The Food Maven Diary
[Archives]

[Previous Entry] [Diary Home] [Next Entry]

09/09/2001 Archived Entry: "My Most Favorite Brownies, Etc."

Doris Schecter started her business for the same reason many of you would like to start businesses, because your friends tell you that you are a great baker, or saucier, or make the best coriander-hyssop dip that they have ever tasted.

In Doris’ case, she baked pareve kosher cakes and pastries that her friends raved about.

For those of you who don’t know what “pareve” means, it’s the term used for foods that are neither “dairy” nor “meat” according to the Jewish dietary laws, which forbid the mixing of the two at the same meal, certainly in the same dish. You must even separate the eating of “dairy” and “meat” by several hours, from three to six, depending on the custom of your particular Jewish community. In other words, if you’ve had meat for dinner, you would have to wait several hours before you could eat ice cream.

Certain foods are pareve by nature – eggs, fish (although there are some restrictions on the mixing of fish and meat in some communities), of course vegetables, and anything vegetable based. In regard to baking, margarine and oil are used as shortening, and one cannot use milk as a liquid ingredient. Water and fruit juice is fine, and Doris has discovered that soy milk is an undetectable substitute for real milk. Chocolate is a small problem, because even kosher dark chocolate often contains milk solids. Doris uses Bloomer's chocolate in her recipes, which she buys wholesale. I don't know if it is available retail. When I make Doris brownies, I am going to be using Scharffenberger chocolate from California. It is a Belgian-style artisinal chocolate that has recently gotten kosher certification and is pareve. It is becoming widely available at specialty food stores, but it can also be ordered on line at www.Scharffenberger.com.

Back to Doris Schecter: After having a grand success with a bakery in Great Neck, where there is a large population of observant Jews, she took the leap and made her dream come true: She rented a small space on Madison Avenue, in the heart of Manhattan’s Gold Coast, where the rich people lived. My Most Favorite Dessert Company was a big success there, too, and it evolved from being simply a retail bake shop into a small café serving salads and light dishes along with the baked goods.

Now Doris has a successful “store” at 120 W. 45th St., between Broadway and Sixth Aves., where she not only sells her cakes and pastries at retail, but serves them in a full-service, café-style restaurant, where the hot savory food is excellent, too. (I recently attended a luncheon there to benefit Jewish Federation and everyone was thrilled with whatever they ordered, including me with my salad Niçoise made with freshly grilled rare tuna.)

Doris’ bakery recipes are now in a book, My Most Favorite Dessert Company Cookbook, and, apropos of its publication and the upcoming Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashonah), she was a guest on Food Talk. She brought me some goodies – naturally – and although I have always been impressed with her baking, I suppose I had never tried her simplest cookies. There are butter-type cookies made with margarine. But you could have fooled me. The remarkable resemblance to real butter cookies, she says, is from the sweet, Migdal-brand margarine that she uses. She’s tried them all and considers this product to be the closest in flavor to real butter. I’d have to agree. You should be able to find it at kosher markets.


My Most Favorite Brownies
Makes an 11 1/2 by 7 1/2 inch baking pan

I really was not exaggerating when I said on the radio that these are My, Arthur’s Most Favorite Brownies. And in no way do you have to be kosher to love these brownies. They are that perfect texture – fudgey, but not dense and candy like, and cakey, but not light like cake. They have another quality I love -- a thin, crisp crust on top of the moist main event. I hope you know what I mean. The proof of their irresistiblity is, if I hadn’t immediately stashed them in the freezer, buried under other foods so I don’t notice them, they would be finished by now. I am saving them to take to my sister for Rosh Hashonah.

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted margarine, cut into pieces
4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 cups sugar
3 extra-large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cups chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Grease an 11 1/2 by 7 1/2 inch baking pan.

In a bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt, stirring to blend.

In the top of a double boiler set over hot water, combine the margarine and coarsely chopped semisweet chocolate. Heat, stirring occasionally, until melted and shiny. Remove the pan from the heat, remove the top of the double boiler, and let the mixture cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally.

In the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the sugar, eggs, and cooled chocolate mixture. Beat on medium speed until well mixed. Blend in the vanilla.

Turn off the machine, add all the dry ingredients at one time. Blend on low speed until incorporated. Scrape down the bowl with a rubber spatula and stir in the chocolate chips and the optional nuts.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and level the top.

Bake for 35 minutes for fudgy brownies – a cake tester inserted in the center of one will come out with some batter on it. Do not over-bake.

Remove the pan from the oven to a wire rack and let it cool slightly.

These brownies are fantastic served while still warm, and they are just as good at room temperature. Keep, covered with plastic wrap, in the refrigerator for up to 4 days, or freeze.

Arthur’s two-cents:I thought the brownies were even better several days after they were baked. Their flavor sort of rounded out and became even deeper.


Grandma’s Apple Cake
Makes one 12 by 7 1/2-inch pie

I asked Doris if My Most Favorite Dessert Company had a “signature” cake, meaning a cake that is identified with her and her bakery, a cake that sells more than others, a cake that would cause a customer revolt if she stopped baking it. She said this “apple cake” would be it, although I would call it an apple pastry. It is an apple filling between a bottom and top crust of her sugar cookie dough. Doris says she prefers McIntosh apples here because they cook down and become soft. Her goal is not firm, separate apple slices.

For sugar crust:
3/4 pound (3 sticks) cold unsalted margarine
2/3 cup sugar
2 extra-large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 cups all-purpose flour

For apple filling mixture:
3/4 cup sugar
9 tablespoons apricot preserves
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tablespoons flour
3 tablespoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons water
12 cups peeled, 1/2-inch thick McIntosh apple slices (about 12 large apples)
1 extra-large egg, lightly beaten for an egg wash
Sugar for sprinkling on the crust

To make the sugar crust:
In the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the margarine with the sugar on medium speed until fluffy.

In a small bowl, beat the egg together lightly with the vanilla. With the mixer running, add the egg mixture to the margarine mixture and beat until they are incorporated.

Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour, a cup at a time, beating until a ball of dough forms around the paddle.

Divide the dough in half. Shape each half into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap. If the dough feels soft and not ready for rolling, chill it several hours in the refrigerator or for 1 hour in the freezer.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Remove the disks of dough from the refrigerator and let them stand at room temperature to soften slightly before rolling out.

On a lightly floured surface, roll one of the disks of dough into a rectangle about 14 by 9 inches, 1/4 inch thick. Gently roll the dough over the rolling pin and center it over a 12 by 7 1/2-inch rectangular baking pan. Press the dough over the bottom and up the sides. Trim the overhang so that it covers the rim of the pan. Chill the pie shell while you make the filling.

To make the apple filling mixture:
In a large bowl, stir together the sugar, apricot preserves, cinnamon, and flour until well combined.

Put the cornstarch in a small bowl, add the water, and stir until combined and there are no lumps. Stir the cornstarch mixture into the apricot mixture. Add the apple slices and, with your hands, toss until the apples are well coated.

Place the apple filling in the lined cake pan, mounding it in the center. (The filling will stand very high in the pan.)

With a pastry brush, brush the edge of the dough all the way around with the egg wash.

Re-flour the work surface lightly and roll out the remaining piece of dough into a 14 by 9-inch rectangle, 1/4 inch thick. Roll the dough over the rolling pin and center it over the filling. With your fingers, press the edge of the top crust into the edge of the bottom crust, sealing it at the corners, then all the way around. Trim the edge of the top dough even with the edge of the pan. With the tines of fork, lightly press the edge of the crust all the way around to seal. Prick the top crust all over with the tines of the fork to make steam vents.

Brush the top crust and the edge with the egg wash, then sprinkle generously with sugar.

Place the pan on the lined baking sheet and bake for 1 hour and 5 to 10 minutes, until the top crust is a lovely golden brown. Transfer the cake to a wire rack and let it cool completely. You can also serve it warm. Store leftovers, covered with plastic wrap, in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Arthur’s two cents: In this recipe, and many of her others, Doris specifies a “stand-up” mixer, but I think you could have success using a hand-held electric mixer, or even mixing the ingredients by hand, as time-consuming as that can be. Certainly do use the stand-up mixer with a paddle attachment if you have one, however.



Chocolate Pudding
Makes 3 1/2 cups, 6 generous 1/2-cup servings

I made this with the intention of baking Doris’ Black-Out Cake, for which it is the filling and icing. Truly, I personally think that this is too rich to eat for its own sake, as pudding. But I never got to bake the cake – only so much time in the day – and I took the pudding to a friend’s party. It was devoured with great pleasure. No one except me thought it was too rich and dense to be eaten on its own. So what do I know?

2 cups cold water plus 1/2 cup
2 tablespoons unsalted margarine, cut into pieces
6 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
1/2 cup cold water
1/3 cup cornstarch, sifted

In a medium saucepan, combine 2 cups cold water and the margarine over medium heat, stirring, until the margarine melts and the water comes to a boil.

Add the chopped chocolate and the sugar, and cook, stirring constantly, until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth.

Add the cocoa to the chocolate mixture and stir to combine.

In a bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup water and the cornstarch until no lumps show.

Increase the heat under the chocolate mixture to medium-high and bring to a boil, whisking constantly. Add the cornstarch mixture and cook, whisking constantly and vigorously, until the pudding thickens and becomes shiny and smooth. This could happen almost immediately or in as long as 2 to 4 minutes. Be sure to whisk the bottom and sides of the pan or the pudding will cook onto them. Remove the pan from the heat.

Scrape the pudding into a large heatproof bowl and smooth the top. Press a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pudding to prevent a skin from forming and let the pudding cool.

The pudding is ready to use as a filling or frosting. Or chill and serve at another time as pudding.

Arthur’s two cents: When I added the cornstarch thickening, the pudding thickened nearly instantly. It did not take the “2 to 4 minutes” specified in the recipe.