Recipe Notes: Chocolate Semifreddo

19 June 2018

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, May 2018

What a tempting recipe for a hot summer! A frozen chocolate dessert that is made without the churn used to make ice cream, indeed no special equipment at all is needed. Semifreddo translates from Italian roughly as "half frozen" and it is expected to be lighter than ice cream. 

Bittersweet chocolate was chopped fine and set aside, as was a mixture of vanilla extract with instant espresso powder. Eggs, sugar, and salt were whisked together. In a sauce pan, heavy cream and water were heated to simmering then whisked into the egg mixture. The resulting mixture was then heated to 160° then poured through a strainer over the chopped chocolate. After the chocolate had melted it was whisked until smooth and the vanilla espresso mixture was whisked in. Heavy cream was beaten to soft peaks, one-third of this was mixed into the cooled chocolate mixture to temper it  before the remaining whipped cream was gently folded into the chocolate. The mixture was transferred to a loaf pan and frozen. Total preparation time was about one hour.

Like chocolate mousse, which you might view as a lighter version of chocolate pudding, whipped cream is folded into a chocolate mixture to lighten it. The chocolate semifreddo was easily imagined by us to be a frozen mousse. It was creamy, easily eaten while frozen, but not as rich as ice cream or gelato. It was a nice dessert, easily made, that we enjoyed eating, but in the future we will probably stick to ice cream when craving a frozen, chocolate dessert for a hot summer day.

Recipe Notes: Boogaloo Wonderland Sandwiches

18 June 2018

Recipe from Cook's Country, April 2018

No, I had never heard of these sandwiches, either, and I am pretty sure I would have at least remembered their fun name. To me they seem similar to sloppy joes: ground beef is seasoned, fried, and served on a bun. What's different about these is the use of different seasonings, using sub rolls instead of buns, and adding a layer of melted American cheese to the sandwich a la cheeseburgers. I have tried several variations on this sort of sandwich over the years but I always go back to my family recipe. Will this sandwich be different?

I made only a few changes to the Cook's Country recipe: I used 80% lean ground beef instead of 85% because it was available at the supermarket. I also used potato slider buns instead of sub rolls, because we have those in the freezer and they are the right size for us. First, the sauce was made by combining ketchup, vinegar, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, dried thyme, dry mustard, garlic powder, chili powder, and pepper in a sauce pan and bringing it to a boil. For the sandwich filling, ground beef, onion (sliced thin), pepper, and salt were fried in a skillet. The sauce was added and the mixture simmered. The finished mixture was placed on the rolls with a slice of American cheese (split between the two slider-sized sandwiches) which was then melted in a 350° oven. Total time was about 45 minutes.

The boogaloo wonderland sandwich is OK. It was a little spicy and a little sweet but the level of heat was OK for us. The sliced onions were too big for our slider buns, the onion should have been cut into halves or quarters before slicing. I don't think the sandwich was good enough to take the place of my Aunt Peggy's sloppy joe recipe. It is a good sandwich but I will probably continue to use the old family favorite.

Recipe Notes: Classic Chewy Oatmeal Cookies

13 June 2018

Recipe from The Perfect Cookie, America's Test Kitchen, 2017, p. 30; also available online.

We sometimes have oatmeal cookies, they are a favorite of Diane's. They almost always have chocolate chips, though, and tend to be small and crispy. I made a crispy chocolate chip oatmeal cookie several years ago and it worked out well. In working my way through The Perfect Cookie it became time to try the ATK recipe for a chewy oatmeal cookie.

Unlike most cookies, these were made entirely by hand, the stand mixer was not needed. The dry ingredients—AP flour, salt, and baking soda—were whisked together and set aside. Butter was carefully melted and browned in a skillet, transferred to a mixing bowl, and cinnamon was added to the warm melted butter to bloom its flavors. Brown sugar, granulated sugar, and vegetable oil were whisked into the butter mixture. An egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract were stirred into the mixture, followed by the flour mixture, then rolled oats, and finally some raisins. The dough was portioned onto baking sheets using a #24 scoop (about 3 tablespoons). The cookies were flattened to 2½-inch disks and baked until the edges were just set 11 minutes at 375°. It took just over an hour and the recipe yielded 16 large cookies.

These cookies are certainly different from other oatmeal cookies I have had. They are soft and chewy in the center with crispy edges, the texture is different than any others I remember having. They almost seem too dry, but this is a minor flaw. They taste very good, even with the raisins instead of chocolate chips, with a stronger flavor of oats than other recipes provide. They are big cookies, but I can always eat just half of one, though I rarely do that. These cookies were easy to make and are worth making again, though I might try substituting chocolate chips for the raisins. I know that Diane would vote for that modification.

Update: 30 June 2023

I made these again with a few modifications. I substituted 1 cup of chocolate chips for the ½ cup of raisins. I used a smaller #30 scoop (about 2 tablespoons) to portion the dough rather than a #24. Twelve cookies fit on a baking sheet and the recipe made a total of 28 cookies. They cookies baked for 10 minutes. These were both good modifications and I will probably make these changes when I use this recipe in the future.