Juicing the Mint Leaves

Mint Chip Chocolate Cookies

Mint has always been a flavor that has captivated my palate. However, despite this longstanding love affair, mint was rarely used in the sweets my mom prepared when I was young. This lead me to believe that items with mint components were incredibly exotic and that it must require Herculean efforts to impart that cool flavor to one’s dishes. In fact, my sister and I still use the term “have to juice the mint leaves” when referring to simple tasks that appear to be deceptively laborious.

Luckily, it turns out that making a delicious mint desert can be as simple as adding a few high quality mint chocolate chips to the recipe.


Add a couple cups of Guittard green mint chocolate chips to a chocolate cookie recipe and you will have a mint cookie to rival the devil-spawned (that is to say, unnaturally delicious), cocaine laden wafers purveyed by any girl scout.

Polka Dot Cookies Recipe

Adapted from the recipe from the back of the Guittard Green Mint Chips bag.
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
½ cup butter
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
½ cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon coffee
2 cups (1 12 oz bag) Guittard Green Mint Chips

Method
Preheat your oven to 350oF.

Add the semisweet chips to a microwave safe bowl and heat for one minute in the ole ‘wave. Stir the chocolate and microwave for another minute. Add the butter to the chocolate and stir together until it is all melted evenly (the butter and chocolate may require an additional minute in the microwave together).


When the chocolate and butter is smooth, set it aside and combine the flour, baking soda and salt.

In a large bowl, or in the bowl of a stand mixer, beat eggs, sugar, vanilla and coffee until smooth and light. Add the dry ingredients to the mix until everything is evenly incorporated into the batter. Fold in the green mint chips, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place everything into the refrigerator to chill for 15 minutes.


(The Master's Glaive?)

When the cookie batter has firmed up a bit, scoop it into rounded teaspoons and drop onto a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes and buen apetito!

Homemade Teriyaki Sauce

More Like Teri-Yummy!

Heloooo out there. I apologize for neglecting my blog for so long but I have had very little free time for writing or even cooking (gasp!). I know, it's terribly unfair to my loyal readers but my GMAT prep consumed way more time than I anticipated. It seems to have paid off though, as I received a near perfect score on my analytical writing assessment and 94% on the verbal section.

Unfortunately, I am not out of the woods yet and it is now time to prepare my applications for business school. I do hope to have things wrapped up pretty quickly though. That is to say, I absolutely MUST have things wrapped up and submitted within the next few days if I have any hope of attending school in the fall.

In any case, I plan on being back in the kitchen again soon. Until then, I will try to tide you over with a classic recipe from my old blog, which now features some updated comments (in various shades of blue).

Teriyaki Sauce Recipe (Updated 6.13.08)

3/4 cup of sugar

1 cup Soy Sauce*

1 cup of water or vegetable stock-I used Trader Joe's Ginger Soy stock (I had actually totally forgotten about this stuff)

1 tablespoon of mirin (rice wine vinegar)

2 teaspoons of sesame oil

1 cloves of garlic finely minced or grated

1 teaspoons of grated ginger

*Allow me to appologize for forgetting the primary ingredient of soy sauce in the initial posting of this recipe. That was a huge and embarrasing oversight. For anyone who tried the recipe up to this point only to effect the dismal result of what must have been garlicy, gingery sugar broth, I offer my sincerest appologies.

(Boy, that's an ugly shot)

Just toss all of the ingredients into a medium-sized stock pot and boil that sucker on high for like 5-7 minutes. Seriously, wait until you are boiling the peepee out of it and then let it go for another 5 minutes. ( Peepee? Yeah, I'm not sure what I was talking about here. It really is quite the reduction but just boil it for about 5 minutes and you should be set. The longer you boil the sauce, the deeper the flavor will be from the water evaporating.)

(AH! The dreaded top-down perspective)

As you can see, the peepee is rapidly being boiled out of this sauce. (I can't argue with that!)

That's it (or is it?). Let it cool and use for dipping, marinades, drizzling over rice or anything you like. I'm guessin' it would probably last in a sealed container in the fridge for like a week but you will probably be storing it all in your tummy long before the week is up! (Tummy? Peepee? Yummy... ugh.)

I'd like to add an additional note here that this sauce is great with steak and makes for fantastic burgers when incorporated with your ground meat!

EXTRA FUN:
You can add any kind of extra flavor you like to the sauce just by adding in your selected ingredients before you boil it. I have used raspberry jam, orange marmalade, slices of apple, apple juice and citrus zest. Go nuts. Heck, maybe even add nuts (don't add nuts).

In today's batch, I used grapefruit zest. (Finally, a decent photograph!)

Homemade Buckwheat Soba Noodles

You may remember the “mysterious package” that arrived last October. Well, as it happens, I received the pasta roller under the condition that I must master its usage in order to lavish my parents with meals of fresh pasta. I was able to partially fulfill this requirement over Christmas but my skills have greatly improved since then. Hopefully, the next time I visit the folks, I’ll be able to treat them to many a starchy delight! The first recipe I plan to cook for them is homemade buckwheat soba noodles.

I’ve harbored a deep obsession with buckwheat soba since reading about it in Eiji Yoshikawa’s samurai epic Musashi. In the novel, the eponymous hero, Musashi, visits the grand city of Edo for the first time and is astonished at the ease with which he can procure a bowl of delicious soba noodles. Having lived the entirety of his life in the country, Musashi describes that while growing up, making a bowl of soba entailed planting the wheat in the fall and harvesting it in the spring, then milling the grain, making the noodles and finally enjoying it… 9 months later.

I developed a profound appreciation for this noodle after reading Musashi’s description and have been hooked ever since.

Fresh Buckwheat Soba—No Farming Necessary!
Recipe:
½ Cup buckwheat flour
½ Cup wheat flour
1 Cup all purpose flour
2 eggs
1 Teaspoon of salt
3-6 Tablespoons of water

Method:


Make the Dough
Combine the three types of flour, the eggs, salt, and three tablespoons of water in a food processor and pulse until it gains a sandy texture.



Try pressing it between your thumb and forefinger to see if it will hold together. If not, add a tablespoon of water (or more) and pulse again until it reaches this consistency.



Remove the blade of the food processor and empty the contents into a large bowl. Use your hands to squeeze, kneed, and form the dough into a ball. Kneed the dough for around 5-7 minutes until it is a somewhat glossy ball, cover the dough and let it rest for 30 minutes.



Make the Noodles:
Divide the dough into fourths, remove one of the sections (while keeping the remaining dough covered) and roll it out on a lightly floured surface until it is a little less than ½ an inch thick. Form the dough into a square, set your pasta roller to the widest setting, 1 on the KitchenAid, and roll it through (the pasta will take on kind of a glossy, taffy-ish look and feel). Fold the dough in half and roll it through again. Set the pasta roller to the next thinnest setting, 2, and roll it through a couple of times. Repeat this process three more times, until you have rolled the pasta through the 4th thinnest setting, or number 5 on a KitchenAid.

At this point, I like my noodles to be about as wide as the pasta roller itself, which can be achieved by simply folding the noodle in half long-ways and rolling it through the pasta roller until it reaches the desired width.

Lay the uncut noodle on a lightly floured surface and replace the pasta roller with the spaghetti cutter. To keep your noodles from sticking together, apply a very light coating of flour to both sides of the uncut noodle.



Run the noodle through the spaghetti cutter and allow the new noodles to form a nest at the base of the KitchenAid.

Repeat the procdure above for the other 3/4s of the dough (1 quarter at a time). Don’t worry, you will have the hang of it at this point and the remaining 3/4s will go much quicker.



Yay! You now have a batch of fresh soba! You can freeze these noodles for use within a couple of days or throw it straight into a pot of boiling water.

Boil the noodles for 2-4 minutes until perfectly al dente and enjoy! These noodles are fantastic as a sesame noodle salad!

I've Got a Pocket full of Pretty Green

Actually, it’s more like two pockets and a couple of gallon-sized bags.



Some of my long-term readers might remember my ongoing quest for the illusive Guittard Green Mint Chips. To me, Guittard is the paragon for perfect white chocolate baking chips, and its green mint variety is exquisite. These chips are also incredibly difficult to track down. However, the baking God’s recently smiled upon me and guided me with divine afflatus to Bakers C&C, an amazing online resource for cake and candy making supplies.

Oh, the joy I experienced as I discovered that my beloved green mint chips were available… in bulk! After all, why buy one or two standard sized bags and risk another drought of mint goodies when I could have pounds and pounds? Seriously, there is no good reason, right? Of course not.

I placed my order and waited in anticipation for two-to-three business days until finally, my shipment had arrived. I tore through the packaging with reckless enthusiasm in search of my emerald delights.



“Delicious”, I exclaimed after reaching my prize and feasting on its splendor. “But wait…” I thought. “There is something missing, something important, something… MINT!”

What was going on here? Had the mint flavor been left out of this batch? I searched for the packing slip—“Dark Green Apeels”, it read. No mention of mint.

“Well that’s not right”, I thought as I raced to track down my receipt, only to find that sure enough, I had made a mistake and ordered the wrong item.

So now I am at a loss. I have 5 pounds of green white-chocolate apeels and no idea what to do with them. I rarely use white chocolate, and without the mint flavoring, I’m not sure that dark green makes for a particularly appetizing color. If you have any suggestions, they would be greatly appreciated!


Concerning the Bakers C&C experience, I would highly recommend them. They have a great selection of high quality baking supplies that you are unlikely to find at a brick-and-mortar shop, their prices are extremely reasonable and customer service seemed on top of things.

Overall: 4 Berries

(I'd even go with 4.5 if I had designed that version)

This site would totally get 5 berries if it calculated your shipping cost BEFORE you check out. I’m pretty familiar with ground shipping rates, as I’m sure that most bulk customers are, and was able to accurately estimate my cost, but it would still be a useful feature to include.

With that said, I fully intend to place another order for the MINT Guittard apeels through C&C this afternoon and to utilize them for my future bulk baking needs.

Cinnamon cashew brittle

Buttery peanut brittle: delicious, but still only the opening act of the holiday season. As a child, peanut brittle always seemed like the herald of the holiday candy. It was the first treat to start appearing around people’s houses and represented a promise of greater things to come. When the headliners (cinnamon rolls, cookies, FUDGE!) would finally arrive, the brittle would retire to a quiet corner to sell posters, tee shirts and homemade CDs, sought out by only the most loyal of fans.

In order to bring a little spotlight to this somewhat unremarkable confection, I’ve replaced the peanuts with cashews and added cinnamon, positioning my brittle into rock star status. This brittle isn’t content to simply warm up the crowd for the real show; it will blow the amp, steal your girlfriend and trash the hotel room!

Cinnamon Cashew Brittle is a great sweet to have around the house or to bring to parties and it’s the perfect recipe for the first time candy maker.

Recipe:
1/2 cup water

2 cups sugar

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 cup light corn syrup

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 tablespoons unsalted butter – cut into ¼ inch pieces

2 cups roasted salted cashews

1 teaspoon baking soda

Combine the water, sugar, cream of tarter, and corn syrup into a large saucepot and attach a candy thermometer. Place the burner to medium-high and heat the contents until they reach a boil, stirring occasionally.

In another container, combine the cinnamon, butter, cashews, and baking soda.


Now you just have to wait until the candy achieves a nice golden brown color at around 339 degrees F. This part takes a little patience; you don’t have to stir the pot; you only need to monitor it. Be wary, though. Although it takes a good 25-30 minutes to achieve the proper temperature, once it hits 300 degrees, it will start to rise rapidly. Don’t do something silly like go and watch Project Runway, even if it’s just for a minute, or you might end up with something like this:

Oh yeah, that's good and ruined.

In any case, if you keep an eye on the candy, you shouldn’t have any problems. While it is heating, you can prepare a cookie sheet either by greasing it or by lining it with a silpat.

When the candy achieves the appropriate color/temperature, remove it from the heat, mix in the cinnamon, cashews, butter, and baking soda and stir rapidly to combine. Then, poor the contents onto the cookie sheet and allow it to cool. When it is ready, you can break it into pieces and enjoy!

You know, In many ways, with its dichotomies of sweet/salty taste and smooth/crunchy texture, cinnamon brittle embodies the many flavors of the holiday spirit…or something. Its jagged edges will certainly cutchoo like a mall Santa if you disrespect it though!