Comunidad Health Foods

Lamingtons. Has anyone else heard of these? They are little sponge cakes drenched in a chocolate sauce and rolled around in "dessicated" coconut, and they hail from New Zealand. Or maybe Australia originally, but for all intents and purposes, we're going to say New Zealand. See, I have this culture class - Nutrition and Culture - and we had to choose a country and essentially become experts in it over the course of the semester. It ends with a food tasting where we all make little samples of classic dishes, so of course I baked.

And this is what came of it: Little rectangles of moist sponge cake soaked in cocoa powder, butter, and levels of confectioner's sugar that should be illegal, and topped with just enough coconut (alas, not "dessicated") to keep them traditional without forcing my mostly coconut-averse peers to eat lumps and lumps of the stuff.

My one complaint is that the chocolate didn't set - and really, I don't know why I was expecting it to. After all, the recipe called for cocoa powder, not chocolate chips, so the cakes are now being stored awkwardly in my much-too-small dorm refrigerator, as I sit here worrying about them and fussing over them in the hopes that they will not dry out or melt away before class time comes. I'm happy that I stuck to the recipe closely, as it's supposed to be an example of what New Zealander's typically eat, but if I make this in the future (and I just might!), I will be sure to experiment with a chocolate glaze/coating that will set. I will also replace the coconut with one of any number of toppings: nuts, chocolate shavings, chocolate chips, candies, powdered sugar, sprinkles, fondant, edible flowers - the possibilities are endless!

I'm sorry that I don't have step by step pictures of the process. I'm continually debating whether I should have more or less pictures than I currently provide - as I don't know how to put my text behind a cut, I'm afraid too many will make my blog tedious to scroll through. However, I've read blogs that do step-by-step pictures alongside instructions, and it's an interesting approach.

For now, just this one picture, and the following ridiculously-simple but very tasty recipe for (what google informs me is) a well-loved New Zealand dessert. Also, I doubled this recipe and baked it in a 9x13 pyrex lasagna dish (it was all I had). I mean, I had to feed 40 people, and was worried that it would take me a few trials before I got the hang of the chocolate-coating process.

Lamingtons, courtesy of About.Com
Ingredients
for the cakes:
2 C all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt (omitted - you should know that by now!)
2 large eggs
1/2 C (1 stick) room temperature butter
3/4 C white sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 C milk (I used 2%, what we had in the house)
for the chocolate coating:
2 C powdered sugar (I didn't exactly measure this...)
1/3 C cocoa powder
3 Tbsp butter
1/2 C milk
*unspecified amounts of "dessicated" coconut (because I didn't roll them in it as the recipe called for, I can't tell you how much you'll need; however, I can tell you that I used sweetened coconut because it was the only coconut available in the store.)
*whipped cream for serving

Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 350F (180C)
2. Lightly butter an 8 inch square cake tin. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
4. In a separate bowl, use an electric beater to cream the butter and sugar mixture together until pale and fluffy.
5. Add the eggs one at a time to the butter/sugar mixture. Beat well after adding each egg.
6. Add the vanilla to the mixture and mix well to combine.
7. Next, use a spatula to alternately add the flour mixture and milk, in three additions, starting and finishing with the flour.
8. Spread the batter into the cake tin, making sure it's evenly spread.
9. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes. Test the center of the cake with a toothpick and make sure it comes out clean.
10. Cool the cake in the tin for about 5 minutes and then invert it onto a wire rack to cool.
11. Once the cake has cooled cut it into squares of a desired size and place them in an airtight container. Pop the container in the fridge for at least 2 hours or even overnight.
12. Now for the icing. Place the icing sugar, cocoa powder, butter and milk in a heat proof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water.
13. Stir the mixture until it is smooth but still a bit thick. You don't want the liquid to get too thin otherwise the sponge cake won't absorb the coating.
14. Now it's time to assemble the Lamingtons. Put out some newspaper under wire racks to catch any mess. Place the cake pieces on the racks and have your chocolate icing and desiccated coconut ready.
15. Quickly coat the sponge cake on all sides in the icing mixture and then gently roll the cake in the coconut. Repeat the process.
16. The Lamingtons can be stored in an airtight container for 5 days.

Today, I accomplished a "first:" for the first time, in two years of being in college, I used a dorm kitchen.

And I survived. And so did my project.

Honestly, I don't really know why I have been so against it for so long. I'm sure it's a combination of my first dorm having an old, beat-up and constantly dirty kitchen that you could hardly turn around in, and the harsh stereotype that such dorm kitchens have developed for all dorm kitchens nationwide. But you see, I have the privilege this year of living in a brand spanking new dorm, with a brand spanking new kitchen that is, quite frankly, roughly 1.5x the size of the kitchen in the apartment I'll be living in next year.

So, it was with unfounded trepidation that I entered into the kitchen this afternoon, roommate in tow for company, to bake a treat to bring with me for an induction ceremony I'm attending tomorrow night. And despite having a fully equipped kitchen at my disposal, I nonetheless wanted to keep things simple - after all, I only had one set of ingredients to work with, and if I messed up, I believe it would be Entenman's to the rescue. Or, more realistically, I would've hung my head in shame and pretended I never signed up for anything to begin with, because I can't have store bought goods associated with my name. I have a reputation to uphold, you know?

I settled on a blondie recipe over at Smitten Kitchen (which I am, for the record, pretty smitten with) that seemed dirt simple, yet sufficiently tempting and delicious-seeming. Of course, I couldn't just hand over a simple blondie for my peers to eat. How Plain! It had to be fun, different, and much more effort than that - because as my mother likes to say of me, I really don't know how to do anything normal. Or simple.
So, I set off on my grocery store run - now, all of you folks with normal kitchens and living arrangements probably have absolutely everything this recipe calls for, but seeing as how I keep my room stocked with cheerios, yogurt, and the occasional piece of fruit if I'm lucky, I had some work to do. I also needed inspiration for my anything-but-just-plain-blondies*; clearly, a visit to the candy aisle was in order. I picked up some m&ms, then I considered a chocolate-peanut butter chip version, then I sat contemplating the twix bars and wondering how well they would chop up and mix in with the batter.
But then I found these:


Marshmallows! I picked them up with one hand and grabbed a bag of chocolate chunks in the other, and weighed the possibilities in my mind. While nothing revolutionary, the idea of a s'mores blondie called out to me. I had never attempted something along those lines, it was classic enough to appeal to the average college kid, and it was certainly not-just-a-plain-blondie.

This required some further research, though, and after sifting through two pages of google searches on s'mores bars, I had my plan of attack.S'mores Blondies, courtesy of Smitten Kitchen and the lovely people of google world
Ingredients
1 stick butter, melted
1 C brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract or 1/2 tsp almond extract (I used vanilla)1 C all purpose flour
a pinch of salt (omitted!)
1 bag chocolate chips or chocolate chunks
1/2 bag (roughly) mini marshmallows

1. Preheat the oven to 350 and grease either a 9x13" pan, two 8x8" pans, or - if you'd like a traditionally thick blondie, as the recipe calls for - one 8x8" pan. Because of all of the toppings I was adding, I spread the batter thin over two pans, and I think they turned out well (although they haven't undergone a taste test yet, so I may retract that statement at a later date...)
2. Mix the melted butter and sugar, whisking until smooth.
3. Add in the egg and vanilla, beating thoroughly.
4. Add the salt (if using) and stir in the flour.5. Bake the blondies for roughly 20-25 minutes or until the center sets. I thought that mine would take less time, as mine were half as thick as the recipe intended, but they took the full time, and even then I wouldn't be surprised if cutting into them later today reveals a slightly gooey center (not that I will complain).
6. With roughly 5-10 minutes left, remove the pan(s) from the oven and layer fairly evenly first with chocolate, and then with marshmallows. Return to the over and finish baking.
7. My marshmallows hadn't browned at this point, and with the blondies having been in there for a full 30 minutes, I didn't want to kill the cookie layer by overcooking. So, I preheated the broiler and broiled them for no more than a minute to give the marshmallows a perfectly toasted, golden look.

This process, which takes no more than an hour from start to finish (I would imagine no more than 40 minutes for those who move more quickly than I do in a kitchen), will leave you with these gems:




The one on the left could have used a little longer under the broiler - I confess, I was using disposable aluminum pans, and when trying to pull that one out of the oven to switch it to the broiler, I accidentally punched up that corner that didn't brown. I'm not really sure why the convex corner refused to brown, especially since it was consequently closer to the broiler coil, but c'est la vie. I think the (abysmal) lighting also makes them look less brown than they actually are; I apologize for that. If I wind up cutting them and putting them in some serving platter that I don't think I possess in this room, I will take a picture of their insides - I know I'm at least itching to see them in all of their layered glory (I hope)!

So, dorm kitchen cooking was a success, and I feel absolutely silly for taking two years to come to this conclusion - a mere 2 weeks before I leave dorm living for good, of course. Maybe it'll even persuade me to make another appearance in this kitchen before the end of the year, but really...well, we'll see.

*Note: I realized that this post seems to be bashing the regular, Plain Jane blondie, and I am certainly not. I love eating a simple, little thick-cookie-cakey-bar-concoction, without the help of toppings and additives. However, I can never muster up the enthusiasm about actually baking such understated delights, and instead always give in to the temptation of over-indulging my imagination and doctoring opportunities. I'm sure that these blondies are delicious plain, and yes, I should have tried them as they were before diving into the recipe with a scalpel, but when preparing something for a potluck ceremony, I could not leave things well alone. Forgive me, purists and lovers of the small things in life. One day, I hope to get over myself enough to join you, but for now, these are the antics I ask you to endure.

Update: I had every intention of photographing the insides of this gooey treat and posting them, but they were all devoured at tonight's ceremony before I had the chance. Needless to say, they were a sweeping success, and I'm starting to think I should slightly under-cook my cookie bars/blondies more often!