2 teaspoons plus
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (some for the sauce, some for the whipped cream)
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons sugar (powdered or granulated)
Excellent ice cream (at least a pint, maybe more; your choice of flavors)
1. Measure out 2/3 cup of the cream and pour it into a medium-small saucepan. Put the remaining unused cream back in the refrigerator for now.
2. Add the corn syrup and chocolate chips to the cream in the pan, and place it on the stove over medium-low heat. Whisk it slowly as it heats and the chocolate melts. Keep cooking and whisking over medium-low heat. Bubbles will begin to form around the sides. When it starts to boil, turn the heat to low and simmer, whisking often, for 3 minutes.
3. Remove the pan from the heat, and slowly whisk in the 2 teaspoons vanilla and the butter. Cover the pan and set it aside.
4. Take the remaining cream out of the refrigerator, and pour it into a medium-large bowl. (Extra space is needed because the cream will double in volume when whipped.) Beat the cream—vigorously—with the largest whisk you have. (You can also use a handheld electric mixer; just be very careful not to overbeat the cream, or you’ll have butter.) Be patient, and keep whipping. It will take about 3 minutes for the cream to start frothing. After that point, add the remaining 1 teaspoon vanilla and the sugar. Continue to whip, paying close attention to the condition of the cream as it expands and thickens. You get to decide when it’s ready.
5. Put a teaspoon or two of the hot fudge sauce at the bottom of each serving dish. Cover this with a scoop of the ice cream. Spoon on more of the fudge, and top with a dollop of whipped cream.
* * *
GET CREATIVE
Sprinkle on some chopped toasted walnuts or almonds.
Top each serving with a strawberry or a maraschino cherry.
Layer slices of banana in with the ice cream.
Layer in some fresh berries (slice larger ones; leave smaller ones whole), or use frozen unsweetened berries (defrost them in a bowl to collect the juices, which you can drizzle on as a second sauce).
To make a brownie sundae, put an Intensely Chocolate Brownie (Chapter 9: Desserts) in a small bowl. Top with a scoop of ice cream, a spoonful of hot fudge sauce, and a dollop of whipped cream.
Sprinkle crumbled cookies over the ice cream and again over the whipped cream. Use any kind you like; amaretti (Italian almond cookies) are particularly good.
Garnish each sundae with a small cookie, stuck jauntily into the whipped cream.
* * *
balsamic strawberries
Makes 3 to 4 servings
A perfect strawberry, deeply red and exquisitely ripe, should just be eaten. But here’s a traditional Italian treatment to enhance those less-than-perfect ones. You simply cut them and let them marinate in sugar for a few hours. Then, shortly before serving, you sprinkle them with sweet-and-tangy balsamic vinegar, and they magically spring to life. This works fine with any good-quality balsamic vinegar.
This recipe is vegan.
2 pints (1 quart) strawberries
¼ cup sugar (possibly more)
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar (possibly more)
1. Clean the strawberries by wiping them with a damp paper towel. Hull them, and then halve or slice them, depending on their size.
2. Place the strawberries in a shallow pan (a 10-inch glass pie pan works well) and sprinkle with the sugar.
3. Cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let the pan sit for at least 2 hours, stirring or shaking it every now and then. (If the berries are going to sit for much longer than that, refrigerate them, but allow them to return to room temperature before serving.)
4. Within half an hour of serving, sprinkle on the vinegar. (Begin with 3 tablespoons, then taste and add up to a tablespoon more. If the berries taste too tart, add a little more sugar.)
GET CREATIVE
You can make this with a combination of raspberries and blackberries, in addition to, or instead of, the strawberries.
Balsamic Strawberries are a perfect topping for a great vanilla gelato or ice cream.
Top each serving with a little lightly whipped cream (see Chapter 9: Desserts) or a dollop of crème fraîche.
Spoon over Buttermilk Banana Bread (Chapter 9: Desserts) or slices of good pound cake from a bakery, warmed for a few minutes in the oven or toaster oven.
Serve with small Italian cookies or chocolates.
chocolate–peanut butter crunchy things
Makes about 2½ dozen
This is the only recipe I know of that begins with melting peanut butter, and I can’t even remember where I got the idea. I’ve been making this, both with kids and by myself (that’s how much I love it), for years. After the PB is melted, you mix in some chocolate chips, which will become very soft and almost melt too. Then you add some crisp cereal and form little balls, which get chilled in the refrigerator. The PB and chocolate firm up, and the result is a batch of delectable treats somewhere between candy and cookie; lacking a culinary category, I call them Crunchy Things. (The school-age kids I’ve made this with call them “Doo-Dads.” You can call them whatever you like.) You can probably use any kind of peanut butter for this, but I have only made it with the very basic natural kind that is made from just peanuts. A trick to handling peanut butter without it sticking to everything is to lightly coat whatever you’re using to measure, move, and contain it (measuring cup, rubber spatula, spoons, plate) with vegetable oil spray.
This recipe is vegan.
1 cup smooth peanut butter
2/3 cup (4 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
2 cups crisp cereal (such as Kashi Go-Lean Crunch)
1. Place the peanut butter in a small saucepan or a cast-iron skillet. Put it over medium heat, and stir with a wooden spoon while it softens. This will take only about 1 minute.
2. Remove the pan from the stove and put it on a trivet or a folded dish towel. Pour in the chocolate chips, and stir until they soften into the peanut butter. They don’t need to melt all the way; you just want them supple.
3. Pour in the cereal, and mix slowly until all the pieces of cereal are completely (or at least reasonably) coated.
4. Use two spoons to scoop up and form tablespoon-sized hunks of the batter, and put them on a plate. Refrigerate, uncovered, for about an hour, or until firm. You can eat them straight from the refrigerator, or transfer the solid Things to a heavy resealable plastic bag and freeze them. They are good frozen, or just plain cold.
* * *
GET CREATIVE
Add 1/3 cup shredded coconut (sweetened or not, depending on your sweet tooth).
Add 1/3 cup chopped toasted almonds or walnuts.
Vary the cereal. Just avoid highly sweetened products, which will make this cloying.
You can use 2 cups crunchy chow mein noodles (the kind that come in a can) in place of the cereal.
Substitute butterscotch chips for some or all of the chocolate chips.
If you’re feeling crafty, make Peanut Butter Cups: Buy some fluted candy papers at a baking or cooking supply store. Spoon the batter into the papers and chill as directed.
* * *
chocolate–chocolate chip mint cookies
Makes 3½ to 4 dozen cookies
The world’s best holiday cookie awaits you. And my definition of a holiday cookie is that when you bite into it, a holiday happens. I believe this is the only recipe I’ve ever written that uses peppermint extract, but these cookies are worth the price of several bottles. The cookies freeze beautifully when stored in a tin, and even taste good frozen. In the meantime, the peppermint extract has a half-life of about 2,000 years, so keep that bottle around for the next batch, which will likely happen sooner than that. Heads up: You’ll need to take the butter out of the refrigerator about an hour before you start baking so it can come to room temperature.
1½ cups (3 sticks) butter, plus a little extra for the cookie sheets
&nb
sp; 1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 teaspoons peppermint extract
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder Scant
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (one 12-ounce package)
1. About an hour ahead of time, unwrap the butter and place it in a large bowl. Use a table knife to cut it into 1-inch pieces, and let it stand at room temperature to soften.
2. Adjust the oven rack to the center position and preheat the oven to 350°F. Put a little soft butter on a paper towel, a piece of waxed paper, or a butter wrapper, and lightly grease two cookie sheets.
3. Pour the granulated sugar, and crumble the brown sugar, into the bowl holding the softened butter. Use a handheld electric mixer at high speed (or if you don’t have one, use a whisk, with enthusiasm) to beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat well. (Use a rubber spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl a few times during this process.) Add the vanilla and peppermint extracts, and continue to beat for another minute or two, until everything is well combined.
4. Combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt in a medium-sized bowl, and whisk slowly to blend. Add this to the butter mixture, along with the chocolate chips, stirring with the spatula until the dough is thoroughly combined.
5. Drop the dough by rounded teaspoons onto the prepared cookie sheets, spacing them 2 to 3 inches apart and flattening each mound slightly with the back of a spoon. (You will need to bake these in batches, so just spoon out as many as will comfortably fit on your cookie sheets.) Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the tops of the cookies are dry and the bottoms are lightly browned.
6. Let the cookies sit on the cookie sheets for about 5 minutes after you take them out of the oven, and then gently transfer them to a cooling rack using a thin-bladed metal spatula. Repeat with the remaining dough.
THE CASE FOR COOKIE SHEETS
If you’d like to become a frequent cookie baker, I suggest you invest in a few cookie sheets (the kind with insulated bottoms and no side rims). They’re cheap, easy to store, and most important, if you use them just for cookies and use a separate set of baking trays for savory cooking (such as roasting vegetables), you won’t have to worry about your cookies tasting like garlic or whatever you last roasted. If you don’t have cookie sheets, line your regular baking trays with foil to prevent this flavor spillover. For most cookies made with butter, you really don’t need to grease your cookie sheets, but it never hurts to spray them lightly with vegetable oil spray or grease them with a little softened butter.
intensely chocolate brownies
Makes 8 to 12 or possibly more servings
These are insanely rich, dense, and moist, so you can cut them very small and they’ll serve a crowd. And I guarantee you, that crowd will be pleased. They’ll keep for several days in a tightly sealed container at room temperature, and they freeze well too. Be sure to allow time to let the butter come to room temperature for about an hour before you start baking.
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, plus a little extra for the pan
1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
5 large eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
½ cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1. About an hour ahead of time, unwrap the butter and place it in a large bowl. Use a table knife to cut it into 1-inch pieces, and let it stand at room temperature to soften.
2. Adjust the oven rack to the center position and preheat the oven to 350°F (325°F if you’re using a glass pan). Put a little soft butter on a paper towel, a piece of waxed paper, or a butter wrapper, and lightly grease the bottom and corners of a 9-by 13-inch baking pan. (No need to grease the sides.)
3. Fill a smallish saucepan with about 2 inches of water, and place a heatproof bowl that is large enough to hold the chocolate chips directly on top of the pan. The bowl should rest firmly in place, clutched by the pan’s rim, and the bottom of the bowl should not be touching the water. Pour the chocolate chips into the bowl, and put the whole setup on the stove over low heat. Let the water simmer gently until the chocolate chips are all melted (there should be no solid pieces when you give it a stir). Remove the pan from the heat, and carefully, using pot holders or oven mitts, remove the bowl of melted chocolate from the pan. Set it aside to cool a little.
4. Use a handheld electric mixer at high speed (or if you don’t have one, use a whisk, with enthusiasm) to beat the butter (by itself, for now) for a couple of minutes, or until it becomes light and fluffy. Crumble in the brown sugar, and continue to beat at high speed (or with your own arm at its personal best) for another 2 minutes or so. Use a rubber spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl a few times during this process.
5. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well enough after each addition to thoroughly mix it in. Add the vanilla extract, and continue to beat for another minute or two, until everything is very well combined.
6. Keep beating as you slowly drizzle in the melted chocolate. (If you are beating manually, you might want to get someone to help hold the bowl steady for this.) Beat well until the chocolate is completely incorporated. (The constant movement prevents the heat of the chocolate from cooking the eggs.)
7. Sprinkle in the flour and salt, and stir (you can finally stop beating now) until they disappear into the batter. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan, taking care to scrape all of it in with a rubber spatula. Then use the spatula to spread the batter evenly.
8. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the top springs back a little when lightly touched in the center. (They might seem under-baked, but they will firm up as they cool, and these are moist brownies. That said, if they seem too soft for you, it’s okay to leave them in the oven for a few minutes longer, until a toothpick inserted all the way into the center comes out clean. At that point, they’ll be cakey brownies, rather than fudgy ones.)
9. Let the brownies cool in the pan for about 10 minutes; then cut them into squares of your preferred size. Let them sit for another 10 minutes or so after you do the cutting, so each piece can solidify. Then remove the squares from the pan and let them cool on a rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.
GET CREATIVE
For Chocolate Chip Brownies, use an entire 12-ounce bag of chocolate chips. Put half the bag into the batter melted, as directed, and sprinkle the remaining (unmelted) chocolate chips into the batter when you add the flour.
For Chocolate-Banana Brownies, mash a medium-sized very ripe banana into the butter when you begin.
For Chocolate-Nut Brownies, stir ½ cup chopped walnuts or pecans into the batter just before spreading it in the pan.
Use a strainer to sift a little powdered sugar over the top of the brownies after you slice them.
Serve à la mode with vanilla or coffee ice cream, or as the base of a brownie sundae (see Chapter 9: Desserts).
cheesecake bars
Makes 24 bars
A full-on formal cheesecake requires a special pan with a removable bottom and, generally speaking, a special occasion. These easy bars with a tasty cookie crust give you the cheesecake effect in a much easier way. They freeze really well in an airtight container. You can just take as many or as few as you’d like out of the freezer and enjoy them an hour later, once they’ve defrosted. Note that you’ll need to start softening the cream cheese about an hour ahead of time.
1½ pounds (three 8-ounce packages) cream cheese
¾ cup (1½ sticks) butter
2½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
Get Cooking Page 28