Honeycomb Bars

I basically made these for my husband, Joel. I knew he would love anything with this many nuts in it.
Speaking of Joel and nuts, how do you pronounce the following nut?

ALMOND

Do you say AH-mund, AWL-mund, or perhaps AMM-und?

I'm an AH-mund girl, personally. Which wouldn't be considered notable, except for the fact that my husband--nay, his entire family--has made fun of me for my L-less almond pronunciation.

UNTIL NOW!

For just a moment, I'm going to allow my inner nerd free rein*:

1) dictionary.com:

al·mond

  [ah-muhnd, am-uhnd; spelling pronunciation al-muhnd


2) Merriam-Webster's online dictionary:

al·mond

 noun \ˈä-mənd, ˈa-, ˈäl-, ˈal-\

3) New Oxford American Dictionary: almond |ˈä(l)mənd; ˈa(l)-|

ORIGIN Middle English : from Old French alemande, from medieval Latin amandula, from Greek amugdalē.

I know the phonetic notations are weird and confusing, especially that last one. But the important thing is this: the FIRST pronunciation in every dictionary (which indicates the more commonly accepted--dare I say--CORRECT pronunciation) advocates an L-less pronunciation! The first two dictionaries even list AMM-und BEFORE AL-mund, and who says AMM-und?? Only almond growers in California!

If you want further proof that I'm right information, I found this Grammarphobia blog post to be quite interesting.

So nerdy.

On to the dessert.

I was a little disappointed in this final product. In the middle of it, I tasted the honey-cream glaze and was so excited for the honeycomb bars. It reminded me of the honey taffy my sister-in-law (yeah, she made fun of me for my correct pronunciation, too) made once. Really delicious.

But then I put it all together and baked it. It was just too sweet. I'm trying to decide if, next time, I should reduce the sugar or just cut down on the glaze. The flavors of the almonds, cherries, and candied orange peel just got consumed in the sweet honey.

It tasted good, just too much of a good thing, perhaps. I'm not saying these should not be made. Only adjusted to taste.

Honeycomb Bars (printable recipe)

Recipe courtesy of Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. Copied with permission.

Yield: 24 bars

Ingredients

• 1/2 c (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 c sugar
• 2 tsp heavy cream
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
• pinch of salt
• 3/4 c dried cherries, chopped
• 1/3 c diced candied orange peel (instructions below)
• 2 Tbsp cake flour
• pinch of salt
• 1 1/3 c sugar
• 1 1/4 c heavy cream
• 1/3 c honey
• 1/2 c (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 2 1/2 c sliced almonds, toasted

Make the Sweet Tart Dough:

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until combined.
2. In a small bowl whisk together the heavy cream, egg yolk, and vanilla. Add this to the butter and sugar mixture and beat until incorporated. Scrape down the bowl and add the flour and salt until just combined. Turn mixture out onto a lightly floured surface and form into an oblong disk. Wrap the disk tightly in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter the sides and bottom of a 9x13-in. pan.
4. Roll out the dough into the large rectangle roughly the shape of the pan. Transfer the dough to the pan and press into the bottom of the pan; if dough falls apart, simply press it in pieces in the pan. Cover the dough with a sheet of parchment paper. Place dried beans or pie weights over the dough and bake for 10 minutes. Remove the weights and parchment and bake for another 5 minutes. Transfer from the oven to a cooling rack. Keep the oven on.
   
   Make the Honeycomb Bar Filling:
5. In a medium bowl, toss together the dried cherries, orange peel, cake flour, and salt. Set aside.
6. In a large saucepan over medium heat, stir together the sugar, heavy cream, honey and butter. Clip a candy thermometer to the side of the pan and bring the mixture to the soft ball stage, approx. 240 degrees. Do not stir the mixture while it is coming to this stage.
7. Fold in the dry ingredients and the almonds into the hot sugar mixture and pour the mixture into the sweet tart crust. Spread the filling evenly, and smooth the top.
8. Bake for about 15 minutes or until the bar is golden and bubbly.
9. Cool completely before cutting.

Candied Orange Peel (printable recipe)

Ingredients

• 2 oranges
• 2 c sugar
• 3/4 c light corn syrup

Cooking Directions

1. Wash oranges thoroughly. With a knife or sharp peeler, peel each lemon in large strips, leaving the white pith behind; remove any remaining white pith by scraping with a paring knife.
2. Place the peel in a heavy-bottomed pot and cover with 1 cup of cold water. Bring to a boil and strain. Repeat this step three times.
3. Place peel, 2 cups of water, sugar, and corn syrup in a medium-sized pot. Simmer for 15-20 minutes until the mixture forms a thick syrup and the peel becomes translucent. When the syrup has cooled, remove the peel and cut it into strips. Return the strips to the syrup.
4. Peel can be stored in the syrups in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. To use decoratively, remove peel from syrup and roll in granulated sugar. Use immediately or let dry on a rack overnight.
   
   Lemon peel can be substituted for orange peel; use 4 lemons.

*Some might argue that my inner nerd always has free rein. And just to drive the point home, do you ever wonder if it's "free rein" or "free reign"? I do. They both make sense to me. Letting a horse be free of the reins; letting a monarch reign however he or she wants. But the correct usage is "free rein," the horse one. Now we know. 

The Baked Brownie

Maybe I'm just a little OCD, but this blog post about The Baked Brownie has become a little frustrating. The Baked cookbook mentions that these brownies have been lauded by Oprah (a favorite thing!), America's Test Kitchen, and the Today Show. And I totally believe them. But I thought, if I'm going to be telling all three of my readers about how great these brownies are, I might as well have my sources right. And after some fairly effortful Googling, I haven't found all the information I wanted. You know what I did find? A bunch of food blogs--and I mean a bunch of them--saying Oprah, ATK, and Today says these are the best brownies IN THE WORLD! And the nerdier, OCD-er, more competitive side of me doesn't just want to be another blogger talking about these much-talked-about brownies. So what am I doing? I'm being a total nerd and trying to find these sources so you can read for yourselves what these people have said:

1. Oprah declared these brownies a favorite thing. Official Oprah website source found. Check.

2. America's Test Kitchen. The only reference I could find was under mail order brownies, and I assume they were declared the best mail order brownies; I don't know for sure since I didn't feel like registering for their 14-day free trial to get more info. And maybe I'm splitting hairs, but being voted the best mail order brownies is not the same as being voted the best brownies ever IN THE WORLD! I'm not minimizing the Baked brownies; ATK has their own recipes to support. And, not to knock ATK, but who orders mail order brownies? Even if they're amazing, why would you pay $41+S&H and wait a couple days for them when you can just make some?

3. Today Show. I couldn't find any info.

Now, I know what you're thinking:

"Ami, you are a total nerd. We do not care about primary sources. GIVE US THE BROWNIES!"

A week ago, I would've had to say I can't publish the recipe. But, #1, this recipe is posted on many of the aforementioned blogs. And, #2, which is much more awesome, I actually wrote to the Baked NYC guys to ask about posting recipes, and they said I could! All of them! And that my blog looks great! So you get to have the recipes! But let me yammer just a little bit more.

These brownies are seriously wonderful. I'm not so uppity as to pooh-pooh all boxed brownies; on the contrary, I think Ghiradelli boxed brownies are delicious and plenty of homemade brownies taste like cardboard. And not even chocolatey cardboard. So I've sort of relied on the Ghiradelli box.

UNTIL NOW!

These are not even on the same planet as the boxed brownies. And without further ado, please enjoy:

The Baked Brownie (printable recipe)

1 1/4 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp dark, unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Droste Dutch-process)
11 oz. dark chocolate (60 to 72% cacao), coarsely chopped
1 c unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 tsp instant espresso powder (I couldn't find this in time, so I used finely ground instant coffee. It's not as concentrated as espresso powder, but worked in a pinch. I'll get some real stuff one of these days. I know, how un-Mormon-y of me. If you don't want to use it, just leave it out, though I hear adding it increases the chocolatiness of the flavor.)
1 1/2 c sugar
1/2 c firmly packed light brown sugar
5 large eggs, at room temperature
2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter the sides and bottom of a 9x13-inch glass or light colored metal baking pan.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, salt, and cocoa powder together.
3. Put the chocolate, butter, and instant espresso powder in a large bowl and set it over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and smooth. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water and add the sugars. Whisk until completely combined, then remove the bowl from the pan. The mixture should be at room temperature.
4. Add 3 eggs to the chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Add the remaining eggs and whisk until combine. Add the vanilla and stir until combined. Do not overbeat the batter.
5. Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate mixture. Using a spatula (not a whisk), fold the flour mixture into the chocolate until just a bit of the flour is still visible.
6. Pour batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake in the center of the oven for 30 minutes, rotating pan halfway through the baking time, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. Do not over bake. Let brownies cool completely, then cut them into squares (or hearts!) and serve. Yield: 24 brownies
Brownies keep at room temperature for 3 days when tightly covered.

Recipe courtesy of Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. Copied with permission.










I gave these to my family valentines, even though every single one of is actively trying to lose weight. They are too good.
I'll go back and add the recipes to my previous posts, too, then this blog can be a recipe resource! I'm so  excited about it.
Go, make them. And be happy forever.

Millionaire's Shortbread

We invited some friends/family over for dinner this week, which made me choose dessert more carefully. This recipe didn't include a picture, and since I'm not particularly excited by shortbread, I didn't even give it a second thought last week. This time, I actually read through the ingredients.

Wait, chocolate?

Wait, dulce de leche??

It turns out, millionaires really do have it better than the rest of us.

UNTIL NOW*!

Today, the rest of us can have something usually reserved for millionaires! This is apparently a Scottish dessert, shortbread topped with a layer of caramel and a layer of chocolate. Baked also called these rich man's Twix. Whatever you want to call them, you will feel richer and happier.

They are a messy bar (crumbly, gooey, and melty all at once), but it is worth it. They are very rich, of course, so a small piece goes a long way. All of our guests liked them, so I think it was a hit. And they were even better the next day! How do they do that?

Millionaire's Shortbread (printable recipe)

Yield: 24 bars
Ingredients

• 1/2 c sugar
• 1 1/4 c (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 1/2 c all-purpose flour
• 1 large egg yolk
• 28 oz. (2 14-oz. cans) sweetened condensed milk
• 6 oz. dark chocolate (60% cacao), coarsely chopped
• 1 tsp light corn syrup
• 1/2 c (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened, cut into cubes

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9x13-in. baking pan.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the sugar and butter together until blended. Add 2 cups of the flour and beat until well combined. Add the egg yolk and beat for a few seconds, or until just combined.
3. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Dust the top of the dough and your hands with a little flour. Use your hands to gently work the dough into a 6x6 square. You will have to turn the dough and sprinkle the top with flour as you go. Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 c flour on the surface of the dough. Fold the dough over and knead until incorporated, then flatten the dough into a rectangle. Transfer the rectangle to the prepared pan and press it into the pan.
4. Prick the dough all over with a fork and bake in the center of the oven for 20 to 22 minutes, until golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.
5. To make the caramel filling, put the sweetened condensed milk in a large microwave-safe bowl. Cook on 50% power for 4 minutes, stirring briskly halfway through, until smooth. Cook on 30% power for 12 to 18 minutes, until very thick and caramel colored, stirring briskly every 2 minutes, until smooth.
6. Pour the caramel filling over the cooled shortbread and place the pan in the refrigerator until cool, about 2 hours.
7. To make the chocolate glaze, in a large nonreactive metal bowl, combine the chocolate, corn syrup, and butter. Set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and cook, stirring with a rubber spatula, until the mixture is completely smooth. Remove the bowl from the pan and stir for 30 seconds to cool slightly. Pour the mixture over the chilled caramel layer and use and offset spatula to spread it into an even layer. Refrigerate for 1 hour, or until the glaze hardens.
8. Remove the pan from the refrigerator 30 minutes before serving so chocolate does not crack. Cut into squares and serve. Bars can be stored in the refrigerator, tightly covered, for up to 4 days.

Recipe by Recipe courtesy of Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. Copied with permission.
* Let's see if I can incorporate a big "UNTIL NOW!" into every post, shall we?