Chocolate-Orange Popovers with Orange Curd

July 17, 2012

Last month, I did a guest blog post on She’s Becoming Doughmesstic. Susan, the blogger, has a “popover project“-one popover recipe a week for the entire year 2012. Seriously, it’s pretty amazing. I had never even thought of doing a dessert-y popover until I started reading her blog. I have no idea why-it makes perfect sense. Like Susan says, “Popovers are like the heavenly cross between French toast (too messy to dredge) and pancakes (not eggy enough).” Well said. Since she was attending an event in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Susan wanted a popover recipe that featured chocolate in some form.

Hmmmm. I spent the Saturday before I needed to have the post ready “researching” at World Market, trying to get some ideas for interesting flavor combinations. Two candy bars jumped out at me: a spicy chocolate bar and a chocolate orange bar. I gave my Facebook followers the task of choosing for me. The decision, by a hair, was a spicy chocolate popover with salted dulce de leche. Pretty delicious, but I promised that I would work on a chocolate-orange version for my blog.

First of all, if you haven’t had a popover…promise me you’ll make these. Or check out Susan’s blog and make one of the many amazing recipes she’s created. Popovers are an epiphany, light and puffy but dense and eggy at the same time. The beautiful rise is fleeting, but the flavor and texture aren’t. They’re wonderful on their own, but they are also made for topping….and if you make savory popovers, you can even use them as a container for other foods (chicken salad, etc.).

This chocolate-orange version is sure to take you back to unwrapping one of those chocolate oranges, the kind that comes in the round box and is shaped into sections. My sister always loved those things, although I never thought there was quite enough orange flavor. The orange curd here ensures that the amount of orange flavor will not be a problem. It’s light and summery and delicious, and popovers come together so quickly…so much easier than cake.

Please note…there are special “popover pans”, which will make six popovers (I got mine at World Market)….or you can make them in ramekins, as I’ve done here, which will produce three, or in a standard muffin tin, which will make twelve. Oh, and again, my orange curd recipe can be found here!

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https://chattavore.com/chocolate-orange-popovers-with-orange-curd/

Maple-Bacon-Chocolate Chip Muffins. Yes, I Said Bacon.

February 13, 2012

Of course, if you’ve read my blog much, you probably know that bacon is a staple in my home. I might even go as far as to call it a food group. It’s in my cart pretty much every week. Bacon and chocolate? Classic combo…new classic, anyway. If you haven’t had Mo’s Bacon Bar by Vosges….try one. Now. But I digress.

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a recipe for banana-pumpkin-chocolate chip muffins. We seriously love those muffins, and we finished them off quickly. When I don’t have muffins in the freezer, I find myself longing for them….they’re such an easy grab-and-go breakfast. Friday night, I was searching for a muffin recipe that didn’t require a bunch of ingredients that I needed to purchase, and I found this one by Bakerella: mini maple pancake muffins. I had all the ingredients, and they sounded sublime….but I put a little thought into how to make them my own. Bacon? Check. Whole wheat flour? Check. Full-size muffins? Check. So….here you go.

Start by preheating the oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk a cup of flour, a teaspoon of baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 2 tablespoons sugar in a bowl. I, of course, used my favorite King Arthur White Whole Wheat. In a separate container, whisk together 2/3 cup buttermilk (I didn’t have buttermilk so I added a tiny splash of vinegar to 2/3 cup of milk), 2 tablespoons of melted butter, 1 egg, and 2 tablespoons of maple syrup. I just did this all in my measuring cup.

Now, pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients. This, if you didn’t know, is called “the muffin method”. Pouring the wet into the dry prevents dry ingredients from flying all over the place when you stir. Stir the batter till it’s just incorporated; if you overmix you’ll end up with tunnels in your muffins. Add 1/2 cup of chocolate chips, and, if you’re brave like me, crumble in a few strips of bacon, then stir it all up.

Spray a muffin pan or line with paper cups. Scoop the batter into the tins, filling them about 2/3 full. This made 9 muffins, so I filled the empty cups halfway with water so the pan wouldn’t buckle. Did you know that trick? Bake these for about 15 minutes, checking them with a toothpick to make sure they’re done.

I like to cool these on the cooling rack then transfer them to a towel to serve. Serve the muffins with a little bit of maple syrup for dipping or drizzling. These were fantastic…but next time I make them I’ll add a couple of drops of maple flavoring to up the ante on the maple. If you love the bacon-chocolate combo, you should make these! They’re fantastic.

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Brownies You Should Make!

February 2, 2012

On her Food Network show last weekend, Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond made something called “Knock You Naked Brownies“. They involved a German chocolate cake mix made into a thick batter, packaged caramels, and chocolate chips, all layered together, and they looked and sounded delicious. I wanted to make them, but I wanted to make them my own…and besides, unwrapping a billion caramels did not sound like my idea of fun…so here’s my take.

I started by caramelizing a can of condensed milk to make dulce de leche. Most recipes call for you to do this in the can, but this (a) takes forever; and (b) can be a little risky-if you let the water level get to a point where it isn’t completely covering the can, it can explode. Not worth the risk…so I found this page that told me how to make it in the microwave. I made the dulce de leche and let it cool for a while.

Next, I made brownies from this recipe that I found on 100 Days of Real Food. Lisa, the blogger, is one of my inspirations for trying to avoid processed food. These brownies are made from whole wheat flour, cocoa powder, butter, and maple syrup (and a few other things)! I doubled the recipe, and spread 1/2 of the batter in the bottom of an 8×8 pan lined with foil (parchment would work too). I baked them at 350 degrees for 8 minutes to set them a little.

Next, I spread the dulce de leche on top of the brownies….as you can see, it was a little messy. These brownies weren’t meant to be prim and proper, though, so that’s okay!

Since I always figure if some “extras” are good, a lot of extras are great, I had to add some shredded coconut to the mix. I had about half a cup so I just used it all.

The next step was a cup of chocolate chips….

And finally, a cup of chopped pecans.

The final layer was the rest of the brownie batter. That was the hard part. PW shaped hers into a square on her counter, then lifted it off the counter and placed it on top of the pan. Apparently, her batter was a lot thicker than mine! I tried to do that on a piece of waxed paper then turn it over on top of the pan and sort of “peel off” the paper-and it was nearly disastrous! I made it work, though.

I baked it for another fifteen minutes. This is what it looked like when it was done. We ate super-late last night because Philip didn’t get home till almost nine, so we didn’t eat them until tonight.

Um, yeah….they were fantastic. Ooey, gooey, sticky, super-dark, extremely moist-almost more fudgey than brownie-ey….and they didn’t come from a box! Mmmmmm. Make them!

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