More Books

My heart goes pitter patter while my pocketbook groans from getting too much exercise. In a span of a month and a half I managed to haul in 11...ELEVEN books!!! I didn't realize it until now how much I spent on books in just a short period of time. I'm so out of control after my last purchased I promised NOT to buy anymore books for ATLEAST 2 months! I know...even as I wrote that down I am very doubtful but I have to perceiver, I'm trying to save up for a new Macbook since my current one is moving like an old lady. One thing I'm thankful for is that most new cookbooks comes out in autumn so I'm very hopeful that I can do it. Keeping my fingers crossed and testing my self control.

This whole dilemma started when I took my long overdue Christmas break. My family and I went to our favorite Christmas spot, Hong Kong, mainly to relax, sightseeing, shopping and of course visit my Aunt. Whenever I visit HK, I often drop by Page One to see what books they have on hand that we don’t have at home. Moreover, I  had a very valid excuse, my discount card is up for renewal so I don’t have a choice but to drop by even if I don’t want to (…with a sly grin). Most often I buy cookbooks I’m one of those people who reads on e-reader in my case an iPhone which are great for reading novels and occasional magazines subscriptions however when it comes to cookbook. I find it hard to appreciate it in that format. I still prefer my cookbooks in the thick and heavy hardboard format. I get to see the delicious and gorgeous pictures in full scale so I get a chance to appreciate it more. 

This cookbook shopping expedition, in my opinion I got myself 4 awesome books. (1) Bake! By Nick Malgieri. I got a chance to attend one of his demos years ago and most of what he showed then seems so easy and the way he explain things makes a lot of sense to me thus whenever he has a book coming out, I cannot hardly wait get my hand on it. (2) Baking by Flavor by Lisa Yokelson (Paperback Edition). I know…I know…it seems like ages ago when this book was released but then hardcover version here are way too expensive even if the book already looks a bit ancient. I mean I’m willing to shell out some of my hard earned moola for books but if I’m going to be paying on 20% off its retail value or its full priced then I need to have a book that feels, looks and smells new. No bargain looking books for me if I won’t be paying bargain too.  (3) Good Cookie by Tish Boyle (Paperback Edition). Being a self-proclaimed cookie fiend like me, I must have this and not only that I have been a fan of Tish Boyle’s work for as long as I can remember. I first knew her work as the editor of now defunct Chocolatier Magazine. I used to search for back issues of that said magazine and when I finally saved up enough to have my own subscription, guess what??? That’s the time the magazine closed its doors. By then I went nuts and search online for her recipes and try to emulate them. Then when I discovered she wrote several books and she has a blog! I was so giddy like a child and my admiration for her work continues. And lastly, (4) Vegan Cookies by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. I got curious and wanted to try it and see if it’s really much healthier than regular cookies and I assumed that vegan anything are much healthier than the regular kind, I got this as I try to attempt my first ever vegan cookies. I grasp my books tightly as I went along my merry way back to my hotel.

Fast forward to December 31 2011, the last day of the year, it was holiday so I didn’t have to report to the office. My parents went to the supermarket getting all the food and ingredients needed for our Noche Vieja a.k.a. New Year Eve Dinner. I was doing my usual window shopping. This usually leads me to another favorite bookstore of mine Fully Booked and I almost jumped for joy when I saw that Butch Bakery cookbook was available but it was way overpriced! If my memory serves me right I cost more than TWO THOUSAND PESOS!!! Yikes! I even asked the customer care maybe it was priced wrong since its retail price written in the back cover is only $19-$20. The lady from the counter told me that that’s what it cost but I asked why since other books cost at the same range of $19-20 cost less than 1,000. She told me that I should leave my number and as soon as regular work day starts, she will ask their main office. I even left her my number since she said she will be calling and update me.

New Year came and went, few days have passed and nobody called me from that store. Still fresh from my vacation, I kept telling myself give it time maybe they are just busy. However, it was almost a week and nothing coincidentally that same day my trusted online book provider emailed me informing me that the other book that I want is currently on hand. So I went online and check whether or not BB book is also available and guess what it is!  I quickly grabbed the phone and dialed my local bookstore following up my inquiry and guess what the girl was on leave and the person who answered the who is NOT at all polite she asked me to wait for more than 5 minutes and when she came back on the line she was all snooty saying it was really like that, that the girl I talked to noted that the price is correct. When I persistently asked her how come since other books at the same price range are a LOT cheaper, her only respond was that before they got the book it was already priced that way and when I asked why? Because I was really curious but when she gave this annoyed tone saying uh because of the publisher, they are expensive. I knew then that she was lying and got really turned off with the whole store. I’m not some gullible uneducated person that can be persuaded but such blatant lie! I mean it was already written in the back cover how much it cost in the US and now she was telling me it was because of the publisher??? How so?? I’m sorry but don’t I as the customer have the right to ask question. It’s not like I’m insisting for them to sell the said book to me at a lower price I just really wanted to know why.  L After that horrible incident I swiftly went through my email and searched for that newsletter from my online bookstore and placed my order that same day. It takes days even weeks to get to Manila but then my online bookstore doesn’t give me any hoity toity attitude. Ugh! Even writing about now makes me cringe! Happy thoughts…happy thoughts please…

Online shopping got me three new additions to my ever flowing bookshelves: (1) Zumbo by Adrian Zumbo. He is this celebrated Australian pastry chef being refer as Aussie’s version of Pierre Herme. I saw some of his handiwork in few episodes in Master Chef Australia. All I can say is impressive! (2) The Butch Bakery by David Arrick. Never having been able to travel to NYC, where could I’ve possible heard about Butch Bakery you asked? Well… Martha I believe. These manly flavored and looking cupcakes that easily captured the eye. No pastel looking cupcakes here all bold colors and the cupcakes it selves are flavored with Guinness and other bold flavor. Believe it or not most of their clientele are women! (3) Handheld Pies by Rachel Wharton. The idea appeals to me having my own individual serving of pie that doesn’t shape like a regular pie. Kind of like a toaster pastry but much better.  Trying not to set my expectations too high I might get sad if these didn’t live up to what I’m imagining. Few more days and these babies will here! So excited!

Last weekend was another fruitful book hunt, from my local used bookstore, I got Marion Cunningham's Good Eating. It’s a compilation of her 2 other books Suppertime and Breakfast time. For only ₱ 30 bucks this is a steal!

Sunday came and my window shopping escapade turned into book shopping when that said bookstore was on sale. Didn’t bother asking anyone from that store after that horrible experience, I don’t want to ruin my perfect day. From this visit, I went away with 3 selection: (1) Chocolate Dessert by Pierre Herme. I used to have a copy of this book unfortunately it was part of the old book collection that got flooded years ago. So I know it was an excellent book and since everything was on sale at 20% off, I seized the opportunity to change my old copy. (2) The Art and Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet. I saw a glimpse of this in Google Books, it was very informative and it peak my interest. It’s a huge, hefty and substantial book so I’m sure I’m going to love it. (3) Pot Pies by Elinor Klivans. This I got in the super discount pile, I got it at 80% off, less than ₱ 180 bucks. Sweet! Now since these are very heavy books I had them delivered to my house, I so love that free delivery once you reached a particular amount. Though it seems like they don’t advertise that service much because I only knew about it since I asked. Nobody ever informed me about it. Silly me used to lug around heavy books around, which was insane believe me. Now it’s just a waiting game for me…waiting for my books to come.

At this point, I probably talked your ear off and have absolutely nothing to say until the next post that is.  :)

Hi-Hat Cupcake

Growing up my favorite treat is the Mallows. Mallows is a biscuit based treat topped with marshmallow then covered with thin coating of chocolate, wrapped in silver aluminum foil.  Yum! One was never enough. I can easily eat 3 without feeling any guilt. During my grade school days, my weekly allowance was 500 pesos and most of the time I rather spend it on tasty treats like the Mallows rather than buying lunch. My pocket then was full of chocolates and girly hair accessories.

Fast forward to the present, after seeing Martha show wherein they featured the Elinor Klivans’ Hi-Hat Cupcake taken from Cupcakes! Book. It looks easy enough the chocolate cupcake is topped with fluffy marshmallow like frosting then when they are a bit dry, each are hand dipped into a rich bowlful of shinny chocolate. Set and enjoy! What could be better than that right? Well…I had to conquer my fears with making the marshmallow like frosting. I hate tinkering with a candy thermometer and I can never tell whether or not the mixture is hot or set enough, so I kept saying someday…someday I will make it. That someday finally came last Sunday, I finally sucked it up and made my very first marshmallow frosting.  The best way I think to tackle this problem is take it a step of the time, first I made the cupcake the night before and the next day, these little babies are ready to frost. I gingerly separated my eggs, fearing that a speck of egg yolk might accidentally be mixed in with my egg whites. That is a huge no no when whisking egg whites into the desire voluminous consistency, which is exactly what we need for this.

First I made the cupcake. I made double batch of the chocolate recipe from the same book because there is no way that 1 batch would be enough for my family. They came out soft and fluffy however I have a problem with the coloring. It is supposed to be chocolate but it turned out kind of light brown and lacks the rich chocolate taste that we often associate with chocolate. That is so weird, not at all what I expected. Such a disappointment, though I have a feeling it is indeed because of the chocolate. In other chocolate cupcake recipes that I have tried before aside from the recipe calling for chopped melted chocolate there is always few tablespoonful of Dutch processed cocoa which gives it its rich dark chocolate flavor and coloring. So next time I make this I will probably use other cupcake recipe. The marshmallow part is amazing! though I might be bias here since this is the first time I made marshmallow. The only thing I didn't thought of is that my pastry tip is way too small so instead of having gorgeous swirls, what I got are small squiggles but no worries when dipped in the chocolate they all look pretty. All in all it was worth all the prep work.

HI-HAT CUPCAKE
Adapted from Cupcakes! For the Batter

• 3 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup (1stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup sour cream

For the Frosting

• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 3 large egg whites
• 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. almond extract

For Chocolate Coating

• 2 cups chopped semi sweet chocolate
• 3 tbsp. canola or vegetable oil

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees with rack in center. Prepare the batter: Place chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl, and set it over a medium saucepan of barely simmering water; stir chocolate until melted and smooth. Remove bowl from heat, and set aside to cool slightly.
2. Meanwhile, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar on medium speed, scraping sides of bowl as needed, until light and fluffy. On low speed, mix in melted chocolate. Increase speed to medium, and add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add vanilla, and beat until mixture is creamy and color has lightened slightly, about 1 minute. Mix in sour cream. On low speed, add half of reserved flour mixture, beating until just incorporated. Mix in 1/2 cup water. Add remaining flour mixture, and mix until just incorporated.
4. Line a cupcake pan with paper liners. Fill each liner with enough batter to come 1/8 inch from top, about 1/3 cup. Bake, rotating pans halfway through, until tops are firm and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer cupcakes to a wire rack to cool in pan for 10 minutes.
5. Use a small knife to loosen any tops stuck to the pan. Carefully invert cupcakes onto the wire rack. Turn cupcakes right side up, and let cool completely.
6. Prepare the frosting: In a large heatproof bowl, combine sugar, 1/4 cup water, egg whites, and cream of tartar. Using a handheld electric mixer, beat on high speed until foamy, about 1 minute. Set bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Beat on high speed until frosting forms stiff peaks, about 12 minutes; frosting should register 160 degrees.on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla and almond extracts, and beat for 2 minutes more until frosting thickens.
7. Transfer frosting to a large pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch plain pastry tip. Leaving a 1/8-inch border on each cupcake, pipe a spiral of frosting into a 2-inch-high cone shape, using about 1/2 cup of frosting per cupcake. Transfer cupcakes to a baking sheet, and refrigerate while preparing the chocolate coating.
8. Prepare the chocolate coating: Combine chocolate and oil in a medium heat-proof bowl set over a medium saucepan of barely simmering water; stir until melted and smooth. Transfer to a small bowl, and let cool about 15 minutes.
9. Holding each cupcake by its bottom, dip cupcake in the chocolate to coat frosting, allowing excess to drip off. Transfer to a baking sheet fitted with a wire rack. Spoon more coating around edge of cupcake and any exposed frosting; none of the frosting should show. Let cupcakes stand at room temperature 15 minutes.
10. Carefully remove paper liners from cupcakes, and discard. Place cupcakes on a serving platter, and refrigerate for 30 minutes to let coating set. Cover, and refrigerate for 2 hours more. Serve cold. Cupcakes can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.

Bite Size Chocolate Chip Cookies

Regular readers of this blog probably knows by now that I'm a cookie monster! I love them big, chewy and chocolatety, I just cannot resist making this little cuties! They are so small that in 5 minutes they are baked and ready to eat! The recipe for these little babies are found in my previous Brookies post, yup these are the left over cookie dough from that project I just added a handful or so of mini callebaut chocolate chips. I know baking is precise however how can you go wrong with chocolates right? To make it extra special I used the soft easy melt kind that is why when they were fresh from the oven the chocolate is all melty and gooey. In other word, delicious! They are so small and dainty that you can easily pop them in your mouth though word of caution you might end up eating more than what you normally eat since its so tiny.

These are excellent with a tall glass of milk while watching The Good Wife, to be honest these are good accompaniment to any tv series or just having a quiet night at home :) So grab bag of chocolate chips and make these cuties. Enjoy!

Brookster or Brookie...whatever!

Thinking back, I've been baking for TEN years!!! Oh my! hehe...now I feel so old.

During my early years of baking, I started out though box mixes, not just any box mixes it has to be the toaster kind box mixes. Meaning they are 'baked' using an oven toaster. Yup I had many pitfalls with my toaster. The one incident that comes into mind was when the wax paper caught on fire!!! I know what you are going to say why the h... am I using a WAX PAPER??? Well, in my defense back then I had no idea what parchment paper is and I don't believe that they are. Watching local food shows they always said wax paper, it was just until few years back when parchment paper became readily available. Though a roll of it is quite expensive, nothing sticks to it! NOTHING! :D I usually reuse mine 3-4 times when I used it for baking cookies. In this economy there is nothing wrong with being thrifty. But every now and then I splurge! Just like this brownie - cookies combo aka Brookies!

Brookies are brownies with cookie in the middle. Not just any cookie though it has to be a chocolate chip cookie. More chocolate mixed into the mix the merrier. I can't take credit for these though, I was doing my weekly online window shopping at Williams-Sonoma, lucky me I stumbled upon Brookster pan and mix. I haven't made anything from a mix for such a long time every since I learned how to bake from scratch but these got me thinking :D They just look so yummy! Though quite expensive but looks worth it. As I was plotting how to get my hands on these, I seem to remember watching a Martha show where she and her guest made something like this. Like a little kid on christmas morning, I quickly did my search and viola! I saw it again! and guess who was her guess? none other than Matt Lewis from the uber popular Baked, Brooklyn NYC. 

The instructions for making these are a bit long and precise however its so easy you don't have to bring out the heavy KA mixer out, but if you want to its ok but be sure not to over mix these or else the cookies will be chewy like bread and brownies would be cakey. Definitely not the best texture when we say brownies and cookies. If you have time, don't forget to watch the video, its nice to see for yourself how they did these. Instead of using 4" pie dishes I used my muffin pan and lined them with muffin lines for less cleaning and better handling when its time to gobble them up. :)

• BROOKIES
• Adapted from Martha

Brownie Layer:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes, plus more for pie tins
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon dark cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 5 ounces dark chocolate (60 to 72 percent cacao), coarsely chopped
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup light-brown sugar
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Cookie Layer:

• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup packed dark-brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 6 ounces semisweet chocolate chunks or chips

1. Butter bottom and sides of six 4-inch-round pie tins; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and cocoa powder; set aside.
3. Melt chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl set over (but not touching) simmering water. Turn off heat but keep bowl over water; whisk both sugars into chocolate mixture. Remove bowl from water and let cool to room temperature.
4. Add eggs to chocolate mixture and whisk until just combined. Add vanilla and stir just to combine; do not overmix. Sprinkle flour mixture over chocolate mixture. Using a spatula, gently fold flour mixture into chocolate mixture until just a trace amount of the flour mixture is visible.
5. Fill each prepared pie tin halfway with batter. Place pie tins on a large baking sheet and transfer to refrigerator; let chill for at least 1 hour.
6. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda; set aside.
7. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and both sugars until smooth and creamy. Using a spatula, scrape down side of bowl; add egg and beat until well combined. Mixture should be light and fluffy. Add vanilla and beat just to incorporate, about 5 seconds.
8. Add half of the flour mixture and beat until just combined, about 15 seconds. Add remaining flour mixture and beat until just incorporated. Gently fold in chocolate chips.
9. Cover bowl and refrigerate at least 3 hours before using.
10. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
11. Using a 1/4-cup ice cream scoop with a mechanical release, scoop chilled cookie dough into six balls. Using your hands, shape dough to form perfect balls and gently form into a round disk that is slightly domed at the top; disks should be slightly smaller than the top of the pie tins.
12. Remove pie tins from refrigerator and gently press 1 disk of cookie dough into each tin of batter. Transfer baking sheet to oven and bake until cookie is golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through cooking time. Serve warm with ice cream or at room temperature.

Book Organizer

Like any other food lovers out there, it is safe for me to assume that you have an extensive collection of cookbooks. After the tragic typhoon Ondoy that came and went more than 2 years ago, after ruining my extensive collection of hard to find cookbooks, I'm happy to see that I'm regaining my footing and managed to rebuild my collection. Being a bit of an control freak I want to have a list on what books I have and want to have. I actually have an amazon wishlist of this but then I want an offline version of this and I found a freeware called Book. As you can see from the screenshot above the books picture as well as the book info were downloaded through amazon just buy inputting the ISBN number. How cool was that? Now my books are all organized and I'm loving it!