Butterscotch Walnut Blondies

I made butterscotch blondies to bring to a Thanksgiving gathering. We had to work the next day so we didn't go to visit our families, but our neighbors invited us to their family celebration. We were asked to make a dessert of some kind, and I wanted to make a pie but was recovering from being sick and was not quite up to the work. Then I decided since we knew the other desserts were going to be pie, maybe I'd do something that was not pie (and easier to make).

For most of my life blondies were never high on a list of desserts I'd actively choose to make/eat, but butterscotch ones made an appearance at a tae kwon do club post-promotion test dinner a couple of years ago (made by my friend Sarah, who introduces me to all kinds of new recipes) and I ate WAY more of them than anyone should because they were so delicious. I decided I needed to be able to make them too. They're an addictive combination of buttery, sweet, and salty. Kids love them too, or at least my neighbors' kids and their cousins did.

I made this recipe from My Kitchen Addiction, adapted from Dorie Greenspan's recipe.

My adjustments, mostly out of convenience rather than trying to improve the recipe:

• I lined the pan with parchment instead of greasing it (so you can lift the entire thing out of the pan easily, plus it's easier to clean).
• Since I didn't have butter rum extract, I put in about 1/2 tbsp of bourbon whiskey instead (increased the amount because I imagine butter rum extract is quite strong). I have also substituted spiced rum before, and I think I like the spiced rum better.
• I sprinkled fleur de sel on top of the batter before putting it in the oven.

I still don't know what recipe Sarah used and I feel like this one is good and close but it's not *exactly* what I was going for. Maybe the chocolate and shredded coconut in Dorie's recipe would help? I have also tried miso butterscotch blondies and I thought those were yummy, probably because of the extra layer of saltiness. I also seem to remember trying Smitten Kitchen's Blondies, Infinitely Adaptable with butterscotch chips (I didn't need an entire 9x13 pan of them, or so I thought) and I seemed to remember that batch being particularly good. I think next time I'll try the SK version again. Come to think of it, both SK and the miso ones had browned butter. Maybe that is what makes all the difference.

RECIPE: Butterscotch Walnut Blondies

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Possibly an unpopular opinion: the best chocolate chip cookies have oatmeal in them.

These was my mom's go-to cookie recipe when we were growing up, and the first cookies I ever learned to make by myself. It's the recipe on the back of the Quaker oatmeal box with semi-sweet  chocolate chips. My mom tells me these were also her mother's (my grandma's) go-to cookies as well. When she learned to make them, my grandma impressed upon her the importance of only putting half the bag of chocolate chips in, rather than the full 12 oz bag it called for. I imagine it's because she had 9 children and not a lot of money for chocolate, but I think there is such a thing as too many mix-ins in a cookie. At some point you have to stop calling it a cookie. Plus, I've had too many chocolate chip cookies where the cookie part is an afterthought -- a sugary, tasteless slog just to get to the chocolate bits. The oatmeal part of the cookie is just as good as the chocolate bits here. :)

I still remember the first time I made them because that night I learned an important lesson. I was probably 11 or 12 years old. I got ambitious and made a batch of these cookies after dinner one night while my mom was at work, all by myself. Being that it was my first batch of cookies, I saw that the ingredient list included salt. But sweet things don't need salt, I reasoned, and deliberately skipped it. My mom came home and was pleasantly surprised that I had made cookies and used the oven all by myself (and most importantly I had not burned down the house). I gave her one to eat. She took one bite, and the first thing out of her mouth was "they're good, but you didn't put salt in them!" and I was like "HOW DID YOU KNOW??" Then I remembered a batch of egg bread she had made a while back that we all thought tasted weird. The memory stuck in my mind because it was the weirdest tasting bread I had ever eaten. We both looked at the recipe and mom realized it hadn't called for any salt. I suddenly understood how my mom would know just by tasting. Salt is important, kids.

I had to retrieve the original recipe from my mom's stash because the one currently on Quaker's website halves the salt and then calls it "optional" (as if). You need some salt. It makes them taste better. Reduce it if you must, but do not leave it out completely. Below is the recipe as I make it. I take Grandma's advice with the chocolate chips, and cut some of the butter out because I was too lazy to cut a third stick in half once, and I never miss it.

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RECIPE:

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from Quaker Oats, with input from three generations of my family

1 cup (2 sticks/225 g) butter, softened to room temperature
3/4 cup (150 g) brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups (200 g) all-purpose flour
1 tsp (5 g) baking soda
1 tsp (5 g) kosher salt (less if you're using salted butter)
3 cups (260 g) old fashioned oats, uncooked
6 oz (170 g) semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 375 F/190 C. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar on medium speed until thoroughly mixed, lightened in color, and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, and mix until well combined. Add flour, baking soda, and salt to the bowl and mix on very low speed until just incorporated. Add one cup of oats at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition until incorporated. Either mix in chocolate chips by hand or with the mixer on low speed until evenly incorporated. Drop by rounded spoonfuls (about 2 tbsp each) or scoop balls of dough with a medium size cookie scoop onto parchment paper lined baking sheets, spacing about 2 inches apart. Bake for 8-9 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Makes about 3.5-4 dozen.

Edit 7/8/22: I've made these a couple of times now with half butterscotch chips and half chocolate chips and I really like them this way.

Niratama Donburi (Garlic Chive Omelet Over Rice)

I spent a school year studying abroad in Japan in college, and one of the most profound impacts it had on my life was expanding my food horizons. Between the wildly different food culture and watching my host mother while she cooked meals, I learned a lot about Japanese food but also other kinds of Asian food. Donburi (a bowl of rice with a topping, usually a protein and vegetables) quickly became a favorite of mine. They are served both in restaurants and at home, and the variations are endless.

I began growing garlic chives (nira) in my garden in 2010, and as they proliferated I began to wonder what I could do with them besides chop small amounts to garnish dishes with. I tried a few recipes but they were all kind of labor intensive for what the end result was. I gave up for a while and the chives continued to grow.

Fast forward to a couple of years ago, when I was browsing Namiko Chen's Just One Cookbook, when I found her Niratama Donburi recipe. I really like eating eggs and rice together, and it would use up a significant amount of my chives at once, and be relatively quick and easy, so I gave it a try.

It is quick, filling, and satisfying. The savory flavors work really nicely together. I am so pleased. It is one of my go-to recipes for a quick meal when I have chives in the garden.

To make this recipe work the best it can, use a bowl-shaped/wok like pan rather than one with a wide/flat bottom, be sure your pan is hot enough before you try to cook the egg mixture, and do not try to reduce the amount of oil. The puffy texture of the egg you want is from it cooking in enough oil to essentially deep fry.

Some substitutions/variations/additions I have tried:

• Brown short grain rice, and white or brown jasmine rice. I personally have come to love the texture of brown rices, so if you like it in other applications, you'll probably like it here too.
• Sauteed leek instead of garlic chives when I was really desperate. It's a little sweeter and less visually appealing, not quite as good but scratched the itch. Green onions or regular chives would probably be too sharp unless you significantly reduced the amount.
• Drizzling sesame oil and/or soy sauce over the top of the finished dish.

RECIPE: Niratama Donburi

Fluffernutter Cake

I never had the nostalgia for fluffernutters (peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwiches) that many people who post fluffernutter related recipes seem to have. I never had one as a child because to my mom, a sandwich with marshmallow fluff on it was dessert, not lunch. My mom enforced a sort of unspoken ban on most all non-dessert items that were really sugary. Our sandwiches were always on brown bread. She would only buy things like Lucky Charms, Pop-Tarts, or toaster strudels (lol remember when those were a thing?) once in a great while. I remember one of my siblings learned to make cinnamon-sugar toast at school once, and she got mad when we tried to make it for breakfast. I don't feel deprived -- we still got other breakfast cereal whenever we wanted (which she did let us put some sugar on), there were plenty of other sugary treats in our lives, and as an adult now I am thankful she fought our impulses to raise us on food with some semblance of nutrition, as I think a mother should.

But I did not try peanut butter and marshmallow together until I was an adult and I wondered where it had been all my life. I think I came across it while reading recipes and cooking blogs, trying to figure out what kind of cake to make my husband for his birthday. I thought a fluffernutter cake sounded good so I suggested it to him, and his eyes lit up and he got excited. Deal. I remember not being particularly happy with the cake part of what I made for him that year but the frosting made quite an impression on me. I dreamed about it for long after it was gone. For years after that the only thing he wanted for his birthday was dirt cake (a favorite of both our families, as it turns out) but I wanted a redo, another chance to make a fluffernutter cake I was satisfied with.

This year I got the chance, and I enjoyed this one much more. It's dense, with a texture like a peanut butter cookie but more fluffy. The peanut butter frosting from my previous attempt was used for filling and decoration because I wanted something thick enough to firmly stick the layers of cake together and something that would hold up to piping. It worked for its intended purpose, and I am happy to report it is still every bit as delicious as it was the first time I made it. For the outside, I wanted a lighter textured frosting to contrast with the dense cake and strong flavor of peanut butter, so I made a seven-minute marshmallow icing for the outside. I forgot one of the egg whites somehow so the icing ended up a bit grainy and soft, but it was still edible. The peanuts sprinkled on top were a last minute decision and I rather liked the bit of texture and crunch they brought to the party. I have made better looking cakes, but this tasted good and he liked it. Happy birthday to my love.

RECIPES:
Cake: Peanut Butter Cake (from Sally's Baking Addiction, baked in two 6-inch springform pans)
Filling and decoration: Peanut Butter Frosting (from Eat, Live, Run; I halved the recipe)
Icing: Grandmama's Failproof 7 Minute Frosting (from Southern Plate; this made more than I needed but half the recipe probably wouldn't be enough)

Apple-Almond Cream Cheese Tart

I forget exactly how I found it, but I am never going to forget it. I think I was looking for something other than pie or crisp to make with the apples I had picked one autumn, and decided to give this recipe from Joy of Baking a whirl and threw some almond extract in. It exceeded my expectations in every way. This is one of those things that is greater than the sum of its parts. It is now one of my very favorite things to make with apples and I try to make it every year in the fall.

Notes:

• I have also made this in a regular 9 inch round pan but it is harder to get out and the crust texture is not quite as crisp somehow. It does still taste good though.
• The original recipe has directions for making this with a food processor but I did not have one at the time so I adapted it for making it without one. I imagine a food processor would speed things up a bit.
• Cortland and Regent apples are my favorite apple varieties to bake with, but any firmer baking apple will work nicely.

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RECIPE:

Apple-Almond Cream Cheese Tart
adapted from Joy of Baking
Serves 8-12

Crust: 
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/2 tsp pure almond extract

Filling:
8 oz (1 package) cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp pure almond extract

Topping:
1/4 cup granulated white sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2-3 large apples, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch slices (about 3 cups)
1/3 cup (35g) sliced almonds
2 tbsp powdered sugar (optional, for serving)

Preheat oven to 450°F. Place rack in center of oven. Grease a 9 inch round springform pan, or line the bottom with parchment paper.

Make the crust: Place the flour and sugar in a medium bowl and stir to combine. Add butter and almond extract, and then, using a dough blender or a fork, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until dough just begins to come together. (I find that after the butter gets into small enough pieces, you can also use your hands to help the dough come together.) Press the dough into the bottom and about 1 inch up the side of the pan. Cover the pan with plastic wrap, and set aside in the refrigerator.

Make the filling: Beat the cream cheese with a hand mixer in a bowl with high sides until smooth. Add the sugar to the cream cheese, and beat again until well combined. Add the egg and vanilla and almond extracts, and beat until mixture becomes smooth. Take out the crust from the refrigerator, remove the plastic wrap, and pour the filling into the crust, using a spoon or spatula to spread it evenly. Cover and return the pan to the refrigerator.

Make the topping: Stir together the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Add the sliced apples and toss to coat. Remove pan from the fridge, uncover, and arrange or pile the apples evenly over the filling. Sprinkle the sliced almonds over the apples.
 
Bake the tart: Place a baking sheet underneath the springform pan or on a lower oven rack to catch any leaks. Place springform pan in the preheated oven and bake for 10 minutes. Immediately reduce the oven temperature to 400°F and bake for another 25 to 30 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown, apples can be easily pierced with a fork, and filling is set. Take out pan from the oven and let cool on a wire rack. Serve at room temperature, with a dusting of powdered sugar if desired. Store in a covered container in the refrigerator.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

I've always been ambivalent on zucchini cake and bread, but this is one I actually get excited about eating. Once upon a time we lived next door to some really awesome people who got to be our friends, and they shared this cake with us one August. She didn't remember where she got the recipe, but no matter -- I liked it so much that I immediately went looking for something like it and came across this one on Epicurious. I made it for a potluck party soon after and I'm pretty confident I found the same recipe because it was just as good as what my neighbor made for us. The chocolate chips and walnuts on the top really make it special.

Most recently, I made it and shared it with my current neighbors to thank them for something nice they did for me. :)

Notes:

• The recipe says to make it in a 9x13 inch pan, but I have successfully made this in 8x8" glass and metal pans, bread loaf pans (usually around 9x5"), and bundt cake pans, as well as in cupcake tins (about 25 minutes I think). Shorten the baking time, watch closely and test it as you would the regular cake until you figure out how long it takes.
• If you have a particularly large zucchini, you may want to peel it anyway because the skin on really big ones can get tough. Also make sure that you scoop out the middle to remove large seeds before you start grating. (This may be obvious to some people but the first time I made zucchini bread I didn't know that I should do that and the bits of seeds in the bread were unpleasant.)

Verdict: This is one zucchini dessert that's worth your time.

RECIPE: Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Soba Noodle Salad

Last month I was at a wedding in California catered by The Bodega and it was like every food they touched turned to delicious gold. The absolute best fried chicken sandwich I have ever had in my entire life (simply called "The Bodega Sandwich", fried buttermilk chicken, smoky aioli, and herby slaw) and crispy grilled brussels sprouts that I still dream about all the time.

Unfortunately I live thousands of miles away from their food truck and my friends have since moved from the San Francisco area to Los Angeles, so I have no idea when I'm going to be able to eat their food again. But that's not stopping me from trying to make everything I loved about that meal to get as close to that feeling as I can.

The Bodega posted a cold soba noodle salad on their Instagram (@thebodega_ca) a few days ago and it looked so good I had to try making it for myself. I'm sure theirs is better since they've made it enough to perfect it, but this one was refreshing and tasty on a hot day.

It also brings to mind a number of zaru soba meals I had in Japan, but that's a dish for another day.

Notes:

• Other vegetables that I think might taste good in this: kohlrabi, celery, daikon
• Adding some kind of salad greens to this might be yummy too!
• You could substitute some marinated grilled chicken for the tofu. Marinate the chicken in the dressing for 1-2 hours before cooking it.
• You will likely have extra salad dressing left over. It goes great on all kinds of vegetables.
  

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RECIPE:

Soba Noodle Salad
by The Matcha Chronicles, inspired by The Bodega in Petaluma, CA
Dressing recipe from Just One Cookbook
Serves 4

15-19 oz medium firm or firm tofu, drained
3 medium carrots, peeled and sliced into thin coins
About 6-8 small or 5-6 medium radishes, sliced thinly into rounds
2 cucumbers, sliced thinly in rounds and cut in half
Juice of 1 lime
1/4-1/2 tsp salt
12 oz dried buckwheat (soba) noodles
6 tbsp tahini
4 tbsp Japanese mayonnaise (Kewpie brand)
1/4 cup rice vinegar
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp mirin
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
Fresh cilantro, for garnish
Black or white sesame seeds, toasted, for garnish

Drain tofu and pat dry with paper towels. Slice into pieces about 1 by 2 inches by 1/2 inch thick. Dry fry in a single layer in a nonstick pan over medium-high heat until lightly browned. Set aside.

Place carrots, radishes, and cucumbers in a medium bowl. Sprinkle lime juice and salt on and toss to combine. Let stand for about 15 minutes, then drain the liquid.

While vegetables are standing, cook the soba noodles in boiling water according to package directions, then drain and rinse in cool water until they are chilled. Set aside.

Make the dressing by whisking or blending tahini, Japanese mayonnaise, rice vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, mirin, and sesame oil together until smooth.

Divide soba noodles, tofu, and vegetables among 4 plates. Drizzle salad dressing over the top of each salad, and garnish with cilantro and sesame seeds. Serve immediately. If saving for later, keep the prepared ingredients separately in the refrigerator, and assemble immediately before serving.