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Black Bean Brownies

30 Aug

I am always amazed when a brownie or cookie recipe calls for anything less than a stick of butter. Usually you see a shocking 2 sticks of butter!

As a pastry professional, I’ve learned to get over my fear of using generous amounts of butter. That’s just how the cookie crumbles in that world. But at home, I try to only use butter when I can really make it count. Less is more. I want to treat myself, but still look good, ya dig my flow?

Black beans are the new applesauce when it comes to baking. Their dark color blends in perfectly with the chocolate, and they’ve got protein and fiber that are not only good for you, but help retain the whole rich-dense brownie thing.

I live with 3 dudes who dove head first into these fudgy squares. Dudes are into black bean brownies. It especially helps to put walnut studs, extra chocolate chips, and some coarse salt on top.

I don’t have a food processor. I hope you have one because it makes life easier. If you have one, just give the beans a whir. If you are like me and do not have one, you can smash your beans with a fork or your fingers, or pour your beans into the melted chocolate/butter mixture and then use an immersion blender and get it as smooth as you can. It’s ok if there’s a little texture. It all gets baked up and masked by the chocolate anyway.

Note that I first tried to blend my beans in my blender, but the blender was too large for the small amount of beans and nothing was happening. Moral of the story, buy a food processor. I just like to take the hard way, mostly because I have no room for another kitchen gadget in my apartment.

Black Bean Brownies

makes 9-12 brownies

adapted from Joy the Baker

1/4 cup (half a stick/2 oz) unsalted butter, plus more for greasing the pan

3 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped

2 oz of the darkest dark chocolate you can find (think 72% and up), chopped

2 large eggs + 1 egg white

1/4 cup black beans, rinsed, drained, and pureed in the food processor

1 cup + 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 cup (155 g) all purpose flour

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

walnut chunks, chocolate chips, and coarse salt for sprinkling on top (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter an 8-inch (9-inch is ok, too) square baking pan and line it with parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on all sides. Butter and flour the parchment paper as well.

In a small bowl, sift together all of the dry ingredients: flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Set aside while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

Fill a medium saucepan with 2 inches of water. Bring the water to a simmer. Place the butter and chocolates in a heat-proof bowl. Place the bowl over the simmering water and stir until the chocolates and butter are melted and combined. Carefully remove the bowl from the saucepan and let it cool for a minute or two.

Whisk the eggs and white into the chocolate/butter mixture, one at a time. Next whisk in the pureed beans, sugar, and vanilla extract.

Dump the sifted dry ingredients into the mix all at once and fold and incorporate everything together with a spatula. Once thoroughly combined, pour the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle with walnuts, chocolate chips, and coarse salt, if using.

Bake the brownies for about 25-28 minutes. Note that brownies are better slightly underdone than overdone. Right? Right. Let the brownies cool on a wire rack for 10-20 minutes, then lift them out of the pan using the parchment overhang. Slice and enjoy.

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White Chocolate Sorbet (with a splash of amarula liqueur)

11 Jul

It can be tricky to keep chocolate around during the summer heat. It might melt and goop up, or it might bloom to an unappetizing texture and taste.

Cold, silky, frozen chocolate sorbet, on the other hand, is where the party’s at. This white chocolate sorbet is made with good-quality white chocolate, whole milk, just 1 tablespoon of sugar, a splash of vanilla, and a little shot of liqueur.

No egg yolks, no cream, and just a touch of sugar. After all, while we want to satisfy our sweet tooth, we don’t want to totally bust our belts…(never-mind that white chocolate is mostly made of cocoa fat).

I know there is a band of white-chocolate haters out there. If you’re not into it, maybe I can convince you to try this Bittersweet Chocolate Sorbet. It might just blow your mind.

Since the majority of the sorbet’s flavor will come from the white chocolate, I would splurge and buy a hunk of high quality stuff. Most gourmet markets will carry the good stuff. I purchased my chocolate at Westside Market in NYC, but I know that Whole Foods carries good brands, too. I used Callebaut chocolate (Valrhona is another popular brand). Oh, and maybe it is the professional/restaurant pastry-mind in me, but we always buy a hunk and chop the chocolate ourselves (…but hey,don’t sweat it, I won’t tell anyone if you buy chips, no big deal, it all gets melted anyway).

I added slightly less than a shot of amarula to the sorbet base.  Amarula is a South African cream liqueur that (as per wikipedia, and I agree) tastes like a slightly fruity caramel. I love to drink amarula with (preferably crushed) ice and some coffee. Oh baby! You can recognize the bottle easily because of the big elephant on it.

In addition to the subtle flavor it lends to the sorbet, the alcohol is used for texture. Sorbet is not as rich as ice cream, and it can become quite firm after spending a night in the freezer. Alcohol does not freeze, so it will keep the texture of the sorbet nice and soft. David Lebovitz offers some helpful tips on his blog on how to keep homemade ice cream soft. And instead of amarula, you could use a light rum or a splash of amaretto…

White Chocolate Sorbet (with amarula liqueur)

from David Lebovitz, originally from Gale Gand

makes slightly less than 1 quart

1 1/2 cups (375 ml) whole milk

2/3 cup (160 ml) water

1 tablespoon sugar

2-3 tablespoons amarula liqueur (a little less than 1 shot)

1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise (or 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or extract)

8 ounces (225 gr) best-quality white chocolate (I used Callebaut brand), finely chopped

1. In a medium saucepan, warm the milk, water, sugar, vanilla, and amarula until it’s almost to a boil.

2. Remove from heat and add the pieces of white chocolate, whisking until they’re melted. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a large bowl set within a larger bowl of ice water. (If using a vanilla bean, rinse and air-dry it, and reserve it for another use.)

3. Stir the mixture until cool.

4. Freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

(Note: If you chill the mixture in the refrigerator for several hours, there’s likely to be a white chocolate disk hardened onto the surface of the mixture when you go to churn it, so it’s recommended to freeze it just after it’s been chilled over the ice bath.)

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Easy Peasy Pasta + A Glimpse At My Life In A Restaurant

17 Jan

Easy Peasy. Dinner in a pinch.

Drop your pasta into salted boiling water. Add a few handfuls of frozen peas in the last 3 minutes of boiling. Saute a few minced garlic cloves in a skillet and add fresh spinach with a tiny splash of water. Cook down and add a can of drained and rinsed chickpeas. Season with salt, pepper, lemon zest, lemon juice, and chili flakes. Dump the pasta and peas into the skillet, mix everything together and top with grated Parmesan cheese.

For when you want a healthy, no fuss meal thrown together quickly by taste.

After spending most of my nights making the desserts at Print restaurant, on my days off, all I want is a quick home-cooked meal. I crave salt, I crave savory, but below I want to show you a tiny glimpse of some of the sweet things I do at work.

Every night before the restaurant opens, the staff has the opportunity to eat a meal together. We call it “family meal.” Usually the meal is something super simple that can be thrown together quickly: think chicken and rice or pasta. There is always a salad. The pastry team tries to offer something sweet for family meal, too, sometimes. Lately we have been making Horchata. Mexican Rice Milk with cinnamon. We based our recipe off of David Lebovitz. Just a yummy drink to start the night off.

One of the first things I tackle when I arrive at work is preparing for the next morning’s breakfast service. We (in pastry) make muffins and scones and coffeecakes, yogurt (from Argyle farms in NY) and fruit parfaits (topped with homemade granola), and fresh fruit plates. We offer two flavors each of muffins and scones every morning. The scone pictured above contains walnuts, Asian pears, and flaxseeds. Check out that seductive sugar sprinkle on top. Hellooooo coffee and a pastry!

After I finish preparing for the next morning’s breakfast, I begin to set up for dinner service. We currently have 6 desserts on the menu. Above you see our most recent addition to the dessert menu: Hazelnut Parfait, Maple Yogurt Mousse, Grappa Candied Chestnuts, Espresso Syrup. There’s all sorts of warm and cool, soft, creamy, and crunchy to this dessert. Mmm mmm winter wonderland.

And when you get your coffee or when you order some house made ice cream, you get to try our rotation of biscotti. We are currently serving pistachio polenta biscotti with dried cherries. Dip and go.

Sometimes there are large parties eating at the restaurant. We offer a special dessert menu for these parties. One of the desserts consists of chocolate hazelnut mousse, fleur de sal, hazelnut streusal, poached pear halves, brown butter ice cream, and chocolate decor. I would describe chocolate decor as tempered chocolate cut into shapes. There’s all sorts of heating and agitating and spreading and cooling. It’s a science that I have yet to perfect. But it sure tastes good along the way.


I feel like I have to leave you with a savory item from the restaurant. The burger is on our lunch menu and sometimes pops up on the dinner menu. This gargantuan meat stack has cornichons, pickled red onion, gooey cheddar, bacon, tomatoes, lettuce, and a toasted bun. Ah, swoon.

So now you have seen a tiny glimpse into restaurant dessert/food. Tiny.

And people always ask me how I don’t gain a zillion pounds working in pastry. I answer with: the stairs, the heavy lifting, the stirring, the rolling…I get quite the workout. So a few nibbles and tastes won’t spiral me out of control. I am constantly moving. And we work with so many fresh, local ingredients that I feel pretty darn good eating what I want.

An At-Home Beauty Product Experiment + Chocolate Dipped Apricots With Sea Salt

20 Dec

Last night I put a combo of oats, wheat germ, and cornmeal on my face. Today after showering I rubbed a mix of pumpkin puree, vanilla yogurt, and honey on my face. Yes, I put food on my face. The experience was…weird.

The oats/cornmeal/wheatgerm were mixed with water into a paste which I then rubbed on my face. It felt gritty. It looked totally wacko, it kinda smelled, it looked like I took my morning oatmeal and put it all over my face.  My roommates were making fun of me. But hey, I figure that I have a dry winter ahead of me and I should exfoliate my face once in a while? Luckily I am blessed with naturally good skin and don’t do much else than soap and water with some moisturizer. Not sure that I will keep up this new beauty routine, but it was still fun to try it out.

Cereal Grain Face Exfoliant

from EcoBeauty

2 T. rolled oats

2 T. cornmeal

2 t. wheat germ

Mix everything together and store in a jar or airtight container. To use, combine 1-2 teaspoons of the mixture with 1-2 teaspoons of water to create a paste. Gently rub onto your face and wash off with warm water.

The pumpkin pie facial was another wacky experience. I stirred together 1/4 cup of pumpkin puree (from the can), 2 T. vanilla yogurt, and 1 T. honey and put about 1 teaspoon of the mix on my face after I finished showering. I waited about 10 minutes then washed my face with warm water.

So I think I am done experimenting with my face, but next up I am looking into this brown sugar coconut oil hand and foot scrub. Working in a restaurant 5 nights + cooking at home does quite the job on my poor hands and feet (I am in want of cute rubber gloves for dish washing at home!).

I would now like to discuss these chocolate dipped apricots with sea salt. This is a holiday treat that you can feel good about. Dried apricots have fiber and vitamin A and iron and are a nice alternative to the mounds of cookies and cakes that you will see during the holiday season. Dipped in whatever chocolate you fancy (dark, semi-sweet, milk, white…) and sprinkled with a dash of sea salt, these orange beauties are made to please.

I tried to open my apricots up with my fingers before dipping to make things easier. I purchased my apricots from Trader Joe’s.

A little sweet, a little tart, a tad salty. These are great as gifts or as a snack to place on the table after dinner when company is over. When I was in school, my friend Alison’s mom would send her a care package during finals and she almost always threw in chocolate dipped apricots. These were not just any old apricot, but the juiciest freshly dried apricots from B&R farms in Hollister, CA. SO GOOD! Alison was always kind enough to share with me and it was these apricots (+a little studying) that got us through finals.

Chocolate Dipped Apricots with Sea Salt

1 lb of dried apricots

1 lb of chocolate

flaky salt, such as Maldon

Have a sheet tray lined with parchment paper ready. In the microwave or in a bowl over a pot of simmering water, melt the chocolate. If using the microwave, vigorously stir your chocolate every 30 seconds.

Quickly dip you apricots in chocolate, either just the tips or the entire thing and then lay on the parchment. Note that you may need to reheat the chocolate if starts to harden midway through dipping. Sprinkle with sea salt while the chocolate is still wet.

Once finished, place the baking sheet in the fridge or freezer so the chocolate hardens.


Jewish Cookie Love: Rugelach

4 Oct

Homemade Rugelach. Little Jewish crescent cookies filled with jam, nuts, and/or chocolate! A crowd-pleaser like you wouldn’t believe.

The dough is a combination of butter and cream cheese mixed together with some sugar, vanilla, salt, and flour. You chill the dough in disks, then roll out each disk, spread with filling, cut and roll into cute crescent shapes.

The filling could involve jam (many like to use apricot preserves, but I went with a mixed berry jam), cinnamon sugar, nuts, dried fruit, chocolate, or all of the above.

I remember back in the day when I was a novice baker, I made some whole wheat fig rugelach from a Whole Foods recipe. Those particular rugelach were not crescent shaped; I rolled them into logs and then cut the logs into 1-inch cookies. Yes, there are 2 different ways to shape rugelach. I remember making those fig rugelach over and over again for a long time.

Sorry fig rugelach, but there’s a new cookie in town.

I found my new go-to rugelach recipe: Ina Garten, you did it again. You wooed me with another of your baked goods recipes (also see: Brownie Pudding Amazingness).

I have a feeling that I will be making these cookies again, very soon.

Rugelach

**the recipe looks long and daunting. It is actually quite easy and a fun process albeit a bit messy. Ina and I just want to be thorough with the directions so you feel confident in your rugelach-making. And don’t forget that you can get creative with the fillings!

recipe from Ina Garten

makes 4 dozen cookies

Dough:

8 oz of cream cheese, at room temperature

8 oz unsalted butter (1/2 lb, 2 sticks), at room temperature

1/4 cup plus granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups (310 g) all purpose flour

Spread:

jam or preserves of your choice OR melted butter

Filling:

6 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/4 cup light brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 cup chopped walnuts + 3/4 cup raisins

OR 1 cup chopped chocolate

Sprinkle:

1 egg, lightly beaten

3 tablespoons of granulated sugar + 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Cream the cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light (I did everything by hand). Add 1/4 cup granulated sugar, the salt, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour and mix until just combined. Dump the dough out onto a well-floured board and roll it into a ball. Cut the ball in quarters, wrap each piece in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

 To make the filling, combine 6 tablespoons of granulated sugar, the brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, the raisins, and walnuts OR chocolate.

On a well-floured board, roll each ball of dough into a 9-inch circle. Spread the dough with 2 tablespoons jam or preserves or melted butter and sprinkle with 1/2 cup of the filling. Press the filling lightly into the dough. Cut the circle into 12 equal wedges—cutting the whole circle in quarters, then each quarter into thirds. Starting with the wide edge, roll up each wedge thinly. Place the cookies, points tucked under, on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Brush each cookie with the egg wash. Combine 3 tablespoons granulated sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon and sprinkle on the cookies. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until lightly browned. Remove to a wire rack and let cool.

OPTIONAL: Instead of sprinkling the cookies with cinnamon sugar, just do the egg wash, wait until the cookies have baked and cooled, then dust with powdered sugar.

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