Chocolate-Peanut Butter Hamantashen

I know I've said before that I'm a fan of cookbook author Marlene Sorosky. But what I haven't told you is that I own every single one of her cookbooks now. Last weekend, I searched online for the missing ones from my collection, and ordered all of them in one giant credit card blow. I was tired of staring at the void in my cookbook bookcases, knowing that some of her books were not there. I had had enough! Some people collect vintage Barbie dolls, some collect stamps or coins, I collect cookbooks. It's not about having every single cookbook that was ever written. But it is about having every single cookbook by my favorite authors. Over time, I'll complete my Beatrice Ojakangas, Lou Pappas, Carole Walter, Beth Hensperger, Marcy Goldman, Lori Longbotham, and David Lebovitz collections, and a few others.

My Marlene Sorosky collection

This recipe immediately stood out to me because it's not your conventional hamantashen (which I do really like, too). It's a chocolate dough, and a winning combination of peanut butter-strawberry filling to go with that chocolate. It looks really neat to include in your mishloach manot care package to give your friends and family on Purim along with more traditional hamantashen, fruit, and snacks. Since I'm going through a fancy salts phase/obsession and newly purchased Maldon sea salt, I sprinkled a few flakes on the just-out-of-the-oven cookies to finish the look. You certainly don't need to, but my taste buds were very happy with the result!


Chocolate-Peanut Butter Hamantashen
Recipe by Marlene Sorosky in Fast & Festive Meals for the Jewish Holidays

Chocolate Dough
6 tablespoons butter or margarine, at room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped, melted, and cooled slightly
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Peanut Butter Filling
Scant 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup strawberry jam or preserves
3 Tablespoons whole or low-fat milk
Strawberry jam for topping (optional)

Place rack in upper third of oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Grease or spray 2 heavy-duty or cushioned baking sheets.

To Make Dough: In mixing bowl with electric mixer, cream butter and powdered sugar on medium-high speed until very light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in egg and vanilla until well blended. Mix in melted chocolate. Add flour, baking soda, and salt, and mix on low speed until incorporated. Mix on medium speed 1 minute. Shape into a flat disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until cold enough to roll. (Dough may be refrigerated up to 2 days. Leave at room temperature until soft enough to roll but still very cold.)

To Make Filling: In a medium bowl, stir peanut butter and jam together. Stir in milk.

To Shape Hamantashen: Divide dough in half; cover 1 portion with plastic wrap. Roll other half between 2 sheets of wax paper into an 11-inch circle, about 1/8 inch thick. Using a 3-inch round cutter, cut out circles. (A clean, empty tuna can with both ends removed makes an ideal cutter.) Spoon 1 1/2 teaspoons filling in the center of each circle. Press 3 edges together to make a triangle, leaving a small opening in the center for the filling to show. Place 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheets. Reroll scraps, cut out, and fill. Repeat with remaining dough.

To Bake: If not baking on cushioned baking sheets, double-pan by placing 1 baking sheet on top of another. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until tops are firm. The cookies will firm up slightly as they cool. If you like them soft, bake the minimum time; for crisper cookies, bake longer. If baking 2 sheets in one oven, rotate positions halfway through the baking time. If desired, top each with a small dollop of jam and return to oven for 1 minute to set. Cool 2 minutes and remove to racks. (Hamantashen may be stored, airtight, for several days or frozen.)

Makes: about 24 hamantashen


Step-by-Step in Pictures

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and powdered sugar...

Mix in egg and vanilla...

Mix in melted chocolate...

Add flour, baking soda, and salt...

Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate...

To make the filling, stir together peanut butter and strawberry jam...

Add milk to the filling...

Stir filling until all ingredients are incorporated...

Roll out the chocolate dough and cut circles...

Spoon a dollop of peanut butter filling in the center of each round...

Shape into triangles and place on cookie tray...

Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees...

When the cookies are done, take them out of the oven and drop a tiny bit of strawberry jam on top of each one, then return to the oven for 1 minute...

Enjoy!

Raspberry Cake Brownies

These are not cake. Not brownie. They're cake brownies! I say that because when you taste them, you aren't really sure what they are or how to describe them to others. The texture is somewhere in between.

What's fun in these bars is that you mix in raspberry jam. So the berry flavor is throughout, not just a layer on top or in the middle, and not just pieces of fruit folded in. The crunch comes from adding chocolate chips.

They're easy to make and you most likely have all these most basic baking ingredients on hand already. Do you eat toast with jam? Perfect! Then you already have jam, too!

I'm sure I've mentioned before but just in case, Marlene Sorosky is one of the best recipe authors on Planet Earth and if I share one of her recipes with you, the most appropriate reaction on your part should be that of gratitude and giddiness. So go on, react.


Raspberry Cake Brownies
Recipe by Marlene Sorosky in Easy Entertaining with Marlene Sorosky

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1/4 pound (1 stick) butter or margarine, cut into 8 pieces
2 eggs
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam (I strained jam with seeds)
2 tsp kirsch, Chambord or framboise, optional
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt, or to taste
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Confectioners sugar for dusting the top, optional

Line an 8- or 9-inch square pan with a sheet of foil, letting it extend 1 inch over the sides; butter the foil. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a medium saucepan over low heat or in a medium microwave-safe bowl, melt unsweetened chocolate and butter or margarine, stirring until smooth; cool slightly. Whisk eggs in. Whisk in sugar, jam and liqueur, if using. Stir in flour, salt, baking powder and chocolate chips until incorporated. The mixture will be thin. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the top springs back when lightly pressed with fingertips. Let cool in pan 5 minutes; lift foil out of pan and cool completely.

The cake may be wrapped and held at room temperature for up to 3 days or frozen.

Before serving, cut into squares, approximately 1 1/2 inches each. Dust the tops lightly with confectioners sugar, if desired.

Makes 25 squares.


Step-by-Step in Pictures

In a medium saucepan, melt unsweetened chocolate and butter, then whisk in the eggs...

Then whisk in the sugar, jam, and liqueur (optional)...

Stir until smooth...

Stir in the flour, salt, and baking powder...

Stir in the chocolate chips...

Spread the batter into a greased, foil-lined baking pan...

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes...

Cut into squares to serve...

Rosenfeld's Babka

Last night I had a great Shabbat meal at a friend's. He's a meat fanatic so all the time he spent in the kitchen prepping was on the main course (or rather, the several main courses because there were so many meat options). But when we were already stuffed to the brim and rolling in delicious meat gluttony, he cleared the table and presented us with a Rosenfeld's babka. It had been in his freezer since his last trip to Boston. And we made room in our tummies for it.

Photo credit: Rosenfeld's Facebook fan page

Rosenfeld's is a kosher bagel shop in Newton, Massachusetts, that also happens to make these incredible loaves of chocolate babka. There's a thick layer of chocolate glaze coating the top, plus chocolate filling, and a powdered sugar glaze also drizzled on top. The babka is pareve, making it perfect as the last taste in your mouth after a nice Shabbat meat meal.

Best of all, my friend sent the rest of the loaf home with me!


Next time you're in Boston, be sure to visit Rosenfeld's Bagels and pick up a loaf of their babka. It freezes nicely so you can pull it out for special occasions. I hear the challah is out-of-this-world, too. And Yelpers give this bakery a whopping 4.5 out of 5 stars. That's impressive. Of course one bite of the babka, and now I see why all the Yelper love.

Photo credit: Boston's Hidden Restaurants

The Details:
Rosenfeld's Bagels
1280 Center Street
Newton, MA 02459
(617) 527-8080

Financiers au Chocolat, A.K.A. Individual Chocolate Almond Cakes

I'm always looking for an excuse to use my almond extract. I don't get many opportunities because I serve some pretty picky eaters, and for some reason, almond extract goes hand-in-hand with nuts, raisins, onions, and a few other most-commonly-avoided ingredients among friends (and children....huh, strange coincidence). This is so annoying since I love all those foods! But I decided I would make these chocolate almond cakes because they sound excellent, easy, and I'd be offering them at a party attended by mature palates. The sissies can just deal!

The recipe is inherently good because of its author, David Lebovitz. But one taste and you don't need to be sold based on author. The instructions say to finely grind the almonds, but I left mine slightly coarser because I wanted some crunch in the cakes. Either way works great. And don't you just love the French name? Financiers au Chocolat. It's so pompous and showy in all the right ways! It allows a silly little home baker like me the chance to make something that sounds way harder than it is, as if I attended a cooking school in Paris or something.

If you're a fan of almonds, then you're in for a treat.


Financiers au Chocolat, A.K.A. Individual Chocolate Almond Cakes
Recipe by David Lebovitz in The Sweet Life in Paris

Makes 15.

6 tablespoons (90 g) unsalted butter, plus more for greasing the pan
1 cup (90 g) sliced almonds
3 tablespoons (25 g) unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder (preferably Valrhona)
1 tablespoon (10 g) flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (90 g) confectioners' sugar
1/3 cup egg whites, at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Lightly butter mini-muffin tins or a silicone baking mold with 1-inch round indentations and place on a sturdy baking sheet.

2. Melt the butter in a small saucepan and set aside until room temperature.

3. In a food processor or blender, finely grind the almonds with the cocoa, flour, salt, and sugar.

4. Transfer the mixture to a medium bowl.

5. Stir the egg whites and almond extract into the ground almond mixture, then gradually stir in the melted butter until smooth and fully incorporated.

6. Spoon the batter into the molds, filling them three-quarters full.

7. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until slightly puffed and springy to the touch. Remove from the oven and cool completely before removing from the molds.

Storage: Once cooled, financiers can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week. The batter can also be made, then chilled and baked up to five days later.


Step-by-Step in Pictures

Finely grind together the almonds, cocoa, flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor...

Transfer that dry mixture to a bowl and stir in the egg whites and almond extract...

Stir in the melted butter...

Mix just until incorporated...

Spoon the mixture into greased muffin cups, filling them 3/4 full...

Bake at 425 degrees F for 10-15 minutes...

Let cool in the pan completely, then carefully remove from the pan...

Chocolate Pound Cake

This is the recipe where I ran out of sugar and butter and almost eggs. That's because I didn't register in my brain at the time that pound cake, by definition, requires a lot of heavy duty ingredients. In fact, the ratio of sugar to flour to fat is usually 1:1:1. In other words, I'd need 3 cups of sugar, 3 cups of flour, and 3 sticks of fat (1 stick of butter, 2 sticks of shortening). Plus 5 eggs. Yes, it's very possible to run out of ingredients if you don't plan ahead. And yes, that's what happened to me. Late night run to the grocery store to finish making this cake.

But oh boy it is worth it! Pound cake is a dense cake. It takes an hour and a half to bake! You can even pick the slice up with your hand rather than a fork because it won't crumble or break off. It's not at all diet food, but it's also heavier tasting and therefore you don't need the same size slice you'd take if it were a devil's food cake. One of these pound cakes and you can easily serve 25 or 30 people. Have a glass of milk ready, too.

The recipe comes from the cookbook spinoff All Cakes Considered from NPR's All Things Considered. I totally relate to this cookbook and the author Melissa Gray because she is the "Cake Lady" for the NPR staff, bringing in baked goods each Monday. I am the Cake Lady for my office, though I don't have a schedule quite as disciplined and regular as Gray. Maybe that will come with time...


Chocolate Pound Cake
Recipe by Melissa Gray in All Cakes Considered

3 cups all-purpose flour
3 cups sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup shortening
1 1/4 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 large eggs

1. Position a rack so the cake will sit in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line the bottom of your pan with parchment paper and spray the sides and bottom with baking spray.

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, dry whisk the flour, sugar, and cocoa together.

3. Gradually add the butter, shortening, and milk and beat on medium speed until smooth.

4. Add the baking powder and salt, and beat until incorporated.

5. Still on medium speed, add the vanilla extract and then add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.

6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 1 1/2 hours, or until a toothpick or thin knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

7. Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes. Remove the cake from the pan and flip it onto a rack or plate. Continue cooling the cake.


Step-by-Step in Pictures

Dry whisk the flour, cocoa powder, and sugar in a mixing bowl...

Add the butter and shortening...

Then add the milk...

Then add the baking powder and salt...

Now add the vanilla and mix well...

Mix in the eggs...

Spread the batter into the prepared pan...

Bake for an hour and a half at 325 degrees F...

Let cake cool completely before slicing and serving...

Look how dense!

Slice and serve!