Donors Choose Social Media Challenge

During the month of October, Nosh With Me will be participating in the DonorsChoose.org’s Social Media Challenge! Donors Choose is a charity that that funds classroom projects in public schools, using the Web to match teacher project requests with donors. Nosh With Me has selected two projects to try to fund.

The first project is requesting 27 copies of I Never Saw Another Butterfly, an incredible collection of poems and pictures written and drawn by children in the Terezin Concentration Camp during World War II. The second project is requesting 20 sets of knives for a culinary class in which many of the students are hoping for scholarships to attend culinary schools after high school.

There are many, many, other projects that need funding, and it would be amazing if we could fund the first two and move on to a third, fourth, or fifth! *So, as an added incentive to give to a good cause, all readers who donate via the Nosh With Me giving page will be entered in a contest to win a dozen cookies, baked in the Nosh With Me kitchen! Donating is easy–simply click on the link in the sidebar (over there to the left, then scroll down) and you’re all set. Let’s help some kids! And if you know of a project you think I should add to the Nosh With Me giving page, please let me know.

*U.S. and Canada only.

Milk’s Ooey-Gooey Double-Chocolate Cookies

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There’s an amazing bakery/restaurant a couple of miles from my apartment (and also directly across the street from my former Weight Watchers meeting location, how cruel) called Milk. They serve all sorts of salads and sandwiches, but what they do best are desserts, specifically ice cream treats and cookies. My favorite is their coffee toffee crunch ice cream sandwich–a huge scoop of their homemade coffee toffee crunch ice cream sandwiched between enormous Parisian macarons. And if I ever become successful at making macarons, you better believe I’ll put ice cream between them.

In the meantime, I decided to give another Milk favorite a try. These cookies live up to their name–they’re ooey, gooey, and very, very chocolatey. Unfortunately, mine came out kinda ugly and looking absolutely nothing like the ones at the store or in the picture, but they taste pretty damn good and will satisfy any chocolate craving! I’m not a milk drinker, but these cookies were so rich they were screaming “drink milk!” to me. I also think eating them warm with ice cream would suffice too (you can get them like that at the shop).

Photos of the process here. Also, I doubled the recipe because I’m bringing them to a party.

Ingredients
1/4 pound (4 ounces) unsweetened chocolate
4 tablespoons ( 1/2 stick) butter
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 pound bittersweet chocolate (chunks or chips)

Preparation

1. In a bowl set over a pot of simmering water, melt the unsweetened chocolate and butter. Remove from the heat and cool slightly.
2. In the bowl of a mixer with a paddle attachment, or in a large bowl using a fork, combine the eggs, vanilla and sugar. Mix just until incorporated and set aside.
3. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl. Set aside.
4. Add the melted chocolate to the egg mixture and mix just until combined. Stir in the sifted dry ingredients and mix just until combined, then stir in the bittersweet chocolate.
5. Cover the batter with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour to chill thoroughly. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
6. Divide the dough into 18 portions. Grease your hands (to prevent the dough from sticking) and shape the portions into balls. Place the balls on a greased, parchment-lined sheet pan, leaving 2 to 3 inches between each.
7. Bake until the edges of the cookies are just set and the center is still soft, 10 to 12 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through. Place the cookies, still on the parchment, on a rack and cool completely before serving. They will be very soft.

Yields 18 cookies.

Recipe adapted from Milk, via the LA Times.

Chocolate Brownies with Caramel Fleur de Sel Swirl

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Whomever first thought it was a good idea to marry chocolate, caramel, and sea salt deserves a hug. A HUGE HUG. Even a kiss. And some kind of foodie award. These brownies are amazing! They’re chewy and cakey (think box mix texture), sweet, gooey, and salty. In one word: PERFECT.

Make these now. You won’t regret it!

Note: If you prefer your brownies dense and fudgy, use this recipe and make sure to double the amount of caramel and sea salt.

Photos of the process here.

Ingredients
4 squares unsweetened chocolate (4 ounces)
1 cup unsalted butter
2 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
5.5 ounces thick caramel sauce (I used Smuckers hot caramel topping)
3/4 teaspoon flaked sea salt

Preparation

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-by-13-inch pan.
2. Melt chocolate and butter over low heat in a large saucepan. Beat in sugar and eggs.
3. In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt. Stir dry ingredients into the chocolate mixture. Stir in nuts, if using.
4. Pour half the brownie batter into the prepared pan. Drop half of the caramel sauce over the batter in dollops.
5. Swirl into the batter. Sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon flaked sea salt. Pour the remaining batter over the caramel and spoon the remaining caramel sauce in dollops over the top. Swirl into the batter and sprinkle the remaining 1/2 teaspoon flaked sea salt over the top.
6. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until the top has a dull crust and a slight imprint remains when touched lightly. Cool slightly and cut into squares.

Recipe adapted from OregonLive.com.

Challah

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Challah is an egg bread traditionally eaten on shabbat (the Jewish sabbath) that is similar in texture and taste to brioche, but is made without milk or butter. For shabbat, challah is usually braided using three or six strands, and on Rosh Hashana, it’s usually twisted in a circular shape (to symbolize the cycle of a year, as Rosh Hashana is the Jewish new year). And often times the bread is sprinkled with sesame or poppy seeds.

As a kid, I ate my sandwiches on challah or challah rolls. And my mom always used it when she would make us french toast. Seriously, challah makes for the most incredible french toast! But the best way to eat a challah? The way my family does it now–rip into it and tear out the insides, leaving a shell of the crust. Mmm.

This recipe, while time consuming, was pretty simple and oh so good! (In fact, I’m going to make a few loaves for Rosh Hashana later this month.) The bread is soft and chewy with a nice crust and the dough was easy to work with. There’s a lot of sitting and waiting, so it’s best to do it when you have stuff you can complete in spurts while waiting for the dough to rise.

Finally, I halved the recipe (because I was trying out different recipes) but this is so good you should make the full recipe and freeze one loaf.

Photos of the process here.

Ingredients
1 1/2 packages active dry yeast (1 1/2 tablespoons)
1 tablespoon plus 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil, more for greasing bowl
5 large eggs
1 tablespoon salt
8 to 8 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Poppy or sesame seeds for sprinkling (optional)

Preparation

1. In a large bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 tablespoon sugar in 1 3/4 cups lukewarm water.
2. Whisk oil into yeast, then beat in 4 eggs, one at a time, with remaining sugar and salt. Gradually add flour. When dough holds together, it is ready for kneading. (You can also use a mixer with a dough hook for both mixing and kneading.)
3. Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead until smooth. Clean out bowl and grease it, then return dough to bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour, until almost doubled in size. Dough may also rise in an oven that has been warmed to 150 degrees then turned off. Punch down dough, cover and let rise again in a warm place for another half-hour.
4. (I tried this but got entirely too confused and just braided it with three strands, the same way you braid hair.) To make a 6-braid challah, either straight or circular, take half the dough and form it into 6 balls. With your hands, roll each ball into a strand about 12 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide. Place the 6 in a row, parallel to one another. Pinch the tops of the strands together. Move the outside right strand over 2 strands. Then take the second strand from the left and move it to the far right. Take the outside left strand and move it over 2. Move second strand from the right over to the far left. Start over with the outside right strand. Continue this until all strands are braided. For a straight loaf, tuck ends underneath. For a circular loaf, twist into a circle, pinching ends together. Make a second loaf the same way. Place braided loaves on a greased cookie sheet with at least 2 inches in between.
5. Beat remaining egg and brush it on loaves. Either freeze breads or let rise another hour.
6. If baking immediately, preheat oven to 375 degrees and brush loaves again. If freezing, remove from freezer 5 hours before baking. Then dip your index finger in the egg wash, then into poppy or sesame seeds and then onto a mound of bread. Continue until bread is decorated with seeds.
7. Bake in middle of oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until golden. Cool loaves on a rack.

Yield: 2 challahs.

Joan Nathan recipe from The New York Times.

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