Starting today, I’m going to post a chocolate recipe a day for the next five days.  I have a serious chocolate craving and, by golly, I aim to satisfy it.  I am not a chocaholic (I’d choose a citrus dessert over a chocolate one in a restaurant), but once in a great while, I get chocolate brain.

This month for You Want Pies with That?, Rebecca at Ezra Pound Cake and Mary at Alpineberry chose “Taste of Summer” as the theme. For me, summer means fruit, berries to be precise. But I’ve made so many berry pies that a desire to do something different, combined with an intense craving for chocolate, resulted in this marvel of deliciousness, Ye Olde Chocolate Cream Pie.  I’d never made it before, and I’m glad my recent chocolate jag led me to take the plunge. (Wow, whipped cream is hard to photograph).

Some friends of ours recently had a second child, and mom was out of town for the weekend, so we invited dad, the babies, and his visiting mom over for dinner.  The pie was a hit, especially with their 19-month old daughter, who is not a big eater.  Apparently, they had yet to try chocolate cream pie because after one bite of it, she pointed to it repeatedly, loudly proclaiming “PIE!” every time she wanted her dad to shovel some more into her mouth.  Her sweet, chocolate-covered mouth.  I love cooking.  Moments like that make it all worthwhile.  You can find the recipe after the jump, and check out the blogroll after July 7 to see what other pies everyone baked.
continue reading "Chocolate Cream Pie for July’s “You Want Pies with That?” and to Kick off a Week of Chocolate!"

There are so many chocolate pudding recipes out there. Quite a few of them are rich, tasty, and require the use of numerous bowls and the tempering of egg yolks. Well, I’m here today to free you from all that. Today, I introduce you to the chocolate pudding recipe of my childhood, which I made throughout my teenage years. And I found it on the side of the Argo cornstarch box all those years ago.

This is sooo easy, and you can use any combination of milk that you like and have on hand:  milk, half-and-half, some cream (don’t make it with only cream).  You can mix it up in one pot, and you’ll only have to clean some measuring cups, spoons, and a strainer, besides the pot and spatula.

Your family will not care that it didn’t take you an hour to make this, because it will taste better than those packaged pudding mixes, and you’ll be able to sit down and enjoy it with them, instead of washing a bunch of dishes!  And who couldn’t use a little chocolate now and then?

Want to join me for Frugal Fridays?  See the instructions, here.  Recipe after the jump . . . .
continue reading "Frugal Fridays, and an Easy Chocolate Pudding from My Childhood"

**UPDATE** A lot of folks had trouble finding Amaretti cookies.  I’m lucky to live in an area where these are not an exotic item, but you know where I get them?  Amazon!**

This week, one of my favorite food bloggers, Holly of Phe/Mom/enon, picked 15 Minute Magic Chocolate Amaretti Torte, which you can find on pages 276 and 277 of Baking: From My Home to Yours.  (You can also find the recipe on Holly’s blog.)

DING! DING! DING!  WE HAVE ANOTHER WINNER!  Now, I know that photo doesn’t look like much, and I eliminated the ganache glaze and the whipped cream topping, but this is one fantastic dessert.  Moist, fudgy, chocolaty with a hint of almond, and great texture because of the ground almonds in the batter.  I would definitely serve this to guests with the glaze and whipped cream – I think it’s that good.

Now, I suggest you go off to the TWD blogroll to see what others did this week!

***Remember to enter the cookbook giveaway!*** *** UPDATE ON MARCH 11, 2009 – WE HAVE A WINNER!!! ikkinlala from Canada!****

A bit late, but better late than never! The official challenge:

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE’s blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

The cake is flourless, and calls for one full pound of chocolate.  I cut that in half, baked the whole thing in a small sheet pan, then cut out the heart shape that you see above. You can find the recipe on Wendy and Dharm’s blogs.

Our hosts were quite generous this month, and allowed us to make any ice cream or topping that we liked.  In a further effort to reduce the fat in our diets (is that crazy or what?  I’m a member of Tuesdays with Dorie AND the Daring Bakers!), I went with a homemade passion fruit sorbet.  Basically, I made a loose passion fruit curd then froze it in my freezer.  The tart, refreshing sorbet provided a great contrast to the intense chocolate flavor of the cake.  If you make this, be sure to pick a chocolate that you love because the flavor really comes through (I used Valrhona 70% cacao that I bought at Trader Joe’s).  This cake is intense.  And delicious!

To see what the other Daring Bakers made, be sure to check out the blogroll!

*** Remember to enter the cookbook giveaway!*** *** UPDATE ON MARCH 11, 2009 – WE HAVE A WINNER!!! ikkinlala from Canada!****

Life has been C-R-A-Z-Y.  Traveling every month.  Going through some more of my late mom’s stuff.  Paperwork.  Oh, and major appliances breaking down and having to be replaced.  You know, the usual old stuff.  And finding out that your cholesterol is 260, and you don’t even eat meat!

Could the culprit be . . . BUTTER?  CHOCOLATE? Perchance, EGGS?  It’s not like I bake fattening things almost every week.  Oh, wait.  Yes, I do, I do, indeed.  Never mind.  In all honesty, though, I give away 90% of the sweet stuff that I make.

In an effort to lower my cholesterol (heh, heh), I baked another chocolate cake.  This week, LyB of And Then I Do the Dishes, chose Chocolate Armagnac Cake – The Cake That Got Me Fired on pages 279-281 of Baking: From My Home to Yours.

This cake contains prunes.  Now, I am a big fan of prunes. BIG. So I wasn’t worried that the cake would taste of prunes ( I knew it wouldn’t) because I love prunes. And one of my superpowers is that I am immune to their legendary side effects. I don’t like to brag, but I’ll make an exception just this once.

At any rate, I had chocolate, prunes, and Armagnac on hand (which I bought last year to make Prune Armagnac Ice Cream), so I didn’t have to make any special trips to the store.  Flaming the prunes did not phase me.  There’s something about setting booze aflame in the kitchen that I find delightful.  I mixed milk (5 oz., Sirius 51% cacao) and bittersweet chocolate together (2 oz., Green & Black 70% cacao), and skipped the frosting.  I also added 1/4 tsp. of espresso powder and 1/2 tsp. of vanilla extract.  As for omitting the frosting . . . well, that was an effort to make this a lower calorie, lower cholesterol dessert.  Ha, ha, ha!

I did have to bake the cake for about an hour, but the result was a moist, fudgy concoction that almost made me forget my cholesterol levels.  Almost.  Not too boozy.  Basically, it’s a big ole brownie, so how can you go wrong with that?

Many bakers noted that their cake sank in the middle, but I think it’s supposed to do that, since it is more of a European style cake than a fluffy traditional American cake.

To see what the other TWD bakers have been up to, check out the blog roll!

This month’s challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux. They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand.  Taking on an 18-page recipe like this (just before Christmas) is what puts the “daring” in the moniker “The Daring Bakers.”  And it is exactly the reason why I joined the DBs, as I doubt I would have tackled this if left to my own devices.  I will have more photos up tomorrow, but for now, I present you with my lumpy log, resting in the freezer:

Please note:  You WILL dirty a lot of pots and pans.  You WILL need copious amounts of gelatin, cream, egg yolks, more cream, various kinds of chocolate . . . and did I mention cream?  Do NOT attempt to make this dessert in one day.  Do NOT attempt to make it if the kiddies are under foot.  Most of all, READ, RE-READ, and then RE-RE-READ the recipe.

All that being said, is it tasty?  Oh, Lordie, . . . YES.  Despite the work, I would make this again.  I am not usually a spoon licker, but I licked everything when I made this – spoons, bowls, beaters, you name it.  I think I ingested several thousand calories worth of cream and chocolate just from licking cooking utensils.  Luckily, I logged in 45 minutes on the elliptical machine, which should at least maintain the weight status quo.

This type of French Yule Log is not the jelly-roll style of log that we think of in this country (made with genoise and buttercream), and that the Daring Bakers made last year.  It is a frozen dessert made up of 6 components, all of which we were required to make.  My flavorings were: Almond Dacquoise Biscuit, White Chocolate Mousse, Dark Chocolate-Caramel Ganache Insert, Nocciolata Praline (Crisp) Insert, Vanilla Creme Brulee Insert, and Dark Chocolate Icing.  I thought that some of the instructions were a bit confusing, but the wonderful Tartelette provided helpful commentary.  In fact, before you even attempt the dessert, I suggest you check out a lot of blogs for excellent tips and insight into the problems that many of the Daring Bakers confronted.  Some suggestions:  Apple Pie, Patis & Pate, Tartelette, Judy’s Gross Eats (listen to her problem with the 5-qt. KitchenAid bowl-I had the same issues), Baking Obsession, and Canelle et Vanille, just to name a few.  If you want to see how 2,000 + other DBs did, check out the blogroll.

The creme brulee:

I was swamped this month, so I had little time or energy for creativity.  I stuck to the basic flavor parameters, and made a vanilla creme brulee (which never even got close to solidifying after two hours in the oven, but I froze it anyway). And I even used a water bath!  All that aside, I think that I should write an ode to the vanilla bean one day.  It does amazing things to dairy products, I must say.

The dastardly mousse, which required the preparation of the accursed pate a bombe:

For the dastardly mousse, I used El Rey white chocolate disks, and cursed the size of my 5-qt. KitchenAid bowl.  The beater couldn’t reach the ingredients in the bottom, so I was forced into a series of culinary gymnastics to get things to work, NOT a good idea when you are working with hot liquid sugar.  I created a mess of spun sugar, said “eff it,” and carefully scooped out the pate a bombe so I wouldn’t pick up all the solidified sugar.  “Pate a Bombe” describes egg yolks beaten with a hot sugar syrup which has been heated to the soft ball stage. The mixture is the base for many mousse and buttercream recipes because it makes them more stable, particularly if they are to be frozen, so that they do not melt as quickly or collapse under the weight of heavier items.  Personally, I think all of that is a bunch of baloney, and that a pate a bombe is part of a nefarious plot to drive Daring Bakers round the bend.

In the end it all worked out.  Of course, I licked the bowl, the piping tip, the beaters, etc. . . .

The crisp:

I’m not sure what happened here, but I ended up with an enormous amount of rice krispies, scantily clad in a whisper of chocolate.  So naked were they, I think they were embarrassed.  So, this whole “roll out the crisp between two sheets of wax paper” never happened.  There was nothing rollable.  My advice:  cut the amount of cereal that the recipe calls for in half.

I think things worked out here, too, because a lot of other Daring Bakers said that the crisp layer was too hard to cut through.  I sprinkled my bronzed rice crispies on top of the mousse layer, and found that it was easy to cut later on.  I have a LOT of chocolate rice crispies left, and will have to find a way to feed them to Master Chow.  Chocolate rice krispie treats, anyone?

The Caramel-Chocolate Ganache:

I used my favorite baking chocolate for this, Valrhona 71%, which I get at Trader Joe’s.  I love that stuff.  To my utter shock, my caramel turned the perfect shade of amber on my first try.  When I added the boiling cream to the caramel, however, a chunk of it refused to melt into the cream, so I did what any sensible baker would do – I fished it out with a spoon (people, hot caramel is dangerous stuff so don’t take any chances), let it cool, and ate it.  Mmm, there is nothing like homemade caramel.  And lest you think I was slacking, I licked all the bowls and spatulas and beaters used to produce this confectionary marvel.

The Almond Dacquoise and an Amaretto Simple Syrup:

Nothing too difficult here, although I had never before made a dacquoise that had as much sugar added to the egg whites.  I ended up with almost a marshmallow-like egg white mixture, which I incorporated into the almond flour/confectioner’s sugar concoction, and then baked it.

I did add a little something when I was putting the dessert together:  I made an amaretto simple syrup and brushed both sides of the dacquoise with it.  Recipe:  Mix 1/4 cup sugar with 1/4 cup water in a saucepan.  Bring to a boil until sugar dissolves.  Shut flame off and add 2 Tbsp. of amaretto liqueur to the mixture.  Let cool, and brush on both sides of the cake layer.  You will have some extra left over, which you can use in your coffee or hot toddy.  Come to think of it, you may need a bit of caffeine and/or alcohol to get through this challenge.

The Icing:

The directions for the dark chocolate icing were very confusing, but I managed to muddle my way through.  I followed Tartellete’s advice and made a double batch of the stuff because she said it would make it easier to coat the log.  Boy, was she right.  My cocoa clumped, even though I sifted it, and I had to strain the whole thing through a fine mesh sieve.  Then I didn’t let it cool enough, even though the icing coated the back of a spoon, and it started to melt my log.  And, and, and . . . .  I think you get the picture.

This whole darn presentation thing is why I will not be a professional pastry chef.  Decorating is NOT my strong suit, and if anyone can tell me how to get the icing to encase the entire log, I’m all ears.  My log is naked and icing-less all around its bottom edge.  By the way, as the icing cools, it develops the texture of chocolate pudding.  Really, really good chocolate pudding.  I know because I ate a lot of it, and I have a stomach ache.  Sigh.  Back to the gym.

This was a fabulous dessert, and most definitely a challenge.  Thanks again, Hilda of Saffron and Blueberry and Marion of Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux!

If you like Nutella (are there people who don’t?), but want to try a higher-end version, consider giving Slitti’s Nocciolata a try.  I bought some a couple years ago and have been hoarding it.  This year, while counting my blessings, I realized that this is the kind of stuff that needs to be used, so I recently made a Danish pastry braid, and filled it with this lovely chocolate nut paste.

I revisited the Danish dough by Sherry Yard from a Daring Bakers Challenge earlier this year, and it worked out wonderfully.  My braid that time turned out looking a lot better than my braid this time, but I attribute that to the usual harried mental state that so often accompanies Christmas and New Year’s at my house.  The one thing you should leave out of the dough recipe is the cardamom; while the orange goes wonderfully with the Nocciolata, the cardamom clashes a bit.

Happy New Year, everyone, and may 2009 bring you health, wealth, and happiness, and the time to enjoy them all!

To see what other bakers have been making with yeast, check out Susan’s Yeastspotting every Friday for her roundup!

This week, Claudia of Fool for Food chose Chocolate Chunkers, and you can find the recipe for them on her blog, or in Dorie’s book.

I blogged about these cookies earlier this year, and to date, they are my favorite Dorie cookie.  Cookies are not high on my list of things to eat or bake (weird, I know), so when a cookie makes my repeat list, that’s really saying something.  And while other Dorie cookie recipes have been well-received by friends and co-workers, I just don’t see myself making them again.  Except for these.

I didn’t bake them this weekend because I stepped on the scale and screamed.  Since I have a plum cake and creme brulee coming up later this month, my thighs told me they needed a break.  I concur.  I’m also hoarding the pound-plus of chocolate that is needed for these cookies because Christmas baking is looming. To see what other fabulous cookies others have made, be sure to check out the TWD blogroll.

For this week, Rachel of Confessions of a Tangerine Tart chose Chocolate Whopper Malted Drops.  You can find the recipe on her blog, or on page 85 of Dorie’s book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.  My husband took these to work and his coworkers devoured them – one very slim young lady ate five.  I think she’s a size zero.  Sigh.

Believe it or not, I could not find malted milk powder anywhere, and I did not want to buy a huge jar of Ovaltine, because it would sit in my cupboard for years.  So, what did I substitute for the malted milk powder, you ask?  Ground up malted milk balls!  Hooray!  And it worked perfectly.  I didn’t bother to sift the ground up whoppers along with the other dry ingredients, just added them to the mixture.

After reading some of the other posts, I didn’t cut up the remaining malted milk balls, and just threw them whole into the batter, along with about 2 ounces of bittersweet chocolate (I didn’t add the full amount because I’m already on sugar overload).

The end result?  A chocolaty, caramely, soft and chewy cookie.  The malted milk balls just melted into the batter, leaving toffee-like pockets in the cookies.  Boy, are these RICH.  Next week, however, Claudia of Fool for Food has picked Chocolate Chunkers, my favorite Dorie cookie recipe of all the ones I’ve tried so far.  When I give those away, they go only to my most favorite people!

To see how everyone else faired with the chocolate whopper malted drops, be sure to check out the TWD blogroll.

I was thrilled when Meeta and Tony picked Pierre Herme’s chocolate eclairs for the lastest Daring Baker’s challenge (you can find the recipe on their blogs, or in his book Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme.)  I have been out of town, and have just found the time to get this post up today – please pardon the photos, too, as I’ve been so busy, that staging has been far down on my list of priorities!

I didn’t have any problem making the pate a choux, but I did have to bake them for about 30 minutes, instead of the 20 minutes stated in the recipe.  When I pulled them out of the oven, I cut a small slit in the side of the puffs to help steam escape.  I decided to make Pierre Herme’s chocolate pastry cream, which tasted great but was sadly lacking in the texture department.  I don’t blame Pierre, though, just my technique.  Because we had the option of using either the chocolate pastry cream or a chocolate glaze, I went with the pastry cream and a light dusting of powdered sugar. I also decided to fill a few of the shells with whipped cream, and those were very tasty, too.

My favorite part of the whole thing?  The empty choux shells!  I could eat those with nothing in them, I thought they were that good!    The eggy flavor that some bakers discuss did not bother me one bit in this recipe, so it’s something that I plan to make again.  Perhaps a filling of homemade vanilla ice cream?  Drizzled in fudge sauce?  Definitely something to think about.

To see what the more than 1000 Daring Bakers have been up to, be sure to check out the blogroll.