French Silk Pie

Each week I do a “Fun Fact Friday” post on my Facebook page, Huntsville Hot Chocolates.  Frequently I’ll research and post on the history of a classic chocolate recipe.  So today I decided to research the French Silk Pie.

When I was in college we had a cook in the dining hall, Ms. Lena, who made the most awesome French Silk Pie.  College is quite honestly the first time I remember having French Silk Pie and Ms. Lena’s was amazing.  It had a flaky, buttery crust and a super rich chocolate filling.  If you saw French Silk Pie on the menu, you knew it was an important dinner or the college had special visitors on campus.  It was one of those kinds of pies.  It was only made for special occasions or company.

In my research, I found that the pie is perhaps not French at all.  The pie was actually a runner-up in the 1951 Pillsbury Bake-Off® created by a Betty Cooper of Kensington, Maryland.  That’s where my research ends.  So in an effort to find out more about how Ms. Cooper came up with the recipe, I’ve e-mailed Pillsbury to see if they can shed some light on the original entrant and recipe.  I love knowing the story behind a particular recipe especially one that achieves status as a classic.  I take inspiration from many different places and wonder what prompted this home cook to make such a decadent pie?   Was it an accidental creation?  Does she have a French connection?  Why did she enter the contest? 

I know there’s a story there, let’s just hope Pillsbury can answer.  Until then, here's a link to Ms. Cooper's original recipe.

http://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/french-silk-chocolate-pie/5a6a0649-a480-4f58-9007-0188ded0bacd

German Chocolate Fondue

It's Fun Fact Friday!  Ever wondered where German Chocolate cake gets its name?  Well it's not a German cake at all.  The original recipe used "Baker's German's Sweet Chocolate" named after Sam German who created the special chocolate for Baker's.  

A Texas homemaker created a recipe using "Baker's German's Chocolate Cake" that was published in a Dallas paper in 1957.  General Foods then distributed the recipe to a number of other papers increasing its popularity.  Eventually the name Baker's and the "s" in German's was dropped leading to the name we all know, German Chocolate Cake.

Here's my recipe for easy German Chocolate Fondue which takes much less time to prepare than a cake.

Jenny’s German Chocolate Fondue

Recipe by Jenny Johnson

4 oz. Dove Chocolate Discoveries(tm) Chef Series Milk Chocolate

½ Packet Dove Chocolate Discoveries(tm) DCD Coconut Smoothie Mix*

½ Cup Heavy Cream

Fresh Strawberries, Marshmallows, Pretzels, Graham Crackers, etc. for dipping

Place milk chocolate and ½ the chips from the smoothie mix in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave in 20 second intervals, stirring well after each cycle, until melted. Bring cream and ½ the smoothie mix to a boil over medium low heat. While stirring, add cream mixture to chocolate. Stir until incorporated.

Serve with dippers.

*1/2 packet is 4 tablespoons of powder-The easiest way to sort the chips and powder is to sift the chips out and just “eyeball” what appears to be ½ the chips. 

Fresh Herb Butter

I recently had to trim my herb garden as all of my plants had gotten huge.  I find it almost impossible to use all of my fresh herbs.  Considering you can buy an entire plant for about the same price as a container of fresh cut herbs and the fact they are so easy to grow, they are a great value.

A quick and easy way to make use of fresh herbs is by making herb butter.  Herb butters are so simple to make and add another level of “wow” to any dish.  I use fresh herb butters to finish grilled meats, fresh veggies and even mashed potatoes.  Herb butters can be made in small or large batches and keep well in the fridge but can also be frozen.  I’ve never kept herb butter longer than about two weeks in the fridge but that is simply because it never lasts that long.  I’m sure you could store it for longer.  When freezing herb butters I put them in airtight containers pressing a layer of plastic wrap right over the top of the butter to prevent the formation of ice crystals.  They can be frozen for up to 4 months. 

One of my favorite herb butters is fresh sage butter and with just two ingredients, it’s a pretty simple way to dress up any meat-especially grilled pork served with rustic mashed potatoes.

Fresh Sage Butter

2 Tablespoons of Butter, Room Temperature

1 Teaspoon of Chopped Fresh Sage

Place butter and chopped sage into a mini-processor and blend until smooth.  This can also be blended by hand.

The Best Reuben

On our way home from seeing Robert Plant and the SensationalSpace Shifters in Atlanta, we decided to make a short diversion north through Helen, Georgia.  We’ve been to Helen twice before with the last visit being about 10 years ago. 

Helen, Georgia is located in the North Georgia Appalachian Mountains and was once a city in decline.  In the late 1960’s a revitalization effort began recreating the town to represent a Bavarian village.  Every shop, restaurant, and building has the same style exterior.  It’s a quaint little place actually. 

We arrived early and enjoyed sitting on the banks of the Chattahoochee watching people go tubing down the river.  We did that on our last trip and had a good laugh about the water shoes I had gotten my husband.  Instead of buying him proper aqua socks, I bought him shower shoes which he dubbed “aqua flops” because they kept flopping off his feet while we were going down the river.  I always say that travel is about creating experiences and memories and sometimes it’s the little things that you remember most.  Thanks to the aqua flops, we’ll always remember tubing the Chattahoochee.

After walking around a bit (you can walk around all of Helen in a “bit”) and looking at a few restaurant menus, we decided on the Hofer House for lunch.  It was situated in what appeared to be a house at one time.  When you walk in they had a meat counter with lots of fresh German style sausages on the right and a dessert counter filled with German pastries and cakes on the left.  It definitely felt cozy and not like a typical restaurant.

I decided on the Reuben even though I really wanted a plate of German sausages.  The Reuben was their “best seller”.  The origins of the Reuben are sketchy and it’s not a classic German dish but I do love a good Reuben.  It was piled high with corned beef, the bread nicely buttered and toasted, with a little of the sauce and kraut peeking out.  It looked like any other Reuben sandwich.  Looks can be deceiving.  I took one bite and thought, “Wow”.  I took another bite.  And another.  And another.  What was just so good about this Reuben?  So, I started picking my sandwich apart to get to the bottom of it.  The corned beef was good but nothing that stood out.  Ditto with the bread.  Then the sauce.  I tasted the sauce by itself.  It was one of those things where I could taste the homemade.  The same with the kraut-it was tangy but not overly sour and had a light crunch and wasn’t soggy.  That was it.  The homemade sauce and kraut were the secret.  I asked our server if they made those items at the restaurant.  Yes, indeed.

After lunch we headed home with full bellies and tasty new memories.  

Tip of the Week-The Cookie Scoop

So last week I was making Sea-Salted Raspberry Brownie Bombs.  The consistency of the center, which was a Dove Chocolate Discoveries(tm) Truffle Fudge Brownie mixed with raspberry sauce, was really sticky.  Rolling it by hand into a nice ball for dipping in tempered chocolate was out of the question.  

I grabbed one of my favorite portioning tools for assistance-a mini cookie scoop.  I use this all the time for perfect portioning of not only cookies but mini cupcakes as well.  The only problem is that any batter tends to stick somewhat to the inside.  I had the idea to spray it with a little non-stick cooking spray.  It worked like a charm.  Those gooey, fudgy, sticky little balls of goodness fell right out of the scoop onto my tray.  

The only drawback?  There wasn't much brownie stuck to the scoop for licking when I was done.  But hey, it sure made scooping a whole lot sweeter!

Pasta with Chicken Sausage and Fresh Herbs

I love having a fresh herb garden.  There is no simpler way to add a burst of fresh to a dish than with a handful of fresh cut herbs.  They are so simple to grow and so much less expensive than buying them at the store.  Whether as a garnish or a key ingredient, I use something from my herb garden in just about every meal.

When my herbs are getting a bit overgrown, I simply cut them and bundle them into a fresh bouquet for the kitchen.  They look nice and add a wonderful aroma. 

As I was debating what I would have for lunch today, I really had a craving for pasta.  As a kid I used to love bowls of plain cooked pasta.  It was my lunch on many summer days.  Sometimes I would add cheese, but just plain pasta made me a happy kid.  My grandmother used to add a can of diced tomatoes when she made it for me.  Macaroni and tomatoes-so simple but I could eat it by the bowlfuls.  That really takes me back to my childhood and summer vacation. 

I don’t know if I was craving more nostalgia or pasta today, but I had to have a bowl.  After looking thru the fridge and finding some chicken sausage and snipping some fresh herbs, I recreated a childhood favorite for a more refined palette.  To me, food evokes emotion and memories.  This dish certainly took me back today.  Maybe I should take these trips more often. 

Pasta with Chicken Sausage and Fresh Herbs

1 Cup Dried Pasta (elbow or any tubular pasta)

Salt

3 Links Fully Cooked Chicken Sausage

1 Tbsp. Olive Oil

1 Clove of Garlic, Minced

1 Tablespoon Minced Onion

1 ½ Cups Fresh Diced Tomatoes

½ Cup Grated Parmesan Cheese

½ Tbsp. Fresh Oregano

1 Tablespoon Fresh Basil

Cook pasta al dente per package directions.  While pasta cooks heat a large sauté pan to medium heat.  Add oil, sausage, garlic and onion.  Cook until onions are translucent and sausage is warm.  Add diced tomatoes.  Drain pasta and add to chicken.  Add cheese, oregano and basil.  Stir until incorporated and serve hot.

Secrets to Perfect Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

Probably the most quintessential pairing of fruit and chocolate known to man is the chocolate covered strawberry. That combination of sweet chocolate and fresh juicy berry is magic in the mouth!

With only two ingredients they seem simple enough to make-dip a strawberry in chocolate and let it harden.  Well, that’s sort of it.  If you dip a strawberry in chocolate by definition you do have a chocolate covered strawberry.   But making a really good one, takes just a little more than that.  The effort is worth every chocolate covered juicy bite.

The first secret, which really shouldn’t be a secret, is to start with the best ingredients.  Get good chocolate.  What is good chocolate?  Good chocolate is made with cocoa butter.  Many of the commercial dipping “chocolates” on the market are not chocolate at all and are made of oil.  Reading labels and looking for cocoa butter on the label is important.  Get good strawberries.  They should be fresh and fully ripened but still firm. 

Secret number two, take the time to temper your chocolate.  The end result will be a strawberry with a nice shiny gloss and snap when you bite into it.  What is tempering?  It is melting the chocolate then cooling it to a specific temperature at which the cocoa butter crystals will re-solidify nice and hard giving it that gloss and snap.  Improperly tempered chocolate will be soft and dull.  There are a few ways to temper with the easiest being with a tempering machine.  But a great article on how to temper by hand can be found here:  http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/Tempering-Chocolate/Detail.aspx.

I’ve had folks tell me they tried to make chocolate covered strawberries and after they dipped a couple of berries the chocolate got clumpy.  That brings me to secret number three.  Melted chocolate and moisture do not mix!  Any excess liquid from the berries or utensils will cause the chocolate to seize rendering it useless for dipping.  Tempering will not bring back seized chocolate.  You must throw it out.  Or eat it, immediately.  Strawberries should be room temperature before dipping.  Cold berries can bring your chocolate out of temper or cause it to firm up before you are finished dipping. 

Lastly, let your dipped berries firm up at room temperature.  They will develop condensation if stored for too long in the fridge.  For that reason it is best to make them as close to serving time as possible.  As for storing leftovers, I’m still working on that one as I don’t ever seem to have any. 

Yes there is a little science and work involved in making a great chocolate covered strawberry.  When I’m short on time, a great solution is to simply serve fresh strawberries with chocolate fondue allowing each person to dip and indulge at their leisure.

Red White and Blue Berries

1 Pint Fresh Strawberries, Washed and Dried Thoroughly

½ lb. Good Quality White Chocolate (I prefer Dove®)

Blue Sugar for Garnish

Temper white chocolate either by hand or with a tempering machine and dip dry berries ¾ of the way into the chocolate leaving part of the red berry exposed.  Hold strawberry over chocolate bowl until excess chocolate has dripped off.  Lay on a parchment lined baking sheet and sprinkle with blue sugar before the chocolate firms.  Allow chocolate to firm at room temperature.

Caramel Carrot Cake Balls

I first encountered the phenomena of the cake ball about 10 years ago when I was really into cake decorating.  Over the years they’ve grown in popularity and are now a mainstream item and are commonly marketed as cake pops. 

They are quite simple to make and are a great way to put good use to leftover cake or cake crumbs.  Whenever I level off a cake crown, I simply freeze the scraps and then when I need a quick treat, whip up some cake balls.  You can mix and match flavors of cake or use all one flavor.  Whatever suits your fancy.

Most recipes call for adding icing to moisten the cake.  You can use really any wet ingredient-jam or jelly, lemon curd, honey, chocolate sauce or even caramel which is amazing with leftover carrot cake.

Caramel Carrot Cake Balls

Carrot Cake

Caramel Sauce (of course I recommend homemade)

Tempered Chocolate

To make the cake balls simply mash up cake in a bowl using a wooden spoon.  Pour in caramel sauce a little at a time and stir.  Add caramel until you have a “meatball” consistency.  Scoop into balls using a small ice cream scoop.  Place balls on a sheet of parchment and chill for 1 hour.  Dip in tempered chocolate and allow to firm up. 

Enjoy!

White Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Bark

I love making chocolate bark.  It follows my same philosophy about making trifle.  You can pretty much take whatever you have, sprinkle it on tempered chocolate, and call it "bark".  

Bark is such an interesting name for a chocolate confection so I decided to do a little research to see how that term originated.  I consulted Wikipedia and a number of websites but could not locate the history of chocolate bark.  I even consulted The Chocolate Bible but it had no mention of bark.

So my theory is this, since bark is typically made with a milk or dark chocolate, covered with a variety of nuts and fruits, and made in large sheets, it perhaps gets its name from the fact that it resembles tree bark.  That's my story.  I'm sticking to it. 

White Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Bark

12 oz. Dove Chocolate Discoveries™ Chef Series White Chocolate

1 Cup Coarsely Crushed Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

½ Cup Coarsely Crushed Pretzel Pieces

¼ Cup Dove Chocolate Discoveries™ Peanut Butter Filled Baking Bits

Pretzel M&M’s in Pastel Colors

Heat chocolate in the microwave in 20-second intervals (stirring after each 20 seconds) until smooth.  Do not heat for more than 20 seconds at a time as it can scorch!  Line parchment paper with cookies and pretzel pieces making a roughly a 9x9 square.  Pour melted chocolate over cookie/pretzel mixture and using a small spatula, carefully spread until smooth.  Add M&M’s and peanut butter bits and lightly press them into the chocolate.  Chill for 10 minutes or until set.  Break into bark and enjoy!

Cacao-New Meaning to the Word Bitter

A couple of years ago I was traveling thru rural NJ (yes there is a such thing as rural NJ) and went thru the quaintest little village in Lafayette.  I was with a fellow Chocolatier and she and I were commenting on the charm of this town when we saw a place called, The Chocolate Goat.  Being Chocolatiers, we of course had to stop.  If for nothing more than some “market research”.  It is pretty cool working in a profession where I can write off chocolate purchases as a business expense.

The Chocolate Goat did carry a few things chocolate that I had yet to see.  One item in particular was brewable cacao.  It was ground up cocoa beans (or cacao beans) that you could brew into a tasty drink.  Tasty.  Such a subjective word.  The store clerk said she loved it and had a cup every day.  Never had it.  Got to try it!

The packaging for the brewable cacao said, “Taste the Chocolate”.  Yes, taste, so subjective.  My friend Dianne was over the first time I decided to give it a try.  We brewed up a couple of cups and could smell the faint aroma of chocolate as it brewed.  As we anxiously awaited the brewing we discussed how excited we were to try something new and how amazing it was probably going to be.  Probably.  That’s another subjective word.  It had the color of tea once brewed and the faint aroma of chocolate.  We poured our cups and sipped at the same time.  Dianne’s eyes got really big and I’m sure mine did too.  I couldn’t tell if hers were big because it was SO good, or big like mine as I was trying to swallow it and not spew it all over the place.  It was Bitter.  I mean bitter with a capital B and I definitely didn’t “taste the chocolate”.  We both asked one another, “What did you think?”  It’s sort of like on those Travel Channel food show moments where the host travels to some foreign country and is fed something really bizarre and they say, “Well that’s interesting”.  Fortunately for us, we spoke our minds and said, “It needs a little something.”  Haha, little something.    

If you’ve ever bitten into a raw cacao bean, it will give new meaning to the word bitter.  It happened to me in the Dominican Republic last year.  Yes, I was warned but that “just gotta try it” attitude got the best of me.  Wowser.  Yep, definitely did not taste like chocolate.  Yep, definitely bitter.   Actually, it wasn’t that bitter but not something I would want to just snack on.  Or ever really eat again either.  This brewable cacao, I dare say, did give new meaning to the word bitter.

But, as Dianne and I discovered, when served with sugar and cream it was actually quite tasty and had a very delicate, sweet chocolate note.  I’m proud to say after finding just the right amount of sugar and cream, I did finish brewing, and enjoying, the entire bag!  

Oh Cast Iron, You’re a Grills Best Friend!

I’ve long thought cast iron cookware was a staple of only Southern kitchens.  There’s nothing better than hot buttered cornbread from a cast iron pan.  I was never a big fan of cornbread as a kid, but that’s a different story now.  It’s such a great childhood memory when I make cornbread in my grandmother’s old cast iron pan.  The memory is what makes it so good.  But as I’ve learned from Top Chef University, cast iron is also a favorite among chefs-even for grilling.  Really, you can get that much flavor “grilling” indoors?  I’ll admit I was skeptical when I saw my chef instructor, Spike Mendelsohn and several subsequent instructors, “grilling” on a cast iron grill pan.  They are just doing that for ease of instruction, so I thought.

I have a cast iron grill pan.  I bought it a few years ago at the Lodge store in South Pittsburgh, Tennessee, where Lodge is made.  I’d used it a time or two-mainly the smooth side for making pancakes.  The grill side of it didn’t produce a piece of meat any more flavorful than a non-stick pan, in my opinion.  Plus, my non-stick pan was a whole lot lighter and easier to manage.  Enter course 2 of Top Chef University. 

In my quest to create every recipe featured in this course, I got out the grill pan and made Chef Spike’s Asian Flank Steak.  It looked pretty with its perfect cross-hatch marks and smelled delicious.  Yes you might fool me by looks, but I’m going to bet it doesn’t taste like anything that has ever come off of my outdoor grill.  And I was right.  Very, very right.    It tasted nothing like I had ever cooked on my outdoor grill-it was better!  Sure the Asian marinade had flavored and tenderized the meat, but WOW, what a difference it made just learning a few new cooking techniques.  My grill pan has not been in the cabinet since! 

There are 2 main things I’ve learned that have contributed to my new found love of my cast iron grill.

1.      Season your cast iron grill and get it really hot before adding the meat.  To tell if it’s hot enough, hold your hand about 2 inches above the grill.  If you can’t leave it there longer than about 5 seconds, it’s ready!

2.      Use a towel to pat dry any excess moisture on meat before grilling-it will get a much better layer of browning, aka caramelization.  And as Top Chef Carla says, “There’s flavor in the brown!”

Hello Old Friend

Well, hello blog.  How are you?  I've missed you!  I'm so glad we just ran into each other.  I've been cooking, traveling and creating in the kitchen like crazy, I think it's time we caught up!  Three months has been too long a separation and will take some time to fill you in completely, but in a nutshell............

I'm at the halfway point with my Top Chef University Courses and I've learned so many awesome new tricks in the kitchen.  Not to mention cooked some amazing new dishes and created some of my own.  I'm looking into other courses once this one is complete.  

Speaking of kitchen, we just updated all of our appliances and we now have a gas range!  Yes I have gas!  I'm so excited.  To break it in right, I made 16 gallons of White Chocolate Irish Potato Soup for the United Cerebral Palsy's Irish Evening.  

So far this year I've experienced new chocolates in St. Petersburg, Florida and most recently did a chocolate tour around New York City.  I've got so many ideas from that trip-just got to find time to incorporate them all.  

I've been working on some new projects about which I'm super excited.  As of right now they are just in the "idea" stage but I'm taking steps to start researching how to make them reality.    

I'm even rejuvenating my passion for cakes and baking up several scratch carrot cakes with homemade caramel sauce for Easter next week.

So, how about we make a date for coffee tomorrow and I'll get started filling you in?