Yeasted Chocolate Bread

       Some of you know that I was misdiagnosed with Celiacs the week before I left for college. I moved out to Colorado (thankfully the land of people wanting to convert every recipe to gluten free) and started to re-learn food. There were weeks at the beginning I ate a lot of corn tortillas-some of those weeks were because I didn't exactly know everything I could eat, and some of those weeks were because I was to poor to afford ridiculously expensive gluten free bread.

       I was not much of a cook before this time, but due to a series of events in my life, I started to enter the kitchen more. Being gluten free was a big factor. I did not want to go the rest of my life without eating a delicious x, y, or z. (Let's be honest, most gluten free things at the store are less than stellar.) So my task began, and I simultaneously began my journey to trying to learn gluten free and high-altitude baking. In all honesty, it was fun and I'll probably share some of what I learned with you guys another time. However, this is my post in praise of gluten. After about 3 1/2 strict, no slip up, gluten free years, it was discovered that I did not have Celiacs. I went out for a sandwich with crusty, multigrain bread and an almond croissant, and nearly cried with happiness.

        Getting to eat gluten again has been one of the most wonderful discoveries of my life. I still eat things I had not had in years and it is so exciting. I will never, ever, take advantage of the ability to bake and taste test my gluten-filled things because its freaking awesome, and to be honest it gives you a lot more range. There are some things that just cannot be duplicated (phyllo dough, croissants, ect.) gluten free. Getting to eat it and bake with it is a blessing and not something I will ever take for granted.

        I have to tell you guys, two of my favorite things in the world are Bread and Beer. (Yes, capitalized because they are truly almighty food for me!) Yes, I know they make gluten free beer and bread, but it is just not the same. 

        This bread is an ode of my appreciation to being free to be able to eat whatever I would like. It is yeasted, fluffy, and delicious. It is packed with an extremely rich chocolate flavor from Dutch processed cocoa powder, semisweet chocolate chips, and chopped bittersweet chocolate. It is sweet, and decadently creamy to the point where it is like you are almost eating warm ice cream because it seems to simply melt in your mouth. You can put a spot of butter on your piece, but seriously, even on its own-simple, sliced thick, warm out of the oven, this bread is heaven. The soft dough center is like a gentle chocolate pillow and the varieties of chocolate strewed within add a complexity and a serious depth of flavor. This is unlike any bread I have ever had, and it definitely deserves the title of an ode of my appreciation.

Adapted from "Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook" by Cheryl and Griffith Day

Makes one 10x4 inch loaf (you can use a 9x5)

2 1/2 C all-purpose flour
1/4 C Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1/3 C granulated sugar
1 1/4 TSP active-dry yeast
1-11/4 C warm water
6 TBSP unsalted butter, cubed, room temperature
1 TSP fine salt
1/2 C semisweet chips
1/2 C chopped bittersweet chocolate
Granulated sugar for sprinkling
1 TBSP whole milk 
A dash of vanilla extract

Ingredient notes: This loaf is absolutely lovely as is. However, if you wanted to mix it up some, I think the zest of an orange, a TBSP of a hazelnut or raspberry liqueur, a TSP of a fun extract or 1/2 C of nuts would all be wonderful!

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a dough hook attachment, combine the flour, cocoa powder, 1/3 sugar, and yeast. Turn the mixer on low and slowly add in the water to the mixture. (Yours may only take the 1 C so start with that, at altitude it will likely take more. Add the last 1/4 C only if necessary and only as much as is needed to wet the flour mixture). Mix for 3 minutes. Turn off the mixer and allow the dough to rest for 20 minutes.
2. After 20 minutes, add the cubed butter and salt and mix on medium speed until the dough comes together and the sides of the bowl are clean (about 5 minutes) and the dough has developed a sheen appearance. It is sticky and you may need to scrape off the sides once or twice to help it incorporate everything.
3. Turn the speed back down to low and add the chocolate chips, kneading for 1-2 minutes until the chips are distributed. 
4. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, form it into a round loaf and place it into an mixing bowl coated in a vegetable or canola oil, seem side down. Cover with plastic wrap and allow it to rise in a warm spot for 1 1/2-2 hours, until it has doubled in size.
5. Get out your loaf pan and sprinkle the bottom a small amount of granulated sugar. Next, turn the dough back out onto a floured surface and form in into an 8x6 loaf. With the long side towards you, roll it into a cylinder and place it into the loaf pan, seem side down. Loosely cover the pan loosely with plastic wrap and allow it to double in size again (about 1 1/2 hours). 
    * I placed mine covered in the fridge over night for a slow rise. The next morning I took it out while the oven preheated and allowed it to rise for about 30-40 minutes at room temperature. This is a great option if you do not have time to do it all in one day or what the bread warm in the morning). 
6. After about 1 hour into the second rise, position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat it to 350F. After the dough has finished rising, remove the plastic wrap. Combine the milk and vanilla extract in a small bowl and stir together. Brush the vanilla milk over the bread and then sprinkle the top with a touch of granulated sugar. 
7. Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes and then allow the bread to cool on a rack for 30 minutes before inverting. Slice and enjoy some warm! It will last about 3 days, wrapped up. It makes great toast as well :)

Yay, Gluten! Yay, Bread!

Love,
   Boulder Butter

Apple Cake with Walnut Streusel Topping + Banana Chocolate Chip Cake with Streusel Topping

     I have posted a lot of cake-like things on the blog over time and to be honest guys, it is because I absolutely love to have tea cakes, frosted cakes, snacking cakes, cupcakes, muffins, (insert any cake substance here) around. I find them to be one of the most enjoyable treats and some of the most relaxing things for me to make. I enjoy the process and the end results. Teacakes can be a wonderful thing, but sometime they are so simple it seems like just a wah-wah type item. However, once you have a truly delicious base for your teacake, it will change your mind on that completely. 

       This base is perfect! My favorite part is the really unique combination of dairy in it that produces the richest, creamiest and lightest of batters. It is to die for! Part buttermilk, stirred in and part whipped cream, folded in is apparently the key to blissful creaminess.  Plus the cake is made with canola oil instead of butter so the creaminess from the whipping cream shines through since butter is not overpowering anything. It totally transformed my expectations of banana bread a few months ago and now I have adapted it to other flavors. 

     It is delicious enough, that I trusted this simple apple cake to be a shine when I brought it in to a bakery I interviewed with last week. This is a position I have been thinking about all weekend because although I wanted it before I talked to one of the owners, the interview made me unbelievably excited for it. I am trusting this cake, and doing dances to the baking gods in hopeful wishing right now. Maybe if you make it and do a little dance next to your oven, it just might help my cause along the way!

Adapted from Shirley O. Corriher's Banana Bread in "BakeWise"

Makes one 9x5 or 10x4 loaf pan and 3 jumbo muffins or 6 standard muffins

Notes: You can also use bananas and chocolate chips or nuts (2 C mashed bananas-about 5 medium +1 C chocolate chips/nuts). Just fold them in instead of the apples in step 4. I made a double batch here, which yielded two loaves and 6 jumbo muffins. I followed the same method until the add-ins. One was apple with walnut streusel and the other was banana chocolate chip with plain streusel. You can also wrap the muffins and slice the bread and wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and they will last wonderfully in the freezer.

Cake

1 3/4 C sifted all-purpose flour

3/4 TSP baking powder-altitude (1 TSP at sea level)

1/4 TSP baking soda

1/2 TSP salt

1 1/2 C sugar

1/2 C canola oil

1 TSP vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1/2 C buttermilk

2 medium granny smith apples, pealed and diced* (see notes)

1/2 heavy cream

Topping

3/4 C walnuts

1 TBSP butter

1/4 TSP salt

1/2 C all-purpose flour

2 TBSP + 1TSP granulated sugar

3 TBSP brown sugar

1 TSP ground cinnamon

6 TBSP (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, softened

Cake

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F, and butter and flour your loaf pans and muffin tins.

2. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, powder, and salt in a medium bowl. 

3. In a larger bowl, mix together the oil and sugar until combined. Next mix in the extract, eggs, and buttermilk until everything is combined. 

4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and making large stirs, combine the two with as few strokes as possible. Once almost all of the flour is incorporated, fold in the apple pieces.

5. In a small bowl, beat the whipping cream to medium-stiff peaks and then add a small amount to the batter and gentle fold that in using large sweeping motions around the edges. Add the rest of the whipped cream and repeat. Your goal it to keep the air in the whipped cream and not collapse it so gently folding it in is key. 

6. Divide the batter into the prepared pans and muffin tins.

Topping

7. Toast the walnuts on a sheet tray at 350 for 3-5 minutes until you can smell the nutty-ness and they are just beginning to brown. Pull them from the oven, transfer them to a bowl and toss them with the 1/4 TSP salt and 1 TBSP butter. Set aside to cool.

8. In a small bowl, whisk together the sugars, flour, and cinnamon. Using a pastry cutter, of your fingers incorporate the butter, until it is homogenous and crumbly. 

9. Sprinkle the streusel over the loaf and muffins, followed by the walnut pieces. 

10. Place the loaf and muffins in the oven and bake the muffins for 25-30 minutes, until an inserted skewer comes out clean (rotate half way through). Continue to bake the loaf for an additional 15-25 minutes until the skewer comes out clean (rotate when you pull the muffins).

11. Allow both things to cool for about 20 minutes before inverting them! Enjoy.

Love,

Boulder Butter

Bourbon Caramel Brownies

     I already went on a pretty long rampage in my last post about my sudden desires for bars, particularly brownies. Although I got slightly sidetracked by some totally worth it blondies, I had to return to my original intentions. I will not talk to much in this post, because I realized as I cut these in squares a few hours ago just how tantalizingly sexy a brownie can be. So I think instead, I will just let the photos help you ponder what I mean by that...

Maybe it is the smell of butter, burnt sugar and bourbon that fills your kitchen as they bake.

Maybe it is the thick, dark chocolaty color they contain.

Maybe it is their fudgy, sticky quality.

Or just maybe it is the crunchy, sweet and salty notes the walnuts add from candying in the caramel.

I don't know what it is exactly, but these are sexy brownies.

Notes: If you don't want to use bourbon, substitute 1/4 C heavy cream for the bourbon. However, since the bourbon is balanced with the butter, it is not too strong and rather takes on a buttery caramel flavor with notes of bourbon. It is not overwhelming. For cocoa powder I did a mix of 3/4 C natural (un-alkalized) and 2 TBSP super alkalized (called Black Onyx from Savory Spice Shop in Denver). The cocoa powder is flexible though, so you can use all Dutch processed, all natural, or some combo of the too if you would like. 

Brownie base is from Alice Medrich's BitterSweet, "Best Cocoa Brownies." Found on Epicurious. 

Caramel/Topping:

1/2 C sugar

2 TBSP water

4 TBSP unsalted butter

1/4 C bourbon* (see notes)

1/4 TSP salt

1/2 C Walnuts 

Brownies:

10 TBSP unsalted butter

1 1/4 C sugar

3/4 C + 2 TBSP cocoa powder* see notes

1/4 TSP salt

1/2 TSP vanilla extract 

2 cold eggs

1/2 C all-purpose flour

For the caramel:

1. In a small saucepan, combine the sugar and water, turn onto medium heat and allow the sugar to liquefy and brown to a copper color (for more caramel making details go to Bananas Foster Cake)

2. Remove the pan from the heat, stir in 4 TBSP of diced butter, until it melts. Next add the 1/4 C of bourbon and salt, continue to stir, and then return the pan to heat. 

3. The mixture will seize into a ball. Continue to stir until the clumps have undone them selves and the caramel has darkened just a smidge. 

4.Pour the caramel onto a silicon mat or piece of parchment paper over a plate and place it in the freezer to harden.

For the Brownies:

1. Preheat the oven to 325F and line with aluminum and grease an 8x8 pan. 

2. In a heatproof bowl, combine the butter, sugar, cocoa powder and salt. Place the bowl over a small saucepan with an inch of simmering water. Stir the mixture periodically until the butter has melted and the ingredients have mixed together.

3. Remove the cocoa mixture from heat and let it cool. 

4. When it is warm (no longer hot), stir in the vanilla extract, followed by the eggs, one at a time they have completely combined. Add in the flour and stir until that is completely combined as well.

5. Transfer the batter into the prepared pan.

Assembly:

1. Remove the caramel from the freezer and cut it into small squares. Remove the squares and scatter them over the top of the brownies.

2. Chop the nuts into smallish pieces and scatter them on top of the caramel.

3. Bake in the oven at 325 for 25-30 minutes until the brownies have cooked through (you can use a knife to check). The caramel on top will look melted and soft, so look past that. It will harden as it cools.

4. Allow to cool in the pan for 20-30 minutes before removing. Allow to cool for 10 more minutes before slicing. They are delicious served with a glass of milk or vanilla ice cream :)

Love,

    Boulder Butter

German Chocolate Cake

     I did not post much recently, and I wanted to give some explanation for my disappearance. In the food blogging world, the holidays are a frenzy of recipe testing and posting to pair with the merriment and holly hanging around the house. I was definitely recipe testing through the month (top contenders go to an old-fashioned apple cake with bourbon brown-sugar icing and a chocolate zucchini clove cake with whipped honey hazelnut frosting). However, the beginning of November through New Years Day is my absolute favorite time of the year and I was already working and thinking about baking in that fashion all the time. I needed some time to bake for myself, for my friends, and for my family. I needed to enjoy the time baking for what it sparks in me and what I can give to those around me with a brief intermission from writing and photographing it. 

     Luckily, I felt very rejuvenated in this process. I hope you guys all had a chance to bake for your own peace and to share with those you love over the holidays as well. Coming back, I was thinking about what I wanted to post next and in the fashion of baking for my soul, I settled on a German Chocolate Cake. I have wanted to make one for a long time and really what could be better for your soul than that?? 

     Then I made the cake...the filling did not thicken up as much as it was supposed too, so instead of being a thicker frosting-like consistency, it was more coconut and pecans as the filling with a lighter liquidy mixture. I was so bummed and I felt I could never post what in my mind was seemingly a "disaster cake." However, then I tried it and good god, I went back and forth deciding what to do. It is true, it was not the perfect traditional German Chocolate Cake. However, such a delicious resulting mishap could not be hidden from people. The cake had to be shared.

      The cake is moist chocolate, whose depth comes from cocoa powder, semi-sweet chocolate and sour cream. The edges caramelizes ever so slightly on the to form the perfect sugary bite in the cake with just the right balance. Then the two layers are cut in half to form four thin layers of cake. This is absolutely perfect for maximizing coconut-pecan goo enjoyment. Since the frosting did not thicken up enough, it formed a slightly thick, rich, moist, milky, sweet simple syrup that soaked through each layer into pure bliss. It left the coconut and pecans behind to form a sugary coated delicious filling between each layer. It was decadent and rich. You know what, folks? I don't care if it wasn't like your traditional German Chocolate Cake. It was to die for and I at more of that cake than most I have ever made. So now, I am sharing this unique treat, embracing my imperfection, and enjoying the heck out of another giant slice of this lovely cake. 
(If you want the thicker frosting, we will go over that in instructions, but really I think you should give this a try!)

Very very barely adapted from Cook's Illustrated "Baking Book"
Ingredients: 
Cake 
4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate (broken up)
1/4 C Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1/2 C boiling water
2 C all-purpose flour
3/4 TSP baking soda (a scant 3/4 TSP at altitude)
12 TBSP unsalted butter
1 C granulated sugar
2/3 C packed light brown sugar
3/4 TSP salt
4 large eggs, room temp
1 TSP vanilla extract
3/4 C sour cream

Filling/Frosting
4 large egg yolks
1 (12 ounce) can evaporated milk
1 C granulated sugar
1/4 C packed light brown sugar
6 TBSP cold butter, cut into pieces
2 pinches of salt
2 TSP vanilla extract
2 1/2 C sweetened shredded coconut 
1 3/4 C toasted, chopped pecans

Instructions:
Cake
1. Place oven rack in lower two thirds of oven and preheat it to 350 F. Grease two 9 in cake pans and line them with parchment paper.

2. Combine chocolate and cocoa powder in a small bowl, then pour the boiling water over it and stir until it is all melted together. Allow the mixture to cool.
3. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.
4. Using a stand mixer (or hand mixer and very large bowl) beat the butter and both sugars together on high until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes). 
5. Add the eggs, one at a time and beat until combined.

6. Add in the vanilla extract and beat until light and fluffy on medium-high speed (for about 45 seconds.) 
7. Add chocolate, beat on low to incorporate, then increase to medium speed for an additional 30 seconds.

8. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour and sour cream in alternating additions (3 additions for the flour and the sour cream in 2; start and end with the flour mixture.) Scrape the sides down as necessary and give the mixture a final stir by hand to make sure all is fully incorporated.
9. Divide the batter evenly into the pans, smooth the tops with a rubber spatula, and bake for 30 minutes until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
10. Remove the cakes and let them cool for 10 minutes before inverting. Then let the cakes cool for an additional 2 hours before assembly. 

Filling/Frosting
1. Whisk the egg yolks in a medium-sized saucepan, then gradually pour in the evaporated milk. 
2. Add both types of sugars, butter, and salt and continue to whisk constantly over medium-high heat, until the mixture is frothy and thickened. The mixture should coat the back of a spoon and not fill in the lines if you were to draw your finger across it horizontally (Nappe consistency).

3. Remove from the heat, transfer the liquid to a bowl and stir in the coconut.
4. Cool until warm, cover directly with plastic and place in the fridge until it has completely cooled.
5. When you are ready to assemble, stir in the pecan pieces and begin. 

-There are not photos for most this this because I had to be whisking constantly to prevent the eggs from curdling.

Assembly

 1. Using a sharp, serrated knife, cut each 9 in cake in half so you have 4 thin disks. Begin by tracing an even line around the perimeter of the cake with your knife then following that line, cut in and around the cake.

2. Lay down one piece, then scoop 1 cup of filling onto the cake and spread evenly, making sure to bring it all the way to the edges. Repeat with each layer until all four have been place down. Pour all of the remaining filling mixture over top and spread in the same fashion as before.