The Queen of Tarts

Done in by Dates

I have put up a recipe of this kind before - I promise you. But I keep going back to it, because the ingredients are entirely too easy to get in this part of the world - that would be the Middle East. In the summer people are often seen underneath date trees with large tarps - someone climbs up the tree and throws down the sun-soaked sweet dates. As a child I never liked dates. They were hard and too sugary, and I picked them out of granola and cereal on a regular basis. Then I started liking them, but really only knew about mejdool dates. When we moved to Abu Dhabi, I was shown the wonderful world of dates, and now khodri and segai are my favorite kinds. But back to the date bread (which can or cannot have nuts depending on what you like etc. etc...)

Often I will hesitate before making it - it involves opening the dates, pulling out the pits, and then cutting or chopping them into small pieces. My fingers are left with a sugary-sweet substance all over them. I am filled with a sense of relief once the dates (roughly 1 1/2 cups when it is all said and done) are chopped. They are placed in a bowl and one cup of boiling water and 1 tsp of baking soda are added to the dates. I typically watch the baking soda rise up and bubble for a few seconds and then place the bowl to the side for about 15-20 minutes.

While the dates are soaking, preheat the oven to 325F and grease a 9 x 5 loaf pan.

The oven's temperature rises, and I know that it will eventually reach 325 - 330 F, which will be ideal for cooking this sweet bit of perfection.

In a separate bowl, I mix together:

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 C oat bran

2/3 C whole wheat pastry flour

1/3 C flax seeds

1/2 C All Bran Cereal

1/2 tsp salt

and then in yet another bowl I whisk together

2 eggs

1/4 C vegetable oil

1/3 - 1/2 C agave nectar

1/4 tsp Fiori di Sicilia - this is simply heaven, it adds and amazing sweet citrus flavor and makes everything taste like wedding cake as far as I am concerned, and THAT is definitely a good thing.

Mix the flour mixture with the oil and eggs, and once it is all incorporated add the dates. Pour the mixture into the loaf pan and bake for roughly 45-50 minutes or until the top is brown and a cake tester comes out clean. Allow the bread to cool in the pan on a cooling rack for 10 minutes, then turn the bread out of the pan on the cooling rack. Allow to cool for about 40 minutes (if this is at all possible) before cutting into the date bread.

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

There are countless recipes for chocolate chip cookies - everyone seems to have their favorite, and of course there is the great debate over chewy or crispy. I have always loved chocolate chip cookies, and truth be told, I have never EVER met anyone who did not like them. They come in all shapes and sizes and textures as well. I remember driving around in the summer as a child and eating Famous Amos cookies from the brown bags they came in. There was something delectable about that crunch from such a small cookie. The very first time I had a Mrs. Field's chocolate chip cookie was in La Jolla, CA and I was about 14 years old - friends of my parents let me have one, and to this day it stands out as being one of the best cookies I have ever had (or maybe it just tasted better because I had a major crush on their son...) To this day I have never had a Mrs. Fields that tastes as good as the ones I had back in La Jolla.

I have made many versions of this American classic, and the ones that remain chewy are preferable. In recent weeks I have turned back to baking as the weather in our new home, Abu Dhabi, has started to cool enough for me to even want to contenplate turning the oven on. I found a recipe in Cooks Illustrated for chewy chocolate chip cookies, and provided me with a full-on reason as to WHY they reminded chewy (the melted butter and extra egg yolk). I could not resist. Of course like almost every other recipe, I put in my edits. For example, I used three different kinds of chocolate from chocolate bars (which I chopped up) instead of chips. I like the uneven melting and the subtle flavor differences. I am also very heavy handed with the vanilla, and tend to cut back a bit on the sugar. I also doubled the recipe, which turned the whole thing into a bit of a math project due to the metric conversions over here. However, they are amazing, and it is hard to not eat the all of the dough from the bowl.

Enjoy! 

4 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

24 tbsp salted butter melted and cooled

2 cup packed brown sugar (light)

2 large egg plus 2 egg yolks

3 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3 cups chopped chocolate (for best flavor, mix up the variety with milk, semi-sweet, and dark)

Preheat oven to 325 F and line baking sheets (2) with parchment paper or cooking spray. Mix the flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl, and set aside. Mix the butter and sugar together in a bowl and then beat in the eggs and vanilla until well combined. Add the dry ingredients until all incorporated. Finally, add in the chips. Use either a measuring cup or a cookie scoop and measure out about 1/4 cup for each cookie and shape into a ball. Pull the ball apart with your hands, and rotate the hands 90 degrees so the jagged ends are facing up - then press together. Place the dough on the cookie sheet jaggedside up about 2 inches apart. Bake for about 11-13 minutes until about golden brown. 

Remove the cookies from the oven and cool on a cooling rack. Makes about 16 large cookies.

Brown Butter Brownies - with a catch

 

Cooking in the UAE is a bit of a challenge for me. Read thru this blog, and it is not hard to find out why. Recipes like Bourbon Caramel Cheesecake, Chocolate Cake with Rum Buttercream, or Boozed Up Banana Bread, well they are fine, and really really good, but they are not necessarily the kind of thing I could make here and bring to someone's home, unless of course I knew for sure that I would not offend. You might ask why? Why would it matter? Alcohol. That is why it matters. It is against Islam to consume alcohol, and that means that even using extracts - vanilla, almond, etc - are a no go in baking. This, and the fact that until recently I could not for the life of me bake anything correctly in our oven, really left me with no desire to bake. I love the smell of taste of vanilla extract. I just pour it in - and stop just before it is too much to make the flavors turn a little bitter. But I cannot add in this ingredient to any baked good (or anything else I cook) and give it to our new friends in good faith. Sure, the alcohol will cook off, but that is not the point. It is just wrong to knowingly offer someone something that they are unable to consume.

This new challenge has forced me to become a bit creative, especially because we have been invited to a brunch on Friday (Friday and Saturday is the weekend). While we were told we did not need to bring anything, the idea of being invited into someone's home and arriving empty handed did not sit right. So I thought back to a wonderful brownie recipe from Bon Appetit. Easy to make, and even easier to eat. I would sort out the vanilla situation, and move on from there.

When I first saw the images of the Brown Butter Brownies on the cover of Bon Appetit last February I was interested. Interested enough to turn to page in the magazine and read the recipe. I read it a few times and on the third read decided that it was really not that complicated as it could all be made in a single pot over the stove. Eggs, butter, sugar, cocoa powder, and flour. Really, one could not go wrong with these basic ingredients. What makes this recipe go from basic to extraordinary is the amount of certain ingredients and how the ingredients come together. Again, the vanilla would have to sit on the shelf for another time, but I happened to have a jar of vanilla sugar and several vanilla bean pods - things were looking up!

• Nonstick vegetable oil spray
• 10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 1/4 cups sugar (1/4 of this should be vanilla sugar)
• 3/4 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder (spooned into cup to measure, then leveled)
• 2 large eggs, chilled
• 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon unbleached all purpose flour
• 1 cup walnut pieces

Preheat the oven to 325F.

Line a 8x8x2 pan with foil, and coat the foil with cooking spray. Set aside. 

Melt the butter in a heavy bottomed sauce pan over medium heat. Allow the butter to brown - but NOT burn. You should stir this often, and keep an eye on it. It should take around 5-10 minutes. Once it is browned (little brown bits at the bottom) add in the sugar, cocoa,1.4 tsp salt, and 2 tbsp of water. Mix the ingredients together, and allow the mixture to cool for about 5 minutes. Add in the eggs one at a time, and stir with a spoon until the mixture is shiny. Slowly add in the flour, and stir everything together until well blended. Pour the mixture into the pan, and bake for about 22 minutes. Remove from the oven, and allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing. After 10 minutes, remove the brownies from the pan, and place on a cooling rack. Remove the foil, and cut the brownies into squares. You should have around 12-16 brownies.

Khalifa City Carrot Cake

One of the best things about carrot cake is the frosting - the cream cheese frosting that is sweet with just the right amount of tang to it. I also use the same frosting for red velvet cupcakes, and it has been known to disappear on it own - right from the bowl spoonful by spoonful. I think the trick to the cream cheese frosting is to use less sugar than the recipe calls for, a small pinch of salt, a little bit of milk to smooth it out, and some vanilla to bring out all the flavors. Five simple ingredients - nothing more, nothing less. But I should get back to the carrot cake!

Sometimes the cake is too heavy, other times to dry or even oily. This recipe, from Cooks Illustrated, seems to be just right, and a perfect balance of flavors. I decided to make cupcakes for easy transport and I like the single-serving size. The recipe makes almost 2 dozen - probably 16 cupcakes. I also made extra frosting... I still like the cream cheese frosting by the spoonful, and now I can have it. I try to pretend that because it is light cream cheese, it is ok to eat the frosting - yeah, right! I named this recipe after our neighborhood – Khalifa City. I thought that it was fitting.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Place muffin papers or liners in a cupcake tin, or spray / butter the tin. Set aside.

2 1/2 c all purpose flour

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups granulated (caster) sugar

1/2 c brown sugar

4 eggs (medium)

1 1/2 c vegetable oil

4 cups shredded carrots

Mix the flour, salt, baking powder and soda, and spices together in a bowl. Set aside. In a food processor or in a stand-up mixer, combine the sugar and eggs together. After about 30 seconds, add in the oil. Mix well - about 30 more seconds. Pour the mixture into a separate bowl if needed (if not, carry on with the same bowl - makes it easier for clean up!) Add the carrots into the wet mixture, and stir, then add the flour mixture in 3 parts. After each part mix until well incorporated. Place about 1/4 - 1/3 cup mixture in the muffin / cupcake tins. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Remove from the oven, and allow to cool for 15 minutes in the tin. Gently remove from the tin, and allow to cool for 2 hours before frosting.

12 ounces light cream cheese

1 tsp vanilla extract

pinch (small) of salt

1 cup confectionary sugar (or more to taste)

3 tbsp milk

Mix the cream cheese and the milk until smooth. Add in the rest of the ingredients. If needed, allow to firm up in the fridge before frosting, but do not allow it to get too hard as it will not frost well. Best eaten spoonful by spoonful...