On the fifth night of Chanukah, I made Chocolate Crunch for my true love. Truthfully, this one was for me. My true love is not a huge chocolate lover. This recipe comes from The Mast Brother’scookbook.
My friends, The Grizzlies, gave me this book as a gift when I broke my foot a few years ago. It kept me greatly entertained while my bones were healing. The recipes are delicious but what I really love best about this book are the deep, dark, exquisite chocolate photos. The book reads like an adventure novel, following the bearded brother’s unusual journey from their home state of Iowa to their factory in Brooklyn. Plus, how could you not love a book whose dedication reads, “To our mother, we love you.”
The Mast Brothers were on the forefront of the bean-to-bar artisan chocolate movement. They source cocoa beans with unique flavour profiles from around the world, roast the beans in small batches to create truly handmade chocolate, one of the very few chocolate makers to do so. And their bars have the coolest packaging.
This is a pretty simple recipe, no baking required. I tinkered with their recipe, ever so slightly by adding some Skor bits to the mix. Rice Krispies add a gentle snap, while the toffee flavoured Skor bits add a firmer crackle and pop.
The mixture gets poured into a parchment lined baking sheet and refrigerated until set. Sliced into thick slabs, this is the perfect afternoon pick-me-up!
One of the things I love best about blogging is connecting with other like-minded food obsessed folks. These are my people, they speak my language. Not only do they share my passions, but they share their ideas and always give credit and a huge shout-out of love and support to those that inspired them. It’s a wonderful freaking mutual admiration society. Food bloggers are generous of spirit. They are excited by what they discover and rather than hoard this new knowledge, they want to share it.
The inspiration for this blog came from Jayne Maynard’s blog, What’s for Dinner. She blogged about these crispy crunch chocolate chip cookies she had created. Jayne was inspired by a chocolate chip cookie with Rice Krispies in it that a bakery in her hometown made. She could not seem to get the cookies quite as crispy as they did. it was bugging her. Then she had her eureka moment when she remembered Christina Tosi, the genius behind Momofuko Milk Bar, and her brilliant creation of “The Crunch”.
Basically, Christina takes different cereals (Rice Krispies or Corn Flakes or Captain Crunch or Fruity Pebbles), mixes them with milk powder, a bit of sugar, melted butter and salt and bakes it at a low temperature which yields a perfect balance of sweet, salt and caramelized crunch in every bite. The melted butter acts as the glue to hold it all together and the milk powder coats everything and adds a bit of extra sweetness. She uses “The Crunch” as an addition to pie crusts, cookies, cakes and every other imaginable sweet out there.
Jayne mixed up a batch of “Crispy Crunch” (Rice Krispies baked with milk powder, melted butter, sugar and salt) added it to some chocolate chip cookie dough and arrived at the cookies she was dreaming about.
I was curious to see what would happen if I added the crunch to something already crunchy, like Biscotti. Would Crunch + Extra Crunch be amazing?
I started by mixing up a batch of Rice Krispie Crunch.
Golden brown and gorgeously caramelized once out of the oven, this is some pretty addictive stuff.
Butter and sugar get creamed together. Add eggs and vanilla.
Flour, baking powder and salt round out the dry ingredients. I added some toasted slivered almonds along with the Rice Krispie Crunch, because, really, you can never have enough crunch! This is a wet and sticky dough. You will need some extra flour for your hands and counter as you shape logs. I formed 4 logs, each about 9 inches long, 1 inch wide and 1 1/2 inches high. Place 2 logs on each parchment lined baking sheet.
After 25 minutes in a 300° F oven, they will look like this:
Turn down the oven to 275° F and let biscotti loaves cool for about 30 minutes. Slice on the diagonal about 1/2 inch wide, using a serrated knife. Place cut side up back onto parchment lined baking sheet. Dust with cinnamon and bake for an additional 20-25 minutes.
While traditional biscotti typically contain very little fat, this recipe uses a full cup of butter. They are firm and crisp like biscotti should be, but not at all dense and heavy. Because of the extra butter, they have a wonderful light and airy texture.
In my last post I declared that this would be the “Summer of Ice Cream.” I had grandiose plans about creating a different flavour every few days and posting about them. It began well with this. So well in fact that I got stuck on dulce de leche ice cream and made it about 5 more times. Finally I moved onto making Mocha Almond Fudge ice cream. (Sorry, no pictures, I ate it all too fast). If you are interested in trying it, use a basic vanilla ice cream recipe and reduce the milk by about 1/2 a cup. Add 1/2 a cup of cold espresso or strong coffee, and about 1/2 cup chopped toasted almonds. When the ice cream is finished mixing, swirl in about 1/2 cup hot fudge sauce. Store bought fudge sauce will do but the Cook’s Illustrated recipe is sublime. Unfortunately, my plans for the summer of ice cream came to a complete halt when it became obvious that I was eating most of the ice cream and my shorts were getting tight.
I am fortunate to be able to spend the entire summer at my cottage. When we first got the cottage we had guests almost every weekend. My kids were small so we would invite other families with kids so they would have playmates. As the years have gone by, the kids are busy with other things and don’t spend as much time here at the cottage. We have gotten lazy about inviting company. But this summer I decided to be sociable again. So sociable in fact that we have had back to back guests since mid-July. One set of guests would leave and by the time the sheets were washed, dried and put back on the bed, the next set of guests were arriving.
I do not stress out too much about all this entertaining because when my friends or family ask if they can bring anything, I reply, “Yes, could you bring dinner for Saturday night?” Everyone is used to it by now and they are all happy to contribute. I make Friday night dinner, Saturday and Sunday lunch and everyone has a great time. To make things easier this summer, I came up with a standard cocktail time snack, that we have been serving every weekend.
This cheese biscuit recipe comes from a Quebec restaurant called Les Fougeres. They are the perfect accompaniment to Frozen Peach Bellinis. They are crunchy and a little bit spicy. And best of all, the dough freezes beautifully. They are like the savory version of Pillsbury Slice and Bake cookies. It makes me feel very happy and secure to know that my freezer is stocked full. I think it harks back to my childhood when I would pick the frosting off the frozen Sara Lee bananna cake (Yes mom, it was me!).
These biscuits are easy to put together. Butter and cheddar contribute to their richness and toasted pecans and a surprising ingredient (Rice Krispies) contribute to their crunch. A pinch of cayenne adds some welcome heat.
You can mix the dough in a big bowl by hand or do it in the food processor. Form the dough into logs and wrap in waxed paper to chill. Then just slice and bake.
Add a big bowl of raw peas in a pod and a pitcher of frozen peach bellinis and watch the good times roll!
1. In the bowl of a food processor, fitted with the stainless steel knife, add flour, sugar, salt and cayenne. Pulse to combine.
2. Add butter and pulse about 10-15 times until mixture resembles a coarse meal. Add cheddar, pecans and rice krispies and process breifly, about 30 seconds until crumbly.
3. Dump dough out onto counter, divide in half and and form each half of dough into sausage shape. Roll each log in in wax paper.
4. Chill.
5. Slice into 1/4 inch rounds and place on a lightly greased baking sheet.
6. Bake in a preheated 350°F (190°C) oven until golden, about 15 minutes.
Note: These biscuits can be successfully frozen in the sausage shape and simply sliced and baked when desired.
Frozen Peach Bellinis (serves 2-3)
3/4 cup prosecco (Italian sparkling wine)
1/4 cup peach schnapps
1/2 cup fresh peach puree* or peach nectar (such as Ceres brand)
1/2 cup ice
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Place all the ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth.
* Only use fresh peach puree if peaches are ripe and juicy. To make your own puree, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cut a small x in the bottom of each peach. Plunge peaches into boiling water for about 30 seconds. Remove peaches from boiling water with a slotted spoon and dunk in a bowl of cold water. Skins will slip off easily. Cut peach in half and discard pit. Puree peaches in blender or food processor. Any left over puree can be frozen in ice cube trays. When frozen, pop cubes into a zip loc bag and keep in freezer.
On the fifth night of Chanukah, I made Chocolate Crunch for my true love. Truthfully, this one was for me. My true love is not a huge chocolate lover. This recipe comes from The Mast Brother’s cookbook.
The mixture gets poured into a parchment lined baking sheet and refrigerated until set. Sliced into thick slabs, this is the perfect afternoon pick-me-up!
