Archive for the 'dessert' Category
Our house is under siege, and the flu is winning. It has been lingering for a week and a half now, from about the exact same minute I stepped off the plane from Vancouver the weekend before last. It likes to manifest itself in different ways for each of us, just for kicks. Sinus infection? Check. Ginormous tonsils with white polka-dots? Check. Body aches? Check. Fever? Check. Swollen lymph nodes? Check. W has finally emerged, having fought off myriad symptoms and a fever for EIGHT! NIGHTS! It even spread across the street, to my sister’s house, and is wreaking a whole new havoc over there. Since I arrived back as it was emerging, I’m a few days behind and having already been sick a week, just now getting the worst of it. Anyone calling me on the phone might wonder who was strangling me as I spoke, or I sound as if I’ve swallowed a golf ball.
We’ve mostly been eating soup and toast and smoothies, and not much of any of it. I did manage to make this tarte tatin for my Tuesday segment on CBC – one I should have skipped, but I was at that stage of thinking I must be coming out of it now – and again at the Start From Scratch class I promised to help with last night. The photo really doesn’t do it justice – at all – but you get the gist, right? Just squint your eyes and imagine chewy, caramelly edges and soft-firm mapley fruit. If you plan ahead, pick up a tub of vanilla ice cream.
Maple Apple Tarte Tatin
adapted from Canadian Living
4 apples
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup maple syrup
pastry for a single crust pie
Core the apples and cut them into 8 wedges (one of those apple slicers works perfectly) – don’t worry about peeling them. Preheat the oven to 425°F.
In a 9-10″ cast-iron skillet, melt the butter over medium-high heat; add sugar and cook, stirring, until bubbly and just turning golden, about 2 minutes. Add maple syrup; cook, stirring, until everything is dissolved. Remove from the heat and arrange apples, flat side down, in concentric circles in the syrup.
Return to medium-low heat and cook, basting with a spoon, until apples the begin to soften and syrup starts to thicken, about 7 minutes. Remove from heat.
Meanwhile, on lightly floured surface, roll out pastry to a 10″ circle; drape over the apples, pressing the edge of the pastry down between the apples and the pan. Cut a few steam vents in the top.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown. Let stand for 10 minutes, then run a thin knife around the edge and invert the tarte onto a platter or plate. Replace any apples that may stick to pan and scrape out any leftover sauce, pouring it over the apples. Serve warm.
March 01 2012 | dessert | 11 Comments »
You’ll need something chocolate tomorrow, yes? How about a few chocolate pots de crème? (Pots is pronounced po, being French and all.) It’s just like crème brûlée, only without the crackly caramelized sugar top, which can be tricky without a blowtorch. And I’m guessing most kitchens don’t come equipped with blowtorches.
Why settle for straight-up chocolate when it can be gently transformed with cream and egg yolks into a pot of silky smooth deliciousness you can eat with a spoon? These little baked custards are completely divine, require little to no skill, and can be done tonight for dessert tomorrow. If you don’t have ramekins, the dollar store sells them – two or three in a pack for a dollar. No lie.
Baked custards – like pots and crème brûlées – are generally done in what’s cheffily referred to as a bain marie – which sounds fancier and more complex, being French and all, than water bath. So really, you just need to toss them in a tub. That’s something you do to yourself almost every day, isn’t it? If you can bathe a baby, you can totally bathe a crème brûlée. The water acts as insulation, allowing it to bake gently and evenly, without producing scrambled eggy bits.
For chocolate-orange pots de crème, add a little orange zest. These pots are easy to play with, flavour-wise. And doesn’t it sound fancy when you add a pinch of espresso (or plain old coffee) powder to the cream as you whip it? You could sweeten it with pure maple syrup instead, or booze. Or mash raspberries and swirl them into whipped cream, making a sort of raspberry fool to dollop on top.
There are no rules – except try to share. Just do your best.
Chocolate Pots de Crème
Bon Appétit, April 2000; the espresso or coffee intensifies the chocolate flavour, but won’t make your pots taste like a pot of coffee.
2 cups whipping cream
4 oz. dark or semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 tsp. instant espresso or coffee powder
6 large egg yolks
3 Tbsp. sugar
Position rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325°F. Arrange six 3/4-cup ramekins in a roasting or 9×13-inch pan.
In a medium saucepan, heat the cream over medium heat until it’s steaming; remove from the heat and add the chocolate and espresso powder. Let sit for a few minutes, then whisk until smooth.
Meanwhile, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar. When the chocolate mixture has cooled a bit, whisk it in. Divide the custard between the cups, and pour warm water into the pan to come halfway up the sides of the cups. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the custards are set but still just slightly jiggly in the middle. Cool, then refrigerate until well chilled – at least 2 hours, or up to a day or two.
Serves 6 very happy people.
Espresso Whipped Cream: whip 1 cup chilled heavy (whipping) cream with sugar to taste and about a 1/2 tsp. instant espresso or coffee – again, you can add more or less according to your preference. Taste as you go.
February 13 2012 | dessert | 22 Comments »
Today would have been my Grandad’s birthday. If he were still around, he’d be 105.
A few things you should know about my Grandad:
He’s the only one I had.
His name was Fred. Not Frederick – just Fred.
He went to University at 90 (or thereabouts) to learn how to use a computer. If memory serves, he finished with 90%. And worried what he’d do if he needed that other 10%.
He started a construction company, and built the Ford factory in Detroit, and Hiram Walker in Windsor. (Now they build wind turbines. He’d think that was pretty cool.)
Whenever he said goodbye, he said “see you on the salmon can!” – to this day no one knows what that meant, but it seemed like a perfectly normal salutation to me as a kid.
He always dressed for dinner, and sat at the head of the long dining room table that looked out on the Detroit river. Once my grandmother had served everyone, none of us could make a sound (in a playful, not a strict way) until he took a bite and approved. Of course he always approved.
These are his hands:
His favourite dessert was a scoop of vanilla ice cream with caramel or butterscotch sauce.
One day when I was a teenager my dad tried to sneak him some low-fat yogurt / frozen soy product. It didn’t go well.
My grandma bought those little tins of caramel sauce, and one can hardly blame her, as she was in her eighties and had spent most of her life making fantastic meals – and pastry from scratch – for my Grandad, my mom and her three brothers, and for subsequent families, aunts, uncles and cousins. She was known for her marmalade cookies, and the plum puddings she’d make at Christmas. But that’s another story. Point is, she’d have made great caramel, too.
Caramel can be an intimidating thing to make. But if it’s something you’d like to master, I suggest giving it a go, playing with sugar over heat, with water or without, just to get a feel for it. The best way to learn anything is by doing it, and sugar is about as cheap a practicing medium as they get.
A few things you should know about caramel:
To make it, all you need to do is heat sugar until it turns golden – into caramel.
Sometimes water or syrup or both are added, generally to help get things started and slow things down – it keeps the sugar from going from zero straight to deep golden.
Despite what many recipes instruct you don’t need to hover over your pot, washing the sides down with a pastry brush dipped in water. In fact, doing this adds more water to the caramel, increasing the cooking time because all that water will have to cook off. (This is done to keep the caramel from crystallizing, but it doesn’t, really – it washes down the crystals that have actually formed.)
If you add a few drops of lemon juice to the sugar-water-syrup mixture at the beginning, it will keep crystals from forming in the first place. Also? You can stir to dissolve the sugar, but once it starts boiling, keep utensils out of it. You need only occasionally lift the pot and swirl it around.
Once it turns golden, it’s caramel – the hotter and more deeply coloured it gets, the firmer it will be when it cools. Once it begins to turn, it moves fast – it will seem to take forever to start caramelizing, and then will darken at close to the speed of sound.
Caramel sauce is made by then whisking a liquid, like cream, into the caramelized sugar as soon as it reaches this point, which causes it to seize up (to set, really), and spatter and steam ferociously. But then it calms down and the hardened bits melt, and it turns into a sauce, rather than firming up into something chewy or hard. And so it’s an easy thing to make, since you don’t have to worry about temperatures or rely on thermometers and such. You just swirl your pan of sugar until it turns a deep golden, then whisk in cream. Butter too, if you like, but that’s it. And what you’ll wind up with is a sublime sauce – as thick or thin as you like, depending on how much liquid you add – and it will be better than any you’ll find on a grocery store shelf, yet cost under a dollar to make, depending solely on the amount of cream you use. You could get fancy and add chocolate or vanilla or espresso or orange or bourbon, but don’t underestimate the flavour potential of pure caramelized sugar and cream.
The problem, I must warn you, is that you’ll then have access to said caramel. And I like to think of it less as caramel sauce and more as spoon caramel, because mostly what I do is pause at the fridge door, pull out a spoon, dip it in, lick it off, and repeat until Mike wonders aloud what happened to all the spoons.
If my Grandad was here, I’d make him caramel for his sundaes.
Caramel Sauce
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water (or thereabouts)
1/4 tsp. lemon juice (or a few drops)
1/2 cup heavy (whipping) cream
1-2 Tbsp. butter (optional)
pinch salt (optional)
In a heavy saucepan, heat the sugar, water and lemon juice over medium-high heat. If you like, stir until the sugar dissolves. Otherwise, just swirl the pan occasionally.
Keep cooking it, swirling it occasionally, until it starts to turn golden. Don’t leave it after this point – swirl the pan more often until it turns deep golden. Have the cream and butter ready and pull the pot off the heat and add them (or just cream) immediately as soon as it turns deep golden – it will spatter and steam. Stir until smooth – if there are any set chunks of caramel in the pot, they will melt back in. If you like, stir in a pinch of salt.
Cool completely and pour into a jar to keep in the fridge.
January 30 2012 | dessert | 34 Comments »
Tiramisu is the sort of dessert I love, but yet rarely order. It’s so often disappointing in restaurants – this statement makes me sound like I’m at an Italian restaurant a few nights a week – but isn’t it? And I’m pretty sure the bad ones have just as many calories. Tiramisu is also the sort of thing I never think of making. There don’t seem to be many occasions that scream for tiramisu.
And yet, it’s so tasty when done well, and you get that bonus coffee hit at the end of the meal, too. And so when Sue’s sister Holly, whom I’ve known since Junior High and now that I think about it was responsible for introducing me to Mike, called out for help via Facebook, I was happy to take on the tiramisu challenge. She’s planning to make tiramisu for Christmas dinner dessert, but all recipes seemed too complicated, too raw-eggy or too boozy. Good news! You can totally ditch the booze if you like. Or at least replace it with coffee or Kahlua – or Bailey’s! Something you have on hand.. I never have Marsala in the house anyway.
You’ll need a package of these. And some mascarpone – a rich, creamy Italian cream cheese – although depending on who’s eating it, you could get away with plain old cream cheese. Call it cheesecake tiramisu and they’ll let you off the hook for its inauthenticity.
Tonight we’re having an evening of Christmas caroling with drinks and dessert at my mom’s – as good an excuse as any to take tiramisu for a spin, don’t you think? As I made it I realized what a great idea it is for Christmas dinner dessert – kinda special, unusual, great for a crowd, and since it has to be chilled for at least 6 hours, perfect to make ahead, or take with you if you’re tasked with providing dessert elsewhere. You don’t need to even worry about whipping the cream for the top of your pie or whatever you’ve made in advance – it’s all just done. Brilliant!
It’s not too tough to make, either. You start with some egg yolks, and in this version beat them with sugar and Marsala or coffee in a bowl set over a pot of simmering water. It’ll start out looking like this:
And five minutes later, look like this. Then you beat in the mascarpone, and fold it into your whipped cream. Voilà! You can do it. Try not to eat it all straight from the bowl.
Then make some coffee – instant is fine – and stir in some Kahlua or Tia Maria or rum or something. Find a dish that will fit 12 ladyfingers in the bottom. (A package has 24, and you’ll need two layers.)
Dip the ladyfingers into the coffee – quickly, don’t let them soak or they’ll start to fall apart – and then lay them into the bottom of the dish. Top with half your cream mixture, then another layer of dipped ladyfingers, and the rest of the cream. That’s it.
Smooth the top, and sprinkle with cocoa powder. I like to use a tea spoon (like a tea ball – the kind you fill with loose tea and set in your mug of boiling water) – spoon out some cocoa and shake it overtop. Works like a charm.
Cover and refrigerate for 6 hours, or up to a day. Then all you need to do is uncover and eat.
Merry Christmas Holly! Thanks for the Mike.
Tiramisu
adapted from Gourmet, January 2009
1 Tbsp. instant espresso
1/2 cup sugar, divided
2 Tbsp. Kahlua or Tia Maria
3 large egg yolks
1/3 cup dry Marsala or cooled coffee
1 1/2-2 cups mascarpone (or soft cream cheese)
1 cup heavy (whipping) cream
24 savoiardi (Italian ladyfingers – one package)
cocoa, for dusting
Stir the espresso powder and about 1 Tbsp. of the sugar into 1 cup of boiling (or at least very hot) water. Stir in the Kahlua and pour into a shallow bowl-one you can dip the ladyfingers in.
In a glass or stainless steel bowl set over a pot of simmering water, beat the egg yolks, remaining sugar and coffee or Marsala on high speed for 5-8 minutes, until the mixture pales and triples in volume. Remove from heat and beat in the mascarpone or cream cheese. It will deflate the egg yolk mixture somewhat – don’t worry – just get the lumps of cheese out.
In another bowl, beat the cream until stiff peaks form. Gently fold in the mascarpone mixture.
Get out a dish that will accommodate 12 ladyfingers in the bottom, and then dip each ladyfinger into the coffee mixture, then lay it in the bottom of the dish. Lay 12 in the bottom, then top with half the mascarpone mixture. Add another layer of dipped ladyfingers, then the rest of the mascarpone mixture, smoothing the top. Sprinkle with cocoa, cover and refrigerate for at least 6 hours, or up to a day.
Let the tiramisu stand at room temperature for about 30 minutes before serving it (the flavour is better if it’s not so cold), and if you need to, dust again with cocoa. Serves 8-10.
December 22 2011 | dessert | 16 Comments »
We had our annual Christmas party this weekend – the theme this year, as the past two, was polyester & cheese. As in, wear polyester (the cheesier, the better), and bring a chunk of cheese. It’s an idea we shamelessly stole from good friends who did it a few years ago. Polyester offers so many more options – and less itchy ones – than those tired tacky sweaters.
So. There was a lot of cheese. And crackers, bread, wild boar pate, and loads of Christmas cookies and squares. House parties are just the very best thing at Christmas, aren’t they? They remind me of being a kid and getting to stay up late with the neighbourhood kids while my parents were distracted, and of hiding under the dining room table-turned-buffet, reaching up to steal the occasional Hello Dolly. I’m still a little giddy that I’m the boss of me now and can eat as many Hello Dollies as I want.
I tried not to cook much, as my back is still a little choked at me – but I had to make Hello Dollies, and some spiced nuts, eccles cakes, rugelach, and a cheese ball. A cheese ball is a must at any Christmas house party, I say, and this year I made Lisa‘s (the Homesick Texan) bacon-jalapeño cheese ball, because I had the chance to meet (and even have dinner with!) her this year, and because it looked fantastic. And it had bacon.
The recipe is on her site – the only thing I did was cut the jalapeño back to 1, and lazily mixed all the cooked bacon into the ball, rolling it exclusively in chopped toasted pecans. I also used far more grated cheddar, as I read “1 1/2 cups” rather than “1/2 cup”, and W was helping me and was enthusiastic about grating and adding even more to the bowl, but it’s a cheese ball – if it will hold together well enough to roll into a ball, you’re in good shape.
And then I made some pecan pie brownies, because after all that it seemed we were lacking in the chocolate department. They were Gwendolyn’s Pecan Pie Brownies, something she had found in an NBC Sunday Night Football Cookbook, of all places. I made a few changes – ditched the bourbon, not because I’m anti-bourbon, but because I don’t want it to interfere with my chocolate, caramel and pecans. Ditto the cinnamon. (Am I the only one that doesn’t appreciate the chocolate-cinnamon combo?) And I swapped Roger’s Golden syrup for the corn syrup, because I like the flavour far better. (Golden syrup is cane syrup, rather than corn syrup, but it has a similar texture, so I use them interchangeably.) You bake the brownies, then cool them, then pour the topping over top and bake them again. They will be uber moist and gooey and need some coaxing to get them out of the pan -which happily means a few mucked ones to sample as you cut. (Quality control is important.) If I had the freezer space I might have frozen it first – gooey bars always cut more cleanly when frozen.
Pecan Pie Brownies
Brownies:
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup cocoa
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
Pecan Pie Topping:
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup Roger’s Golden or corn syrup
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups pecans, chopped
Preheat oven to 325F. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter with the cocoa over medium heat, stirring and removing from the heat as soon as the butter melts. Stir until smooth, then stir in the sugar. Stir in the eggs and vanilla until smooth, then add the flour and salt and stir just until combined.
Pour into an 8×8-inch baking dish that has been buttered or sprayed with nonstick spray; smooth the top. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, then let cool completely.
To make the topping, stir together the brown sugar, syrup, butter, eggs and vanilla until smooth. Stir in the pecans and pour over the base. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until golden and set.
Let cool completely, then refrigerate for at least two hours before serving.
Makes 16-24 brownies.
And have you heard of our Random Acts of Cheese? We’ve had some fun this weekend, popping in on two people we’ve never met, showing up on their doorsteps with Mike in a Santa suit holding a box of cheese. Allyson and Michelle were the happy (and totally surprised) recipients this weekend, but we’ll continue to play Mr and Mrs Claus all week, spreading cheesy cheer all over the city. Have someone you’d like to acknowledge with a box of cheese? Say so here! (Or here, or on twitter (hashtag: #randomactsofcheese), or Facebook… we’re keeping tabs everywhere!
December 18 2011 | cookies & squares and dessert | 21 Comments »
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