Newcomers Joel and Carleen Weirauch of Weirauch Farm & Creamery are already generating a buzz about their small-batch cow's-milk cheeses. Now, you can serve them in style on the handmade, one-of-a-kind oak cheeseboards they're selling this month. The boards are made from oak salvaged from a 100-year-old Kentucky tobacco barn, finished satiny-smooth with olive oil and beeswax ($35-55). Get to the market early enough, and you might be lucky enough to pick up a block or two of their flower-embossed soap, made from sheep's milk and local olive oil in scents like rose geranium, lemongrass, lavender, and star anise. The Weirauchs are raising a herd of dairy sheep in Petaluma; come next spring, once lambing starts, they'll be making their own farmstead sheep's milk cheeses, too. Find them on Sunday at Sebastopol and Thursday at Marin Civic Center.

Also at the sweet Sebastopol market: Terra Savia's bright, peppery new-crop olive oil, made from organic olives grown along the Mendocino/Sonoma border and pressed just last month at Terra Savia's olive press in Hopland. This luscious olio nuovo is a Tuscan-style treat that's perfect for dipping into with a chunk of fresh, crusty bread. Terra Salvia also offers several single-varietal olive oils as well as wildflower honey, olive-oil soaps and a soothing botanical salve for moisturizing winter-dry skin.

And while you're there, don't miss the snappy, poinsetta-red boxes from Sonoma Chocolatiers, filled with handmade, chocolate-dipped salted caramels ($20). You can also put together a chic assortment of truffles ($2.25 each) in nifty flavors like fig-cardamom, holiday spice, smoky chipotle, and tequila-lime, or pick up a stocking-stuffer bag of crunchy chocolate-covered organic almonds, sugared or cinnamon-spiced.

Feeling a little DIY? Believe it or not, you can still turn out a few gift jars of homemade, local strawberry jam using Tomatero Farm's late-crop, Watsonville-grown organic strawberries ($3.50/pint), sold at the Marin Civic Center market. Or pick up a mix-and-match assortment of low-sugar, big-flavor berry jams made by Swanton Berry Farm, in flavors like tayberry, olallieberry, strawberry, and blackberry ($7-$9). They're all made using the farm's organic, union-grown berries.

Tea drinkers take their brews seriously, but they're often outnumbered by the coffee geeks. Show your tea-drinking friends that you respect their cuppa with a gift from Sky Tea at the Marin Civic Center market. Tea lover Jeni Quigg started her luxury tea company a little over a year ago, travelling around the world to source rare, small-batch, artisan-grown teas--what she calls "legendary teas." Her personally blended masala chai, which she also sells brewed by the cup, has a bright, clean spiciness to it, thanks to cardamon and peppercorns that Quigg picked herself on the Malabar coast. Even decaf drinkers can find something to love here, thanks to several blends made with rooibos or decaffeinated teas, including a rooibos chai and a seductive cinnamon plum sprinkled with saffron, flax seeds, and marigold petals.

Known for their rustic, rough-hewn hearth breads, Della Fattoria bakery also has a popular side line of pastries, including gift bags of biscotti and chocolate-chip cookies ($6) sold at the Marin Civic Center market. This year, they're offering an Italian holiday specialty, panforte ($16). Dense with dried fruits, honey, nuts, and spices, this chewy confection has a history stretching back centuries. "It was the Crusaders' little powerbar," says owner Edmund Weber. It has a deep, winter-spiced taste, lovely with a cup of Sky tea or a glass of dessert wine, the perfect reward for shopping local this season.

A note to shoppers: Both the Sebastopol and Marin Civic Center markets will be operating this Sunday, December 18. The Marin Civic Center market will be operating on Thursday, December 22. Both markets will be closed on Sunday, December 25.

Have you moved your money yet? A lot of imperatives have come out of the Occupy movement of late; this one is both concrete and far-ranging, something that anyone can do.

What does it mean? It started with a call to action for people to pull their money and investments out of the big banks, and put them into smaller, locally-owned and locally-responsible credit unions and community banks. It's like voting; the amount in my tiny checking and savings accounts means nothing to MegaBankUSA, but add my numbers to thousands and thousands of others, and suddenly a bank could feel some impact.

That's just one part. Like the concept of eating locally, which started with food miles and then grew into a much larger movement, even revolution, about how and what we eat, the idea of "moving your money" can be applied in so many ways.

And it's not limited to how or where you spend your actual cash. On the style blog Ironing Board Collective, my friend, writer and health coach Sara Seinberg, has posted a great Move Your Money gift guide, with suggestions for everything from art-museum memberships to shared activities and bartered services. Her list, and the fact that right now, like so many of us, I am luckily rich in friends, family, and good intentions, and not-so-rich in disposable income, have got me thinking even more about value this time of year. About surplus. About what we use to get what we need, and how we can support the needs of others--friends, family, your community, your neighborhood and beyond. This holiday season, what do you have that can bring delight and deliciousness to those you love, while keeping your money out of the coffers of the big corporations?

How about chocolate? There are lots of locally-made chocolate treats available to sweeten your holidays. Or you can make your own with this easy chocolate truffle recipe. Dandelion's bean-to-bar chocolate store will be opening in San Francisco next month or early next year; until then, find them at local farmers' markets, including the Mission Community Market and the Noe Valley Farmers' Market.

With the explosion of books, classes, and blogs dedicated to food preservation for fun (or profit), it's easy to spend a little time whipping up a gift batch of something, especially if you turn the simmering or brewing into an all-afternoon stir-and-gossip session. What do you like best to make? It's a little late in the season to make jam, but there's always apple butter, pear butter, slow-roasted quince paste (so tasty with cheese), Meyer lemon marmalade or tangy lemon chutney. WorkshopSF has classes in beer-making, tea-blending, cheese-making, even vintage apron sewing coming up in December; take one yourself, or take a friend along.

Does everyone rave about your ramen, your cranberry bread, your caramel apple pie? Do you want to share your mom's recipes with everyone who loves her? There are dozens of print-on-demand services that let you turn those scribbled-on recipe cards into a surprisingly chic and stylish personal cookbook. Pop-up holiday markets are also a good place to find quirkily perfect host/ess gifts made by your friends and neighbors. On Dec. 9, La Cocina is holding its 3rd Annual Gift Bazaar, featuring unique products developed in La Cocina's incubator kitchen in the Mission.

Or, depending on what you have to spare, you can give money, time, or expertise to organizations who redistribute the wealth across the Bay Area's tables. Did one (or ten) of your Facebook friends and Twitter followers post Mary Risley's hysterically practical YouTube video, Just Put the F*cking Turkey in the Oven? Now, with over 100,000 hits, let's hope she can make the follow-up, Just Give Your F*cking Leftovers to Food Runners.

Risley isn't just a cooking teacher, she's the founder of Food Runners, which moves thousands of pounds of fresh, useful leftover food from restaurants, grocery stores, and catering businesses into the kitchens of shelters, low-income senior and youth programs, and other organizations that serve the needy. Mary talks about Food Runners on this episode of Food & Wine This Week in Northern California.

It's that time of year again -- the grills are uncovered, fireworks stands [used to] start popping up near busy intersections, and everyone and their mother is digging through cookbooks in search of Fourth of July recipes. This week, kids will be running around with sparklers while mom and dad solidify plans for their annual Independence Day barbecue.

While grilled goodies are usually at the top of everyone's mind on July 4th, there's still the all-important matter of dessert. It seems like every year, someone makes the traditional sheet cake that looks like the American flag. You know the style: It's huge and white with a square of blueberries for the star portion of the flag, and row upon row of strawberries and frosting dollops to make up the stripes. It's a good cake, one that I've eaten and enjoyed countless times. Yes, I said countless. Which means I'm really, really bored with the same old flag cake, which I've been eating for 30-something years.

This year I decided to shake it up a little. I eschewed the white cake for something richer (chocolate! ganache!). Since it's Independence Day I decided to keep the red, white and blue decorations, but I sat down and thought about the best way to go about using these colors without recreating the hackneyed flag design (to you lovers of the flag cake, really, no offense). After a few days of pondering I decided to create a layer cake for a more interesting look, with half of the fruit on the inside of the cake, peeking out the sides.

I think you'll like the end result: A rich, smokey cake with light, colorful accents of summer fruit and whipped cream. Kids will love the headiness of the chocolate, and adults will appreciate the departure from the norm.

A Tower of Chocolate: The Three-Layer Fourth of July Chocolate Cake
Makes: One really thick 9" cake, which will be cut into three layers servings
Prep time: 60 minutes, including decorating
Cook time: 50 minutes

While making this cake, I decided to go the lazy route and used a 9-inch cake pan that's 3-inches deep. I poured all of the batter into one pan and then sliced it into three thinner layers with a cake leveler. There is also a gluten-free version of this Fourth of July cake.

Ingredients

For cake:

• 2 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chopped
• 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 6 tablespoons hot coffee
• 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cup sugar, divided
• 4 large egg yolks
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 large egg whites

For decorating:

• 4 cups of whipped cream
• 1 carton fresh strawberries, cleaned, cored, and sliced in half
• 1 handful each of fresh blueberries
• 1 handful each of fresh raspberries
• 1/2 cup chocolate ganache, warmed and ready to pour

Instructions

To bake the cake:
1. Butter single 3-inch deep, 9-inch cake pan, lining the bottom with a round of parchment or wax paper (trust me, this will make your life much easier). Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Over a double boiler, melt both kinds of chocolates together with the 6 tablespoons of coffee. Stir until smooth, then set aside until the chocolate reaches room temperature.
3. With an electric mixer, beat the butter and 1 1/4 cup of the sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. While beating, slowly drizzle in the melted chocolate, following with the egg yolks one at a time.
4. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
5. Mix half of the sifted dry ingredients into the creamed butter, then add the buttermilk and vanilla. Follow with the rest of the dry ingredients.
6. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until they hold soft peaks. Add the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form.
7. Fold half of the egg whites into the cake batter to lighten it up a bit, then fold in the rest, stopping just when there's no trace of egg white visible. Do not overbeat or you will flatten the batter.
8. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan with a parchment round in the bottom. Smooth the top of the batter with your finger and bake for about 50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
9. Cool cake completely before decorating.

To decorate the cake
Note: If you're going to slice your cake horizontally, I'd recommend putting it in the refrigerator overnight (or at least a few hours) to firm up before slicing. The firmness of the cake will allow for more effective slicing. I highly recommend the use of a cake leveler, though a serrated knife will work in a pinch.

1. Level your cake by removing the rounded top where it rose in the oven. You can either use a long serrated knife or a cake leveler. I use the leveler, because it's a cheap tool that does the job very well, and it's a lot easier to make straight layers by walking the leveler in a sawing motion, instead of making crooked layers with a serrated knife.
2. If you poured all of your batter into a single 9" pan, cut it into three layers of equal thickness.
3. Place your base layer of cake onto a lazy Susan or other turnable decorating surface. Trust me, this will make your life easier.
4. Scoop whipped cream into a pastry bag, and using a large star tip of your choice, pipe a series of swirls around the edge of the cake, with a large swirl in the middle. It should look like this:

   

5. Decorate each dab of whipped cream by adding a piece of fruit into the middle. Do not add any fruit to the large swirl of whipped cream in the middle.
6. Using the pastry bag, add a small dab of whipped cream between each larger swirl. Top each dab with a blueberry. When you're done, it should look something like this:

   

7. If you have three layers, gently place the middle layer of cake on top of the decorated layer, making sure it's straight. Decorate with whipped cream as you did the first layer, so that they look the same.
8. Place final layer of cake on top of decorated layer. Pour 1/2 cup ganache into the center of the cake, and using an icing spatula gently push the ganache to the edges, allowing it to artfully dribble over the sides. NOTE: You don't want a lot of ganache flowing all over the place. You just want a few drips down the side as an accent.
9. Set the cake in the refrigerator for 20 minutes to solidify the ganache.
10. Decorate the top of the cake with more whipped cream and fruit, like you did the other layers. You can be as creative as you want here, so go all out! When you're done, push more fruit into the visible whipped cream between the layers where it needs a little color. You should have something similar to the photo below.
11. This cake should be put in the fridge overnight to tighten up the whipped cream, which may droop and run in hot weather. Refrigerator until about an hour before serving. If it's especially hot that day, leave it in the fridge until just before you cut it.

Family recipes are a funny thing. They straddle a fine line between fond memory, mystery, comfort, and tradition. You grow up enjoying them as a kid but usually not actually preparing them. And then you get to a certain point in adulthood and you yearn to duplicate those family recipes on your own. In my experience, that's when relative disaster strikes. Take, for example, my mom's Million Dollar Spaghetti. Growing up, we had this probably once a week and as a teenager I requested it more frequently. I remember when I got my first apartment in my senior year of college and I asked my mom for the recipe. I was shocked to learn that it was basically an excuse to eat one pound of cream cheese, a cup of heavy cream and a bunch of pasta all in one sitting. Then there was my mom's Raspberry Fool which I have fond memories of in the late spring and early summer. We'd have late dinners outdoors and she would make individual glass cups of these and stick them in the fridge so you could sneak into the kitchen and grab yours whenever the time felt right. About five years ago, I learned it was essentially all heavy cream. Utter deliciousness, but not the light summery creation I'd always thought it was.

Laying out Ingredients

But health concerns aside, family recipes can be questionable in other ways, too. Take Chocolate Jumbles. When I was growing up, around Christmas we'd receive a care package from Hilda--my grandmother's across-the-street neighbor in the tiny town of Ames, NY. I didn't care for the Chocolate Jumbles at first: they're a little on the warmly-spiced side for most kids, I think. But then I came to appreciate their subtle hint of cocoa and cloves, their holey center, and their super soft crumb. They're good with tea, perfect with coffee, kind of nice late at night when you can't sleep. I made them for the first time this past weekend and made them again and again. Because sometimes family recipes just befuddle you. You stare at the old index card and think, why? The instructions seem far too complex, a few of the ingredients seem unnecessary, or you simply can't make out the handwriting that's been smudged and stained after years and years of use. In the case that you bake for a living, you really stare at this particular recipe and think, why?!

As I made them the first time, I tried to think about Hilda at her kitchen table pouring hot water into a shortening-based cookie dough and mixing. Out of all of the ways you could infuse a dough with liquid, this wouldn't be my first choice. So I decreased the amount of water, raised the quantity of spice and used part bread flour in lieu of solely all-purpose flour (this makes for a sturdier dough). The result reminds me of Hilda's jumbles although I'm still confused how she could possibly get from point A to point B using the recipe she gave us. Maybe there's something in that country air or maybe Hilda just has a much softer touch than I do. Regardless, you'll enjoy this adapted version. I'm sure of it. And at the end of the day after swimming in Chocolate Jumble dough, it doesn't really matter that you've become a little frustrated and disillusioned with yet another family recipe, does it? It's fleeting. You keep making those Chocolate Jumbles and reworking them until you get them just right because maybe -- just maybe-- you want to bathe in the memory, mystery, comfort, and tradition once more. If only for an afternoon, anyway.

Ok, so I know I've lost some of you already. Hear me out. "But truffles are soooo haaarrrrrd to make," I can hear you sighing. "I could never do that." Au contraire, mon cheri. Despite the fact that stores charge big bucks for these little balls of chocolate love, truffles are actually one of the easiest candies to make. Within an hour you'll have a few dozen handmade chocolate truffles, and a one heck of a fabulous Valentine's Day gift. And if you're sweetie is of the vegan persuasion, I've got you covered with a vegan truffle recipe as well.

First things first: You'll be melting chocolate, which means you'll need to chop it first. Like, chop it as finely as possible. It's easy to chop the long, flat bars you get from the baking section of the grocery store, and I recommend you use a large chef's knife or my weapon of choice: a meat cleaver. If all else fails, don't fret. You can use semi-sweet chocolate chips without suffering any dire consequences.

Second: You must use a double boiler to melt your chocolate. Any other means of melting will burn the chocolate or turn it into a seized up lump of concrete. If you don't have a real double boiler, never fear. Find a pot and a large bowl that will snugly fit in the pot without slipping into it. Make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn't rest in the water. Rather, you want there to be a good inch or two between the bottom of the bowl and the water in the pot. Also, be sure to not get any water into your chocolate mixture, lest it seize up. If this happens, you'll need to dump it out and start over. Sad panda. For more information, check out this guide on melting chocolate.

Now, let's get our hands dirty!

Basic Chocolate Truffles Recipe
Yields about 24 3/4" truffles.

Ingredients:
12 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped fine
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 tablespoon Grand Marnier

Possible Coatings:
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup chai spices
1/4 cup of whatever fun, powdery thing you'd like to roll your truffles in
Small foil cups for packaging (available from your local craft store)

Instructions:
Fill the bottom of your double boiler with a few inches of water, set it over medium heat and bring it to a boil. Have the chopped chocolate waiting in the top of your double boiler but not yet set over the heat.

In a small saucepan, heat the heavy cream just until you see bubbles start to fowl around the edges of the pan. Immediately pour the cream over your chocolate. Set the bowl over the waiting double boiler, stirring until the chocolate is completely melted and mixed with the cream. Stir in vanilla and Grand Marnier, then cover and refrigerate until firm enough to handle (about 4 hours).

That's it! Seriously! And in case you weren't aware, you just made a chocolate ganache, one of the most delectable substances in the dessert world. Go you!

After your ganache has firmed up, line a cookie sheet with parchment. Scoop about a teaspoonful of ganache and then, working quickly, roll it into a sphere shape with your hands. Set the rolled truffles on the lined cookie sheet, and keep going until you've finished all of your chocolate mixture. Your truffle may look a little sticky at first. That's fine, we'll smooth them out in a second.

Note: Try to make sure your hands are as cool as possible or your truffles will melt as you roll them. It might be a good idea to keep a paper towel or two nearby, so that if your hands get caked with chocolate you can wipe them off. It also helps to stick the bowl of ganache back in the refrigerator for 5 minutes if you notice it getting super sticky.

Coatings
Let your chocolate truffles sit for about ten minutes at room temperature, or stick them in the fridge if it's a warm day (say, above 70 degrees). Add cocoa powder (or hazelnuts, or powdered sugar) to a small round-bottomed bowl. One at a time, pick up your truffles and roll them between your hands for a few seconds to barely warm the surface, then drop them in the bowl of coating. Toss the bowl a bit until the truffle is completely covered in coating, then set it back on the cookie sheet. If you end up with a too much coating on your truffles, don't shake them off until after they have firmed up again.

Once you're done, put the cookie sheet full of truffles in the fridge for half an hour. Once they're firm again, shake off any excess coating and put them in little foil cups for decoration.

These chocolate truffles will keep in the fridge for two weeks, but can be kept at room temperature for a few days. I like them a little softer, so I pull them out of the fridge a few hours before serving.

For a little variety, check out these other truffle recipes:

• Peanut Butter Crunch Truffles
• Mint Chocolate Truffles
• Mocha Truffles
• Raw Cinnamon-Sunflower Truffles

So this year I'm deeming Buckeyes lucky. And why not, really? They're basically the best most adult Reese's you've ever tasted except without the cloyingly sweet aftertaste. They're cloaked in rich dark chocolate and are a cinch to throw together as there's no baking involved. We made these on Christmas Eve at my house and they were an instant hit: they're an old Southern recipe and many people remember them fondly from their childhood. Others just can't stay away from a good old-fashioned peanut butter ball. So for this week leading up to New Year's Day, I encourage you to deem a food that you love lucky, whip it up, and enjoy it wholeheartedly. Whether you're a traditionalist or a maverick peanut butter lover, go to town. Life is short. Eat Buckeyes.

Buckeyes
Adapted from: Smitten Kitchen

Yield: 35-40 tablespoon-sized candies

Deb's recipe is from Baked Explorations, one of my favorite cookbooks of the year. And I love this version of Buckeyes because it cuts way down on the sugar you'll typically see and adds graham cracker crumbs which give them a nice texture. I've gone even further with my adaptation using chunky peanut butter and cutting back on the sugar even further. To make your own graham cracker crumbs, just throw your whole grahams into the food processor and pulse until fine.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup (2 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups chunky peanut butter
1 cup graham cracker crumbs (from about 12 graham crackers)
2 3/4 cups confectioners’ (powdered) sugar
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks or 5 ounces) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
10 ounces dark chocolate (I use 70%), chopped coarsely

Method:
1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the peanut butter and cream cheese until just combined. Add the graham cracker crumbs and beat again until just mixed together. Next add the butter and sugar and start mixing slowly so the butter doesn't slosh around. Mix for ten seconds, stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl, then mix again until the mixture is sturdy and looks like a dry cookie dough. Set aside.

2. Make the dark chocolate coating: Use either a double boiler or a heat-safe bowl nestled atop a pot of boiling water to melt you chocolate. Stir the chocolate continuously so it doesn't burn and so that it remains smooth. Once melted completely, let it cool enough so that you can dunk your finger in it (around 100 degrees) -- this is the optimal temperature for coating candies.

3. Assemble the buckeyes: Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Using a tablespoon, scoop out a small ball and use your hands to form it into a perfect ball. I used a kitchen scale and measured each ball out to be 1 oz. This way they were all consistent. Place the balls on the prepared sheet with just a little room apart from one another.

4. Using a toothpick or a skewer, dip each ball into the chocolate and roll it about so that almost the entire candy is coated. You'll inevitably have a few that fall off completely in the chocolate. Practice with a few and you'll get it down. Dip quickly and at an angle. You have a little hole at the top from your skewer which you can quickly push back into place with your fingers.

5. Chill the buckeyes until they are set, about 30-40 minutes.

Store in an airtight container in the fridge for 5-7 days.

There's nothing I crave more than a steaming cup of hot chocolate on a cold winter's day. This is especially true during the holiday season, when cooking with whole milk and whipped cream seems de rigueur. Once November hits, I give up all hope for eating a low-fat diet until January. Between apple and pumpkin pies at Thanksgiving, eggnog in December, and all the cookies I'll eat at Christmas, what's the point in cutting back on calories?

But as long as we're indulging, why not throw in some adult libations as well? Of course there is the standard Peppermint Schnapps for a tried and true candy-cane flavored holiday aperitif, but what about some amaretto, Frangelico or whiskey to liven things up? Or, as Fred McMurray says in the classic Double Indemnity, "I wonder if a little rum would get this up on its feet?"

When making festive hot chocolate, think about your favorite holiday bonbons. Kirsch makes for a drink that mimics my favorite Christmas treat, chocolate-covered cherries, while Kahlua makes it taste like a coffee truffle. But it's your drink, so add in whatever liqueur or alcohol you'd like.

Some general guidelines when making hot chocolate are:
• It's best when made with old-school ingredients. Forget skim milk and packaged hot cocoa mixes (or even worse, a packet of Swiss Miss in a cup of hot water, God Forbid!). Real hot chocolate needs full fat milk, and if you're feeling really festive, some half and half or a bit of cream.
• Use dark chocolate. As you're adding in whole milk and cream, there's no need to use milk chocolate (even if that's your favorite) because the sugar and milk products you'll add will lighten and dilute anything you use.
• For a superior beverage use high-quality chocolate.

And speaking of good quality dark chocolate, we have some amazing local hot chocolate and cocoa choices, including:

• Ricchiutti -- Dark Hot Chocolate Pistoles
• Charles Chocolates -- Signature Hot Chocolate - Original Dark
• Williams-Sonoma – This store has a few products, but the one I've tried is a tin of their chocolate shavings, which is lovely. Williams-Sonoma Hot Chocolate
• Tcho -- Hot and Cold Drinking Chocolate

So now that it's December, it's time to curl up in a chair with a steamy cup of spiked hot chocolate. What will you add to your drink?

Spiked Hot Chocolate

Makes: 2 servings

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups whole milk (or ½ whole milk and ½ half and half for a really rich beverage)
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped or ½ cup your favorite chopped chocolate
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 oz liqueur or whiskey

Preparation:

1. Chop chocolate into small pieces.

2. Heat milk in a sauce pan on medium-low heat, being sure not to let it boil over.

3. There are two ways to melt the chocolate:

• Place the chocolate pieces in a metal bowl that will fit securely over your sauce pan. Reduce the heat for the milk to a low simmer and then place the bowl on top of the pan. Stir until the chocolate is melted.
• Place chocolate pieces in a microwavable bowl and microwave for 30 seconds. Stir chocolate to help distribute the heat. If chocolate has not thoroughly melted, heat for another 20 seconds and repeat until chocolate is melted through.

4. Add chocolate to the heated milk along with the sugar and vanilla extract and stir thoroughly to incorporate everything together. I like to use a whisk, which creates some froth.

5 Top with whipped cream.

6. Serve.

Growing up in the Northeast, October always brought a little something special in the air. A tinge of excitement, anticipation, promises of tricks and treats to come. The leaves are a shock of color. A big glass of fresh apple cider, or maybe even a piping hot apple donut, could be right around the corner. For sure, a night of revelry could be counted on. Halloween, a night where anything goes, where imagination is king and candy corn is queen.

You could be an Angry Ninja if you so pleased.

The wrath of an angry ninja.

Or a Lovely Lady in mom's high heels.

Just lov-e-ly dahling.

When the witching hour arrives, and your little fingers and toes are frozen through, the best part of the evening is here. It's time to go home and sort through your loot.

Let the opening bell sound, it's trading time.

Good 'N Plenty's were the worst and went straight to Dad. Blech. Skittles and Starburst held decent clout. The big guns, the Apple stock of our world, were Twix, Snickers, and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Which is why I was so excited when I saw Chow's Guide to Making Your Own Candy Bars. Homemade versions of my childhood favorites made even better with the use of premium chocolate and the guarantee of zero preservatives added. Sign me up.

I decided to tackle the DIY version of One of Life's Great Kicks. Twix.

Shortbread cookie base

First, we start with getting that cookie crunch. A shortbread base is made and cut to the appropriate candy bar size. Before baking, small indentations are poked into the dough (not sure exactly why…could be to prevent the cookie from rising?).

Chewy caramel

Now on to the chewy caramel layer.

Tempered chocolate coating

And then, the coating of milk chocolate.

To be sure, making your own Halloween candy is pretty time and labor intensive. But, the results will bring you right back to the sugar-high times of yesteryear.

Twixt
Recipe by Aida Mollenkamp, courtesy of Chow.

Time: 4 hrs 50 mins (total); 1 hr 50 mins (active)

Makes: 24 pieces

Ingredients:

For the cookie base:
1 large egg, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
10 tablespoons unsalted butter 1 1/4 sticks, at room temperature and cut into small pieces

For the caramel:
Cooking spray, such as Pam
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup light corn syrup
4 tablespoons unsalted butter 1/2 stick
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the chocolate coating:
1 1/2 pounds milk chocolate couverture, such as El Rey 41 percent milk chocolate Discos

Preparation:

For the cookie base:
1. In a small bowl beat together egg and vanilla extract until yolk is broken up and evenly combined; set aside.

2. Combine flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times to aerate and break up any lumps. Add butter and pulse until mixture looks like sand, about 25 (1-second) pulses. Add egg mixture and pulse just until dough comes together, about 10 (1-second) pulses. Form into a flat, rectangular disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

3. Heat oven to 375°F. Place dough on a 14-inch piece of parchment paper, lightly flour, and roll into a 13-by-8-inch oval, about 1/8 inch thick. (Work quickly, because the dough will become difficult to roll as it warms up.) Transfer parchment paper with dough to a baking sheet, cover in plastic wrap, and refrigerate at least 15 minutes.

4. Trim dough to a 12-by-7-inch square and cut into 3-1/2-by-3/4-inch cookies (you need at least 24). Pierce each cookie four or five times with a chopstick or the base of a thermometer.

5. Place on a baking sheet and cook until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Remove to a wire rack and let cool. Meanwhile, make the caramel.

For the caramel:
1. Spray a 13-by-9-inch baking pan with cooking spray, then line the pan with a 16-by-13-inch piece of parchment paper, leaving a few inches of overhang on each side. Set aside.

2. Combine all ingredients except vanilla extract in a heavy-bottomed 4-quart saucepan fitted with a candy thermometer and place over medium-high heat. Stir mixture until sugar completely dissolves, about 2 minutes. Wash down the inside of the pan with a wet pastry brush to prevent crystallization. Boil mixture, swirling pan occasionally (but not stirring), until syrup is at 248°F, about 8 minutes.

3. Immediately remove the saucepan from heat, stir in vanilla extract, and pour caramel into prepared baking pan. Using an oiled rubber spatula, spread caramel evenly in the pan. Immediately press 24 cookies, pierced side down, into caramel, leaving space between them to cut them apart later.

4. Let cool until caramel is no longer warm to the touch and holds a slight indentation when pressed with your finger, about 40 minutes. Place filling in the refrigerator until caramel is firm and can easily be cut through, about 40 minutes.

5. Remove filling from the baking pan to a cutting board, caramel side down, and, using a sharp knife, cut around each cookie. Peel off parchment paper, place undipped candy bars on a cutting board, caramel side down, and trim away excess caramel. Immediately place on a parchment-lined baking sheet, cookie side down, and set in the refrigerator until caramel is hard, at least 10 minutes. (Note: It's best to work in a cool area for this step.) Meanwhile, temper chocolate.

For the chocolate coating:
1. To temper chocolate, fill a large bowl with 2 inches of cold water, add 3 to 4 ice cubes, and set aside.

2. Bring a saucepan filled with 1 to 2 inches of water to a simmer over high heat; once simmering, turn off heat. Place 18 ounces of the chocolate in a dry heatproof bowl. Set the bowl over the saucepan and stir until chocolate is completely melted and reaches 118°F. (Make sure chocolate does not come in contact with water or exceed 120°F. If either happens, start over, as the chocolate is no longer usable.)

3. Remove the bowl from the saucepan. Add remaining 6 ounces chocolate and stir until all chocolate is melted and cools to 80°F. To speed the cooling process, after all chocolate has melted, place the bowl over the reserved cold-water bath. Meanwhile, take undipped candy bars out of the refrigerator.

4. Return the bowl to the saucepan and stir until chocolate reaches 86°F; immediately remove from heat. Do not remove the thermometer from the bowl; check the temperature periodically to make sure it stays between 85°F and 87°F. (Chocolate must remain in this temperature range while dipping or it will not set up properly.) Keep the saucepan over low heat and use it to reheat chocolate as necessary.

5. To test if chocolate is properly tempered, spread a thin layer on parchment paper and place it in the refrigerator for 3 minutes to set. If chocolate hardens smooth and without streaks, it is properly tempered. (If it is not properly tempered, you need to repeat the process.)

6. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Drop candy bars one at a time, cookie side down, into tempered chocolate. Cover caramel side with more chocolate, then remove candy bar. To do so, hold two dinner forks in one hand, crossing the ends of the handles to form a V, with the tines pointed outward. As you remove each candy bar, tap the forks several times against the edge of the bowl and scrape the bottom of the forks across the edge to wipe away any excess chocolate.

7. Place Twixt on the baking sheet by tilting the forks so the edge of each candy bar touches the parchment-lined pan, then smoothly pull the forks out. Repeat until all candy bars have been dipped. Let sit at room temperature until completely set, at least 20 minutes.

8. Trim any excess chocolate from edges of candy bars and place Twixt in an airtight container. Twixt will last up to three weeks in the refrigerator or up to two months in the freezer. Let come to room temperature before serving.

Last week was big for me. I took a week off from work, returned very few emails, and my dogs suffered a severe lack of exercise. Why? I spent all week baking eight hours a day at the San Francisco Baking Institute, brushing up on my skills and learning the "how's" and "why's" behind much of the baking I do at home (How exactly can I make this cookie chewier? Why add potato starch here? What effect does pastry flour have on this recipe?). Each day I came home with boxes of treats to share with family, friends, and coworkers along with copious notes and a head spinning with information on technique and method. After spending the weekend debriefing, I thought I'd share the top ten things I learned from my one week in pastry school. Some of the tips here are relatively basic and fundamental, others are a bit more advanced. Each could certainly use its very own post. But sometimes broad coverage is nice--it's just enough to get you inspired to break out a muffin or cake recipe for the coming week. I'd love to hear any of your own baking tips/revelations, too!

Making Breakfast Pasties: Day 2

1. Mixing Methods: It's important to understand the different mixing methods when baking. And then to follow them. For example, when using the "Creaming Method" for cookies, you're really just creaming together the sugar and butter until combined. However, when making brownies, you need to integrate a lot of air into your batter when mixing your sugar and butter. This acts as your leavening agent (look at most brownie recipes and you'll notice a lack of chemical leaveners like baking soda or powder). So you'll need to mix on a higher speed for a longer period of time. If you're interested in reading more on mixing methods, The Reluctant Gourmet has done a nice post covering them in more detail.

2. Pay Attention to Your Flours: People use all different kinds of flour in pastry production for a variety of reasons. Cake flour and pastry flour have the lowest amount of protein whereas bread flour and all-purpose flour have the highest. As a general rule, the higher the amount of protein, the more structure the dough will have (think of how many cakes are so light and fluffy while traditional breads are heartier). Once you become familiar with how the various flours change the outcome of your pastries and baked goods, you can begin adapting recipes to create different textures simply by swapping the flours.

3. All About Super-Fine Sugar: I generally use granulated sugar at home. However, this past week we worked solely with superfine sugar (unless the recipe called for powdered or liquid sugar) and I learned why: superfine sugar melts in moisture more quickly than regular granulated sugar, and is really preferable for fine textured baked goods. Try it--you may just notice a difference.

From Angel Food Cake to Madelines: A Few of the Desserts

4. Temperature Matters: Much of what you're doing when mixing various batters is creating a smooth emulsion. We've all made a recipe where the batter turned out a little too chunky or broken looking, haven't we? There are many reasons why this might happen, but the main one is that the ingredients aren't the proper temperature. If you don't have time to bring your eggs up to room temperature, mix them together in a small bowl and microwave them for 20-30 seconds until warm. And for many recipes (not including pie dough, obviously) you want your butter softened but not oily or completely melted. Pay attention to the temperature of your ingredients and you'll have smooth, silky dough more often than not.

5. Take it Slow: Ah, cakes...a relative cousin to the cookie but with much more moisture. Because of this increased moisture, you'll notice most recipes ask that you alternate between dry and wet ingredients when combining the two together. You don't want to break the emulsion (or bind) between the butter and the eggs or your batter will start to look broken or separated. Slow down. Take your time. If a recipe asks that you alternate between the wet and the dry, there's a reason for that: don't dump your ingredients in all at once.

6. All About Pie Dough: I love making pies and quietly judge people who don't make their own crust. It's just so basic and tastes so much better than boxed pie crust. I was humbled this week though when I learned about the different kinds of pie crusts and why you'd want to choose one over the other depending on your fillings. It would take a few additional posts to cover the different kinds of pie doughs available to you. If you're interested in reading more, I'd check out: The Pie and Pastry Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum or Joy of Cooking: All About Pies and Tarts by Irma Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker. But for now, know that there are flaky and mealy crusts. The basic recipe is the same (a nice butter crust or a butter and lard crust), but a mealy dough is good for cream pies and wet fillings because you're incorporating the butter into the dough more (smaller chunks) thereby creating a coarse almost cornmeal like crust and a tighter dough. A flaky butter crust with large chunks of butter will always absorb more moisture making it much less ideal for cream pies and other wet fillings.

Meringues and Diamond Cookies

7. How Do I Make My Cookie ____ ? So you like your chocolate chip cookie crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside? Or maybe you like a tender, cakey cookie? How do you look at a recipe and alter it to fit your needs? A few good pointers: if you like a crispy cookie, you're looking for a recipe with low moisture and high fat and sugar. If you're looking for more of a soft cookie, the recipe will be lower in sugar and fat with a high moisture content. And if you're a chewy cookie fan, your recipe will call for more moisture and sugar and less fat. It'll also call for a stronger flour with more protein (like bread flour). What does this mean for the home baker? Experiment. If you want a chewy cookie and you're using the typical Toll House Recipe, try bread flour instead and use a bit more sugar. Take notes and compare. With the right information, you can have more control over your recipes.

8. Freezing and Storing: A good rule of thumb on this is to think about the moisture in your product. If there's a lot of moisture in something you've made (custards, lemon bars etc.), you generally want to avoid freezing after baking. Something with low moisture and high fat like a cookie is o.k. to freeze whereas a product with high moisture and lower fat like a soft, crumbly muffin really isn't great to freeze once baked.

9. All About Chilling: Have you noticed lately that many cookie recipes ask you to chill your dough in the freezer before baking? What's going on here? The most likely answer is that chilling decreases the probability that your cookies will spread when baked. Another possbility is one the New York Times stands behind with their infamous Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe: that dough tends to develop flavors when allowed to overnight, resulting in a richer, more buttery/toffee-like dough. Try it. You decide.

10. A Few Tips for Working with Chocolate: People spend years studying chocolate and confections, but for the purposes of home baking and simple pastry production, there are a few good things to know. First, when you're melting chocolate in a double boiler, you always want to cover the bowl that the chocolate's in. The second moisture hits the chocolate mixture, you're going to run the risk of grainy chocolate. Second, don't overheat your mixture. This, too, will create lumps. Last, don't let your bowl actually touch the water. You want space in between the bowl and the water below--this is where steam is trapped and this is what's going to melt your chocolate.

I think the first time I had Nutella was in my college dorm and little individual packets were being passed around the hall. Someone's mom had sent a pretty stellar care package. I tracked down the source and made friends with Liz. Thankfully, her mom just kept sending those care packages. In graduate school, my friend Laura jazzed up her brownies with Nutella. For reasons other than this (although this counts as a firm reason), I'm devastated we now live across the country from one another. And when I lived in Boston suffering through those long winters, I'd "spike" my coffee with spoonfuls of Nutella. I'm convinced it helped me get through many a long night of studying.

The history of Nutella is an interesting one. It was created in the late 1940's by Pietro Fierro. Because of war rationing, there wasn't an abundance of cocoa and Fierro was a pastry maker in dire need of a rich spread to use with his baked goods. He decided to mix in hazelnuts to serve almost as a filler and to stretch out the chocolate supply. According to the Nutella homepage, the treat was originally called "pasta gianduja"--gianduja being a carnival character infamous in the Italian region of Piedmont and pasta denoting that it was a paste. At the time, it was made in small loaves so you could slice it and place it right on bread like a piece of cheese or a cold cut (Dear Nutella manufacturers, let's bring this one back!) Nutella began to make its way from Italy to the United States in the early 80's, and you know the rest of the story.

Today, Nutella's popularity has reached cult status in some circles. Major grocery stores stock it. Some folks are getting Nutella tattoos. Food bloggers adore it. There is, in fact, a World Nutella Day each year on February 5th. Meredith Stubbs of Food52 recently considered Nutella in her column for the New York Times, The New Staples. It's big. It's undeniable.

The one bummer about Nutella is that it does contain hydrogenated oils (another reason to make your own using my friend Shannalee's homemade Nutella recipe). Last time I checked, this is the reason my local Whole Foods doesn't stock it. For awhile, I'd buy a more expensive version of Nutella that did not contain hydrogenated oils but it was almost three times the cost. So I rationalize the treat a few ways: I either use recipes that emulate the flavor of Nutella by using good cocoa and ground hazelnuts or I think of Nutella very much as a treat. I try not to buy it all that often and when I do have it around, I try and do something special with it rather than just eat it spoonful by spoonful out of the jar--although that can prove to be pretty special, too. So recently I made a Nutella puff pastry that would fall into the ridiculously easy yet special category.

It's almost less of a recipe than it is a vehicle with which to enjoy a little Nutella. Regardless, it'll please crowds of coworkers, families, significant others, small dogs. You name it.

Nutella Puff Pastry
This recipe was inspired by a recipe for Chocolate-Almond Pastries in the December ‘09 issue of Martha Stewart Magazine. I gave it new life by using hazelnuts and Nutella. It’s a versatile recipe–you could easily use any combination of nuts, dried fruits, and chocolates. Next time I make it, I’m going to add a few dollops of Mascarpone cheese to finish it off.

Makes: 4-6 servings

Ingredients:
1 sheet frozen puff pastry (from a 17.3 package), thawed
1 large egg, beaten for an egg wash
7 oz. Nutella (roughly half of a 13 oz. jar)
1 Tbsp. sugar for sanding the crust
Fleur de sel (or fine sea salt) for finishing
4 Tbsp. whole hazelnuts, toasted and chopped

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Arrange puff pastry on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Form a 10-inch square and fold each edge in to make a 1-inch crust. Poke middle of dough numerous times with a fork. Brush edges of dough with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar. Freeze for fifteen minutes.
3. Transfer baking sheet to oven and bake until pastry is puffed and golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes.
4. Remove from oven and spread Nutella evenly across the pastry. The Nutella will begin to melt, making it much easier to spread.
5. Sprinkle with sea salt and hazelnuts and cut into 4 squares or 6 triangles. Serve warm.