German Chocolate Cake

I found this recipe for German Chocolate Cake in my very first issue of Food Network Magazine. My very favorite magazine and now our family's favorite cake! One thing I discovered in making this recipe is that I am no good at making jelly rolls. Every time I make it the cake just flops into three sad, broken layers, but it still tastes amazing. :) This time I made the cake for our 16th wedding anniversary and since I wanted to post pictures of it, I added one teaspoon of baking powder so that the cake would rise a bit. Then I used two 8-inch round pans and made an actual layered cake.



Look at how pretty their jelly roll cake turned out! Good thing this cake is fabulous no matter how it is baked. One note, though...this recipe uses a lot of bowls, measuring cups, pots, pans, ingredients, and counter space. That's why I only make it on special occasions.



You will need:

1 cup evaporated milk
2 1/4 cups white sugar
3 large egg yolks
3 large eggs
2 1/2 sticks butter (Smart Balance!)
3 tsp vanilla
1 2/3 cups sweetened, toasted coconut
1 cup chopped pecans (optional--I don't use them)
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ounce finely chopped German chocolate
1/3 cup strong, hot coffee
1/3 cup buttermilk

See, lots of ingredients.

If you can't find toasted coconut you can do it yourself. Spread out the coconut on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 5 minutes, then remove, toss, and put it back in the oven for 5 more minutes. Then toss it again and see if it is toasted to your liking. You can always give it a couple more minutes. Then just leave the oven on at 350.



While the coconut is toasting, add the evaporated milk, 1 cup sugar, 1 stick of the butter (cubed), and the 3 egg yolks to a pot.



Whisk constantly over medium heat until it is thick and creamy. It will take about 10 minutes.



Remove from heat and add one tsp of vanilla and the coconut. Pecans, too, if you are using them. Unfortunately, my youngest has braces and can't have nuts. Mix together and set aside to cool completely.



Try not to taste it while it cools. Seriously, it is so good that you won't be able to stop "tasting." I put the frosting in another room because it is just too darn tempting!

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl and set aside. Whisk the cocoa and chocolate in another, smaller bowl. Add the hot coffee mixture to the chocolates and whisk until smooth. I measure 1/3 cup of hot water in a 2-cup measuring cup and add one full single-serving envelope of instant coffee, then mix. You get a nice strong coffee flavor. Then add the buttermilk and vanilla to the chocolate/coffee mixture.





Set both bowls to the side.



Beat together the remaining (1 1/2 sticks) softened butter and 1 1/4 cups sugar in a large mixer bowl on high speed until light and fluffy. It should take about 4 minutes. Reduce the speed to low and add the 3 whole eggs, one at a time, until combined. Add one third of the flour mixture and beat just until combined.



Then add one half of the chocolate mixture and beat on low until combined.



Add another third of the flour, combine, add the rest of the chocolate mix, combine, and end with the rest of the flour. Your final mixture will be a light chocolate color and very fluffy.



I greased two 8-inch round pans with cooking spray and evenly divided the cake mix between them. Bake for about 20 minutes, checking them after 18 minutes. I used a toothpick to check for doneness. (The dark coloring on the edges of my cake is from the cooking spray.)



When the cakes are completely cool spread about 1/2 to 3/4 of a cup of frosting on the bottom round, top with second cake, then dump all of the remaining frosting on top. I spread it just to the edges and then let it slide down however it likes. There is enough frosting to completely cover the cakes, but I like the way it looks with the natural drips.





This cake is worth every dirty pan, pot, cookie sheet, mixing bowl, measuring cup, and teaspoon. Absolutely delicious!!

The Lazy Puff

I'm taking a quick break from food blogging because today is my 16th wedding anniversary and I have been in the kitchen all morning/afternoon. I did take some pictures of a German Chocolate Cake and I'll post them this weekend. Until then...the many sleeping poses of our lazy chocolate lab dog, Bear.








What a mess. :)

Ina Garten's East Hampton Clam Chowder

I've always wanted to try my hand at making clam chowder and finally decided to tackle the soup after reading one of Ina Garten's cookbooks. Her recipe sounded lighter than the thick, heavily creamy recipes I have found elsewhere. I did change some things, though. I added just half of her recommended butter because I did not buy enough clam juice. I got two bottles, 8 oz each, then came home and found that the recipe called for a full quart. Oh well. I LOVE how this soup turned out! It was rich, but not too rich. Creamy, but not overly so. It is definitely more of a gourmet soup than the thick, white stuff you get from a can. My picky eater, Goose, did not like it at all. She had a PB&J. My clam chowder lover, Tinker Bell, liked it but still prefers the white canned stuff. My hubby had three bowls!

I've added a link to Miss Barefoot's recipe so I will detail how I did it and what I changed. That way you can compare the two recipes and then tailor the soup to your taste.

Ingredients:

2 bottles of clam juice
1 (10 oz) can of baby clams (use fresh if you can, about a cup and a half)
5 small potatoes, chopped into small pieces
3/4 cup diced carrots (about a handful of baby carrots)
1 onion, chopped
4 slices bacon (I used low sodium)
1/2 cup sliced celery (I forgot to put that in the picture)
2 bay leaves
salt (I used Kosher)
pepper (to taste)
6 T butter
1/4 cup flour
1 cup skim milk
1 cup half & half



Ina's recipe does not call for bacon, but after reading the reviews on Food Network I followed the reviewers' advice that the bacon would give the recipe much needed flavor. And my mom told me to add it. :) I used a pair of kitchen shears and cut up four slices of bacon and cooked them over medium high heat until brown and crispy.



Then I removed the bacon, leaving the fat in the pot...



and added the onion. I cooked it until it was soft and had a little bit of color.



I threw the bacon back into the pot and added the rest of the chopped veggies.



I added 2T of the butter to the pot and cooked the veggies over medium low heat for about ten minutes.

While they were cooking I drained the clams, but reserved the juice. You might want to skip ahead here...baby clams may be the ugliest creatures ever.



I actually called my mom and asked her if they were supposed to be that ugly. She assured me that I had not gotten a bad batch. She also suggested chopping them up a bit since clams tend to be chewy and Tinker Bell has braces. It makes it hard for the poor angel to chew sometimes. So, I put them in my mini food processor and gave them a few pulses. (I was glad I did. There was clam in every bite!) Put them in a bowl and stick them in the fridge. You won't need them until a few minutes before you are ready to serve the soup.

After the veggies were almost tender, I added the bay leaves, the two bottles of clam juice, and the juice from the can of clams. Bring it to a boil and simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes.



After about 15 minutes, melt the remaining 4T of butter in a pan and whisk in the 1/4 cup of flour.



Whisk constantly while cooking over low heat for 3 minutes. Then whisk in one cup of your soup broth.



Add that mixture to your pot of soup.



Simmer until the soup thickens up a bit. Then stir in the skim milk and half & half. I also added about 2 tsp of Kosher salt and a few shakes of pepper. Try adding one tsp of salt, taste, and then add more if necessary. I thought the clam juice would be saltier, but it really wasn't salty at all. The soup definitely needed the added salt.



At this point Miss Ina adds her clams, heats through, and serves. I was not ready to serve it yet, so I left out the clams, turned the burner to low, covered the pot, and left it alone (except for the occasional stir) for a couple of hours. Ten minutes before we were ready to eat, I added the clams and cranked up the heat to a 5, or about medium. When it was as hot as we wanted it, we ate!




This chowder is buttery and absolutely delicious. The kind of clam chowder you get in a nice seafood restaurant. It is not at all like the stuff from the can. We ate this soup with a few oyster crackers and salads.

Organic Vegetable/Fruit Garden

After paying $1.69 for one green pepper earlier this year, we decided to plant our very own vegetable garden. And then we thought, why not make it organic! Orlando's city dump makes their own compost, processes it to remove non-organic materials, runs it through a machine to make it fluffy, and gives it away for free. We took our truck into town and filled up the bed with free compost. That was on 18 April. The very next day we started planting seeds and plants. Never having done this before, we weren't sure how to do the seeds. The instructions on the packets were ridiculously complicated. We figured that since we live in Florida, they don't really apply to us anyway. Seed inside for 4-6 weeks? Whatever. We made a line in the compost with our fingers, dumped in the entire packet, threw a little dirt on top, and then watered every day. Well, every day until the rainy season started.

18 April 2009






19 April



Tomato plants in the back, green beans in the back and side right, broccoli on the left in front of the tomatoes, then carrots to the right of that, then cucumbers next to the green beans, butternut squash plant in the front on the left (next to a cucumber plant that died), and finally the whole front down to the green beans is pumpkins. But not baking pumpkins. Nope! I went for the pumpkins with the cute jack-o-lanterns on the envelopes. What can I say, it was our first time with a garden and I was excited. :)


22 April-- the broccoli sprouts



27 April-- everything has sprouted



How cute is that garden? We all went out there every day and talked to it. Oooed and ahhed over it. So. Darn. Cute.

06 May-- we begin to think we overplanted



01 June-- yep, we overplanted





Does anyone want a jack-o-lantern? Or ten??





But then, how cute is this squash?



I seriously want to kiss the little guy. Adorable!


Our orange tree is looking great. Come January we will start boxing them up to send to family.




As for the garden...I'll post more when we start harvesting our bounty. I'm wondering why I bought 8 tomato plants when I'm allergic to them, but I'm sure our neighbors will be excited. We do have a Saturday morning farmer's market on Main Street in our little town. I can just see myself pulling up with a truck bed full of pumpkins. Jeez.

Mac and Cheese

I love the old-fashioned, roux-based, macaroni and cheese. The kind that hits your stomach and heads straight to your hips to set up camp. This recipe can be a bit tricky if you have never made a roux before and I'll be the first to admit that it does take quite a while to make. But it is so worth it. I have made the recipes that call for evaporated milk, used to thicken without a roux. Too sweet. I've made the soup-based, quick-cook recipes. Good, but they don't hold a candle to the old-fashioned kind. Now, this recipe is NOT low fat. In fact, put all thoughts about fat content and calories under lock and key in your head and do not let them out until all the mac and cheese is long gone. You'll thank me for that bit of advice.



Ingredients:
3T butter
3T flour
************
1 cup milk (skim is fine)
1 cup half and half
salt
1/2 tsp dry mustard (or 1 tsp prepared Mustard)
************
8-10 oz. macaroni (your choice of variety), cooked
4 cups extra sharp cheddar cheese, shredded



A couple of notes: I don't know why I am always out of dry mustard. I can't think of what I use it in but this mac and cheese recipe and I buy it all the time. But I couldn't find any when I went to take pictures of the ingredients, so I used prepared mustard. I have not found that it makes a bit of difference whether you use dry or prepared. I like to use small shells instead of elbow macaroni. The shells have those nice little folds that fill up with cheese sauce.

To make the roux, melt the 3T butter in a large pot and add the flour. Whisk together over medium heat until it boils and then continue whisking constantly while cooking for one minute. You don't want it to brown, but it does need to cook a bit.



With the burner still on medium heat, slowly whisk the milk and half and half into the roux. Add the salt (to taste, I add about a 1/2 tsp) and mustard. Keep whisking...don't stop now! If you don't whisk, the milk will scorch. Now keep whisking until the mixture boils and thickens. It should coat the back of a spoon.



Remove from heat and add 3 cups (or 3 big handfuls) of cheese to the pot and stir. You can definitely add a couple of extra handfuls of cheese. :) Stir until smooth.



Add the macaroni and stir until combined. Pour mixture into a buttered 9x13 pan and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Remove from oven...



now add that fourth cup of cheese. Sprinkle it on top and bake for 10 more minutes.






You want a bite, don't ya? Mmmmm. The time it takes to prepare this recipe (the whisking sucks, I won't lie) is completely worth it!