarket. Luckily, the mango counterparts were readily available and on sale. That was the beginning of my Mango Coconut Carrot Cake.