Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Hawaiian Layer Bars #CreativeCookieExchange



A tropic twist of the classic layer bar, these chewy cookies are made with macadamia nuts, flaked coconut, dried pineapple and banana chips, baked on a crispy rough puff pastry base.

First, a confession: A couple of months back, when I read the theme for this month’s Creative Cookie Exchange – Layered Cookie Bars – I didn’t have a clue of what that meant. A quick search revealed deliciousness that I had clearly been missing all these years. Seven-layer bars, 10-layer bars, million layer bars! (That last one was an exaggeration, by the way.) They reminded me very much of Uncle Hector’s 100 Cookies with all the ingredient variations, but baked in layers instead of mixed together in a cookie dough. The bases varied widely as well: some crumb, some pastry, some cookie dough crusts.

I went to my baking cupboard and had a look through my potential ingredients. I have airtight plastic containers full of a variety of chips, dried fruits and nuts, all kinds and colors of chocolate and candies. I considered how many layers I could put together and it would have been impressive, although possibly still not one million. Instead, I decided to choose a theme, something tropical to celebrate the start of school and the end of summer holidays. And these Hawaiian layer bars were the result.

Ingredients
Rough puff pastry from this recipe or your own favorite
5 oz or 145g macadamia nuts
3 1/2 oz or 100g dried pineapple
3 1/2 oz or 100g sweetened flake coconut
3 1/2 oz or 100g sweetened banana chips
1 can (14 oz or 395g) sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated)

Method
Preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C and prepare your 8x12in or 20x30cm pan by lining it with baking parchment.

Roll the pastry dough out as thin as you can.



Take your fitted parchment back out of the pan and transfer the pastry to the center of the parchment. Trim edges straight with a sharp knife. This helps puffing.



Fit the parchment with pastry back in the pan. Dock the base thoroughly with the tines of a fork.



Bake in your preheated oven for 10 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven. The rough puff will have puffed somewhat in the middle so just use your fork to repeat the docking and it will deflate.

Reduce oven temperature to 350°F or 180°C.

Sprinkle on the layers. I wanted to see a little of everything on the top so I did layers but saved a little of each of the bottom layers to sprinkle again on the top.



Pour in the condensed milk, making sure to get some it all over and even into the sides and corners.



Bake again till golden, perhaps 20-25 minutes.



Enjoy!


I can't even start to tell you how chewy and delicious these were, a perfect blend on the crusty golden crust.






Check out all the lovely layered cookie bars we have for you this month! Many thanks to our organizer, Laura of The Spiced Life.





The Creative Cookie Exchange gets together once a month on the second Tuesday after the 15th to bake cookies with a common theme or ingredient. If you are a food blogger who would like to join us, please send Laura an email: TheSpiceLife(at)gmail(dot)com.

You can also just use us as a great resource for cookie recipes - be sure to check out our Pinterest Board and our monthly posts (you can find all of them at The Spiced Life).


For lagniappe - in southern Louisiana where I come from this means something extra, a little treat that's thrown in at the end.

Here's what to do with the rough puff scraps you cut off when making the layered cookie bars.



Cut the dough in short pieces and roll in cinnamon sugar. Lay out on a cookie sheet covered with parchment.





Bake with the base of the layer cookies above in your 400°F or 200°C oven.



Again, enjoy!


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Thursday, September 17, 2015

Graham Cracker Bundt with Chocolate Ganache and Toasted Marshmallow Frosting #BundtBakers

A s’more in Bundt form: This tender crumb cake is made with crushed graham crackers and chopped pecans, then covered in dark chocolate ganache. And, of course, the final ingredient has got to be marshmallows, so I added marshmallow frosting and toasted it with my handy kitchen torch.

Years ago, when I was a Girl Scout, I liked nothing better than to camp out with my fellow scouts – we were primarily a camping/hiking troop as we grew up and headed into high school – and the highlight of our trips was always the evening campfire, singing camp songs and roasting marshmallows for s’mores. Girl Scouts transformed me from the foreign girl to a friend, gave me my first real job out of college and helped me pass down skills and values to my daughters. But they also gave me a lifelong love and appreciation of campfires and making s’mores as a way of bonding in a group. Take this Bundt cake along to a potluck and see if folks don’t love you too!

The graham cracker cake is slightly adapted from this recipe from The Country Cook.
The marshmallow frosting is adapted from the boiled frosting recipe in Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook.

Ingredients
For the cake batter:
2 3/4 cups or 270g graham cracker crumbs (32 squares or two sleeves of the  three that come in a box) Good substitute: McVitie’s Digestive Biscuits
2 tablespoons flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup or 200g sugar
1/2 cup or 113g butter, softened
5 egg yolks (Save two of the whites in a clean bowl for making the marshmallow frosting. Make meringues with the other three.)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup or 240ml milk
1 cup or 120g chopped pecans

For the dark chocolate ganache:
200g dark chocolate
7 oz whipping cream

For the marshmallow frosting:
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons water
2 egg whites, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your Bundt pan by greasing and flouring it or spraying it with non-stick spray for baking. I used my classic 12-cup Bundt because I knew any pan details would be lost under the ganache and frosting but this would fit in a 10-cup Bundt pan without any problems.

If you are starting with actual graham crackers, pulverize them in a food processor or crush them into crumbs inside a plastic bag using a rolling pin.

Measure your flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon into the cracker crumbs and mix well.

Cream the butter and sugar until pale yellow and fluffy.

Add in 1/3 of the graham cracker mix and mix briefly.



Add in 1/3 of the milk and mix again. Continue adding 1/3 of the crumbs and 1/3 of the milk until it’s all mixed in.



Fold in the chopped pecans.



Spoon your thick batter into your prepare Bundt pan and baked for about 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. If you are using a small pan, it may take longer since the resulting cake will be deeper.



Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes before turning the Bundt out onto a wire rack to cool completely.



To make the ganache: Break or cut your chocolate into small pieces. Heat your milk till just at the point of boiling and then remove it from the stove. Tip in the chocolate pieces and give it a stir.

Let the chocolate melt for a few minutes and then stir vigorously to combine. Keep stirring occasionally as the ganache cools and starts to thicken. If you'd like it to cool more quickly, pour it out of the hot pot into a clean bowl.



To make the marshmallow frosting:
Heat your sugar, cream of tartar, salt and water and in a small pot until it begins to boil. Insert a candy thermometer and continue boiling the mixture, without stirring, until it reaches a temperature of 260°F or 127°C.

Remove the pot from the heat. Whisk your egg whites on high in your stand mixer or with electric beaters until soft peaks form.

Still whisking at high speed, pour the hot sugar mixture into the egg whites in a thin but steady stream until all of the mixture is incorporated into the egg whites. Continue whisking until the bowl is no longer warm to the touch.



Finishing up
Once your Bundt is cool and the ganache is a good consistency for pouring – that is to say, still thick enough to spread out a little but not thin enough to drip right off the cake – spoon it over the Bundt cake. You can test this by lifting up a spoonful and dropping back in the bowl. The ganache should not settle right back in but sit in a mound of the top briefly before, once again, becoming one with the greater bowl.


Let the ganache harden up further until it’s fairly well set before piping on the frosting. Use a piping bag and a large hole tip to pipe the frosting onto the top of the Bundt.



Use a kitchen torch to gently toast the marshmallow frosting. This was the best part! It smelled just like marshmallows on a fire!


I honestly had no idea what this layering of toppings would do over time so I am delighted to report that the cake, ganache and frosting and all lasted several days – until it was eaten – just as pretty as day one. Only one word of warning: You cannot cover it with cling film so a cake cover is your best bet for keeping it fresh. I tested a small corner to see and even though the toasted marshmallow frosting feels a bit dry to the touch, cling film will stick to it.



Enjoy!



Many thanks to our host for this Creative S’more Bundt cake challenge from this month’s BundtBakers host, Lauren at From Gate to Plate.

Check out all the creative s’more Bundts we have for you this month!

BundtBakers

#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our of lovely Bundts by following our Pinterest board. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

Updated links for all of our past events and more information about BundtBakers, can be found on our home page.


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Sunday, September 13, 2015

Gram’s Cajun Rice Dressing

Rice dressing with pork, beef, chicken livers and gizzards, seasoned with onion, bell pepper and garlic, just like my grandmother used to make it, hence the title, Gram's Cajun Rice Dressing! Some Cajun cookbooks call this “dirty rice” but in my family, we just call it dressing.



Many years ago my cousin, Simone, put together a family cookbook of favorites and kindly made copies to share with the rest of us. When the Sunday Supper theme for today was announced – National Grandparents Day – I knew that would be the best place to start looking for one of my grandmother’s recipe that I haven’t already shared. I’ve posted quite a few because those are ones I still cook all the time but I needed fresh inspiration. I’ll be honest, I hadn’t thought about my grandmother’s dressing in quite a while but as soon as I turned to that page, I knew I couldn’t make anything else.

Rice dressing was always a favorite on both of my grandmother’s dinner tables, making an appearance quite regularly not just for Thanksgiving or Christmas but often also on Sundays.

In the old days, they would grind the liver and gizzards at home in a meat grinder or asked the butcher to do it, but nowadays we use a food processor. In fact, to make it even easier, folks living in Louisiana can buy the “dressing mix” pre-made in every grocery store and my mom informs me that it’s even available in Houston.

If you aren’t a liver lover, you can leave it out, but I’d like to reassure you that with only four whole livers in all that rice and ground meat, the flavor is very, very subtle. I think they are essential to get the right flavor.

Gram’s Cajun Rice Dressing


This rice dressing makes me miss my grandmothers but it also brings back wonderful memories of them. This is the taste of home.

Ingredients
For the rice:
2 cups or 400g uncooked long-grained rice
1 1/2 teaspoon fine salt

For the roux:
1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon or 42g flour
1/4 cup or 60ml canola or other light oil

For the dressing:
8 chicken gizzards (about 4 oz or 115g)
4 whole chicken livers (about 4 oz or 115g)
3/4 lb or 340g ground pork
1/2 lb or 227g ground beef
1 large onion
1 small green bell pepper (capsicum)
1 small bunch green onions (plus more to garnish, if desired)
2 cloves garlic
Salt, black pepper, cayenne to taste
Roux
8 cups cooked rice

Method
Cook your rice with the salt by your favorite method. I’m not giving water amounts or cooking times since rice varies so widely. My grandmothers would have used a local Louisiana rice that was relatively short-grained but since I can’t get that in Dubai, I’ve used long-grained Indian Basmati. Long-grained rice fluffs up more so my two cups raw made eight cups of cooked rice.

While the rice is cooking, you can make the roux. Using the amount of flour and oil in the ingredients list, follow the instructions here: How to Make Roux. Set the roux pot aside to cool in a sink filled with a little cool water. You don't want it to continue to darken once it's done. Don't get any water in the pot though!

Put your gizzards in the food processor and chop them up finely. Add in the liver and give it another few pulses to chop the liver as well.



Add the oil to a large pot or pan and then tip in the ground pork, ground beef and your chopped liver and gizzards.



Cook over a medium heat, stirring occasionally, breaking the meat into small pieces with your spoon as it cooks.



While the meat is cooking, finely chop your onion, bell pepper, green onions and garlic.

Once the meat is well browned and even a little crispy, add in the chopped vegetables. Stir well.



Cook the mixture over a medium heat, stirring often, until the vegetables are soft and just about disappear.

Add in your roux and a cup or two of water and stir well. Season the mixture with salt, fresh ground black pepper and cayenne to taste. We like ours pretty spicy.



Lower the fire and simmer for a couple of hours, adding water occasionally when the mixture gets a little too dry. You want to end up with a thick meat-filled gravy.



Gently fluff your rice with a fork to separate the grains and then mix the rice in with the meat.



Garnish with some chopped green onions or parsley.

Enjoy!



What special recipes have your grandparents handed down to you? Here’s a list of favorites from my Sunday Supper family.

Sweets that are the Sweetest
Savory Meals with Special Memories



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