Cookie Dough Brownies

It's been a long time since I've updated this blog and truthfully, I've thought about neglecting it altogether. In the last couple of months, I've been released from the army, started a full time job and a part time job and overall just been too tired to keep it up. I can hardly remember the last time I baked something that was a dessert and not bread. Every time I think about getting back into the kitchen, my bed calls my name and almost always wins out. I will try to be better, or at least get all of the backed up posts written.
The last time I went all out in the kitchen was for an engagement party that I hosted for a friend of mine in the army who get engaged. I baked and baked and baked. And then made some more. It was actually really fun and the get together was really nice, even though there was a boatload of leftovers... Enough to feed an army (haha, not so funny!) and that's exactly where I sent them the next day. One of the things I made was these Cookie Dough Brownies from the Cookie Dough Lover's Cookbook and they were really, really well received. These don't require much effort but they are multi- layered so that may put some people off. If you really know how to manage your time, you can always get your other cakes made in between steps. The key is organization, people! I would say that this is a successful cross of two very comforting and homey foods, brownies and cookie dough. Who could say no?!

Coconut Sandwich Cookies with Chocolate Ganache

Purim is not my favorite holiday and thankfully it passed as quickly as it came. (Anyone else feel like this year is just flying by?!) Part of the Purim festivities is the obligation to give mishloach manot to at least one person. This is where people invest most of their energies, after their costumes are all settled, of course. People spend hours choosing a theme and then buying the goods and assembling these packages. I can remember my parents buying cases of junk food just for this purpose and forming an assembly line around our dining room table to assemble the mishloach manot for our many family members and friends. Me? I always choose to go the homemade route. Include one or two baked goods, and you're good to go. This year, it took a long time for anything to evolve in my head, and even at the last second, I changed the theme again. These cookies were the product of a possible "black and white" theme. (It fell through.. I ended up making homemade smores and just adding two of these cookies in so as not to waste them.) The recipe comes from the Israeli book simply called Chocolate. I purchased it in one of my very first years here in Israel and haven't used it that much but I gather that will be changing. These cookies are delicious by themselves, flavored with desiccated coconut and ethereally light in texture due to the addition of cornstarch. Add a simple ganache filling and you've elevated these cookies to gift-giving heights. I'm almost certain the only change I made to the recipe itself was to add a dash of salt to the cookie dough. Easy, delicious and holiday friendly.

Chocolate Velvet

Two weekends ago, I was hosted by my friend Nili in Jerusalem. She insisted that I bring nothing but as my father taught me, don't go anywhere empty handed. So I decided to make a cake. I settled on chocolate because it always pleases. I started leafing through my books and settled on this cake. It's an Israeli recipe and literally translated it means Chocolate Velvet. Turns out that's exactly what you get here. Nothing short of rich, chocolate fudge in every bite. The cake went over really well but because it is so rich, I went home with half. The solution? Bring it to my Ulpan students. I made them earn it though by making them first translate the recipe. It was quite amusing to listen to. They made short work of finishing the cake for me. I made this cake parve for Shabbat but you can make it dairy. I also used coffee liqueur instead of the chocolate called for. Feel free to use any flavor that you have on hand. To keep this cake fudgy and moist, the recipe instructs you to place a pan of boiling water in the oven along with the cake. This is a technique I'll adopt because you get the steam effect without risking seepage into the cake. Happy Purim!

Chocolate Cookie Fudge

Try explaining to a bunch of Israelis what fudge is. Instead, I just let them belive that the chocolate-oreo confection that I presented them with was really fudgy brownies. Got no complaints from them :) This simple, three ingredient recipe comes from the A Taste of Home, Church Supper Desserts cookbook, which, I think I've already mentioned, is my go to book for easy but reliably delicious desserts. Consisting simply of chocolate, sweetened condensed milk and chopped oreos, you can not go wrong here at all and you can customize with add-ins, especially as the holiday season is approaching. Try crushed peppermint candies, more chocolate, graham crackers, white chocolate chips.. Go wild!

Blond Butterscotch Toffee Brownies

Back in the summer, I hit up Walmart and brought back some mini chocolates for a friend. Well, that friend never claimed them so I figured I'd bring them to my soldiers. They'd never say no to American chocolates. But then I had a better idea... Bake with them! I brought back Butterfingers, Crunch Bars and Heath bars and decided that the Heath candies would be the best candidate for a bar cookie. I found a simple recipe in A Taste of Home's Church Supper Desserts book and quickly threw them together. Humble and unassuming as they are, these were the first to run off the plate when I brought them to my soldiers. These come together really quickly with just a bowl and a whisk. Next time you have chocolate bars just hanging around, you'll know just what to do!

Chocolate Honey Cake

What would the holidays be without honey cake? Well, I didn't exactly make honey cake but when I was asked to make dessert for lunch last weekend, I made something like it. Honey cakes are usually hit or miss. Either you love them or you hate them. I decided to play it safe but still tip my hat to the season by making a chocolate honey cake. This cake comes from the masterful Marcy Goldman's A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking. Moist with a depth of flavor added from the honey, my guests really loved it. The topping couldn't be simpler, just toss some chocolate chips on top of the hot cake and allow the heat to melt the chips the spread! Love that trick!

Chocolate Surprise Cookies

When I get bored on any given day or need help falling asleep, I pull a cookbook off the shelf and start reading, hoping for some baking inspiration. Last week, it was Martha Stewart's Cookies and flipping through, I came across this recipe for Chocolate Surprise Cookies. Lo and behold, I had all of the ingredients on hand, including a bag of marshmallows that I bought a long time ago for something else and so I made it a plan to bake these on Motzei Shabbat. It was to be a marshmallow themed evening, right alongside the Marshmallow Candy Cups. It's funny because every time I hear the word marshmallow, I go back in time to my sixth grade spelling bee where my friend got out for spelling marshmallow with an "e" instead of an "a". Hard times for a sixth grader back then. Anyway, these cookies start with a cookie base. Towards the end of baking (making sure not to over bake the cookies!) a half a marshmallow is tucked into the middle and allowed to bake a minute longer. When they are cooled, a generous dollop of chocolate frosting is slathered on to conceal the marshmallow... thus becoming the surprise. Although there are a few steps, leaving alot of chocolatey dishes in their wake, this recipe really is pretty simple and the results, at least according to the soldiers who ate them, worth the effort.

Marshmallow Candy Cups

Lord Almighty, the temperature's rising! It is indescribably hot and humid here in Israel to the point where it's difficult to breathe! I would give anything right now for a pool in my backyard but I guess that'll just have to wait a few weeks. Anyway, it's one of those seasons where you'd be crazy to turn on the oven. Well, I am crazy, and I bake in any season, but I decided to make something last weekend that didn't require turning on the oven. I've been wanting to make homemade marshmallows for a really long time (and I will!) so when I saw these Marshmallow Candy Cups in the most recent Baked cookbook, I thought it would be a good place to start. I did some research and these got rave reviews all around so out came the gelatin! These babies are a bit time intensive and because of the humidity have got to be stashed in the fridge at every stage to get them right. You start with melting some chocolate and brushing the inside of mini muffin cups with it. Then goes the marshmallow and they're topped with some more chocolate to seal the deal. I have to say, I was totally skeptical that some sugar syrup and gelatin was going to turn into ooey gooey yummy marshmallow, but after extensive beating, I'm glad to say they did. These babies were really well received and I'm happy to have this recipe in my files... but for a cooler day! I didn't have any milk chocolate on hand just some dairy bittersweet chocolate so I used a mix of that and regular dark chocolate. Although I halved the recipe, I still had plenty of chocolate leftover so you can afford to be generous with it.

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Bars

I am on a serious condensed milk kick! I can not get enough of baking with this stuff so naturally I picked up a few more containers of it on my last supermarket run and baked something with it again. I turned to BHG's Biggest Book of Cookies and found alongside the previous recipe, this recipe for Chocolate and Peanut Butter Bars. The head note of this recipe sites this as healthful what with the oats and a bit of whole wheat flour, but who are they kidding? This recipe is rich and delicious and I'mt not ashamed! This is another really easy recipe to make- an oat mixture is made, some of it is set aside, but an egg is added to the rest of it to form the crust. I did make one mistake here and that is that I neglected to refrigerate the topping while I worked on the rest of the cookie. Due to the INSANE heat here in Jerusalem, it kind of melted altogether by the time it got into the oven instead of being a nice bar with a crumble topping. Oh well. I left these in the office on base and then left base to run some errands. When I got back these were demolished. Literally, to the last crumb. Success!

Super Easy Chocolate Bars

One measly post in June? I know. I will do better, starting with these Super Easy Chocolate Bars that I made for my soldiers two weeks ago. The recipe comes from Better Homes and Gardens Biggest Book of Cookies and they didn't disappoint. This recipe was made in celebration of my finding mehadrin sweetened condensed milk in the supermarket. Woohoo! Words can not express my excitement at finding it and although expensive, it is worth every shekel. No longer will I have to skip over key lime pie recipes or any other drool inducing recipe that calls for this item. A new chapter of baking is opened, starting with these. True to their name, these bars begin with a shortbread like bottom, topped with a milk and chocolate mixture and topped with some reserved shortbread mixture. Yum.

Serendipity Deluxe Bars

I'll admit the name of this recipe is quite vague and doesn't give any indication as to what it actually is. In fact, when my soldiers asked me what I was feeding them, all I could say was..... some combination of shortbready, chocolatey, oaty goodness. Enough of a description? This recipe comes from Marcy Goldman's Passion for Baking and surprise, surprise it is a winner of a recipe. Sure there are three different layers to this bar cookie and it leaves ALOT of dishes in its wake, but so what? These rich, decadent bars made alot of people happy. The first layer up is shortbread. On top of that goes a chocolate truffle layer. After that is baked, a caramelly oat mixture seals the deal. According to Marcy, the chocolate and oat layers are supposed to magically switch places (hence the name serendipity) but that never happened to these (must be something in the Israeli air). Not complaining though because, well, no one knows the difference and the final product was far from ruined. These are kind of messy to eat and, as I said, decadent, so cut them on the small side. Set aside a nice chunk of time to make these, because while all the steps are easy, they are on the more time-intense side of things. 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Oat Bars

As is my usual, when I have a course going, I bake for my soldiers. The course ended yesterday, but for the last two weeks I have been bringing them treats. One of the things I brought them the first time was these simple, easy but delicious Peanut Butter Oat Bars.This recipe comes from Sunset Cookies, a book I came across in a used book shop some time ago. The classic topping of peanut butter and chocolate gets poured over an oat crust. The combination may seem odd at first, but it works. This really comes together in no time at all and if cut small, feeds a crowd. Or at least a few hungry soldiers. Feel free to garnish with peanuts. 

Chocolate Cake with Marshmallow Topping

How on earth can it be that Pesach is here already?! I've spent the morning doing laundry and trying to get my apartment into a somewhat chametz free state and I need a break before I start to tackle the kitchen. In an effort to get rid of chametz and other almost finished baking things, I've been baking! Last motzash, I managed to make a cake that's been on my to make list for ages. Although it didn't make a dent in my self-rising flour, I did finish the cocoa powder,  and my (precious, imported from America) marshmallows. This cake comes from the book More Chocolate and was not only fun to make but was delicious and beautiful to look at. (You're going to have to just make it to believe it because I wasn't able to capture pictures of this one.) It starts with a dense chocolate cake, studded with white chocolate chips and mini marshmallows and is topped with a thick layer of marshmallow-white chocolate yumminess. This cake disappeared in record time and pleased many a mashak/it last week. Take care not to over bake the cake layer or the cake will turn out slightly crumbly and on the dry side. 

Old Fashioned Marble Cake

If you're looking for the perfect cake to accompany tea or coffee, or just to to encourage a stroll down memory lane, this is the cake for you. Memory lane, you ask? Well, this cake reminds me of the marble cakes that were served in the shul I grew up in. This cake is not only better it's a lot moister than those kiddush cakes. This recipe comes from the oh-so-reliable Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking, a book that has yet to fail me. I was in the mood to bake one Saturday night and decided to bring it (and the leftover Besamin Box Cake) to the army the next day. My co-workers loved it, despite its humble-ness. This cake is pretty easy to make and so moist from the vegetable oil that it would probably last about a week, although I couldn't confirm that because it barely lasted a full day in the office. I baked the cake in my favorite tube pan instead of loaf pans to get the tall, statuesque look. I omitted the orange zest in the cake to prevent it from being too orangey. The marbling pretty much takes care of itself- just layer the batter and see what happens, no need to swirl. The glaze on top added a nice finish and a crunchy contrast. All in all, a winner and another one for the recipe files. Although this cake is good anytime, serve it as a special treat Shabbat morning.

Brownies with Chocolate-Cheesecake Topping

I know these pictures look like an oddly swirled lump of chocolate and something white but really these are brownies with a cheesecake and chocolate topping. I will admit, these look nothing like the beautiful picture in Carine Goren's Sweet Secrets, but they were pretty darn good. I made these also for my commander's surprise post-sheva brachot sheva bracha and by the next day, all the brownies were gone. I was a bit nervous about how the brownies would come out but they turned out to be dense and fudgy. The cream cheese layer is a bit thin (my pan was American size, I guess a bit larger than Israeli pans) and because I didn't let it chill sufficiently, the chocolate kind of muddled with the cheese. Instead of trashing the whole thing (which I totally would have done!) I just decided to swirl the whole thing and really no one was the wiser. Kind of messy to eat but worth getting chocolate on your chin for... and I'm not even a cheese person. It's really critical that your cheese and margarine for the filling is at room temperature or else they wont blend well enough. I made that mistake and had to strain the filling. Be smart though, give each layer enough to time to chill so that theyll come out picture-perfect.

Black Bottom Pie

Alright- time to catch up on my pies! I made this one a while ago for dessert for Shabbat lunch and it's another from Haedrich's Pie! This pie is messy to eat but I can assure you it's worth all of the napkins it'll take to clean the cream from your chin! We start with a biscuit or graham cracker crust and then pile in a ganache, which is your black bottom. On top of that goes a whipped cream lightened pastry cream with a flavor that brings me back to my childhood Swiss Miss days. (I must say I love making these pudding/custard/cream pies, especially since the work can so easily be divided over a couple of days!) A nice fudge sauce would be nice but I opted out. To make the ganache parve, I used coconut milk instead of cream. My cream turned out sort of soft, (hence the mess!) so I would add a bit of gelatin next time to stabilize it. All in all, another successful pie. Pi(e) day, here I come!

Chocolate Cream Pie

I was asked to make dessert for dinner this past Shabbat and after shooting down a request for chocolate chip cookies (too typical!) I immediately decided to make chocolate cream pie. (The decision for what to make for dessert has never been easier!) I flipped through some books and settled on the recipe from Martha Stewart's latest on pies and tarts. (My love affair for pies has returned... stay tuned!) I've long been wanting to try out cream pies and brush up on some custard making skills and it seemed there was no better time to make one than for that Friday night. I must say, the pie was a big hit; almost all of it was devoured as dessert, and the last piece was breakfast for one of the guys. Watching the custard thicken on the stove was fun and I'm really glad my first try was a success- here's to more cream pies! I used soy milk, to keep it parve, and I was really happy to finally find out that soy milk works for these pies. I used chocolate biscuits here because chocolate wafers are non-existent on Israeli supermarket shelves and I didnt have time to make my own.They need slightly more butter than regular chocolate wafers, but otherwise, they make a fine substitute. I also didnt use sweetener to sweeten the cream; I find that non-dairy whipping cream is flavored enough already. Do as you please, but if you've never before made a cream pie, make one this weekend!

Easy Chocolate-Vanilla Mousse Cake

This past Shabbat was nice and low key. Shabbat day, I cooked for myself, my roommate and a friend of ours. Although it was just the three of us, I made dessert, because no meal is ever complete without it. (I think that's a function of my childhood- we rarely, if ever, had dessert growing up, so I'm making up for it now!) I wanted something quick and easy but delicious. I remembered this recipe from the Israeli book More Chocolate and thinking that I'd never make it because it's technically semi-homemade and I hate those. But, I changed my tune and put together my shopping list. I picked up the ingredients late Thursday night and put it together quite easily the next day. The base is made of whipped eggs and sugar with chocolate pudding mix folded in. It's then baked and when it cools forms a sort of cakey crust. Whipping cream is then beaten with vanilla pudding mix and then poured in. A simple glaze of chocolate, margarine and milk is made and spread on top. Done, done and done. Seeing as it was a huge cake, we barely made a dent in it. I sent it to my army base with friends and when I myself got there, I was pleased to see not a crumb left. Success. 

The Show Must Go On Concord Cake

Last Friday night, my dear friend Abby hosted a Thanksgiving dinner and she asked me to make dessert. I researched and researched and had settled on the All in One Holiday Bundt cake when she called me. I asked her if she had any last minute requests and she shyly copped to be craving chocolate mousse. Being that she's pregnant, I of course wanted to accommodate this craving but with mousse, raw eggs tends to be a problem. Back to the books I went! I found a recipe for this classic Concord Cake in one of my newer books by Israeli baker and patissier Ben Ami. The cake is made of two discs of chocolate meringue layered with chocolate mousse and then decorated with pieces of meringue. I bought all the ingredients Thursday night and quickly put together the mousse component that had to chill overnight. The next day I got to making the meringue. And there's where things started going awry. Some parts of the baked meringue tasted fine and some, oddly, tasted off. I refused to use them. So why do I call this The Show Must Go On Concord Cake? Because instead of chucking the entire cake, I used the good meringue to make a meringue crust and then I poured all of the mousse on top. I then topped it with the meringue pieces. Dessert saved! It got rave reviews and no one was the wiser. Obviously, next time I'd like to make this cake the way it was meant to be made. Additionally, I would top the cake with the meringue pieces just before serving because they got a bit soggy. Make sure that this is thoroughly chilled before serving, my mousse was a bit soft because it sat through shul. Still delicious, just soft. Below is the the recipe for the original. Should something go wrong though, improvise!

Golden Vanilla Wacky Cake

Every time I take a trip to America, I treat myself to a couple of new cookbooks. Making the decision of which ones to buy always takes me a while and a lot of research. One of the new cookbooks I got was Piece of Cake! by Camilla V. Saulsbury, a book about one bowl, easy cakes. I discovered Miss Saulsbury when I was looking for recipes for homemade energy bars and stumbled on her blog Enlightened Cooking. Her name sounded familiar to me and so I searched on Amazon and sure enough, I saw she wrote a muffin cookbook, for which I had read a review on a blog I often read. I discovered that she had just published this cake cookbook and eagerly read all the reviews. In short, they were all glowing. So I pushed this book to the top of my wish list and when the time came, happily ordered it. It came with just enough time to read through it and put it to use for Rachael's Shabbat Sheva Brachot. It took a while to decide what to make first, because the cakes all sound delicious, but also because many, most I should say, are made with buttermilk or sour cream for which there is no parve substitution. (The other issue I have with this book is that her weight measurements are totally off an unreliable. There's no reason for them to be there.) Anyway, I decided to go with one of the original wacky cakes that were the inspiration for this book. A wacky cake is a cake that is usually mixed up in the pan that is baked in and is said to be a creation from the era of rationed foods. I have previously made Chocolate Wacky Cake, so I thought the vanilla version to be appropriate. The cake came together very fast and I popped it in the oven. I was quite nervous about how it would come out, but I really needn't have worried. I cut off a tiny corner and found it to be really moist, if a bit dense, full of vanilla flavor and redolent of a certain box mix, but homemade and better! (I will admit, I find this to be complimentary!) I frosted it with her recipe for cocoa icing, which was also delicious but top it as you wish.Vanilla cake is a blank canvas. I finished it with chocolate sprinkles, just for the sake of being festive. The cake was a big hit with the sister in whose honor I made it, and I even sent off all the leftovers with her and her new husband. Here's too many more cakes being baked from this wonderful cookbook!