It’s been a busy spring.  So busy that I’ve fallen behind in my Recipe Experiments. But there’s one thing I never fall behind on:

Glee.

Yes, it’s true.  I’m a Gleek.  A huge one, too.  But I’m not alone.  There’s many of us.  We are legion.  We are loyal.  And we love to throw Glee parties and drink mojito slushies.  In fact, we had one such occasion this past Tuesday at the house of my fabulous friends, Brian and Rita.  We had a potluck dinner, complete with chicken marbella (delicious), quinoa (delicious), homemade bread (delicious), a corn-feta salsa (supremely delicious), more potato and corn chips than is probably healthy, homemade wine, the mojitos (of course) and these zucchini sticks.

Chase signed up to be the taster for this particular recipe experiment and he approves.  I’m in fact going to order a stamp that says “Chase Approves” and use it accordingly.  Seriously.  Well maybe not seriously.  But maybe seriously.  How much do stamps cost anyway?

This was a Parmesan zucchini recipe that I found originally on Cooking Light and then adapted a bit.  It makes a good appetizer, crunchy, delicious, and in there underneath the awesomeness and the bread crumbs is a vegetable.  So that counts towards your daily 5.  Just FYI.  And these are in fact so easy that I just prepared the parts of the recipe at home, brought it all to Brian’s and then assembled and baked them there.  About 5 minutes of prep, 20 minutes of baking and that’s all there is to it.

Romano Zucchini Sticks
Serves 8

3 large zucchini
1.5 c. panko
1/2 c. grated Romano cheese
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp pepper
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tbsp red pepper flakes
2 eggs, whisked
cooking spray

Preheat oven to 400F.

Cut each zucchini in half cross-wise and then cut each half into 8 sticks.  Combine panko, salt, pepper, oregano, red pepper flakes and Romano cheese in a medium bowl.  Dip the zucchini sticks first in the egg, letting the excess run off, and then dredge in the panko mixture, pressing as much of the mixture into the sticks as possible.  Place sticks side by side on a large baking sheet that’s been coated with cooking spray.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until browned and crispy.  Serve!  Eat.  Share.

Related posts:

1. the Great Recipe Experiment: #7-Red Pepper Cannellini Dip
2. the Great Recipe Experiment: #5-Asopao de Pollo
3. the Great Recipe Experiment: #4-peanut butter cups

no, not love.  This is a recipe post, not a Beatles soundtrack.  All you need is this roasted red pepper and cannellini bean dip—and the people will rejoice.

This is another in the long line of recipe experiments I have going, which my coworker Susan and others were nice enough to sign up to try.  Making this stuff is, on a difficulty scale of 1 to 10, somewhere between “fall asleep while meditating” and “eat cookie.”  No lie.  I did feel it needed a bit more than the recipe indicated, though, so at Josh’s suggestion I added another clove of garlic and at my suggestion, I added a tablespoon of dried oregano.  I think it would be especially delicious with a good dash of hot sauce thrown in, which I will probably do when I make it again this weekend, but that may not be good for the weaker-stomached amongst us.

Either way, the dip is delicious, easy to make, easy to scale, easy to manipulate and add flavors to and really good for you.  I really think I’m going to make and keep a batch this weekend for using as a sandwich spread.  I mean, this spread thickly on a good loaf of bread with some roasted turkey, cucumbers, arugula and red onions….well now I’m hungry again.

Roasted Red Pepper and Cannellini Bean Dip
adapted from Cooking Light

1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1 (16-ounce) can no salt added cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1 (7-ounce) bottle roasted red bell peppers, drained
2  garlic cloves
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp dried oregano

Put beans, basil, vinegar, peppers, garlic and oregano in a food processor. Place top on the processor and blend, drizzling in oil slowly.  Process until smooth and then stir in salt and pepper.

And that’s it.  Good for appetizers, snacks, sandwich spreads, eating rolled up in lawash wraps with some lettuce and veggies…whatever moves you.

There.  Now go in peace to love and feed the multitudes.

Related posts:

1. the Great Recipe Experiment: #8-Romano Zucchini Sticks
2. the Great Recipe Experiment: #5-Asopao de Pollo
3. Ring that Bell Pepper

I'm all thumbs today

You know what you shouldn’t do when baking something, especially for the first time?  Read the line in the recipe that says to place the cookie dough on “buttered or cooking parchment- lined 12- by 15-inch baking sheets” and think, “Well, I hate to butter a pan, I’ll use baking spray instead.”

This is really dumb for two reasons.  One, cooking spray ≠ butter ≠ parchment paper.  Two, if there’s a half pound of butter in your cookie dough, you probably don’t need even to butter the baking sheet at all.  But hey, let’s say you haven’t eaten much that day and you just have an absolutely Stupid Moment and think it’s a good idea to apply baking spray to a cookie sheet before laying your nicely molded cookies on it.  Let’s say this moment continues for about 20 minutes and culminates in you scratching your head as you see that your cookies have spread out to the point that they’re practically deformed and in no way resemble the cute little round “thumbprints” you intended.  Then, minutes later (how many minutes, I won’t say), the light bulb in your head suddenly goes off in an epiphany of knowledge, fireworks boom, morning dawns and the nine choirs of angels belt out in heavenly voice: why the hell did I do that?  I know better.  What was I thinking?  Duh.

And then you make a second batch of cookies.  A week later.  Because you were too tired/annoyed at yourself to make another batch of them that night.

I’m not saying that happened or anything.  But it could.  Cough.  To anyone, ok?

Anyway, these cookies were good.  You definitely want the dough cold though, because it’s a bit crumbly, so if you’re doing one sheet at a time, keep the rest in the fridge.  I contemplated using my own regular recipe for the cookie dough but after ruminating (ha!  good word) on it for a bit, I decided that the crispy yet moist texture of this cookie works out well.  Good family fun, two thumbprints up.

Chocolate Thumbprints
from MyRecipes.com

1  cup  (1/2 lb.) butter, at room temperature
1/2  cup  granulated sugar
1/4  cup  firmly packed brown sugar
2  large egg yolks
1  teaspoon  vanilla
2  cups  all-purpose flour
1/2  teaspoon  baking powder
1/4  teaspoon  salt
About 1/3 cup turbinado sugar (raw sugar—can also substitute regular white sugar)
Chocolate ganache (recipe follows)

1. In a bowl, with an electric mixer on high speed, beat butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla until well blended, scraping sides of bowl as needed.

2. In another bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and salt. With mixer on low speed, beat flour mixture into butter mixture until well blended. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill until dough is firm but pliable, about 30 minutes.

3. Place about 1/3 cup turbinado sugar in a shallow bowl. Shape dough into 1-inch balls and roll in turbinado sugar to coat. Place 1 inch apart on buttered or cooking parchment- lined 12- by 15-inch baking sheets. Press your thumb into the center of each cookie to make a 1/2-inch-deep indentation.4. Bake cookies in a 325° oven until lightly browned, 10 to 12 minutes; if baking more than one pan at a time, switch pan positions halfway through baking. Transfer cookies to a rack to cool completely (if indentations have disappeared, make them again while cookies are warm).5. Carefully fill each indentation with about 1 teaspoon chocolate ganache. Let stand until ganache is shiny and firm to the touch, about 1 hour (or chill for about 30 minutes).

Chocolate ganache
In a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water (bottom of bowl should not touch water), occasionally stir 6 ounces chopped bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, 2 tablespoons whipping cream, 1 tablespoon corn syrup, and 1 tablespoon butter until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Remove from heat and let cool until thick but not firm, about 15 minutes. Makes about 1 1/4 cups.

Related posts:

1. the Great Recipe Experiment: #4-peanut butter cups
2. the Great Recipe Experiment: #3-Peppermint Patties
3. the Great Recipe Experiment: #2-Cranberry Bars

This may actually be my favorite of the experiments so far.  Granted, there have only been 5–so far—but this is still one of my top ones.  My fabulous cousin Carmen picked this Puerto Rican chicken and rice stew to try out; I made it as dinner for Josh and myself tonight and bundled up a bunch to take her for lunch.  This dish is not only tasty, it’s informative.  It’s taught me at least 3 yummy things.

1.  There’s such a thing as “annatto oil,” which is made by infusing oil with achiote seeds .  It’s used to flavor and color foods in South American cooking.  I didn’t actually use it here.  I used olive oil.  But good to know it’s possible.

2.  Sofrito is awesome.  Sofrito is another thing I didn’t know about before this recipe.  It’s a sauce made with tomato and onion and it’s the base of lot of Puerto Rican dishes.  You can make it yourself or buy it jarred from the store, like I did, in the Hispanic aisle at the grocery store.  It smells fantastic.  It tastes fantastic.  And how could it not?  This particular one has tomatoes, bell peppers, garlic, onion and herbs.  I am very much looking forward to trying it out in other recipes.

3.  This one-dish meal is super filling, pretty cheap and layered with flavor.  Chicken and rice stew is bland no more.  Nay, it is tomato-y and delicious!

You can make this yourself, in a little over a half an hour.  You can.  You too.  Yep, even you, Sophia.  I know you’re reading this.  Do not fear the succulent savorings that await you.  Do not fear the chicken.

I will admit that I made one major omission, on purpose: I skipped the alcaparrado, which is a mixture of green olives, pimentos and capers, mostly because neither Josh nor I are fans of green olives, pimentos or capers.  Not at all.  If you do like those things, you’ll want to add them in; I’m sure they add just another good layer of flavor (good for you, anyway…not good for me).

I also want to point out that this recipe says to use a “large nonstick skillet.”  Well I did that.  And it was fine.  Until I got to the part where they say to “Add in 15oz of chicken stock and 4 cups of water.”  Apparently when they say “large skillet,” they really mean large skillet.  Like just a giant freaking skillet.  Which I didn’t have.  Well, I didn’t have one that had a lid.  So I just poured the goodness into a large pot and then added all the liquids.  Should I have anticipated that before hand?  Yes.  Did I?  No.  What have we learned here?  “You’re gonna need a bigger pan.”

Asopao de Pollo
from CookingLight–makes 5 servings (serving size: 2 thighs and 1 3/4 cups rice mixture)

1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
10 chicken thighs (about 3 pounds), skinned
2 tablespoons Annatto Oil or olive oil
1 1/2 cups Sofrito
3/4 cup diced plum tomato
1 1/2 cups uncooked medium-grain rice
2/3 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup diced lean ham (about 2 ounces)
1 (4.4-ounce) bottle alcaparrado, drained, or 3/4 cup pitted green olives and 1/4 cup capers
4 cups water
1 (15.75-ounce) can fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1 cup frozen green peas, thawed

Combine the first 4 ingredients in a small bowl. Sprinkle chicken with the oregano mixture.

Heat Annatto Oil [or olive oil]  in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken; cook 8 minutes, turning once. Reduce heat to medium. Add Sofrito and tomato; cook 3 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add rice, wine, ham, and alcaparrado; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add the water and chicken broth; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 20 minutes.

Stir in the peas, and cook for 5 minutes or until the rice is tender.

Eat, enjoy.  Well, we enjoyed it.  A lot.  Will Carmen?  We’ll see….

Related posts:

1. the Great Recipe Experiment: #4-peanut butter cups
2. the Great Recipe Experiment: #6-Chocolate Thumbprints
3. the Great Recipe Experiment: #2-Cranberry Bars

It's peanut butter chocolate time!

I don’t know what to tell you about this particular experiment except for two things:

1. I don’t know why I didn’t think of doing this a long time ago
2. Because of this experiment, I found and bought and now have 100 reeeeeeally tiny cupcake wrappers.  Like, “Honey I Shrunk the Cupcake Liners.”  And, like all miniature versions of things, they are adorable.

In addition to the tiny cupcake liners, I used a few regular sized ones to make some giant peanut butter cups.  It’s like a game of Big Cup, Little Cup.

I really like making my own candy.  I pretend that I am Willy Wonka and my house is a factory and my dog is an Oompa Loompa.  Given a little time, I may in fact convince Josh to build me a river of chocolate.  I shall call it “Bob.”  I always keep chocolate in the house, for snacking, for cocoa, for baking, for scrubbing my skin.  In fact, I bought five pounds of chocolate chips at By the Pound this weekend and Josh said, “That’s quite a bit of chocolate,” as if my procurement was odd, unnatural or unnecessary.  You can never have too much chocolate.  In fact, when I die, you all might as well just slice me open; there’s a 35.8% chance I’m made of hot chocolate.

So needless to say, this experiment was right up my alley, as all these experiments are more or less, since why would I pick out recipes I didn’t think I would like?  Except for the peppermint patties one, of course.  But that was for Josh.

These are really simple and if you didn’t think you could make your own peanut butter cups, you were mistaken, my dear Watson.  Because you know what you have to do?  Melt chocolate.  Pour chocolate into tiny, tiny cupcake liner.  Add peanut butter.  Cover with more chocolate.  Chill.  That’s it.  You can do that, right?

One note about melting chocolate: you know you’re doing it right when the chocolate gets really shiny.  It gets soft and shiny and luscious looking and you just want to dive right in and start rubbing it all over yourself.  (That’s not just me, right?  Right?)  You do this by melting the chocolate slowly over indirect heat.  It takes a little bit of time but it’s worth it. Otherwise you risk scorching the chocolate, or freezing it up and Wonka would not approve.  And you want Wonka to approve.  In fact, your whole life can be determined by just asking yourself one question: What would Wonka do?

(Just a note…this recipe, much like the others in this series so far, came from Joy of Baking.  Clearly I was all about the J.o.B. in December 2008—I promise…there are other sources.  There are other sites.  They will be coming soon!)

Peanut Butter Cups
from Joy of Baking

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
9 ounces semi sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
9 ounces milk chocolate, coarsely chopped (I actually opted for dark instead)
1 tablespoon  shortening

Peanut Butter Cups: Line 36 miniature muffin cups with paper liners.*

Place the peanut butter, unsalted butter, and salt in a microwaveable bowl, and heat in the microwave for about one minute or just until soft, but not melted (check and stir the ingredients every 20 seconds). Stir in the confectioners sugar.

Melt the chocolates and shortening in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water.

Drop a teaspoon of the melted chocolate into each of the paper lined miniature muffin cups. Top with a scant teaspoon of peanut butter mixture. Then top with another teaspoon of melted chocolate. Refrigerate until set. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Makes about 36 peanut butter cups.

By the way, as a note of my own, don’t feel you need to have a muffin tin to put these in.  I just lined a cookie sheet with tin foil and placed the muffin liners on that and filled them up, standing alone.  Worked just fine. 

Related posts:

1. Peanut Butter Cookie Sandwiches
2. the Great Recipe Experiment: #3-Peppermint Patties
3. It’s Peanut Butter Cookie Time! Peanut Butter Cookie Time!

I bet Charlie Brown would like this

I always liked Peppermint Patty, maybe because she was a tomboy and I was a tomboy.  However, I never liked peppermint patties, because they were made of mint and I did not like the “curiously strong” flavor of mint.  This would later be amended to allow for the presence of mint in mojitos which is, I declare, the greatest of all mixed drinks.

I think some affinities–and aversions– for certain foods is genetic.  Like cilantro.  Some people love cilantro.  Some people may have a gene that makes them think that cilantro tastes like soap.  Apparently mint is not one of those foods, though.  My parents love chocolate mints.  I do not.  When I was a kid, we used to go to the dime store (it had a real name, but damned if I remember what it was.  I’m not sure I ever knew—we always just called it the “dime store”) or Krogers and my mom used to buy herself an occasional treat at the checkout counter and it was usually a York peppermint patty.  My dad did it, too.  They always offered me a bite and I always turned it down.  I don’t believe that mint should go into chocolate.  Mint should go into Cuban alcoholic beverages.  Or toothpaste.  Or you can chew fresh mint leaves like my grandmother does for a quick fresher-upper after dinner.  But not into chocolate.  You know what should go into chocolate?  Nothing.  It’s already perfect.  That was a trick question.

If you have to add something, it should be caramel and/or nuts, like chocolate turtles, or Snickers or you should melt down the chocolate into a delectable winter drink and top it with whipped cream.  But not mint.

Or so I thought.

I’m not saying I’ve completely changed my mind.  I’m just saying that maybe there’s a possibility that sometimes there can be acceptable substitutions for chocolate fillings that might occasionally, conceivably include mint.  But I’d have to sample a few more…just to be sure.  It’s for the sake of research.  You understand.

Anyway, because Josh likes them, back in December of 2008 I had stored away a recipe for homemade peppermint patties and then promptly forgot about it because of all that I described above (you were paying attention, weren’t you?  No?  I understand.  I don’t listen to myself half the time either.  What?  Nothing).  But after initiating my self-challenge for the Great Recipe Experiment and one of my brave volunteers selected the recipe, I had to confront the peppermint patty head-on.

So the first challenge was finding peppermint oil (not extract), which I eventually did, at the Ann Arbor People’s Food Co-op.  The second challenge was not kicking myself too hard after I then found the oil cheaper at By the Pound…after already having bought it from PFC.  Eh well.  The third challenge was not making a giant mess of myself and my kitchen by spilling powdered sugar everywhere.  The fourth challenge was estimating a fourth of a teaspoon of peppermint oil without my measuring spoons, which I seem to have lost.  And the fifth challenge was reconciling the recipe, which referred to the minty confection as a “batter” when what I had really resembled more of a “dough.”  That’s one, two, three, four, five.  Five challenges.  Ah ah ah.

But once I got past my nervousness of “will this work?” I realized that yes, yes it actually did work out.  Josh loved them.  And I was pretty proud of myself.  Also, the recipe says it makes 25-30 patties, but I got about 21 so…that may have just been me.  One great thing about this experiment was that since I was too lazy to find/buy evaporated milk, I learned online how to make my own!  The recipes for that and the peppermint patties are both below.

Peppermint Patties
from Joy of Baking

2 cups confectioners sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/4 teaspoon peppermint oil (do not use peppermint extract)
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons evaporated milk
9 ounces semi sweet or bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used a mix of dark and semisweet chocolate chips)
1 tablespoon shortening

Peppermint Patties: Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil, smoothing out any wrinkles. Lightly dust the foil with confectioners sugar (powdered or icing).

In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat (on low speed) the sugar, butter, peppermint oil, vanilla extract, and evaporated milk until combined. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until very creamy (about 2-3 minutes). Transfer the batter to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and place in the refrigerator to chill until firm enough to roll into balls (about 30 – 60 minutes).

Roll the batter into 1 inch (2.54 cm) balls and place on the prepared pan. Flatten each ball with the palm of your hand until the patties are about 1 1/2 inches (4 cm) in diameter and 1/3 inch (1 cm) thick. Cover and place in the refrigerator until the patties are firm (about one hour).

Chocolate Coating: Melt the chocolate and shortening in a heatproof bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water. Remove the patties from the refrigerator and dip, one patty at a time, into the melted chocolate, making sure both sides of each patty are completely coated with chocolate. (You can use 2 forks or a chocolate dipping fork.) Let any excess chocolate drip back into the bowl and then place the patties back on the foil. Once all the patties have been dipped in the chocolate, return to the refrigerator to chill until firm (30 – 60 minutes). Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container (separate layers with parchment paper or wax paper) for up to one month. Makes 25 – 30 patties.

Evaporated Milk

2/3 c. nonfat dry milk
3/4 c. water

Mix water and dry milk together.  Use instead of evaporated milk in recipes.   Easy, huh?

I wrapped the extra patties individually in tinfoil and stored them away in the fridge for easy snacking.  I also packed a few in a tin to send to a friend in D.C.  Hope she likes them!

Related posts:

1. the Great Recipe Experiment: #4-peanut butter cups
2. the Great Recipe Experiment: #1-Gianduja Bars
3. the Great Recipe Experiment: #6-Chocolate Thumbprints

so this cranberry walks into a bar...

Or alternatively titled, “Get Shortbread.”

The second recipe I decided to try for my Great Recipe Experiment was for the Joy of Baking’s cranberry shortbread bars.  Carrie and Sophia both said they’d be willing to sample these for me.  I actually would have made them early last week but for the life of me, I could not find a single, Godforsaken bag of cranberries anywhere.  Well, not frozen anyway and certainly not fresh (ha!).  And for this recipe, dried just certainly wouldn’t work.  Finally I had to resort to a Whole Foods visit–and indeed, they did have a few ten ounce bags of the frozen little fall berries.

I have a particular affinity for cranberry.  Not to eat, actually, and not because I’m fond of the taste (though I am, in juice, anyway) or the high level of antioxidants or the fairly ravishing color or any of those things.  No, my fondness for cranberries is entirely because of my grandmother.

My grandmother is just supremely awesome in ways that I can’t even express without going into a dozen different stories will titillate and awe you.  One of these days, I’ll go into more detail, perhaps when I post her recipe for cherry cordial (made with whiskey and thinned out with…more whiskey), homemade “cough syrup” (made with whiskey and…thinned out with more whiskey), and our familial favorite vanilla poundcake (oddly, lacking in whiskey).  But what’s pertinent to this story is cranberries.  And I like cranberries because they made my grandmother Portuguese.

Well, not really.  But she always wanted to be.  She’s from Rhode Island, Providence actually, and when she was a kid, she lived in an Portuguese and Italian neighborhood and every fall, she wished that she was Portuguese because those kids got to leave school to go pick cranberries off the cape.

Yes, that’s right.  My grandmother wanted to a Portuguese cranberry migrant worker.  But really, who hasn’t?

But no, the truly hilarious thing is not that she just wanted to be Portuguese, but rather that she then decided she was just going to say she was Portuguese because she figured she could pass for it.  (She can’t.)  It’s all right, though, she’s stopped doing that….because now she prefers to be Puerto Rican (she’s not).

there is something so appealing about creamed butter

That story actually has nothing to do with these bars, but it’s my favorite cranberry tale.  So there you go.

Anyway, I very much recommend these bars.  Josh sampled one before I packed them up and delivered them and raved, and  if you are a fan of cranberries, these will suit you just fine; they are sweet and tart and make good snacking.  Not to mention, they are extremely easy to make and pretty quick, too, and who doesn’t love that?  You could also easily replace the cranberry with pretty much any other fruit to suit your seasonal tastes.

Cranberry Shortbread Bars, from the Joy of Baking

Cranberry Filling:
8 ounces (2 1/4 cups)fresh cranberries
2/3 cup granulated white sugar
3 tablespoons water

Shortbread:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F  and place the wire oven rack in the center of the oven. Butter (or spray with a non stick cooking spray) a 9 x 9 inch  pan.

Cranberry Filling: In a medium sized saucepan, place all the ingredients. Then, over medium-high heat, cook the ingredients until boiling. Continue to boil the filling until it becomes thick and syrupy, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool while you make the shortbread.

Shortbreads: In a separate bowl whisk the flour, cornstarch, and salt. In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), cream the butter until smooth (about 1 minute). Add the sugar and beat until smooth (about 2 minutes). Beat in the vanilla extract. Gently stir in the flour mixture just until incorporated. Evenly press two-thirds of the shortbread into the bottom of the prepared pan. Then evenly spread the cranberry filling over the shortbread base, leaving a 1/4 inch border.

With the remaining shortbread dough, using your fingers, crumble it over the top of the cranberry filling. Then lightly press the dough into the filling. Bake in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes, or until golden brown on top. Remove from oven, place on a wire rack, and while still hot, cut into 16 squares. Allow to cool completely in pan.

Makes about 16 bars.

Related posts:

1. the Great Recipe Experiment: #1-Gianduja Bars
2. the Great Recipe Experiment: #6-Chocolate Thumbprints
3. the Great Recipe Experiment: #3-Peppermint Patties

677.  Six hundred and seventy seven.

A year in the 7th century?  Yes, it was.  The number of a Boy Scout troop in Washington?  Probably.  The number of hours that equal 40,620 minutes?  According to my desktop converter widget, yes.  It is also the number of recipes in my Evernote recipe notebook.  Or at least, it was a couple weeks ago…I’ve since added a few more.  13 more.  At that rate I’m going, I’ll be at magic number 700 before you read this blog post.

That’s a lot of recipes.  It doesn’t even include any of the recipes in any of the (46) cookbooks I have.  And I love it because I get an unholy amount of glee from finding, collection, reading and researching recipes.  However, it occurred to me that this is absolutely useless unless I actually try out some of them.  Sure, I make plenty…I mean, that’s evidenced in this blog already.  But I’ve barely scraped the surface of the glorious world of food stored away in my digital notebooks.

I wanted to do something about that.  But knowing me and my propensity for utter laziness, I knew I’d need some pressure.  So I posted on Facebook for volunteers to sign up to taste test some recipes and my friends, delightful fans of free food that they are, obliged me.  Thus the Great Recipe Experiment was born.

I collected the first of the recipes in December 2008—that was when I started adding things to Evernote.  They include chocolate thumbprints, peanut butter cups, Jamaican spice chicken, cranberry shortbread bars, asopao de pollo, brussell sprouts with pecans, peppermint patties and the gianduja bars, which I started with first.

I got this recipe from Giada de Laurentiis’ Everyday Italian on the Food Network.  Gianduja is an Italian chocolate with hazelnut paste in it—for instance, the popular spread Nutella—and in this case, it acts as both a kind of frosting for the brownies and a tasty mat for the the crunchy topping of nuts and chocolate chips.

The nice thing about this recipe is that it’s really more of an idea—-and you don’t even have to make the brownies yourself.  Got a box of Duncan Hines?  Great.  Got a couple plain brownies you picked up at the store that you want to fancy up a bit?  Excellent.  Made some delicious brownies from scratch, perhaps using a recipe you got from a certain blog that perhaps you read like, all the freaking time….cough…..good for you!

For the brownie, I used the super-awesome-brownie recipe that I first tried out a few weeks ago.  You know that recipe I told you that you needed to make?  You really need to make them.  But anyway, I made the brownies and then proceeded to awesomize them (you like that word?  It’s a good word) by spreading a layer of chocolate hazelnut spread on top—not a thick layer, just a good smear all over.

Then I mixed together a cup and a half or so of chocolate chips with a few handfuls of chopped nuts–I know the recipe and common sense says to use hazelnuts, and you’re welcome to, but I needed to use up a huge bag of walnuts my mother had gotten on sale and given to me, and so I used those.  I sprinkled the chip-nut mixture liberally over the hazelnut spread and….well, actually that was it.  Easiest fancified brownie ever.

Will it pass the taste test?  My coworker Susan will get them on Monday, and a few other people, so I’ll update this and let you know.  Josh and I did give the bars a try…I mean, how could I not?  And they were pretty good.  Rich, so I advise moderation.  Oh, and whipped cream.  I advise whipped cream.

Original Gianduja Bars Recipe

4 brownies (about 2 by 3-inches)
1/4 cup nutella
1/4 cup chopped toasted hazelnuts
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips (try a mix of white, semisweet, and milk chocolate)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.  Spread each of the brownies with 1 tablespoon of nutella. Sprinkle each of the brownies with 1 tablespoon chopped hazelnuts. Top the nuts with 1 tablespoon mini chocolate chips. Place the brownies on a baking sheet and bake for 5 to 7 minutes until the chocolate is starting to melt. Transfer the brownies to the refrigerator and let cool until the chocolate hardens, about one hour.

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