White Chocolate, Cranberry, and Pecan Scones (and some scone making pointers)

One of my professors held our final meeting over brunch in his lovely apartment. A couple of my classmates from that class were in classes with me last year when I was less busy and so baked for my classmates. It seemed polite to bring something and my classmates strongly encouraged me to do so!

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Coconut Macaroons

When I brought the Coconut Cashew & White Chocolate Cookies in to class, I also made a quick batch of white chocolate coconut macaroons because one of my classmates has celiac. I’m not sure she liked them–I got in the habit of keeping them rather under-sweetened because my cousin who is celiac is diabetic as well–but I liked the leftovers (and one of my other classmates ‘stole’ a few and she loved them) so I’m not too worried!

Faux Fudge: TBT

There’s something about winter that makes me crave candy. Perhaps it’s because I’m more willing to tolerate standing in a hot kitchen stirring tempered chocolate or boiling sugar when the alternative is braving the arctic temperatures of the North East. This winter it’s not actually been very cold. Just today the mercury creeped up into the mid-40s!

Plus my apartment kitchen doesn’t really lend itself to full scale candy making.

I think I might have to settle for making my ‘fake fudge.’ It’s made with condensed milk and lots of chocolate. It solidifies into something very close to fudge when it’s chilled. It’s incredibly easy and really delicious. So while it’s not quite real fudge, maybe it’s better!

That’s why today I’m throwing back to that time that I made this fudge and actually bothered to write down the proportions of everything rather than my usual throw-handfuls-of-chocolate-and-fixin’s-into-the-pot-and-hope-for-the-best method of making my fake fudge.

Lemon Chiffon Cake: TBT

Throwback to when I was in the second cake unit in culinary school (about 3 months into the program, I think) and piped a basketweave decorations for the first time. I ended up have to make this exact cake (well, pretty much) for my final exam. It was, arguably, the hardest assignment since no one else was forced to do buttercream decorations and make a different filling. But I loved the chiffon cake and even after all the genoise we made during the course (this was the only time we made a chiffon cake), I found it easier to get perfect.

The one in this photo isn’t perfect, but it was close. The buttercream was a perfect consistency, if I remember correctly, but still not an amazing flavor. It was an Italian buttercream and, if I’m forced to use a meringue based buttercream, I prefer Swiss buttercream. Still it looked great and was really easy to pipe.

Fudgy Chocolate-Orange Brownies: Recipe

Happy New Year everyone!

2016 was quite the year. Some very good things happened for me personally (I started grad school, for one). But overall, it’s a year I’m quite glad to have behind us. Terrorist attacks across Europe, Aleppo, Brexit, Trump, Carrie Fisher (I met her and Gary, her adorable dog, at my vet a few years ago. She was so kind and friendly as we sat and chatted in the waiting room, just what you’d hope a celebrity would be like.)

So, I thought I’d start 2017 on a high note by sharing the recipe for the Chocolate Orange Brownies I made for the New Year’s party I attended. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 14 tbsp butter (1 and 3/4 sticks butter)
• 3/4 cup bittersweet chocolate chips (approx. 5 oz)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
• pinch salt
• zest of 1/2 navel orange*
• 4 eggs
• 3/4 flour
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder