February 27, 2016 by Marios

Chocolate Orange Squares

What is it with mint in desserts? I’ve never understood its appeal. Mint chocolate chip ice cream? For me, it’s like eating toothpaste with chocolate. Sure, there have been a handful of times when I had a thin mint after dinner because someone offered them, but it didn’t feel like dessert. It was more like chewing gum after dinner. (As I am writing this I am realizing that I sound very much like our French friends who complain about Americans’ obsession with cinnamon in desserts. Je vous comprends mes amis, finalement!)

So when Melissa Clark posted a new video on the New York Times website where she made mint chocolate squares, I watched it (because I will watch anything with her in it) and then forgot about it. I was never going to make them. But a couple of days later I had a sudden inspiration. Why not replace the mint in the recipe with something else? And what goes better with chocolate than orange? So after a few easy replacements, these chocolate orange squares were born.

This isn’t a difficult recipe but it does happen in three steps, so it takes a little bit of time, though most of the time is just waiting for things to cool down or chill in the fridge. The great thing about these, though, is that you can pop them in the freezer in a ziploc bag and whenever you want a sweet bite (emphasis on ‘bite’; these are rich so you won’t be eating them by the handful), you just take one out and leave it on the counter for 20-30 minutes to lose its chill before eating it.

Chocolate Orange Squares – Adapted from the New York Times

Makes 36 squares (or 16 larger ones)

Ingredients:

For the chocolate shortbread:
1 cup/125 grams all-purpose flour
½ cup/100 grams granulated sugar
2 tablespoons/15 grams unsweetened cocoa powder
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
8 tablespoons/113 grams unsalted butter (1 stick)

For the orange filling and chocolate top:
3 ¼ cups/405 grams confectioners’ sugar
3 tablespoons/43 grams unsalted butter, softened
¼ cup/60 milliliters heavy cream
2 teaspoons orange juice
1 ½ teaspoons finely grated orange zest
9 ounces/255 grams bittersweet chocolate (at least 60 percent cocoa solids), chopped
½ teaspoon coconut oil (optional)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Line a 9-inch-square baking pan with parchment paper, allowing 2 inches of paper to hang over the sides.

2. Make the shortbread: In a food processor, pulse together flour, sugar, cocoa powder and salt. Add butter and process until a smooth dough forms. Press dough evenly into the bottom of prepared baking pan. Bake until firm to the touch, and sides of the crust are beginning to pull away from the pan, about 25-30 minutes. Cool completely.

3. Make the filling: In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine confectioners’ sugar, butter, cream, orange juice, and zest. Beat until mixture forms a thick, smooth paste. Press filling evenly over shortbread. It will be a little sticky. Use an offset spatula and your fingers to coax it into place. Cover with plastic wrap and chill to set the filling for at least 1 hour and up to overnight.

4. Use parchment paper overhang to lift the shortbread and filling out of the baking pan and onto a cutting board. Cut into 1 1/2-inch squares (there should be 36 squares). Place squares on a rack placed over a parchment-lined sheet tray, and let them come to room temperature for about 15 minutes.

5. In the top of a double boiler or in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, melt 7 ounces chocolate, stirring occasionally, until smooth. Remove from heat, add remaining 2 ounces chocolate and let sit for 2 minutes.

6. Add coconut oil, if using, and stir the chocolate until smooth. Spoon 1 teaspoon chocolate on top of a cut square, using the back of the spoon to spread chocolate to the edges. Be sure to fully cover the top of the square with chocolate. (Leave the sides exposed, though it’s O.K. if some of the chocolate drips down.) Repeat with remaining squares.

7. Let squares sit at room temperature until chocolate is set, at least 1 hour. Serve them at room temperature or chill in the fridge first. You can also store them in the freezer. Let sit on counter for 20-30 minutes before eating if you freeze them.

February 13, 2016 by Marios

Toddy Tonic

“She keeps washing her hair and walking outside into the cold before she dries it. That’s why she keeps catching a cold,” my mom told me on the phone the other day. She was talking about my niece. “Mom, you know that you don’t catch a cold if your hair is wet, right?” I said hesitantly. “Of course you do!” she replied emphatically.

My mom is not the only one who believes that. Most people in Cyprus do. When I was a kid, once we showered and washed our hair, we were expressly forbidden from walking outside until it was bone dry. Cold foods and drinks were also thought to cause sore throats and colds. Ice cream was banished in winters, as was refrigerated water.

When we were little and we did get a cold or the flu, my parents cupped us. They put some cotton at the end of a fork, dipped it in alcohol and lit it on fire. They placed the burning ball in a small drinking glass and then quickly placed the glass on our bare backs. The heat created a strong (and painful) suction that pulled our skins into the cups for several minutes. It was believed that it “sucked out” the fever. All I remember is that the next day, my sister and I would laugh at the “salami” marks on our backs, the perfectly round bruises from the cups.

There were many such medical myths in my childhood. It was, for example, absolutely forbidden to eat raw cake batter or cookie dough, because it could cause worms to grow in our stomachs. Whether this belief came out of mothers trying to keep kids out of their baking bowls or from stories of people getting tapeworm and blaming it on what they ate, I don’t know.

Perhaps the most bizarre medical myth I remember was a story that was all the buzz in Cyprus for a few months when I was little. According to this story, there were people in the Philippines that were able to conduct surgery without cutting with scalpels. Instead they used “special energy” to reach with their bare hands through skin and muscle, repair the damage, and remove their hands without leaving a scar. In those days before the Internet and Google, the story took a life of its own and became national news, science be damned.

Today’s recipe is a hot drink that claims to be a “digestive sleep aid” and a “healing elixir,” thanks to the “anti-inflammatory properties” of turmeric. I have serious doubts about all that. But what I do know is that it’s absolutely delicious. Hot apple cider, spiced with six different spices, with a touch of butter, I mean, what’s not to love?

Toddy Tonic – Slightly adapted from the New York Times

Ingredients:

6 cloves
2 cups apple juice or apple cider
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
½ teaspoon ground turmeric
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon cardamom ghee, optional (recipe below)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Place the cloves on a baking sheet, and bake for 5-7 minutes to release essential oils. Set aside.

3. In a small saucepan, warm the apple juice/cider over medium-high heat.

4. Add the cloves and ground spices to the juice and let come to a boil. Once boiling, turn the heat to low and let the mixture steep for 5 minutes.

5. Strain out the spices before serving.

6. Stir in the cardamom ghee, if using, and enjoy.

Cardamom Ghee

¼ cup ghee
½ teaspoon ground cardamom

1. In a small saucepan over medium heat, warm the ghee.

2. Once the ghee liquefies, add the cardamom. Turn heat to low and let steep for 3-5 minutes.

3. Strain the ghee and remove and discard the cardamom granules.

February 6, 2016 by Marios

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

There are many things, American things, I grew up without: The Brady Bunch, onion rings, McDonalds, 21 Jump Street, PB&J sandwiches, bagels, MacGyver, cranberry muffins, and the list goes on and on. But there’s one thing I didn’t have as a kid that always makes Steve wonder how I made it to adulthood without severe psychological trauma: chocolate chip cookies. Not only did we not have chocolate chip cookies when I was a kid, I didn’t even know that they existed. All the American TV shows and movies I watched were subtitled and “chocolate chip cookies” were simply translated as “cookie with chocolate” or simply “cookie.” It wasn’t until I came to the U.S. that I discovered the culinary marvel that is the chocolate chip cookie. In all fairness, chocolate chip cookies are not well known or loved anywhere else in the world either. Our French friends always produce their Gallic shrug and a dismissive puff when we mention chocolate chip cookies. They’re not impressed.

I, on the other hand, am a huge chocolate chip cookie fan. A good, and that’s a big caveat, chocolate chip cookie is the perfect dessert. It’s sweet but darkly so, thanks to the brown sugar. It has chocolate, but in perfect proportions. It’s slightly crispy on the outside but soft and a little chewy on the inside. You can hold it in your hand, you can dip it in milk, you can sandwich ice-cream between two of them, you can eat it cold or slightly warm.

Unfortunately, like all good things, the chocolate chip cookie has been bastardized a million times over. Finding a great cookie or a great recipe is for many, the holy grail of American desserts. Finally, I think I’ve found it. This recipe, from Smitten Kitchen, has produced consistently some of the best, most mouth-wateringly delicious, most addictive chocolate chip cookies Steve and I have had. The best part is that you can make the dough, shape the cookies and then freeze them. Whenever you want a freshly baked cookie, pop one in the oven for 16 minutes and you’re all set. These are so good, that they might even convert the French to chocolate chip cookie lovers.

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies – Slightly adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Makes 15-16 cookies

Ingredients:

3/4 teaspoon baking soda
Heaped 1/4 teaspoon (or, technically, 1/4 + 1/8 teaspoon) fine sea or table salt
1 3/4 cups (220 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (4 ounces or 113 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tablespoons (25 grams) granulated sugar
2 tablespoons (25 grams) turbinado sugar
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (165 grams) packed light or dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 pound (112 grams) semi- or bittersweet chocolate, cut into roughly 1/2-inch chunks with a serrated knife
1/4 pound (112 grams) milk chocolate, cut into roughly 1/2-inch chunks with a serrated knife
Flaky sea salt (like Maldon), to finish

Directions:

Heat oven to 360°F (182°C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicon baking mat. (I know…360°F?? But it does seem to make a difference. If your oven isn’t this precise, just bake them at 350°F and add some baking time, probably a couple of minutes).

In a small bowl, mix flour, salt and baking soda and set aside. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugars together with an electric mixer until very light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Add egg and vanilla, beating until incorporated, and scraping down the bowl as needed. Beat in the flour mixture on a low speed until just mixed. The dough will look crumbly at this point. With a spatula, fold/stir in the chocolate chunks.

Scoop cookies into 3 tablespoon (I used a #20 scoop) mounds, spacing them apart on the prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle each with a few flakes of sea salt. Put in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes (up to a few hours) if you’ll bake them on the spot, or place them in the freezer to bake them at a later time.

If baking them immediately:
Bake for 11 to 12 minutes in preheated oven, until golden on the outside but still very gooey and soft inside. Out of the oven, let rest on baking sheet out of the for 5 minutes before transferring a cooling rack. Wait another 5-10 minutes (if you can manage that) before eating them.

If baking from the freezer:
First, take out as many cookies as you want to bake and place them on a prepared baking sheet (lined with parchment paper or silicon mat). Then preheat the oven to 360°F (182°C) (this will give the cookies a few minutes to lose their chill). When oven reaches 360°F (182°C), place baking sheet in the oven and bake for 16 minutes. Out of the oven, let rest on baking sheet out of the for 5 minutes before transferring a cooling rack. Wait another 5-10 minutes (if you can manage that) before eating them.