Chocolate Espresso Shortbreads

If you like coffee and chocolate together, you're going to love this shortbread cookie. The recipe makes a lot of cookies, so I froze most of them the first time I made them. My daughter and I ate them right out of the freezer. They are addictive...as bad as peanuts! Why is it we always think if the cookie is small, we aren't eating as much? I end up eating twice as many!  :) Unfortunately, I make them all the time as they're perfect for last minute company and there they are, ready to go, in the freezer.

And here's the best part: you're going to love the idea of putting the dough in a plastic bag to roll out. No fuss, no mess. Brilliant.

Espresso-Chocolate Shortbread Cookies
Adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan
via Smitten Kitchen

Makes 42 cookies

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon instant espresso powder

1 tablespoon boiling water

2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2/3 cup confectioners’ sugar

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate (plain, or a toffee variety), finely chopped, or 3/4 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips

Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting (optional)

Method:

Dissolve the espresso in the boiling water, and set aside to cool to tepid. 

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and confectioners’ sugar together on medium speed for about 3 minutes, until the mixture is very smooth. Beat in the vanilla and espresso, then reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour, mixing only until it disappears into the dough. Don’t work the dough much once the flour is incorporated. Fold in the chopped chocolate with a sturdy rubber spatula. 

Using the spatula, transfer the soft, sticky dough to a gallon-size zipper-lock plastic bag. Put the bag on a flat surface, leaving the top open, and roll the dough into a 9 x 10 1/2 inch rectangle that’s 1/4 inch thick. As you roll, turn the bag occasionally and lift the plastic from the dough so it doesn’t cause creases. When you get the right size and thickness, seal the bag, pressing out as much air as possible, and refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours, or for up to 2 days. 

Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

Put the plastic bag on a cutting board and slit it open. Turn the firm dough out onto the board (discard the bag) and, using a ruler as a guide and a sharp knife, cut the dough into 1 1/2-inch squares. Transfer the squares to the baking sheets and carefully prick each one twice with a fork, gently pushing the tines through the cookies until they hit the sheet. 

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point. The shortbreads will be very pale–they shouldn’t take on much color. Transfer the cookies to a rack. 

If you’d like, dust the cookies with confectioners’ sugar while they are still hot. Cool the cookies to room temperature before serving.

Gourmet's 50 Women Game Changers in Food: # 33: Christopher Hirsheimer and Melissa Hamilton

Christopher Hirsheimer and Melissa Hamilton have known each other for more than 15 years. Hirsheimer grew up in San Francisco and attended college in the San Francisco Bay area in the ’60s and ’70s, where she was much into the local food scene.

Hamilton is the daughter of Jim Hamilton of Hamilton’s Grill Room in Lambertville, where she was the chef when it opened more than twenty years ago. She is the sister of Gabrielle Hamilton, the chef/owner of Prune in Manhattan.
Hirsheimer was one of the founders and an executive editor of Saveur magazine, where Hamilton ran the test kitchen and served as food editor. Together the pair had more than 30 years experience working with magazines such as Metropolitan Home, Food and Wine, Cook’s Illustrated, and Martha Stewart Living and on cookbooks by Julia Child, Alice Waters, Mario Batali, Jacques Pepin, Lidia Bastianich, and other notables.
(Christopher Hirsheimer left, and Melissa Hamilton )

They decided to leave the commuting life and start Canal House in 2007 as a photo and design studio for cookbooks and magazines. They made their light-filled, second-floor atelier an  alternative place: "a studio, workshop, dining room, office and kitchen devoted to good ideas and good work relating to the world of food. The pair cook, write, photograph, design, and paint." They brainstorm and consult. Plus, with computers, they figured nobody knows or cares where they're physically located.” Friends told them it was a mistake...not only the publishing, but moving to small town New Jersey. They went ahead anyway.

Sounds like a dream, doesn't it? Start a small food business with your best cooking pal, sit around inventing cocktails and snacks at the end of every day — but both are determined women AND real cooks. Ms. Hamilton’s French heritage, Ms. Hirsheimer’s California childhood, both women’s extensive travels, culinary experience and spice collections add up to success. The first issue of summer recipes was simple they said, because cooking in that season is so minimal: salads, grilling, fruit, the occasional backyard paella. And so it began.

Canal House Cooking, published three times a year, has no parent company, no advertising and no distribution network other than independent bookstores and the Internet. But by designing and photographing it themselves, then outsourcing the printing to China when every local printer they approached turned them down flat, the women hope to both make it all work and preserve the publication’s homespun qualities. This may not sound like a successful idea in this day and age, but the books, which now number five volumes, have received acclaim not only from the national food media, but also from such disparate entities as Oprah and retailer Williams-Sonoma. 

One of their big breakthroughs came on food52.com, the website of food writer Amanda Hesser  and Merrill Stubbs. Hesser and Stubbs conducted what they called the Tournament of Cookbooks, a sort of round-robin competition among what they considered to be the most notable cookbooks of 2009. After votes by celebrity judges and the site’s readers, Canal House Cooking Volume No. 1 made it to the final round, beating out big-name books such as Momofuku by David Chang and Peter Meehan and Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc at Home. (It lost to Seven Fires by Francis Mallmann.) 
Hirsheimer says: “Of course you have to have, one, a good product and, two, good timing. But you also need, three, some luck. We’ve been lucky. We had a vision, but you have no idea how it will fly.”

It would be fun to visit them while they work, as I read there's always something delicious bubbling on the stove or being pulled from the oven. In the morning,  café au lait.  On a wintry afternoon a steaming bowl of homemade soup and after hours a split of Champagne. The best part, though, is watching them work.  They move calmly and quietly and seem to communicate telepathically.  They work quickly, too, cramming in as many shots as possible while the sun cooperates. Photographing in natural light is Christopher's signature style. 
The pair continues to consult and collaborate on books and projects for their high-profile friends.

Here are some links you might like to check out:

http://thecanalhouse.com/  (Their website)
http://lunch.thecanalhouse.com/  (You'll LOVE the photos!)
http://www.amazon.com/Canal-House-Cooking-No-Summer/dp/0692003177  (the books)

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My mother used to make a recipe similar to this, except she used morels. So I know ANY wild mushroom would be perfect in this recipe. I had to cheat a bit today because chantarelles have a season just like morels and unfortunately, it's not now. Chanterelles are worth their weight in gold anyway.....they are "golden looking, golden tasting, and golden priced." So I used one package of reconstituted chanterelles and the rest were maitake frondosa, also called "Hen of the Woods." Turned out to be a great combo.

Now I have to say, my favorite way to serve morels is simply sauteed and seasoned with salt and pepper, so if you're fortunate enough to find some chantarelles, they'd be perfect that way as well. Hirsheimer and Hamilton suggested serving this friscasse over mashed potatoes as well as pappardelle, but I remembered a visit a while back to The Greenbrier and they served an omelet filled with a fresh morel fricassee. So that's what I had for lunch the next day with the leftovers: an omelet filled with this delicious friscasse of wild mushrooms.

Fricassee of Chanterelles
Recipe by Melissa Hamilton and Christopher Hirscheimer

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, divided 

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided 

1 small yellow onion, finely chopped (about 1 cup) 

Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper 

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped 

1/4 cup dry white wine 

1 pound chanterelles, brushed clean (halved if large) 

1/2 cup heavy cream 

Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg 

1 teaspoon fresh oregano plus more for garnish 

Fresh lemon juice 

1/4 pound pappardelle, cooked al dente, or 1 pound boiled new potatoes 

Method:

Melt 3 tablespoons butter with 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and lightly golden, 4-5 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Stir in wine and cook until liquid is reduced by half, about 2 minutes. Add remaining 3 tablespoons butter, remaining 1 tablespoon oil, and mushrooms. Cook, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms are lightly golden, about 5 minutes. Add cream and nutmeg and cook until slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. Stir in 1 teaspoon oregano. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Toss in a skillet with cooked pasta, or serve over smashed boiled potatoes. Garnish with more oregano.

Join Mary from One Perfect Bite and all the other participants in this fun series.

Val - More Than Burnt Toast
Joanne - Eats Well With Others
Taryn - Have Kitchen Will Feed
Susan - The Spice Garden
Claudia - A Seasonal Cook in Turkey
Heather - girlichef
Miranda - Mangoes and Chutney
Jeanette - Healthy Living
April - Abby Sweets 
Katie - Making Michael Pollan Proud
Mary - One Perfect Bite
Viola - The Life is Good Kitchen
Sue - The View from Great Island
Kathleen Van Bruinisse - Bake Away with Me 
Kathleen - Gonna Want Seconds
Martha - Lines from Linderhof
Amy - Beloved Green
Linda - Ciao Chow Linda

Nancy - Picadillo
Mireya - My Healthy Eating Habits
Veronica - My Catholic Kitchen
Annie - Lovely Things

Claudia - Journey of An Italian Cook
Alyce - More Time at the Table
Amrita - Beetles Kitchen Escapades

Hazelnut Sponge Cake

Finally, I've finished reading cover to cover the first of my Christmas cookbooks. My kids gave me lots of them and it's going to take me a while to get through them all. I began with A Platter of Figs by David Tanis, published in 2008. Tanis has worked with Alice Waters of Chez Panisse in several capacities over the last 25 years. Right now, he spends half the year in Paris, where he writes and hosts a private dining club, and half the year in San Francisco, where he continues chef duties at Chez Panisse in collaboration with long-time colleague Jean-Pierre Moullé.

There are 24 menus in A Platter of Figs, six for each season. How best to explain David's attitude towards cooking? "Simple cooking meant to illuminate nature’s perfect simplicity" was a quote I read someplace. There are no long lists of ingredients, just simple recipes and fabulous flavors. 

This hazelnut sponge cake was lovely. The hazelnuts are not ground finely, so there is a flavor-filled chewiness with each bite. I served it with a coffee-flavored sweetened whipped cream, but kept thinking I'd have loved some caramelized fruit with it. Maybe pears. But I contained myself and kept it simple.

Hazelnut Sponge Cake
From A Platter of Figs by David Tanis

Ingredients: 

1 pound shelled hazelnuts

8 large eggs, separated, room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

2 tablespoons cake flour, matzo meal or dry bread crumbs

1/2 teaspoon salt

Method:

Preheat oven to 400. Roast the hazelnuts on a baking sheet for 10 minutes until the skins blister and hazelnuts are toasted. Place them in a tea towel and rub them together to remove skins. When they are cool, coarsely chop them in a food processor.

Line a 10 inch spring form pan with a circle of parchment or butter and flour the pan. Set aside. Lower oven heat to 350.

Beat the egg yolks and sugar until creamy. Add the zest, lemon juice, flour, salt and hazelnuts and mix well.

Beat the whites until stiff. Add 1/3 of them to the batter to lighten, then fold in the remaining whites.

Bake the cake in the 350 oven for 15 minutes, lower the temperature to 325 and bake an additional 25 to 30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Cool completely on a rack before unmolding.

Serve with fresh fruit and slightly sweetened whipped cream or just some lightly sweetened coffee flavored whipped cream, which is what I did.