Individual Chocolate Icebox Cake

My last post was rather complicated, so I’ve toned it down quite a bit for today’s post.  The great thing, though, is that by looking at the final result you will think it’s so fancy there must be a lot of work involved.  Not so!

As such, this is a great dessert when you want to make an impression with presentation.  It must be made a day ahead of time so last-minute rushing around is not an issue.  As a reminder, you may remember that earlier this year I had a mini-rant about “chocolate wafer cookies” and how confusing that term is.  For this recipe, “chocolate wafer cookies” absolutely refers to the Nabisco brand disc cookies.

Individual Chocolate Icebox Cakes

2 c whipping cream
6 T powdered sugar
1 t vanilla extract
1 (9 oz) package Nabisco chocolate wafer cookies
grated chocolate or berries for garnish (optional)

  • With whisk attachment on electric mixer, whip cream with powdered sugar and vanilla until stiff.
  • Line baking sheet with waxed or parchment paper.  Create ten mini-cakes, starting with a wafer cookie base and alternating with a whipped cream “filling” until each cake has four cookie layers.
  • Spread remaining cream around sides and top of cake using the flat side of a knife (or, uh, your finger when necessary.)  Feel free to get creative and use a piping bag and decorating tip to create dots or blossoms.
  • Refrigerate overnight.  Do not skip this step!  The wait gives time for the cookies to absorb the moisture of the cream, and they develop a cake consistency; otherwise they are hard and impossible to eat.
  • Before serving, garnish with grated chocolate or berries, if desired.

Serves: 10
Calories: 285

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Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake

It may technically still be summer, and some days are still warm(ish), but Labor Day has passed so it’s unofficially fall.  I hope you all enjoyed your Labor Day weekend.  I spent several days trekking around Puerto Rico, sometimes laying on the beach and other times spelunking in dark caves, kayaking in the Bio Bay, and so forth.  I returned home with some minor bumps and bruises, a twisted ankle, and a nice tan.  All in all, I say that’s a successful trip!

It took me some time to start to get back into the swing of things in the kitchen.  I mean really, do you know how many times you need to do laundry to wash cave-stink out of your clothes?

 The recipe below is delicious but somewhat tedious to make simply because it involves three separate phases.  You make each layer, let it set, and then make the layer above – therefore you have to wash the bowls (or use a heck of a lot of dishes) between each layer.  If you’re willing to put up with this, the end result is well worth it, but be prepared.

 Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake
Adapted from: Sugar Duchess

for the cake:
10 oz (about 1 2/3 c) semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
4 large eggs, separated and at room temperature
1/3 c sugar, divided
¼ t salt
1 t vanilla extract
1 stick (½ c) butter, room temperature, cut into chunks

middle layer:
10 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 ½ c heavy cream, divided
1 t unflavored gelatin, softened in 1 T cool water

top layer:
7 oz (a little over 1 c chopped) white chocolate, chopped
1 ½ c heavy cream, divided
1 t unflavored gelatin, softened in 1 T cool water

for the cake:

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease the bottom of a 9- or 10-inch springform pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.
  • Chop the chocolate into small chunks and melt it in the microwave or a double boiler until about 75% melted.  Remove from heat and stir slowly until completely melted.
  • While chocolate finishes melting, with an electric mixer combine egg whites and about 1/3 of the sugar on low speed, gradually increasing speed until egg whites look fluffy.  Add remaining sugar, salt, and vanilla, beating until shiny and at soft-peak stage.
  • Using a whisk, combine butter into the warm chocolate until completely incorporated.  Whisk in egg yolks.
  • Whisk half of the meringue into the chocolate mixture.  Then, with a spatula, gently fold in remaining meringue, combining so no streaks remain.
  • Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 26-28 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
  • Cool cake on a wire rack and bring it to room temperature.  As it cools it will sink, and this is fine.  Refrigerate for an hour and then remove from the springform pan.  Level with a knife if necessary.  Invert onto a serving plate and replace the ring from the springform around the cake – it will serve as the mold for the next two layers.

for the middle layer:

  • Place chopped chocolate in a medium heat-proof bowl.
  • Bring ½ cup of heavy cream to a boil and pour it over the chopped chocolate, stirring until smooth.  If the chocolate doesn’t melt completely, heat on low in the microwave for 30 seconds.
  • While chocolate is melting, soften gelatin in a dish with cool water.  Once soft, heat on low in microwave to dissolve.  When free of lumps, stir gelatin into the melted chocolate.
  • With an electric mixer, whip the remaining cup of heavy cream to soft peaks.
  • Check the temperature of the chocolate- it should be about 80 degrees.  This will prevent the chocolate from hardening but is cool enough not to melt the whipped cream.  Add about half of the whipped cream into the chocolate, whisking to combine.  Then, as done with the cake layer, gently fold in the remaining whipped cream with a spatula until combined.
  • Pour over cooled cake, smooth top with spatula, and refrigerate to set.

for the top layer:

  • Repeat steps for the middle layer, using white chocolate.
  • Pour white mousse over chocolate mousse and return to refrigerate to set for 4-5 hours.
  • To serve, remove ring.  Optionally, garnish with chocolate shavings (I did this but forgot it in the photos).  Slice with a warm, wet knife, cleaning it between slices.
  • This is a very rich cake – small slices are all that you need!

Serves: 20
Calories: if you care, don’t make it

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Blueberry Mascarpone Trifles

Before I get to my recipe, I must tell you that today I had an amazing cupcake.  This cupcake was from Butter Lane, here in NYC.  I had a Cinnamon Honey Buttercream on a vanilla cupcake.  It was definitely top-notch.  Some day I’ll try to recreate this icing but I think I should just go back and stock up from time to time.  Really amazing (especially compared to some others that I mentioned here) – moist, flavorful, sweet but not sickeningly so.  Just perfect.

Now that I got that recommendation out of they way, on to my own kitchen concoctions.

I do realize that it wasn’t too long ago that I posted another trifle recipe (Raspberry Balsamic Parfaits), but I have another one for you today.  Truth be told, I had the leftover mascarpone in my fridge and had a bit of a problem when I returned home one afternoon to find the refrigerator door had opened in my absence.  I needed to use certain items more or less immediately and the mascarpone was one such item.  Fortunately, I had been intending to make this trifle anyway, just not so soon.

Speaking of mascarpone, I didn’t realize until, like, a year ago, that it’s not MARscapone.   Marscapone is way easier to say that mascarpone, don’t you think?

One amazing thing about this recipe is the blueberry sauce.  Basically I believe that even if you are not going to make this trifle, you should make the blueberry sauce and have it on hand for just about everything – topping on ice cream, instead of syrup on waffles, stir into yogurt.  Eat spoonfuls of it straight out of the jar.  It’s really delicious.  Perhaps my blueberry batch was just extraordinary, but I thought it was incredible.

Also, for the recipe below I used Sara Lee frozen pound cake.   You may consider that cheating, but I think it’s just about the best pound cake I’ve had and therefore I don’t care.  If you have a pound cake recipe that you love and you feel so inclined to make it, go for it.

It is with a bit of sadness that I realize we will soon be saying goodbye to all of the delicious berry desserts that I have been enjoying this summer.  I can never get enough strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries.  (Was it just me or were peaches awful this year?)  Personally I’m in a bit of denial about summer ending, so bear with me over the next few weeks if I try to eek out a few more summer-y recipes. But, fall will be here before we know it and when that time comes you can count on me for some apple, pear, and cranberry inspired recipes to usher in the season.

Until then, I will continue to indulge in the fruits of summer!

Blueberry Mascarpone Trifles
Adapted from: My Baking Addiction

¼ c sugar
zest of one medium lemon
8 oz Mascarpone cheese
¾ c heavy cream
1 t vanilla extract
4 slices of pound cake, each cut into 8 small cubes
1 c Homemade Blueberry Sauce (see below)

  • In a small bowl, combine sugar and lemon zest with clean fingertips until the sugar becomes moist and fragrant.
  • In a medium bowl, combine the Mascarpone, heavy cream, vanilla, and sugar/lemon zest mixture. Beat with an electric mixer until medium-firm peaks form.
  • Spoon or pipe a layer of Mascarpone whip into the bottom of each glass or small dish. Next, add a layer of pound cake (4 cubes) followed by a layer of blueberry sauce. Repeat layering.
  • Trifles can be refrigerated up to three hours before serving.

Homemade Blueberry Sauce

2 c fresh (or frozen) blueberries
½ c water
½ c sugar

2 T fresh lemon juice
2 T cornstarch, mixed with 2 T cold water
½ t vanilla extract
Zest of 1 lemon (about 1 T)

  • In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the blueberries, water, sugar and lemon juice. Stir frequently and bring to a low boil.
  • In a small bowl, mix the cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of cold water.
  • Slowly stir the cornstarch into the blueberries, taking care not to crush the blueberries. Simmer until the blueberry sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon, about 3-5 minutes.

Serves: 4 small trifles

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Frozen Chocolate PB Banana

This is barely a recipe.  But, in lieu of something more complicated at the moment I wanted to share with you a “good idea” that I found on Pinterest before summer completely passes us by.

I’m not the biggest fan of chocolate covered bananas.  If you offered me one, there would be a 50/50 chance that I’d accept.  However, I saw several items on Pinterest that added Peanut Butter to the equation, and for me that made all the difference.

Just take a banana, slice it into chunks about 1″ thick, spread a dollop of peanut butter on top, dip in melted chocolate with a toothpick or fork, place on a baking sheet or plate lined with waxed paper, and freeze completely (a few hours).  Store in airtight containers or Ziploc bags and pop one in your mouth whenever you’re hungry.

For those unaccustomed to melting chocolate, the most basic approach is to take about 1/2 cup chocoate chips and a few tablespoons of milk and gradually heat in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds or so, until smooth.

2 pieces are 115 calories, so you don’t have to feel too bad.

Note: if you prefer an almond butter or anything “fancy,” go for it!

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Blackberry Lime Fool

It’s a blackberry, fool!  Or, perhaps I should say, “It’s a Blackberry Fool!”  Blackberries were on sale at the farmers market so I found a new recipe to try.

Have you ever heard of a fool?  No I don’t mean that as an insult.  A fool is almost like a mousse in Britain. Fools are traditionally prepared with puréed fruit mixed with whipped cream, or egg custard, or a combination of the two. The term fool comes from the French fouler, meaning “to crush.”

Fools are extremely easy to make.  The one below is primarily blackberries, a little sugar, and heavy cream.  Extra flavorings (lime, salt) are thrown in but as you can see this is really simple.  On top of that, you don’t have to turn your oven or stove on so it’s particularly well suited for summertime!

As you can imagine, the blackberries could be substituted for any other berry or stone fruit that is easily mashed.

Blackberry Lime Fool
Adapted from: Completely Delicious

1 ½ c blackberries
1/3 c sugar
Zest of one lime
1 t lime juice
Pinch of salt
¾ c heavy whipping cream

  • Combine 1 cup of the blackberries with the sugar in a bowl. Using a fork, smash the berries until they are jam-like and mostly pureed.
  • Add the remaining 1/2 cup blackberries.  If they are really large, chop them up a little bit to suit your taste.
  • Stir in the lime zest, lime juice, and salt. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
  • In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whip the cream on medium high speed to create firm peaks. Fold into the chilled blackberry mixture with a rubber spatula until just incorporated.
  • Spoon into serving glasses and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Garnish with additional blackberries and slices of lime, if desired.
  • Do not make these too much ahead of time.  My leftovers were kept over night in the refrigerator and the fruit juice started to separate just slightly.  This didn’t affect the flavor and I was able to mix it back in.  However, I would keep the make-ahead time to a few hours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Serves: 4
Calories: 245

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Rhubarb Apple Pie

I love rhubarb.  But there are two problems with it: first, it’s next to impossible to find. Second, for some reason more than half of the recipes I attempt aren’t “all that”.  I think I baked 4 different rhubarb recipes this year and this is the only one that deserves a blog post.

This comes as no surprise, because not only am I crazy for rhubarb, but I love pie in general and specifically I love apple pie.  In other words, this pie is pretty much a triple threat.  Until now I had only eaten Strawberry Rhubarb pie.  When I first tried this pie I did think, “it’s good but no Strawberry Rhubarb.”  However, I have to admit that on day 2, when the flavors had continued to combine, it was a definite winner.  Even more exciting, I may have finally found my crust of choice.  Crust for me is an ongoing challenge.  While this week wasn’t ideal for crust-making due to the heat, I did pull it off. (Thanks, Alton Brown!)

In the coming days I will be taking a short road trip to Vermont.  While there, my main dessert of choice will, stereotypically, be Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.

Rhubarb Apple Pie
source: Cooking Light

Use a pie crust of your choice.  I finally settled on Alton Brown’s crust, but use whatever you feel comfortable with.  (Or use a pre-made frozen crust, but shhhh don’t tell.)  This is a single-crust pie.

3 ½ c sliced fresh rhubarb (approx. 1 ¼ lb)
1 c sugar
1 T lemon juice
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
½ t ground cinnamon
3/8 t salt, divided
1 c all-purpose flour, divided
½ c packed brown sugar
6 T cold butter, cut into small pieces
1/3 c chopped walnuts (optional)

  • Prepare crust from your favorite recipe.  Roll into a 12-inch circle to fit a 9-inch pie plate.  Fit into pie plate with attractive edges and refrigerate uncooked crust while preparing filling.
  • Preheat oven to 425.
  • Combine rhubarb, sugar, lemon juice, and apples.  Toss and sprinkle with cinnamon, ¼ t salt, a 3 T flour. (If you like a thicker/less juicy pie, add a little bit more flour.)  Spoon into prepared, uncooked crust.
  • Combine remaining flour, remaining salt, and brown sugar.  Cut butter into flour mixture with a pastry blender or two knives until mixture resembles coarse meal.  Stir in walnuts (optional).
  • Sprinkle crumb mixture evenly over rhubarb.
  • Bake at 425 for 15 minutes.
  • Reduce oven temperature to 375 and bake for 30 more minutes or until pie is bubbly and crust is golden.
  • Let cool for 15 minutes before serving.  Refrigerate as necessary to help pie to thicken and set – this was key for me.

Serves: 12
Calories: 296

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Raspberry Balsamic Parfaits

This recipe is a bit different than what I normally post.  Not quite as sweet and with an unexpected twist of flavors – but it grabbed my attention for that very reason.  I love raspberries and I love balsalmic vinegar.  I never tasted them together before, although once I read the recipe it struck me as obvious since I already have both blueberry balsalmic vinegar and strawberry balsalmic vinegar in my kitchen.

I recommend assembling this just before eating in order to have the best temperature and presentation.  It starts to weigh down if you you wait too long. 

Enjoy!

Raspberry Balsamic Parfait
Source: Giada De Laurentiis

cooking spray
2 c fresh raspberries (8 oz)
3 T balsamic vinegar
1/3 c turbinado sugar (such as Sugar in the Raw)
1 c mascarpone, room temperature (8 oz)
1/4 c light sour cream, room temperature
3 T honey

  • Line a small baking sheet with parchment or wax paper, spray with cooking spray and set aside.
  • In a small bowl, gently toss raspberries with the balsamic vinegar. Let stand for 15 minutes.
  • Heat a small skillet or saucepan over medium heat.  Add the sugar and cook, stirring occasionally, until the sugar melts, about 5 minutes.
  • Pour the melted sugar onto the prepared parchment/waxed paper and allow to cool to room temperature.  Once cool enough to handle, crumble into small pieces.
  • In another small bowl, combine mascarpone, sour cream, and honey, stirring to combine well.
  • To assemble, spoon alternating layers of raspberries and mascarpone mixture into a bowl or glass, ending with mascarpone and garnishing with sugar pieces.

Serves: 4
Calories: 380

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Nectarine & Cream Tart with Roasted Almond Crust

The heat wave has broken (for now).  We were slammed with a thunderstorm yesterday and temperatures have dropped to the low-mid 80s.  Life is suddenly so comfortable!  I might even turn off my air conditioner and turn on my oven this weekend!

I had been avoiding any heat-intensive recipes for the past few weeks.  I made a lot of popsicles.  (Incidentally, my cat LOVES popsicles.  He doesn’t like most human food, fortunately, but popsicles are the exception!)  But, I did prepare a tart that involves a minimal amount of oven time.  It was really delicious, and can be modified according to your taste.  The original recipe called for peaches, but because I have already posted a few peach-centric recipes and I am extremely frustrated with my local supermarket selling mealy peaches, I opted for nectarines.  I think that you could use any berry as well.

The best thing about this recipe is that the crust is more of a cheesecake type cookie crust rather than a dough crust.  To me it is way too difficult to make a pie crust when the apartment is approaching 90 degrees!

Nectarine & Cream Tart with Roasted Almond Crust
adapted from: Food & Wine Magazine

2 c vanilla wafer cookies (Nilla Wafers)
½ c roasted almonds
6 T sugar, divided
4 T unsalted butter, melted
8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
¼ c sour cream
1 large egg
2 nectarines (or whatever you prefer instead)

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  • In a food processor, combine Nilla Wafers, almonds, and 2 T of sugar.  Process until fine.  Add melted butter and process until evenly moistened.  Press crumbs into the bottom and about 1 inch up the sides of a tart pan (you can use a pie pan or springform pan as well).
  • Bake for 10 minutes. 
  • Meanwhile, in a mixer blend cream cheese, sour cream, egg and 2 T sugar.  Combine until smooth, and then pour mixture into crust.  Bake for 15 minutes.
  • Let tart cool slightly and then transfer to refrigerator to cool completely.
  • In a bowl, toss nectarines (unpeeled) with the remaining 2 T sugar.  Arrange as you wish over the cream layer.  Cut into wedges and serve.

Serves: 8
Calories: 300

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Sweet Peach Crumb Bars

Peaches, Peaches Everywhere!

There have been a lot of peaches at my local supermarket and farmer’s market lately, so I made another sweet treat with them.  These crumb bars were very refreshing, and I suspect you could replace the peaches with other stone fruits of your choice!

Sweet Peach Crumb Bars
Source:  Brown Eyed Baker

For the Crumble:
3 c all-purpose flour
1 c granulated sugar
1 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1/4 t ground cinnamon
1 c (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold
1 large egg, lightly beaten

For the Peach Filling:
5 c diced peaches (about 7 peaches, peeled)
2 T lemon juice
½ c all-purpose flour
1 c granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
½ t ground cinnamon
¼ t ground nutmeg

  • Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9 x 13″ baking pan. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper, letting it extend up the two short sides of the pan and overhang slightly on both ends. This will make it easy to remove the bars from the pan after they have baked.  Butter the parchment.
  • To make the crumble: Using a pastry cutter or two knives, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and the butter, cutting until the butter pieces are no larger than small peas and the mixture resembles cornmeal. Add egg and mix in with a wooden spoon. Pat half of dough into the prepared pan. Place the pan and the remainder of the dough in the refrigerator while you prepare the filling.
  • For the Peach Filling: In medium bowl, gently toss diced peaches and lemon juice together; set aside.
  • In a separate small bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Pour over the peaches and mix gently.
  • Spread the peach mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble the remaining dough over the peach layer.
  • Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until top is slightly brown. Cool completely on wire rack, then transfer to the refrigerator to chill before cutting into squares.
  • Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Yields: 24 bars
Calories: 214

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Fireworks Sugar Cookies

It’s July!  Independence Day is just around the corner.

For those of you in the Mid Atlantic, I hope you survived the heat and regained your electricity by now.  In the NY/NJ area we had temperatures in the mid 90s, but nothing like or neighbors a bit to the South.  I spent plenty of time at the beach and in the pool, and both were quite refreshing.

This week I am providing you with a pretty decorating technique rather than a recipe.  I decided to make sugar cookies with royal icing decorated as fireworks.  (Or, as my coworker cluelessly exclaimed “SPIDER MAN COOKIES!!!!”  I’m not even kidding.)

I provide the recipe below, but as you will see I used a basic sugar cookie.  If you already have a favorite sugar cookie recipe or prefer chocolate cookies, you can certainly use whatever you wish. 

I learned two lessons while making these cookies:

  1. A double yolked egg counts as one egg.  That’s right I had a supermarket egg that was “twins”!  Apparently this is not all that uncommon if you purchase your eggs at the farmer’s market, but for supermarket eggs they’re usually discovered and removed before hitting the shelves.  Not so for me!
  2. Making rolled cookies in a hot hot house is very hard.  The dough gets too soft almost immediately, requiring a lot of re-chilling time. 

The icing technique is pretty simple.  You may have to use trial and error to get the correct icing consistency.  For me, the recipe below was just perfect.  But, if you need it thicker add powdered sugar, if you need it thinner add a tiny bit of water.  The steps are as follows:

  • Once your cookies have cooled, pipe a line around the edge of the cookies.  This will serve as a “wall” for the next step.  It is best to use either a pastry bag or a squeeze bottle.
  • Wait a few minutes for the border to dry.  Then, “flood” the interior with white icing.  You can fill the space completely by tipping the cookie or by using an instrument such as the back of a spoon or a toothpick to push the icing into place.  In order to do this step, you may need to make the icing a bit more runny.
  • Immediately draw a red and blue bullseye over the white icing.  All three colors (red, white, and blue) should be wet – if the icing dries this won’t work.  If the icing is too wet the colors will bleed, so don’t over-do it with the water.

  • Next, take a toothpick and drag the icing from the center to the edge.  This will create a fireworks (or, as some think, spiderweb) effect.  Play around with it, you may come up with your own patterns that are really interesting!

 

  • If you want to add sugar or sprinkles, now is the easiest time to do it. 
  • Allow the icing to dry completely. 

 As you can imagine, this technique is limitless.  In my opinion the fireworks pattern is one of the more simple applications and a great way to get your feet wet with marbling icing.  Try it, it’s fun!

Sugar Cookies
source: Mom

1 c sugar
1 c butter, room temperature
3 T milk
1 t vanilla extract
1 egg
3 c all-purpose flour
1 ½ t baking powder
½ t salt

  • Beat together sugar, butter, milk, vanilla, and egg. 
  • Stir in remaining ingredients until well blended.
  • Chill for 1 hour.
  • Taking 1/3 of the dough, roll onto a well-floured surface to approx. ¼  inch thick.  Cut with cookie cutters.  Keep the rest of the dough in the refrigerator in the meantime.  Repeat in thirds with the rest of the dough.  Any dough that is not being immediately used should be refrigerated.
  • Bake at 400 degrees for 5-8 minutes.
  • Cool and decorate.

Royal Icing
Source: the Joy of Baking

2 large egg whites
2 t vanilla
3 c powdered sugar, sifted

  • Mix all ingredients until well blended.  Divide and color with gel food coloring as desired.
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