Texas Sheet Cake or The Best Chocolate Sheet Cake (Pioneer Woman)

Texas Sheet Cake or Pioneer Woman's The Best Chocolate Sheet Cake. Ever.

If you are a blogger, do you have orphan posts? Electronic files of photos in your Flickr account with no home? Half finished posts because you may not remember what recipe you even used? Not saying that has happened to me or anything :) ... but here is something I made back in July. Seems like forever ago. I do remember that my co-worker, Kathy loved this cake. So there. That's all you need to know. And Pioneer Woman herself calls it "The Best Chocolate Sheet Cake. Ever."

This recipe is ridiculously simple. Boil a bit of stuff and pour it into a half-sheet pan. Bake for only 20 minutes and then top with a heated frosting. Seriously easy. I skipped the pecans.

The result? A cakey, moist chocolate cake, not as dense as a brownie, with a simple cocoa frosting. Delicious.

Recipe:

Pioneer Woman's The Best Chocolate Sheet Cake. Ever.

On her site with hella photos here and on her Tasty Kitchen site here.

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The Corner Place Korean BBQ (Los Angeles)

The Corner Place Korean BBQ

Los Angeles

Remember that crazy wedding dessert bar for Jun and David? Well, like they say, first comes marriage... UCLA Library School alums Socrates, Jun (plus one-to-be) and I went to eat in July. Sure, that just looks like a lot of food on the table... but Jun is eating for two.

Socrates and I are supporting our fellow librarian Jun during her pregnancy by being her Food Doula! Sure, why not? We love to get together to eat and I'm sure her son needs iron. Thus, The Corner Place Korean BBQ in Los Angeles.

It was my first time eating at this place and it was tasty. They give you a boatload of meat. I've had better cuts at other BBQ places, but this was a good deal. Find a photo of the menu (July 2011) here.

The other day, I downloaded the photos from my little Sony camera I keep in my purse. I noticed that they were all photos of food, Korean BBQ, the dog, more food, and more Korean BBQ. Sigh.


We ordered the beef tongue, beef and cold noodle in soup (large) and the lettuce tray. Yum! It was great hanging out with my friends and little baby-to-be.

Corner Place
2819 James M Wood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90006
(213) 487-0968

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Barefoot Contessa's Fresh Nectarine Cake

Barefoot Contessa's Fresh Peach Nectarine Cake

Oh, Ina. I just heart you.
Ina makes a Fresh Peach Cake to celebrate summer. And I'm celebrating the soon-to-be end of summer with a Fresh Nectarine Cake. It takes Los Angeles a while to get into fall...especially since it was 95 degrees this weekend!


This recipe has two (count 'em! two!) layers of fresh peaches or nectarines. Lay the thick batter on the bottom of the pan, top with fruit and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. More batter goes on top and another layer of peaches/nectarines. Ina tops her cake with pecans but I used sliced almonds. I only did half the cake as one of my co-workers doesn't eat nuts (before you go nuts, she not allergic, nuts just bother her tummy).

If you still have peaches or nectarines available, make this cake as a good-bye to summer! The cake is moist, the fruit is sweet and delicious and it's perfect for breakfast or tea...or anytime!

Recipe:
Adapted from the Barefoot Contessa's Fresh Peach Cake

1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature (I used 2 large eggs from the fridge, put in warm water for 5 minutes before use)
1 cup sour cream, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

3 large ripe peaches, peeled, pitted and sliced

Topping:
1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup chopped pecans (I used about 1/4 cup silvered almonds on half the cake)

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9-inch-square baking pan. I placed a sheet of parchment paper and sprayed with with Pam with Flour.
2. In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
3. In a small bowl, combine the 1/2 cup sugar and the cinnamon. This is the topping. Set aside.
4. In the bowl of the KitchenAid with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy on medium speed (about 4 minutes). With the mixer on low, add the eggs, one at a time, then the sour cream and vanilla, and mix until the batter is smooth.
5. With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients to the batter and mix just until combined.
6. Spread half of the batter evenly in the pan. Top with half of the nectarines, then sprinkle with two-thirds of the sugar mixture. Spread the remaining batter on top, arrange the remaining nectarines on top and sprinkle with the remaining sugar mixture and the pecans.
7. Bake the cake for 45 to 55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve warm or at room temperature. My cake took 60 minutes to cook.

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Cake Simple by Christie Matheson & The Fuyu Persimmon Bundt

Cake Simple by Christie Matheson

All Bundts. All the Time. Awesomeness.

OMG!
The Food Librarian is in a book! A real, hardcover cookbook! Wow!

My Fuyu Persimmon Bundt recipe appears on page 82-83 in the new cookbook "Cake Simple" by Christie Matheson. Published by Chronicle Books, this all bundt cookbook features amazing photos by Alex Farnum. Christie is the co-author of Joanne Chang's Flour cookbook - one of my favorites!

Over a year ago, I received an email from Christie Matheson saying she was writing a book about Bundts! I was so excited - a book about my favorite cake. Then she asked if I wanted to share some of my favorite bundt recipes. I sent her a few and low and behold, it made it into the book! This is my favorite Sunset Magazine recipe and celebrates all my obsessions: Bundts, Fuyu Persimmons (from my dad's backyard) and California fall (you know, our leaves don't change so we need food to tell us it's fall).

Here is the headnote Christie wrote and the ingredients on page 82. Directions are on page 83.

And this book comes out just in time for my 3rd "I Like Big Bundts" celebration for National Bundt Day on November 15th. I hope you pick up a copy of this book so you'll have lots of recipes to choose from. Christie has some wonderful bundts in this book including Cornmeal Lime with Chile, Orange Pecan, Lemon Basil and your classic Chocolate bundts. I can't wait to try them! Thanks so much Christie for including me in your lovely cookbook!

FTC Disclosure: I was not compensated for being in the book or publishing this post. I am just plain, old freaking (jumping up and down on the porch ripping open the Amazon packaging) excited to see my little blog in a book that I might find in a bookstore, the library and on WorldCat! Whoo hoo!

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"My Chocolate Chip Cookies" - Alice Medrich

"My Chocolate Chip Cookies" from Alice Medrich's cookbook 

I recently purchased Alice Medrich's cookbook: Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-your-mouth cookies. I started with a classic...the chocolate chip cookie.

This recipe calls for melted butter and a rest period...be sure to plan ahead so your dough has time to chill out and relax in your fridge. The dough, because it uses melted butter, comes together in a snap. I mixed mine with a wooden spoon...easy peasy. I used a mix of chopped bittersweet and milk chocolate chunks.


I like to roll out all the balls of dough and keep them in the refrigerator until they are ready for their time in the oven. Or, if I'm actually thinking ahead, I'll pop some of the dough balls into the freezer (uncovered) to harden, then place in a freezer bag for another day. I always keeps plenty of Sharpie pens in the kitchen to write the name and baking temperature/time on the bag...just add a few minutes if you bake from frozen balls.

Recipe: Chewy by Alice Medrich, page 132-133 "My Chocolate Chip Cookies". Find it on Amazon or your library
This blog, Dallas Duo Bakes, posted the recipe online

 

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Classic Brownies - Tuesdays with Dorie

Classic Brownies

For this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection, Anne of Anne Strawberry chose Classic Brownies on page 88 of Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

Hope you are all doing well! I've been pretty busy lately and am trying to get back on the baking bandwagon! Today, it's one of Dorie Greenspan's brownie recipes! If you don't have Dorie's book yet, you really need to...she has a whole section on brownies!

Chocolate, a little flour and California walnuts.
Yum!
These brownies are moist and rich. I'm more of a cakey brownie person, but these were good with the walnuts.

Check out the other TWD baker's creations here!

Recipe:
Anne of Anne Strawberry blog,
or, Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours (page 88)

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New Bags

On top of the new store opening we've also changed to new bags. White stand-up pouches with a zip lock.

As a little gimmick we've made the bottom of the bag transparent. We've always thought it's a pity that you can't see the product it self - the coffee - when you buy a bag. But since light destroy the flavour of the coffee, completely clear bags should be avoided. So we've had this idea for a long time to just make the bottom transparent, so you can see the coffee but without light getting into it.

But more importantly we wanted to get more environmentally friendly bags. In Denmark most of the trash is burned and any metal becomes a waste product that can't be re-used. So we wanted to get rid of the metal (foil) in the bags completely. Metal in coffee bags are used as a barrier for air, primarily developed for ground coffee with an expiration 2 years after the roast date (where the flavour will be gone anyway). With fresh roasted coffee and shorter shelf life there's an overpressure in the bag for the first many weeks, so the extra barrier from the metal doesn't even matter.

We have also been able to add some text about our roastery and green coffee sourcing on the back. The label has also gotten a little bigger and more reader-friendly and all in all we think the bag looks more simple and presentable.

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Barista Job Opportunity

We're seeking baristas!
Following is the job description in Danish:
 Update: Thanks for all the applications we've recieved. We have now filled all positions!


Baristaer søges

Arbejdet vil primært bestå af betjening af kunder og brygning af kaffe. Men der er også en del arbejde i forbindelse med vores risteri som vore baristaer hjælper med. Det er ikke en forudsætning, at du allerede har vundet verdensmesterskaberne i baristakunst, så længe du er interesseret i at lære mere om kaffe. Vi har et omfangsrigt oplæringsprogram, hvor du både vil lære om kaffens smag og hvordan man kan brygge en exceptionelt god kaffe og arbejde effektivt i baren.

Barista erfaring er selvfølgelig en fordel, men ikke en nødvendig forudsætning.

Hvis det har din interesse, så send din ansøgning med CV til os hurtigst muligt på mail@coffeecollective.dk. Mærk ansøgningen med "deltid" eller "fuldtid" samt kontaktinfo inkl. Email-adresse.

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Torvehallerne part deux

So. We had sort of promised to write a lot of blog posts about the progress of opening our new store. We intended to. However, once things started really rolling our focus shifted toward just getting the place ready and not so much on sharing what we were doing.

And now it's open.

But we would like to share a few of the thing we have had going on.

We're extremely proud to have the world premier of the new Kees Van De Westen espresso machine Spirit in a coffee shop. Some of you might have seen this machine at some specialty coffee trade shows.



Kees is widely known in the specialty coffee circles for designing and producing awesome espresso machines. He designed the widely known Mistral espresso machine from mainly La Marzocco parts. A design that La Marzocco later bought and put into their own production. The original Kees machines are still a collectors item and I remember vividly working on those awesome machines back in 2005 at Stumptown.



The Spirit is his newest invention and features a lot of cool ideas. And overall it's such a well made machine that just feels awesome to work at. Personally I love how much work Kees has put into the detailing on this machine and I think it looks amazing.



These pictures are from the WBC show in London last summer, but this same machine is now the one you'll find in our new shop. We definitely put it to the test over this opening weekend with over 1000 cups a day going through it. And it held up beautifully. The temperature, which you can set and read for each group, was extremely stable. In typical Kees-style he also send us teflon-coated portafilters and VST baskets as standard. On top of that he sent three extra steam tips, so we could choose which hole size we liked best. What a guy!





There's some interesting stuff going on 'under the hood'. When looking into the group heads you'll notice that there's no screw, but the shower screen covers the whole area. Theoretically this should give a more even dispersion of the water over the coffee bed. There's also a build in mechanical pre-infusion plus a nice slow flow that secures an even wetting of the coffee before the full pressure is applied.

 

All in all there's a great number of things going on, and Kees is working on even more for the final production models. What we can already say is that it's capable of making some amazingly great tasting espressos. And that's what matters in the end.




(We'll try to upload some pictures to Flickr from our own shop when ever we remember to bring the camera...)

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Food Librarian Summer Reading Program with Lucia & Julia

Remember my UCLA college roomie's adorable kids, Lucia and Julia? (Go Bruins!) Well, for a variety of scheduling reasons, they couldn't participate in their local library's Summer Reading Program (SRP). I said, "Let's have a Food Librarian SRP!"

Lucia and Julia read all the time. Really, if they are awake, they are reading. Every time I see them, they want to read me a book, or tell me about the books they are reading!

For my SRP, I gave them weekly reading related tasks to complete (show me the book you currently reading, draw some pictures and tidy your bookshelf) and sent a box of rewards! The answers are so precious!!! We're a little delayed in our End of Summer Reading Pizza and Frozen Yogurt party...but that's coming soon!

Task: Tell me who you would invite to tea...  (Julia's answer)

 

Lucia's answer

Task: Who would you invite to breakfast and what would you serve? (Julia's answer)

Lucia's Answer... She really likes Harry Potter!

I'm so lucky to have friends with absolutely brilliant children like Lucia and Julia! They are sweet, smart, very very tall, and so much fun. I hope you had a good summer reading program - with the library or your own little reading program! :) - mary the food librarian

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Opening of The Coffee Collective Torvehallerne

Tomorrow, Friday, we open our new shop at Torvehallerne.

We are ready and we're very excited!

Torvehallerne doesn't officially open till 10 o'clock, but we're going to open as a usual Friday, which means we'll be there three good hours before. You can read the opening programme here.

Our opening hours will be:
Mon - Fri 7.00 - 21.00
Sat - Sun 8.00- 18.00

On Tuesday we did a test run for two hours and the bar was slammed. As with an new store opening it'll take a little while before everything is running as smoothly as you want it to, but we feel much better after the test run. All machines are now working and we're ready to deliver some very tasty coffees.

A couple of (bad iPhone) pictures from the Test Run

Torvehallerne is located at Israels Plads next to Nørreport Station.
Our shop is at the south end at Vendersgade. It should be pretty easy to spot throught the glass windows.

Vis The Coffee Collective på et større kort

Looking forward to see you in Torvehallerne!

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