Time out for Savory: Chipotle Chili

I just looked back at my last post and realized that after posting twice in one week, I went MIA for over 2 months. Woops! To be perfectly honest, I don't know how I managed to go that long without baking anything, but it could be because I ran out of eggs... two months ago.

Anyway, onwards and upwards!

Today's post isn't actually about baking, but it does come with tons of pictures, so hopefully those will provide adequate compensation for the lack of sugar and butter. This year I entered my school's annual chili cook-off, and it ended up being a really fun process, so I thought I'd share it with the two people who still care what I have to say here.

Let me start by revealing that I've actually never made chili start-to-finish by myself. I've watched Dad make it few times (as well as countless stews, which I think share some common traits), and I picked up several tips over the years, but I've never flown solo. As such, I began the project by reading tons and tons of recipes. I should have known that this would be overwhelming, because there are as many ideas for what constitutes the "perfect" chili as there are people in the world. And making chili comes with all sorts of mind-bending decisions, such as beans vs. no beans, ground beef vs. chunks, tomatoes vs. sans tomatoes, and don't even get me started on all the combinations of chiles...

Needless to say, I spent several hours reading recipes, but nothing I found was quite perfect. The recipe I finally executed is loosely based on this version from America's Test Kitchen, but also on several IM conversations with Dad, as well as my own preferences.

Here is the result, in all of its ungarnished, beefy glory. What do you think? Am I going to win the competition?

Just in case I do win, here's the recipe for my (possibly) award-winning chili!

Sara's Chipotle Chili

3 T kosher salt

1/2 lb. dried pinto beans

4 quarts water

1.5 T chili powder

1 T dried chipotle chili powder

1/4 t dried cayenne pepper

3 T cornmeal

2 t dried oregano

2 t ground cumin

2 t cocoa powder

2 1/2 c low-sodium chicken broth

2 c onions, chopped in large chunks

1 large jalepeno pepper, rough chopped in large pieces

2 T vegetable oil

4 t garlic, finely chopped

1 can of diced tomatoes, 14.5 oz

2 T brown sugar

4 lbs beef chuck steaks

12 oz. Newcastle ale

1. Wash pinto beans and pour into 4.5q Dutch oven. Add salt and water. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat, cover, and let sit for 1 hour. Drain and rinse with cold water.

2. In a food processor, blend chili powder, chipotle powder, cayenne, cornmeal, oregano, cumin, and cocoa powder. Shouldn't take more than 1 or 2 quick pulses. Turn on the food processor, and slowly pour 1/2 cup of chicken broth into the bowl until it becomes a paste. Pour paste out into a small bowl.

3. Put chopped onions into food processor and pulse four times. Add chopped jalepeno and pulse three or four more times. In a small bowl, dissolve brown sugar in a few spoons of warm water.

4. Heat 1T oil in Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion and jalepeno mixture, and saute until onions are soft and moisture has evaporated. Add garlic, and saute until fragrant. Add the chili paste, tomatoes and brown sugar liquid, and stir until combined. Add remaining two cups of chicken broth and reduce heat to simmer.

5. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. In a skillet, heat 1T oil over medium-high heat. Pat beef chunks with a paper towel, then sprinkle lightly with salt. Add 1/2 beef to skillet and brown on all sides. Transfer beef to Dutch oven. Pour 1/2 beer into the skillet to deglaze pan, and simmer for a few minutes, stirring to remove browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Transfer beer to Dutch oven. Repeat with remaining beef and beer. Return to simmer.

6. Cover pot and place in oven for 1.5 to 2 hours, or until beef and beans are tender and cooked through. Chill, uncovered, for 10 minutes, and season to taste.

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.

Thankful for Dutch Apple Pie

I'm painfully close to finishing my last academic obligation of the quarter, so naturally, I am blogging instead of working on that pesky take-home final. I spent the whole day writing a paper for another class, though, so I when I finished, I felt somewhat justified in taking a short respite... 

That was several hours ago, though.  "A short respite" turned into grocery shopping and watching Glee, but then, I have never been good at self-restraint. Perhaps this explains why Fall quarter was not terribly kind to me in terms of free time for baking... But never fear, things are looking up for the Winter!

In any case, along with all the other aforementioned distractions, I decided to throw together a batch of shortbread cookies tonight. ("Just shortbread? Meh." you say? Don't worry, they are much cooler than that. The instructions called for a cheese grater, so something new and unusual is definitely afoot. More on this in my next blog post.) Then I remembered that I forgot to blog about my Thanksgiving baking adventure. 

I usually make pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving (loyal OCB readers will recall the homemade kobucha version from 2011), but this year I decided to go with something that my brother might actually enjoy. Some time ago, my big bro confessed that he doesn't actually like pumpkin pie... The horror! All these years, he'd been quietly suffering, just to be polite. What a guy. All of that nonsense ended this year, however, as I decided to make... Dutch Apple Pie!

How did I arrive at this decision? Some of you may be surprised to learn that it was not until I became a young adult (in age only, of course. I have yet to reach this status in actual maturity.) that I came to understand the wonder and glory of homemade pies. I have always been a fan of buttery-flakey things, but as a kid, my only exposure was through a fellow Sara... Sara Lee, to be precise. Mom always let me pick the frozen pie we'd bake on holidays, and I always, always, always picked Dutch Apple Pie. There is something about those crispy, crumbly bits on top of spiced apples that just takes me to another place. 

I hope my family enjoyed it. They always say they do, but now that I know my brother has been putting up with pumpkin for so many years, I wonder if I can trust any of them anymore... What do you think? (Apologies in advance for the bad pictures -- they're taken from my phone, since I forgot my real camera in LA.)

The recipe I followed was somewhat piecemeal. My go-to pie crust is, as I am sure you know by now, the Flour Bakery pâte brisée. But the filling and crumble top came from this fairly generic, but universally well-rated recipe on Food.com. One small, but significant modification I made was to blind bake the pie crust before filling it with apples. I've gotten into the habit of blind baking, since I discovered that it prevents the dreaded "soggy bottom crust" syndrome. Interestingly, although I don't have any pictures to prove this, I didn't have enough pie weights, so I ended up weighing down the crust with pebbles Mom bought for the bottom of decorative flower vases. I washed them, of course... They actually held up the edges quite well, so I think I'll keep using this technique until Mom decides to dump them into a vase.

Enough rambling. Here's the recipe, for anyone who may be interested.

Dutch Apple Pie, adapted from Food.com and Flour Bakery

Ingredients

1 Pâte Brisée II, recipe here
5 1/2 cups peeled cored sliced cooking apples
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
3 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

For the topping
3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup butter or 1/3 cup margarine, room temperature

Directions:

Prepare pâte brisée for the pie crust. When you are ready to make the pie, blind bake the crust at 375°F for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow the crust to cool, and continue with apple pie recipe as follows.

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Fit pie crust into pie plate.
3. In a large bowl, mix sliced apples, lemon juice, both sugars,flour, cinnamon and nutmeg.
4. Pile into crust.
5. Prepare topping:.
6. In a medium bowl, with a pastry blender or a fork, mix flour, both sugars, and butter until coarsely crumbled.
7. Sprinkle evenly over apples.
8. Bake at 375°F for 50 minutes.

Iced Scones: Raspberry Chocolate Chunk and Blueberry

I can hardly believe it's November already. Just a few short weeks until Turkey Day! This year I'm going to fly home instead of braving the I-5 traffic, which I could not be happier about. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for treating me to the plane tickets! But I digress...

As usual, I'm late in blogging about this recipe, but that should not be interpreted as any reflection on the recipe itself. These scones are definitely repeat-worthy. Especially after I took a few liberties with this recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe, which is itself an adaptation of a recipe from the King Arthur Flour Blog.

First, I cut the recipe in half, because I made them right before I left for a trip and didn't think I could polish off 12-13 scones in just two days. I love a good scone, but that just seemed excessive. 

Second, instead of the plain chocolate chips used in these two recipes, I chopped up a bar of Chocolove Raspberries in 55% Dark Chocolate and threw in 1/2 a cup of dried blueberries for good measure. The switch from plain chocolate chips to the raspberries + chocolate seems self-explanatory -- these chocolate bars are exceptional on their own, and positively divine when chopped up and thrown into a batter. They were recently on sale at Whole Foods. I bought four. 

As for the blueberries, I've mentioned my love of blueberries in the past, along with my general disappointment at items baked with fresh blues. While wandering the aisles of Trader Joe's a few weeks ago, I found a bag of dried blueberries, and wondered if they might  be the answer to my blueberry + baked goods prayers. If these scones are any indication, I may have found a winning combination.

Here's the recipe I ended up following -- it reflects some minor edits to this recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe. 

Glazed Chocolate Chip Scones
*Makes about 6 scones
INGREDIENTS:

Scones:1 3/8 cups all-purpose flour
1/6 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) cold butter, cut in pieces
1 3.2 oz chocolate bar, chopped

1/2 cup dired blueberries
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup to 1/3 cup fat free half-and-half or milk

Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-4 tablespoons milk

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Work in the butter with your fingers or a pastry blender (or two butter knives) just until the mixture is unevenly crumbly. Stir in the chocolate chunks and blueberries.

In a separate mixing bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together the eggs, vanilla and 1/4 cup half-and-half or milk.

Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture is moistened and holds together. Don’t overmix! The key to tender scones is not overmixing the dough. It shouldn’t look as cohesive as cookie dough – you are going more for the pie crust look but if it seems overly dry, stir in additional milk or half-and-half until the dough comes together.

Scrape the dough onto a well-floured work surface. Pat it into a long, thin rectangle, about 17-inches by 3-inches and about 1-inch thick. Make sure the surface underneath the dough is very well floured. If necessary, use a large spatula to lift edges of the dough and sprinkle more flour underneath.

Cut the rectangle into alternating triangles (see picture below). You should be able to get about 6 scones. Carefully transfer the scones (using a spatula, if needed) to a parchment-lined or well-greased baking sheet.

Bake the scones for 12-15 minutes, or until they’re golden brown. Remove the pan from the oven and allow the scones to cool right on the pan. Make the glaze by stirring together the sugar and vanilla. Whisk in the milk gradually until the glaze is pourable.

Let the scones cool until still a bit warm or room temperature (too hot and the glaze will melt right off). Drizzle the glaze evenly over the scones. Serve warm or at room temperature. These keep well-covered for 2-3 days (and reheat beautifully in the microwave for a short 15-20 seconds).

Adventures in brown butter... Chocolate Chip and Double Chocolate Fudge

Is it just me or has brown butter been popping up all over the place lately? A few weeks ago I bought a brown butter and caramel apple cupcake at Susie Cakes, and then last week one of the baking blogs I follow, Lovin' From the Oven, published a recipe for double fudge chocolate chip cookie dough cookies. Just the name is a serious mouthful, but the real thing that intrigued me was the use of brown butter.

I've never really worked with brown butter, so I looked it up in the Professional Pastry Chef, a book I received last Christmas. In it, Bo Friberg describes brown butter, also known as buerre noisette, or "hazelnut butter", thusly: "As the butter is cooked over low heat, the milk solids caramelize, turning the butter light brown and giving it a nutter flavor and aroma -- hence the name."

I don't even know where to begin. How is it that I've never heard of this or used it a recipe? Sorry, Waistline, but it looks like you'll be seeing a lot more brown butter in the very near future.

But I digress... I went ahead and took a crack at these double fudge chocolate chip cookie dough cookies, and I am thoroughly pleased with the result.

These cookies were tender and buttery, and retained that texture for a surprisingly long time. They were definitely best the night I baked them, but I've been slowing chipping away at my stash over the past few days, and they're still quite tasty.

I also thought the construction of these double-decker cookies was fun and interesting. The recipe instructed me to split the dough in two and make one half into traditional chocolate chip, while turning the other half into a double-chocolate fudge dough. Then you roll the dough into balls, split the balls in two, and smush together two halves of different doughs to create one cookie. 

But honestly, what really matters is the final product, and who can argue with this?

Here's the recipe, courtesy of Lovin from the Oven, via How Sweet it Is. As usual, I subbed out chocolate chips in favor of a hand chopped chocolate bar (the last of my 62% cacao Sharfenberger baking bar, to be precise). 

Double Fudge Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cookies

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) of unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg + 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. 

Cream together butter and both sugars. Mix in the eggs and vanilla. 

Divide the sugar mixture in half and separate the doughs into two different bowls. Use a scale to measure them exactly (This is the part I failed at).

In one bowl, add 1 cup of flour, 1/4 teaspoon baking soda and a pinch of salt, then mix until a dough forms. Fold in 3/4 cup of the chocolate chips. Set aside. 

In the second bowl, add remaining flour and baking soda, cocoa powder and a pinch of salt, mixing until a dough forms. Fold in remaining chocolate chips. 

Roll each dough into 24 balls (about an inch thick). Take one chocolate chip half and one double fudge half and merge them together by one end. Place on baking sheet at least 1 1/2 inch apart.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until just golden.

Chocolate Chip & Orange Peel Cookies

Greetings from Los Angeles! My summer internship ended a few weeks ago, so I'm back in the City of Angels gearing up for my second year of business school. There's no place like home, but it's also nice to be back in LA. Plus, classes start on Monday! #nerdalert

It might sound strange, but one of things I'm going to miss most about home is the farmer's market. My last weekend at home, I made these chocolate chip and orange peel cookies for Dave and Blake, purveyors of fine stone fruits and delicious Japanese mushrooms, respectively. 

To be perfectly honest, I'm shocked that I haven't blogged this cookie recipe yet, because it has quickly become one of my favorites. No-frills-added, classic chocolate chip ranks #1 when it comes to cookies in my book, and this recipe by Jacques Torres from the New York Times is the cream of the crop. It's a little bit complicated, what with having two different types of flours and all, but it's totally worth it if you ask me. 

Also, instead of using straight chocolate chips, I actually chopped up a couple bars of this orange peel + 55% cocoa chocolate by Chocolove. I love using chocolate bars instead of chips because when you chop up a bar, you get all these little tiny bits of chocolate coupled with oddly shaped chunks. When you mix all that into the dough and bake it, the little bits add a hint of chocolate-y goodness to the dough.

Finally, the one thing I will say about the chilling is: DO IT. About a year and a half ago, when I was living abroad, I read that one of the best kept secrets to deliciously chewy CCCs is to let the dough sit in the fridge for at least 24 hours before baking it. Apparently it allows the flours to soak up more of the moisture from the eggs, which results in a more tender cookie. I did an experiment where I whipped up a batch of cookies and chilled the dough for 12, 24, and 48 hours, and it is true -- the longer you let it hang out, the better the cookies become. 

Incidentally, I made another batch of CCCs when I got back to LA, and I'm sad to report that they weren't quite as good as the ones I made at home. Maybe it's because I don't have a mixer at school, so I didn't blend the ingredients quite as well. Or maybe it was because I used plain chocolate. This past week, my local Whole Foods had the Chocolove bars on sale, so you can bet my next CCCs will not be plain chocolate. Can't wait to share those! 

Without further adieu, here's the recipe, courtesy of the New York Times:

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from Jacques Torres

Time: 45 minutes (for 1 6-cookie batch), plus at least 24 hours’ chilling

2 cups minus 2 tablespoons

(8 1/2 ounces) cake flour

1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt

2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter

1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract

1 1/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate disks or fèves, at least 60 percent cacao content (see note)

Sea salt.

1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

2. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Drop chocolate pieces in and incorporate them without breaking them. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.

3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.

4. Scoop 6 3 1/2-ounce mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day. Eat warm, with a big napkin.

Yield: 1 1/2 dozen 5-inch cookies.