There was a television series on PBS called Rumpole of the Bailey where a very clever lawyer was married to someone he described as “She Who Must Be Obeyed.” Not to her face, of course.

Not that I’m in that situation, but recently I heard Suzen say, “Too much chocolate.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“Every damn blog post,” she answered.

Okay, I was hitting the chocolate pretty hard in the springtime, I admit. I did seek help and this summer has been filled with berries and fruit covered in natural, raw sugar. So think I’ve made enormous strides.

Now about this recipe for chocolate cake. I don’t know how I got it. I do not remember looking it up or printing it or anything. One day, there it was, printed out and on my desk. I would deny any responsibility for its appearance, but Suzen would not believe me. I may have accidentally downloaded while I was sleepwalking one night. Bad things do occur when you are chocolate deprived.

I won’t say this is the best chocolate cake ever. I will say, that if I ever have a formal last meal, this is the dessert I would request. The cake is divine. But the frosting is the killer. Milk chocolate frosting. A pound of milk chocolate plus whipping cream. I had the best time ever making this.

And the truth is, Suzen did, too. She decorated the cake. And she ate several pieces. I was just politely silent with every bite she took. One smirk from me and … Well, we won’t go there.

The one change we made in the recipe was to add crunched up Heath bars to the top of the cake as well as the middle layer. In fact, we divided the recommended four Heath bars, putting just two in the middle and then the remaining two on top.

Now, be honest. When you look at the picture of the cake above, don’t you just want to like your monitor? This cake is that good. As you plan for next weekend, buy some milk chocolate. Like a pound. Maybe more because you’ll want to taste test to make sure it’s good milk chocolate.

And to where to buy very good milk chocolate? Trader Joe’s has a house brand that is reasonably priced and exceptionally tasty.

Chocolate Crunch Layer Cake with Milk Chocolate Frosting

Yield: 10-12 servings

Cake Ingredients:

• 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• ½ cup hot water
• 1 ¾ cups cake flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 ¾ cups sugar
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ⅔ cup whole milk

Cake Preparation:

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350˚F. Butter two 9-inch diameter cake pans with sides 1‑¾ inches high. Line bottoms of pans with waxed paper. Butter paper. Dust pans with flour, tap out excess. Combine chocolate with ½ cup hot water in a small saucepan. Stir over low heat until melted and smooth. Cool to lukewarm, stirring often.

Whisk flour, baking soda and salt in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until fluffy. Gradually beat in sugar. Beat in eggs 1 at a time, then vanilla extract. Beat in chocolate mixture. Add flour mixture in 3 additions alternately with milk in 2 additions, beating just to blend after each addition. Divide batter equally between pans. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean and cake just begins to pull away from sides of pan, about 35 minutes. Cool cake in pans on racks 5 minutes. Cut around pan sides. Turn cakes out onto racks; peel off waxed paper. Cool Cakes completely.

Frosting Ingredients:

• 1 ¼ cups whipping cream
• ¼ cup light corn syrup
• ½ cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
• 1 pound milk chocolate, chopped

Frosting Preparation:

Combine cream, corn syrup and butter in heavy large saucepan. Whisk over medium heat until mixture begins to simmer. Add chopped chocolate. Reduce heat to low and whisk until frosting is smooth, about 1 minute; transfer to a large bowl.

Fill another large bowl with ice. Set bottom of bowl with frosting atop ice. Whisk until frosting is cool and begins to thicken, about 8 minutes. Place bowl of frosting on work surface. Using electric mixer, beat until color lightens and just until frosting becomes thick enough to hold peaks when beaters are lifted, about 2 minutes. Frosting will continue to thicken as it stands.

Assembly Ingredients:

• 4 1.4 ounce chocolate-covered English toffee bars (such as Heath Bars or Skor), cut into ¼-inch dice
• 7 ounces milk chocolate (such as one Hershey’s bar)

Cake Assembly:

Place 1 cake layer, flat side up, on an 8-inch diameter tart pan bottom or cardboard round. If desired, place pan bottom with cake atop 8-inch diameter cake pan to make a simple decorating stand. Top layer with 1 ½ cup frosting, spreading to edge. Sprinkle evenly with diced toffee. Top with second cake layer, flat side down. Press slightly to adhere. Spread thin layer of frosting over top and sides of cake to seal and set crumbs. Spread remaining frosting over top and sides of cake (if frosting becomes stiff, stir gently spatula to loosen).

Stand chocolate bar on a short end. Using a vegetable peeler and starting at top edge of 1 side, run peeler down length of bar (chocolate will come away from side of chocolate bar in curls). Pile chocolate curls atop cake. Chill at least 2 hours. Cake can be made 2 days ahead. Cover with cake dome and keep chilled. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour before serving.

Source: Epicurious

I’ve never bought any other Girl Scout cookie except the Thin Mints. And although I do buy several boxes, they don’t last through the year. I just learned you can freeze them, but even that wouldn’t work for me.

I’ve wanted to make the cookie myself — not that I won’t support the Girl Scouts still — but a week after my four boxes are gone, what am I to do? It’s a long, long way to next spring.

I have googled and searched and baked and I’m still looking for the right recipe. There are many attempts out there to duplicate the Thin Mint, but I haven’t found one that is truly satisfying yet. There are lots of silly ones, like the idea of coating a Ritz cracker with chocolate mint. That’s not going to work and you don’t even have to test it to know that.

Along the way, some of the candidate recipes have been good and I’m presenting one below. It’s a good chocolate mint wafer. I can’t get the right coating for it yet, but if I do, or if I find a true substitute for the original thin mints, I’ll let you know.

And if you know of a true Thin Mint recipe, please share it. In the meantime, this Thin Mint Wafer is good on its own or would be ideal as a sandwich cookie. If you are making a sandwich cookie, cut the frozen dough a full ¼ inch thick or more, and bake only 13 minutes so the cookies remain soft, not crisp. Then take two of these wafers, and cement them with some mint buttercream. Chill the sandwiches slightly before eating to intensify the mint flavor.

Thin Mint Wafers

Yield: about 40 cookies

Ingredients:

2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
¼ cup cornstarch
6 Tablespoons cocoa powder
½ Teaspoon salt
1 cup white sugar
½ cup of butter, room temperature
⅓ cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon peppermint extract

Preparation:

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, cocoa powder and salt.

In a large bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar. It’s best to first cream the butter, then add the sugar one tablespoon at a time. With the mixer on low speed, add in the milk and the extracts. The mixture will look curdled. Gradually, add in the flour mixture until fully incorporated.

On wax paper bases, shape the dough into two logs, about 1 ½ inches in diameter. Warp tightly in plastic wrap or foil and freeze for at least 1-2 hours, or until the dough is very firm

Preheat the oven to 375° F.

Slice the dough rounds not more that ¼ inch thick. If they are too thick they will not be crispy. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet. The cookies will not spread very much, so you can put them quite close together.

Bake for 13-15 minutes ,until the cookies are firm at the edges. Cool the cookies completely on a rack before dipping in chocolate or using frosting to make sandwich cookies.

Source: Adapted from bakingbites.com

I know this blog has several brownies recipes, and there will be more. Just as there are connoisseurs of wine, so I know brownies. I can tell you how many eggs, melted or whipped butter, what kind of chocolate, what kind of sugar, the type of nuts, if the nuts were toasted, …

How many brownie books are in your kitchen? I have a few. Well, a lot. Well, just about every one I’ve ever looked at.

I think brownies are a fascinating food. After chocolate chip cookies, and of course Oreos, they are the American favorite. When you walk the baking aisle of your supermarket, you do not see a lot of packages for peanut butter cookies. But brownie boxes adorn the shelves like ornaments on a Christmas tree.

Do I have a favorite? Yes, it’s this one. Today. And next week, there may be another. I bake a batch or so a week. [If Suzen responds to this blog and says that I am not telling the truth, please just ignore her exaggerations]. My daily dosage is about 2 or 3. Or 4. Look, how many brownies does it take to match one piece of 3-layer cake? Viewed that way, brownies are a calorie bargain. Especially if the frosting is thin, which it is in this recipe.

This base of this brownie is actually the “standard” recipe but then extended with a thin layer of mint icing followed by the thinnest possible glaze of dark chocolate. This recipe is from my mentor, Maida Heatter, and I’ve made it more times than I would admit to you, to Suzen, or a priest.

Quick to make, quick to please your mouth, these brownies will not linger long in your kitchen. Which means there will be room next week for some variety!

Chocolate Mint Sticks

Yield: 32 very small bars

Ingredients:

For the Brownie Base:

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
4 ounces (one stick) unsalted butter
2 eggs
Pinch of salt
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup granulated sugar
½ cup sifted all-purpose flour
2 ounces (generous ½  cup) wallets or pecans

For the Mint Icing:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature 1 cup strain or sifted confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon (or a few drops more) heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract

For the Chocolate Glaze:

1 ounce unsweetened chocolate
1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Preparation:

Preparation of the Brownie Base:

Adjust a rack one third up from the bottom of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 9 inch square cake pan and dust all over with fine, dry breadcrumbs. Invert the pan shakeout the exit excess. (This cake has a tendency to stick to the pan; using the crumbs will prevent that.)

Put the chocolate and the butter in the top of a small double boiler over hot water on moderate heat. Stir until smooth. Remove the top of double boiler and set aside to cool slightly.

In small bowl of electric mixer beat the eggs until they are foamy. Beat in salt, vanilla, and sugar. Add the chocolate mixture (which may still be warm) and beat to mix. On low speed add the flour, scraping the bowl with a rubber spatula and beating only until mixed. Stir in the nuts. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and spread it to make a smooth layer.

Bake for 28 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Remove the cake from the oven and let stand in the pan at room temperature until completely cool

Preparation of the Mint Icing:

Place all the icing ingredients in the small bowl of electric mixer and beat until smooth. It might be necessary to add a few drops more a heavy cream, but it should be a thick mixture, not runny. Spread the icing evenly over the cake still the pan. It will be a very thin layer. Place the cake refrigerator for five minutes, no longer.

Preparation of the Chocolate Glaze:

Melt the chocolate and the butter in the top of a small double boiler over hot water on moderate heat. Stir until completely smooth.

Pour the hot glaze over the chilled icing and quickly tilt pan in all directions to cover the icing completely with the glaze. It will be a very, very thin layer glaze, just enough to cover all the icing (if the icing does show through in a few spots don’t worry.)

Refrigerate the cake for about half an hour, or until the glaze starts to look dull.

Remove, cut, and serve. These are delicious both chilled and warmed to room temperature.

Source: Maida Heatter’s Cookies by Maida Heater

A first-class dinner party has to end with a very first-class dessert. For last week’s dinner party, I knew I wanted a fresh strawberry tart as the end piece. I had also suggested that we start with a tart appetizer. What’s wrong with a meal bookended by tart pastry?

Suzen’s eyebrows shifted. I was informed that two tarts was one too many. Out went the opening tart, replaced by an olive appetizer. And, then, somehow, someway, mysteriously, the ending tart went too. Oh, yes, Suzen reminded me our guests had seen a tart from us just a month ago so we needed some else. Something spectacular. Something different. And, with berries, which were already in the fridge.

There is this dessert book I’ve been saving, I guess for such emergencies. Sherry Yard is the pastry chef for Wolfgang Puck, so you know she is first class. Her beautiful book, Desserts by the Yard, is one of those slow page turners. You look at a recipe, or at an incredible picture, and you really sort of mentally digest that one before moving on. If reading added calories, this book would be banned.

And there in Desserts by the Yard is a spectacular 3-layer strawberry cake. A spongy buttermilk cake, made with white chocolate, is baked, then sliced into the three layers. The layers are separated by strawberries buried in a tangy mix of whipped cream and crème fraiche. As the picture here shows, this dessert is eye-stunning. The cake itself softly carries just the faintest notes of the buttermilk and white chocolate. And the filling, with little sugar, bites at your tongue and uses the sweetness of the berries to compose a full flavor palette.

This dessert look beautiful, tastes perfectly, and will impress your guests. With the layers and fillings, it looks complicated — part of the reason you guests will utter an “oh, my,” when they see it. Yet it’s an easy cake to make. The time factor, about 3 hours end to end, simply comes from needing to let the cake bake, then fully cool. It’s a great project to have going while you work on other aspects of dinner. With this cake, you know your evening will end sweetly and sensationally.

Strawberry and White Chocolate Buttermilk Cake

Serves: 12

Ingredients:

For the Cake:

2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
⅛ teaspoon salt
3 ounces white chocolate, preferably Valrhona
6 ounces (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 ¾ cups sugar
4 large eggs, separated  
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk

For the Filling and Topping:

2 cups heavy cream 1 cup crème fresh
1 tablespoon sugar
2 pints strawberries, hulled and quartered 

Preparation:

Make the Cake:

Place a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a 12 x 17″ half sheet pan with pan spray and with parchment paper. Spray the parchment.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside.

Melt white chocolate in the microwave safe bowl at50% power for about two minutes or in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water and set aside. Be careful, because white chocolate burns easily.

In a stand mixer fitted the paddle attachment, or a large bowl a hand mixer, cream together the butter and 1 ½ cups sugar at high-speed for two minutes. Scrape down the bowl and beaters and continue to beat for three more minutes, until light and creamy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Whisk 2 tablespoons butter into the melted white chocolate until blended. Scrape this mixture back into the butter and beat on low speed until well blended. Add the egg yolks in two editions, scraping the bowl down after each addition. Beat in the vanilla.

On low speed, alternating wet and dry ingredients, add the buttermilk and the flour mixture in four additions. Scrape down the bowl.

In a large bowl, beat the egg whites on medium speed with a hand mixer until they form soft peaks. Slowly add the remaining ¼ cup sugar and continue to beat on medium speed. Beat until the egg whites form stiff, glossy peaks. Fold half the egg whites into the cake batter, then gently fold in the rest.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Using a spatula, preferably offset, smear the batter evenly over the pan. Bake, rotating the pan from front to back halfway through, until golden brown and firm to the touch, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan. Lightly spray the back of a half sheet pan with pan spray and cover with parchment. Invert the cake onto the parchment covered tray, remove the pan, and peel off the parchment.

When the cake is completely cool, cut crosswise into 3 equal pieces.

Make the Filling and Topping:

Whip the cream, crème fraîche, and sugar together to medium stiff peaks.

Assemble the Cake:

Place the first piece of cake on a serving platter. Spread 2 cups of the whipped cream evenly over the top. Arrange half the strawberries on the whipped cream and then spread a little layer of the cream over the berries. Place a second cake layer on top, repeat with2 cups more cream and the remaining strawberries. Top with the last layer cake and spread the  remaining cream on top.

Chill until ready to serve. The cake can be assembled up to 4 hours ahead.

Source: Desserts by the Yard by Sherry Yard

Uh, there is one exception. Everyone should taste a rocky road, a cookie made for anyone who does not have sugar issues. What is a rocky road? It is a second generation brownie, topped with marshmallows and nuts and then doubly topped with a chocolate glaze.

I call this a second generation brownie because after the first round of brownie recipes, some creative cooks wanted a way to boost the dessert experience. And the rocky road was unleashed. Actually, in Great Britain they add cherries, raisins, or sultanas [a white seedless grape]. I prefer mine American style with just the marshmallow.

While you can make this extension to any brownie, Maida Heatter in Maida Heatter’s Cookies offers an exceptionally different brownie. The basis for most brownie recipes is a standard combination: 2 ounces of chocolate, 1 stick of butter, 1 cup of sugar and ½ cup of flour. Other things go in, but the main ingredients come in those proportions.

Not in this recipe. There is more flour, less butter, and less chocolate. The result is a cookie that seems not be baking properly, but you need some faith and you need to follow the directions below. The hardest part is letting the final product cool overnight or for at least 5-6 hours. You can go ahead and try to cut through the cookie sooner than that, but it will be about as messy as an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. You really, really, really need to let these sit overnight. Then you are free to indulge.

I’ve changed this recipe a bit, going for a more common square pan and suggesting you use mini-marshmallows instead of cutting up large ones. It gives you a better coverage of the brownie base and an easier time when you try to melt the marshmallows.

By using just 1 ounce of unsweetened chocolate for this recipe, instead of 2, Maida has created a cookie that is less fudgy, more mellow. It’s make the brownie base a better complement to the marshmallows and that very intense glaze that follow.

Dark Rocky Roads

Yield: 16 large brownies or just 1 very intense chocolate experience

Ingredients for the Brownie Layer:

¾ cup sifted all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 ounce unsweetened chocolate
3 ounces (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 ounces (generous ½ cup) coarsely cut or broken pecans

Preparation of the Brownie Layer:

Adjust  a rack to the center of the oven and preheat to 350°F.

Butter a 9 x 9 inch baking pan and set aside.

Place the chocolate and the butter in a 2- to 3-quart saucepan over moderately low heat. Stir constantly until they are melted. Remove from the heat. Add the vanilla and the sugar and stir to mix well. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring until thoroughly incorporated after each addition. Stir in the shifted dry ingredients until thoroughly mixed, then stir in the nuts.

Pour into the prepared pan and spread into an even layer.

Bake for 23 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out barely dry.

Do not overbake.

A few minutes before the brownie layer is done, start to prepare the glaze below.

Ingredients for the Topping:

1 to 1 ½ cups mini-marshmallows
2 ½ ounces [¾ cup pecan halves or large pieces

Preparation of the Topping:

Have the marshmallows and nuts ready to use just before the brownie layer is finished baking.

Ingredients for the Glaze:

1 ounce unsweetened chocolate
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 cup strained confectioners’ sugar
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
About 2 tablespoons boiling water

Preparation of the Topping and Completion of the Rocky Roads:

Melt the chocolate and butter in the top of a small double boiler over hot water on moderate hat. Removed from the heat, but do not mix in the remaining ingredients until you are ready to use the glaze

When the brownie layer is done, remove it from oven, but do not turn off the oven heat. Quickly place the mini-marshmallows over the top of the brownies, using enough to cover the entire area.

Immediately return the pan to the oven and bake for 1-2 minutes until the marshmallows are very soft, but not browning or melting.

Remove the pan from the oven and finish the glaze as follows: Add the sugar, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons of boiling water to the melted-chocolate-butter mixture. Stir until smooth. The mixture should be thick, but thin enough to drizzle over the marshmallows. It may be necessary to add a bit more water, but add it very gradually and be sure that you do not add too much.

Quickly sprinkle the pecans over the marshmallows and then immediately (while the cake is still hot and before the glaze thickens), drizzle the glaze unevenly over the marshmallows and nuts. Some of the marshmallows should show through in a few spots, but the nuts should be at least partially covered in order to keep them from falling off.

Let stand uncovered overnight or for at least 5-6 hour is possible. Cut around the sides with a small, sharp knife to release the cake. Then cut into the proportions you desire. Keep dipping the knife into cold water to prevent it from sticking.

Source: Maida Heatter’s Cookies by Maida Heater