Double Chocolate Banana Bread

Monica Cheng March 31, 2014

There's a certain comfort to making banana bread. Perhaps it's the pleasant aroma of banana that wafts throughout the house from the kitchen, where the bread is baking happily in the oven. Perhaps it's the pleasure of transforming a formerly undesirable overripe banana into a baked good like bread that is beloved by all...Or perhaps it's simply the thought of making a delicious treat to feast on in any occasion -- breakfast, snack, picnic, or dessert.

Maybe you've noticed that my presence on the blog has been a little less than abundant for the past couple of months, while Caroline has been making elegant Linzer Heart Cookies, the cutest Nutella Hand Pies, and resplendent cakes like the Mocha Chiffon Cake (that macaron topping is ridiculous). Don't worry, I should be baking regularly from now on.

To be honest, it hasn't been all that pretty these last two months. An unusual amount of extracurricular and academic pressures, paired with several changes of future plans, has made it difficult for me to find time or energy in between to bake.

Figure skating practices consistently 3 to 4 days a week, plus competitions every weekend for a month, all on top of daily classes/labs that extend as late into the night as 9 p.m...Long story short, I dropped my biology class, meaning that I am no longer a biology major, and I am doing summer school to make up for it instead of studying abroad in Chile this summer. All in the name of premed. Whee...! I might be crazy. (Or stubborn?)

Anyway, the winter quarter has come to a close, and spring break provided a refreshing change of scenery (I just went back home to spend time with family.) and a brief but lovely respite from all the go-go-go atmosphere of college. During that time, I made this Double Chocolate Banana Bread. To me, this bread has the comfort of a home and family. It's a reassurance that everything will be okay.

Deep, dark...almost soulful. And still soothing, aromatic (not like the benzene ring), and immensely satisfying. The chocolate flavor from the Dutch-processed cocoa powder is intense and fulfilling, yet it doesn't overwhelm the banana flavor. The two flavors are in delicate balance with each other. It's a timeless treat that I recommend to anyone who enjoys a good bread recipe.

Cheers,

Monica

Double Chocolate Banana Bread

From Smitten Kitchen | Yield: 1 loaf, 8 servings | Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients
3 medium-to-large very ripe bananas
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 cup chocolate chips/chunks

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare a 9 × 5-inch loaf pan by using non-stick spray or butter.

Mash bananas in a large bowl. Whisk in melted butter, brown sugar, egg, and vanilla. Add baking soda, salt, flour and cocoa powder (sifted, if needed). Stir by hand to combine. Then add in chocolate chips/chunks.

Pour into prepared pan and bake 50 - 60 minutes, or until a tester or toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out batter-free. (Melted chocolate chip smear is okay.) Cool before running a knife around the edge and inverting it out onto a cooling rack. Serve & enjoy!

Storage: 4 days, wrapped in foil, at room temperature.

Asparagus and Gorgonzola Risotto

Caroline Zhang March 25, 2014

This time last year, I was already writing about zippy happy spring recipes and exclaiming over the warm weather. Well, the prospect of the warm weather.

I don't know who I was kidding, but spring was definitely a long ways off. It was snowing in Boston last week on Housing Day, while we were running around Harvard Yard at the ass crack of dawn.

To explain, Harvard' dorm system is structured around 12 houses (think Harry Potter houses), and in the spring, every freshman is randomly sorted into one of them. On housing day morning, they are greeted by a crowd of screaming upperclassmen (wearing, among other things, Speedos, penguin suits, and tree costumes) banging on their door to welcome them to their new house.

It's probably one of my favorite days at Harvard, seeing everyone jumping up and down in support of their house. Even though it was 20 degrees and snowing. And some people were in

boxers. My roommates and I, in the snow supporting Winthrop house. (Which, you know, is the Harvard equivalent of Gryffindor.)

Anyways, I'm not going to call this a spring recipe so much as an anticipatory spring recipe. It's good either way; this thick, creamy, cheese-y risotto is flavored with Gorgonzola and asparagus.

I've always thought that risotto was a super fancy Italian food that's really hard to make, but it's surprisingly easy. It's only slightly harder than making oatmeal: you saute the vegetables, add the rice, and gradually add the liquids, and then stir in the cheese.

So give it a try. It's perfect on a cold almost-kinda-not-really spring day after you've spent the morning running around in the cold and bursting into freshmen dorms.

-Caroline

Asparagus and Gorgonzola Risotto

Yields: 4-6 servings

Ingredients
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium white or yellow onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 ½ cups arborio rice
3 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 pound asparagus, washed, trimmed, and cut into 1-inch pieces
½ - 1 cup water
4 ounces Gorgonzola cheese
salt, to taste
Parmesan, to serve

Directions
In a large pot on the stove over medium heat, heat the olive oil.

Add the onions, and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent.

Stir in the garlic. Cook for about another 2 minutes.

Add in the arborio rice, and cook for 2-3 minutes, while stirring. Add the asparagus.

Add in stock 1/2 cup at a time, stirring constantly, and waiting until the stock is absorbed into the rice before adding the next half cup.

Stir in the gorgonzola. Add ½ cup of water and cook for another minute or two.

The rice should be thoroughly cooked at this point. If it is still slightly hard, add the additional ½ cup of water and cook for another 3-5 minutes.

Season with salt, if desired. Sprinkle with parmesan when serving.

Braided Chocolate Hazelnut Bread

Caroline Zhang March 10, 2014

Making yeast recipes here at college requires a lot of careful calculation. I'll make the dough before I need to head out for a meeting while it's rising. Then I'll stick it in the fridge overnight if I'm on top of things, longer if I'm forgetful, shape it into a loaf the next day, stick it into the freezer and forget about it. A couple of days or weeks later, I'll get a craving for something warm and carb-y; I'll take the frozen loaf out of the fridge in the morning (this step takes a couple of days, since I'm caffeine-deprived / half-asleep / running around trying to get ready for class, and never can remember to get stuff done in the morning). Anyways, whenever the defrosting / second rise happens, I'll bake it later that day.

Whew. And that doesn't even take into account trying to coordinate this to take place during the daylight hours so I can get pictures. Let's just say that when you have to set an alarm for your 1 pm class, you aren't awake for very many of them.

Anyways, somehow the stars aligned and I managed to both make and blog about this bread. Presenting: Braided Chocolate Hazelnut Bread, my first yeast recipe I've baked/photographed at school. And it's totally worth it.

It's a sweet bread loaf, filled with a custard-y cream cheese filling and Nutella. It's chocolate-y, sweet, fluffy and soft, and made the whole hallway in the dorm smell like baking bread.

The braiding looks complicated, but it's really not. Here, I'll show you:

First, roll out the dough into a rectangle. Draw two lines in the dough with a wooden spoon, dividing it into thirds.

Spread with the chocolate hazelnut spread of your choice. The folks at Nocciolata gave me a free sample, so that's what I used.

Spread the cream cheese mixture on top.

Cut slits down the side of the dough rectangle.

Fold the end over the filling. Then fold one strip on top of the filling, and criss-cross the strip from the other side on top of it.

Continue doing this...

When you are down to the last two strips, fold the end of the dough over the filling first, then overlap the two strips on top of it.

Let rise, brush with egg wash and sugar, and bake!

And of course, add some Nutella on top for good measure.

Enjoy!
Caroline

**Disclaimer - Nocciolata provided me a free sample of their product to review. All opinions are my own.

Click here for the printer-friendly recipe.

Braided Chocolate Hazelnut Bread

Yields: one 12-inch loaf | Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients

For the sponge:

6 tablespoons warm water
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 ½ teaspoon instant yeast
¼ cup all-purpose flour

For the dough:
Sponge (from above)
6 tablespoon plain yogurt
¼ cup butter, at room temperature
1 egg, at room temperature
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ½ cup all-purpose flour

For the filling:

⅓ cup cream cheese, at room temperature
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 tablespoons plain yogurt
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
⅓ cup chocolate hazelnut spread, such as Nocciolata or Nutella

For assembly:

1 egg, beaten
raw sugar, for sprinkling

Directions

In a medium bowl, mix together the ingredients for the sponge. Cover with plastic wrap, and let sit in a warm place for 15 minutes. The sponge will expand and look foamy.
Make the dough. Whisk together the yogurt, butter, egg, sugar, salt, and vanilla. Mix in the sponge from the previous step. Mix in the flour. Knead for several minutes until the dough forms a smooth elastic ball.
Place the dough in a large bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place for about an hour until doubled in size.
Make the filling. Mix together the cream cheese, sugar, yogurt and flour. Set aside.
Make the braid. On a floured surface, roll the dough out to a 15 inch x 10 inch rectangle. Transfer it to a greased baking sheet or a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Using a wooden spoon, draw 2 lines in the dough lengthwise, dividing it into 3 equal long rectangles.
Spread the chocolate hazelnut spread down the center rectangle, leaving a 1-inch border on either end.
Spread the cream cheese filling on top.
Cut the outer two rectangles into 1-inch-wide strips, leaving ½ - 1 inch between the base of the cuts and the filling.
Fold one end of the bread over the filling. Fold first strip on one of the sides over the filling. Fold strip on the other side over the first one, criss-crossing them.
Continue this process, alternating between sides, until you are left with the last two strips. Fold the other end of the bread over the filling. Crisscross the last two strips on top.
Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise for about 45 minutes, until very puffy.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Brush the dough with the egg, and sprinkle with raw sugar.
Bake for 25 - 30 minutes, until the bread is a deep golden brown. Let cool and serve!

Raspberry Meringue Cheesecake

Caroline Zhang February 28, 2014

Guysguysguysguys, guess what? It's a reallyreallyreally special day! Because it's our birthday! Pass the Cocoa turns two years old today.

Who'd have thought we'd still be doing this food blogging craziness after two years? To be honest, I thought this would be a passing interest, and that Monica and I would get tired of blogging pretty quickly, yet somehow I'm sitting here at 1 a.m., writing our 97th post instead of doing my history reading.

The story goes something like this:

Once upon a time, there were two high school seniors in Indiana who were on their school paper. They decided to start a blog about food on their high school paper's website, because their adviser was making a big push to get more traffic on the web, and they liked food, and, okay, they were managing editors on staff and were supposed to be, like, doing stuff for the paper.

Well, eventually they were about to graduate from high school, and couldn't take their blog with them, so they had to get a new URL. After much soul-searching, they chose to name their new website Pass the Cocoa, a name with great philosophical and personal meaning and reflected their most sacred beliefs about food and baking. (Okay, fine, we were just looking for an available URL).

For the first year, their only readership consisted of their mothers and one high school friend (thanks Andy!) who may or may not have been bribed with Oreo truffles. They were busy adjusting to college, juggling classes and being traumatized by dining hall food.

But eventually they found their feet, and started to put more thought and effort into their photography and posts, tried to be more of a presence in social media and the food blogging community.

And so here we are. I've talked about my experiences in food blogging in another post, so I'll just say that Monica and I have learned a lot more from this experience than I thought we would. It seemed so easy: we just needed to bake some stuff and take some photos, slap some words on it, stick it on the Internet, and call it a day. We found out pretty quickly that there was a lot more going on behind just what you see here.

I've seen the site statistics for some other blogs, and I know that Pass the Cocoa hasn't grown nearly as fast as a lot of other blogs. It's tempting to always be comparing ourselves to other blogs, but at the end of the day, we actually do blog because we love making and eating and writing about food.

Which brings me to this cheesecake. This raspberry meringue cheesecake is kind of labor intensive but is more than kind of amazing: a vanilla cheesecake with an Oreo crust, topped with raspberry pastry cream, and frosted with fluffy, lightly toasted meringue. A combination of fruity, tart, chocolate-y, and marshmallow-y.

It's a pretty good way of celebrating turning two, if I do say so myself.

-Caroline

Raspberry Meringue Cheesecake

Ingredients
For the Cheesecake:
20 Oreo cookies
¼ cup butter, melted
16 ounces (2 packages) cream cheese, at room temperature
⅓ cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
½ cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Raspberry Pastry Cream
1 cup whole milk
3 egg yolks
⅓ cup raspberry jam
¼ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons flour
For the Meringue Topping
3 egg whites
3 tablespoons granulated sugar

Directions
For the Cheesecake
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Finely crush Oreos and melted butter in the food processor. Press into a greased 9-inch springform pan.

Beat cream cheese, with the mixer on medium speed. Add sugar and vanilla. Beat well. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Beat in sour cream on low speed.

Pour the batter in springform pan over the Oreo crust. Bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until the center is almost set.

Let the cheesecake cool completely, and refrigerate at least 4 hours.

For the Raspberry Pastry Cream
Place the milk in a saucepan and bring to a simmer on the stove.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until they turn a pale yellow. Whisk in the flour and salt.

While whisking constantly, slowly drizzle in about ⅔ of the hot milk into the bowl with the egg yolks. Pour the egg yolks/milk mixture back into the saucepan and cook it over medium-low heat stirring constantly.

The pastry cream is done when it becomes a thick paste and large bubbles begin to pop through the surface. Take the saucepan off the stove and whisk in the raspberry jam.

Allow the pastry cream to cool, then cover it with a piece of plastic wrap placed directly over the surface of the cream so that it does not form a hard crust. Refrigerate several hours, preferably overnight.

Spread the pastry cream evenly over the top of the cheesecake.

For the Meringue Topping
Just before serving the cake, make the meringue topping. Turn on the broiler in your oven. In a double boiler (or a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water), mix together the egg whites and sugar. Gently heat, stirring constantly, until it is 160 degrees Fahrenheit.

Take the bowl off the heat and whisk the egg white/sugar mixture until it is fluffy and white, and stiff peaks form. Spread the meringue over the cheesecake, on top of the raspberry pastry cream.

Place the cheesecake in the oven for 15-30 seconds, until the top of the meringue is golden brown. Keep a close eye on the cheesecake during this process, since it can burn easily.