Recently in Desserts Category

I don't bake cookies very often. John can't eat a lot of them, and while I could always bring them to work, I just can't justify baking cookies repeatedly and only eating two or three of them (though I'm sure my coworkers would like it if I did). But for the past few weeks, I've been craving a really good cookie. You know... one of those melt in your mouth, ooey-gooey, soft and chewy, perfect cookies? The type that usually doesn't exist anywhere but in your mind? Well, I can now report that they exist and are almost ridiculously easy.

This recipe came from the New York Times. It has been getting rave reviews and has been posted on any cookie or dessert blog worth its salt. Since I want to be worth the new Murray River salt my dear husband just bought me, I need to post them too. This recipe isn't local, but it's amazingly tasty.

Chocolate Chip Cookies That Will Amaze Your Friends (from the New York Times)

• 2.5 sticks of butter
• 1.25 cups light brown sugar
• 1 cup PLUS 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups MINUS 2 Tbsp cake flour
• 1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1.25 tsp baking soda
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1/5 tsp coarse salt
• 1/25 lbs semi-sweet chocolate chips
• Sea salt

 

1. In a stand mixer, combine the room temperature butter, the light brown sugar and the granulated sugar. Use the paddle attachment and cream everything until it's light and fluffy. You might have to use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl a few times.
2. Beat in the eggs one at a time.
3. Add the vanilla.
4. In a separate bowl, mix the flours, baking soda and baking powder, and salt with a whisk. You actually do want to use coarse or kosher salt. I know it sounds odd, but the coarse salt is part of what just makes this recipe perfect.
5. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the flour mixture. Do this in at least two batches otherwise the flour will end up EVERYWHERE!
6. Mix in the chips and transfer the dough to a bowl.
7. Refrigerate for at least 24 hours, but preferably 36 hours.
8. Now wait.

Dah-dah-dee-dah-dah-dah-dah... dah-dah-dee-dah-dah-dee-dah-dee-dah-dah.

Zzzzzzzzz.

Beep! Beep! Beep! Snoooooozzzzze.

Zzzzzzzzz.

Beep! Beep! Beep! COOKIES!

1. Take the dough out of the fridge and let it warm slightly on the counter.
2. After about 20 minutes, preheat the oven to 350.
3. Use an ice cream scoop and scoop out large balls of dough. You only want to put about 6 cookies on a silpat lined cookie sheet.
4. Sprinkle each of the cookies with cracked sea salt.
5. Bake for 15 minutes. The cookies won't look completely done, but trust me, they are.
6. Let the baked cookies cool for about 2 minutes on the cookie sheet and then transfer them to wire racks.
7. Repeat.

Now, at this point, you've probably tried one, yes? If not, I'm surprised. Very surprised. Hot cookies are one of life's greatest joys. However, these cookies aren't best when hot out of the oven. They're best at room temperature. Eat some yourself, bring some to work. Your coworkers will thank you. Again, and again, and again.

I have the worst luck.  Sort of.

I've made a souffle once.  It came out awesome.  I mean, it was unbelievable.  Especially for someone who hates working with eggs and who never made a souffle before.

I was thrilled beyond belief.

I mean, go look at those souffles.  Really, go look.  I'll wait here.

Back?

So, the second time, they were still good.  Maybe not quite as good as the first, but still good.

It was time to try something different.  And this is where my worst luck comes into play.  The first time I do something I've never done before?  Comes out great.  But I'm never able to quite reproduce that first time masterpiece.  Happened with Amazing Chicken too. 

I think you can see where I'm going with this.

I thought it was time to make a sweet souffle, as opposed to a savory.  Especially when I saw the yogurt cheesecake souffles on Baking Bites. 

Greek yogurt?  Vanilla flavor?  Awesome.

Let's go to the recipe, then we'll talk.

Ingredients

• 1 cup greek style yogurt
• 3 large egg yolks
• 3 large egg white (room temp)
• 3 T all-purpose flour
• 1/8 t salt
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 1/8 t cream of tartar
• 1/4 c sugar
• butter
• 6 ramekins and a baking sheet

Well, local wise, not so great.  Salt, vanilla extract and sugar aren't exactly local here in the Pacific NW.  And until I read this, I had no idea where cream of tartar came from and I still don't know where I could buy local versions of it.  You'd think up here in wine country, wineries would just package it.  I mean, wineries have devoted followings generally, wouldn't people be more willing to shell out extra money for Stag's Leap Cream of Tartar?  Annnnnyways.

1. Preheat the oven to 375F
2. Butter the ramekins relatively liberally.  Put a couple dashes of sugar into each ramekin and give them a shake to spread the sugar around the interior.  Throw the ramekins on a cookie sheet.
3. Whisk the yogurt, egg yolks, flour, salt and vanilla extract together in a bowl.
4. In a different bowl, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar until it's foamy and then slowly pour in the sugar and beat to the soft peak stage.
5. Gently fold in a third of the mixture from step 2.  Once the egg whites are fully incorporated, fold in another third (which would also be considered half of the remaining).  And then, fold in the rest of the egg white mixture.
6. Divide the mixture amongst the ramekins, about a half cup into each.
7. Bake until risen and lightly browned on the edges, about 15 minutes.

That picture up there? 

That's the end product, coming out of the oven.

Were they tasty?  Hell yes.

Did they rise?  Hell no.

My theory is that I screwed up by trying to third the recipe.  I mean, it's just two of us, and souffles aren't exactly a leftover ready dish.  I had planned on making this for our parents this past weekend, unfortunately, things just didn't work out (ok, apparently our parents have stopped feasting on actual food and now subsist merely on the suggestion of food).  Someday, we'll have a dinner party with two other couples (or, at the very least, four other people) and I'll try this again.

After all, I can't fail every time, right?

Rhubarb is one of those foods that I never wanted to try. As my dear husband puts it, "It looks like celery and you make dessert out of it? WTF?"

I'd seen people make pie, and coffee cake, and sauces, and jam out of it. It was a beautiful color, but beyond that, it held no interest. Why in the world would I bake a vegetable into a pie?
Now that I've decided that vegetables can actually taste good and I want to eat more of them, I've decided to try my hand at the epitome of all rhubarb dishes, rhubarb crumble.

Rhubarb Crumble adapted from Everyday Food: Great Food Fast
Serves 6

• 1 1/2-2 pounds rhubarb stalks (from Anselmo Farms)
• 1 1/4 cups Emmer flour (from Bluebird Grain Farms)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 Tbsp cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 400.
2. Slice the rhubarb into pieces that are no more than about half an inch thick.
3. In a 13x9 glass baking dish, mix the rhubarb pieces, the sugar, and 1/4 cup of the flour.
4. Cut the butter into chunks.
5. In a food processor, combine the butter and the rest of the flour. Pulse until the butter is reduced to small pearls.
6. Add the oats and the cinnamon and pulse to combine.
7. Pour the topping over the rhubarb and bake for 35-40 minutes, until the topping is golden brown.
8. Cool slightly and serve.

Patricia's Notes: I was nervous about this recipe, but I've made it twice within a week and it's very good. I think rhubarb tastes a lot like a sour apple, so it lends itself very well to a crumble or crisp. There is a lot of sugar in this recipe, but I did replace about 1/3 of a cup of the sugar with an organic sugar substitute and the taste didn't suffer. We reheated the crumble several times for dessert and even ate it cold one day. If you heat it, pairing it with some rich vanilla ice cream would be excellent.

Or, alternatively titled... A Dessert.  With Booze.

So, there's this lovely little stand at the Ballard Farmer's Market.

Well, ok, there's quite a few of them.

But, this one sells Ice Cream.

Y'know... you scream, I scream, we all scream for Ice Scream.

This past weekend, while we walked by and I, the diabetic, looked longingly at the sign, I saw 'Cucumber Sorbet'.

And I was floored.

See, I eat cucumbers.

Whole.

Well, not whole, but, I'd cut off both ends, rub it [1] like I was taught, and just start gnawing.

So, I had to get some (and sample the sweet basil ice cream too... oh. my. god.).

It was divine.  And it was almost more of a cucumber ice than a sorbet, which I always see as a bit smoother.

But, it needed something.  Well, ok, it didn't, but....

Turns out, that something was booze.

There's this gin.  Hendrick's Gin.  When making gin and tonics, you should add cucumber instead of lime.  It's a perfectly lovely gin.  But, well, what a waste of cucumber.

Now, this sorbet, it'd make an outstanding amuse-bouche.  But, that's not what I wanted to do.

I wanted to make a mixed drink.

A gin and tonic.

With a scoop of cucumber sorbet.

It.

Was.

Fantastic.[3]

In fact, here's a lovely shot of it.

The perfect use of the cucumber sorbet.

In fact....

I think I'll have another one.  I got time.

And no, I don't want to know what the sorbet might be doing to my blood sugar.

[1] The cucumber[2], you perv.

[2] The FRUIT, you PERV.

[3] Patricia disagreed.  She didn't like the diet tonic we used.

So a few weeks ago my manager challenged me to a pie baking contest. This was serious business. No one challenges my pie baking ability! No one! So I searched, I planned, I plotted, and I finally decided to just go with a standard Blueberry Pie.

Now, I should tell you that as I was about to pull my pie out of the oven, my manager conceded. Yes, that's right. He gave up before he'd even seen my pie. Wimp. Well, not really. Apparently, he was just buried with work.

While he may have conceded, I'm still damn proud of my pie. So... what do you think?

 If you're wondering what the heck is on the top of the pie, it's the logo for a product we're working on. I figured I had to do something extra special and over the top for this contest, so I punched our logo into the pie. So here's the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 5 cups Alm Hill Gardens organic Blueberries
• 2 cups plus 3 tbsp flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup of Organic Valley churned butter
• Pinch of cinnamon, allspice, and cardamom
• Water

Directions

Pie crust is a delicate thing. While you can just mix butter, flour, salt, and water, the trick is working the dough just enough to bind everything together and not so much as to break down the gluten in the mix. Overmixing a pie crust will make it chewy as opposed to light and fluffy.

In a large mixing bowl, mix the 2 cups of flour, salt, and a pinch of the various spices you want to use. Cut the butter into chunks and mix it in. You want the mixture to look like flour covered peas. I used my Kitchenaid to do this. Once that's done, keep the mixer on and slowly add water, a tablespoon at a time. Make sure the water is cold!

I usually mix in 4-5 tablespoons of water with the mixer and then switch to working the dough by hand. Dough should feel soft, supple, and smooth. As it warms under your touch, it will smooth out. I can't really describe it, but you'll know when to stop.

At this point, you'll have a perfect dough ball. Take a sharp knife and cut the ball in half. Roll out the bottom half and lay it over a pie plate. Prick the bottom with a fork half a dozen times and then smooth some cornstarch over the bottom. This will help absorb some of the juices from the fruit and keep the bottom crust solid.

Next mix 5 cups of blueberries, 1/2 a cup of sugar, and 2-3 tbsp of flour in a bowl.  Pour into the pie crust.

Roll out the other half of the dough and lay it over the top of the pie. Tuck the edges of the dough together and press down with thumbs to seal the top and bottom crusts together.

Now you can decorate. You need to prick the top crust with a fork or cut some designer holes in it to let the inside of the pie breathe. I like to sprinkle sugar over the top crust before I bake the pie.

Cover the edges of the pie with foil and bake it for 25 minutes at 375. Remove the foil and bake for another 20-25 minutes. That's it. You have yourself a pie!

 

 

Fresh fruit is plentiful at the farmers markets these days. Strawberry season is pretty much over, but raspberry season is upon us and the blueberries and blackberries have just started to roll in. We've been buying half a flat a week. Tonight we had a beautiful dessert of all three types of berries with creme fraiche. 

A few weeks ago, we bought half a flat of organic raspberries. Unfortunately, we got busy, the fridge was full, and we dumped the raspberries into a tupperware and promptly forgot about them. The horror!

Today, as I was cleaning out the fridge, I found the tupperware. I was scared to open it. I figured the raspberries would have disintegrated into a moldy, fermented mess. Well, I was wrong. The raspberries were still beautiful. They were softer than they'd been when we bought them - in fact they practically fell apart when I picked them up. But the taste was super sweet and I couldn't see just throwing them away.

So I decided to make jam. The recipe was exceedingly simple. Smash about 4 cups of berries in a pot. Bring them to a boil, add the same amount of sugar, boil for another 6-8 minutes, cool, and put into jars. Now I used a little over 5 cups of berries and a little less than 3 cups of sugar. These berries were so sweet, they didn't need very much sugar.

 

Of course I had to taste the jam. It was incredible. I very nearly had that alone for dinner. We'll put a jar in the gift baskets we're making for our parents.

 

 

 

One of the local cupcake shops sells a lavender cupcake. I think this was my first experience eating something flavored with what I always assumed was merely potpourri.

Well, we were hooked. The lavender gives a very subtle flavor that's... well, almost indescribable other than to say that it tastes just like it smells.

Fast forward to today and our front yard.

That's a lavender plant at least 3 feet in diameter. Well, since I had a day off from work, I decided to experiment. I made lavender shortbread.

Ingredients (* = local, & = organic)

• 1 1/2 cups butter, room temperature &
• 1/3 cup diabetisweet (sugar substitute)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped lavender florets *
• 2 1/3 cups Emmer flour *&
• 1/2 cup cornstarch *
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Now, you might be asking yourself why the lavender isn't marked as organic as it came from our yard. Well, we rent, and the landlords have a garden service. I've asked them not to spray, but I can't guarantee they haven't. However, you can't be more local than right out the front door.

Directions:

Cream the butter, sugar, and lavender until light and fluffy. Add the flour, cornstarch, and salt and mix well. Divide the dough in half and form into squares. Seal in plastic wrap and refrigerate until cool.

Preheat the oven to 325. Roll the dough until it's about half an inch thick and cut into squares. I used a pizza cutter for this. Place squares on parchment paper or a silpat and pierce each several times with a fork.  

Bake at 325 for 20 minutes.

These were very good. Since we used Emmer flour, they will be higher fiber and protein than with regular flour. They were a bit crumbly, which I expect for shortbread, but they might have been a bit less crumbly with regular flour. We'll definitely make these again. I was even pleased with how substituting half the sugar worked. I'm always nervous about substituting fake sugar for real sugar in a baking recipe, but these worked quite well.

It's not often I find a dessert recipe that really calls to me. After all, we have so many good places to eat in Seattle. Two different cupcake places, several excellent bakeries, and a whole host of restaurants that serve almost any type of dessert you can think of. But when I saw these cupcakes on Slashfood, I knew I had to try them. I made the curd and cupcakes on Saturday and assembled everything on Sunday.

Now, I could have just followed the recipe to the letter, but J's diabetic. So I wanted to see if I could adapt these to be low sugar. If that wasn't enough of a challenge, these were a test for a party we're going to next weekend. The additional catch? The hostess is allergic to wheat. So I also needed to make these without flour.

So... do you think I did it? Well, here's a picture of the result.

Without further adieu... onto the recipe. I'll separate the recipe in to the three parts (lemon curd, cupcakes, and meringue). All organic ingredients will be marked with a *. All local ingredients will be marked with a &.  

Lemon Curd

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice *
• 3 large eggs *&
• 1 large egg yolk *&
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup Splenda
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest *

NOTES: I should have used organic butter, but I was weak. Tillamook butter was on a fantastic sale at our local market, so I bought a pound. The eggs were local, from Skagit River Ranch.

Directions:

Put a couple cups of water into a saucepan over medium heat until the water is simmering. In a glass bowl that will sit nicely over the saucepan, whisk the lemon juice, eggs, egg yolk and sugar until smooth. Cut the butter into chunks and add it to the bowl. Place the bowl on the saucepan and whisk gently. Cook the curd until it thickens and you can see a ribbon of curd hang off the whisk.

In my case, this took about 25 minutes, but it could take as few as 10. Remove the bowl and strain mixture through a fine mesh strainer. Add lemon zest, stirring gently to fold. Cover and chil thoroughly.

Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 2 cups rice flour *
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest *
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup Splenda
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter *
• 1 large egg *&
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup milk *&

Directions:

After preheating the oven to 375, combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium sized bowl. In a large bowl, rub the lemon zest, sugar, and Splenda together with your fingers to combine. When you're done, the sugar mixture should have a yellowish tint.

Add the softened butter and cream together until light and fluffy. Or... that's what is supposed to happen. When you're using Splenda, light and fluffy is sort of wishful thinking. Add the egg and vanilla and beat for another minute. Now, alternate the flour mixture and the milk a little bit at a time. Begin and end with the flour mixture.

When you're done, the batter will be a bit like cream of wheat. At this point, I don't mind telling you, I was worried. Cupcake batter should be smooth and thin. Or at least that's what it's always looked like to me when I used one of those box mixes. I persevered through my fear however, and lined 18 muffin cups with foil. I filled them about half full and slid them into the oven.

20 minutes later I had cupcakes.

Fast forward 24 hours and it's Sunday!

Meringue

Ingredients:

• 3 large egg whites *&
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1/4 cup sugar

Directions:

Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until just before the soft peak stage. Add the sugar a little bit at a time until the meringue has reached stiff peak stage.

Assembly

I took a paring knife and started carving up the cupcakes. I carved a cone shape out of each one. Oh! The horror! It's a cupcake massacre.

The casualties of war were tasty though...

I took a dollop of lemon curd (about a tablespoon and a half) and placed it in the hollowed out cupcake. I topped each cupcake with meringue.

     

After preheating the oven to 400, I put the topped cupcakes on a cookie sheet and baked them until the meringue was just browned. This took about 6-7 minutes.

Ta-da! Cupcakes!

 

So.......... how did they taste?

Overall, I give these a 7. When I asked J for his rating, he gave them 7.5. The flavor was very good. I really couldn't tell that they were gluten/wheat free or had very little sugar. There wasn't an aftertaste as some Splenda baked goods can have. The meringue was light and fluffy and the lemon curd had a nice tang to it. But... the cupcakes were a little dry and the lemon curd could have been just a tad bit firmer.

I'm going to make these again on Friday for the party we're attending next weekend. I'll hope that the lemon curd gets a bit thicker and I'll bake the cupcakes for a minute or two less.

Overall, these were a success.