Desserts

BREAD AND MOTHER

The Basics for a Delicious Life

Chocolate is Everything

Chocolate wins. If chocolate was a person it would be Tom Hanks. Everyone likes Tom Hanks, and everyone likes chocolate. Vanilla will always come in second to its sweet, soul-healing sibling. When someone describes something or someone as 'vanilla', it's decidedly not a complement. Vanilla equals boring and plain. But chocolate is exciting and delicious - dare we say, romantic! Can you tell we adore chocolate?

More than that, though, chocolate has a lineage. The Mayans of Central America get credit for starting the whole chocolate craze. Back in 900 AD these early baristas were grinding cocoa pods up into a paste to brew a frothy chocolate drink. However, once those Spanish conquistadrs got a taste of the good stuff it was all over...literally all over the world. Chocolate may have been one of the few good things to have been spread around by the conquistadors. And once this magic cacao bean hit the shores of France it was transformed into the culinary wonder it remains to this day.

We drink it, we sculpts it, we coat everything from espresso beans to strawberries with it and we cannot get enough of it. And while there are a zillion ways to possible ways to serve chocolate, we went with a tried and true chocolate recipe - chocolate cake! No need for a special celebration to bring this beauty out. Two delicious layers of moist chocolate buttermilk cake wrapped in smooth velvety chocolate frosting. The Mayans would be proud...they might even crown you God of the Cacao Bean.

Note: I did add a teaspoon of almond extract because I love chocolate almond anything. But you can leave the almond extract out of the recipe if you prefer your chocolate straight up. I also add just a pinch of instant espresso coffee powder to deepen the chocolate flavor but you can omit that as well. Now with beaters held like scepters in your hands, go forth like the Mayan God of Cacao that you are and make that chocolatey deliciousness!

Mayan Chocolate Almond Buttermilk Cake

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup good quality unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp instant coffee powder

1 and 1/2 cup buttermilk

3 large eggs

1 cup butter softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix flour, cocoa poweder, baking powder, baking soda, salt and coffee powder (if using) in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, cream the softened butter with the sugars until smooth. Add vanilla and almond (if using almond) and buttermilk and whip until well blended. Add flour mixture to the butter mixture and ship it until a smooth batter forms. Divide batter equally between two 9-inch greased cake pans and bake in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and cake springs back when pqressed lightly.

Mayan Dark Chocolate Frosting

2 and 3/4 cups confectioners sugar

6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

6 tablespoons butter (softened)

5 tablespoons evaporated milk

1 and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Use a good quality dark chocolate cocoa powder if you can find it, otherwise any unsweetened cocoa powder will do. I like to top this cake frosting with chocolate covered cacao nibs if you can find them. I used evaporated milk instead of heavy cream here because it has less water content and it has a slightly caramelized flavor I like in this frosting. You could probably use heavy cream but add teaspoon by teaspoon slowly until it becomes the consistency you like.

Mix the sugar and cocoa poweder together in a large bowl. Whip the butter with the milk and vanilla until smooth and add to the dry ingredients. Mix all ingredients well until it forms a smooth velvety frosting. Frost the cooled cakes and sprinkle with the cacao nibs. Serve with dark chocolate ice cream for the ultimate chocolate experience.

Let Them Eat Cake

Is there anything more fun than birthday cakes? You can have all the presents and party hats - just give me the CAKE!! And, now with all the crazy fun decorations and funky candles to choose from baking a birthday cake is an artistic adventure! My new fave are the French Dragees, those shiny bright balls of color that add a certain 'je ne sais quoi' to any birthday cake. Nevermind that they are deemed 'non-edible' by the FDA in 29 states and banned in California (seriously!) they are just so darn pretty! And, when you read why they're non-edible (trace amounts of metal may turn skin grey after consuming 40,000 dragees) you might just engage in risky behavior and throw a few on your birthday cake too! Heck we put non-edible flammables on our birthday cakes so why not? Even if it's not a birthday party go ahead and dress up your cake with some candles and dragees...because it's CAKE and that's always cause for celebration!

While the favorite flavor in America is indisputably chocolate we're suckers for the underdog and so we're going with the good old stalwart vanilla . Besides, all these fancy schmancy cake decorations seem to showcase better on white icing and that blank white frosting canvas just brings out the artiste in everyone. This rich and flavorful vanilla cake with layers of creamy vanilla frosting will have you singing 'happy birthday to meeee' with every bite!

Vanilla Cake

2 cups all-purpose or cake flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter (softened)
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 and 1/4 cup buttermilk

Mix flour and baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside. Cream butter and sugar and eggs together. Add vanilla and buttermilk and beat until well blended and creamy. Add flour mixture and stir until all ingredients form a smooth batter.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

1 and 1/2 cups butter (softened)
6 cups powdered sugar
1 and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 teaspoons buttermilk

Mix butter, buttermilk and vanilla together and SLOWLY add the powdered sugar (to avoid a powdered sugar explosion) until you obtain a creamy frosting. You can add a teeny bit more buttermilk if you prefer a softer frosting.

Marshmellow Memories

Some recipes are just about memories. These recipes usually aren’t too complicated, they aren’t sophisticated and they may not really even be all that delicious. But it’s not about the taste - or at least not all about the taste...it’s about how they make you feel. Rice Krispie Treats are that for me. They remind me of being 8 years old standing in the kitchen with my mother scraping nuggets of crunchy marshmallowy sweetness out of a bowl and into a greased square pan to cool.

My mother wasn’t much on baking. Slice and bake was considered ‘homemade’ in our house and it was an infrequent treat. Mostly we subsisted on Hydrox and Oreos which suited me just fine until I had my first taste of Rice Krisipie Treats. Boom! Marshmallows and butter folded into a nutty puffed rice crunch transported this eight-year-old to Krispie nirvana. Buh-bye Hydrox, see ya Oreos...Rice Krispie Treats were the Holy Grail of sweets. And the fact that they were only three ingredients and didn’t involve the oven meant they became my mother’s favorite ‘homemade’ treat as well. Extra bonus was that ‘clean up’ included picking all those sticky gobs of rice krispie goodness off the bowl and placing them directly into the garbage disposal...me. Nom nom.

Years - and years - later I still get misty eyed about Rice Krispie Treats. Not the overly processed, waxy store-bought variety but the homemade kind. I can still see my mother leaning into that mixing bowl on her hip then turning it over to me saying ‘my arm is getting tired, want to help?’ The equivalent of hitting the 8-year-old lottery!
I knew this part of the process was deadly serious work. I had to move quickly before the marshmallow glue holding those puffed rice pieces hardened up like cement. The trick was to fold all the sticky melted marshmallow sauce into the rice krispies without crushing them and doing it fast to ensure its pliability as you poured it into the cooling pan. The fact that my mother was willing to entrust such a serious task to little 8-year-old me meant the world. I can still picture the two of us in that tiny kitchen with its black and white formica floor.

So here it is. An 8-year-olds gift to the culinary world...Rice Krispie Treats. If you haven’t made them in a while maybe you should invest $1.99 in a box of Crisp Rice Cereal (that’s the price of the Trader Joe’s variety) and a bag of marshmallows. Don't harsh my mellow.

Marshmellow Rice Krispie Treats

6 Cups Rice Krispie Cereal
3 ½ tablespoons butter
1 10 bag marshmellows

4 cups of jet puffed minimarshmellows or ⅓ of a 16oz tub of Marshmallow Fluff (I had some Fluff leftover from fudge making so while it’s not in the actual krispie treat orginal recipe it works if you’ve got some lying around.)

Melt the butter in a heavy sauce pan and pour in the marshmellows stirring constantly until thoroughly melted. Working quickly pour the hot sticky mess over the rice krispies in a bowl or pour the rice krispies directly into the hot sticky mess in the pan whichever works. When the whole sticky, gooey mix is ready simply scrape it into a buttered (or cooking sprayed) 13 x 9 inch pan to cool patting down to even it out in the pan. Once the mixture has cooled and hardened simply take a sharp knife and cut into squares - or circles or flowers or whatever your channeled 8-year-old self would like.

Note: Rice Krispie Treats lend themselves well to doctoring. That means sprinkling them with colored sprinkles once you get them into the pan or adding chocolate or butterscotch chips to the mix as your folding in the krispies. Just tap into your inner child and let him or her be your guide. I’m thinking about that scene in Elf when Buddy (Will Ferrell) is pouring M & Ms and maple syrup and oreo crumbles on top of spagetti...yeah, THAT inner child.