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Category Archives: Dessert
This weeks challenge was brought to us by Lyb of And then I do the dishes and she picked the cake that Dorie got fired over: the Chocolate Armagnac Cake.
I have to say right off, I am glad that Dorie got fired over the creation of this cake – it is FANTASTIC! Basically, Dorie got bored day in and day out of making the same thing and decided to get a little creative when making this cake, in the end she was fired for being creative! I love that! Not, that you lost your job, Dorie; but, the part about being creative and taking a chance.
The past couple of weeks I have made two incredibly dense chocolate cakes that require very little flour if any at all, which I find interesting as the texture is really amazingly light, so different from your tradition cake. This particular recipe calls for bittersweet chocolate and I used the deepest I could find, Scharffen Berger 70% as well it uses ground pecans. I did toast the pecans a bit before grinding which gave them a nice toasty and warm taste. As well we got to flambe prunes in Armagnac, this is the second recipe of Dorie’s that I have gotten to flambe and it is a very fun addition to your baking afternoon. Now you may be thinking to yourself, prunes in a cake? This addition made the cake incredibly moist. The cake is frosted with a simple glaze of more chocolate, very little sugar and butter.
This is a recipe that will become a fall back onto for us. It was ultra moist, dense, nice bite of deep bittersweet chocolate and not overly sweet. With the addition of prunes we like to think it is healthier for us as well, after all we all could use some fiber with our chocolate! It really is a fantastic recipe.
Be sure to check out all the other wonderful Tuesday With Dorie bakers!
A sinful flourless chocolate cake. This is the ultimate flourless chocolate cake; dense, but moist; rich with deep dark chocolate, but slightly sweet. This is an easy chocolate cake recipe to fall back on for last minute dessert ideas and it is gluten free.
The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE’s blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef and they picked a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge. The DB challenge rules were that we were suppose to make the cake, serve it with an ice cream or we could use another sauce of choice.
When I read about this challenge I knew that I would be able to come with at least three reasons to make this sinful cake, 1) my friend Evelyn’s birthday, 2) Valentine’s Day, or 3) my birthday. Guess what? I did not use any of those reasons to make it. I waited until the perfect rainy day last weekend and made it for no reason at all except pure indulgence!
Since we were going all out with sin for this dessert we used a pound of bittersweet Scharffen Berger Chocolate, if one is going to be bad, then one may as well be bad. The recipe is so simple. You melt butter with chocolate and then fold in yolks and whites that have been beaten stiff. I thought it was going to turn out souffle like, but it did not. It was dense but moist and so incredibly rich.
When I first read the recipe I had all sorts of plans for what kind of ice cream to serve with this cake, Vanilla Bean, Burnt Caramel or Cardamon. Then I switched to thoughts of sweet raspberries, which in turn went to sugary fruit sauces. The end result was a slightly sweet sauce I made out of some Marion Blackberries that I found in the frozen section of the market. They were so sweet that they really did not need any sugar and they went nicely with the ultra dark chocolate.
I loved this recipe and can definitely see it being a fall back on recipe. Especially for those last minute desserts as the ingredient list includes everything that is a staple in our house. Be sure to check out all of the other decadent Daring Bakers challenges today.
Recipe
Chocolate Valentino
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated
Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.
While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.
Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.
Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).
With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.
Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.
Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter. {link of folding demonstration}
Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C.
Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.
Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.
Anyone who loves Devils Food cake will surely love this chocolaty, moist and light cake that is frosted with a mildly sweet homemade marshmallow fluff. The best part is that there is also devil’s food cake crumbs pressed all over the outside of the frosting: an ultimate party cake.
I always wondered who would pick this outrageous cake for our Tuesdays with Dorie challenge as it is on the cover of the Dorie cookbook. Stephanie over at Confessions of a City Eater did just that! I was going to sit this week out but when I saw what the challenge was I knew I had to make it. The only problem was … I knew Lenny would not want a big gooey cake sitting around the house so I needed a great reason and I had the perfect one, my friend Evelyn’s birthday. What made this challenge even better was that I got to involve MEM (Evelyn’s too cute kids) in the process.
We made the cake over a two day period since we had school and work schedules to deal with. MEM helped with the cake making process and we had tons of fun. From little fingers tasting everything to chocolate cake batter spattering all over the kitchen and us when I added the hot water on to high of a speed – we just laughed and laughed about it and they just kept tasting and tasting!
The second part of the cake building process I did on my own, which was too bad, because MEM would have loved this part. The frosting for the cake was a meringue that was made with a hot sugary syrup which you drizzled over the peaked meringue while beating constantly. The end result was marshmallow fluff! To put the cake together, I had to slice each cake in half, leaving 4 layers. The fun part and the part that MEM would have loved was taking one layer and crumbling it into little crumbs. Now I know they would have had a great time doing this, I am just not sure how much cake would have been left. The remaining layers were then frosted with the fluffy meringue and then the crumbs were sprinkled all over the cake. This is a great project to do with kids as there is no way around getting messy and making a mess. The messier it is the more crumby the cake!
The cake was really good. Not overly sweet. Very chocolaty. Very moist. Very light.
The littlest M (Maggie), a self proclaimed *foodie* said the next day that she thought it would be good with chocolate frosting. I have to agree. Maybe next time we will add chocolate powder to the meringue, who wouldn’t like chocolate marshmallow fluff!
I had planned to make these for Valentines as Lenny loves them! In fact, whenever I ask about his favorite desserts this is the only one he mentions. Shari of Whisk: a food blog beat me to it as she picked this fablous recipe for our weekly Tuesdays with Dorie (TWD) challenge.
The recipe starts with making a Creme Anglaise, which is a light pouring custard. It is made with milk, eggs, sugar and vanilla flavoring. I decided to skip the vanilla extract and add a split vanilla bean to the milk while it simmered. I love the dark speckles floating in the finished creme not to mention the very intense flavor of fresh vanilla.
While the custard was chilling I made the floating islands. Dorie’s recipe was basically egg whites with a little sugar. I normally add a bit of cream of tartar which helps them hold up a bit more. Since this recipe did not call for it, I did not add it. Instead I made my meringues extra big, which was a good idea, as when I removed them from the simmering milk they deflated quite a bit. Tip, save the slightly sweet milk and use in your coffee.
The recipe called for the option a drizzling of caramel, we went for it. I did decide to cook it a little longer then the recipe stated as we love burnt caramel. With the smell of vanilla, frothy milk and burnt sugar lingering in the house, we could not hold out and ate the dish slightly warm. Even though it is better when served a bit colder, we were not complaining as we licked the spoons and bowls clean. This is an easy recipe that tastes fantastic! Sultry creamy custard and comfortable caramel teasing your taste-buds. We may be eating this again on Valentines!
Be sure to check out all the other TWD Floating Islands as well!
For our first challenge Christy picked the Avocado. The avocado is also known as the butter pear and is native to Mexico, South America and Central America. It is also a fruit. Avocado is a “good” fat and has been known to lower cholesterol levels only after a 7 day diet rich in avocado intake. These subjects also showed a 22% decrease in both LDL (bad cholesterol) and triglyceride levels and 11% increase in HDL (good cholesterol) levels. Avocados are a great super-food to add to your daily diet to help aid in weight loss and maintenance.
For the RSBC challenge Christy asked to to make a dessert with this super-food. I have to say it took some time for me to figure out what I could possibly come up with using the avocado. We eat them very often but never as a dessert. I put a twitter out there asking my fellow foodies if they have any ideas – I got tons of them! As well this dessert was going to be for a dinner party so I wanted something that would look like dessert! Nicole from Pinch My Salt, sent over a recipe for an avocado pie, which looked fantastic. The recipe is so easy especially when you pick up a premade graham cracker crust. Basically you mix the avocado with condensed milk and lemon juice, I used fresh lime juice as I wanted to trick our diners into thinking it was key lime! Instead of using whip cream as a garnish I made a slightly sweet meringue for the topping. The result – it was fantastic! No would have guessed what it was, if Lenny did not keep grinning and asking, what do you think it is? Thanks Nicole!
With regards to rest of my challenge, I am sorry to say I was not that good. Completed: 3 miles of running and 1 culinary challenge. This week will be better. Don’t forget to check out Balance for to see how everyone did with this challenge.
The super-food this week with be the Kale and you need to use it as the main ingredient for dinner. Kale is considered to be a highly nutritious vegetable with powerful antioxidant properties and is anti-inflammatory. It is high in beta carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C, lutein, zeaxanthin and rich in calcium.
Rules for the challenge
Post your entries some time this week on your blog, and send me an email at denise@chezus.com with the link to your post and a picture. I can’t wait to see what you come up with. Entries are due Saturday evening before midnight. Have fun!
Heather of Sherry Trifle is the Tuesday with Dorie (TWD) host this week and she picked a very refreshing dessert, the Fresh Ginger and Chocolate Gingerbread. I have always thought about making gingerbread or gingerbread cookies with fresh ginger but never have. I am so glad Dorie created this recipe, it is really lovely.
The recipe calls for fresh ginger, dried ginger and stem ginger (I could not find so I used candied baking ginger) as well as cloves and cinnamon, lucky for us, I still had some of that lovely cinnamon bark so I used that. In addition to molasses (which I forgot how much I liked until I licked the spoon) there is melted bittersweet chocolate and pieces of chocolate mixed into the batter. I was suppose to frost the finished gingerbread with more chocolate but opted to keep it simple and on the light side. Overall, we like it as it is moist, spicy, light and really refreshing. Perfect after a nice meal or as a simple afternoon snack with a nice cup of espresso.
Thank you Heather for hosting!
This gingerbread is also the dessert for our Recession/Depression dinner series.
Mary over at Meet Me in the Kitchen is the hostess for this week’s Tuesdays With Dorie challenge and she picked the Berry Surprise Cake. What a fantastic recipe!
Dorie was inspired to create this recipe from her childhood days of having a Charlotte Russe. Charlotte Russe is a combination of sponge cake, fruit or jam, lots of whipped cream, and topped with a cherry. I have never had a Charlotte Russe so I was very anxious to try this recipe out.
The base of this recipe is a genoise whole-egg sponge cake. I was concerned the height of my cake would not be perfect as Dorie suggests using a 3″ spring-form pan, which I do not have, so I doubled the recipe and made two 9″ cake-pan layers.
The filling is a layer of simple syrup, a cream cheese based mixture and fresh raspberries. The simple syrup we decided to flavor with orange liqueur and cardamon, it was the perfect combination of sweet and spice. The cream cheese layer was simply cream cheese, whipping cream and very little sugar, I used the sugar from our sugar bowl that is full of vanilla beans and unrefined sugar! Finally a layer of raspberries.
The recipe calls for you to hollow out the middle of your cake, brush the center with the simple syrup, fill with a small layer of cream cheese and top with the berries, as I had two layers I did this with each layer. Then I topped them upon each other.
The outer frosting was pure whipping cream with a bit of sugar and vanilla. I had some extra cream cheese filling left over and since I did not want to waste it nor did I want it sitting on my waistline, so I added it to the frosting. It definitely gave it a bit more structure and made it easier to frost. After chilling for a couple hours it was ready to serve!
This dessert was soft and slightly sweet, just like a new summer day. A few of my fellow TWD bakers said that they did not think it was sweet enough and I was concerned when serving it, but we all liked that the flavors of the eggy genoise cake came through as well as the jammy flavors of the berries which was only enhanced by the traces of sugar and vanilla. This would be a delightful substitution to your typical strawberry shortcake.
Be sure to check out all of the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers.
I was pretty excited, as I am sure rest of the Tuesday with Dorie bakers where as well, when I found out that Dorie would be our lovely hostess for this weeks challenge. I was equally as excited when I found out that Dorie picked the French Pear Tart. I have been dying to make a Pear Tart all winter and have not had a chance to do so. We had a dinner party to go on Sunday and I knew this would be the perfect opportunity.
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