Comunidad Health Foods

Do you remember how, way back in May when I made my sister's graduation cake, I told you that I halved the cake recipe but left all of the fillings the same? You know, just in case something disastrous were to occur and I realized I would need extra? Well, thankfully, something disastrous did not occur (at least, not anything that put my cake fillings in harm's way), and I was left with a bowl each of chocolate ganache and raspberry curd.

After such an elaborate baking process the week before, I wanted something simple. I also didn't want to have to go out and buy extra ingredients, because baking for fun can get expensive - no matter how cheap flour and sugar are. Immediately, I thought of one thing: a layered bar. The ganache hardened beautifully, the curd remained creamy, and so not only were the flavors made to be paired together from the previous recipe (the bitterness of the chocolate cuts the sweet tartness of the curd better than you can imagine), but the textures would contrast each other wonderfully. More importantly, nothing would come between my taste buds and the purity of this combination - except, of course, the subtle shortbread vehicle through which I would accomplish this bar.

One problem - I don't have a staple, go-to shortbread recipe. Scratch that - I didn't have one, but after testing out Alice Medrich's Twice Baked Shortbread recipe, called to my attention by Deb over at Smitten Kitchen, I don't know if I will try another version of Shortbread out again. There are five ingredients and it took me less than three minutes to put together (me! the slowest baker on this planet!), and then it goes through a lot of inactive prep time, like letting the dough sit for 2 hours or overnight, and baking it two separate times on relatively low heat. I cannot attest to the necessity of these elements, as I followed the recipe to a T (almost, anyway...) the only time I made it; however, I trust that it does do something magical.

So here it is, my thrown together recipe for using leftover cake fillings! Feel free to swap in just about whatever you have: a lemon curd, a chocolate mousse, maybe even a buttercream frosting to turn it into an iced shortbread.

Chocolate Ganache & Raspberry Curd Shortbread Bars, shortbread recipe courtesy of Deb at Smitten Kitchen.
Yield: 1 8x8" pan's worth of delicious dessert
Ingredients
12 Tbsp. (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and still warm (change: of course, what did I have on hand? Salted - I just omitted the salt later on)
5 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract or the scrapings from half a vanilla bean (I used the extract)
1/4 teaspoon salt or a couple pinches of flaky maldon (omitted)
1 1/2 cups (6.75 ounces) all-purpose flour
Turbinado, Demerara or granulated sugar for sprinkling (omitted, but this would be excellent if baking the bars without adding toppings)
Leftover baking ingredients; be creative! (I used the rest of the chocolate ganache and raspberry curd whose recipes can be found here) and some leftover 100% dark chocolate shavings from the Black Forest Cupcakes)

Method
1. If using a pan with a removable bottom, grease the pan; if using the one-piece 8-inch pan, line it with aluminum foil, leaving an overhang on two opposite sides.

2. In a medium bowl, combine the melted butter, sugar, vanilla and salt. Add the flour and mix until incorporated. If the dough looks a little too runny to be "pressed" into the pan, just hang in there for another 30 seconds. I was hasty with mine and dumped some extra flour in there, which turned out fine as well, only to realize that the dough needed a little patience and time to come together and solidify slightly.

3. Press the dough into the pan or dish of your choice, doing your best to even it out. Let it rest for 2 hours or overnight. The recipe says there was no need to refrigerate, but I did, and just needed to let it warm up for a little bit before baking the next day (re: I pulled it out as the oven was preheating, discovered a very rock-hard dough in the dish, panicked for 10 seconds, and then stuck it in the oven and resigned myself to letting it bake a few minutes extra).

4. Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat it to 300 degrees F.

5. Bake the shortbread for 45 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven, but leave the oven on - you still have another round of baking to do! Lightly sprinkle the shortbread with sugar, if using, and let it cool for 10 minutes.

6. If just making shortbread, remove the baked dough from the pan or dish, careful not to break it. Use a sharp knife to cut it into traditional wedges, and place those pieces on a parchment-lined baking sheet (be sure to space them out a little). If you're making the (insert-your-filling-of-choice) bars as I chose to do, leave them whole in the dish for the second baking. I'm sure this alters the end result to some extent, as all sides of the shortbread isn't exposed to the heat, but I didn't see another option if I wanted to put gooey toppings on it afterwards.

7. Bake for 10 minutes, then let cool completely (for plain shortbread) or, you know, mostly - as long as you can stand it before you just have to get those toppings on it in order to have a taste test. Once relatively cool, spoon the raspberry curd onto the shortbread and even out, and then add the layer of (softened, pourable) chocolate ganache over it.* Sprinkle with chocolate shavings, if desired. Place in the fridge (covered) to chill.


*I layered it the other way around: I was afraid that the ganache wouldn't pour well enough, and I would be left with a hot mess trying to spread it evenly over the already mousse-like curd. However, retrospectively, I think the bar would've held up better if the softer layer were sandwiched between two solid ones, as opposed to letting it hang out on top. Still, regardless of the sequence you use, these are delicious, and each layer is both good on its own yet adds something unique to the recipe as a whole. You get the buttery, crumbly shortbread on top of a tart raspberry curd, covered generously with a decadent, almost-too-bitter-but-really-perfect-against-a-raspberry-backdrop chocolate ganache. I raved about the cake, but I think I enjoyed these little leftover concoctions even more - especially when taking into account how much easier they were to make!

Oh, and the pictures? I left for a vacation about an hour after these finished baking, so I chopped some pieces off to bring with me, and took a haphazard picture that weekend of the two last bars. Needless to say, I will post the picture, but don't judge this book by its cover (or the author's lack of illustrative talent, so to speak).

I told you last time that dessert for my sister's graduation party didn't end with the epic cake, although in some people's opinions, it might as well have. This is because that raspberry and chocolate ganache cake stole the spotlight away from these subtle little gems. The dense richness of a black forest dessert can't compete with the layered perfection of that cake, and putting them up against each other wasn't fair. Over the course of the week, I gave them second, third, and fourth chances, ignoring the cake and just trying them on their own. And I have to say, these "Black Bottom" Black Forest Cupcakes are solid desserts.

That being said, I fudged up the recipe. You see, when checking my ingredients before going food shopping, I looked in my cabinet and saw a container of cocoa powder, and said, "Oh, good, I won't need to pick any up." Lesson learned: before deciding that you have an ingredient, open it up and check how much of it is left. While the recipe called for 1/2 C, I had a meager 1/4, something I did not realize until spooning it out into my measuring cup to use. Oops.

There were a few areas of these recipe in which I took chances. First, before even getting to the cocoa powder mishap, this recipe is for a cake. A big, whole cake. And as much as I would love for it to be as easy as pouring the cake batter into a muffin pan instead of a cake tin and cooking it for a shorter period of time, I'm developing the sneaking suspicion that some recipes just don't work like that. I took a chance, assuming that this would be fine. For all I know, it would have been if that were the only chance I took.

Then, there was the cocoa powder. It calls for Dutch Process, I didn't have it and neither did the store. I remember reading an article a little while back about the differences between them, but heck if I can recall exactly what it said. So I used my Hershey's powder. All 1/4 C of it. And then, I let out a groan, and had to figure out what to do with the empty space in my 1/2 C measuring cup.

I shaved chocolate down as fine as I could. So, in addition to my cocoa powder, I added 1/4 C of the best shaved 100% dark chocolate I could manage, and added it to the sifter to be double sifted. Clearly, many of my chocolate shavings did not go through. So I dumped them in after. Why not?

Finally, there is no leavening agent in this recipe. Rewind: there is no baking soda or powder (or yeast for that matter, of course). There are eggs, whipped up to be 3x their original volume. This should be enough. It should be enough, but not if you sit there and over fold them, which I presumably - though not definitely - did.

Needless to say, the combination of potentially overzealous egg mixture folding and adding denser chocolate than is called for resulted in a, well, dense little "cupcake." And by cupcake, I mean it was more of a brownie masquerading in cupcake attire. The cupcakes not only failed to rise, but fell in the center a little bit, leaving a little divet in the middle; additionally, you could see a clear division between the top 2/3 of the cupcake and the bottom 1/3, which was much darker. Three guesses as to where my 100% chocolate shavings wound up.

The original recipe is not called a Black Bottom Black Forest Cupcake. However, that is a much more accurate description of what I produced. As it turns out, I could play the layered effect off as intentional, and the well in the center of the cupcakes turned out to be a perfect holder for the poached cherry component. And, once you add a big (artistically piped) blog of homemade whipped cream on top, the fact that they're much more like brownies than light and fluffy cupcakes becomes significantly less of an issue. The verdict? I kind of liked my mess up this time. Because of this, I'm going to give you both versions of the recipe - I have the sneaking suspicion that the original is much more appetizing, in a soft, fluffy, moist, traditional-Black-Forest-flavors kind of way, but my changes didn't belly flop, either.

Well, as you can see from the picture, taking on the unthinkable turned out to be fairly doable in the end. Saturday was a long day (8 hours just for the cake!), and I had to change my game plan several times, but I finished the cake.

Now, about this cake. You have to go bake this. It's not difficult to make - a little more expensive than your typical vanilla celebration cake, and certainly more labor intensive than Betty Crocker's mixes, but everything goes smoothly and turns out as the recipe says it should. Also, I'm sure that it would not take most people 8 hours to make this (though, be warned that there are several different chill times ranging from one to four hours).

The Vanilla Cake is my new go-to layer cake. It comes together easily, requires no fussy ingredients, baked for 10 minutes less than called for (though, to be fair, I had to use 8x1 1/2" pans instead of 8x3"), came out moist, didn't stick to the pan (very much), and did not dry out during the nerve-wracking several hour chill periods in the refrigerator. The vanilla cake was such a treat to work with, and had a distinctly homemade - but deliciously so - taste to it that it made me call into question why I would ever eat a prepared cake again.

The Raspberry Curd came out to be this stunning dusk rose color, and I really think the only other thing that needs to be said about this is that it is the product of real, fresh raspberries. Puree them, strain them, and simmer them alongside sugar and lemon juice. Add butter. Taste. Understand why, despite halving the cake recipe, I am thrilled to have so much extra raspberry curd. A dip for fresh fruit? A yogurt mix-in? A near-future baking ingredient? Yes, yes, and yes. The raspberry flavor is sweet but not too sweet, and tart but not too tart. The consistency is heavenly.


The Chocolate Ganache is what all chocolate ganaches should be: rich, creamy, and decadent, and forgiving. I say this as though I'm a ganache expert and this was, of course, my first attempt at making one myself and only one of several experiences tasting it. So, maybe it's more accurate to say that this chocolate ganache is what I would imagine all chocolate ganaches should be, because I can't really think of how it could have been better. I blended 100% chocolate with 60%, added heavy cream, and omitted the vanilla bean because, let's face it, I'm not splurging for one measly bean (I simply added 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract instead). However, if you have some lying around, I'm sure the vanilla bean would add another layer of depth to an already wonderful layer.

The White Chocolate Buttercream is what makes this layer cake. I am picky about my buttercreams - homemade, that is (as in, sans shortening, which makes my stomach turn). I don't want to bite into cake and feel as though the icing is a pureed stick of butter, which I have experienced before. This buttercream recipe? Perfection. A little pricey because of the addition of a chocolate bar, and consequently/potentially impractical for everyday use, but whip this baby out when it matters, because people notice. People who don't even usually like the icing on cakes very much notice, and love it. The white chocolate adds such a gentle sophistication to it, and really cuts the butter nicely. For as many compliments as I receive on the cake as a whole, I received a separate comment just on the frosting.

I don't want to take up any more space with the actual recipe, as I followed it (almost) to a T. I cut the cake recipe in half to make a three layer instead of a six layer cake, swapped the vanilla bean for an extra 1/2 tsp. extract in the ganache, and found that I only needed 2 cups of powdered sugar to get the buttercream to the right consistency (but added more later on - one teaspoon at a time - to pipe on the accents, since I had to refrigerate the icing between decorating sessions). So, instead of repeating word for word what this wonderful blogger said, I will simply direct you here. Also, her decorations wound up being extraordinarily more impressive than mine - and rightly so, based on our respective levels of experience and skill.

In the end, I have to recommend this recipe with all of my being. I have the testimonials of all of the party guests, many of whom do not love cake to begin with, to prove how fantastic this recipe is, and how close it comes to perfection. I don't really know who Evil Shenanigans is, and I found her blog via foodbuzz as opposed to being an avid follower of it - but after testing out this cake, I can assure you that you'll be seeing my versions of or attempts at many more of her recipes in the (very near) future.

Watch out for my posts on how the Black Forest Cupcakes and Spring Vegetable Pizza went!