Tag: pecans

How to catch a valentine

Have a valentine for whom you’d like to show your looooooove?

Need to catch a valentine so that someone will loooooooove you?

Well, have I got a recipe for you.  It has everything….

Oh, how I miss you Stefon.

But seriously.  I promise this quadruple chocolate threat cookie will get the job done.

And you know what they say.  If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.

Quadruple Threat Chocolate Cookies

adapted from Sunset Magazine’s 50 all-time best Sunset Test Kitchen recipes

Ingredients

  • 10 ounce bittersweet chocolate, chopped
  • 3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into chunks
  • 3 large eggs, at room temperature
  • 1 cup plus 2 tbsp. sugar plus more for dipping (or cocoa could be used to dip)
  • 1 tablespoon instant espresso powder (I used the ground espresso right out of a Nespresso capsule)
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 6 tablespoons flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 3/4 C bittersweet chocolate chips
  • 3/4 C chopped white chocolate
  • 1 cup finely chopped toasted pecans
  1. Melt butter in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan over low heat.  Once  butter is melted, remove from heat and add-in the chopped bittersweet and unsweetened chocolates. Swirl pan to cover chocolate (as best as it will) and let stand for five minutes.  Using a wire whisk, whisk until chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth.  You may need to return to very low heat.
  2. Whisk eggs, sugar, espresso powder, and vanilla into chocolate mixture. In another bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir into chocolate mixture until evenly mixed, then stir in chocolate chips and pecans. Wrap dough airtight and chill until firm enough to hold its shape, at least an hour.
  3. Using a large scoop (I scooped between 1/8 and 1/4 of a cup), scoop dough, placing it on a parchment-lined cookie sheet with two inches in-between (I fit about 8 drops of dough on a half-sheet).
  4. Preheat oven to 350°. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
  5. Dip the bottom of a pint glass or even round surface in sugar or cocoa powder.  Gently press down each drop/ball of dough until flattened slightly (the chunks in the cookie should help to keep the thickness at about 1/2 and inch).
  6. Bake until cookies no longer look wet and you can feel a slight crust on top, about 10 minutes (don’t overbake); switch position of baking sheets halfway through. Let cookies cool on sheets on racks.
  7. Cookies freeze nicely up to two weeks in air-tight containers or freezer bags.

This cake is for the birds. And Moms!

Okay, let us first address the elephant in the room. No hummingbirds were harmed in the making of this cake.

The kitchen gods were devastatingly disappointed.

The hummingbird cake made its debut in a 1978 edition of Southern Living magazine.  According to my research, the recipe was submitted by a Mrs. L.H. Wiggins of Greensboro, N.C.  And though delightfully named, she did not give an explanation for the cake’s title.  As these things go, much speculation has followed.  Was the three-layer cake bursting with bananas, pecans and pineapple named because it is sweet enough to attract the delicate high energy bird?  Or was it so named by the way people hummed with delight while eating it? Or maybe because of the way enthusiasts liked to hover around while it was  being cut?  The world may never know.

What I know is that this cake makes a perfect treat for early summer celebrations.  Particularly Mother’s Day.  Though the original recipe is constructed as a layer cake, I decided to go with a bundt.  And I’m glad I did.  This is a dense, flavorful and decadent cake but somehow baking it in bundt form suggests that it would be perfectly acceptable eaten before noon.  Say, for brunch.

The batter begins with bananas, crushed pineapple (drain but save the juice) and chopped pecans (walnuts would work just fine).

Oil rather than butter is the fat for this recipe.

While the batter will fill your pan nearly to the top, it doesn’t raise much so not to worry.

After what seems like an eternity, a gorgeously browned cake emerges.

I skipped the traditional cream cheese frosting and made an icing out of cream cheese, reserved pineapple juice and confectioner’s sugar.

I then topped it simply with some edible flowers (though I had people remove the flowers before eating).

If your mom loves banana bread you have absolutely no excuse to not make this for her.

Hummingbird Cake with Pineapple Cream Cheese Glaze

mastergardeningblog.com

Ingredients

  • 3 C all-purpose flour
  • 2 C sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3 medium ripe bananas, chopped
  • 1 C crushed pineapple, drained (save the juice)
  • 1 C vegetable oil
  • 4 large eggs, slightly beaten
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 C pecans, finely chopped
  • 4 ounces cream cheese
  • 2 C confectioner’s sugar
  • 3 TBS pineapple juice

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Butter and flour bundt pan.
  2. In a large bowl, sifted together flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.
  3. In a separate bowl, combine bananas, pineapple, oil, eggs and vanilla.  Add dry ingredients to wet in either a standing mixer or by hand.  Mix on low until well combined.
  4. Add nuts, folding into batter with spatula.
  5. Pour batter into prepared bundt and bake until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean (original instructions were for 45 minutes, it took almost an hour in my oven).
  6. Rest baked cake 15 minutes on wire rack.  Remove from pan and cool completely.
  7. For glaze: Using hand-mixer, beat together cream cheese, confectioner’s sugar and pineapple juice to desired consistency.  Pour over cake (glaze will remain somewhat soft).