Category Archives: Dessert

Salted Caramel Butter Cream

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J. had some extra molasses laying around and I though we should use it up. He bought different types of molasses (not different brands, different types), so I couldn’t combine the bottles. The interwebs brought me this:

Always With Butter

The cake is okay. It really is a molasses cake. Tastes better after being refrigerated. Makes it kind of like a black forest cake except more molasses. If you don’t like molasses, avoid this cake. If you like molasses and it’s too much for you, try pouring some unsweetened cream over it.

But the buttercream? OH DEAR LORD I WOULD EAT THIS WITHOUT CAKE. DO I NEED CAKE FOR THIS? According to the website it either came from chow.com or Martha Stuart’s Cup Cake book. I found a similar recipe at Chow.com. Also I didn’t have powered sugar, so I substituted it with sifted granulated sugar and some tapioca powder. Trust me, it didn’t matter as far as the flavor goes, but it makes the frosting crunch, like putting regular sugar in whipping cream. I really like that but if you want it totally creamy, use powder sugar.

  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 2 tbsp water
  • 1/4 cup heavy cream
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 12 tbsp butter, softened
  • 1 tsp sea salt (experiment with different types of seal salt)
  • 1 cup powdered sugar

 Step 1 Make Caramel

Stir regular sugar and water together in small saucepan. Once mixed, turn the burner on medium/high and let it come to a boil. DO NOT STIR. Let it boil until it turns a DARK AMBER color. Take it off the heat and stir in cream, and vanilla. Let it sit until it is completely cool. Warning: if you taste it will taste burnt. THAT IS OKAY. Trust me here, this will work.

 Step 2 Make butter cream

Cream the butter salt and powdered sugar together. When the caramel is cool, slowly pour it into the mixture as it’s being beaten and beat until thoroughly mixed. Chill until set. Or eat with spoons. If you’re all alone, just lick the damn bowl. I won’t tell.

Chocolate Ganauche

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So for the Halloween party, I decided to make chocolate ganache to dip the cupcakes in. I make a similar one for truffles but this recipe is much simpler and very tasty.

  • 8oz of heavy cream or whipping cream
  • 6 oz of unsweetened chocolate
  • 1/2 cup of sugar

Dump the ingredients in a bowl and microwave for 30 seconds. Stir, then microwave for another 30 seconds. Stir again. Microwave again. Repeat until when you stir it the whole soup turns silky brown. Let it sit for about 10 to 15 min for it to gel up. You can just eat this, dip stuff in it, uses it as filling or pour it over something. If you refrigerate this, it will turn into a stiff paste and you sculpt with it or dip it in confectioners coating to make chocolate candies. If you dip stuff in it and refrigerate that it will turn into a firm coating similar to the stuff that covers Ding Dongs or chocolate donuts.

WARNING: Do not microwave more than 30 seconds before stirring. Chocolate keeps it’s shape when it melts and so it may not look melted and will catch fire before it looks melted unless you constantly stir it. You can heat the mixture over low heat on a stove, but you MUST stir constantly and remove from heat immediately after it turns a smooth brown.

Quick Blueberry Cobbler

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I was craving something with bread and sweet. I didn’t want to take the time to make soda bread even if it only takes 30 min. So I pulled out a mug and used some microwave fu.

I choose blueberries cause I started craving them recently and found no one makes blueberry pie or cobbler anymore. Sad, but not defeated I took my bag of frozen blueberries and made yummy.

  • 1 mug
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • Butter, Lard or Olive oil
  • 1 and cup flour
  • Salt, only a tiny bit
  • 1/2 cup blueberries
  • 1/4 cup sugar or 1/8 cup agave nectar
  • 1/2 tbsp on baking soda

Coat the mug with butter, lard or oil. Mix lemon juice and milk and let it sit for minute. This can be replaced with buttermilk if you keep it around but the lemon and milk work just fine. I haven’t tried this with Soy or Almond milk. This does not work well with hemp milk.

Mix milk & lemon juice with the flour, baking soda and salt. It should be solid but sticky ball, it should not drip. If it seems drippy add a little more flour. Put the ball in the mug and stick it in the microwave for one minute, thirty seconds. DON’T GO OVER THIS TIME. Otherwise the loaf will burn. If the loaf is still raw after this, pull it out of the microwave and let it cool for five minute. Then put it in for 30 second bursts not exceeding another minute thirty.

Let it cool then run a knife around the edge. The bread should pop right out. You will not get the crispy top with this method of making soda bread (cause that’s what this is).

In a blender blend blueberries and sugar. I use agave nectar instead of sugar these days, but both will work. I had frozen blueberries around but fresh will work too. Place mixture in the microwave for one minute and then stir.

Break up the bread and pour blueberries over it. The End. Now eat!!

Cherry Blueberry Dump Cake

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A dump cake is a cobbler that uses cake instead of biscuit or crumble topping. You can make your own cake mix or use box mix.

You’ll Need:

1 box of cake mix
Milk
Eggs
1 stick of butter
Fruit

Preheat the oven to 350F.

You can use any fruit you want. I use canned fruit in combination with frozen because then I don’t have to stew the fruit myself. Of course you can if you want to or even leave the fruit be, just cut it up in pieces. The cooking time will be lower with fresh, un-stewed fruit. Today I used a 21oz can of pie cherries, 15oz can of pears drained and cut into chunks, and 21oz of frozen blueberries. I dumped the cherries and blueberries into a 9×13 stoneware dish sprayed with Pam. You can use glass or a baking pan if you like. I spread the fruit until it covered the bottom. I drained and chopped up the pears then sprinkled them on top of the rest of the fruit.

In a bowl prepare the cake mix but not according to the directions! On the back of the box, cake mix usually gives you how many eggs, water and oil to add. Add the number of eggs required (usually 2 to 3). Instead of water, use equal amounts milk. Skip the oil all together. I used moist yellow cake from Duncan Heines. This called for 3 eggs, 1 and third of water and oil. I mixed the eggs, 1 and a third of milk and the cake mix together.

Dump the cake batter over the fruit and spread it until it covers the fruit. Cut the butter up into pats and lay them on top of the cake batter. Stick it in the oven for 30 minutes to an hour. After 30 minutes check it by inserting a knife into the middle. If it comes out clean, it’s done. If not, just check it ever ten minutes until it’s done.

This is sweeter than biscuit cobblers but not as sweet as crisp or crumble cobblers.

Dreamcicle Icecream

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2 cups whipping cream

1 cup milk

3/4 cup sugar

1 tbsp Vanilla extract

1/2 of a lid of Orange extract

Put milk and sugar in a mixer and mix it till dissolved. Add cream and whip it till soft and foamy, not stiff. Add vanilla and orange extracts and whip for about 30 more seconds. Dump in you ice cream machine.

It’s good with chocolate, chocolate cookies, chocolate cake, chocolate syrup, chocolate anything.  But don’t add chocolate to recipe though…it’s way rich. You were warned.

Chocolate Cake in a Mug Experiment

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A few people have sent me links to Chocolate Cake in a Mug. I’ve also seen it featured in various blogs I lurk on. Being a fan of microwave cooking, I decided to try it. The recipe is simple and dry.

This is not something you eat without some soaking. Vanilla ice cream or sweet cream would be awesome. Milk is okay if you’re desperate. The cake is just too dry to eat alone.

I messed with recipe. Instead of 3 tbsp of milk I added 3 tbsp of pudding. This is my cake and cupcake deal too. Pudding gets the milk in but makes cake so moist it melts with each bite. Trust me, replace the milk in a cake recipe with pudding some time. I usually do vanilla but you can go nutty with other flavors. And no sugar free here girls and boys. Get the kind you have to cook. Instant just won’t cut it.

Any way the pudding helped but really this needs some cutting with some cream. Icing would just kill you with sugar over kill. The best way? Substitute the milk with pudding, after cooking drizzle with chocolate syrup, and serve with vanilla ice cream.  It’ll be a bit more elegant than cake in a mug and taste really good.

Bread Pudding: Things to do with Stale Bread

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Stale Bread – I had about a half of a baguette

3 1/2 cups of Milk

1 cup Golden Raisins

2/3 cup brown sugar

Nutmeg

Cinnamon

3/4 stick of Butter

1 egg

Soak the bread in three cups of milk for about an hour or until mostly mushy. The bread should hold its shape but be spongy as well. Take the bread out and set it aside.

Preheat the oven to 350F

Add the egg and sugar to the milk. Beat the mixture until frothy. Combine remaining milk and butter in a glass measuring cup. Cook on high for one minute in the microwave. Stir the butter and milk until the butter finishes melting. Pour butter and milk into milk, egg and brown sugar mixture slowly while stirring. Add the raisins, and as much cinnamon and nutmeg as you like. Chop up the bread in to squares, then add it to the mixture. Stir the mixture to mix up the raisins and bread.

Cook for 50 minutes.

Tapioca Experiment

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So I recently did a test run on making tapioca pudding from scratch.

Tapioca is balls of compress yucca. Yucca, is a waxy root that cooks much like potatoes, only it takes a lot more prep to make the editable. Tapioca is easy and most of the recipes out there way over do it.

You need:

Heavy Cream
Water
tapioca pearls (I use medium)
Vanilla

Tapioca is it’s own thickening agent. You don’t need eggs, cornstarch, gelatin or anything else.

Take about 1/3 cup of pearls and put them in a sauce pan. Add enough water to cover them. Let set for 30 minutes to soak. This is the most important step. If you use bigger pearls, soak them for an hour or more. Same if you use more than 1/3 cup. If you use less or small pearls, don’t soak less that thirty minutes.

Why must you do this?

1) Unsoaked tapioca will be like eating rocks. I may not like my teeth, but I like eating.
2) Soaking releases some of the starch for thickening.

The more tapioca you use, the thicker the pudding will be. The less, the more creamy. You may have to experiment to get the texture you desire. If the texture is perfectly creamy right off the stove, it’s going to be chewy if you refrigerate it. So if you plan to refrigerate your pudding, use less tapioca. You’ve been warned.

So once it’s all soaked. Add cream. I use heavy whipping cream. Milk did not work well at all. It tasted burnt, and watery. Half & Half turned out the same as milk. Get the heavy cream. Think of it as your sat fat intake for the day. The cream should be enough to cover the tapioca, and then some. Give it a stir and turn the heat on the stove to medium low. (note: if you want chocolate, add it here, use squares that melt.)

Stir it every few minutes. Don’t turn up the heat. The when the pudding starts to thicken add a tsp of Vanilla. If you want cinnamon, nutmeg or such, add it with the vanilla. Take off the heat and serve.

Girls Movie Night

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This weekend was my girls movie night…we manged to watch Just Like Heaven, The Lake House, some Outlaw Star, and Doctor Who.

We discovered that baby artichokes are extra good…so is Armagnac pudding. Ml had to leave after the first movie and 2 1/2 hours of talking after words. M. stayed the night. Aia was ecstatic that she had a sleep over with A.

It was a good night…I’m sorry not everyone could make it. I’ll have to see when we could do it again…not sure when that will be, J. doesn’t leave town that often.

Recipe time!

Frozen Armagnac Pudding

  • Armagnac (flavored cognac might work too)
  • dried fruit of choice…make sure it’s the sugar coated kind we used pears.
  • whipping cream
  • milk
  • berry glaze of your choice, we used ligon berries but any berry glaze with berries in it will work.

place the dried fruit in a sauce pan…pour enough armagnac over it to barely cover. Cook until fruit is slimy (ie acts like fresh cooked fruit again) and soft. Armagnac should boil.

Whip cream till thick…if your feeling industrious then whip till stiff peaks. Add a little milk to taste (or to fill up if you didn’t buy enough whipping cream like me) and whip more. Fold in dried fruit and armagnac…whip it a bit more.

Place mixture in individual cups and freeze.

Serve with a spoonful of berry glaze on top.

Homemade Icecream (without a machine)

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Ingredients

* 1 pint Whipping Cream
* 1 cup Sugar
* Stuff you want in your icecream
* 1/4 cup milk

Directions

Whip whipping cream until stiff peaks form (this can be done with a hand blender, whisk, or electric mixer).

Whip in sugar and milk to taste.

Whip in stuff you want in your ice cream.

Freeze in tupperware over night.

Makes about a quart.

Ideas:

Chai:
Add one packet of chai tea mix and 1 tsp of vanilla.

Strawberrys and Cream:
Reduce sugar to 1/2 cup.
Add frozen strawberrys.

Chocolate:
Add 1/2 cup chocolate syrup.