Some assembly required

I've decided that I like this whole wrap-around vacation thing that I did this time.  I was off starting on the 4th, and went back to work yesterday.  It was long enough for a good rest, and I got to have two short work weeks!  I can definitely see myself doing this again, especially since we don't usually go anywhere when I'm off--I'm just making sure that I use my vacation time so I don't lose it.  

It's amazing how getting somewhat caught up on sleep can improve your whole outlook on life.  As I mentioned in my last post, I was totally stressed out by everything that was going on in my life.  I was having a great Twitter conversation with my friends Rebecca & Abby on Tuesday (before I went back to work) about the fact that I was mostly in need of an attitude adjustment.  Work is what it is, and I need to pay the bills.  Heck, I actually mostly like what I do, and I'm darn good at it.  But I need to learn to leave work at work.  I don't mean that I actually bring stuff home, since my job isn't the sort where I can really do that.  I mean that I need to do a better job of shifting gears mentally so that I don't bring the stress home with me.  Easier said than done, I'm sure, but I have to start somewhere.  

One of the things that I've been doing this summer is participating in an online course that focuses on bringing more play, rest and kindness into our lives on a daily basis.  I realized that my worrying about work so much was interfering with my rest for sure, and meant that I was seldom in the mood for any play.  And I need to be kinder to myself.  One of the messages from earlier this week was, "You are enough. (it's true)"  Too often, I feel like I'm not at all close to being enough.  But if I keep telling myself that I am, maybe I'll start to believe it.

So what does the dessert pictured here have to do with all this?  Well, it was part of my attempt to "play" more.  I bake for a couple of reasons.  For one, I really enjoy making things for others--I like seeing them happy, and enjoy the compliments I receive, too. =)  But I also bake because I like to "play around," as Dorie Greenspan says.  I like to see what will happen if I change things up a bit with a recipe, or take components from different places and put them together in new ways.  

I have to admit, the mini parfait idea was inspired by a show on (I think) Cooking Channel.  They profiled a bakery called Vanilla Bakeshop that does these in a variety of flavors.  My first thought was that it was a cool idea.  My second was, "I can do that!"  I treated myself to a visit to Crate & Barrel while I was on vacation, and among other things, I came home with several 3-oz shot glasses.  So then I just had to figure out what to put in them.  I could have used crumbled cookies or bits of cake, but then I remembered these Cocoa Crumbs that Dorie posted about recently.  Naturally, I had to experiment--I did two half-batches, one with Valrhona dutch-processed cocoa, and one with Scharffen Berger natural cocoa.  For the pudding-y part, I turned to Dorie again, this time pulling out my copy of Baking, which has a recipe for creamy chocolate pastry cream in the back of the book.  I whipped up some cream, and started layering.  (A pastry bag & piping tip make it much easier to get the pastry cream and whipped cream neatly into the tall, skinny containers.)  At the last minute, I also drizzled in some raspberry sauce, since I love the combination of raspberry with chocolate.  

The verdict?  Mmm, we really enjoyed these delightful desserts.  The small size is just enough to get a good taste of everything without feeling like you're overindulging.  The crumbs made with the Dutch-processed cocoa are very reminiscent of Oreos, which isn't a bad thing, but I really enjoyed the ones with natural cocoa, too.  They had a more interesting character.  I hope you'll experiment for yourself to see which you like better.  I'll be making more of these soon--I can't wait to try different flavor combinations.  

Shake it up, baby

I have a few favorite comic strips on the side of my refrigerator.  Most have to do with food.  One is from Baby Blues (a hilarious strip for anyone with kids).  Darryl and Wanda are sitting across the kitchen table from each other, with a recipe box in between them.  

Wanda: What should we have for dinner tonight?

Darryl: Let's see...We had hamburger Monday night...We had chicken last night...

(pause)

Darryl: Unless I'm mistaken it's hamburger's turn again.

Wanda: Is it just me, or does it seem like we're in a food rut?

Raise your hand if you know the feeling... =)

I've been feeling like I'm in a rut lately.  About just about everything.  I need something to shake me out of it, but I'm still trying to figure out what.  Food seems like a good place to start, since I spend so much of my time focused on it.  I don't blog about savory food, but I cook a lot.  It seems like lately we've been eating the same things over and over.  Some of that is because I'm trying to come up with quick things so I can get the girls to bed (and that's another post).  Some is just because I don't know where to start looking for new ideas.  Any suggestions for new things to try?

I don't have as much trouble with baking, especially since being a part of blogging groups forces me to try new things.  But I've been having a hard time finding the motivation to make stuff lately--even Tuesdays with Dorie hasn't been inspiring me as much.  Thank goodness for my friends on Twitter.  I'm more likely to want to make something when others are making it at the same time.  That's what several of us did on Sunday morning for Christine's pick of Chocolate Pots de Creme. 

Making custardy things can be a little scary, but in this case, the oven does most of the work for you.  For this chocolate version of pots de creme, you start off by making ganache with the chocolate and some of the cream.  I used a mix of El Rey 58% and 70% (what I had on hand).  I didn't have whole milk, so I used a bit more cream in place of a bit of the milk.  I also cheated and heated my milk/cream mixture in the microwave.  While it was heating, I whisked the yolks and whole egg together, then gradually whisked in the sugar and a very generous pinch of salt.  The milk was then gradually whisked into the egg mixture and then the whole thing was stirred into the ganache.

The recipe calls for eight 4-ounce ramekins.  I only have four, so I used those and four 6-ounce ones.  I'm glad I did, since my custard mixture filled them nicely.  I didn't want to get out my big roasting pan, but I couldn't get the cups to fit into my 13"x9" pan, so I had to use it.  And then I had to heat more water for the water bath, because the roasting pan is so darn big. =)  But finally I got it done, including covering the whole thing with foil, and got everything into the oven.  I checked at 30 minutes, and the custards were nicely set, with some jiggle left in the middle.  After a 10-minute rest in the pan on the stovetop, the custards were a little more firm.  Perfect.  I took the cups out of the water bath, let them cool to room temperature, then put them in the fridge.

The verdict?  Mmm.  The pots de creme were really good.  They have a lovely smooth texture.  After tasting the custard before baking, I wasn't how chocolatey it would be.  But after baking, the chocolate flavor was more intense, and it wasn't too sweet.  The pots de creme were a big hit with Brianna and Gillian, who love anything resembling chocolate pudding.  Of course, Jamie and I were happy to eat our share.  I'm not sure that this recipe will supplant my favorite (a non-baked version from Cook's Illustrated), but I'm really glad I tried it.

If you'd like to try these for yourself, Christine will have it on her blog.  Or you can just get a copy of the book for yourself. =)  To see what everyone else thought of this recipe, check out this week's Links.

Two more quick things...  In another effort to shake myself out of my rut, I decided to play around with my blog's design.  I pretty much hadn't touched it since I first set it up over three years ago.  What you do you think?  And you just never know when something unexpected will inspire you.  When I was going to take pictures of my pots de creme, Jamie was sitting at the kitchen table, in my usual photography spot.  Rather than disturb him, I looked around the house for another place to take pictures.  I ended up in the front room of the house, in my girls' play kitchen area.  Their little table is up against a window, and the light was great.  I'm really happy with how the pictures turned out.  So it never hurts to try something new.

Comfort me with cocoa

So much has been going on, I don't even know where to start.  (And much of it has been very frustrating, and I don't want to depress everyone.)  Life has been crazy, and busy--I didn't bake anything at all for a week and a half!  I just couldn't find the time or energy.  With all this craziness, I was craving something comforting.  And chocolate. =)  So last night I finally made brownies (these, my favorite) and took them to work today to share.  But for home, I went with hot chocolate.  I did share the hot chocolate as well, but just with Jamie, since I made it an adult version by adding a bit of dark rum.

I don't use an exact recipe, it's just something that I've developed over time, similar to what I posted here.  (One thing I changed is that I melted the chocolate in a bit of boiling water first, before adding the rest of the ingredients.)  Since the hot chocolate isn't overly rich, I like to top it with some whipped cream.  This time I also added a drizzle of some yummy cocoa syrup that I made.  Mmm, dessert in a mug.

Hot chocolate definitely hits the spot on a day like today, when it's obviously winter, even here in Central Texas.  Or like last week, when the temperature wasn't above freezing from Tuesday morning until Friday afternoon.  On Friday morning, we even had this:

..which my Texan children thought was a lot of snow.  =)  Can you believe that we had a snow day for that? Of course, there was ice under the snow.  Plus way too many people around here who have no idea how to drive on snowy/icy roads.  Actually, I had to work, but we opened late.  UT was closed, so J got to stay home with the girls.  By Sunday it was 70º again, which it had been the previous weekend as well.  Gotta love Texas weather. 

Speaking of Sunday, we spent part of it doing this: 

Sadly, the game didn't have the outcome we would have liked.  Maybe we should drown our sorrows in some more hot chocolate. =)  

So, which do you prefer, hot chocolate or hot cocoa?  It's definitely hot chocolate around here.  But the syrup was made with cocoa, and I really like the way it turned out.  It's really easy to make, too--boiling water, cocoa powder, sugar, a pinch of salt and a bit of vanilla.  Since the cocoa powder is the star, I broke out my stash of Scharffen Berger cocoa.  The syrup has a pretty intense flavor without being overly sweet, unlike the chocolate syrup we usually buy.  It makes great chocolate milk, too.  If you'd like to try it for yourself, check out the latest issue of Bon Appetit.  There are a bunch of great recipes from Alice Medrich.  I like that she usually uses natural cocoa powder, since that's my preference as well.  You can find the recipe for the cocoa syrup in this recipe for Stout Floats.  Enjoy!

From brownies to biscuits

No, your eyes do not deceive you--that is not a picture of White Chocolate Brownies.  I haven't been having much luck with Tuesdays with Dorie recipe selections for the past few weeks.  A couple weeks ago was Apple-Apple Bread Pudding.  I'm not a big fan of custardy things, and didn't get a chance to try it anyway, with all the illness around here.  Last week I skipped the Banana Coconut Ice Cream Pie.  Coconut is evil and is generally banned from entering this house, and I'm not that excited about banana desserts, either.  So going into this week, I knew I should really participate so I wouldn't miss three weeks in a row.  But I wasn't exactly thrilled about the latest recipe, either, since I don't really like white chocolate.  That's too bad, because I've recently gotten to know this week's host, Marthe of Culinary Delights, via Twitter, and I wanted to make the recipe because of that.  So I decided to try to overcome my dislike of white chocolate and try them anyway.

Sadly, that try wasn't very successful.  Now, I admit, I did play around with the recipe just a bit.  I had white chocolate, but after tasting it, I realized that it had been in my pantry way too long.  So I tossed it, and tried milk chocolate instead (similar sweetness, I figured).  I skipped the meringue topping.  And I tried making individual brownies in my muffin tin, to avoid the problem that many people reported of their brownies being under-done in the middle.  The taste wasn't that bad, but the texture was very unappealing.  Soggy from the raspberries, and as my friend Nancy put it, rather spongy.  Not good.  And not even photogenic:

So what to do?  Well, I decided to do a rewind as well.  One of the recipes that I missed recently was the Sweet Cream Biscuits that were picked by Melissa of Love at First Bite back in April.  Hard to believe I missed them, since the recipe is a quick one to make.  But we had a chance to try them for breakfast on Monday morning.

Only five ingredients--flour, baking powder, a bit of sugar and salt and a bunch of heavy cream--go into these biscuits.  That means they only dirty one bowl, which is always nice.  You whisk together the dry ingredients, then add the cream and mix it with a fork.  The dough gets lightly kneaded to bring it together, then rolled out to a thickness of about half an inch.  I used a cutter that was just a bit over two inches in diameter, and got 16 biscuits (11 or 12 on the first pass, and the rest after rerolling the scraps).  I put the biscuits close together on a parchment-lined baking sheet and baked them at 425F for about 15 minutes, I think.  By the time they were done, I was tired of hearing from the girls about how they were starving, so we didn't really let them cool at all before digging in. =)

The verdict?  Well, Brianna and Gillian each ate three, so I guess they liked them. =)  (They really weren't very big, so that isn't as impressive as it sounds.)  It gave them a chance to sample the various jams in the fridge, too.  No one wanted the cherry (I must have bought that for Jamie), but blueberry, blackberry and raspberry all made it to the table.  Even just with butter (the way I ate one of mine), these were very good.  I definitely think they'll make future appearances around here, especially since they're so easy to make.

If you'd like to give the brownie recipe a try, head on over to Marthe's blog.  Hopefully you'll have better luck than I did.  You can see what the other TWD bakers did with this recipe on this week's Leave Your Links post.  And be sure to check out Clara's blog--she's been waiting a very long time for this day to come. =)  For the biscuits, Melissa has the recipe on her TWD post.

There's always room for Blanc-Manger

I'm not entirely sure why, but I've been rather apathetic about baking and blogging lately. I still haven't managed to make last week's TWD recipe. And it's not because I didn't want to. I just seem overwhelmed with other stuff right now. And yet I feel like I'm not getting anything done at all. I think the heat isn't helping. It's been miserably hot, with way too many 100+ days so far this year. Yes, we spend a lot of our time in air-conditioned places, including our house, but it's still draining when we are outside. Everyone has been in a bad mood at least some of the time. Case in point--I just had to stop writing to go break up a dispute between Brianna and Gillian over who would get to sit in a particular chair in the living room. Both of them have been getting way too upset over little things, and I'm really not doing any better. *sigh*

So thank goodness this week's Tuesday with Dorie recipe was easy to make. Susan of Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy picked Raspberry Blanc-Manger for us this week. I've actually heard of Blanc-Manger before, in something or other that I've read, but I had no idea what it was. Turns out that it's a creamy gelatin dessert with fruit in it. We ate jello quite a bit for dessert when I was a kid. It was traditional on Christmas Eve. My mom had a mold that had options for different shapes, and one was a Christmas tree. She would use green or red jello mix and ice cream to make a creamy dessert. But once I left home for college, I seldom ate jello.

When I read the recipe for this week, I wasn't sure if I wanted to make it or not. But I didn't want to miss another week. And I was assured by several people on Twitter that it was an easy recipe. So I decided to make half the recipe. I didn't have raspberries (none looked good at the store), but I did have some strawberries, and I figured that would be a safe substitution. I even remember to buy some new unflavored gelatin. I had some, but had no idea how old it was. I don't know that it really goes bad (hard to tell, since it always smells pretty nasty), but I figured it couldn't hurt to replace it, since I was sure it was more than a few years old.

I learned at least one thing this week. It's not necessarily a good idea to try to multitask when making desserts involving gelatin. In the recipe, you're supposed to whip the cream first, then store it in the fridge while working on the gelatin mixture. I didn't have much time, since I was trying to get the blanc manger made before I left for work on Monday morning. I knew that the gelatin mixture would need to cool for a bit, so I figured I could whip the cream while I was waiting. Good idea in theory... Of course, it took longer than I thought it would to whip the cream. And even though I checked on the gelatin a couple times, it still suddenly started to firm up before I was ready. Fortunately, I caught it before it got too set, and I was able to whisk it smooth. I then whisked in about a third of the whipped cream to loosen the mixture a bit. Then I folded in the rest of the whipped cream and the strawberries. I quickly poured it into my 6" pan, covered the pan with plastic wrap, and popped it in the fridge to set while I was at work.

I had no problem unmolding the blanc-manger. I put the bottom of the pan in a bowl of hot water for less than a minute, then flipped it over onto a plate. Perfect. Brianna and Gillian were eagerly waiting to try it, so no garnishing or anything.

The verdict? I was kind of surprised that Brianna and Gillian both liked it a lot. Gillian asked me several times if she could have more "jello." Jamie's comment on it was "weird." I kind of have to agree. I wasn't thrilled with the texture from the almonds. The strawberry and cream combination was quite tasty though. I realized after I tasted mine that I had forgotten to add the vanilla. I used vanilla sugar, though, so there was a little bit of vanilla flavor.

I'd like to give this one another try, but do something about the almonds. Maybe strain them out after steeping them in the milk/sugar mixture. Or try processing them with the sugar beforehand to get a finer texture. I'd also like to try Dorie's suggestion of putting the blanc-manger on a base of cake. All in all, not my favorite, but worth trying again. If nothing else, making this reminded me that that there are lots of things I can do with gelatin that are very different from Jello, since I control what ingredients I use. And Brianna and Gillian were so excited when I told them I had made something like Jello, so I'm going to have to experiment.

Thanks to Susan for a great pick this week. It's definitely something I wouldn't have tried on my own, and it's a great summer recipe. Be sure to head over to her blog for the full recipe. And check out the Tuesdays with Dorie page to see what everyone else did this week.

Surprise! No berries here

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was chosen by Mary Ann of Meet Me in the Kitchen.  She chose Berry Surprise Cake for us to make.  You're supposed to bake the cake (a thick layer of genoise), slice off the top, hollow out the middle, fill it with cream filling and berries, and put the top back on.  This is a great pick for some of our southern hemisphere bakers, who should be able to find berries in season.  But I knew I wouldn't be going with fresh berries for mine, since they'd be quite expensive if I could even find decent ones.

My first thought was to use frozen raspberries, and I did buy some.  But I was afraid they'd be too juicy once thawed to work very well.  Then I thought about just using them anyway, but cutting up my cake layer to make trifle with the cake, filling and berry sauce.  From what I read on the P&Q this week, a lot of people had problems with their cakes sinking in the middle.  I was not one of them, though.  I made my cake this morning, and it turned out perfect.  One thing that I think helped was how I folded everything together for the batter.  I used my biggest balloon whisk.  That's what I always use when making angel food cake from scratch, and it works great.  My cake was beautifully even, and I just couldn't cut it up.  So back to the drawing board...

Another idea that had been floating around in my brain was finding a way to use up the rest of the blood orange juice I bought for my sorbet.  And citrus is a nice in-season flavor.  I decided to make orange curd (thanks to LW for her comment on the P&Q that put the idea in my head).  I knew that I couldn't just substitute orange juice for lemon in a lemon curd recipe, since oranges are less acidic.  I ended up combining a couple recipes and using about 1/4 lemon juice and 3/4 orange juice.  I would have added more lemon, but I only had one left.  The curd turned out pretty good, though not as thick as I would have liked.  I'll post the recipe when I have a bit more time.

I also used some of the blood orange juice to make the soaking syrup for the cake.  I used 1/2 cup of juice and 1/4 cup of sugar and let it boil for a bit longer than a minute to reduce it somewhat.  Then I added a tablespoon of Grand Marnier--not my favorite liqueur, but I thought it would be good with the orange.  When making the cream filling, I also increased the sugar to 2 tablespoons, since a number of people said it wasn't sweet enough, and I agreed.  After folding the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture, I also folded in half a cup of my orange curd, stopping before it was completely mixed in.

For the cake assembly, I cut the top off my cake and hollowed out the middle.  Then I brushed the inside of the cake with my orange syrup.  I followed that with a thin layer of orange curd.  I only had room for about half of the cream mixture, so after putting the top back on the cake, I spread the remaining cream on top of the cake and skipped the sweetened whipped cream that Dorie has in the recipe.

The verdict?  We really enjoyed this one.  I like the contrast between the firm cake and the soft filling.  I'd like to try it again when fresh berries are in season.  I'm picturing a sophisticated version of strawberry shortcake. =)  Gillian liked it, once we convinced her to stop playing with the cake and eat it.  Brianna thought the orange curd was too tart, so she might like it better with another flavor.  Jamie liked what he could taste, though his allergies were making it difficult.  

Be sure to head over to the Tuesdays with Dorie page for a list of the other bakers so you can see what they've come up with this week.  And you can find the original recipe over at Mare's blog.

TWD: Peppermint Cream Puffs

I've never liked eclairs.  The chocolate on top is great, but I really don't care for the filling--I'm not a big fan of custardy things.  But cream puffs?  That's a different story.  I can remember sitting in Gramma Stanley's kitchen as she made chocolate cream puffs.  That is to say, cream puffs filled with chocolate whipped cream.  Yum.  I'm not sure how old I was, but I really only remember the end result, not the process of Gramma making them.

What does stick out in my memory is watching Jacques Pepin on PBS ten or twelve years ago making a Paris-Brest on Cooking with Claudine.  In fact, I pulled out my copy of the companion cookbook to review his recipe before starting on this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection.  While I don't refer to his cookbooks as often these days (I have 5 or 6 of them), watching Jacques taught me a lot about cooking.

Even though I watched a number of other TV personalities making pâte à choux after I watched Jacques doing it, it was quite some time before I attempted it myself.  The push to give it a try came from Jamie giving me a copy of Sherry Yard's The Secrets of Baking.  I absolutely love that cookbook.  I really appreciate her approach of presenting a master recipe and then showing how it can be modified to create a variety of other things.  One of the first things I tried?  The chocolate cream puffs. =)

I had every intention of getting this week's recipe done early.  I actually started on the filling ingredients on Saturday night.  I wanted to make chocolate whipped cream in addition to the mint cream, but it just didn't cooperate.  I've got to stop trying to make it with 70% chocolate--it always breaks on me.  Either that, or I've got to go back and review Alice Medrich's instructions for whipped ganache using high percentage chocolates.  After several attempts to salvage the chocolate/cream mixture, I finally gave up.  As for the mint cream, the main problem I had was that I couldn't find fresh mint.  So I improvised, and steeped some peppermint tea (the herbal kind that's just dried mint leaves) in the hot cream.  That worked pretty well, until I went to take the teabag out.  I made the mistake of trying to squeeze the excess cream out of the bag, and it popped open, dumping lots of bits of dried mint into the rest of the cream.  After I acquired some cheesecloth (which I'd been meaning to buy anyway), I was able to strain the mint bits out of the cream.  I sweetened it a bit and whipped it, deciding to pass on the sour cream.

It was Monday night before I finally got around to making the actual pâte à choux.  My original plan had been to make the cream puff ring while Jamie's parents were here, but they left Sunday morning.  I realized that it didn't make sense to make a big dessert for just Jamie and me (since I wasn't sure whether Brianna or Gillian would eat it).  So I cut the recipe in half and made small puffs (I ended up with 15) instead of the ring.  At some point I do want to make it as Dorie intended.  

The verdict?  The puffs themselves turned out great.  The chocolate glaze was extremely tasty (though I had to tinker with it, since I was using 70% chocolate again).  I didn't really care for the mint cream.  Next time I'll stick with regular whipped cream or another flavor (raspberry is always good).  

Thanks to Caroline of A Consuming Passion for this week's recipe choice. The recipe can, of course, be found in Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours.  You can also find it here, on Epicurious.  Be sure to check out the Tuesdays with Dorie blogroll for many other delicious puffs.