The Naptime Chef

*Note* VIA Giveaway entry instructions at bottom of post!

Despite having a toddler I am not a big coffee drinker. It’s not that I don’t need caffeine to help me start the day – I have a cup of Scottish Breakfast tea every morning – I’ve just never acquired a taste for the actual brewed drink. However, I do like the more subtle taste of coffee when it is used in ice cream and baked goods, so when I received a free sample of Starbucks VIA last month I wasted no time getting started on baking my Mocha Brownie Tarts.

I know it seems strange that I like to bake with coffee in light of the fact that I don’t drink it. But, trust me, using coffee as an ingredient in a baked good is very different then sipping it from a cup. Adding instant coffee or espresso powder to a batter is a fantastic way to enhance, or amplify, the flavor of chocolate. In fact, there are many recipes where coffee is added as a way to boost the richness of a cake, cookie or tiramisu. As you might recall, last February I wrote about my favorite chocolate cake from my friend Hilary, which calls for entire cup of strong brewed coffee. And, earlier this month, my Double Chocolate Espresso Cookies won the “Best Chocolate Cookie” contest on food52. (Don’t worry, I’ll write about those soon, but you can always pick up the recipe on that site if you need it right away.)

When I made these mocha brownie tarts the other week I opted to add the instant coffee granules straight, instead of brewed coffee. Adding all that liquid would have made them too cakey, and I really wanted to stick with the texture of a denser brownie. Since I was making them for a friend I also choose to use my favorite individual paper tart pans from the baking supply store in Chelsea. They are perfect for making small portions look elegant, and are very easy to transport.

Like all good brownie recipes, whipping these up during my daughter’s naptime was a snap. It basically required the careful melting of chocolate, mixing of ingredients and proper baking time. When the tarts came out of the oven they were a gorgeous deep brown with a perfect crackly top. Not to mention, the scent of coffee and chocolate in our apartment after thirty minutes of baking was enough to make anyone start salivating. The aroma had even pervaded my daughter’s bedroom to the point that she asked for “chocolate cake mommy!” the moment she woke up from her nap. She wasn’t thrilled with the coffee undertones, but gobbled up a small piece pretty quickly.

I am thrilled to report that baking with the Starbucks VIA was a huge success. By adding coffee to the batter the chocolate flavor became deeper and more intense. The texture was identical that of a regular brownie, without being too cakey or dry. In the recipe that inspired this one Ina had also added nuts, but, frankly, I had no interest in that. Instead, I stuck with adding only the chopped chocolate bars – I don’t like anything to stand between me and my chocolate. When my friend served these to her guests she gave them a choice of fresh vanilla whipped cream or vanilla ice-cream on side. Either option is a great idea, a mild, sweet accompaniment is a perfect way to balance the tarts intense chocolate taste.

In honor of the holidays approaching and my insistence that everyone start baking with instant coffee right this minute, I am giving away my two remaining packs (containing 3 servings each) of Starbucks VIA Extra Bold Italian Roast. According to my husband, they make a fantastic beverage, and according to me, they are excellent to bake with. I’ll use a randomizer to pick the winners on Monday Nov. 23rd at 11:59pm EST and announce them at 7:00am EST on Tuesday Nov. 24th.

How to enter:

1) Leave a comment telling me your favorite way to enjoy coffee (drinking, baking or cooking?) and anything else you’d like to share.
2) Join The Naptime Chef™ Facebook Fanpage (if you have a Facebook Account)

It is easy for me to go overboard when consuming holiday desserts. I find it impossible to resist the tray after tray of sugary cookies and chocolate bark candy that are found at my every turn this time of year. After all, these treats only come around once every 11 months, which, in my mind, practically makes it a requirement to sample everything within arms length during this brief period. (I wonder, does eating Christmas cookies in December count as eating seasonally?) For those of you with more self control than I, here is a holiday dessert that is worth every calorie: Eggnog Cheesecake with Gingersnap Crust and Pomegranate Glaze. If you have to pick and choose the sweets you eat this holiday season, do yourself a favor and enjoy a slice of this. I promise, this cake is so good it is definitely worth passing up all of the peppermint bark, snickerdoodles, chocolate crackles and peanut butter blossoms in sight.

In our household I am clearly the one with the crazy sweet tooth. My husband and daughter both like treats now and then, but my daily routine requires at least two items of chocolate before 5pm, as well as a sweet dessert post-dinner. It is a good thing I live in New York, one of the few cities where you exercise without even knowing it. In fact on most days our car sits, neglected, in a garage 20 blocks away while the pedometer attached to the stroller (yes, they exist) calculates that I walk at least 3-4 miles. Rain or shine. It is a wonderful solution to enjoying holiday desserts – my mini-walking mararthons – the only problem is that I end up browsing boutique windows and food shops while en route.

Last week when we were trotting down Broadway at our usual brisk clip I noticed one of my favorite boutiques had set up a little display of Christmas packages in their window. Christmas?! Already?! How did it sneak up so soon!! It took me a minute to accept that the holiday season is truly upon us, but once I did, I got kind of excited. It is time for all of the fun holiday shopping, decorating, socializing, and, of course, cooking.

As I not-so-subtley noted above, there are several (hundred) Christmas desserts in my repertoire that I will be sharing with you, and today I am going to start off with a bang. I love making this cheesecake because it is terrifically simple and utterly delicious. When I made my first of many for the season last week I had no problem baking it during my daughter’s afternoon naptime. In fact, the timing worked beautifully because it was able to cool fully prior to the addition of the glaze.

The best part about this cheesecake is that it tastes like the best version of eggnog you have ever had. Sweet, spicy and just a little boozy, it is a truly decadent adult treat. When I adapted this recipe long ago I added a gingersnap crust to balance the cakes smooth, creamy texture with a subtle crunch. The pomegranate glaze, inspired by a strawberry syrup I had once been served over cheesecake, gives the eggnog flavor a shot of sweet fruit, almost like a garnish.

I’ll admit, I made this last week for us to enjoy all by ourselves. My husband adores cheesecake and I, feeling so incredibly inspired by the window display, couldn’t help but get excited for the holiday season. It is more common that I take it to friends or add to our holiday buffet, guests are always wowed by the way the pomegranate seeds sit on top of the cake like little shiny rubies. I know I’ll be making this again shortly, I already promised my friend Ashley I would bring it to her open house in a few weeks. Until then I plan to start dipping into the rest of my Christmas repertoire. But, for more on that, you’ll have to wait until next week.

It seems that Apple Mania has given way to Pumpkin Mania this month. While I’ve been chowing down on apples, I’ve also been opening can after can of pure organic pumpkin puree. There is no limit to the amount of dishes I’ve been making with the stuff, everything from savory pumpkin penne, to pumpkin bars, to sweet pumpkin pudding cake.

I’ll admit, after making all of these dishes I was pretty sure I had exhausted my pumpkin repertoire until my friend Jennifer, an accomplished baker herself, handed me her Aunt Margie’s recipe for Pumpkin Bread with Chocolate Chips. Make it, she told me, you will love it. Apparently this bread is a legendary dessert in her family, which, as I soon learned, is for a good reason.

This bread has been on my weekly Naptime Chef baking rotation all fall. I most often make it while my daughter naps, and it also proved to be a great mother/daughter baking project. It is a deliciously simple recipe that yields a perfectly moist pumpkin cake, rich with cinnamon flavor and dotted with sweet chocolate chips.

When I was talking about this the other week with my friend April at Babble she suggested I make this into a video for the Babble Nibblers blog. Why not? I thought. I’ve been writing this website for almost a year and you all must be sick of just reading, reading, reading. Maybe it would be fun to start watching, watching, watching! So, without further ado, welcome to my kitchen and my first how-to video for Aunt Margie’s Perfect Pumpkin Bread with Chocolate Chips.

As always, I encourage comments, but please be kind to the newbie Naptime Chef’s first web appearance!

When I told my husband I was making Penne with Pumpkin & Pancetta for dinner last weekend, he reached for the take-out menus the second he thought I wasn’t looking. Unsure of what I would be serving – I mean, who pairs pumpkin and pancetta! – he later admitted to hatching a back-up meal plan. Sure, I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve cooked up my share of questionable fare. It would be naive to think that everything I made was perfect all the time, but with this dish I was sure I had a winner on my hands. He was clearly wary of this confidence, but I knew I was right.

I am lucky to be married to such an adventurous eater, but even he has his limits. After a long day at work and chasing after a toddler he wants to chow down on a filling meal, not tenderly pick at mystery food in an effort to please me. Also, I am in the throws of teaching a toddler how to enjoy good food, something that is no easy task. To make it all work for me I try to make delicious, but practical, meals. We eat hearty lasagnas, seasonal vegetables and sweet desserts, not hand-rolled sushi or caviar on toast. I like to put new twists on the basics to make them even better than before.

Tessa Kiros is one of my favorite cookbook authors and I adore Twelve, her book of seasonal Tuscan recipes. Each section is arranged by month, providing delicious inspiration for dishes that can be made with local farmers market foods at a particular time of year. Since the seasons in Tuscany are much like those in the Northeast she has many fall recipes containing pumpkin – a vegetable that apparently thrives just about anywhere. When I was flipping through the other week I noticed this particular recipe because it gave a new twist to our favorite pairing of pancetta in tomato sauce. Tessa’s addition of pumpkin seemed outrageous, and genius. Pumpkin is the perfect addition to a traditional Italian meal, its natural sweetness balances the acidic tomatoes and salty pork.

When I cook with pumpkin I use organic pure puree. I love the idea of skinning and cubing my own pumpkins to make puree but it rarely, if ever, happens. So, when it came to making this sauce, while Tessa calls for thinly shaved fresh pumpkin, I decided to use some canned puree instead. Also, given the rule of constant chaos with a toddler in the house, I forgot to buy penne but had an unopen box of fusilli on hand. While I think penne would be best for this dish, the fusilli was an excellent substitute – the spiral curls were great for absorbing the sauce.

In order to save myself time in the evening I prepared the sauce while my daughter napped in the afternoon. Like most tomato based sauces, making it ahead of time was a great decision. After it had simmered and reduced I simply left it, covered, on the stove until dinner. This allowed the ingredients to mingle and develop into more complex flavors then if it had been enjoyed fresh. It also gave me time to enjoy little slurps of the incredibly tasty result of combining pumpkin and tomato. The salty sweet taste was so delicious I could hardly wait for dinner.

Pulling this all together at the end of the day was a cinch. I reheated the sauce, tossed it with piping hot pasta and added a healthy dose of parmesan cheese. After a skeptical first bite my husband declared is “fabulous, delicious and brilliant,” a ringing endorsement that he never casually bestows. (I think this was partially due to his relief of not having to order from the seedy Chinese place down the street.) My daughter added her own type of applause, devouring noodle after noodle without saying a word. At the realization that I had won them over despite his skepticism, I have to say, I felt a little smug. Not every day is filled with successes like this, and, like any home cook, I will take it while I can.

If last fall you had told me that Gwyneth Paltrow would give me a great recipe for Brussel Sprouts I would have rolled me eyes. At the time she, an accomplished actress and protective mother, was easily the last person I would’ve turned to for cooking advice.

Then, last November, I subscribed to Gwyneth’s website, GOOP, and started watching a her PBS mini-series, only to realize that she actually does know how to navigate a kitchen and feed her family. So here I am, a year later, preaching the word of Gwyneth’s Caramelized Brussels Sprouts. Proving that great recipes can come from the most unexpected sources, I have her recipe on permanent repeat in my household. It is the most simple and delicious preparation for a vegetable, that, prior to her guidelines, was not exactly one of my favorites.

All of us have a lame claim to fame of some kind. Have you ever spotted a celebrity at an airport or nearby Starbucks? Or, do you know someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows Julia Roberts’ former assistant? We all can play Seven Degrees of Kevin Bacon in one way or another, associating ourselves with the Hollywood elite. So, here is my lame claim to fame: I went to camp with Gwyneth Paltrow. No, we weren’t bunk-mates, or even friends. In fact, her cousin was a good friend of mine and our second year at camp she announced that Gwyneth wasn’t returning because she was making a movie in Texas with Dennis Quaid and would soon be famous. Nobody believed her. But we should have.

I haven’t seen Gwyneth since our Vermont summers, but I do read her website. And, although our lives couldn’t be more different these days, I am pleased to see that we still have a few things in common. When it comes to cooking I enjoy her menu ideas and the thoughtfulness she puts into feeding her family. I especially appreciate her choice to lead by example, reminding us to enjoy a great roast chicken, but make it organic, please.

Gwyneth probably has the full-time childcare, but I doubt that means she has unlimited time in the kitchen to cook. I am sure, like all parents, she understands the need to make tasty food in an efficient manner, and might even do a lot of her cooking during her children’s afternoon naptimes. Her recipes written clearly with simple instructions for getting the most flavor from the ingredients. For example, her straightforward brussels sprouts recipe is wonderfully delicious and a snap to make. I had no problem preparing these during my daughter’s naptime, and found them just as easy to cook, from start to finish, at dinnertime.

What I like about this recipe is that its simplicity lets the true flavor of the vegetable shine. Unlike a lot of fall vegetable recipes, there is no mention of baking anything in cream or cheese, it is just about quality olive oil, salt and lemon. Come to think of it, those are my three most favorite flavor enhancers which is probably why I enjoy these so much. When these are simmering in the skillet the sprouts become perfectly tender with delicious crispy edges. They are finished off with a nice dip in a pool of yummy olive oil and sea salt, then with a quick a drizzle of lemon. This method does a great job of enhancing the vegetable flavor without overshadowing it. While I doubt I’ll be bumping into Gwyneth at our camp reunions, I will continue to read her recipes and make more of her dishes. With these sprouts she has proved to me that she knows what she is doing, and I look forward to reading, and eating, more.

As I pointed out yesterday, the holidays are fast approaching. Along with having an ample supply of muffins and sweets on hand, it is also important to be ready to entertain. Cocktails parties are ubiquitous at this time of year, which is why I always have a stash of Parmesan Crisps at the ready. Easy to whip up at any time of day and tasty to a fault, they are perfect to serve anytime with a glass of wine, slice of salami and great conversation.

Every month my friends Cheryl, Ellise, Cathy and I get together do a fun Friday post with a common theme. Sometime we even do “offline” events too, like last month’s plateswap. Cheryl used a randomizer and assigned us each someone to send a fun plate to, a plate that we could use to serve our favorite foods to family and loved ones. Luckily, my friend Cathy, The Show Food Chef, sent me a gorgeous wooden platter (pictured above) that has already become one of my most favorite pieces. It is perfect for plating my parmesan crisps, which I’ll be doing a lot come party season. To help you prepare I’m serving up my recipe because it is a great one to have in your holiday entertaining repertoire. I have no problem making these during my daughter’s naptime. In fact, they are so easy that can be made in approximately 10 minutes prior to being served. I know my guests always enjoy these, and I am sure yours will, too.

With the holidays fast approaching it is time to brush up on muffin recipes. In my house the holidays mean a revolving door of family and friends, and I always like to have some yummy muffins on hand when people pop in to chat. I already have a few favorite recipes including Aunt Ethel’s Blueberry variety, Orange Mini’s with Brown Sugar Glaze from The Pioneer Woman, and Allspice Crumb Muffins from Dorie Greenspan. But, I am always looking for new ideas, and was thrilled when my friend Barbara shared her recipe for Cinnamon-Sugar Caramel Muffins.

My favorite part about this recipe is that it was adapted by a few people before be given to me. In fact, Barbara’s six-year old son was the one who recommend adding the caramel – he is obviously one smart kid! When I received it I made a few changes of my own, adding cinnamon, more nutmeg, and a heaping teaspoon of orange zest to give these little cakes my own special twist.

I don’t know what the original recipe looks like, but I’m pretty sure the variation below would be hard to improve upon. Making these during my daughter’s naptime is a cinch, though we also have found these quite fun to make together. Mixing the batter is simply a matter of adding the ingredients one-by-one to the bowl and placing the caramel properly. I would even venture to say that the most difficult part about baking these is not eating all of the caramels before they are placed in the batter (note: the recipe reads “cut caramel into quarters, eat one piece” for a reason).

With a fluffy moist texture, and out of this world taste, these muffins are sure the please everyone. Personally, I think that the warm spices and cinnamon sugar topping giving them a flavor slightly reminiscent of a snickerdoodle. To give these a proper taste test I’ve enjoyed them with a cup of Scottish Breakfast tea (my morning tea), a mug of Constant Comment (afternoon), and even Wild Orange herbal tea (evening). What I really can’t wait for is to enjoy these with my mulled cider (recipe to come soon!). No matter what, they definitely proved to be the perfect accompaniment for any flavor I steep at home. They are also, not surprisingly, perfect for little fingers. My daughter adores them and on more than one occasion has asked to have them for dinner (the answer was always no).

So, when the holidays come around I know exactly what I’ll have on hand in my house for friends and family. Feel free to stop on by for a taste, or make some of your own.