Dark Chocolate Red Wine Cupcakes

“If not on Valentine’s Day, when?” That is the reasoning I usually give myself every year to justify an overabundant consumption of things like chocolate, desserts, and wine on the holiday. Well, I guess do this a little more often than just Valentine’s Day when it comes to the chocolate over-eating – “if not Monday or Thursday or Saturday, then when?” – but besides that, I feel that anyone has the right to indulge in sumptuous things on the most romantic day of the year. Especially when self-purchased/made treats are the only things you have to indulge in.

Slightly bitter that I may be that I generally have a lack of true Valentine’s experiences, I was excited that I had the opportunity to show a little love to my new coworkers this year. To get in the holiday spirit, I baked them up a little something that couldn’t possibly be any more Valentine-y: Dark. Chocolate. Red. Wine. Cupcakes. And who else to concoct such a divine-sounding specimen but the very talented Deb Perelman? I got the recipe from my (signed) copy of the Smitten Kitchen cookbook. I now consider the wine splattered page on which this recipe resides to be the most coveted page of them all.

Believe me people! This cake is insane. It is hard to imagine how a chocolate flavor so intense can fit inside such a dense and fudgy yet surprisingly tender little cake. The flavor of the wine is less pronounced, especially considering that almost an entire bottle goes into the batter, but it is definitely a necessary backdrop. It’s like the butter to a grilled cheese sandwich, not the most apparent component yet still absolutely essential. I used a pinot noir hoping to complement the chocolate with flavors of red berries but I trust Deb that any kind will work fine. And then there is that genius addition of cinnamon that sort of plays off the slight spiciness of the wine and supplements the richness of the chocolate with wakening warmth.

They don’t even really need frosting and are actually quite pretty with just a sprinkling of powdered sugar on their jet-black surface. But, frosting never hurts, right? I went in a bit of a different direction from Deb with the frosting, but kept the same general concept of a tangy, creamy spread. I made a barely sweetened cream cheese icing, lightened with some whipping cream and accented with a little vanilla. That’s all it takes. And just frost with a little schmear – let that cupcake shine.

One of my coworker tasters sent me this email shortly after devouring

“Thanks for the cupcake, lady! Chocolate cake so dark that light could not escape it’s pull…delightful!”

If that doesn’t sound like success, I don’t know what is. So maybe I didn’t walk away with a special valentine this year, but my cupcakes certainly found their matches, and I think that counts for something.

Dark Chocolate Red Wine Cupcakes
From the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook
makes about 30 cupcakes

Ingredients
For the Cakes
2 stick of softened butter
2 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar
2/3 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs
2 cups red wine of choice
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cups cocoa powder
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
¾ tsp cinnamon
¾ tsp salt

For the Frosting
8 oz softened cream cheese
¼ cup heavy cream
1½ cups powdered sugar
¼ tsp vanilla extract
a pinch of salt

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees and place cupcake liners in 2 cupcake tins. Beat the softened butter at a medium speed in an electric mixer until smooth. Add the sugars, increase the speed to medium-high, and beat until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and then add the vanilla. Once everything is incorporated, give the bowl a scrape to loosen up the stuck bits at the bottom.

While things are mixing, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a separate bowl and set aside. Also measure out your red wine.

Add 1/3 of the dry mix to the mixer with the butter and sugar and beat on low until the flour is just incorporated. Then, add in half of the red wine and mix to combine. Continue by adding another third of the dry mix, then the rest of the wine, and finally the rest of the dry ingredients. Mix until the ingredients are incorporated together and the batter is smooth.

Scoop the batter into the muffin tins (about 3 Tbs or a ice cream scoop-full in each) and bake for 25 minute or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

As the cupcakes cook, make the frosting. Using an electric mixer with the whisk attachment, whip up the cream cheese on a medium speed until smooth. Add the powdered sugar, vanilla and salt, and whisk to combine. Increase the speed and slowly pour in the heavy cream. Once added, whip on high for about a minute until the frosting is increased in volume and has the texture of marshmallow fluff. Store in the refrigerator until ready to use.

When the cupcakes are finished baking, invert them onto a cooling rack. Wait until they are completely cool before topping with a small dollop of the frosting or a dusting of powdered sugar. Store in the refrigerator – they will keep well for about 3 days.

Spiced Crispy Chickpeas

It’s funny that now I have a fancy new office job (which is absolutely fab by the way) with a computer and a desk and all that, certain things in my life have become much more important than they ever were before. For instance, I now, for the first time since maybe middle school, have to keep careful track that my bedtime does not extend past 8:00 (and yes, it does make me feel old). I have now also become obsessed with traffic patterns. It is simply amazing to me how traffic can go from insignificant to absolute gridlock in a matter of minutes (generally in the time frame of around 4:46-4:49) and it becomes of absolute necessity to leave the office at precisely 4:30 to prevent an imminent doom of stop-and-go commuting. Has anyone also ever noticed how traffic really seems to have no reason for being, how the worst possible congestion can suddenly end as if 2/3 of the cars evaporated into thin air? And also how people feel a dire need to slow down and stare whenever a cop has someone pulled over, creating a jam large enough to prolong my drive by approximately 15 minutes? Oh, traffic…so perplexing.

But I think the one thing that has climbed near the top of the “aspects of my life of vital importance” list is snacks. When it gets to that moment when my eyes suddenly glaze over from three hours of staring at the computer screen, yet it’s still much to early to justify eating lunch, there is nothing better than a walk to the lunchroom for a snack break. Of course, it helps that my new employer provides a plethora of limitless free and healthy snacks and fresh fruit and bottomless Tazo tea and Starbucks coffee. Each day is like an adventure to see what kind of new snack made it into the selection. White Cheddar Pirate’s Booty? Sure! Potato chips fried in Avocado Oil. Oh yeah! And while I’m at it I’ll take a grapefruit with me for good measure.

However, I have realized that my self-control will, at some point, need to reign in my newfound obsession for prepackaged snacks. I considered signing up for one of these subscription healthy snack boxes where you are sent a new selection of goodies every week. But then I realized that I can pretty much get the components of these things in the bulk section of many nearby grocery stores for much cheaper. And this led to the great epiphany that I should make my own snacks and trail mixes and granola bars so I could cater them to my tastes and know exactly what’s in them. Well, at least that’s the plan for now while the idea’s newness gives me the momentum to follow through. So, to start, I made use of about a 1½ cups of extra chickpeas I had from my latest batch of hummus and turned it into snack that could give potato chips a run for its money after all.

These are crispy chickpeas. They are nothing but chickpeas with a tad of oil and a lot of spices, dried out in the oven until crunchy and nutty. That’s it. Dead simple. It sounds so boring when you thing that its nothing but a shriveled, dried out bean but you must eliminate those thoughts. This may be a healthy, fiber and protein filled snack but, in this form, the chickpeas masquerade as the guilty pleasures from the vending machine. And they don’t have to necessarily be used own their own as mere snacks. They are amazing on salads and soups and curries and all sorts of dishes. You can mix them with other roasted nuts, seeds, and dried fruits for trail mix or serve them on a cheese and charcuterie platter. And you can feel free to play around with the spices. Make a sweet cinnamon sugar version, or Texas bbq, parmesan rosemary, or even curry. You can pretty much replicate any snack flavor out there!

Do you sense a bit of excitement here?

Yes, I do realize I’m probably the last person to catch on to this trend (per usual) but hey, better late than never, right? I’m afraid to say that there may be a chickpea epidemic about to erupt in my house though I suppose there could be many many worse things than that.

Spiced Crispy Chickpeas

Ingredients
1 15-oz can chickpeas, drained, rinsed, and air-dried on a clean towel (you could also use 1½ cups fresh cooked chickpeas, if you happen to have them available)
1 Tbs. olive oil
¼ tsp. cumin
¼ tsp. coriander
¼ tsp. ground ginger
¼ tsp. smoked paprika
½ tsp. sea salt

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Toss the dry chickpeas with the olive oil and the spices until they are coated evenly. Spread them out a baking sheet. Roast in the oven for 30-35 minutes, shaking the pan periodically, until the chickpeas are lightly browned and crispy all the way through (to test for crispiness, remove a few from the oven and let them cool for a moment before tasting). Let them cool completely before storing in an airtight container. But really, they won’t last that long.

Roasted Carrot Salad

Well, I’m going to be straight with you right now. When the ball dropped and the New Year arrived, I was one of those people. Yes, one of the many who woke up on New Year’s Day, opened the refrigerator, and gazed upon the entirety on my next two days’ meals lined up in neat, multicolored rows of bottled, organic, detox juice. I abandoned my beloved jammy toast for a bottle of liquid celery and romaine lettuce. Mmmmm…breakfast.

So, was it worth it?

I’m not quite sure actually. I didn’t really wake up at the end up it all feeling like I had a glowing sparkly aura around my body. Perhaps I had a little more energy but I also had a nasty cold at the time so that marred the results a bit. I think that the greatest benefit was gaining awareness of so much mindless snacking. While detoxing, I would walk through the kitchen and make the motion to grab a handful of cereal or stick my finger into the peanut butter jar a spoonful of peanut butter before stopping myself in the act of sheer bad habit.

Also, post-detox, I eased myself back onto solid foods and stuck to mostly vegetables, fruits, ancient grains, and nuts before adding gluten, meat, and cow dairy. And it was with this stage of the process that I gained the most realization…I really missed vegetables. A lot. Working at a restaurant for 8 months, I was on a steady diet of bread and more bread with minimal green foods. At college, I used to have so much fun making up these funky, unique salads of sorts with fresh market product and it all kind of stopped in that “newly graduated” stage of life. So maybe it was something in the juice, but all the sudden I found myself pulling a new salad-y recipe from a long-neglected portion of my brain and came up with a dish that really did make me feel all sparkly and cleansed like I had hoped.

This one takes a slight nod from a roasted beet and crunchy radish salad I had at Arbutus Restaurant in London. Instead, I brought in the earthy sweetness from roasted rainbow carrots and offset it with the slight pepperiness and crispness of red cabbage. The strage part is that I roasted the cabbage. I’ve never done this before – it was kind of a spur of the moment decision – but it resulted in something that was completely unexpected and delightful. Who new that roasting ribbons of cabbage makes for a mixture that is simultaneously tender and sweet but also savory and chip-like? Trust me, you’ll be fighting others off to get the crunchy burnt pieces. The sprinkle of pistachios and goat cheese adds yet another contrasting dimension of sweet, salty, and tangy and the vinaigrette just ties it all together.

So, if the juice detox was the cause of the creation of this salad, I suppose I can say it was worth it. Otherwise, eh, I’m not totally convinced; my general consensus is that I just had two days where I peed a whole lot more than normal and had a flatter stomach for about 24 hours. I mean, sure it was nice to rid myself of accumulated crap at the beginning of the year but I think for the rest of the year, I’ll stick to plain and simple veg and tasty salads, thank you very much.

Roasted Carrot Salad for One
Ingredients
5-6 rainbow carrots, washed and halved lengthwise
¼ head of red cabbage, core removed and cut into ¼ inch ribbons
1 Tbs. olive oil
red pepper flakes (optional)
1 Tbs. roasted salted pistachios
goat cheese
salt and pepper
champagne vinaigrette

(I don’t have an exact recipe but find that the best vinaigrette is 3 parts olive oil, 1 part vinegar, and a small amount of Dijon mustard, honey or any other sweetener that you like, salt, and pepper, to taste. Whisk to combine.)

Preheat the oven on 450 degrees. Toss the carrots with ½ Tbs of the olive oil, salt, pepper, and a pinch of red pepper flakes and lay them evenly on a baking sheet. In a bowl, toss the cabbage with the remaining olive oil, salt and pepper, and use your hands to coat all of the cabbage evenly with the oil. Set aside. Place in the baking sheet with the carrots in the oven for ten minutes. Remove and add the cabbage to the same pan along with the carrots. Place back in the oven for 15 minutes, occasionally flipping the carrots and stirring the cabbage until both are crisp tender.

Arrange the cabbage and carrots on a plate. Sprinkle the pistachios and as much goat cheese as you desire overtop. Finish with a drizzle of your vinaigrette. 

At the End of a Year, The Beginning of Another

I’ve never been terribly well at dealing with big life changes. Despite my assuredness in knowing that changes are very much for the better and my excitement to start a new journey, I still always seem to resist the shifting winds a little longer than I should and let them sting my face with pangs of nonsensical regret. I look back at the recently passed stage of my life and begin to riddle myself with ideas like, “what if I had done things differently,” and, “why didn’t I do this while I had the chance.” I find myself in a cleaning frenzy and spend countless hours going through neglected drawers, purging myself of high school art projects and accumulated knick-knacks. Posters rip from walls, items cram into brimming closets, and things on shelves rearrange. I need tasks to keep my hands busy and to stop my head from thinking.

I am starting new job in a few weeks, one that will offer me boundless opportunity and the chance to finally immerse myself in the field I spent four long years relentlessly studying at school. I am beyond thrilled and I think that my anticipation and excitement to begin this new path is what's leaving me so restless. Yet, leaving my old job was certainly bittersweet, my last day tinged with sadness. I found that the hardest part was leaving people. I spent 40+ hours working very closely with the same handful of folks and we saw each other at some of our worst, most stressed moments, but of course also at our best…and craziest. Truly, they became more than just friends; we were more like a little family and I hope they’re not gone forever.

Luckily I had Christmas at the beginning of all of this to help to ease the transition. It was a Christmas just like the others, though not at all in a bad way. It was traditional, as it should be. It was a day spent with family, two deep fried turkeys, a dark chocolate and orange semifreddo, raucous conversation and laughter, dogs trying to steal food from the table, and to end it all, an annual viewing of It’s a Wonderful Life, which, no matter how many times I watch it, still leaves the edges of my eyes glossed with tears. It was all quite good.

As the New Year approaches I hope for the usual things except for the first time I feel like the resolutions really matter. I want to pursue my hopes instead of letting them eventually slip by as usual. I want to take more chances and do the things that scare me, to put myself out there, vulnerable and fearful, in the face of whatever may confront me and to accept and embrace it, whether it be new skills, deadlines, one more mile, perhaps even love. Who knows? Only time will tell but I have the feeling its going to be a very very good year. With that, I bid you adieu for 2012 and wish you the best in the upcoming days.

Waffles with Cherry and Pear Compote

We are all big breakfast food fans at my house. Some of my fondest food memories of my childhood involve the early morning meals of Saturdays and Christmas. As each weekend began, my dad would fry mounds of bacon to the point of perfect crispiness, not quite burnt but nearly so. He would then drop eggs into the hot bacon fat, spooning the sizzling grease over the top of each yolk until the whites were just set and the yolk thick and oozing for optimal toast dipping. Christmas morning was (and still is) the one day of the year where my family deems it perfectly acceptable to begin the day with an absolute sugar rush. Our traditional coffee pairing is a little number that involves Pillsbury biscuits, cream cheese, pecans, orange zest and lots and lots of butter.

Ever since I went to college, however, and even now, living at home but spending most of my weekend mornings serving brunch to others rather than experiencing it for myself, the Saturday morning ritual of a late second breakfast, filled with enough protein and fat to last until nearly dinner, has pretty much ended. Sure we still often find ourselves making omelets and other breakfasty things for dinner, but it’s not quite the same when you’re not in pajamas, a cup of coffee in hand and warm, late morning light streaming through the windows. So when the rare opportunity comes for a weekend day off, I always seem to make time for an extra special brunch-type meal.

The most recent pick were these waffles from Food Network Magazine. They originally caught my eye because of the cherry and pear compote (I’m a sucker for anything with dried cherries) but as I looked through the recipe, there were many more details that seemed to peak my interest. Like the addition of whole rolled oats, the little touch of orange zest, and the use of cottage cheese rather than milk for extra moisture and a kick of protein. The end product adheres to all of the qualities of waffles that make them so appealing, but kicks them all up about 10 notches. The cottage cheese caramelizes slightly on the outside, making for an extra crispy crust while keeping the inside extremely tender. I hope this doesn’t sound unappealing (because it’s actually quite nice) but it’s almost like custard on the inside, dense, spongy, and creamy. The oats add dexterity and the waffles as a whole are only just sweet so that the nutty and citrusy flavors can shine through. And the whole combo is certainly not complete without the pear and cherry compote, simmered in fresh orange juice until syrupy, and the cottage cheese topping, whipped in the food processor until smooth and rich.

Altogether, the dish is everything you want in a breakfast. It’s stick to your ribs filling and the sweetness is balanced out by the zing of tangy fruits. It may even replace the Pillsbury classic at the Christmas morning breakfast table this year, amped up in decadence with perhaps a splash of brandy or bourbon in the compote and a sprinkling of toasted pecans overtop. And if you happen to have leftover waffles, they freeze wonderfully and can go straight from the freezer to the toaster and to your plate ready for a thick smear of peanut butter on top, because everything is better with peanut butter, right?

Orange Waffles with Cherry and Pear Compote and Creamy Topping
Makes about six waffles from
Food Network Magazine

Ingredients
For the Compote
2 Tbs unsalted butter
2 large Bartlett or d’Anjou pears, peeled and cut into ½ inch cubes
½ cup dried cherries
Juice from 2 oranges
1 Tbs sugar
splash of brandy or bourbon (optional)

For the Waffles
2 cups of all-purpose flour (you could sub half with whole wheat)
½ cup rolled oats
2 Tbs sugar
1½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp ground ginger
pinch of salt
1¼ cups milk
1 cup 2% cottage cheese
2 eggs
½ tsp vanilla extract
zest from half an orange
2 Tbs melted unsalted butter

For the Creamy Topping
1 cup 2% cottage cheese
1 Tbs sugar
1 Tbs milk
½ tsp vanilla extract

Extras
Toasted pecans, for serving

Start by making the compote. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the pears and cook for about 4 minutes until slightly browned in some spots. Add the cherries, orange juice, sugar, and about ¼ cup of water. Bring to a simmer and cook until the liquid is reduced and syrupy. This took me about 15 minutes but it depends on how much liquid came from your oranges. If it starts to ever look too thick before the pears are soft enough, just add more water. Once thickened, remove from heat and add the splash of brandy or bourbon, if using. Transfer to a serving bowl and set aside to cool.

For the waffles, preheat the oven to 250 degrees and begin heating the waffle iron. Place a cooking rack over a baking sheet and set inside the oven. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, cottage cheese, eggs, vanilla, and orange zest. Whisk the liquids into the dry ingredients until just combined (it will look lumpy). Stir in the melted butter. Set aside.

While the batter rests for a few moments, make the creamy topping. Combine the cottage cheese, sugar, milk, and vanilla in the bowl of a food processor and puree until very smooth. Transfer to a serving bowl and refrigerate until ready to use.

To make the waffles, spray the hot waffle iron with cooking spay and pour a heaping ½ cup of batter into the iron. Close and cooking according to iron’s instructions or until the waffles are golden and crisp. Transfer finished waffles to the rack in the warm oven until all the waffles are made. Serve the waffle with the compote and the creamy topping and top with a sprinkle of toasted pecans.