Chocolate and Coffee? Yes Please.

Ok. So there’s a very fine line between a muffin and a cupcake. And that line is the following:

Cupcakes are frosted.

No matter what goes into it, I’m pretty sure you can label it a muffin as long as you don’t frost it. And muffins sound healthier than cupcakes so you can eat them for breakfast.

See what I did there?

Other reasons why you should eat this “muffin” for breakfast rather than dessert? 1) It has flax seed meal in it. Lots of fiber! 2) It has coffee in it for a little pick-me-up.

So I think we can all agree that these are a breakfast food and not a dessert. Right?

Mocha Muffins

Yield: 12-14 muffins

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

1 Cup milk
1/2 Cup ground coffee
1/2 Cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 3/4 Cups flour
1/4 Cup Flax meal (optional, but up flour to 2 cups if you omit this)
1/2 Cup sugar
1/2 Cup brown sugar
3 Tablespoons cocoa powder
1 Teaspoon baking powder
1 Teaspoon baking soda
1 Teaspoon salt
1 Cup bittersweet chocolate, melted with a few tablespoons of milk

Helpful Equipment:
Muffin Tins

Directions:

1) Grind coffee finely and add to milk which should be steaming hot. Let steep for 15 minutes. Strain milk through a coffee filter.

2) To milk, add other liquid ingredients (oil, eggs, vanilla) and stir well to combine.

3) Combine all dry ingredients.

4) Melt chocolate with a few tablespoons of milk.

5) Add wet ingredients to dry and then fold in melted chocolate.

6) Butter muffin tins well so they don't stick and pour in batter so each tin is 3/4 full.

7) Bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes.

8) Let cool for a few minutes before eating.

Adapted from an old Bon Appétit recipe.

The Coffee Business

There’s a lot of mocha or coffee recipes out there and most of them use instant espresso for the coffee flavor. I’m not a huge instant coffee fan, so I decided to try something different to get a lot of coffee flavor going. First, I ground up about 1/2 Cup of really strong coffee.

No instant stuff for me.

Then I added this to a little over one cup of milk which I heated in the microwave until it was steaming. I let the coffee steep in the milk for 15 minutes and stirred it a few times to really let the coffee flavor get in there.

Milky coffee mixture!

Of course, the down-side of this approach is getting the coffee grinds out of the milk. There’s no fast way to do it. The only way to do it is to set up a colander with a coffee filter in it and slowly pour the milk mixture through it. Eventually all the milk will drain through and you’ll be left with some awesome coffee milk!

Once the milk is drained, mix in the other liquid ingredients (eggs, oil, vanilla).

Finishing the Batter

For a baked good, there’s a good mix of dry ingredients in this recipe. You could simplify it I guess by leaving out the flax and only using one kind of sugar, but I think this recipe will leave you with a great texture and flavor.

OK... a few ingredients in this one.

Besides cocoa powder, it’s always a good idea to melt some chocolate and add it right into the batter. You could actually just throw in some chocolate chips if you wanted more whole pieces of chocolate in the muffins.

I went with the melted version though so the chocolate flavor was evenly incorporated. You can either melt the chocolate in a metal bowl over some boiling water or in a microwave safe dish in the microwave. Either way, I’ve found that chocolate melts easier if you add a few tablespoons of milk to it.

Add some milk to this...

When you’re ready to finish the batter, stir all the wet ingredients into the dry stuff and then gently fold in the melted chocolate.

Kind of like cake batter...

I’ll be completely honest. I tasted this as-is and it tasted like cake batter.

But it’s a muffin! I promise!

The thing I noticed about these muffins (after two attempts) was that they are pretty sticky. So make sure you lube up your muffin tins really well with butter (or a nonstick spray I guess).

I rubbed butter all over mine (even the top surfaces) to make sure they wouldn’t stick at all.

Butter these guys really well.

Cooking the Muffins

Bake these beauties for about 20 minutes at 375 degrees. They should puff up and be lightly browned around the edges. Let them cool for a few minutes before trying to take them out of the pans.

Pretty things.

These are best served right away while they are still slightly warm. The coffee flavor is there, but subtle. I was surprised that I was able to taste it at all given how much other stuff is going on in these guys – especially with the cocoa powder and chocolate.

I really loved the texture of these. Almost, well, cake-like…

CHOMP.

Muffin or cupcake? Who knows.

All I know is they were delicious and a good excuse to have chocolate for breakfast.

I could probably sell these.

Well, it’s officially grilling season here in Colorado. The weather has been just fantastic and will hopefully continue to be amazing for the next few months before it starts getting unbearably hot.

I realize that depending on where you live you might be hating me right now. It’s still very cold in large chunks of the country, but have no fear. Warm weather is on the way.

I’ve been working on a few different rubs that go really great on grilled food and I thought you might all benefit from them. These are all really good on meat, but I think most of them would work equally well on veggies or tofu.

Three Homemade Dry Rubs

Yield: 1/3-1/2 Cup.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

Coffee Spice Rub:
Makes a scant 1/2 Cup.

2 Tablespoons whole coffee beans
1 Teaspoon cardamon seeds (or pods would work)
1/2 small cinnamon stick
1 1/2 Teaspoons chili powder
1 Teaspoon garlic powder
1 Teaspoon paprika
1 Tablespoon kosher salt
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon pepper

5 C's Rub :
Makes about 1/3 Cup of rub.

1 Tablespoon coriander
1 Tablespoon cumin seeds
1 Tablespoon cardamon seeds (or pods)
1 small cinnamon stick
3-4 cloves
1 Tablespoon kosher salt
1 Tablespoon sugar

All-purpose Rub:
Makes 1/3 Cup.

1 Tablespoon dried oregano
1 Tablespoon paprika
1 Tablespoon chili powder
1/2 Tablespoon garlic powder
1 Tablespoon kosher salt
1 Tablespoon fresh black pepper

Helpful Equipment:
Spice grinder!

Directions:

1) If the rub you're making has whole spices, it's always a good idea to lightly toast them in a dry skillet for a few minutes to bring out the flavors. Just toast them until they are fragrant.

2) Add whole spices to a grinder. Pulse them until roughly ground. You don't want them like a dust.

3) Mix in other spices.

4) If you're using rubs on meats, coat liberally. Go lighter on veggies or tofu.

A Salty Mix

If you’ve ever looked at the ingredients on most rubs that you can buy at the store they are mostly salt. This makes sense if you’re trying to make a profit. Salt is cheap. It mixes well. It makes food taste great.

But when you’re making your rubs at home you can cut back on the salt and replace it with real spices that pack a punch. You still want a good amount of salt in the rub, but it doesn’t need to be 50% salt or anything crazy.

Let’s make some rubs!

The Whole Spice

For all of these rubs except the all-purpose one, you’re going to need a spice grinder to really get the full flavor of the rub. Sure, you can find ground versions of all of the ingredients, but it’s so much better to use whole spices. They are more flavorful, the whole spices keep longer, and they are generally cheaper.

The Coffee Rub

For this rub I wanted a dark mix that would hold up well on flavorful meats. You wouldn’t want to use this guy on light stuff like fish or chicken.

Start with whole beans, a small piece of cinnamon and some cardamon seeds. You can use pods also, but I like the seeds.

Any coffee will do.

Grind up these spices and then add in all your other spices to the mix. This rub has the most ingredients in it and the resulting flavors are pretty complicated.

It’s a very good rub though.

Lots going on here.

Once I had my rub mixed up, I coated a thick pork chop with it for testing and grilled it up.

The results were amazing:

No big deal.

The 5 C’s Rub

For some reason a lot of spices start with the letter C. Or maybe just my favorite spices start with the letter C…

In any event, I thought I’d mix them all up and see what happened.

The Five C's of delicious.

For this rub, I lightly toasted my cumin, cardamon, and coriander in a dry skillet for a few minutes until they were fragrant.

Then I just blended them up!

I think this might also be good on popcorn.

The 5 C’s Rub is the lightest of the rubs I made for this post. It has an almost sweet flavor to it that would go well on chicken, tofu, veggies, or maybe even a sturdy fish.

All Purpose Rub

While I was mixing up rubs, I thought I’d give you all the recipe for my favorite all-purpose rub. I use this stuff on everything. It’s great on steaks, chicken wings, asparagus, roasted tofu… you name it.

There’s also no grinding involved. Just take all the spices and stir them up. It takes maybe three minutes to mix up a batch!

Good on shoes!

Grilling Some Chicken

To test out the all purpose rub and the 5 C’s rub, I generously coated a few chicken breasts with both and grilled them.

The breasts on the left are the all purpose rub and the right breasts are the 5 C’s version.

Really good chicken.

I loved all of these, but I really liked the 5 C’s rub. It gave the chicken a really bright flavor that was very unique.

These rubs will all keep for a month or two without losing much flavor. I keep mine in plastic bags, but if you had a few airtight containers, they would keep even better.

Not that there’s any chance mine will last that long…

Layers of delicious.

Ok. So I cheated on cookie week. These aren’t technically cookies. But they are dessert that you eat with your hands and they also happen to be really good.

So I hope that you’ll forgive me that I abandoned my own cookie week on Day 3 to bring you a bar instead of a cookie.

These bars are filled with a creamy coffee mixture that is pretty awesome for anytime you need a little pick-me-up.

Coffee Cream Bars

Yield: 16 bars.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 4 hours

Ingredients:

Crust:
1 Cup graham crackers, crushed
2 Tablespoons sugar
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Filling:
1 Teaspoon gelatin
2/3 Cup strong coffee
8 ounces cream cheese
1/2 Cup sugar
2 Eggs
Pinch of salt

Chocolate toppings:
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate
4 Tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

Directions:

1) Line an 8x8 baking dish with foil, laying a sheet in both directions.

2) Combine crumbled crackers, butter, and sugar in a bowl and mix well. Pack mixture into baking pan and use a flat instrument (measuring cup) to press the crust down until it's flat.

3) Bake at 325 degrees for 10 minutes and then cool.

4) For filling, add room temp coffee and sugar to a mixing bowl. Sprinkle gelatin over liquid and let sit for 5 minutes.

5) Add other filling ingredients and mix either with a hand mixer or stand mixer with whisk attachment until the filling is smooth.

6) Pour filling into graham cracker crust.

7) Bake in a hot water bath for 45 minutes at 325 degrees.

8) Cool at room temperature for 2 hours, then cover and chill in fridge for an hour.

9) For topping, melt chocolate and butter together over a double boiler or in the microwave if you're careful. Let chocolate cool a bit and then pour over cream bars and spread out evenly.

10) Chill until chocolate hardens, 30 minutes to an hour.

11) Lift up foil to remove bars. The foil should peel right off.

12) Slice with a hot knife and wipe the knife clean between each slice if you're concerned with having really clean slices.

13) Serve in cupcake cups.

Adapted from a Smitten Kitchen recipe.

The First Layer

These bars have three basic layers to them. The most intimidating layer is probably the middle one, but let’s start at the beginning.

These lovely bars sit on a graham cracker crust which, if you’ve never made before, it’s dumb simple to do.

Start with these three simple ingredients.

Makings for a crust.

Then line an 8 inch baking dish with foil. It’s best to lay overlapping sheets of foil going in opposite directions. Make sure you get the foil pressed nicely against the dish walls.

In a small bowl, combine the crumbled graham crackers with the sugar and melted butter.

Next, pour down all your graham cracker mixture into the bottom of the pan and use a flat surface like a measuring cup to pack in the crust really well.

Bake the crust at 325 degrees for about 10 minutes.

The crust should end up lightly browned around the edges. Let this cool before you do anything with it.

Lightly browned.

The Second Layer

This is the layer that’s worrisome. It seems like there’s a lot that could go wrong, but have no fear, the custard/gelatin mixture is really sturdy and will hold up just fine.

You just need a few ingredients for this layer, the most important of which is very strong coffee. Note that if you’re using gelatin, then these guys become a non-vegetarian deal. It might be possible to make a custard that’s sturdy enough without the gelatin, but it would be tricky I think.

Strong coffee is important.

Add your coffee (room temp) and sugar into a mixing bowl and sprinkle gelatin over it. Let the gelatin dissolve for 5 minutes. Mix together with a hand mixer or stand mixer with the whisk attachment. You could also just use a whisk, but you might be in for a workout.

Next, whisk in the cream cheese and eggs together and add a pinch of salt. Mix this until the mixture is really creamy and there are no lumps. This might take a few minutes but it should eventually smooth out.

Then just pour the mixture into your graham cracker crust!

Action shot!

Slow Food

Getting the bars ready for step 3 requires a bit of time. Here’s the procedure I used to make sure the coffee/cream layer is set nicely.

1) Bake the dish in a water bath for 45 minutes at 325 degrees. Your 8 inch baking dish should fit perfectly into a 9×13 inch dish so just add that setup to your oven and then pour boiling water into the larger pan until it comes halfway up the side of the smaller pan.

2) Remove the dish and let it cool at room temperature for 2 hours.

3) Then cover it and chill it in the fridge for an hour.

If you’re keeping track, that’s about 4 hours of stuff. It’s pretty important though if you want your bars to be set nicely. So watch a movie or something while you wait for these guys to set up.

Layer Three

Once the center layer is chilled and set, you can prep the top layer of chocolate.

The chocolate layer is really easy to make. Just add chocolate and butter to a double boiler (I use a metal bowl over a pan with some boiling water in it) and whisk until chocolate is melted.

Let the chocolate cool for a few minutes just so it isn’t too hot and then pour it onto your bars!

Chocolate on top.

Spread this out and let it chill thoroughly for another 30 minutes to an hour so the chocolate and set up firmly as well.

Slicing the bars

I got a bit sloppy with my slicing, but if you use a sharp hot knife (heat it under hot water and then dry it off), it should slice right through the bars. Be sure to take your bars out of the pan and foil before slicing them!

Be sure to wipe off the knife after every slice. I did a four by four slicing pattern which yields 16 good sized bars.

If you’re traveling with these bars, it helps to have some cupcake tins to keep them in because they are kind of messy.

Cupcake papers are important.

Even though the filling looks light, it actually ended up having a pretty rich coffee flavor. There’s not a lot of other flavors going on so you can really taste the coffee.

Sure, these things do take some time, but they are a pretty unique treat I think. If you’re baking cookies or something on a weekend, you could make these while you work on other stuff.

Sorry for cheating. I’ll be back tomorrow with an actual cookie!

Back in the pre-Macheesmo part of my life, I used to be a part-time bartender and it’s still one of my favorite past times to exchange awesome drink recipes with friends or occasionally come up with some of my own.

So pull out your stirrers and glasses and have a happy hour already! (Tuesday happy hours are the best by the way.)

The Cool Tease

Ok. So I changed the name of this drink to be G-rated. Macheesmo is family-friendly after all (as I write about ways to get you tanked.)

Anyway, the real name is “The Rhymes-with-Spock Tease.” I got this recipe from a bachelorette party so that name makes sense I guess. Whatever you call it, it’s very refreshing on a hot summer day.

The G-rated name.

Watch out with these. They are pretty dangerous. You can’t taste the alcohol at all. The fresh ginger and apple juice are a perfect match for each other and the club soda gives it some fix. This drink seriously rocks.

To make it, just rub a sliced lime around the edge of a glass and then dip it in some sugar to give the glass a nice sugar rim. Then grate fresh ginger in the bottom of the glass. Using the back of a spoon or a muddle if you have one, mash the ginger in with the vodka, just to get the flavors together.

Then add ice and enough apple juice to fill a tall glass 3/4 of the way to the top. Top with club soda and serve with a lime wedge!

Coolin' it down.

The Watermelon Julep

I happened to have some watermelon in the fridge and some mint and I figured that if I added a little bourbon I might just have myself something delicious!

This was a very solid drink. And colorful!

Bourbon. Gotta love it.

I don’t really like to give specific proportions on drinks, but I generally assume about a shot or 1 1/2 shots of liquor. For this julep I used a few small pieces of watermelon (take the seeds out obviously) and a few sprigs of mint. Add about a Teaspoon of sugar and mash all that up in the bottom of a glass. I don’t have a muddler so I just use the back of a spoon for this.

This is pre-muddle.

Do you know how to muddle?

After you get all that mixed up, add your bourbon and stir, then the ice, then top with club soda. Its really refreshing and the watermelon and bourbon work really well together.

The Night Cap

The person I learned this recipe from said that it’s best to drink it on the beach, but I kind of love it as dessert for a dinner or as a night cap.

Sleep tight!

So I made this drink a bit more complicated than it needed to be I think. The first time I made it I thought it’d be fun to make a really strong batch of cold-brewed coffee and use that for the drink. When I tried a round using the coffee with a few friends, the consensus was that it was good, but just missing something.

First we tried adding Scotch and that definitely changed the flavor! Not bad but not exactly right.

Then we tried a second batch with Kahlua and it was perfect.

The ratio I used for this drink was 1 part vodka, 1 part Kahlua, 1 part coconut milk, and ice. The liquid part should cover the ice in the blender.

Just blend it up, taste it and adjust to your liking and serve it up!

Coffee is okay. Kahlua is best.

If you aren’t a drinker, you could definitely make the first two drinks virgins. Just leave out the booze and add either more apple juice or watermelon/club soda to each drink. I think the night cap wouldn’t be great without the booze honestly.

Be sure to check back tomorrow for the second leg in the 3×3 Series!

And of course, feel free to share your favorite cocktail recipe in a comment!

There's coffee. In the cake.

If English isn’t your primary language, coffee cake must be very confusing. I mean, there’s no coffee in it normally. It should be called “Cake you eat with coffee.” Of course, that doesn’t roll off the tongue really so people just say coffee cake.

My point is that some people are probably disappointed when they eat their coffee cake and discover that it has no actual coffee IN IT.

So I decided to fix that.

Coffee Coffee Cake

Yield: Makes a bundt cake or 9x13 dish.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients:

Streusel:
3/4 Cups pecans or walnuts
3/4 Cups sugar
1 Teaspoon cinnamon

Cake:
3 1/3 Cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 Teaspoons salt
2 Teaspoons baking powder
1 Teaspoon baking soda
3/4 Cups buttermilk
3/4 Cups strong coffee, cold
2 Teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 sticks (12 Tablespoons) unsalted butter, soft
1 3/4 Cups sugar
3 large eggs

Glaze: (Optional)
1/4 Cup strong coffee
2 1/2 Cups sifted powdered sugar

Helpful Equipment:
Bundt Cake, but you can also use a normal baking dish

Directions:

1) Brew a very strong cup of coffee and cool it off in the fridge before continuing. You could do this the day before.

2) Finely chop your pecans or walnuts or pulse them a few times in a food processor. Then mix them with the cinnamon and sugar to finish the streusel. Set aside for later.

3) Combine all your dry ingredients for the cake and mix together.

4) Combine the cold strong coffee with the buttermilk and vanilla and whisk together. Set aside.

5) Preheat oven to 350 degrees and if you're using a bundt pan, lightly butter it and dust it with flour so your cake will come out easily.

6) Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, beat together the sugar and soft butter until light and fluffy. About 5 minutes with a stand mixer or 10 minutes with a hand mixer.

7) Mix in one egg at a time, mixing on low after each egg.

8) Add your dry and wet ingredients to the batter in the following order, stirring after every step: 1/3 dry mix, 1/2 wet mix, 1/3 dry mix, the remaining wet mix, the remaining dry mix. Mix well and scrape down the sides of the bowl to make sure everything is well combined.

9) Pour half of your batter into your dish or bundt pan. Add all your streusel in an even layer. Then top with rest of your batter.

10) Bake at 350 degrees until a wooden skewer comes out cleanly, about an hour but it could vary based on your pan so just check it regularly.

11) Cool the cake for 10 minutes on a rack and then, if you used a bundt pan, invert it on a plate to carefully remove the cake. You can slide a knife around the sides of the pan to loosen the cake a bit.

12) Cool the cake completely.

13) If you're using glaze, mix sifted powdered sugar and coffee until smooth, then drizzle over cake.

14) Let glaze harden for a few minutes then serve immediately.

Adapted from a Gourmet Today recipe.

The Coffee

So, I’ll be completely honest. I’m not the first genius to think of baking a coffee cake with coffee. Joy and Ree have done it for starters.

A lot of recipes like this use instant espresso but I just decided to brew a really strong pot of french press coffee and use that in place of some of the liquid. It worked like a charm.

Strong brew.

The Streusel

So this coffee cake is like most coffee cakes in that it’s filled with a really tasty cinnamon sugar streusel. There are some pecans mixed in as well although they are totally optional.

If you’re using the pecans though, chop them really finely or give them a spin in a food processor.

All ground up!

Mix the chopped nuts with the cinnamon and sugar and set it aside for later.

The liquids

Once you have your coffee brewed, be sure to cool it off in the fridge. Adding hot coffee to a cake batter is a recipe for failure.

But eventually you’ll want these things.

Strong flavors.

Then just mix all these together. This will smell really intense actually.

For those that are recipe curious, I just adapted the recipe I was using to replace 1-for-1 the buttermilk for the coffee. But I still kept a good amount of buttermilk because it gives the cake some great moisture.

This smells good already.

The dry stuff

No photo but just mix together all the dry stuff in a separate bowl and set it aside.

Making the Batter

Using a stand mixer or a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until they’re light and fluffy, about 5 minutes with a stand mixer or 10 with a hand mixer. Then add the eggs one at a time, mixing in between each one.

Next, you need to incorporate the dry ingredient mix and the wet stuff into the creamed butter. This is the same process for pretty much every cake, but it goes like this:

- Add 1/3 of your dry ingredients to the creamed butter and combine.
- Add 1/2 your liquid and mix together.
- Add 1/3 of your dry ingredients and stir.
- Add the rest of your liquid and stir.
- Finally, add the rest of your dry ingredients and combine. If you’re using a stand mixer, be sure to scrape the bowl down.

You should end up with a really light and fluffy batter that smells like, well, COFFEE.

I had a feeling this was going to be good.

If you’re using a bundt cake (which I recommend), be sure to lightly butter and flour the pan so the cake comes out easily after baking. Then pour HALF of your batter into the prepared pan and even it out.

Add all your streusel evenly and then pour the rest of your batter over the streusel. It’s okay if some of the streusel is poking through, just do your best to even everything out.

The bundt pan is a good idea.

Baking the Cake

Bake your coffee coffee cake at 350 degrees until a wooden skewer comes out clean. Mine took about an hour. Be sure to check it with a skewer though because depending on the pan you’re using, your cooking time could vary by 10-15 minutes.

Anyway, you’ll end up with this delicious looking thing which you should let cool on a rack for 10 minutes.

Cooked.

Once it’s reasonably cool, you should be able to remove it from the pan pretty easily. I just flip my pan over onto a plate and the cake should come out. If you’re worried about it, slide a knife around the edges to loosen it.

The Glaze

I decided to prepare a quick coffee glaze for the cake also. Just combine some coffee with sifted powdered sugar until it’s smooth. Then drizzle it over the cake! Be sure that the cake is cool before you glaze it though. I let mine cool for about an hour before I glazed it.

Simple glaze on the cake.

Slice it up and serve it! This cake will keep pretty moist for 3 or 4 days as long as you don’t slice it all and wrap it well in plastic wrap.

A good way to start the day!

When I started making this recipe I was worried that you wouldn’t be able to taste the coffee and then I was worried that the coffee flavor would be TOO intense, but it turned out about right honestly.

The cake was very moist and had some great flavor. So give this a shot if you’re in the mood for some REAL coffee cake!

Smart food!

Betsy heads off to Colorado today to take The Bar Exam and she asked me to make some energy bars that she could take into the test with her. As an aside, the people that administer the bar appear to be the most paranoid people in the world. A few of the things you can’t bring into the bar…

• Neckties
• Garments with hoods, pockets, or linings
• Digital watches
• Costume Jewelry

What’s funny about this list is that I’m sure the items on there are on there for a reason. Some genius student probably tried to cheat somehow by using costume jewelry and got caught. Given the ridiculous amount of information that you have to know for this test, I’m not even sure how you would cheat on it though.

I guess rather than actually study there might be people out there that will use the two months leading up to the bar to figure out how to print 1000 pages of material on the back of a Dr. Pepper label.

Anyway, so I decided to make these no-bake energy bars that are packed with peanut butter, nuts, coconut, and oats. For people that aren’t cheating, you’ll need some good brain food!

Bar Bars

Yield: 8x8 dish of bars.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes + chill time

Ingredients:

1 Cup pecans, chopped
1 Cup almonds, slivered or chopped
2/3 Cup shredded coconut (unsweetened)
1 1/4 Cups rolled oats
1 1/2 Cups unsweetened crispy brown rice cereal (you could use rice krispies in a pinch)
1 Cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)
1 Cup peanut butter
1 1/2 Cups water
1/2 Cup sugar
2 Tablespoons finely ground coffee
1 Teaspoon vanilla
Pinch of salt

Directions:

1) Roughly chop the pecans and almonds and toast them, along with the coconut, in a 350 degree oven for about 8 minutes. Toss the mixture a few times throughout just to make sure they aren't burning. The coconut should be a light tan color when it's done.

2) Once all of that is toasted, mix it with the oats, cereal, and chocolate if you're using it.

3) Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, mix the peanut butter, water, coffee, vanilla, sugar, and salt and stir over low heat until the sugar is melted and everything is combined, about 3 minutes.

4) Let the peanut butter mixture cool for a second and then pour it over the dry stuff. Stir everything together.

5) Pour the bar mix into a lightly greased (I used a non-stick spray) or lightly buttered 9x9 baking dish. You could use a 9x13 pan if you want thinner bars. Press them down to an even layer and let them chill in the fridge for a few hours.

6) Cut them up and serve!

Adapted from a 101 Cookbooks recipe.

Making the Bars

These are no-bake bars, so there’s not a huge amount of prep to them honestly. Even though they are no-bake, you still want to toast the nuts and coconut though. It’ll add a lot of flavor to the final product.

Just roughly chop the pecans and almonds and spread them and the coconut out on a baking sheet.

Ready to roast!

Bake this sheet of deliciousness at 350 degrees for 7-10 minutes. Stir it up once or twice during that time just to make sure the coconut isn’t burning. You’re looking for a lightly tan color on the coconut. When your coconut is done, everything is done.

This was my finished sheet.

After 10 minutes and a few mixes.

The Crispy Rice Cereal

The recipe I was sort of going off of, although I changed a lot of stuff, called for crispy brown rice cereal. I’d never even heard of this.

But I found some! At least I think this is the right stuff. After inspecting it closely, I’m fairly certain that you could use Rice Krispies, but these are somewhat healthier for you. The texture seemed to be about the same to me though.

Any rice cereal will do the trick.

Once your nuts and coconut are done toasting, mix the oats, cereal, chocolate, and toasted things in a large bowl!

All the dry stuff!

The Wet Stuff

The only thing that Betsy requested in these energy bars was peanut butter so I made sure to include a lot of that. I’ve been on a homemade peanut butter kick lately so I just whipped up a batch. Obviously, you can use anything you can buy in the store also.

I'm an overachiever.

In a small saucepan, mix your peanut butter, water, coffee, vanilla, salt, and sugar and bring it to a simmer. It turns into a kind of peanut, coffee, vanilla, syrup situation that is pretty out of this world.

This will only need to simmer for a minute or two. You just want to make sure everything is well-combined and the sugar is melted.

This will smell awesome.

Then pour the peanut butter mixture over the dry ingredients and stir everything together really well. Lightly grease a 9×9 baking pan (I used non-stick spray) and pour all the bar mixture into the pan and press it down to an even layer. They should be pretty thick. If you wanted them thinner, you could use a 9×13 inch pan.

In the pan!

If you don’t mind room temperature bars, these are good to go now! They’ll be best if you let them chill for a few hours in the fridge. The nice thing about these is that they don’t need to be refrigerated really. There’s not anything perishable in them so they can sit out for a few days without a problem. They might get a bit gooey, but gooey can be delicious.

But the most important thing about these energy bars is that they’re packed with lots of stuff that’ll help your brain recover from hard multiple choice questions and essays!

It was a hard decision, but the thing that caught my eye the most were these mocha brownies. They have a huge layer of mocha icing on top of the brownie. It’s basically half brownie and half frosting. Plus it has all the major dessert food groups: butter, chocolate, sugar, coffee.

THICK.

These were so very delicious. Betsy and I had one each and then resolved to get them out of the house as soon as possible. I took half to work and she took half to her law clinic.

Mocha Brownies

Yield: Makes a 9x13 pan.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes + chill time

Ingredients:

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp
2 Cups sugar
4 large eggs
3 Teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/4 Cups all-purpose flour

Mocha Icing:
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp
1 (about 4 cups) pound powdered sugar
1/4 Cups cocoa powder
1/4 Teaspoon salt
3 Teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 Cup brewed coffee, cooled to room temp

Helpful Equipment:
Stand mixer or Hand mixer

Directions:

1) Add butter and sugar to a bowl and beat it on medium speed with a hand mixer or in a stand mixer. After a few minutes the mixture should be light and fluffy.

2) Carefully and slowly melt chocolate in the microwave on low. 30 second increments is ideal.

3) Add eggs one at a time to the creamed butter and mix together. Then mix in chocolate and vanilla.

4) Mix in your flour in a few batches. Try not to overmix. Just mix enough so the flour is incorporated.

5) Bake the brownies ina 9x13 inch baking pan that's been lightly buttered. Bake at 325 degrees for 40-45 minutes.

6) Let brownies cool completely to room temperature before frosting them.

7) For frosting, mix butter, salt, vanilla, cocoa powder, and powdered sugar in a mixing bowl until well combined. Then stir in brewed coffee and mix until it's light and fluffy.

8) Frost the brownies heavily. It will be a thick layer. Serve immediately or let them chill in the fridge for an hour to firm up a bit.

Adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks.

Slight Modifications…

I made changes to her recipe which I’ll be careful to disclose so I don’t get flack from The Pioneer Army. First, the original frosting recipe calls for 5 Cups of confectioners sugar, but it doesn’t say sifted or non-sifted so who knows how much she uses. I used 1 pound of sugar which is a full box. This worked out to be about 4 cups of sugar for me. She also calls for 1/2 Cup to 3/4 Cup of coffee so I just used the lower estimate and my frosting was perfect.

If you wanted to go buy a second whole box of sugar though just for that extra cup, then by all means use the higher estimate of coffee.

Second, and I think this was a legit oversight, she says to bake the brownies in an 8 inch pan. I tried pouring my mix into an 8 inch pan and it almost overflowed. That’s before even baking it. I think I would’ve had a brownie explosion on my hands if I had followed the recipe exactly. Instead, I baked it in a normal 9×13 inch pan with excellent results.

The Brownie Batter

I must say I don’t really get the fuss with boxed brownie mix. I mean, making it from scratch just isn’t really that hard. It’s one of those things that I definitely don’t see the appeal of taking shortcuts on. I mean, to make really good homemade brownies, this is all you need!

The basics.

You probably have almost everything you need if you have even a halfway stocked kitchen. You’ll probably just have to pick up some chocolate and maybe some vanilla.

To get started, add your butter and sugar to a bowl and beat it on medium speed to cream the butter and sugar together. You can use a hand mixer or stand mixer for this. After a few minutes, you should have a very light and fluffy mixture.

Look ma. No hands!

Next, slowly melt your chocolate in the microwave. What I mean by slowly is that you shouldn’t zap it all at once for like 4 minutes. That would completely burn your chocolate. Instead, zap it in 30 second increments and stir it in between.

Once the chocolate is about 75% melted you can take it out and the rest of the chocolate should melt with residual heat. Mine took about 1 1/2 minutes of zapping to get here.

Bitter stuff.

Back to your mixing bowl, add your eggs one at a time and then your vanilla and chocolate. Mix this all together until it’s well incorporated.

Then slowly add your flour in a few batches. Be sure to turn your mixer down to low for the flour part or you will just dust your entire kitchen in flour.

Mix it until your flour is incorporated but don’t over-mix it or you’ll have tough brownies! When you can’t see any flour, you’re done.

Who wants to lick the spoon?

Baking the Brownies

Add your brownie mix to a 9×13 inch baking pan that’s either been sprayed with non-stick spray or lightly buttered. Bake the brownies at 325 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until the center is set. A toothpick should come out clean.

Don’t worry if the brownies do what mine did which is inflate slightly around the edges and then crack. Remember we are adding an inch of frosting to the top so whatever.

A little collapse is okay.

The Important Part

The most important part of this recipe is to make sure you let your brownies cool completely to room temperature before frosting them or your frosting will just melt. This will probably take at least an hour so plan accordingly.

The Frosting

This is actually one of the easier frostings I’ve made. Start with these things:

That's one pound of sugar.

Add them to a mixing bowl with the salt, vanilla, and butter and start mixing on medium-low until everything is starting to come together. Then add your coffee slowly and once it’s all added, increase the speed to medium and beat it for a few minutes until it’s very light and fluffy.

This stuff is the money.

Drop this huge amount of frosting onto your brownies and spread it out as evenly as you can.

Craziness.

Once the brownies are frosted, you could eat them right away, but I recommend sticking them in the fridge for at least a few hours so the frosting hardens a bit. That’ll make them easier to cut.

Diabetes in a dish.

These brownies have a great coffee flavor. Be sure to use pretty strong coffee for them. Also, the actual brownie part is super dense and almost fudge-like which I appreciate.

Minus the baking dish mess-up, I’d say this is one of the better dessert dishes I’ve made in awhile. It was a huge hit at my office. And while my coworkers aren’t at all picky about free desserts, they know a good brownie when they see one.

My only issue with tiramisu is it generally uses Brandy which isn’t something I have laying around. Bourbon, however, I do normally have and tend to like more anyway. So I figured I’d try a version of tiramisu with bourbon instead of brandy. It had a much stronger flavor, but was still very tasty.

You want this.

The hardest part of this recipe, if you ask me, is actually finding ladyfingers. At least in DC, they are incredibly hard to find. I went to three different grocery stores before finally throwing in the towel and just deciding to make them myself.

Bourbon Tiramisu

Yield: Makes a 13x9 pan.

Prep Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour + chill time

Ingredients:

Ladyfingers
Makes 40ish ladyfingers
1 1/4 Cups cake flour, sifted
1 Tablespoon sugar (for flour)
1/8 Teaspoon salt
2 eggs
4 egg yolks
1/2 Cup sugar + 1 Tablespoon (for eggs)
1 Teaspoon vanilla
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted but not hot
Powdered sugar (for dusting)

Tiramisu:
About 40 ladyfingers
2 Cups very strong coffee
2/3 Cup Bourbon (original recipe was 1/2 Cup but come on...)
1 Cup heavy cream
1 pound mascarpone cheese
1 Teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Cup powdered sugar
Cinnamon (for dusting)
Cocoa powder (for dusting)

Helpful Equipment:
Stand Mixer
Pastry Bag

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Sift cake flour, then measure and add sugar and pinch of salt. Then sift everything again on some wax paper so you can easily transport the flour.

2) Add eggs and 1/2 Cup + 1 Tbsp. sugar in a mixing bowl. Whisk until sugar is mostly dissolved. Then beat egg mixture on medium high for 5 minutes until you have a very light and fluffy meringue. The batter should form a ribbon that rests on top of the other batter when it drips.

3) Gently fold the cake flour into this mixture. Fold the flour in 1/3 at a time until it's well mixed. Think of the batter as a foam and you want to keep as many bubbles as possible.

4) Once your flour is incorporated, gently fold in your room temperature melted butter.

5) Add the batter to a pastry bag and pipe onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Coat heavily with powdered sugar.

6) Bake the ladyfingers at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

7) For tiramisu, mix your cofee (cold) and brandy in a bowl.

8) For filling, add mascarpone (or cream cheese in a pinch) and heavy cream. Mix on high until it forms stiff peaks. Then add in vanilla and slowly stir in powdered sugar.

9) Dip a ladyfinger in the bourbon-coffee mixture for a few seconds. Layer dipped ladyfingers in the bottom of a 13x9 baking dish.

10) Next, spread on a layer of the filling. You should use about half of it. Then dust on a general layer of cocoa powder and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

11) Do another layer of soaked ladyfingers, followed by the rest of the mascarpone filling, and another good dusting of cocoa powder and cinnamon.

12) Let chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours before serving.

Adapted from a Young and Hungry recipe.

After some research, I decided to go with Julia Child’s Ladyfingers Genoise. If you plan on making these, I’d recommend watching that video. She makes it pretty easy to follow.

Making the ladyfingers

This batter is called a Genoise batter, which is actually a bit tricky. The problem is that when the batter is finished it’s in a pretty fragile state, so you want to bake it as soon as possible. More on that later.

First thing to do is get all your ingredients ready and preheat your oven to 400 degrees. For your cake flour, sift it (very important for this recipe), then measure it and add 1 Tablespoon of sugar and 1/8 Teaspoon of salt to it, and then re-sift the mixture onto some wax paper which will make it easy to transfer into your batter later.

Sifting is important

Then add your eggs and your 1/2 Cup + 1 Tbsp. of sugar into a mixing bowl. Whisk together the eggs and sugar just to make sure the sugar is mostly dissolved. Then, with either a stand mixer or hand mixer, beat the eggs on medium-high speed for about 5 minutes until they form a light and fluffy meringue. The key is that when you lift the whisk, it should form a ribbon of batter and that ribbon should rest on top of the rest of your batter.

The ribbon!

I think I actually could have beaten mine for another minute. Once your egg mixture is nice and light and fluffy, you need to fold in your cake flour. At this point your batter is in its most stable form, a meringue. From here on out, time is working against you, but that doesn’t mean RUSH. Just work gently but quickly.

FOLD your flour into your batter using a flat spatula, 1/3 of your flour at a time. Do this by pushing your spatula all the way to the bottom of the bowl, turning the bowl, and gently lifting and folding. Think of the batter like a foam and you want to keep as much of the air bubbles intact as possible. Stirring would just pop them all! Again, if you haven’t folded something like this before, check out this video. At about minute six she does some serious flour folding.

Careful!

Once all your flour is folded in, gently fold in your melted butter. It’s very important that your butter isn’t too hot or it will just melt your batter. It should be a bit over room temperature. Once your butter is folded in, your batter will be at its most fragile state.

At this point, we need to make the ladyfingers! If you have a pastry bag, more power to ya. I use a gallon-sized plastic bag and just cut off the corner.

Ghetto pastry bag.

Gently pipe these onto baking sheets that have been lined with parchment paper. Work quickly and try to make them as uniform as possible. One tip is to draw lines 3 inches apart on the backside of your parchment paper before you start. That way you’ll have guides for when you are piping.

After you pipe them, dust the ladyfingers with a serious coating of powdered sugar. This will help them stay in place! I got better at piping as I went a long.

Hurry!

Bake these guys at 400 degrees for about 12-15 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through if necessary. They should be a nice golden brown color. I’m really proud of the middle row of ladyfingers in the below photo. Most of those turned out pretty nicely. The top and bottom rows are a bit rough.

Not bad.

Honestly, I wasn’t too worried about the shape because I’m dipping them in coffee and bourbon and then layering them between layers of filling. So whateva.

Tiramisu is actually one of the easiest things to make once you get the ladyfinger situation worked out. Just combine your coffee and bourbon (or brandy) in a bowl. The only important part to remember is that your coffee is cool or at least room temp before starting.

Best dessert ever.

For the filling, add your mascarpone (or cream cheese in a pinch) and heavy cream and mix on high until it forms stiff peaks and holds its shape. Then add in your vanilla and slowly add in your powdered sugar. The final mixture should be pretty stiff.

I’ve done this by hand before with a whisk and it’s definitely possible. It takes some elbow grease though and about 10 or 15 minutes. If you have a mixer, use it.

Light and fluffy

To make the dish, dip a ladyfinger in your bourbon-coffee mixture (make sure the liquid is room temperature) for a few seconds. Let the ladyfinger soak up some of the mixture. Then layer them in the bottom of your baking dish. Squeeze in as many as you can.

Bourbon and cofee soaked...

Then do a layer of your mascarpone filling mixture. Use about half of it. Then give the filling a generous dusting of cocoa powder and cinnamon. I probably sifted on about 1/2 Tablespoon of cinnamon and 3-4 Tablespoons of cocoa powder.

After that, do another layer of your soaked ladyfingers, followed by the rest of your mascarpone filling mixture. Finally, give the top another good dusting of cocoa powder and cinnamon. The white filling should be completely covered.

This is what I mean by a good dusting:

Don't skimp on the cocoa people.

Set this all in the fridge to cool for at least 4 hours and then serve it up! I think it’s best the next day after all the flavors meld together a bit.

Fantastic.

Tiramisu is so good. You’ve got to try this if you’ve never made it. If the ladyfinger situation is stressful, I’ve used store-bought pound cake in a pinch also. You won’t really be able to dip the pound cake in the bourbon-coffee mixture though. Just cut slices of it about 1/2 inch to 1 inch thick, make a layer, then pour over a bit of your coffee mixture. That works also!

I’m telling you. Tiramisu is good stuff.

If I only knew then what I know now. Turns out you can pretty easily make homemade coffee liqueur that tastes surprising like the brand name stuff!

Recycle!

Thanks to my good friend Donna who gave me this recipe which has apparently been in her family for a good long while. Nice of her to share it.

Homemade Coffee Liqueur

Yield: Makes 10 cups.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes + 3 week wait

Ingredients:

4 Cups water
4 Cups sugar
2-3 Cups vodka (depending on how potent you want the stuff. Oh... and no need to use Grey Goose for this stuff.)
1/2 Cup dark roast ground coffee (freshly ground is best)
1 whole vanilla bean

Helpful Equipment:
Coffee Grinder

Directions:

1) Measure out vodka and add it to a clean gallon jug.

2) Slice the vanilla bean it open lengthwise and then slide your knife down the inside of the bean. You could also use a spoon to do this. There will be a bunch of tiny crystals that you can scrape out of the bean. Scrape them all into the gallon jug with the vodka! You can also chop up the bean itself into 3 pieces and throw into the jug. No reason wasting a $5 bean.

3) Grind up some coffee. If you don’t have a coffee grinder, it would be worth it to get some fresh ground coffee from the store for this recipe. Since it’s steeping for so long, it’s important to have flavorful and quality coffee.

4) Add the coffee to the jug. Give it a good shake and you’ll have a very dark brew.

5) In a large pot, add water and sugar together and heat it up. Stir it every once in awhile. Once all the sugar is dissolved, let it cool for a few minutes and then add syrupy mixture to the jug!

6) Seal up the jug and let it sit in a cool dark spot for about 3 weeks. It’s a good idea to give it a shake every day or two just to make sure that all the flavors are getting infused.

7) Three weeks later………slowly pour mixture through a colander with a coffee filter inside. Work slowly, it will take some time for the liquid to all filter through and you may need to change your filter a few times as all the grounds accumulate. You can use the same jug or use clean wine bottles.

8) Add a bit of the liqueur to a glass with some ice and a touch of half and half or cream.

To kick off this recipe you need some vodka and a clean gallon jug. I used a plastic water jug that I cleaned out well. It’s very important that it has a lid also because this stuff needs to steep for 3 weeks.

Measure out your vodka and add it to your jug. I went with 3 cups of vodka because it seemed like the right thing to do.

Biggest shot ever.

The flavors

The flavors for this are very simple. There are only two: coffee and vanilla. So it’s really important that you use high quality stuff. This unfortunately means that you need to splurge on real vanilla beans which cost almost more than the vodka. These two beans cost me $10. Don’t worry though, there is a ton of flavor in these guys.

One expensive bean.

To extract all the flavor out of the bean, slice it open lengthwise and then slide your knife down the inside of the bean. You could also use a spoon to do this. There will be a bunch of tiny crystals that you can scrape out of the bean. These are packed with flavor. Scrape them all into the gallon jug with the vodka!

Cool stuff.

Just for good measure, I also chopped up the bean itself into 3 pieces and threw it into the jug. No reason wasting a $5 bean.

Next, grind up some coffee. If you don’t have a coffee grinder, it would be worth it to get some fresh ground coffee from the store for this recipe. Since it’s steeping for so long, it’s important to have flavorful and quality coffee.

Fresh ground coffee.

Add the coffee to your jug. Give it a good shake and you’ll have a very dark brew.

Vodka and flavor.

Making the Simple Syrup

Meanwhile, in a large pot, add your water and sugar together and heat it up. Stir it every once in awhile. Once all the sugar is dissolved, let it cool for a few minutes and then add your syrupy mixture to the jug!

Note that this recipe makes for a fairly sweet final product. I actually think that if I made it again, I might reduce the sugar to 3 1/2 cups.

Add the simple syrup.

The hard part – Waiting

Seal up your jug and let it sit in a cool dark spot for about 3 weeks. It’s a good idea to give it a shake every day or two just to make sure that all the flavors are getting infused.

Filtering the stuff

When you’re ready to finish off your Kah- I mean coffee liqueur, get out a colander with a coffee filter and slowly pour your liqueur through the filter. Work slowly, it will take some time for the liquid to all filter through and you may need to change your filter a few times as all the grounds accumulate.

Three weeks later...

I did my filtering in a few batches, each one taking a few minutes, and resulting in this beautiful richly colored liquid.

Liquid gold!

You could of course store your coffee liqueur in the same plastic jug you used to steep it, but I washed out a few wine bottles and stored it in those. Keeps like a charm for a very long time.

When you’re ready for a nightcap or feel the need for a Big Lebowski session, just add a bit of the liqueur to a glass with some ice and a touch of half and half or cream.

The Dude abides.

So good.

I actually found that mine was best after the ice melted a bit, which I think means that my mix was a bit sweet for my tastes. It’s all relative though and the drink gets less sweet as the ice melts so I would rather have it be too sweet than not sweet enough.

This was a really fun project and took no time at all to actually make, but I will say that the waiting was rather painful. It was like waiting for Christmas.

I think there are three important qualities to a solid chicken wing: 1) Tender and juicy meat. I hate an overcooked wing. 2) Heat! This one is debatable but in general I think a wing needs some heat for it to be memorable. 3) Messy. I better have to lick my fingers.

These sticky wings have all three of those qualities!

Sticky, spicy, and wonderful.

I had a hard time deciding what to call these guys because I actually adapted the rub and sauce from a ribs recipe. It’s got some Asian flavors going, but also some Southwestern aspects. The wings have a dry rub on them, but then are tossed in a sauce.

Basically, they are all over the map. But I’m not exaggerating when I say that the recipe is probably in my Top 10 wings I’ve ever had in my life. And trust me… that is a very serious statement.

Sticky Wings

Yield: Serves 4-6.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients:

3-4 pounds chicken wings, about 3 dozen

Dry Rub:
1/4 Cup packed brown sugar
2 Tablespoons ancho chile powder (see my note below on making the rub or you can use regular chile powder)
2 Tablespoons finely ground coffee (espresso beans are called for in the original but I just used a dark roast bean)
1 1/2 Tablespoons Kosher salt
1 Tablespoon hot paprika
1 Tablespoon onion powder
1 Tablespoon garlic powder
1 Tablespoon fresh ground pepper
1 Teaspoon dried thyme, crumble it up

Sticky Sauce:
1/2 Cup rice vinegar
1 large shallot, finely chopped
2 Tablespoons fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1/4 Cup sugar
1-3 Tablespoons hot chili sauce (like Sriracha. I used 3 Tablespoons because I like them spicy)
6 Tablespoons canola or vegetable oil

1/4 Cup cilantro, chopped for garnish (optional)

Helpful Equipment:
Coffee Grinder (for espresso and also grinding ancho peppers if you are making your own chili powder)

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees, unless you are making the ancho powder, then preheat it to 200 degrees.

2) Grind regular coffee beans for the rub.

3) If you want to make your own with dried peppers, just cut off the stems and scrape out the seeds. Then slice them into quarters and set them in a 200 degree oven for about 30 minutes. Take them out and let them cool and then you should be able to grind them up really easily using a spice/coffee grinder.

4) Trim down chicken wings: using a sharp knife, find the joint between the wing tip and the middle section of the wing and slice through it. If you can slice the joint correctly you won’t have to apply much pressure. You can toss the wing tips or save them for chicken stock.

5) Do a similar cut in the joint between the drumstick and the middle section. Again, it should slice pretty easily if you go through the joint. If you are chopping through the bone every time, you are making your life harder than it needs to be.

6) Once all wings are cut, dunk them in rub and press it on to each side of the wings. Make sure each wing has a good even coat of the rub.

7) Bake these at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes. At the 20 minutes mark, pull them out and flip them with tongs.

Note: These wings are delicious with just the rub. If you want to stop here you’ll end up with a delicious (although not exactly sticky) final product. It will still please the masses though I promise.

8) Whisk together all sticky sauce ingredients in a medium bowl while wings cook.

9) Get out a large sauté pan and put it over high heat. Whisk sauce to make sure it’s all combined well and then pour it into pan.

10) After just a few minutes over high heat, the sauce should be starting to bubble nicely and the sugar from the sauce will start to thicken up a bit. The sauce should still be pretty runny though, you don’t want it to thicken up too much.

11) Then throw all your baked wings into the pan! When the wings hit the sauce, the sauce will stick to the wings and thicken up even more almost instantly.

12) The whole process takes only about 5 minutes per batch. Once they are all sticky, serve them immediately with some chopped cilantro on top.

Adapted from Oct 2009 Bon Appetit Ribs Recipe.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees, unless you are making the ancho powder, then preheat it to 200 degrees.

Making the Rub

So most of the ingredients for the rub are fairly common. I did grind my own coffee beans for the rub (although I just used regular coffee I had on hand, not espresso beans). The one thing that might throw off some people is the ancho powder.

If you happen to have some dried ancho chiles, it is pretty easy to make it, but you could also just use normal chili powder. Or, of course, you could go buy actual packaged ancho chile powder which is fine if you’ll use it in other recipes.

If you want to make your own with dried peppers, just cut off the stems and scrape out the seeds. Then slice them into quarters and set them in a 200 degree oven for about 30 minutes. Take them out and let them cool and then you should be able to grind them up really easily using a spice/coffee grinder.

Some pieces in this elaborate rub.

This is a really solid rub. I think I might start mixing up larger batches of it and keeping it on hand for chicken and popcorn and stuff. It has a really great flavor and is spicy, salty, and sweet. Fantastic stuff.

All mixed together.

Prepping the wings

One great thing about chicken wings is they are very economical. They still aren’t huge sellers in America compared to breast meat so you can get them for a pretty good price normally. Even the organic chicken wings at Whole Foods were like $3.50/pound. Not bad at all.

Most likely you get the whole wing when you buy them from the store or butcher. It’s pretty easy to trim them down to a noticeable product though. First, using a sharp knife, find the joint between the wing tip and the middle section of the wing and slice through it. If you can slice the joint correctly you won’t have to apply much pressure. You can toss the wing tips (on the left below) or save them for chicken stock.

Then do a similar cut in the joint between the drumstick and the middle section. Again, it should slice pretty easily if you go through the joint. If you are chopping through the bone every time, you are making your life harder than it needs to be.

Two simple cuts for each wing.

If you are a visual learner, the first 30 seconds of this video does a good job of showing how it’s done.

Rubbing the wings

Once all your wings are cut, dunk them in your rub and press it on to each side of the wings. Make sure each wing has a good even coat of the rub. Don’t worry. They won’t be too spicy. The rub is actually not that spicy. It just gives the wings tons of flavor and a tiny bit of texture from the sugar caramelizing.

No need to go light on this stuff.

Bake these at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes. At the 20 minutes mark, pull them out and flip them with tongs. This will just make sure that your rub doesn’t burn on the bottom of the wings.

Note: These wings are delicious with just the rub. If you want to stop here you’ll end up with a delicious (although not exactly sticky) final product. It will still please the masses though I promise.

Sticky Sauce

Assuming you do want to take it to the next level, whisk together all of your sticky sauce ingredients in a medium bowl while your wings cook. It’s that easy really…

Sticky business...

After 40 minutes, pull your wings out of the oven. Check out these beauties!

Honestly, they were awesome just like this!

Making the wings sticky

Here’s the trick for making the sauce sticky and getting a good even coating on the wings. Get out a large saute pan and put it over high heat. Whisk your sauce to make sure it’s all combined well and then pour it into your pan (I did mine in two batches actually so I only added half my sauce at a time, but you could try it all at once depending on your pan size and your courage level.)

After just a few minutes over high heat, the sauce should be starting to bubble nicely and the sugar from the sauce will start to thicken up a bit. The sauce should still be pretty runny though, you don’t want it to thicken up too much. Then throw all your wings (or half if you are doing batches) into the pan! When the wings hit the sauce, the sauce will stick to the wings and thicken up even more almost instantly.

The whole process takes only about 5 minutes per batch. Once they are all sticky, serve them immediately with some chopped cilantro on top.

Cilantro is a nice touch.

These guys have a very complex flavor going on. They have a good amount of vinegar almost like a vinegar based bbq sauce, but also have Asian aspects to them with the ginger and everything. I was worried that they would be too busy actually, but they turned out pretty much perfect.

This might be my new go-to wing recipe when I don’t want the straight up, standard buffalo sauce variety.