Let me start by trying to describe my unholy, unhealthy obsession with custards. I love custards. I love them with a passion equal only to pork, and we have already discussed my love of the pig. Whenever I pick up a dessert menu, the first thing I look for is a custard. I have no idea what it is about them – there are certainly desserts that taste as good and in some ways better – but the combination of the taste and the texture just really work for me. Zabaglione, crème brulee, flan, you just can’t go wrong.
I could get into the history of it – custard has been around since the Middle Ages (which, by the way, happens to be the coolest period of time in history) and possibly longer – but the truth of it is, panna cotta isn’t really a custard. At least, not technically. It has more in common with Jell-O in terms of chemical structure, and there’s not a drop of egg involved. But, when made right, it has a texture and flavor to rival any crème anglaise.
Continue reading ‘Panna Cotta with Flourless Chocolate Cake’
Apt because there are so many things about which to wonder once you eat one. Things like, "I wonder if I can resist eating another one!" or "I wonder if all of my teeth are going to fall out of my mouth!" and maybe even "I wonder if that tingly sensation is that bite going immediately to my hips!" My reaction was, "Oh holy Mary mother of Jesus, I wonder where I put my antacids…" because these cookies? They mean business. In both the best and worst ways.
They’re from The Improvisational Cook by Sally Schneider, which is an interesting book not only because the title describes my polar opposite but because of the approach it has towards both the recipes and the layout of the book itself. For instance, the other day I made one of the recipes demonstrating what she calls "close-roasting", a pork shoulder braised in its own juices by covering closely with aluminum foil in a dutch oven and marinated overnight in a "mole-inspired ancho chile, cinnamon and cocoa powder" rub. This was but one of 4 variations listed under the category of close-roasting – the next variation? Duck. So the goal is to show you the technique and how you might apply it to anything you have on hand, so that you might – get ready for it – improvise! Amazing how that works. We’ll see how that works out for someone like me, what with my panic attacks at having a different kind of paprika than a recipe calls for.
Anyway, my lemon cake was almost gone and I needed something to keep me from reaching out to Little Debbie, (she’s so good to me!) so I plucked this recipe out of the back since Warren prefers brownie or other chocolate + flour treats. A word of caution – these tell you heaping tablespoon or 1/4 portions of dough. If you make these with the variation I have written, they are nearly too big to be comfortably enjoyed due to the richness. If/when I make them again, I’m going to scale it back to a heaping teaspoon instead (if you do it now, remember that smaller portion = less time in the oven.) Then again, I had half of one for breakfast and two after dinner, so…
Continue reading ‘The Aptly Named Chocolate Wonders’
So, one day when I was shopping at my mothership, the restaurant supply store, I saw this candy mold and knew that filled chocolates would be in my future. I only just now bought it and last night I made a test batch – because I have to learn to temper the chocolate, too, and I was made to understand there is a learning curve there – and this is the result. Guittard bittersweet couverture on the outside, San Francisco Chocolate Co milk chocolate ganache on the inside with a few drops of orange oil. The coating has the gloss and snap I was looking for which means my tempering was a success (at least on the top, I think I let it get too cool when I was doing the feet) but my ganache didn’t set up quite the way I would have liked, it was a bit too soft so when you bite into them, the shell snaps as it should but the ganache won’t support it so it just sort of squishes out. Gonna have to use less cream next time. Anyway, I am not proficient enough for a full report so I’ll just say I love the way these look and taste and I am looking forward to trying all sorts of variations.
Warren, my husband, really likes Reese’s Cups. He will stick a bag of the miniatures in the freezer and only have one or two at a time, so it lasts him about a hundred years. I have no idea how he can do this, as I would eat one or two every 12 minutes or so, give or take a few seconds. So anyway, with the economy being as it is and some adjustments to our budget and another baby on the way, we opted not to do any Valentine’s Day presents this year, and instead of paying the babysitter and going to dinner and a movie, we ordered a pizza and watched a movie we already had instead.
Unfortunately, I am unable to not give presents of some sort on holidays. It’s necessary that I find some way to show my appreciation or else SOMETHING TERRIBLE WILL HAPPEN, I am sure of it. So, I thought, I have a cup candy mold from making Cupcake Bites (a post yet to be written), I have a toddler so there’s bound to be peanut butter, what on earth should I do? I know, I’ll make peanut butter cups! Genius, I tell you, sheer genius.
Guys, this turned out to be the easiest thing in the world. I looked at a few online recipes, decided none of them really worked for me and I might as well improvise, so I did and I call it a success. My success, let me share it with you.
Continue reading ‘Peanut Butter Cups’
from Cook’s Country
First, let me just say that if I had to list my top 10 favorite desserts, brownies would not be on it. It’s not that I dislike them, it’s that I’m so ambivalent. It’s a bit like chocolate cake for me, it’s just not something that excites me in any way. But my husband is a big brownie fan, and if I don’t make things he likes I will end up eating all of it and that is just a bad situation for everyone. So I have learned to tolerate the brownie in all of its forms, and I keep trying new recipes thinking hey, this may be the brownie to change my mind. It may be the enlightening brownie, the epiphany brownie, if you will.
Internet, this may be the epiphany brownie. If you harbor no hatred for marshmallow, pecans, sugar, chocolate or butter, you really, really need to try this brownie. The government might lie to you, but I certainly won’t.
Continue reading ‘Mississippi Mud Brownies’
