Cinco de Mayo Sweet: Tortilla Torte Recipe for Serious Eats

Have you ever found yourself wondering why, in the field of desserts inspired by Mexican food, the choco taco must always reign supreme? I mean, there is so much possibility in the genre. I know that personally, I'd be mega-thrilled about a chocolate-peanut butter quesadilla or some Cadbury Creme huevos rancheros.

But for a sweet south of the border-inspired treat that really takes the cake, why not try out a Tortilla Torte? This recipe is lightly adapted from a family cookbook recipe shared with me by Kerry Haygood of cake pop bakery Lollicakes.

Composed of tortillas stacked over chocolate cream filling and topped with a billow of fluffy white frosting, this torte visually resembles fancy stacked sponge cakes, but ultimately makes for a very different dessert experience. The tortillas take a bit of getting used to—they will remain lightly chewy even when the chocolate has had a chance to set— but the taste sensation is unlike any other dessert I've ever tried. The floury taste of the tortillas mixes quite pleasantly with the rich chocolate-sour cream filling (which is also great by the spoonful) and the complementary tangy sweetness of the sour cream frosting.

That's to say: it's nacho typical dessert.

For the full entry and recipe, visit Serious Eats!

Pastry Profiles: Hazelnut Cake, Swiss Haus Bakery, Philadelphia

We are now going to discuss the experience of eating the Swiss Haus's signature sweet, "The Original Hazelnut Cake".

This is a very special cake, for a few reasons.

First, it's the bakery's signature dessert. As they beautifully put it on their website, 

Ok, here is the deal. This cake is what the entire Swiss Haus Bakery fuss is all about. This century old recipe that was brought over from Europe to Philadelphia over 85 years ago. It has three layers of hazelnut sponge cake filled with vanilla butter cream, covered in Swiss Chocolate Shavings.

Upon my first visit, I was assured that this was the thing to get--a recipe that hasn't changed for over 80 years, because it doesn't need to. It's just that good. Well, that fascinated me. Especially because the flavor combination (not to mention that it has sponge cake, which I consider a featherweight of the dessert world) might not have been my first choice had it not been suggested.

The cake is offered in a few sizes: small bites for about $3 (maybe a little more or less--lay off me, I was concerned with the cake), and larger cakes for larger prices. 

So what is this cake like? It's a nostalgic and highly pleasant sweet--especially enjoyable when you've heard the tale of how long the cake has been made (it always tastes better with a backstory, doesn't it?). Airy and sophisticated, the light sponge cake was deliciously coated with a light whipped frosting on all sides. While a little more chocolate couldn't have hurt, it's clear to see why the bakery has been making it for 80 years without pause. If you find yourself in the area, do yourself a favor and grab a taste of history.

35 S. 19th Street, Philadelphia; online here.

Sweet Chips: Choco Nachos Recipe

Desserts inspired by Mexican food: there's just so much untapped potential. I mean, who wouldn't love a delicious choco-burrito (why must it just be choco tacos?) or a blueberry-cornmeal sope with sweetened sour cream on the side? Or tamales with a sweet, instead of savory, filling? Really, the possibilities are staggering (and very delicious-sounding).

But for now, I'll keep it simple with a brilliant new invention of mine: Choco Nachos.

This dish could not be easier to make, and the rewards are many to your taste buds. They're sweet! They're crunchy! They're carbohydratey! They're buttery! They have chocolate! You can dip them in ice cream, rice pudding, or more chocolate! 

Seriously, I don't know why you're even still reading this (are you?). You should get yourself to the grocery store for the ingredients. Or maybe you don't even need to: they are prepared using fairly common pantry ingredients. All you have to do is cut tortillas into chip shapes, brush with butter-sugar-cocoa mixture, and bake until they've reached your desired level of crispiness. Here's how you make it happen.

Choco Nachos

Ingredients

•  Tortillas (I used 4 10-inch tortillas)
• 2 teaspoons cocoa (I used Hershey's special dark)
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• dash of cinnamon
• 1 stick of butter
• Ice cream, rice pudding, or whatever sweet and creamy accompaniment you'd like to serve on the side

Procedure

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. Butter the bottom of a large jelly roll pan (don't use a cookie sheet becase it will drip!). If no jelly roll pan, a large pyrex pan will work - you will just do it in a few batches.
2. Trim the tortillas into chip shapes. As small or as big as you want them.
3. Stir the cocoa, sugar, and cinnamon together in a small bowl.
4. Melt the butter in a saucepan or in the microwave. Stir in the sugar mixture until it's well distributed.
5. Place chips on the buttered pan. Brush the tops with the sugar-butter mixture. Place in the oven for 6-10 minutes or until crispy. Flip halfway through the process. If you have more chips than fit on the sheet, do this in several batches.
6. Serve while still slightly warm, with whatever dipping sauce you'd like.

Seeking Sweetness: Daily Sweet, Nougat Truffle, Teuscher of Philadelphia

Seeking a small bite of something sweet? Here's where I showcase my finds from time to time.

Today's sweet: a truffle from the Nougat collection at Teuscher of Philadelphia. Comprised of a rich chocolate ganache encased by a nutty nougat shell and a big dab of dark chocolate, this sweet little nutty treat was a morsel to savor for sure. Creamy, crunchy, chocolatey and just salty enough, it made me wonder how many I could eat before I felt sick.

Pick one up at Teuscher in Philadelphia.

Sweet Mouthful: Chocolate Bouchon from Garces Trading Co., Philadelphia

What does "Bouchon" mean?

Well, I suppose it depends on how you want to look at it. For instance, if you're a fan of fancy Ho-Hos, you might instantly think of the bakery adjoining the restaurant entitled Bouchon.

If you're still up to date with your high school French, you might say it means "a cork or stopper" as in, "Où est le bouchon pour cette carafe?"

If you like to eat French pastries, you'll know it as a bite-sized, generally quite rich, little mouthful of a treat.

And if you've ever been to Garces Trading Company in Philadelphia, you know that even further, the literal translation is "a small bite of something chocolate that I wish I could eat my weight in". 

Garce's Trading Company is a restaurant, it's true, but they have a highly respectable pastry case. Here's a peek.

But the first item tried by the Spy was the Bouchon. It was chocolatey. It was gooey in the middle. It was dark and sweet and the type of sweet that sticks to the roof of your mouth and teeth. Chocolate, yes!

It is worth seeking out. If you are in Philadelphia, go to Garces Trading Company, and proceed to the pastry counter. You won't regret it.

Garces Trading Company, 1111 Locust Street, Philadelphia; online here.

Baker's Dozen: A Batch of Sweet Links

Not flowers! Actually cookies!

Peanut butter chocolate shortbread.

It exists, and it's a dessert: calf's foot jelly.

A fantastic interview...with ME!

I want to eat: Talenti gelati.

I also want to eat: Strawberry Dessert Pizza.

Whoopie! Beautiful fusion in this carrot cake whoopie pie recipe.

Cookiegate: a political cookie scandal.

Um, yum: caramel crunch bars!

For when just a little is enough: a 1/4 springform cake pan!

OMG: look at all this rainbow stuff, including the most amazing rainbow cake.

Sweet: how to make a cupcake pincushion.

Can't wait to see my friend Jess Thomson's book on the Pike Place Market.

Sweet: Funfetti pancakes!

Batter Chatter: Interview with Joanie of Blossomedge

Totally not kidding. There is a blog out there dedicated to teaching you how to make cookies that look like real flowers. It's called Blossomedge, and it is freaking amazing. These delectable treats are sweet to eat, because while they may look like flowers, they're made with flour. And the website features tutorials on how you can make them, too.

If you don't want to hear more, I'm not sure if I understand you. If you do, well, you're in luck, because I interviewed Joanie, the blogger behind the magical creations. 

How did you get started making faux flowers out of cookies? My love for sugar arts started when I was a young child. I was extremely fascinated by frosting roses. So when I was 9 yrs old, my mom gave me a Wilton cake decorating set along with an instructional booklet. I was thrilled when I made my first rose but what really stuck with me was a photo on the back cover of the book! It was an advertisement for a course on making gumpaste flowers. Being a small child, I thought gumpaste flowers were made out of chewing gum and imagined how wonderful they must taste! Years later, I tried to eat one and of course, it tasted terrible. I will never forget the feeling of utter disappointment when I discovered that gumpaste flowers weren’t meant to be eaten but were for decoration only! And that really bothered me…lol  From there on, I was determined to figure out a way to make 3 dimensional flowers edible. Fast forward a few decades now…I figured out a way to make realistic-looking flowers using cookies as the support for the 3 dimensional aspect but I wanted the cookie flowers to taste good as well. As soon as I put regular fondant on the cookies, they tasted bad. So I set out to discover a new way to make fondant that actually tasted good. I tried many different concoctions but nothing ever worked and I was even destroying my saucepans trying to come up with something very unique. I thought maybe there was no other way to make fondant and abandoned my quest for a new fondant… Then one day,  I was making whoopie pies and needed a filling. I was in a rush and didn’t feel like making frosting so I decided to open a can of ready made frosting and  added melted white chocolate to it to see what would happen. It seized and was a disaster – or so I thought.  I was looking at my hard lumpy mess in the bowl while absent-mindedly playing with a chunk of the frosting in my hand  -  and then I realized, it was becoming soft and clay-like. After working with the proportions, I developed Blossom Fondant, an easy to make, creamy-tasting yummy fondant that tastes nothing like any regular fondant out there.  ( Just a side note – it doesn’t work for covering cakes but is perfect for all your cookie decorating needs)   

What is the hardest flower to re-create? I think the most difficult flower to try and recreate in cookie form was the rose. I will be sharing that tutorial later on…   

As someone who combines my loves of illustration, cake, and writing in one blog, I appreciate your combining YOUR loves. Now, tell me: how did you get into them, respectively, the flowers and flour and photography - and how do they come together, for you? I love to photograph flowers. It is probably my favorite hobby besides making my floral cookies. My floral photography and cookies seemed to go hand in hand so I started my blog Blossomedge as a way to share both loves with the public. I also compose piano music. When I made my instructional cookie DVD, I was able to combine my photography, cookie bouquets and music all into one production. It felt wonderful!  I once read that creative people can not be happy unless they are creating something. I totally believe that! It was a very fulfilling experience for me…

How do you incorporate art into your children's lives?  After I make a cookie bouquet, I let my two small children play with the dough and fondant. It’s fun to watch what they come up with. But one day, when my daughter was 3 yrs old, she made a “worm family” out of the fondant. There was daddy worm, mommy worm and baby worm. She played with this little worm family for hours. I went into my office down the hall to work, while listening to her little adventures in the kitchen with her worm family. Later on, it got quiet out there. I was going to go check on her when she came into my office with tears streaming down her cheeks. I asked her what was the matter and she replied through heavy sobs, “Mommy…. I….…I ate my worm family and now they are all gone!” 

What is your favorite floral destination--hawaii for the exotic blooms? England for the lovely gardens? I love the flower gardens of Europe. When I was over there years ago, I was very inspired by the  gardens of  Germany and Austria. 

Tell me something that has surprised you about having your blog.  I guess the thing that has surprised me the most about having a blog is the lack of comments, good or bad. Sometimes I feel as if I am putting out information into a great “void” with no feedback whatsoever… I often wonder  if anyone is reading or enjoying the things I post. 

What's next? Actually, I have just started the “tour” of my floral cookie garden! It is a vastone… I hope to surprise many by the flowers a person can create out of the most simple of popular confections. 

 For more sweet deliciousness, visit the Blossomedge blog.

Sweet Story: Katharine Hepburn Brownies

Here is a fantastic and true story about Katharine Hepburn. In the early 1980s, a Bryn Mawr student was considering dropping out to go to Scotland and write screenplays. While home for the holidays in her native NYC, her frantic father wrote a letter to Katharine Hepburn, who had also attended Bryn Mawr, imploring “She's a great admirer of yours, and perhaps she'll listen to you”.

Wait, what? Well, it turns out, this wasn't such a crazy thing to do. Turns out, this distraught father was a neighbor of Miss Hepburn's, and would occasionally exchange pleasantries: not good friends, for sure, but a friendly acquaintance.

Upon receiving this cry for help, the imperious Hepburn didn’t waste any time. She phoned at 7:30 the next morning, demanding to speak with the would-be dropout (who was sleeping at the time of the call but certainly awoke rapidly) admonishing “what a damn stupid thing to do!” , and proceeding to deliver a stern lecture, after which she demanded father and daughter at tea at her home.

On the date of the tea, upon arriving at Hepburn’s Turtle Bay townhome, Hepburn greeted them with “casual hauteur, she provided us with tea and some of her famous brownies”.

While there’s no transcript of the tea party, let’s just say the student remained at Bryn Mawr.

 Were the brownies responsible? Perhaps. Because as a woman of principle, Hepburn’s were:

1. Never Quit

2. Be Yourself

3. Don’t put too much flour in your brownies.

As Liz Smith says in “Dishing,” “I suppose you realize already those rules to live by were handed down by Katharine Hepburn.” They first appeared in Ladies home journal in 1975 accompanying an interview with Kate, who called them “the best brownies ever!”. Where Kate got the recipe has always been vague, but the popularity of them has not been vague at all. The recipe was released to the public in that article. Since then, it has taken on a life of its own, proliferating in books, magazines, and with the advent of the internet, it became a much-storied recipe on blogs and food websites.

And there’s a reason why the legend endures. If there are three schools of brownie (cakey, chewy, and fudge-like) these are firmly chewy affairs: thick and slightly gooey while still warm, in that sort of "stick-to-your-front-teeth" sort of way (that is a compliment). They're incredibly easy: a dude friend who made this recipe said it should be rated as "guy-friendly" and "totally easy". So there you go. 

Katharine Hepburn Brownies

Makes one tray, you decide how many brownies to slice it into.

Ingredients

• 2 (one-ounce) squares unsweetened baker's chocolate

• 1 stick unsalted butter

• 1 cup sugar

• 2 eggs

• 1/2 tsp. vanilla

• 1/4 cup flour

• 1/4 tsp. salt

• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions
Melt chocolate and butter in a heavy saucepan over low heat. Remove from heat and stir in sugar. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well. Stir in flour, salt and walnuts. Mix well. Pour into a buttered 8-inch-square baking pan. Bake at 325° for 40 minutes. Cool and cut into squares. 

Cake Byte: CakeSpy Interviewed on Taste of Home!

Dudes! Dudettes! I was totally interviewed by Taste of Home. I've done many an illustration for them over the years (check out my kid's coloring book pages here), and when they asked me to be part of their guest blog series, I was more than happy to take part.

The theme? They asked me, and several other bloggers, to answer this simple question: What does "taste of home" mean to you? Well, it being that I recently relocated to Philadelphia, close to my native New Jersey, this is a subject that has been on my mind.

My favorite part of the guest blog, posted below, is my list of foods that I especially love from the places on the East Coast that I have lived--New Jersey, New York, and Philadelphia.

Black and White Cookies: Possibly the world’s most perfect cookie–a cakey cookie topped with half chocolate, half vanilla icing. My method of eating: first, take the perfect bite right in the middle. Then eat each side, leaving a sliver of chocolate-vanilla which you eat last. Yum!

Rainbow or Italian Flag Cookies: Whenever I am faced with an Italian bakery’s cookie case, full of colorful cookies by the pound, these are my favorite variety. They’re clearly the prettiest, and I’ve always loved their rich, buttery taste paired with thin layers of jam and a chocolate topping.

Cannoli: A crispy shell filled to order with a rich ricotta filling–this is a true taste of Little Italy in NYC or the generations-old Italian bakeries in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia (and notably, in Boston too!). I especially love it when they cover the exposed parts of the cream filling on either end with mini chocolate chips.

Chinese Cookies: I have no idea why they have this name! Nothing about them, a butter cookie with chocolate marbling and a chocolate dollop on top, seems especially Chinese to me. But what’s no mystery is why they are popular: they’re absolutely delicious–vanilla and chocolate and sometimes a touch of almond extract…it’s all you could possibly need.

Crumb Cake: Is there a happier food than this sliver of buttery yellow cake topped with a hunk of fat, buttery brown sugar crumbs? Please, make mine roughly 3/4 crumb to 1/4 cake.

Whoopie Pies: This one you’ll see more in Philadelphia than in New York or New Jersey, but happily it’s been catching on nationwide. Composed of two huge, pillowy cookies which act as cakey bookends to a thick frosting filling, this is all the permission I needed to eat two cookies at once, plus frosting.

Pretzels: Both New York and Philadelphia have their own styles of pretzel-making, but both are extremely carb-o-licious. If I had to state a taste preference I’d go for Philadelphia, where the pretzels taste almost buttery, and the compressed style in which they are baked gives them an incomparable texture. But you know, I am not going to turn away either variety!

Pizza: Pizza, how do I love thee, let me count the ways! My favorite variety is one that you primarily tend to see on the Jersey shore, called “Ziti Pizza”. Imagine baked ziti plopped on top of a pizza slice and you’ve got the idea. You may be tempted to say “it’s just too much!”. But really, one bite and you’ll see it’s just enough to put you into pleasure overload.

Bagels: Is it the water, like some say, that makes New York bagels so special? Beats me, but I do know that if you go to a bagel bakery in the city first-thing and get a bagel that doesn’t require toasting because it’s still slightly warm from baking, it’s an experience that you’ll dream of later.

Read more of my thoughts here!

Hello, Gelato: Anthony's Chocolate House, Philadelphia

Have you ever visited the Italian Market in Philadelphia?

Well, if not, it's a magical place.

There's pasta, there's cheese, there are vegetable stands, there are spice markets, meat markets, fruit stalls, ravioli specialists, and...there are even some sweets.

Surprisingly, sweets aren't a huge presence in the market (I know, I know) but there are some sweet treats to be found. Today's discovery? Gelato at Anthony's Chocolate House. 

At Anthony's, which has been around since, there are several items of note.

First, they offer at-home cannoli kits. YES!

Next, they offer an array of homespun chocolate treats, including chocolate covered apples, chocolate covered figs, chocolate covered pizzelles (non-chocolate coated too, but why bother??), chocolate-covered chips, and other treats including torrone, pignoli cookies, and...back to the gelato.

Anthony's gelato is a more icy variety, which reminded me of milk ices that I'd enjoy by the Jersey shore growing up. While one wouldn't call it luxuriantly rich and creamy, it's highly satisfying on a hot day (which it was in Philadelphia on the day in question!), milky and icy and sweet. The butterscotch flavor was like a more mature version of the yellow butterscotch discs that I seek out in candy dishes, and definitely satisfied a nostalgic craving.

If you're looking for aforementioned dreamy and luxuriant style, this may not be your stop, but definitely worth a try as you stroll the historic and bustling market.

Anthony's Chocolate House, 915 S. 9th Street, Philadelphia; online here.