Deliciosa Vegetarian Paella & the Worldwide Nabisco Chocolate Wafer Shortage!!

The Picky Eater is currently ensconced at our domicile; pending her departure for the nether regions of Scotland next month; you can tell she's here from the tufts of discarded thread strewn on all the carpets. Other than desserts, cooking for her can be a tricky business, but a few nights ago we collaborated on a scrumptious casserole of paella, with shrimp on the side for the pescatarians in the family. The Picky Eater did the stirring while everything sauteed, and I took care of the peeling and dicing.

You really can use any vegetables that suit your fancy. We went with seasonal peppers from the garden, zucchini and fresh tomatoes. The trick is to saute the saffron and pimenton with the onion-garlic mixture before adding any liquid. We found that adding the garbanzos and peas just for the last ten minutes in the oven heated them nicely without overcooking the peas.

Vegetarian Paella

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

3 large cloves garlic, peeled and finely minced

1  1/2 tsp sweet Spanish paprika 

 5 -10 strands of saffron

3 medium carrots, peeled and diced

2 banana peppers, seeded and chopped 

or

1 red bell pepper & 1 green bell pepper, cored, seeded and chopped

1 1/2 cups paella rice

 2 medium zucchini, trimmed and cubed

 4 large ripe tomatoes, diced

 Salt and pepper to taste

 3 cups vegetable or chicken stock, boiling

1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

1 ½ cups frozen peas (do not defrost)

In a large ovenproof sauté pan, heat the extra virgin olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until it is translucent. Add the garlic, smoked paprika, and saffron. Cook 3-4 minutes, then add the carrots and peppers. Saute 5 minutes, until the peppers start to soften.

Add the rice, and sauté, stirring constantly,  until it starts to look translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the zucchini and sauté a minute or two, then the tomatoes for another minute. Add the stock and bring back to a boil.

Lower heat to medium low and simmer, covered, for 10-15 minutes, until most of the stock is absorbed.

Strew the garbanzos and frozen peas over the top of the rice. Cover with a lid or foil, and put in 350 F oven for another 10 minutes, or until all the liquid is absorbed.
Serves 4-6.

The Great Nabisco Chocolate Wafer Shortage

Well, it's not really a shortage, because it looks like the main ingredient in the Chocolate Icebox Cake, well-beloved dessert of generations of Baby Boomers and beyond, appears to have been discontinued by Nabisco. How dare they!! I would sell all my Nabisco stock immediately, if I owned any. We have looked in vain throughout the web, Target, Walmart, Safeway, and beyond. Our searches unearthed a pallid substitute-- "Mandy's Dark Chocolate Cookie Thins." Slightly more bittersweet and decidedly smaller in size. But they will do the job.

Or, you can bake your own chocolate wafers using this recipe adapted by Smitten Kitchen from Alice Medrich's Pure Dessert, but as the Daddy says, that defeats the whole concept of the Chocolate Icebox Cake, which is as quick as the time that it takes you to whip up a bowl of cream.

Homemade Chocolate Wafers

Makes 50 to 60 1 3/4-inch wafers. 

1 1/2 cups (6.75 ounces) all-purpose flour

3/4 cup (2.4 ounces) unsweetened cocoa powder (see Note)

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

14 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened

3 tablespoons whole milk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Combine the flour, cocoa, sugar, salt, and baking soda in the bowl of food processor and pulse several times to mix thoroughly. Cut the butter into about 12 chunks and add them to the bowl. Pulse several times. Combine the milk and vanilla in a small cup. With the processor running, add the milk mixture and continue to process until the mixture clumps around the blade or the sides of the bowl. Transfer the dough to a large bowl or a cutting board and knead a few times to make sure it is evenly blended.

Form the dough into a log about 14 inches long and 1 3/4 inches in diameter. Wrap the log in wax paper or foil and refrigerate until firm, at least one hour, or until needed.

Position the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line the baking sheets with parchment paper. Cut the log of dough into slices a scant 1/4-inch thick (I went thinner, closer to 1/8 of inch. If you’re trying to emulate the store-bought wafers, slice as thin as you can, and watch the baking time carefully, as it might be less.) and place them one inch apart on the lined sheets (cookies will spread). Bake, rotating the baking sheet from top to bottom and back to front about halfway through baking, for a total of 12 to 15 minutes. The cookies will puff up and deflate; they are done about 1 1/2 minutes after they deflate.

Cool the cookies on the baking sheets on racks, or slide the parchment onto racks to cool completely. These cookies may be stored in an airtight container for up to two weeks or be frozen for up to two months.

Note: These cookies should crisp as they cool. If they don’t, you’re not baking them long enough.

And now that we're finished with the complaining, here's the "Famous" Chocolate Icebox Cake itself-

"Famous" Chocolate Icebox Cake

2 cups heavy cream

3 tablespoons powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 (9-ounce) package chocolate wafer cookies 

Unsweetened cocoa, crumbled chocolate wafer cookies or chocolate shavings

In a large bowl, beat the cream, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer on high speed until soft peaks form.

On a flat rectangular serving plate, run a 1" thick line of whipping cream down the center. Starting with one cookie, smear it with whipped cream and then press another against the cream. Do this until you have four cookies smushed together. Stand the stack upright at the beginning of the whipped cream strip on your plate. Do another four cookies this way, smear the end of the last one with whipped cream, and smush it against the last stood up cookie. Gently press the row of cookies from the two non-iced ends so that they are all well attached to each other. Continue spreading cream and smushing until your loaf extends the length of the plate.

Generously "ice" the sides and top of your cake with the remaining whipped cream. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

To serve, dust top lightly with cocoa powder, extra crumbled cookies or chocolate shavings.

Let Them Eat (Pear Chocolate Chunk) Cake!

SO yummy, it disappeared before I could catch the whole cake!

Sadly, I have to admit that I am not the most inventive cook. At best, I gather multiple versions of a recipe, integrate all the ingredients that appeal to me, and what to seem  to be the best techniques, and hope for the ultimate version of the recipe. This has been more or less successful with a few things- tuna tapenade and cassoulet come to mind. Still perfecting pan bagnat, though. No one has come up with a solution to the sogginess problem

 I also am a rather impatient cook. Far be it for me to make three or more versions of the same recipe with slight alterations to see which works best. Definitely not America's Test Kitchen material.

So, I am inordinately proud of this new Pear Chocolate Chunk Cake which morphed out of the well-loved Zucchini Orange Cake. I switched out the orange juice for milk, substituted pears for zucchini, and added a chocolate ganache. Somewhat miraculously, it was sublime at the first go- moist with a wonderful crumb and a lovely symphony of flavors.  Just lucky, I guess....

Pear Chocolate Chunk Cake
3 c. flour
3 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
1 c. butter, softened
1 3/4 c.  sugar
2 t. vanilla
4 eggs
1/2 c. milk
3 firm pears (they will soften when baked in the cake)
Juice of ½ a lemon combined with cold water in a medium size mixing bowl
1 ½ c. semi-sweet chocolate chunks or chips
1 c. chopped pecans

Chocolate Ganache Topping
8oz semisweet chocolate
2 Tb sugar
½ c. whipping cream
3 1/2 Tb butter
2 t. vanilla
2 Tb pear liqueur (optional, but it really adds to the flavor profile)

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour a 10” tube pan.

Peel and core the pears, and cut them into ½” diameter chunks. Immerse them in the lemon water to prevent discoloration.

Stir the flour, baking powder, and salt together.

Cream the butter and sugar on medium speed about 3-5 minutes, until light and fluffy. (This makes the cake tender.)

Beat in the vanilla and eggs one at a time.  While you are beating in the eggs, drain the pear chunks and dry them on a double layer of paper towels.

Hand stir in the dry ingredients, alternately with the milk.  Stir in the pear chunks, chocolate chunks, and pecans.

Spread the batter evenly in the tube pan. Bake about 50-60 minutes (or until done). The cake will be brown, firm to the touch, and pulling away from the edges of the pan. (The internal temperature in the middle should be 185-195 F degrees.)

Let the cake cool on a rack 10 minutes, then turn out the cake, and slide it back on the rack to cool completely. When the cake has cooled completely, move it to a platter.

Make the ganache:
Chop the semi-sweet chocolate into chunks and place it in a small saucepan with the cream, butter and sugar.  Stir over low heat until all the chocolate has melted and it is smooth. Add the vanilla and pear liqueur.  Allow the ganache to cool until it is spreadable and the consistency of softly whipped cream.

Place strips of foil around the bottom of the cake to catch any drips, and drizzle or smear on the chocolate ganache with a spatula or table knife.

Serves 10-12. Keep in a cool place or refrigerator for a day or two, at most.

Foods with memories

Today I was wolfing down a blood orange at my kitchen counter, and was reminded of the first time that I ever saw or ate a blood orange- February 1973 in Florence, Italy. Almost swooned, fell in love and  have remained faithful to this day. None of those pathetic pink "Cara caras" for me! And could it get any better than when, in the last decade, growers in California started producing them and they now are available throughout the winter in my local grocery store and farmers market. Sheer bliss for a woman who is willing to pay (don't tell my husband) $7. for a quart of imported Italian blood orange juice.

Moving on from the blood orange, my musing veered to tortellini- one of the other delights of living for four months in a pension on the Lungarno Guiccardini, in a tiny room with a rooftop view of nearby Basilica Santo Spirito, and 5 plump tortellini floating in our dinner brodo just one special night a week. Maybe Thursdays? Seems possible.

Then my thoughts drifted to other amazing foods that are indelibly printed on my memory...
- the pain au chocolat I ate every morning on my way to the metro during my first stay in Paris- blissfully unaware that eating in transit was considered a Gallic faux pas.
- the peach ice cream at Fauchon that flooded my olfactory senses and then faded just as quickly.
- My first gougere, a 5 inch glob of gooey cheesy pate de choux (cream puff dough) in Beaune circa 1979.

David Lebovitz's authentic "giant"Burgundian gougeres. Find his recipe at David Lebovitz.com 

Gougères
For modern palates, these work best if made as small appetizer puffs.

1 1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. butter
1 1/3 c. flour
salt
Tabasco
pinch nutmeg
6 eggs
1 Tb Dijon mustard
2 1/2 c. coarsely grated Swiss cheese

Preheat the oven to 425°.

Heat the milk and butter together until the butter is melted. Remove from the heat and add the flour all at once. Cook for about 2 minutes – until the mixture forms a ball and comes away from the sides of the pan.

Off the heat, beat in the salt, a few drops of Tabasco and the nutmeg. Beat in the eggs 2 at a time, making sure each 2 are completely blended before added the next ones. Stir in 2 cups of the cheese and the mustard.

Butter a cookie sheet and form heaping teaspoonsful about 3 inches apart. Brush the tops with milk and put a bit of grated cheese on top.

Bake about 20 minutes, do not open the oven door during this time. They are done when they look puffed and golden brown.  Serve warm. Makes about 30 puffs.

- This amazing Julia Child & Company "Gateau Victoire au Chocolat, Mousseline"  cake that I made for a Sunday lunch in Modesto in 1978 that required me to race back and forth across town while the cake baked in the oven at my catering business and I was simultaneously cooking at home. (Recipe on p. 187 of the "white" volume.)

Earlier this week while watering my front yard, I took a moment to eat a handful of wild strawberries from our volunteer strawberry patch. Sweet and raspberry-ish, I recalled my first taste- a tiny but very pricey dish of fragoline di bosco for Easter lunch dessert at Ristorante Cammillo on the Borgo San Jacapo. (Quite impressed that I managed to unearth that little factoid!)

What is interesting to me is that the foods that I remember best aren't from any of the elaborate restaurant meals that I have been lucky enough to have eaten; they are simpler foods that cross my path every day, (well, maybe not the pain au chocolate or gougeres!)

Of course, most of anyone's food memories are associated with one's family, and most likely are holiday related. Not so much in my case, as our family's faulty dynamics made many holidays more of an ordeal than an occasion. But, I do have my dear sweet mother to thank for my love of fried matzoh, her grandmother's nut strudels, and shish kebab.

My father frequently held late night gin rummy and poker parties at our dining room table. When I was a little girl I would wake up, sneak into the room, sit quietly in a corner and watch them play (and eat). My mother always prepared amazing food for them, including this shish kebab.

Shish Kebab
The first time I made shish kebab myself was in college; actually, it was for my inaugural dinner party. I vaguely remember making a cheesecake for dessert, and that I thought mushrooms were extravagantly expensive at $1.00 a pound.

5-6 lb. leg of lamb, boned

Marinade
1 t. each salt & pepper
1/2 t. thyme
3 Tb parsley, chopped
1 bay leaf
1/2 t. oregano
2 cloves garlic, crushed
3/4 c. olive oil
red wine to cover

2 onions, quartered
2-3 bell peppers, cut in chunks
25-20 mushroom caps, stems trimmed

Cut the lamb into large chunks. Whisk marinade ingredients together. Put the lamb in a bowl and coat with the marinade. Cover and refrigerate 6-8 hours or overnight.

Arrange the lamb on metal skewers, alternating with pieces of onion, pepper, and mushroom.
Grill over hot coals, turning frequently, and brushing with the marinade.  Serves 10.
(From The Gourmet Cookbook, Vol. 2 [1957].)

My father introduced us to Nasi Goreng, which he ate when he was a surgeon on a troop hospital ship in the south Pacific during World War II. The Indonesian cooks on board taught him how to make it. I developed a version similar to my mother's, based on a Sunset magazine recipe. It is decidedly unauthentic, as access to Indonesian bottled sauces was non-existent in Modesto circa 1958.  The last time that I made Nasi Goreng was for the Picky Eater's first birthday, yeah these many decades ago. But, a request for it has recently come from my niece, and in the near future the kitchen will once again be redolent with fried rice, egg, shrimp and pork.

Dr. Sam's Nasi Goreng

There are many components to this recipe, so they are best prepared the day before and assembled before serving. The rice, in particular, must be cold when "fried," and is best chilled overnight.

Meatballs

2 lb. ground sirloin

4 scallions

4 Tb cilantro

3/4” chunk fresh ginger

1 Tb soy sauce

1 Tb sherry

1 Tb sesame oil

1 t. salt

black pepper

2 eggs

peanut oil

Process all ingredients, except the peanut oil, together in 2 batches. Form into 3/4” meatballs. Chill. Sauté in peanut oil over medium-high heat until just brown. (Don’t overcook.)

Chicken

4 whole chicken breasts, boned and cut in narrow strips

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1/2 c. peanut oil

1 Tb curry powder

sprinkle of cayenne pepper

Marinate the chicken in the other ingredients for 1 hour. Stir fry in a medium-high pan until just cooked.

BBQ Pork

Use 1 quart purchased from your favorite Chinese take-out place. (Trust me, it's better that way.)

Shrimp

1 1/2 lb. fresh bay shrimp

3 Tb. butter

Rinse and drain shrimp in a colander. Briefly sauté in the butter.

Egg Pancakes

8 eggs

salt

1/4 c. water

peanut oil

Cook thin egg omelettes in peanut oil over medium-high heat. Turn out on a foil-lined cookie sheet. When cool, cut into small strips.

Rice

3 cups raw long grain  rice (9 cups cooked)

Cook half the rice at a time. Put dry rice in a large bowl, cover with cold water, and stir with your hand for 10-15 seconds, until the water turns milky white. Drain the rice in a colander, return it to the bowl, and repeat the rinsing process 5-6 times, until the water is nearly clear. Drain for the last time in the colander.

Put the 1 1/2 cups of rice in a 4-41/2 quart lidded pot, and add 3 cups water. Bring to a rolling boil over high heat, cover pot and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 15 minutes, then move pot off the heat and let it sit 15-20 minutes. Do not lift the pot lid at any time. When finished, spread the rice on a baking sheet and refrigerate until cold and dry.

 

Assembling the Nasi Goreng

All ingredients

2 onions, chopped

peanut oil

soy sauce

1 bunch cilantro

3 bunches green onions

Stir fry the rice in 4 batches with peanut oil, adding 1/2 a chopped onion to each batch, tossing it to heat through – try to avoid "stirring" as much as possible so that the rice won't clump. Stir fry each batch 5-10 minutes. Then add 1/4 the chicken and pork. Sprinkle with soy sauce and stir fry 5 minutes more. Stir in the meatballs, shrimp and egg. Continue cooking until they are heated through. Garnish with sliced green onions and cilantro leaves.

May be made ahead and reheated in a 350° oven. If making ahead, add the shrimp and egg just before reheating.  Serves 12-20.

The Picky Eater insists that I also include one of my food nightmares. Near the top of the list is the fateful evening I sat alone in a Nazare (Portugal) restaurant with a fishbone caught in my throat. After about fifteen minutes as I sat there trying to compose an explanation and ask for help in my limited French, miracle of miracles, I swallowed it! That night I had a second brush with mortality, when vibrations emanating from the discotheque on the floor above caused my hotel room ceiling to partially collapse, sending a chandelier crashing onto the foot of the bed- with me in it. The incredulous hotel night clerk took some convincing to give me another room. I certainly lost two of my nine lives that night!

Picky Eater Picks: Best Desserts 2016 & 2017 (So Far)

For reasons best left unexplained, Travels with the Picky Eater has gone off the rails a bit in the last couple of years, but at the moment, under intense pressure from said child, your humble author is back at the keyboard and pleased to announce our best of the best desserts 2016-17.

Best New Cookie 
Commercial (& unattainable in North America)
"Border Crunch Ginger Biscuits"                            
The Picky Eater discovered these spicy, almost mouth burning, biscuits at Partridges, an upscale Chelsea (London) food emporium. Sadly, when we tried to procure a supply for export they were sold out! With the help of her intrepid garden tour director, the P.E.'s redoubtable mother ordered eight boxes online from a shop in the Border Counties, had them shipped express to her Windsor hotel, and carted them back across the pond.
So far, attempts to recreate them using the esteemed Paul Hollywood's mother's recipe have failed rather spectacularly.

Homemade (but modeled after a favorite bakery cookie)                  
"Ina Garten's Spicy Hermit Bars"   We searched many a website for these spicy raisin and nut filled bars, which was not easy given the fact that we didn't really know what they were called. Trust Ina Garten to provide an excellent version, which was further improved by the addition of a generous portion of nuts.
These bars need to be slightly under baked. With a terrible tendency to under bake as a matter of course, paranoia set in and I managed to almost over bake them. Fortunately, after a couple of days in a closed container, moisture from the icing seeped into the bars and made them just about perfect. Also well reviewed by a friend who has pretty much lost his sense of smell, but could taste the "spiciness" on his tongue.

Spicy Hermit Bars
Makes about 24 bars

1/2 cup unsalted butter (room temperature) or for non-dairy consumption, 1/4 cup margarine & 1/4 cup shortening
1 cup light or dark brown sugar (lightly packed)
1 extra-large/large egg    (Did you know that the equilvalency charts claim that large/extra large eggs are equal? It's a mystery to me why Ina always lists extra large when large is the industry standard for recipes)
1/4 cup unsulphured molasses
2 cups all-purpose flour (plus 2 tablespoons)
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp Kosher salt
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/3 cup crystallized ginger (minced, not in syrup)
1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
Icing
1 cup confectioner's sugar (sifted)
dark rum

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

Put the butter and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes, until light and fluffy. With the mixer on low, add the egg, scrape down the bowl, then mix in the molasses.

Stir together the flour, baking soda, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, mixing until just combined. Mix in the raisins nuts, and crystallized ginger. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Turn the dough out onto a very lightly floured board, form it into a disk with lightly floured hands, and cut it in half. Roll each half into a log 12 inches long and place them 3 inches apart on the prepared sheet pan. bake for 20 minutes, the logs will still be soft in the center.

Meanwhile, whisk the confectioner's sugar with 5 to 6 teaspoons of rum to make a pourable glaze. While the logs are still warm, drizzle the glaze back and forth across the logs with a teaspoon. use more glaze if a thicker icing is desired. Allow to cool. Cut each log crosswise into 1 1/4 inch-wide bars.

Best New Cake

Commercial: The Bakewell Tart at Toms Kitchen, 27 Cale St, Chelsea, London SW7. Buttery crust, frangipane, and fresh poached apricots- what could be better? Evidently, there is some debate about the difference between a Blackwell tart and a Blackwell pudding, of the sort which only an Anglophile food enthusiast can appreciate, and it appears that the Tom's Kitchen version is another variant. Bye the bye, Tom's Kitchen also serves excellent fish and chips and an unctuous version of macaroni and cheese with truffles optional.

Homemade: "Poppy Seed Lemon Cake"
A delicious moist and tender cake, based on another Ina Garten recipe, with indulgent double toppings- a glaze applied while the cake is warm and an icing after it has cooled. As a foodie snob, I used to avoid Ina Garten's recipes, mainly because someone once told me that I looked like her when I was in the hospital, and also because she was just too popular. Well, her popularity is well founded. Her recipes are solid, simple to execute and reliable- they always taste great and don't fail. I put her in the Pantheon of cookbook authors' recipes whom I trust enough to make for company without a trial run through. Only Ina, Julia Child, and Deborah Madison rest in this personal Hall of Fame.

Poppy Seed Lemon Cake
Serves 8-10

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature (plus more to grease the cake pan)
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
Grated lemon zest of 4 lemons
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup poppy seeds
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
3/4 cup buttermilk, sour cream or yogurt (use 2% or whole fat)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Glaze
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar

Lemon Icing
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 Tb unsalted butter, at room temperature
pinch of salt
1  Tb lemon juice
2 Tb  hot milk
1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 10 cup bundt pan.

Cream the butter and 2 cups granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. With the mixer on medium speed, add the eggs, 1 at a time, and the lemon zest.

Stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and poppy seeds in a bowl. In another bowl, combine 1/4 cup lemon juice, the buttermilk (or sour cream or yogurt), and vanilla. Add the flour and buttermilk mixtures alternately to the batter, beginning and ending with the flour. Distribute the batter evenly in the bundt pan, and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until a cake tester comes out clean.

Make the glaze:
Combine 1/2 cup granulated sugar with 1/2 cup lemon juice in a measuring cup or bowl and stir until the sugar dissolves. When the cakes are done, allow to cool for 10 minutes. Remove the cakes from the pans and set them on a rack set over a tray or sheet pan; and brush the glaze over them. Allow the cakes to cool completely.

Make the icing:
Put the powdered sugar, butter, and salt in a small bowl. Pour the lemon juice, hot milk, and vanilla over them and whisk until smoothly blended. When the cake is completely cool, spoon the icing over the top of the the cake and spread it over the sides.

Best Presentation- Desserts: A tie between the "English strawberries with honeycomb, rose water ice cream and prosecco gelee" at Manicomio, Duke of York's Square, Chelsea, London.

and the "Dome of chocolate and blackberry mousse" from the Silver Grille, 206 E. Main St, Silverton. OR 97381.

Both were delicious, and it is up to you, gentle reader, to decide which is the lovelier.

Best Retro Dessert: "Nabisco's Chocolate Wafer Icebox Cake"
Much to the satisfaction of harried home cooks, in the 1970's a cookbook was published with the title
Best Recipes from the Backs of Boxes, Bottles, Cans, and Jars. (The newest edition was published in the spring of 2017.) Convenience foods were a miracle of the post WWII era, and staff home economists at processed food corporations worked long and hard to attract consumers to their products with delicious quick and easy recipes. This was (and still is) a favorite in the Picky Eater's dad, amongst its many (mostly male) fans.

Chocolate Wafer Icebox Cake
Serves 12

2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (9 ounce) package chocolate wafer cookies

Best the cream in a mixer using the whisk attachment on high speed (or an egg beater) until stiff peaks form. Gently stir in vanilla.
Spread 1-1/2 tsp. whipped cream onto each wafer; stack 3-4 at a time, and stand them on edge on a platter. to make a log.  Frost the log with the with remaining whipped cream.
Refrigerate the cake for 4 hours. Cut into diagonal slices to serve.

The Maida Heatter Lifetime Achievement Award: "Chocolate Dump Cake"
Since the 1970's Maida Heatter, a.k.a. "the Queen of Desserts," has been making the world a sweeter and more chocolaty place. She is the author of nine classic dessert cookbooks, including the James Beard Award-winning Maida Heatter's Book of Great Desserts.  Ms. Heatter is a member of the James Beard Foundation Hall of Fame, has been named to Cook's Magazine's Who's Who in Cooking, and was one of the first people inducted into the Chocolatier Hall of Fame. A centenarian as of 2016, she continues to bake joyfully in her home in Miami Beach, Florida.

This cake, with its cake mix and instant pudding origins, isn't my usual modus operandi, but my mother made it for family birthdays for many decades, and it is well loved by my niece Samantha. Nadine always showered the rich chocolate ganache icing with a bevy of M&Ms.

Chocolate Chip Dump Cake
Serves 10-12

1 box chocolate cake mix
1 box vanilla or chocolate instant pudding
4 eggs
¾ c. water
½ c. oil
1 c. sour cream
1 c. chocolate chips
1 c. chopped nuts

Chocolate icing:
6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate
1/3 c. whipping cream
1 Tb. sugar
2 Tb. butter

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together all the cake ingredients except the nuts and chocolate chips until well blended. Fold in the nuts and chocolate chips.

Bake in a well buttered and floured bundt cake pan for about 1 hour. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for about thirty minutes, and then turn it out onto a cake rack. When the cake has cooled, drizzle the icing over the cake and let it run down the sides.

Note: This cake can also be baked as a layer cake or cupcakes.

Make the chocolate icing: Melt all the ingredients in a saucepan over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate is almost all melted. Allow the icing to cool slightly before use.

Best Town for Chocolate Lovers: Oaxaca, Mexico

Oaxaca is one of the few places in the world where chocolate is a cultural and dietary tradition woven into daily life. Families routinely have their chocolate ground and flavored to their own personal specifications at chocolate processing shops such as Soledad or Mayordomo. Walking into one of these shops is to enter a chocolate lover's dream. The air is permeated with the scent of chocolate, you are invited to sample a variety of chocolate flavored with cinnamon, almond, vanilla, moka, etc. and watch grinders vibrate as the beans are processed. Or, order a hot chocolate drink to sip in the cafe at the rear. Soledad even offers hotel rooms above the shop, where I have no doubt that the sheets are impregnated with the perfume of chocolate!

As well as an ingredient in drinks and confections, chocolate is a basic component of some moles, another flavorful essential of Oaxacan cooking. There are seven basic flavors of moles which employ local chiles and spices, but for inventive Oaxacan cooks, the sky is the limit. If you visit, don't miss the lamb chops with dark mole at Casa Oaxaca. At the chocolate shops you can also purchase house made moles to take bring home.

With it's heritage, friendly people, food, mezcal, and incredible artistic heritage, Oaxaca is an unforgettable travel destination!

So, there you have it, our picks for this year. Enjoy!! We always do.....

The Mystique of the Flourless Chocolate Cake

For better or worse, occasionally a concept gets stuck in my brain, and like a puppy with a new chew toy, I can't seem to let go of it until I have almost shaken the life out of it. This is the case at the moment with that most chic of French cakes, Le Chocolat sans farine. These cakes contain elements guaranteed to terrorize the novice baker- chocolate to melt without seizing, no leavening except beaten eggs, and huge self-doubt about when the cake is baked enough. With three strikes like that, as well as a long personal history of pancake flat unleavened cakes of all persuasions, venturing down the flourless cake path seemed pretty foolhardy, especially when you factor in the cost of messing up two-thirds of a pound of chocolate.

BUT, recent success with several chocolate mousse products encouraged me forward, as did two events just crying out for a French chocolate cake- Passover (no flour allowed!!) and a vintage wine dinner with 1970 Fonseca port to accompany the dessert and the admonition from Dr. Hal that the cake had to be chocolate, but not too sweet.

After serious study of the infinite variety of chocolate cake options- butter or cream? semi-sweet, bittersweet or unsweetened chocolate? coffee? liqueur? steamed or baked? I selected David Lebovitz's "Racines Cake" from Ready for Dessert. Mr. Lebovitz introduces this cake with what I believe is an apocryphal tale of discovering the recipe written on the wall of the mens room in Racine's, a Parisian restaurant, ordering it off the menu for dessert, and finding it so delicious that he went back to the bathroom with pen and paper to copy down the recipe.  Don't you agree that I have the right to be a little skeptical, I mean have you ever seen a recipe written on the wall of a restaurant bathroom?? Even (or especially) in Paris?

But the cake's various hurdles- making faux expresso with my drip coffee cone, beating the yolks until they are "light and creamy," folding the melted chocolate and butter into the yolks instead of the yolks into the chocolate as the recipe stated, messing up about 3 eggs trying to separate them, using an 8" pan instead of the 9" which was specified - were overcome and the results, baked just to a tender but non-collapsible firmness were truly "magnifique!" Try to locate the cocoa nibs for topping the cake- they make a really nice crunchy contrast to the cake's smooth creaminess.

Our vintage wine dinner hostess contributed a delicious cherry sorbet flavored with hints of citrus and almond that was a wonderful accompaniment, as was Dr. Hal's precious port. (He may disagree, in fact I'm sure that he does, but in my book the port accompanies the dessert, not vice-versa.)

In the coming weeks I will experiment with more cakes of this genre, building up to an attempt to overcome one of my biggest cake baking disasters, Julia Child's "Reine de Saba." Stay tuned.

Racines Cake
(adapted from Ready for Dessert by David Lebovitz)

8" or 9" springform pan
Cocoa powder for dusting the pan

10 oz. semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup salted butter, plus 2 Tb to butter the cake pan
1 Tb freshly brewed expresso (I made super strong drip coffee)
1/2 tsp vanilla
6 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
1/4 cup, plus 2 Tb sugar
2 Tb cocoa nibs (Scharffenberger makes them)
Powdered sugar, optional, for dusting the cake

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Adjust one rack to the upper half of the oven. Butter the bottom and sides of the springform pan and lightly dust it with cocoa, shaking out the excess.

Melt the chocolate and butter, along with the expresso in the top of a double boiler over barely simmering water. When the chocolate has melted, remove the top pan from the heat, stir to smooth out the butter and chocolate, add the vanilla, and let it cool down for a minute or two.

While the chocolate is melting, whip the egg yolks and sugar in a stand mixer bowl with the whip attachment at medium-high speed until the mixture just starts to "form the ribbon." (When it seems that the eggs might be thickened enough, with the mixer off, lift the beater out of egg mixture and see if it is thick enough to make a ribbon as it lazily drips back into the bowl- that's the ribbon.)

Gently fold the beaten egg yolks into the cooled chocolate mixture.

Egg White ALERT!! Egg whites will not "mount" properly if the bowl, beater, or spatula are anything but immaculately clean and dry. If you only have one whip beater for your mixer, be sure to wash and dry it thoroughly before beating the egg whites. If you only have one mixer bowl, make sure that it is also clean and dry after folding the egg yolks into the chocolate.

In a second clean and dry mixer bowl, use a cleaned and dried whip attachment to whip the egg whites on low speed until they begin to hold their shape. Add the remaining 2 Tb of sugar and whisk the egg whites on high speed until they hold soft peaks.

Stir one-fourth of the egg white into the chocolate mixture to lighten it, then fold in the rest of the beaten egg whites. Fold only until there are no visible streaks of egg white. Do not overfold!

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and then sprinkle the top with the cocoa ribs. Bake the cake until it feels like it is just barely set in the center, about 25 minutes.It should not feel too firm.

Let the cake cool in the pan, covered with a clean dishtowel, on a rack, until it is completely cool.

Run a knife around the sides of the cake to loosen, then release the sides of the pan and dust the cake with powdered sugar if you like.

Serves 6-8. This cake is best served the day that it is made, but will keep for up to two days at room temperature.

To really gild the lily, add a scoop of cherry almond sorbetto to each slice of cake, and enjoy with a 1970 port if you happen to have one kicking around in your wine collection.
Cherry Almond Sorbetto
So easy, and SO GOOD!

1/2 cup  fresh orange juice (from 1 large navel orange)
1 lb  frozen pitted dark cherries (Bing)
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp almond extract

Combine all the ingredients in food processor or blender and run until almost smooth, just leaving some of the fruit texture.
Transfer the mixture to a freezer container, cover & freeze for at least 4 hours or up to 4 days.

The Great Picky Eater Caramel Cake!

The Picky Eater was home for spring break this week, and started getting a little bored but motivated after watching countless episodes of her new fave "The Great British Baking Show." She baked a spectacular cake which did her mother proud. Her being her, she followed her proclivities as an aspiring chemist to veer off recipe into unknown baking territory; this time with great success. (Sometimes not so much.)

Date, Mirin & Pear Caramel Cake
This was adapted from a gorgeous recipe, "Whiskey Date & Buttermilk Cake with Salted Pear Caramel Buttercream"courtesy of the blog Adventures in Cooking (the Dec 21, 2014 post) My modifications?  I don’t like buttercream, so I omitted that and just made the caramel.  I was also making this for four people, one of whom was me and one other of which was on a diet, so I scaled it down to 2 layers, not three.  It was still plenty tall.

Cake Part
4 ounces dates, cut in half and pits removed
Scant ¼ cup booze of your choice*
2 cups buttermilk
2 ¾ cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon allspice
½ cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Pear Caramel
¾ cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons water
1 pear, cored and minced
¼ cup unsalted butter
1 cup heavy cream (I just used milk because I couldn’t be bothered to buy cream)
¾ cup brown sugar
Pinch of fleur de sel to finish (optional)

OPTIONAL—whipping cream and pear (or apple) jam, custard, cream cheese, chevre, honey.  See notes on filling.

Boil the dates and (selected booze) in a small saucepan for ~10 minutes, until the dates look soft and most of the liquid has been absorbed.  Set aside to cool, and then chop roughly using a mezzaluna (or blitz in the food processor, but I like rustic date bits and not needing to clean the food processor).  Combine with the buttermilk and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350ºF and grease two 8-inch cake pans.  Line the bottom of the pans with circles of parchment paper.

In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and allspice.  Set aside.

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or by hand with a spatula and some muscle) cream together the butter and both sugars until smooth.  Add the eggs one by one and mix well after each addition.

Remove the bowl from the mixer (if using) and add the ~1/3rd buttermilk, 1/3rd flour, carefully folding by hand.  Continue until all combined.  It is easy to overwork the batter using the machine.

Split the batter between the cake pans and bake until golden brown and set in the middle.  Our instant-read thermometer read 205ºF in the middle, and came out with no batter clinging to it.  This took 45 minutes, but our oven is notoriously slow.  The original recipe suggests 25-35 minutes.  When done, allow to cool for ~10 minutes before flipping them out of the pans and reflipping onto a wire cooling rack.

While the cake is baking and/or cooling, prepare the caramel.  Bring the minced pear, water and sugar to a boil over medium high heat until pale golden brown in color.  Add the milk/cream, butter, and brown sugar quickly, off the heat, while stirring continuously.  Heat this mixture over medium-low heat until it boils, keep at the boil for 2 minutes, then remove from the heat.

NOW.  What to do next.  What I did is fill the cake with caramel (trying to get lots of pear bits) and poured most of the remaining caramel over the top.  While this tasted excellent, it was determined to be structurally insufficient.  There are a variety of possibilities that I think would work well, which are listed below.  Some are more… uh….. involved than others.

Possible fillings:

• The aforementioned buttercream, but come on.  Gross.

• Make a pastry cream or custard and blend some of the caramel into it

• Spread with pear jam and then whipped cream

• Fill with cream cheese/chevre blended with honey

• Just do what I did

• Skip the layering bit and make a 1-layer cake.  

When done filling, cover the surface with the pear caramel, allowing it to run down the sides slightly.  If you want, sprinkle the top of the cake with a pinch of fleur de sel (but just a pinch, you’re not aiming for a salted caramel flavor). 

An interior view

Whatever you choose, the cake will be moist, spicy, and absolutely delicious.  The Daddy proclaimed it “actually very good” before launching into a Paul Hollywood impression inspired by my Great British Bake-Off streaming marathon.

*I used mirin, because it’s the only liquor in the house that actually belongs to me.  Mirin is an exceedingly sweet Japanese cooking wine, usually used to add the sweetness to Teriyaki and things like that.  If you are going to buy it, look closely at the ingredients.  A lot of stuff marked as ‘mirin’ is just watered down corn syrup.  The good stuff contains nothing but fermented rice.

Other possible flavouring agents include Cointreau, Armanac, Whisky (as in the original recipe), Cognac, Rum, and orange juice cut with water.  Personally I think the mirin-date combo was excellent.

Picky Eater Picks: Best Dessert Awards 2015!

We've watched the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards, so to fill the void until they announce this year's Pulitzer and Nobel Prizes, we present the Picky Eater's Best Desserts for 2015. This year saw us evaluating a slightly more global crop of candidates, including entries from Paris, Amsterdam, Pittsburgh, New York City, Charleston (South Carolina), and San Francisco.
Unfortunately, our home baking efforts lagged sadly behind, and the pickings were pretty slim in those categories, but we do what we must do....

Hard to choose which biscotti you want at Enrico's; best take one of each!

Best New Cookie
Commercial: Biscotti from Enrico's Biscotti Company, 2022 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA With twenty-seven varieties, including black pepper walnut, coconut chocolate chip, and even a doggie treat flavor, this PGH institution does it all when it comes to biscotti.
Homemade: Chinese-style Almond Cookies
This is a mash-up of recipes from Emily Lucchetti's Stars Desserts and an old Sunset magazine. They rated pretty high on Dr. Hal's cookie taster monitor. The dough needs to chill for an hour before baking.
Chinese-style Almond Cookies 
1 cup (1/2 lb.) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
3/4 tsp almond extract
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup raw almonds
+ 24-26 additional whole raw almonds
1 egg yolk
1 TB milk
1/4 cup sesame seeds

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Spread the 1 cup of raw almonds out on a rimmed baking pan. Bake until nicely toasted, about 7 minutes. (Toasting will take longer if they come directly from the freezer as mine usually do.) Cool slightly, then chop about medium size. Set them aside for the moment.

In a medium size bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and baking soda.

Beat the butter and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Add the whole egg and almond extract. Beat to blend. Stir in the flour and chopped almonds. Refrigerate the dough for at least one hour. (Overnight is okay.)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Form the dough into 1 1/2 inch balls, flatten slightly, and place 2 inches apart on the cookie sheets.

In a small bowl beat the egg yolk and milk together. Brush each cookie with the egg wash, sprinkle the top with sesame seeds, and press a whole almond into the center.

Bake the cookies 15-20 minutes, until lightly browned, switching the cookie sheets halfway through baking (if you are using more than one.) Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack with a spatula to finish cooling. Makes 24-30 cookies.

Two out of three are award winners- front: Chocolate Salami, center: Chocolate Scotch Shortbread,
back: forgettable Chocolate Loaf Cake

Best New Cookie- Chocolate: Chocolate Scotch Shortbread Cookies from Maida Heatter's Book of Great Chocolate Desserts. These were part of my annual Holiday Bake-a-thon with my friend Robert. They have deep butter and chocolate flavors, and are not too sweet. Stashed away in the freezer, I stealthily ate one a day, and managed to gain five pounds over the winter break.
Chocolate Scotch Shortbread Cookies
2 cups flour
1/2 cup strained unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup (1/2 lb.) unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees

Cream the butter in the bowl of a mixer. Add the vanilla, sugar, and salt and beat to mix. On low speed (or by hand) add the flour and cocoa, beating only until the mixture holds together. Form the dough into a ball and flatten slightly.

Flour a rolling pin and 12"x12" piece of parchment paper. Roll the dough to an even thickness of 1/2" (no thinner) on the floured paper. Flouring a plain shaped cookie cutter (round or square) each time, use it to cut out the cookies, cutting them as close to each other as possible. Place the cookies 1 inch apart on parchment paper lined cookie sheets.

Press the dough scraps together and roll out again to cut more cookies. Refrigerate the sheets of cookies for about 10 minutes, to firm before baking. Prick the cookies three times in a vertical row in the middle, going all the way through the cookie each time. (Instead of pricking the cookies, you can use a cookie stamp to decorate them. I found a gizmo (the "Brigitte Message on a Cookie Cutter") that allows you to form words in the center of a rectangular cookie cutter.)

Bake the cookies for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the cookies are firm to the touch. Reverse the cookie sheets halfway. Don't let them burn, as this will make them bitter. Cool the cookies on a rack.  These keep and mail well. Makes 35-40 cookies.

Best Presentation- Desserts

Restaurant: Tied between the Chocolate Souffle Cake with pistachio butter, concord grape must, burnt meringue, olive oil, and sea salt from Cure (Pittsburgh) chef Justin Severino's dinner at the James Beard House in Greenwich Village

and the mignardises at Restaurant Jules Verne on the 2nd level of the Tour Eiffel, Paris.

Nothing like a view of the Seine to elevate an already amazing meal!

What exactly are mignardises? To quote Saveur magazine, "Mignardises are usually an artful arrangement of confections like gemlike pâtes de fruits or tiny macarons; a tradition that dates back to 18th-century France. Miniature sweets were de rigueur then--once pastry chefs had finished their work for the day in their brick ovens, they placed small treats inside to bake in the low, residual heat; the name mignardise comes from the Old French word for 'precious' or 'cute.'"

Homemade: The Picky Eater's Apple and Pistachio Frangipane Tart- does food get more attractive than this?

And here's her recipe:

Pâte sucree  (from the Use Real Butter Pear Frangipane Tart)

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2/3 cup confectioner’s sugar

1/4 tsp sea salt

8 tbsps unsalted butter

1 egg yolk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp whipping cream

 Place the flour, sugar, salt and butter in a food processor and pulse until it resembles coarse crumbs. Add the egg yolk, vanilla, and whipping cream to the dry ingredients. Pulse again until it resembles wet sand. 

Place the dough (it may be totally crumbly) onto a sheet of plastic wrap. Using the plastic, gather the dough into a ball and press it together into a disc. Wrap with the plastic and refrigerate the dough for at least an hour. 

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Roll the dough out to 1/8-inch thickness on a lightly floured work surface. Press the dough into a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom, prick tart shell all over with a fork. Place the tart pan in the fridge for 30 minutes. Set the tart pan on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes, until the pastry turns a pale golden brown. Let it cool until ready to use.

Pistachio Frangipane (from Tartine 3) and is.... kind of....involved....

Make a Pistachio Nut Milk, as follows:

1 3/4 cups raw pistachios

3 cups cows milk (I used 1% since that's what we always have)

2 T sugar

1/4 t fine salt

I skipped the overnight infusion, because time was short, and just blitzed the pistachios in the food processor until super über fine and stirred them into the milk.  It looked very green.

Then, you use the nut milk to make a pastry cream.  You only need half the nut milk though, so, either make double the pastry cream or half the nut milk.  I had to do the math, you do too.

Nut Milk Pastry Cream

2 cups pistachio nut milk

1/4 t fine sea salt

1/2 cup granulated sugar

3 T cornstarch (maybe a tad more?  My frangipane was a little runny at the end)

2 large eggs

4 T unsalted butter, at room temperature

In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, cornstarch and eggs until smooth.  Heat the nut milk until just under the boil, and slowly pour 1/3rd of the hot milk into the egg mixture.  Pour the egg-milk mixture back into the saucepan with the rest of the milk and whisk until it's the thickness of lightly whipped cream (~2 min).  Do not boil or it will curdle.  Strain and let sit until ~140F/60C, and then add the butter in four pieces, whisking until smooth.

FINALLY you get to make your frangipane!

Pistachio Frangipane

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room T

2/3 cup finely chopped raw pistachios

1 large egg

1 egg yolk

4 t cornstarch

3/4 cup Nut Milk Pastry Cream (again, not all of it.  The recipe should make 2 1/2 cups. Chad Robertson thinks you need to practice your math)

zest of one lemon

4 t orange liquor (optional, mom had Cointreau around so I used it)

Beat the butter and the powdered sugar on low speed to combine, and then increase the speed to medium and beat until smooth and creamy.  Scrape down and add-- everything else.  Beat until evenly incorporated. Keeps for 2 days in the fridge

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Fill the parbaked pastry with frangipane and slice 3-4 apples thinly with a mandoline.  I used a variety I had never heard of from the farmer's market.....

Arrange the slices in a spiral, keeping the slices directional (the top and bottom of an apple are shaped differently, so keep them the same direction) and with the peel side showing.  Really doesn't matter, but it looks pretty.  

Bake for 25-30 minutes until the frangipane sets and stops being too jiggly.  If the crust starts to darken, cover the tart with tin foil.

Take numerous photos for instagram and feed to hungry college students!

Most Entertaining Confectionary Display

Another tie between

Aux Merveilleux de Fred

Fred's shops in Paris, the provinces, London, and now New York City(!), boast a unique marketing tool- his meringue, whipped cream, and shaved chocolate confections are assembled in the front window of the shop, visible to passersby, and a natural draw to enter and purchase!

and 

Michel Chaudun; 149 Rue de l'Université, 75007 Paris

One of THE Masters of the Chocolate Universe. This 100% chocolate egg cum portmanteau speaks louder than words

Best Candy or Confection

Commercial: Caramels from Gaby et Jules Patisserie, 5837 Forbes Avenue in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, PA. As you step into Gaby et Jules, Pittsburgh fades away and you feel transported to a patisserie in a French suburb where miraculously the employees are friendly and speak English. On our last visit there, the Picky Eater went way off her usual low fat, low sugar diet and indulged big time. And it was worth every calorie!

Homemade: My version of last year's best commercial chocolate confection- Dude Sweet's Chocolate Salami, the Picky Eater edition.

Ellin & Robert’s Chocolate Salami (Vegan!)

Makes 4-5 

1 c  homemade (or store bought) marzipan- 

made from

7 oz. almond paste

1 ½ c powdered sugar

1 ½ TB light corn syrup

1-2 Tb cold water

(This will be more than 1 cup, use the remainder for more salami or another recipe. Marzipan will keep, refrigerated, for several weeks.)

1 c melted bittersweet chocolate (about 10 oz)

1 tsp vanilla

½ c toasted, skinned, and chopped hazelnuts

½ c toasted almonds, chopped

½ c dried figs, chopped in small (about 1/8”) pieces

½ c dried, pitted dates, chopped in small (about 1/8”) pieces

½ c cocoa nibs

additional powdered sugar for coating finished salamis

Make the marzipan-

Put the powdered sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. With the mixer on low, add the almond paste 1 tsp. at a time and continue beating until the mixture is crumbly. With the mixer still running, add the corn syrup, beat until incorporated, and then add the water. With the addition of the water the marzipan will hold together with the consistency of sugar cookie dough.

Stir the melted chocolate, marzipan, and vanilla together in a bowl until well combined. Add the nuts, dried fruits, and cocoa nibs. Mix until evenly incorporated. (The mixture will be very stiff and you may need to mix it with your hands.)

Refrigerate 30-40 minutes until somewhat firm. Scoop about one fourth of the mixture onto a piece of parchment paper and use parchment paper to roll it into a cylinder, tapering the ends to make a salami shape about 1 ½” thick and 6-7 inches long. Continue with the remaining dough. Place on a plate or tray and refrigerate. Before serving, roll the salami in sifted powder sugar, randomly brushing some off  to  simulate the appearance of a real salami. Wrap in brown parchment paper and tie with string to give as a gift. Should keep, well wrapped and refrigerated for 3-4 weeks.

Best Legendary Cake: The Ultimate Coconut Cake from the Peninsula Grill, Charleston, South Carolina. We are staying at a hotel across the street from the Peninsula, and in a fit of extracurricular gluttony, I bought myself a late night to-go piece of their 12-layer coconut cake. My reaction: "Very Southern." You can find the authentic recipe (for a 6-layer version) on Martha Stewart's website, if you're feeling ambitious. I myself will wait for another trip to Charleston.

Maida Heatter Lifetime Achievement Award

Since the 1970's Maida Heatter, a.k.a. "the Queen of Desserts," has been making the world a sweeter and more chocolaty place. She is the author of nine classic dessert cookbooks, including the James Beard Award-winning Maida Heatter's Book of Great Desserts.  Ms. Heatter is a member of the James Beard Foundation Hall of Fame. An octogenarian, she continues to bake joyfully from her home in Palm Beach, Florida.

This year's award, Homemade division, goes to .....

I went a little wild with the candy decorating this year!

Faye's Carrot Cake !!!!

Faye Celayeta was the “Auntie Mame” in my life. She lived in San Francisco in the 1930s, 40s, & 50s; had an apartment on Russian Hill,  knew everyone there was to know, and went everywhere there was to go. In the 1950s, Faye had a cooking show on KPIX, and I remember watching her as a child. She always said that she replaced the test pattern. 

This cake has graced countless events in our family- weddings (mine included), birthdays (most recently for my 64th- sadly these days I have to bake my own birthday cakes), bar mitzvahs, maybe even a few funerals.

2 c. flour

2 c. sugar

2 t. baking powder

1 t. salt

2 t. cinnamon

4 eggs

1 c. oil

4 c. grated carrots

1/2 c. chopped nuts

8-10 walnut halves

Preheat oven to 350°.

Stir together the flour, sugar, soda, salt, and cinnamon. In a large mixer bowl, beat the eggs until frothy, then slowly beat in the oil. 

On low speed, stir in the flour mixture, stirring until smooth. Hand mix in the carrots and nuts.

Pour the batter into 3 greased & floured 8” round cake pans, or a 10” tube pan. Bake 25-30 minutes in 8” pans, and about 1 hour in a tube pan.

Cool on a rack 10 minutes, then turn out to cool completely on racks. Fill and frost with cream cheese icing (below). Decorate with walnut halves.  Serves 8-12.

Cream Cheese Icing

4 Tb butter, softened

6 oz. cream cheese, softened

4 1/3 c. powdered sugar

1 t. vanilla

Blend the butter and cream cheese until fluffy. Gradually beat in the powdered sugar, continue beating until smooth and creamy. Stir in the flavoring(s). Let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes before frosting the cake.

It is with great sadness that I must announce the loser in the category 

Worst Dessert of the Year:

From cookbook author Dorie Greenspan, this Gingerbread Bûche de Noël was a huge disaster! It tasted really awful and almost ruined our Christmas dinner. . So, readers beware, there are many accolades from serious foodies for this dessert, but don't believe everything you read (or see- from my photo this baby looks like it's pretty tasty- NOT!!)

Goopy Italian meringue icing, insipid cake, lackluster filling- BLEH!