MADE: Almost Too Decadent Mac 'n' Cheese

Just before the holidays, I realized that I needed to clean out my fridge before leaving for break. While most things were manageable enough--eating yogurt for breakfast for a week straight was fine, as was consuming several pepper jam sandwiches per day--one food item presented a particular challenge: my cheese hoard.

Mac 'n' cheese was calling--practically screaming--to me.  I mustered my forces--half a block of swiss, a third of a block of mozzarella, and a fourth of a block of cheddar, plus some random bleu cheese from some quiche or salad experiment gone by--and stirred this up.

Ingredients:

1/2 package bacon (about 6 slices)
1/2 medium onion (or perhaps a little less, depending on your taste for onion), diced
4 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
3 cups milk
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/2 tsp nutmeg
Pinch sage
Pinch rosemary
1.5 lbs cheese, grated or pulled into chunks (I used cheddar, mozzarella, swiss, and a little bit of some random leftover crumbly bleu)
3/4 lb pasta (I used a mix of leftover farfalle and medium shells), cooked and drained
2 slices thick bread, toasted and diced into 1/4 inch cubes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Cook bacon in large skillet until crispy, then drain on paper towel-covered plate. Once cool, crumble and chop bacon into 1/4 inch chunks. Drain all but 2 tbsp of the bacon grease from skillet, then saute onion over medium heat until tender (about five minutes). Remove onions from heat and toss together with crumbled bacon. Set aside.

In a small saucepan, heat the milk until just boiling. Meanwhile, melt butter in medium saucepan over medium heat. Once the butter is melted, add flour, stirring constantly and lowering heat to medium low. Cook flour and butter mixture five minutes more, stirring frequently, until it turns a golden color. Add heated milk 1 cup at a time, stirring after each addition until thoroughly mixed. Continue to heat and stir until mixture thickens--about 10 minutes. Add salt, pepper, and spices to taste, then add all but 1/3 cup of the cheese. Stir all together.

Pour cooked pasta into medium casserole dish. Pour the cheesy sauce mixture and the onion/bacon mixture over the pasta, then stir to coat. Top the casserole with a mixture of the bread crumbs and remaining cheese. Put it in the oven to bake for 30 minutes (or however long you can stand to keep from eating it) and then remove to DEVOUR.

Recommendation: Share with housemates to A) avoid butter consumption guilt and B) engender housemate happiness!

Further note: The bechemel sauce (that's the butter, flour, heated milk portion of this recipe) is one of my favorite pieces of cooking alchemy. Making a good bechemel involves watching food undergo a series of state changes that can't fail to remind the cook about the science behind cooking. Wheeee!

TEASER: Chocolate Mint Cupcakes and Too-Much-Cheese and Mac

As the quarter draws to a close and my procrastination cooking grows to epic proportions, I've got two amazing recipes in the hopper. Cupcakes and mac 'n' cheese, folks! Get excited!
(I know I am!)

TO MAKE: Chocolate Peppermint Bars

I know, I know. You're saying "But you just MADE chocolate-mint cookies. Why do you need another recipe?" To you I say--Shush. 

I got this in my Reader feed from Serious Eats, who in turn got it from The Gourmet Cookie Book. Delightful!

I'm hoping to make these for all of my Seattle friends before I skip town--probably Sunday night in a post-paperwriting frenzy. Let you know how they turn out soon!

(I might also attempt some sort of cupcake based on the Chocolate-Peppermint theme. Stay tuned!)

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (6 ounces)
• 1 cup coarsely crushed peppermint hard candies (1/4 pound)

1. Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 375°F. Line a 13-by-9-inch metal baking pan with 1 sheet of foil, allowing 2 inches of foil to hang over each end of pan, and butter foil (except overhang).
2. Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl. Beat together butter and brown sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in egg until combined. Reduce speed to low, then mix in flour mixture until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips and candy. Spread dough evenly in pan and bake until puffed and beginning to pull away from sides of pan, about 20 minutes.
3. Cool completely in pan on a rack, then, lifting with foil, transfer to a cutting board. Cut into bars and lift off foil with a spatula.

MADE: Triple Chocolate Mint Cookies

In an admission that will be surprising to few, it turns out that the amount that I bake at any given time is directly proportional to the amount of homework that I should be doing. Thus it was that, last night, with the quarter drawing to a close,  I found myself in a pretty ridiculous forest of freshly-baked goods. In addition to the afore-mentioned Apple Pepper Pie (I just love saying that over and over), I whipped up a batch of Paulette's Triple Chocolate Cookies. (Since my housemate and I were also engaged in a fit of festive decorating, I made them festively minty by adding in a few squares of Ghirardelli chocolate with white mint filling.  If you disagree with this decision, I need to ask you to stop reading this blog now, and to rethink your life.)

Triple-Chocolate Mint Cookies


Makes about 20 ridiculously delicious cookies


Ingredients


2 ounces Ghirardelli White Mint Milk Chocolate squares, chopped

8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

1/2 cup plus 2 teaspoons all purpose flour
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
3 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 ounces (1 cup) semisweet chocolate chips


Preparation


Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. 


Stir chopped chocolate in top of double boiler set over simmering water until melted and smooth; remove from over water. Cool melted chocolate 10 minutes.


Meanwhile, sift flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat sugar and butter in another medium bowl until crumbly. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Continue to beat until mixture is light, pale, and creamy, about 5 minutes. Add lukewarm melted chocolate and vanilla and beat just until blended. Fold in dry ingredients, then chocolate chips.


Drop chocolate cookie batter by heaping tablespoon onto prepared baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart. Bake cookies, 1 baking sheet at a time, until tops are evenly cracked but cookies are not yet firm to touch, about 14 minutes. Cool cookies completely on baking sheets, or DEVOUR while warm.

Words of Caution: Do not overbake! Also, don't add the vanilla early, or into the melted chocolate. Crazy science will ensue.

I didn't use an electric mixer on this, but I think everything turned out alright anyway. I DID use a makeshift double boiler, and did it quite well, if I do say so myself.

Lastly, the original recipe suggested using a quarter cup of batter for each cookie. By my estimations, using that much batter would make COOKIES THE SIZE OF MY FACE. Not that this is a problem, necessarily, but I had already made a pie. I didn't need face-cookies in addition. Perhaps next time, though...

MADE: Apple Pepper Pie

A while back, I was chatting with my dear friend over at Kitchen Wishes about pies, and we came across an article on chefs and their pie recipes. One chef, in a throwaway comment, mentioned a green chili-apple pie. I was wildly intrigued, and haven't really stopped thinking about it since.

Well, today was the day I stopped thinking and started doing.

At the farmer's market a while back, I bought a delightful concoction from Woodring's, who specialize in delightful concoctions. This particular one was raspberry pepper jelly, and I was hooked after a sample taste. It's spicy and sweet, and the heat of the peppers doesn't overwhelm their great flavor, or that of the raspberry. I didn't know exactly what I'd do with the jelly, but I had to buy it. Turns out, what I'd do with it is make vaguely unorthodox apple pie. (Also, it's great on toast, especially toast that's getting dipped in soup. And on grilled cheese--WOW is it good on grilled cheese...but anyway--back to the pie.)

The two thoughts--"Need to concoct a recipe for apple-chili pie" and "Need to find a recipe in which to use heaping dollops of raspberry pepper jelly"--combined to form a superthought, fusing into a dynamo of culinary potential energy that, finally, couldn't be ignored. I bought some apples.

Pastry for double crust pie:

2 heaping cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
Pinch chili powder
Pinch cinnamon
1 1/3 sticks butter, chilled and cut into chunks
1/2 cup ice water

Mix together flour, salt, and spices. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add water 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing together after each tablespoon, until mixture forms a ball. Cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate 4 hours, or overnight.

Filling:

3 or 4 large cooking apples, peeled and cut into skinny chunks (This could probably be more, although the apples I used were very large indeed. Also, I used galas, which aren't really ideal cooking apples, but they're delicious, and they go well with the peppers.)
2 tbsp lemon juice
2/3 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3 tbsp Woodring's Raspberry Pepper Jelly
1 tbsp butter
1 large egg yolk, beaten
Pinch chili powder

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Coat the apple chunks in lemon juice. Mix together sugars, flour, and spices and toss apples to coat. Add 1 1/2 tbsp of the pepper jelly to the apple mixture and toss some more. Bring out the crust dough, divide into two, and roll both out into slightly-larger-than-9-inch rounds. Fill a 9-inch pie pan with one of the crusts. Spread the remaining 1 1/2 tbsp of pepper jelly over the bottom of the crust, then pour apple mixture into crust. Cover with the second crust, and pinch together the edges. Cut vents in the top crust, and brush with beaten egg yolk. Sprinkle a tiny bit of chili powder and some cinnamon or brown sugar over the top of the crust.
Bake pie at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 and continue to bake for 40-45 minutes more, until the crust is beginning to brown and the apples inside are bubbly. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream!

Note: It occurs to me that people might think "Well geeeeeez, BlissandTell, thanks for a recipe with an exciting ingredient that I definitely don't have." My suggestion would be to make a paste out of green chilis, water, and sugar, or green chilis and raspberry jam. Probably a tablespoon of chilis and two of jam, or a tablespoon of chilis, one of water, one-half of sugar. But that's just a guesstimate. If anyone tries and it turns out great (or horrible), let me know!