The Recipes

Title (Who)

Recipe

1. Sarah vs. Barack Truffles (Patti)

 

 World-aware Barack truffles:

 - 3 dark chocolates, port and almond oil

 - plain, roasted almond, or rosemary almond centers

 - coated in curry, cocoa or freshly ground cinnamon

 

Homogeneous Sarah truffles:

 - white chocolate & soy milk

 - coated in powdered sugar

2. Mushroom* Baracklava (Elisa)

WINNER MOST ARTISTIC

I had been given mushrooms …~1.5 lb shiitakes, and ~2-2.5 lb white/button mushrooms.  Without knowing what I was going to do with them, I roasted them, just so they wouldn't get funky and rot. I cut the button mushrooms into quarters &sliced the shiitakes. (In retrospect, all-thinly-sliced mushrooms would probably have worked better for this recipe.) Roasted them, separately, on a baking sheet spread with a little olive oil, topped off with salt and pepper. Don't recall the oven temperature, and my oven is wildly inaccurate, anyway: maybe ~325, maybe ~20 minutes? Basically roasted until I thought they were, uhhh, roasted enough. Then I put them back in the fridge in sealed containers until I figured out what I was actually going to do with them.

Eventually I settled on barackalava and figured I might enter it in the worst-pun category. :-)

Defrosted a package of phyllo (bought it frozen; left it in the fridge overnight; then out on the counter, unopened, for a couple of hours; all this per instructions on the package)

Meanwhile I put ~1.5-2 cups organic dark chocolate bits in a large (4 c.) Pyrex cup, with ~1/4 cup (2%) milk. I heated that in the microwave on the 50% power setting just long enough to soften the bits a bit. Then stirred them in until they were relatively smooth (though some bits remained a bit chunky).  Also melted some butter; & (in a separate container) sifted some cocoa with a little nutmeg. Set these aside...

Sprayed a baking sheet with canola oil. Laid down two layers of phyllo dough, and either sprayed the top with canola oil or lightly brushed some butter on (alternated which fat/lubricant somewhat randomly; again a suggestion on the phyllo package).

 

Laid down a (admittedly somewhat spotty) layer of chocolate, first, I think. Probably sprinkled a little cocoa on that as well (just used a little tiny sifter/strainer to shake it on). Then a layer of phyllo dough, a very light layer of fat, a layer of one of the types of mushrooms plus a little cocoa, a layer of phyllo dough, etc. etc. I ended with a top layer of phyllo dough, brushed with some butter.  Baked at ~375 for ~20 minutes.

Dusted some more cocoa on top after it came out of the oven. Let it cool for a while at room temperature, then put it in the fridge; I think I took it out later that evening and cut it into squares, but I was nervous about getting down to the  traditional diagonal shapes; I really thought it would all disintegrate if I kept cutting*. Refrigerated it again, and managed to cut it into the diagonals the next day (mostly by taking pieces out of the pan, putting them onto a waxed-paper lined cutting board, making the cuts, then putting them back in the pan.

I didn't quite use up all the mushrooms, nor the chocolate, nor the phyllo dough, in fact. So essentially, all the measurements are not merely approximate, but somewhat meaningless!

*To be honest, when it first came out of the oven, I was ready to chuck it in the compost. I'd had ~zero previous experience working with phyllo dough, and all around the edges it seemed to have the consistency of crisp newsprint. I figured it would totally fall apart, and/or really have no flavor. But the middle sections were actually pretty decent, and tasty (due to the chocolate, I'm sure, and not the dough), so I did not despair! In retrospect, I'll probably try another brand of phyllo dough next time around, if I do something like this again. This phyllo was politically correct and organic, but flavorless and perhaps just not very high quality.

3. Palin’s Alaskan Chocolate ‘Chilly’ (Deborah)

RECIPE

(except used Scharffenberger’s unsweetened chocolate rather than bittersweet)

4. Double Chocolate Biscotti (Russ & Penelope)

2/3 c whole almonds
½ c butter
¼ c sugar
2 eggs
2T Amaretto or Kahlua
2c. plus 2T. flour
1/3 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1½ t baking powder
¼ t salt
2/3 c chopped semisweet chocolate  (You can use mini choc chips)

Toast nuts @ 350 for 8-10 minutes.  Cool.  Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add eggs and liqueur.  Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl and add to creamed mixture.  Cut nuts into halves or thirds.  Fold them and chopped chocolate into dough.  

Make 2 logs ½ high, 1½" wide and 14" long.  Place on greased and floured baking sheet.  Bake at 325 on middle rack of oven for 25 minutes or until lightly browned.  Cool on rack for 5 minutes.  Cut on cutting board at 45 degree angle about ½" thick.  Place slices upright on cookie sheet ½" apart and bake 8-10 minutes longer to dry out.  Cool on rack.  Store in airtight container.

5. White and Dark Chocolate Martinis (Thib)

 

 

No RECIPE

6. Red, White and Blueberry (Tom P.)

 

 

White chocolate field of strawberries and blueberries

7. HyPEARbole (Tom P.)

 

 

Dried pears spread with dark chocolate

8. Bi LLayers (Bill Ayers) Cake (Karen)

 

 

No RECIPE

9. Chocolate Covered Bacon (Tom L.)

WINNER MOST DECADENT

 

 

 

 

Election-year pork, disguised as something sweet….

10. Ribbons and Lame Duck (Katrina)

WINNER BEST SAVORY AND BEST OVERALL

 

 

 

 

 

Chocolate noodles with duck cooked in port, garnished with squash and pomegranate seeds

11. Palin Comparison (David)

1 c. unsalted butter
5 oz. Scharfenberger 99%
3 eggs
1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa
3/4 c. sugar
nine inch cake pan, buttered

Melt butter & chocolate -microwave defrost
In separate bowl, beat eggs with sugar, sift in cocoa, mix and then add melted butter and chocolate and bake 17 minutes at 300F.

Cool. Plate carefully - tends to stick to the pan.   

I prefer this cake without the white chocolate. Instead, serve with
lightly sweetened barely whipped cream.

Pale variant. This was painful.

3 oz Valhrona white, melted.
2 T sour cream

combine. fret about how yellow it is. dump on top of cake anyway and
hope for the best. spread and let cool partially. shave more white
chocolate on top. I used a cheap serrated steak knife for texture.
refrigerate for at least an hour, but let it warm to room temperature
before serving.

12. Ribs (Peter and Lori)

 

 

This got LOTS of votes!!

 

RECIPE

13. I can see Russia! (Judy & Karen)

WINNER ON THEME

 

Recipe required at least 2 people with a sense of humor, being driven by Deborah, allowing them to concentrate on the recipe - that is the only critical ingredient.  Deborah served as consultant as well as driver. 

For the snow of Alaska and Russia, we chose vanilla ice cream.  We removed the ice cream from the freezer, let it melt a little and then crushed it flat with a large dish.  We began the artistry after checking Patti's globe for the geography of the area.  Since we don't like Russia as much, we made Russia boring and flat and we designed mountains for Alaska.  The ocean between was Hershey's chocolate syrup, generously squeezed from the tube.  The hammer and sickle and the "Alaska" writing were red cake decorative icing. 

Return the dish to the freezer and when ready to serve, lay out on a ziplock filled with ice.  Do not allow anyone to start eating until viewing is complete and make sure they don't eat the decorative icing first! 

14. Macarons a la Praline Swinging (Francois)

 

 

Macaroons with Praline (Palin) filling for the swing states (turning blue)...

15. Choctuber Surprise (Mike P.)

WINNER BEST TASTING

 

This recipe is called Mock Chestnut Torte on epicurious.com and in
A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking by Marcy Goldman.  Their version
is gluten- and dairy-free and kosher, but I didn't worry about that.

Flourless Chocolate Cake with Sweet Potato

I tried it with Scharffenberger 70%, but used 62% for the party.  I used Guittard 61% for the glaze shown below instead of the glaze
recipe from the web site/book.

 

Torte Ingredients
9” springform pan, parchment on the bottom
1/2 c. unsalted butter
1/3 c. granulated sugar
6 large eggs, separated
1 1/2 c. cooked & riced/mashed sweet potatoes
10 oz. Scharffenberger 62% chocolate, melted and cooled
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

 

First cook the sweet potatoes.  I started with almost two pounds of sweet potatoes.  You want a uniform smooth mass without fibers, so you end up cutting away the outer layer of the potatoes and any eyes.  I used large sweet potatoes to reduce the amount wasted. The recipe said you can use yams or canned instead of fresh cooked, but I didn't try them. I just scrubbed the sweet potatoes and baked  them until they were soft (about an hour, check that a fork can easily go to the center of ohe potato).  Cool them a bit, then peel them and remove any bad spots.  I used a ricer to mash them, which gives a good consistency. Measure 1 1/2 cups of them. Let them cool.

Melt the chocolate.  I use a microwave, starting with a minute on half power.  Stir the pieces and give it another shot.  As it starts to melt, decrease the time between stirs to 20 seconds or less until it is mostly melted. Once most of it is liquid, the remaining lumps will melt if you wait another minute or two and stir it.  Set aside to cool.

Preheat the oven to 350.

 

In a mixing bowl large enough to eventually hold all the batter, cream the butter with 1/3 cup sugar. Then, in turn, stir in the egg yolks, sweet potatoes, and chocolate until blended.  The batter will be heavy.

In another bowl, whip the egg whites, sprinkling in the cream of tartar (If you have your own way to whip egg whites without it, do what works for
you).  As the egg whites start to firm up, sprinkle in the 2 tablespoons of sugar.  You want them stiff but not dry.  Be sure there is no liquid left and the whites are fluffy.

Start folding about a third of the egg whites into the batter. The goal is for the first part of the egg whites to break up the batter somewhat. When the batter becomes uniform, fold in the remaining egg whites all at once with a gentle lift and flip motion. The goal is to avoid deflating the whites as you make the batter smooth. Pour/spoon the batter into the 9-inch springform pan.

Bake for 40-45 minutes.  Check by inserting a toothpick in the center. It won't be completely clean like a flour-based cake, but it shouldn't
be wet with batter.

Cool for 20 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack.  When cool, glaze.

 

Glaze Ingredients
6 ounces  Guittard 61% chocolate
3 tablespoons heavy cream
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Just put the chocolate, cream, and butter in a microwavable bowl. Start with a minute at half power then stir.  Continue 20-30 seconds at a time at half power until it is mostly melted.  When there are just a few lumps left, wait a minute and they will melt and you can stir it until smooth.

Let it cool enough so it won't run off a spoon, then pour/spread over the cake.

17. Nana’s Chocolate Cake (Maureen & Tom)

 

No RECIPE

18. Moose Mousse (Lockes)

 

No RECIPE

20.  Salami (Chiyoko)

1) Dark cocoa powder can from Trader Joe's ($4.99 — an excellent value and tastes good!)
2) Sugar; I usually fill an empty can of 1) half full, but it depends on your taste, so taste while you are mixing!
3) I usually use Cuisine Arts blade to mix them
4) ~3 sticks unsalted butter, melted, add to 1-2 altogether
5) Biscotti- 1 package; add at the end so that they do NOT become powder-like, but rather remain looking like 'fat' pieces in salami
6) Port wine at any time of this whole process-you add and taste, add more, repeat...this process is quite enjoyable!  :-)


7) Optional - Small espresso cup of coffee or dense instant coffee

8) Roll to look like Sushi/salami roll in wax paper, and freeze. Before your eat, take them out of freezer 1/2 hour or less, slice it thin like salami.

In step 6), experiment with different kinds of liquor, which is fun!

21. Chocolate Cake (Susan and Mike F.)

 

No RECIPE

22. Where’s the Bread? Pudding (Helen)

 

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/CHOCOLATE-BREAD-PUDDING-109128