Baking party for a good cause

A friend of mine is involved with an organization which promotes local food and asked if I would help bake for a dinner they were having in which desserts would be auctioned off to raise money. I said, absolutely! (the truth is, I don't need an excuse like that to say yes to a baking party...but I'd rather pretend my enthusiasm was for the cause)
In any case we used local, fair trade chocolate from Theo Chocolate where she works. By the way, Theo is the first (and only?) fair-trade chocolate factory in the US and they make some amazing stuff.
My friend also rustled up some scrumptious local strawberries as part of her Strawberry chocolate pie and they also ended up as a lovely topping for my flourless chocolate cake due to an unfortunate incident when I tried (and failed) to remove it from the pan in one piece.


There was also a practically perfect vegan berry pie made that night which was amazing and I'm sure collected a hefty sum at auction.

The world's easiest flourless chocolate cake:

4 ounces chocolate chips or your favorite semi-bitter sweet chocolate.
1 stick unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar (a bit less for sweeter chocolate, a bit more for darker)
3 large eggs
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder plus additional for sprinkling

1. Melt butter and chocolate in microwave, stir until smooth.
2. Add eggs.
3. Just barely fold in the cocoa powder (something about having the cocoa powder not quite combined makes it work way better, promise!)
4. Bake at 375 in a well buttered (or better yet parchment lined) 8 inch cake pan for about 20 minutes. This recipe is better slightly under than over done so check it often after about 15 minutes.
* you can ice it, eat it plain, eat it cold, eat it hot, eat it with ice cream, serve it with whipped cream, top it with berries, make it as delicious gluten-free brownies...be creative!

Pie crust, cakes and more: made perfect.

I suppose as good a way to start as any is to share one of my favorite cookbooks. It is by the editors of the Cook's Illustrated magazine and is great for both novice and more advanced bakers. Each recipe is carefully tested in their kitchen and the steps they have taken to provide you with the perfect cookie/cake/brownie recipe are carefully explained. I have found that their bread recipes are often overly complicated but I have never experienced any of their recipes actually failing and I recently made my very first perfect pie crust with their "basic pie crust" recipe (it was for a rhubarb-peach pie which, incidentally, turned out to be a delicious combination). The recipe involves part Crisco, part butter and while I am usually a gung-ho advocate of all butter in baking the combination of vegetable shortening and butter in the crust created a perfectly tender and flaky crust.
Basic Pie Dough
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 t salt
2 T sugar
1 cup vegetable shortening
12 T cold unsalted butter (cut into small pieces)
6-8 T ice water

1. Combine by hand or with a handy-dandy food processor the salt, sugar and flour. Then add the shortening until the mixture looks sort of like coarse sand (just no much-bigger-than-a-pea pieces). Finally scatter the butter pieces over the top and combine to a cornmeal-like consistency with either a knife and fork, your fingers or the aforementioned handy-dandy food processor.
2. Sprinkle ice water over the mixture and fold in with a spatula. Press down on dough until it sticks together, if it doesn't add more water.
3. Divide dough into 2 disks and refrigerate at least one hour (or up to 2 days) before using.
*I recommend rolling out pie dough between two sheets of wax paper or plastic wrap since it greatly eases the process of getting the dough off the counter and into your pie pan.

I hope you have as much luck with this recipe as I did...please let me know any additions/comments/improvements you have!

To introduce myself...

I believe in food. I believe in it's abilities as a peace and friend maker, it's sensuality, it's nutritional content and also and perhaps foremost in its deliciousness. I tend to argue that a good meal can at least begin to rectify nearly any situation and the deliberate preparation of one can soothe nearly any mental state.
In this blog I intend to share favorite recipes, restaurants and meals. Please enjoy and comment!