Kitchen, Knife, and Rootstock?

Since I've gone to school my mom keeps mentioning restaurants to me that I've never heard of, whether they be new restaurants or restaurants they'd just never been to before. One of those restaurants, Rootstock, I heard about from both my mom AND one of her friends via twitter. I ate there with my parents back on December 29th, and, thanks to the contents of our fridge at the time, decided I'd write down the description of one of their flatbreads that sounded tasty and try to recreate my idea of it the following evening:
Prosciutto, garlic herbed sheeps milk cheese, arugula, brandied cranberry vinaigrette & pistachio

I never did get around to giving it a try, despite buying cranberry juice, pizza dough, and having serrano ham, manchego, and arugula in the fridge. (I never said it was going to be exactly the same thing, considering I don't actually know what exactly it is.)

Well, now, 135 days later, I've finally given it a try. Only without the prosciutto. And, okay, not really the same thing at all, but it was still tasty. The dressing was quite sour and strong (I liked it), and I served it with another idea from Rootstock's menu, via their website. This description: Black Earth organic burger, bacon-scallion aioli, red onion, Fiscilini cheddar, w/ mezclun greens & house pickles

Well, that translated into mini bunless burgers, and the use of a few shortcuts. No homemade aioli - yogurt was used instead, but the red onions were sauteed in lard (I know, I can't even believe I just said that. What happened to me in college?).



All in all, it was probably a bit adventurous for my first night back in a kitchen. But hey, there's always take-out if nothing turns out edible.

an idea a month in the making

So on April Fool's Day, I met my friend for dinner and he brought up the idea of putting nutella into brownies. Much to his surprise, I told him that I'd seen recipes for such a thing before, and we planned to meet again to bake some soon.

Soon is a relative term, and the semester is now almost over, and it wasn't until reading week that we were able to find a mutually agreeable time to bake the brownies. Which aren't just nutella brownies, they're nutella cheesecake brownies from alpine berry.


Her recipe is surprisingly simple, and extraordinarily rich. I didn't quite follow it (I'm sorry, but did I really need to unwrap that third stick of butter? The answer: no), but the brownies turned out anyway.

However, a week ago I made more sweet corn brownies, and my pan disappeared. I had to borrow a pan to make these brownies, and when I get home, I'll have to replace my pan. I'm not looking forward to that - I'm super indecisive, it took me forever to pick out a bundt cake. But I'll be optimistic, I have about 89 more hours for it to turn up before I completely lose hope.

And, it's not the end of the world. It's just a pan.


Nutella Brownie Cheesecake
adapted from alpine berry
Makes a 9x13 pan of very fudgy brownies

Brownie layer:
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2/3 cup Nutella (chocolate-hazelnut spread)
4 large eggs
2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup natural cocoa powder

Cheesecake layer:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/3 cup Nutella

Preheat oven to 325ºF. Line 9x13 inch baking pan with parchment or greased aluminum foil.

First, make the brownie layer:
Combine butter, Nutella, eggs, and sugar in a large bowl and mix well. Stir in flour and cocoa powder and mix until combined. Pour batter into prepared pan and spread evenly. Set aside.

For the cheesecake layer, beat together the cream cheese and sugar. Beat in the eggs and Nutella until well combined.* Pour over brownie batter in pan.

Bake until the cheesecake layer looks set, about 50 minutes. Allow brownies to cool completely in the pan before cutting. If storing, keep refrigerated.

*I originally combined all the ingredients for the cheesecake layer together at once, but it was a little lumpy. Hopefully this will solve that problem.

Well, I could've been at a frat, but I decided to bake a cake instead

I've been throwing out bananas a lot lately. It's really a shame. On top of it being a waste of perfectly good bananas, it's also a waste of money. Usually I have the foresight to throw ripe bananas into the freezer, but in falsely believing that "I'll just use them tomorrow," they get to be too black to even consider saving.

After a delicious three-course meal last night, courtesy of a very friendly family whose daughter is trying to decide where to go to school next year, my roommate and I returned to our room a bit after ten. And I saw the bananas.

I was going to make banana cookies, but there were three bananas. And I don't really have the patience to make a triple batch of cookies by myself. All that scooping would get old awfully fast.

So I decided I'd use my bundt pan, and some of the bananas already in the freezer. I picked out a recipe, started to defrost 5 bananas, and made a grocery list of things I could get on campus (plain yogurt, however, is not a possibility, but sour cream is!), and got to work. Well, sort of. Along the way, I was given the offer of going to a fraternity party, which has been on my to-do list for a while, but those bananas were calling my name. It'll just have to wait until another night.

And this cake is tasty, so I'd say worth the alone time. Granted, someone walked in on me dancing around the kitchen to All Time Low at 2 in the morning in an effort to keep myself awake, but hey, it was the awesome smell wafting down the hall that attracted them, so I'd say that's always a good sign.




Nutella-Swirled Banana Cake
heavily based on this
makes 1 large bundt

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs
2 1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 6-8 bananas)
1 cup (8 oz container) sour cream
1 1/2 cups chocolate hazelnut spread (Nutella)

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease and flour a 12-cup bundt pan, set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until the sugar is incorporated and it's nice and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the bananas and sour cream.

In a 4-cup microwave safe bowl, warm up the nutella for about 15-45 seconds, depending on your microwave, until it's easy to stir. Stir in about 2 cups of the banana batter.

To make a more swirled cake: Alternate between adding the banana and nutella batters to the pan; gently swirl batters together by running swirling a knife through the batter after it has all been poured into the pan.

For a less swirled cake: Pour the banana batter into the pan. Pour the nutella batter on top of it.

Bake for 70-90 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted not near an edge comes out with just a few crumbs attached.

You may need to cover the top of the cake with foil to prevent it from overbrowning. If you have a 10-cup bundt pan, like me (I think), it's going to come up over the top of the pan, making for a less pretty cake that bakes slightly less evenly, but it still delicious.

Alternatively, you could use 2 loaf plans; reduce the bake time to 60-70 minutes.

Drunken Birthdays

So today is my RA's 21st birthday. One of my floormates told me this fact last night around 10 pm. Which gave me limited time to think: Nutella Brownies for which I have all the necessary ingredients; the omnipresent banana oatmeal cookies; or, I could be "cheeky" and go with a bourbon cake. I was originally aiming for a bourbon pecan cake, since I love bourbon pecan sauce, but I couldn't find one that would be easy enough to make. And it seemed like most bourbon cakes called for bundt pans, which until 6 hours ago, I didn't have.

But with my heart set on making a bourbon cake, I made one. Even after the floormate who was going to make the cake with me had a sudden schedule conflict, I was undeterred, leading to a conflict of my own (oops!). I hung out in the kitchen alone, blasting my iPod and keeping track of the number of songs were by bands I'd seen live (62% of them were, in case you were wondering.) Once the cake had uneventfully made its way into the oven in my new pan, I settled down to read an article for my writing class as the lounge began to smell like a warm and comforting combination of whiskey and chocolate. I think I may have violated Redd Flag policy, with the wonderful smells wafting from the kitchen, but I'm pretty sure I'm not going to get in trouble for it. I mean, my RA did seem to like her cake...



This cake is boozy, quite so. There is no doubt that it's a bourbon cake, not at all. I think I sort of shocked my RA with it. She did call me "cheeky" for making a bourbon cake, and, in the e-mail that she sent out to the floor, made sure to note that this is the only time she'll ever be offering us something with alcohol in it.



So without further ado, here's the link to Elise's recipe. I didn't mess with it, except for not sprinkling the cake with bourbon after removing it from the pan. I used 72% cacao chocolate, and instant coffee. And so far, the cake has had a positive response. You just might not want to "taste" the batter. But really, this chocolate bourbon cake is definitely worth giving a try.

Oh, and those nutella brownies? Hold tight, because I plan on trying those out soon. And who knows, now that I have a bundt pan, I might just have to make another bundt cake sometime.

Springtime and Easter

My friend's mom sent her easter cookie cutters and colored sugar, among other things, in the mail. So of course, she had the perfect excuse to make sugar cookies. A bit of planning, some distressed phone calls to her mom, and five people in a small dorm kitchen later, magic happened. Well, if sugar cookies can be considered, that is.

Sugar Cookies
recipe from Ashleigh's mom, we halved it, as reflected here, for a small and manageable amount of cookies

2 sticks (1/2 lb) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 375ºF.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla extract. Slowly beat in flour. If dough is too sticky, add slightly more flour.

Roll dough out onto a floured surface to about 1/4" thickeness. Cut out into desired shapes. Reroll scraps.

Place on cookie sheet about 1/2" apart. Bake 7-12 minutes, or until edges are a light golden brown. Be careful, they can go from pasty looking to sunburnt really quickly.

Let cool. Frost or ice as desired.

Fall Dessert For Spring Break

So I have problems with seasons? Is that really that bad? I mean, it feels like summer right now, there's piles of snow on the ground, and grocery stores carry practically everything year round. How am I supposed to not be confused?

Apples are delicious. Especially when they aren't of the Red Delicious variety, but more tart, like a Granny Smith, or crisp, like a Braeburn. I'm happy now. And you should be, too. I'm updating, and sharing a sort of recipe for something quite tasty. But maybe, just maybe, you should wait for cooler weather come November to make this. Because right now, I think something along the lines of lemon cheesecake fits the weather better. But maybe not the season.

But instead, out of the oven comes what resembles an apple crumble or cobbler, minus the topping. Spooned into bowls and topped with a maple whipped cream, it was a tasty ending to my dad's delicious dinner, far too fancy to be eaten on the couch while watching the Academy Awards. But that's (sort of) just what we did.



And this is also a testament to the reason I shouldn't start posts and finish them a month later. I don't remember what I did to make that. I just remember it contains apples, cinnamon, and maple syrup, and maybe some salt baked in the oven. And that the whipped cream was heavy whipping cream that I attempted to use almond extract in, didn't like the results, and covered it up with maple syrup. And then topped it with almonds, that if I had the foresight, I would have toasted.

Just In Time For Valentine's Day

Raspberries. Chocolate. Two things my friend Ashleigh likes. Like I have in the past, I asked a few weeks ago for a flavor. She named strawberries. Next, I asked our friend who was going to help me for his idea. Brownies. But he just really likes brownies, so I wasn't too surprised.

Somehow the idea to make raspberry cheesecake brownies turned into deep dark raspberry brownies. Which is good. They're kind of like the raspberry brownies I used to get as a kid, a variation on the classic LMG brownies that so many people I know now miss. But that's okay, I've got them down. Sort of. The regular ones with the walnuts that is. It just takes a lot of strength to make a half sheet pan's worth of them.

But not to get carried away and completely off track, because those aren't the brownies we're talking about. Well, they are, but not quite. Because these rich, dense, fudgy morsels are not for the faint. Or for those who can't wield a heavy knife, because trying to cut these with a butter knife will lead to blisters. Trust me. They're also worth the blisters. And if you can find seedless jam, you might want to try it with that instead. Or straining your jam. But hey, I'm a lazy college student.

And while I made these as a birthday present, they're also the perfect Valentine's Day dessert. Unless you want to be boring and cliche and make a chocolate souffle.



Raspberry Dark Chocolate Brownies
adapted from The Professional Pastry Chef
makes an 8x8" pan of brownies, cut into desired size (about 30?)

9 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
6 Tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup raspberry jam

Preheat oven to 400ºF. Grease an 8" square pan (for easier removal, line with two pieces of foil with a 1" overhang, grease the foil as well) and set aside.

In a double boiler or a large heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, melt together the chocolate and butter, stirring until smooth. Set aside to let cool a bit.

In a medium bowl beat together sugar, eggs, and vanilla until pale and fluffy, about 1-2 minutes.

If slightly cooled melted chocolate is not already in a large bowl, transfer it to a large bowl. Fold the egg mixture into the chocolate. Stir in the flour (it doesn't hurt to sift it, but it's not necessary.)

Pour most of batter into prepared pan. Spread raspberry jam over top. Add remaining batter and smooth top.

Bake in over for about 30 minutes or until top is dry to the touch and a toothpick comes out not looking like raw batter has completely attacked it, but not entirely clean either. If the toothpick comes out clean you've overbaked the brownies. They will continue to cook as they cool.

Let cool completely before cutting, unless you want a big mess on your hands.

Sometimes it helps to refrigerate or freeze them to cut the brownies cleanly.

"But, Everyday's My Birthday" Cake

I may not be the most observant person, but I'm not so blind as to not notice someone birthday when they've made a bit of a hullabaloo about it. Trying to convince me two months later that your birthday is two days away, well, I'm not going to buy that.

But that doesn't mean I won't bake a cake. I'll take any excuse to bake something. All you've got to do is ask. And then give me some time to get my act together and find my go-to recipe (that I usually use for ice cream cakes... but oh well).

So this time, I baked the cake (I wasn't supposed to do it alone, but I didn't realize that...) and then other people decorated it, after realizing what I was doing and getting all excited. I brought a pastry bag and a couple tips with me, and decorating is not really my thing, so I was more than happy to oblige.

It was kind of crazy, and corresponded with Lost starting up again, so the floor was quite quiet. And the person the cake was for disappeared right after we gave it to him. I wonder what happened to the cake. It was just sitting on the table last time I looked.



Moist and Devilish Chocolate Cake (aka my go to Chocolate Layer Cake Base)
from Tish Boyle's The Cake Book
Makes 1 9-inch cake

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup natural cocoa powder
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup neutral oil
2 large eggs
1/3 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Preheat oven to 325ºF. Grease and flour a 9x3" round cake pan.

Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl. Whisk in sugar, followed by oil.

In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, and vanilla extract. Stir into the flour mixture. Gradually whisk in boiling water until smooth.

Pour into prepared pan (if your pan is smaller, pour 2/3 way up the sides and use remaining batter to make cupcakes.)

Bake 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached and the top springs back when lightly touched.

Another Buttercream Frosting
adapted from somwhere, I need to stop scribbling recipes onto scraps of paper

1 stick (4 oz) butter, softened
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 t. salt
4-5 teaspoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat butter in a medium-large bowl until fluffy, about 30 seconds. Beat in sugar, salt, milk, and vanilla until no lumps remain and the frosting is fluffy!

Use as desired. Spread on with a knife or spatula, pipe on with a bag, or do whatever else it is you do with buttercream frosting.

making waffles in a waffle iron, what a novel idea!

This morning my friend made pancakes and I made waffles. Her pancakes were fun, but not without their mishaps. There was the overheated pan, the overly reduced and cooked raspberry sauce, and some burnt butter involved... but none of that stopped it from being fun and tasty. Seven people in a tiny kitchen, random people walking in to use the microwave and looking at us like we're crazy, messes, pancakes in a mug... So, pretty much, an amazing Saturday morning.


Followed by a semi-productive evening that was derailed by my refusal to go to the library and study and the noise across the hall. Everyone just left to go bowling, informed me I'm lame for staying in, and I'm updating this. Next up: sleep. Then I'll read some more about Thomas Jefferson. But I'm already starting to wish I'd gone bowling. Oh well.


Banana Waffles
This was originally a pancake recipe from a book called Pancakes and Waffles, I think. I don't have the book with me, my mom e-mailed me the recipe last night. We made them as pancakes with sliced bananas last Saturday, and they were tasty that way as well. I used rice flour instead of oat flour, like was called for, and 1/2 cup yogurt. I would probably use more milk in them if making pancakes though, which is why I decided it would make a good waffle batter. I'm currently wondering if I could use 1 1/3 cups ap flour instead of an alternative, but I don't know much about flours.
Makes 8-10 waffles

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup oat flour
3 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup (6 oz) yogurt
2 small bananas, mashed

In a large bowl mix together flours, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, and salt. In a small bowl whisk together egg, milk, yogurt, and bananas. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients until combined.

Cook in waffle iron according to manufacturer's directions. Or make pancakes. See note above.

Breakfast On The Floor

The dorm floor that is. And not the actual floor as in where you walk, but as in the level of the building. And it was in the common room, and made in the mini kitchen off of the common room. Only the microwave was broken in there. It was interesting.

Maybe I should back up a little. I'm back at school! And this time, I brought my waffle iron with me. I don't think it's allowed, so shh... I won't start a fire. Or use it in my room, though that would be one awfully nice air freshener. And instead of waffles, well, I made french toast. Only it looks like waffles. I made breakfast that's confused about it's identity.

Despite being a confused french toast waffle, it was quite tasty. And I think a hit. Or people are too nice and just don't want to hurt my feelings. I thought it was yummy, not spectacular, but quite tasty topped with bananas and honey.

Does anyone have a waffle recipe they swear by? If so, let me know. I want to try some out. I mean, that's what a waffle iron is usually for, isn't it? Not that I don't suggest you try to make french toast in one... it just takes a bit longer than it would on the stovetop, but it's more fun this way.

French Toast Waffles
idea and recipe from TracyFood

2 eggs, at room temperature
1/2 stick melted butter, cooled
1 1/2 cups milk, at room temperature
2/3 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 loaf challah (or other bread of choice), sliced into 1/2"-1" thick slices depending on the size of your waffle iron
syrup, honey, bananas, or other foods for serving

In a bowl (or if you want one less dish to clean, in a shallow baking dish), whisk together the eggs, butter, and milk until smooth. Stir in the flour, sugar, cinammon, and salt. Transfer to a shallow baking dish (I used an 8" square dish).

Right before placing on the waffle iron, dip a slice of challah into

Heat waffle iron according to manufacturer's instructions. Dip each piece of challah into the batter. Let sit for 15-20 seconds, flip over. Let excess batter drip off before placing on waffle iron. Cook like a waffle according to waffle iron's settings.

Repeat with remaining bread and batter.

Serve. And enjoy.