Mexican Chocolate Snickerdoodles

Whether snickerdoodles got their name from German or are a result of New England whimsy, they are a popular cookie in the United States.  Traditional snickerdoodles are a variety of sugar cookie that are rolled in a mixture of sugar and cinnamon before they are baked.  My mother makes some that are excellent, perhaps not as popular in the family as her sugar cookies, but still mighty tasty.  They are chewy and buttery and bursting with taste of cinnamon.  As much as I like those traditional snickerdoodles, I wanted something a little different, something a splash of port or a dram of whiskey might accompany.

Mexican hot chocolate, for those who haven't had the pleasure of tasting it, is made with chocolate and cinnamon.  That being the case, chocolate snickerdoodles seemed a logical mash-up.  For anyone who has nibbled on a block of Ibbarra, these snickerdoodles will remind you of that moment of stolen pleasure.  Crisp, deep chocolate flavor with a hint of heat and spice, these are a cookie for adults.  Kids would probably love them as well, but it may lead them down a dark path.  I'm not suggesting it will lead to heroin or stumbling out of midtown bars at 9 in the morning, but it will change them.  They will suddenly find Barney and Rachel Ray too perky and upbeat.  After eating these, they won't want those overly sweet, insipid store-bought cookies that they beg for like mutant dogs happy for some post-industrial chemical scrap made by indentured orphans in a pollutant spewing factory in a smog blackened city in northeast China.  So it's up to you whether or not you share these with your children.

Mexican Chocolate Snickerdoodles

printable recipe

Cookie Dough

1 3/4 cups (8.75 oz) all-purpose flour

1 stick (4 oz) butter, at room temperature

2 oz unsweetened chocolate

1 egg, room temperature

1  cup sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp ancho chile powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 cloves, finely ground

1/4 tsp salt

Sugar Coating

1/3 cup sugar

3/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Preheat your oven to 400º F.

To make the cookie dough, melt the chocolate and allow to cool.  Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl cream the butter and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.  Stir in the cooled chocolate and the egg and use the mixer to get a homogenous blend.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour and the remaining dry ingredients.  Add this to the chocolate mixture in two or three stages, mixing well to make sure all the flour is incorporated into the batter.

Scoop out pieces of the dough and form approximately 1" balls.  

In a small bowl, stir together the 1/3 cup sugar, the cinnamon, and the cayenne pepper.  Make sure you mix these together well.  Roll each ball of cookie dough in the sugar mix and place on parchment lined cookie sheets, spacing the cookies about 2 inches apart from each other.  Using the bottom of a glass, a bottle of scotch, a saucer, or some other handy object with a flat plane, press down lightly on each ball of dough.

Place the cookie sheets in the preheated oven and bake for approximately 10 minutes.  Slide the baked cookies onto racks to cool.  

Pour a splash of port, a dram of Scotch, or even a glass of hazlenut flavored soy milk and realize how lucky you are and how grateful you should be for this moment, no matter how shitty the rest of your life may or may not be.

Kue Soes Kopi Kapulaga--Cardamom Coffee Cream Puffs

 

As my blog is entitled Javaholic, many people assume that I focus primarily on coffee.  As much as I enjoy a good cup of coffee, which I do several times a day, this blog is more interested in exposing people to Indonesian food. However, after having gone more than two years without a post specifically related to coffee, I find myself having two coffee related posts this month.
 
When the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program offered interested bloggers a chance to create a post about a dish that would pair with some new blends Peet's was promoting, I leapt at the opportunity.  For one thing, I got two bags of Peet's coffee from the deal.  Yes, I can be had cheap.  I wouldn't have done it, however, if Peet's weren't already my choice for coffee.  It seems to be one of the few places where I can get a good cappuccino that is not just a frothy latté.  I also appreciate that it uses a lot of Indonesian textile motifs in its decorations.

The new blends--Café Domingo, which is a blend of Central and South American coffees, and Café Solano, which is a blend of African, Indo-Pacific and South American coffees--are medium roasts. Interestingly, Indonesian coffee drinkers tend to favor medium roasts.  During my visit to Kediri this past summer, my brother-in-law couldn't appreciate the dark roast Sulaweisi I brought, preferring a medium roast from Flores.  He would definitely appreciate the Café Solano.

I don't generally drink much coffee past noon, but I do enjoy it sometimes with dessert.  As one of the desserts that Tjing likes is kue soes, which is what Indonesians call cream puffs, I decided to make some with an Indonesian spiced pastry cream.  Topped with a simple dark chocolate sauce, these pair very nicely with the medium roast blends.

 Kue Soes Kopi Kapulaga--Cardamom Coffee Cream Puffs

1 cup of bread flour (although all-purpose will also work)

1 TBS sugar

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup milk

1/4 cup water

1/3 cup butter (5 1/3 TBS) 

4 large eggs (at room temperature)

Sift together the flour, sugar and salt.  In a medium saucepan bring the milk, water and butter to a boil over medium heat.  As soon as the liquid comes to a boil, dump in the flour mixture and stir well to form a soft dough.  Off the heat, stir in one egg at a time, making sure that each egg is thoroughly incorporated before adding the next egg.  By the time the last egg has been incorporated, the dough should be satiny and smooth.  Using a pastry bag or two tablespoons, place twelve balls of dough on a parchment or silicone lined cookie sheet.  Bake for ten minutes at 400º F, then lower the oven to 350º F and bake another 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown.  Cool before filling.

Cardamom Coffee Pastry Cream

1 1/4 cups whole milk

1/4 cup espresso

1/2 cup sugar

4 egg yolks

3 TBS corn starch

the seeds from 4 cardamom pods, finely ground in a mortar

1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg

Whisk together the egg yolks with the sugar until light and creamy.  Stir in the corn starch, making sure there are no lumps.  

Meanwhile, bring the milk, espresso, cardamom and nutmeg to a boil.  Pour the hot liquid into the egg yolk mixture while whisking steadily to temper the eggs.  Then add this back to the rest of the milk in the pan and stir over low heat for several minutes until it thickens.  Chill the pastry cream until you are ready to fill the cooled puffs.

Dark Chocolate Sauce

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1 cup whipping cream

8 oz dark chocolate (I use Trader Joe's) finely chopped

In a small sauce pan heat the corn syrup and whipping cream just until it comes to a simmer.  Pour over the chopped chocolate and stir to melt the chocolate.  Drizzle warm over the filled cream puffs.

Enjoy with a cup of coffee or the beverage of your choice.

 I'd like to thank Foodbuzz and Peet's for the coffee and coupons they sent me for taking part in this promotion.  

  

Mexican Spiced Lava Cakes

 Who doesn't like a lava cake?  Properly made, they are light clouds of rich chocolate with an oozing core of molten ganache.  While easy to whip up, they do require a reliable oven and careful attention to timing.  However, even if you miss the mark a little as I did with these, they still taste wonderful.  Chocolate with chocolate, butter, cream, sugar, flour and eggs, what's not to like?

These were another book club dessert.  They preceded a spirited discussion on home-schooling that nearly resulted in the dissolution of the book club.  As spirited discussions are no strangers to my family's get-togethers, I was surprised to hear several of the participants were too upset to want to continue to meet every six weeks or so.  I like to think I could even be civil with Dick Cheney were we to get together once every six weeks,  although I would ask him to check the shotgun at the door.  Matter of fact, it would be my pleasure to serve this dessert to Cheney, but he'd have to get his own transportation to the hospital if it triggered yet another cardiac arrest ; )

The book we had read for that night was The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver.  Since much of the book is set in Mexico, I prepared a Mexican meal for the night.  To give a Mexican twist to the lava cakes, I adapted a Ghiradelli recipe by adding some cinnamon and ancho chile powder to the molten centers.  Both complement the chocolate nicely and are not in such quantities that they overpower the chocolate, remaining more a back note than a jarring blast.

Mexican Spiced Lava Cakes

(makes 2, can easily be doubled or tripled)

for the molten centers
1 ounce dark chocolate (I used Trader Joe's Pound Plus 72% Belgian Dark Chocolate Bar)
2 TBS whipping cream
1 tsp ancho chili powder (available in Mexican markets and many supermarkets)
1/2 tsp cinnamon

for cakes
2 ounces dark chocolate
1/2 stick butter (4 TBS)
scant 3 TBS sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
2 TBS cake flour

To make the centers, melt the chocolate and whipping cream in a double boiler or in the microwave.  Stir in the ancho powder and cinnamon until completely mixed.  Chill this mixture in the refrigerator.  When chilled, form into two balls.

Preheat the oven to 400º F.  Butter 2 six-ounce ramekins.

Melt dark chocolate and butter together in double boiler or microwave.  Whisk to thoroughly incorporate the butter into the chocolate.

In a small mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to whisk egg, egg yolk, sugar and vanilla until light, about 5 minutes. Gently fold in the chocolate mixture and flour until just incorporated.  Pour the cake mixture into the prepared ramekins.  Press a chocolate ball into the center of each ramekin.

Bake about 10 minutes, until cakes are firm.  (My oven is terribly erratic, making it a guessing game each time as to when the cakes will be done, anywhere from 7 to 12 minutes. )  Let cakes sit on a rack for 3 to 5 minutes.  Run a knife between the edge of the cakes and the ramekins.  Invert a plate on each ramekin, flip plate and ramekin over, remove ramekin and serve.  Garnish with powdered sugar, raspberry coulis and fresh raspberries.

Strawberry Jam with Cacao Nibs

Probably like a lot of older bloggers, one of the first, perhaps the first, food blog that I became aware of was Chocolate & Zucchini, when I heard about it on NPR.  Clotilde's blog was (and is) a wonderful potpourri of fresh recipes and ideas presented by a charming personality who had a distinct voice.

One of the recipes that struck me was for a pear jam made with cacao nibs.  When I made a cherry jam for Steph Chows first Jam Exchange last year, I decided to try to incorporate some cacao nibs into one of the jams I made.  Following Clotilde's lead, I was conservative in the amount of nibs I used in the recipe.  While the lesser amount probably  was the right balance for a jam made from pears, I felt the cacao nibs were overpowered by the cherries.

I was slow at getting around to making the jam for this year's exchange, so I only made some strawberry and lemongrass jam in time for the exchange.  While neither my wife nor I generally eat much jam, once I'm making some I figure I might as well make some more.

Strawberries and chocolate are a combination I enjoy, so I decided to incorporate the cacao nibs into a strawberry jam.  Not wanting to repeat last year's mistake of being too timid with the nibs, I increased the amount to a full cup for the five half-pint jars the recipe makes. I also replaced six ounces of the strawberries with some raspberries I had in the house.  As much as I like the strawberry lemongrass jam, I like this combination even more.  The cacao nibs provide a depth of flavor to the jam, muting its sweetness.  This is a jam to savor with croissants or crackers, one that could even be enjoyed with a glass of port. 

Strawberry Jam with Cacao Nibs

printable recipe

2 1/2 pounds strawberries (I substituted 6 oz of raspberries for 6 oz of strawberries)

3 3/4 cups sugar

Juice of 1 lemon

1 cup raw cacao nibs

Give the strawberries a quick rinse under cold water.  Pat dry with paper towels and hull them.  Place the strawberries in a glass or ceramic bowl and stir in the sugar and lemon juice.  Cover with plastic wrap and allow to macerate overnight in the refrigerator. 

Pour the berry mixture into a deep saucepan and bring to a simmer.  Remove about two cups of the berries, then briefly use an immersion blender to get a rough puree of the berries in the pan.  Bring the liquid to a boil and cook to around 220º F, skimming any foam that rises to the surface.  Return the reserved whole berries and the cacao nibs.  Bring back to a boil on high heat and simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring gently.  Pour the jam into jars and seal following standard canning procedures.  This recipe makes 5 half-pint jars of jam.

Strawberry Chocolate Truffle Tart

 When our bookclub gets together, I am usually the one who brings dessert.  We used to be a larger group, with a much greater range of cooking abilities and tastes.  Over time life has intervened, one couple broke up and drifted away, another has found other interests, and what remains is a group who enjoy the shared reading experience and the excuse to get together every six weeks or so, but no real interest in cooking. One is still remembered at the staff lunchroom for devouring cans of Dinty Moore Beef Stew on an almost daily basis throughout the school year, and another does not cook for herself at all, living on tuna fish sandwiches, fast food takeout and raw vegetables.  In other words, they're an easy group to please; just about any home cooked dish wows them.

This strawberry chocolate truffle tart is an exercise in excess.  It's really an amalgam of recipes, with a chocolate crust, a rich chocolate filling, and a traditional glazed strawberry tart topping.  It takes a little time to pull together, but is not at all difficult.  It is impressive looking and quite delicious.

The chocolate crust is from Baking with Julia.  Essentially a pâte sucrée dough with 1/4 cup of cocoa powder replacing an equal amount of flour, it is an easy, forgiving dough to work with and produces a tasty crust.  A printable version of the recipe is here.

Chocolate Crust

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (Dutch-processed is recommended)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick (4 ounces) cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg yolk
1+ TBS ice water

Mix dry ingredients in a medium bowl.  Cut in butter.  With fingers, work butter into the flour mixture until you have a crumbly mixture.  Mound the mixture and make a well in the center.  Stir in the egg yolk  and ice water with your fingertips, like making pasta.  Add just enough cold water for the dough to come together; it should still seem dry and only just hold together.

Wrap the dough in plastic, flattening to a disk, and chill until firm. 

Preheat the oven to 350º F.  Lightly butter a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Roll out the chilled dough and place into the tart pan.  Prick the bottom of the tart all over with a fork.  Place the tart on a baking sheet and bake for 14 to 18 minutes, rotating half way through.  When done, remove and let the crust cool completely before filling.

Chocolate Filling

9 oz bittersweet chocolate (I used 60% cacao)
8 oz whipping cream

In double boiler above simmering water or in microwave, melt chocolate.  Add cream and stir until thoroughly mixed.  Filled cooled tart shell and chill in refrigerator for at least one hour before topping with strawberries.

Strawberries with Glaze

2 pints fresh strawberries, washed and hulled,  divided
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp cornstarch or tapioca starch

Puree 1 pint of strawberries in blender with sugar lemon juice and cornstarch.  Pour mixture into a small saucepan and heat over low until thickened and transparent.  (For a clearer glaze, puree strawberries and filter through a fine sieve before adding other ingredients.) Cool.

Slice remaining pint of strawberries in half and arrange on top of the chilled tart.  Brush glaze lightly over the top of the strawberries.

The tart is probably best served the day it is made.

Coconut Cream Puffs with Chocolate Caramel Espresso Sauce

Although my wife is not too fond of most western desserts, she does have an affinity for cream puffs. This, frankly, makes little sense to me since she doesn't care for whipped cream, chocolate, or most breads. She does like plain white bread and thinks it's marvelous how slices of store bought sandwich bread can be pressed down into little balls about a twentieth of their original size. She was thrilled when we were in San Francisco and came across a branch of Beard Papa, a cream puff franchise that apparently started in Japan. Of course, when you think of cream puffs, you naturally think of Japan, right?

In any case, I was trying to think of something my wife would like for dessert and I thought, "cream puffs." The puffs themselves are extremely easy to make, and I thought I could tweak the fillings to please my wife. Instead of doing a traditional pastry cream, I decided to use coconut milk.There's another change I'll add to the recipe the next time I make it, but since this one was for a teachers' meeting, I decided to be conservative.

The puffs are a little different from traditional choux paste. They use milk instead of water, resulting in a softer puff more like the ones made by the Japanese franchise. Other than that, the process for making them is the same.

The pastry cream is simply a traditional pastry cream made with coconut milk rather than regular milk. It would make a marvelous filling for a banana cream pie (or a coconut cream pie for those who prefer -- I don't like dessicated coconut in anything).

The chocolate caramel espresso sauce is simply gilding the lily. It's a simple caramel sauce made with a little espresso and some dark chocolate. I'm not sure the cream puffs needed it, but it was there for those who wanted it. For a dessert that can be easily made beforehand and assembled at the last minute, this comes across as quite elegant. More importantly, it is delicious.

Coconut Pastry Cream

1 can (1 3/4 cups) of coconut milk, I prefer Chaokoh brand
4 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar, divided
4 TBS cornstarch
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

Whisk together 1/4 cup of the coconut milk, 1/4 cup of sugar, cornstarch, and egg yolks in a bowl. Set aside.

Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean and add with the pod to the remaining 1 1/2 cups coconut milk in a medium pan. Stir in the other 1/4 cup of sugar and bring to a simmer over medium heat.

Whisk the hot coconut milk mixture and add about a quarter to the egg mixture to temper, whisking constantly. Add the tempered mixture to the sauce pan, still whisking constantly, and cook over medium heat until the pastry cream simmers and thickens. Next, remove the pan from heat, remove the vanilla pod, and whisk until the cream is smooth.

Transfer the pastry cream to a container and press a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the surface to prevent a “skin” from forming. Chill until cold and ready to use, at least four hours. The pastry cream can be kept for several days.

The puff recipe I found here at Epicurious.

Chocolate Espresso Caramel Sauce

3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
2 TBS strong espresso
1 ounce dark chocolate, melted
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 TBS unsalted butter

In a small saucepan, heat the sugar and water to a lively simmer over medium heat. It will take a while for the sugar to color; be patient. Once it starts coloring, watch carefully. Allow the sugar to become a walnut brown.  

Add the espresso and melted chocolate to the caramelized sugar. The mixture will bubble up dramatically before settling down. Stir in whipping cream and whisk until smooth. Whisk in butter and allow to cool. Spoon over the filled cream puffs or on the side.

Daring Bakers Challenge for July

The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.


One of the first things I learned to bake was cookies. I never cared for Oreos, Chips Ahoy, or other such cookies one could purchase in the typical American supermarket. They tasted of too much sugar and too many chemicals and the chocolate in them seemed to have trace amounts of heavy metal. I never bought into the Twinkie defense, but I could see how a steady diet of mass produced factory baked goods might sink one into depression. So I learned to bake my own, mostly chocolate chip and peanut butter. As much as I still enjoy a good chocolate chip or peanut butter cookie, I rarely bake them any more because I don't need to have a dozen or more cookies tempting me to eat them. I'd much rather fix something I can have a drink with than something sweet. It's all a matter of priorities.

So of course this month's challenge was cookies. And not just one recipe, but two, and each with its own chocolate covering or filling. Marshmallow cookies have never appealed to me. Even as a kid, I thought these were too sweet, too much an insidious attempt to disguise sugar in just another form. Milanos, however, were a different story. These were a factory baked cookie that I liked. Indeed, I think I have liked all the Pepperidge Farm cookies I have tried. Crisp thin buttery wafers sandwiching a thin layer of chocolate, Milanos go very nicely with a cup of coffee. Of course, one cookie provides something like half the recommended caloric intake for an active teenager for a day--and I am neither a teenager nor particularly active, so I have done my best to stay away from these cookies.

I halved the recipes for the cookies and ganache for the Milans, but wish I had halved the ganache recipe again. While it is very tasty, it makes far more ganache than is needed to fill the cookies. My recollection of the Pepperidge Farm Milanos is of a very thin layer of chocolate. The Gale Gand Milans were delicious, but make sure your gym membership is up to date or you have a horde of children to devour them unless you want to gain a quick five pounds.

The Mallows, a cookie base topped with homemade marshmallow and dipped in chocolate, resemble s'mores in taste. The cookie base is not too sweet and complements the marshmallow and chocolate. Although the process of making these cookies is quite involved, they were not terribly difficult.

One of the problems I have with the Daring Bakers challenge is that I would not normally post a recipe that I had tried just once. I think I really need to try almost any recipe several times before I am comfortable with it. However, I am not about to make eight dozen cookies to get all the details right. I think the marshmallow topping would have been better if the instructions had suggested letting the sugar/corn syrup mixture cool for twenty minutes or so before whipping with the egg whites, or else letting the whipped mixture set for some time before topping the cookies. Also, although I made just a half recipe of the cookies, I had 3 dozen cookies. The full recipe states it makes about two dozen cookies--something is wrong here.

Of the two cookies, I definitely preferred the mallows. I don't know that I would make them again anytime soon, but they were a tasty cookie. The Milans were ok, but truthfully, Pepperidge Farms makes a superior cookie.