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.

Happy Belated Birthday to Me...

I am officially 22!

And did I celebrate? No, not really.

I have been extremely busy with school and life in general. I feel like so many things are happening all at once.

Exciting thing number one: I participated in a pole dance/pole fitness competition. For the last few months, I have spent all my free time training and preparing for my first pole competition. And the culmination of all this hard work was the day before my birthday.

I am proud to say that I won first place in my level and division. Even now, I get giddy just thinking about it. Really. Bringing home a first place medal was a pretty fabulous birthday gift to myself.

Exciting thing number two: I’m graduating Valedictorian of Cal State Fullerton’s Communications department. On the day after my birthday, I received an email from a professor who is serving as chair of the Commencement Committee. Not only did he inform me of my superior GPA (his words, not mine—but I do agree with them), but he also asked if I would give a speech!

My first thought? You may regret having asked me, but I would LOVE to give a speech! Life goal achieved! And then I was so happy that I began to laugh hysterically.

Exciting thing number three: I started my internship with the OC Register. I met with the writers overseeing my internship on the same day I heard that I’ll be graduating Valedictorian. Over the next few months, I’ll have the opportunity to gain some journalistic experience whilst dabbling in the Entertainment, Features, and Food sections. I have a press pass and everything! I’m sure I’ll have plenty of adventures in the coming months.

With all this excitement, I haven’t really had any time for myself. But this past Saturday was the first free day I’ve had in a while, so I spent it baking and watching the animated BBC adaptation of Beatrix Potter’s children’s stories. The weather was warm and spring-like and glorious, the house smelled of cake, and anthropomorphic animals in bonnets and jackets spoke in English accents on my TV. It was probably the best day ever.

When creating this cake (which I like to think of as my belated birthday cake), I knew I wanted to flambé it. I had a conversation with my mentor, Dr. April Bullock, after the holidays about the entertainment value of purposefully setting dessert on fire. I had baked mini rum cakes for Christmas and she had sent me the New York Times’ Flaming Baba au Rhum recipe, and I began to think…why use candles on a birthday cake when you can douse the whole thing in rum and set it on fire? So after further research, that’s just what I did.

Enjoy! (And please be safe!)

Flaming Coconut-Lime Birthday Cake (Yield: 1-8” cake)

Cake Ingredients:

1-1/2 c. flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 c. sugar

Grated zest of 1 large lime

1/2 c. butter, at room temperature

2 eggs

1/2 c. plain yogurt

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. almond extract

1 c. sweetened, shredded coconut

1. Preheat the oven to 350º F. Grease and flour an 8” round cake pan.*
2. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. Place the sugar in a large bowl, then zest the lime over the sugar. Rub the zest and sugar together with your fingertips until the sugar becomes slightly damp and fragrant.
4. Cream the butter and sugar together with a fork until it becomes light and fluffy. Then add the eggs to the mixture one at a time, beating well after each addition.
5. Combine the yogurt and extracts in a measuring cup.
6. Switching to a rubber spatula, fold half of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Pour in all of the wet ingredients, and mix it well. Pour in the rest of the dry ingredients, and fold just until the flour mixes into the batter. Mix in the coconut.
7. Pour the batter into the cake pan, and rap it on the counter a couple of times to level the top and release any air bubbles. Bake 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out cleanly. Cool completely.

*Save the butter wrapper from the stick used in this recipe and rub the greasy side into the cake pan. Then proceed to dust it with a spoonful of flour. Waste not, want not! :)

Meringue Ingredients:

2 egg whites

1/8 tsp. cream of tartar

1/4 c. sugar

2 tsp. lime juice

1. Place the egg whites and the cream of tarter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment and beat until it becomes foamy.
2. Gradually add the sugar to the egg whites, increasing the speed of the mixer, and whisk until the whites become stiff and glossy.
3. Pour in the lime juice and mix until combined.

Assembly:

1/4 c. rum

1. Take the cake out of its tin and place it on an overturned 9” cake pan. Place the cake and its faux stand onto a large baking sheet. This will serve as a safety zone when you flambé your cake.
2. Pile all of the meringue into the center of the cake with a rubber spatula or large spoon. With an offset spatula, push and smooth the meringue out toward the edges of the cake. You can frost the sides of the cake, but I like to see the contrast between the golden cake and the glossy white meringue. Then take the edge of the offset spatula and press and lift it all over the meringue with swift, gentle movements. This will create little spikes and peaks all over the top of the cake.
3. Place the cake (still on the baking sheet) under the broiler for a few minutes, until the meringue browns. Don’t leave the kitchen! It doesn’t take long for the meringue to become golden and it burns easily, so watch it closely.
4. When you’re ready to serve the cake, place 1/4 c. rum in a glass measuring cup and warm it in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Gently pour the rum over the top of the meringue. Some will drip over the side of the cake—this is what the baking sheet is for.
5. Using a long-handled match, light the rum and enjoy the show! Be sure to let the alcohol burn out on its own—it doesn’t take more than 20-30 seconds. Just don’t blow the flame out!