Mocha Toffee Bars – 12 Days of Cookies
Day 11 of our 12 Days of Cookies extravaganza thing, and I can’t believe it’s almost over. I had my eye on these mocha toffee bars because I adore chocolate and coffee together, and after making and enjoying them I’ve converted Michael as well. He even asked if we could add these to our annual Christmas cookie list along with the Cajun macaroons, so we have found a couple new favorites.
The cookies are straightforward and easy to make. The only trouble I ran into was baking time. My oven tends to run cool, plus my jelly roll pan doesn’t exactly heat evenly so the sides were done before the middle was even set. I ended up with crispy edges and chewy middle.
The coffee flavor is in the shortbread crust, and I simply use instant coffee and add a little extra coffee to the hot water. The original recipe calls for espresso powder, which isn’t always easy to find.. The chocolate topping is simply melted semi-sweet chocolate chips poured right onto the hot shortbread, though I mixed dark and semi-sweet chips. The chopped cashews are roasted and salted, a nice contrast to the slightly dark chocolate topping.
The Daring Bakers Make Buche de Noel (Yule Log Cake)
The Daring Bakers got all festive this month and tackled the traditional Yule Log (aka Buche de Noel). Our beloved founders Lisa and Ivonne chose this challenge for us all, and it was a big challenge for me on several levels: marzipan, because I’ve never done it and I’m not an artist; genoise, because it always separates on me; rolling a cake, because it’s also something new and I had visions of broken cake horror dancing in my head; buttercream made with egg whites, another something new to tackle; and finally just finding the time to make the cake and write this post while managing the three ring circus. I wasn’t shaking in my boots, but I seriously studied the recipe and tried to read everything I could find on the subject of making yule logs. I found a video that demonstrated how to roll the jelly roll on Epicurious.com, and watching that was very helpful for this jelly roll novice.
The recipe comes from Perfect Cakes by Nick Malgieri (the genoise and the buttercream) and The Williams-Sonoma Collection: Dessert (the mushrooms). Food Network also has the cake recipe online because Malgieri was on Sara’s Secrets in 2002 and made buche de noel. Check out the Resources list below for links to the recipe as well as Sara’s planner for the cake. And just for fun, I tossed in a link to a Buche de Noel Glace recipe from Alice Medrich in case the weather is warm in your part of the world and you want to do a frozen yule log instead.
Because this was a holiday challenge and I was feeling a bit daring, I decided to make it for a holiday party we were hosting on the 16th, but Murphy’s Law took over and we had some sick, contagious children and had to cancel the party. So this weekend was my last chance to make it, and I tried like heck all day Saturday to get going, Read more
Coffee Concentrate for Iced Coffee
This is a late addition to my July Summer Beverages round-up, but when I saw the post on the Food Network food blog Feeding Frenzy, I had to give it a shot (or two, or three…). Unfortunately their article didn’t give any specific instructions or measurements, so off I went on Google searching for anything I could find on the subject. The New York Times Magazine yielded what I was looking for.
In short, you brew the coffee in cold water over a 12 hour period, and the resulting concentrated coffee can then be used to make iced coffee or add coffee flavor in baked goods. (Mocha brownies, anyone?). Apparently this method has been used for years in the New Orleans area. There is even a gadget by Toddy Products to help make the process easier (of course there is). The company claims that cold-brewed coffee has 67% less acid, making for a much smoother taste. Read more
