Blondies

Blondies from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:
- 8 tbsp melted butter
- 1c brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- pinch salt
- 1c flour
Extras: choc chips, nuts, coconut flakes

- Butter an 8x8 pan
- Mix melted butter with brown sugar, beat in egg and vanilla
- Add salt, flour
- Add any extra additions
- Bake at 350 for 30+ minutes until toothpick comes out clean

Chocolate Air Cake

Smitten Kitchen's "Lighter Than Air Chocolate Cake"

Ingredients:

- 12oz semisweet choc chips

- 6 tbsp water

- 12 large eggs, separated, at room temp

- 1 1/3 c sugar

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 2 tbsp cocoa powder

- 2c heavy cream

- 6 tbsp powder sugar, sifted

- 1 tsp vanilla

- Melt choc chips with 6 tbsp water in microwave in 1 minute increments on half power until melted

- Beat yolks, 2/3c sugar, salt in stand mixer 5 minutes

- Fold in melted chocolate

- Clean beaters, beat egg whites in stand mixer until they just hold soft peaks

- Add remaining 2/3c sugar into egg whites, until stiff peaks

- Fold egg whites slowly into choc mixture

- Spread mixture into four baking pans (9", greased/parchment), baking at 350 until puffed/dry (15-18minutes)

- Sift cocoa powder onto cakes, cover with wax paper, invert onto pans and freeze 1 hour

- Filling: beat cream, powder sugar, vanilla with clean beaters until stiff peaks

french toast

Great french toast means finding the best bread.  The semifreddi's cinnamon twist bread is begging to be french toasted, and for good reason - the intense cinnamon flavor really comes through.  You must serve them with fresh berries!

In mixing bowl, combine:

4 eggs
1-2c milk
Dash salt
Dash sugar
Cinnamon (if not using cinnamon bread)
Dash vanilla extract

Dip slices of bread one by one into mixture briefly, and pile up on a plate to await toasting.  Turn on your stove to medium heat, and use a buttered pan that has a cover - this is the trick to getting the toast to cook through without burning on the outside.  A few minutes on each side should do it.

Blueberry Pancakes

Apparently there are some tricks to making award-winning pancakes.  The first is keeping the griddle on medium/medium-low, which is annoying in that it takes longer, but pancakes will be cooked more evenly throughout.  Also, to get a really great fluffier texture, save the whites of the eggs for last - whip them up into peaks and then fold them into the batter at the very end.  And lastly, if adding fruit or blueberries, no need to mix them into the batter - just drop them onto the pancakes as they cook, which will result in more even distribution and less messiness in the finished product.

This recipe makes about a dozen or so pancakes.

SIFT TOGETHER:
- 2 cups flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- a little less than 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 tbsp sugar

MIX TOGETHER:
- 2 egg yolks (reserve egg whites to whip and fold in later)
- 3 c. buttermilk (without buttermilk on hand, you can easily "make" buttermilk by filling a measuring cup with 1 tbsp white vinegar and then adding regular milk until it reaches the 1c line.)
- 4 tbsp melted butter

Combine dry ingredients and wet until just lumpy (don't overmix), and fold in egg whites

Drop onto greased griddle (recommend using a small amount of butter as grease), drop blueberries (or strawberries were great too) onto pancakes as they cook, flip after a few minutes once golden on bottom (and bubbles appear).

To keep warm while cooking them, keep finished pancakes on heat-proof plate in oven at 175 degrees.