Nutella Brownies

I came across this recipe on Leite’s Culinaria who got it from a Gourmet 1998 article detailing the history of gianduia, otherwise known as chocolate with finely ground hazelnuts, in the Piedmont region of Italy. The editors of Gourmet pronounced these “the best brownies you will ever taste.” I may not be the best person to critique, since brownies are not my first dessert of choice, but I gotta tell ya, these are pretty damn good. Besides the obvious ingredient of Nutella, the recipe adds in chopped bittersweet AND milk chocolate, AND a generous helping of toasted hazelnuts.

The icing on the cake here (so to speak) is the utter ease of the recipe. Everything gets combined in one bowl with the melted chocolate, and then loaded into a baking pan. Facilmente!

I served them to dinner guests,
along with coffee and after-dinner drinks, and they were pronounced a hit! They are everything I would want in a brownie: chocolaty (duh), nutty, fudgy, and oh so moist. So if no less an authority than the late, great Gourmet Magazine proclaims these the best brownies ever, who I am to judge? I’m just here to eat.

Print recipe here.

Toffee Cookies with Dark Chocolate Glaze

These weren't on my baking list from the last post, but I came across this recipe on the wonderful Leite's Culinaria and they sounded so good I decided they deserved a spot on the list. By the way, if you don't already subscribe to David Leite's newsletter, I suggest you hustle on over to his site and sign up (the site has all kinds of fabulous recipes and great giveaways).

This recipe is from the cookbook Salty Sweets by Christie Mathieson. I am usually not drawn to toffee recipes, but something pulled me to it and I'm so glad it did. The cookie is rich and buttery (good just on its own -- well, I had to be sure it was worthy of the chocolate, didn't I?), and then you add this lovely layer of dark chocolate, top it with chopped, toasted pecans, and just the barest sprinkle of sea salt...need I go on? I'm sure no one is even reading the rest of this post because you are all running to the kitchen to gather the ingredients for this delectable cookie. That's OK, I'm not hurt. Go forth and bake!

Printable Recipe


Toffee Cookies with Dark Chocolate Glaze

Makes 20-24 Cookies

1 C unsalted butter

1 C packed dark brown sugar

2 egg yolks

2 C all-purpose flour

1 t sea salt

4 oz bittersweet chocolate

1/4 C chopped, toasted pecans

Preheat oven to 350. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter and brown sugar. Add the egg yolks one at a time and mix well. Combine the flour and salt in a small bowl, then add the flour mixture to the butter-sugar mixture, mixing until well combined.

Shape the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for 10 minutes.

Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to about 1/4 inch thickness. Cut out circles with a 2-inch round cutter and place cookies on baking sheet.

Bake the cookies for 11-13 minutes, until the edges are golden brown. Let cool completely on the baking sheet. Bring water to a simmer in a double boiler, or set up a heatproof bowl over a small saucepan with water in the bottom. Melt the chocolate over the simmering water. When the cookies are cool, spread them gently with a thin layer of melted chocolate. Before the chocolate dries, sprinkle lightly with the pecans and a few grains of fleur del sel. Let the chocolate set. The cookies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Cranberry-Orange Pecan Bread (and other assorted stories)

Well, it's been awhile since my last post, but I've not been idle. Let's see, I've been to Maine and back, I had an exquisite lunch at Vita in Basking Ridge, and enjoyed some fun and tasty pre-theatre dishes at Bar Breton in NYC. And, of course, I have a delicious recipe to share with you. Where to begin?

Let's start with the northeastern most state in the union: the Pine Tree state (or its advertising slogan "Vacationland"); yes, I'm talking about Maine. It was only a short trip a couple of weeks ago, but the weather was beautiful and there were still some nice foliage views to be had. We took a ride along Rt 15 through Penobscot and Orland to Castine, home to the US Maritime Academy and quaint New England architecture. No real food stories here as it was post-season and other than Dennett's Wharf, nothing was open. But a picturesque ride nonetheless.

We again enjoyed a terrific dinner at Red Sky in Southwest Harbor - see earlier post here. I love the warmth and personal attention you get here from the owners.

A lovely find for lodging has arrived in Belfast: the Belfast Bay Inn. Belfast is a charming little town about two hours north of Portland (and very close to our home in Stockton Springs), full of artsy-type shops, a very cool martini bar called 3 Tides, and a great vegetarian restaurant (Chase's Daily), but no decent lodging. Finally, someone has seen the light and opened a luxury all-suite boutique hotel on Main Street. That someone is Judy and Ed Hemmingsen, former owners of the award-winning Bluenose Inn in Bar Harbor. They took an historic building and transformed it into exceptional accommodations. If you find yourself in the Belfast area and want to wrap yourself in comfortable luxury for the night, please visit the Belfast Bay Inn. Now all we need in Belfast is a high-end restaurant, the likes of Primo in Rockland or Francine in Camden, and Belfast will become a destination for like-minded travelers.

In geographic order, New York City is next. We had a great time at a (way) off-Broadway play called "Penny Penniworth," an hysterical send-up of every Dickens story you've ever read. The play closed last weekend after an extended run but the cast is hopeful that another production company will pick it up soon. If it returns, don't miss it. Before the play, we had dinner at Bar Breton, a nice, little brasserie-style restaurant in Chelsea. Gallettes are the house specialty - buckwheat crepes with an assortment of savories. We had the special which was filled with short ribs - delicious. Entrees sampled included the hangar steak, and pan-seared cod - all very good.

Finally, making our way back to New Jersey in this culinary travelogue, I am thrilled to tell you about a fabulous lunch at Vita Restaurant in the Dolce Hotel in Basking Ridge. I had lunch "in the kitchen" of Vita, sitting up close and personal, to take in all the action of a delicious lunch presentation by Chef Paul Bogardus and his talented staff. We began with an appetizer of Warm Crab Cake with Roasted Corn, Porcini and Ricotta Fondue. This was followed by a main course of Mushroom and Plum Stuffed Roasted Pork Loin with Pancetta and Rosemary Grits and Pomegranate Glaze - doesn't

this sound like the perfect Fall dish? Dessert was (as they say) the pièce de résistance: the Art of Flambe with House-made Crepes - classic crepes suzette, cherries jubilee, and bananas foster - oui! Everything was just divine. If you find yourself in the Basking Ridge area, put Vita on your short list of must-visit restaurants.

And in preparation for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, I will leave you with a lovely little bread - perfect for a quick nosh with coffee before you get started on the day's cooking, or add some freshly whipped cream and serve it as part of your holiday dessert offerings. This Cranberry-Orange Pecan Bread comes from one of my favorite food sites, Leite's Culinaria.

From the cookbook, Grand Central Baking, the batter goes through a number of whippings to incorporate the wet and dry ingredients, and it produces an extremely ethereal batter - when you look at it, it almost resembles a yeast dough (see picture).

Light in texture, not too sweet/not too tart, and like a bonus, the recipe makes two loaves. So you can pop one in the freezer to enjoy at a later date.

I'll be taking my frozen loaf with us to the islands where we'll be celebrating Thanksgiving on the beautiful, warm beaches of St John.

I doubt I will have time for another post before we leave, so I will wish you all now a very Happy Thanksgiving! May your table be full of happy friends, loving family, and good food.

Cranberry-Orange Pecan Bread

get the recipe here!

Visions of Cookies

I've been having trouble sleeping. And when I'm not sleeping, I'm having visions. Not of sugarplums, but of cookies. For the last few weeks, I've been seeing a cookie in my head, a cookie that has been calling to me. A cookie that is chewy and thick with good "stuff." I'm talking about oatmeal cookies here. Just say the words "oatmeal cookie" and people kind of fall apart. It connotes all sorts of warm and fuzzy thoughts. And who couldn't use some warm thoughts in today's ever so chilly economic climate (more thoughts on how to combat this cold environment in a future post).

I think oatmeal cookies are alot like chocolate chip cookies; that is, people have distinct preferences about their likes and dislikes. And I'm no different. I like my cookies with "stuff." Don't give me a plain old oatmeal cookie. Give me nuts, give me some kind of dried fruit, give me coconut. Yes! I want texture and flavor galore.

Now, I suppose I could buy this cookie somewhere, but that wouldn't be any fun. So today, on this rainy, chilly day, in between getting our taxes together, I decided to make this ultimate oatmeal cookie. And where better to start than with the recipe from that kindly Quaker Oats man (see any Quaker Oats product for picture of said man). I mean, there's no reason to totally reinvent the wheel here; I think it's safe to say the Quaker Oats people know how to bake an oatmeal cookie. But their recipe didn't have a whole lot of stuff (only raisins). And in the visions I'd been having, my oatmeal cookie had pistachios and coconut. I toyed with the idea of cranberries or craisins, but in the end I decided to stick with raisins.

One other thing I did differently than the QO recipe was to chill the batter for a couple of hours before baking. In a landmark article by David Leite for the New York Times, David details the need for letting cookie dough rest 12-36 hours to give it time to absorb the liquid. If I had started this on Friday or Saturday, I could have given the dough the full recommended resting time, but I got to this on Sunday afternoon. So my dough only rested two hours. Still, they came out great. Some of them had a lacey quality to them - not what I was going for, but delicious nonetheless. Others were the holy grail of oatmeal cookies - thick, chewy, redolent with cinnamon, with the wonderful texture of coconut and the salty crunch of pistachios. Look at that photo above of the cooling cookies - just look at the "stuff" jutting out. This is an oatmeal cookie!

If you want to experience my ultimate oatmeal cookie, the recipe is below. Or go forth and conjure up your own true vision. Then let us know what kind of cookie visions keep you up at night.

The Cook's Tour Ultimate Oatmeal Cookie

2 sticks butter, softened

1 C firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 C granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 t vanilla

1-1/2 C all-purpose flour

1 t baking soda

1 t cinnamon

1/2 t salt

3 C quick or old fashioned oats, uncooked

1 C raisins

1 C sweetened coconut

1 C shelled pistachios, roughly chopped

Heat oven to 350F. Beat together butter and sugars until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt; mix well. Stir in oats, raisins, coconut, pistachios; mix well.

Drop by rounded tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheet; remove to wire rack. Makes about 4 dozen.