To me, love me

Valentine's day is a strange holiday. I don't really care about it enough to go on a tirade about the over commercialization of holidays or the soulless nature of advertising. Instead, I like to think of Valentine's Day as an excuse to make delicious treats for people that you love.

This was supposed to be a chocolate mousse for my roomates, but of course I was playing Apples to Apples while I was making it and didn't whip the egg whites enough. The result was a cross between a mousse and a pudding, or what my roomates affectionately dubbed a "moudding".

So here is my delicious moudding recipe:

4 1/2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, diced

2 tablespoons espresso

1 cup cold heavy cream

3 large eggs, separated

1 tablespoon sugar

Whip the cream(with an electric mixer, who do you think you are Julia Child?) to soft peaks, then refrigerate.

Combine the chocolate, butter, and espresso in the top of a double boiler over hot water, stirring frequently until smooth. Remove from the heat and let cool

Once the melted chocolate has cooled slightly, whip the egg whites in a medium bowl until they are foamy and beginning to hold a shape(this is where I messed up, really whip the whites, it takes awhile but gives the mousse its firmness). Sprinkle in the sugar and beat until soft peaks form.

Stir in the yolks to chocolate then add about one-third of the whipped cream. Fold in half the whites just until incorporated, then fold in the remaining whites, and finally the remaining whipped cream.

*Lots of mousse recipes recommend refrigerating it for 8 hours, but I think that if you can wait 8 hours clearly you don't like chocolate that much. Refrigerate it for awhile and then go ahead, its moudding, enjoy!

Cookie Monster

YUM! you are going to read this recipe because anything that starts with this much butter is guaranteed to be delicious.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 1 3/4 Cups Flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 12 tbsps unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1 tsp table salt
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• A lot of chocolate(I like chocolate chunks best because they don't melt all the way and add another texture to the cookie)

• 

• Preheat oven to 375
• Mix flour and baking soda in a bowl
• Heat butter in a skillet constantly stirring. After the butter melts you will feel compelled to take it off the flame, resist this urge, the browned butter is what gives these cookies depth. After awhile, the butter will turn brown, frothy and begin to emanate a nutty, molasses smell- now its done.
• Add sugar, salt and vanilla to butter. Don't forget the salt! I'm not the biggest fan of salty-sweet combo but salt is really essential in chocolate chip cookies.
• Add egg and egg yolk, stir, let sit for a bit and then stir some more
• Stir in the flour
• Add chocolate chunks, really as much as you want, go crazy

Recipe adapted from the Klutzy Chef who adapted it from the New York Times Test Kitchen who adapted it from Jacques Torres(the chocolate master)

Last Minute Dessert

So of course I forgot that I had offered to bring dessert to dinner at my dad's house and of course I remembered 20 minutes before I was supposed to be there. Rather than go out and buy something which would require both effort and money, I decided to make something using only found objects in my cupboard.

1 Pre-made Graham Crust (I had it, so why not use it)

1 Teaspoon Vanilla

12 Ounces of Bittersweet Chocolate

1 1/2 Cups of Heavy Whipping Cream

1/2 Half-and-Half

Dash of Salt

1/4 Cup Sugar

(recipe adapted from Bon Appétit)

Combine chocolate, vanilla and salt in food processor.

Heat 1 cup of heavy cream in a saucepan, bring to a boil. Slowly combine milk to chocolate while running the food processor until the chocolate is melted. Cool for a bit, until room temperature.

In a separate bowl, combine remaining heavy cream, half-and-half, and sugar. In the original recipe it calls for all heavy whipping cream, but I ran out so I substituted Half-and-Half (this is my version of cooking light). Beat milky-sugary mixture until it forms stiff peaks. Fold in melted chocolaty goodness into the milk-sugar mixture.

Pour mousse into your pre-made crust, or if you're an over-achiever your painstakingly prepared hand-made crust. Then, use the remaining cream to make whip cream and if you're feeling especially gourmet, shave some extra chocolate on top.