Raspberry-Chocolate Crumb Bars

What's this? Two blog posts in one week? By golly, it is a Christmas miracle!

In my last post, I mentioned putting off a take-home final to bake some special shortbread cookies. Now that I'm done with school, I am back to tell you all about these special treats!

First, a short story. A few weeks ago, my good friend from school called me up on a rainy Saturday and asked if I was home. "Uh, yes." I don't leave my house when it's raining unless it's absolutely imperative. "Great. I'm coming over. I have something for you," she said. Oh my gosh, the anticipation nearly killed me. Turns out she went to Surfas, a cooking and restaurant supply store in Culver City, and had a bag of edibles just for me! It's a testament to how well CK knows me that among the goodies she picked out were a pound of Plugra butter and these milk chocolate disks.

So, when I decided to bake something earlier this week, I decided to make something that would put that butter and chocolate to good use. I found the recipe for these bar cookies in the Flour Bakery Cookbook, and although the original recipe includes just raspberry filling, I felt confident that chocolate would be a welcome addition. It's very nearly impossible to go wrong with raspberry and chocolate, don't you think?

I really loved these cookies, but I also consider shortbread my Achilles heel. When I lived in Japan, the snack kitchen stocked these Walker's Shortbread Finger Cookies, which are about as close as you can get to eating a stick of butter without people giving you a funny look. I was so addicted to these that one time I opened a packet of cookies at my desk with such vigor that a waterfall of crumbs spilled all over my laptop keyboard. I'm not sure I should have admitted that publicly, but there you go.

Anyway, back to the task at hand... I also found the recipe intriguing, because the crumble topping is achieved by freezing a portion of shortbread dough, grating it using a cheese grater, and sprinkling it on top of the filling layer. I've never seen a crumble top like this, so naturally, I had to try it. 

This whole exercise required some patience, but I think the results were worth the effort. I'm even thinking of making these again when I get home, because I think they're great holiday cookies.

Also, this recipe requires trimming the browned edges of shortbread once it is entirely baked.  You can bet that I nibbled on these bits over the course of the night. If you even try to tell me you wouldn't do the same, I don't think we can be friends anymore.

Raspberry-Chocolate Crumb Bars, adapted from the Flour Bakery Cookbook

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

3 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

2 egg yolks

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups cake flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/1/2 cups raspberry jam (with seeds)

3 tablespoons half-and-half

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1/4 cup confectioners' sugar (for dusting)

To make shortbread: 

Cream together the butter, granulated sugar, and confectioners' sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. 

Beat in the egg yolks and vanilla on medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes, or until thoroughly combined.

In a medium bowl, sift together the all-purpose flour, cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter-sugar mixture and then mix until the flour mixture is totally incorporated and the tough is evenly mixed.

Scrape the dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap. Remove one-fourth of the dough to a separate sheet of plastic wrap. Wrap the remaining three-fourths of the dough entirely in the plastic wrap, pressing down to form a disk about 8 inches in diameter and 1 inch thick. Refrigerate the dough disk for about 30 minutes, or until the dough has firmed up but is still somewhat pliable. Pat the reserved one-fourth of the dough into a small disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and place in the freezer for at least 2 hours, or until hard.

In a small sauce pan, melt the chocolate chips and mix in the half-and-half until smooth. Set aside to cool.

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

Lightly flour the 8-inch dough disk and two large sheets of parchment paper. Place the dough between the sheets of parchment, and roll it out into a rectangle about 13 by 9 inches and 1/4 to 1/3 inch thick. Carefully peel off the top sheet of parchment. Trim the edges so the rectangle has fairy neat sides. Transfer the bottom sheet of parchment with the dough to a baking sheet. Trim the parchment so that it fits the baking sheet.

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the shortbread is light brown. Remove the shortbread from the oven, let cool for 10 to 15 minutes, then spread the melted chocolate on top of the warm shortbread. Add the raspberry jam on top of the chocolate layer, spreading it out evenly.

Remove the smaller dough disk from the freezer, and using the large holes on a box grater, grate it into large flakes. Evenly sprinkle the dough flakes over the jam.

Return the baking sheet to the oven and bake for another 20 to 25 minutes, or until the top is lightly browned. Let cool completely on the baking sheet on a wire rack.

When cooled, sift the confectioners' sugar evenly over the top. Trim the edges again, then cut into bars.

Coocoo for cocoa brownies

After four years of working at a tech company that provided me with three hot meals a day and unlimited snacks, I sometimes find myself at a loss when I arrive home in the evening and stare blankly at the raw contents of my refrigerator. So much food, nothing to eat.

I'm genuinely trying to cook more often (there may be an entree-focused blog post in my future), but around the middle of last quarter, I decided that an interim solution to this problem was to sign up for as many free-food events as my schedule would permit. Generally speaking, this translates into me eating a lot of pizza for lunch... But last Friday, I actually got dinner! The lasagna wasn't anything to write home about, but my heart skipped a beat when I saw brownies waiting at the end of the buffet.

Sadly, the brownies that night were completely mediocre. 

However, they did inspire me to bake up a batch of my own. Years of research (read: eating) have taught me that brownies vary in quality along three scales: density, taste, and texture. My ideal brownie is soft, but not cake-like, has an intense chocolate flavor, and contains just enough bite to vaguely resemble fudge, while still leaving baked-goods-style crumbs on your fingers. Here is a graphical representation, which should clear up any remaining confusion:

When I stumbled on the Alton Brown recipe that I eventually used, it felt like a "palm-to-forehead" moment. I've been a fan of Alton Brown for many years (in fact, my old roommate secured me an autographed DVD set of Good Eats, which remains one of my most prized possessions), but it has been a long while since I've used one of his recipes. When I saw the ratings for his cocoa brownies, I knew I'd found my match.

And as usual, Alton came through for me.

These brownies are awesome, and I didn't make a single substitution this time. Why mess with perfection? I did watch Alton's video, which provided more specific instructions for mixing in the melted butter than the written directions, so I've slightly altered the directions below. Additionally, I lined the baking pan with parchment instead of the traditional butter-flour combo -- it made removing the brownies a breeze, which is always a pain.

And as one last aside, bar cookies baked in a 8x8 inch pan have the added benefit of being able to fit PERFECTLY into a gallon size ziplock back. Who knew? I hope my classmates are ready for some brownies!

Alton Brown's Cocoa Brownies (source):

Ingredients

• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup sugar, sifted
• 1 cup brown sugar, sifted
• 8 ounces melted butter
• 11/4 cups cocoa, sifted
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup flour, sifted
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Line an 8-inch square pan with parchment paper.

Beat the eggs at medium speed until fluffy and light yellow. Add both sugars. Sift in the rest of the dry ingredients. Slowly mix in melted butter, adding gradually so that it doesn't pool on top of the batter. Mix to combine.

Pour the batter into the parchment-lined 8-inch square pan and bake for 45 minutes. Check for doneness with the tried-and-true toothpick method: a toothpick inserted into the center of the pan should come out clean. When it's done, remove to a rack to cool. Resist the temptation to cut into it until it's mostly cool.

Lemon bars with a minty twist

I took my first midterm this morning, and while I'm pretty sure I messed up a deferred revenue question, that hasn't stopped me from deferring studies for my next two midterms. Don't worry, those tests aren't until next week. Plus, I spent the afternoon working on a problem set that is due Friday, so I'm allowed a break, right?

In my last post, I mentioned that I set a goal of baking once a week. They say you should try to establish forcing mechanisms when you set new goals, and my forcing function is my learning team -- a group of four dudes that I have do all my group projects with. Four dudes and one girl? Welcome to B-school, kids. Anyway, I promised them I would bake something for our team meetings every week, hence the goal.

Back to the ovens!

I've done cookies two weeks in a row, so I wanted to mix things up a bit. Also, I made quinoa tabbouleh a few weeks ago, and I've had this little container of fresh mint drying up in my fridge since then. I hate wasting such expensive fresh herbs, so I wanted a recipe that could benefit from a dose of fresh mint.

What did I settle on? Lemon bars, of course! I found this recipe on Epicurious, but I had to make some adjustments because 1) I don't have a 9 x 13 pan, just a 9 x 9, 2) I don't like cleaning my food processor, and following this recipe as stated would have required cleaning the food processor twice for one recipe (um... pass!), and 3) I wanted to add mint!


To the first point, I have a terrible secret that bakers are never supposed to admit... Sometimes I fudge ingredient amounts. In this case, I was shooting for 2/3 of the given recipe, but how do you get 2/3 of 4 eggs? Or 2/3 of 1/2 a cup? I mean, obviously, there are ways to do that, but I don't think those methods are practical, so sometimes I just guesstimate. Life is about compromises. (Wow, so many life lessons on this blog already!)


Here's how I rolled:

For the shortbread:
1 stick unsalted butter
1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup, less  about 1teaspoon packed light brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt

For the lemon filling:
3 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup all-purpose flour

20-25 mint leaves

2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Line a 9 x 9-in baking pan with parchment paper. Cut butter into 1/2-inch pieces. Add dry ingredients to a mixing bowl and cut in the butter. I used a fork, because, well... I'm old fashioned. And I don't have a pastry cutter. And, as discussed, I don't like cleaning my food processor. 


Sprinkle mixture into a 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan and with press evenly onto bottom with your fingers and palm. Bake shortbread in middle of oven until golden, about 20 minutes. While shortbread is baking, prepare topping.

In a bowl whisk together eggs and granulated sugar until combined well and stir in lemon juice and flour. Mince mint leaves by stacking them on top of each other, rolling the stack up like a cigarette, and cutting across the roll. 

Whisk mint into the lemon mixture. Pour lemon mixture over hot shortbread. Reduce oven temperature to 300°F. and bake confection in middle of oven until set, about 30 minutes. Cool completely in pan and cut into 24 bars. Bar cookies keep, covered and chilled, 3 days. Sift confectioners' sugar over bars before serving.

So how did they turn out? Check it out!

To be perfectly honest, I think I could have doubled or increased the mint by 50%, but there is definitely a hint of mint even now. Plus, my kitchen smells of toasty shortbread, tangy citrus, and fresh mint. Win on all fronts!

Actually, this is the second time I've baked this week -- the first time was to make an adapted version of these no sugar, no egg, no flour, no butter granola-bar-type things. The recipe called them "breakfast cookies," but the term "cookie" seems like a stretch. They're very "healthy" tasting, but since I'm the child of hippies, I don't mind things that smack vaguely of Kashi, circa 1995. Does anyone else remember the early days of Kashi? I do. One fateful bowl turned my 10-year-old self off the stuff for a decade. 




Now that I'm older, I don't actually mind whole grains, but I'm happy to report that these "cookies" that look kind of like dog biscuits or lumps of hard oatmeal are actually completely consumable. I have been eating them in the mornings as brain-food.