Midnight Brownies and TCM

TCM Ultimate Fan Contest from Schardé Vallone on Vimeo.

I adore old movies. And not “old” as in 1980s old—I’m talking about 1930s old. I must have been around 13 years old when I first started watching classic movies. I remember lying in bed one morning and watching The Outlaw (1943) and feeling like a whole new world had opened up. Now, I could probably name more Golden Era Hollywood actors than current stars.

Naturally, TCM is a staple in my house. Whether I’m baking, doing homework, or reading, the TV is more often than not turned to that channel. There is a special spot in my heart for the channel’s host Robert Osborne. I imagine that if I ever met him, I would only manage to embarrass us both.

In celebration of its 20^th anniversary, TCM held a fan contest in which viewers could submit a minute-and-a-half video of themselves playing the role of host and introducing their favorite film. It was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. Trying to decide which movie to introduce, however, was way too much pressure. But I eventually decided on Mitchell Leisen’s screwball comedy Midnight (1939)—it’s actually one of my mom’s favorites (it didn’t take long to get my mom hooked on classic films too). I won’t give the plot away here, as I briefly talk about it in the video I sent in.

I really love screwball comedies. They are so bizarre and fast-paced and witty, and I love how strong the lead female characters are. The complete sense of escapism in these movies is marvelous.
 

Choosing a recipe evocative of my experience shooting this video submission was also a bit difficult. In the end, it was the name of the movie itself that inspired me. A few years ago, my friend Jordan slept over and when we got the midnight munchies we baked a chocolate cake together. (She is actually my favorite person to bake with, and I don’t say that lightly.) So I made dark chocolate brownies.

These brownies are not for the faint of heart. They are rich, darkly fudgy, sweetly bitter, so deeply chocolately…I could go on. I did brownie research and found six different recipes that I then combined and tweaked to make one of my favorite batches of brownies ever. Since making them, I have definitely snuck one (or two) while burning the midnight oil (which has been almost every night for the past few weeks) and I have a feeling that Jordan would love these too.

On a quick note, I used dark chocolate chips the second time I baked the brownies. The first time, however, involved some pantry scavenging. So feel free to use chopped dark chocolate bars instead of chips.

Midnight Dark Chocolate Brownies (Yield: about 16 brownies)

1 c. dark chocolate chips

8 tbsp. (1 stick) butter, cut into 1” pieces

1 tbsp. instant coffee granules

1 c. brown sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 c. flour

1/4 tsp. kosher salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350º F. Grease an 8x8” pan, line it with parchment paper, then grease the parchment as well.
2. Place the chocolate, butter, and instant coffee in a glass bowl. Set it over a pot filled with an inch of water, and bring the water to a simmer over medium-high heat. Give the chocolate a stir every so often and let it melt until the mixture is smooth and shiny. Be careful that none of the condensation that collects on the sides of the bowl gets into the chocolate.
3. Take the bowl off the heat and stir in the brown sugar. Let the mixture cool for about 15-20 minutes.
4. Mix in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Then stir in the vanilla—you’ll see the batter immediately thicken.
5. Fold in the flour and salt with a rubber spatula, making sure that you don’t over mix the batter.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes. Let the brownies cool completely before unmolding.

La Dolce Vita

La Dolce Vita from Schardé Vallone on Vimeo.

There were several things I really loved about visiting the La Dolce Vita Italian Festival in Laguna Niguel last October:

1.     Channeling my inner Huell Howser

2.     Being serenaded by an accordion player

3.     Stomping grapes à la Lucy Ricardo

4.     Riding on the back of a cherry-red Vespa

Yes. All these things happen in my two-minute-and-fifteen-second package.

I knew I needed to find an appropriate recipe to commemorate the day, and what’s more Italian than tiramisu?

I have always heard that tiramisu meant “pick me up” in Italian and that it was eaten at around three o’clock as the perfect restorative for that mid-afternoon slump. But Nigella Lawson explained this concept a little further in Nigellissima: Easy Italian-Inspired Recipes stating, “Some say, challenging more generally accepted ideas about the provenance, that it was invented in a casa chiusa (a house of ill repute) to give the working girls a pick-me-up, as the name (tira-mi-su) suggests” (p. 162, 2012).

That being said, I love tiramisu. How could espresso-soaked savoiardi cookies and mounds of fluffy mascarpone not provide that little bit of extra motivation needed to get through the day? With the warmth of spring in the air, however, I wanted something a little bit brighter in flavor. I eventually settled on combining David Rocco’s lemon tiramisu, Lawson’s Tiramisini, and a Food Network Kitchen recipe for Lemon Tiramisu Trifle.

You’ll notice that I have also provided a recipe for mascarpone cheese. It is by no means necessary to make your own mascarpone. The reason I decided to learn how to make the creamy Italian cheese is because it was much less expensive—and why not learn another culinary skill when the opportunity presents itself? I referenced Pastry Affair and The Wimpy Vegetarian for both the recipe and technique. I must admit, however, that I was too lazy to bother with a thermometer to check the temperature of my cream. After a couple of tries and a good amount of time spent watching cream warming in a pot, I think I have the technique down.

My lemon tiramisu recipe is simple, but takes some time. I recommend beginning the preparation for the tiramisu two days before you want to serve it if you’re making your mascarpone from scratch. That said, this recipe requires a lot of self-control. It would be so easy to put the tiramisu together and then immediately take a spoon to it. But patience is a virtue, as they say. And to throw in a little Italian…tutto è bene quel che finisce bene, or all’s well that ends well. And this lemon tiramisu definitely ends well.

 

Homemade Mascarpone Cheese

2 c. heavy cream

1 tbsp. lemon juice

1. Prepare a strainer by lining it with a thin linen napkin. Place the lined strainer over a large bowl. Set aside.
2. Pour the cream into a pot and let it come to a gentle simmer over low heat, being careful that the cream doesn’t scorch. This takes some time and patience. For reference, a perfect simmer on my stovetop is at seven out of ten on the dial, and I waited for the cream to come to a simmer at six.
3. Stir in the lemon juice with a wooden spoon and continue to let the mixture simmer over low heat for five more minutes. By then, you’ll notice the cream start to thicken considerably (it should be the consistency of thick gravy). When it coats the back of a spoon, turn off the heat and take the pot off the burner.
4. Let the mixture cool for about 45 minutes, and then pour it into the lined strainer.
5. Bring the ends of the cloth up and secure them like a package with a rubber band. Refrigerate overnight.
6. When you’re ready to use your mascarpone cheese, scrape it out of the napkin and into a bowl and give it a good stir. Discard the liquid that collects at the bottom of the bowl. Place any leftover mascarpone in a container with a lid and refrigerate it. Use within a few days.

Lemon Tiramisu (Yield: 1 8x8” tiramisu, about 9 servings)

Lemon syrup:

1/4 c. lemon juice

1/4 c. water

2 tbsp. sugar

Lemon cream:

1/3 c. sugar

Zest of about 1 lemon, very finely grated

1 c. mascarpone

1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

2 egg whites

For the assembly:

18 savoiardi cookies

1/2 c. white chocolate, shaved or grated

1. Combine the syrup ingredients in a bowl and give it a stir. Let the mixture set while you make the lemon mascarpone cream. Stir it around once in a while to make sure the sugar dissolves.
2. In a large bowl, rub the 1/3 c. sugar and lemon zest together with your fingertips until the sugar becomes moist and fragrant. Be sure that the lemon zest is very fine, otherwise you’ll be chewing on pieces of lemon zest while eating your tiramisu.
3. Place the mascarpone and vanilla in the bowl with the lemon sugar and stir with a rubber spatula until everything is evenly combined.
4. Beat the egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer on medium-high speed until it can hold a soft peak.
5. Gently fold the egg whites into the mascarpone mixture, until it becomes homogenous and fluffy.

To assemble:

1. Working one cookie at a time, quickly dip each side of the savoiardi in the lemon syrup and place it in the bottom of the 8x8” dish. You’ll use about nine cookies to completely line the bottom of the dish, but you may have to cut a cookie in half to get it to fit properly.
2. Spread half of the mascarpone mixture evenly over the top of the savoiardi layer.
3. Sprinkle 1/4 c. of the white chocolate shavings evenly over the mascarpone.
4. Repeat this process once more for a total of two tiramisu layers, ending with the second half of the white chocolate.
5. Cover the baking dish with plastic wrap and let it set for at least six hours, but preferably overnight.