RED WINE BROWNIES: National Wine Day

Today is National Wine Day. What a great day and weekend to celebrate! Later today, I'll be stopping by one of my favorite wineries that also has an exquisite garden, Lynmar Estate. I'm sure to take a lot of photos plus taste a lot of Pinots, but in the meantime I thought I'd post one of my favorite recipes for Red Wine Brownies. Don't feel like baking? Buy a brownie and grab a glass of great red wine!

Red Wine Brownies

Ingredients
1 cup Merlot
3/4 cup sweet butter
4 ounces dark chocolate (80% cacao, if you have it)
1 1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon Madagascar vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup toasted chopped nuts (pecans or walnuts)
1/2 cup dark chocolate chopped into chunks

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Butter a 13x9-inch baking pan.
In small saucepan, simmer wine over medium heat until reduced to about a 1/4 cup. Pour into large bowl and set aside.
In top of double boiler (or a saucepan over another saucepan of simmering water), melt butter and chocolate. Pour into wine and whisk until smooth.
In top of double boiler, whisk together eggs, sugar, and vanilla until very light and thick. Pour into chocolate mixture and whisk until smooth. Stir in flour and 1/2 cup nuts and the 1/2 cup chopped chocolate chunks.
Pour into pan.
Bake 40-45 minutes (give it the toothpick test)

I don't usually frost my brownies, but here's a terrific chocolate red wine ganache that makes a great icing. Be sure and cool the brownies before frosting.

Chocolate Wine Ganache 
adapted from Brownies Chocolate-Wine Ganaches in Diana's Recipe Book

Ingredients
6 ounces dark chocolate (65-75% cacao), chopped
3 tablespoons sweet butter, room temperature
2 tablespoons whipping cream
1 tablespoon sweet red wine (or any sweet red wine/try a late harvest dessert Zin)

Directions
Whisk all ingredients in small saucepan over medium-low heat until melted and smooth.

Red wine and chocolate: Always a great pairing!

Memorial Day Chocolate Barbecue Sauces

When I was growing up barbecues at my house were mostly on holidays: Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day. My Dad would don his Westinghouse apron and hat and fire up the grill. I still have my Dad's apron, but not the chef's hat. Very nostalgic--and retro. Wish he were still with us. I miss him every day. He'd love these barbecue sauces (and this list of Barbecue Crime Fiction.)

If you're planning a Memorial Day barbecue, you'll want to check your stock of dark chocolate. I've posted several chocolate barbecue sauces and chocolate rubs before, but here are two more. Both use Hershey's products-- #1 Hershey's Special Dark Syrup and # Scharffen Berger Dark Chocolate, but you can use what you have and enjoy best!

The first recipe is from The BBQ Report. I use a different Dark Chocolate Sauce from an artisan chocolate company, but you can always use Hershey's. The flavors will be different, but both would be good. Season your meat with some cocoa powder (unsweetened) for double chocolate goodness.

#1 CHOCOLATE BARBECUE SAUCE

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups ketchup
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup Hershey’s Special Dark syrup (or another)
 1/4 cup olive oil
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp cracked black pepper
1 tsp paprika
1 tbsp prepared mustard
1/2 tsp hot sauce

Directions
In sauce pan saute onions and garlic in olive oil, cooking until tender.
Stir in lemon juice, salt, pepper, paprika and hot sauce.
Simmer for 5 to 6 minutes and reduce heat.
Stir in ketchup, vinegar and Hershey’s Syrup.
Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.

#2 CHOCOLATE BARBECUE SAUCE

From the Hershey's Website comes this amazing and much more complex Chocolate Barbecue Sauce recipe, utilizing Scharffen Berger 82% dark chocolate (Scharffen Berger is now owned by Hershey's). Recipe adapted from Chef Ken Gladysz at the Hotel Hershey.

Ingredients
1 tablespoon sweet butter, soft
4 each garlic cloves, minced
1/2 Spanish onion, diced small
2 each Roma tomatoes, stem removed, diced small
1 1/2 oz. dark brown sugar
4 teaspoons ancho chili powder
4 oz. apple cider vinegar
8 oz. barbeque sauce
14 oz. vegetable stock
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
3 oz. SCHARFFEN BERGER 82% dark chocolate
2 tablespoons cilantro, fresh, chopped
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper, freshly ground

Directions
Melt butter in small sauce pan over medium heat.
Add garlic and onion, sauté 5 minutes until golden brown.
Add tomatoes, stir, and sauté an additional 5 minutes.
Add sugar and chili powder, mix well, and cook for 5 minutes.
Add vinegar, reduce for 5 minutes, mixture should have a paste consistency.
Add sauce, stock, cumin, cinnamon, cloves, salt and pepper. Mix well.
Bring to a boil and reduce to a slow simmer for 30 minutes.
Add SCHARFFEN BERGER chocolate and cilantro; allow to simmer for 5 minutes.
Remove sauce from heat and let stand for 10 minutes.
Puree sauce, transfer to a clean container and cool.
For best results, refrigerate for 12 hours before using.

Chocolate Turkish Taffy: National Taffy Day

Today is National Taffy Day. I haven't made taffy since I was a child, and then it was with my Aunt Anne. She was an inspiration for all things foodie, woodsy, gardening, and crafty, so this was a natural. She'd gather all the cousins, and we would make and pull taffy.

At the same time, I wasn't adverse to store bought taffy. It was a treat, really. There was a penny candy store I used to stop at after lunch (yes, we went home for lunch at my first elementary school) and buy a penny or two worth of candy. One of my favorites, and I think it may have cost a nickel, was Bonomo's Chocolate Turkish Taffy. My favorite was banana, but I also liked chocolate. You can buy Bonomo's Turkish Taffy online, although the price is more like $1.20. Times change.

Invented in Coney Island in the 1940s by Victor Bonomo, Bonomo's Turkish Taffy is a mixture of corn syrup and egg whites that are cooked, then baked. It's a hard taffy-like bar that you hit on the surface and eat the smaller broken pieces--or if you're like me--you just suck the whole thing into a sticky mess. Bonomo's Turkish Taffy is actually neither Turkish or taffy, but a kind of nougat, although Bonomo was a Sephardic Jew who traced his ancestry to Turkey. Bonomo died in 1999 at his home in Bal Harbour at the age of 100. He sold the company 40 years ago. It changed hands a few times becoming part of Tootsie Roll Industries of Chicago, which stopped making the candy in 1989, but it was revived in 2010 and is now available in vanilla, chocolate, strawberry and banana. This is truly a retro candy! Read more of the history at Old Time Candy.

So without a chocolate taffy recipe of my own, I went to Alton Brown on the Food Network, of course. Knew he'd have one.  Love to hear if you make this one---or if you have a taffy recipe of your own.

CHOCOLATE TAFFY

Ingredients
2 cups sugar
2/3 cup Dutch process cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons butter, plus additional for greasing pan and hands

Directions
In heavy medium saucepan, combine sugar, cocoa powder, and salt. Stir until thoroughly combined. Add corn syrup, water, and vinegar to pan and place over medium heat. Stir until sugar and cocoa dissolve, raise heat to high and bring to a boil. Turn heat down to low, clip candy thermometer to side of pan and cook until mixture reaches 260 degrees F. Remove pan from heat, add the butter and stir. Butter edges of sheet pan, line with silicone baking sheet and pour on taffy. Allow to cool until you are able to handle it.

Once you are able to handle the taffy, don vinyl gloves, butter them, and begin to fold taffy in thirds using the silicone mat. Pick up taffy and begin to pull folding the taffy back on itself repeatedly twisting as you go. Taffy is done when it lightens in color, takes on a sheen, and becomes too hard to pull. Roll into log, cut into fourths, roll each fourth into a 1-inch wide log, and cut into 1-inch pieces. Making sure to keep pieces separated or they will stick to each other. Wrap individual pieces of candy in waxed paper. Store in airtight container 3 to 5 days.

And, for your viewing pleasure, a Bonomo Turkish Taffy TV Ad from the 1950s

Home-made Vanilla Pudding: Perfect for Eclairs

Today is National Vanilla Pudding Day, and I just had to post this Retro Ad for Jell-O Pudding Eclairs. The recipe on the Ad uses Jell-O Vanilla Pudding & Pie Filling, but scroll down for a recipe for easy and delicious Home-made Vanilla Pudding that you can use in Eclairs or chocolate cups.

HOME-MADE EASY VANILLA PUDDING

Adapted from Chow.com

Ingredients

1/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 1/4 cups whole milk

3 large egg yolks, lightly beaten

3 tablespoons sweet butter, cut into small pieces

2 teaspoons Madagascar vanilla extract

Directions

Combine sugar, cornstarch, and salt in  medium saucepan and whisk together. While continuing to whisk, slowly add in 1/4 cup of milk until smooth. Whisk in egg yolks and rest of milk.

Place saucepan over medium heat and cook, whisking often, until pudding begins to thicken and just starts to bubble, about 6 minutes. Reduce heat to medium low and switch to rubber spatula. Stir constantly, scraping  bottom and sides of pan, until pudding makes ribbons when drizzled over surface, about 5 minutes. 

Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla until butter is melted and completely incorporated.

Transfer pudding to container or individual cups (depends what you plan to do with the pudding). Carefully press piece of plastic wrap on top of pudding to prevent skin from forming.
Chill in refrigerator until set, about 2 hours.

Use in recipe above ... replace packaged vanilla pudding!