Chocolate Cream Tart - Tuesdays with Dorie

For this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection, Kim of Scrumptious Photography picked Chocolate Cream Tart, pages 352 and 353 of Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

I woke up this morning...contacts completely stuck to my eyes, TV playing some infomercial about a snuggie blanket that can also shape your abs with absolutely no exercise (or money down!), and with the thought, Oh darn [insert a more descriptive word here]! I fell asleep last night before making the Tuesday with Dorie Chocolate Cream Tart!

I raced home from work, used too much math to figure out 1/4 of the recipe, and felt like I should be using my easy bake oven with the tablespoons of ingredients! :)

I love the chocolate cream! So much so that I decided to skip the whipped cream and just make it a chocolate delight!

Whew! 10:31 pm Pacific Daylight Time! Just in time!

Be sure to check out the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers!

Find the recipe on Kim's beautiful blog, Scrumptious Photography

Snickerdoodle Muffins (Recipe from Peabody)

I'm late on the Snickerdoodle Muffins bandwagon. But then I'm quite slow with many things. Peabody made these in 2007 and they made the rounds on the blog, including some crazy person who sent Peabody a bill for her ingredients because she didn't like them. I wonder if that person is now calling herself the Octo-Mom. Anyway, I'm sure by 2010 I'll make the Snickerdoodle Blondie and Snickerdoodle Bundt Cake - those are still on my list. I love me the Snickerdoodle - here are the Martha Stewart Snickerdoodle cookies I made earlier.

Recipe here on Culinary Concoctions by Peabody. Peabody is very funny and a great chef and baker!

Make the stiff batter. Using an ice cream scoop, plop a ball in a cinnamon sugar mixture.

Rolly polly round it goes...

...into a greased muffin tin

Aren't these cute? The tops look just like a Snickerdoodle cookie!

Get the recipe for Snickerdoodle Muffins here on Peabody's great blog.

P.S. If you are here for the Tuesdays with Dorie post, I pray that it will be coming. I hope I can run home and make a little tart!

Oatmeal Cinnamon Chip Cookies (from the package)

Can I begin to tell you how excited I am to have found Cinnamon Chips in Los Angeles? (I went to a big, nice (not like my janky) Albertson's).

I turned the package of goodness over and found this recipe for oatmeal cookies! I love the back of the package recipes. They rock.

Find the recipe here on the Hershey's website!

My changes to their recipe:
1. Used old fashioned oatmeal (not quick cooking)
2. Omitted the raisins
3. Added 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon to the dry mixture

Notes: The recipe calls for 1 bag (10 oz) [1 2/3 cups] of cinnamon chips. Now, if I manufactured the main ingredient, of course I would tell you to use the WHOLE bag and then more! But, since I don't work for Hershey, I'll tell you that I think you could scale back the chips a bit. They made the cookie really sweet. Perhaps if you had raisins in it, that would cut some of the sweetness...anyway, that's my opinion. Try it out and let me know what you think. I'm just glad to have found the cinnamon chips!! :)

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2-1/2 cups quick-cooking oats
1-2/3 cups (10-oz. pkg.) HERSHEY'S Cinnamon Chips
3/4 cup raisins

For the how to, see their recipe online or the back of the package!!

Recipe:
Oatmeal Cinnamon Chip Cookies (Hershey's website)

Blueberry Mochi Cake

Blueberry Mochi Cake

Mochi (pronounced mo-chee) is one of my favorite Japanese foods on the planet. It is pounded special short-grain rice. I did a few posts about the plain New Year's mochi my family makes and the sweet Japanese confectioneries such as those sold by Sakuraya in Los Angeles.

In those tart frozen yogurt shops (such as Pinkberry, Tutti Fruitti and Yogurtland), you can get little mochi balls of goodness. They are perfect with frozen yogurt because they are chewy, sweet, and they don't harden against the cold yogurt (unlike those killer mini-gummy bears - I thought I was going to need dental work!)

Recently, I was gifted some Blueberry Mochi Cake by JustJenn. OMG. So delicious. I had to make it!

The key ingredient is the box of Mochiko (sweet rice flour) - it cannot be substituted. Really, no substitutions. I used Koda Farms Mochiko sweet rice flour (see their website for information about mochi and this California family owned Japanese American farm). You can find this in a Japanese, Asian, or health food store (it's gluten-free). Mine sells it for under $1.50 per box. Mochiko is made from special sweet short-grain rice and is very soft in texture. It will make the cake a bit chewy and, well, mochi-like!

This is more of a Mochi "cake" than mochi you might have seen in a Japanese store. Those are usually filled with sweetened beans (red or lima) and the outer mochi doesn't have a bunch of eggs and milk in it like this one.

Blueberry Mochi Cake

Adapted from JustJenn who adapted it from Hawaii's Best Mochi Recipes by Jean Watanabe Hee

1 pound mochiko (1 box)
1 cup butter (2 sticks), melted
2 cups sugar
1 can evaporated milk (12 oz can)
4 eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons vanilla
12 oz frozen blueberries (or 1 can blueberry pie filling)

In a large bowl, combine (by hand) the sugar and melted butter. Add evaporated milk and mix well. Add eggs and mix. Finally, stir in baking powder, mochiko and vanilla.

After mixing the batter, I spread a thin layer in the 9 x 13 pan. Then I sprinkled some semi-thawed blueberries. Repeated a couple times. Or, you can mix it all together but the batter gets a little blue (nothing wrong with that!)

I used Trader Joe's Frozen Wild Blueberries. These blueberries are smaller and I ended up using 3/4 of the 12 oz. bag.

My new oven! See the temperature remained at 350 for the entire cycle! Yippee.
Bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees until toothpick clean and golden brown.

Blueberry Mochi Cake

Not too sweet.
Slightly chewy.
Yummy blueberryness.
Gluten-free.
Try it out!

Winners of the Food Librarian's First Annual National Library Week Giveaway!

Thank you soooo much for celebrating National Library Week with me. It's definitely going to be an annual event! I really enjoyed reading your comments and support for libraries. Ahhh...warms my heart. I switched careers for librarianship and know that I made the right choice!

Seems that many people are just one degree away from a librarian in the family (or at least "my boyfriend's mother"). I cracked up when Slush wrote, I still have to take my books back. I swear, I'll do it today.

Tracey, who left some of the best comments and even a shout out on her blog, wrote I am really going to miss the librarian action figures. I think they should make special guest appearances on your blog in the future. Don't worry, Nancy Pearl Librarian Action Figure will be back during the year!

And the best part is that seeing dancing librarians reminded you to visit your library and discover something new! Success! :)

Okay, so the randomly (used Random.org) selected winners are...

Day 1: Mini-cake pans, bookmark & bag
Monica H of Lick the Bowl Good


Day 2: Mini-loaf pans, bookmark & bag
Heather of Sherry Trifle and Cats


Day 3: Trader Joe's favorites, bookmark & bag
Jinger from Jingerly


Day 4: Mini-tart pans, bookmark & bag
Hennifer of Life of Uncertainty


Day 5: Hello Kitty and cupcake holders, bookmark & bag
NikiTheo of It's all abut the "sweet" stuff

Thanks for entering and congrats to the winners!

Heather & Hennifer, please email me your mailing address: thefoodlibrarian [at ] gmail [com]. The other winners should get an email from me.

P.S. EmilyG - Yes!!! The Library Action Figure totally looks like she is picking her nose when she's shushing! Oh well, we librarians are real people too and we have clean noses. :)

Chocolate Bread Pudding (Tuesdays with Dorie)

Chocolate Bread Pudding

For this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection, Lauren of Upper East Side Chronicle picked Four Star Chocolate Bread Pudding on page 410 of Dorie's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

I've never made bread pudding! I've devoured it in restaurants but never made it! What a delight that Lauren selected this recipe.

I picked up this lovely and huge brioche from my local Italian deli (and had to pick up their famous sandwich while I was there...you know, stimulating the local economy and all). Isn't it a beauty? After weighing it, I figured I should use half of the brioche (AKA butter delivery device).

After toasting the brioche pieces for 10 minutes at 350 degrees, I just wasn't sure how much bread you should have in a bread pudding! :) Once I poured the custard mixture on the bread, I felt they were swimming and cut up another quarter of the brioche (so I used a total of 18 ounces or 3/4 of the loaf).

Only after 30 minutes did I realize I probably didn't need the extra bread as the bread is a super sponge that absorbed most of the custard mixture. (See, I told you I haven't made bread pudding before...)

I brought it into work and suggested a 10 second zap in the microwave. Those 10 seconds made all the difference in the world. It softened the custard a bit and just made the whole bread pudding sing.

Carbs + Butter + Chocolate = Yum

Be sure to check out the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers! And look for the recipe on Lauren's Upper East Side Chronicle blog or page 410 of Dorie's book, Baking. Also, did you know Dorie Greenspan is on Twitter? Follow the most wonderful cookbook author online!

Sky-High Chai Cake with Honey-Ginger Cream (The Cake Slice Bakers)

Chai Cake with Honey-Ginger Cream

For this month's The Cake Slice Bakers selection, we voted to make Chai Cake! I made this cake right after I got the fantastic book, Sky-High Cakes by Alisa Huntsman (see post here) and was delighted to make it again. It was a fan favorite at the library back then, and it continues to be one of my absolute favorites. It's on page 152 of the Sky-High Cake book and I'm sure you can find the recipe on other Cake Slice Baker's blogs.

Last time, I used regular Chai tea and gave away the extra tea bags because I don't drink caffeine (I get headaches). So this time I picked up decaf Chai at Fresh & Easy so I could enjoy the extra tea bags!

Next time (of course there will be a next time! I love this cake!), I'm thinking of trying the Good Earth Sweet and Spicy tea that you can pick up at Trader Joe's. I think that combo of spices will be delicious as well! :)

Topped with a honey, ginger, cream cheese frosting...all made in the food processor. That is brilliant! True to the name of the book, this cake is SKY-HIGH. Three 8-inch layers...I hope it doesn't topple over in the car on the way to work! :)

Thanks Alisa for writing such a fantastic book! If you don't have it yet, please, please pick it up - you won't be disappointed! Check out the other Cake Slice Bakers!

P.S. Today is the last day to enter my 5 giveaways for National Library Week. See the five posts below! Good luck and please check out your local library! :)

National Library Week Day 5 with Sprinkles' Strawberry Cupcakes, Cinnamon Blueberry Muffins and Hello Kitty Giveaway

Whew! It's the last day of National Library Week!

I made Sprinkles' Strawberry Cupcakes with a strawberry cream cheese frosting. I missed the farmer's market and used frozen strawberries to make the puree. I think fresh would have given more of a strawberry punch.

I didn't make the Sprinkles' frosting on Martha's website because I wanted to incorporate cream cheese. The frosting was 1 block cream cheese (8 ounces), 1/2 stick butter, 3 cups powdered sugar, 3 T strawberry puree.

I also made some Cinnamon Blueberry Muffins (recipe from July 2006/Gourmet on Epicurious). See those brown cupcake holders? Well, you can win a package of them that I picked up at Surfas. How many in that package? 600. Yes, six-hundred. That's a zillion of those little packs you get from the grocery store. If you should win, I hope you either make a ton of cupcakes and muffins or share with others!

Some people have asked if I'm eating all these baked goods myself...oh no! Reason #100293 why the library is a great place...it has lots of hungry co-workers who eat lots of desserts! And yes, this does generate a bunch of goodwill at work. ;)

Today's library thing...programs! Do you like knitting? watching movies? local history? genealogy? selling everything you own on eBay? Perhaps your library has a program about your favorite hobby or interest. Libraries today are reaching out to the community with a plethora of programs for kids, teens, adults and seniors. Most people know about storytime for kids, but did you know that a chess club might be meeting at the library as well? Or a seminar on identity theft? Check out your library's website for a listing of programs and opportunities. You might be surprised that it isn't just storytime anymore!

Here is today's language lesson: kawaii (ka - wa- EEEEeeeee) is the Japanese word for cute. Since I'm Japanese American, I'm genetically drawn to all things cute. (So that probably explains my obsession with the miniature treats!)

And what is more kawaii than Hello Kitty?! For today's giveaway, you can win a Hello Kitty stationery pack with 5 different papers and envelopes, candies, pencils and eraser. (Librarian Action Figure and rice (!!) not included)

To celebrate my last day of National Library Week Day 5, I'm giving away the following to one lucky winner:
a. Hello Kitty Assortment of kawaii stationery and candy
b. 600 (six-hundred!!!) brown cupcake holders (2 inch standard)
c. Handmade beaded bookmark (designed by the Food Librarian!)
d. Disneyland book bag

600 pretty brown cupcake holders from Surfas (Librarian Action Figure not included)

This is your last chance to win! To enter the Day 5 Giveaway, simply leave a comment below (one entry per person) and I'll pick the winner from a hat. Deadline: Monday, April 20, 2009 at midnight PDT. If your comment isn't linked to a blog where I can find you, please leave your email or check back on Tuesday, April 21st to see if you won. Shipping to U.S. addresses only.

Don't forget to enter the daily giveaways to celebrate National Library Week!
Day 1 Giveaway for mini-cake pans, Day 2 Giveaway for mini-loaf pans, Day 3 Giveaway for Trader Joe's Favorites, and Day 4 Giveaway for mini-tart pans. Deadline for all giveaways is Monday, April 20, 2009!

Thank you for visiting my little blog and celebrating National Library Week with me!!! I really enjoyed hearing your library stories - Jen F. cracked me up with: We love ours not only for my crazy book habit, but also for the DVDs for my son--it's a great way to keep up with his ever-changing interests, and as a bonus, we get to get rid of the really annoying DVDs after a week!

Special thanks to my co-workers who loaned me their Librarian Action Figure (Patty, Susan, Andrea, Karen, Jessica and Sue), and my friends who helped make the bookmarks (Agnes, Julie and Sumi)!

Whew. I'm exhausted. Good thing this is only once a year!

What are you still doing here? Get out there and visit your library! :) - mary the food librarian

National Library Week Day 4 with Paula Deen's Chocolate Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Whoo Hoo! It's Day 4 of National Library Week!

I was supposed to make mini-tarts to go with the giveaway (oh, they were going to be so cute), but life got the better of me so you'll have to come back for that one. Instead, I present you with Paula Deen's Chocolate Cream Cheese Pound Cake that I made this morning. (Yes, shocking, I made another Bundt cake!) This is from her book The Lady & Sons Just Desserts: More Than 120 Sweet Temptations from Savannah's Favorite Restaurant (with her very polite and sweet sons on the cover).

As with all things Paula Deen, I will give you the list of ingredients in the cake, but not the amounts. Really, it is for your protection! :) It has butter, cream cheese, sugar, eggs, vanilla, cake flour, baking powder, and cocoa. I left out the ingredients last night and woke up the morning to mix together - it's a very easy cake.

This cake is REALLY tall. The batter almost overflowed. You need at least a 12 cup bundt pan...next time I might make a bundt and some mini bundts as well. You can find the full recipe here.


We are almost done with National Library Week! Each day, I'm mentioning a library thing. Today, it's magazines! I love me the magazine. They are like adult picture books - short, full of photos and quick to read. The best thing about my quarterly trips to the dentist is catching up on which celebrities are breaking up, what they are wearing, and if they are eating in 2009. I subscribe to Newsweek at home so I look smart to my postal carrier, but I devour People! :) I get a lot of baking ideas from the magazines at the library. So, don't forget to visit your library, take a seat, and get lost in the world of food, sports, politics, world news, and, um, celebrity trash.

The Librarian Action Figure modeling cute mini-tart pans. Unfortunately, the store doesn't carry this pack anymore so if you win, you'll get the tart shells below...

To celebrate Day 4 of National Library Week, I'm giving away the following to one lucky winner:
a. 1 dozen (12) mini tart shells (the ones on the green photo below)
b. Handmade beaded bookmark (designed by my friend Agnes!)

c. Disneyland book bag (uber environmental and light)

To enter the Day 4 Giveaway, simply leave a comment below (one entry per person) and I'll pick the winner from a hat. Deadline: Monday, April 20, 2009 at midnight PDT. If your comment isn't linked to a blog where I can find you, please leave your email or check back on Tuesday, April 21st to see if you won. Shipping to U.S. addresses only.

Thanks for all your comments, especially about your local library! I hope you visit, support and check things out of your library!

Don't forget to enter the daily giveaways to celebrate National Library Week!
Day 1 Giveaway for mini-cake pans, Day 2 Giveaway for mini-loaf pans, and Day 3 Giveaway for Trader Joe's Favorites. Deadline is also Monday, April 20, 2009!

Coming up tomorrow...two words: Hello Kitty.

National Library Week Day 3 with Barefoot Contessa's Strawberry Country Cake

Barefoot Contessa's (California) Strawberry Country Cake

Raindrops on roses.
Brown paper bags tied up with string.
Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes.

Favorite Things. Rock.

It's Day 3 of my week long celebration of National Library Week! Today, it's all about favorite things!

Up first, California Strawberries! They are delicious, delicious, delicious and the first sign of the soon-to-come onslaught of stone fruits and other lovely summer delights! Strawberries have always been my favorite!

This is the Barefoot Contessa's Strawberry Country Cake. It's Cake (my favorite). It's Strawberries (oh yes). It's Whipped Cream (come on, who doesn't love fresh whipped cream!?!)

You can find the recipe here on the FoodNetwork website. It makes two cakes and you freeze one for later in the summer!

One of my favorite shows is America's Best Dance Crew on MTV! Congrats Los Angeles Quest Crew! Not that I'm a hip hop dancer (remember, I have so little rhythm I can't do the rhythm method), I found myself txting in votes along with 14-year old kid next door. Sigh. One day I'll act my age.

People, check out that Head Spin!! These b-girl librarians are krumping, popping, locking, and gliding to a mix of Lady Gaga and Ne-Yo (you just can't see it in this photo :) Please note that the Librarian Action Figure don't do much action. Nothing moves on her except her arms...in order to do a Shushing motion!


It's National Library Week! All this week, I'm highlighting a library thing. Today, it's movies and music. I know some adults haven't been to their library since they were kids and think libraries only have books...but many libraries have current DVDs and music CDs in their collections. Sometimes you might have to wait a bit if there is a queue, but the check outs are often free or less than a rental store. In our current economic situation, libraries may be able to entertain you with movies, books, and music!

To celebrate Day 3 of National Library Week, I'm giving away the following to one lucky winner:

a. The Food Librarian's Favorite Things from Trader Joe's
b. Handmade beaded bookmark (designed by my friend Julie!)
c. Disneyland book bag (carry all your library books, DVDs and CDs in this cool bag)
d. $10 Starbucks gift card...okay, is this a bit of regifting or "sharing"? Ever 56 days or so, I donate a pint of blood at my local hospital and receive a Thank You $5 Starbucks giftcard. I don't drink coffee and the Starbucks near my work has closed...so I don't go often. I know Starbucks is a "favorite thing" of many people out there so I thought I would pass these along!

This is a crazy assortment of MY favorite Trader Joe's stuff. I love the whole store and unfortunately can't send you the refrigerated Mocha yogurt, goat cheese, thin spinach pizza, mochi ice cream and so much more. Included: Mini milk chocolate peanut butter cups (addicting), Japanese ginger cookies (soooo yummy), my favorite pretzel sticks, lemon curd (easier than making it from scratch and you can't see how many yolks you are eating), dark chocolate bars, chile spiced dried mango, tomato and roasted red pepper soup (I can live on this), and my new (childhood memory) favorite: Trader Joe's O's. (Librarian Action Figure not included)

To enter the Day 3 Giveaway, simply leave a comment below (one entry per person) and I'll pick the winner from a hat. Deadline: Monday, April 20, 2009 at midnight PDT. If your comment isn't linked to a blog where I can find you, please leave your email or check back on Tuesday, April 21st to see if you won. Shipping to U.S. addresses only.

Enter the Day 1 Giveaway for mini-cake pans and Day 2 Giveaway for mini-loaf pans, bookmark and bag. Deadline is also Monday, April 20, 2009! Coming up tomorrow...more miniature stuff giveaways!