Ghirardelli Chocolate Chip Cookies

Whenever I get the chance to have a vacation out of the country, I always see to it that I visit their supermarket specially the baking section my favorite is the one in Hong Kong called City Super. The one I usually frequent is the on in Harbour City, the hotel that we usually stays at is very near there. What I like about it, is that it got this huge supermarket area! It actually looks cramp but every shelf if packed with different pantry items and there is a whole section dedicated to just baking ingredients and baking paraphernalia. One of my recent finds is the Ghirardelli 60% Bittersweet Baking Chips, I quickly grabbed several packs of it and headed to the cashier! Fast forward to few months after, those baking chips are quietly waiting to be used.

After much pondering, I decided to use these up in my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe which was featured here, many years ago. I loosely adapted my recipe from this. Every reader of my blog probably knows by now that I'm a Martha fanatic, so I often watch her show online and one of my favorite was when she and actor Greg Grunberg made Jacques Torres Secret Chocolate Chip Cookies, from time to time I like to rewatch that segment. This is one of those comforting but luxurious homemade cookies, luxurious because it uses A LOT of chocolates. This recipe uses a special chocolate chip which is sold only in JT's NYC Chocolate stores. NYC is million miles away from me so finding the perfect substitute for these has been one of my greatest mission. Yes, I take my cookies THAT serious.  I used to hand chop blocks of chocolate which when in a bind is a good alternative. But the best alternative I've discovered is the Ghirardelli 60% Bittersweet Baking Chips, the chips looks exactly like JT's, which are flat disk instead of mini little kisses. Lovely! It was such a nice surprised, I'm quite enamored with them! I asked people I know who are going to HK to buy me some. Luckily, my mom and aunt just went last week,  I have several packets of these yummy chocolates sitting in my fridge waiting for me.

I've always love this chocolate chip cookie but using 60% bittersweet chocolates makes it more chocolaty and more indulgent. The dark chocolate balance out the sweet cookies. Now that I found the perfect partners, I sure hope I could find these chocolate locally since I often bake chocolate chip cookie throughout the year.

That Chocolate Cake

I wish everyday is weekends! My favorite day of the week is Saturday because the next day is Sunday! Gives me an ample time to bake and lazy about in the house. Normally during Saturday night I go about indulging myself rifling through my extensive collection of cookbooks and finding that perfect recipe that inspires me to recreate in my own kitchen. During one of my spur of the moment, cookbook shopping expedition, I saw this book Essence of Chocolate by Robert Steinberg and John Scharffenberger. I quickly grabbed it and made a dash to the cash register. :D

I heard of John and Robert through Food Network. Years ago I chanced upon the food network show called Follow That Foodand in this case they where featuring American artisinal chocolate called Sharffen Berger created by Chocolatiers John Scharffenberger and Robert Steinberg. The show tells the story on how that company started and it showed that Robert and John are so passionate about their chocolates that they are after the quality of the chocolate that they create not the quantity so they are no way competing with chocolate giants like Nestle and Hershey's although the time when the show aired years ago, Sharffen Berger chocolates was just starting out but now it seems they have been quite successful and people love their chocolates specially bakers I think.

Unfortunately, Sharffen berger chocolates are not available in my local supermarket or in any specialty food store.  For the meantime, I have to settle on using locally available chocolates. Thankfully the cake still taste great! I bet it would taste better if I use imported chocolates which I would try next time. I love the fact that I was able to do this without dirtying up too many bowls. I didn't even need to bring out my stand mixer. I use just as whisk and a rubber scrapper in making the chocolate cake batter and use a hand mixer for the ganache icing. The cake turn out to be this dark intense chocolate which my family loves and the icing is thick, sweet, stick to your mouth whipped chocolate ganache icing! Love it!

THAT CHOCOLATE CAKE

Adapted from Essence of Chocolate

For the Cake:

• Unsalted butter and flour for pans
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1-¾ cups all-purpose flour
• ¾ cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1-1/2 tsps. baking powder
• 1-1/2 tsps. baking soda
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• ½ cup canola oil
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 cup boiling water

For the Frosting:

• 1-1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 5 ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
• 8 tbsps. (4 oz) unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch pieces
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly butter the bottom of two 9-inch round cake pans. Line the bottom with parchment paper, then butter and flour the parchment and the sides of the pans.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the sugar, flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder, and baking soda, mixing on low speed. Min in the eggs, oil, and milk.
   
3. Increase the speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes. Reduce the speed to low and mix in the water. The batter will be soupy.
   
4. Divide the batter evenly between the cake pans. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
   
5. Remove from the oven and cool on a cooling rack for 5 minutes, then turn the layers out onto the rack and cool completely.
   
6. When the cakes have cooled, check the frosting. It should have the consistency of mayonnaise. If it is still too thin, allow it to cool longer.
   
7. For the frosting: In a small saucepan, combine the sugar and cream and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce the heat and simmer for 6 minutes. Add the chocolate and butter and stir until melted. Pour into a bowl and stir in the vanilla.
   
8. To frost the cake: Place one cake layer on a serving plate. Spread the frosting with a hot palette knife or icing spatula to give the frosting a beautiful shine. Run the knife under hot tap water and dry with a towel. Spread about ¾ cup of the frosting over the top of the first layer. Top with the second layer. Spread the remaining frosting over the top and sides of the cake, heating the knife again as necessary.
   
   Serves 8 to 10

What happened???

As regular reads of this blog probably noticed that I love scouring second hand bookshops and look for a recent copy, eerrr...actually it's more like few months ago copy but anyway I still get them. During one of my expeditions I got all excited when I spotted on The Best of ATK 2011, I almost squeal and would have probably scared tons of people there, don't worry I managed to control myself and settled on just smiling from ear to ear :D I quickly went home and was reading it cover to cover. I had a hard time choosing what t try first but then again the chocolate fiend in me won and I made the cover recipe.

It was such an easy, breezy baking flow that I just couldn't believe it that it turn into something odd. NOT horrible because it was still very edible and quite tasty, however it just didn't turn out as I expected. The chocolate cupcakes are suppose to have this fudge filling in the center. While I was reading it I as doubtful that I would end up like ATK mag said so but since they have a test kitchen and the recipes are suppose to be perfect or near perfection. Setting aside my gut feeling I went ahead and did the recipe and guess what??? I was right! The fudge filling that suppose to be in the middle turned into a chocolate puddle at the BOTTOM of the cupcakes!!! Yikes!!! I got so disappointed in this that I didn't bother making the frosting and just feed it to my family au natural. It was a very messy eat but looks very promising since the cupcake itself is very moist and soft, I'll just have to tweak it a little bit...soon...after I wipe off this chocolate stain on my lips =>

Giant Oreoes

Giant Oreo anyone?

Look what I found!!! A Giant Cookie Cake Pan!

I used to go to my favorite local baking/cooking supply store almost weekly, but then I got so busy that I haven't been to the stores lately. Last Wednesday, I've been itching to visit the store luckily they have a branch near where I work so it's not so out of the way and got no excuse not to drop by, though it's not as if I needed one.

When I did dropped by, at first I was a bit panicky they are having a moving out sale! I was like "NOOOOO!!!! Where are they going????" I quickly asked the cashier person and she told me they will be moving to the newer wing of the mall. Phew! that's GREAT news actually much near to my work place. Now that I'm all calm, ready to look around and shop since everything, well...almost everything is on sale! I quickly look and see if the baking pans I've been eying are part of the sale, and they are!!! But then out of the corner of my eye I saw this Nordic Ware Giant Cookie Cake Pan! OMG! I want one! I first saw this pan online at Williams-Sonoma for years! and now they are here!!! With only 4 on stock, I quickly got myself one and can't wait to use it.

Now that I'm thinking on how to go about using this pan, I realized that I should have bought a pair instead of just one! Oh man..I'll try if I can manage to make a decent cookie cake with just one pan, because they are not really that cheap even though they are on sale. Wish me luck!

Blueberry Streusel Muffins

I have a confession I love LOVE blueberries! Whenever I go to the supermarket I always check it out for frozen blueberries. My blog is peppered with blueberry something desserts. Every blueberry muffin recipe that I find, I like to give it a try. For humongous delicious muffins, I always grab my go to which is Tish Boyle's. I even tried whole wheat muffin, trying to eat more healthy, unfortunately that didn't turn out good, a little bit dry and crumbly. THIS particular Blueberry Muffin is from Baking Illustrated, ha! I must admit that it took me so long to finally find a copy of this book that, it took me a while to chose what to bake first. I am one of those Cooks Illustrated fans, sadly not all recipe that I tried from it worked. So I'm quite happy that this being my first recipe from this book and it was a complete success.

These muffins are loaded with blueberries! I used frozen wild Maine blueberries they are small and sweet and not overpowering, each bite you get these yummy blueberries. My favorite part in these muffins are the crispy and crunchy streusel toppings. The recipe from the books provided more streusel than you can use in one go, I stored my in the freezer so that the next time I'm crazing for these muffins, I'm already half way there. :D