Random Cookbook of the Week - Old-Fashioned Desserts

OK, so it took me a week to get over my mourning for the BCS results and come back to the blog. At least the Seahawks are still in the hunt for a championship!

This was my second encounter with Betty Crocker's Old-Fashioned Desserts. You can read my first post about Peanut Butter Cake here. This time around, I tried another cake:

Lazy Daisy Cake

1 1/2 c. cake flour or 1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. sugar
3/4 c. milk
1/3 c. butter, softened
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
Broiled Coconut Frosting (below)

Broiled Coconut Frosting
1 c. flaked coconut
1/3 c. packed brown sugar
1/4 c. butter, softened
2 T. half-and-half

Heat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour square pan, 8x8x2 or 9x9x2 inches. Beat all ingredients except frosting on low speed 30 seconds, scraping the bowl constantly. Beat on high speed 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour into pan. Bake 35-40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Set oven to broil. Prepare frosting, spread over hot cake. Broil with top of cake about 4 inches from heat about 2 minutes or until frosting is light brown. Serve warm.

Like my last recipe from this cookbook, this was a nice, quick cake, not too sweet. Very buttery and vanilla-y, and my coworkers mowed through it, even ones who usually dislike coconut. Definite win.

Random Cookbook of the Week: I'm Just Here for More Food

This week I drew Alton Brown's main baking cookbook, I'm Just Here for More Food. He divides all baked good by their mixing methods--the Muffin Method, the Creaming Method, the Custards, etc.--and I decided it was high time I got in some more practice at the Biscuit Method

Blackberry Grunt

For the blackberry filling:
- 1 c. water (8 oz)
- 1 c. sugar (7.5 oz)
- 4 c. fresh or frozen blackberries (1 lb 3 oz)
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger (1/8 oz)

The dry goods:
- 2 c. all-purpose flour (9.5 oz)
- 2 tsp baking powder (1/4 oz)
- 1/4 tsp baking soda (1/8 oz)
- 1 tsp kosher salt (1/4 oz)

The fat:
- 4 T unsalted butter (2 oz/ 1/2 stick), frozen

The liquid:
- 1 c. buttermilk (8 oz)

Make the blackberry filling: Place the water, sugar, blackberries, and ginger in a Dutch oven and place over medium heat. Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, for 15-20 minutes, until the liquid is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Allow 5-10 minutes longer if using frozen berries.

Preheat oven to 400F.

While cooking the filling, assemble the dough via the BISCUIT METHOD, as follows:
- Scale or measure all ingredients.
- Pulse dry goods in food processor for 3-4 pulses, then move to a large bowl.
- Rub fat into the dry goods until about half the fat disappears and the rest is left in pea-sized pieces. Place in the freezer to keep the fat solid.
- Make a well in the center of the dry goods/fat mixture. Pour the liquid into the well and quickly mix using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon.

Drop the dough over the fruit mixture by the tablespoonful, evenly distributing it over the top. Bake for 15-20 minutes, just to brown the top of the dough. For a browner crust, brush with butter and broil until golden.

Remove the pot from the oven and allow the grunt to rest 10 minutes before serving.

This turned out DELICIOUS. However, the biscuit topping baked up just a little bit too heavy. I think I'm still overmixing the fats. Next time I make a biscuit dough, I'ma stop when I think it can't POSSIBLY be blended enough and see how it turns out.

Next up: The Gourmet Cookbook

Random Cookbook of the Week - The Gourmet Cookie Book

I'm more of a cook than a baker, so I was a bit dismayed when this week I drew The Gourmet Cookie Book: The Single Best Recipe From Each Year, 1941-2009. It's what it sounds like--one cookie recipe from each year of Gourmet's existence. It's fascinating to browse, since you can see how fashions in sweet treats changed over the decades, but since this is Gourmet we're talking about, many of the recipes are dauntingly complex.

I toyed with picking a recipe based on a significant year--my birthday, my husband's or daughter's, the year we married, etc. However, those years' cookies either looked beyond my skills or out of synch with my tastes, so I settled on the 1950 recipe.

Chocolate Wafers

- 3/4 c. butter
- 1 1/4 c. sugar
- 1 T. rum extract (I used 2 tsp. rum)
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 c. sifted flour
- 3/4 c. cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt

Cream butter, gradually add sugar, and cream together till light and fluffy. Add rum extract and egg and beat thoroughly. Sift together dry ingredients, then add to the wet ingredients gradually, mixing well after each addition. Roll the dough out 1/8 inch thickness on a lightly floured board and cut it with a floured cookie cutter into rounds about 2 1/2 inches in diameter. Place the rounds on an ungreased baking sheet in a 375 F oven and bake for 8 minutes.

I did fine with this recipe until the time came to roll the dough. On the advice of notes at the bottom of the recipe, I'd chilled it overnight in the fridge, and it was far too stiff to flatten out as much as needed. So I ended up rolling it into balls and pressing into rounds by hand. Not as pretty and uniform, but they baked up just fine:

This is a seriously rich and chocolatey cookie. I think I'd like it better if it were a bit lighter--more buttery, and with vanilla instead of rum, maybe. Which didn't stop me from eating half a dozen or so, however...

Random Cookbook of the Week - Peanut Butter Cake from Old-Fashioned Desserts

I decided to change my old 52 Cookbooks series to Random Cookbook of the Week--that way I get to drop the books I know don't work very well and keep the series going indefinitely.

I've got a list of 30 cookbooks and food blogs, which I'll add to as I find new books/blogs. Each week I'm going to draw one from random.org and cook from it unless it's utterly the wrong time of year. I'm not baking in a heat wave, since my kitchen has no AC; nor am I firing up the grill if my deck is standing in six inches of snow or being lashed by one of the November rainy windstorms that make late autumn in Seattle so delightful. But other than that, I cook from the randomly selected book, and make a recipe I've never tried before.

This week I drew Betty Crocker's Old-Fashioned Desserts, a 1992 cookbook I picked up from the bargain table at Border's in Philadelphia at some point in the early to mid '90s.  I've taken it with me on all my moves and often thought how lovely the illustrations are and how tasty the recipes sound, but never got around to cooking from it.  Today that changed when I made...

Peanut Butter Cake

1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
3/4 c. sugar
1/3 c. peanut butter
1/4 c. butter or margarine, softened
3/4 c. milk
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/4 c. peanut butter chips
1/4 c. semisweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour 9 x 1 1/2 inch round pan or 8 x 8 x 2 square pan. Beat all ingredients except chips on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on high speed 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour into pan. Sprinkle with chips.

Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean; cool.

This is about as simple as a cake made from scratch* gets.  It's not very sweet, though that depends to some degree on the peanut butter, I'm sure--I used Adam's No-Stir, which has no added sugar. But at least as I made it, it's more of a breakfast bread or coffee cake than a standard dessert cake.  I wasn't blown away by it, but it's so straightforward I'd happily make it again, especially for one of our midweek work potlucks.

*My mom liked to tell the tale of how when I was 4 years old or so, she took me grocery shopping and I eagerly pointed out a cake mix box that showed yellow cake with chocolate icing, my favorite childhood dessert. 

She said, "I don't use a mix. I bake my cake from scratch."

"Well, where's the scratch?" I replied, to the amusement of everyone shopping that aisle.