Long Overdue- "Comfort Me With Apples"

At last! It's been a while, I know, and I apologize. After the killer cold finally sauntered out of my system, it was time for finals. But now the quarter is over, and although I still have work, I now have a bit more free time to dedicate to Petit Chou.

Chronologically speaking, I should put my turkey pictures up. Right now, however, I am interested only in the comforting things in life. Why dig for turkey photos when I can take nice new ones of pretty orchard-fresh apples?



My landlord brought these to me a week or so ago, as his brother in law owns an apple orchard. It was a bag full of these amazingly juicy, tart-yet-sweet apples. They perfectly fit the California winter feel: cold gusts of wind and kisses of sun. It was difficult not to eat them all in my favourite fashion, held in one hand and chomping away. Visions of an apple pie or tart faded as I kept grabbing one on my way out the door to work, or as I studied. On one particular evening however, I wanted my apple to be hot, spicy, and sweet. I wanted to spoon it from the bowl, and let it melt in my mouth. Baked apples can be done a variety of ways, but I stuck to the basics.

Baked Apple

Quarter an apple, and remove the core. Arrange the quarters in a bakeproof dish, and top with butter and brown sugar. Bake in a 350 degree oven for twenty minutes, or until the apple is soft. Spoon brown sugar-butter liquid over the apple, and turn on the broiler for ten minutes to roast the tops. Top with ice cream, heavy cream, nuts, or eat as is!

Bread Pudding

A couple days ago I made a post referencing a loaf of French bread. It was odd having a deliciously new loaf of crusty bread lying around specifically waiting for it to go stale, but that's exactly what I was doing. In mind I had visions of a custardy bread pudding, replete with raisins, swirled with cinnamon and nutmeg. The day came when I finally had the time to make it, only to find out I was completely shot of raisins! I still had dried cranberries from the quiche I had made, but really didn't want cranberry taste in my bread pudding. Time was tight, the raisins would have to be missed.



I used a recipe found from Simply Recipes, changing a few things around. Instead of allspice I used simply cinnamon and nutmeg, and of course there were the absent raisins. I baked two versions: one in a mini bundt pan that came in a set of 4 that I ad just picked up, and 1 in a cake pan to share with my coworkers. The single loaf I used was more than enough, even with a few pieces taken from the end for the French Toast. I loved how the mini version turned out, and enjoyed it when it was barely cool!

French Bread Pudding

1 loaf French bread torn into pieces
4 1/2 cups milk
3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups sugar
2 Tbsp vanilla
1 cup raisins
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

3 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350°F.Soak the bread in milk in a large mixing bowl. Crush with hands until well mixed and all the milk is absorbed. In a separate bowl, beat eggs, sugar, vanilla, and spices together. Gently stir into the bread mixture. Gently stir the raisins into the mixture.

Pour butter into the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking pan. Coat the bottom and the sides of the pan well with the butter. Pour in the bread mix and bake at 350°F for 35-45 minutes, until set. The pudding is done when the edges start getting a bit brown and pull away from the edge of the pan.

I topped mine with a little homemade glaze: 1/4 cup sugar with just enough water to give it a thick consistency, then drizzled over the pudding.

In Search of the Perfect Chocolate Cookie

Over the next week or so you will likely see several recipes for chocolate cookies. I'm on a quest, you see, of finding the perfect one. A combination of soft, chewy, fudgy, and gooey- all combined in one sinfully decadent circular dessert.

This batch ended up being a disappointment. Oh they look pretty enough, but the cookie was too thin, too flaky, and crumbled at the drop of a hat. The recipe I used came from an online search, and resembled more of a torte than a cookie. It originally called for a mere 1/4 cup of flour, and yet promised 36 cookies! I had added an additional 1/4 cup to the weak, sauce-like batter, and still only managed to eek out a little over a dozen.


"These will be like mini-torte cookies," I thought hopefully. "Torties. It'll be the start of something new, and innovative!"

Uhuh. Not so much.

The boys at work liked them well enough, which was gratifying since I had promised them chocolate cookies, and then showed up with the sad and sorry 9 or so flat cookies that hadn't crumbled to bits. The rest, by the way, smooshed together into lumps, so that they had to be pried apart in order to resemble any form of traditional cookie.

Unless you really want the recipe I won't bother including it here, as I count it a dismal failure. I have another recipe I'll be trying Thursday, and once again the boys at work will be my guinea pigs. This recipe promises "A molten gooey center", so I will be keeping my fingers crossed, my hopes high, and my chocolate fresh.

You Will Love These Scones.

I adore tinkering around with recipes, and when I happen upon something that works, I am giddy as anyone who ever yelled "Eureka!" These simple drop scones were concocted, baked, and being... appreciated (num num num), in less than an hour. The recipe differs from most scone recipes in that it involves no rolling or cutting, there's no shortening, and I used light brown sugar in place of granulated. The result is nothing short of a delightful buttery and crumbly scone with just a hint of sweet to it.


I do lay emphasis on the "crumbly"; you could cut these, once cooled, and spread with butter and jam, but I find they work best if munched whole with a cup of tea. Either way, I continue to stand by my title and declare than you will indeed, love these scones.

Drop Scones

2 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup light brown sugar
6 tablespoons softened butter
3/4 cup cream
1 egg


Preheat the oven to 375. Combine flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Add butter and mix well. In a separate bowl, lightly whisk together cream and egg. Add to dry ingredients, and quickly stir. With your hands, section out dough onto a lightly greased tray. Bake 15 minutes, or until golden brown along the edges. Enjoy and love!