White chocolate mint cream

Ivan and Grandma make a wish.

March has been a mad month for parties, what with four family birthdays and then back-to-back showers. My daughter's enjoyed her move into the sphere of womanly delights (chocolates at brunch!) and traditions (how to make a proper bridal shower bouquet).

Chaja with Aunt Kyna, who's seven months pregnant.

Nana teaches Chaja how to thread ribbons through a paper plate
and make the bouquet for Aunt Molly to carry at her rehearsal. More pictures from both showers here.

I've enjoyed the unlimited excuses for whipping up batch after batch of white chocolate mint cream. This heavenly topping turned forgettable cupcakes into winners, and (aided by raspberries) it elevated a dense and crumbly chocolate pound cake to new heights. I've doubled and then tripled the recipe in hopes of setting a little aside to dress up my next cup of cocoa, but haven't succeeded in saving a dollop.

Sigh.

White Chocolate Mint Cream
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

2 ounces white chocolate
3 ounces heavy whipping cream
1/8 teaspoon peppermint extract

Heat the cream in a small pot until it's simmering. Take it off the flame. Add the white chocolate to the hot cream and let it sit for a minute or two to melt the chocolate. Whisk well. Add the peppermint. Lay a piece of plastic wrap on the surface of the cream to keep it from forming a layer of skim and chill until cold. Then beat cream with electric beaters until soft peaks form.

Hot cocoa taste test

My interest in hot cocoa is related directly and exponentially to the temperature of my toes. The colder they get, the more cocoa I mix in hopes that the elixir will do more than make hot love to my taste buds, but that the afterglow will be felt in my feet.

While I wouldn't bet the farm on instant cocoa, even such a ho-hum cup warms as well as my Smart Wool socks. Additionally, it's the perfect thing to serve to a yard-full of boys hosting their own Olympics and it will entice 11-year-old girls to rejoin humanity after being holed up in the bedroom quizzing each other from the pages of Discovery Girls.

While the reasons we rely on this sugar-cocoa concoction to carry us through the winter are particular to my family, I figured our use was shared by many. And although instant hot cocoa is chock-full of unintelligible and unhealthy preservatives, it needn't be unappetizing. So, with that in mind, one winter evening my family offered itself up as guinea pigs and conducted a taste test of three instant hot cocoa brands found at the grocery store: Swiss Miss, Nestle and Stephen.

With a slew of paper cups and a kettle of water, we sipped, swished and took notes on taste and color, then added the two together for a final score. The testers took their job seriously.

Sam

Max

Chaja

Everyone was happily riding the sugar high and no one wanted the trip to end, so we motored on. More Swiss Miss was ladled into cups and then topped with mini-marshmallows, whipped cream or marshmallow creme. Again, each cup was judged for taste, texture and then received an overall score.

The winners were:

Swiss Miss for its "sweet, uncomplicated flavor" and canned whipped cream for its ability to make even the homeliest cup of cocoa look "picture perfect." It also received high marks for its balance of sugar and vanilla.

Nestle lost points for being too sweet and Stephen received a unanimous thumbs down for tasting "slimy and sour." Marshmallow creme came in second, getting dinged for being "too thick" and "cloying," while mini-marshmallows were dismissed after melting away in 10 seconds.

Our judging sheets were haphazard scribbles, so I tinkered a bit and turned it into something to share with the whole hot cocoa-loving world before we give winter a kiss and a kick out of bed.

Hot Cocoa Judging Sheet

Five-minute fix

A solution.

When in the clutches of a chocolate craving, I demand just two things from my fix:

• It must be fast.
• It must satiate.

My first line of defense against this addiction, which grows stronger with the accumulation of gray, cold days, are chocolate chips: a heaping cup added to whatever muffin batter I'm making, a generous scoop at the bottom of a cup of steaming milk, and (when desperate) morsels by the mouthful.

Second in my arsenal is Nutella on an English muffin, a cup of strong tea on the side. I like my muffins crispy at the edges, butter pooling in the cracks and crevices and topped with a slather of the chocolate-hazelnut spread. After making and munching two of them in five minutes, I've found the fortitude to deal with the dregs of a busy weekend.

A cup, a crunch, a crumb

Courtesy of Anders Andermark.

1. Tea. I spent much of the day with a friend and a pot of Earl Gray.

2. Numbers. I found a place to record and track my progress when it comes to novel-growing, muscle-building and consciousness-raising.

3. A cake recipe. This chocolate mousse cake is the bomb; I made it twice this week because it is that good. Straight from the oven, you eat this with a spoon, cracking through the crunchy top and scooping up the luscious, warm insides. The next day you'll need a fork to cut through the cold, fudgy chocolate, so intense and rich, you'll also need another cup of tea.

Gateau au Chocolate by Dance in the Kitchen.

Gateau au Chocolat
Chocolate Mousse Cake

Serves 8

7 ounces bittersweet chocolate
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
3 eggs
2 tablespoons flour
2/3 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan. Warm a kettle of water and keep handy for a bain-marie (a water bath used to cook the cake).

In a double boiler over simmering water, melt chocolate and butter with two teaspoons of water. Remove pan of melted chocolate from double boiler and let cool briefly.

Beat eggs, flour and sugar until light and pale colored. Add melted chocolate and blend well. The mixture will be runny.

Pour batter into the buttered loaf pan and place the pan in a baking dish. Place in oven and pour warm water into the baking dish to a depth of one inch. Check cake after 30 minutes If it's browning too quickly, tent with foil for the last 10 minutes (40 minutes total). The top will be crunchy, but the inside remains very moist.

Christmas, past and present

From top: Sam and Max, 2.

Christmas, 2003

I discover my 2-year-old twin boys unscrewing bulbs from the string of lights, "sawing" at the wires with a butter knife and drowning ornaments in the Christmas tree basin. What else is there to do but un-decorate the tree?

In the weeks that followed, the bare tree gained new ornaments -- Christmas cards, paper chains and those Styrofoam packing peanuts adorned with glitter and paint -- simple, safe, sane. I loved that tree.

My favorite ornament.

Six years later, my twins (and their sidekick) are busy mastering a new set of tools, this time in the kitchen. Recently, Max made Chewy Chocolate Cookies for his dad. The whir of the mixer drew one brother and the scent of chocolate the other, until they were all crowded around the Kitchen Aid enjoying its speed, power and ability to make flour fly!

From left: Sam, Max and Ivan.

Baking with boys is punctuated with exclamation points (Yes! Cool!) and feats of physical prowess (eggs shells are slam-dunked into the garbage can, the refrigerator door is closed with a karate chop). By the end I'm exhausted, but, man, can my bakers whip up a mean batch of death-by-chocolate cookies.

Chewy Chocolate Cookies (per Mindi's request)
Adapted from Cook's Illustrated, January-February 2009

Makes 16 cookies (we doubled it, of course)

1/3 cup granulated sugar, plus 1/2 cup for coating
1 1/2 cups white flour
3/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder (we used regular cocoa powder)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoon table salt
1/2 cup dark corn syrup (we used light)
1 large egg white
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces (we used Ghirardelli chocolate chips)

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Whisk flour, cocoa, powder, baking soda and salt together. Whisk corn syrup, egg white and vanilla in another bowl.

Beat butter, brow sugar and 1/3 cup granulated sugar at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Reduce speed to medium low, add corn syrup mixture, and beat until fully incorporated, about 20 seconds. With mixer running at low speed, add flour misture and chopped chocolate; mix until just incorporated, about 30 seconds.

Chill dough 30 minutes to firm slightly, but no longer than that.

Divide dough into 16 equal portions, roll between hands into balls about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Working in batches, drop 8 dough balls into baking dish with sugar and toss to coast. Set dough balls on prepared baking sheet, spacing about 2 inches apart; repeat with second bath of 8. Bake, reversing position of the baking sheets halfway through, until cookies are puffed and cracked and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft, 10 to 11 minutes. (Cookies will look raw between cracks and seem underdone.) Do not overbake.

Cool cookies on baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack.

A cookie to die for.

Unprepared

Margaret Hamilton as The Wicked Witch of the West
in the 1939 "The Wizard of Oz."

Witch hats
we have, but no
pirate patch, knightly sword,
pumpkins to carve. Where's Mummy gone?
Shopping.


A wickedly quick recipe.

Witch Hats
Feeds: A classroom

Fudge striped shortbread cookies, like these.
Kisses
Frosting

Unwrap a Hershey's Kiss. Squeeze a blob of frosting on cookie. Press the Kiss into the frosting.



Happy Halloween!

A morality tale

Ivan, curious. All photos by Dance in the Kitchen.

Update: I've discovered Steady Mom written by Jaime Martin, who challenged mama bloggers to write a post in 30 minutes or less. Since I find myself spending more time in front of the computer than I'd like, I decided to participate. Check out how other mothers write with children underfoot. I particularly liked "New Orleans Misadventure," "Sorta Teaching 911" and "Worms, Worms, Worms." -Rachael

Oh, what a difference a year (and three older siblings) makes. Here's my small son peeking into last year's "spider pumpkin" carved by an older brother. And here's today's boy guarding the chocolate chips inside his muffin.

Ivan, dangerous.

Ivan recently walked up to me, kicked me in the shin and then stomped on my foot. As I suppressed a smile and hauled him off to the bedroom to cool off, I could think of no one else to blame for his behavior than a pirate, a dead girl and a cockroach.

When the three arrived home from school, I bared the bruise on my ankle and explained how the punches and kicks they inflict on each other were setting a poor example. They looked a bit sheepish, apologized and promised to be better citizens.

Harmony prevailed. The pirate poured cider and offered it to the dead girl; the cockroach requested help with his robot costume and received it; the dead girl shared a favorite book. Five minutes later the timer went off, pumpkin-chocolate chip muffins were pulled from the oven, and peace fled from the house. The cockroach and the dead girl began to fight over who had the biggest muffin; cider spilled on homework and a chase ensued. Meanwhile, the pirate raided the unattended muffins for chocolate chips.

Pumpkin-chocolate chip muffins
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen and Gourmet, November 2006

1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice or 1/8 teaspoon each of cloves, ginger and nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Put liners in muffin cups.

Whisk together pumpkin, oil, eggs, spices, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Add flour mixture until just combined. Add chocolate chips.

Divide batter among muffin cups. Bake until golden brown and wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean. About 25-30 minutes.

Alternative: Omit chocolate chips. Mix 1 teaspoon cinnamon with 1/4 cup sugar. Sprinkle on top of batter. Then bake.

Absolution

"Do they taste nice?" courtesy of publicenergy.

Since I was raised on the Catholic model of confession and penance, I'm sharing this deadly sin: I am a glutton.

I blame it on the box I'm sending to Heather, my friend in Spain. I thought it'd be fun to include her family's favorite candy bars, but, being at the grocery store without a list of what they liked, I decided to guess. Into the cart go Butterfingers, Snickers and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Once home, I discover I was 60 percent right in my guesswork; nobody likes Butterfingers.

What else could I do but eat it?

There I am, crunching this too sweet, too crumbly candy bar that's sticking to my teeth, and I'm not enjoying it. I toss it. Growl. Open the Peanut Butter Cups to get rid of the cloying taste. As I eat this second bar, I realize that Dark Chocolate Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are much better, and actually congratulate myself on eating the candy bar intended for my friend. Now I can go back to the store and buy Heather the better candy bar.

This wrapper joins the half-eaten Butterfingers in the trash. My stomach feels funny from so much sugar, my conscience is pricked. I am unable to forgive myself for my lack of self-control, my binge, my guilty pleasure in chocolate.

The Snickers sits on the counter.

I eat it.

A story written with frosting

A 2-year-old's cake.

My daughter, Chaja, celebrated her birthday Thursday and frosted her 11th cake. When she was small she smeared "raspberry-fluff icing on an angel-surprise cake" a la "Bunny Cakes." Now that she's crowing that she has just two more years left before she's a teen-ager, she asked for a yellow cake with chocolate frosting as dangerously dark and delicious as the vampires in "Twilight."

The same girl, nine years later.

Here's the to-die-for recipe:

Foolproof Chocolate Frosting
adapted from Cook's Illustrated March-April 2008 issue

20 tablespoons (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup confectioner's sugar
3/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa (I used Hershey's cocoa)
Pinch of salt
3/4 cup light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 ounces chocolate, melted and cooled (I used milk chocolate)

Cook's Illustrated recommended mixing the frosting in a food processor, but I didn't read the recipe ahead of time, and poured everything into my mixer. Didn't make a difference in the outcome.

Process butter, sugar, cocoa, and salt until smooth, scraping sides of bowl as needed. Add corn syrup and vanilla and process until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Scrapes sides of bowl, then add chocolate and pulse until smooth and creamy, 10 to 15 seconds.

Licking the bowl with her brothers. All photos by Dance in the Kitchen.

Icebox cupcakes

"My fridge" by Dance in the Kitchen. Sketch inspired by Spill Studio.

Icebox Cupcakes

Pour cream, sugar, vanilla into bowl.

Whip.

Spoon whipped cream on top of chocolate wafers.

Stack.



Place in refrigerator.

Chill.

Wait 24 hours.

Devour.


The critics say:

Portrait inspired by "The Willoughbys" by Lois Lowry.

They're delicious!
•
They're soft like an ice cream sandwich.
•
They taste like a giant Oreo cookie.
•
Mo?

Tastykake

The Slow-Cooked Sentence is focusing on my family's summer vacation on the East Coast for just two more Wednesdays.

Tastykakes top selling item, the Peanut Butter Kandy Kake.
The company makes 500,000 each day.

These are yummy.

Sponge cake.

Salty peanut butter.

Chocolate dipped.

Oh, my God, these are yummy. Yes, I know they're the East Coast equivalent of Ho Hos or Twinkies, but they're

so

much

better.

My husband, who grew up on Peanut Butter Kandy Kakes, and has suffered withdrawals since we came home from vacation, has researched the possibility of buying a case. That's 72 chocolate-peanutty pucks, with a shelf-life of 21 days, for $37.99. He'd have to eat 3.5 cakes a day.

"You gotta be joking," I said.

"No," came his reply.

You see, they're not sold in Nevada. Not at the 7-Eleven nor CVS Pharmacy. Not anywhere. They're back East in the Wawa. I kid you not. The Wawa. The store's name is as funny as the cakes are delicious. Can you believe people in New Jersey actually say, without a shred of laughter in their voice: "I'm going to the Wawa. Do you need anything?"

Yeah. I need another box of Tastykakes.

Melting

Photos courtesy of Dance in the Kitchen.

"The hot days melted into one another like our Popsicles."
-- Susan Senator, "Summer Without Structure"
The Washington Post, 2005

Summer comes and my stash of chocolate sits on the shelf. The recipes are too rich and dense to whet the appetite, and I'd sooner bake my brain than turn on the oven when it's pushing a hundred degrees outside. But this recipe from Karen Solomon's "Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It: And other Cooking Projects" tempted me enough that I temporarily abandoned my spot in front of the swamp cooler and went back to the stove. Little hands, a few stops to fish out Cheerios tossed in by one eager cook, and a short chase through the house with a chocolate-covered spoon resulted in one decadent dessert. Enjoy the illustrated recipe for fudgesicles and have a happy Fourth of July.

Chocolate Fudge Popsicles
Excerpted from "Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It: And other Cooking Projects" by Karen Solomon

Makes 7 (4-ounce) pops

3/4 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 cup water
3 tablespoons golden brown sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa (I used Hershey's unsweetened)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon butter

In a pot, whisk the milk, water, corn syrup, sugar, cocoa and salt. Heat over medium heat for about 5 mintues, stirring occasionaly, until there are no lumps. Remove from heat. (I couldn't get rid of the lumps, so I strained the mixture at this point.) Add vanilla and butter, stir until melted.

Cool to room temperature.

Pour into molds and freeze for about six hours or until solid.

Five minutes

Chocolate caramel crackers

Sick kid. No writing.
Recipe link must suffice.
See y'all Wednesday.

Sweet inspiration

In my home, cookies trump cleaning.

Lately, I've been thinking that the chocolate portion of this blog has been neglected -- not for lack of eating my favorite food, but because I'm eating it too quickly. And, well, once out of sight, out of mind. But I'll try and make amends by sharing my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. Okay, okay, I know I've said that before, but my faithfulness is fleeting and mostly I like whatever is in my hand.

As I've cooked up batch after batch of these cookies in the past few weeks, a fine sprinkling of flour has settled on top of the existing thick layer of dust in my kitchen. For you see, although I revel in the results of spring cleaning -- a sparkling home scrubbed free of grime and smelling like sweet grass -- it doesn't inspire me to action. But these cookies do, so perfectly balanced, crisp and chewy and loaded with warm, bitterwsweet chocolate. And I'm excited about a few other things too, all of which don't require rubber gloves, scrub pads and buckets of soapy water, but go quite deliciously with cookies. Check out "What I'm Loving" at the top of the right-hand column.

The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie
Adapted from Cook's Illustrated, May-June 2009

1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
14 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks) butter
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli's 60 percent cacao bittersweet chips)

Melt butter. Mix butter with sugars, salt and vanilla. Add egg and egg yolk. Stir in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Form dough into large balls (about 3 tablespoons) and place on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 10 to 14 minutes or until golden brown and still puffy. Edges will be set, but centers will be soft.

Steal my heart

Chocolate pancakes + whipped cream = A decadent breakfast.

I hope your Valentine's Day was just as sweet!

Chocolate pancakes
recipe torn from the pages of an old Sunset magazine

Makes 8 pancakes; 4 servings

1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 egg
1 cup milk
About 3 tablespoons oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

sweetened whipped cream
sliced strawberries (original recipe calls for raspberries or bananas)

In a bowl, stir sugar, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Add flour and mix. In a small bowl, beat egg with milk, oil and vanilla. Add egg mixture and chocolate chips to flour mixture, stir until evenly moistened. Spoon onto griddle. When finished, top with whipped cream and strawberries.

Elusive heat

"Simplicity" by suvodeb.

Once upon a time there was woman who woke one morning and couldn't get warm.

She drank two cups of coffee. But she was still cold. She drank a cup of black tea. But she was still cold. Outside snow fell. Inside, her cold fingers tapped on the keyboard, and she shivered thinking of the laps she'd committed to swim at noon.

"How shall I convince myself to stick a toe in the water?" she asked.

Then she remembered a small cafe called the Aroma Club that served hot chocolate spiked with chili. The drink was sinfully thick and surprisingly spicy, with each sip making love to her mouth and leaving a slow burn in her throat. For weeks afterward, she tried to recreate the experience.

She melted an entire Lindt chili chocolate bar in milk. But it was much too bland.

She bought a box of Ibarra's "genuine Mexican chocolate" from the Latino market down the street. But it was much too sweet.

She became a cooking chemist, combining cinnamon and chili and coriander with cocoa. But it was much too spicy.

However, the woman wouldn't despair. Instead, she packed her swimsuit, goggles and a promise. And when she finished her laps, she cranked up the heat in her car and drove across town to the cafe where, she knew, they got it just right.

The perfect cup of cocoa

Photo courtesy of chatirygirl.

I have sipped my way to hot chocolate heaven and found the perfect steaming mug. During this quest I have sampled many a cup, and taken many a detour into foreign recipes that had me mixing egg into the chocolate milk, adding dollops of dulce de leche, creating instant mixes, and whirring scalding concoctions in my blender. And in the end I found it, a recipe that achieves the perfect balance of chocolate and sugar, and it's so damn easy you'll want to kiss me.

Pour some milk in a pot. Toss in a few handfuls of chocolate chips, more if you want a richer chocolate taste. Heat. When the chocolate begins to melt, whisk until your happy with the results.

While I may have found my perfect cup, I urge you to get a little cocoa crazy and try out some of the drinks I sampled in my mug madness. Recipes can be found at Rediscover Hot Chocolate. If you find one that's particularly delightful, please share it!

An oatmeal cookie that rocks

Photo courtesy of greg.turner.

The oatmeal cookie is a blank canvas for creative cooks, with its dough stiff enough to hold a whole mess of goodness. I've tossed in dried cranberries, toasted nuts, shredded coconut, sunflower seeds and fistfuls of M&Ms. And while I don't follow a recipe and can't recreate my cookies (which is a point of regret when the combination is particularly tasty), I cling to one cardinal rule and it must not be broken: never add raisins for then you've sinned, creating a morally corrupt cookie that promises chocolate, yet delivers shriveled fruit.

Given my slipshod approach to this kitchen sink cookie, I've held it in rather low esteem -- at least I did until a recent visit to Sup (pronounced soup), a tiny restaurant in downtown Reno that serves an oatmeal cookie with every meal. I was nibbling my cookie, trying to unlock its secret when a waitress leaned over my empty soup bowl and whispered that it was really quite simple: Follow Quaker's vanishing oatmeal raisin cookie and replace the raisins with 1 bag of bittersweet chocolate chips, 1 bag of peanut butter chips and 1 bag of toffee chips.

"That's it?" I asked, incredulously. Within a week, a special trip was made to the grocery store and these delightful cookies were duplicated.