I’ve well documented my love of Nigella Lawson here on Well Fed and elsewhere, but this has to be the best use of zucchini (apart from compulsive baking of zucchini bread and/or muffins, including these amazing ones from Sarah’s Cucina Bella) I’ve seen in a long time. Her zucchini fritters with mint and feta make the best use of what the gardens are yielding right now, and can be served warm or at room temperature. We ate it the other night with a CSA-full salad and a simple dressing. It’s from her book Forever Summer, and yields about two dozen.

Ingredients:

4 zucchini (approx. 1 pounds)
5-6 scallions, finely chopped
9 ounces feta cheese
small bunch fresh parsley, chopped
small bunch fresh mint, chopped, plus extra to sprinkle over at the end
1 tablespoon dried mint
1 teaspoon paprika
scant 1 cup all-purpose flour
salt and pepper
3 eggs, beaten
olive oil for frying
3-4 limes

Instructions:

1. Coarsely grate the zucchini with either the grating blade in the food processor or by hand. Spread the little shards out on a tea towel and leave for about 20 minutes to get rid of any excess wetness.
2. Put the chopped scallions in a bowl and crumble in the feta. Stir in the chopped parsley and mint, along with the dried mint and paprika. Add the flour and season well with salt and pepper. Gradually add the beaten egg and mix thoroughly before stirring in the drained, grated zucchini. Don’t be alarmed by the unflowing straggly lumpiness of this batter; it’s meant to be this way.
3. Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a large frying pan and drop heaped dessertspoons of the moisture into the hot oil, flattening the little cakes down the back of the spoon as you go. Cook these little patties for about 2 minutes each side until golden, and then transfer to a couple of waiting plates.
4. Chop up the limes and tumble them about the edges of the plates. Sprinkle over a little more chopped mint and eat them just as they are, spritzed with lime juice as you go.

I must say a few words about the ingredients. Many granola bar recipes I tried, before adapting it to my liking and finally settling on, contained melted butter whisked together with brown sugar as the sweetening/binding/wet ingredients. For me, it was way too sweet; I could not really taste the other ingredients. On a lark, I’d gotten some blue agave nectar when I was at Trader Joe’s (it’s a vegan choice, and although I’m not, I thought I’d mention it for those who are). It has a longer shelf life than honey and does not crystallize like honey does, although you can use it much in the same way. It also has a low glycemic index, so it does not give you a sugar spike like regular granulated sugar would. But you can feel free to use some combination of honey and the other two sweeteners, or even try melted butter (I would suggest about 1/4 cup, for starters). I’ve also used golden syrup, maple syrup (good for fall granola bars, I think), and light corn syrup in a pinch. However, if you can find the blue agave, and the brown rice syrup (I can imagine the latter being delicious on vanilla ice cream) in the natural/organic sections of your supermarket or elsewhere, you may indeed find that you have a new fun thing to play with in the kitchen. Blue agave is good on pancakes, french toast, and agave is good in tea and iced tea and more. Ok, enough digressions. On with the recipe!

Homemade Granola Bars

Yield: About 16-20, depending on how big you cut them

1 2/3 cup quick rolled oats
1/3 cup whole wheat flour or white whole wheat flour
1/3 cup brown rice syrup
1/4 to 1/3 cup organic raw agave nectar (Trader Joe’s sells one for a mere $2.99!)
1/2 tsp. salt (Note: If you used salted nuts, omit salt here)
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon, optional (I also tried it with ground ginger or nutmeg; equally good)
2 to 3 cups mix of dried fruits and nuts (I commonly used cranberries, blueberries, almonds, walnuts and sunflower seeds, but think of raisins, prunes, apricots, coconut, pecans–the sky’s the limit.)

1. Preheat the oven to 325. Line a 9 x 13 inch pan with parchment; grease or spray the parchment for easy cutting and removal.
2. Stir together all the dry ingredients, including the fruit and nuts.
3. Add the wet, syrupy sweet ingredients and stir carefully to coat everything; use a wide plastic spatula.
4. Spread it out in the pan, patting it down gently so that it is evenly distributed. Bake for about 25-30 minutes, possibly longer depending on your oven, until it is golden brown around the edges.
5. Remove it from the oven and loosen the edges. Cool for at least five minutes but not too much longer.
6. Cut the bars while they’re still warm, in the pan, then remove, carefully, using the overhanging parchment, and cool completely on a wire rack.

Note: These will keep covered, in an airtight container, for up to a week. However, they won’t last that long, trust me. If you can’t get them cut evenly, don’t fret. Broken up granola is good with yogurt, ice cream, fruit, or by itself in your greedy hands.

Once I started to think about it, adding a touch of Irish cream to the frosting was a natural pairing. But saying “Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes with Irish Cream Frosting” was too much. I remembered the drink, the Irish Car Bomb (apologies if you find this offensive, but many drink names are), and settled on that, tongue firmly planted in cheek. I had my work cut out for me.

Ingredients

Cake:
1 cup Guinness
10 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 cups superfine sugar
3/4 cup sour cream
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2-1/2 tsp. baking soda
A splash of Irish whiskey of your choice

Frosting
8 ounces of cream cheese
1-2 Tbsp. Bailey’s Irish cream (I used the one with a hint of caramel)
2-3 cups confectioner’s sugar, added slowly, 2-3 Tbsp. at a time, to taste

Directions

1. Grease and line with parchment a 9-inch round pan or fill two cupcake pans with liners; preheat oven to 350.
2. Pour the Guinness into a wide saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the butter, in slices, and stir until it melts.
3. Whisk in the sugar and cocoa, slowly and turn off the heat.
4. Add your splash of whiskey.
5. Meanwhile, mix together the sour cream, eggs and vanilla (I used a stand mixer).
6. Add that to the beery-chocolate mix and stir to combine.
7. Whisk in the flour and baking soda until no white streaks remain.
8. If you’re making the cake, pour the batter into the pan and smooth out the top. Tap the sides of the pan gently to pop any remaining air bubbles. Bake for about 50 minutes. If you’re making cupcakes, use an ice cream scoop or 1/4 cup cookie scoop to fill the liners and bake for about 20 minutes. They should be cracking slightly across the top and a tester should come out clean.
9. Remove from oven and allow to cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes, and then turn out completely to cool on a wire rack. Frost once it’s cool.

Yield: Approximately 24 cupcakes. I got 18 cupcakes and a dozen mini-cupcakes.

Here’s the simple concept: A batch of high moisture doughs sit in the fridge in a lidded container so that all you need to do is rip off a grapefruit-sized hunk of it, shape it, and bake it. However, before you run out and purchase this book, you should make yeast bread on your own, in order to truly appreciate the way in which these techniques will revolutionize and demystify the process of bread baking. Yeast bread isn’t impossible, mind you. It doesn’t typically require a lot of active, hands-on engagement, but it does require a bit of planning and a considerable chunk of time to dip in and out of your kitchen to monitor the rising and so forth. With this book, you can have dough on hand in the fridge (the batch is good for two weeks but, trust me, it won’t last that long) and bake it when you get home from work or first thing in the morning, which is great for those who get inspired to eat something like fresh homemade bread but don’t want to wait half the day for it.

The master recipe is for a simple boule — a round, crusty loaf, and once you master it, it becomes easier to try others. Boule begets baguette begets European peasant loaves and flatbreads and pizza and so forth; the list is endless. There are even recipes for sweeter things, like brioche and challah and pecan caramel rolls.The book is the brainchild of a scientist — well, a physician, Jeff Hertzberg — and a pastry chef, Zoe Francois. The master recipe for boule is as follows, and you can use either a wooden spoon, a food processor or a traditional stand mixer.

Ingredients:
6-1/2 cups unsifted, unbleached, all-purpose white flour, measured with the scoop-and-sweep method
1-1/2 Tbsp. granulated yeast
1-1/2 Tbsp. kosher or other coarse salt
3 cups of lukewarm water (you can also use cold water but the initial rising time will be longer)

1. Warm the water slightly; it should feel a bit warmer than body temperature, around 100 degrees Fahrenheit, in order to rise the dough in about two hours. You can use cold tap water and get the same end result but the rise will take 3-4 hours.(I used warm water from the tap.)

2. Add the yeast and salt to the water in a 5 quart bowl of a mixer or other bowl, preferably in a resealable, lidded but not airtight plastic food container. Don’t worry about letting it all dissolve. (I used the bowl for my stand mixer.)

3. Mix in the flour all at once, using either a wooden spoon, a food processor with at least 14-cup capacity, or the hook attached to your stand mixer. Mix until the dough is uniform; you’re finished and it’s ready when everything is moist and there are no dry patches. Do not knead.

4. Cover with a lid (not airtight) that fits well to the container you’re using (I simply transferred the dough to a plastic container at this point.) Let it rise at room temperature until it starts to collapse (or at least flattens on the top), about two hours, depending on the ambient temperature of your kitchen. Longer rising times of up to 5 hours won’t harm the result. You can then use a portion of this dough after the first rise, but it’s easier to work with if it’s refrigerated for at least three hours or overnight.(I refrigerated it overnight and used it the next day.)

5. On baking day: Prepare a pizza peel with cornmeal to prevent the loaf from sticking to it when you slide it into the oven. Sprinkle the surface of your refrigerated dough and using a serrated knife pull off a hunk that weighs about a pound–about the size of a grapefruit. Working quickly, hold the dough in your hands and add a little more flour as needed so it won’t stick to your hands. Gently stretch the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go. Most of the dusting flour will fall off; it’s not intended to be incorporated into the dough. The bottom of the loaf may appear to be a collection of bunched ends, but it will flatten out and adhere during resting and baking. The correctly shaped final product will be smooth and cohesive. The entire process should take no more than 30-60 seconds.

6. Rest the loaf and let it rise on a pizza peel. Allow it to rest for about 40 minutes; it doesn’t need to be covered. Depending on the age of the dough, you may not see much rise during this period; more rising will occur during baking (”oven spring”).

7. About 20 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit, with a baking stone placed on the middle rack. Place an empty broiler tray for holding water on any other shelf that won’t interfere with the rising bread.

8. Unless otherwise indicated in a specific recipe, dust the top of the loaf liberally with flour, which will allow the slashing knife to pass without sticking. Slash a 1/4-inch deep cross, scallop, or tic-tac-toe pattern into the top, using a serrated knife.

9. After a 20-minute preheat, you’re ready to bake, even though your oven thermometer won’t be up to full temperature (Note: Mine was, but I have a convection oven and it preheats quickly.)With a quick, forward jerking motion of the wrist, slide the loaf off the pizza peel and onto the preheated baking stone. Quickly but carefully pour a cup of hot water from the tap into the broiler tray and close the oven door to trap the steam. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the crust is nicely browned and firm to the touch. Because you’ve used wetd ough, there is little risk of drying out the interior, despite the dark crust. When you remove the loaf from the oven, it will audibly crackle, or “sing,” when initially exposed to room temperature air. Allow to cool completely, preferrably on a wire cooling rack, for best flavor, texture, and slicing. The perfect crust may initially soften, but will firm up again when cooled.

10. Store the remaining dough in the refrigerator in the lidded plastic container for up to two weeks. (Note: it won’t last that long!)

You can begin to see how the variations for this are endless. There you have it. Fresh bread from your own hands.

Because necessity is the mother of invention and because I am admittedly impatient and impulsive at times, I had to make some adjustments. Fabulous though it looked, the original recipe called for pecans, which I don’t ever put in my apple pie, but whose presence did have some intrinsic logic. However, I just did not have pecans. Or walnuts. Or almonds, even. I had cinnamon chips, but I did want something to add a sweet, nutty crunch though, so I looked in the freezer and pulled out the chopped hazelnuts I had hiding in there (I’m a big believer in the freezer). Ok, it wasn’t an obvious or perfect match, but it worked in a pinch. I upped the cinnamon (use less if you’re not into vigorously spiced things), and used about 1/2 cup of Hershey’s cinnamon chips and 1/4 cup of hazelnuts instead of the 3/4 cups of chopped toasted pecans. These cookies are big, pleasantly soft and, like gingerbread, seem to become more moist with each passing day, thanks to the generous helping of both apples and brown sugar. But you probably won’t discover how moist they get because they won’t last that long, trust me.

Apple Pie Cookies

1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1-1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1 large egg
3/4 cup brown sugar (I used about 1/2 cup light and 1/4 cup dark)
2 tbsp. maple syrup
1-1/4 cup diced fresh apples (about two medium)
1/2 cup cinnamon chips
1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts (or other nut of your choice)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet or two with parchment.

Using a wire whisk, combine all the dry ingredients (flour through ginger) in a medium sized bowl.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the egg and mix on low speed until incorporated; add the maple syrup and mix to combine.

With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour until it’s just incorporated. Stir in the apples and then the chips and nuts.

Drop about 1/4 cup on the baking sheet; I put about 4 to a standard sheet, just to be safe. A 1/4 cup ice cream/cookie scoop works well here. Bake for 15-18 minutes, until the cookies are lightly browned around the edges. Remove from the oven and let them cool for five minutes and set on the sheet before transferring them, on the parchment, to a wire rack to cool completely.

Yield: About 16 large cookies.

First, it’s important to sit up front when you watch cooking demonstrations because samples are usually gone by the time they get to the poor saps (read: me) in the back.

Secondly, chocolate is undoubtedly the next big area in which people are passionately developing socially and environmentally responsible practices and products; one chocolatier said that he thought chocolate is where coffee was ten years ago. Case in point: There were lots of adjectives such as “single source” “fair trade” and other similar monikers.

Thirdly, when consumed in small but consistent quantities over the course of a few hours, chocolate seems to work temporarily as an appetite suppressant. Fourth, and I know I am going to reap the consequences of admitting something that some might deem sacreligious, there really is such a thing as too much chocolate.

Like other trade shows, it’s a way for companies to hawk their wares and convince you to buy their products at special reduced prices, sign up for their mailing lists, and more. It’s a celebration, too, of people who devote their lives to this wonderful thing called chocolate. But this one is unusual in that it’s also open to the general public.

I snuck in early with the rest of the media people before doors opened at noon the day before Halloween. Awards were distributed to the top chocolatiers in North America, most of whom were on the premises to receive their honors. Some of the highlights? The glorious combination of peanut butter and chocolate, brought to new, exquisite heights, from the California-based company Jer’s Handmade Chocolates, which touts that U.S.-grown Valencia peanuts are used in its products. The company received a Best Chocolate Candy Bar or European-style Tablet, and one bite of any of their products, which I’d never tried before, told me why. They get big, delicious points for winning, classic combinations, such as caramel, peanut butter and dark chocolate (Cara Mella), and for marrying chocolate, peanut butter and pretzels (called Pretzo Changeo) in their gourmet peanut butter bars.The simplicity of ingredients yet depth of flavor is unmistakable and addictive.

I also fell in love with Madagascar chocolate from Madecasse, a company started by former Peace Corps members. Madecasse works with rural cocoa farmers obtain the equipment, training and tools needed to produce its chocolate, which is actually manufactured in Madagascar. The company introduced its delicious, single-source chocolate earlier this year to the market. The 54 percent dark chocolate was actually fruity, with subtle wine overtones. The company won an award for Best Packaging. The is amazingly complex and should be eaten alongside wine. Ditto to Republica de Cacao, which uses single-source Ecuadorean cacao for its dark chocolate products. Pure Dark set up an impressive display with hunks of chocolate the size of small boulders–they call these “slabs.” The New York City-based company’s artisinal dark chocolate is as minimally processed as possible, and I fell in love with their bark, generously studded with caramelized nibs, dried berries, and nuts; think trail mix, only in fancier bar form, and way more decadent. Pure Dark is fairly new; it opened in Greenwich Village in 2008, and with the spate of new chocolatiers in the past five years, it’s possible you missed it. Don’t!

I also forgot how people who tend to call themselves foodies also sometimes tend to be know-it-alls, driven by the need to impress others. Because I forgot all of this, I forgot how annoying it truly is. So, to the person who tried to convince me that white chocolate isn’t chocolate per se: yes, I know. Did that stop me from buying a bag of Guittard vanilla chips? No, because they are delicious and pair well with cranberries. And while I’m at it, to the person who said that buying a bag of Guittard chocolate chips, which easily retail for more than $5 a bag and which the company was selling at the cut rate of FOUR FOR TEN DOLLARS, and using it for baking was “wasting it,” I hope you never eat a chocolate chip cookie you like. I can vouch that they were the best chocolate chips in a cookie that I have ever tasted, and I probably bake dozens and dozens of batches a year.

There. I feel better now.

Stay tuned for more posts on individual companies and baking experiments. Don’t panic if you missed it in New York. It’s a traveling show, on the road through Fall 2010, so pack your bags and choose among the following destinations: Shanghai, Japan, Moscow or Cairo.

Holiday Honey Cake

1 cup of honey
1/2 cup of sugar
4 eggs
1 cup of coffee, black, at room temperature
3/4 cup vegetable oil
Zest of one orange
4 to 4-1/2 cups of flour — adjust to make sure the batter is moderately loose
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 pinch of salt
1 cup of raisins

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Mix together the honey, sugar, eggs, coffee, oil, and orange zest.

3. In a separate bowl, sift the dry ingredients (flour through salt).

4. Slowly add the dry mixture into liquid mixture. Blend well. Fold in raisins.

5. Pour the batter into a greased 9 x 13 baking pan or 36 muffin tins.

6. Bake for about an hour but check after 45 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.

Taking place over three days (October 30-November 1), the show started 15 years ago in Paris, the brainchild of Sylvie Douce and Francois Jeantet, and is now the largest event of its kind devoted to the confection. The New York show will feature 65 vendors from all over the world, along with pastry chefs, culinary events, and all kinds of deliciousness as it pertains to chocolate. There will be two culinary theaters for cooking demonstrations and interactive chocolate cooking techniques that will include Jacques Torres, Nick Malgieri, Johnny Iuzzini, Maricel Presilla and more. The event also will feature a chocolate bookstore, courtesy of Barnes and Noble, with titles from around the world. Chocolatier and “bald man” Max Brenner will pre-release and sign his new book Chocolate: A Love Story, which has fifty original recipes.

Kids love chocolate, too, so child-friendly events are also scheduled, and there’s a lounge and cafe for guests to relax with themed snacks, treats, and drinks. If that isn’t enough, there’s also a chocolate beauty pavilion. Brands such as Gnosis Soaps, Sweet Beauty, and Hint Mint will showcase their products such as soaps, lotions, lip glosses, and more, including chocolate facials. The pavilion is a new addition this year; so are the Chocolate Awards and, given the weekend in which it takes place, Halloween-related activities.

Admission costs $28 per adult, available through Ticketmaster but $30 when purchased at the door. The exhibition takes place at the Metropolitan Pavilion at 125 West 18th Street in New York.

It all started a few weeks ago with my baking club. We made Martha’s triple citrus cupcakes and although they were good, we agreed they were not flavorful enough and had too much butter and so were therefore too dense. When I found a recipe that involved tequila, my brain started whirring. If it had tequila, why couldn’t it have limoncello, too? And a bit of the lemon-lime margarita mix I have in my refrigerator? If a little is good, more is better, right?

The original recipe comes from the book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, but I’ve seriously doctored it. It called for lime juice, but I used a combination of lime and lemon juice and a bit of margarita mix. It called for vegetable oil, but I used olive oil because I was out of the former; I wouldn’t advise using extra virgin olive oil, though, because it will likely impart a more herbal flavor than perhaps you may want. The icing recipe also called for a vegan shortening (which I didn’t have so I used Crisco and a bit of cream cheese) and darker rim of green (or other similar and appropriately colored) sugar around the edge of the cupcake, but I didn’t have any of it and imagined instead you could use coarse brown sugar of some kind. But we were impatient (cupcakes!), so I didn’t even get to that step. These are now my go-to recipe for any kind of citrus cupcake. They were moist, a fine balance of sweet and sour, and so, so good.

Ingredients

1/4 cup, altogether, of lime and lemon juice
A splash of margarita mix (optional)
2 tsp. lime zest (or a combination of lemon/lime zest)
1 cup  soy milk (plain or vanilla; I used vanilla)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp. tequila
2 tsp. limoncello
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and fill a 12-cup muffin pan with liners.

2. In a large bowl, whisk to combine the citrus juices, zest, soy milk, oil, tequila, limoncello, vanilla extract and sugar.

3. In a separate large bowl, whisk to combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.

4. Add the lime mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Divide into equal portions (I used an ice cream scoop) into the pan.

5. Bake for 20-24 minutes, until a tester comes out clean and the cakes spring back when lightly pressed. Cool in pan for ten minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

Speaking of which…
Citrus Cream Cheese Frosting

2 tbsp. of light (or full fat) cream cheese, slightly softened
1/4 cup of shortening

Whatever zest you can get from the skin of the limes and lemons you’ve used
1 tsp. limoncello
1 tsp. tequila

At least 2 cups of confectioner’s sugar

6-7 tbsp. of milk

Directions

1. Cream together the cream cheese and shortening in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle.

2. Add 1-2 tbsp. milk, limoncello and tequila, the zest, and mix briefly.

3. Add small amounts of sugar, alternating with 1 tbsp. of milk, until you’ve reached the desired consistency and sweetness.

4. Frost, frost, frost until your heart’s content.

I made a few amendments to the original recipe. I’ve added an additional cup of blueberries (New Jersey ones are not as small as wild Maine ones) and upped the amount of ginger ever so slightly. This recipe calls for melted vegetable shortening, something I don’t often use but usually have on hand, however I’d be curious to hear feedback from those of you who opt to do this with melted butter.

Ingredients

2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries (one cup if you’re using wild Maine blueberries)
2 cups plus two tbsp. all-purpose flour, divided1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup sugar
7 tbsp. melted vegetable shortening
3 tbsp. molasses
1 large egg
1 cup fat-free buttermilk (Note: I used 2 percent milk, which is what I had on hand, which undoubtedly added more calories and a bit more fat. Buttermilk would also make this more tangy.)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Combine blueberries and 2 tbsp. of flour, tossing gently to coat.

3. Lightly spoon remaining 2 cups of flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Add the baking soda, cinnamon, salt and ginger; combine with a wire whisk. Set bowl aside.

4. Put sugar, molasses, shortening and egg in a large bowl of a standing mixer and beat well at medium speed until blended. Add the flour mixture and buttermilk alternately, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Gently fold in the blueberry mixture.

5. Pour batter into a 13 x 9-inch baking pan coating with cooking spray or well greased with butter and a bit of flour. Bake for about 30 minutes or until a wooden skewer or cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

This cake is super easy and does not take long to assemble. I’d also recommend a light dusting of confectioner’s sugar over the top, once it’s cooled. Like all gingerbread, it’s better the next day and seems to be even better on the third day. Keep it tightly covered; my pan has a plastic lid and it kept for at least four or five days.