Chocolate Superstorm Globs

Updated by Blue Heron Kitchen

It’s hurricane season! Make these and have a batch in your freezer for this year’s Superstorm! They’ll last longer than ice cream, the nuts will supply you with protein and the chocolate, with much needed endorphins. You might want to double the recipe because you’ll wind up scarfing a batch down when you see your next LIPA/Con Ed/whatever your power company is bill. We’re paying the piper because we’ve missed the power boat. (Raise your hand if since “Sandy” you now own a solar powered, hand crank radio, an external charger, a better quality, more efficient lighting source … something.) But chocolate counts as alternative power source (do we get tax credit?),

Use excellent quality chocolate. It matters. Use any of these chocolates, and you’ll make any chocolate lover forever yours: Scharffenberger unsweetened chocolate, Valhrona semi-sweet, Guittard chips, Jacques Torres’ dark chocolate discs, chopped.

I have used both nuts, but you can stick to one. Always toast and cool your nuts before you bake. Toast them at 350º F. for about 6-8 minutes, until you can just smell them. Watch them carefully. If they burn, they’re toast. You can play around and try a combination of chopped chocolate, different nuts (the original recipe had walnuts and pecans) and even some dried fruit – try some dried cherries!

These globs freeze very well (until the lights go out). You can bake and freeze them between sheets of parchment or waxed paper (I love waxed paper) in plastic containers, tins or freezer bags. (For anyone with half a chocolate kupf, these are better frozen.)

peace, love and power up (or down),

jane

Ingredients:

5 oz. semisweet chocolate (Scharffenberger or another good quality chocolate)

3 oz. unsweetened chocolate (same as above)

4 oz. 83%, European style butter, at room temperature (Plugra brand is a good one)

¾ c. all-purpose, unbleached flour (King Arthur or Bob’s Red Mill are good brands)

1 tsp. baking powder (I use Rumford)

1 tsp. kosher salt

2 eggs, size large, at room temperature

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract (I use Baldwin’s Vanilla)

1 Tbsp. instant espresso powder

¾ cup granulated sugar

¾ c. semisweet chocolate ‘chips’ (pre-chipped or chopped by you)

1/3 c. toasted and skinned hazelnuts, chopped

1/3 c. chopped almonds (first, toasted and cooled)

Procedure:

Here is where the mis en place brings you great satisfaction.

Carefully measure out all of the ingredients for this recipe. You’ll just dump one thing in after another and this recipe will feel like you’re on one of those shows on the TV Food Network.

1.  Put the semi and unsweetened chocolates and butter in a stainless bowl, large enough to accommodate them and set it atop a barely simmering pot of hot water. Take care that NO steam or hot water meets the chocolate/butter mixture. Stir and melt. Remove and set aside to COOL. It is critical that you allow for the chocolate and butter mixture to cool sufficiently or else you will wind up cooking your eggs.

2.  Preheat oven to 325º F. and line 3 baking sheets or ½ size sheet pans or jellyroll pans with parchment paper. If you don’t have parchment paper (you should get some), grease the sheets with melted butter. Set aside.

3.  In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

4.  Using an electric mixer, beat the eggs, vanilla and coffee powder until blended.

5.  Add granulated sugar and blend until thick. 1-2 minutes.

6.  Add the cooled , melted chocolate/butter mixture and blend another minute or two. Scrape down the bowl as necessary. (If you have a silicone beater blade, this won’t be necessary!)

7.  Add the flour mixture, mixing on low speed, until just incorporated. No more than that. Fold in the chocolate ‘chips’ and nuts by hand or with the mixer, on low speed.

8.  Drop the dough by rounded spoonfuls (I use a small measured scoop), leaving a couple of inches between, onto the prepared sheets.

9. Bake, rotating the sheets,  between the racks, turning them too, about 10-13 minutes, until they rise slightly and form a thin crust. Immediately remove the cookies from the sheets (you can leave them on the parchment) and cool on a rack.       

Yield: 24-36 cookies                      

Vegan (or not) Rice Pudding

Vegan (or not) Rice Pudding

Adapted from Jonah Rosenberg by Blue Heron Kitchen

In honor of my Mother, my Grandmothers and my Children

You’ve loved rice pudding from the first jar of Gerber’s you mother cracked open. Many cultures prepare rice for dessert from Asian sticky rice preparations to Italian dessert risottos. The Greeks nail rice pudding with egg yolks and heavy cream. In a pinch, there’s Cozy Shack.

A couple of weeks ago, Martha Rose Shulman's column offered brown rice recipes for health (link is to recipes in the Times). She offered these recipes despite reports of alarmingly high levels of arsenic in most brands of domestic rice (link is to Consumer Reports article) which now require us to limit our intake. Brown rice was the worst offender, with the most arsenic found in the hull. I’m still scratching my head at why, given this horrifying information, she chose to offer us an array of “healthy” brown rice-based meals. 

So you must be wondering why I'm offering you a recipe for rice pudding. Findings were that the levels of arsenic were significantly lower in aromatic rice varietals, such as basmati rice. Basmati, from India is the rice I keep in the house because I cook Indian food; and it's the rice I’ve used in this recipe. 

Beautiful package - a gift from my friend, Rick.

You can use short grain 'risotto' type rice, which is more conventional. Buy the best quality rice you can find. Buy rice from Italy, Greece or India. 

I’m still dumbfounded that brown rice isn’t safe anymore.  

My son, Jonah, is a fine cook. He regularly prepares meals for large groups of friends. Challenged by living in a country where food is much pricier than here in the U.S. (he lives in the U.K.), he came up with this economical, simple, quick and delicious recipe for rice pudding. 

He’s going to be furious that I used almond milk, but tomorrow is Mother’s Day and I’m using my “get out of jail free” card. 

This recipe is lactose-free, dairy-free, vegan, loaded with calcium and comfort. It’s good for your baby, your children, you, your parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. Your call on the dog.

Use unsweetened almond milk. I’ve been using “Silk” brand. An 8 oz. serving provides 450 mg. of calcium (!), it tastes great (when I drink it straight up, I add some stevia) and it has 30 calories per 8 oz. serving. Without running this through a nutritional analysis program, I calculate this dessert at roughly 167 calories per serving. Sweet.

Go legit and substitute whole cow’s milk. You can use 2% milk, but I wouldn’t go lower in fat. (If you do and it's great, please comment and let me know!) I used Nielsen Massey’s Vanilla Bean PASTE. You can find it at Amazon or Williams-Sonoma; and sometimes you can snag it at discount stores like Home Goods.

(Click on me to go to my website)

Please take time today to visit Sandy Hook Promise.org and send loving and caring Mother’s Day wishes to the mothers whose children were senselessly murdered:

http://www.sandyhookpromise.org/

To all who are lucky enough to have your mother: call her today. Stop dissing Hallmark. It was a good idea.

peace and love,

jane

Vegan (or not) Rice Pudding

Equipment: 1 heavy-bottomed 2 to 3 quart saucepan, preferably stainless steel.

Ingredients:

4 cups (960 ml) unsweetened almond milk, almond-coconut milk, cashew milk (or cow’s milk.)

½ cup short grain (high starch), such as Arborio or sushi rice, rinsed under cold water

¼ cup granulated white sugar

4 whole green cardamom pods, slightly cracked open (you can omit these, but the taste is wonderful.)

Rind (without the white pith) of one orange or lemon (Meyer lemon is heaven!)

1 tsp. vanilla bean paste (or scrape seeds from ½ a soft, fresh vanilla bean) or pure vanilla extract will do.

Cinnamon (for serving)

1 Tbsp. Grand Marnier or Triple Sec (optional)

Procedure:

Put all ingredients into pot (except optional liqueur) and heat over medium/high flame until it comes to a boil.

Lower flame to medium/low and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon or a spurtle (a wooden tool used to cook oatmeal that you should own if you make oatmeal because it’s brilliant and once you use it, you’ll wonder why you never had one.) often. Cook for about 35 to 40 minutes, until mixture is very thick. It will thicken a bit more as it cools.

If you’re adding liqueur, add it a few minutes before removing the pudding from the flame.

Remove cardamom pods and citrus rind. 

If you like raisins in your rice pudding, plump some - about 1/3 to 1/2 a cup - by pouring hot water over them and letting them sit for several minutes (You can add some liqueur to them too and this would be delicious.) Stir them into the pudding after you've removed it from the stove.

Serve warm, room temperature or chilled. If you’re not vegan, a dollop of whipped cream! If you’re vegan or dairy-free, try some dairy-free topping. 

You don’t need much more than a sprinkle of cinnamon, a spoon and love.

Yield: 4 servings

  

Fallen Pound of Chocolate Soufflé Cake

(Flour-free)

From David Waltuck’s “Staff Meals from Chanterelle”

Adapted and updated by Blue Heron Kitchen

This cake is almost completely flour-free, save for dusting the pan with flour, so depending on what chocolate you're using, you can make it gluten-free. For dusting the pan, you can use gluten-free flour mix, some brown rice flour, or no flour at all. Try coating the pan with some granulated sugar as if you were making a sweet soufflé. 

This cake is about the easiest and most 'unassuming' flourless chocolate cakes I’ve made. You don't need a bain-marie (water bath) and it's minimalist in ingredients. I like that. It approaches perfection. There's no flavoring other than chocolate and butter. So, make sure you use excellent chocolate (try JacquesTorres’ baking disks - if you click on the link, you can find his stores, or order online).  Today, I combined JT's baking disks and Valrhona, semi-sweet chocolate. Whatever fine chocolate you choose, you'll need a full pound! And then, there’s the butter choice. I use European "style" butter – Plugra. Whatever butter you use, be sure that it’s fresh.  Taste it. If you wouldn't spread it on toast, don’t use it. Nine eggs, size large, room temperature, separated. Make sure that your whites are without yolks. If there's a speck of yolk in the white, you'll be miserable. Your whites won't whip up. Take it one egg at a time. So, bring more than nine eggs to room temperature and if some of them don't separate perfectly, make some eggs or a frittata for dinner.

For an excellent cake, use excellent ingredients and an excellent technique. How you make this is important. Be careful and patient; and if it's not perfect this time, it will be better next time. 

Trucs: Make sure that no steam enters your melting chocolate. Take care that the melted chocolate and butter cools to room temperature. Achieve ‘ribbons’ with the yolks. Don’t beat the whites past ‘soft peak’ or they’ll dry out too much. Fold, but don’t ‘mix’ to assure that the batter is ‘lifted’.  Bake in the center of the oven. DON’T OVERBAKE. Using Guittard "red" cocoa for dusting will achieve the finish in the above photo. I didn't add a second dusting of confectioner's sugar.

Follow these simple steps, and you’ll be a rock star, despite that all you did was melt chocolate and butter and whip up some eggs.

For one 9-inch cake:

Ingredients:

1 pound best quality semi-sweet to dark chocolate

½ pound (two sticks), unsalted butter (European 83% butterfat recommended)

9 large eggs, room temperature, separated

¾ cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

Cocoa powder (Valrhona or Guittard are good choices), for dusting the cake

Confectioners’ "10X" sugar, for dusting the cake

Procedure:

1.    Preheat oven to 300º F. Lightly butter and flour (see above note regarding flour, if this is Passover, you can use matzo cake meal) a 9-inch springform pan, then line the bottom with parchment paper.

2.    Combine chocolate and butter in a bowl placed on top of a pot of barely simmering water. Melt, stirring occasionally. Be CAREFUL that NO STEAM enters the chocolate/butter mixture. When just about completely melted, remove bowl from the simmering pot and stirring occasionally, bring the mixture to room temperature. Don't rush. Bring it to room temperature.

3.    Combine egg yolks and ¾ cup of the sugar in the bowl of and electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix for about 4-5 minutes, until when the paddle is lifted, ribbons fall from the paddle.

4.    In another bowl (or, if you don’t have another bowl, transfer this mixture to a LARGE bowl and THOROUGHLY wash this bowl and attach the whisk to the electric mixer), whisk the egg whites with the 1 additional tablespoon of sugar until soft peaks are made when you lift the whites with the whisk. This should take about 3 or 4 minutes.

5.    Now you’re ready to fold!

6.    Fold 1/3 of the cooled chocolate mixture into the egg yolks. When fully incorporated, fold 1/3 of beaten egg whites, until fully incorporated. Repeat this procedure twice more, until you’ve completely folding all ingredients together, ending with the egg whites.

7.    Carefully pour the batter into the prepared springform pan. Don’t ‘pat it down’ much. Bake until the edges are firm and center is somewhat ‘puffy’, but still soft, about 20-30 minutes. The center will appear to be unbaked.  This is important: do not over-bake the cake or you will undo your folding and your cake will be dry and unremarkable (don't be afraid, be careful and concentrate. You're the boss.)

8.    Cool on a rack, then release the springform.

9.    Dust with a layer of cocoa powder, followed by a layer of 10X (that’s industry talk for confectioner’s sugar), a second layer of cocoa and a final layer of 10X.

1.    Serve at room temperature. A thin slice is all you need. You can serve ‘as is’, with a dollop of whipped cream, with some crème anglaise, or with a berry or two.

Serves 10-15 (or more)

Sugar-Free Chocolate Dipped Coconut Macaroons

Sugar-Free (Chocolate dipped) Coconut Macaroons

(Passover Recipe!)

Adapted from David Lebovitz’ “Ready for Dessert” by Blue Heron Kitchen

For those seeking low carbohydrate and low glycemic desserts, I offer coconut macaroons, kosher for Passover, plain or dipped in chocolate! This dessert will be a welcome addition, sans weird chemicals, for people who don’t like or whose bodies can’t process sugar.

I’ve combined Erythritol and stevia, both ‘natural’ sweeteners. Almond flour replaces traditional flour (and it legalizes these for your Passover table!)

Here's the poop on Erythritol: according to Wikipedia: is 60–70% as sweet as table sugar yet it is almost noncaloric, does not affect blood sugar, does not cause tooth decay, and is partially absorbed by the body, excreted in urine and feces. It is less likely to cause gastric side effects than other sugar alcohols because of its unique digestion pathway. Under U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) labeling requirements, it has a caloric value of 0.2 kilocalories per gram (95% less than sugar and other carbohydrates), though nutritional labeling varies from country to country.

I bought my Erythritol from pureformulas.com. This site seems to have the best prices. Shipping was free and fast. I bought "NOW" brand. 

According to nutrition labeling: 1 tsp. contains zero calories and 4g of carbohydrates. That’s it. It’s about 70% as sweet as sugar, and there’s a ‘cold’ taste to it, so combining it with Stevia (I highly recommend you buy NuNaturals brand NuStevia White Stevia Powder, which you can buy online at Amazon.com or in Whole Foods) works out well in terms of the sweetness factor as well as ‘warming up’ the ‘cool’ factor. Stevia is a sweetener that is derived from a plant called Stevia.

A great place to purchase unsweetened coconut and almond meal is at your local Indian market. Apna Bazaar on Long Island is a great market. Any Patel Brothers in the New York area is also a great choice. In NYC, go down to 28^th and Lexington. Bob’s Red Mill is another great resource for both unsweetened coconut and almond flour. Large markets like Fairway, Stop and Shop and Whole Foods sell Bob's Red Mill. Or, buy from them directly or on Amazon.com.

This recipe is a first for me, and I’m excited to share it with you. Don't expect the gooey, sticky, glutenous canned macaroon product you find after you've sliced your finger to find the 10 settled balls at the bottom of the Streit's can. My hope is that this will bring sweet satisfaction and enjoyment to those who have been missing and searching for something sweet to finish off a Passover seder (a meal capable of throwing the healthiest individual into chemical imbalance) or to just savor the sweet combination of coconut and chocolate without jeopardizing or taxing ones health.

Have a ziesen* Pesach

* and isn't "sweet" is subjective anyway?

peace and love,

jane

Ingredients:

5 large egg whites, size large

1 ¼ c. pure Erythritol

¼ tsp. Kosher salt

2 ½ tsp. pure White Stevia powder (NuNaturals brand, if possible)

2 ½ c. dried, unsweetened shredded coconut

¼ c. almond meal (almond flour)

1 ½ tsp. pure vanilla extract

optional for dipping:

2-3 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped, plus additional Stevia for sweetening, to taste

½ tsp. coconut oil

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 350º F. and prepare two baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat.

In a large (4 quart) saucepan, mix all ingredients (EXCEPT THE OPTIONAL CHOCOLATE FOR DIPPING) together over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture begins to ‘sizzle’.

Remove from heat and transfer to a mixing bowl.

When mixture is still warm, working quickly, form into mounds, about 1 ½ “ high. Work fairly quickly, because when the batter cools too much, it tends to dry out and is difficult to work with.

These will not spread, so you can place then fairly close together.

Form approximately 24 to 30 macaroons and bake them on two racks, rotating them top to bottom, front to back, half way through the bake, for about 20 minutes, until they are well browned.

Cool completely.

For optional melted chocolate:

Line one of the baking sheets with another piece of parchment paper or some waxed paper.

In the top of a double boiler, melt about 2 to 3 ounces of excellent quality unsweetened chocolate. Add ½ tsp. coconut oil and stevia powder, to taste (add it ¼ tsp at a time!)

Dip the bottom of each macaroon in the melted chocolate and place on the prepared baking sheet. Place in fridge until chocolate is set.

These can be kept in an airtight container for a few days. Or, freeze them, in layers, between sheets of waxed paper.