March ABC challenge: Lemon Chile Spritz

 

This month, the challenge was "cookies".  Despite the name "Lemon Fire Crisps",  they were neither crisp nor very lemony, although they were sort of firey (from the cayenne powder).  I made half the normal recipe, which called for 6 dozen.  I got about 4 dozen.  Here's what I used:

1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1/2 egg
1 cup + 2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon cayenne powder
1/8 1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon baking soda

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the lemon juice, lemon zest, and egg and beat well.  Sift the dry ingredients together, then beat into the butter mixture.  Place the mixture into a cookie press and force the dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake at 400 degrees for 8 minutes or until lightly browned.

These were disappointingly bland.  They didn't have nearly enough lemon flavor, but looking back over the recipe, I think I might have failed to add lemon juice.  (I remember at the time thinking that lemon zest wasn't flavorful enough to use exclusively.)  So I made a tart glaze, which improved the flavor.  Weirdly, the result of a bland cookie is it makes you eat more of them, I guess because you're left unsatisfied.

Another issue was the dough was already VERY soft, so added liquid (lemon juice) would have made the dough that much more difficult to handle.  It might benefit from a light chilling before shaping.  Also, I sensed that using the 2 setting on my press released too much dough and would have resulted in shapeless cookies, so I used the 1 setting, making smaller cookies than the recipe calls for.  (And slightly less baking time.)

I found I preferred these baked slightly less as opposed to more.  It gave them a richer and creamier texture, as though they had cream cheese, but also made them very soft.

Conclusion:  I found these far too bland.  They definitely benefited from the added salt, but needed far more lemon flavor.  (Again, I might have left out the lemon juice by mistake.)

Recipe:  Lemon Fire Crisps via Chile Pepper magazine, June 1993 (Fiesta Canning Co., Inc.)

February ABC challenge: Chocolate Chile Almond Cookies

This month's challenge is "chocolate."  I don't have access to New Mexican chiles, so I had to come up with a substitute.  In savory dishes (think chile rellenos), Anaheims are the usual replacement, but those weren't available either.  I settled on a poblano, with a serrano as backup in case it was too mild.

I made half the recipe and it produced about 3 dozen cookies.

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

2½  cups all-purpose flour

1½  teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup chopped almonds, toasted

1/4 cup chopped green New Mexican chile

2 ounces sweet chocolate

1 tablespoon rum

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy; stir in the egg and vanilla.  Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon; add to the butter mixture and mix well.  Add the almonds and chile.   Melt the chocolate and allow to cool.  Stir the rum into the chocolate and mix into the dough. Roll the dough into a 2-inch diameter roll and wrap in foil.  Refrigerate for 12 hours or overnight.  

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Slice into ¼-inch rounds and place on a lightly greased cookie sheet.  (They can be somewhat close together.)  Bake for 8 -- 10 minutes until just browned around the edges.

I roasted the chiles with the idea that it would bring out the sweetness.  However, that changed the volume, so I used only a heavily packed tablespoon, instead of the 2 that half the recipe would have required.  The poblano was quite hot, so I added only a small amount of the serrano.

I tried two ways of cutting these:  "thinly" as instructed by the recipe, and in very thick chunks that I then cut into quarters and placed on the sheet point up.  They bake up crisply, so the thin wafers worked better.

Conclusion:  These were delicious!  Crisp and buttery with a mild cocoa flavor.  But no heat.  Not at all.  Every now and then I got a little piece of chile that I could taste, but even that wasn't hot.  I thought the long time in the refrigerator was partially to distribute the heat.  I also couldn't taste the rum at all and didn't expect to.  Nonetheless, they're worth making again.

Recipe: via Chile Pepper magazine, June 1993 (Fiesta Canning Co., Inc.)

Habanero Pumpkin Nut Cookies

The habanero powder was blisteringly hot.  I wanted to make sure there was enough salt to counter the heat.  I added it gradually, but ended up doubling the original amount.

I made half the recipe and it yielded about one and a half dozen cookies.

3/4 cup canned pumpkin

1/2 cup sour cream

3/4 cup light brown sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 3/4 cup seedless raisins currants

1/2 cup chopped walnuts 

1½  cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon allspice

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/2 teaspoon habanero chile powder

1/2 1 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the pumpkin, sour cream, sugar, egg, and vanilla and mix well. Stir in the raisins and the walnuts. Sift the dry ingredients together, then stir into the pumpkin mixture until just mixed. Drop by tablespoons onto a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

I'm not a fan of raisins, so I used currants and reduced the quantity a little since they're smaller. To make the habanero powder, I thinly sliced the chiles, then baked them at 200 degrees. They promptly burned to a crisp (which I saved to use on savory dishes.) Others have used this technique, but probably didn't cut them into thin slices. The next batch I let dry out in a barely warm oven, about 100 degrees, until they were crisp. I tried to avoid using any seeds in the cookies; they didn't break up when I ground the chiles in a mortar and pestle.

Conclusion:  These were very tasty. Nice spice level, and not too sweet.  They had the perfect level of heat, medium spicy, but the texture was a little off.  They were a little spongy rather than cakey, which would suggest too much liquid even though the dough wasn't particularly wet (for a drop dough.)  They seemed like they needed something, so I added a hard sauce frosting.  I'd like to convert this recipe to a muffin, with perhaps a cream cheese frosting.

Recipe:  via Chile Pepper magazine, June 1993 (Fiesta Canning Co., Inc.)

June ABC challenge: Pineapple Chipotle Cream Cheese Scones

This month's ABC challenge entry is a bit of a cheater.  The challenge is for this King Arthur basic scone recipe.  Now, I'm not a big fan of scones.  They taste okay and all that, it's just that they have no substance.  They're just above biscuits in that category, and only because they usually come with add-ins.  They're not sufficient alone for breakfast, but it's so hard to limit yourself to just one.  Really you want to eat the whole batch, which is just too depraved to think about.  So I usually keep my distance, and planned on passing on the challenge this month.

Thing is, I had in my refrigerator this:

Chipotle-flavored cream cheese

I thought it sounded delicious when I bought it, but the reality was a sorry disappointment.  It tasted highly processed, salty -- not rich and creamy at all; I'd put it right down there with the cheese that squirts out of a can.  (Or so I'm imagining, as I've never actually tasted cheese that squirts out of a can.)  But what to do with it?

The scone recipe for this month got me thinking.  There are many scone recipes that call for cream cheese; this month's challenge wasn't one of them.  This is where the cheat comes in.  King Arthur Flour has another scone recipe that does use cream cheese, so I started from there.  A few other substitutions, plus a 1/4 reduction in the quantity and I had my recipe.

Here's what I worked with:

3/4 cup + 1 tablespoon flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 + 1/8 teaspoon baking powder (see Conclusion)
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 ounces cold, chipotle-flavored cream cheese
2 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter
1/3 cup canned pineapple tidbits, squeezed of juice and juice reserved
2 tablespoons dried, chili-spiced pineapple, medium dice
1/4 of a large egg (about 2½ teaspoons)
1/2 teaspoon orange extract (or zest of 1/4 orange)
1+ tablespoon reserved pineapple juice

Preheat the oven to 400°F. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.  Cut in the cream cheese and butter until the chunks of butter are the size of peas.  Stir in the fresh and dried pineapple.

In a separate container, whisk together the egg, extract (or zest), and juice.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and stir with a fork until the dough is evenly moistened.  It will look on the dry side.

Turn the dough out onto a floured piece of parchment or waxed paper, and fold it over several times, until it holds together. Pat the dough into a 3/4"-thick rectangle (about 4" x 8") and cut into 4 wedges.  Brush the tops lightly with milk and sprinkle with sparkling white or pearl sugar, if desired.  Place the scones about 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet.  (I have to use an insulated sheet or they would burn on the bottom.)  Bake for 18-20 minutes, until the tops are golden brown.



Conclusion:  This is a great flavor combination!  The chipotle is not immediately noticeable, but there is a gentle heat that builds over successive bites.  These are sweet, which I did on purpose to counter the chili heat, but there is already plenty of sweetness in the pineapple; next time I would reduce the sugar by half.  The only down side was they didn't rise much, if at all.  Since I'm adding an acid in the pineapple juice, next time I will convert the baking powder to baking soda and see if that improves the rise.

Now, what to do with the rest of that tub.

Original recipe:  Apricot cream cheese scones via King Arthur Baking

January ABC Challenge: Mole-spiced Brownies with Lime Cheesecake Swirl

To be honest, I approached this month's challenge with reservation.  Once upon a time, I was the type of person  who, if the dessert menu included Death By Chocolate, I was all over it.  The richer, more decadent a dessert was, especially if it included chocolate, the better.  But at some point several years ago, chocolate started to lose its appeal (gasp!), and rich foods of any kind quickly followed suit.  Besides that, the whole chocolate-and-cheesecake thing has been done a million times.  I had to find a twist or it wasn't going to happen.

A friend recently made a sweet bread with chocolate and spiced with chili and cinnamon.  I decided to go the same route with these brownies.  Interestingly, when one doesn't have a stake in the outcome, it really opens the doors to adventure!  Once underway, I decided to go even further and add the sweet spices from traditional mole along with some tangy lime, in keeping with the Mexican flavor.  (Okay, so Chinese 5-spice isn't Mexican, but it brought the anise and cloves to the party in one easy-to-use measure.)

A chopstick  really helped to break up the
thick chocolate batter and get it swirled in.

The directions call for cooking the butter and sugar "until the mixture is smooth and shiny."  Well, it was getting pretty thick after several minutes, but it still wasn't smooth.  I took it off the heat anyway.  As it cooled, it got even thicker.  (I wonder if this affected the final texture.)  Consequently, it was something of a challenge getting it swirled into the creamy cheesecake batter.

As it turns out, these brownies were a disappointment.  For one, they confirmed a growing suspicion...  I don't like cinnamon and chocolate!  I don't know why not.  They were also extremely rich, as I knew they would be.  I think the addition of chocolate chips was overkill.  They are already so intense, even with reduced sugar, and chocolate tends to steal the show anyway, no matter what.  I would have preferred a ratio of cheesecake to chocolate of about 3:1; the recipe is closer to 1:2.

Lastly, though  many people complained that they needed much longer to cook, mine were overdone in just 35 minutes.  I had halved the recipe and used an 8x8" pan, which is larger than half of a 9x13"  pan, so I should have started checking them after 25 minutes.  They didn't burn, but were a little on the gummy side, and the cheesecake had large air pockets throughout, as if there were too much egg  or something.  (Perhaps it was the flour...  Why is there flour in the cheesecake anyway?  And did I forget to cut the flour quantity in half??)

Besides the added flavors, I reduced the sugar, increased the salt, reduced the vanilla, and omitted the chocolate chips.  Here are the ingredients I worked with for a half recipe quantity, with my changes noted:

Chocolate batter
1/2 cup unsalted butter
*3/4 cup sugar (reduced from 1 1/8 c)
5/8 cup baking cocoa
*1 teaspoon salt (increased from 1/2 t)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon espresso powder
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
*1 1/4 teaspoon ground red chili (likely New Mexico hatch)
*1/2 teaspoon Chinese 5-spice
*1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips

Cream cheese batter
8-ounce package cream cheese
3/8 cup sugar
1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
*1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (reduced from 1 t)
1/8 cup heavy cream
1 large egg
*zest and juice of one lime



Conclusion:  This type of item doesn't appeal to me, so I would not make it again.  The flavor combination I used was interesting; I really liked the little bit of heat from the chili, and the tangy lime was a nice contrast against the richness of the brownie.  I will definitely use the chocolate/chili/lime combination again.

Recipe:  Chocolate Cheesecake Brownies via King Arthur Flour

Chocolate Chili Cookies

These cookies are super chocolatey, sort of like the outside of an Oreo cookie, only with real chocolate flavor.  Sort of like a brownie baked into a cookie. I used ground chipotle chili; the result was only the slightest hint of heat in the cookie that some couldn't even detect.  

I was a little thrown off by the direction to roll the dough into 1-ounce balls -- how large is a 1-ounce ball of dough???  It turns out it is about one inch or slightly larger, but since I ended up with 18 cookies instead of 20, my cookies were slightly too large.  Consequently, after 10 minutes, the cookies were still extremely soft, so I cooked them longer, and ultimately cooked them too long.  (The recipe warns against this.)  They were still tasty, but they were chewy-crunchy instead of fudgy.  (Better for dunking.)  They are the perfect cookie for chopping up and mixing into vanilla ice cream. 

These came together quickly and easily; the only tedious part is rolling the dough into the individual balls -- pretty sticky and messy.  You could probably use a dough scoop, but I didn't have mine available when I made these.  But since this is a recipe you could whip up on a moment's notice when the chocolate craving strikes, it's a good one to have up your sleeve.

Conclusion:  These are very chocolatey and nicely address a chocolate craving, but either increase the chili quantity or leave it out.  And as the recipe warns, don't over bake if you want that chewy texture.

Recipe:  Chocolate Chilli Cookies via Scientifically Sweet

(The original recipe is no longer available, but this one for double chocolate cookies might be similar.)