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Last weekend, I found myself craving chocolate and had the overwhelming urge to bake; Those who know me are probably not the least bit surprised by that, and know that when the urge hits, look out! I had been wanting to try a new brownie recipe I'd found recently while reading one of my favorite food blogs by famed chef and cookbook author, David Lebovitz. I enjoy reading his humorous postings about "living the sweet life" in Paris (France, not Texas), where he currently resides. This is the first recipe of his I have ever tried, and it certainly won't be the last, based on how this one turned out. These things are dangerously sweet and cannot be left unattended in my home, so I made some little packets of love for my neighbors and coworkers. Lucky them!



Here's David's recipe (you can also go to David's site to view his brownies):

8 ounces unsweetened chocolate
8 ounces unsalted butter (oops! I just realized I only used 1 stick -- 8 oz. is 2 sticks, but they turned out fine)
5 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon instant coffee or espresso
3 1/2 cups sugar
1 2/3 cup sifted flour (I used cake flour, which is a bit finer, and supposedly makes for fluffier baked goods)
about 2 pounds chocolate-covered thin mints (I used York peppermint patties)

Optional: 1 1/2 cup (150g) walnuts, pecans, or almonds, toasted and coarsely chopped




(see note in ingredients regarding amount of butter required-- 1 stick worked for me, but maybe 2 sticks is better!)

1. Preheat the oven to 425ºF

2. Line a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with foil, shiny side down. Smooth the foil then butter it lightly or coat it with nonstick spray.

3. Chop the chocolate and cut the butter into cubes, then warm them together in a medium bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat as soon as both are melted and smooth.

4. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or by hand, whip the eggs, vanilla, salt, instant coffee, and sugar on high speed for about ten minutes until foamy and stiff.

5. By hand, stir in the chocolate mixture, then the flour followed by the nuts, if using.

6. Smooth half of the batter into the pan. Place a layer of thin mints over the chocolate, breaking the mints into pieces to fill in any large gaps.

7. Pour the rest of the batter over the mints and smooth the top.

8. Bake the brownies for 35 minutes, rotating the brownies midway during baking.

When the brownies are done, they will have a firm crust on top but a toothpick inserted into the center should come out wet. Do not overbake the brownies.

9. Let the brownies cool completely, then lift them out of the pan and slice into rectangles.

Storage: The brownies will keep at room temperature for up to three days. They can be frozen, well-wrapped, for up to two months.


This recipe is versatile in the fact that if you don't like peppermint patties, you could sub in another favorite mini-sized candy bar (I'm thinking peanut butter cups may be the next things to try).

Yumberry Bellini Tea

I apologize to my loyal reader (hi, Mom) for the long blogging absence. That's right, I'm fairly sure I only have one reader at this point, since all others have given up on me. Well, maybe not everyone (hi, Nick). I will attempt to rectify this situation by making a little tea. I have found that a good glass of sweet iced tea will bring peace and harmony to the world.

With that, I bring you Yumberry Bellini Tea. Yesterday, while grocery shopping, I was wandering down the juice aisle looking for a mixer for my latest tea find, Berry Bellini tea. Don't get me wrong, this tea blend by itself is great, with a breezy peach flavor and a hint of sweet raspberry. However, I'm always looking for a way to jazz things up, so I usually mix in one of the good old standbys - lemon or lime juice, or some crushed mint. This time, I was looking for something different, something more wild and exotic and I stumbled upon just that - Yumberry Juice. I read the list of ingredients and found that one of the ingredients was actually "Yumberry Puree", so I decided to give it a whirl.

I found this site that gives more information about the Yumberry. It's origins are from China, where it is known as the Yang Mei fruit. It is a red, dimpled fruit, with tangy sweet flesh.

Here is my recipe:
1 1/2 Cups hot water
1/2 Cup sugar
5 Zhena's Gypsy Tea Berry Bellini tea sachets (found at Central Market)
1 Cup Yumberry juice
6 Cups cold water





1. Boil 1 1/2 cups water and mix in 1/2 cup sugar to dissolve.

2. Remove from heat and add tea bags. Allow to steep for 4-5 minutes.

3. In large pitcher, add tea, Yumberry juice and cold water.

4. Pour over ice and serve.

Serves 4.

Peach Fuzz Tea

I've been craving peaches lately, and I think it has something to do with the fact that the season for fresh local produce and fruit will be coming to a close soon. The temperatures dipped below 100 degrees recently, which means that Autumn is just around the corner! The State Fair opens this month and football season is upon us, so surely all of these signs point to cooler fall weather. While I'm waiting for that to happen, I may as well enjoy the last of the summer delights. With that, I bring you my Peach Fuzz Tea:


Ingredients:
2 cups water
1/2 cup sugar
3 Lipton Island Mango & Peach White Tea bags
1 Can Jumex Peach Nectar (found in juice section of grocery store)
Peach Slices





Bring water and sugar to a boil. Remove from heat. Add tea bags and allow to steep for 5 minutes. Add peach nectar and stir. Pour over ice-filled glasses. Garnish with peach slices.

Serves 2.

Piña ChaiLada

Last night, we got together with the neighbors to do our seasonal progressive dinner. We each take turns doing either appetizers, dinner and desserts and rotate among our three houses, starting at around 7 PM and ending around midnight. It is a good way to catch up on the neighborhood gossip and sample everyone's good cooking. By the end of the night, we all regret not having worn elastic pants because we've stuffed ourselves silly.

For this progressive dinner, the assigned food theme of the evening was Pineapple. We all whipped up a variety of pineapple concoctions ranging from grilled pineapple to pineapple pie.

With this theme in mind, I worked on tweaking a tea recipe I had tried a month or so back, which had never made it to this blog until now. I adjusted a few ingredients and asked my neighbors to sample it. They gave it their seal of approval, so I'm finally able to post this nice, refreshing summery beverage recipe here today:


Piña ChaiLada

Ingredients:
1 cup water
2 Coconut Chai tea sachets ("Zhena's Gypsy Tea" brand)
3 Tbsp. Sugar
1/2 cup Pineapple Juice
1/2 cup Cream of Coconut (Either "Coco Re'al" or "Coco Lopez" Brand)
Pineapple Slices for garnish
Ice (I prefer crushed ice for easy blending)





Boil water; add sugar and stir to dissolve. Add tea bags and allow tea to steep for 4-5 minutes. Fill Blender with ice. Pour tea mixture, pineapple juice and cream of coconut into blender and blend until smooth. Pour into glasses and add pineapple to garnish. If you want more pineapple flavor, you can also add chopped pineapple before blending.

Serves 2.

Rosemary's Raspberry Earl

Rosemary, if you're reading this post, this one's for you. I'm raising this glass to you as I'm typing. You could probably use a caffeine pick-me-up as you're working those long shifts at the hospital and going to nursing school at the same time. I don't know how you do it! Thanks for introducing me to this awesome tea. I love it so much, I'm naming this recipe after you.

I have always loved the floral fragrance of Earl Grey tea, but by itself, the floral taste is almost too strong for me. This raspberry/Earl mixture is the perfect blend. I usually mix my flavored teas with black tea (Lipton!) to give them a different flavor and to stretch a buck or two, so that is what I did with this batch. Lemon juice adds a nice punch to the flavor.



Ingredients:
2 cups water
2 Raspberry Earl tea sachets
2 small bags of Lipton black tea
Juice from half of a small lemon
Rasberries for garnish
Sweetener of choice

Allow tea bags to steep in hot water for 4-5 minutes. Squeeze lemon juice into the tea mixture. Add sweetener of choice. Fill glass with ice and rasberries, pour in the tea and enjoy.

Serves 2.

Piña Colada Cake

I love coconut; I pine for pineapple-upside-down cake and I can't get enough of tres leches cake. One day, the wheels in my brain started turning and I thought about how great it could be to combine these 3 concepts into one cake; And so it was born: Piña Colada Cake!

I started with a base cake recipe from Paula Deen's book, The Lady & Sons Just Desserts. It is her recipe for Cream Cheese Pound Cake. You can't go wrong with a recipe from Paula Deen. She is the queen of all things southern and sweet!


Cake Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
3 cups sugar
6 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. coconut extract
3 cups cake flour
1 tsp. baking powder

Filling/Topping ingredients:
1 can sliced pineapple
1 small can crushed pineapple
1 15-ounce can Coco Lopez cream of coconut
1 14-ounce can Sweetened condensed milk
4 cups heavy whipping cream (3 cups of this will go into whipped topping for top of cake)
1/2 cup shredded coconut
5 Tbsp. Sugar (for whipped topping)
1 tsp. coconut flavoring (to be used in whipped topping)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour two 9-inch baking pans. Using a mixer, cream together butter, cream cheese and sugar. Add eggs two at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and coconut flavorings. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour and baking powder. Add half of the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and beat well. Add remainder of flour mixture and beat for a couple more minutes.

2. Add several slices of pineapple to the bottom of one of the prepared baking pans (Grease and flour pans well; otherwise, the pineapple may stick to the bottom). Pour batter into pans.

3. Bake for 1.5 hours (start checking an hour into the baking process in case your oven bakes hotter). Check with a toothpick inserted in center; if it comes out clean, your cake is done.

4. Allow cake layers to cool.

5. Invert both layers onto separate cake plates. (Be sure the plate you're putting it on has slightly sloping sides to allow milk mixture to soak into the bottom of the cake and not run off the sides of the plate.) The layer with pineapple slices will serve as the bottom layer of the cake.

6. Mix together these ingredients:
14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk, 1 cup of heavy cream and half of the can of cream of coconut. Mix well. You will use this mixture of yummy, liquid-y goodness to pour over the cake.

7. Poke holes with a bamboo skewer into the bottom cake layer. Take out your frustrations as needed until there are plenty of holes. The more holes you make, the better your mixture will soak in. Begin slowly pouring half of the milk mixture over the cake, allowing it to soak in.

8. Add a layer of crushed pineapple and a handful of shredded coconut over the top. Reserve more pineapple and coconut for the top layer of the cake.

9. Put 2nd cake layer on top of the first layer. Poke more holes and pour the last part of milk mixture over the top. Don't worry if it runs over the sides. You can clean it off the plate later if needed. Add remainder of pineapple / coconut to the top.

10. Make whipped cream:
I think that regular cake frosting would be over the top--too heavy and sweet; it is better to make a subtle, light topping for this cake. To make whipped cream, start out with a cold bowl and beaters. Add 3 cups of heavy whipping cream to the bowl and start whipping. Your mixture will start to thicken and you can begin adding sugar, 1 spoonful at a time. Add coconut flavoring last. Whip into soft peaks. Don't whip too long or you'll end up with butter!

11. Spread whipped cream onto cake.

Enjoy!

Honey Ginger Green Tea

I was thumbing through the latest issue of Southern Living magazine and stumbled upon this recipe. I'm not much of a hot tea drinker, so, of course, I decided to make it on ice. I love lemon in my tea and I thought the ginger would add an interesting flavor. Sure enough, the peppery bite of the ginger was an interesting component in an otherwise ordinary tea beverage. It would be quite soothing as a hot beverage as well.

Ingredients:
1 green tea bag (I used Twinings)
1 one-inch piece of ginger root
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 Tbsp. honey
1 cup boiling water
Ice



Peel the ginger and grate it with a box grater. Squeeze the juice from the grated ginger. Discard the solids after you've squeezed out the juice.
Boil water and steep the green tea bag for 3 minutes. Add the ginger juice, lemon juice and honey to the green tea. Stir well and serve over ice. Garnish with lemon.