French Onion Soup

Fall is upon us and it's time for something hearty and delicious... well, maybe not so hearty, but definitely delicious.  Sally happened to buy a ginormous red onion from the market last weekend and we've spent the last three days eating salads while attempting to whittle down this bulbous vegetable before it starts to rot.  Too bad there's just so much salad a girl can take.  And only so much onion breath.

We started searching for recipes with red onions, trying to find something to break the monotony of lettuce+tomatoes+cucumbers+red onion salad.  Couscous and red onion?  Chickpea red onion salad? Tandoori chicken and red onion pizza?  The last one sounded tempting, but we're out of flour.

Yes, you heard me.  The queen of baking (ahem, Sally) is out of flour.  Which may or may not have contributed to our long absence.  But never fear! Delicious delicacies can be made with or without flour... whether they'll end up baked is another question.

Finally we settled on french onion soup.  Sally's a huge fan of this simple soup, consisting of only a couple ingredients (onions, broth, oil, and some seasoning. Oh, and of course, the whole french bread+cheese thing.  Which we totally have.  Totally.).  She's also a huge fan of onion breath. Which you will not get with this soup, I promise.

As simple as the recipe was, it called for a bit of modification. Mostly because we didn't have dry white wine. Normally I'd just substitute an equal amount of chicken broth and call it a day, but we were already using chicken broth as a substitute for the beef broth.  So that didn't seem right.  Our options: red wine, vinegar, mirin, and sparkling grape juice. We went with the red wine, not sure if it was the best choice, but hey, our taste buds didn't mind.

French Onion Soup
adapted from here, here, here, oh and here too.
makes 2 bowls of soup
Ingredients*
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 garlic clove, minced
2 cups chicken or beef broth
1/8 cup dry white wine
1 bay leaf
2 black peppercorns
salt to taste, about 1/4 tsp
4 baguette slices, 1/4 inch thick, toasted
1/4 cup shredded cheese (Gruyere is traditional, we used Swiss)
Directions
1. Heat the oil in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat.  Add the onions, toss with a wooden spoon to coat them in oil.  Cover the pot and reduce the heat to low.  Let the onions steep for 15 minutes.
2. Uncover the pot, increase the heat to medium.  Cook the onions for 30-40 minutes, stirring frequently, until they caramelize.  They'll turn a little grey-ish in color and clump together.
3. Add the garlic and saute for 1 minute.  Pour in the wine, stir, then add a little bit of the stock at a time, stirring in between each addition.  Add the bay leaf and peppercorns.  
4.  Bring the liquid to a simmer and leave it partially covered for 30-40 more minutes, skimming the top if it becomes frothy.  Add the salt.  Remove the bay leaf.
5. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.  Bring the soup to a boil and ladle the soup into two ovenproof bowls.  Set the bowls on a foil-lined baking sheet and add two slices of bread to each bowl to float on top of the soup.  Divide the cheese and mound it on top of the bread.
6. Bake the soup on the tray for 10 minutes, then turn on the broiler and brown the top lightly.  Serve immediately.

*Note: yes, I know the measurements are a bit crazy.  The reason Sally and I decided to leave it this way is because we're cooking for two people rather than the six people most recipes seemed to call for, and figured other people in smaller households might appreciate the scaled down version.  (or maybe we're just too lazy to do the math to scale it up.)  If you'd like to feed six people, take a look at the ingredient list for one of the adapted from recipes to get the proper proportions.

Alice Medrich's Best Cocoa Brownies

It's generally believed that the best brownies must be made from chocolate.  Chocolate, not cocoa powder, which was the one thing that Sally and I did not have this weekend.  Luckily, the First Lady of Chocolate came to our rescue with this rich and fudgy cocoa brownie recipe.

 These brownies are reputed to have the taste and texture of box brownies, which I would not know, as every pan of box brownies I have attempted to make has hardened/burnt/generally been inedible, regardless of how early I take them out of the oven.  These, on the other hand, did not burn, have not yet hardened, and are delicious.  Not too sweet (in fact, Sally thinks they could use a bit more sugar!), very chocolatey, and extremely dense.

Best Cocoa Brownies
Adapted from Alice Medrich’s Bittersweet, or online here 
Ingredients
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (natural or Dutch-process)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs, cold
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup walnut or pecan pieces (optional)
Directions
1. Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 325°F. Line the bottom and sides of an 8×8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper or foil, leaving an overhang on two opposite sides.
2. Combine the butter, sugar, cocoa, and salt in a medium bowl and microwave for about 1 minute. Stir until the butter is melted and microwave another 30 seconds.  The mixture should be relatively smooth and hot enough that you want to remove your finger fairly quickly after dipping it in to test. Set the bowl aside briefly until the mixture is only warm, not hot.
3. Stir in the vanilla with a wooden spoon. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring vigorously after each one. When the batter looks thick, shiny, and well blended, add the flour and stir until you cannot see it any longer, then beat vigorously for 40 strokes with the wooden spoon or a rubber spatula. Stir in the nuts, if using.
4. Spread evenly in the lined pan. Bake in oven until a toothpick plunged into the center emerges slightly moist with batter, about 30-40 minutes. Let cool completely on a rack.
5. Lift up the ends of the parchment or foil liner, and transfer the brownies to a cutting board. Cut into 16 or 25 squares. (or random shapes, as I did above.)

Double Chocolate Mint Cookies

Happy St. Patty's Day!  Here are some cookies for you:

Aww, don't they look delicious?  They are.  Very delicious.  So fudgy and chocolaty, with just a hint of mint.  All for me and none for you.

Double Chocolate Mint Cookies
adapted from Annie's Eats here and Une Gamine dans la Cuisine here
Ingredients
1/2 cup of dark cocoa powder
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 cup butter, cut into chunks
1 1/4 cups of sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon of pure peppermint extract
2 1/2 cups of bittersweet chocolate chips (I threw in some mint chocolate chips too)
1/4 cup sugar (optional)
Directions
1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder, flour, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.
2. In another bowl, combine the butter and sugar. Beat together until well combined, light, and fluffy (about 3-4 minutes). Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the peppermint extract and mix until well combined.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until just combined. The dough is very thick, so you might need to use your hands to work in the last streaks of flour.
4. Using a large spatula (or your hands), fold in the chocolate chips.
5. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 8 hours or overnight.
6. Preheat the oven to 350F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
7. Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Roll into 1 inch balls and flatten and shape (they don't spread very much).  Press into granulated sugar until evenly coated.
8. Place onto the prepared cookie sheets. Bake for 12-14 minutes. (Note: There really is no visual clue as to when these cookies are done, just don't over bake them.)
9. Allow them to rest on the cookies sheets for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. 

Makes about 40 cookies.

Sally Lunn Bread

Life's been having its way with Sally and I for the past month.  We've honestly been too busy wrapped in our own little worlds to contemplate baking anything.  Except, we did make cookies.  Once.  Though there's no evidence left of them, so it's like it never happened at all...

Since I took the time to bake this bread, I figured I might as well take the time to photograph it (with my awful phone camera, in the horrible lighting of my kitchen) before we scarf it down.  Because it is just that good.  Luckily the recipe is quite simple and perfect for days when you have tons of work to do.  You can find it here, on Smitten Kitchen's blog, and I'm not going to take the time to write it all out myself because I'm lazy this girl's got tons of work to do and not much time to do it in.  I did make some modifications, but none of them were particularly life-changing or awe-inspiring... at least, not enough to convince me to type out the directions.

I will say one thing.  Yes, you can make bread in a 9" pie pan.  Yes, that is what I did.  Yes, I did cut the recipe in half just in case it overflowed (which it obviously is nowhere close to doing).  If you don't have a bread pan and would still like to make this bread, please don't let a silly little thing like not having a bread pan stop you. Just remember to adjust the baking time and check often.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

 There's nothing worse than baking a cake and having no one to feed.  Sally is quite adamant about this, and I'm not about to argue.  Remember the delicious cake we made last week?  Remember how quick and easy it was to make?  Well, it wasn't half as easy to eat an entire cake between the two of us.

Reduce: Sally and I spent last week slowly making our way through slices of cake until it was about halfway gone.  Now, I'm not going to say that we grew sick of it, because how can you get sick of cake?  But we did grow a little tired of eating it... and our hands were itching to make something new.
Reuse: So we decided to use the leftovers to make cakeballs, similar to the ones we made for Halloween last year.  Except this time, there was no recipe.  No guidelines to follow.  These cakeballs were done completely freehand, and turned out amazing.
Recycle: And of course by the end we were left with the same problem as the beginning: too much food and not enough people to feed.  So what did we do?  Shipped it out to friends across the land, in hopes that they would get as much use out of them as we did.

A One-bowl Cake

You've heard of a one-bowl recipe, right?  The kind where you just throw all the ingredients into a bowl and they magically mix themselves and turn into something delicious?  No?

 The internet is abound with one-bowl cookie recipes, one bowl brownies, and many others.  The idea is that it's easier to make something in one bowl - less mess, fewer dishes to wash, faster, simpler - because it's hard to go wrong when all you do is put the ingredients into the bowl and mix.  The problem Sally and I have found with these recipes is that sometimes they sacrifice taste on the way.  And what's the point of having a cake recipe that's easy but doesn't taste so good?

Good thing this cake doesn't disappoint in its deliciousness.  The texture is a bit odd, it's dense but not spongy, perfect for trifle or with ice cream.

Everyday Cake
barely adapted from Smitten Kitchen here
Ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 cup buttermilk*
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup Dutch cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Butter and lightly flour a 9×5x3-inch loaf pan, or 8 inch round.
2. In a large bowl, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugars and beat until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the egg and beat well, then the buttermilk and vanilla. Don’t worry if the batter looks a little uneven or starts to curdle.
3. Sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt together right into your wet ingredients. Stir together with a spoon until well-blended but do not overmix.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 60 to 70 minutes in a loaf pan, and 80 to 90 minutes in a round pan. Cool in pan on a rack for about 10 to 15 minutes, at which point you can cool it the rest of the way out of the pan.
*Buttermilk is real easy to make if you don't have any on hand: add a tablespoon of lemon juice to the bottom of a 1 cup measuring cup and fill with milk.  Stir, wait about two minutes, and you're ready to go!

The Great Cookie Exchange Part 2

The best part of the holiday season is giving gifts... now, who really believes that?  The best part of the holiday season is receiving gifts, and I'm sure everyone (except maybe Mother Theresa) would agree with Sally and I in this matter.  Something about unwrapping presents is just so exciting, even if it occurs long after the holiday season, as Sally and I can attest to.  We received our counterpart to the Cookie Exchange earlier this week, and have been diligently waiting for the sun to peer through the clouds to get a decent picture of all the decadent goodies we discovered.  Alas, the sun has thwarted our plans for three days, and Sally and I know if we waited much longer for this post there might not be anything left to take a picture of.  We couldn't resist munching on the sticky peanut brittle and smooth chocolate fudge while we waited... and waited... and it wasn't until we sat through a particularly gruesome snowstorm that we ended up completely consuming the treats in a fit of starvation.  Well.  Sort of.

Anyway, Sally and I would like to thank Kate for sending us the delicious treats and Steph of stephchows.blogspot.com for organizing this Cookie Exchange!  We had a lovely time, and hope to see more of you ladies in the future!