Three awesome holiday desserts

Yesterday was the perfect Saturday.  It was snowing, I had a fire going, and I baked all day.  I was making bite-sized desserts for a party, all recipes I have never tried before.  Some how they all turned out great.  I did a nut, a sour fruit, and the most deadly of chocolate.  I cut the bar and brownies into 2 inch squares and arranged everything on a big silver platter.  There was a little something for every palate.

Pecan Tassies
Recipe courtesy of Martha Stewart

Ingredients:

(Dough)

• 1/2 cup pecans
• 1/2 cup (4 ounces) cream cheese
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• Pinch of salt

(Filling)

• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup pecans, toasted and coarsely chopped

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make the dough: Process pecans in a food processor until finely ground (you should have about 1/3 cup); set aside. Put cream cheese and butter into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until well blended. Add flour, ground pecans, and salt; mix just until dough comes together.

Roll dough into sixteen 1-inch balls, and press into bottoms and up sides of cups of mini-muffin tins.  You may need to use some flour on your hands to stop it from sticking to you.  Keep tart shells in the fridge while making the filling.

Make the filling: Whisk the egg, sugar, maple syrup, vanilla, butter, and salt in a small bowl. Stir in pecans. Spoon about 1 1/2 teaspoons filling into each muffin cup.

Bake pecan tassies until crust begins to turn golden, about 15 minutes. Let cool completely in tins on wire rack. Unmold. Pecan tassies can be stored in single layers in airtight containers up to 3 days.

Lemon Bars

Recipe courtesy of Recipe Connoisseur

Ingredients:

(Crust)

• ½ pound unsalted butter, room temperature
• ½ cup sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ⅛ tsp. salt

(Filling)

• 6 large eggs
• 3 cups sugar
• 2½ tablespoons grated lemon zest, packed
• 1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 cup all-purpose flour

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
For the crust, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy in electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Combine the flour and salt and with mixer on low, add to sugar mixture until just combined. Gather dough into a ball and press into a 9 X 13 inch pan, pressing the edges up the sides about a ½ inch. Chill in freezer for 15 minutes.
Bake the crust for 15-20 minutes, until edges start to brown. Let cool while making filling.
Whisk together the eggs, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and flour. Pour over the crust and bake for 30-35 minutes, until the filling is set. Cool to room temperature before slicing.

Flourless Dark Chocolate Brownies with Queen Mother Icing

Recipe courtesy of Yammie's Gluten Freedom

Ingredients:  

(Brownies)

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 4 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup special dark cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons instant coffee powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

(Queen Mother Ganache)

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 4 tsp instant coffee
• 16 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips (2 2/3 cups)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking pan. Combine the sugars and oil and beat until well combined. Add in the eggs and whisk together. Mix the vanilla and instant coffee together until the coffee powder is dissolved and add to the egg/sugar/oil mixture. Beat for about two minutes. Stir together the cocoa and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the batter and blend until smooth. Pour into prepared pan and bake about 20 minutes.

While the brownies are cooling, make the queen mother ganache.  Heat the cream in a sauce pan over medium heat until bubbles form around the edge.  Whisk in instant coffee until dissolved, then add in chocolate and whisk about 30 seconds.  Now remove from the heat and continue to whisk until ganache is completely smooth.  Pour ganache over brownies and put in the freezer for about a half hour.  You want them to be chilled and set enough to cut without the knife catching in the chocolate.  The brownies are really moist and crumbly, and the ganache becomes like fudge so it wants to stick on the knife.  While you are cutting, keep wiping off the knife of excess chocolate to get a clean cut.  

The barter system

My friend Blue and I have a really great barter going on where she gives me massages in exchange for baked goods.  This week I had her work on this wicked knot in my back and I made her cookies.  I really like this trade, we've been doing it pretty much all summer.  Blue often challenges me by asking for gluten-free or vegan recipes and I try to rise to the occasion.  I pulled out an oldie but goodie Martha recipe for this weeks trade.

Chocolate Chip Gingerbread Cookies
Recipe from Martha Stewart

Ingredients:

• 7 ounces semisweet chocolate
• 1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
• 1/2 cup dark-brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup unsulfured molasses
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar

Method:

1. Line two baking sheets with parchment. Chop chocolate into 1/4-inch chunks; set aside. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and cocoa.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and grated ginger until whitened, about 4 minutes. Add brown sugar; beat until combined. Add molasses; beat until combined.
3. In a small bowl, dissolve baking soda in 1 1/2 teaspoons boiling water. Beat half of flour mixture into butter mixture. Beat in baking-soda mixture, then remaining half of flour mixture. Mix in chocolate; turn out onto a piece of plastic wrap. Pat dough out to about 1 inch thick; seal with wrap; refrigerate until firm, 2 hours or more.
4. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Roll dough into 1 1/2- inch balls; place 2 inches apart on baking sheets. Refrigerate 20 minutes. Roll in granulated sugar. Bake until the surfaces crack slightly, 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Grilled Romaine and Radicchio

This is a really easy way to change up the traditional caesar salad. You just buy a bag of those pre-washed romaine hearts, cut them in half long-ways and brush them lightly with olive oil. Throw them on the grill for a few minutes until they are wilted and eat them with a sweet balsamic vinegar or the Martha Stewart caesar dressing that we love. Last night we also tried grilling radicchio and it came out really well.

Caesar Dressing

I like this recipe for classic caesar dressing. It's not one of those creamy ones, more an intensely garlicy olive oily one. It's also really easy and besides the anchovies I had all of the ingredients laying around. Of course, it's a Martha. Original recipe can be found here. The only change I made was to add a little parmesan cheese.

Ingredients:

2 garlic cloves
4 anchovy fillets
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 large egg yolk
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 tablespoons parmesan cheese

Method:

Combine all ingredients in your cuisinart or a blender and enjoy!

Whole Wheat Brownies

Holy fudgey brownie Martha Stewart!!

There are a lot of different kinds of brownies out there. There are really moist oil brownies, buttery flakey brownies, there are dryer cakier brownies, there are low-fat applesauce brownies, hell there are Katherine Hepburn brownies!!! Well these brownies are totally dense, totally dark, totally ridiculous. Redic!!

I wanted to make them because of the whole wheat flour thing but I got to my mom's house to bake and realized I had no chocolate chips! But I did have plenty of unsweetened bakers chocolate, so I started thinking... What if I substituted bakers chocolate and sugar for semisweet chocolate chips? Well I did it and it was awesome!!

Original recipe can be found at Martha's Website. I made a few changes, and I think it paid off. Besides the chocolate switch, I used half special dark cocoa powder and half regular cocoa powder, totaling 1/3 cup. I also left out the chocolate chips that Martha puts in at the end- you really don't need them.

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup all-purpose flour, (spooned and leveled)
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour (spooned and leveled)
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used half regular cocoa powder and half special dark cocoa powder)
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 1/4 cups unsweetened applesauce
1 large egg
8 ounces unsweetened bakers chocolate plus 10 tbsp white sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8-inch square baking dish; line with parchment, then spray the parchment too, leaving a 2-inch overhang on all sides.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, cocoa, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.

In a double boiler melt the 8 oz bakers chocolate and add the 10 tbsp white sugar and stir until combined and melted together- it's ok if the sugar is still sandy and unmelted in there- mine was.

In a large bowl, stir together brown sugar, applesauce, and egg.

Add butter to melted chocolate and stir until melted over the double boiler.

Stir chocolate mixture into applesauce mixture.

Stir in flour mixture.

Pour into pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs attached, 40 minutes.

Let cool in pan on a wire rack. Use parchment to lift cake from pan and cut into 16 squares.

Photo Credit: Martha Stewart

Martha Stewart Gold Standards

So let me share with you a few Martha Recipes that I have made many times with good results. These cookies are delish and always come out great- unlike a very crappy corn muffin recipe of hers that I tried the other week. I ended up feeding that one to the neighbor dogs. Very disappointing Martha. I am in the process of finding a new cornmeal recipe that will make a bangin muffin. I have one to try later this week possibly. But I digress... back to Martha:

Healthy Oatmeal Cookie:

This cookie is for anyone who likes a honey taste. It is also made with oil instead of butter so it's a dense, heart-healthy cookie.

Ingredients

1/2 cup whole-wheat flour (spooned and leveled)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour, (spooned and leveled)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup packed dark-brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup rolled oats (not quick-cooking)
1/2 cup dried currants or raisins

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together flours and baking powder; set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together oil, sugar, egg, and vanilla. Add flour mixture, and stir to combine; mix in oats and currants.
Using two tablespoons of dough per cookie, roll into balls; place on two baking sheets lined with parchment paper, 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake until lightly browned, 15 to 17 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through.
Cool 5 minutes on sheets, then transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Lemon Cornmeal Cookie:

I have made this cookie a hundred times. It is a huge fave at work, even with non-sweet lovers. It's really easy to make and comes out perfect every time. Sometimes I add chocolate chips to it as well.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, (spooned and leveled)
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, very soft
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, cornmeal, lemon zest, and salt.
In a large bowl, mix butter, sugar, and egg until combined. Gradually add dry ingredients until moistened.
Pinch off and roll dough into balls, each equal to 1 1/2 tablespoons; place on 2 baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. With fingers, flatten balls to 3/4-inch thickness.
Bake until lightly browned around edges, 20 to 25 minutes; transfer to racks to cool completely.

Outrageous Chocolate Cookies:

These cookies are a lot like a "brownie cookie" so I have made them on request for my best friend, Lauren. This is a recipe that takes melted chocolate and chocolate chips, if you replace a couple of Tbsp of flour with cocoa powder they would be a triple chocolate treat!! This is big crowd pleaser too but I tend to make them sparingly because I bake on a budget and they require a lot of chocolate. You could probably do the cocoa and melted chocolate and leave out the chocolate chips at the end and they would still be great while saving some choco-money.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, (spooned and leveled)
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, very soft
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, cornmeal, lemon zest, and salt.
In a large bowl, mix butter, sugar, and egg until combined. Gradually add dry ingredients until moistened.
Pinch off and roll dough into balls, each equal to 1 1/2 tablespoons; place on 2 baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. With fingers, flatten balls to 3/4-inch thickness.
Bake until lightly browned around edges, 20 to 25 minutes; transfer to racks to cool completely.

Cook's Note

Don't worry if the batter seems thin. It should look more like a brownie batter than a cookie dough.

Photo Credits: Martha Stewart

Chocolate Cranberry Press-In Shortbread

So I like everything to be very easy. Martha Stewart does not. In this recipe she cuts all of these shapes out of this shortbread and essentially wastes all of the scraps- waster!! This is essentially a one-bowl recipe- which I love- and there's not chilling involved- so get it in the oven for instant gratification. I added chocolate chips and cut the whole pan into bite-sized squares. So make hearts if you want or make life simpler and go with the squares.

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sifted confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup finely chopped dried cranberries or cherries

Directions

Heat oven to 325 degrees.with a rack in center. Combine butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla, flour, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Beat with a wooden spoon until combined but not too creamy. Stir in dried cranberries.
Pat dough evenly into an 8- or 9-inch-square baking pan. Bake until just beginning to turn golden, about 20 minutes. Place pan on cooling rack until cool enough to touch, about 20 minutes. Run knife around edges, remove shortbread, and transfer, right side up, to work surface. Use 1 1/2- to 2-inch heart cookie cutter to cut out cookies. Use a paring knife to trim stray bits of cranberry from edges. Cookies will keep for 5 days at room temperature in an airtight container.

Photo Credit: Martha Stewart

Pumpkin Bread Pudding

This was one of the best Martha recipes I've ever made. Click here for link. She's got a few recipes that I go back to again and again, and this is one of them. So I baked mine in a spring-form pan rather than indi ramekins. I also added walnuts to make it a little more interesting. Aaaaaand I had to use random old french bread that I found in the freezer. Another time I threw in some day-old scones that I bought from my local cooperative grocery store and subbed some of the sugar with mashed old bananas. And hell- sprinkle some brown sugar on it for good luck.

Ingredients

Unsalted butter, room temperature, for ramekins
6 tablespoons dark-brown sugar
1 cup raisins
1/3 cup bourbon
1/3 cup hot water
One 15-ounce can pumpkin puree
4 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups milk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
Pinch of salt
One 12-ounce, day-old loaf brioche or challah bread, cut into 3/4-inch cubes
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter six 10-ounce ramekins or custard cups, and sprinkle each with 1 tablespoon brown sugar, and set aside on a baking sheet. Place raisins in a small bowl, and cover with bourbon, if using, and the hot water; let soak until plump, about 20 minutes. Drain; set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together pumpkin, eggs, granulated sugar, milk, vanilla, spices, and salt. Toss in the bread cubes, and stir gently to evenly coat; let stand a few minutes. Fold in the raisins. Divide among prepared dishes, pressing down slightly to make level.
Bake until custard is set in the center and top is golden, about 40 minutes. If bread browns too quickly, cover loosely with aluminum foil. Remove from oven; let cool slightly. To serve, un-mold onto plates; dust with confectioners' sugar.

Photo Credit: Martha Stewart

Pumpkin Brownies

Thank you Martha Stewart for emailing me recipes on a daily basis. This is one that we just had to try, and it was goooooood!! Subtle, yet pumpkiny. Here is the link to her page, but I copied it below too.

Ingredients

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, plus more for pan
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups solid-pack pumpkin
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts or other nuts

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch square baking pan or dish. Line bottom of pan with parchment paper; butter lining.
Melt chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, stirring occasionally until smooth.
Whisk together flour, baking powder, cayenne, and salt in a large bowl; set aside. Put sugar, eggs, and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; beat until fluffy and well combined, 3 to 5 minutes. Beat in flour mixture.
Divide batter between two medium bowls (about 2 cups per bowl). Stir chocolate mixture into one bowl. In other bowl, stir in pumpkin, oil, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Transfer half of chocolate batter to prepared pan smoothing top with a rubber spatula. Top with half of pumpkin batter. Repeat to make one more chocolate layer and one more pumpkin layer. Work quickly so batters don't set.
With a small spatula or a table knife, gently swirl the two batters to create a marbled effect. Sprinkle with nuts.
Bake until set, 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool in pan on a wire rack. Cut into 16 squares.

Photo Credit: Martha Stewart