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Bittersweet Chocolate Mousse

8 Mar

Sometimes a gal just needs chocolate.

Smooth, creamy, chocolate.

Frankly, I don’t like chocolate all that much, I don’t seek it out. I prefer fruity desserts. But like I said…sometimes a gal just needs chocolate.

This is Martha’s recipe, of course, and the girlfriends I made this for really enjoyed it. And it’s incredibly easy. And a little sexy.

 

Ingredients
4 large egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate
3/4 cup heavy cream

Directions
1. Finely chop chocolate; reserve. In a double boiler, whisk yolks, sugar, and salt until sugar has dissolved and mixture is warm to the touch, 2 to 3 minutes. Off heat, quickly whisk in chopped chocolate until melted and cocoa until smooth (mixture will be thick). Cool to room temperature.

2. In a medium bowl, whip cream until soft peaks form. Whisk half of whipped cream into room-temperature chocolate mixture. Gently fold in remaining whipped cream with a rubber spatula. Divide mousse among four serving dishes. Chill at least 2 hours and up to 1 day.

3. Remove mousse from refrigerator 15 minutes before serving. Garnish with shaved chocolate.

Or, as in my case, use the rest of the heavy cream you have left over and whip up some homemade whipped cream and top with that. You can’t go wrong with homemade whipped cream.

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The Best Cookies You’ll Ever Make: Ranger Cookies

24 Dec

Ranger Cookies

‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. Wait. Who am I freaking kidding?! It’s the night before Christmas and you’re standing on line at the department stores because you forgot Great Aunt Ida’s gift, or at the grocery store because you forgot Cousin Timmy is allergic to celery. You’re in a panic because you can’t find this year’s hot dolly or robot or space car. You didn’t bake enough cookies, you don’t have enough clean towels, your Christmas even roast is burning, and your kids are screaming like like crack addled vagrants. IF you’re reading this it’s because you’ve locked yourself in the bathroom because you needed two seconds to find a cookie recipe you haven’t yet tried (and ruined).

So here it is. Easy and delicious. Remember how I was raving about the ranger cookies I had in Homer, Alaska?

Well I can’t say I have THEIR recipe…although that would be great. (Hey, Boardwalk Bakery Ladies!! If you want to send me YOURS I wouldn’t mind!!) But I spent a ton of time going through what felt like HUNDREDS of recipes, and what follows below is pretty damn good if I say so myself. And somewhat comparable to the taste of the ones I had in Homer.

Ranger Cookies
1/2 Cup Shortening
1/2 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Dark Brown Sugar, packed
1 Egg
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup Oats
3/4 cups cornflakes
1/2 cup coconut

1. Cream the shortening with both sugars
2. Beat in egg and vanilla. Don’t overmix
3. In a separate bowl mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, oats, cornflakes, and coconut. Slowly add into wet ingredients mixing slowly.
4. Place heaping spoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheet.
5. Bake at 375 degrees for 12 minutes.

Note: Cookies will be a little soft when they come out of the oven. Let them cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before trying to remove or they will just fall apart.

Ranger Cookies on Sheet

I hope you enjoy these. And I wish you the most wonderful and merry Christmas. I hope it’s filled with love and joy and friends and family. And I hope you take a moment to remember the true meaning of Christmas – whether you believe in God or not, at its most basic, Christmas is about peace, love, and hope.

I’m not going to lie, I’m having a hard time remembering that today. I’m feeling a little surly, and frankly I’m thinking about those families in Newton, and some of the kids I teach who are having problems. I’m trying to remember the important things, and count my blessings; it seems difficult this year. I’m really trying though.

May you be safe and have a blessed holiday.

A Note Regarding Newton:
I mentioned this to my uncle, who is a professional photographer and he decided to participate. This is open to Southern California Residents – please share:

The Olivia Act is named after one of the children killed in Newtown. Olivia’s family had family portraits created a short time before she was taken from them. I can’t even begin to imagine how important those last photographs must be to that family. Upon hearing this, photographer Leslie Spurlock was moved to give away a 30 minute family photo shoot and has challenged other photographers to do the same.

So many of us go through our daily lives and sometimes we don’t take the time or have the resources to have family photos taken.

We will be taking nominations for a family who *you* think would appreciate this gift. This session will take place after the New Year. We will be taking your nominations until December 31st. Please send us their name, contact information and a brief summary of why you chose them to Peter@PYPhoto.com (for their sake, do NOT post their information here) and put “The Olivia Act Nomination” in the subject line. And yes, you are absolutely free to nominate your own family.

The chosen family will be contacted via email or phone call. The gift is a 30 minute session and a collection of digital portraits, so they may have priceless keepsakes to adorn their home. Please share this blog post. Thank you.

And if you’re another photographer, please consider taking part in The Olivia Act.

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Better Butter Bars

11 Nov

Better Chess Bars

I’m sure many of you are familiar with chess bars – or Paula Deen’s Ooey Gooey Butter Cake (same difference). The recipes that are readily available all call for box cake mix to use for the bottom cakey crust part. And even though they’re not present in a large percentage, the box mixes contain a lot of those weird ingredients I can’t pronounce, like sodium stearoyl lactylate. Yeah. Check out this ingredients list from the Betty Crocker yellow cake mix that I pulled from the General Mills website:

So, I decided to put one together with what I had in my pantry – which doesn’t include Dicalcium Phosphate…

Ingredients:
2 cup flour
1.5 cup sugar
1tbsp baking powder
2 sticks of butter (one melted)
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
8 oz cream cheese
1 pound of powdered sugar
A “splash” of milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep a 9×13 baking pan – I like to butter and flour, but cooking spray works just fine. (Actually, I think they make Pam WITH flour in it now, which seems like a nice compromise.) In a large bow mix flour, granulated sugar, and baking powder. Add the melted stick of butter, the vanilla, and the egg and form a dough. It will be a little crumbly. Add a splash of milk to make the dough a little more smooshable (yes that’s a real word) but the dough should still be fairly dry. Layer the bottom of the pan evenly with the dough.

Put the cream cheese in a mixer bowl and on slow speed with the paddle, add the powdered sugar little by little. (You should have seen D after trying to dump all the powdered sugar in at once while he was “helping” me. It was like a powdered sugar bomb exploded! Heh.) Beat until smooth and add in the other egg. Pour the cream cheese mixture over the dough in the pan and place in oven. Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until there’s a nice, crispy brown top like this:

Better Chess Bars out of the oven

My first test run went to my family. They ate them. A lot of them. Also, I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this already but I’m a faith coach for the kids going through Confirmation preparation at my church. Figured that the teens in my class were as good guinea pigs as I was going to get – and they really went for them. So I don’t get all the weird chemicals, and they’re still delicious. I call this one a win!

Better Chess Bars

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