Your Just Desserts

ABC – Focaccia for Breakfast

jiminycub — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:33:12 +0000

For the past few months I have been experimenting with baking bread. Every weekend my kitchen is covered in a fine layer of flour and I have proofing buckets of yeasty bubbling dough all around and eventually the wonderful smell of freshly baked bread wafting through the house as loaves of golden bread emerge from the oven. It seemed only appropriate then that this weekend while I was surrounded by bowls of biga, poolish, wild yeast starters and the like that I should take some time out to make this very easy and delicious breakfast focaccia. I have made focaccia constantly over the years and I am actually quite proud of my rosemary focaccia which I always seem to have on hand for snacking. This focaccia will also be added to that list of have on hand snack breads to be experimented with and tweaked.

I was a bit skeptical at first that this might turn out to be just another coffee cake recipe but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the finished focaccia retains all the elements of a traditional focaccia while slipping in the added twist of sweetness from the berries and the spicy streusel topping. There is no doubt that you are eating a bread with all the spicy, fruitiness of the deep green extra virgin olive oil. The bread is crusty on the bottom and has the chewy texture of a traditional focaccia but then the juicy berries burst forth on the tongue with that fruity sweetness and the crunchy, spicy nutmeg and cinnamon infused streusel topping adds just that sweet/savory interest that you would expect. This is one great breakfast bread. I am already imagining making it with peaches, nectarines, plums, raspberries, blueberries and all sorts of seasonal fruits and spices in the streusel. Definitely a winner and one that must be tried.

Gutsy Cooks Club – Arancine (Saffron Rice Balls)

jiminycub — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 23:33:02 +0000

I grew up with these little rice balls, both my grandmothers and my mother made them often, but they were never made from scatch but were made with leftover risotto in the Italian tradition of never letting anything go to waste. They were most often just plain rice balls flavored with whatever vegetable or meat happened to be in the leftover risotto. My mother often put in a cube of mozzarella or whatever soft cheese she had on hand and we ate them as after school snacks. Arancine means little oranges in Italian and that is exactly what these little nubbly golden balls look like. I have so many fond memories of sitting on the back door stoop eating these little treasures. These pork and beef filled arancine are delicious and did indeed bring back those memories as I have not had them in quite some time. I loved them but have to admit that I did miss that little hidden nugget of cheese. It will be there the next time I make them. One of the tricks my mom showed me when making these is to rinse your hands between making each ball. It helps to rinse off the starch and keep the balls from sticking to your hands and makes getting them formed more evenly a lot easier. I also enjoy these with some marinara sauce for dipping them in.

ABC – Frangipane Ripple Chocolate Pound Cake

jiminycub — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 11:43:41 +0000

Avid readers will already know about my fondness for pound cake. I would rather have pound cake than just about any other dessert in the world. I love having it on hand to dress up for company or a weekend dessert, toasted for breakfast or just as a grab on the run snack. I have several go to pound cake recipes that I make weekly but never miss the opportunity to try out a new recipe for my beloved snack cake. This recipe does not disappoint. It is rich and moist with a nice change of texture and nutty flavor from the frangipane layers.

I made my own almond paste for this recipe and it is much thinner than store bought almond paste so I have to admit that it sort of melted into the cake batter instead of baking into a separate rippled layer. There was a small ripple layer visible and although it isn’t as visually pleasing as I would have hoped, it certainly does deliver on flavor. The almond frangipane layer is a delightful contrast to the rich, chocolately cake. I am not a huge fan of chocolate pound cakes but this one was a pleasant surprise. The chocolate does not overwhelm the rich, buttery smoothness that you come to expect from a pound cake. While the texture of this one is not as dense as a traditional pound cake, it does maintain the firm, smooth texture that you want from pound-cake. Definitely worth making and making more than once.

Gutsy Cooks Club – Adas Polo

jiminycub — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 14:17:13 +0000

I was intrigued by this recipe. I like the way Middle Eastern food has the subtle interplay of savory and sweet with the use of fruits in savory dishes. I am also a lifelong fan of lentils so any recipe that uses lentils is a recipe that I want to sample. The results I am afraid to say were rather disappointing. The overall dish was rather bland. I found myself continuously adding salt and pepper to try to give it some taste. Other than the occasional hit of date or raisin the dish was totally tasteless. There was way too much rice for the dish and the rice was very mushy due to the pre-cooking of the rice and then the rather long cooking of the dish after it is assembled. The lentils seemed to disappear into the dish and they also became mushy because of the pre-cooking and then cooking of the assembled dish. This could really benefitted from some garlic and nutmeg. I was also stumped when the recipe says it serves 4. I ended up with an amount that could have easily served 10. I assume that this is a sort of pilaf and is meant to be served as a side dish. All in all I was disappointed but I may try it again and jazz up the spices as well as cut the recipe in half.

Chicken Filled Enchiladas with Tangy Crema Tomatillo Sauce

jiminycub — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 17:38:30 +0000

Since we enjoyed last weeks enchildadas so much I decided to try the second recipe for them this week. These were similar in assembly to lasts weeks but I have to admit that I didn’t care for this recipe as well as the last one. These were very good but they just didn’t have the smoothness of the version made with the bechamel sauce and I found that they lacked that smooth and smoky hint of heat in the finish. The tomatillo sauce was nice but just a bit on the bland side for me. I did enjoy the addition of the sour cream with the chicken filling. At any rate, it was fun to experiment with different versions of the same dish and compare them. I will definitely make these again and continue on the hunt for more authenitic Mexican recipes to try out.

Gutsy Cooks Club – Enchiladas Especiales Taciba Style

jiminycub — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 23:37:57 +0000

It is restaurant week here in San Diego so we are dining out most of the week in an attempt to try a lot of those restaurants that we talk about trying and somehow never get around to going to. I did, however, manage to make these enchiladas for lunch so that I could kick out the new season of Gutsy Cooks Club.

I have to admit that I am not much of a Mexican food enthusiast. So much of it seems to me to be the same ingredients just layered together in a different way but I chalk that up to my midwest upbringing where the concept of Mexican food was Taco Bell. Here in San Diego, a lot of what we get as Mexican is just Tex-Mex and not authentic so… I am a great admirer of Rick Bayless and thought it would be fun to give a few of his recipes a try.

Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather. I couldn’t believe how much I enjoyed these. Neither could anyone else as a matter of fact. Anyone who knows me around here knows that I am not all that fond of Mexican food and how I go out of my way to eat anything else but Mexican food. The recipe was simple to put together, it had a bit of prep work such as roasting the peppers and grilling the chicken but essentially it was a bechamel sauce made with milk and chicken stock and a little garlic. The roasted peppers and spinach are processed in the blender with half of the bechamel and the chicken is stirred into the remaining bechamel. Then the filled tortillas are rolled and placed on a bed of the green sauce, topped with more sauce and cheese and baked until warmed through. They were delicious.

At first bite I thought they were just a bit bland and then the roasted peppers kicked in and you get that hit of heat and smoothness from the sauce. I brought some to a few of my Hispanic friends and they were knocked out by just how good they were too. I have heard for years how Rick supposedly makes authentic Mexican food and now I have had it confirmed. I liked them so much that I made a detour to the library today after work to pick up a few more of Ricks books to see what other surprises he had in store for me.

Cupids Strawberry Cake

jiminycub — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 23:26:26 +0000

I can see why Flo calls this her signature yellow cake. I found it a snap to make and it certainly delivers on it’s promise. It is rich and buttery without being cloying and it is moist but has a firm texture and crumb similar to a poundcake which I find especially appealing. It lends itself easily to a variety of fillings and frostings. It can be eaten plain or with a sprinkling of powdered sugar or it can be dressed up or down as you see fit. The combination of the strawberries and the lemon buttercream was especially appealing to my family.

Even though I had been warned that the frosting could be a bit sweet I decided to try it as is before I made any changes to the recipe. While I didn’t find it to be too sweet for my taste, I did find it to be a bit soft and slightly hard to work with. My first attempt at frosting the cake found it sliding down the sides. I put it in the refrigerator for a bit to firm up before proceeding and had no problems with it after that. I served the cake for a collectors club meeting I hosted and it was extremely well received. I will definitely be making this one again and the yellow cake will certainly be added to my baking repertoire.

Quintessential Cheese Blintzes

jiminycub — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 23:54:19 +0000

I have to admit, we are not big breakfast eaters in my house. Usually toast and coffee or cereal is about all we get around to in the morning, but when I saw this recipe I knew we were in for a special treat and I wasn’t disappointed.

The recipe is simple and easy to prepare. The entire thing can be done the night before and refrigerated and then just heated in the oven in the morning before serving so you don’t need to slave over the stove on Sunday morning making a fancy breakfast.

These are made using a standard crepe batter of eggs, flour, milk and water all tossed into the food processor and blended until smooth. Then the batter is left in the refrigerator for a few hours to rest. When ready to cook the crepes, stir the batter to emulsify the ingredients. Film a 6-7 inch saute or crepe pan with butter and pour about 1/4 cup batter into the pan and swirl it around to coat the bottom of the pan. Cook over medium high heat until the top appears dry and the bottom is lightly browned. The recipe calls for filming the pan with butter between each crepe but I didn’t find that necessary. I had no sticking problems at all. Maybe it’s my pan, maybe I have just made way too many crepes and am used to the process. You can do whatever works for you. Stack the cooked crepes on a plate between layers of waxed paper and allow to cool. At this point the crepes can be refrigerated to assemble later or frozen. I allowed mine to cool and them assembled the blintzes.

The finished crepe batterCooking the crepesCompleted crepes

The filling is a cheese mixture, I used Fresh Ricotta Cheese , lemon zest, sugar, vanilla and an egg as called for in the recipe. Place about 1 to 1/2 tablespoons of the filling on the crepe, fold the bottom up, then fold the sides in and press to flatten and seal them, then roll them to make a rectangluar blintz. Since I was going to bake mine the following morning, I placed the filled blintzes in a generously buttered baking dish and covered them with plastic wrap and stored them in the refrigerator.

The assembled blintzes

The next morning, I preheated the oven to 350 degrees and baked them for about 8 minutes, then turned them and returned them to the oven for another 10 minutes.

These can be served with any favorite fruit, preserve or jelly. I had just gotten some wonderful peaches at the farmers market so I sliced them and sauteed them in a little butter to make sort of a fresh peach preserve and spooned it over them. Heavenly. These may just make breakfast eaters out of all of us.

Fresh Ricotta Cheese

jiminycub — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 15:13:48 +0000

A few weeks ago, I took a cheesemaking class at one of the local cooking shops. We had so much fun and the cheese was so wonderful I have been itching to get into the kitchen and make some more. This week, I needed some fresh cheese and decided the time had come to make some of the delicious fresh ricotta cheese that we made in the class.

The whole process is simple and takes only about 30 minutes with hardly any hands on work so here we go.

Place 8 cups of whole milk in a large, heavy bottomed saucepan and place over medium high heat. Cook the milk, stirring almost constantly until the milk comes to a foaming boil.

Heating the whole milk

Turn off the heat and as the bubbles subside add 2 cups of buttermilk and salt (1/2 – 1 teaspoon if desired) and any other flavorings or herbs you wish to use. Since the recipe I was going to use the cheese for called for lemon zest I added the zest of one lemon at this point. Stir the mixture gently in one direction until the curds and whey begin to separate. At this point the mixture will begin to look like thick buttermilk, the curds will be small and the whey will still be milky.

Stirring to separate the curds and whey

Set the saucepan aside and let rest, undisturbed for about 5 minutes.

The resting curds and whey

Once the mixture has rested for about 5 minutes, carefully pour the curds and whey into a cheesecloth lined strainer over a large bowl. The whey will drain into the bowl and can be discarded or used for another purpose. Allow the curds to drain for about 15 – 30 miutes depending on the consistency desired. I let mine drain for about 15 minutes.

Draining the curd

Use the cheese immediately or it can be refrigerated for up to 5 days.

8 cups of whole milk and two cups of buttermilk will yield about 10 – 12 ounces of fresh cheese.

The finished cheese

ABC Bakers: Butterscotch Spiral Coffee Cake

jiminycub — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 20:04:54 +0000

I have always enjoyed working with yeast doughs. There is something very satisfying about taking yeast and water and flour and ending up with a light, risen and almost earthy finished product. Unfortunately, many people are put off by making yeasted baked goods. Not so much because they feel they are difficult but because of the proofing and rising times, it sometimes seems as if there just isn’t enough time during a busy day to make a yeasted baked good. This recipe is proof positive that a fine quality yeasted baked good is quite doable in a relatively short period of time. That alone is enough to make you want to bake this but one taste and you will want to make it every week. It is almost like a cinnamon roll on steroids. Not only is it of grand size but the flavors are big and bold and gutsy. You can certainly play with your own spice combinations not only in the filling but in the dough itself.

I did take Hanna’s advice and double the quantity of spices in the dough and I can see where neglecting to do so would make for a more subtly flavored dough. I am glad that I doubled mine. I doubled the amount of cinnamon filling as well and I still didn’t feel like it was enough. The next time I make this I will triple it. I also think that I would like to play around with the addition of walnuts or pecans to this recipe. Another thought was to add a simple powdered sugar glaze on top of the butterscotch. I may just be going for overkill here but I just can’t seem to stop myself from wanting to add more and more to this already delicious coffee cake. I did make one other change. I thought that I had a full bottle of dark corn syrup in the pantry and when it came time to make the butterscotch glaze it turned out that I didn’t so I substituted molasses for the dark corn syrup. While it wasn’t a true butterscotch, it was certainly a rich and bold almost spicy glaze and I don’t think my coffee cake suffered from it in the slightest. All in all, this is a great cake to have on hand at all times.

: The risen dough

: The filling