sometimes gathering my thoughts is a pretty enormous task. one thought will lead me to the next (as thinking goes, i believe) and the next and i am off and running in a direction that was never intended, leaving my original thought lost and dusty from all that dirt kicked up by my running mind.

i am sure these things happen to you too. you walk into a room and forget why…or you frantically search the house for your keys that are actually on the hook (in your bag, pocket, etc…) where they belong. some might call it being absent minded…which i guess is true since the mind seems to be absent from the task at hand…but i like to think of it as moving on to the next thought before the last was accomplished…is that the same thing…whoa…check out all the ellipses.

anyway, my point is that when i was making these brownies i dumped half a cup of sugar into the mix before i realized what i was doing…i needed to add a full cup of honey. oh well. they still turned out delicious and more moist than i could have imagined. i like to think of these brownies as a union of honey-cake and brownie. they are chocolaty, but not too much (don’t get me wrong though…i don’t think too much chocolate is possible for me), with a little something from the honey…which should probably be more like a lot of something if i was paying attention to the recipe. they are cake-like but still dense and delicious even after the third day. and, if you were wondering, they only lasted that long because i stashed a few in for safe keeping. try these…but maybe follow the original recipe if you are looking for a pronounced honey flavor and not an almost-there-honey flavor.

honey nut brownies
adapted from baking:from my home to yours
this recipe does call from sugar in addition to the honey, i just accidentally added too much…so i reduced the honey to half a cup. next time i will not do this…since it was a mistake and since the point of a honey nut brownie is the dang honey. the recipe below is not my version, but the real deal yo.

1 stick unsalted butter cut into 8 pieces
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
4 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup honey (i used clover, dorie says that a stronger honey like chestnut, would pair nicely with the chocolate)
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

cocoa powder or confectioners sugar for dusting–if you want to do all that

center rack in oven and preheat to 325 F. line a 9-inch square baking pan with foil and butter well. place pan on baking sheet.

place butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. heat, stirring, just until the ingredients are melted. do not over heat, remove bowl from stove.

beat eggs and salt together in stand mixer fitted with paddle until light and foamy. add honey, sugar and vanilla and beat for 2 minutes, until well blended and smooth. reduce speed to low and add chocolate mixture. mix until just incorporated. add the flour while still on low, and mix until just incorporated. fold in nuts with a rubber spatula. scrape batter into the pan.

bake for 45-50 minutes, or until tester comes out clean. transfer to a rack and cool for about 5 minutes. turn out onto rack, peel away foil and turn out onto another rack to cool to room temp before cutting.

can be kept in an airtight container for 2-3 days or in the freezer for 2 months.

tartlettes have been on my mind for months. literally months and months. they (for me anyhow) seemed much easier to manage than a 9-inch tart…more sturdy somehow and, of course, so cute. for whatever reason i have put off buying a set of pans. i kept telling myself that tartlette pans would be my next purchase, a christmas gift, next paycheck, the next time i spotted them they would be mine. no such luck. i meant to order them online, but always got distracted. i meant to drive all the way across town to the local williams-sonoma, but didn’t want to drive all the way to the mall just for a set of cute and tiny pans. finally, i went to a local kitchen store and bought some. finally. i have a feeling i may have paid more than i should have, but i won’t be looking into that because now i have them and i’m not about the let anything taint my image of them. i love them, they are lovely.

not only because i can now make the cutest, most perfectly portioned for sharing (if your into that) little tarts. they also have the removable bottom i so desired and allow for more chances to get it right where the crust is concerned…which is a major plus for me since tart doughs always seem to elude me…shrinking and cracking and being a simple, miserable mess.

one tart came out of the oven and when i lifted the foil, it lifted most of the tart off with it…despite the fact that i buttered the heck out of the shiny side as instructed. the remaining three were as close to perfection as i could have hoped, i snipped a hole into the middle of the foil and peeled back from there. that seemed to be the trick. i filled the coconut tart shells with a mixture of mascarpone, amaretto and toasted coconut and topped that with some leftover key-lime and grapefruit curd and some more toasted coconut. they were a wonderful treat–tart, creamy and with a little buttery crunch. next time i think i will lighten the mascarpone mixture by folding in some whipped cream since it was a little thick, especially after being chilled.

tart dough
adapted from dorie greenspan…once again

1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup shredded, sweetened coconut
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon (9 tbsps) very cold butter cut into pieces
1 large egg yolk

pulse coconut and sugar in food processor until coconut is finely ground, add flour and salt and pulse to combine. scatter the pieces of butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is coarsely cut in. some pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and some the size of peas–coarse. stir the yolk, just to break it up, and add it a little at a time, pulsing after each addition. when the egg is in, process in long pulses–about 10 seconds each–until the dough, which will look granular soon after the egg is added, forms clumps and curds. just before you reach this stage, the sound of the machine working the dough will change. turn the dough out onto a work surface and, very lightly and sparingly, knead the dough just to incorporate any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing. wrap in plastic and chill for at least 2 hours to roll. or press into pan immediately and chill in the freezer for 30 minutes like i did.

to fully bake the crust: center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 F. butter the shiny side of a piece of aluminum foil (or use nonstick foil) and fit the foil, buttered side down, tightly against the crust. this can be baked withoutweights since it was frozen. place the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake the crust for 25 minutes.

carefully remove the foil (remember i snipped the foil in the center of the tart, which worked wonderfully). if the crust has puffed, press it down gently with the back of a spoon. bake the crust about 10 minutes longer, or until it is firm and golden brown, do not underbake or it will be bland. transfer to racks and cool to room temp before removing from pan. cool completely before adding fillings.

mascarpone filling (toast extra coconut for the top…maybe a 1/4 cup, meaning you would need 3/4 cup total)

8 ounces mascarpone cheese, softened
1/2 cup toasted coconut
2 tablespoons amaretto liquer (or any flavor you like, or a teaspoon of vanilla and a bit of cream to loosen it up.)

in a medium bowl combine all ingredients and mix until combined. spoon or pipe into prepared and cooled tart shells.

again, no recipe for the curd because i suck and am not sure exactly how i made it. there are many a recipe for curd out there and maybe one day i will suck it up and do it again…this time following instructions.

i love cinnamony-sugary treats, and when those are combined with chocolate chips…then sprinkled throughout a vanilla sour cream cake, well, i guess there isn’t much to say.

i got the recipe for this cake from deb (from smitten kitchen, i need to send her a big giant hug or something for sourcing all her recipes) as i was perusing blogs for a nice little snack cake. i personally think that if a cake has sour cream incorporated into the mix, it will probably be pretty tasty and definitely moist. i have yet to be proven wrong, but as things go, i’m sure i will be and i do not look forward to that day. for now though, i think i’ll have another little piece.

chocolate chip sour cream cake
i followed this recipe exactly. it is pretty lovely and i think it could only be better with some walnuts sprinkled in with the chips…or pecans…or whatever you like. i also used a square pan and a loaf pan, since i wanted to give away the larger pan so as not to add to my growing chunkiness.

1 stick butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs, separated
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
16 ounces sour cream
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

12 ounces chocolate chips
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

preheat oven to 350F.

in a large bowl, cream butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar, then mix in the egg yolks and vanilla. sift flour, baking soda and baking powder together into a separate bowl. alternately add sour cream and then dry ingredients into butter mixture. beat eggs whites until stiff, then fold into batter. mix last 1/2 cup sugar and cinnamon together in a separate, small dish.

in a greased 9×13 pan, pour in half of the cake batter. sprinkle the top with half of the cinnamon-sugar mixture and half of the chocolate chips. pour remaining batter on top, sprinkling the top with the remaining cinnamon-sugar and chocolate chips.

bake for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.

i’m sitting here wondering where my weekend has gone. i really try (try being the operative word….) to accomplish a lot of tasks on the weekend including things i enjoy (ahem, cooking and baking), as well as tidying the apartment and different projects that need at least one weekend day to tackle.

this morning we finally, after weeks of talking about it, re-arranged our room. this was no small feat as we had to move most of our things out into the hallways, incidentally barricading geoff in his room, before arranging them…as well as vacuum, dust and wipe down all surfaces. this was all accomplished, believe it or not, before 11am, good thing geoff was sleeping through most of this or he would have been trapped. i also managed to re-vamp the look of this here blog…which, the banner may have taken longer to create than re-arranging our bedroom did. other than that, not much else went down besides a lot of lounging and a teeny, tiny bit of shopping…which may arguably be one of my favorite activities. lounging that is, not shopping…but therein lies the argument.

oh, and i also managed to make these pavlova’s and this wonderfully tart and citrus-tastic key lime and grapefruit curd. the curd turned out a bit runny, but i think that was from adding extra (like more than double the amount called for) citrus juice to the original recipe. i like my citrus treats to be tart…like when your jaw tightens a bit on impact with your tongue. yum. though i personally felt like it was time for a light dessert, sean and geoff did not and these were not as popular as i would have liked. too bad for them that i do all the cooking.

i adapted this recipe for the pavlova’s from simply recipes…and my only adaptation was adding almond instead of vanilla extract. i’m not even going to post the curd recipe since i barely used a recipe and added a crap-ton grapefruit and key lime juice. here is a pretty curd i spotted the other day on serious eats (and if you scroll down you might see something by me…). the recipe i loosely followed was from baking: from my home to yours, by dorie greenspan. sorry about the recipe-less laziness…long weekend you know.

you are my favorite chocolate chip cookies (though i have yet to try these, but shhh…let’s not talk about that) cakey, tender and usually you hold your shape…which i love. i have probably made you a hundred million times or so, but this time you were different. flatter, chewier and not so fluffly. big sigh. i hope i haven’t offended you with all of my other baking endeavors. or maybe i’ve lost my touch? i don’t know. maybe we’re just going through a little rough patch, my friend and standby. but, wait, i’m not saying you weren’t delicious and soft, though a little chewy (not that chewy can’t be good), and you still had that wondefully pleasing hint of salt and still perfectly paired with a glass of cold milk. but, you’ve changed dear cookie and i want you back. so, i promise you, we will work this out.

cakey chocolate chip cookies
from martha stewart holiday cookies 2005-06
like above, i don’t know what changed here, but this is the recipe i have had success with before. if you want a cakey, tender and fluffier cookie, this is the way to go. i hope they work out for you…and me too.

2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
14 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon coarse salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla
2 large eggs, room temp
2 cups chocolate chips

preheat oven to 350 F. line two baking sheets with parchement.

whisk flour and baking soda together in a small bowl. place butter and sugars in the bowl of a mixer fitted with paddle. mix on medium until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. reduce speed to low and add salt, vanilla and eggs. mix until combined, scraping bowl as needed. add flour and mix until just comined. stir in chips.

drop heaping spoonfuls onto baking sheets, leaving a few inches between each cookie. bake, rotating sheets halfway trhough (unless you do one sheet at a time in the middle rack of the oven), bake for 10-12 minutes until centers are set and edges are just golden. let cool on sheets 2 minutes before transferring to cooling racks.

can be stored for up to 1 week in an airtight container.

oh this cake. i made a version of this cake once before and it was a veritable disaster…well, at least i think a cake on the floor is, at the very least, unfortunate. having said that, it has not strayed far from my thoughts. then, i saw this cake and, similar in idea, i knew i would give this another go.

this time i nixed the crumbly topping (despite my love for crumbly goodness) in favor of a dusting of powdered sugar. i used buttermilk as the liquid and combined the cranberry idea from the first recipe with the jam from the second. i like the jam layer baked into the cake because it seems more homespun and unfussy that way. a friend said that it was reminiscent of thumbprint cookies, which i love because of that jewel of jam in the center.
i would like to imagine that i would serve this cake with tea or coffee and some good conversation. but, the reality of it is i enjoyed this curled up in a chair while watching either the office or the big bang theory (probably both…i cant’ remember). i think either way this is a charming little cake, perfect for sharing or curling up.

jam cake
adapted from two recipes, this one from smitten kitchen and one from cooking books.

1 vanilla bean split and seeded
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup cranberries
1/2 cup raspberry jam
2 cups flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick butter, softened
2 large eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk (you can use plain milk if that is what you have)

preheat oven to 350. i used 2, 6-inch round pans. butter and line pan of choice with parchement.

scrape vanilla bean seeds into food processor with sugar and pulse until seeds are distributed throughout the sugar. place the vanilla sugar in a bowl and set aside.

pulse cranberries with 1/2 cup of the sugar until fine. fold in jam and set aside.

whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and salt. beat butter and remaining sugar in the bowl of a mixer until pale and fluffy. add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping bowl down as needed. reduce speed and add flour in three additions and buttermilk alternately-beginning and ending with flour.

spread half of the batter among pan(s) and spread cranberry-raspberry jam mixture over, leaving a 1 inch border around the edges. spread the rest of the batter over the top(s). the batter is pretty thick, i found that spreading smaller spoonfuls worked the best.

bake for about 35 minutes (for smaller pans) or 45 for a 9-inch round pan. or until tester comes out clean when stuck into cake part-careful to avoid the jammy center. cool in pan 30 minutes before turning out.

wooo! 2009 is here. i am a little worn out and lacking any motivation to write, but i have to say i had a pretty good time ringing in the newest year to date. my brother was here for a visit, i had my dearest friends, plenty of bubbly and these chocolate cupcakes with marshmallow frosting and rainbow sprinkles. they were incredibly moist and so classic with the 7 minute frosting…and i have to say dang cute. dang.

2008 was fun and relatively stress free and i am looking forward to a busy, eventful 2009. so, here’s to health, happiness, prosperity and of course cupcakes with sprinkles.

sour cream chocolate cake
adapted from sky high
this recipe originally makes 3, 8-inch round layers. i made 24 cupcakes and 2, 6-inch round layers. you could make more cupcakes, but i opted to save the two extra layers in the freezer until further notice. this cake is very moist. i have made it before as a 3-tier cake and found that frosting with a spatula is a great deal easier after the cakes have cooled and been frozen…if you are trying to do all of that.

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch process
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup neutral vegetable oil
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. butter muffin pans or use paper liners. if making cake rounds butter pans and line bottoms with parchment.

2. Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl. Whisk to combine them well. Add the oil and sour cream and whisk to blend. Gradually beat in the water. Blend in the vinegar and vanilla. Whisk in the eggs and beat until well blended. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and be sure the batter is well mixed. Divide muffin pans.

3. Bake for 25 minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out almost clean. allow to cool completely before frosting.

7 minute frosting

adapted from deb at sk. i doubled the recipe, so i will post those measurements here.

4 large egg whites
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
4 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract