Ina's triple chocolate loaf cakes

New year, and much of the same routines here!  I'm thrilled with that because I'm very lucky to be able to enjoy and indulge in my favorite pastimes of cooking, baking, and eating.  Here's to happy cooking and feasting in the new year, and always!

Like so many people, I'm a fan of Ina Garten's and adore watching her cooking show.  I'm no expert but there's something about an Ina Garten recipe that usually manages to surprise you a little bit even when you already expect it to be good.  Her recipes are clearly well thought out and whatever it is we're cooking or baking, she's figured out a way to squeeze out, or amplify, every bit of flavor possible.

So you don't have to twist my arm to try one of Ina's recipe - particularly when it involves chocolate!  For a chocoholic like me, it's nearly impossible to resist a recipe called "triple chocolate loaf cakes".  And you can be sure that if Ina's offering a chocolate recipe, it's going to be unmistakably chocolate.  Here, bittersweet chocolate and unsweetened cocoa (along with a touch of coffee) bloom in boiling water to create the foundation for these cakes.  Then, chocolate chunks or chips add another decadent and delicious dimension.  I opted out of adding walnuts to these loaf cakes.  Personally, I adore nuts in baked goods but I was making them to share with others and went with a nut-free version.

This recipe makes 2 regular-size loaf cakes.  I made 4 smaller loaves so I could share with friends.  To offset our smaller slices, we just had to cut ourselves an extra one, which was easy enough.  

This moist, chocolaty cake satisfied my daily chocolate craving.  I love the light yet almost fudgy texture to the cake, and the serious chocolate flavor doesn't disappoint.  Not too surprisingly, there is something a little extra special about this particular chocolate loaf cake recipe.

Warm individual brownies with ice cream

I don't watch a lot of TV in general but I do watch plenty of cooking shows.  I DVR my favorites (Giada deLaurentiis, Ina Garten, The Pioneer Woman, The Chew, The Cook's Illustrated shows on PBS...) but sometimes, I use the shows more as background noise while I'm thumbing through magazines or reading rather than something I'm watching earnestly.  It's not very often I'll watch a show that captures my undivided attention and makes me want to run into the kitchen to make a particular dish...

But it happened a couple of months ago when I was watching Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa.  The premise was cooking restaurant food at home and it caught my attention when she started talking about re-creating a fish dish she had at Spago and then making a visit to Rao's in New York (that restaurant that's virtually impossible to get a reservation into).  Man, the food on this show looked amazing!  I wanted to make the prosciutto wrapped bass and skillet brownies right away!

I couldn't stop thinking about that dessert...warm (practically hot) individual brownies made in cute little individual portion skillets, served right from the oven with vanilla ice cream!  That pretty much sums up my ideal dessert!  The only problem was I didn't/don't have 3 1/2 inch mini cast iron skillets!  I actually thought about buying some but I knew that wouldn't be a smart move, particularly without even trying the recipe first.  I figured I could use ramekins but those little skillets really do look adorable! 

So my lack of mini skillets kept me from making these warm individual brownies for a while.  I finally decided to use these disposable baking cups from Garnish, a site I discovered recently and just adore!  You could definitely bake these individual brownies in ramekins, disposable pie tins or a cast iron skillet of whatever size you have (to share, family-style).  You'll need to adjust the baking time depending on what size dish you use but it's relatively easy to tell when the brownies are ready - they will puff up slightly, crust and firm up on top, but should still have a little wiggle to them when lightly moved.  You don't want to over bake them. 

These are very much like molten chocolate cake, only with a bonus crusty top.  And we seriously loved the crust on these brownies that you can literally pick off with your fingers and eat.  Just crack into that sweet, crusty, chewy surface and spoon your way into the soft, warm, gooey center.  Topped with some homemade vanilla ice cream, it was a delicious after lunch dessert for us on a recent Sunday.  

I couldn't get this simple dessert out of my mind and I'm sure glad I tried it.  If I had any complaint, I'd say the brownies were just a tad sweeter than necessary but that's just me being picky.  And by the way, I made the prosciutto roasted bass featured on the same show less than a week after watching it and that was delicious too! (I skipped the roasted vegetables and just baked the fish and topped it with a simple squeeze of lemon.  The ham really kept the fish moist and added a great salty flavor.)

I've been doing a few brownie recipes lately but it's just the kind of simple yet utterly satisfying dessert I love to bake and eat!

My first lemon bars

I associate lemon bars/squares with school bake sales but have you ever actually seen lemon bars at a school bake sale?  I remember (fondly) that school bake sales were all about Entenmann's fudge cakes and cupcakes when I was growing up in Brooklyn.  I never once saw lemon bars and, I know this might sound unlikely, I don't think I've ever eaten one!  Until now, that is...

I've had (and love) lemon tarts but not a basic lemon bar with shortbread crust and lemon curd topping that I can pick up with my hands and devour.  Although I have to ask...is it still lemon curd when there's no butter and you add flour to it?

I've wanted to make lemon bars for a while since I love lemon but I was really motivated to bake a batch after seeing a recipe for a lighter version in Cooking Light magazine. 

But to make a long story short, I actually did not make the Cooking Light version but went with the well-known Ina Garten recipe instead, with some help from Smitten Kitchen.  Although I love the idea of lightening up these rich treats (pine nuts in the crust sounded good to me), how can I make a lighter version before making/tasting the "real" thing first?  So as a compromise, I just made a smaller version of the real thing.

And I think this is the real deal...rich, buttery (very fragrant) shortbread crust and tangy yet sweet lemon filling.  I'm glad I didn't slim down the lemon layer.  I actually figured I'd like a bit more lemon to shortbread ratio, and I was right.

I didn't know making lemon bars could be a bit of a high wire act though!  I thought I came a little too close to over baking mine.  Who knew you could over bake lemon bars!  I was worried about under baking - you read about fillings not setting and how difficult they are to cut.  And of course, since I divided the recipe in half and baked them in a 9-inch square pan instead of a 9x13 inch pan, the timing was thrown off.  And boy, I had lots of ugly air bubbles on top of my lemon bars - why hasn't anyone talked about that?

Luckily, I found that after cutting away the dried sides of my lemon bar, the center was still soft and, almost surprisingly at this point (since I'd lost confidence), very tasty!  Maybe it just goes to show you do need to bake lemon bars a bit longer than you think.  Next time, though, I'll play it safe and keep a closer eye on the oven.  I think the idea is to remove them about 5 minutes after the filling sets; directions are not very precise, for sure.

And also luckily, a generous dusting of powdered sugar does a good job of hiding those unsightly air bubbles.  The downside is that this almost-mandatory powdered sugar topping melts once covered so it's not ideal to travel with them (another point against the bake sale idea - particular during humid weather) or if you want to package them as a gift.

Now I know what the big whoop is about lemon bars.  They're a great balance between sweet and tangy, with that fresh lemon cutting through the rich buttery flavor of the crust.  And is it me or is there something a little extra special about bar desserts?  Casual yet special.  Next time you're at a bake sale, see if you find lemon bars.  They may be geared more towards adult rather than young palates but look at it this way, we all become adults eventually...