Did I grab your attention?
Pretty sure I've got your attention. The only thing about this german chocolate cake that ought to differ from the ones you've probably had at parties is this one contains no nuts in the frosting. I know right? I'm nuts! (Pardon my pun.) I made it this way on purpose, and sort of sadly. I love pecans. I'd put them in practically everything if I could. But my husband is completely against nuts in his desserts with the exception of baklava. Same goes for dried fruit. He just can't have anything of the sort in his treats. I think he usually sucks on his desserts before swallowing them, and I can see why a big pecan half might cause this tactic to be ruined. But I still think it's pretty silly. Imagine all the desserts he's missed out on because he didn't want to have an almond slice or two? It's a complete crime!
What was I talking about? Ooh the chocolate cake! So fun fact time: German chocolate cake actually used to be German's chocolate cake. It's not some sort of national cake in Germany, the word German in this refers to the type of chocolate used to create the flavor in this cake. Samuel German developed this chocolate back in the 1800s as a way to shorten cook times for bakers. It's creation involved adding a few things to the chocolate, the only of which I recall is this chocolate is basically the chocolate with all the sugar already added in.
If you head yourself over to the baking aisle at your local supermarket you'll probably find a brand called Baker's Chocolate (at least in America you will.) Now this isn't the 'best' chocolate out there if you check with places like America's test kitchen, but I certainly think it's handy. It has a good flavor, comes for a decent price, and comes in convenient stack-able packages. If you were to buy a block of each type you should find that the unsweetened tastes...well it's unsweetened ha! The semi-sweet tastes how you would expect a chocolate bar with a bit too much sugar to taste, and the german chocolate tastes even sweeter than that. I won't mention the white chocolate here, because that isn't really chocolate, and I'll probably get into that later when I start making truffles during the winter.
Technically this is called Joannie's Breakfast Granola, but this is another culprit of me fiddling with the original recipe. I've switched a couple of things, but I assure you it's not much different than the original. I found the original recipe in a book called The Pastry Queen. It is by far one of the best, if not in fact THE best cook book I have ever had the complete pleasure of purchasing. I bought it on a whim one day through a catalog. I thought it funny as someone had just the week before begun to call me a "Pastry Queen" so when I saw the book I snatched it up. I was immediately flattened by reading this book because clearly in the shadow of Rebecca Rather (the author chef for this book) I wasn't even a pastry princess yet. I've slaved over this book scrutinizing details about ingredients and learning her techniques from afar. It's absolutely worth every penny you must spend on it. And if you don't have it, I encourage you to get it. You won't regret it! At any rate, this granola is featured towards the beginning of The Pastry Queen, and includes a short story (as all the recipes in this book do) about how she came about the recipe, and how much people love it. I made this originally ages ago as a challenge. I love granola, and have purchased it frequently throughout the years. I was convinced that this granola would be no better than the pumpkin spice granola I buy at the natural foods store in town, so I took the challenge to make it and see if I was right. I couldn't have been more wrong. There is nothing that isn't perfect about this recipe. And really who was I kidding after looking at the ingredients list? Coconut, honey, sunflower seed? What did I honestly think could go wrong? I get very frequent requests for this. My Nana might not let me in her house anymore if I didn't bring a batch of this along during visits, and I'm fairly certain that the children at my son's preschool would be horribly disappointed if they didn't get a little baggie of it with some yogurt on his day to be in charge of snacks. Rebecca makes hers with almonds, dried cherries and apricots. I make mine with pecans, dried cranberries, and dates. I think it gives it more of a 'wintery' taste vs. a more 'spring-like' taste. During the very cold months I'll add in some cinnamon or cloves and allspice. After the base ingredients so graciously originated by Ms. Rather, you can alter this how you feel to create the perfect granola for you. I like mine best right out of the oven after it's finished. I throw a handful of dried fruit on it and enjoy it immediately. If it's not warm anymore I eat it like cereal with milk, or with vanilla greek yogurt. Simply THE best.
Baklava is a pastry like snack created in Asia. The version I make is a sort of combination between a Balkan and a Turkish baklava. It is made with a pound of phyllo dough, walnuts, cinnamon, sugar and honey. I generally cut it into triangles but felt like squares this time. The triangle servings are basically half of the squares you see above.I had an old recipe clipped out of a magazine for this, and I say had like I've gotten rid of it or something, I'm pretty positive that it's still in my cabinet somewhere. At any rate, I've made this enough times now that I just sort of 'wing it' anymore. As I was lathering the phyllo with butter this time two things occurred to me. The first is I wondered why I had never gone the extra step in making the phyllo dough. That was promptly answered by recalling an image of culinary students making strudel and the labor of stretching the dough without causing cracks. In other words, even I'm not that crazy. The second was to wonder how different my baklava is now vs. what I used to make when I first started with the recipe. In the end I realized it didn't really matter. Both are good.
This is a pretty calorie laden treat, but I have to say it is absolutely perfect with a cup of black coffee. Even if you usually put sugar or cream etc in your coffee, you would appreciate this with just plain coffee. it's incredibly sweet but in a natural sort of way. Definitely satisfies every sweet tooth I've come across thus far. The absolute beauty of this snack is It makes a 9x13 sheet so you can either make this, and share with a tea party/luncheon, or just plain gift the extras to friends. Alternatively you can do what we usually do and freeze the excess (this should be done carefully, freezing these spaced on waxed paper then wrapping them individually and then in a sturdy container for long term freezing to prevent squishing from that bag of frozen peas about to fall on it.) to enjoy whenever you have a craving. The flavor is completely unaltered in this even if you're freezing for as long as 3 months. I wouldn't know about longer, I've never had anyone that froze this have any past that point!
So now you've heard a bit about the three tasties I've posted today; german chocolate cake, baklava, and granola. As promised I will post one recipe for the most requested dessert in my next blog post. Cast your vote for which one by either posting in the comments below, or by tweet to me on twitter @MissJoey812.
*I wanted to put in a disclaimer that the information I post about recipe origins, unless otherwise noted, will always come from my memory and therefore I have no sources to post for you regarding more information. If there is something I am posting that I just honestly didn't know about, but wanted to educate myself as well as you, I'll post the links from where I gathered the information. I have a pretty good memory, but obviously with 3 kids I have been known to come down with a case of mommy brain, so any misinformation is entirely not intentional and I would appreciate being corrected if need be.
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