The star ingredient here is the cocoa:

We used a special cookie scooper for perfect sized cookies

The result?

Chewy chocolate cookies done right.

Thanks Dorie. Enjoy!

Without further ado, here is what Alex Smith is dining on:

Lavendar Short Bread Cookies Sandwiched with Lemon Cream Cheese

These were absolutely delicious. The shortbread cookies practically melted in your mouth and the lavender taste was pretty phenomenal. We started with a tray of these:

Filled them with a touch of Lemon Cream Cheese:

And made them into these bite-sized mini-sandwiches:

Pumpkin Financiers

Now these are deceptive little cakes. They look like pumpkin bread but they melt in your mouth. They’re french tea cakes with a brown-butter and powdered-sugar base. We started by topping off our cakes with a bit of icing:

Then touched them off with a candied pecan:

Fancy Dark Chocolate Shells with Homemade Caramel

Like I said the last time, dessert isn’t complete without the chocolates. Now I’m not a fan of caramel, but Jen’s homemade caramel in these elegant chocolate shells were pretty darn amazing.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Crunchy Peanut Butter Frosting

We thought we’d feed everyone’s inner child with these moist cakes..

And if you’re a fan of the Crunchies, you should have been there for this Crunchy Peanut Butter Frosting

Almond Pear Tart

Now what these lack in good looks, they make up for in taste. These tarts were crumbly melt-in-your-mouth perfect, and a pear-almond kick that would knock your socks off.

Petite Pumpkin Pies

We ended with a tribute to fall. We had big pumpkin pies in the fridge, but used the leftovers to make these Minis. Topped with cream cheese frosting and a curl of orange peel, and you have the perfect end to this dessert buffet, wouldn’t you say – Alex Smith?

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While I’m not thinking to pursue baking as my career, I will say that I’ve never had as much fun making desserts as I did that day. My hope is that you enjoy the following documentation as much as I enjoyed partaking in it!

We’ll Begin With A Classic:

Tell me, who doesn’t like fruit tarts? And what better time to make them than these final days of summer? We began by making endless trays of tart shells. (If you’d like to learn how, this is my first lesson on the Tutorials page)

The vanilla cream was also made from scratch. Piping came easy, although one tart did take the fall as my ugly first.

And the result? A perfect medly of summer fruits atop sweet custard and a buttery crust.

Its Hard to Top a Classic, but this Rebel will try..
Hands down, my favorite dessert that day was the fruit tart’s rebel brother – the tiny lemon meringues. Keep reading and you’ll see why. The first step was to make the meringue. We made enough Meringue to feed a village, but a light dallop is all each lemon custard tart got.

We didn’t use alcohol, but we certainly spiked the tarts.

We topped them off with blueberries and these bad boys appeared. It was teenage rebellion done right.

Flame on, One More Time

Oh, the famous Crème brûlée. Its just another type of custard, whose French name means “burnt cream”. So burn it we did. All it takes is raw sugar sprinkled on top and a butane torch from Home Depot, to get a beautiful flame like the one you see below.

Luckily for our guests, the fun didn’t just stop at one…

And the Grand Finale

Chocoholics unite! We all know that dessert isn’t the same without chocolate. So we had for our guests: truffles laced with kalua, ganache and irish cream, and dark chocolates filled with caramel, raspberry and (for the true-cocao-lover) more chocolate.

Could we have ended the evening on a more satisfactory note?

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So to my faithful readers, I’ve fulfilled my end of the bargain. You have your blog and you have your post. So its only fair for me to ask - What did you think?

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It almost tastes like pumpkin pie, only it is MUCH MUCH better.  It blends the beautiful, subtle sweet-nutty flavor of Maple Syrup with Nutmeg and Cinnamon to make a beautifully browned tart.  Those who have followed my baking adventures from the start claim that it is the best dessert I have made thus far. I’d have to agree.  This tart is EXTREMELY good.

Those of you who have had trouble with making the perfect Tart Shell will celebrate too.  This recipe makes a perfect, unshrinkable tart shell.  Its buttery and crumbly, and does not require pie weights!  Something you’d expect from a Dorie Greenspan recipe..

Without further ado, here are the RECIPES for the UNSHRINKABLE TART SHELL and the NUTMEG MAPLE TART.  If you have a holiday dinner coming up, I’d highly recommend this crowd-pleaser.  You’ll have nothing left by the end of the night : ).

Today I made these BLUEBERRY CRUMB BARS.  The RECIPE is HERE.

And these certainly lived up to their name.  They were buttery, crumbly, juicy..  how could you have less when you start out with those amazing fresh sweet juicy crisp blueberries?  I had to refrain from popping them into my mouth before they made their way onto the shortbread..

]]> http://www.toughmuffin.com/?feed=rss2&p=213 3 http://www.toughmuffin.com/?p=228 http://www.toughmuffin.com/?p=228#comments Tue, 19 Aug 2008 04:06:39 +0000 admin http://www.toughmuffin.com/?p=228 Oldarmstrong did something INGENIOUS with my site.  He set it up with my flickr account so I can put my pictures into slideshows!  This should make my posts a little more manageable.  Instead of scrolling down to see all the pictures, you can click on them individually below.  As you roll over the individual pictures you’ll see my commentary appear above them.  Enjoy : )

Apparently, there’s this rumor floating around that I’m a master chef and that one day I’ll have my big debut with a bake shop.  I hate to burst that balloon but (POKE)(SATISFYING POP) sorry folks, notRead more

YOU CAN FIND THE FULL RECIPE HERE

This was my first attempt at ice cream but the result was delicious- loved by all who tried.  Its not complicated, and a joy to make as these summer days come to an end.  Trust me, these two flavors complement each other perfectly.

Starting off, you’ll want to make sure you buy cinnamon sticks.  Powder is okay for some desserts, but not for this one

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Cook your cinnamon sticks and dark chocolate (go with a good quality chopped up bar) in milk over low heat.  Feel free to use skim, I used 1% and its still incredibly creamy.

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Combine this mixture with the egg yolk/sugar/ground cinnamon mixture you’ll heat over a double broiler for this creamy chocolate mixture.

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Chill for 30 minutes in the fridge before you add the cream.  And now the secret .  To make ice cream by hand you’ll chill the mixture in a shallow metal container for 2 hours, remove from the freezer and beat smooth with electric beaters.  Repeat this process twice more until solid.  Move this mixture into a plastic container, cover with plastic wrap (touching the ice cream so no ice crystals form) and freeze for 7-8 hours.

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And the result is as follows.  Its quite delicious with fresh blueberries

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KOROVA COOKIES
RECIPE IS HERE
adapted from Dorie Greenspan

These cookies are the creation of France’s own Pieree Herme, hailed by Vogue as “The Picasso of Pastry”.  Made with Cocao, these cookies are crumbly, not-too-sweet, and filled with pecans and chocolate chunks.  They’re the easiest cookies I’ve made, and the tastiest – with a semi-salty kick that will knock your socks off.  

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The star ingredient is of course the Cocao, mixed here with the flour.  A true bittersweet chocolate cake will use Cocao instead of pure chocolate, says the purist in me.

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The chocolate you use is tres importante!  Choose a bittersweet bar with 60% or more Cocao chopped into pieces over a bag of semi-sweet morsels.  Here, we feature 5 oz of Ghiradelli’s 60% Cocao- Dark Chocolate.

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Possibly the only picture I’ll post of myself on my site.  (Normally I bake alone so there’s no opportunity for this, plus, I’m camera adverse!).  This is me working delicately with the dough to combine the chocolate and pecans.  The less you knead your flour, the more delicate your cookie will be!  Here’s Mike rolling the dough into cookie logs to be chilled before baking.  Chill 1 hour and then cut into 1/2 inch slices!

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The result is a cookies who’s ugly appearance is compensated by a STELLAR texture and taste – its really addictive!  (RECIPE IS BELOW)

CRISPY SALTED OATMEAL COOKIES WITH WHITE CHOCOLATE
RECIPE IS HERE
by Smitten Kitchen from Cookies Illustrated

This cookie turned out a bit cripsy and flat, but the taste was still quite nice.  Its not to sweet as well, and oatmeal lovers will enjoy this little treat with white chocolate chunks.  The sea salt sprinkled on top are a PERFECT complement to the white chocolate.  Again, go for the bar chocolate and your taste buds will thank you! 

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The result is quite lovely

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A yogurt cake – how genius! Using yogurt to butter up your cake, instead of extra oil or cheese, seemed so healthy and delicious – I had to give it a try. And I’m glad I did – this loaf was a HIT. What a delicious, moist cake. You’re sure to love it !

THE RECIPE IS HERE

The star ingredient in this is the whole milk yogurt. It really contributed to the moistness of the cake, and added an extra tang to the overall flavor.

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I’ve never done this before but the idea is genius. Before folding the blueberries into the batter, Smitten suggests mixing them with some flour first. This takes off the excess water and buffers your batter from your blueberry when it explodes in baking.

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Making lemon flavored desserts can be tricky, becuase lemon can be overpowering. You usually end up with a dessert that is REALLY sour and REALLY sweet at the same time – gross. Thats why I loved that this dessert only used the lemon zest (the peel of the lemon). Zest is a perfect gentleman – subtle yet still giving the perfect fresh zing.

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I added poppy seeds to my cake because I love ‘em – and the nuttiness compliments the lemon perfectly.

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This cake bakes for 50 minutes in a loaf pan. Be sure to do your toothpick test (a toothpick stuck into the cake should come out clean) in a couple of places before you take it out.

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Now all you have to do is eat it Shouldn’t be too hard!

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Today’s Nilla Wafer Cheesecakes were adopted & inspired from Sherry Yard’s No-Bake Cheesecake Recipe. The only difference between Her Recipe and Mine is that she crumbles her Nilla wafers for crust while keep my cookies in one piece. With that said, the results were quite delicious – if you’re a child of the 80’s, you’ll have a really hard time saying no to this fancy twist on a classic dessert!

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Because this dessert involves piping the cream cheese, I’ve added a TUTORIAL on cutting piping bags.  You don’t need a pastry bag to pipe- any old zip lock will do, and I’ll teach you a trick used by pastry chefs that will keep your piping tip in place and your cheese from squeezing out of the sides.  Enjoy!

Ingredients

When the taste of your dessert depends on one main ingredient, it really pays to find the best kind.  Here, you’ll want to be picky about the cheese.  Hands-down the best creme cheese belongs to Gina Marie.  Its a cheese lives up to its name – even the least discerning of eaters will instantly know the difference.  It actually feels and tastes like a crumbly cream, and I’m warning you, it will make all of the Safeway brands taste like plastic.

(I got mine at Whole Foods)

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The star of this show is, of course, the Nilla wafers.

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Assembly

This cream will beat in less than 3 minutes, but you’ll want to chill it for 3-4 hours before you pipe it onto the cookie.  Begin piping and assemble your cheesecakes about an hour before you serve them – if you leave the cream on the cookie for too long your cookie will become soggy.  Tip:  Once you have your piping bag ready, gently squeeze the cream a few times with your hand to soften it for smooth piping.

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Pick a rounded tip for your piping. If even I can manage to make it look nice, then for sure you’ll have no problem.

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Pair this cheesecake with sweet or sour fruits – they all work well. I chose berries:

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These cookies wont hold overnight so eat ‘em the day you make ‘em!  Who can argue with that?

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