Mini chocolate-dipped bananas

We go through a lot of bananas in our house. Not only does my husband eat one every morning, but it's the only food my sometimes-picky baby boy can't resist, and the only one that has him smacking his lips.

And so this next recipe was an obvious choice for me - mini chocolate-dipped bananas from Joy the Baker. I always have bananas, chocolate, and nuts in my pantry. (Follow the link above for the recipe.)

I made a whole batch of these when I had some company for dinner and there were several left over in the days that followed.

I pulled them out any time someone dropped by, and they were just as fresh and delicious as the day I made them. Letting them defrost a few minutes is key to the yummy factor, otherwise you may be liable to pay for your friend's broken crown.

Substitutions: Joy the Baker's blog used a 70% chocolate and chopped honey roasted peanuts. I used semi-sweet chocolate, white chocolate, and I used chopped pecans and Skor toffee bits. I think the Skor toffee bits were a bigger hit.

Would I make this again? Definitely. I am a big fan of anything I can make in steps (freeze the bananas, and forget about 'em; then dip them, and forget about 'em) and that I can freeze and pull out at a moment's notice. And they were delicious too. I also love the fact that I can improvise with whatever nuts I have leftover from one of my baking experiments. Can't wait to make this when the weather heats up and I am looking for a refreshing treat.

Grade: Five stars out of five. Sometimes simple is best.

'Last Supper' servings super-sized

Here’s some food for thought as you gather 'round for Easter dinner: If art imitates life, were the twelve disciples overeating at Jesus Christ’s Last Supper? The answer is no, according to analysis of the amount of food depicted in paintings created over the last 1,000 years of history’s most famous dinner.

Instead, the size of food depicted in these paintings increased significantly over time, an indication that larger portion sizes have been a trend for at least the last millennium.

Brothers Brian and Craig Wansink, respectively a well-known eating behavior expert and a religious studies scholar, joined forces to index the sizes of food by the sizes of the average disciple’s head. (Read an article in which I interviewed Brian Wansink for CTV at this link.)

They found that portion size, plate size, and bread size depicted in the paintings have gone up dramatically over the last millennium. More specifically, the main courses shown in 52 of the best-known artwork of the Last Supper grew by 69 per cent, plate size by 66 per cent, and bread size by 23 cent.

The findings will be published in the April 2010 issue of the International Journal of Obesity.
“I think people assume that increased serving sizes, or ‘portion distortion,’ is a recent phenomenon,” Brian Wansink, professor and director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab, said in a statement.

“But this research indicates that it’s a general trend for at least the last millennium.”
“As the most famously depicted dinner of all time, the Last Supper is ideally suited for review,” said Craig Wansink, professor of religious studies at Virginia Wesleyan College.

“The method we used created a natural crossroads between our two divergent fields and a wonderful opportunity to collaborate with my brother,” he added.
Brian Wansink explores the topics of portion size and spatial relationships in his studies of food and eating behavior. He explores the hidden cues that determine how much we eat in his book “Mindless Eating.”

Craig Wansink specializes in New Testament studies and is the author of “Chained in Christ: The Experience and Rhetoric of Paul’s Imprisonments.”

“Whereas half of the paintings of the Last Supper included food and plates, most paintings did not depict wine, which precluded its analysis. Notwithstanding its absence, its spirit remains: the contemporary discovery of increasing portion sizes and food availability may be little more than 1000-yearold wine in a new bottle,” the authors say in the study.

If you are wondering, like I am, what they were eating at the Last Supper. The study’s authors say “The discernable main dishes that were depicted in the paintings contained included fish or eel (18%), lamb (14%) and pork (7%); the remaining paintings had no discernable main dish (46%).” But they also say that what has not been analyzed is how the depiction of food has changed over the centuries.

SoNo's classic chocolate mousse

Good chocolate mousse is rare. At its best, it is delicate, intensely flavoured, and light on your tongue. At its worst, it's nothing more than stodgy chocolate pudding from a box. Sometimes, it falls somewhere in between.
Like this recipe for classic chocolate mousse that comes from "The SoNo Baking Company Cookbook," which I've already reviewed. (Follow these links for my posts on SoNo's raspberry chocolate chip rugelach, and coconut chocolate chip bars).
It wasn't overly sweet, as promised, because of the bittersweet chocolate. But it lacked the depth of flavour of the chocolate mousse I've tasted in France, even after I added the pure vanilla extract that was not listed in the ingredients (which included finely chopped bittersweet chocolate, eggs, sugar, pinch of coarse salt, and heavy cream).

Substitutions: No substitutions, but I added vanilla extract while whipping the mousse as I felt like it needed some extra oomph. In the future, I may add some liqueur or try semisweet chocolate instead.

Would I make this again? Yes, because I whipped it up in mere minutes while tap dancing to Lykke Li songs to keep my baby entertained in his high chair. Also yes because I left the individual portions of the mousse in my fridge for a couple of days and it tasted even better when I pulled it out then.

Grade: Four-and-a-half stars out of five. It may have gotten a perfect score if there were greater depth of flavour, but it scored high marks for being easy to make.

Raspberry Chocolate Chip Rugelach

In theory, the recipe for Raspberry Chocolate Chip Ruggies sounded ideal: indulgent, versatile, and widely popular. After all, who can fault the raspberry-chocolate combination?

Indeed, whoever sampled these cookies had nothing but complimentary words for me, but at the end of the day -- and even several days afterwards -- I am disappointed. But I will be honest enough to say the recipe is not entirely to blame, some of it should also fall on my shoulders. The recipe I used is from "The SoNo Baking Company Cookbook" (follow this link for my review of the cookbook, and follow this link to see how SoNo's Coconut Chocolate Chip Bars turned out).

Once again, I was unable to locate the recipe online and don't feel comfortable typing it out verbatim, so I will briefly outline what went into these cookies. In the dough: all-purpose flour, baking powder, unsalted butter, cream cheese, granulated sugar, coarse salt, egg yolks, vanilla extract.
For the filling: granulated sugar, ground cinnamon, ground allspice, seedless raspberry jam, semisweet mini chocolate chips; egg for egg wash, and sanding sugar for finishing.

My first batch was a disaster. The dough was not rolled out thin enough and the recommended amount of jam ended up being too thick, so that when the cookies baked, the jam oozed out and hardened until it became a sticky, icky, hard crunchy halo around each cookie. While there was no photo of how the baked rugelach should look in this cookbook, I've seen enough rugelach to know the jam shouldn't be darkening in colour so that it turns brown. Perhaps the baking time should be less, or perhaps strawberry jam would be a good substitution.

With the second batch, I spread half the amount of jam on the dough, rolled it out even more, and then realized when it was in the oven that I had forgotten to add the sugar filling to both of the batches.

In the third batch, the dough was fine, I had the right amount of jam, and I remembered to add the filling. These cookies were delicious but I was still so unimpressed with the messy final appearance of the rugelach that I refused to let only but my closest family members see them.

Substitutions: None in this case. But in the future I would substitute teeny tiny chocolate chips for the regular-sized ones. In fact, the colour photo accompanying the recipe depicted the smaller chips; but the recipe did not specify that readers should use them. It should have, as the regular-sized chips are too large for this recipe. They ended up spilling out of the dough and burning. I will also use apricot jam in the future as a lighter-coloured jam will be more forgiving if it spreads and the end result will be more dainty.

Would I make these again? I'm not sure -- perhaps. Like I said above, I'd like to try making them with apricot jam and mini white chocolate chips. At the same time though, it seems like too much of a hassle. It might just be easier to buy rugelach at a bakery.

Grade: Two-and-half-stars out of five. Yes, the taste was there. But before any sweet hits my lips, I am savouring them with my eyes and that is half the enjoyment. These rugelach just looked clumsy. Something else that grated on my nerves, as the pedantic editor I am, is that the recipe missed a key direction.

The recipe tells readers to bake one sheet at a time and rotate the sheet about two-thirds of the way through the baking time. But the instructions fail to mention why we should set out two racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and where we should place the cookie sheet first, and at what point we should move it. I've baked enough to guess what they meant, but I was scratching my head and stamping my feet out of frustration. Not impressed. Not impressed at all.

Colossal Cupcake Creation

Cast your mind back and you may remember I wished for a giant cupcake on my Christmas wish list. I hoped someone would pick up on my heavy-handed hint and order it for my birthday, but I wasn't holding my breath.

Well, you can imagine how thrilled I was when one of my besties surprised me for Christmas with the Big Top Cupcake, silicone bakeware to create my very own giant cupcake. Oh Em Gee. A thousand times better than getting a giant cupcake because I can make as many of these as I want.

Coconut Chocolate Chip Bars

This is the first recipe I tried from the new "The SoNo Baking Company Cookbook" and it's a variation on the traditional magic cookie bar. According to the cookbook (read my review here), the recipe "features two distinct layers: the base, which consists of a brown sugar shortbread-like cookie crust, and the top layer, a rich, chewy oatmeal-coconut-chocolate-chip cookie.

I made these bars one Friday night at the end of a long, long, long week after coming home tired from grocery shopping.
It's a mix-and-pour recipe that doesn't involve much elbow grease or thought. Fortunately, this has no bearing on the end result - a scrumptious sweet sensation that will linger on your taste buds for days after the last crumbs are gone.

I won't copy and paste the recipe here due to copyright issues, but I will say it involves mixing butter, brown sugar, coarse salt, vanilla extract and flour for the shortbread-like base and then baking it. The filling is a mixture of light brown sugar, coarse salt, large eggs, vanilla extract, flour, coconut, rolled roast, macadamia nuts, which is later sprinkled with semisweet chocolate chips.

Substitutions: I couldn't find macadamia nuts at my grocery store, and prefer pecans anyway, so I simply used the pecans I had at home. After all, who doesn't love the coconut, pecan, and chocolate combination? (See my previous post on German chocolate cake). There were no problems with my substitutions. The recipe also suggests substituting any of your favourite nuts or dried fruits as a variation.

Would I make this again? Considering I ate one every time I passed the cookie jar, the answer to the question is a booming YES. I tested out my family members' willpower by sealing the container every time I saw the lid open, and sure enough it always magically found itself ajar.
Grade: Five stars out of five. This was straightforward and held mass appeal to every age range in my family. These bars also kept well for several days (even though the jar was not sealed well as mentioned above). Putting all that aside, these bars are just downright delicious. They are buttery, they are indulgent. But not cloying. You won't be able to stop at one.

Cookbook Review: The SoNo Baking Company Cookbook

John Barricelli was a familiar face to me as one of the chefs on the show "Everyday Food."

But I didn't realize until I got my hands on "The SoNo Baking Company Cookbook" (Clarkson Potter) that not only was he an affable personality but he had the baking pedigree to boot. I've really built up my cookbook collection over the past couple of years, so it's not surprising that I already have a few baking cookbooks that promise to offer "the best sweet and savory recipes for every occasion" as this one does.
That's why I was rather halfhearted about diving into this book about Barricelli's Connecticut bakery. until the Coconut Chocolate Chip Bars recipe caught my eye. My diet went downhill from there. Where these bars were irresistible, however; the chocolate mousse was delicious but forgettable, and the rugelach recipe was just m'eh and forced me to improvise as the recipe began to fall apart. (Stay tuned for my in-depth posts on each of these).

The book jacket also promises to delight newbies as well as aficionados, but at the same time I think this book would have done well to pinpoint its audience. Is it the Martha Stewart audience? You'd think so, considering the foreword is from the Domestic Diva herself. Or is it the amateur blogging foodie demographic that needs step-by-step instructions on making pâte sucrée and pâte brisée? I can't tell.

We go from the Euro-chic linzer pastries and French blueberry tartlets to hearty earth-mama multigrain bread and then the Southern charm of the red velvet cupcakes.
I'm happy to own this book as part of my collection as it offers variations on classics such as the mousse, brioche, and brownies. But I can't help but think some googling on the Martha Stewart site would have served the same purpose.

Should you run out and spend $43.00 Cdn on this book? If you are a die-hard, Martha-Stewart loving baker, maybe. The layout is well thought out: Bolded ingredients, pull-out "Technique Tips" and frame-by-frame photos to illustrate method. But you wouldn't be missing out if you waited for the softcover edition.

In the meantime, here's a recipe from the cookbook, courtesy Random House.

Ginger Cookies – Makes 60

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup sugar, plus O cup for rolling
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 large egg, at room temperature
1/4 cup unsulfured molasses

Directions:
1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinna­mon, cloves, and ginger; set aside.
2. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the sugar and butter on medium speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl halfway through. Beat in the egg and molasses until combined. Reduce the mixer speed to low and gradually add the flour mixture, beating until combined. Transfer the dough to a clean bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until well chilled, about 1 hour (and up to 24 hours).
3. Arrange the oven rack in the middle position. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or nonstick silicone baking mats; set aside. Place the extra sugar for rolling on a plate; set aside.
4. Use a 1½-inch ice cream scoop to scoop out the dough, and roll into balls between your hands. Roll the balls in the sugar to coat, and place about 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.
5. Bake one sheet at a time, rotating the sheet two-thirds of the way through the baking time, until the cookies are deep golden brown and the centers are firm, 15 to 20 minutes.
6. Transfer the sheet to a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Use a spatula to transfer the cookies to the rack, and let cool completely. Continue to roll and bake the remaining cookies in the same way.

Excerpted from The SoNo Baking Company Cookbook by John Barricelli Copyright © 2010 by John Barricelli. Excerpted by permission of Clarkson Potter, a division of Random House of Canada Limited. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.