I is for Ice-cream cake

I is for Ice Cream Cake

Ice cream cake is one of those lovely things which is so easy, once you have made one you are going to kick yourself that you haven't done this before. They are especially great for kids birthdays but can also be a very sophisticated dessert for a dinner party.

Here's an old post with my favorite recipes and the steps to make your kiddos love you forever :)

Ice Cream Cake 3/6/2012

Ice Cream Cake is one of those things that seems like it would be difficult to make, but is actually incredibly simple and incredibly versatile.

This recipe is for a 9" X 4" pan with a push bottom. Springforms work fine here too. The recipe can be adjusted up for a larger pan, just add on one layer at a time.

Grease your pan very lightly with a non-stick spray. I generally prefer the ones that are just vegetable oil, cocoanut oil is probably best for ice cream cake as the slight flavor wont clash with the cake.

The basic method is to line the bottom of the pan with a crumb crust (1/2 cup butter, 1 1/2 cups crushed cookie crumbs). Microwave 1 quart of ice cream on defrost for 1 minute. Spread it into the pan. Top it with whatever fillings you think would be fun, then freeze and repeat until the pan is full. If I am going to write on the cake, I frost it with regular cake icing in two layers.

Flavor combos:

Chocolate and vanilla with plain and cocoa crispies in between layers is our family birthday party standard.

Vanilla with mixed drunken berries in the layers and a ginger cookie crust; completely appropos for a swanky dinner party.

Chocolate and cocoanut layers with flaked toasted cocanut and shaved chocolate layers = icy .

 

Here is a link to the Martha Stewart website with recipes for some lovely and sophisticated ice cream cakes as well as some old-fashioned classics.

H is for Hazelnut sandwich cookies.

H is for Hazelnut sandwich cookies.

How can you not love a sandwich cookie? These are easy and sweet and lovely for holiday baking.

2 cups fine whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick of COLD butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup of chopped hazelnuts
1 small jar of nutella

Toast the hazelnuts in a frying pan until fragrant and just browning.
In a small bowl fork sift dry ingredients.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar, add egg. Add the dry ingredients and mix quickly so the butter doesn't get warm. Fold in the hazelnuts. Drop by the rounded teaspoon full onto an un-greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for about 6-8 minutes. Cool. When cool to the touch, spoon one scant teaspoon of nutella and top with another cookie.
 

G is for Grunt

 G is for Grunt

What is a Grunt, you ask? It's a Massachusetts thing, my people call them slumps. But what ARE THEY??? Fruit and pastry.

For the filling you will need about:
4 cups of berries
2 cups of peeled and cut up apples, pears or other thicker-fleshed fruit.
2 or 3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup of lemon-water.

For the biscuit topping:
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup rolled oats (not quick cooking)
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 stick of best quality butter (room temp.)
1/4 cup buttermilk or labneh
1tsp cinnamon
1tbsp demerara or other brown, crystal sugar

Mix the biscuit topping ingredients together without letting the butter or buttermilk get warm, you want a barely mixed, almost crumbly, NOT smooth dough. If it seems very dry, you can gradually add a tablespoon of extra buttermilk at a time until the dough comes together. The less you handle the dough, the lighter your biscuits will taste.
 
In a 10" x 3" skillet, cook the berries, water and sugar until the fruit is soft and the color is very bright. Drop biscuit dough by the spoonful on top of the berries, sprinkle with demerara sugar and cinnamon. Cover with a lid and let cook on low heat for about 15 minutes. Biscuits will look and feel 'set' when fully cooked.

Serve warm with ice or whipped cream topping.

F is for French Silk Pie

F is for French Silk Pie

French means its fancy, no?? No, actually, not today. French silk pie is about as homey as it gets.

A good French Silk pie reminds me of going to my grandmother's for dinner on a Sunday when I was a very small child and what could be better than that???

For the crust:

Crush 1 package graham crackers, blend with 1tbsp sugar and 1/3 cup butter. Press into the bottom of a 9" pie tin.

For the filling (dairy):

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa

1/3 cup gram or whole wheat cake flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 3/4 cups 'light cream' or all natural 1/2 & 1/2

2/3 Cup best quality chocolate, chopped

Into a saucepan, sift together sugar, cocoa, flour and salt. Gradually whisk in cream. Place over medium-high heat and bring to a boil, whisking constantly, until a thick custard forms, about 3 to 5 minutes. Keep whisking the whole time it is on the heat, or it will burn. Remove from heat. Stir in chocolate until melted and smooth.

For the filling (non-dairy):

In a blender or food processor, combine 1 16oz block of silken tofu, 1/2 cup sesame tahini, 2 tbsp cocoa powder, 1/2 cup melted chocolate, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup soy milk.

Pour your filling into the pie shell. Refrigerate for at least a couple of hours. Top with whipped cream and some chocolate shavings. Fancy.

E is for Eclairs

E is for Eclairs

Eclairs are easy! Did you know this? They are so easy that I made them for my dad on his birthday just one month after my first child was born. And possibly he was just being gracious, though he tended to tell you the truth about such things, but he and my mom ate at least two each so I think they were pretty tasty...



Make one recipe of Martha Stewart's Pate Sucree
It's fool proof and delicious...

Pipe and bake your eclairs according to directions.
Whip together:
1 pint whipping cream
1 tbsp tia maria liquer
2 tbsp granulated sugar
refridgerate

Melt 8oz best dark chocolate into 1/2 cup heavy cream. Blend the mixture well until it is smooth and glossy.

Fill your eclairs with the cream mixture from a pastry bag and pour the chocolate over them. Fancy easy posh pastry.

D is for Donuts

D is for Donuts

Donuts are sort of a very ambitious cook's project. BUT, there are a mess of recipes out there for healthi-er and, in my opinion, actually much tastier versions from what you can get in donut shops. I really do not like the standard Pink and Orange or Green and White donuts. They have a strange aftertaste that I don't remember them having when I was a kid. This might be increasing sensitivity of old age or they may have changed the recipe somehow... either way, if I'm going to eat these things, I'll be making my own.

A survey of good online dounut recipes:

101 Cookbooks: Baked Donuts- These are yummy and actually comparatively pretty easy to make.

A Small Snippet: Whole Wheat Donuts with Honey Glaze- Not pretty to look at but quite tasty.

Ina Garten's: Cinnamon Baked Donuts- Ina nails it as usual, delicious, cake-y perfect for a special occasion.

C is for Cheesecake!!!

C is for Cheesecake

Those of your who have been reading this blog for a while know I loves me some cheesecake!
I experiment, I tinker, I modify, but when all is said and done, I feel like an occasional regular American-style cake is the way to go..

 Crush a packet of graham crackers (or whole wheat digestive biscuits) with 1/2 stick of buttter and 1 tbsp sugar. Line the bottom of a 9" springform pan with this mixture.

In your blender combine 2 (8 oz) packets cream cheese (or Labneh Chtoora if you happen to have access to it) with 3 eggs, 2/3 cup sugar, 1tbsp lemon juice (tsp zest is optional). Blend until smooth and pour into your pan. Bake in a water-bath at 350 (180) for 45 - 55 minutes, watch it closely after 30 min. You want the center set, but not browning...

Top with any (or all) fruits. Bliss.

B is for Brookie

B is for Brookie. 

What is a brookie, you ask? My nieces all their friends are deeply into this combination of a brownie with a toll-house cookie.

Make 1/2 recipe of toll house cookie dough.

Make this recipe of brownie batter:





1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup whole wheat flour (white ww flour or chapatti flour works well here)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder 

In a 9 x 13" non-stick pan, swirl or layer together the cookie and brownie batter. Bake at 350 degrees (180) for about 25 min or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Endear yourself to pre-teenage girls.

 

A to Z Challenge 2014: A is for Almond Toffee

A is for Almond Toffee:

It's Lent and I'm avoiding all alcohol and most sugars and hanging in there pretty well, but in a brainstorm with my culinary BFF today on WHAT am I going to write about for the 2014 A to Z challenge she practically begged me to do desserts and sweets. So while you were going to get a city by city guide to typical foods kicking off in Ankara, now you get candy, cake and pastry. Win/win??

Toffees are about the easiest thing in the universe to make.
Prepare a large (11" X 14") jelly roll pan by either spraying it with non-stick cooking spray or lining it with buttered parchment paper.

Melt together  4 sticks of butter and 2 cups of sugar (I know, REALLY??). Cook on low, stirring often but gently, until a candy thermometer reads 240 degrees F. Add 3 cups of Almonds to this mixture and continue to stir gently until it reaches 290. Pour the candy into the pan and spread with an offset non-stick spatula.

While this is cooling, chop up 12oz of the best chocolate you can find. I'm liking the Perugina Luisa bar for this. Its 51% cacao so its not too dark and has a lovely smooth consistency. Cover the toffee with the chocolate bits and let them melt a little. Spread the chocolate evenly over the toffee and sprinkle with about 1 cup of chopped almonds.

Let cool an hour or two in the fridge. Remove from the pan. Break into edible-size pieces. You can play around with this as much as you like. Add cocoanut, pretzels, dried cherry etc.

Most Delicious Spicy Christmas Cookies: So delicious they win a prize...

Hi All! its been a while...

So my most delicious spicy Christmas cookies from last Christmas were so delicious, I decided to enter them in a Christmas Cookie contest. And- go figure!!- they won 2nd place!

Here's a link to the Magazine's Facebook Page (I don't think they have an actual web-site...)

So here is the recipe again (especially since the magazine made a huge mistake- sigh! Dubai, what do you expect?)

Most delicious spicy Christmas Cookies

In a small bowl, fork sift:
2 cups fine whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. cardamom
1 cup turbinado sugar

In a large bowl, blend together:
12 tsp. salted butter (not warmed)
1 egg
1/4 cup of unsulphered  molasses

Slowly blend the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Form a cylinder with the dough and wrap it in parchment paper. Refrigerate at least one hour. Slice into 1/4" thick rounds (makes about 40 3" cookies). Decorate with sanding sugar. Bake for 7-10 minutes at 350.

These may actually be the most delicious cookies I have ever made...

Most delicious spicy Christmas Cookies

In a small bowl, fork sift:
2 cups fine whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. cardamom
1 cup turbinado sugar

In a large bowl, blend together:
12 tsp. salted butter (not warmed)
1 egg
1/4 cup of unsulphered  molasses

Slowly blend the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Form a cylinder with the dough and wrap it in parchment paper. Refrigerate at least one hour. Slice into 1/4" thick rounds (makes about 40 3" cookies). Decorate with sanding sugar. Bake for 7-10 minutes at 350.

These may actually be the most delicious cookies I have ever made...

Thanksgiving: Pumpkin custard

Baby Chuck and I just made pumpkin custard.

2 cans pumpkin puree
1 roasted sweet potato
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup cream
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup maple syrup or (date syrup if you are in the UAE)
1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup whipping cream
2 tsp sugar
1tsp vanilla extract or (rum if you are in America)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup maple syrup or (date syrup if you are in the UAE)

Mix your walnuts and syrup in a small bowl- set aside
Whip the whipping cream with the sugar and vanilla until it holds firm peaks. Refrigerate

In a blender, combine the pumpkin, potato, eggs, milk, cream, sugar, syrup & cinnamon. Pour into well greased 10"x2" baking pan. Bake at 350 for approximately 40 minutes or until top is browned and custard is pulling away from sides. Serve cold with whipped cream and nuts in syrup.

Thanksgiving: Rum Raisin Apple Crumble

6 green appples, cored and diced
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup chopped pecans
2tbsp rum
1tbsp lemon juice

2/3 cup rolled oats
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1 stick (8tbsp) unsalted butter- cold
1/3 cup caster sugar

Place your apples, raisins and nuts in a 10"X2" baking pan. Sprinkle with rum & lemon juice. In a small bowl, fork sift the oats, flour & sugar. Cut in the butter until you have the consistency of small peas. Cover the apples evenly with the topping. Bake in a 350 degree oven for approximately 45 minutes or until crumble is golden and toasty looking. Serve with vanilla ice-cream.

One more cheesecake for my collection.

I'm a perverse collector of cheesecakes. Its very bad. I love making them, although I still feel like I am hunting for the holy grail.
I think this is because I don't like Philadelphia cream cheese very much. It just seems too heavy for a cake. BUT it does have an unctuous texture that would be nice to be able to replicate with a slightly lighter cheese.
Ricotta works ok, but tends to be a little mealy in texture. Turkish Labneh is still my favorite.

The current recipe:
1 box Hob-nobs oatmeal cookies
1/2 cup butter
One 1kg container Pinar Labneh.
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup limoncello
juice of a lemon
zest of a lemon, finely chopped
1 cup frozen red currants
1/2 pint of red currants
1/2 pint strawberry
1/2 cup sugar

Process about 1/ 2 the package of Hob-nobs in a food processor until small crumbs. Melt your butter and add it to the cookies. Press mixture into the bottom of a 9" tart or springform pan. In a blender, combine the labneh, eggs, sugar, limoncello, lemon juice and zest. Blend until smooth. Pour into the pan, bake at 150 for about 50 minutes.
You can also try baking it in a waterbath for slightly longer. I've had mixed results with this, sometimes the cake comes out very creamy, others it doesn't seem to matter at all.
For the topping, cook your frozen currants with the sugar until they are pale and and have released all their juices (10 minutes at a simmer should do it). Strain & discard the solids. When cool, fold the syrup with the currants and hulled, chopped strawberries. Top cake. Refrigerate at least a few hours before serving.

This year's Easter cheesecake was a winner, but then I overcooked it. It was tasty, but not quite the masterpiece I am looking for....

 

Ice Cream Cake

Ice Cream Cake is one of those things that seems like it would be difficult to make, but is actually incredibly simple and incredibly versatile.

This recipe is for a 9" X 4" pan with a push bottom. Springforms work fine here too. The recipe can be adjusted up for a larger pan, just add on one layer at a time.

Grease your pan very lightly with a non-stick spray. I generally prefer the ones that are just vegetable oil, cocoanut oil is probably best for ice cream cake as the slight flavor wont clash with the cake.

The basic method is to line the bottom of the pan with a crumb crust (1/2 cup butter, 1 1/2 cups crushed cookie crumbs). Microwave 1 quart of ice cream on defrost for 1 minute. Spread it into the pan. Top it with whatever fillings you think would be fun, then freeze and repeat until the pan is full. If I am going to write on the cake, I frost it with regular cake icing in two layers.

Flavor combos:

Chocolate and vanilla with plain and cocoa crispies in between layers is our family birthday party standard.

Vanilla with mixed drunken berries in the layers and a ginger cookie crust; completely appropos for a swanky dinner party.

Chocolate and cocoanut layers with flaked toasted cocanut and shaved chocolate layers = icy .

Here is a link to the Martha Stewart website with recipes for some lovely and sophisticated ice cream cakes as well as some old-fashioned classics.

Birthday Cake

Its birthday party time around here again. Baby Chuck just turned six and Mr. Dumpling is an incredible 10 years old.

For the first time in six years we gave them separate parties, which was exhausting, but was a new kind of fun for them. Had to make two cakes in two weeks. Here they are:


Dirt Pile:
One recipe All Purpose Chocolate Cake and one
Vanilla cake recipe
1 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup best-quality butter (Kerrygold works well)
2 large eggs at room temp.
1 tbsp vanilla extract (use natural)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup whole milk
Cream together butter and sugar, add eggs & vanilla, beat with an electric mixer until smooth and fluffy (this is important, should ideally look like yellow whipped cream). Fold in flour and baking soda, stir in milk. Dont overmix, you want to retain the fluffiness of the original mixture. This cake turns out much better when made with a heavy duty mixer than when mixed by hand.
In a (greased and floured) 14" round baking pan or two 9" X 3" rounds, pour the vanilla cake mix to just cover the bottom. Scoop four or five large spoonfuls of the chocolate cake mix into the pan and swirl them around gently with the spoon into the vanilla (you don't want to mix too much or you will lose the marble effect). Alternate until all your batter is used up. Bake at 350 until a toothpick comes out with just a bit of crumb on it -about 40 min.
To frost we used American Chocolate Frosting in a Can per the Birthday boy's specifications. Then we covered the cake with crushed Bourbon creams and gummy worms.

Tomorrow: Ice cream cake

Sweet Tart

It's plum and apricot season in South Africa! So here in Dubai we have tons of sweet lovely yellow and bright ruby red plums, and little juicy blushing apricots. Its hard to keep them in the house long enough to make anything with them, (Baby Chuck is also known as the human compost pile...), but the other night I brought this delicious tart to my friends house for dinner. Its super easy, especially given the high quality, ubiquitous, not terribly $$ puff pastry that is in every market here, definitely the right thing for a last minute invitation.

One package of puff pastry
6 yellow, 6 red plums OR 12 apricots
package of white marzipan
butter (very soft)
demerara or other coarse sugar

Brush the bottom of a 10" glass tart pan with butter. Press the puff pastry squares into the pan to cover the bottom with an irregular 3" (or so) overhang. Slice the marzipan in about 1/8" thick pieces and use them to cover the pastry. It will melt so this doesn't have to be very precise. Slice your plums and line the dish with alternating circles of yellow and red (or you could alternate colors too...). Fold the overhang onto the plums. Brush the pastry & plums with butter and sprinkle with a generous pinch of sugar. Bake at 350 (180) for 25- 30 minutes until pastry is browned on bottom.
Serve cold with whipped cream or warm with ice cream. Almost any combination of non-citrus fruits works well with this...

Non-dairy chocolate pie, some possibilites.

This is a suspension of disbelief pie if ever there was one. My first incarnation of this thing was a standard Vegan Chocolate Peanut-Butter pie. While the texture was lovely, the peanut butter mixed in with the chocolate muddied the flavors of each too much.

My first thought was to make this into a pie version of a Peanut Butter Cup.

One package chocolate graham crackers (if you are a serious vegan, read the labels- a lot of them contain milk) crush. Melt one 1/2 stick of soy margarine. Mix together. Press into the bottom of an 8" pie pan. In a blender or food processor, combine 1 16oz block of silken tofu, 3/4 cup peanut butter, 1/2 cup sugar (taste to see if you want more sugar), and 1/4 cup soy milk. Pour into crust. Refrigerate. Heat 1/2 cup full fat coconut milk in a saucepan until nearly boiling. Remove from heat and stir in about 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips. Continue stirring until cool and thickened. Pour over top of peanut mixture in pie. Refrigerate overnight.

My second thought was to eliminate the peanut butter altogether and make it like a french silk pie.

Follow crust directions above. In a blender or food processor, combine 1 16oz block of silken tofu, 1/2 cup sesame tahini, 2 tbsp cocoa powder, 1/2 cup melted chocolate, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup soy milk. Pour into crust. Refrigerate overnight. The sesame tahini gives this pie an absolutely to-die for texture and does not compete with the chocolate so the flavor is pure saturated cocoa fabulous. I dont think this one needs the ganache, but there's no reason not to add it...

I suspect I'm going to spend the better part of the summer playing around with these kinds of tofu no-bake pies. I have this idea about raspberries, and maybe key limes...

Chocolate Loaf for your Lovah...

Valentines Song...

I wanted to make a super fudgy chocolate pound cake for my DH yesterday. I think I got pretty close... I used Nigella Lawson's recipe for Madiera cake as the basis, but substituted chocolate for the lemon and made a few other changes as well...

150g salted butter (softened)
200g sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
100g best-quality cocoa powder + 2tbsp. neutral oil
200g + 3 tablespoons self-rising flour

Pre-heat oven to 170. Butter and Flour an 8" loaf pan. Cream together butter, sugar and vanilla. Blend the cocoa with the oil in a small bowl. When the cocoa mixture is smooth, add this to the butter & sugar mixture.
Add the eggs one at a time with a tbsp. of flour, blending well after each addition (I'm not sure why this is important, except one cake I made without doing it was the consistency of a brick...).
When the eggs are added in, stir in the remainder of the flour just until well incorporated.
Fold the mixture into your pan and bake for around 35 - 50 minutes. Do NOT over cook. After 35 min, check very carefully every five minutes.
Cake is done when a toothpick comes out with just a bit of crumb on it (clean = overdone).
Its a very buttery cake so refrigerate it. Serve cool, topped with whippped cream.

Of candy sushi and rapidly aging children...

Today we had Mr. Dumpling's 9th birthday party! I cannot believe that this person who used to fit quite comfortably with his head in my hand and the rest of his body stretched out along my arm is 9. Really, where did the time go??

He loves sushi, he loves candy, so for his party we made candy sushi. Its very simple, silly, a little disgusting, and fun.

Make some Rice Krispie treats but instead of the six cups of cereal the recipe calls for, use 5. Spread the mixture out in a baking sheet, press it down well with saran wrap, and refrigerate for about 1 hour, you want them soft, but holding together.

Trim the edges of the treats so you have a flat sheet. On the edge of the sheet place 4 gummy worms (pref. of different colors) and roll the sheet over the worms squishing the cereal around them as you go. Cover the outside of your roll with fruit roll ups. Slice.

Take some Rice Krispie treats and cut them into squares about 1" X 3". Top each with a gummy frog or gummy fish. Attach the frog or fish to the rice using a stretched gummy worm or a bit of the fruit roll up.