girl meets bowl

So I just realized that I’ve only ever posted about desserts—which is odd because that the smallest category of things that I make. I need to get on that. Will post about real food soon. Until then:

Mmmm. Why isn’t every cake a lava cake? Hands down, molten chocolate ganache > stripper hiding in cake. I was really worried that the cake wouldn’t rise right considering all the mods I made and the insane butter to flour ratio (not that I’m complaining). Luckily they rose just fine and came out great.

Chocolate Kahlua Lava Cake — modified from Allrecipes.com
(Technically it’s “Chocolate generic, knock-off Kahlua Lava Cake,” but that’s not catchy)

Centers:

• 6 oz of a mix between semi-sweet and dark chocolate chips*
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• Splash of Kahlua to taste (recommend several tbs atleast)**

Cakes:

• 8 oz of a mix between semi-sweet and dark chocolate chips*
• 1 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 4 large whole eggs
• 4 large egg yolks
• 1/2 tbs stevia (or 2/3 cup sugar)
• 2 tbs Kahlua**
• 1/2 cup cake flour (I used AP)

1. To make the centers, nuke the cream and chocolate, whisking every 30 seconds until melted and smooth. (Or use double broiler)
   
2. Freeze for 2 hours, or until firm enough to roll into balls. How many balls you’ll need will depend on how many cakes you make which depends on your ramekin size. I would pour the cake batter first to see how many ramekins you fill and then roll the centers accordingly.
3. Preheat the oven to 400. Grease ramekins.
   
4. To make the cakes, melt the chocolate and butter in the microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring until smooth.
5. In a large bowl, beat the whole eggs, egg yolks, stevia, and Kahlua on high speed for about a minute. Fold the melted chocolate mixture and flour into the egg mixture just until combined. Spoon the cake batter into the ramekins about 3/4 full (they don’t puff much). Place a chocolate ball in the middle of each cake.
6. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the cake is firm to the touch. Remove from the oven and let sit for 5 minutes. Run a knife around the inside of each ramekin and remove to a plate or just serve in the ramekin.
7. Serve with vanilla ice cream. (Some would suggest whipped cream but that would be a mistake. Definitely ice cream ftw.)
   

*I used half semi-sweet and half Ghirardelli chocolate chips. Change ratio to your preference.

**If you’re not a Kahlua fan or can’t find it, sub in strong coffee/instant coffee and vanilla extract.

Happy Holidays!

Hope the holidays are treating y’all well. Around here we do a seafood Christmas —don’t really know how that got started. Here’s what we had for dinner last night:

(I apologize for my horrible handwriting.)

Actually, that’s a lie—not everything on this list made it to the table. I can only multi-task so far. I remembered the alfredo about halfway through the meal. All the fixings—the shrimp, scallops, homemade alfredo sauce, and homemade spinach linguini—sat in the fridge, as lonely and forgettern as sad Keanu. There was so much other food that no one missed it, but it was a bummer.

So, what’s traditional holiday fare for you?

Eggnog with an exclamation point—it’s that good. How can something that combines dairy, egg yolks, more dairy, spices, rum, and maple syrup not be worth an exclamation point?

I made this as a holiday gift for the neighbors. Historically, around this time of year one of our neighbors would deliver fresh-baked cookies to the whole street. Any knock on the door from early to mid-December would send me into an anticipatory-pre-sugar-rush excitement over the possibility of homebaked goods. But not lately. Their daughter went off to college a few years back and they’ve been slacking in the baking department ever since. Major bummer. So, until their daughterreprioritizes and quits school to come home and bakegraduates I figured I’d pick up the mantle and make the sugar rounds. However, I’m Grinchier than they were and only deliver to the neighbors I like rather than the whole street (No eggnog for you, Mr. scowling drunkard on the cul-de-sac).

Note: I added the sweeteners and spices by feel and didn’t measure so these are estimates of what I used. Taste as you go.

• 4 cups milk
• 12 egg yolks*
• 1/4 cup real maple syrup
• 1 tbs stevia (use more syrup if you don’t have stevia)
• 4 cups cream
• 3 tsp vanilla extract**
• Rum to taste (optional)**
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1. Heat milk over lowest setting for 5 minutes in a large pot. Slowly bring to a boil then turn off and leave on the stove.
   
2. In a small bowl, whisk egg yolks, syrup, stevia, and spices. Whisk in a little of the hot milk so the yolks don’t curdle when you whisk them with the rest of the hot milk. If your milk is too hot or you whisk too slowly and your yolks curdle, just run the whole thing through the blender and then strain it.
   
3. Stir in cream, vanilla, and rum. Let chill in the fridge for a few hours or overnight before consumption. Also, the spices tend to settle to the bottom, so stir/shake before pouring.
   
4. Enjoy either cold or hot! It’s pretty rich, so you can add milk to “water” it down to individual taste when serving.
   

*I used a hefty amount of my homemade vanilla rum extract in place of these two.

**I don’t go all gloom-n-doom over salmonella (I lick the beaters, wussup?) so I don’t really worry about getting the milk to X temperature. If that’s a concern of yours, I would check with another recipe for how they handled the yolks.

What’s better than Nutella? Nothing. How about its all-natural, low-sugar, give-me-the-false-impression-I’m-being-healthy Twin?

What could possibly top that? That Twin being marked down to half-price because of cosmetic damage.

Oh yeeaah.

Last of the Thanksgiving posts, I swear. I will do some mega-awesome new stuff once these grad school apps are in (or once I miss the deadlines and fall into a depressed cooking frenzy).

I completely messed these up the first time around. I popped them under the broiler just as I called everyone to come eat dinner. I intended to sit by the oven, like an apron-clad hawk, babysitting until they were done. But noooo. My boyfriend guilts me and says he’s not sitting down to eat until I do. I figured I would sit for a minute and then check on them. (I think you can see where this story is going). Five minutes later and I’m bolting up with an “oh shit!” at the smell of burning custard.

I pulled the smoking ramekins out of the oven and let them chill out to think about what they’d done. Once the burned (blackened, not nicely caramelized) sugar topping was cool, it miraculously pulled right off, revealing a completely intact pumpkin custard underneath. I re-topped them with sugar and vigilantly watched them broil through round two, and voila, they came out perfect. I’m sure that the pro chefs would scoff at my salvage, but I think it worked out fine. Admittedly they’re not the prettiest, but they’re damn tasty—then again, this is my first time trying crème brûlée so I have no idea what it’s supposed to taste like.

(I apologize for the slightly blurry photos. I don’t have a steady hands or a tripod yet)

Pumpkin Crème Brûlée (adapted from Emeril Lagasse)

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1/2 tsp Stevia*
• 1 tsp Molasses*
• 4 teaspoons sugar (for caramelization)
• 8 large egg yolks
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg 
• 1 tbs Real Maple Syrup (optional, but not really)
• 1 1/2 cup pumpkin**

1. Preheat the oven to 325.
2. Arrange 8 (1/2-cup) ramekins or custard cups in a large metal baking pan (I used two different sizes).
3. In a medium saucepan, combine the cream, stevia and molasses. Bring to a bare simmer over medium-high heat, stirring. Remove from the heat.
4. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks until frothy and lemon-colored. Slowly add 3/4 cup of the hot cream mixture, whisking constantly. Add the egg mixture to the remaining hot cream, and whisk. Add the vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and pumpkin, and whisk until smooth. Strain through a fine mesh strainer into a large bowl (I just ran mine through a blender). Divide among the prepared custard cups.
5. Add enough hot water to come halfway up the sides of the cups. Bake until the custards are just set in the center but not stiff, 35-45min. Remove from the oven and refrigerate until well chilled, at least 3 hours or overnight.
6. Sprinkle each custard with 1/2 teaspoon of the remaining sugar. Using a kitchen torch, caramelize the sugar. (Alternately, preheat the broiler, and broil until the sugar melts and caramelizes, watching closely to avoid burning and rotating the cups, about 1 to 2 minutes.)
7. EAT

*Emeril’s recipe calls for 1/4 cup white and 1/4 cup brown sugar. But, step back and try to picture Emeril in a speedo. Unpleasant? So is sugar and its effects on your body. If you’re crazy healthy and your body can handle a sugar assault, ignore me. If you’re like the rest of us, you might want to reach for the stevia.

**You can make your own pumpkin puree by cutting a pie pumpkin in half, putting it shell side up on a baking sheet and roasting it at about 325 for an hour or so. The flesh scoops right out. If you’d rather be lazy take a shortcut, you can use canned, but I can’t vouch for the flavor.

Ooohh yeah. It’s pumpkin pie AND cheesecake. Did I mention the oreo crust?

This is the naked version. Before consumption, it was slathered with maple whipped cream.

Is there a rule against delayed posting? Like a digital expiration date? Is it cheating for me to post this if it’s from Thanksgiving? Not that it is of course…I just happened to shoot it in exactly the same as the pecan pie trifles—I’m that good.

So I planned on making the cheesecake and pumpkin layers about 50/50…but I kind of forgot that adding a cup and a half of pumpkin would actually increase volume (surprise)—that and I’m apparently pretty bad at eyeballing amounts. Fortunately, I think it still worked out.

Also I subbed in condensed milk instead of regular sugar for a more classic pumpkin pie taste/texture (what doesn’t improve when you add more dairy to it?)

Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake (modified from Allrecipes.com)

Makes 1 cheesecake (one mega awesome cheesecake).
Plan to make a few days ahead to give the flavors time to develop.

Oreo Crust

• 2 sleeves of Oreos (or generic equivalent), blended into crumbs*
• 4-6 tbs of butter, melted

1. Combine crumbs and butter and press into a 9” (I think I used my 13”) springform pan. Press a little up the sides of the pan and then wrap the bottom in tin foil—you wanna catch all that awesome caramel-ey butter that leaks through.

*I would have used 3 sleeves (the whole package) if the 3rd sleeve weren’t already in my stomach at that point…

Filling

• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 14oz can condensed milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract AND/or 2 tbs real maple syrup (I think you know what you should do)
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cup pumpkin puree*
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon**
• 1 pinch ground cloves**
• 1 pinch ground nutmeg**

1. Combine cream cheese, condensed milk, and vanilla/syrup. Beat until smooth. Blend in eggs one at a time. Remove 1 1/2 cup of batter and spread into bottom of crust; set aside.
2. Add pumpkin, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg to the remaining batter and stir gently until well blended. Carefully spread over the batter in the crust.
3. Bake in preheated 325 oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until center is almost set. Turn oven off, open door, and let the cheesecake just chill out in the oven for awhile. Once cool, refrigerate at least overnight. Even better if you wait a few days.

Maple Whipped Cream
(I would say this is optional, but it’s not)

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 - 2 tbs real maple syrup

1. Whip the cream and syrup until stiff peaks form. Slather/pipe/eat off of hands onto the whole cheesecake or to individual slices.

*I make my own pumpkin puree by cutting a pie pumpkin in half, putting it shell side up on a baking sheet and roasting at about 325 for an hour or so. The flesh scoops right out. If you’d rather be lazy take a shortcut, you can use canned, but I can’t vouch for the flavor. Also, the original recipe called for a measly 1/2 cup. What’s that? Pshh. If I’m using pumpkin, I’m gonna actually use it. If you’re not a pumpkin fan, decrease the amount (or maybe don’t make recipes with “pumpkin” in the title).

**I didn’t really measure my spices, but I usually amp up the amounts. So start with what’s listed and try the batter to see if it needs more flavor.

Hope you enjoy!