espresso-chocolate shortbread cookies

You've probably seen this recipe floating about, and in case you haven't at least you have now. I came across this first on a blog, which actually prompted me to pick up Baking ~ from my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan in the first place. Obviously, it took a few recipes before I made it, but it was worth the delay. Since I haven't had the desire for a cup of coffee (ahhhhh, it's the end of the world!!!!!), I get my fix in baked forms.

A delicate, espresso-laced shortbread that's in between sandy and crispy, these are excellent nibbling cookies alongside your beverage of choice. Of course, the addition of chocolate is always welcome whenever espresso is around, and I be the use of orange extract in place of the vanilla would just seal the deal.

An interesting technique of pressing the dough to the specified dimensions in a gallon-sized Ziploc bag makes quick and easy work of handling the dough, turning the sticky mass into a chilled slice-and-bake production.

Once the dough has chilled and you slice and peel away the Ziploc bag like Elmer's Glue on your skin, quickly score the dough to the correct size and slice away. I could have eyeballed it, but I wanted to be a bit of a perfectionist here.

Since the dough warms up rather quickly (or perhaps it was due to the temperature of the kitchen, or the warmness of my heart seeping through to my fingers) quickly transfer the slices to the prepared baking sheet where you will indent each cookie with the tines of a fork. Quickness is what really helps the cookies to retain their shape; all-butter cookies have a habit of spreading.

To date, none of the recipes I've made from Dorie's book have failed. This is probably one of my favorites since it's excellent alongside a cup of tea or coffee, and it's really a lovely little cookie that stands up to any occasion. These would also make an excellent choice to ship since they are fairly sturdy and the flavors improve with time.

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Espresso-Chocolate Shortbread Cookies
from Baking: From My Home to Yours

Makes 32 cookies

ingredients ~
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
1 tablespoon boiling water
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate finely chopped, or 3/4 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting (optional)

directions ~

1. Dissolve the espresso in the boiling water, and set aside to cool to tepid.


2. Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and confectioners’ sugar together on medium speed for about 3 minutes, until the mixture is very smooth. Beat in the vanilla and espresso, then reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour, mixing only until it disappears into the dough. Don’t work the dough much once the flour is incorporated. Fold in the chopped chocolate with a sturdy rubber spatula.


3. Using the spatula, transfer the soft, sticky dough to a gallon-size zipper-lock plastic bag. Put the bag on a flat surface, leaving the top open, and roll the dough into a 9 x 10 1/2 inch rectangle that’s 1/4 inch thick. As you roll, turn the bag occasionally and lift the plastic from the dough so it doesn’t cause creases. When you get the right size and thickness, seal the bag, pressing out as much air as possible, and refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours, or for up to 2 days.


4. Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats. (I'm out of parchments, so I simply greased the sheets.)


5. Put the plastic bag on a cutting board and slit it open. Turn the firm dough out onto the board (discard the bag) and, using a ruler as a guide and a sharp knife, cut the dough into 1 1/2-inch squares. Transfer the squares to the baking sheets and carefully prick each one twice with a fork, gently pushing the tines through the cookies until they hit the sheet.


6. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point. The shortbreads will be very pale–they shouldn’t take on much color. Transfer the cookies to a rack.


7. If you’d like, dust the cookies with confectioners’ sugar while they are still hot. Cool the cookies to room temperature before serving.

pretty pear pie

I've baked plenty of apple pies, some cherries, and many in between, but I don't believe I've ever baked a pear pie before. The pear tree outside was the inspiration, and Dorie Greenspan's recipe was used for the crust. Hers is similar to the recipe I used before from Baking with Julia (written by Dorie Greenspan, though I'm not certain from whom that recipe came) in that it uses both butter and shortening, the former for flavor and the latter for flakiness.

Sweetened with honey and brown sugar, a touch of lemon juice, I left out any spices since I wanted the pearness to be the sole flavor. All-purpose flour was the thickening agent, and of course I added a pinch of salt.

What I love the most about pies are the fluted crusts, and I like to play around with different crimping methods. Sometimes I'll crimp and press the tines of a fork between each crimp, other times I just crimp, and sometimes I just press the top crust together with the bottom and place mini cut out dough shapes around the edges. Whatever method I choose, the end results in...

Boo! I even refrigerated the assembled pie for thirty minutes before baking. The upside is that it didn't shrink a lot overall and the bottom crisped up more than normally. I meant to brush the inside of the crust with egg white before dumping in the filling, but I forgot. Any shrinkage tips pertaining to the crust are welcomed. Or welcome. Or, just whatever.

I had to refrain from slicing in a few hours after finishing time since I could tell it hadn't set yet, and nothing brings me down more than a slice of pie that does not remain upright. Pie for breakfast is always nice, though, so it wasn't too difficult to wait.

I've been thinking. Had I told someone this was an apple pie, would they have noticed? I think not, but I remember an episode on 20/20 when they had people blindfolded and fed chocolate yogurt. They were told it was strawberry, and when asked what flavor they were tasting they all concurred that it was strawberry. I may have mixed the flavors around, maybe they were fed strawberry and told it was chocolate, whatever.

The flavors were nice, the subtle honey tones coming through and it wasn't overly sweet, just sweet enough. The downside is that I should have sliced the pears the thinness of construction paper since many were rather unripe; I just figured the hour-plus baking time would take care of that. Maybe I should have partially baked the filling. Despite a few not-quite crunchy slices, it was enjoyable.

What's your favorite pie?

losing scones

Wait! Don't out click! This may or may not be the last post about scones for a while since I"m scone'ed out, but these I entered in a local baking contest sponsored by a local restaurant that I decided on entering.

I used the same recipe as in the oatmeal scone post, except with a few changes. Those changes were toasting the oats; just blueberries; adding 1 1/2 bars diced chocolate-covered marzipan; orange extract; freezing the formed scones for 15 minutes prior to baking; brushing the tops with a beaten egg and a tablespoon of milk and sprinkling with sanding sugar. Incredibly delicious and one of the best scones I've made in a long time. You couldn't quite taste the orange extract, but it blended wonderfully with the nutmeg and almond flavors. It wasn't a case of too many flavors since there was just enough of each flavor to create a medley that wasn't overpowering itself.
As for the texture, this recipe delivers: flaky and light, with a melt-in-your-mouth quality. It crumbles somewhat, but only in a tender manner and not because it's too dry, which it wasn't in the least bit. No need for additional butter or jam unless you can't eat a scone without it.

Besides scones, the other categories were Irish soda bread, brown bread, and Scottish shortbread -- I'll get to that in a bit. In the scone category there were 9 or 10 entries. Unfortunately, I was a bit camera shy and didn't take any pictures. You'll have to take my word, or not, that many of the other scones seemed like your typical, anemically pale, standard scones studded with fruit, drizzled with icing, and cut into perfect triangles. One was interesting and it seemed to be a peanut flavor of some sort, though I don't know for sure; it just had peanuts on top. There was a scone that resembled a giant thumbprint cookie filled with jam, though it still didn't have the wow factor based on its looks. Many looked like they might have been pasty.

Anyhow, I did not win. I did not even place 3rd. I don't necessarily care, although I'd like to know out of curiosity. My type-A personality came out in full swing and I started going through the various reasons why I might not have placed (and this is about to sound extremely pretentious) I honestly couldn't come up with many. Like you all are to some extent, I'm sure, when it comes to my baking I am my harshest critic. I know by experience what I want things to taste like, based on trial, error, and eats at restaurants and cafes, and I thought these would have had a shot, as I had that "moment" when I made the first batch that I didn't get with the scones I made before (I didn't blog those). So, I have no clue, basically, and must defer to the judges on this matter.

You may now be thinking that this girl has a rather big opinion of her skillz. I don't know, maybe I do, but I can sum my skillz up in one nifty sentence if need be, and that's not big at all. It's more that in many of the activities I do, baking including, it's easy to spot your errors and figure out how it was caused, and that's what was going on up there.

For a brief moment of digression, this cute apron came from CakeSpy. I won a giveaway sponsored by Carolyn's Kitchen back in July. Cupcakes on an apron! Thanks, Jessie and Carolyn!

Back to the topic, my mom decided to enter the brown bread division at the last moment, baking up a blue cheese-onion brown bread. While the scone category had 9-10 entries, Mom was the sole entry. Whether she placed first truly because her bread tasted excellent or simply by default, she says, doesn't matter to her since in the end she's now and forever an award-winning baker. She then went on to say that it doesn't matter what the judges thought, just that her family thought it was good.

That is me with her ribbon and her bread. =D

On another note, this Augusts marks the second year I've been blogging. My first post was an introduction to this place the direction of my blog. Yeah, yeah, I don't really post much about running, and I'm going to actually do something about that, try and even talk about various topics that pertain specifically to running that will help anyone seeking advice. Also, I don't use that dish nearly enough.
My second real food post was about the cinnamon rolls and coffee at the Victorian Pantry.

Looking back through the posts since then, I feel I have grown both in blogging and experience, though I'll never stop learning. I know what makes for a good photograph even if I don't always take them correctly, and as for the "stress" of blogging, I sort of have a handle on that. My tendency is to take too many unintended lapses because I had too many epic posts containing more than five pictures that I needed to edit on my laptop that has a speed between watching paint dry and grass growing and it just became a bit overwhelming. Sometimes I get in a rut and I don't want to have a photo shoot with anything. I just want to eat, readers!

Another reason is because I don't really have a direction, and I feel I should; I simply don't know which way I want to go in the sense of how my blog might be viewed because of it. Do I blog randomly on what makes the cut? Do I have a running theme I blog about a few times a month? And of course, I should actually blog about running. It's just quite a bit to think about, and this isn't even a job! While it always will remain a hobby, both baking/cooking and running are two things I'm very passionate about and if something comes out of this I would be thrilled. Basically, I'm open to the idea of taking this in another direction that what I had originally conceived.

Readers, friends, and anyone lurking, please share your tips. Also, please share what you'd like to see on She Runs, She Eats. I blog for myself, yes, but I also want to be of use to anyone happening upon this blog, and I like to share what I know with others. I also aim to make this as informative as I possibly can, because cooking is something that I feel is about growing and that occurs through experience and help. Where running is concerned, it's pretty much the same; you can learn so much by listening to what others share, and I know that to be true thanks to the many runners who have given me advice.

And finally, this long-winded post must come to an end. Thank you guys for reading, for sharing my foodie-ing with me thus far, and for letting me into your kitchens via your blogs. =)

billy, eat your... oatmeal scones

Let's talk about moronic children. We all know the Pediasure commercial with the mom and girl, mom strolling along, pushing brat in shopping cart (instead of making her walk). Mom reaches for broccoli, brat says she hates it. Mom reaches for chicken breasts, brat again declares her disdain for it, which is kind of unbelievable since children will eat chicken over most meats. I'd have thought she was a little vegetarian and it would have made sense, but she denied the broccoli. So again, the mom reaches for waffle mix and the brat, you guessed it, tells the mom waffle suck. Really? Waffles? Clearly this child is Damian-a.

Then there's the fish stick commercial. "YOU'RE SERVING ME MINCED FISH? HOW CAN YOU CATCH A MINCED FISH!?" A) No kid knows what a minced fish is. B) Again it's a mom and a daughter who's acting like a little twerp. The mom then gives the kid name-brand fish sticks that aren't minced. What you don't see in the commercial is the cut clip of the mom banging the plate on the table, telling the girl, "HERE'S YOUR NON-MINCED FISH. EAT IT AND BE GRATEFUL, INGRATE."

(Thanks, Jez.)

Summing up, if you're kid won't eat oatmeal then you should try these. But I'd refrain from mentioning the starving-kids-in-China part if they are inclined to be precocious -- "What will the starving kids in China eat if I eat the oatmeal?"

I've been mixing up scones quite a bit lately. I've gone through too much unsalted butter to even think about. But I saw these and needed to give them a go. This is another Dorie Greenspan recipe, and it combines oatmeal with fresh nutmeg, bananas and blueberries, all four things I enjoy, but in scone form. It also uses buttermilk as the liquid, which I find delightful since I like baking with buttermilk. And so does Dorie, apparently. Booya!

Perfect for breakfast, these were just sweet enough without being better for dessert. The texture of the oatmeal complimented the flakiness of the scone, which I thought gave it a nice mouth feel. These would be great toasted the next day.

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oatmeal nutmeg scones
From Baking ~ from my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan

ingredients ~
1 large egg
1/2 cup cold buttermilk
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cups old-fashioned oats
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 stick plus 2 tablespoons (10 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

directions ~

1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400°. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone mat (I just greased the sheet).


2. Stir the egg and buttermilk together.


3. Whisk the flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg together in a large bowl. Drop in the butter and, using your fingers, toss to coat the pieces of butter with flour. Quickly, working with your fingertips or a pastry blender, cut and rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture is pebbly. You'll have pea-size pieces, pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and pieces the size of everything in between ~~ and that's just right.


4. Pour the egg and buttermilk mixture over the dry ingredients and stir with a fork just until the dough, which will be wet and sticky, comes together. Don't overdo it.


5. Still in the bowl, gently knead the dough by hand, or turn it with a rubber spatula 8 to 10 times. turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and divide it in half. Working with one piece at a time, pat the dough into a rough circle that's about 5 inches in diameter, cut it into 6 wedges and place on the baking sheet. (At this point, the scones can be frozen on the baking sheet, then wrapped airtight. Don't defrost before baking ~~ just add about 2 minutes to the baking time.)


6. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes, or until their tops are golden and firmish. Transfer them to a rack and cool for 10 minutes before serving, or wait for the scones to cool to room temperature.

Dorie also likes to add tips to many of her recipes to give you options.

playing around
Fruity oatmeal-nutmeg scones: Scones in general and these in particular are good with a little fruit mixed into them. Try adding small chunks of banana to the dough before you stir in the egg and buttermilk (cut 1/2 banana into 1/2-inch dice). These are also good with about 1/2 cup diced prunes or small cubes of plump dried apricot added to the dough.

look to the bread ~ black-and-white banana loaf

My brother request Black-and-White Banana Loaf from the aforementioned Dorie Greenspan cookbook.

Though my marbling skillz clearly are lacking, the flavor was pretty good. You can't go wrong with chocolate and banana, and what was interesting was that the white part tasted like the dough for chocolate chip cookies thanks to the addition of brown sugar. I left out the rum, vital to the "rummy bananas", but it was fine all the same.

Reviews from the testers confirmed that this was good. I forgot to have my standard one-slice-plain-one-slice-toasted. I'll just have to live with that.

That's all, short post. I have a 10k race tomorrow, so look for a race report, along with accounts on pre- and post-race eats on Sunday.

Recipe after the jump

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Black-and-White Banana Loaf
from Baking ~ From my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan

ingredients ~
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 1/2 ripe bananas, peeled
Squirt of fresh lemon juice
Grated zest of 1/2 lemon
1 tablespoon rum
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 stick plus 2 tablespoons (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/3 cup sugar
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup whole milk

directions ~

1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325°. Butter an 8 1/2-x-4 1/2-inch loaf pan, dust the inside with flour and tap out the excess. Place the pan on an insulated baking sheet, or on two regular baking sheets sheets stacked one on top of the other (or, following the route of many banana bread recipes, bake it sans baking sheet).


2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg.


3. In a small bowl, mash the bananas with the lemon juice and zest, then stir in the rum.


4. Melt the chocolate and 2 tablespoons butter together in a microwave oven or in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of gently simmering water (or directly in the saucepan, keeping your eye on it).


5. In a large bowl, beat the remaining stick (8 tablespoons) of butter at medium speed or until creamy, about 3 minutes. Add the sugars and beat for another 2 or 3 minutes, until light and smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat in the vanilla. The batter will look curdles, and it will continue to look curdled as you add ingredients. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add half the flour mixture, mixing only until it is just incorporated. With the mixer running, pour in th emilk, and when it is blended, ad the remaining dry ingredients. Scrape down the bowl and mix in the mashed bananas. The batter will look even lumpier.


6. Pour a little less than half the batter into the bowl with the melted chocolate and stir to blend. Drop alternating spoonfuls of both batters into the prepared pan, then, using a table knife, swirl the batters together, taking care not to overdo it.


7. Bake for 1 hour and 20 to 30 minutes, or until a knife inserted deep into the center of the cake comes out clean. Check after 30 minutes and if the cake starts to brown too much, cover it loosely with a foil tent. Transfer the cake to a cooling rack and let it rest for about 15 minutes before unmolding, then cool the cake to room temperature right side up on the rack.

cinnamon squares

As many of you already know, Dorie Greenspan has been going around the blogosphere not just by individuals making her recipes, but through the Tuesdays with Dorie group. The recipes they made looked delicious, so of course like most things I'm interested in I put off picking up her book until months after the initial idea struck.

In the library, in the cookbook section, I spotted Baking ~ From my home to yours and remembered how I wanted to check it out.

A few days later, sometime around midnight, I was browsing the epically delicious recipes looking for a simple enough one to make. What I mean by "simple" is that I don't have to wait for the butter to soften to room temperature since I rarely plan that far ahead. When my eyes passed over the recipe for Cinnamon Squares, and my eyes noted that the butter was melted, that settled matters.

Featuring a full on cinnamon flavored cake, this would best be described as a tricked out coffee cake with the layer of chocolate chips that are dusted with a combination of sugar, cinnamon, and espresso powder. After all is assembled and baked, a rich coating of melted chocolate with butter is spread and swirled on top. I never really understood the craze you people have about chocolate (yes, you know who you are) until I woke up around brunch time the next day (or the same day, later on) and licked the melted chocolate-butter spoon.

So the only step that caused me to pause was how the recipe states to place the baking pan on a baking sheet, which I assumed was to promote even distribution of heat. My oven could be off, but after 40 minutes the cake wasn't done, though I took it out and watched the stages of sinking take place. Lesson learned: You may think it's a great idea to bake late at night, but do try to remember that you then cannot become disinterested when the mixing is over and the dishes remain to be washed and the cake needs a few more minutes to bake.

All in all, I will be making this again. Since the cake part wasn't overly sweet and given that I used semisweet chips in place of bittersweet, I enjoyed this for breakfast, although I really ate it for brunch. Perfect at all hours of the day. Perfect for a lazy baker. Or as Dorie said, in a few more words than this, it's as good at a brunch as it is as a midnight snack.

Stay tuned for more to come from this cookbook.

Recipe after the jump

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Cinnamon Squares

ingredients ~
1 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon plus 2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch of salt
3/4 cup whole milk
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 stick plus 2 tablespoons (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped, or 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

frosting ingredients ~
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces

directions ~

1. To make the cake: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan and line the bottom with parchment or wax paper (I think I greased the paper). Place the pan on a baking sheet.


2. Stir 2 tablespoons of the sugar, 2 1/2 teaspoons of the cinnamon and the espresso powder together in a small bowl.


3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, the remaining 1 1/4 cups sugar, the baking powder, salt and the remaining 1 tablespoon cinnamon. In another bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs and vanilla. Pour the liquid ingredients over the flour mixture and gently whisk until you have a homogeneous batter. Now, using the whisk or a rubber spatula, fold in the butter with a light touch, just until the butter is absorbed. You'll have a smooth, satiny batter.


4. Scrape half of the batter into the pan and smooth the top. Sprinkle the chocolate over the batter and dust with the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Cover with the rest of the batter and smooth the top again.


5. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the cake is puffed and beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan; a thin knife inserted into the center will come out clean. Transfer the cake to the cooking rack and let it rest for 15 minutes before unmolding it onto another rack. Peel off the paper, invert it onto the first rack, and cool to room temperature right side up.


6. To make the frosting: Put the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and fit the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Cook, stirring gently and often, just until they melt. (Now, I just placed the chocolate and butter right in the heatproof bowl because I was lazy when I made this. I understand the point of a double boiler and I use it often, but in case you don't want to go through the trouble I'm here to tell you that as long as you pay close attention, use a little lower heat and stir just as often, the resulting frosting will be fine.) Be careful not to overheat the mixture so much that it thins out; the chocolate should be smooth, very shiny, thick and spreadable. (If it thins, leave the frosting at room temperature for a bit, until it thickens a little.)


7. Using an offset metal icing spatula or a table knife, spread the frosting in generous sweeps and swirls over the top of the cake. Allow the frosting to set at room temperature, then cut the cake into 9 squares, each about 2 1/2 inches on a side.