Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk and Coconut Cookies

I think I might have started a new thing for family birthdays. It's happened twice now, so it's at least on its way to becoming a thing. Since I bake a lot, and I really can't or shouldn't eat as much as I bake, I decided to send cookies to family members on their birthdays. I'm sure that now this is in writing, I'll not have time to send cookies for the next birthday. It might just be a when-I-have-time thing, and that way the cookies will always be a surprise, right? This cookie recipe is from The Greyston Bakery Cookbook, and coconut is added to the dough. I bought a bag of natural, unsweetened, shredded coconut and then worried that the cookies wouldn't be sweet enough since I didn't use the regular, sweetened stuff. I tasted the dough before I baked the cookies to see if I thought I should add more sugar, and it seemed good to me. Kurt was happy to taste test a cookie fresh out of the oven, and his reaction made me confident they were just fine. The cookies almost disappeared before I could box them up for shipping.

There was nothing unusual about making the cookie dough here. You could use chocolate chips, but the recipe called for chunks, so I chopped a bar of bittersweet chocolate into bits. At two different cooking classes I attended, I learned the same lesson from both Nick Malgieri and Alice Medrich. When you chop chocolate into chunks for cookies, you want to leave the chocolate dust behind. Nick Malgieri places the chopped chocolate in a sieve and shakes it to remove the pulverized stuff and keep the chunks. Alice Medrich used her hands to pull the chunks away from the dust on the cutting board. The fine, powdery chocolate muddies the look of the dough and using only the chunks results in a neater cookie. So, cream butter and brown sugar, add an egg and vanilla, sift flour, baking soda, and salt and add oatmeal then add that to butter mixture, then fold in shredded coconut and natural, unsweetened is fine and neat, dust-free, chocolate chunks. Drop into mounds on baking sheets and bake.

These were easy, straightforward cookies, but the addition of coconut to an oatmeal chocolate chunk cookie was new for me. It's an excellent addition, adding a little chewiness, and one I'll continue to include from now on. Actually, now that Kurt knows about this cookie flavor and will no doubt be requesting it frequently, I'll be baking a lot of these cookies.

German Chocolate Cake

This really didn’t need to be so complicated. I asked Kurt what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday, and he didn’t say “you can decide” or “give me some options.” His answer was “German chocolate.” Easy enough, but then I proceeded to pull out every book I have with cakes in it and compare and contrast every recipe I could find for this type of cake. Then, I recalled that Bobby Flay had prepared a delectable-looking German chocolate cake on an episode of Throwdown. I found that recipe online too. So, let me explain my decision-making process for how I ended up with the cake you see here. Classic German chocolate cake frosting is what the cake is all about, but in Bobby Flay’s version, it became a coconut-pecan-cajeta frosting. I had to try that. However, the actual cake in his recipe was a little rich. His cake was also coated with a chocolate ganache and served with coconut whipped cream, and that seemed like too much to me. Then, there was the one in the Baked book. Again, the cake itself was a little rich with lots of butter, it had a more traditional coconut and pecan frosting, but it was also decorated with a ruffle of milk chocolate buttercream around the top. Last, I looked to The Greyston Bakery Cookbook where I found the layers were made from nice, airy chocolate chiffon, and the frosting was straightforward and traditional. Here’s what happened: I baked the chocolate chiffon layers from Greyston Bakery, I attempted Bobby Flay’s cajeta frosting and ended up changing it, and I coated the sides of the cake in the milk chocolate buttercream from Baked.

Making the cake layers was simple, and they turned out lovely. The cake ingredients were whisked together, egg whites were whipped to soft peaks, and the whites were folded into the batter. No problems there. Then, I just knew by looking at Bobby’s cajeta frosting recipe there were going to be issues. I seem to lack the ability to make a mixture of caramel and milk thicken, but I foolishly moved forward anyway. You start by caramelizing sugar and then adding whole milk, coconut milk, goat milk, seeds from a vanilla bean, and some light corn syrup, and then you let that simmer and reduce for about an hour. I shouldn’t have turned away from the stove while milk was coming to a boil, and so that was exactly what I did at exactly the wrong moment. Of course, it did boil over, and I caught it a second too late. I moved the saucepan to another burner and continued. The mixture eventually reduced, but it didn’t seem to be thickening. After more than an hour of simmering, I turned off the heat and added the butter, vanilla extract, and rum and poured the milk mixture into a bowl to cool. It didn’t thicken, but it was delicious. Since I wasn’t willing to waste all those ingredients and because it was in fact quite delicious, I decided to wing it in an attempt to save the frosting. I poured the cooled mixture back into a clean saucepan and added two egg yolks and a another couple of tablespoons of butter. As it came back up to a simmer, it thickened and the frosting was saved. Back into a bowl it went to cool again, and then shredded coconut and chopped pecans were added. The version of the cake in the Baked book with the milk chocolate buttercream on top was calling to me. I made the buttercream. I pulled out a piping bag. I set one cake layer on a platter and piped a circle of buttercream around the perimeter to hold in the other frosting. The now cooled and thickened coconut pecan frosting was added inside the buttercream ring, and the second layer was set on top. Then, I realized that I have no business using a piping bag especially at the end of a long baking day. So I smoothed the chocolate frosting around the sides of the cake, added the remaining coconut pecan frosting on top, and decorated with a trail of finely chopped pecans around the base and top edge of the cake.

I know, I completely over-complicated the process, but I learned something from it. The flavors in the Bobby Flay frosting were so fantastic I’m glad I attempted it. In fact, when Kurt tasted it, he even asked how it was made because it was so good, and he’s never before asked about how anything is actually made. Next time though, I’ll simplify the process by keeping the combination of whole milk, coconut milk, and goat milk, but I’ll make it the more traditional way from the beginning with egg yolks and more butter. The chocolate chiffon layers were a very good choice, and I’ll definitely make those again. And, the milk chocolate buttercream was delicious on the cake and dressed it up a little even though it wasn’t piped into a pretty ruffle. Most importantly, Kurt really liked his birthday cake.

Bermudian Rum Cake

I’ve actually had a Bermudian rum cake in Bermuda, but I’d never made my own until now. This one is from The Greyston Bakery Cookbook. It’s similar to a holiday cake that gets soaked in a liquor-filled glaze only this is much simpler. In this case, you only apply the glaze once rather than several times over days or weeks, and the cake batter is one of the easiest ever to whisk together. The rum and orange juice and zest in the cake and the finely chopped pecans that end up coating it give it fantastic flavor before the rum glaze is even applied. Rum cakes that are soaked multiple times can end up tasting very boozy and I do quite like the taste of rum, but it’s not overwhelming here. In the glaze, the rum melds with melted butter and brown sugar into a lovely butterscotch with just a hint of rum. Soaking the cake with the glaze also extends the life of the cake. It gets better as it sits, and it lasts a few days longer than it would otherwise. To gild each serving a bit more, I whipped cream with Grand Marnier to top the cut pieces.

This simple whisked batter started with flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt being combined in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, milk, orange juice, vegetable oil, eggs, orange zest, and rum were whisked together and then added to the dry ingredients. The batter was stirred to combine and then carefully poured into a bundt pan that had been buttered and sprinkled with toasted and chopped pecans. You want to pour the batter slowly to as not to dislodge the pecans. The cake baked for about an hour, was left to cool, and was placed on a serving platter, and that’s where I learned a lesson. You should place the cake on a rimmed platter. I somehow believed that the cake would absorb every single bit of the glaze, and I foolishly chose a flat platter. The glaze was made by melting butter in a saucepan, adding sugar and water and stirring while simmering for five minutes. The rum was added off the heat. The cooled cake, on a platter with a rim, is then pierced all over with a wooden skewer before you slowly spoon the glaze over top. Most of the glaze will be absorbed, but some does collect around the base of the cake and that could work its way to the edge of a platter without a rim and dribble all over your dining room table. Whip some cream with a little sugar and Grand Marnier to serve with the cake.

The finely chopped pecans held their place on the surface of the cake and gave it some crunch, and the Grand Marnier whipped cream added more orange flavor. Certainly, a rum cake in Bermuda comes with a much better view, but this homemade rum cake was fresher, lighter, and even more delicious. Obviously, the best solution would be to pack up a homemade cake and go back for another visit to Bermuda.

Sara Kate Gillingham-Ryan, What Are You Reading?

Sara Kate Gillingham-Ryan is the founding editor of Apartment Therapy’s TheKitchn.com and writes the weekly email dispatch. She’s also the author of one of my favorite baking books The Greyston Bakery Cookbook. In addition to writing the monthly cookbook review column for House Beautiful, she also does freelance recipe development and other writing projects. Her new book about cooking for a crowd will be published in spring of 2011. I knew Sara Kate would have an interesting answer when I asked what are you reading?

Sara Kate:
New Yorker - I recently signed up again. I don't pressure myself to read the whole thing. Just a taste here and there. It's a great way to read pretty reliably good writers and as a writer, I need to keep that kind of inspiration in my reading life.

Spoon Fed by Kim Severson - I'm not done yet. It's a very entertaining and also heart-wrenching account of the life, so far, of a writer I really admire. I'm going to finish it at the beach this weekend.

Serve it Forth by MFK Fisher - I'll admit this if my first time reading this classic, Fisher's first book. It takes you to another place, one filled with perfumed Parisian morsels and Roman pies. It's next to the bed and I find I can pick it up and just have little nibbles.

On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee - I keep this around and browse through it now and then, to try to give myself the sense that I can re-live my failed high school career of science in a realm for which I care more deeply, that of the kitchen.

Four Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman - I'm a gardener and trying to figure out how to get more food out of my garden. As a cook, my passion for feeding people isn't confined to what goes on in the kitchen or at the dining table. I like growing the stuff too.






Thank you for participating, Sara Kate! Check back to see who answers the question next time and what other books are recommended.

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Fresh Coconut Mousse Cake

This is the cake Kurt chose for his birthday this year. It wasn’t just any birthday, so the cake needed to be a little special. This cake was made to celebrate Kurt’s 40th birthday. We actually did quite a lot of celebrating for this momentous, milestone of a birthday. We spent a long weekend in Las Vegas and indulged in several incredible meals. Sure, there was a little gambling and we were there for Super Bowl weekend, but all those interesting restaurants in such close proximity to one another was the highlight for me. I’ve included descriptions of our meals and links to the restaurants on facebook. You can read all about it and even become a fan if you’d like while you’re there. So, after returning home, I baked this festive cake and the celebration continued. The cake is found in The Greyston Bakery Cookbook. With freshly grated coconut and coconut mousse between the layers and as frosting, I was pretty sure this was going to be good.

In the book, it’s presented as a three-layer, eight inch cake. I made two nine-inch layers instead. The cake itself is very straightforward, and the batter is made with flour, baking powder, salt, egg yolks, sugar, melted butter, milk, and vanilla extract. There was supposed to have been some coconut extract which I wasn’t able to locate, so I used coconut milk instead of cow’s milk. Maybe I should have tried a baking specialty store to find coconut extract because it was nowhere to be found at Central Market, Whole Foods, Williams Sonoma, or Sur la Table. The coconut milk was a fine substitution, and once the batter was mixed, egg whites beaten to a state of stiff peaks were folded into it. The cakes baked for about 30 minutes and were cooled. Don’t skip the parchment rounds in the pans before pouring in the batter, because these cakes were not the easiest to remove. While the cakes cooled, a very simple mousse was made with just heavy cream, confectioner’s sugar, vanilla, and freshly grated coconut. Again, there should have been some coconut extract, but I skipped it. The recipe suggests using two coconuts worth of gratings for the mousse and for decorating the cake, but I used one and had plenty. I grated the coconut finely for the mousse. Then, for the outside of the cake, I grated larger pieces of coconut and toasted them in a 400 F oven for eight minutes or so. I liked the look of the toasted coconut, and the nutty flavor and crisper texture of it were nice too.

I was a little worried the whipped cream mousse may not hold up well in the refrigerator after a day or so, but I was completely wrong about that. The cake survived well for four days with no running mousse at all. In fact, it was still light, airy, tender, and delicious right to the end. The coconut extract may have given it even more flavor, but as it was, it didn’t seem lacking to me. Kurt was happy with his birthday cake, and hopefully that’s not just because he’s so old he doesn’t even know what he’s eating anymore.

Mocha Kahlua Cake

Let’s just jump straight to dessert. Back when I baked the oatmeal maple bars from the Greyston Bakery Cookbook, I mentioned that the mocha kahlua cake from that book might be nice for dessert on Christmas Eve. Well, it most certainly was. This is a cake of rich, chocolate layers with a kahlua custard between them, and it’s topped with a mocha buttercream frosting. If you follow the instructions exactly, you’ll have a very grand cake that’s three layers tall. I went for a slightly less grand final version of only two layers, and I baked the remaining layer’s worth of batter into cupcakes which are in the freezer now. I made the full amount of custard and the extra bit intended for a second layer of filling became a nice, little snack. I also made the full amount of frosting and gave the top of the cake a thick coating.

The cake batter was made with cocoa powder and espresso powder and six separated eggs plus two additional egg whites. The whites were beaten into soft peaks and carefully folded into the batter. After the cakes came out of the oven, they were brushed with kahlua which added flavor and kept them moist. As the cakes cooled, the custard was made with the two remaining egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch, half-and-half, and kahlua. I tasted it several times as it thickened to be sure it was as delicious as I thought it was. It was. The custard was chilled and then layered between cakes, and then the stacked layers were chilled for about an hour. Last, the buttercream was made with, of course, butter, cocoa powder, more kahlua, confectioner’s sugar, and half-and-half. It was a thick and sturdy frosting with just enough chocolate flavor. The finished cake does need to remain in the refrigerator, and I just barely had space for it.

As the cake sat for a few hours, it became even more tender from the kahlua soaking and the custard layer. Although kahlua was added in several places throughout this recipe, this wasn’t a boozy tasting cake. It was chocolaty and mocha-sweet with just a little taste of the liqueur edge. There was a nice mix of flavors, and that mix was just rich enough without being too much. When asked to choose a type of cake, Kurt has always said ‘chocolate,’ but from now on, he may start saying ‘mocha kahlua chocolate.’

Oatmeal Maple Bars

I just recently got a copy of the Greyston Bakery Cookbook, and as I read through the cakes chapter, I started mentally assigning each cake to a future occasion. The Mexican hot chocolate cake might be good for New Year’s, the steamed lemon cakelets would be lovely in the spring, maybe we should have the mocha kahlua cake on Christmas Eve, I want the fresh coconut mousse cake for my birthday, and the Bermudian rum cake would be great for next Monday because no other occasion was soon enough. After the cakes come the tarts which are followed by the cookies and bars. Since I wasn’t willing to wait for a special occasion to get baking, I decided to start with the oatmeal maple bars. All of these recipes come from the Greyston Bakery in Yonkers, New York which employs people from the community who may have previously had a hard time finding a stable job. Their made from scratch sweets are sold at the bakery, on the bakery’s web site and at shops and restaurants in New York City. There is much more information about the social mission of the bakery and the Greyston Foundation on their web site. I’ve never visited the bakery, but I had heard a lot about it, and the book came highly recommended.

As I wrote down a shopping list of ingredients for these bars, I kept flipping back to the page with the lime bars with white chocolate. In the end though, I chose to welcome the fall season with the flavors of oatmeal and maple. The bars are a mixture of oats, butter, sugar, pure maple syrup, eggs, vanilla, grated orange zest, raisins, and walnuts. The raisins were supposed to be currants, but for whatever reason, Whole Foods had no currants and I was too lazy to make another stop. The raisins were fine here, and the important thing was actually the orange zest. It definitely should not be skipped. The bars were baked in a nine-inch by thirteen-inch pan and then were left to cool. Once cool, a glaze made from butter, maple syrup, cream, and confectioner’s sugar was to have been drizzled on top. The photo in the book shows a nice, thick glaze that was drawn across the bars in lines. My glaze, however, was not of such a consistency. I tried letting it cool for extra time in hopes it would thicken. I tried whisking in a little more confectioner’s sugar. And, then, I gave up and just poured the thin glaze all over the top of the uncut bars and placed walnut halves in what would be the centers of each of 24 pieces.

My glaze may not have looked liked that in the photo, but it was delicious. The chewy, bars are an addictive flavor combination of orange, walnut, oats, and a hint of maple while the glaze adds more maple flavor on top. Cut into cute, little squares, these are hard to resist. Now, I’m starting to think those cakes don’t really need to be reserved for special occasions, and even if they do, I should probably test them first anyway, right?