Ganache Magic!

Chocolate ganache is magical. Is really is the most magical food you can make and every time I whip a batch up, I'm enchanted. A very forgixving recipe, even if you mess up the proportions it'll probably still come out okay. Part of what's so magical is how easy it is to whip up and how versatile this concoction is. It's my single most-made recipe. Observe:

Chocolate (8 oz, chopped, ish) in a bowl with a lump of butter (say maybe a tablespoon). Heat heavy cream in a saucepan (3/4 cup give or take, basically enough to cover the chocolate in the bowl completely), pour hot cream over chocolate. LEAVE IT ALONE FOR 5 MINUTES. Seriously, don't rush this part or the magic won't happen.

One your timer goes off, whisk.

And keep whisking gently.

Have faith - it'll come together. Just keep whisking.

There we go! It's starting to get beautiful and shiny.

And all of the sudden we have a beautiful bowl of shiny rich versatile chocolate. If your cream wasn't hot enough or you didn't wait long enough before whisking (tsk tsk), just toss the bowl in the microwave for a few seconds and then try whisking again. It'll come together.

Chill it and turn it into truffle filling. Pour it over a cake or pastry or cheesecake. Swirl it into ice cream. Use it to fill a tart or  a macaron. Dip cupcakes in the glaze before frosting them.  Pour it over anything you want to make look fancy. Spread it on some toast. Whip it up and use it for frosting. Eating it with a spoon. 

You know you want to and I promise, I won't judge. It's ganache, just go with it.


By the way, this is a great vase for a bunch of other yummy treats. Add fruit sauces, peanut butter, flavored extracts, or anything else yummy to make fabulous fancy flavored ganache. Use it in anything. Scratch that - use it in everything.

Sugar Cookie Recipe

I suppose it's time to share my sugar cookie recipe. One of my mother's colleagues e-mailed her the recipe in 1998 and we've been using the same scrap of paper ever since with some slight modifications. This dough is AMAZING. I tried other recipes last year, but this is my only sugar cookie recipe now and I'm never going back. 

See this piece of paper?

It gets pulled out every time I make cookies. Like once a week. I've changed it a bit, but there's only so much you can do to a perfect recipe.

This recipe is incredibly easy. Wanna see how to make it?

 

This is my new mixer. We're pretty tight.

Cream butter and sugar.

After I use a vanilla bean, I toss it in with my sugar because there's nothing wrong with extra vanilla. 

I was making a quadruple batch here, so I used 4 eggs. Crack the egg in a separate bowl and dump it in to the fluffy butter and sugar. Why do you need to crack the egg into a bowl first? Well, maybe it's just me, but the last time I tried to crack an egg directly into the mixing bowl while the beater was running, I accidentally dropped the whole egg in. It was pretty unfortunate.

Once you get the egg in, add the vanilla and a pinch of salt. Beat it a little more for good measure.

Oooh, yummy.

Turn the mixer off. Dump in flour the flour all at once. Yes, I know it's scary, but it'll be okay, I promise. 

Turn the mixer on very low, being careful that it doesn't start suddenly and spew a flour cloud across the room. Not that I've ever done that. 

Once it's combined, stick it in the fridge for a bit until you're ready to use it.

And beware: the dough is irresistible, so don't even bother trying to avoid eating it.


Soft Sugar Cookies

1/2 cup (1 stick)  butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 tablespoons cream (or milk works fine, too)
Vanilla extract (I usually use about two teaspoons of vanilla bean paste, but the same amount of vanilla extract will work great as well)
Pinch of salt

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar on high until light and fluffy. Add the egg and keep beating, then blend in the salt and vanilla.  Dump the flour in all  at once and mix on low until just combined. Refrigerate for a few hours, then roll it out and enjoy! After rolling on a lightly floured surface and cutting your shapes, freeze cookies for at least 15 minutes before baking to preserve crisp edges.  I like my cookies thick so I bake them for about 9 minutes at 375, but  check your cookies at about 6 minutes so you don't over bake them if you made 'em thin. Makes about 2 dozen thick cookies.

Happy baking!


Notes:
*I always make the dough the day before and refrigerate it overnight, but if you're short on time you can stick it in the freezer immediately after you make it for about an hour and it should be ready to roll by the time you've finished cleaning up and getting your royal icing ready.

* If possible, freeze the cut, unbaked cookies for an hour or even overnight for maximum spreadage-prevention, but if you don't have time to freeze and bake them immediately, don't worry about it. They'll spread a tad, but they'll still be very pretty and even more delicious. 

*I leave out the baking powder because I want to preserve the shapes and prevent them from rising.