a wolf angel is not a good angel

It’s not vengeance-is-mine-cakes, it’s the Tunnel of Fudge, an empowering bundt. (Sorry. This is what happens when you spend a week watching Buffy.)

1 cup soft butter
Beat until light.

1½ cups sugar
Add sugar to butter and cream well.

2 egg yolks (save the whites)
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
Beat together and add to sugar & butter.

2½ cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
Add to the rest of the ingredients.. Pour three quarters of batter into prepared Bundt pan and make a groove through it — I find that the amount of tunnel is pretty low for the amount of fudge, so I suggest trying to make a layer of batter going up the side of your pan (easier, because the dough is quite stiff and not poury). It will go up a bit less than halfway to the top, if you use 3/4 of the dough.

1½ cups brown sugar
4 tbsp cocoa
1 tbsp vanilla
½ cup walnuts, finely chopped
1 cup chocolate chips
Combine.

2 egg whites
Beat until stiff and fold into above mixture.

Fill groove with chocolate mixture. Cover with remaining batter. This also requires working with to make sure you don’t have fudge oozing out of the bottom. It’s better to have it ooze out the sides, but it’s possible to have neither. The layer on the bottom can be just a centimeter or so thick.

Bake at 350° 60-70 minutes, on a low shelf.

I found a recipe for a puff pancake, which puffs only until you cut it in half and all the air lets out and then you end up with a flat pancake which you’ve cooked in the oven instead of on a griddle. But it’s very good and easy (serves 2 not too hungry people, or one very hungry person).

Take a cast iron skillet and put it in the oven. Heat the oven to 450. Make the pancake batter: 1/2c flour, 1/2c milk, 2 eggs, a dash of salt. Mix them all together all at once and beat in a lot of air so the pancake will temporarily puff. When the oven is hot, put in 3T of butter (I think — the recipe said 4, which was too much, but I’ve only made it the once) and let it melt. Once it’s melted, pour in the batter. Cook for 10-12 minutes or until it’s puffy and golden and looks like part of your balanced breakfast. Serve with warm maple syrup, or strawberry sauce, or just munch on it plain. Takes almost no time to make, no time to clean up, and it tastes great.

Classic White Cupcakes

1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
2 drops each lemon and almond extract (I usually have no lemon extract and half the time replace almond by Amaretto. This tastes just fine.)
3 cups flour
¼ cup cornstarch
2 tbsp baking powder
2½ cups milk

Cream butter. Add sugar and beat well. Add eggs and extracts. Add dry ingredients and milk alternately. Blend at low speed until smooth, approximately 3 minutes. Bake at 350° for 20-24 minutes. Makes 24-36 cupcakes.

Chocolate Marshmallow Icing

6 marshmallows
2-3 squares unsweetened chocolate
6 tbsp milk
3 tbsp butter

Melt marshmallows and chocolate with milk. Add butter. Cool, add icing sugar until the consistency is correct.

(You probably want to double this.)

Happy potluck tonight. (Which I very much do not want to go to. However. I will go and most likely enjoy myself. If not I have chocolate-iced cupcakes to console.)

1 t sugar
1/2 c warm water
1 pkg yeast
1/2 c oil
1/2 c warm water
1/4 c sugar
2 t salt
2 eggs
3 1/2 - 4 c flour
sesame seeds
1 egg yolk beaten with 1 t water

Dissolve sugar in 1/2 c warm water in a large mixing bowl which has first been rinsed with hot water. Sprinkle yeast on top and let stand for 10 minutes. Stir to dissolve.

Combine with oil, water, sugar, salt, eggs and half of flour. Add in rest of flour slowly until dough looks right: it should be sticky. (I use a stand mixer for this, though usually a food processor is also okay. If you use a stand mixer, the dough should just start to crawl up the paddle.)

Cover dough and let rest for 10 minutes. Turn out onto a floured board and knead for 10 minutes, adding flour as needed. (You can do this part in the mixer also.)

Round up in a greased bowl. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in bulk, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Punch down, cover and let rise again until double, about 45 minutes. Divide dough into 3 equal parts. Shape into strands. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet and braid loosely (you can do any other shape, but braids are traditional and pretty). Fasten ends securely. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise until double. Brush with beaten egg yolk and sprinkle with seeds. Bake at 400 for 30 minutes, until golden brown. (If you use all the egg yolk, it will burn after half an hour. Once the top looks pretty — 15 to 20 minutes — cover it lightly with tinfoil.)

Server’s back up, I’m back to work. And my room smells of yeast, cause I made brioche, which is rising. Later I will make a chocolate bread pudding out of it.

4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more as needed
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp yeast
1/2 cup butter
3 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup water

Mix all the ingredients together however you best like to make bread. (I use a stand mixer, especially now that someone else has my Cuisinart.)

Let rise in a greased, covered bowl until double — 2-3 hours. Punch down, split into two. Place each half in greased loaf pans, let rise another hour, covered.

Brush the tops with 1 egg yolk mixed with 2 Tbsp milk.

Bake at 400F for 30 minutes.

I think my challah recipe is better, but I have a lot of butter I’d like to get around to using, so brioche it is.

While making butter chicken — mmm — tonight, I was trying to grind almonds, because it is apparently impossible to purchase ground almonds. (Yes, it’s more expensive, but since I always seem to end up with almond paste or not-quite-ground-enough almonds, I consider it worth it.)

I couldn’t figure out why my Cuisinart was not grinding the almonds. Until — aha! — I noticed that I was using the dough hook instead of a blade. That would do it.

Recipe:

Butter Chicken

1 lb chicken breasts, cubed (small)
3 tsp butter
1 onion, cut into strips
¼ tsp cinnamon
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 tsp grated ginger
½ tsp chili powder
1 tsp turmeric
1 tbsp coriander
4 green cardamom pods
¼ c. ground almonds
4 canned, seeded tomatoes, with juice (14 oz.)
1 tbsp tomato paste
½ c. plain yogurt
¼ c. whole milk

Melt the butter, and sauté onion and cinnamon. Add garlic, ginger, and spices. Cook for 1 minute, stirring.
Add the cubed chicken, and sauté until the pieces lose their pinkness on the outside. Add almonds, tomatoes and tomato paste. Mix well, and simmer 25 minutes.
Mix milk and yogurt together, and add to chicken. Heat but do not boil.

1 egg
1/2 cup sugar

Beat together, and add:

3/4 cup flour
1 t vanilla
1/2 t baking powder

When mixed, add cinnamon, your choice of nut (almond works best, hazelnut is also good) and chocolate chips in the amount you best like. Form into a 10″x2″x3/4″ log, bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Slice the biscotti and bake for another 10-15 minutes or until golden brown (and dry enough to actually be biscotti).
Yum.

I made lovely Kahlua brownies. They’re rather more Kahlua than brownie, but that’s also fine.
Melt together and cool:
1/2 c butter
3 oz unsweetened chocolate

Beat together:
1 1/2c sugar
3 eggs

To sugar & eggs, add butter-chocolate mixture, as well as:
1 1/2 c flour
1/2 t baking powder
1/3 c Kahlua (yes, really)

Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.

The recipe said to brush with a bit more Kahlua, but I elected just to put on some icing sugar. It’s plenty alcoholic. And tasty!

I’m taking it to our brand new gaming night. This should be exciting. We’re playing “Settlers of Catan”, and I just hope I’m not the only one to have never played it before.

To come: why word order doesn’t matter a bit in syntax (to some people), and anything else I can think of that’s not work.