I know, I know vampires are in style right now.  Twilight movies, Vampire Diaries television show, Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner – I haven’t been under a rock for the past couple of years.  Although, I have to admit that I am not smitten with the whole creatures of the night phenomenon that seems to be never ending.  But I am a big fan of Blood Oranges and their seductive blood red color and sweet flavor.

Earlier, I posted a Roasted Sweet Potato Salad with Blood Orange Salad Dressing.  You’ve got to love the deep red color the dressing adds to the dish.  Can’t get your kids to eat salads, make up this dressing and tell them its special Vampire Blood Orange dressing.  (Two can play the “I’m being difficult at dinner” game.)  But my favorite use of these little ruby gems, with a ridiculously short season, is making them into desserts.

Craig has recently become concerned with my obsession with puff pastry.  Every time he opens up the refrigerator he seems to find a box of the magical stuff. (What’s particularly funny about that is he can never seem to find his half and half, that’s always on the same shelf and he uses every day, and has to ask me where it is.)  But what can I say?  I really like the flaky buttery flavor of puff pastry and it works so well in both sweet and savory dishes.  He never seems to remember my obsession as he’s gobbling down whatever dish I put in front of him though.

I had recently seen some random cooking show, when I was in Australia, where they used puff pastry as the base for a tarte tartin made with tropical fruit.  This tarte tartin is a perfect mix of sweet blood oranges (and a hint of marmalade flavor from the rind) combined with a deep caramel and all nestled on to a piece of buttery puff pastry.  Add a bit of vanilla bean ice cream and you’ve got a dessert that you might find in a restaurant for $8 or more.

Relationship Advice

There’s obsession…and then there’s OBSESSION, like Glenn Close…rabbit in a pot obsession.  I’m not talking about that kind.  I’m talking about really loving someone and letting them know from time to time.  For the most part everyone has a cell phone now.  I am not suggesting that you start sexting or even texting one another.  This can get annoying, dangerous, illegal and embarrassing.  Why not put a little calendar item on their phone and schedule it so that it goes off when they are on their way to work or lunch time.  Something like “Thinking of you” or “Miss You.”  If you’re not up for the technology bit.  Write a note on a small piece of paper and tuck it into their pants pocket, wallet, purse or lunch.

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

• 1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter
• 1/2 Cup Firmly Packed Brown Sugar
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 3 Blood Oranges (sliced thin – use a mandoline or v-slicer)
• 1/2 Package Puff Pastry (1 sheet)
• Vanilla Bean Ice Cream (can also use whipped cream)

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Farenheit.

In a medium sized oven-proof skillet add butter, brown sugar and vanilla extract.  Heat over medium high heat.  Keep stirring while ingredients melt.  Contents will bubbly very strongly.  Keep stirring so that it doesn’t burn.  You will see it begin to turn brown and thicken.  You will also begin to smell it caramelize.

Once you begin to smell the caramel, turn the heat down to low and layer in the orange slices.  Arrange them in a circular motion starting from the outside of the pan working in to the center.

Let the oranges sit for 1 minute.

Unfold the pastry onto a lightly floured surface.  Roll the pastry into an 11″x17″ rectangle.  Cut the pastry in half (width-wise).

Lie the first piece of pastry over the caramel and oranges.  Lay the second piece of pastry perpendicular across the first piece of pastry.  Make sure that the entire surface is covered with puff pastry dough.

Slide the pan into the oven and cook for 20 minutes.  (Dough should be puffed and golden brown.)

Remove the pan from the oven and set aside until contents stop bubbling.

Put a large plate over the top of the pan.

While holding the plate, and the pan, flip the orange tarte tartin onto the plate.

Cut and serve with ice cream or whipped cream.

Technorati Tags: Blood Orange Recipes, Blood Oranges, Dessert, dessert recipes, Easy Cooking, easy dessert recipes, Easy Recipes, Orange Tarte Tartin, puff pastry, Tarte Tartin

If you remember the Green Tea Panna Cotta Notta that I made a while back, you may remember that I won a one pound bag of Matcha (Green Tea Powder). I still have LOTS of it left.  Not that I haven’t been using it, but a pound of that stuff is more than you can imagine.

So I thought that I might make some green tea cake…which evolved into cupcakes…which morphed into combining them with white chocolate mousse…so I then convinced myself that they were an early Valentine’s Day treat for Craig.  The mind of a foodie is a very strange and twisted place.

Since returning from China, we have both been drinking copious amounts of Jasmine tea, so I knew he would like these.  Truth be told Craig has yet to meet a cupcake he didn’t like (but I digress).  Unlike a lot of green tea baked goods I’ve tasted, these actually have the slightly grassy green tea flavor to them.  Un-frosted, these little green gems have a slightly crispy top from the sugar (so don’t feel obligated to frost them, but make the mousse anyway…read the Relationship Advice below).  But the white chocolate, in the mousse, compliments the flavors really well.

I don’t really have much of an explanation for the, ahem, “vivid” pink coloring of the mousse other than I thought pink would be cute with the green and it’s almost Valentine’s Day.  A word of caution would be to use the food coloring very sparingly.  I wasn’t thinking and poured the red coloring in.  I thought the container had a dropper on it.  I was wrong…oops…so helllllooooo pink.

Relationship Advice

This Valentine’s Day write your sweetie a love letter.  And no, you can’t just get yourself a greeting card from the store and write ‘I Love You’ on it and call it a love letter.  I mean sit down and write from your heart.  I realize that this isn’t easy and you probably won’t just jam it out in 5 minutes.  Get an early start on it and you can stop and start for a few days.  Be honest in your letter and dig deep inside yourself for the best stuff.  These are the kinds of things that are sometimes difficult to say face to face, without feeling strange, but when you put it in writing it seems to be a little bit easier.  Plus the recipient will understand and appreciate the depths of your feelings and the meaning of the letter.  Don’t write things that you’ve already said.  Like repeats on television, it tends to only get half absorbed or ignored completely.  You want to grab their attention and make them want to stop everything and only be with you.  And if you serve the letter with these cupcakes, be prepared to be licking white chocolate mousse from things other than the tops of the cupcakes.

Makes 18 Cupcakes/Frosts and Fills Cupcakes with Leftovers

Ingredients for Green Tea Cupcakes

• 3/4 Cup Butter (room temperature)
• 1 1/2 Cups Sugar
• 4 Eggs (room temperature)
• 3/4 Cup Cream
• 1 3/4 Cups All Purpose Flour
• 2 Tablespoons Green Tea Powder (Matcha)

Ingredients for White Chocolate Mousse

• 7-8 Ounces Good Quality White Chocolate (chopped into small pieces)
• 2 Egg Yolks
• 2 Tablespoons Sugar
• 1 1/4 Cups Heavy Cream (separated)
• Red Food Coloring

Directions for Green Tea Cupcakes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.

In a mixing bowl add butter and sugar.  Cream until butter is pale yellow and fluffy.  Add eggs and cream and mix to thoroughly combine.

Sift matcha (green tea powder) and flour into butter, cream and egg mixture.  Mix until dry and wet ingredients are combined.  Do not over mix the batter or the cupcakes will be tough.

Line cupcake pan with liners.  Fill liners 1/2 way with batter.  (I use an ice cream scoop for this because it’s less messy and I can control the amount of batter.)

Bake for 25-30 minutes.  Check doneness by inserting a toothpick into center of cupcake.  It should come out clean.

Remove from oven and let cool.

Directions for White Chocolate Mousse

In a small bowl add egg yolks and sugar.  Whisk until sugar is combined and mixture becomes pale yellow.

In a small saucepan, combine 1/4 cup of the cream and bring to a light simmer.  While continuously whisking, slowly pour the simmered cream into the egg and sugar mixture (if the eggs cook, you’ll need to start this part over again).  Pour this mixture back into the saucepan and stir over low heat until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. (It’s ready when you pull the spoon out and run your finger through the middle of the cream (on the spoon) and the line remains.)

Pour this mixture over the chopped white chocolate and stir until chocolate is completely melted and is smooth.

In the bowl of your mixer, add 1 cup of cream and enough red food coloring to get the color you prefer.  (Remember that the yellow from the eggs will change the color a bit.)  Whip the cream until almost stiff peaks form.  (The right consistency is when you pull up on the cream and you get a bit of a tip that then slightly bends over but holds it shape.)

Slowly fold 1/3 of the whipped cream into the chocolate mixture.  Once each batch of whipped cream is folded in, fold in the next batch until all of the cream is mixed in.  (Folding the cream means that you use a spatula to add it to the mixture and slowly stir from the bottom of the bowl to the top.  Turn the bowl as you do this.  Folding keeps the mixture light.)

To fill the cupcakes:

You can fill a pastry bag, that has a star tip attached and pipe the filling into the cakes by pushing the tip into the top of the cupcake and squeezing a bit of the mousse into it.

If you do not have a pastry bag you can cut a small piece out of the cupcake and fill it.

Frost cupcakes by dipping them into the mousse, piping the mousse onto the tops or using a spatula.

The remaining mousse can be put into serving glasses, refrigerated and served as mousse.

*Because of the ingredients, keep these refrigerated.

Technorati Tags: dessert recipes, Green Tea Cupcake, Matcha Green Tea, Matcha Green Tea Recipes, Valentine's Day Cupcakes, white chocolate

I’m back from my trip to China.  What an unbelievably gorgeous place!  My jet lag is slowly beginning to dissipate and I’m getting my cooking legs back.  I will definitely go more into the trip later this week when I talk about, and share a recipe for, my dim sum class I took in Shanghai.

But yesterday I put my ego aside, packed up a bag and headed out for the MasterChef casting call.

I only told a couple of people that I was even considering doing this because 1 – I wasn’t sure if my dessert recipe was going to turn out properly 2 – I wasn’t really sure that I wanted to live in a house, for 5 weeks, with the cast of Jersey Shore meets Gordon Ramsay 3 – I was not overly confident that I would even wake up in time to make the audition.  But I decided to take a cue from my friend Vicky “A bad experience is better than no experience at all.”

I made the salted chocolate caramel squares on Saturday….After going to 3 different stores trying to find the Droste dark chocolate that I wanted.  Earlier in the week everybody had the chocolate…but by Saturday (when I was desperate for it) no one had it.  Of course I thought that was a sign that I shouldn’t do this.  (That was after I had already made the recipe on Friday and had a semi-disasterous outcome and I thought then that I shouldn’t be doing this.)  So at my fourth stop, Trader Joe’s, I thought I would hit paydirt.  No. Such. Luck.  At least I found dark chocolate that was 54% cacao so I bought the big one pound Trader Joe’s brand of dark chocolate.  At that point I was happy I didn’t have to go to any more stores or concede defeat before even setting foot in front of a chef or casting director.

I was able to get the dish to come together and taste, in my humble opinion, FANTASTIC. Then I got to play with hot sugar.  They warn you not to play with matches, but no one warns you not to play with hot sugar – consider yourself warned.  By the time I made various shapes on my Silpat, I had fine strings of sugar trailing from my hair to elbow and attaching somewhere onto one of my burner grates.  Not to mention the lovely red burn marks on my wrists from where some water had hit the molten lava/hot sugar and proceeded to bubble and spit its scalding bits onto my person.  My next move was to take a picture of my fine creation (per the requirements – in case you didn’t get to plate your dish), find a recent picture of me (of which I have none except for the pictures we just took in China) and fill out the 12 page application.  I finally went to bed around 12:30 a.m. and got up at 5:30 a.m..

I packed up my bag with the extra caramel, carefully packaged pieces of the salted chocolate caramel squares and my sugar shapes.  I sort of had a bit of a checklist.  Which means I should have double checked that I included the paper towels…I didn’t.  And then off to Kinko’s to print off my pictures.  Nothing like waiting until the last minute.

I made it up to the audition location 2 hours before the starting time and got to chat with some other potential Jersey Shore MasterChef contestants.  Everyone was really nice and had some interesting stories about their dishes and how far they traveled to get there.  After getting inside I got shuffled off to a numbered position at a table with around 20 other people and had 5 minutes to plate my dish.  (No, you were not able to do any cooking or real prep work…everything had to be ready to go.)  Chef Neal Fraser (Grace, BLD) sampled my dish (and seemed to really like it) and asked me a few cooking questions to test my knowledge.  He asked a couple of other questions then told me to stay put.  I then talked to a casting director and another person, that also sampled my dish and said that he liked it.

I did not get chosen that day for an interview today, so I am presuming that my chances of appearing are about zero.  But, I have to say that I did have a nice time and am probably glad that I will not be berated on national television by Gordon Ramsay nor will I have to live my life in a fishbowl for all the world to watch me and find out about all of my neurosis.  Plus, I now have this great dessert to serve (and so do you…and just in time for Valentine’s day.)

Relationship Advice

If your significant other gets a hair brained idea that is not going to hurt anyone, is legal, and is not anything that involves you…support them and let them try.  They will thank regardless of the outcome just because you were positive and didn’t give them all of the reasons why what they wanted to do was ridiculous.

Serves 12

Ingredients

Salted Chocolate Cake

• 1 Pound (54% – 60%) Dark Chocolate (chopped)
• 1 Cup Unsalted Butter – 2 Cups (cut into pieces)
• 7 Large Eggs
• 1 Cup Light Brown Sugar (packed)
• 1/4 Cup Espresso (instant espresso powder works great)
• 1 Teaspoon Coarse Kosher Salt
• Coarse Sea Salt (for sprinkling)

Caramel

• 1 Tablespoon Water
• 1 1/2 Cups Granulated Sugar
• 1/2 Cup (1 stick) Unsalted Butter
• 1/2 Cup Cream

Directions

Place rack in center of the oven.  Place a half sheet pan (with sides) on rack and fill half way with water.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.

Line an 8″x8″ baking pan with parchment paper.  You will need to either cut or fold the paper so that it fits width wise.  Let the ends hang over the sides of the pan (you will use those later to lift the cake out of the pan for cutting and serving.)  Layer the pan with 2 pieces of the parchment paper so that they criss-cross and you have ends folded over all 4 sides of the 8″x8″ pan.  Sprinkle some of the coarse sea salt onto the parchment paper.  If using the coarse sea salt – sprinkle sparingly (a little goes a long way).  If using a less coarse sea salt, you can use a bit more.

Combine chopped chocolate and pieces of butter into a medium size glass or metal bowl.  Set bowl on top of saucepan that contains simmering water (do not let the bottom of the bowl touch the water).  Using a spatula, stir until the mixture is melted and smooth.  Remove the bowl from over the water.

In a large bowl whisk brown sugar, eggs, and espresso until thoroughly combined.  Add in chocolate and butter mixture and whisk until smooth.  Whisk in kosher salt.

Pour half of the batter into the parchment paper lined baking pan.  Place the baking pan into the water filled sheet pan that is in the oven.  Cook for 20 – 25 minutes.  The mixture will not be cooked, but it will be firmer than when you put it into the oven.

For Caramel

Add water and sugar to heavy saucepan and put it over medium high heat.  Leave the pan alone, but watch for the edges of the sugar to begin to brown and possibly some browning in the middle.  Using a high heat resistant spatula (silicon works well), fold the sugar from the edges into the middle and even out the layer of sugar.  Do this somewhat slowly while the sugar melts.  You will see it change from white, to gold, to amber and finally a deep amber/brown.  When the sugar just begins to smoke, remove it from the heat and add the stick of butter.  (It will bubble)  Stir the butter and sugar until the butter melts.  Add the cream.  (This will cause the mixture to bubble even more violently than the butter.)  Stir to combine the cream.  To firm the caramel sauce up, place the pot into ice cubes and stir gently from the bottom of the pan.  You don’t want the caramel to harden, just firm up into a thick sauce.  Remove from the ice when it has thickened.

Pour 1/2 cup of sauce into a container and set aside.  Gently pour the remaining caramel over the top of the semi-cooked chocolate cake.  The caramel will sit on top of the layer.  Smooth caramel over the cake.

Whisk the remaining batter to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed.  Pour this batter over the top of the caramel.

Return the pan to the water filled half sheet pan, tent with foil, and bake for 75 minutes.  Bake cake until cake is set in the center and the top is dry to the touch.  The top of this cake will remain shiny, even when done baking.

Remove from oven and sprinkle with more coarse sea salt.

To make the sugar decorations for the top of the cake, follow the caramel directions but omit the butter and cream.  Drizzle melted sugar onto a silicon mat (Silpat) or foil.  Let cool and peel off carefully when needed.

To plate the salted chocolate cake drizzle extra caramel on to the plate, add a small slice of cake (trust me…this stuff is really rich), drizzle with more caramel and top with sugar decoration.

A nice caramel tutorial by David Lebovitz

Technorati Tags: Caramel Sea Salt Brownies, Chocolate Dessert Recipes, Chocolate with Sea Salt, dessert recipes, Masterchef, Salted Chcolate Caramel, special occassion desserts, valentine's day cake recipes

A few days ago I promised to post up what I was doing with that fondant I made.  Well…here it is!  How cute are these little peanut butter candies.  Oh yeah, these are peanut butter balls disguised as snowmen.  A true Trojan Horse for the holidays.

I made these little guys last year, but they just had faces and buttons.  This year in my desire to obsessive compulsiveness do better , I decided to give them a bit more personality…and cuteness.  These are like those chocolate Easter bunnies that you can’t resist biting the ears off of.

If you are familiar with the peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate, also known as Buckeyes (for those of us from Ohio), these are those same peanut butter balls but are dipped in white chocolate and stacked up.  They are relatively easy to make, just a bit on the time consuming side.  Everyone is asking for their own candy snowman this year, especially now that they’ve got a bit more personality.

Relationship Advice

When you have totally had enough of your significant other, there are many options for the actions you can take.  While I could list several, why not get yourself something that tastes really good that has a head and body (like the candy snowman above) and just bite or rip the head off?  Of course depending on how you really feel at the moment, you could eat all of the carnage…or you could leave a stronger message by leaving the headless body of your candy victim on the counter out in plain site.  Just a thought.

Makes at least 30 snowmen

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 Cups Smooth Peanut Butter (do not use all natural peanut butter with the oil on top)
• 1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter (at room temperature)
• 1 Pound Powdered Sugar
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla
• White Chocolate Chips (melted)*
• Semi-Sweet or Bittersweet Chocolate (melted)
• Colored Fondant (recipe link above)

Directions

In mixer, blend peanut butter, butter, sugar and vanilla until thoroughly combined.

Shape mixture into 3 graduated balls.  I use a tablespoon to measure out the peanut butter mixture for the largest ball at the base.  All of the peanut butter balls should be placed onto a foil or parchment paper lined baking sheet(s).

After all the balls are rolled out, gently use your thumb to make a slight flat spot on the base and middle section balls.  The tiny balls, used for the heads should remain perfectly round.

Let peanut butter balls sit out overnight in a cool dry area.

Melt white chocolate in microwave in 30 second increments.  Stir chocolate every 30 seconds until melted.

Insert a toothpick 3/4 of the way through the large peanut butter ball and dredge in melted white chocolate.  Do not completely cover the ball in chocolate.  Only the exposed sides should be covered. (This also makes stacking easier.)  Remove toothpick and dip a middle ball into the chocolate.  Again, do not completely cover the ball in chocolate and stack on top of base ball.  Remove the toothpick and dip a small “head” ball into the chocolate.  On this one, you do not have to cover it completely with chocolate (it’s easier to remove the toothpick if you don’t cover it completely).  Place the head on top of the other 2 balls and remove the toothpick.  Dip another toothpick into the chocolate and swirl on top of the snowman’s head to cover the exposed hole and peanut butter.  You may find that you have some bare spots.  Use the toothpick to coax any extra chocolate into those areas or dip toothpick into more chocolate to cover.

Continue doing this until all the snowmen are complete.

Let sit at least 4 hours for the chocolate to set up.  Best if you can let it sit overnight to completely harden.

Melt the semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate in the microwave in 30 second increments.  Stir chocolate every 30 seconds until melted.

Insert toothpick into chocolate and make eyes, mouth and buttons.

The nose can be made with the same chocolate.  I melted more white chocolate and dipped decors into it and attached the noses that way.

Once all the chocolate decorations have dried, you can dress up your snowmen/snow people with the fondant.    The fondant will stick to the snowmen on its own.  This is the fun part!

* I use white chocolate chips, from Trader Joe’s, because I prefer the flavor of white chocolate over those candy melts.  But, if you want your snowmen to be a bright white, that’s what you’ll need to get.  If you use those, use the melting directions that come with them.

Technorati Tags: bittersweet chocolate, dessert recipes, Easy Cooking, easy dessert recipes, peanut butter candies, white chocolate

With the mother in law coming to town I had to think fast.  What could I make (dessert) that she would like and not be allergic to (that’s another story all together)?  I came across a recipe for something called Gingerbread Pudding Cake and thought, with a few lot of adjustments, this could be it.  But am I really going to make a cake from scratch?

What I came up with is quite simply what we like to call – food porn.  Like porn, this cake isn’t necessarily the prettiest thing to look at.  It’s easy. It’s kind of puffy in the middle and has a few cracks in its surface.  It’s got somewhat sloppy nuts but with a little makeup (whipped cream) you can certainly take it out in public (even to meet mom).  And, as you savor that first mouthful you’ll hear it scream with Fall flavors.

I would not say that this cake has a pudding consistency to it, although it is a very moist cake. It has a rich caramel sauce that oozes out of it when you first cut into it.  (The cake needs to be warm for maximum caramel output.)  The Fall flavors are inescapable: honey, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger.

Relationship Advice

It pays off to exceed people’s expectations.  Doing the unexpected, positive unexpected things, allows someone to see you in a different light.  These seemingly little things do not go unnoticed.  And in a case where you may be trying to get your significant others friends or family to see you in a more favorable light, little unexpected positive things can make all the difference in the world.

For the record…my mother in law hasn’t been able to stay out of the cake!  I think she and Craig are going to have a brawl over who gets the last piece.  Making a cake from scratch actually paid off this time.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 Cups All Purpose Flour
• 3/4 Teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1/2 Teaspoon Five Spice Powder
• 1/4 Teaspoon Cinnamon
• 1/4 Teaspoon Nutmeg
• 1/8 Teaspoon Ginger
• 1/4 Teaspoon Salt
• 1/4 Cup Unsalted Butter
• 1/4 Cup Sugar
• 1 Egg
• 1/2 Cup Honey
• 1/2 Cup White Wine (a light wine like Pinot Grigio)
• 1/2 Cup Sliced Almonds
• 3/4 Cup Brown Sugar (packed)
• 1 1/2 Cups Water
• 5 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter (cut into pieces)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.

Butter and 8″x8″ glass baking dish.

Whisk flour, baking soda, five spice powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl, beat 1/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup sugar until it is pale yellow in color.  Add egg and beat thoroughly.

Combine honey and wine into a bowl and stir to completely combine.

Add flour and wine mixture to butter mixture alternating between the two and making sure that each is combined before adding the other.

Pour mixture into prepared baking dish.

Sprinkle sliced almonds evenly on top of mixture.  Cover almonds evenly with brown sugar.

Melt 5 tablespoons of butter into 1 1/2 cups of water.  Carefully pour onto top of brown sugar.  (There will be a lot of liquid on top of the batter.)

Bake until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean – approximately 45 minutes.

Let rest for 15-20 minutes and serve with whipped cream.

Technorati Tags: Baked Goods, Dessert, dessert recipes, Easy Cooking, easy dessert recipes, Easy Recipes, Food Porn

Craig came back after a week in Amsterdam gushing about all of the fabulous food he got to eat while there.  Yeah, I have to admit…that hurt a little bit lot.  We love Amsterdam.  Everything about that city intrigues us and makes us happy.  And something that may surprise you, is that the food is fantastic!  Cheese…beer…chocolate…about the only thing missing from the happy food pyramid is bacon.

So I got to hear (ad nauseum) about our usual haunts, and how delicious the fondue and Heineken were at Cafe Bern. But this time he went to a couple of new restaurants (oh the nerve of him).  These were places that we walked by, on our last trip, but since we couldn’t stop in for a bite we picked up a card so that we had the address (Amsterdam is easy to navigate, but can be a bit confusing when you try to find a place strictly by memory.) for our next visit.

Of course, one of those restaurants now holds the title of having served Craig “the best meal ever eaten.”  Now I’m turning green with envy.  I picked his brain, mercilessly, to get all the juicy details.  He gushed about the dessert he had there and I became obsessed with making it.  I made a couple of changes though.  In Amsterdam, the dessert was made with bilberries (the closest equivalent we have here in the states is blueberries) and the Sabayon was made with soft curd cheese (which I also made) but I added Cointreau for some extra flavor.  The bread is a bit different too.  They used a heavy egg bread and I used a can of cinnamon rolls.

The verdict came in that while it tasted different from the dessert he had in Amsterdam, this is “unbelievably fantastic and completely addicting.”   This dessert is pure delicious decadence.  So, consider yourself warned.  You will not be able to eat just a small amount.  It’s one layer of yumminess after another.

Relationship Advice

Sometimes you just have to fight fire with fire.

Makes 4 Servings

Ingredients

For Quark

• 2 Quarts Buttermilk

For Blueberry Compote

• 1 12 Ounce Bag Frozen Blueberries
• 3 Tablespoons Sugar
• 1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice

For Bread Pudding

• 1 12.4 Ounce Can of Cinnamon Rolls (baked, 1 day old and cut into 1/2″ pieces)*
• 1 Egg
• 3/4 Cup Half and Half
• 2 Tablespoons Sugar
• 2 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter (melted)

For Sabayon Sauce

• 2 Egg Yolks
• 1/8 Cup Sugar
• 1/8 Cup Cointreau
• 1/4 Cup Quark (soft cheese curds)**

Directions

Quark

Preheat oven to 150 degrees Farenheit.

Pour buttermilk into dutch oven.  Cover and bake in oven for 6-8 hours.  Remove from oven.  Line colander with double layer of cheesecloth and pour contents of dutch oven into colander and drain for 2 hours.  Once drained, put into covered container and chill in refrigerator.

Blueberry Compote

In medium size saucepan add blueberries, sugar and lemon juice.  Over medium high heat, stir until ingredients are combined and blueberries start to break down and release their juices (approximately 15-20 minutes).  Remove from heat and set aside.

Bread Pudding

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit

Melt butter in microwave and set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk egg, sugar and half and half until thoroughly combined.  Once butter has cooled almost to room temperature, whisk into egg mixture.  Mixture may appear to curdle a bit…don’t worry about it.  The curdles should not be cooked egg, they should be droplets of butter.

Divide blueberry mixture between 4 ramekins.  Add cinnamon roll pieces on top of blueberries and divide evenly between the 4 ramekins.  Pour egg mixture, evenly, into each of the four ramekins.  Pour over the tops of the cinnamon roll pieces.  Let ramekins sit for 30-60 minutes.  Occasionally, lightly press down the bread mixture to help egg mixture soak into cinnamon roll pieces.  Be careful not to push so hard as to cause the blueberry juices to come to the top.

Place ramekins into oven and bake for 40-45 minutes.  Bread puddings are done when tops are golden brown and contents have puffed up.

Soft Curd Cointreau Sabayon Sauce

In the top of a double boiler add egg yolks, sugar and Cointreau.  (Make sure that the bottom of the pan does not touch the hot water below or your sauce will curdle.)  Whisk vigorously until the mixture is light yellow.  Whisk in the soft curd.  Keep whisking until the mixture is light and frothy.

Spoon Sabayon Sauce over tops of bread puddings and serve.

*  Bake the cinnamon rolls a day ahead of time.  Then let them sit out, overnight, so that they slightly harden and get a bit stale.  (You may have to closely guard the rolls so that the Gremlins don’t eat them. Do not put the icing on the cinnamon rolls.

** If you do not have the time to make quark, aka the soft curd cheese, you could substitute ricotta cheese.  But I highly recommend that you make the quark.  You’ll have plenty of it left over, but it can be used as a spread or any way you would normally use ricotta cheese.

Technorati Tags: bread pudding, cinnamon rolls, curd cheese, dessert recipes, Quark Cheese, Semi-Homemade

I get a little obsessed every fall.  Okay, I get a little obsessed at the beginning of each new season with one ingredient.  The particular obsession generally changes from year to year – except in the fall.  My fall obsession is always pomegranates.  I love the way they look, I love the taste of the arils (those are the little jewel like fruity seed casings inside the the pomegranate), and their bright red color.  I’ve ruined enough shirts over the years to prove my loyalty to the pomegranate.  So I’ve been cooking up all kinds of things with pomegranates this month.

Pomegranate curd is one of my newest creations – and this stuff is totally addicting (which if fine because it’s an easy fall recipe).  We’ve been putting it on everything.  You can use it the same way you use lemon curd – pie and tart fillings, spread on toast, dip fruit in it (it’s especially good with white chocolate).  It’s not as tart as lemon curd can be, but it is just as fattening.  But do we really eat desserts to stay or get skinny?  That’s what we have salads and water for.

Craig was a bit skeptical of the pomegranate curd at first, the purplish color caused him to question its origin. But then he didn’t know what lemon curd was either.  Of course, I reminded him that I only make things that taste good (we try not to dwell on the kitchen disasters).  Once I shoved a spoonful in his mouth, he started pulling things out of cupboards and drawers to dunk in it.

Relationship Advice

Don’t be afraid to give your guy new and different things to eat.  Sure, he may give you a bunch of whining at first, but give him chance.  Desserts/sweets are a particularly good thing to do this with.  Once he starts eating it, assuming he likes it, he will probably start trying to find more excuses for you to make this new and delicious treat.  In the case of the pomegranate curd, its consistency lends itself perfectly to dunking and spreading and he will probably start looking for things to eat it with.  Occasionally, he might get a little more creative with the sweet and find other things to spread it on…if you know what I mean .

Makes 1 cup

Ingredients

• 3 Large Eggs
• 1/3 Cup (minus 1 tablespoon) Granulated Sugar
• Zest of 1 Lemon
• 1/2 Cup Pomegranate Juice (unsweetened)
• 6 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter (cut into small pieces)
• 1/2 Teaspoon Pomegranate Molasses
• 1/4 Teaspoon Almond Extract

Directions

In a stainless steel or enamel saucepan whisk eggs, sugar and lemon zest until light in color.

Add pomegranate juice and butter.  Cook over medium high heat until butter is melted.  Whisk continuously until the mixture has thickened and simmer 30 seconds longer.

Spoon the mixture into a strainer, set over a bowl, to strain out grated lemon peel.

Stir in pomegranate molasses and almond extract.

Let cool, then refrigerate in covered container.

Technorati Tags: Dessert, dessert recipes, Easy Cooking, Easy Recipes, lemon curd