Spider Web Fudge | Halloween

As a teenager, Halloween has definitely changed for me. Being a kid, I remember it being almost equivalent to Christmas, and it actually made me want to go to school whenever it fell on a weekday. Often, I’d stay up the night before, unable to sleep from the excitement, and the next morning I would be just as excited, as if I’d had a full night’s sleep. Next morning would be a fiasco for me, I’d jump out of bed extra early so I could get every aspect of my costume just right, pinned properly to stay in place, with impeccable face paint or makeup. The bus ride there was a pain, being squished in with all those other kids, but I endured it because when I got I would probably have the “funnest”(that was my favorite word as a kid) day of my life. I’d spend all day doing Halloween themed math problems, reading scary stories in English, and watch my science teacher be a mad scientist, and then at the end of the day there would be a party and the all the kids would stuff their faces with ridiculous amounts of Halloween themed junk food. Needless to say, it was a blast for any elementary/middle school kid.

But I was only a kid, and eventually had to face the scary reality of growing up. Upon entering high school, everything became a lot more serious. There were so many aspects of life that changed, but just to sum it it: high school is all work no play. Needless to say, Halloween became toned down, almost to the point of non existence. Nearly everyone is too tired to bother dressing up, or too lazy to do so. The whole day is full of serious, work, with minimal holiday influence. In the end, Halloween has turned into almost a normal day for me. However, this year, I’m definitely attempting to have some holiday spirit, and I made these little spider web fudge bites for a party that I’m attending.

These fudge bites, are super easy to make, and are just a simple variation from my cheater’s fudge recipe. They’re really perfect for parties, because they look cute and Halloween themed, but don’t take much effort to make. I also created gifs demonstrating some of the steps, so that it’s easier to follow!

Spider Web Fudge

makes approximately 24 pieces 

• all ingredients for this cheater’s fudge(click here for recipe)
• a mini muffin tin
• cupcake liners (to fit in the muffin tin)
• a tooth pick
• two piping bags (one medium sized w/ a large tip and the other smaller with a thinner tip) or two zip lock bags(instructions to prepare them are in the recipe)
• 3/4 cup white chocolate
• a spoon

1. Split all the ingredients for the cheater’s fudge in half. We’re doing this because white chocolate tends to cool fast, so it is easier to work with one half of the batch first.
2. Put the baking cups into the muffin tin.
3. So following the instructions for the fudge up to step three, make the first half of the recipe, and mean while, create a double boiler for the white chocolate, by filling a pan halfway with water, putting the while chocolate in a separate bowl, and setting that bowl in the water of the pan. make sure NO water touches the white chocolate, because it will not melt properly.
4. After you’re on step three for the fudge, and the white chocolate is melted, take the fudge base, and scrape it into the bigger piping bag, and pour the white chocolate into the smaller piping bag with the thinner tip. if you are using a ziplock bag: take the smaller bag, and cut a very small amount of the corner off to create a very small hole, be careful not to cut too much, it is very easy to underestimate the size. Then take the larger ziplock bag, create a larger hole, you should be able to put your finger through the hole and still have  small amount of space around your finger. You will put putting the fudge in the larger bag, and the white chocolate in the smaller bag. From this point on begin working quickly, because the white chocolate will harden over time.
5. Pipe the fudge into the cupcake liners, keeping the point of your piping bag/ziplock bag at the center and letting the fudge spread out from the tip and moving the piping bag up gradually until the cupcake liner is almost full. Pipe the fudge into all of the cupcake liners until you have nothing left. Then take a spoon, and even out the surface of the fudge. demonstrated below in the gif…(I apologize for the bad pictures, I was using one hand to take pictures, and the other to demonstrate…).

flatten

• Then, taking the white chocolate bag, pipe a swirl on the surface of the fudge, as demonstrated below in the gif.
  swirl

  
  

• Then taking the tooth pick, drag it through the fudge, starting from the center and pulling outwards, as demonstrated in the gif. I know in the gif, i simply pulled the toothpick through and then immediately went to make another line, but I recommend wiping the tooth pick between every line you draw, because there will be little bits of fudge and white chocolate stuck on there, and if you wipe it off, it will make the fudge look a little bit neater…

Dragging

• Put the tray into the refrigerator to cool, then repeat again for the second half of the batch, or just make one half :) You can remove the cupcake wrappers fairly easily if you want to remove them, or just leave them on there.
• Enjoy!

~Deepshikha

Summer ’12 | Cookies & Cream Italian Ice

The past few months have passed in a whirl of SAT prep work, sweet sixteens, summer assignments, taking long runs and reading books. It sounds so typically teenager-ish but it was amazingly relaxing and great break from all the stress, work, and deadlines of school. And in this time, I also learned many things:

1. It’s hard to stop procrastinating. Really. I thought my procrastinating habit was because I was stressed during school, and that without any stress during the summer, I wouldn’t procrastinate on my summer assignments. That  is the worst lie I ever told myself.

2. Photographing anything frozen and prone to quick melting is hard.  Really. Originally I’d intended to do an entire ice cream series for you guys, but after spending about five minutes trying to scoop a perfect ball of ice cream, only to have it melt and slide all around the bowl… I know the trick to photographing frozen things is to work fast, but its pretty hard.

3. Italian ice is great. Its super easy and quick to make + it really cools you down on summer days. They’re also easier to photograph than ice cream, because you don’t have make it look perfect, just serve with whipped cream garnish, and that is the end of it :)

Anyways, here’s the recipe to an ice recipe that I’ve made several times over the summer :) It’s very simple, but it tastes great, and is easy to make so here you go…

note: I’m not quite sure that this dessert should be categorized as an italian ice because it does contain milk & ice cream, however, it does resemble italian ice more than anything to me, and has a similar texture…

Cookies & Cream Ice

Serves two

1 big scoop of vanilla ice cream

4 oreos cookies

1 cup of milk (whole is preferable, but 2 % is great as well) & two table spoons (keep separated)

1. In a blender blend together all of the above ingredients until smooth, then pour it into a ice cube tray, and freeze until completely solid (this should take a three hours or more depending on how cold your freezer is)

2. Remove frozen cookies&cream mixture from ice tray and place in blender and add two table spoons of milk into the blender, and then blend the mixture until smooth :)

Keep cool & enjoy :)

Deepshikha :)

Fudge | Summer

It’s really hard to believe that my first year as a freshman is over. It really feels like I was ranting about my fears of high school years just yesterday. I honestly anticipated this year to take forever, just like everything I don’t like seems to take, but really it just rushed right by. I’m surprised that I’m now a sophomore. I can still remember clearly of how I walked into the high school for the first time as a student, and wondering why school decor was always so drab.

And so sophomore year starts…

On a brighter note: I have a quick and simple recipe to share!

It’s fudge.

A fudge shortcut. Its ridiculously easy to make, and you can make it in ten minutes.

Seriously.

Oh and one last little thing: I made a face book page for the blog! Go and check it out and like it!

Here’s the link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Notorious-Experiments/182235575167065?ref=hnav

and here is the recipe:

Simple Fudge

PS: before you start making this recipe, know that it is very, very sweet. I rarely eat more than one or two pieces in a sitting because it is simply that sweet.

Adapted from Baking Addiction

•  3 cups chocolate chips(semi-sweet or dark chocolate is good, in the pictures above I used dark chocolate)
• 14 oz of sweetened condensed milk
• 1/4 a tsp of salt(fleur de sel is preferable but i have used regular table salt sometimes)
• 1 1/2 a tsp of vanilla
• if you really want to add some sort of nuts or something go ahead!(i recommend about a cup)

1. Line an 8 x 8 pan with aluminum foil
2. Mix together the chocolate, condensed milk, and salt in a medium pan, until the chocolate is completely melted and blended in.
3. Remove from heat and add in the vanilla.
4. working quickly pour the mixture into the lined pan(or else it will cool and harden, and when you’re smoothing the top, it’ll start cracking[it will look like its cracking], and it will look strange)
5. Cool in the refridgerator for at least 45 minutes or until it is completely cold and firm.
6. To cut it: make sure you use a knife with no ridges, or anything on the blade, other wise the edges of the fudge pieces will look strange. You want a knife like this:

Enjoy!

~Dee D.

Meringue Coffee Cake | Japan

From my childhood, I remember that every few years or so there would be some sort of catastrophe. There was Hurricane Katrina, 9/11, the huge tsunami and Haiti. Now, there’s Japan, and I personally think, that this recent disaster has been one worst ones of them all. It was a huge triple blow to Japan. First the earthquake and its aftershock, then the tsunami, and now the impending disaster of  a possible nuclear explosion.

When I saw the before and after shots, I was astonished by how much Japan had been affected by all of this. It’s absolutely devastating, especially for the people there.  It’s truly heartbreaking. I feel the need to do something, and I’m thinking about doing maybe, a bake sale for Japan? I’m not sure how that will work out, but I’ll try to do the best I can.

On a happier note: I made the daring  bakers challenge, and I loved it!

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake.

This coffee cake is so delicious soft and most definitely not the way I expected it to be. When I saw the addition of the meringue in this, I was surprised. Usually when baked, meringue turns hard, however when I took it out of the oven and cut myself a piece, I saw that instead of a hard sugary layer inside which I’d expected, there was a warm,  and utterly soft inside with a layer of almond chunks, chocolate and white chocolate.

The texture of the cake was amazing, and it was very similar to the texture of brioche, a cross between a cake, and bread. The chocolate inside added wonderful taste to it and the almonds gave a subtle nutty crunch. This is absolutely amazing, when it was straight out of the oven, and just as good when toasted a little afterwards.

Bon appétit!

Filled Meringue Coffee Cake
Makes 2 round coffee cakes, each approximately 10 inches in diameter
The recipe can easily be halved to make one round coffee cake

Ingredients
For the yeast coffee cake dough:

• 4 cups (600 g / 1.5 lbs.) flour
• ¼ cup (55 g / 2 oz.) sugar
• ¾ teaspoon (5 g / ¼ oz.) salt
• 1 package (2 ¼ teaspoons / 7 g / less than an ounce) active dried yeast
• ¾ cup (180 ml / 6 fl. oz.) whole milk
• ¼ cup (60 ml / 2 fl. oz. water (doesn’t matter what temperature)
• ½ cup (135 g / 4.75 oz.) unsalted butter at room temperature
• 2 large eggs at room temperature

For the meringue:

• 3 large egg whites at room temperature
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• ½ cup (110 g / 4 oz.) sugar

For the filling:

• 1 cup (110 g / 4 oz.) coarsely chopped roasted almonds
• 2 Tablespoons (30 g / 1 oz.) granulated sugar
• ½ c. white chocolate
• ½ c. semisweet chocolate

Egg wash:

• 1 beaten egg (or if you simply happen to have egg yolks lying about, those work too!)
• Cocoa powder (optional) and confectioner’s sugar (powdered/icing sugar) for dusting cakes

Directions:

To Prepare the dough:

1.       In a large mixing bowl, combine 1 ½ cups (230 g) of the flour, the sugar, salt and yeast.

2.       In a saucepan, combine the milk, water and butter and heat over medium heat until warm and the butter is just melted.

3.       With an electric mixer on low speed, gradually add the warm liquid to the flour/yeast mixture, beating until well blended.

4.       Increase mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes. Add the eggs and 1 cup (150 g) flour and beat for 2 more minutes.

5.       Using a wooden spoon, stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a dough that holds together.

6.       Turn out onto a floured surface (use any of the 1 ½ cups of flour remaining) and knead the dough for 8 to 10 minutes until the dough is soft, smooth, sexy and elastic, keeping the work surface floured and adding extra flour as needed.

7.       Place the dough in a lightly greased (I use vegetable oil) bowl, turning to coat all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel and let rise until double in bulk, 45 – 60 minutes. The rising time will depend on the type of yeast you use.

8.      Prepare your filling:In a small bowl, combine the cinnamon and sugar for the filling if using. You can add the chopped nuts to this if you like, but I find it easier to sprinkle on both the nuts and the chocolate separately.

Once the dough has doubled, make the meringue:

1.       In a clean mixing bowl – ideally a plastic or metal bowl so the egg whites adhere to the side (they slip on glass) and you don’t end up with liquid remaining in the bottom – beat the egg whites with the salt, first on low speed for 30 seconds.

2.       Then increase to high and continue beating until foamy and opaque.

3.       Then add the vanilla then start adding the ½ cup sugar, a tablespoon at a time as you beat, until very stiff, glossy peaks form.

Assemble the Coffee Cakes:

Note: I made little individual pockets, but it was hard to fill these and in the end they didn’t have enough filling. So I recommend taking a look at the other shapes the other bakers made here(just click on any link you want and check it out :)). Below I’ve included the instructions for a wreath like shape, which most bakers did.

1.       Line 2 baking/cookie sheets with parchment paper.

2.       Punch down the dough and divide in half.

3.       On a lightly floured surface, working one piece of the dough at a time (keep the other half of the dough wrapped in plastic), roll out the dough into a 20 x 10-inch (about 51 x 25 ½ cm) rectangle.

4.       Spread half of the meringue evenly over the rectangle up to about 1/2-inch (3/4 cm) from the edges.

5.       Sprinkle half of your filling of choice evenly over the meringue (ex: half of the cinnamon-sugar followed by half the chopped nuts and half of the chocolate chips/chopped chocolate).

6.       Now, roll up the dough jellyroll style, from the long side. Pinch the seam closed to seal. Very carefully transfer the filled log to one of the lined cookie sheets, seam side down. Bring the ends of the log around and seal the ends together, forming a ring, tucking one end into the other and pinching to seal.

7.       Using kitchen scissors or a sharp knife (although scissors are easier), make cuts along the outside edge at 1-inch (2 ½ cm) intervals. Make them as shallow or as deep as desired but don’t be afraid to cut deep into the ring.

8.      Repeat with the remaining dough, meringue and fillings.

9.       Cover the 2 coffee cakes with plastic wrap and allow them to rise again for 45 to 60 minutes.

10.   Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).

11.    Brush the tops of the coffee cakes with the egg wash. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes until risen and golden brown. The dough should sound hollow when tapped.

12.    Remove from the oven and slide the parchment paper off the cookie sheets onto the table. Very gently loosen the coffee cakes from the paper with a large spatula and carefully slide the cakes off onto cooling racks.

13.    Allow to cool.

“Not So Nutella” Brownies | A Craving

I woke up on valentines day with my ears still ringing from my alarm and a utter craving for something chocolaty and baked. The simple answer to that craving? Chocolate cake. But then again it was five thirty and in the morning and the possibility getting any chocolate cake was near impossible, so I rushed off getting myself ready for school, and for the whole week kept this chocolate craving at bay.

Finally on Thursday, I had time. We had a four day weekend ahead, which meant a lot of time to bake, do home work and anything else I fancied at that moment.

After I got off the bus that afternoon, I walked up the icy driveway, fiddling the the worn edges of my scarf and trying to remember where I had kept my go-to chocolate cake recipe. I was quite sure I had either stashed it in one of my desks drawers or I had book marked it. I rushed into the house, pulled off my coat, and scarf and dashed into the study.

After a frustrating ten of searching through dozens of recipes, papers, and a menagerie of my sisters art utensils with no results, I finally set off to sort through my book marks, a scarier prospect, considering I had hundreds of recipes bookmarked. I went through at least two dozen links before finding some: a recipe for Nutella brownies.

I love nutella, and I love brownies, and then finding these two combined while having a craving for something chocolate and baked? It was like finding gold.

With much zest I scribbled down the recipe and rushed off to the kitchen to bake them. A jar of nutella and fifteen minutes later, I had these in the oven. Another half an hour later I had these out of the oven, with one excited sister watching them like a hawk.

After they cooled, I cut into them, and finally tried one. But I was slightly dissapointed. They tasted excellent. But not like nutella, just like really good brownies. The hazelnut taste seemed to have completely vanished and all was left was the chocolate taste.

My sister insisted they did taste a little like nutella but I didn’t see it at all.

You’re probably wondering why I bothered sharing this recipe with you even though it was a dissapointment.

Well, because: Even though they didn’t taste like Nutella they tasted rich and chocolaty, and have the most amazing crinkly  crust on top(which you  saw in the pictures above) with a perfect dense, fudge-y inside, which is my vision of a perfect brownie.

Take a closer look at the inside:

Doesn’t it look absolutely and completely moist and delicious?

“Nutella” Brownies

Adapted From: ricardocuisine.com

• 1/2 a cup of all-purpose flour(unbleached)
• 1/4 a tsp of salt
• 1/2 a cup of butter(melted and cooled slightly)
• 1 1/3 a cup of nutella
• 1/2 a cup of brown sugar
• 1 tsp. of vanilla extract
• 2 eggs(large)

1. Preheat the oven to 325 F.
2. Sift together the salt and the flour in a bowl. Set aside.
3. Then in a different bowl, beat the nutella, brown sugar, vanilla extract and eggs together until completely smooth.
4. Then add one third of the flour mixture and one third of the butter to the nutella mixture and blend until smooth.
5. Repeat step three until all the flour and butter is used up.
6. Pour the batter into a eight by eight baking pan lined with either foil or parchment paper.
7. Bake until you can put a tooth pick and it comes out with only a couple of crumbs.
8. Cool for a hour, and then cut and enjoy :)

~Dee D.

Mocha Pots de Creme | Later

As a little child, I always knew definitely what I was going to be. If you asked me, I’d give a definite answer. A doctor. A scientist. An astronaut. A writer. But as I grew up the that changed. I became more focused on what was here in front of me, and didn’t bother thinking about the future. And now when I’m so close to time to decide, I have no idea. My parents friends always ask me, and every time I reply, “I’m not quite sure yet…”

Now that it’s winter break and I actually have time to sit down, and think about it and well…I still don’t know what I want to do.

So I asked a close friend what she thought I should do. She replied, “Do what you like to do best.”

So I sat there and I thought about it for a moment. I liked to do a lot of things. Bake. Write. Swim. Read. The list seemed to go and on. But what did I like to do most? It came down to baking and writing. You may be thinking, Wait, Dee. Writing? Are you sure you want to do that? I know I’m not that great of a writer on here. I’m actually more of a creative writer, not so much an informative one.

Although I don’t know where I would go with creative writing. So that narrowed it down to baking. I actually would love to open up a cutesy little bakery of my own. A small bakery, like Crumbs and Magnolia and just as cute.

But yet, I’m still not sure, and probably won’t be sure till the last minute.

But to take my mind off that I baked something. When taking a bite of what I baked, you first find the most obvious flavor first: a rich coffee flavor, creamy and delicious. Then if you wait a second, you’ll find the briefest flash of a chocolate flavor. It’s amazing.

I present to you: Mocha pots de crème.

Mocha Pots De Crème

Adapted from Real Kitchen via Whisk Kid

1 1/2 c heavy cream
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 c whole black coffee beans (I replaced that with instant coffee powder, and put in a little more than 1/8 a cup of that)
3 egg yolks
1/4 c  sugar
1 1/2 Tbls brewed espresso coffee, cold
1 oz (28 g) semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled

1.    Preheat your oven to 325 degrees farenheit.

2.    In a small saucepan, bring the heavy cream vanilla and coffee beans to a brief simmer in a small saucepan. Don’t let it boil. Then strain the mixture to take out the coffee beans.

3.     Meanwhile…Whisk together the sugar and egg yolks until the egg yolk lighten and become lemony in color and the sugar is dissolved. Then pour in the heavy cream mixture slowly, whisking continuously or else the mixture will curdle.

4.    Stir in the coffee and chocolate.

5.    Pour the mixture into ramekins, and put them in a shallow baking pan with water that goes halfway up the ramekin.

6.    Bake until just the center is slightly jiggles a little. If you make them in ramekins that are approximately eight ounces then the baking time sound be around a half an hour.

7.    After they’re done let the ramekins cool a little for approximately ten minutes them chill them in the refrigerator for two hours(at the least).

~Dee D.

Chocolate Chip Cookies | Smiles

Everyone loves chocolate chip cookies. It’s almost a solid fact. Well, excluding those who dislike chocolate(and possibly cookies). 

These cookies make people smile all the time. Like my sister today while I was baking them. She the most beautiful smile on her face today as she wandered into the kitchen.

“Watcha doin’?” She asked sounding like a girl from her favorite show, while here eyes were completely glued to the warm cookies I had place on the counter.

“Baking cookies.” I replied with a smile turning around to get the next batch, purposefully going slowly. Sure enough when I turned around to place the cookies on the counter top, my sister had disappeared along with a cookie leaving only a smudge of chocolate on the baking paper.

The thing is, that with these cookies, you get a variety of textures, and sometimes flavors. Each recipe is different in it’s own way, and they match different people’s tastes. Some people may like extremely soft cookies that melt in your mouth, others extremely crisp ones. I like really chewy ones with slightly crisp outsides that are fully cooled and don’t have a trace of warmth. And I swear this recipe I found is perfect for that.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Slightly adapted from original recipe from Words to Eat By

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 a cups of flour
• 1/2 a teaspoon salt
• 1/2 a teaspoon baking soda
• 1 stick of cold butter(cubed)(this one stick of butter is also know as 1/4 a pound of butter)
• 1/2 a cup of sugar
• 3/4 a cup of brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup of chocolate chips or chunks

Method:

Note: I did this all by hand. As in I literally stuck my hand in to the bowl. Working with spoons and things on chocolate chip cookies annoy me because it’s a dough and I just prefer sticking my hands in there. That and using your hands makes creaming a whole lot easier…

1. Sift together the flour baking powder and salt in bowl.
2. Now in a seperate bowl cream together the brown sugar the regular sugar and the butter until smooth.
3. Add in the egg and the vanilla extract until well mixed.
4. Slowly mix in the flour in adding it batch by batch
5. Lastly add in the chocolate chips or chunks.
6. Put the dough in to the fridge for 45 minutes.
7. Take it out and take a chunk of each cookie and flatten it out to a circle of any size you want(remember the bigger, the better the center will be just don’t make it crazily huge…I made them thinner and slightly bigger than my palm)
8. Bake at 350 degrees F and make sure you rotate the pan every few minutes if  you have an oven that does heat evenly. Bake until the edges start turning a golden brown.

Enjoy with a glass of milk! :)

~Dee D

 

Chocolate Souffle & HS

Summer time has diminished down to a week. Exactly and precisely a week. And I’m scared. I’m starting high school this year, but I have no idea what it’s like. I’m hoping crazily that it won’t be like movies make it out to be. Mean, nasty girls glaring at you constantly, and being shoved and jostled constantly into walls simply trying to get to your next class, where you’re tortured with a variety of circles, squares and triangles in geometry. How lovely does that sound?

And then the supposed work load? That just terrifies me all the more. Apparently I won’t even have time to eat, forget making things to eat. My blog posts’ll probably dwindle down to a post a month maybe? I certainly hope not. I really enjoy making things, photographing them and writing them up for this blog.

Ahh, I’m really going to miss these lovely summer days, as hot and scorching as they are…And also my nice warm lunches…and all this spare time…and my variety of desserts that I make weekly… speaking of which I made souffle! And I was very successful doing so!

I love chocolate souffle. I truly, truly do. I’ts all lovely and light, and sweet and chocolaty. But why, oh why, does fall down so very fast? What you see in these pictures are nothing compared to what they were in the oven. My mom was terrified that they explode or something because if they do, they hit the oven walls, and when they hit the oven walls they start burning and what if it starts a fire??

But anyway back to the temperamental-ness of souffle. It deflates crazily quick. Like in two minutes or three minutes.

Let me show you some pictures:

It’s annoying isn’t it?

Actually I have no idea how long it took to go completely concave(but it started falling approximately ten seconds later right after i pulled them out of the oven)… I had to rush off to somewhere after I took these out of the oven…

But it won’t take too long. I have no idea how Aran G. from Cannelle et Vanille keeps hers up long enough to take awesome pictures…it’s crazy. You really should take a look at them. Very impressive. I simply love her pictures…

That and I also hate the look on top of it. Cracked uneven and ugly. So, after as I was eating this, i noticed the sides came off the dish absolutely cleanly, and the sides were absolutely smooth. So, then it hit me: why not flip it over? I did, and all the pictures you’ve been seeing so far, exempt from the picture directly above this section and the one above that, are flipped.

Here’s the recipe:

Oh and one last thing: The quality of chocolate you use makes the souffle.

Here we go.

Chocolate Souffle

(this is a meringue based souffle by the way)

From Saveur

makes 14 oz

• 3 tablspoons milk(of any sort)
• 4 and 1 1/2 tablespoons of sugar(keep ‘em seperated) & a bit more for dusting the souffle dishes
• 4 oz of semi sweet chocolate(finely chopped)
• 2 eggs yolks
• 3 egg whites
• Confectioners sugar to sprinkle on top!

1. Preheat your oven to 375.
2. Brush the dishes you are using to bake this souffle(stick with things smaller than 2 and a half inches deep and 6 six inches in diameter, it helps rise) with butter using vertical strokes(helps the souffle rise), and then dust them with sugar.
3. Put the milk and the four tablespoons of sugar in a small sauce pan over medium high heat until the sugar if fully dissolved, and then add the chocolate, and let it sit for a little. Then turn off the heat and stir it up until the chocolate is fully melted. Then scrape it into a bowl and let it cool down for ten minutes, and beat the two egg yolks in.
4. In a different bowl beat the egg whites until it’s foamy, at which point you add in the remaining(1 and a half tablespoons) of sugar and beat until you have stiff peaks.
5. Gently fold in the egg white mixture into the chocolate mixture 1/3 at a time until you can no longer see any white streaks. Then spoon into the dish(s) you are using(fill to the top!) and put in the oven for approx. twenty minutes or until it appears to be fully risen. It should look like this, except in the oven:

1. now after it’s cooled down a little and deflated a bit, push in the edges hanging out, so that the bottom is even, and there is nothing hanging out outside or over the rim of the dish. You should be able to run a finger over the top of the dish and around the dish without the souffle interfering.
2. then simply place the place you with to serve it on on top of the dish, making sure it is centered, and flip!

1. Dust a bit of sugar over the top for presentation, and garnish with leaves, strawberries, what ever you like :)

And voila! There you have your souffle!

Enjoy( and beware of the collapsing)

~D.D.

Petit Fours & Daring Bakers

The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alaska or in Ice Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop”.

I may have developed a grudge against ice cream.

And I don’t think the ice cream likes me all too much either…

Seriously.

Last time I worked with ice cream it didn’t work out all too well.

And this time making these petit fours? It was messy. Like with ice cream melting all over the place. Why can it not stay nice and solid for like five minutes or something? Arg.

But other than that i rather enjoyed(especially the brown butter!!!) this challenge, and loved how it came out all little and cute(although not exactly perfect).

I’m not sure if can see the coffee ice cream layer because it’s practically the same color as the brown butter pound cake i used and it’s not all that thick.

Oh, and let me tell you about the brown butter. It is magical stuff. Seriously. I love the stuff, mostly because of the smell. Yes the smell…all warm and nutty and creamy and amazing. Oh and by the way for those of you who don’t know what brown butter is, its just simply butter cooked until it turns a dark honey color. I was ranting about browned butter to my father, and he said: “There is no such thing as brown butter.” He though it was a type of butter, not simply cooked butter.

I was slightly disappointed with the brown butter pound cake though…neither the taste nor the lovely, lovely smell of the browned butter remained. And it turned out a bit dry, but I thought that was simply me because I sort of forgot about it(i was working on my summer reading essays), but when I read another bloggers post, I realized it wasn’t just me with the dryness problem…but I didn’t have an issue with that after I assembled the whole thing, because the richness of the coffee ice cream and the chocolate glaze pretty much over powered the brown butter pound cake, and the the melt-y ice cream must have been absorbed by the pound cake which made it bit more moist.

And over all, these came out delicious!

But anyway here we go with the recipe:

Coffee Ice Cream

• 1/2 Cup of milk (i used two percent)
• A pinch of salt
• 1/4 a cup and 2 tablespoons of sugar
• 1  and 1/2 tspns of instant coffee
• 1 cups heavy cream
• 3 large large egg yolks
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

So now we start out with the milk, the salt, the instant coffee and the sugar, in a medium sized sauce pan, and heat that until it starts to steam, and then remove it from heat and let that cool down to room temperature. Meanwhile set up an ice bath( basically a large bowl filled, partially with ice and water, with a smaller bowl on the ice water). Grab a strainer, and pour the heavy cream into the strainer over the smaller bowl of the ice bath. Then in another bowl beat the egg yolks together(lightly) and then heat up the milk in the saucepan until its warm, and slowly pour it little by little, and constantly whisking(otherwise the eggs will scramble). Once the egg yolks are warmed up pour the egg yolk and milk mixture back into the sauce pan which you had previously used and let that cook over low heat, and stir constantly with something you can scrape the bottom of the pan with. The mixture will eventually thicken to a custard which can thinly coat the back of the spatula. Go grab your strainer again and strain(if you don’t you’ll end up with weird little lumps throughout your ice cream) this mixture into the heavy cream, and stir that up and until the whole mixture is cooled down. Now mix in that one tsp. of vanilla extract.

If you have a ice cream maker: Cool it for several hours and then churn according to your manufacturers directions.

If you don’t have an ice cream maker: Simply let freeze for about 45 minutes, and then stir the mixture vigorously. Check back in a half an hour and stir vigorously again. Continue doing so until the whole mixture is completely frozen and appears to be like ice cream.

Now on to…

The Brown Butter pound Cake

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 bars and 3 tblspns of butter(or just 19 tablespoons) all sliced up

2 cups of sifted cake flour(not self rising)

1/2 tspn salt

1/2 cup of light brown sugar

1/3 cup of granulated sugar

4 large eggs

Firstly preheat your oven to 325 degrees farenheit. Then grab a skillet over medium heat. Warm it up a bit and then add the butter. Stir the butter around until the butter turns a darkened honey color or chocolate. Finally when it turns that color pour into a bowl and leave it in the freezer until it solidifies.

Now whisk together the sifted cake flour, baking powder, and the salt. In a seprate bowl beat the brown butter the light brown sugar and regular sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy(this should take about 2 minutes). Then beat in an egg at a time, and then finally add the vanilla extract and then lastly add the flour baking soda and salt mixture.

Flour and butter a 9 x 9 pan and scrape the batter out into it, and smooth the top over with a rubber spatula(or a clean hand). Bake until you are able to insert a toothpick into the center which will come out clean and the top is golden brown.

Let the pan cool down for about fifteen minutes and then flip over on a rack.

Next…

The Chocolate Glaze (make this when i say so in assembling the petit fours)

a heaped cup of semi sweet chocolate chopped finely

1 cup of heavy cream

1 and 1/2 tablespoons of agave nectar(or light corn syrup or golden syrup)

2 tsp. vanilla extract

Bring the heavy cream and light corn syrup to a boil in a sauce pan over medium heat continuously stirring. Turn the heat off and add in the chocolate, and let it sit for 30 seconds to let it melt in and then stir once again to completely melt the rest of the chocolate. Finally stir in the vanilla and let it cool a little before glazing the petit fours.

Finally Assembling the petit fours.

Let the ice cream warm up a little.

line the 9×9 pan you used for baking the pound cake with plastic wrap and and spread the ice cream around evenly and freeze for a two hours.

Meanwhile using a cake leveler or a knife cut the pound cake in half, from the sides, not from the center so you end up with two large thin cake layers.

Then after the two hours, put one layer of the brown butter pound cake and top with the layer of ice cream and then top that with the last layer of pound cake.

And then freeze again. I did this over night, but several hours should do the trick.

Okay now the next step is where I had my ice cream disaster.

Make the glaze

Now take the cake and ice cream out of the freezer, and now you have to cut it up into squares approximately one and a half inches in size.

My issue: When i started to cut it it was fine. After a while when I was cutting it up the ice cream was melting and hence, it pretty much squirted out of in between the petit fours.

place all petit fours in the freezer on a tray lined with parchment paper and a good amount of space in between.

Then glaze the petit fours, taking each out of the freezer placing each petit four on a fork and pouring the glaze over. You may have to reheat the glaze a couple of time if it get really gloppy and thick. Heating it will thin it out.

Place each one in the freezer after glazing.

Finally decorate and serve!

I used white chocolate to decorate mine.

Hope you enjoy!!

~D.D.

P.S. Thank you Elissa for this awesome challenge :)

I loved it!

Julia Child & Chocolate Mousse

Last night as I was sorting through my email I opened up a news letter from Saveur about recipes from movies. I, of course, was instantly interested, mostly because I wanted to find out how to make ratatouille(a dish that wins over a harsh critic?? It must be good!). But along with ratatouille I found a recipe for Julia Child’s chocolate mousse, and immediately dug out my recipe book and scrawled it down. Of course I wanted to try it out. And so I did, and i turned out awesome(although a little denser than I thought).

I ended up with a whole brownie tray sized amount of the mousse! Wayyy to much for my health conscious family(funny how a girl who likes sitting about making desserts ends up with one) so i ended up giving half of it to neighbors.

But it was fairly easy to make, and apparently you can make it entirely by hand(my scrawny arm muscles and I tried. Frankly it did not work out.)

Go here for the recipe: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2008/05/perfect-chocola/

I followed the whole thing word by word, so I see no point in restating the whole entire thing. Just one small thing, if your going to do it by hand, be prepared for sore arms and make sure you set out some time because it’ll take a while…

Mmmm, it’s so good!

~D.D.