Oreo Truffles

This cookie is so rich and so easy to make it's sinful. There is no need for a long introduction.  Simply, roll and indulge.

Ingredients:

2  18 oz packages of Double Stuff Oreos (R)
2 8 oz packages Cream Cheese, softened
3 lbs White Chocolate Candy discs (easiest to find at Michael's stores)
1/2 pound dark chocolate morsels or bar of dark chocolate

Method:

1. In the bowl of a food processor, crush the cookies until they become fine, almost like flour. 

2.  Place crushed oreos in the bowl of a mixer, and slowly beat in the cream cheese.  The dough will be soft.  Place it in the refrigerator for an hour to chill. 

3.  Pinch off 1 inch of dough at a time and roll into a ball.  Set on a baking sheet lined with parchment.  As each sheet fills, place it in the freezer for at least an hour.

4.  Melt the white chocolate in the microwave, 30 seconds at a time, stirring thoroughly each time.  When the chocolate is thin and smooth, it is ready to dip.  Using a plastic fork with the center tines removed, dip each frozen truffle in the white chocolate.  Place it on another baking sheet lined with parchment.  When the sheet is full, place it back in the freezer for about an hour.

5.  When the white chocolate is hardened, remove from the freezer and melt the dark chocolate 30 seconds at a time in the microwave, stirring thoroughly each time.  When the chocolate is thin and smooth, it is ready to drizzle.  Drizzle dark chocolate over truffles.   Keep truffles chilled until ready to serve.  

Nutritional Info: based on an approximate yield of 150 truffles

• Calories 115,
• Protein (gm) 2,
• Carbohydrate (gm) 13,
• Fat, total (gm) 7,

Lemon Raspberry Squares

I can't truly take credit for this recipe.  The base recipe was given to me by the one and only Liz Young. I merely tweaked it for the Christmas season.  Lemon squares are tart and sweet and adding raspberry jam adds a layer of tanginess to this recipe that makes it fresh and fun.

Lemon squares are incredibly easy to make as long as you have the right pan and you make a good crust.

Ingredients:

Crust:
2 cups Flour
1/2 cup Confectioners sugar
1 cup Cold butter, cut into cubes
1/2 cup Seedless raspberry jam

Lemon Curd:
4 Large eggs
2 cups Sugar
1/3 cup Fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/2 tsp Lemon zest
1/4 cup Flour
1/2 tsp Baking powder

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Thoroughly grease the sides and bottom of a 9x13 glass pan.  In the bowl of a stand mixer, blend the flour and confectioners sugar.  Add the butter 1 cube at a time to the mixture.  The mixture will become crumbly. Do not overmix and form a solid dough.

2.  Spread the mixture evenly in the pan, and all the way to the edges.  Pat the crust down until it becomes a more solid dough.  Make sure you get the crust all the way to the edge of the pan. Attempt to have it bond with the glass pan.  Place dough in oven. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until crust turns a golden brown color.  Set aside, let it cool.

3.  When the crust has cooled, warm the half cup of jam in the microwave for 30 seconds to 1 minute.  Spread the jam evenly over the crust.

4.  In the bowl of a mixer, whisk the eggs, sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest until fully combined.  Add the flour and baking powder.  Whisk until fully combined, scraping down the bowl if necessary.  Pour the lemon curd over the crust.  Make sure it is spread evenly across the crust.

5.  Place lemon squares in oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until curd sets.  Allow squares to cool overnight before trying to depan.

Nutritional info based on 48 squares from a 9x13 pan

107 calories

16.5 g carbs

4.3 g fat

1.2 g protein

A Weekend Baking Extravaganza

Christmas cookies are a big deal to me.  I bake around 500 cookies to give away to family, friends, clients and neighbors.  Although I should probably start picking my favorites and making them again each year, thus far, I change it up every year.

This year began with 5 cookies in mind.  A quick facebook poll landed me on:
Lemon Pistachio Shortbread
Lemon Raspberry Squares
White Chocolate Peppermint Bark Brownies
Oreo Truffles
Amaretto Truffles

I ultimately scrapped the last cookie because I was so tired already, but nonetheless, I still ended up making nearly 500 cookies.  From now until Christmas, I'll post a recipe a day for each cookie.  Today, we'll start with Lemon Pistachio Shortbread.  Shortbread itself is not an overwhelmingly sweet cookie.  The pistachios and lemon in this cookie make the flavor more complex than traditional shortbread.  This cookie is great with coffee or tea.

Ingredients:

For Cookies:
1 1/2 cups Butter (3 sticks), softened
1/2 cup (heaping) Confectioners sugar
1 tsp Lemon Zest
1 tsp Vanilla extract
3 cups Flour
1 cup Ground pistachio
1/2 tsp Salt

For Glaze:
1 Tbsp Lemon Juice
1/4 - 1/2 cup Confectioners sugar

Method:
1.  If for times sake, you need to make these in one day, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.   If you are just making the dough today and baking tomorrow,  skip to step 2.
2.  In the bowl of a mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Mix in lemon zest and vanilla extract
3.  With the mixer running on low, add in pistachio, flour and salt and mix until fully combined.  Do not overmix or the dough will get hard.

...as an aside.  Normally with shortbread I will knead and roll out the dough and use a cookie cutter to finish these.  For Christmas cookies, I always want to go the easiest, fastest way, which is the roll and slice method.

4.  If you are baking today, take small sections of dough and roll into a log, about a 1 inch to 2 inches in diameter, depending on how big you want your cookie.  As you finish each section, place it in the freezer to let it harden up a little while you work on the other sections. If you are baking another day, wrap the log in saran wrap and place it in the refrigerator to cool overnight.
5. After the dough is a little bit firmer, slice the dough into circular cookies.  A batch should yield at least 40 cookies, depending on how big you made the diameter of the log.
6. Bake on a lined cookie sheet in a preheated 350 degree F. oven for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges get slightly golden.
7.  Cool the cookies fully to room temperature.  To make the glaze, mix lemon juice and confectioners sugar.  Drizzle over cookies.

Nutritional info:
118 calories
9.5 g carbs
8.3 g fat
1.675 g protein

Guest Room 101

Every guest room must be equipped with:

A bed.
A place to sit.
A place to put some stuff.
Books.

Our guest room was probably the least offensive original color. 

 

The cobalt blue wasn't too bad.  What was bad?  The amount of paint on that poor ceiling.  And, the thick, gloopiness of the paint.  It was so thick it was cracking and peeling off. 

It was the second room we painted, but this was the color that took the longest to grown on me.  After we were done, I wasn't sure about it.   

The color was called Key Lime.  It had more of an electric tone than I was prepared for, but after we added the bed and some accessories, it got much, much better.

Now, future guests will have a place to sleep.  Eventually, the bookcase will be refinished and stocked and a reading chair will be available.

But, Chez Riley is now open enough for business. 

Just try to withhold judgment on the bathroom...we'll be starting on the bathroom in January.

A Time to Remodel

One of the main reasons I haven't been doing much baking or blogging these days is that 90% of my free time has gone into remodeling our house.

We bought a house built in 1917 and have slowly been trying to reverse the years of poor care and maintenance.

For today, I'll begin with the first room we redid.  John's office was an upstairs bedroom that very obviously belonged to a girl in love with Pink and Purple:

Not only was the room pink AND purple, it was shiny.  And they painted over the light switch and outlet covers and the switches and outlets themselves.  This room was the first room we painted and we soon realized that it was the start of many, many weekends and nights spent painting.

One bonus for all of the main rooms?  It came with beautiful, knotty pine ceilings.  The drawback?  The previous owners got paint all over them.  So we've had to slowly sand out the mistakes, re-stain and re-polyurethane each spot.

But all for a good cause:

After 2 days of painting, we have a nice, neutral soothing room in Gentle Rain (basically a dove gray), that suits John very nicely.

This room will be revisited after we get the art on the walls and the new floor down.  I don't really want to highlight the awful berber carpet we have going on right now.

Cinnamon Walnut Blondies

This is my take on the Applebee's Famous Maple Butter Blondies:

Ingredients:
1 cup walnuts, divided
2 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon
10 tbsp butter
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9x13 in baking pan with foil and butter or grease the foil. Set aside.
2.  In a food processor, blend 1/2 cup of walnuts.  Do not make into a fine powder, but rather pulse only until you get small pieces of walnut.  Add in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.  Pulse until well mixed.
3.  Meanwhile, beat the butter and brown sugar until it is light and fluffy.  Add the eggs, 1 at a time, until they are completely incorporated.  Add in the vanilla.
4.  Add the flour/walnut mixture to the butter/sugar mixture and mix until combined.  Add the remaining walnuts.
5.  Using a spatula, also buttered/greased, spread the batter evenly in the pan.  It will be sticky, so be patient! Bake for 30 minutes in preheated oven or until the blondies spring back evenly.

These blondies are great with coffee, hot chocolate or just by themselves!

Holy Crap

It's been nearly 8 months since I've posted! 

Funny how time flies.  In my defense, I got married, bought a house, and have been super busy with my business.  That said, there is no excuse. 

This week, stay tuned for:

Cinnamon Walnut Blondies
Pumpkin Scones
House Remodel Updates

Double Chocolate Boston Cream Pie

The past weeks have been that awful kind of wonderful busy where I work all day, workout, eat dinner and then work all night.  There has been no time to bake. 

I've been hearing about it at my main client's office too: an endless litany of where's the cookies? Am I off your email list? When are you baking again?  I'm hungry!  And I just had no time to fill their requests.

But no matter what, when it's a friend's birthday, I must bake.  This particular friend is a CHOCO-HOLIC.  He doesn't like to mingle chocolate with fruit or coffee or spice.  He just likes chocolate. 

This presented a problem for me.  I can make chocolate mousse in my sleep.  I can make every kind of chocolate ganache. But I just hate making chocolate cake.  I am always deceived by intriguing new chocolate cake recipes and consistently disappointed.  Some are dry, some are grainy, some aren't really chocolate-y.  I didn't have time to screw it up, so I went with the only cake I know is consistently good:  devils food cake. 

This double chocolate Boston cream pie is a sin of cake.  It's dense, soft, rich, and has enough chocolate to please any chocolate fanatic.

Double Chocolate Boston Cream Pie (Kimmel's Cake)

Ingredients:

Mousse:
8 oz Ghiardelli bittersweet chocolate
4 Large egg yolks
2 tsp Cognac or rum or brandy or port
2 Large egg whites
1 cup Heavy cream
1 cup Ghiardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cake:
2 cups Flour
1 cup Dutch pressed cocoa powder (or a high quality cocoa powder)
1 Tbsp Baking powder
3/4 tsp Salt
1 cup Unsalted butter, softened
2 cups Sugar
3 to 4 Large eggs
2 tsp Vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup Hot, freshly brewed strong coffee
1 cup Whole milk

Chocolate Ganache:
7 oz Ghiardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips
3 oz Ghiardelli bittersweet chocolate chips
2/3 cup Heavy cream

Method:
1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Make your mousse first because it needs to chill and be firm enough to hold up to the cake.  Start by heating the bittersweet chocolate in a double boiler until it's smooth.  Remove from the heat and beat in the egg yolks and cognac. 
2.  Whisk the egg whites on high until stiff.  Make sure they reach very stiff peaks.  Gently, but thoroughly fold the egg whites in in two additions.
3.  Whisk the heavy cream until it reaches stiff peaks.  Gently but thoroughly fold in the whipped cream in two additions.  Chill the mousse. 
4.  Now make your cake.  Sift together your flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Set aside.  Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add your eggs in 1 at a time.  You may only need 3 eggs.  You don't want the mixture to be too runny.  Then add in the vanilla and mix well.
5.  Next, add in half of the flour mixture and beat well.  Add in half of the coffee and milk and mix well.  Scrape down the bowl with a spatula and then add half of the remaining flour mixture.  Beat well.  Add in the rest of the milk/coffee and beat, finishing with the remaining flour mixture.  Split the batter evenly between three 9-in cake pans.  Bake for 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees F.   Remove from oven and cool on racks.  Meanwhile, mix the semi-sweet chocolate chips into the chilled mousse.
6.  To assemble the cake- depan one cake onto a cake board or platter.  Top it with half of the mousse.  Depan the next cake onto the mousse and then top it with the remaining mousse.  Depan the final cake and let it rest while you make the ganache.
7.  Set the chocolate chips in a stainless steel or glass bowl while you heat the heavy cream on medium until it just begins to boil.  Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let rest for 30 seconds.  Then, mix the chocolate and cream with a spatula until smooth.  Pour the ganache over the very center point of the cake, letting it pool and spread down the sides naturally.  You can use your spatula to spread the ganache evenly if its pooling on one side.  Let the cake chill for 2 hours before serving.

Fortune Cookies

One of my favorite treats to make for friends and family are homemade fortune cookies.  They are a great birthday gift, anniversary gift, and party appetizer; plus adding a handwritten fortune puts the icing on the cookie!

The batter couldn't be simpler, but the baking method requires patience and practice.  If you set out to make fortune cookies, just make sure you have about 2-3 hours to spend actively at your oven. 


Ingredients: 
5 tbsp Butter
4 Egg whites
1 cup Super fine sugar
1 cup Cake flour, sifted
1 pinch salt
3-5 tbsp Heavy cream
1 tsp Almond extract (can substitute vanilla extract, orange extract, lemon juice & zest, etc)

Method: 
1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Line a dark cookie sheet with a silpat OR, use a light cookie sheet and flip over.  Spray well with non stick cooking spray.
2.  Heat butter in microwave in 15 sec intervals until melted completely.  Meanwhile, beat egg whites and sugar for 30 seconds.
3.  Add in SIFTED cake flour and salt, beat until mixed.  Add heavy cream, extract and melted butter and beat until mixed.  The mixture should be thin enough to leave a ribbon when the beater is lifted from the batter.  Add heavy cream 1 Tbsp at a time until desired texture is reached.
4.  Portion batter by putting a little less than 1 Tbsp of batter into a 4 inch biscuit cutter or a tuna can with both ends removed.  Batter should be spread thinly, but evenly.   To start, I would only put one or two cookies on the sheet at a time. Bake cookies for 4-6 minutes, or until golden around the edges.

5.  When you remove the cookies from the oven, you need to have a few things ready:  a small spatula, your fortunes, a mini muffin pan or regular muffin pan, thin gloves (if desired).

Carefully remove cookies from the oven and working quickly, place a fortune on 1/2 of the cookie. 

Using your spatula, flip the half of the cookie that doesn't have the fortune on top of the fortune,  and then quickly fold in half the opposite direction.  Place ends of cookie face down in muffin cup to hold shape while they cool. 

Truly Coconutty Cream Pie

A year ago, I started an experiment with www.allrecipes.com.  I submitted two of my original dessert recipes to see how long it would take to get them up.  Just today I got a response saying that my recipe for coconut cream pie was accepted, but it was still in the editing process.  Rather than wait another year, here's the Sugar Lovin' truly coconutty cream pie recipe. 

Ingredients

Crust:

• 1 cup flour
• 3/8 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup cold, unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 2 Tbsp butter-flavor shortening
• 1-2 Tbsp coconut water
• 1-2 Tbsp coconut rum

Filling

• 18 oz cocounut milk
• 1 cup sugar, divided
• 1 cup coconut, flaked, sweetened, toasted
• 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
• 1/3 cup cornstarch
• 6 oz whole milk
• 2 whole eggs
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 Tbsp butter

Topping:

• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 cup confectioners sugar
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• Flaked, sweetened, toasted coconut

Directions

1. For the crust: Combine first 4 ingredients in food processor and blend until you have pea sized pieces. Place mixture in bowl and slowly add coconut water alternating with coconut rum, 1 Tbsp at a time. Only add enough so that mixture forms a solid ball. Knead about 10 times. Cover dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. Allow dough to come to room temperature before rolling out.
2. Preheat oven to 350 F and grease an 8 in pie pan. Roll out dough on a clean well floured surface until it fits the pie pan. Using a fork, prick holes in the pie crust. Weigh down the pie crust using dry beans or pie weights and bake for 15 minutes. Set aside.
3. For the filling: Combine coconut milk, 1/2 cup sugar, flaked coconut, vanilla bean seeds and pod in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium low heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Bring mixture to a boil, then remove from heat.
4. Whisk together remaining sugar, cornstarch and milk. Gradually whisk in eggs and egg yolks until fully blended.
5. Slowly add 1/3 cup of hot coconut milk mixture to egg mixture by pouring it down the side of the bowl. Then add the whole egg mixture in with the remaining coconut milk mixture and cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat until it reaches a boil. Cook for an additional 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Remove vanilla bean pod and whisk in butter until smooth. Pour into prepared pie crust.
6. Chill pie for 1 hour. Meanwhile, place mixer bowl and whisk in freezer for 15 minutes. In chilled bowl, combine heavy cream, lemon juice, and vanilla extract. Begin whipping on high speed and slowly add in confectioners sugar. Beat until stiff peak stage. Pipe onto chilled pie and top with coconut flakes.

Be sure not to skip tempering the eggs with the hot coconut milk mixture before combining the whole egg mixture with the hot coconut milk mixture- otherwise, your eggs will curdle! Freezing the mixing bowl before whipping the cream makes it whip up faster and keeps it more stable. This pie can be made ahead of time and kept refrigerated before serving.

National Sticky Bun Day

I love this person who came up with National Specific Food days.  Like National Pie Day.  Or National Doughnut Day.  Or National Drink Wine Day (that was last Friday, 2/18.  And yes, I did partake of a few glasses). 

Today, is National Sticky Bun day, a sainted day in Sugar Lovin scripture.

What's not to love about a sticky bun?  When made right, they are gooey, sticky, sweet, soft, warm, and have just a hint of the yeasty flavor of a delicious fresh roll. 

The best sticky buns, according to the website, http://www.beststickybuns.com/, are from Fritz's Bakery in Pennsylvania (most locations are near Philadelphia).  Actually, http://www.beststickybuns.com/ is Fritz's website, so if you go to that site, you might find it a little biased.  That said, I've never had a Fritz sticky bun, but according to Yelp and  Urban Spoon , they really might be the best.

Here's a shortcut recipe to fast and delicious sticky buns from Ina (and yes, this is how I came up with my shortcut cinnamon rolls with puff pastry).

If you want to go the traditional route, here's a different recipe for the adventurer.  Julia Childs happened to think that this recipe yielded the best sticky bun she'd ever had in her life. 

Either way, I'll likely be stopping at a bakery on my way home (or maybe during lunch, you never know) for some sticky bun deliciousness.

English Muffins- experiment 1, not so great

I do so love an English muffin.  A lot of people talk about the nooks and crannies and how it's the butter inside those nooks and crannies that makes an English muffin stand out amongst a crowd of biscuits.  For me, it's not just nooks and crannies- it's everything that an English muffin becomes. 

A stage for eggs benedict, a platform for my version of bagels and lox, and a simple way to enjoy butter and jam without eating it with just a spoon.

When I decided to try English muffin recipes, I went with the All Recipes version found here.  I of course changed the recipe a little:  I substituted 4 cups of the 6 cups of flour for whole wheat flour and salted butter for shortening.   Maybe if I had followed the recipe to the letter of the law, it would have come out better.  But let's digress a little on what I didn't like.

This recipe came out more dense than I would have liked; a partial by-product, I'm sure, of using whole wheat flour.  It tends to give you a denser texture than regular flour.  However, the proportion of liquid to dry seemed off to begin with and I had to add a little water and a little flour to get the dough texture just right.  In addition, the dough was really kind of tough.  I think I probably overworked the dough in an attempt to get it to flatten and combine the way it should have.  But ultimately, even if I had worked the dough less or used a different kind of flour, I'm fairly certain, even from the reviews, that I would only have gotten me "kind of" close to where I wanted to be with these English muffins. 

Next week, I'll be trying this recipe.  It's a completely different method, but the reviews have been fantastic thus far.  Plus, who better to trust on the scientific end of baking than Alton Brown?

Chocolate chip cookies and sunshine!

Happiest of happy Fridays!  It might be February, but today, it officially feels like spring has sprung in Raleigh. The next 10 days show it's going to stay above 50 degrees.  I can really get behind that.  Even in snowy Pittsburgh, 60 degree weather has shown it's mysterious February face. 

What goes best with spring weather and sunshine?  Flip flops and sundresses and...chocolate chip cookies.  Ok, well maybe they don't go well together, but last night just felt like a night to make chocolate chip cookies.  I've experimented with this recipe a hundred times.  I've used shortening, butter, lard, combinations of the two, a hint of crumbled bacon, and more to play with this recipe and make it unique, but it always comes back to the same place-  Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies. 

Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies:

1 cup Butter, softened
1 1/4 cup Dark brown sugar (or brown sugar with 2 tbsp of molasses stirred in)
1/4 cup Granulated sugar
2 Large eggs
2 tsp Vanilla bean paste
2 1/4 cup Flour
2 tsp Baking soda
2 tsp Kosher salt, plus extra for sprinkling
1 11.5 oz bag Ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate chips
Optional- freshly grated lemon or lime zest

Method:
1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Line cookie sheets with parchment paper, set aside.
2.  Cream butter and sugars together until light and fluffy in stand mixer with paddle attachment.  Add in eggs 1 at a time, making sure to fully incorporate before adding another.  Scrape down sides of bowl with spatula and add in vanilla.  Mix well.
3.  Add in flour, baking soda and salt, mix until just combined.  Add in chocolate chips and mix until just combined.  Place mixer bowl in refrigerator for 1 hour OR roll dough into 3 equal logs, wrap in wax paper and chill in refrigerator overnight.
4.  Using a cookie scooper or tbsp, portion out cookies 1 inch apart on lined cookie sheets.  If you chilled the cookies overnight in wax paper logs, unwrap logs and slice cookies about 3/8 thick and place 1 inch apart on cookie sheets.  Bake for 7-8 minutes in preheated oven.  Cookies should be formed on the outside, but still soft on the inside.
5.  Immediately sprinkle a pinch or two of kosher salt over the cookies when you remove them from the oven. If desired, grate fresh lemon or lime zest and sprinkly lightly over cookies. Leave cookies on sheet and allow to cool on sheet (this will help to cook the inside a little more without it being intense heat.  It leaves you with soft, chewy cookies, instead of dry and crispy). 

Yields- approx 36-42 cookies

Breakfast goodies

Breakfasting while on vacation is a necessary.  And if you hadn't figured it out yet, I'm a recipe hoarder.  (its going to take me years to go through and try all the recipes I've collected, literally).  So this Valentine's Day weekend, not only did I make dessert, but I made breakfast pastries.

On the first day, I made my cinnamon rolls from puff pastry (found here) and then I mixed it up a bit with raspberry sweet rolls.  Its essentially the exact same recipe, except I used raspberry preserves instead of a cinnamon sugar filling. 

(and no, those aren't what my rolls looked like.  I was working in an efficiency kitchen with no rolling pin. )

The next day, I brought the puff pastry out again (limited space & tools), and made a blueberry puff pastry breakfast sweet treat.  I macerated the blueberries (a little lemon juice, a little sugar, and blueberries) and then stuffed them neatly into a little pocket of puff pastry.  After it baked, it smelled great, but it tasted flat.  It needed marscapone or cream cheese.  So for a blueberry cheese danish, here's what I would do:

1.5 cups Fresh blueberries
3 Tbsp Sugar
2 Tbsp Lemon juice
1 sheet Puff pastry, thawed
1 cup Marscapone or cream cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Combine the blueberries, sugar and lemon juice in a bowl and let it sit for about 10 to 15 minutes.  Roll out the puff pastry just a little and then spread the Marscapone cheese in an even layer across, leaving an inch at each edge.  Mash the blueberries a little with a fork and then pile a little in the center.  Take the edges of the puff pastry and fold toward the center, overlapping a little and gently pressing to form the edges together.   Place on an unlined buttered cookie sheet and bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until the pastry gets puffy and golden brown.

Valentine's Day Desserts

This past weekend was spent cooking with only 1/4 of the kitchen tools I normally have at my disposal.  It was Valentine's Day weekend at the beach and our little efficiency apartment really lacked some of the finer points of bakeware.  That said, it was still necessary to get my bake-on.  Here's what I made and how I changed it up:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/sweet-roasted-grapes-recipe/index.html

This recipe I pulled out of Food Network Magazine ages ago and had been really interested to try.  Grapes aren't something you see baked a lot and lets face it, it was suggested that you serve it with cheese and bread.  There is very little you need to change about this recipe- the only thing I would add to this is that it doesn't need to roast for 25 minutes in the oven.  15 minutes should work for you, with a nice stir at 7.5 minutes.  Also, it is super necessary to buy a high quality cheese to set the flavors right.  We chose a super-soft French brie, though a gruyere would have worked nicely as well.

This would be a great party appetizer, but also could be served as a slightly savory dessert if you wrapped some brie and grape dip in puff pastry, baked it and then drizzled the honey syrup on the pastry. 

Staying on my Food Network magazine kick, I also tried a Vanilla Poached Pear recipe I pulled a while ago and was waiting to try out.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/vanilla-poached-pears-recipe/index.html

I did make several adjustments to this recipe.  First, I did not buy a dry white wine.  This was merely because I didn't want a whole bottle of white wine I knew we were unlikely to drink (we both wanted red wine or beer).  So instead, I bought one of those small wines they sell in a carton (I know, so super classy) that only has about 2 to 3 glasses of whine in it.  It was Fox-something-or-another chardonnay, and it tasted supremely awful.  However, when you dump two great pears, a high quality vanilla extract, sweet sugar, and cinnamon in the mix and let it reduce for a long while, it was almost as if I had bought a quality wine. 

Vanilla Poached Pears:

Serves 2

1 large Bosc pear (Anjou might be ok too, but I like the natural juiciness of this variety)
1 cup White wine
2/3 cup Sugar
1 Tbsp Lemon juice
1 tsp Madagascar bourbon vanilla bean paste
1 Cinnamon stick

Peel, halve and core 1 pear. Put in a shallow skillet with 1 cup white wine, 2/3 cup sugar, 1 tbsp of lemon juice, 1 tsp of Madagascar bourbon vanilla bean paste, and a 1 cinnamon stick. Place over medium heat and stir until sugar dissolves.  Cover and allow to simmer and reduce 15 minutes.  Serve the pears with the reduced syrup; top with whipped cream, if desired. 

I did this on the stovetop instead of in the microwave for a little more control over how it cooked up.  Also, I substituted lemon juice for grapefruit zest, mostly because I had lemon juice on hand and partially because I am not a grapefruit person.  Finally, I added the cinnamon stick because I felt the pears needed a subtle layor of flavor beyond the vanilla- you know, some place for the pears to land when it was all done. 

And this was really just the dessert portion of our weekend.  Stay tuned for some quick raspberry sweet rolls, raspberry stuffed French toast with honey sauce and a blueberry marscapone danish. 

Valentine's Day goodies- coming soon!

This weekend I'm taking the opportunity to try out 3 recipes I've been dying to make- unfortunately, my stack of recipes to try still remains at 5 or 6. 

I know I'm making roasted grapes and walnuts with honey syrup and brie as 1.  The other two are TBD.  Should I make cherry clafoutis, vanilla poached pears with fresh whipped cream, grilled plums with hazelnut gelato, vanilla custard with caramel cream sauce, cinnamon rolls or raspberry sweet rolls?  I can pick 1 dessert and 1 breakfast item. 

Decisions, decisions.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Post holiday fall-out

After the holidays, it takes me so many months to get back on the wagon and back up to social media speed.   I neglect my blogging, my tweeting, my facebooking...

In some ways, it's so very nice to take a big, long, deep breath of computer and internet free air.  In other ways, I miss the discipline I place on myself to bake a lot, read a lot and think a lot about sugary, delightful goods.  But then again, after the holidays, I have to take some time away from the sugar.  So much sugar.  So many great cookies.  So many wonderful treats.  It starts to show on my middle, no matter how much crossfitting I do. 

So forgive me.  I have been baking here and there, but it's all stuff we've talked about before- basic brownies, red velvet cake, chocolate pepper truffle cake, snickers cupcakes, peanut butter cookies, etc.

I do have to decide on a Valentine's day dessert though, so I'll something to share for next week. 

Happy post holiday