Category: baked goods

Katharine Hepburn Brownies with Peanut Butter Cups

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I have been getting some requests to make peanut butter cup brownies again because the last time they got such rave reviews. Of course, I always feel the need to always try new recipes, so I searched for a brownie recipe that I could add my peanut butter cups to.

I first read about the Katharine Hepburn brownies on this awesome pie blog, where the blogger bakes the brownies in a pie crust – yum. I found another version on David Lebovitz’s  where he uses 1/4 cup more sugar. So I used the ingredients from the pie recipe, and the baking time from Lebovitz, and addedthe peanut butter cups.

While this recipe is quite delicious, and everyone who ate it loved it, my very favourite peanut butter cup brownie is still this one that I made a little while ago. The main difference seems to be that it contains way more chocolate – you can’t go wrong with more chocolate!

What you need:

  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons
  • 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 16 good quality mini-peanut butter cups (I used Trader Joe’s)

What you do:

  1. Preheat the oven to 325F. Line a 9 x 9 inch pan with buttered or sprayed parchment paper, with the edges sticking up over the edges of the pan. (I use parchment instead of the suggested foil because I can put the paper in my food scraps bin – less waste!)
  2. Melt the chocolate and butter in the top of a double boiler – you can do this by putting some water in a pot and heating it, then place a bowl with the chocolate and butter on top, but not touching that water. (see photo below)
  3. Remove the melted butter and chocolate from the top of the double boiler and stir in the sugar, then the eggs and vanilla.
  4. Stir in the flour and salt until it is just combined.
  5. Pour the batter into the prepared, lined pan. Place the peanut butter cups on top of the batter. Bake for 30 minutes. Let the brownies cool, and then remove them from the pan by pulling up on the parchment paper. Cut into squares before serving at room temperature. Store in an airtight container.
making a double boiler - trust in kim
making a double boiler

The Browniest Cookies

 

brownie cookies - trustinkim

Alert to chocolate lovers: I think you’re gonna like these! Three kinds of chocolate make these a dream come true: bittersweet chocolate is melted with the butter, then cocoa is added, and of course a healthy amount of dark chocolate chips. You can bake them so they are completely cooked through, or you can remove them from the oven a little bit earlier for a fudgier centre. I think my oven bakes a little fast, so I had them in the oven for 11 minutes and they were baked all the way through; next time I would pull them out a little earlier so they are still soft in the middle. I love a fudgey brownie cookie!

The recipe is from smittenkitchen.com. The only thing I changed was to add sea salt to the top, and my testers (otherwise known as friends I was having a beach barbecue with) commented on how the salt really made it a special cookie. Er, brownie.

It’s a really simple and quick recipe, starting with melting the butter and chocolate, then mixing everything else in. But notice that the batter needs to sit in the fridge for half an hour before scooping and baking.

What you need:

  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter
  • 4 ounces (115 grams) unsweetened chocolate, chopped
  • 1 cup dark or light brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon fine sea or table salt
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2/3 cup semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips (I like Ghirardelli brand) (more than 2/3 cup is even better!!)
  • sea salt for sprinkling on top

What you do:

  1. Melt the butter and the unsweetened chocolate together in a double-boiler until the chocolate is almost melted. Take it off the heat and continue stirring until the chocolate has melted.
  2. Whisk the sugars into the melted butter and chocolate. Now whisk in the eggs, one at a time, then the vanilla.
  3. Sift the cocoa baking soda, and flour into the bowl with, then add the salt; stir these together until just combined. Add the chocolate chips and stir until combined.
  4. Place the bowl in the fridge for about 30 minutes, or up to a few days. If you only refrigerate for  30 minutes you can bake them right away. If the batter is in the fridge longer than 30 minutes it becomes difficult to scoop, so you can let it warm up a little before you start scooping.
  5. Preheat the oven to 350F and line baking pans with parchment paper. Scoop the batter into 2 tablespoon-sized mounds – I use an ice-cream scoop for perfect mounds. Place them on the baking sheets, leaving a bit of room for them to spread.
  6. Bake for about 11 minutes.
  7. Let the cookies set on the baking sheet for a few minutes after removing from the oven so they don’t fall apart. I recommend eating at least one while they are still warm!

 

 

Hazelnut, White Chocolate and Sour Cherry Biscotti

hazelnut white chocolate sour cherry biscotti - trust in kim

These biscotti are a variant of my usual recipe, which is awesome, but it’s always fun to try something new. These are not the kind of biscotti that you have to dip in coffee to make them edible; they taste great on their own, and you can bite into them easily without moistening them first.

Biscotti are just cookies that have been baked twice – the dough is formed into logs and baked, then sliced and baked again. Simple enough. They keep for a long time, which was why they were invented. But they are so good they don’t usually last very long…

Read about biscotti/biscotto grammar here!

What you need:

  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon anise liquor OR 1 teaspoon anise extract
  • 2 cups + 2 tablespoons white flour
  • 1  & 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 tablespoon anise seeds, toasted
  • 1/2 cup hazelnuts, toasted and chopped
  • 3/4 cup white chocolate chips
  • 1/3 cup dried sour cherries, chopped

What to do:

1. Toast the anise seeds in a frying pan or in the oven, then crush them with a mortar and pestle or in an electric spice grinder.

2. Toast the hazelnuts until slightly browned, then allow them to cool before chopping them.  They burn easily, so watch them carefully and toss often.

3. Cream the butter, then add the sugar and cream it further. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until fluffy.  Beat in vanilla and anise liquor or extract.

4. Combine  the dry ingredients and mix in with a wooden spoon until just incorporated.  Add the white chocolate, nuts and sour cherries and stir until just combined.

5. Divide the dough into two pieces.  With floured hands form into two logs on a baking sheet.  Bake at 325 F for 25-30 minutes.

6. Allow to cool until you can handle them, and then slice the baked rolls diagonally about 2 cm thick and place on the baking sheet with one of the cut sides facing up.  Lower the oven to 300F and bake for 10-15 minutes, until slightly browned.  Turn each biscotto over and bake for another 10-15, until that side is also slightly browned.

7. Place the baked biscotti on cooling racks, and allow to cool completely before packing. Store in an airtight container for up to a few weeks.

biscotti on the pan

cutting th biscotti

Pink Grapefruit Yogurt Cake

pink grapefruit yogurt cake - trust in kimThis pretty cake tastes just as good as it looks. The pink grapefruit flavour is introduced to the cake in several ways – the cake itself contains the zest of the grapefruit; after baking the cake is soaked with a grapefruit syrup, and later it is topped with a grapefruit glaze. The yogurt helps to make the cake moist, and the result is absolutely delicious!

I found this recipe on two peas and their pod blog. I made a very similar recipe a few years ago, called grapefruit olive oil pound cake. Both are amazing, but I prefer using olive oil. The round cake pan used in this recipe looks more special than the loaf pan in my previous recipe, plus the baking time in this one is shorter.

What you need:

  • 3/4 cup plain yogurt (here’s a recipe for homemade yogurt)
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • zest of 1 & 1/2 large pink grapefruits
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/3 cup canola oil

For the grapefruit syrup:

  • 1/4 cup freshly squeezed grapefruit juice
  • 2 T granulated sugar

For the grapefruit glaze:

  • 1/3 cup powdered sugar
  • 2-3 tablespoons freshly squeezed grapefruit juice

What you do:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Spray a 9-inch round cake pan with cooking spray, and then dust it lightly with flour.
  2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.
  3. Zest the grapefruit peel into a large bowl and add the sugar. Rub the sugar and zest together with your fingers until it is fragrant.
  4. Mix the yogurt into the sugar and zest using a spatula. Whisk in the eggs, mixing until smooth, and then stir in the vanilla.
  5. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients mixing just until the flour is incorporated.
  6. Mix in the oil.
  7. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Test by inserting a toothpick to see if the cake is done. The cake should  spring back when you touch it lightly in the centre.
  8. Cool on a cooling rack for about 15 minutes before removing the cake from the pan.
  9. While the cake cools, make the syrup and glaze. To make the syrup, place the grapefruit juice and sugar in a small pot; heat until the sugar dissolves. While the cake is still warm, after it has been removed from the pan, you can poke holes all over the top of the cake with a toothpick. Spoon the syrup over the cake.
  10. To make the glaze, in a medium bowl, sift the powdered sugar. Add the grapefruit juice and mix until smooth. Add more sugar or juice to achieve the right consistency. When the cake has cooled to room temperature drizzle the glaze all over the top of the cake.

Enjoy!

Chewy Oat Cookies

chewy oat cookies -trust in kim

My brother reminded me about these cookies from our childhood the other day. They are chewy and almost caramel in the middle, a little crispy on the outside, and really really simple to make. My mom made them when we were little, and neither of us had eaten them for a long time until my brother started making them recently. Of course I had to ask him to send me the recipe so I could try them out too.

On Friday night I mixed up the batter, because it needs to sit in the fridge for a little while, and then it took minutes the next morning to mound the mixture onto a baking pan and bake them up. I brought them to Community Garden work party, and my fellow fence-builders were very happy to try out these treats.

What you need:

  • 2 cups rolled oats
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup canola oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

What you do:

  1. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl using a wooden spoon.
  2. Cover and refrigerate the mixture for about an hour, or overnight.
  3. Preheat the oven to 350F.
  4. Line a baking pan with parchment paper, then form the cookies into mounds. If you have a 2 tablespoon ice-cream scoop this could be used, or just a large spoon. You will find that bits of rolled oats scatter a bit, so just press them into the mound with your hands. You should get 12-15 cookies and be able to fit them on one pan.
  5. Bake for 12- 15 minutes. The edges should look caramely and bubbly, which will become crispy as they cool.
  6. After removing from the oven allow them to cool on the baking pan. After they are cool the edges will be crispy, and the inside will be chewy.
  7. Enjoy!
raw oat cookies - trust in kim
the raw cookies mounded on the pan
mom & dad dancing
my parents and their friends out for the evening, way back when

 

Parmesan Thyme Crackers

parmesan crackers - trust in kim

“Parmesan pieces of heaven” is what my friend Amanda called these savoury bites. They go great with a glass of red wine! Another recipe I have made that is similar to this calls them ‘savoury shortbread’ rather than ‘crackers.’ These have that same richness of shortbread. Yum!

The dough needs to chill for at least half an hour before baking, so keep that in mind when planning your baking. You could make the dough ahead of time and refrigerate overnight, or keep the log in the freezer until you need it.

I found the recipe blogged on Lottie & Doof, originally by Ina Garten.

What you need:

  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • about 1 cup good quality freshly grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme leaves
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 & 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

What you do:

  1. Cream the butter for 1 minute.
  2. Add the Parmesan, thyme, salt and freshly ground pepper and mix on low speed to combine.
  3. Add the flour and mix until it forms large crumbles, for about 1 minute. Add a teaspoon of water if the dough seems too dry.
  4. Turn the dough out onto a floured board or countertop, and press it into a ball. Roll into a log, about 20cm/9 inches long. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for a minimum of 30 minutes, or up to 4 days.
  5. Preheat the oven to 350F. Use a small sharp knife to cut the log into 1cm thick slices. Line a baking pan with parchment paper and place the dough circles on it. Bake for about 20-22 minutes, rotating the pan once half way through baking, until lightly browned. (Mine were done quite quickly, so watch out.)
  6. Move the baked crackers to a cooling rack and serve at room temperature. With a glass of red wine. And olive tapenade would be great too!

 

Apple Crisp

apples - trust in kim

Recently I baked a whole lot of apple crisp with my grade 5/6 students. They each got to peel, core and chop an apple, and then they got to eat their first apple crisp – and loved it! A little bit of vanilla ice cream on top made it a perfect treat.

I found the recipe on ricardocuisine.com. Usually I just make up the crumble recipe, but I wanted to follow an actual recipe so I could pass it along to my students. I only altered the amount of sugar added to the apples. I don’t usually add any sugar to the apples, and in the future I would probably omit it. I prefer to have a bit of a tart taste in my apples, and leave the sweetness to the crumble.

For the apples it’s fine to use whatever kind you happen to have, but I have included Ricardo’s apple choices. I think I used pink lady apples.

What you need for the apples:

  • 1 & 1/4 cups quick cooking rolled oats
  • 1/4 cup  unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened

What you need for the crumble:

  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 3 Cortland apples

  • 3 McIntosh apples 

  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice

For serving:

  • Vanilla ice cream (I used Chapman’s)

What you do:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
  2. Core, peel and chop the apples. Put them into a 20 cm (8 inch) square baking pan. Combine with the rest of the apple ingredients.
  3. Combine all the crumble ingredients in a bowl and mix in the butter; I like to do this with my hands, and then I spread the mixture over the apples with my hands.
  4. Bake for about 50 minutes.
  5. This is best served while it’s still warm, with a little vanilla ice cream on the side.

Peanut Butter Cup Belgian Brownies

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Rich, chocolately, filled with peanut butter – these brownies are perfect. I made them into two-bite brownies (or three or four, depending on the size of your bite). I found the Belgian brownie recipe on Smitten Kitchen, and then added the peanut butter cups.

The recipe is very easy to make; you simply melt the chocolate and butter, and just stir in the rest of the ingredients. The hardest part is waiting for them to bake and cool down enough to remove from the pan.

What you need:

  • 7 ounces bittersweet chocolate (70 or 72%), roughly chopped
  • 7 ounces (14 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into chunks
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 4 large eggs, room temperature
  • 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
  • enough mini peanut butter cups to put one in each brownie (I made a dozen, then used the rest of the batter to make a brownie in a bread pan)

What you do:

  1. Preheat the oven to 325F.
  2. Spray a mini muffin tin well with non-stick spray.
  3. Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over a pot of simmering water, stirring.
  4. Remove the butter and chocolate from the heat and stir in the sugar.
  5. Whisk in the eggs one at a time, then whisk in the salt and flour.
  6. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit for 1/2 hour at room temperature.
  7. Fill each muffin tin with batter, then place a peanut butter cup on top, pressing it in only a little. It will sink in on its own.
  8. You can either make another pan of peanut butter brownies, or you can spray a loaf pan and bake the rest in that.
  9. Bake for about 20 minutes, then test by inserting a toothpick into the brownie part, and the toothpick should come out with some crumbs clinging to it. If you’ve made a pan of brownies it needs more like 40 minutes.
  10. Allow the brownies to cool for about half an hour before removing from the pan.

Allow the brownies to cool completely, then they can be stored in an airtight container in the freezer for a few months.

Savoury Italian Cake

savoury italian cake - trust in kim
photo by sarah scott

This salty and cheesy savoury cake is something I baked to serve along with a friend’s chili at a Superbowl party. It is quite easy to make, and really tasty, flavoured with bacon, cheddar and parmesan cheeses, and arugula. So good.

I found the recipe in Ilona Chovancova’s cookbook Cakes and Loaves: 110 Recipes you can Make at Home. The main things I changed from the original recipe were some parts of the method of preparation. The author didn’t specify to cook the bacon, so I fried it to get a lot of the fat out of it, but didn’t make it crispy. The other part that confused me was the addition of baking powder: the author says to fold it in at the end, after everything else has been mixed. But this worried me – how would it be possible to mix it in completely without over-mixing? So I solved that problem by adding the flour in two portions, one at the end with the baking powder in it, and that way the baking powder would be distributed better. That would also avoid adding the baking powder with the rest of the flour, which could cause over mixing, resulting in a tough cake. Problem solved.

The only ingredient change I made was to use olive oil instead of vegetable oil.

What you need:

  • a generous handful of arugula
  • 150 grams bacon (or pancetta)
  • 3 eggs
  • 6 tablespoons milk
  • 6 tablespoons olive oil (or vegetable oil)
  • 1 & 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 & 1/4 cups white aged cheddar cheese, grated
  • 1 cup aged Parmesan, grated
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder

What you do:

  1. Chop the bacon and fry it until most of the fat is removed, but don’t let it get crispy. Place the fried bacon on paper towels to absorb the fat. Let it cool.
  2. Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter and flour a loaf pan.
  3. Chop the arugula coarsely.
  4. Combine the eggs, milk and oil in a large bowl and beat with a fork. Add 1 cup of the flour along with the cheeses, arugula, bacon, salt and pepper. Stir to combine.
  5. Mix the baking powder into the remaining 1/2 cup of flour. Fold the flour and baking powder into the batter.
  6. Pour the batter into the loaf pan. Bake for about 50 minutes. The top of the loaf should become browned, and a toothpick inserted into the cake should come out clean.
  7. Allow the cake to cool for about 10 minutes before turning it out onto a wire rack to cool.

This was delicious served cold, but if you can time it right, it would probably be awesome to eat it while it’s still a little warm.

 

Thumbprint Cookies

Thumbprint cookies -trust in kim

Thumbprint Cookies - trust in kim

These pretty cookies are delicious, and really easy to make. I really like the combination of fruit and nut in them. You can use your favourite type of jam; I used raspberry and damson plum jams for this batch, and I think apricot would be awesome.

The only change I made (from the Whole Foods recipe) was using half butter, half olive oil instead of only oil. In my opinion, everything tastes better with butter, but you can feel free to use 1/2 cup of canola oil instead if you want to turn this into a vegan recipe. Or all butter!

These should keep well for about 5 days in an airtight container.

What you need:

  • 1 cup almonds or 3/4 cup ground almonds
  • 1 cup rolled oats
  • 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour  (I just used all-purpose  flour)
  • 1/4 cup canola oil
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1/2 cup maple syrup
  • 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
  • 5 tablespoons jam

What you do:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
  2. Put almonds and oats into a food processor or coffee grinder and pulse until coarsely ground.
  3. Combine the nuts and oats in a large bowl with the flour, oil, syrup and salt.
  4. Use a 1 tablespoon ice-cream scoop, or roll walnut-sized balls of dough in the palm of your hand, to form each cookie.
  5. Arrange the cookies on 2 large baking sheets, spacing them about 2 inches apart. Press your thumb gently down into the center of each cookie to make an indentation for the jam.
  6. Spoon a little jam into each indentation.
  7. Bake the cookies until they are golden brown and just firm around the edges, about 15 to 20 minutes.
  8. Transfer to a rack to let cool completely.
  9. Any cookies that you don’t eat immediately can be stored between layers of waxed paper or parchment paper in an airtight container for up to 5 days.