Hazelnut Molasses Sandwich Cookies with Chocolate Filling

This has been a pretty righteous month y’all. In spite of losing face, wallet, and phone, I’ve been having an absolutely necessary and excellent time freelancing and visiting buddies in DC. The city seems more vibrant than ever, thanks in no small part of course to the many exceptional folks who are organizing events and giving small businesses space to thrive. (Check out this baby recap of Emily Hilliard’s Pi[e] Day festivities for one such example!) And maybe you saw this on Facebook already, but DC’s city council just proposed an allowance that would give bakers and other food creators the ability to sell homemade goods to the public—if it passes, that’d be reason enough to move back.

At the moment, I’m still figuring out what’s next, but with a definite scheduled stop in Maine to help deliver baby goats and to hike that big ol’ mountain. And currently I’m resting my head in Philly, home to a few pretty sweet art exhibits and some of the best beer around (plus PRETZELS). But the wandering and the hubbub demand a return to basics—or well, deliciousness posing as basics—and this cookie recipe is more of a cathartic get-‘er-done thing than a big ol’ kitchen exertion; these felt good to make. Fairly fast and dead simple with a huge flavorful payoff, these cookies offered an eye in the storm of my roving. Slice, bake, fill, stack: a relieving and totally tasty way to chill out.

Hazelnut Molasses Sandwich Cookies
Adapted from Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy by Alice Medrich

Medrich says this recipe makes 100 cookies and 50 sandwich cookies, but I preferred the thicker ones and, with that in mind, would say it's more like 75 cookies and 32 sandwich cookies. Depends on how thin you slice your dough!

1/2 cup raw hazelnuts, skins on
1 2/3 all-purpose cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
Scant 3/4 cups granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon orange zest
1/4 cup unsulphured molasses
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped, for filling

1.  Place the nuts, flour, and baking soda in a food processor and run until the nuts are finely ground. Set aside. In a mixing bowl, combine the butter, sugar, salt, vanilla, and zest, and beat with a handheld or KitchenAid mixer until fluffy. On low speed, beat in half the flour mixture, followed by all of the molasses. Beat in the remaining flour until just blended.

2.  Shape the dough into a cylinder about 14 inches long and 1 3/4 inches in diameter. (I rolled mine along a stainless steel counter, but you can use a longer sheet of wax paper to aid you instead.) Wrap the dough tightly in wax paper or plastic for two to three hours, or until it's firm enough to slice.

3.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of oven. Slice dough log into quarter-inch rounds (Medrich recommends eighth-inch, but thicker was better for us), and place 1 1/2 inches apart on lined cookie sheets. Bake for seven to ten minutes (Medrich says ten to 12, but ours were done by eight), rotating pans halfway through. The cookies will puff up then settle down before they are done. Set the liners on a cooling rack, and cool all the way before stacking or storing.

4.  To fill, melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over simmering water. Spoon about one or two teaspoons of chocolate onto the underside of a cookie, then top with a same-sized cookie. Allow chocolate to set for about 15 minutes. Sandwich cookies will keep for one week in an airtight container.

Peanut Butter Honeycomb Pie and Pi(e) Day!

The first time I celebrated Pi(e) Day was as a sophomore at Berkeley in a hippie co-op full of math magicians and culinary geniuses—all pie, all day, and for some of the following day too. It was the most supreme and comforting display of nerdery, revived again in my recent life at the hands of DC's resident pie enthusiast. Every year—from her previous homes to here—Emily organizes a Pi(e) Day event, and the one she put together yesterday was a smorgasbord of sweet and savory, all heralding math, pie, and a fantastic local farm and education center that benefited from the cover cost. And boy was it ever delicious.

Spaghetti pie, chocolate hazelnut tarts, salty caramel chocolate pie, hot 'n' spicy chili pie, butterscotch meringue: I arrived totally starving and left completely wired and with a head full of ideas for new recipes and collaborations. The gals from The Runcible Spoon were there sharing a sweet craft and their latest beautiful zine (breakfast themed!), and Emily and Elizabeth's lovely pie book had a li'l cameo too. Most of my conversations with strangers ended up being about people's personal pursuits, and it was so nice to spend one of these last few days in DC hearing about—and eating!—all the creative projects that folks are working on. 

I ended up bringing four offerings to the event, three tried-and-true classics and one new recipe: labneh tart with sesame brittle, Floriole's chocolate ganache meringue tart, super tangy lemon tart, and this big ol' beastly peanut butter honeycomb pie. I only had the chance to run a piece of honeycomb through the smears of filling and crust left on the pie plate, but that was enough to know that I'll definitely be making this again. Creamy and rich, this pie hails from one of my very favorite pastry chefs who has never done me wrong. Kim Boyce knows what's up, and this ode to insanity brings out the very best in sweet, salty, crunchy, and creamy contrasts. Just don't wait until Pi(e) Day next year to make it. And, of course, a big thanks goes out to all the people who worked so hard to make DC's Pi(e) Day such a stellar and inspiring event—y'all keep this city alive!

Peanut Butter Honeycomb Pie

Adapted from Kim Boyce for Bon Appétit

I only made a few tweaks to this: upped the nutmeg, swapped the powdered sugar for cornstarch because I was concerned about it setting, omitted the salted peanuts she calls for in the end. It was a big hit at Pi(e) Day and not nearly as annoying to make as it seems! You need to allot two or three hours to set the custard, but all the individual pieces come together in about a half hour or so.

Crust
9 full-size graham crackers, broken up
1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/4 teaspoon flaky sea salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (bumped this up to 1/4 teaspoon)
6 tablespoons butter, melted 

Filling
8 large egg yolks
12 tablespoons sugar, divided
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise (or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup creamy peanut butter (natural is fine!)
1 teaspoon cornstarch, sifted
1/2 teaspoon flaky sea salt

Honeycomb
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 tablespoons corn syrup
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon baking soda, sifted
 
Chocolate Glaze
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate (do not exceed 61% cacao), chopped
2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1. Make the crust:  Preheat oven to 325. Finely grind graham crackers, sugar, salt, and nutmeg in a food processor.Transfer crumb mixture to a medium bowl. Add butter and stir to blend. Use bottom and sides of a measuring cup to pack crumbs onto bottom and up sides of 9-inch pie pan. Bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Let cool.

2.  Make the filling: Mix yolks and six tablespoons of sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment (or you can use a handheld mixer). Beat at high speed until ribbons form, stopping once to scrape down sides of bowl, about two minutes.

3.  Combine milk and remaining six tablespoons sugar in a large saucepan; scrape in seeds from vanilla bean and add bean to pan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Remove bean. With mixer running, gradually add hot milk mixture to yolk mixture. Scrape mixture back into pan. Clean bowl. Whisking constantly, bring custard to a boil over medium heat. Remove pan from heat and whisk vigorously for one minute. Return custard to mixing bowl and beat on high speed until cool, about four minutes. Mix in butter, one tablespoon at a time. Add peanut butter, cornstarch, and salt; beat to blend. Scrape filling into cooled crust; smooth top. Chill until set, two to three hours.

4.  Make honeycomb: Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or foil. Combine sugar, corn syrup, honey, and 1/4 cup water in a heavy, deep saucepan. Stir over medium-low heat until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to high and bring to a boil. Once boiling, cook without stirring, occasionally swirling pan and brushing down sides with a wet pastry brush, until sugar turns pale amber, about seven or eight minutes. Working quickly, remove pan from heat and add baking soda (mixture will foam up dramatically), and whisk quickly just to combine. Immediately pour candy over prepared sheet (do not spread out). Let stand undisturbed until cool, about 20 minutes. Hit candy in several places with the handle of a knife to crack into pieces

5.  Make glaze and assemble:  Once pie is set and cool, stir chocolate and butter in a small heat-proof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water until melted and smooth. Drizzle some of the chocolate glaze over the peanut butter filling, then pile pieces of honeycomb on top, then drizzle remaining chocolate glaze over the honeycomb. This pie is a beast to cut with the honeycomb on top, so if you’re worried about slice presentation, just drizzle the chocolate on the pie, and top each slice with honeycomb and more chocolate. Finally, I only used about half the honeycomb. The rest we are dipping in chocolate and snackin’ on!

Chocolate Hazelnut Meringue Icebox Cake (The Beast)

Yo, you know I love a good icebox cake. They are one of the best ways to celebrate: leave whipped cream sandwiched between cake or cookie layers in the fridge for long enough, and it becomes a thick buttery frosting (without the butter!). This meringue cake, nicknamed “The Beast” by its creator for the challenge of cutting it, is definitely better off from some refrigerator timeout. After an overnight stint in the icebox, the meringue and cream meld and stabilize, but there is no loss of crunch, texture, or flavor like you might expect; plus, it’s really not that tough to cut after a proper cooling. Better said: take this baby for a spin!

But don’t get the wrong idea about me and Valentine’s Day. This cake, while surely befitting a sweetheart, did not come about in an homage to today. There ain’t a single thing that’s disagreeable about romance (give me more romance!), but I relish the blogging community much for its commitment to creativity, and that all seems to disappear in the weeks leading up to Valentine’s Day. All of my favorite DIY sites are suddenly posting links to mass-produced “him and her” gifts to purchase, and whether it’s an effort to monetize or a need to keep up with What The People Want, the buy-it-now attitude behind Valentine’s Day is counter to these sites’ everyday goals. Maybe we can all find some relief and inspiration in food blogs today instead: they often emphasize creativity and taking risks—both elements of a real romantic gesture, no?

Getting back to what’s really important here: this cake is totally delicious and totally nuts. You will love it, and it will love you right back without asking for a single thing.

Chocolate Hazelnut Meringue Icebox Cake
Adapted from Daniel Jasso for Food & Wine

A few notes: if you're short on space or nervous about cutting into this cake, consider making a bunch of two-inch cookies instead of eight-inch layers. You could stack two cookies with cream in the middle and on top, and they'd be single-serving. Either way, this is definitely a dessert to make the day before you intend to eat it. The meringue takes several hours to bake and cool, and then the whole thing goes into the fridge. The recipe counsels us to cut with a serrated knife, but I found the nicest slices came about after I stabbed straight through the top of the cake with a butcher knife.

I didn't change much here: just reduced the amounts of sugar and chocolate ever so slightly. Is that sacrilege? The original calls for six ounces of each chocolate, but that seemed just a bit too rich for my family. The final product certainly didn't suffer!

7 ounces hazelnuts (about 1 1/2 cups)
6 large egg whites, at room temperature
Pinch of salt
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar (original calls for 1 1/2)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
5 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped fine
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
3 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
Chocolate shavings for garnish

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line two very large or three regular baking sheets with parchment paper. Trace three eight-inch circles across the parchment. (I had to use three medium sheets, so one circle on each sheet.)

2.  Spread the hazelnuts on a baking sheet or in a pie pan and toast for 12 to 14 minutes, until browned. Close hot hazelnuts into a non-terry-cloth towel, allow to steam for five or so minutes, then rub to remove the skins; don’t worry if some of the skins are still on. Chop the nuts fairly small, but don’t powder them.. Lower the oven temperature to 225 degrees F.

3.  In the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with the whisk, beat the egg whites with the salt at medium-high speed until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in the granulated sugar at high speed until stiff and glossy. Beat in the vanilla and almond extracts. Fold in the hazelnuts and chocolate chips. Pour the melted chocolate down the side of the bowl and gently fold in until the meringue is lightly marbled.

4.  Divide the meringue evenly between the three drawn circles; spread evenly. Bake for two hours and 30 minutes, until crisp; rotate the pans halfway through baking. Turn off the oven, prop oven door open, and let the meringues cool completely. (I propped a wooden spoon against the “light-on” switch to keep it off and the door open.)

5.  In the bowl of the standing mixer, beat the cream with the confectioners' sugar until firm. Remove the cooled meringues from the parchment paper. Spread the whipped cream between the layers and stack them. Refrigerate or freeze the cake overnight. Cut into wedges and serve at room temperature. Garnish with chocolate shavings before serving.

Chocolate Caramel Sea Salt Tartlets

Guns! Brandy! Pie! Thanksgiving this year totally exceeded my expectations and got progressively more delicious and fun with each hour of the day. No one got punched, I didn’t kill any birds, the food was some of the best Thanksgiving fare I’ve ever had, and the desserts were off the wall. Sandwiched between it all was some chill time in front of the boob-tube and a bewitching soundtrack of lady crooners, amplified by mine and Emily’s homebrew, spiked cider, and endless mugs of coffee brandy. 

After a morning marathon of besotted cooking and an utterly indulgent brunch, we soldiered on to prepare the main Thanksgiving feast. Or rather, Jen and Dave soldiered on, while I diddled away with the desserts and cajoled Jen’s sous chefs into shooting cat-food targets with me out back. Then, with twenty entrees and two football games under our belts, we finally collapsed around the dinner table to gobble up twelve hours of work and toast to our hard-won, most excellent farming season.
  
I always worry that my desserts will be a letdown, and sometimes they are (last year’s cranberry frangipane tart, for instance). But this year, mercifully, all three desserts totally ruled. Not everyone had the stomach for pie at the end of the night, but Dave, Daniel, and I somehow managed to slowly shovel down sampler plates of the sweet potato buttermilk pie, apple cranberry pie, and these chocolate caramel sea salt tartlets. With whipped cream, no less! It was a heroic end to a delirious day from which I am still recovering. It hasn't stopped me from scarfing down the leftovers though, and it shouldn’t stop you from planning some holiday baking. Start with these! They were delicious insanity, especially with a bit of ground coffee sprinkled on top, and they would definitely be a welcome addition to any upcoming holiday tables you might be setting.
Hope you enjoyed a beautiful Thanksgiving!

Chocolate Caramel Tartlets
Recipe adapted from Claudia Fleming's The Last Course
 
Fleming uses a chocolate tart dough in her recipe. I substituted my favorite sweet tart dough because chocolate tart doughs (that aren't made with crushed cookies, that is) always seem a bit "blah" to me. Her original also calls for mini muffin tins or two-inch tart pans to make 24 mini tarts, but alas we don't have any. Were I to make this again--and I will!--I'd do it with a full-size ten-inch pan anyway.

For Tart Dough
9 tablespoons very cold butter (I prefer salted)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 large egg

Caramel Filling
1/2 cup water
2 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup (you can use Lyle’s Golden Syrup if you’d rather!)
1/2 cup (one stick) salted butter, cut into pieces
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons creme fraiche

Chocolate Ganache
1/2 cup heavy cream
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
Large-grain sea salt, for garnish
Coarsely crushed coffee beans, for garnish (optional)

1.  Make tart dough: Cube butter into one-inch pieces and chill in freezer while you ready everything else. In the bowl of a food processor, mix flour, sugar, and salt. Sprinkle butter over top, and pulse about 10 to 15 times until butter is between the size of peas and oatmeal. Use a fork to break up egg in a small bowl, and pour a bit at a time through the feed tube, pulsing once after each addition. When the egg is all in, pulse the dough for ten seconds at a time until it comes together. Right before you get to this point, the mixer will change sounds and essentially start grumbling at you. Dump dough onto sheet of plastic wrap, lightly push together, and chill for at least one hour, preferably longer.

2.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees. For four-inch tartlets, divide dough into six equal pieces. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough hunks one by one to six-inch circles and fit them into tart pans, pressing along the bottom and up to sides to ensure an even fit. Roll your rolling pin across the top to cut the dough and make smooth edges. Prick the bottoms all over with the tines of a fork and firm up in freezer for 30 minutes. Butter the shiny side of six pieces of aluminum foil, press into bottom and up sides of tart dough, then bake tartlets for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake until golden, about ten minutes more. Tart can also be made in a ten-inch tart pan.

3.  Prepare filling: Place water, sugar, and corn syrup in a large saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat, swirling the pan occasionally, until you have a dark amber caramel, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from heat and immediately and carefully (!!!) whisk in the butter, cream, and creme fraiche. Continue whisking until mixture is smooth. Divide the caramel among tart pans while still warm, filling them almost to the top. Let cool until caramel is set, about 45 minutes. You can also make the caramel up to five days ahead of time and refrigerate it; just reheat it until pourable.

4.  Make ganache: In a saucepan, bring the cream to a boil over medium heat. Meanwhile, place your chopped chocolate in a bowl. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let sit for two minutes, then whisk vigorously until smooth. Immediately pour chocolate over the tarts. Allow to set for about two hours, then top with big grains of salt and coarsely ground coffee when ready to serve. Our tarts kept covered at room temperature for four days.

Coffee S'more Nutella Pie

“It’s called a ‘swing,’ not a ‘bounce,’” my partner barked in my ear as I bobbed away during my first contra dance last week in Bangor. I laughed it off and apologized, “Oh! It’s just that I’m excited to be learning. I’ll take note.” He grunted and mumbled advice about watching the other women to learn the feet properly, before I was passed off to another partner, this one blessedly more clueless than I was. There was a 16-year-old who swung me so hard I thought I would surely fall over, a professional dance mentor who forced me into constant, awkward eye contact to ward off dizziness (it worked?), and a young bespectacled beanpole who was counting all the beats and clearly annoyed when I interrupted him with a hullo during our turn together. Peter, my favorite besides Bonnie, was a tall soft-spoken fellow with bare feet and a ponytail who pulled me aside for a lesson in “centrifugal force” (spinning) and has been a contra dancer for as long as he can remember; he reminded me of my friend Aaron who can build anything, talk to anyone, and is one of the greatest fun-havers around. Arlene and I left the dance in stitches about some of the folks we met, others on whom we spied, and my own missteps too: the night was unexpectedly excellent.

That continuous laughter about everything, even cock-ups at the contra dance, is the precise difference between life now and six weeks ago. “Fuckton,” for instance, is acceptable workplace phraseology—and an exact unit of measurement!—and that freedom to let loose coupled with everyone’s generally sick and thriving senses of humor renders me doubled over with belly laughs on a near daily basis. There’s the whole farm thing and goats and cheese too, but it’s really the laughing that feels so different and welcome; I hope that it never dries up. And I'm doing my part to make sure that it doesn't by embracing being in new or weird situations as often as possible, especially if it means that I'll end up laughing at myself.

The Bangor dance was just one of many such moments where I had a guffaw-filled time by being out of my element, but it was also a self-imposed homework assignment. Arlene has warned me that it’s “only sort of okay” to be a contra first-timer at the dance in Belfast, and we're dead-set on attending in October. The coast on one side, country on the other, and jam-packed with awesome people and excellent food, Belfast is one of the best towns around, and the dance there also offers a potluck break and social hour halfway through the night. I can't wait to attend, pie in tow. This here s'more pie would be a great offering to such an event as it's a real crowd-pleaser. The crust tastes like a candy bar, the coffee ganache is outstanding, the marshmallow meringue ties the whole thing together with a sweet kick, and if you have a kitchen torch (we don't), it's an oven-free pie to boot. It would be welcome at any potluck, campfire, or giggle riot, or, if you’re working on a sweet farm in Maxfield, Maine, all three! 

Coffee S'more Nutella Pie

Adapted from Bon Appetit

The main thing I changed for this was to increase the volume and sweetness of the meringue. The original recipe called for the whites from just two eggs, which seemed skimpy, so I doubled it and the sugar. You'd be fine leaving the sugar at the original half-cup too, but don't pinch on the whites! Also, I've lately used nothing but salted butter because it's what we have. You could use either, and the original doesn't call for salt anyway, but it's pretty much the best ingredient for baked goods, so below you'll see salt both within and in addition to the butter.

Graham Cracker Crust

9 whole graham crackers, ground finely in a food processor

2 tablespoons heavy cream

2 tablespoons Nutella

1 ounce semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, melted

1 tablespoon salted butter, melted

Coffee Ganache

12 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (go with bittersweet if you can)

2 tablespoons salted butter, cut into half-inch cubes

1/4 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt, or to taste1 1/4 cups heavy cream

2 tablespoons water

2 tablespoons finely ground coffee beans

Meringue

4 large egg whites, at room temperature

Pinch salt

1 cup fine sugar

1.  For graham cracker crust: mix graham cracker crumbs and remaining ingredients in a small bowl to blend. Press mixture onto bottom and up sides of pie dish; chill until crust is firm, about 30 minutes.

2.  For coffee ganache: place chocolate and butter in a large bowl. Bring cream, coffee, and two tablespoons water to a boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat; cover and let steep for five minutes.

3.  Strain cream mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into bowl with chocolate and butter; discard coffee grounds. Stir until melted and ganache is smooth. Pour into chilled crust; smooth top. Chill in freezer while you clean up and prepare the meringue.

4.  For meringue: set a small pot of water to simmer over medium-low heat. When simmering, add egg whites and pinch of salt to the bowl of stand mixer or other heat-proof bowl. Place over but not touching simmering water, and, whisking constantly, cook until egg whites are warm to the touch, about three minutes.

5.  Next, whip eggs and pinch of salt using whisk attachment or egg beaters on medium until they’re foamy. With the machine running, gradually add sugar, and begin beating on high until eggs whites hold very stiff peaks. Plop the meringue all over your chocolate ganache, anchoring at the crust, and pop into the broiler for two to five minutes to toast the meringue; be sure not to burn! Keep the pie refrigerated if you can, although we kept ours at room temperature for three days and it was totally fine.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Oreo Birthday Cake

There is a frozen yogurt shop in Pittsburgh called Oh Yeah!—possibly the most genius name because it’s a phrase uttered all the dang time—which Joey and I visited with my sister about two years ago. There are something like 150 different mix-ins and maybe ten or so basic yogurt flavors to choose from, after which your choices are shoved into a machine that crunches everything together and swirls it out into a cone. Katie and I took about two minutes each to determine flavor combinations, ordered, paid, and were eating before realizing that Joey was still poring over his selection sheet. Naturally we made fun of him, then watched on incredulously as he ordered the fully most inspired combination of mix-ins that put our puny fig-honey-coffee combos to shame. His cake batter yogurt included pretzels, coffee grounds, and caramel, along with few other things that I can’t recall, and so I wasn’t at all surprised when he said to me last week that he wanted a “Joey cake." I totally get what that means. 

Inside party shot! Still learning essential camera functions, such as focus.

Making birthday cakes for friends is the best, and birthday cake for a boo is an especially fun thing to be able to give, particularly when said boo is into ridiculous desserts. Dude loves a little salty with his sweet (in love and in desserts—har har). Originally I was planning to riff a Mississippi mud pie, but I realized that it was not crazy enough—obviously—and why on earth didn’t I think of making a chocolate peanut butter caramel pretzel cake until just this very second!? This here Oreo cake is probably tame compared to the ideal birthday cake of Joey’s dreams, but for the rest of us, it’s a totally worthwhile celebration cake, with towering super chocolatey layers and truly the taste of Oreos; it's like dirt cake, but bigger and better. It proved just the ticket for Joey's happy birthday, and thus begins the planning for his next personalized cake monstrosity.

Happy birthday to the best dude on the planet (left) with best brother on the planet (right)!

Chocolate Cake Layers + Assembly

This is my favorite chocolate cake recipe! It hails from the Internet (possibly originated on All Recipes) and reminds me of Bruce Bogtrotter. It will yield three nine-inch layers, as seen here, or two fatty ten-inch layers, with adjusted baking time.

3 ounces good semisweet chocolate
1 ½ cups hot brewed coffee
3 cups granulated sugar
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutched)
2 teaspoons baking soda
¾ teaspoon baking powder
1 ¼ teaspoons fine-grain sea salt
3 large eggs
¾ cup vegetable oil
1 ½ cups shaken buttermilk
¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 15.5 ounce box of Oreos, for assembly

1.  Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.  Butter three nine-inch pans. Line bottoms with rounds of parchment paper and butter the paper.

2.  Finely chop chocolate and combine with hot coffee in a bowl. Let stand, stirring occasionally, until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.

3.  Into a large bowl, sift together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl and using a hand-mixer, beat eggs on medium until thickened slightly and lemon colored, about three minutes with the stand mixer, or five with the hand mixer. Slowly add oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and melted chocolate mixture to eggs, beating until combined well. Add sugar mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined.

4.  Divide batter evenly between pans and bake in middle of oven until a tester inserted in center comes out clean, 45 minutes to one hour. As usual, start checking your layers around the 30-minute mark. If your oven is like mine, it’s impossible to have all three layers finished baking at the same time, so better to make sure that none will overbake.

5.  Cool layers in pans on rack for an hour, or until mostly cool. Invert layers onto rack, carefully remove parchment paper, reinvert, and let cool completely. Cake layers can be wrapped in plastic and left at room temperature for a day, or wrapped in triple plastic and frozen for a few days before frosting.

6.  To assemble, crush two-thirds of the pack of Oreos. I did this by putting them in a paper lunch bag and smooshing them with a rolling pin. Set aside. Put your first cake layer right-side-up on a plate or cakestand. Tuck strips of wax paper underneath the edges to protect plate from frosting. Spread two-thirds cup of frosting (recipe below) on top of this layer, then cover with about half your smashed Oreos, leaving a half-inch border all the way around. Cover with second layer, two-thirds cup more frosting, and remaining smashed Oreos. Top with third layer.

7.  Get yr crumb coat on! Put about two cups of frosting in a separate bowl (to keep the main bowl free of crumbs) and coat the cake completely, on all sides and on top, in a thin layer of frosting. Use more frosting if necessary. Put the cake in the fridge for 20 minutes to let the crumb coat set. Using an offset spatula, swathe cake in the rest of the frosting, making as smooth a layer as possible. Set frosted cake in fridge to cool for about an hour. Make chocolate glaze (recipe below) when you’re ready to proceed.

8.  Pour chocolate glaze onto the top of the cake, and use an offset spatula to push it to the edges. It should flow down on its own, but it’s okay to give it a nudge with your spatula. I used about ten smashed Oreos to make a ring around the edge of the cake, but you can use more or less or none as your taste determines. Put cake back in fridge to let glaze set for about 30 minutes, and remove about an hour before serving.

Vanilla Buttercream
Adapted from Martha Stewart

1 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 pounds powdered sugar, sifted
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
¼ - ½ cup milk, at room temperature
Big pinch fine-grain sea salt

1.  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment or in a very large bowl with a hand-mixer, cream the butter until it’s an even, smooth consistency. Gradually add in the sugar, a cup or two at a time, and beat on medium until frosting is light and fluffy, about three minutes. Add the salt and vanilla. Slowly stream in the milk until frosting is smooth and spreadable--you likely won’t need all of the milk.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Glaze
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Do not make this glaze until you have cooled the frosted the cake!

8 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
4 Tablespoons smooth peanut butter
2 Tablespoons light corn syrup
½ cup half-and-half

1. In a heat-safe bowl set over simmering water, combine the chocolate, peanut butter, and corn syrup. Cook, whisking often, until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth. Remove from the heat and whisk in the half-and-half, beating until smooth. Use while still warm and flowy. If you let it sit for too long, rewarm in the microwave in ten-second bursts.

Cake guts.

Chocolate Buckwheat Strawberry Cake

Y’all Internet friends have been so deep into the strawberries and rhubarb. Cardamom rhubarb fool. Sour cherry rhubarb jam. And some babes in California are already breaking out the apricot recipes? Put ‘em away, jerks! Your carefree riches are making my produce-impoverished life feel awfully drab. But, after weeks of wondering when my turn would come, I’m finally here with my pride intact to rejoin the springtime Internet with...this chocolate cake...that doesn’t really have a lot of strawberries in it. That’s cool though, don’t worry, it is totally worth your time and minimal efforts and will not disappoint you at all, especially if you bake by mood and it’s the least bit rainy or cool where you are. Or if in general you are a fan of things that taste good.

Last Saturday evening, Joey (Hume), Roomrunner, and the Dope Buddies (check it) played an inaugural show at the Coward Shoe building in Baltimore, Hume's new home and place of many good things to come. So out-of-town have been we though, and so missing every single Sunday farmers market and thus the spring fruits, that we drove an hour home at 4:30 a.m. after an intense and amazing night filled with broken glass and punches so that we could be lined up for berries and rhubarb when the farmers market rang its opening bell. “We” mostly means “I,” but Joey is a great sport and got a strawberry rhubarb pie and this chocolate cake out of it.

And the strawberry rhubarb pie was, in many ways, more impressive and appealing than this buckwheat chocolate cake, but I’m stuck on this. It’s a terrific low-key dessert, the strawberry flavor really shines, and buckwheat and fruit is such a natural and delicious pairing. There aren’t a lot of whole grains on this blog either, and I’m pumped to share something slightly new here. Plus it’s gluten-free! This might not be a rhubarb flambe or whatever, but check it out. I promise it’ll answer some of your fruity spring wanderings. 

Chocolate Buckwheat Strawberry Cake

Adapted significantly from Tartine Gourmande, via Smitten Kitchen

The original calls for bittersweet chocolate, more sugar, no berries, and a 9-inch pan (for a thinner cake), but take a gamble with me and try it this way. Even if bittersweet chocolate is like your religion, you might still enjoy this. Oh, and it's gluten-free!

Makes one eight-inch cake

7 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature, plus extra for buttering pan
3 ½ ounces semisweet chocolate
4 large eggs at room temperature
5 tablespoons + 1 tablespoon granulated or blond cane sugar (so, divided)
¼ teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
¼ cup buckwheat flour
¼ cup (or 1 ounce) almond meal
6 ounces small strawberries, hulled and halved

Powdered sugar or whipped cream to serve (optional

1.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Butter an 8-inch cake round and line the bottom with parchment paper; butter the parchment round as well. Melt the butter and chocolate together in a double-boiler or a heatproof bowl resting on a pot of lightly simmering water, and set aside to cool.

2.  In the bowl of a stand mixer (thanks Emily’s mom!), beat the eggs and sugar with salt on medium until light and pale and doubled in volume, five to ten minutes. This took me ten. Your eggs will airy; this is the key to giving this cake its lift and crumb.

3.  Fold in the vanilla and melted chocolate mixture with a rubber spatula. Sprinkle the buckwheat and almond flours over the batter and fold gently to combine. Arrange strawberry halves bottomside-down evenly over cake. Sprinkle remaining tablespoon of sugar over the top; this will give the top a nice crackled texture. Bake cake in the center of the oven, and start checking for doneness at 20 minutes. Mine was finished at 30, but overbaking cake is obviously the worst, so get down with your cautious self. Cake is finished when a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

4.  Cool cake for five minutes on a rack, invert onto rack, remove parchment paper, and put cake rightside up to serve. Top slices with powdered sugar or whipped cream or berries or all of it, if you want. Cake will keep covered at room temperature for about two days before getting soft around the berries; it also tastes great cold outta the fridge.