Clearly I've done a terrible job at blogging about my new recipes but I want you to know I've been trying them every week. So here is my attempt to catch up .
Last Week
Last week I was in DC with a friend and we decided to make what she told me was the best chocolate cake on the planet. A chocolate hazelnut cake. The cake has a tbsp of coffee powder in it. We, knowing nothing about coffee, bought the smallest container possible (Like we'll need it again!) and I set to work. I should note that we also splurged and bought gourmet dark chocolate and milk chocolate for this recipe.
While putting everything together I thought everything smelled strongly of coffee, but I assumed it was because I don't drink coffee, don't have it around, and wasn't used to the aroma. After I put the batter in the pan I licked it. Coffee flavor no hint of chocolate. (Which, in my book, is disgusting. ) I had my friend take a lick and she agreed, but we both hoped it would be better after baking. We baked it, cooled it, added amazing milk chocolate frosting and a semisweet glaze. This cake looked beautiful. Then we took a bite. COFFEE! It turns out that the little container of coffee we bought .........was extra concentrated!
The Week Before That
Spicy Roasted Red Pepper Quesadillas
This recipe was a hit!! I served it with rice as a vegetarian main dish for dinner and it worked really well but it is also a good appetizer. One change though, the actual recipe calls for one small canned chipotle chile in adobo sauce. I used about a teaspoon of the sauce and that brought more than enough fire to the dish. Adjust for your own level of chile tolerance.
8 ounces jarred roasted red peppers, minced (Side note - roasted red peppers have become one of my favorite ingredients in just about anything. Sandwiches, pasta, quesadillas. Yum!)
1 tsp of adobo sauce from small can of chipotle chile with adobo sauce
1/2 clove garlic minced
2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro
Salt and Pepper
Flour Tortillas
4 oz Monterey Jack Cheese
2 tbsp vegetable oil
Combine red peppers chipotle sauce, garlic and cilantro in a small bowl and season with salt and pepper. Spread half the mixture over flour tortilla leaving one inch border. Sprinkle with cheese. Place the second tortilla on top. Repeat until ingredients are gone. Heat non-stick skillet to medium. Brush tortilla with oil and place in heated pan. Cook for 3-4 minutes and flip. Cook three minutes more. Repeat with all tortillas.
The Week Before That
Curried Apple Pasta. See here. :(
The Week Before That
Chocolate Sheet Cake
A hit! I made this for Savannah's birthday, and it is honestly the best 9 x 13 cake I have ever had. The New Best Recipe Book calls a sheet cake, "like a two-layer cake with training wheels, it is hard to fall off." I have to say though that their recipe for it is so good I've made it two more times since then. (During the most recent - again in DC, hoping to make a decent cake after the first fiasco - I put whipped cream on top, but the cake was still hot and the cream melted into the cake. While very sticky, it was still delicious.)
If you need to make a cake for a church thing, birthday, or just for kicks this is the cake to make! One note, just like with everything the higher quality ingredients you use, the better the flavor, but I did use chocolate chips for the semisweet chocolate and it still turned out amazing!
3/4 cup cocoa
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
8 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped
12 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup buttermilk (You can use 1 tbsp lemon juice and then fill the rest of the cup with milk and wait 10 minutes if you don't have butter milk.)
Preheat oven to 325. Grease the bottom and sides of a 9 x 13 pan. Sift together cocoa flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.Heat the chocolate and butter in a microwave safe bowl covered with plastic wrap for 2 minutes at 50% power; stir until smooth. (Repeat in microwave if necessary.) Whisk together the eggs, sugar, and vanilla in a medium blow. Whisk in the buttermilk until smooth. Whisk the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture until combined. Whisk in the dry ingredients until the batter is smooth and glossy. Pour the batter into the prepared pan; bake until firm in the center when lightly pressed, about 40 minutes. Cool on a wire rake until room temperature - at least an hour. Frost if desired.
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