Crab Artichoke Spinach Dip

Some of my friends, especially those who I’ve cooked for in the past, thought it was exciting that I was starting a food blog. Well, technically I have started it, but I never promised to post often. Actually I’ve made quite a few things that may someday become blog posts, but still need work before I’m willing to share the recipes. A few others are ready, if only I had taken photos the first time around. I’m also resisting the temptation to post only dessert recipes, which makes me especially happy with this post.

Before we get to the rich, tender, and delicious crab and cheese combination that you came here for, let me tell you about one of these other recipes that is under development. A few months ago I took a trip to Cambridge, MA. After a long day, having checked into my hotel room, I found myself far past dinner time and quite hungry. Not knowing the area or having the energy to explore, I wandered down to the hotel restaurant and got a seat for a Prix Fixe menu for some Italian food. Let me tell you, the bread and olive oil were fantastic that night, as are most things when you’re so hungry. With my stomach settled down, I got to enjoy the rest of my meal in a more relaxed state. Despite my predilection to avoid bacon, I started with the Spaghetti alla Carbonara. It was so good that I was somewhat stunned, having assumed I wouldn’t like the flavor of the meat all that much. As it turns out, the combination of the bacon (technically they used guanciale), onion, and Parmigiano reggiano is a great one. It’s not really all that surprising actually, and the egg makes the texture quite smooth… delightful overall. The rest of the meal was good too of course. I had organic chicken with soft white polenta and a mix of baby vegetables, followed by a dessert of cocoa zabiglone over a warm hazelnut cake sprinkled with whole hazelnuts and chocolate sauce. The restaurant is Dante, and it was just dumb luck that I ended up at an acclaimed “Best of Boston”(2008) establishment.

Of course I had to try to make the carbonara on my own, and I’ve had moderate success so far. When I attempted to scale up the recipe to 7 people for my friends, I found that I didn’t have enough sauce, hadn’t bought the right kind of bacon, had it sliced too thin, and didn’t get enough intensity out of the onions. Also, when I made fresh pasta, it didn’t have the right bite that was so flawless at Dante. My fresh pasta is only coming out right for ravioli. Once I get it all right, I’ll post it here. Don’t hold your breath. In the meantime, I have another recommendation for the dish — this weekend I was in NYC for theatre and visiting friends and had an equally amazing carbonara at Cara Mia in Hell’s Kitchen.

Now that you know what’s to come, let’s get back to… what was it? Oh yes, crab! Some days, the thing to do is just buy some frozen king crab legs, find the biggest pot you can, and steam them up. Served with a little glass bowl of clarified butter and maybe some white rice — you’re all set. The rest of the days, you might just buy a can of jumbo lump crab meat. I’m told the best are usually canned, but still refrigerated rather than shelf-stable. I had some leftover from making pizzas with crab, mozzarella, blue cheese, roasted pine nuts, and dried black currants (inspired by Teresa’s Caffe — I think they used chicken). Well, when one has an extra 1 – 1.5 cups of crab meat, you can beat making crab dip.

Crab Artichoke Spinach Dip

Usually when I have such an idea, I scour the internet for recipes. I end up with two or three that sound good, and pick the best elements of each to come up with my own recipe. I knew I wanted to use artichokes, and was inspired in this fashion to add spinach and Parmesan cheese as well. Actually, I substituted freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese instead, since I like the sharp, salty flavor. Also, rather than using a full 8oz package of cream cheese, I made my dip a bit lighter with only half a package and a basic roux-thickened white sauce. I think it was the perfect consistency this way, but you can decide for yourself.

Also, it is important to note, this recipe is quite flexible in terms of quantities. If you are vegetarian, leave out the crab and put in more spinach. If you’re anti-vegetarian, add more crab! The most indulgent way to serve it is on top of wedges or cups of puff pastry, cooked golden brown in the oven at 400 degrees. Wheat crackers or pita chips are also acceptable.

Crab Artichoke Spinach Dip

1/2 lb (1-1.5 cups) fresh canned jumbo lump crab meat
1/2 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese
14 oz can artichoke hearts, drained, rinsed and chopped
1.5 cups chopped frozen spinach, thawed
4 oz cream cheese
2 tbsp light olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1 large shallot, diced
2 tbsp flour
1.5 cups milk
salt and pepper to taste

In a heavy saucepan, sauté onions and shallots in olive oil until light brown.

Add artichoke hearts, season with a pinch of salt, and cook briefly. Break apart large pieces.

Add flour and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring until all the flour is absorbed and no lumps remain.

Add milk and cook to thicken for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add cream cheese and grated cheese, cook to melt.

Add spinach and crab meat, stirring a little bit to break apart some of the large pieces of crab.

Add salt & pepper to taste.

Pour into a casserole dish and serve immediately with crackers, pita chips, or on top of wedges of puff pastry.

This dish can be refrigerated and reheated in the oven at 350 degrees until bubbling.

Chocolate Mudslide Cookies

About two weeks ago, my friend Jenny came to visit me and do some baking together. She had two challenges: to make chocolate cupcakes in a funny cake pan shaped like a train set, and bake some cookies from a fancy mix she had purchased.

We start with the cupcakes… Here in Princeton, there are now two places to buy gourmet cupcakes, so I decided to use a recipe from a cupcake shop in New York City. The one we used is from Magnolia Bakery. (Magnolia Bakery Chocolate Cupcakes) with Magnolia’s Chocolate Buttercream Frosting (can be found here or use one of many other recipes).  They were delicious! I’d even say better than Bent Spoon cupcakes – one success! The buttermilk makes the cupcakes extra moist and adds a slight tanginess.

Finished Cookies

Jacques Torres Cookie Mix

Now for the cookies… Jenny had a box of Jacques Torres Chocolate Mudslide Cookie Mix, which you can buy online for about $13 plus shipping. They are decadent and turned out to be delicious, but I couldn’t accept paying that much for a box that only makes one dozen cookies. So I told her that I would deconstruct them to come up with a recipe (thus motivating the title of my new blog).

Before we get to my recipe, let’s look a little bit closer at the boxed mix. The box includes a 7oz bag of unsweetened chocolate discs (which is melted into the batter), a 6oz bag of bittersweet chocolate discs (used as extra large chocolate chips), and a bag of cookie mix.  You add to that 2 tbsp butter, 2 large eggs, and some heat and you get yourself cookies. So the challenge for me was to decode the cookie mix.

Thanks to the FDA and NLEA (Nutrition Labeling and Education Act), I started with the ingredient list:

Jacques Torres Ingredient List

From this I learn that the chocolate discs in the box are Belgian chocolate, and that the cookie mix contains (in order of decreasing weight):

• Sugar
• Walnuts
• All-purpose flour
• Baking powder
• Salt

From the box, I know that the total weight should be 22oz, leaving 9oz (a little over 255g) for the cookie mix when you subtract out the weight of the chocolate. My best guess is that the 255g should be about 150g sugar, 55g chopped walnuts, and 45g all-purpose flour. From looking at the mix and the finished cookies, there couldn’t be more than half a cup of walnuts, and there had to be less flour by weight. The rest is sugar. From other cookie recipes it seems reasonable to use 1 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt (which covers the rest of the weight). For my recipe below, I’ve adjusted these proportions a little bit to make it easier to measure.

As you can see, the recipe works out to have only 1/3 cup flour. For comparison, normal chocolate chip cookies use around 2 cups. These are very rich and dense cookies we’re making! If you want them to be a little lighter tasting, I recommend increasing the flour to 75g (~1/2 cup) – I think I prefer them this way. I’m also considering that confectioners’ (powdered) sugar or a little extra salt might make these even better. I haven’t tried it yet though.

For the chocolate, we have a few options. In my recipe, I kept the combination of unsweetened and bittersweet chocolate from the box. However, I don’t normally keep unsweetened chocolate around the house. One option is to use bittersweet chocolate for both. Another option is to substituted cocoa powder and extra butter for part of it, to keep some of the bitterness. So instead of 7oz of unsweetened chocolate, melt together 4oz of bittersweet chocolate,  1/2 cup natural (non-alkalized) cocoa powder, and 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter (plus the 2 tablespoons butter in the recipe – 5 tbsp total).

Cocoa powder is just pure unsweetened chocolate (chocolate liquor) which is pressed to remove most of the cocoa butter. For this substitution, extra butter replaces the missing cocoa butter. You can buy cocoa powder either natural (which can be somewhat acidic) or “dutch process”, which is alkalized to neutralize the pH. But here we want the flavor intensity of natural cocoa, which can be lost in processing.

As for the rest of the chocolate, the better quality chocolate you use, the better the cookies will taste. I recommend buying blocks of chocolate in bulk or using chocolate bars from the supermarket. Chop them up to make chocolate chunks (for the chips) and for melting. Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s usually sell blocks of quality chocolate already cut up into ~1lb pieces. I prefer those with around 60% cocoa.

So what chocolate do I use? For the majority of my chocolate making, I use Ghirardelli 60% cocoa bittersweet chocolate chips. They should be in your supermarket in 12oz bags, and I get bigger bags of them at the local warehouse “club” store. They taste great (so much better than standard chocolate chips), and are pretty inexpensive. Using these chips, we can make mudslide cookies for far less than $13.

When I want the best quality chocolate, for making chocolate mousse, chocolate soufflé, or these cookies at their best, I use Callebaut Belgian Dark Chocolate (60.3%). I have a friend who got a group together to split an order to buy some in bulk online. You can also try here or your local gourmet store for smaller quantities. (Markets like Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods usually sell bulk chocolate as well.) With the group order, the chocolate cost just under $9. So for the most decadent chocolate cookies you’ve probably ever had, maybe ten bucks isn’t so bad!

Cookie Dough (ready to go into the oven)

Chocolate Mudslide Cookies

7 oz (200g) unsweetened chocolate
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
50g (~1/3 cup) all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
150g sugar (3/4 cup granulated sugar or 1-1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar)
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
6 oz (170g) bittersweet chocolate chunks/chips
60g (1/2 cup) chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 375°F

Melt butter and unsweetened chocolate over low heat, stirring to combine. Once melted remove from heat and let cool.

Beat eggs, and then beat in sugar. Mix in cool chocolate mixture and then add vanilla.

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt and stir into batter, mixing just until combined.

Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts.

Scoop 1/4-cupfulls onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet, and refrigerate for 20-30 minutes.

Bake 12-15 minutes at 375°F, until the cookies are firm around the edges, and appear slightly shiny with cracks that might appear somewhat unbaked inside.

Let cool 5-10 minutes before removing to a cookie rack.

Yields 12 cookies.

[Optional: Replace 7oz of unsweetened chocolate with 4oz (114g) bittersweet chocolate, 1/2 cup natural (nonalkalized) cocoa powder, and 3 tablespoons unsalted butter (in addition to the other butter). Melt all three together and mix thoroughly.]

[Optional: Increase flour to 75g (~1/2 cup sifted) to make the cookies a bit lighter]

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