Celebratory Food
Anyone who just conceivably might be feeling a trifle dry and sardonic about my poor neglected web site . . . we’re working on it. Blogmom–Sitemom?–only got the CHALICE cover art jpeg today because I only got it today so you see Blog/sitemom has been faster than a speeding dangerous laser ray getting the thumbnail changed here. And the site . . . well there have been various obstacles, not least trying to find a site design that is plain in the right way.* This too as of today has been accomplished. So keep watching this space.
Meanwhile, I think what we need is some Celebratory Food.
Vikkik has sent us:
White Choc and Apricot Brownies
2oz white choc (1)
2 eggs
3oz flour
2&1/2oz butter/margarine
8oz sugar
1/2 level tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
4oz dried apricots (chopped)
Heat oven to 350F/Gas Mark 4/ 180C.
Grease and flour an 8inch square cake tin
Melt choc and butter together
Whisk eggs and sugar together until light
Add the choc mixture
Sift in flour, baking powder and salt (2)and stir in
Add the apricots
Pour into cake tin and bake for around 30 mins (3)
(1) This is one case where I’d advise against using Green and Blacks – The only time I’ve ever had a disaster with this recipe (and this is my standard brownie recipe with white choc substituted for dark and apricots substituted for raisins) was earlier this year when I used C&B white choc, and it came out as a complete flat failure which I had to throw away…
(2) or just throw in without sifting, this works too ;-)
(3) my oven is fan assisted and they generally cook in about 20 mins
I do use Green and Blacks when I want white chocolate but I think white chocolate is tricky stuff anyway and maybe that day the weather was really heavy and humid and the chocolate was sulking and didn’t mix with the butter right, or maybe it took exception to your stirring, which in my experience needs to be very gentle and very thorough–far more of either than you need bother with with good old mellow black chocolate. I don’t know if anyone out there has more experience of white chocolate, or can recommend a reliably good-natured brand of the stuff.
Anyway this put me in mind of my white chocolate brownie . . . er . . . chocolate whiteys recipe. The original is from a cookbook you’ve heard from before: Rosie’s All Butter Fresh Cream Sugar-Packed No Holds Barred Baking Book by Judy Rosenberg. I am, however, shameless, and I wanted even more chocolate in mine, so that’s what I did. These aren’t even cake any more: they’re very squodgy.
8 T (1 stick) slightly salted butter
8 oz white chocolate
2 large eggs at room temperature
1 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla (maybe a scrap more. This does vary with your brand of chocolate, but you don’t know till you’ve tried. With Green and Blacks I use about 1 ¼ tsp)
1 c all-purpose white flour
Butter and flour a 9 inch square pan.
Melt butter in the top of a double boiler over simmering water. Break up the chocolate in small pieces and add gradually as the butter melts. Stir gently and thoroughly. It should be perfectly homogenous when you take it off the heat. If it shows signs of separating, stir it some more (gently).
Beat eggs vigorously. You can do it by hand but this is one of those cases where an electric mixer is probably better. Beat till frothy and then add sugar in a slow stream, beating like mad the whole time. Scrape down the sides of your bowl a lot too. Rosie says the whole process should take about two minutes. I never count, but it takes a while. But the result should ‘ribbon’ if you pour it off a spoon. Add the chocolate mixture in a very slow stream, with your electric mixer on low, if you’re using one. Once it’s all incorporated I take the mixer out and use a spoon for about ten seconds to sort of reassure myself it’s all gone together neatly.
Then mix in the flour. I stick to the spoon. You can use your electric mixer if you want.
Pour into the pan. 350° for about half an hour. The original recipe calls for 325°, which I find too low, but you certainly don’t want it more than 350°, so if you have an iffy oven, err on the low side. It’s not going to rise a lot, and it’ll probably be slightly hollow in the middle, but it will set and look done, and it shouldn’t be a solidified puddle in the bottom of the pan either. On the other hand, maybe I’m just strange, and I really like heavy dense things. Well, yes, I do, since you mention it. But feel free to experiment, and maybe raise the flour and lower the chocolate and make it a cake again.
And since I didn’t use it last time, and for any of the rest of you who saw the original, frowned in puzzlement, finally said ‘oops’ and passed on:
Melanie
I can’t believe it, but Jennie pointed out that my recipe for Pine nut rosemary shortbread that I posted under “Let them eat cake” didn’t include either pine nuts or rosemary. So fussy. ** So here’s the corrected ingredients list:
My Family Nearly Lynched Me For Making Something Fattening They Can’t Resist Pine Nut Rosemary Shortbread
1 3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup rice flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter (the good stuff)
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup toasted pine nuts
2 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary
zest of one lemon
I was originally going to post my chocolate-layer shortbread too, as additionally celebratory, but I’ve decided I’m fat enough for one evening. I’ll post it some other day. . . .
* Who invented the virtual dog-eared page corner as a cute design feature?
** Gods help you if you misidentify a plant. They send out the army, these guys.
comments
Please join the discussion at Robin McKinley's Web Forum.
Oooh, yay getting on the website stuff! I was just there earlier to see if anything had changed. :P
My Website Kitty used one of the WordPress templates as my site thinganummy, which allows me to update it easily (like updating the pages on your blog here) and without pestering her. I wonder if something like that would work for you and Blog/Sitemom. If you like, I’ll email her about it and try to explain what Website Kitty did for me. (Though I bet Blog/Sitemom will know much better than I do. You only THING I was born knowing how to drive a computer.)
The brownies look wonderful. I think I gained a pound reading the recipe.
Yes, I gained SEVERAL. Hence why I didn’t post that last recipe. :(
If you don’t mind, yes please write just an inquiry, maybe, to Blogmom. She knows how desperately stupid I am about computers and will I imagine be able to say at once if there’s any point.
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Oh! And it’s the weekend here now, so I have lots of time to bake.* On the other hand, we had a French cooking class on Christmas in Alsace** last night and I don’t think we’ll be hungry for some days.
* Well, a bit of time.
** Duck terrine on little toasts, with stuffed olives
Stuffed mushrooms wrapped in bacon with walnut and rocket salad
Kaiser Flieche (sp?) baked with cherries
Chocolate and chestnut terrine
Pear and something tart
One of those traditional German time Christmas ring cakes
Pot au chocolat
Little meringue bits stuck together with cream
Creme caramel
Mulled wine. Oh, the goodness of mulled wine.
Ratbag. So go do your homework, and send us some RECIPES. :)
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Crumbs! My recipe made it into a Robin blog post!
*goes all shy and embarrassed*
I’m not fond of white chocolate, but this actually looks good. Anything with apricots is a winner in my book, anyway.
Speaking of books, my compliments to Blogmom, your new thumbnail looks great, and there’s the handy link to Amazon and everything. Chalice is on my wishlist just to remind me, but I probably will go buy it at Borders, or the Barnes & Noble in the next town if Borders doesn’t cooperate, on the day so I can devour it immediately.
White chocolate is a whole different thing. I do like it broken up as bits in cookies, but I think I like it best as The Reason for Squidginess, as in my recipe and I assume Vikkik’s.
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WHITE chocolate? I’m astonished and, possibly, appalled
Can we substitute REAL (AKA dark) for the white?
A baker here (in Melbourne, Australia) makes white chocolate blondies. I think that’s a good term for them.
And yes, I am now an apprentice bell ringer. 2 stays broken already. :+< My husband hasn’t broken one yet. The first one broke when someone else leapt in to teach me and gave a good hard yank when I wasn’t pulling hard enough and I’m assured that it was definitely entirely his fault. The second one occured as our instructor was joking that beginners get to break 3 stays – “3 strikes then you’re out” – so of course I promptly broke it! That was put down to _two_ beginners bashing the (new) stay a lot and I’m promised I have no strikes listed against me yet. And I’ve demonstrated that I know when to (a) run away and (b) let go of the tail.
It’s funny how my husband and I have different faults – his major problem is not catching the sally consistently in the same place, and not being able to hold the tail in front of the sally, causing his rope to flap. Mine is not pulling hard enough on the handstroke, but I think I fixed that last week, and am actually ringing reasonbly well with a nice steady rope! Next week there’s no-one coming to practise so we get to refine and the following week I think we’ll be put “in with the mob” to ring rounds.
This is All Your Fault.
The band has been playing with Churchyard Bob on 3 bells or 3 with a tenor cover. Not enough ringers turning up.
Audrey
Blondies! Yes, I’ve heard that. Yes, that’s a good name.
Oh gosh! You Australians are very generous! In England you’re expected to break ONE stay and become a model ringer! –Although they mostly keep track the way yours do, which is to say that it’s never your fault, it’s the fault of the Minotaur who was ringing there last. . . . I broke a stay once, back at my first tower and my first try at learning to ring, and it was the same sort of thing. But it’s true you know–a stay will take a few crashes and usually at least one actual crack before it finally breaks. One of the things you learn to be suspicious of is a soft or squishy stay–the three at my Wednesday tower has been squishy for MONTHS and Wild Robert tends to keep the beginners off it. Have you been offered either of your breakages? I actually still have mine . . . but then, I am nuts . . . :)
This is All Your Fault.
***** thank you, thank you! :) –And I love ‘Churchyard Bob’. I’ve never heard that name before. The only thing I know how to do on three is plain hunt; Dreaded Minimus is still *four* bells.
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Yes, I have the first stay, but not the second. it’s a good reminder on the mantlepiece.
The rule for Churchyard Bob is “Hunt out, make places back, lead 3 times” which gives on three bells:
1 2 3
2 1 3
2 3 1
2 3 1
3 2 1
3 1 2
3 1 2
1 3 2
1 2 3
1 2 3
Works for any number of bells, and is true with more than three bells. Apparently Dickens mentions this in one of his books.
There’s a little booklet with methods for 3 bells which the band has been playing with – I can grab the details if you’re interested.
Audrey
Oh, thank you. I’ll have to scare my tower by taking it in. :)
Yes please, I’d be interested in the book.
I just received a present of some of the best cookies I’ve ever had, but sadly I can’t share, as She Who Bakes keeps her recipes under lock and key. :) (She being in the highly competitive pastry industry, that’s the literal truth–her notebook is in a lockbox.) But they were truly amazing–a very crumbly soft dark chocolate cookie with shaved chocolate bits throughout, and a sprinkling of sea salt across the top.
I’m afraid I’m with Sandra Boynton on the topic of white chocolate. Back in the 80′s she put out a little humor book about the different types of chocolate, and the entry for white chocolate looked something like:
White Chocolate looks like this: *empty white square on page*
It smells like this: *another empty white square on page* (scratch and sniff)
And it tastes like this: *again, an empty square* (cut and chew)
:)
but sadly I can’t share
THEN BE QUIET ABOUT IT.
Neither you nor she can have ever had good white chocolate. Either that, or you’re hopelessly plebian. :) (You aren’t making the mistake of thinking that white chocolate has anything to do with CHOCOLATE, are you?) But I’m sorry I missed the book. I was a big Sandra Boynton fan in the early days.
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THEN BE QUIET ABOUT IT.
I had the last one for breakfast this morning. Mmm, mm. :)
And I am, in fact, hopelessly plebian! (One of my many hopelessnesses….) But yeah, you’d have loved that book. It had profiles of all the different types of chocolate lover–the milk, the dark, the bittersweet–all characterized as charming hippos with chocolate smeared faces and guilty looks…
Yes and I hope you had the complete brain crash you DESERVED at about 10 am for such behaviour. :) (I get my sugar shock in tea, so the caffeine picks me up when the sugar drops me. Ooops.)
I’ve had good white chocolate. I have had extremely good white chocolate. And I agree with Black Bear 100%. Dark please for me. And no baking in the summer months. I could let you know about my deconstructed hummous if you like…
I find it curious how emphatic the anti-white-chocolate faction usually is. I think it’s that confusing word ‘chocolate’. You’d merely be indifferent if no one said ‘chocolate’ to you. Or you might even like it coming at you from another angle.
DECONSTRUCTED hummous?
Yes Deconstructed. There was a fashion a couple of years ago for deconstructed desserts. So instead of black forest torte you bould get chocolate cake with a bowl of superior cherry conserve/coulis, a glass of schnapps and a pile of rich whipped cream with things in it. So I was thinking along these lines, i.e. things you know go together, packaged in a different way, and thought that dips would make great salads: similar flavour combinations with the added twist of texture. When I write it up, you will have it. It was delicious and went down a treat.
She also made the wonderful observation that she’d never met a carbohydrate she didn’t like! (Boynton, that is.)
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I have it on a tea mug. A mug I’ve managed not to break, even. :)
White chocolate is a problem because of the high level of cocoa butter (of course if it is the cheap “white confection” then it doesn’t even have that). It is a pain to work with if you usually work with *real* chocolate. My digestion tolerates real chocolate better anyway … ;) hehe
Hey, aren’t you a professional baker (too)? TIPS! WE WANT WORKING WITH WHITE CHOCOLATE TIPS!
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Nooooo … I’m not a professional baker. It’s a hobby.
In a couple of weeks our cake group will be constructing Black Forest Cakes. The actual focus of the day will be the *decoration* part. Which will include shards of dark choc and all those fancy bits. I am concerned about the 1 litre of cream that is on the requirements list though. !! The next problem will be finding people to *feed it to* afterwards. I think we will have to have company that evening!
White Choc tips – will hunt thru some of my notes and see if I can find anything useful.
I haven’t had trouble since I got Very Very Very Very cautious about it, as described, but I’d quite like to know, er, what I’m doing . . . :)
Back in my chocolate-eating days, I never baked with white chocolate–I’m not even sure it was available for baking; that was a while ago–but was very happy to eat it. Good white chocolate is *good*. Of course all chocolate is good, so that should be no surprise. I remember the Boynton book and particularly liked her comment about the dreaded carob, which I can no longer quote but concluded that carob bears the same relation to chocolate as does dirt: it is brown. Fans of chocolate, Boynton, and silver should appreciate this:
http://www.dallaspridgenjewelry.com/page/DPJ/PROD/110N89
Well I ENTIRELY agree about carob.
–And LOL for the jewelry! There’s a t shirt I keep looking at that says, ‘Just hand over the chocolate and nobody gets hurt’. :)
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