Rich Chocolate Pudding

 

I came about this recipe idea when I was trying to figure out what to do with some left over egg yolks, for some reason I just couldn't bring myself to throw the away egg yolks... I looked at many options on how to use them, various fruit curds, creme brulee and even  a special deep conditioning treatment for my hair though as you can tell from this post I will leave that one up to the professionals. The others looked good but didn't quite account for the 4 egg yolks that I had then I realized - Pudding! 

Step aside Mr. Crosby - this is the real thing!

This pudding used egg yolks to thicken the pudding rather then starch which can really dilute the flavor and make it well... starchy for lack of a better word. To be honest 'bunged up' was the term that came to mind but that isn't a very appetizing word now is it? 

Anyways on to the recipe so you can all try this delectable wonder:

2 Cups of Semi Sweet Choc Chips

2 Cups of Heavy Cream

1 2/3 Cup Milk

1/3 Cup Strong Espresso

4 egg yolks

2 pinches of salt

To prepare pour the Cream, Milk and Espresso into a pot and heat until almost boiling but don't let it burn!! When the milk is very hot add the chocolate and whisk until melted, the whisk will help to to homogenize more quickly. In a separate bowl whisk the egg yolks and salt, add a laddle of the hot chocolate mix slowly to temper the eggs and prevent them from scrambling. Continue to add the rest of the chocolate mixture slowly until it is all combined, you should notice it thicken a little bit right away. Add the mixture back into the pot and bring the mixture up to a boil, whisk it while boiling for 2 minutes or until it feels thicker, it should be a thicker but not 'pudding like' yet. Pour the pudding into individual ramekins, a bowl or like I used short and stout canning jars, it should yield enough for 5 jars. Pop those suckers in the fridge and allow them to cool, should you do this over night you will get a nice thick rich pudding, should you sneak one out after only a few hours it will be thick around the egde and gooey in the middle. 

Now because I love the 'skin' especially on this recipe it really is just extra thick pudding on top, I leave them open to the world, should you wish to prevent this you can put some saran wrap right onto the pudding, essentially the saran wrap make the skin and you pull off just a little off the top so that it looks like a creamier color with no skin. Its up to you!

Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake

Last year for my birthday my handsome boyfriend surprised me with a home-made black forest cake, it was a little free form but it was so delicious, so when his birthday came around this year I wanted to surprise him with something similar - and more importantly something wheat free so I could enjoy it too! So I made what I call a black forest cheesecake - here is what it looks like....
please try not to drool... hahaha!

I created the same chocolate cake filled with cherries and when I served it I topped it with fresh whipped cream and a couple of maraschino cherries. This cheesecake was such a success... Several weeks ago I made a praline topped pumpkin cheesecake for a good friend but it disappeared so fast there was no photographing it! This one I made sure to be able to share it with all of you. This is rich - very rich I hoped that the cherries would cut through but they seemed to add to the chocolatey-ness and it kept it a little gooey in the center which I loved!
Perfect for a birthday celebration and would also make a fantastic addition to a holiday table.

Here is the recipe:

Crust:
2 Cups cookie crumbs (I used graham, but chocolate and ginger are also nice)
3 Tbsp melted butter

Cake:
3 packages of room temp Cream Cheese
1 bag of semi sweet Chocolate Chips
1 & 1/2 Cups Sugar
1/2 C Sour Cream
1 Tbsp Vanilla
4 Large Eggs
1 Can Cherry Pie Filling

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees

For the crust simply combine the cookie crumbs and the melted butter and press into the bottom of the pan and up the sides as you like. Bake it for 10 minutes, and remove the crust from the oven allowing it to cool.

Turn the oven up to 350 degrees

In the meantime I make the cake mix. 
For this recipe I used a food processor, but you could use a counter mixer, hand mixer or good old fashioned elbow grease. Begin by melting the chocolate, add the cream cheese and whip it until it is smooth, add the melted chocolate and combine, add the sugar, sour cream and vanilla, combine until it is all incorporated, then add eggs one at a time until they are combined, take as many opportunities to scrape down the sides as you need (using the food pro you need to do this often).
Poor 1/2 of the recipe into the cooled crust (mine wasn't very cooled, so there's no need to be to strict here) then I opened the can of cherries and carefully created a layer, I had to do so in little dabs as my cheesecake mixture was quite runny, you won't be able to smooth it so just add it in small dabs working your way around until there is a nice layer, while I was doing this I was sure that it was all going to sink to the bottom but as you can see by the picture it worked out pretty good!
Then pour the remaining batter on and bake it for an hour and 10 minutes. Allow to cool for an hour or 2 and then refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.

I was a little overzealous and wanted to eat it after cooling on the counter for several hours, there was no way it was coming out of my spring form pan! (Which I seriously recommend for making cheesecakes and quiche too! Makes it so much easier to cut!)
Go ahead and make this right away!

Happy Holidays!
Love Tiff

Happy Holidays!

Its time to bake! And I have just been informed that I am allergic to starch. This means wheat, potatoes... just about all of the great holiday treats so I have been researching and bookmarking recipes that I can enjoy and while my baking hasn't yet began I wanted to share with you the recipes that I will be trying out very soon... probably this week or week end.

Hot Chocolate on a Stick

Almond Triangle Cookies

White Chocolate Saffron Truffles

 

Coconut Macaroons

  

This allergy came about as a surprise to me, I knew that starches weren't good for people in general but hadn't realized that they were particularly bad for me, and my reaction was stranger then everyone elses.... my mom, my boyfriend they were all so worried that I couldn't eat this and that but I haven't really noticed or cared. I expected to feel deprived and left out but it seems that now I have a tangible excuse to not eat the foods that never made me feel very good, almost like more of a relief then a worry.... ofcourse when Christmas comes and I can't partake in mashed potatoes and stuffing that tune may change... we will have to wait and see!

Love,

Tiff

Dulce De Leche Liqueur

In the last post I showed you how the Dulce De Leche caramel complimented a cappuccino cheesecake so I decided to keep going on that theme. I created a Mexican version of an Irish classic.

Here we have Mexican Cream! A Dulce de Leche Liqueur.

It was really simple too! And can be enjoyed in Coffee or as we did as shots at a Cinco de Mayo celebration. All you need to do is get out your blender and add 1 can of Dulce de Leche, 1 cup of cream, and 1/2 cup - 1 cup of Rum. I know you are thinking it should be Tequila, and if you want go right ahead, I just prefer my Tequila straight up,  I don't like to mix it with anything other then lime juice! If that! Blend this until it is combined. I would also suggest that you start with 1/2 Cup of Rum, give it a taste and add more to suite your tastes. I like it sweet and creamy, and I ended up starting off with lots of Rum and I had to keep adding cream and caramel until I like the way it taste. I suggest you do it the other way around!

Creamy Cappuccino Cheesecake

This is serious YUM! I know I've been on a bit of a sweet kick lately which is a little unlike me, I do love sweets but usually me and my sweet can't get through a whole cake or pie etc. But let me tell you, this cheesecake did not last long around our house!

And its no wonder why just look at this delicious confection!

Lets get just a little closer!

  Is that? Did she really? No she didn't! 

Oh Yes! I did! That is Dulce de Leche swirled about!

Here is the recipe

Crust

• 20 graham cracker cookies, crushed
• 5 tbsp melted butter
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp espresso powder

Filling

• 1/2 cup whipping cream
• 4 teaspoons espresso powder powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla 
• 3 tbsp Kahlua
• 4 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 can dulce de leche

Dulce de Leche

•  1 can of sweetened condensed milk

First start by making the Dulce de leche by cracking the can slightly open and  adding it to a small pot with water about 2/3 of the way up.

Bring to a boil and let it go for about 1 & 1/2 hours. You will need to top up the water as it will evaporate so keep an eye on it. Let it cool, crack the lid the rest of the way off and Voila!
Dulce de Leche! You can use this in soo many ways, as simply as dipping apple wedges into it for a caramel apple treat or for a Mexican Baileys liqueur that I will show you soon, or for our purposes the fabulous surprise in a cappuccino cheesecake. This will give the Starbucks Carmel Frap a run for its money!

So anyways....
Mix all of the ingredients for the crust together, grab a handful and make sure that it is sticking together, it should hold its shape, but it is ok if it cracks a little, as long as you know it is going to hold together. Spread evenly into the bottom and sides of a spring form pan (This is a Must for cheesecake making!) And bake in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes. Allow to cool while you get onto the filling. Because we all know that a crust is nothing without its filling!

Now onto the creamy goodness:
In a small bowl combine the cream, vanilla, Kahlua and espresso powder. This will help to distribute the espresso powder evenly. I wanted to see the flecks and it is ground so finely that they don't create any sort of textural difference, just add a visual affect, plus you know me! I like the real thing! No instant powders for moi! In a separate and I advise a quite large bowl beat the cream cheese until it is fluffy, incorporate the sugar and then add the eggs one at a time. Slowly add the flour, then add in the cream and Kahlua mixture. Combine until it is one big mess of goodness and slowly pour into the crust.
Remember the dulce de leche? How could you forget, pour it into a swirl around the pan if you can. (If it is warm it should pour alright, I had to use a spoon to coerce it, then the heat had its way with it so it turned out as you saw in the picture above.
Bake for about 1 hour or until the sides start to pull away and the top is brown. If you can avoid it cracking let me know your trick!

Also I added a pan of water in the bottom of the oven to create moisture, I'm sure I just left it in a little to long and that is why it cracked, it did turn out to be very golden! perhaps a little too golden.... whoops... it was still oh so good!

Mango Pudding

My grandmother make the best Mango Pudding!
I think it is all the years or trial and error that make grandmothers so good at cooking. My boyfriend says I am a good cook... but not better then his Mom, which I don't take offense to because we cook very differently. She makes homey classics that warm you from the inside out and I love to experiment and use weird ingredients, and make things a little healthy... well most of the time anyways. I will share the most amazing chicken wings with you soon, that are so good to the taste-buds, but so hard on the heart!

Anyways back to my Grandma, my mom is a fantastic cook, but my Grandma makes certain things that are just irresistible! Like her potato salad, her baked ham, her ribs, her pickled beets, and her mango pudding. Those are my faves. I didn't call her to ask her the recipe when I had a craving, I went online. I only ask for recipes when I am with her so I can have the full demo; except the first time I cooked a turkey, I was 697 kms away and I certainly needed her advice then! But for the Mango pudding recipe I will probably wait until the next time I see her which hopefully will be soon. She is only a ferry trip away!

And ask her I will because this mango pudding did hit the spot, but wasn't quite what I remembered in my grandma's version. I just followed the recipe from here and it was pretty good but I already have a few tweaks in mind, and I can't wait to see what my grandma does! I'll be sure to keep you updated.

And just so you know Mango Pudding is dreamy! Its creamy and oh so mango-y and refreshing. A near perfect fruit dessert that will leave you feeling satisfied and light at the same time!

Profiteroles filled with Chocolate Mousse

I don't make a lot of desserts but it was my gentleman friends birthday on Friday so I decided to make a special sweet something. What is great about this recipe is that it would also be a great make ahead for Christmas. I made a big bowl of these and then took them up with us to the local ski mountain for a week end getaway. Lucky Birthday Boy! and they traveled quite well.
First I began with Profiteroles, I used this recipe from Joy of Baking. Just the Choux part of the recipe. I was surprised at how easy it was. These have a great wow factor, look like they took a million years to make but are actually reminded me of making Yorkshire puddings, except with a little bit of Elbow grease! Here is what the profiteroles will look like:

This is kind of a lazy post because I used this recipe from Smitten Kitchen to make the Chocolate Mousse. Ever since I saw it I have wanted to make it. I had some in a glass with Raspberries, and it was amazing!

How is that for a close up? It was airy and rich all at the same time. As there is no sugar except what is in the chocolate it wasn' t very sweet, just pure creamy chocolate flavour!
Deb used pics just after making it and it will look goopy like that but it will look like this after it has set overnight, or really just a few hours.

I also piped some into the afore mentioned profiteroles, Drum roll please....
Here they are:

Wow!

I also whipped 1 cup of cream with splash of Kahlua and filled some just to add
a difference is flavor and texture. Both were extreme hits!

Had to! Irish Carbomb Cupcakes

Just look at that deliciousness! How could a girl resist making these cupcakes? I couldn't, I did however wait for the perfect opportunity, one of my favourite friends, and drinking partners 25th birthday. I loved it because I had a super busy week so I made the chocolate stout cupcakes and Jameson Whiskey ganache filling one day, and the Baileys butter cream icing on another day, although in all honesty, I preferred them with out the icing, it was intensely sweet and overpowered the other flavours. The cake though, my goodness - it was perfectly balanced with the ganache, the stout helped it to be less sweet and the creamy filling just made you want to melt! Here is the recipe that I adapted from Smitten Kitchen:

For the Stout Chocolate Cupcakes

1 cup stout (such as Guinness)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line around 24 cupcake cups with liners - I actually ended up using 23. Bring 1 cup stout and 1 cup butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add the cocoa powder and whisk until smooth. Allow it to cool a bit

Whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt in large bowl to blend. Using an electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add the stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Here is where it is important to have let the beer/chocolate cool, if you don't you will end up with chocolate beer scrambled eggs. Add the flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Divide batter among cupcake liners, filling them 3/4 of the way. Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, rotating them once front to back if your oven bakes unevenly, about 17 minutes. Cool cupcakes on a rack completely.

Ganache Filling
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
5 -6 teaspoons Irish whiskey (optional)

Chop the chocolate and put it in a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream until simmering and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for one minute and then stir until smooth. Add the butter and whiskey (if you’re using it) and stir until combined. The original recipe calls for 1 -2 tablespoons of whiskey, but I just kept adding and tasting until it was strong enough for me, I do like it strong, but I also wanted it to stand out against the cupcake.

Let the ganache cool until thick but still soft enough to be piped (the fridge will speed this along but you must stir it every 10 minutes). Meanwhile, using your 1-inch round cookie cutter or an apple corer, cut the centers out of the cooled cupcakes. You want to go most of the way down the cupcake but not cut through the bottom — aim for 2/3 of the way. A slim spoon or grapefruit knife will help you get the center out. Those are your “tasters”. Put the ganache into a piping bag with a wide tip and fill the holes in each cupcake to the top. Or if you aren't feeling fancy, just put out little holes with a paring knife and spoon in the filling, like I did.

Baileys Frosting
3 to 4 cups confections sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
5 -6 tablespoons Baileys (or milk, or heavy cream, or a combination thereof)

Whip the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, for several minutes. You want to get it very light and fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar, a few tablespoons at a time. Add the baileys a table spoon at a time until it is as strong as you like it, you may need to add more powdered sugar if it gets to thin.

In the picture there is a ton of icing, but when I served them I actually only put on a ring of icing around the filled center and a dab in the middle, and I actually preferred them without the icing served at room temperature so the filling melts in your mouth. The other benefit to not using a fancy cooking cutter or apple corer is that you can make the holes a little bigger to optimized the capacity of filling. Happy baking!

Wonton a Smore?

I have so many recipes to post but now looking back at them, as spring is here, and it feels like summer is just around the corner it seemed like time to do something I rarely ever do. Make dessert! It is just my man-friend and I so it doesn't seem worth it to make a whole cake, or a dozen cupcakes. cookies yes but a fancy shmancy dessert? It hardly seems worth it. Plus if I made a cake, I would have to eat it on my own... maybe that wouldn't be so bad but with summer approaching we've got to keep an eye on the waistline. This idea came to me today. I was inspired. Call it what you want. A dessert wonton? An Asian smore? Damn Tasty?

Look at that little pillow of pleasure.

And the inside filled with ooey gooey marshmallow, chocolate chips, and creamy banana!
How does that go again?

Take a plain old wonton and add a slice of Banana, 3 miniature marshmallows and a few chocolate chips. Wrap it up in any wonton fashion you prefer. I like this way because it holds more of the goodness.


Then I fried these little suckers until they were golden brown, I topped them with a little whipping cream and some fresh strawberries. A little something like this: