The Daring Baker's Challenge – Candy and another French lesson
Wonderful candy recipes for chocolates, white chocolate lime, honey almond paste, honey caramel with red pepper flakes and Pate de Fruit
Cheesecake Custard Parfait with Fresh Fruit
I’ve had such good luck with the summer fruits I just couldn’t resist getting more. This time they were even better, the raspberries and cherries were great and I have never seen such large white peaches – only 5 of them weighed over 4 pounds and they were sweet and …
A quinceanera, another birthday and Peanut Butter Cup Cake and Cupcakes
Recipe using Ina Garten’s recipe for Chocolate Cupcakes and Peanut Butter Icing.
The Daring Bakers Challenge: Fraisier inspired Raspberry and Blueberry Cream Chocolate Cake
This month’s challenge was just made for me, what could be better than a strawberry cream cake? I did have one slight problem and I need to make sure I remember next time; if you want to keep the kids from eating the strawberries (that you know are their favorite) make sure you tell them they are reserved! Therefore, when it came time to finish the cake, it became a framboise/bluet-r (love my French – straight from the translator) because the fraise were history. No matter, it was still delicious.
Jana of Cherry Tea Cakes was our July Daring Bakers’ host and she challenges us to make Fresh Frasiers inspired by recipes written by Elisabeth M. Prueitt and Chad Robertson in the beautiful cookbook Tartine.
I followed her recipes here using the chocolate version of the cake. I did vary (besides the fruit) in that I made my own almond paste using honey and brown sugar. It wasn’t the most photogenic, but tasted great and was very simple.
Ingredients for Almond Paste:
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup hone
1/3 cup water
3 cups blanched, whole almonds
1/4 cup butter
In a heatproof bowl microwave sugar, honey and water to a strong boil. While the mixture is heating, pulse the almonds until coarsely ground. Pour the honey mixture over the almonds and blend until smooth which may take 10 minutes or more. If the mixture is too thick add a small amount of water.
Just before use, knead in the butter to make a smooth consistency.
After making the chocolate cake and cream filling per the recipe, I assembled the cake pretty much as directed but using the raspberries and blueberries instead of the already devoured strawberries. I also didn’t seem to have enough cream left for the top layer so instead I made a quick chocolate ganache (1/2 cream and 1/2 chocolate). Next time I would leave more space between the berries as I would have liked the cream to show through more but all in all it was still pretty and very delicious!
Maraschino Jelly makes everything better
Some things just seem too good to give up even when you get older. Maraschino cherries are one of those things. Every kid loves them, they make a soda turn into a Shirley Temple and you just can’t have ice cream sundaes without one. This recipe has been around forever …
Best meal of the summer: Fried Chicken with Poblano Mashed Potatoes and Chorizo-Thyme Gravy and Roasted Corn with Manchego & Lime
This post is a little different than usual and I don’t have any pictures of the food so I’ve substituted a few of my birthday flowers. I had dinner with a friend recently and she made the most wonderful food I just had to recommend the recipes! As we’ve pretty much established, I’m a picky eater and not too fond of anything beyond meat and potatoes and pasta so this is a real surprise. Having seen the recipe I’m sure I would have never tried it as it has some ingredients I’m not used to and it does take some time and effort, but the Fried Chicken with Poblano Mashed Potatoes and Chorizo-Thyme Gravy from Epicurious.com which she served, along with their recipe for Roasted Corn with Manchego & Lime was absolutely wonderful and I fully intend to make it myself. Everyone at the meal loved it and we all took home leftovers, which didn’t last long at our house!
Potato LeekTart
I’m sad to say this dish was just not very photogenic. It has great flavor and was a big hit with family and friends but I just couldn’t get a good picture so I had put off posting it. However, it was very tasty and I’ve been requested to put it up so here it is!
Printable Recipe for Potato Leek Tart
Ingredients:
1 pkg frozen puff pastry
4 slices of bacon chopped finely (optional)
2 large well washed and finely sliced leeks
3 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 lb peeled medium diced potatoes (I used Yukon Gold)
1 cup heavy cream
4 ounces finely grated Gruyère cheese
Procedure:
Place both sheets of pastry on a jelly roll pan pinching together the sheets in the middle to make one single layers and bake at 400 degrees for approx 5 minutes – it will not be fully done. Remove from the oven and set aside, then reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees.
Boil the potatoes in a large pot for 15-20 minutes, they should be firm but mostly cooked.
In a large skillet or dutch oven, fry the bacon pieces until crisp.
Add the sliced leeks and cook until wilted.
Add the garlic and pepper and sauté for 1 minute
Add the cream 1/4 cup at a time while stirring constantly and allow most of it to absorb before adding another 1/4 cup.
Add the potatoes and mix well.
Add 1/2 of the cheese
Pour onto the partially baked tart shell and spread evenly.
Sprinkle with the remaining grated cheese. Bake for about 30 minutes or until the filling is browned and bubbling.
The Daring Cook's Challenge: Tomato Consomme
I admit it, I took the easy way out this time. As much as I love soups and really wanted to go all out, I’m preparing to travel to California to serve 40-50 people on Sunday (family, including a group from Canada who I can’t wait to see) and then …
The Daring Cooks Challenge – handmade spätzle (with meatballs in cream sauce)
This month’s challenge was to make noodles, with a suggestion for Spätzle. A long (long) time ago I lived in Germany for several years and became very fond of them but although I’ve made lots of other types of noodles, for some reason just never tried these. I know my choice of meatballs in cream sauce really isn’t traditional with them, there was the usual time crunch and I had some ready made meatballs on hand that could be made quickly. Thanks for the great idea and I will be making these more often (and with more traditional meals – maybe schnitzel) now that I know how quick and easy they are!
Steph from Stephfood was our Daring Cooks’ July hostess. Steph challenged us to make homemade noodles without the help of a motorized pasta machine. She provided us with recipes for Spätzle and Fresh Egg Pasta as well as a few delicious sauces to pair our noodles with!
I followed the recipe given by Steph for the Spätzle but instead of the sauce she provides, I made the weekday meal version – prefab meatballs with a simple cream sauce to serve with them.
Spätzle:
Meatballs and Cream Sauce
Ingredients:
1 lb fully cooked meatballs (purchased or your favorite recipe)
1 medium onion finely chopped
2 TBS butter
2 TBS flour
1 TBS Better than Bullion (or 1 teaspoon bullion granules)
2 cups milk or half and half
Procedure:
Heat and brown the meatballs in a large skillet adding a little oil if needed, then remove and set aside. Add the onion to the skillet and brown well (add a little more oil if there is not enough fat from the meatballs).
Add the butter and stir in the flour and cook until it is lightly browned.
Stir in the Better than Boullion or bouillon granules then add the milk or half and half. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Return the meatballs to skillet and heat through, about 1 minute.
5 minute dessert – no bake chocolate cake
I absolutely love Heidi Swanson’s blog 101 Cookbooks. Her recipes are wonderful but even more, her pictures are gorgeous and inspiring. I decided to try her No Bake Chocolate Cake. This is so simple and quick and the family gave it the thumbs up. I will definitely make it again! Basically just cream and chocolate, it takes about 5 minutes to make and you can change it up depending on what flavors or spices you add. I made it plain this time and served with strawberries and maraschino cherry jelly and cherries. Don’t forget the salt, it really made a difference!
I used some mini ceramic pans and they looked really cute. I was a little apprehensive about getting the slices out, but I didn’t have any problem except one of the first slices was a little misshapen. After slicing I used a very small, thin rubber spatula to get them out. Also since the containers were small, the slices were proportionately a little larger.
