Actually Coming Soon

Last night when I posted that I was going to make a traditional Buche de Noel I realized that it's not even Thanksgiving yet. I completely skipped my second favorite holiday of the year so for that I'm sorry. This Thanksgiving I'll be showing you how to make your own ice cream, but now just any ice cream, a Spiced Caramel Ice Cream. That's right once you go Cold and Creamy you won't go back. So stay tuned and as always,

Chow!

Coming Soon

Buche de Noel - That's right the french celebrate Christmas too you know

On Monday or Tuesday I'll be posting this wonderful roll of cake and cream, which we can thank the french for. Instead of picking up that cake from costco like you did last year treat yourself and your loved ones to this. Now I don't want to get anyone too excited but you know this cake is gonna be good if there this much heavy cream in it... No one said this was gonna be on a weight watchers diet!

Chewy Fudgy Brownies - Just as the name suggests

This is a message to every home cook out there. Every time you buy a brownie mix from the supermarket God blinds a puppy. See how cute he is. He can't. That's just devastating.

And why would you ever want to buy a brownie mix when brownies are so easy to make yourself...wow that picture is really distracting. Cover that side of the screen with your hand as you try to read this post. 

As I was saying who knows what kinds of yucky stuff they put in those mixes and in the end they aren't really worth it. If you want to cut a year off your life don't you want to do it in style. Of course you do, you aren't stupid...or are you? 

But that doesn't even matter because these brownies are so easy a blind puppy could make it. So to start here are the ingredients. 

1/3 cup butter 

I used unsalted butter, but if you have salted butter that's fine, just don't add the salt in the later steps.

3/4 cup sugar
2 T. water or coffee

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 t. vanilla
2 eggs
3/4 cup flour
1/4 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt

     

Preheat oven to 325. Line a 9"x9" pan with a parchment sleeve or aluminum foil like I did. Spritz with baking spray underneath the sleeve and on top, just in case some slides under and set aside.

In a microwaveable bowl add your butter, sugar, and coffee. If you don't have coffee you could definitely make them with water, but be warned, your brownies won't be as delicious mine. If you're worried that you don't like the flavor of coffee don't be. The coffee will only enhance those chocolaty flavors. 

Once you're sugar has melted into the butter and everything is nice and homogeneous stir in 1 cup chocolate chips. Once the chocolate is melted, add the vanilla. 

You could use vanilla bean, or vanilla paste, or if you have no idea what those are just use vanilla extract. That's what I used. And a tip. Do not add too much vanilla. A little goes a long way and if you add too much then your brownies will have an artificially sweet flavor and that's not delicious. I always use half as much as i think I need. This way you only get the nice floral accent of the vanilla.

Now at this point your mixture should be lukewarm. If it is too hot then your eggs may scramble. Beat in your eggs one at a time until each is incorporated. Now you should have a shiny glossy mixture that is slightly thickened. 

Add the flour, baking soda and salt. Mix with a spatula until flour is completely combined. 

If you like chewy brownies beat the mixture for an additional 1 minute with a spatula. By doing this you work the gluten in the flour which makes your brownies chewier.If you like light fluffy brownies switch to a whisk. You are the master of your brownies.

Stir in the remaining 1 cup chocolate chips. Spread into the pan and bake for just 30 minutes. You have to keep an eye out. Cook it for too long and you will have a cakey brownie. 




I pulled mine out when I stuck a toothpick in it and some wet crumbs stuck to the tip. It'll look like it's barely cooked but don't panic because they will stiffen up substantially once they are cooled. Cool on a rack for at least 1 hour, until the brownies are totally cool. Then use the sleeves to lift the brownies out of the pan. I like to put them in the refrigerator so they're easier to cut, and super dense, but if you don't have my superhuman patience then cut into them when they're room temp. These brownies should yield 16, minus a few taste tests. "You call six brownies a few!" a voice from upstairs calls. Remember no judgement.

But in all seriousness you won't regret taking the 10 minutes to whip these up. They are chewy and fudgy just the way I like them. And that chocolaty flavor is so rich you'll feel like Bill Gates. 

So I hope you make these. As you can see I made them for my munchy, which is what I call my momma. If you want the whole story why i call my momma that leave a comment below. Stay tuned next week, and as always

Chow!

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Churro Balls - Now at a Theater Near You!

Today's blogpost is basically an excuse for me to fry up dough and eat it all by myself in a corner of my kitchen. I know, it's a chowfectionary sin not to share, so I did throw one to the squirrel in my backyard if you were wondering. Little creep's been eyeballing me all day. But seriously this chow-fection could not be simpler to make, plus at the end of it you get this nice bowl of cinnamon sugar...which you can throw away, he said as he cleaned the bowl with his tongue. 

There are so many reasons why you should make these churros. 

a) as professional as they look, they are also delicious

b) they are easy

c) and you'll gain some serious culinary street cred after you serve this to your guests

But before we learn how to make these, some background information. Cue the background music Darren. 
As you probably know, churros are a popular latin street food dessert. You can see them being sold in almost every alleyway in mexico. Think about it as a sweet tooth's crack. Deals are made under the table with people paying butt-loads of money for them, some even exchanging their homes just for a lick of the cinnamon sugar left on the wrapper. Information based on speculation, and personal experience. 

Usually these churros are long and skinny, and I have made them like that before, but this time I wanted to switch things up. The dough for this churro ball starts off with a classic french dough called pate choux. I'm not sure what they call it in mexico, but seeing as this is a mexican dish I'm sure they have a name for it. Instead of baking these into choux buns, or as you may know them as cream puffs, we fry them until they are golden brown or until there is no more white, but I'll explain that more later. In the picture above I served these with a maple cinnamon cream cheese frosting, but they're most commonly eaten dipped in hot chocolate or coffee. 

So to start we are going to take two sticks of butter, that's 1/2 cup, or 16 tablespoons, and melt that in a saucepan with 1 3/4 cup of water, and a pinch of salt. 

And right now is about as good as any time to tell you that in desserts, salt is one of the most important ingredients you can add. Just because we're making a sweet dessert, doesn't mean that you cannot add salt. Salt is an important flavor profile that is a key ingredient in the fragile balance of confections, so don't forget to put that in. And in fact, remember that day when you took two bites of that cake and said, "It's too sweet." That's because he or she or you forgot to put salt in the dish, or you just put too much sugar, but that's his or her or your battle to fight. So moving on, once your mixture has completely melted, immediately dump in your 1 1/4 cup of flour, and your 2 1/2 tablespoons of sugar, and stir vigorously. Keep cooking over medium until most of the steam as evaporated out of the dough, or the dough begins to pull away from the pan, about 4 minutes. You don't want any color so when your arm starts to get tired, switch your wooden spoon to your other hand.

When I make choux I always put my face over the pan because while the water is evaporating I get a nice facial. I know steam is supposed to be good for your pores but I'm not sure if the butter in the dough clogs it back up. 

Anyways once you think enough water has evaporated take it off the heat. And at this point you want to switch to an electric mixer because, if you aren't the hulk, or a professional body builder, this next step is going to be a little challenging. Start to loosen up the dough, and release some of that extra steam, mix for about a minute. At this point add four eggs and an egg white, one at a time until each egg is fully incorporated. Depending on the amount of steam you evaporated, you might need to add one more egg, or one less, but in the end you should get a dough that is super smooth, tacky, and glossy. 

Cover with plastic wrap, and touch the plastic to the dough so it doesn't form a film. Refrigerate until room temperature, or freeze if you are in a hurry. Fill up a pan with high sides with corn oil, or peanut oil, any oil you want that has a high smoke point, comment below if you're not sure, and preheat it to 375, or until when you drop some batter in it nice bubbles form and it sounds delicious, you'll know. 

Now it's time to talk size. For me I used my ice cream scoop, which was partially the reason why i wanted to make balls because I didn't want to wash a piping bag, and yes I have one of those reusable ones, +1 if you have one too. Try to make your balls smaller than you think they should be. They will expand as they fry, and if you make them too big then the insides won't get cooked. You'd rather have smaller balls than one large soggy one true story. ;)

Fry up as many as you can fit in the oil, about 8-12, and you will see one of the coolest things you have ever seen. For the first 5 minutes of cooking, the balls will flip themselves. I don't know why or how, but they just do. My theory has an intensive backstory, with churros being slaves to the spanish people and being afraid of the oil, but I won't get into that much detail right now. Maybe if I get enough comments I'll tell you in the next post,hint hint. 

Drain these on a baking sheet lined with two layers of paper towels. While they are still hot, roll them around in 1 part cinnamon 3 parts sugar. Serve hot with a cup of hot chocolate. Or you can serve it with a maple cinnamon cream cheese frosting like I did. 

The recipe for that is simple, so simple that I don't even a have a recipe for it. All you need to do is combine cream cheese, maple syrup and cinnamon in a bowl. If it's too sweet add more cream cheese, if it is not sweet enough add some maple syrup. Really if you've gotten up to this point you can mix a decent frosting. 

So that's it for this recipe, I'll post recipes every week, scroll down for more Chow-fections, and as always, 

Chow!

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Chewy Fudgy Brownies
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