2010 in Pictures
It’s been another wonderfully sweet year for Nosh With Me. Many thanks to all of you who continue to follow along with my baking triumphs (and failures). Happy new year!
Asian Pear Tart and a Giveaway
Print This Recipe
The folks at Crave! at Work offered to send me a 10 pound bag of fruit to share with my coworkers and use for their recipe challenge, and I obviously couldn’t say no. When the bag arrived (filled with a few different kinds of pears, mini bananas, and chestnuts), everyone at the office kept saying how cute the mini bananas were, and one colleague couldn’t wait to swipe the chestnuts to roast at home. For some reason, I gravitated toward pears, a fruit I have never baked with nor liked. Call me crazy.
I was super excited when I found this recipe for an Asian Pear Tart in the LA Times, but found myself extremely disappointed when the end result was a very soggy tart. I tweeted to someone at the LA Times test kitchen and she said she will try the recipe and get back to me because she was curious about the method involved. Has anyone tried the recipe?
So, I ended up finding this “healthier” Asian pear tart recipe, and while it looks pretty, the dough was incredibly difficult to work with. I couldn’t get it to roll out and the amount of dough would never have even rolled to a 10 inch circle, so I ended up doubling the recipe and pressing it into a tart pan. I did however taste the pears, and what do you know–I actually like Asian pears, go figure!
While this recipe won’t win any ribbons, there is a prize for one of you! Crave! at Work is giving away a 10 pound bag of fruit to one of Nosh’s LA area readers. Just leave a comment below telling me your favorite dessert made with fruit and you will be entered in the giveaway to have fruit delivered to your office!
Contest ends at 11:59 p.m. EST on Wednesday, January 5, 2011. One winner will be selected at random shortly thereafter and contacted by email. Please note this contest is only open to Los Angeles area residents.
Ingredients
1 large ripe but firm pear, peeled and thinly sliced
1 teaspoon plus 1/3 cup all-purpose flour, divided, plus additional for dusting
2 tablespoons sugar, divided
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1 tablespoon cold unsalted butter
2 tablespoons walnut oil, or canola oil
1-2 tablespoons cold water
Preparation
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Toss pear slices, 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour, 1 tablespoon sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a medium bowl.
Whisk 1/3 cup all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour and the remaining 1 tablespoon sugar in a medium bowl. Cut in butter with a pastry cutter or a fork until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle oil over the mixture and stir with a fork until evenly combined. Add 1 tablespoon water and stir until the dough just stays together when pressed with a fork; add up to 1 additional tablespoon of water if the dough seems too dry.
Line a work surface with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat, generously dust with flour and turn the dough out onto it. Form the dough into a small patty, dust the top with flour and roll into a rustic 10-inch circle, adding more flour if necessary to prevent sticking. Transfer the crust to a baking sheet with parchment paper or baking mat in place.
Lay the pear slices in decorative, overlapping circles on top of the crust, leaving a 1-inch border around the edge. Spoon any remaining pear juice over the slices. Pick up the edges of the crust using a spatula and fold over the pears. The crust will not meet in the center.
Bake the tart until lightly browned and bubbling, about 40 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.
Recipe from Eating Well.
Mint Chocolate Delights
Print This Recipe
I wanted to love these cookies, I really did. I was so excited when I found the mint chips at the market and thought what could possibly be bad about chocolate and mint?
Well…these are just eh. The chocolate cookie is nothing special, the mint chips are barely visible, and the end product looks like a big chocolate blob. They didn’t spread at all and look nothing like the picture on the website. Disappointing, but maybe I was just having an off baking day. Has anyone made these before? What did you think?
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 2/3 cups (10-oz. pkg.) dark chocolate & mint morsels
Preparation
Preheat oven to 325° F.
Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels. Drop by well-rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.
Bake for 11 to 13 minutes or until cookies are puffed and centers are set. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.
Makes about 4 dozen cookies.
Recipe from Nestle.
Chocolate Chip Toffee Bars
Print This Recipe
Earlier this year I thought it would be a good idea to buy a bag of toffee bits larger than my head. I’m not quite sure why I thought I’d go through that many toffee bits, so now I’m on a hunt for toffee related recipes so I can start to use the bits up.
Fortunately, I came across this recipe. The bars are buttery, chewy, and delicious! I brought them into the office and they were gobbled up in no time. Be warned–they are rather rich, so cutting them in small-ish pieces is recommended.
Ingredients
2-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter or margarine
1 egg, slightly beaten
2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) dark chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided
1 cup coarsely chopped nuts (I omitted these)
1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk)
1-1/3 cups (8 oz. pkg.) toffee bits, divided
Preparation
- Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 13x9x2-inch baking pan.
- Combine flour and brown sugar in large bowl. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. (I used my hands to cut in the butter.) Add egg; mix well. Stir in 1-1/2 cups chocolate chips and nuts; set aside 1-1/2 cups mixture.
- Press remaining crumb mixture onto bottom of prepared pan. Bake 10 minutes. Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over hot crust; set aside 1/4 cup toffee bits. Sprinkle remaining toffee bits over sweetened condensed milk. Sprinkle reserved crumb mixture and remaining 1/2 cup chips over top.
- Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown. Top with reserved toffee bits. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars. About 48 bars.
Recipe from Hershey’s.
Sweet & Salty Brownies
Print This Recipe
There are two kinds of people: those who like cakey brownies and those who like fudgey brownies. If you like fudgey brownies, these are the brownies for you. If you’re like me and prefer cakey brownies, make this recipe instead.
I suppose the one good thing about not liking fudgey brownies is that I won’t be tempted to eat them at the office tomorrow. Anyway, if the recipe looks familiar, it’s because it’s basically the original Baked Brownie, minus the espresso powder, with an added middle layer of salted caramel, and topped with fleur de sel and coarse sugar. I’m kind of sad I didn’t like this more.
I feel the need to add that these brownies were an enormous hit at my office, and I received more than one email begging me to “TAKE THE BROWNIES AWAY” because they are so good. Like I said, some people are fudgey, some people are cakey. Less calories for me!
Photos of the process.
Salted Caramel Ingredients
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon fleur de sel
1/4 cup sour cream
Brownie Ingredients
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons dark unsweetened cocoa powder (I used black cocoa)
11 ounces dark chocolate (60-72%), chopped
2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
5 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Ingredients for Sprinkling
1 1/2 teaspoons fleur de sel
1 teaspoon coarse sugar
Caramel Preparation
In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar and corn syrup with 1/4 cup water, stirring them together carefully so you don’t splash the sides of the pan. Cook over high heat until an instant-read thermometer reads 350 degrees F, or until the mixture is amber in color, 5-7 minutes. Remove from the heat, slowly add the cream and then the fleur de sel. Whisk in the sour cream. Set aside to cool.
Brownie Preparation
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Butter the sides and bottom of a glass 9 x 13 inch pan. Line the bottom with a sheet of parchment paper and butter the parchment.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and cocoa powder.
Place the chocolate and butter in the bowl of a double boiler set over a pan of simmering water and stir occasionally until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and combined. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water of the double boiler, and add both the sugar. Whisk until completely combined and remove the bowl from the pain. The mixture should be at room temperature.
Add three eggs to the chocolate mixture and whisk until just combined. Add the remaining eggs and whisk until just combined. Add the vanilla and stir until combined. Do not overbeat the batter at this stage or your brownies will be cakey.
Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate. Using a spatula, fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until there is just a trace amount of the flour mixture visible.
Pour half of the brownie mixture into the pan and smooth the top with a spatula. Drizzle about 3/4 cup of the caramel sauce over the brownie layer in a zigzag pattern. (There will be sauce leftover. I may or may not have eaten it with a spoon.) Use an offset spatula to spread the caramel evenly across the brownie layer. In heaping spoonfuls, scoop the rest of the brownie batter over the caramel layer. Smooth the brownie batter gently to cover the caramel layer.
Bake the brownies for 30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time and check to make sure they are done by sticking a toothpick into the center of the pan. The brownies are done when a few moist crumbs are stuck to the toothpick.
Remove the brownies from the oven and immediately sprinkle the fleur de sel and coarse sugar over the top.
Cool the brownies completely before cutting and serving. The brownies can be stored, tightly wrapped at room temperature, for up to 4 days.
Recipe adapted from Baked Expectations via If You Give a Girl a Cookie.
