Chocolate Tort - Oblande

These thin layers of wafers make eating rich, homemade chocolate fudge seem a little less decadent.  

I try to keep oblande (wafer sheets) in my pantry at all times. Easy to do as when they're on sale at Chicago's north-side Balkan grocers (City Fresh Market or Devon Market). They're sold with a plastic wrapping keeps them fresh for long-term storage. Most packages will include multiple recipes on the label and I've kept this one for years and regularly replace the ground hazelnut with finely chopped walnuts. 

Ingredients:

7 oz. melted chocolate

6 egg yolks

1-1/2 C heavy cream

8 oz butter

1-1/2 C sugar

7 oz finely chopped walnuts

Blend the sugar, egg yolks and cream and pour into in a pre-heated pot over low heat - stir until the custard-like mixture foams and rises. It will lighten in color as the eggs cook to a safe temperature. Make sure to stir constantly to prevent curdling or burning.

In a separate, heat-safe bowl combine the butter and chocolate and melt it in a pot of water (careful not to let the water in the mixture). A microwave will do the job quicker but I don't have one in my kitchen. Fold the butter/chocolate mix into the custard then fold in the ground nuts. 

At this point I lay down parchment or waxed paper on a cookie sheet and place the first wafer sheet. The wafers have two sides, one with a wide grid and the other with a finer grid pattern. For the inside layers place the wider grid facing up. Fill evenly with 1/4 the still-warm fudge mix (most tort wafer packages include 5 sheets). Repeat until the last sheet, which I flip to show the smaller grid pattern on top. Place another sheet of parchment on top, add a cookie sheet on that, then add some weight. I use two large cookbooks. Refrigerate overnight. Cut with a sharp thin knife diagonally into diamond shapes. Oblande store best in a closed container in the refrigerator.

This text was also on the label I saved that included the recipe. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia only existed from 1992-2006.

Fried Dough

I'm fighting the "woe is me" syndrome this winter by sharpening my DIY skills. High gas prices and a limited winter income have kept me at home more than I'd like these days and I'm shifting my grocery budget to seed buying for the summer.
Every once in a while I crave junk food but my pantry is only stocked with basic staples these days: potatoes, apples, flours, sugar, cooking oils, spices, cocoa, coffee. . . when I have a snack craving I'm forced to make something from scratch. I tried a few cupcake recipes from the Wednesday Tribune food section but they didn't delight.
Today I went for a childhood favorite. Fried dough. I use a basic recipe similar to krofne but I make up the recipe every time. Today in an attempt at frugality I used just water instead of milk. I simply put some warm tap water in a bowl, added a sprinkle of granular sugar, a packet of yeast and stirred. Then I added flour, without measuring, and kneaded the sticky dough in a bowl on my lap with one hand while I read Facebook updates on the computer. I hate kneading dough, always have.
Instead of cutting out circles in the dough, I rolled it out, cut them into diamonds/rectangles, sliced down the center and pulled one end through the slice. You can see in the picture it gives them a bit of a flourish. I'm sure there's a proper name for these pastries, if you know it please share. I cooked the dough in hot oil, today I had sunflower oil in the pantry so that's what I used. After they browned I put them on paper towels to absorb the extra oil, then placed them in a gallon-sized zippered plastic bag, sprinkled powdered sugar inside, and shook the bag. Now I've got a stash of sweet fried dough to snack on for a couple of days. Great with coffee.

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The coffee I'm drinking now is a Yakuza special from Resistance Coffee. I splurged a bit on these locally-roasted beans because the company includes my friend David Meyers, who I met years and years ago when I lived and worked in Wicker Park and he was writing for Letter X, a Chicago poetry journal. I find it a bit weird that David's been farming within miles of my farm for years. This coffee is a special "Yakuza" blend (I think all the Resistance coffee is the same, they just put a different sticker on the bag) is for one of my favorite bands, fronted by my friend Bruce Lamont, founder of the Empty Bottle Farmers Market and longtime Videnovich Farms supporter. Another way my worlds collide is that the illustration is by Scott Fricke, a dear friend I met when we studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.