First post of 2011

You would not believe the schedule I have kept since last we spoke!!!  I am on spring break with only four weeks of culinary school left and then graduation.  I am getting ready to make a Chocolate Guinness Cake for St. Patty's Day and I have LOTS to share with you guys.  I started all those soup posts and they are saved in my draft pile and I will finish and post those sometime.  I also ran into a snag with budget and have not been keeping up with the Dorie Greenspan recipes but will be back on that by May I hope.  It requires extra ingredients and we are on the Dave Ramsey budgeting plan and often don't have that little extra for the odd ingredients needed.  I will eventually but right now I need the spending discipline.  I tend to blow budget on food and books... it is who I am.

Here is a photo of the Guinness Cake I made last year... just in case you want some foodie photos to tide you over.  I have a slew of them from work I hope to start putting up for you on a regular basis and some cool school restaurant pics, too.  Just give me some time... thanks for being patient as I finish this phase of my life and move into the professional chef phase.  You guys are a bunch of good eggs!  :)

Ingredients for the cake:

1 cup Guinness
1 stick plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 cups superfine sugar
3/4 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Ingredients for the topping:

8 oz Philadelphia cream cheese
1 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream

Preheat the over to 350 F, and butter and line a 9 inch springform pan.

Pour the Guinness into a large wide saucepan, add the butter — in spoons or slices — and heat until the butter's melted, at which time you should whisk in the cocoa and sugar. Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and then pour into the brown, buttery, beery pan and finally whisk in the flour and baking soda.

Pour the cake batter into the greased and lined pan and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Leave to cool completely in the pan on a cooling rack, as it is quite a damp cake.

When the cake's cold, sit it on a flat platter or cake stand and get on with the frosting. Lightly whip the cream cheese until smooth, sift over the confectioner's sugar and then beat them both together. Or do this in a processor, putting the unsifted confectioners' sugar in first and blitz to remove lumps before adding the cheese.

Add the cream and beat again until it makes a spreadable consistency. Ice the top of the black cake so that it resembles the frothy top of the famous pint.

Makes about 12 slices

From Feast by Nigella Lawson. Photographs by James Merrell. Copyright 2004 Nigella Lawson. Photographs Copyright 2004 by James Merrell. Published by Hyperion. All Rights Reserved.

Bulk Brownie Mix...

There is no reason to buy that box of brownie mix anymore! You just mix this together and follow the individual recipe at the bottom and you are in business. You can use this at home or make gift bags for teachers, friends, or any occasion that you are looking for a simple food gift. Here is how...

start with

* 8 cups sugar
* 5 1/2 cups flour
* 2 1/2 cups cocoa
* 4 tsp. baking powder
* 2 tsp salt

Sift together the dry ingredients. Store it in an air tight container.

When you are ready to make a batch you use...

2 cups of the brownie mix from above
1/2 cup melted butter
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Stir just until mixed. Spread into an 8x8 greased and floured pan and then bake at 350 degrees for between 25 and 40 minutes depending on your oven. I went a full 40 minutes on mine but if your oven cooks hot then go less.

What are you waiting for? Go bake brownies with the kids!!! :)

Other weekend treats...

I shared that I recently bought 10 pounds of unsalted raw pistachios and that I would be trying some new recipes. I picked up this little book to help me out and it has the most AWESOME Chocolate pistachio bread recipe!

BREAKFAST!!!

Daring Bake February Challenge.... Flourless cake

I know... I have been MIA for about three weeks but I have SO SO SO many foodies posts in my head and TONS of pictures from school. I will, however, start with the DB Challenge for this month and move on from there.

This month was a Flourless Chocolate Cake and Homemade Ice Cream. Here are the recipes and the results... I made this for my daughter's birthday around the 17th of the month. She LOVED it!

Chocolate Valentino

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped

½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter

5 large eggs separated

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.

2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.

3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.

4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).

5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.

6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.

7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter. {link of folding demonstration}

8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C

9. Bake for 25 minutes or until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C.

Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.

10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

I made a strawberry sauce and used fresh strawberries with it and it was the perfect pairing.

For the ice cream I chose the following...

Wendy's Ice Cream Recipe

Vanilla Philadelphia Style Recipe

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

2 cups (473 ml) of half and half (1 cup of heavy cream and 1 cup of whole, full fat milk)

1 cup (237 ml) heavy cream

2/3 (128 grams) cup sugar

Dash of salt

1 (12 grams) tablespoon of vanilla

Mix all ingredients together (we do this in a plastic pitcher and mix with an emulsifier hand blender-whisking works too).

Refrigerate for 30 minutes or longer

Mix in your ice cream maker as directed.

Other notes of interest...

February’s challenge is a Flourless Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Valentino, inspired by Malaysia’s “most flamboyant food ambassador”, Chef Wan. Recipe comes from Sweet Treats by Chef Wan

What we Want You to Do:

-Use the following recipe

-Serve with - The original recipe calls for the cake to be served with whipping cream. BUT we decided to make this more of a challenge and ask you to make your own Ice Cream – a first for the DBrs. You can choose any flavour you want and any recipe although we provided two vanilla ice cream recipes. But we are giving you a little freedom here and will allow whipped cream as a topping as well or of course non-dairy whip. Be as creative as you want with your topping. Any fruit puree or sauce would be lovely with this cake.

- Use your favorite chocolate – the finished cake will taste exactly like the chocolate you use. Be creative with your chocolate, if you like a sweeter cake use milk chocolate or a combination of the semisweet and milk chocolate. If you like bittersweet chocolate use that and add sweetness by mixing the semi sweet with bittersweet. If you are daring, try white chocolate. (Dharm used all bittersweet and Wendy used a half bitter/half semi sweet chocolate).

- A higher cacao percentage increases the bitterness of the chocolate.

-Equipment - it is optional to use a heart shaped pan. For a real Valentino, bake it in a heart shaped pan or cut it out into a heart shape. You may use any shape pan that gives you an area of 50” - 6x8 or 7x7. An 8” spring form pan works with great results as do smaller pans or ramekins.

-An instant read thermometer highly recommended.

Note on recipe - the recipe consists of 3 simple ingredients and how you interpret them is part of the challenge. The simplicity of this recipe gives credit to the ingredients much in the same way of French baguette.

-This recipe comes together very quickly with a hand mixer.

-This is a very decadent cake that will sink a little as it cools but will still hold its shape.

-Very dense and fudgy cake that tastes divine.

-The top forms a light crust kind of like a brownie

No Bake Cookies

No Bake Cookies

My kids can make these and they are so yummy!

2 cups sugar

½ cup milk

½ cup margarine

1/3 cup cocoa

½ cup peanut butter

1 tsp. Vanilla

3 cups quick oats

Combine sugar, milk, margarine, and cocoa in a saucepan and boil for 1 minute. Stir in peanut butter, vanilla, and quick oats. Drop by spoonfuls onto wax paper and let cool. Refrigerate in container once they have cooled and hardened. We make these when we have a little craving for chocolate and sweet. They are ready in a jiffy

Chocolate Sorbet

This is my favorite version of sorbet. So, by popular demand...

Chocolate Sorbet

3/4 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ounce bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Combine 2 1/2 cups water, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and cocoa in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and cook, whisking occasionally, until the sugar dissoves, 4 or 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to low; boil gently for 3 minutes.

Meanwhile, set a medium bowl in an ice water bath. Remove the syrup from the heat and add the chocolate and vanilla; whisk unti the chocolate is melted and well incorporated. Pour the mixture into the bowl ove rthe ice water bath and stir occasionally unti well chilled. Transfer to an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.

This is YUMMO!!!

I will look for my fruit version for you guys and give some other info on Monday.

This recipe came from Martha Stewart's Healthy Quick Cook book on page 193.