Tag Archives: Dessert

Affogato

Pin It
Email

espresso cupsThis week the only meal item more consistent than the lattes we’ve been drinking with breakfast are the homemade affogatos we’ve been making for dessert.  These grown-up ice cream floats are easy-peasy: scoop vanilla ice cream into a bowl, pull a shot of espresso and drown the ice cream in the hot espresso. Affogato means “drowned” in Italian, and once you pour the hot espresso over the ice cream, it’s easy to see how the dessert got its name. As the espresso crema melds with the sweetened cream of the ice cream, it creates a velvety and luxurious indulgence.

ice creamWe like to use Three Twins Madagascar Vanilla ice cream in our affogatos because it’s a creamy rather than icy ice cream. As for espresso, well, I’ll reveal the real reason we’ve been splurging on affogatos nearly every night: we bought a Nespresso machine last weekend. For those of you who aren’t familiar with this line of espresso machines, it uses a capsule system to brew espresso quickly and easily. I can hear the coffee purists (and romantics) groaning at the thought of a capsule system—and until last weekend, I did too. At first I felt guilty for using such an automated system. I use an electric toothbrush, read books on my iPad and now use an espresso machine that is as automated as it gets? Was this machine bringing me one step closer to the utterly unromantic food capsule system of The Jetsons?

affogato espresso poured over ice cream The more I thought about it, the more I began to feel a kinship with the characters in the Industrial Revolution-era mini series Lark Rise to Candleford and Cranford, who shudder at how the imminent railway will change their quiet, close-knit communities. Today we’re already well into the technological revolution of the digital age, but how do we balance the new with the old? What do we hold on to and what do we let go?

History is the great teacher that helps us make sense of our current times, and if I look back to reactions to the Industrial Revolution, I think of the art nouveau movement. In reaction to the monotony of the mass produced art created by machines, the art nouveau artists sought inspiration in nature and infused their work with sinuous curves they saw in nature. If I look around me today, I can see people making concerted efforts to unplug from technology and relearn the forgotten arts of previous generations: handmade goods are popular, canning classes are popping up and the DIY movement is as strong as ever. I know I don’t want to live in the past—Midnight in Paris showed me the folly of that mindset—but I also don’t want to forget where I came from, so to speak. Perhaps the answer lies not in rejecting this or embracing that but in observing how the changes affect us and living intentionally in light of that. One thing’s for sure: this isn’t something I can solve in one blog post and package neatly with a bow. In the meantime, I’m going to say I can live with the more frequent affogato ritual.

affogato finishedAs far as I’m concerned, there’s no wrong or right way to make an affogato. Experiment with different flavors of ice cream (Sam likes cardamom ice cream) or adding a spoonful of amaretto or hazelnut liqueur. If you don’t have espresso readily available, use a strong, dark coffee.

Ingredients

1 scoop of vanilla ice cream
1 shot of hot espresso

Make the Affogato

Scoop the ice cream into a bowl, pour the espresso over the top and eat immediately.

Posted in: Beverages, dairy, dessert, Personal Essays, Recipes / Tagged: , , ,

Chocolate Pudding

Pin It
Email

pudding final1pudding final2a pudding1pudding2pudding3pudding4pudding5pudding6pudding7pudding8pudding9pudding10pudding11pudding12pudding13pudding14 pudding14pudding

The recipe for this pudding came “from the kitchen of” my mother, who copied it onto a recipe notecard from her friend back in the 1970s. This pudding is by no means fancy, but it’s a classic and can quickly be made without any special ingredients. Jazz up the pudding by using a high-quality cocoa powder like Scharffen-Berger or Guittard.

Serves 4-5

Ingredients

1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Make the Chocolate Pudding

Combine the cocoa powder, sugar, cornstarch and salt in a medium saucepan. Gradually whisk in the milk. I find an immersion blender quickly and efficiently blends the dry ingredients into the milk. Turn the heat onto medium and stir constantly as pudding thickens. After about four minutes, you’ll notice that the pudding thickens a lot—keep cooking and stirring! After 4-6 more minutes, remove the pudding from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Transfer pudding to a heatproof container and chill in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours.

Posted in: dairy, dessert, Recipes, snacks / Tagged: , ,

Topless, Bottomless Summer Fruit Pie

Pin It
Email

summer fruit 1

Summer Fruit 2

When stone fruit and berries are abundant at the Farmer’s Market, we often bring home more fruit than we can eat in a week. Don’t worry, though. The extras don’t go to waste; they go into a Topless, Bottomless Summer Fruit Pie. As you might have guessed from the name, it’s really not a pie at all. It’s simply baked fruit. The charm of baked fruit lies in its simplicity, in the concentrated fruit juices that sing of summer. Baked fruit doesn’t even need a crust or streusel-y topping to be called dessert. And it’s a heck of a lot easier to make than a pie.

For those who can’t imagine baked fruit without a crust, a LU Cinnamon Sugar biscuit tucked alongside would surely satisfy crust cravings. We usually like to eat our baked fruit with Breyer’s Vanilla Ice Cream. This time, though, I’m holding out for breakfast: baked fruit and yogurt served on top of Belgian waffles. On second thought, why not combine the best of the three—ice cream, waffles and baked fruit?
baked fruit 3
Note: Arrowroot powder is similar to cornstarch and helps the juices from the fruit thicken during cooking. Cornstarch is a suitable substitute.

Ingredients

Mixed summer fruit, such as plums, cherries, blueberries, peaches, nectarines and/or apricots
Squeeze of lemon juice
Sprinkle of arrowroot powder or cornstarch
Sprinkle of ground cinnamon

Make the Topless, Bottomless Summer Fruit Pie

Preheat oven to 350F° and place oven rack in the middle. While oven preheats, wash, stem and remove the pits from the fruit. Slice larger fruit into smaller pieces. Place the prepared fruit in a 9” glass pie dish or other oven-safe dish. Squeeze lemon juice over the top (about 1 teaspoon), then sprinkle with arrowroot and cinnamon. Use your hands to mix the fruit and evenly coat it with the lemon juice. Bake until juices release from the fruit and begin to bubble, 35-45 minutes. Remove from oven. Cool slightly and serve over ice cream (or waffles. or both).

Posted in: dessert, Recipes / Tagged: , , , , ,

Mother’s Day Blackberry Coconut Macaroon Tarts

Pin It
Email

Blackberry Coconut Macaroon TartThe recipe for these Blackberry Coconut Macaroon Tarts—which you may have seen on other blogs—comes from Heidi Swanson’s oh-so-popular new cookbook, Super Natural Every Day. And there’s a good reason these tarts and many of Heidi Swanson’s recipes are taking food blogs by storm: they taste so darn good.

I brought these tarts to a Mother’s Day celebration held at my parents’. Our party for the afternoon included my parents, Sam’s parents, my sister Laurel and brother-in-law Joe, in addition to Sam and me. After a delicious lunch of grilled leg of lamb with tarragon, lentil, & bulgur salad and spinach salad, we headed to a local park to play bocce ball. We were lucky to get a bocce ball lane because the park was brimming with people enjoying a sunny afternoon with their families. After a close game (my team lost!), we went back to my parents’ and ate these tarts with coffee and tea. The crunchy coconut infused crust is topped with chewy macaroon filling studded with tart blackberries. Needless to say, these were a huge hit, and I can’t wait for the next special even to make them again.

Heidi Swanson uses a 8 x 10-inch tart pan, but I successfully used 6 4.5-inch tart pans with the same amount of dough and filling. Experiment with whatever size pans you have on hand; the tart is fairly forgiving.

Blackberry Coconut Macaroon Tart

Recipe by Heidi Swanson, Super Natural Every Day

Ingredients

For crust:
1½ cups (6 oz.) white whole wheat flour
¾ cup (2 oz.) unsweetened finely shredded coconut
¾ cup (3.75 oz.) sifted and lightly packed natural cane sugar
Scant ½ teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
10 tablespoons (5 oz.) unsalted butter, melted

For filling:
2 cups (5 oz.) unsweetened finely shredded coconut
½ cup (2.5 oz.) sifted and lightly packed natural cane sugar
4 large egg whites
8 ounces fresh blackberries, halved
? cup (1.5 oz.) pistachios, crushed

Make the Blackberry Coconut Macaroon Tart

Preheat the oven to 350°F with a rack in the middle of the oven. Butter an 8 by 11-inch tart pan (or equivalent) and line the bottom and sides with parchment paper.

To make the crust, in a large bowl, combine the flour, coconut, sugar and salt. Stir in the melted butter and mix until dough is crumbly but no longer dusty looking. Firmly press the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan (it should form a solid, flat layer). Bake for 15 minutes or until barely golden. Remove and set aside to cool for a few minutes.

In the meantime, prepare the coconut macaroon filling by combining the coconut, sugar and egg whites. Mix until well combined.

Evenly distribute the blackberries across the tart base. Now drop little dollops of the macaroon filling over the tops of them (I dirty up my hands for this part), and mush and press the coconut topping around into the spaces behind the berries. Be sure to at least let some of the colorful berries pop through for visual flair.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the peaks of the macaroon filling are deeply golden. Let the tart cool, then garnish with crushed pistachios before slicing into small squares.

Posted in: dessert, Recipes / Tagged: , , , , ,

Meyer Lemon Soufflé with Cointreau Crème Anglaise

Pin It
Email

A couple weeks ago I wrote a blog for Diablo magazine about Meyer lemons, which included a recipe from Chris Fernandez of Piatti restaurants for Meyer Lemon Soufflé with Cointreau Crème Anglaise. Writing about Meyer lemons convinced me that I must integrate this citrus with its subtle floral fragrance into my cooking repertoire.

Today while all of the U.S. was watching the Superbowl (though I am convinced fewer people watch it than we think), I made this Meyer Lemon Soufflé with Cointreau Crème Anglaise. For the recipe, see Diablo magazine’s blog. I also highly recommend the link on the Diablo blog to Tom Hudgens’ article about Meyer lemons.

blog-2

blog-3

dsc05889

blog-1

Posted in: dessert, Recipes / Tagged: , , , , ,