Making lemonade

Last Monday started like any other painfully sleepy start to the week. I attempted to keep myself on track and strayed so often, getting distracted by foodie blogs, by music, when suddenly I spotted a newly-posted recipe on smittenkitchen for Coconut Milk Fudge, and then and there decided that was my plan for the evening. Make. Fudge.

Fast-forward ten hours or so, and I’m at home, sitting on the counter next to my oven, book in one hand, whisk in the other. I’ve been stirring the bloody fudge mixture for an hour and it has set to the approximate consistency of ketchup. Or hershey’s chocolate sauce. Nothing even remotely close to being hard enough to roll into balls and coat in the beautiful crunchy coconut toasted early that evening.

The “fudge” went into a bowl in the fridge. And I pouted. And posted a comment on her blog, only to find out I am seemingly the only person in her whole range of internet audience that had any trouble with these not turning out perfectly with minimal effort.

Take two: Fast-forward to Wednesday. I’m again at home, the book, the pan, the whisk- all there. And instead, after 45 minutes rather than an hour when no progress had been made, I hurled some choice phrases at my non-fudge, put in a bowl, and stuck it in the fridge next to the other one.

Fail.

Last night I worked at the shop, which put me home around 11:15, and just starting to make the b-day treat for a co-worker. I baked lovely fudgy brownies (out of a box- don’t judge me). When they came out of the oven- gooey, perfect- I pricked the tops of the brownies with a fork and then after a few minutes of cooling (still in the pan), I poured both batches of the "fudge" over the top.

The next morning, I sprinkled most of that lovely crunchy toasted coconut over the top, and then cut them up into 1 1/2 inch squares. The topping barely stayed on the brownies, I have to admit, but ohhhh man, they were good. The toasted coconut gave a little texture and crunch, and the creaminess of the sweetened condensed milk and coconut milk had permeated the brownie batter.



All in all, for two nights of failure, these were darn good. And should my next attempt at fudge be just as unsuccessful (because you know I'll try again, I can't just leave things alone), at least I know these will be a hit.

Break

Well, kids, it has been nigh a month since my last post. It really hasn’t been that exciting of a month, just busy busy, fraught with car problems, espresso classes, and enough cubicle drudgery to make my little soul dry up like a dehydrated strawberry*.

I have been baking though, attempting one new recipe a week and some weeks multiple versions of the same glorious thing.

So:

1) For V-day, I made Whisk Kid’s one-bowl chocolate cupcakes (the recipe she borrowed from Martha). She topped them with pistachios and a bright pink rose, while I wanted a more romantic take and so on top of a generous layer of chocolate ganache, I added a piece of strawberry (see- they’re on the brain!) and a light sprinkling of sea-salt. Yum!



I made them again a week later, and just to note- if the salt does not go on when the ganache is warm and gooey, it will just stick to the strawberry, causing none of the saltiness to mingle with the chocolate and creating a very awkward first bite.

2) This past week I have been feeling lazy, tired, at the end of my patience and physical ability to keep going at this pace. I work too much. I don’t get enough sleep. Blah blah blah… But I’ve made a little mental promise that on my nights off, I will expand my culinary catalogue and bake something new. So Sunday night I made a quick run to QFC for some pumpkin, chocolate chips, and eggs, and threw these muffins together. I emptied the package of chopped walnuts left over from Monday’s dinner party cake, so a little more than what was called for. I could not decide whether to use white or semisweet chocolate chips, and voila- there is such a thing as chocolate chips made with both!



Pumpkin-Chip Muffins (from here.)

1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger**
1/2 tsp ground cloves**
1 tsp ground nutmeg**
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

2 eggs
1 cup pumpkin
4 oz unsalted butter, melted

6 oz chocolate chips (whichever kind you prefer)
1/2 cup of walnuts

Preheat oven to- you guessed it- 350 F.

Mix all dry ingredients (flour, salt, sugar, spices, baking soda, baking powder) together and set aside.

In a bowl, or in your stand mixer bowl, combine together eggs, pumpkin and melted butter. When mixed, add chocolate chips and walnuts.

Keep mixer running and add dry ingredients. Mix just until all the dry ingredients are integrated- you don’t need to thoroughly combine.

Pour batter into oiled/buttered muffin tins or paper muffin cups (I did not have on hand). I ended up with 13 muffins, so a full tray and one extra on a second tray that got infiltrated by my current ant problem before it reached the oven.

Muffins will cook for 15-20 minutes. After letting them cool for a few minutes in the pan, pop onto a cooling rack and don’t even try to resist eating them while they’re still warm and gooey.


*After one particularly wretched office day in which the life of Dilbert seemed a better alternative to my own, I wrote a cathartic little poem about my discomfort with Current Job. The only line even remotely salvageable was the strawberry line, and solely because it is such an entertaining mental picture.

** I did not have all of these spices on hand, shame on me. However, I did have Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Pie spice blend in my cabinet, which consists of all these and then some, so I substituted 2 tsp of this for the nutmeg, ginger, and cloves. And it worked out just fine.