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. 

Black Forest Chocolate Cookies

Also, Chocolate Chip Cookies with Nutella, Brown Butter, and Sea Salt

I learned several things with this recipe.
1) Cookies aren't very photogenic. At least with my limited skills.
2) I don't love cookies that much. I don't know; I'm just not a big cookie person.

UNTIL NOW!

These are seriously amazing cookies. I like the idea of Black Forest cake, but the gross, slimy cherries and dry chocolate cake just never lived up to my expectations. But these cookies by Baked are a great combination of rich, not overly sweet chocolate, tart dried cherries, and a perfect sprinkling of dark, semi-sweet, and white chocolate chips. And get this: there is only 3/4 cup of flour! The rest of it is all butter, chocolate, and eggs!

The recipe said it would only make about 24 cookies, so I decided I'd try another (non-Baked) cookie recipe I'd found on Annie's Eats.

Nutella+Brown Butter+Sea Salt=Yummy

Both cookies are good...I think I'm going to have to say the Black Forest cookies win in my book. Also, the Black Forest cookies win in my book club. I took both cookies to book club, and more of the Black Forest were eaten. Everyone seemed to like both types, though.

My husband likes the Brown Butter/Nutella. So really, it's pretty much a toss-up.

Also, the "makes about 24 cookies" turned out to be a big, fat lie--it made like 64 cookies. So, I have a lot of cookies hanging out at my house. If you're in the area, come on over and have some!

Black Forest Chocolate Cookies (printable recipe)

3/4 c all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

16 oz. dark chocolate (60 to 72% cacao), coarsely chopped

10 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into pieces

6 large eggs

1 1/4 c sugar

1 c firmly packed light brown sugar

1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract

1 c (6 oz.) semisweet chocolate chips

1 c (6 oz.) white chocolate chips

1 c (6 oz.) dried cherries

1. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together into a medium bowl and set aside.

2. In a large nonreactive metal bowl, combine the dark chocolate and butter. Set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and cook, stirring with a rubber spatula, until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and the mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool. 

3. In the bowl of an electric mixture fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the eggs and sugars on the high speed until the mixture is pale and thick, about 5 minutes. Add the cooled chocolate mixture and the vanilla a beat until just combined. Scrape down the bowl and beat again for 10 seconds. 

4. Add the flour mixture and mix on low until just combined, about 10 seconds. Do not overmix.

5. Using a spatula or wooden spoon, fold in the chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, and dried cherries. The dough will look very loose, but it will harden in the refrigerator. Refrigerate for 6 hours or overnight. 

6. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

7. Drop the dough by rounded tablespoons onto the prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through the baking time, until the tops of the cookies are set and begin to show a few cracks. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly before removing from the pans and serving. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days. 

Yield: About 4 dozen cookies

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