Chocolate Stuffed Brownies

My favorite holidays, predictably, are the ones that revolve around food.  The bigger the feast, the better the holiday.  Thanksgiving, obvious choice.  Passover.  Although I did not grow up with them, Christmas and Easter have grown on me, as they seem to require an adequate amount of food.

Valentine's Day is not a favorite.  My childhood memories of the day involve awkward parties where grown-ups pretend that children have romantic tendencies.  Maybe some do, but I wasn't scouting out my future wife in the second grade.  In sixth grade, a boy told me he wanted to give me a kiss and proceeded to present me with one of those giant Hershey's kisses.  Awkward.  Besides, I don't need a holiday to tell me to be romantic.  I'm romantic everyday.  I pack my wife's lunch in the morning.  I do her taxes.  I listen to her vent about graduate school.  I indulge her natural hair products projects, even when I find boiled oats in my shower.

Don't get me wrong.  I don't oppose the idea of a day dedicated to love.  I like love.  I love my wife, and I love my family, and I love my cat.  I don't love the pressure to spend money on useless things or eat really bad chocolate.  My wife would rather put the money in a retirement account, and I would rather make these brownies.

I thought about making a cliche Valentine's dessert.  It would involve pink things and hearts.  Red velvet seems to be a popular choice, and I have nothing against red velvet.  But when we're taking about romance, we really mean chocolate, don't we?  Not giant Hershey's kisses, not surprise chocolates with unknown fillings, but really good chocolate.  I don't see much of a point in eating anything else.

So where could you go wrong by stuffing chocolate into more chocolate?  You couldn't.  So I'm going to spread the love around and bring these into my office on Valentine's Day.  And my wife can bring some to her college students.  Because what's more romantic than sharing?

Besides saving for retirement, clearly.

Chocolate Stuffed Brownies
Makes 12-16

1 c flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/2 c butter
1/4 c chocolate chips
1 c brown sugar
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
really good chocolate squares (like Ghirardelli, flavors of your choice)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 8x8 baking pan.

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together.  Melt butter and chocolate chips together, either in the microwave or on the stove top.  Stir until completely combined.  Add brown sugar to the chocolate mixture, and stir until the sugar has dissolved.

Whisk eggs and vanilla together.  Add the chocolate mixture, continuing to whisk until combined.  Add the wet ingredients into the dry, and stir until just combined.

Pour half the batter into the prepared pan.  Place chocolate squares on top of the batter, leaving a little space in between.  Make sure to scatter them if you are using different flavors so that each bite has different chocolates.

Cover the chocolates with the rest of the batter.  Spread with a spatula.

Bake for 20-22 minutes or until the brownies have set.  Cool completely before cutting into squares.

Potato Leek Soup

I told you I was a little obsessed with German food.  This soup, in particular, has haunted me for over a year.  Let me tell you a story about this soup.

The trip to the little island in the North Sea takes about two days from the West Coast of the United States.  First you fly overnight to the East Coast.  You pick up your wife's grandparents, and then you fly overnight again, this time to Hamburg.  When you get there, you collect your luggage and make trouble for the poor young man at the car rental booth.  You pack your luggage in the car, shift around the seats, spend ten minutes figuring out how a manual car works, and drive in circles around the Hamburg airport for another twenty.  You then drive a few hours on the most terrifying road known to man the A23, playing chicken with passing cars going 100 miles per hour, never stopping to use the restroom.  When you finally arrive in Dagebull, you wait for the ferry in the car, drive onto the ferry, and stay in the car for the hour ferry ride to the island.  That is, that's what the experience would be like if you are my wife's grandfather.  If you are me (or my wife, or her grandmother), you would get out of the car on the ferry and order some soup while watching the beautiful scene out the window.

It could be that this was the first food I ate since getting on a plane in Newark, but I'm pretty sure this is the best darn potato soup in existence.  Imagine my surprise when it arrived with a dollop of whipped cream on top.  Whipped cream!  On soup!  My world expanded.  I had to recreate this soup.

This is my best approximation.  It is still not as excellent as that first spoonful on the ferry, but like I said, I may have been delirious at that point.  I'm assuming it was cooked with a ham bone, given that we were in Germany, but, being a good Jew, I figured bacon was good enough.  And that dollop of whipped cream.  Heaven.

Potato Leek Soup
Serves 3

1/2 onion, chopped
4 T butter
1/2 c leeks, rinsed and chopped
2 large potatoes, chopped
3 c water
1/2 t dried thyme
1 c heavy cream
salt and pepper
cooked bacon, crumbled
whipped cream

In large pot, melt the butter and saute the onions until translucent.  Add the leeks, potatoes, water, and thyme.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for about half an hour.

Puree soup in a blender and return to pot.  Stir in the cream and season with salt and pepper.  Top each bowl with some bacon and a dollop of whipped cream.

Carrot Chocolate Chip Cookies

You know how I told you about cabbage in a CSA box being difficult to use up?  It's true.  What's even harder?  Carrots.  I never know what to do with them.  Sure, I use them in a lot of recipes, but that's only one here and there, and I can never seem to use an entire bunch before the next box comes.  There are only so many salads and stews to which I can add carrots.  And so I made a bold decision.  I put them in cookies.

Now, it may be unfair to call these cookies.  They're not exactly the best pairing to a tall glass of milk.  You don't daydream all day about getting home to a plate full of carrot cookies.  They're almost too healthy.  I mean, they have oats in them.  Coconut oil.  Applesauce.  They're, dare I say it, vegan.  They mock you with their health.  "You don't deserve to eat us," they sneer.  They can tell you ate ice cream standing at the freezer last night.  Nice try.

But they are a nice mid-morning snack, a good way to get you from breakfast to lunch.  They're cookies you can feel alright about grabbing by the handful.  Sometimes you need to take a break from the decadent and embrace the healthy.  And sometimes  you just have to use up that darn bunch of carrots.

Carrot Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes about two dozen

1 c rolled oats
1 c flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/4 c coconut oil
1/4 c applesauce
1/2 c maple syrup
zest of 1 lemon
1 c grated carrots
1/2 c chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees, and grease a baking sheet.  Combine oats, flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.  Combine oil, applesauce, and maple syrup in another (you will have to melt the oil to liquefy it).

Toss lemon zest, carrots, and chocolate chips with the dry ingredients, and slowly incorporate the wet ingredients.  Place rounded tablespoons of dough on the baking sheet, and flatten them slightly.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, and let cool for a few minutes before transferring to a rack.

German Cabbage and Kartoffelkroketten

So I might be a little obsessed with German food.  I know, I know.  Before I met my wife, I thought German food was all meat and potatoes and mushy vegetables.  And guess what?  I was right!  But who knew how delicious meat, potatoes, and mushy vegetables can be?

My wife's family comes from a small island in the North Sea.  I mean, they're practically from Denmark, but who knows the difference?  I had the pleasure of visiting this island a few years ago, and I ate very well.  It was springtime, and the lamb was absolutely the most tender and delicious thing you could hope to eat.  But every piece of lamb has to come with potatoes.  And while I was partial to Bratkartoffeln (fried potatoes with bacon and onion - what could go wrong?), I was especially intrigued by these deep fried potato puffs.  Intrigued because they seemed to be a fancied up version of what we Americans like to call tater tots.  But imagine the best tater tots possible, and you won't even come close to these little guys.

The second side dish I would like to discuss is cabbage.  I have never been a cabbage fan, so simmering it for hours with vinegar didn't seem like the greatest idea.  Wrong!  The right spices transform red cabbage into a sweet and sour comfort food, one that pairs extremely well with meat and potatoes.  Imagine that!  Red cabbage is one of those annoying vegetables you always end up with in your CSA box, and it inevitably sits in the crisper drawer for weeks, getting more and more soggy.  (Carrots also fall in this category.  More on them later.)  This is now my go-to cabbage recipe, and I look forward to seeing it in my box.  It's a great excuse to fry up some sausage and potatoes!

Kartoffelkroketten (Potato Croquettes)
Serves 4

1 1/2 lbs potatoes
4 T flour
1 egg, seperated
1 c breadcrumbs
2 T butter
1 t salt
oil

Chop up the potatoes into small pieces and boil in salty water until tender.  Drain the water, and press the potatoes through a ricer (or just mash up with a fork).  Add flour, egg yolk, butter, salt, and mash again until smooth.  Whisk the egg white in one bowl, and set up the breadcrumbs in another.

Heat about an inch of oil in a pan (about 350 degrees, or when breadcrumbs make it sizzle).  Make small balls of potato dough, and then shape into little cylinders.  One at a time, coat them with egg white and cover in breadcrumbs.  Fry croquettes until golden brown and drain on a paper towel.

German Cabbage
Serves 4

1 head red cabbage, cored and sliced
2 tart apples (I use Granny Smiths), cored and sliced
1 onion, sliced
1 1/2 c water
1 c apple cider vinegar
1/2 c sugar
1 T butter
1 t salt
pinch pepper
pinch allspice
pinch cloves

In a large pot, toss cabbage, apples, and onion.  Add water, vinegar, sugar, and butter.  Bring to a boil.  Add the spices, and simmer for about an hour, or until the cabbage is soft.  Make sure to check in the cabbage every once and a while, and add water if it is getting too low.  Adjust spices as needed to serve.

Banana Muffins

So maybe it's been a while since a post.  Maybe you'll forgive me if I tell you that I opened a cafe.  Yes, a real cafe.  We serve coffee and everything.  I'm very humbled by the experience and astounded at the hard work my co-owners have put into this project.  Maybe it's only a micro-cafe right now, but it will blossom into something bigger, something amazing.  And so, when Alchemy Collective opened, I just had to be there with the best muffins in town.

I've always been a fan of banana bread.  But, admittedly, I always go and muddle it up with other flavors.  I just have to throw chocolate chips in there.  All kinds of spices.  But these muffins, they let the bananas really sing.  Sure, you can mix it up with chocolate or nuts (I added one perfect nut per muffin), but they don't need it.  These muffins are unadulterated banana flavor, which comes from the extra step of reducing the banana juice.  These aren't muffins you can just throw in a bowl and call it a day.  They take effort.  But they pay off.  Big time.

So bake up a batch, pour yourself some coffee, and toast to Alchemy.  Dreams coming true, one muffin at a time.

Banana Muffins
Makes about 16

1/2 c butter, softened
4 ripe bananas (do not use fresh ones!)
1 1/2 c flour
1 1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 1/d t cardamom
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 t cinnamon
1 c brown sugar
2 eggs
1 t vanilla extract
1/2 c sour cream
pecans or chocolate chips, optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line muffin cups with liners or grease with butter.

Peel the bananas and place in a shallow bowl or dish.  Microwave until they release their juices, about five or six minutes.  Place a strainer on top of a saucepan, and pour the bananas through.  The juice will end up in the pan, and the fruit will remain in the strainer.  Remove the strainer (place the fruit in another bowl), and reduce the juice by half over medium heat.  Add this reduction back to the fruit and mash together.

Whisk the flour, salt, and spices together in a small bowl.  Beat the sugar and butter together in another bowl until fluffy.  Add the vanilla and eggs and beat for another few minutes.

Add half the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and beat.  While continuing to beat, add half the sour cream.  Then add half the banana mixture.  Repeat until all the ingredients are in one bowl and well combined

Pour batter into prepared cups (add toppings at this point) and bake for 30 minutes.