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Honey Cream, Strawberry, and Chocolate Pizza

16 Apr

Perhaps it is not entirely honest to refer to this as a pizza, since, barring the fact that it is pizza-shaped and utilizes a crust that is quite fitting for savory pizza applications, it is quite clear that if something contains strawberries, cream, and chocolate, it’s probably not really a pizza, per se.

But, in yet another example of how I like to turn non-dessert foods into dessert, when I had a leftover pizza crust laying around last week, it just seemed wrong to let it live out the last of its days as something not sweet.  Plus, I had leftover strawberries sitting around.  And leftover cream.  And chocolate.  And also, I am not actually trying to justify what I have done, and I hope I am making that painfully obvious right now.

For something so simple to make, this dessert is a real showstopper.  Not only do the honey cream and strawberries go together like, well, strawberries and cream, but the light drizzle of chocolate at the end provides a finish that is as delicious as it is easy on the eyes.  If you want to be really cheeky, you can serve this pizza as a dessert on pizza night, whipping up this pizza dough the night before, allowing it to rest overnight in the refrigerator, then using 2/3 of the dough for dinner pizzas, the last 1/3 for this dessert pizza.  Resting the dough in the refrigerator overnight is not a necessity, but in my years of pizza making (the last year being the most intensive and experimental), I have discovered that a long-rested dough develops an unbeatable flavor and texture that is difficult to approximate with a dough that has rested at room temperature for a couple of hours.  You’ll have to plan ahead a bit, but it is so worth it.

Plenty more recipes for pizza can be found here.  Also, last year on Indie Fixx I published one of my most favorite pizza recipes, which can be found here.

Last Year: A Trio of Flavored Butters

Honey Cream, Strawberry, and Chocolate Pizza Recipe

Pizza dough for 1 pizza, or 1/3 of this dough, rested in the refrigerator overnight for maximum flavor

¼ cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons honey

12 ounces of strawberries, de-stemmed and sliced

2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped

Preheat oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit.  Place a baking stone or a heavy sheet pan on the second to lowest shelf in the oven.  Line a rimless baking sheet or an overturned sheet pan with parchment paper, and set aside.

On a lightly floured surface, stretch and push the pizza dough with your hands, coaxing, poking, and punching it until it forms a roughly 12-inch circle.  Place the dough on the parchment-lined baking sheet.

In a small bowl, whisk together the cream and honey until the honey has dissolved.  Brush ¾ of the cream mixture over the pizza dough.  Arrange the strawberries over the cream, trying your best to lay them in concentric circles.  Brush the remaining ¼ of the cream mixture over the tops of the strawberries.

Gently slide the pizza—still on its parchment paper—onto the preheated baking stone or sheet pan.  Bake pizza for 10 to 12 minutes, until the edges of the pizza are dark golden brown and bubbly.

Remove pizza to a rack to cool a bit.  While the pizza is cooling, melt the chopped chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave on low heat, stirring frequently in both cases.  Melt the chocolate just until it still has come visible chunks, then remove from the heat and stir until the chunks have melted and the chocolate is glossy and smooth.

Drizzle the chocolate over the cooling pizza.  You can eat it while both the pizza and the chocolate are still warm, or you can allow both the pizza and chocolate to cool and firm up before eating.  Either way, it’s delicious.

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Double Chocolate Walnut Cookies

5 Apr

I’ve had these cookies in mind for a while.  The problem was, that was the only place the cookies could be found: in my mind.  There was no recipe I could dig up in a book, no bakery I could run to in order to hunt down the cookie.  The existence of the cookie—perhaps originating in a dream, because I simply refuse to believe that I am the only person on earth who dreams of cookies—was nowhere to be found.

Maybe that was a blessing.  Because I had only an imagined notion of what sort of cookie I wanted to eat—and yet I also somehow knew exactly what it was I wanted in the mythical cookie, that being lots of chocolate, a chewy middle, and big bites of walnuts—there was very little holding me back in the way of experimentation.  It was a golden opportunity, really.  I was going to create a cookie and there was nothing stopping me.

Except, of course, the unforeseen development of actually somehow nailing the cookie recipe on the first try.  No joke.  When I set out to make this cookie, I was envisioning days upon days of rejected cookie batches.  I was imagining myself eating cookie after cookie, faced with the fact that one batch was too crisp, or maybe not chocolaty enough.  What to do?  Well, I guess I’ll just have to get back to the drawing board.  Time to make and sample more cookies.

But no.  Here they are, the first batch I auditioned, and they are perfect in every way.  Practically bursting with chunks of bittersweet chocolate, the cookies are crisp at the edges and wonderfully soft in the middle.  Chunks of toasted walnuts invade every bite, and, dare I say it, the sweetness level is spot on.  I don’t know how it happened.  I only had to make one batch of cookies, which meant I only had to taste one batch of cookies.  Setting aside the fact that I somehow just satisfied a hazy cookie dream, I somehow feel as though I have made a mistake.  I promise to do worse next time.  You know.  So there will be more samples.

Last year: Roasted Poblano Johnnycakes

Double Chocolate Walnut Cookies Recipe

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

½ cup Dutch process cocoa powder

1 teaspoon espresso powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted

½ cup gently packed light brown sugar

¼ cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into medium chunks (about ¼-inch chunks at the largest)

1 cup (about 4 ounces) walnut pieces, toasted until browned and aromatic

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder, baking soda, and salt.  Whisk together, then set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the melted butter, light brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs, and vanilla.  Whisk for 1 or 2 minutes to combine thoroughly.

Gently fold the flour mixture into the sugar mixture until the two are completely combined.  Stir in the chocolate chunks and toasted walnuts.  The batter will be extremely stiff and it should seem like there is a disturbingly high chunk-to-batter ratio.  This is a good thing.

Scoop the batter in heaping tablespoons (if your tablespoons are very heaping, you should end up with about a 2 tablespoon-sized scoop, which is perfect) onto a prepared baking sheet.  Space the scoops at least two inches apart.  I was able to fit 8 cookies on 1 large baking sheet.

Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, in the center of the oven for 10-13 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are just starting to look dry but the centers still appear soft.  Remove from oven and allow the cookies to rest on the baking sheet for about 2 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool.

Depending on the size of your scoops, you should end up with around 24 cookies, maybe more.

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Brown Butter Brown Sugar Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Frosting

26 Mar

There is a fine line between being the sort of neighbor that people love, and the sort of neighbor that people hate.  When my parents’ moved into their current house, they took the place of an older couple who had been living in the neighborhood for the better part of twenty years.  My parents have been told, more than once, that the previous owners took it upon themselves to, every week, remind everyone in the neighborhood when it was the eve of garbage day, and that they just wanted to make sure everyone took their garbage and recycling to the curb.  This story is always relayed to my parents with the sort of bemusement that borders on teeth-gritting repression of irritation.  Every week.  They told us every week.

In my neighborhood, I fear I am becoming the sort of neighbor who is fast becoming a favorite of children, but perhaps not the favorite of parents.  What with the amount of baking and recipe testing I engage in, I tend to have a lot of baked goods left over at the end of my experimenting.  Sometimes, I don’t feel like eating cake for three days in a row (not always, but sometimes), so I pawn my freshly baked treats off on the people around me, including my neighbors and their children.  My handouts have, thus far, been greeted with open arms, but I sometimes wonder if, in a short time, I will begin to receive a greeting not unlike that of the previous owners of my parents’ house.  Oh.  More baked goods.  Again.  Yes.  The children certainly are excited.

For the record, if I had a neighbor who was bitten by the urge to create a cake that was spiked with the nutty tones of brown butter and the deep flavor of brown sugar, I certainly wouldn’t hide when I heard my doorbell ring.  And if that same neighbor was driven to top said cake with a creamy, buttery lid of vanilla bean-speckled frosting, well, I don’t think I’d be capable of doing anything other than starting a pot of coffee because, my friends, we’re going to be needing some reinforcements.

As for now, however, I am still solidly on the side of being positively greeted.  There are, of course, should the situation change, always my husband’s co-workers to receive my gifted baked goods.  Failing that (which, who are we kidding, is not a real possibility, since when was the last time you heard of co-workers turning down free treats?), there is always the staff of my son’s school.  Basically, I’ve got a long list of recipients lined up, so, should I ever find myself saddled with baked goods aplenty, I think my neighbors will be safe. Whether being safe means, to them, being plied with baked goods or not, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Last year: Garden Spaghetti in a Lemon Butter Sauce

Brown Butter Brown Sugar Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Frosting Recipe    

1 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1 ¼ cups plus 2 tablespoons cake flour (5.5 ounces total)

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

2/3 cup light brown sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

¾ cup milk, at room temperature

In a medium saucepan or skillet set over medium heat, melt the butter, then allow to cook, stirring frequently, until it is brown and nutty colored.  The butter will foam at first, then start to spatter, and then turn brown.  Remove the butter to a small bowl, then place the butter in the refrigerator or freezer, stirring every five minutes, to firm up slightly to room-temperature consistency.  You will want the butter to become creamy-textured, but not hard.  This process can take anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt, then set aside.

In a large bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the lightly chilled butter and brown sugar together until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and then add the vanilla and beat for another minute or so until smooth and combined.

Mixing on low speed, beat in one third of the flour mixture, followed by half of the milk.  Beat in half of the remaining flour mixture, followed by the remainder of the milk mixture.  Add in the last of the flour mixture, then beat until just combined.  Be sure to stir the bottom of the bowl with a spatula or spoon to make sure there are no errant clumps remaining.

Divide the batter evenly among the 12 cupcake liners.  Bake on the middle rack for 15 to 20 minutes, until a cake tester or toothpick inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out with just a few crumbs attached.  Cool the cupcakes in the tin for at least 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling completely.

Frost the cupcakes when they are completely cooled.

Vanilla Bean Frosting

10 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 ¼ sticks), softened to room temperature

1 teaspoon milk or cream

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

pinch of salt

1 vanilla bean

1 ¼ cups powdered sugar

In a large bowl, or the bowl of a standing mixer, beat together the butter, milk or cream, vanilla extract, and salt.  Slit the vanilla bean in half lengthwise using a very small, sharp knife, then remove the seeds from the bean by scraping the knife lengthwise against the cut side of the bean, collecting the seeds on your knife as you scrape.  Scrape both halves of the vanilla bean, placing the beans in the butter mixture.

Beat the butter mixture until creamy, then add the powdered sugar and beat on medium-high speed until fully incorporated and very fluffy, about 8 to 10 minutes.

Makes enough frosting for 12 cupcakes.

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