Chewy Chocolate Cherry Cookies

In case you couldn’t tell from the lack of a single cookie recipe on here to date, I’m not really a cookie person. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth (but you might not know it from all the cupcakes I make - and then give away), but, if given a choice between a cookie and a cupcake, I’m going for the cupcake, and pie beats out both of those. Sure, I’ll eat a cookie every now and then, but only if it’s a really good cookie – meaning that it is moist, chewy, and contains lots of stuff – chocolate chips, dried fruit, maybe some nuts, whatever, but there needs to be a lot of them in the cookie.

I made these a while back after I discovered a bag of dried cherries in my pantry. I really like the combination of dark chocolate and cherries, so I set about to create the perfect chocolate cherry cookie. There are a few things that make this cookie shine:

• Bread flour – Bread flour has a higher protein content than all-purpose flour, allowing for more gluten formation. Gluten makes things chewy. Swapping out a little bit of the all-purpose flour for bread flour makes the cookie chewier.
• A combination of granulated, light brown, and dark brown sugars – Brown sugars make cookies more moist and chewy than does granulated sugar. Normally, I would have used just light brown sugar, but I wanted these cookies to have a rich and deep flavor, which is why I used both light and dark brown sugar.
• Wine-poached cherries – Dried fruit are usually plumped up and softened by a soak in hot water. I decided to give the cherries some flavor at the same time, so I simmered them in a fruity red wine and added a dash of cinnamon and ancho chile powders to give them a little zing (and both cinnamon and ancho are wonderful with dark chocolate).
  

All of these things combine to create what is possibly my favorite cookie ever. In addition to the aforementioned qualities I look for in a really good cookie, it’s also rich and has a sophisticated flavor courtesy of good quality dark chocolate, red wine, and a few spices. Seriously, these cookies are addictive – I had to give most of them away so that I wouldn’t eat them all.

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Chewy Chocolate Cherry Cookies
(makes about 28 2-½” cookies)

1 cup dried cherries (about 6 ounces)
1/3 cup fruity red wine (I used some leftover Nero d’Avola)
¼ teaspoon cinnamon, divided in half
¼ teaspoon Ancho chile powder, divided in half
1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup bread flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg, room temperature
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips or chunks (I chopped up El Rey 70% discs)

***************

Set a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper and set them aside.

Add the cherries, wine, 1/8 teaspoon of cinnamon, and 1/8 teaspoon of Ancho chile powder to a small saucepan. Bring the mixture to a simmer. Cook until almost all of the wine has been absorbed into the cherries, about 10 minutes. Remove the mixture from the heat and set it aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together both flours, baking soda, salt, and remaining cinnamon and Ancho chile powder.

Add the butter and all three sugars to the bowl of a standing mixer or to a large bowl. Cream the mixture on medium speed until it is light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the vanilla and egg. Mix until well combined.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix on low speed until just combined. Add the cherries and chocolate chips and stir by hand to combine.

Use either a 1-ounce scoop or your hands to create balls of dough that are about 1 ¼” in diameter, arranging them on the baking sheets so that there is 1 ½” inches between each cookie, and press down on them to slightly flatten them. Bake for 12-13 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through.

Place the baking sheets on wire cooling racks. After 10 minutes, place the cookies directly on the wire rack and let them cool completely.

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660 Curries Book Giveaway

I’ve decided that I’m going to give away all three copies today as opposed to giving one away each week. Why?

I’ve tried out 4 recipes from the book and, quite frankly, I’m not thrilled by them. Granted, I’m a bit of a snob when it comes to Indian food (I was raised on it, can you blame me). The recipes aren’t by any means bad, but I don’t think that they’re great, either. That being said, I do think that this book is useful for people who are looking to learn more about regional Indian cuisine.

So, instead of posting more recipes from the book, I’m giving away all three copies today (I sent emails to the three winners) and I'm going to return to business as usual around here.

Stay tuned for some yummy cookies.

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Lady Baltimore and Lord Baltimore Cupcakes

Tomorrow is a big day in Baltimore – the running of the 133rd Preakness takes place tomorrow evening (and I’m going!). Although this race might not be as glamorous as its counterpart in Kentucky, it’s certainly not devoid of class, refinement, or traditions – you better believe I’ll be wearing a pretty dress, heels, and a big hat decorated with ribbon and flowers, as will countless other women at the event. And while the Kentucky Derby may have the mint julep, Preakness also has an official drink, and it’s named for Maryland’s state flower: the Black-Eyed Susan. A mixture of vodka, light rum, Cointreau, orange juice, and pineapple juice, the Black-Eyed Susan sounds tasty as an afternoon cocktail (I’ll find out how it tastes tomorrow), but not so much as a cupcake to serve at the pre-Preakness party I’m hosting at my place tomorrow afternoon before my friends and I head up to Pimlico in our sharp attire.

Instead, I decided to make Lady Baltimore and Lord Baltimore cupcakes. Truth be told, the cake versions of these actually do not originate from Baltimore, but rather from The Lady Baltimore Tea Room in Charleston, SC. There are a number of stories on the origin of the Lady Baltimore cake, but one version of it suggests that the novelist Owen Wister was served this cake at the Women’s Exchange tea room in Charleston, and he liked it so much that he wrote about the cake in his 1906 novel Lady Baltimore.

The Lady Baltimore cake is in fact a rather simple one. It is made up of three layers of white cake and it is frosted with a classic Italian meringue (or boiled icing). The twist lies in the filling between the layers: it is a mixture of the frosting and chopped nuts and dried fruit. Traditionally, the Lady Baltimore cake’s filling contains raisins, figs, and pecans or almonds. The Lord Baltimore cake supposedly came into existence in order to use up the egg yolks left over from the Lady Baltimore cake. Similar to the Lady, the Lord Baltimore cake is also made up of three cake layers, meringue frosting, and a filling containing dried fruits and nuts, but the cake layers here are yellow cake and the filling contains pecans or walnuts, crushed coconut macaroons, and candied cherries.

For the cupcake versions I created, both batters use exactly the same ingredients, with the only difference being that one uses only the whites of the egg and the other uses only the yolks. The result is a snow-white cupcake with a very light flavor and a delicate crumb (befitting a lady, I suppose), and a soft, golden cupcake with a rich flavor and larger crumb (I guess that’s supposed to be more masculine or something). The method for making each batter differs slightly, as do the fillings; I decided to fill the Lady with almonds, golden raisins, and California figs, and the Lord with shredded coconut, walnuts, and a bit of orange zest (no way was I buying – or eating – candied cherries). The entire process is really easy, and both sets of cupcakes can be mixed up and baked in succession in under an hour. (Of course, making the frosting, fillings, and assembling the cupcakes takes some more time.)

As for those little flags on top of the cupcakes - they're the official flag of the City of Baltimore (which is a combination of the Calvert family's colors as represented on the state flag and the city's seal). Why the flags? I’m proclaiming these cupcakes as 100% Charm City.

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Lady Baltimore Cupcakes
(makes 8 cupcakes)

For the cupcakes:
1 cup cake flour
½ cup sugar
1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
Pinch of salt
4 tablespoons butter, at room temperature and cut into small pieces
2 egg whites
1/3 cup whole milk
½ teaspoon vanilla

For the filling:
3 tablespoons slivered almonds, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons golden raisins, coarsely chopped
2 dried California or Turkish figs, chopped
¼ cup Italian meringue frosting

Frosting:
1 ¼ cups Italian meringue frosting

***************

Heat an oven to 350 F. Line 8 wells of a muffin pan with paper liners and set the pan aside.

Add the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt to the bowl of a mixer (or a large bowl) and mix to combine (mixer: lowest speed; by hand: whisk). Add the butter and mix on low speed until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs, about 2 minutes.

Mix the egg whites, milk, and vanilla in a small bowl, then pour it into the mixer bowl. Beat on medium-high speed for 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl halfway through.

Evenly distribute the batter among the lined muffin tins and bake until the edge of the cupcakes are light golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean, 14-16 minutes.

Set the pan on a wire rack and let the cupcakes cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then remove them from the pan and let them completely cool on the rack.

Mix the filling ingredients in a bowl.

Use a small paring knife to cut an inverted cone out of the top of the cupcake. Flip the cone over and slice it so that you have a ¼” thick disk of cake. Reserve the disk and discard the rest of the cone. If necessary, use a small spoon to scoop out some of the cake to make the hole larger.

Use a small spoon to evenly distribute the filling among the cupcakes. Place a reserved cake disk on top of the filling and press down on it to seal the cupcake.

Frost the cupcakes with the Italian meringue frosting.

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Lord Baltimore Cupcakes
(makes 8 cupcakes)

For the cupcakes:
2 egg yolks
1/3 cup milk
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
Pinch of salt
4 tablespoons butter
½ cup sugar

For the filling:
4 tablespoons chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons unsweetened shredded coconut
Pinch of orange zest
¼ cup Italian meringue frosting

Frosting:
1 ¼ cups Italian meringue frosting

***************

Heat an oven to 350 F. Line 8 wells of a muffin pan with paper liners and set the pan aside.

Whisk the egg yolks, milk, and vanilla in a small bowl and set it aside. Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt in another small bowl and set it aside.

Add the butter and sugar to a large bowl and cream the mixture until it is pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add ½ of the flour mixture, all of the milk mixture, and then the remaining ½ flour mixture, mixing each addition at low speed until just combined and then scraping down the sides of the bowl before each next addition. Do not overmix.

Evenly distribute the batter among the lined muffin tins and bake until the cupcakes are light golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean, approximately 20 minutes.

Set the pan on a wire rack and let the cupcakes cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then remove them from the pan and let them completely cool on the rack.

Mix the filling ingredients in a bowl.

Use a small paring knife to cut an inverted cone out of the top of the cupcake. Flip the cone over and slice it so that you have a ¼” thick disk of cake. Reserve the disk and discard the rest of the cone. If necessary, use a small spoon to scoop out some of the cake to make the hole larger.

Use a small spoon to evenly distribute the filling among the cupcakes. Place a reserved cake disk on top of the filling and press down on it to seal the cupcake.

Frost the cupcakes with the Italian meringue frosting.

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Italian Meringue Frosting
(makes about 3 cups)

1 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
¼ cup water
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
3 large egg whites, room temperature
1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon almond extract

***************

Combine the sugar, water, and cream of tartar in a medium-sized saucepan set over medium-high heat. Stir the mixture just until all of the sugar is wet. Boil the mixture until it reaches 245 degrees F, about 3-4 minutes.

In the meantime, put the egg whites in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Start the mixer on low speed and gradually work it up to medium-high. Whip the whites until they hold soft peaks.

With the mixer running on low speed, slowly pour the sugar syrup into the mixer bowl into the space between the wall of the bowl and the wire whip. Once all of the sugar syrup has been added, increase the speed to high and whip until the mixture is fluffy, glossy, and cool to the touch, about 7 minutes. Pour in the extracts and mix to combine.


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Chana Saag (Spiced Chickpeas and Spinach) & Cookbook Giveaway

This is the first of three recipes that I'll be posting from 660 Curries. Don't forget to leave a comment by 9 pm on Sunday, May 18th to be entered into the drawing for first of three copies of the book (see this post for details).

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I had a ton of fresh spinach that I had gotten at the market earlier in the week, so a spinach recipe was in order. I was all set to search the index of the book for spinach recipes, but it so happened that when I opened the book, I landed on the page for this recipe. Since I had almost all the ingredients on hand, I decided to go for it.

Most of the ingredients for this recipe are either already in your house or easily available, but it does require one very special ingredient that is only available at Indian grocery stores: sambar powder. Sambar powder is a South Indian spice blend that is not only used for making sambar (as the name might imply), but also for flavoring vegetable curries. It's made by roasting spices and lentils and then grinding them to make a powdered spice blend. South Indians are apparently the only people in the world who roast lentils and use them as seasonings, either whole, as in this green bean dish, or ground as in this eggplant curry and tomato and lentil stew. Roasted lentils lend a nutty and almost sweet flavor to dishes, and the result is unlike any other seasoning I've ever had.

I followed this recipe almost exactly as written in order to be able to properly review and critique it. On the whole, I would give it a rating of 6 out of 10. I like the combination of chickpeas and spinach, and I’m a fan of using South Indian spices in dishes, but there was a striking lack of cohesion in this dish both texturally and flavor-wise. I wouldn’t specifically make this again unless I made the following changes:

• Reduce the amount of mustard seeds from 1 tsp to 1/2 tsp - the flavor of popped mustard seeds overwhelmed the dish.
• Omit the ginger and fried onion/shallot – onions, shallots, garlic, and other allium members are never used in South Indian cooking; ginger is rarely used, and, if so, never with sambar powder and popped mustard seeds (my mother’s jaw dropped when I told her that the recipe called for mustard seeds and sambar powder AND onions and ginger). I couldn't distinctly taste the ginger and shallots, but I would omit them nonetheless.
• Reduce the amount of water from 2 cups to 1 cup and increase the simmering time to at least 20 minutes (from 8-10) - the final product was really watery and not at all cohesive in terms of texture or flavor. Reducing the amount of water by ½ and increasing the cooking time would allow for more of the water to get absorbed by the chick peas, for the chick peas to give off some of their starch and thereby thicken the sauce, and for all the flavors to blend together.
  

I might also use frozen spinach instead of fresh, because the delicate fresh spinach flavor was totally drowned out by the seasonings.

That being said, I think this would be a great weeknight dinner - it's quick, easy to make, inexpensive, healthy, and, with the aforementioned changes, probably really tasty.

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Chana Saag (Spiced Chickpeas and Spinach)
(serves 4)

2 tablespoons ghee (clarified butter) or canola oil
1 teaspoon black or yellow mustard seeds
1 tablespoon ginger paste
2 tablespoons fried onion paste (I used 2 tablespoons finely minced shallots)
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 teaspoons sambar powder
2 teaspoons kosher or sea salt
2 cups cooked chickpeas (I used a 15-ounce can)
2 cups water
1 pound fresh spinach leaves, well rinsed and finely chopped

***************

Heat the ghee in a medium-sized saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the mustard seeds, cover the pot, and cook until the seeds have stopped popping, about 30 seconds. Lower the heat to medium and add the ginger paste. Stir-fry until light brown, about 30 seconds. (Be careful with this step – the ghee will be very hot and the ginger will very likely splatter – I kept any splattering ghee and ginger out of my face by covering the pot and then pulling up the lid a bit to leave it ajar, then sticking a long wooden spoon into the pot to stir the ginger.)

Stir in the fried onion paste, tomato paste, sambar powder, salt, and chickpeas. Stir well to coat the chickpeas, then add the water. Bring the mixture to a boil.

Add the spinach and stir well to incorporate. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, until the mixture has thickened, about 8-10 minutes.

Serve with rice.

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Book Review and Giveaway: 660 Curries

A few weeks ago, I received a copy of Raghavan Iyer’s book 660 Curries. As the title might imply, the book contains hundreds of recipes for Indian curries. What the title doesn’t imply, though, is that the book contains recipes from all regions of India, and not every recipe in this book is for what generally comes to mind when you hear the word “curry.”

The book opens with an introduction to and recipes for the foundation of curries: spice blends and pastes. Contrary to popular belief, there is no such thing as generic “curry powder” (so go throw away that bottle of curry powder you bought in the spice aisle in the supermarket), and Iyer does a wonderful job of providing recipes for and explaining the uses of many regional spice blends. What follows are literally hundreds of recipes that are organized into neat categories: appetizer curries, meat curries (I obviously skipped over those 160 pages), vegetable, lentil, and paneer curries, fusion curries, and side dishes. Indian food is incredibly diverse – dishes from Tamil Nadu are completely different from those you would find in Goa – and this book not only includes recipes from all the regions of India, but also explains the differences between the cuisines of the regions.

While I don’t think that this book is the ultimate guide to Indian cooking, I do think that it is an excellent resource for people who love Indian food and want to learn about regional Indian cuisine as well how to cook dishes that go beyond the narrow purview of the local Indian restaurant.

So, to that end, I’m giving away three copies of 660 Curries.

Here's how it works: starting today and for the next two weeks, I will post the recipe for and my comments and thoughts on one dish from the book. I'll post each recipe on Monday (actually, the first one will be posted tomorrow), and I will be giving away one copy of the book each week.

To be entered into each weekly drawing, all you need to do is leave a relevant comment on the post for the weekly recipe – maybe what your favorite Indian dish is, or what your experiences with Indian cooking have been, or anything along those lines. I’ll randomly select a winner on the Sunday of the following week. Just make sure that you

1. Leave your comment by 9 pm Eastern time on that Sunday, and
   
2. Provide either a link to your own blog (where I presume I would be able to find your email address) or your email address in the format name at domain dot com – for example, I’d be raspberryeggplant at gmail dot com (Leaving your email address this way instead of in traditional format helps prevent spammers from finding your email address and adding it to their list. I don’t want you to get spammed. I care about my readers!)

This is my first giveaway of any kind, and I’m excited about it! Good luck!
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Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

I’ve wanted to buy an ice cream maker for almost a year now, and I finally bought one last Friday for the low price of $20! (Thanks to David Lebovitz for the tip about the sale at Amazon – apparently they sold out of them really quickly, so I’m glad I was able to get my hands on one.)

One of my favorite flavors of ice cream is (and always has been) mint chip, but these days I just can’t eat it if it’s green and the mint flavor is distinctly artificial. All-natural mint ice cream (made with real mint) is the way to go, and it’s even better with chunks of good quality chocolate in it.

Remember my mini-essay from a short while back about high-quality ingredients? Well, ice cream is another one of those things that really shines when you use the best ingredients available. I think one of the most important things is to use cream that has not been ultra-pasteurized. Local creameries generally only gently pasteurize their products, as they won’t be traveling very far and are very likely to be consumed within a week of bottling. Commercial brands, on the other hand, need to ultra-pasteurize their products, as they will be consumed long after they have been packaged, and they will be traveling long distances and may be subject to fluctuations in temperature that could encourage bacterial growth, so it’s necessary to ensure that there is not even one single organism left alive – but this process also destroys that wonderful milky flavor that is nowadays only present in products from local dairy farmers.

For the chocolate chips, I chopped up a bar of 58.5% chocolate from El Rey (my brand of choice, it’s from Venezuela but unfortunately it’s hard to come by lately because of recent trade problems), which had a wonderful slightly fruity flavor that went great with the mint. I recommend a chocolate that is between 55% and 70% cacao – milk chocolate (which is usually around 40%) is too light and I think that anything beyond 70% would be too rich for the delicate fresh mint flavor.

The ice cream came out awesome – the mint flavor was unlike anything I’ve tasted in store-bought ice creams, and the texture was so silky. I think I am now officially addicted to homemade ice cream. It’s a good thing I started working out a few months ago because my ice cream maker is totally my new best friend.

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
(makes 1 pint)

1 cup loosely packed mint leaves
½ cup whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
2 egg yolks
1/3 cup sugar
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate chunks (about ½ cup)

***************

Tear the mint leaves into small pieces and put them into a small saucepan. Add the milk and ¼ cup of the cream. Cover the pot and heat the mixture over medium heat until small bubbles form around the edges. Remove the pot from the heat and let it steep for at least 30 minutes and up to 1 hour. Strain the minty milk into a bowl, making sure to press firmly on the mint leaves to extract as much liquid as possible. Set the milk aside.

Put the egg yolks into a bowl and add half of the sugar. Whisk well until the mixture is pale yellow and thick.

Rinse out the saucepan and put the remaining ¾ cup of cream and the remaining sugar into it. Set the saucepan over medium heat and bring it to a bare simmer, stirring occasionally.

When the cream is hot, remove the pan from the heat. Use a measuring cup to scoop out ½ cup of the cream and slowly drizzle it into the egg yolk mixture while whisking constantly. Pour the egg yolk mixture and the minty milk into the saucepan and return it to the stove (it should still be on medium heat).

Use a wooden spoon to stir the mixture until it is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon – this will take about 4-5 minutes. Pour the cooked custard into a bowl and let it cool to room temperature (you can speed this up by placing the bowl over an ice bath). Pour the cooled custard into an airtight container and refrigerate overnight.

The following day, pour the custard into an ice cream maker and churn according to manufacturer’s directions. When the ice cream is done, pour in the chocolate chunks and churn for another 30 seconds to incorporate them into the ice cream. Transfer the ice cream to an airtight container and freeze for at least 4 hours.

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