All the Ingredients

Chocolate Bacon Doughnut Cake

Earlier this month, Bacon Boy celebrated his 21st birthday, and I wanted to invent a cake worthy of such an occasion. A while back, I had purchased a doughnut cake pan at Williams-Sonoma at an incredible markdown. Add chocolate, bacon, and the Chocolate Bacon Doughnut Cake was born!

I started by candying half a pound of bacon. I did this by cooking it in my cast-iron skillet with a seasoning made of brown sugar and a little chili powder for zing. I had to be very careful and watch the bacon closely so that I didn't burn it. As soon as I took each strip out of the pan, I laid it in a rack to dry and firm up. Usually I blot bacon with a paper towel, but this bacon was so sticky with the brown sugar, that wasn't an option.

Then I made the chocolate cake. I started by creaming together:

• 2 sticks unsalted butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup bacon fat

I had the bacon fat from cooking the bacon--why not infuse the flavor from the very beginning? I whipped these together until fluffy--about five minutes.

Then I added:

• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Then in another bowl I mixed together the dry ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 6 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• a dash of J&D's Bacon Salt

A side note here:  If you haven't discovered Bacon Salt, it's one of my favorite ingredients! It is an artificially-flavored, low-sodium salt, that is vegetarian AND kosher. It is the perfect seasoning to sprinkle on top of home-made macaroni and cheese, and it adds bacony goodness to everything from grilled cheese sandwiches to chicken salad. I buy can but the Original and Hickory in the spice aisle at my Target, but there are other flavors: http://www.jdfoods.net/products/baconsalt. As it says on the label, "Everything should taste like bacon!" I use Bacon Salt almost every day. Back to the cake.

Alternate adding the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar with:

• 1 1/3 cups milk

Beginning and ending with the flour mixture, beat well after each addition until the ingredients are just incorporated. Stop as necessary to scrape down the sides of the pan. I chopped the bacon up, and folded half of it into the batter. Then I poured the batter into my two doughnut pans and baked them for about 40 minutes at 350 degrees. This amount of batter would easily fill two 9-inch cake pans.

After the cakes were baked, I let them cool in their pans for five minutes, and then turned them out onto racks to cool. Then I trimmed each half of the doughnut so that the two sides that went together were flat. The assembly directions didn't call for frosting between the two doughnut halves, but I glued them together with a quick frosting made of powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and just enough milk to make a spreadable frosting.

Then I made the chocolate glaze for the doughnut. I melted together:

• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips

Then I put that mixture in a bowl and whisked in:

• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cups confectioner's sugar
• approximately 1/2 cup hot water

until the glaze was a consistency that would pour over the cake. I had assembled the doughnut on my cake stand, and put strips of waxed paper around it to catch the glaze overflow. As soon as the glaze was on the cake, I sprinkled on the rest of the bacon pieces.

Bacon Boy thought this cake was delicious. His girlfriend, not sure she would like the chocolate-bacon combination, ended up having two pieces. My husband thought the bacon flavor in the cake was subtle until I added the glaze with the extra bacon bits. He said those were the best bites. What we didn't finish, Bacon Boy took back to school him. The cake was very dark and dense--perfect with coffee.

Happy 21st Birthday, Bacon Boy!

 

New Year, New Food: Barbari Bread & Persian Potato Chicken Salad

My friend Rebekah is married to a tall, dark, handsome Iranian. Over the years I have worked with her, she has learned to cook a number of Iranian dishes. One time she brought a dish into share (we have a little lunch group, low-cal, where some of us occasionally make lunch and bring it in to share). I have to confess that I don't remember what Rebekah made for lunch that day. I only remember the bread she brought. It was a wonderful Iranian flatbread called Barbari. Rebekah had brought it to share because this flatbread is fat free--a plus for a lo-cal lunch. After we had all eaten, there was flatbread leftover. Several pieces. I ate it all. Toasted, it was heavenly. A nice, light brown flatbread topped with sesame seeds. Toasted. Maybe I put some butter on it after I toasted it. Maybe it wasn't fat free then.

Anyway, it's not a bread Rebekah buys locally. Friends of hers go to Chicago to shop the  Middle Eastern food stores there and bring things back. Like the Barabari. So on the first day of this new year, Rebekah brought me an entire package of Barbari. Two and a half feet of it! As I was carrying it gingerly out of work later, Ryan (you know, the one who loves the pineapple angel food cake) asked, "Is that a skateboard made of bread?" It certainly was large enough. So I took my flat of bread home, and thought about what to make with it. 

So I noodled around on the web looking for a salad that might be served with this Iranian flatbread, and came up with Salad Olivieh. Supposedly Russian in origin, it is served throughout the Middle East. The salad is a cross between chicken and potato salad. I like chicken salad, and I like potato salad, but I had never thought of combining them. So I continued to examine recipes and soon realized that there was no way I could follow a traditional recipe for Salad Olivieh, which calls for anywhere from two to three CUPS of mayonnaise, and still serve it to the lo-cal lunch group. So, what follows in the recipe I created. It is based on a traditional Salad Olivieh, but features lower calorie ingredients.

Persian Potato Chicken Salad

• 2 chicken breasts
• 3 small, plain baked potatoes
• 5 carrots

The recipe I was very roughly following called for 2 cups of shredded chicken. You could buy a roasted chicken and use the meat from that. But since I was starting from scratch, I roasted two whole chicken breasts with the potatoes and carrots. Then I chilled them, got rid of any residual chicken fat, and cubed the potatoes, chicken, and potatoes. I didn't shred the chicken because I was cubing everything else, and did the chicken that way too. Not traditional.

In a bowl, to the above ingredients, add:

• 3 hard-boiled eggs, also chilled and cubed
• 1 cup frozen peas (you could also use a frozen peas and carrot mix)
• 1/2 cup sweet pickles, diced

The traditional recipe calls for a 19-ounce jar of Persian pickles. I have never eaten a Persian pickle, and have no idea what their flavor is like. I substituted gherkins because I had them in the fridge. I put in only half a cup because I didn't want them to overwhelm the flavor of the other ingredients. Again not traditional.

For the dressing: 

• 1 cup fat-free mayo 
• 1 tablespoon honey mustard
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon yellow mustard
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice

Whisk all of the above ingredients in a bowl, and then gently stir the mixture into the other ingredients. As I mentioned the more traditional recipes all call for lots  of regular mayonnaise. They also use more olive oil, and lemon juice. I used less olive oil, lime juice instead of lemon (personal preference), and fat free mayo. VERY not traditional. This was plenty of dressing for my tastes.

I took the salad into the lunch group, and served it with toasted pieces of the Barbari Bread. Rebekah said it was delicious, but had I not told her it was my version of the Persian chicken and potato salad, she never would have known. Her husband's family always shreds the chicken, uses the correct pickles, and uses a LOT of mayonnaise. I was going to take a picture of the other members of the lo-cal lunch group enjoying the salad and Barbari, but by the time I remembered to get out my camera, their plates were clean.

I will certainly make this salad again. But I may have to try and make the Barbari myself because I don't know when I'll get more. Thanks Rebekah!

 

Double Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti: For Deborah & Darin

I have already written my lament at the passing of Gourmet magazine. I miss it most at Christmastime. Every year I would wait for the cookie-covered December issue to arrive to see what new delight I could bake to send to family members. And then, when publication of Gourmet stopped, it was with the November issue. You know that those holiday cookie recipes were already written, the December cover photo already chosen. It was a doubly cruel blow. But I have my back issues.

Every year, I go into my office, and poke through the plastic magazine holders to find the December 1994 Gourmet. It contains a family favorite, Double Chocolate Walnut Biscotti, on page 236. Actually, that's not quite true. I have never made the recipe with walnuts. They are wonderful nuts, and I always have them on hand, but to me chocolate and hazelnuts are made for each other. So I mix up a batch of chocolate hazelnut biscotti every year to send to my brother's family in North Carolina. They are a holiday favorite of my niece, Deborah. And since Deborah and her husband Darin are among the few (yet special!) regular readers of my blog, I have decided that this year, my present to them will be the Christmas biscotti recipe. 

Double Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti

(as adapted from Gourmet, December 1994, page 236)

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs (I prefer brown)
• 1 cup hazelnuts, rough chopped
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
• 2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and butter and flour a large baking sheet. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then add the eggs and mix until well-combined. Stir in the flour mixture to form a soft dough. Stir in the hazelnuts and chocolate chips.

On the prepared cookie sheet, form the dough into two slightly flattened logs, each about twelve inches long and about two inches wide. (Flouring your hands makes this easier.) Dust the top of each log well with the confectioners' sugar. Bake the logs 35 minutes, or until slightly firm to the touch. As the logs bake and expand, the tops will crack slightly. Cool the logs on the baking sheet for about five minutes. 

On a cutting board, using a sharp knife to slice cleanly through the hazelnuts without tearing the dough, cut the log diagonally (or straight across--my preference) into 3/4-inch slices. Arrange the biscotti, cut sides down, on a clean baking sheet and bake until crisp--about ten minutes. Cool the biscotti on a rack. They don't keep well because as they bake, the biscotti make the entire house smell like chocolate, and they are eaten almost immediately! I was able to keep some once in a holiday tin, for three days because I had labelled zucchini bread. I am sure they would freeze beautifully.

So, Deborah and Darin, the biscotti are in the mail. The tradition is yours now. Merry Christmas!

What's New: Duncan Hines Cake Mix & Wilderness Fruit Filling

My mother raised me to be a cake purist. A snooty cake purist. If it wasn't whipped up by loving hands at home, from scratch, it wasn't good cake. All it took was my son remembering at 9 p.m. at night that he needed cupcakes for the school bake sale/class party/birthday treat at school the next day for me to become an instant fan of cake mixes. I began keeping boxes of chocolate and yellow cake mixes hidden in the back of my cupboard for just such emergencies. Once I had baked the cake or cupcakes needed, I could easily whip up my mother's favorite frosting for cakes for children--creamy peanut butter mixed with confectioner's sugar. Life was much easier. 

And although I still prefer to make cake from scratch, nothing cheers up stressed out retail co-workers this time of year, as showing up to work with cake. Cake says. "Although I can't give you a raise, and the customers might not always be cheerful and happy this time of year, I appreciate all your hard work, and make you cake." As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program, I received coupons for Duncan Hines Cake Mixes and Wilderness Fruit Filling. I bought a Classic White Cake Mix, and a can of Wilderness More Fruit Blueberry Pie Filling. Following closely after the many indulgences of Thanksgiving, I wanted to try the low fat version of the cake mix featured right on the Duncan Hines box.

First, I lined two pans with cupcake papers, and spritzed them lightly with Pam for Baking. If you have ever baked fat-free cupcakes, you know that they become very attached to the cupcake papers. But you only want to give the papers the lightest misting--too much and the cupcakes don't attach to them at all, and they look like ladies shucking frilly skirts. not an appealing look.

Then I mixed the Duncan Hines Classic White Cake Mix according to the lower fat version, adding 1& 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce, and 3 egg whites. I spooned batter into each cupcake paper so that they were half full. Next I placed about a teaspoon of Wilderness More Fruit Blueberry Pie filling into the center of each cupcake more or less neatly. Then I topped them off with rest of the cake batter--roughly a tablespoon each. I sprinkled a little blue decorating sugar on top, and baked the cupcakes for about twenty minutes. 

Then I cooled the blueberry cupcakes briefly on a rack, put them on a platter, and went out the door to work. Because of the ease of using a Duncan Hines cake mix, I was able to make these cupcakes before I left in the morning, showing up with a cheerful plate of fabulous cupcakes to treat my co-workers. A success all around--and everyone said they were delicious! Because I used the low fat option on the box, and didn't use frosting, they were light enough that some people ate two. (Like me!) And I got to hand out the extra Duncan Hines coupons that I had received as well.

I have half a can of the Wilderness Blueberry Filling left, so today I bought a Duncan Hines Angel Food cake mix and a small can of crushed pineapple. That way I can make Retail Relief Blueberry Pineapple cupcakes to take to work on Saturday. Try taking Duncan Hines cake to work, and see how happy you can make your co-workers!

Gluten Free Bread from Anna

I got a lovely round bread crock from my Secret Santa for Christmas. With it was a gluten free bread mix, Breads from Anna: "Gluten Free Classic Herb Mix." I have seen these bread mixes around, but until I received one, I didn't know the company was based a stone's throw down the road in Iowa City: http://www.breadsfromanna.com/. The crock came from D2 Pottery: http://d2pottery.com/. Included with the crock were some recipes, but since Santa gave me the two of them together (plus everything else the mix required except the eggs), I decided that it was a match made in the kitchen.

I mixed up the bread mix. It smelled fabulous before I had even started to bake it--like the wonderful dill bread that was so popular in the late 70s. Since the recipe contained yeast and said that the bread would double in size, I only filled the crock half way. With the leftover dough I made one of those small loaves like some people use to give breads at Christmas time. (These small loaf pans were my mother's. I don't use them very often. I think if you are giving someone a loaf of bread, you should give them a whole big loaf of bread. Those little loaves are good only for garden gnomes or teddy bear tea parties. If someone don't deserve  a whole loaf of bread, they get cookies. Or socks.) In about an hour the dough had raised into a rough dome over the bread crock and was ready for the oven.

I baked the loaves for about 30 minutes. Both were browned nicely. Even though I had sprayed the inside of the bread crock well with cooking spray, I was sure the bread wasn't going to come out. I ran a knife around the inside top of the crock, and the loaf popped right out. I don't know anything about baking in ceramics, but the loaf was more browned on the bottom than on the top, so I inverted it in the oven for another five minutes until the top had browned as well. Unfortunately, this flattened my lovely dome somewhat.

Now I have a confession to make. Had this gluten-free bread mix not been a gift, I never would have tried it. My Mother-In-Law has been living the gluten-free life for close to five years now. Five long years. The first time she came to visit after being diagnosed with Celiac's, I bought ingredients at the local food co-op and baked a loaf of white bread for her. Picture a loaf of bread that looks like it has been baked out of potato flakes mixed with Elmer's Glue. The loaf didn't rise. It didn't brown. It didn't smell like bread. It could have kept the front door propped open in a gale force wind. My MIL pronounced it delicious. (She was either lying or desperate.)

A year later, when she came for a visit and we celebrated her birthday, I bought my first gluten-free package mix: a chocolate cake. I baked the layers, and frosted them in between and on top with real whipped cream and fresh strawberries. The cake was delicious, and the kids both polished off two pieces. After that, I threw out all the ingredients for gluten-free baking from scratch, and have stuck with numerous mixes.

Of everything I have tried over the years, this herb bread form Breads from Anna has been the very best. The bread smelled every bit as good as it tasted. It had the texture of "gluten-full" bread and a nice crumb. It was lovely warm with butter and a cup of tea. If you or someone you love is gluten-free, try these breads. I am going to try the pumpkin bread next--and plan to send some mixes to my MIL for Valentine's Day.

And now for something completely different...Lollyphile!

I have long had a special fondness for sweet and savory flavors together. I have often been made fun of because I like odd combinations of food. Pretzels are much better eaten with a square of dark chocolate (I don't prefer pretzels already dipped in chocolate because I want to be able to control the sweet to savory ratio myself.) I have to have a nice piece of sharp cheddar cheese with my apple pie. Or my pecan pie. Never ice cream or whipped cream. The sharpness of the cheddar balances the sweetness of the pie and keeps it from being too sweet. I love a nice Belgium waffle or stack of pancakes with maple syrup for breakfast, but only if the are accompanied by nice crispy, salty, strips of bacon. Sweet and savory is a delicate balance, and I beginning to experiment with adding spicy heat to the equation.

Recently I had a birthday, and a friend sent me a true "foodie" present: Maple-Bacon lollipops from Lollyphile, a new San Francisco candy company: http://www.lollyphile.com/ . Made with organic Vermont maple syrup and sustainable, organic cured bacon, these are lollipops all grown up. There are several candy companies I have read about over the last few months that make bacon candy--almost always paired with chocolate. That doesn't seem like the right sweet flavor to combine with the sharp, smokiness of bacon. But maple candy? That's perfect.

When you open the box, the Maple-Bacon lollipops smell faintly like my kitchen on Sunday morning after breakfast. The pungency of bacon is there, as well as the sweet smell of maple syrup. The lollipops are clear, smooth amber maple-flavored pops studded with tiny bits of diced bacon. The two flavors blend in your mouth just like a bite of breakfast. I also like the combinations of textures: smooth maple versus bumpy bacon. All Lollyphile needs is a coffee with cream sucker to complete the meal.

In these days when molecular gastronomy is becoming all the rage, and chefs can make "caviar" pearls that taste like green apples, it's wonderful to have a small sweet treat that encompasses an entire meal. Currently, Lollyphile only has one other flavor lolly for sale, Absinthe. I will have to try that next!

Give a Gift: Bacon Of the Month

In my household, bacon is one of the most popular foods. Of the nine creatures under our roof (cats count), only my daughter doesn't really care for bacon. The rest of us love bacon. Bacon plain. Bacon in dishes. One of my favorite cookbook purchases of the last year has been Seduced by Bacon: Recipes and Lore About America's Favorite Indulgence by Joanna Pruess. This volume is a collection of bacon facts and lore as well as great recipes that take bacon from the breakfast table through lunch and dinner to dessert.

One recipe that has become a favorite in our house is "Bacon-Wrapped Breadsticks." You take the hard breadsticks that you can find in the bread aisle of almost any grocery store, wrap bacon around them, and cook for half an hour in a 350 degree oven. Seduced by Bacon recommends coating the inside of each bacon slice, before wrapping, with mustard and sprinkling it with Parmesan cheese. That sounds good, but I just sprinkle the inside of my slices with my favorite barbecue dry rub--I don't want to interfere with the taste of the bacon. Since the fat of the bacon softens up the bread sticks as they cook, I bake mine on a cookie rack on top of a baking sheet in the oven. That way the breadsticks don't sit in the bacon fat. Cook them until they are nice and crisp, and let cool just a bit before you serve them.

I caused a traffic jam at the hors d'oeuvre tray on Thanksgiving by following the same technique to cook bacon-wrapped dates (one friend who was fifteen minutes late didn't get any). The sugar in the dates caramelizes and adds extra crunch to the bacon. These are also fantastic cooked over low heat on a barbecue grill. However you cook the bacon-wrapped dates, you must watch them carefully because they will burn easily.

We have done a lot of experimenting with bacon recipes in our house over the last year because last February for Valentine's Day, I gave my husband the Bacon of the Month Club: http://www.gratefulpalate.com/?p=Category_11 . For $150 you get a different artisanal bacon delivered, cold-packed, to your door. Over the last twelve months, we have had some truly fabulous bacons such as Nodine's Apple Smoke Flavored Bacon, Edwards Brown Sugar Cured Virginia Bacon, Hempler's Pepper Bacon, and Burger's Smokehouse Sliced Country Pork Jowl. One of our favorites was Vande Rose Farms Applewood Smoked Artisan Dry Cured Bacon from Oskaloosa, here in Iowa. A fight almost broke out over the breakfast table over who would get the last piece. The pork used for this bacon is fed all natural grains, and the meat was hand-rubbed with spices before being smoked over applewood.  

The problem is that once you've eaten your way through a year of the Bacon of the Month Club, you can never go back to grocery-store bacon again. These are not highly-processed bacons filled with water and phosphates, and for most, there is minimal shrinkage when you cook them. One of the biggest surprises is that these artisanal bacons actually taste like pork--you know that they come from a pig. Most supermarket bacon does not taste like its animal of origin. My family at first was resistant to bacon that resembled a good Iowa pork chop in flavor, but now they prefer it. That flavor is the sign of bacon that was made in a traditional manner, preserving and respecting the flavor of the original pig.

If you really want to give a great present to the bacon-lover in your life, I highly recommend the Bacon of the Month Club. You can also visit their web page for other great bacon-themed presents such as bacon salt, bacon popcorn, and bacon brittle: http: //www.gratefulpalate.com/?p=Page_24. Give the gift of bacon this Valentine's Day!