Blog.EmealsForYou

(from the Dessert Collection at emealsforyou.com)

Profiteroles- huh?  Profiteroles- what?  Cream Puffs- Oh yeah!

For those of you who suffer from Juliachildaphobia, the fear of French cooking, I offer an easy way of breaking that fear.  Yes, I did say easy. 

Pâte à choux, or as we normal humans call it, cream puff dough is one of the easiest and I think most fun things to make.  There is something rewarding about dumping flour into buttered water, stirring a little and there it is…this wonderful and extremely versatile pastry dough.  Shown above with hot fudge sauce, the profiterole is the classic quick dessert.  Fill the cream puffs with ice cream, berries, pudding or or even whipped cream and you have a fast, impressive dessert.  Leave the sugar out of the recipe and make them spoon-size and you have an excellent appetizer shell to load up with your favorite chicken, ham or shrimp salad. Make a bunch and freeze them, they stay forever in the freezer and you can take out just what you need.

Any way you choose to use them; your friends and family will be impressed and you don’t have to tell them how much fun it was to make them.  Who knows… you may even say, “Bon Appetit” when you serve them.

Profiteroles (Cream Puffs)

Place water, butter, salt and sugar in a pan over medium heat. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add flour, stir until mixed, place back on low heat and stir for 2 minutes. Immediately remove from heat and add to bowl of food processor, add eggs and pulse until just mixed.
(you may use a mixer instead) Place large spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper, space 2 apart. Bake at 400 degrees for 18-22 minutes, until golden brown. Turn off oven, remove from oven and quickly poke a few small holes with a toothpick in the sides of the puffs to allow steam to exit. Return cookie sheet to oven, open oven door and let puffs sit for 20 minutes in oven.

Cut off and reserve top, fill with ice cream, place top back on. May be served with caramel or hot fudge sauce.

For cream puffs fill with vanilla cream. For éclairs make cream puffs and drizzle melted chocolate on top.

This recipe and menu recipes may be found on our website emealsforyou.com

(from the Dessert Collection at emealsforyou.com)

For those of you following along with the last two posts, yes I did make the cupcakes from scratch and the cranberry cream scones were pretty good.  Now that I have handled those burning questions I also promised to let you know if I cooked anything I thought you would like; so here it is… Cheesecake.

Actually I made some other meals that were very good, Pork Chops in Creamy Peppercorn Sauce with Garlic Mashed Sweet Potatoes, London Broil with Red Wine and Mushroom Sauce (Quick Gravy on the site) to drop some names.  All are found on the emealsforyou.com site; but probably what you want to read about is the cheesecake.

I gave our friends’ daughter the choice of desserts as it was her birthday as well as my grandson’s.  Rachel usually chooses Profiteroles or Carrot Cake but this time it was cheesecake.  This was absolutely fine with me as I knew I would be short on time with all the other cooking I had to do.  I like this cheesecake as it is what I call New York style, creamy but firm…no crust.  My wife likes it when it is still a little warm and creamier but I like to make it the night before and let it firm up in the frig overnight.

So back to making it…. I actually watched the clock to see just how long it took.  Using my Cuisinart it took exactly 12 minutes to get it into the springform and into the oven.  This includes the fact that I had to make it in two batches.  Now it does take an hour to cook and then another hour to cool in the oven but then again if you make it the night before that should be okay.  I think seven of the 10 of us had the cheesecake, and we were very generous with the slices, and we had about 1/3 left over.  The bottom line here is if you need a really good, inexpensive dessert to feed a crowd this is a winner.

P.S.  I served berries and hot fudge sauce on the side for those who aren’t a purist like me.

WARNING: The following post is decadent and I don’t apologize in advance.

(from www.emealsforyou.com/Desserts/Croissant Bread Pudding)

The other day my wife told me that it was about time I got busy and filled the freezer with some desserts. I couldn’t talk about meal planning without adding my two cents on how to handle desserts. We usually don’t have dessert with our meals, can’t afford the calories, but on occasion the urge does hit. I have several great dessert recipes that I can always count on to work. I make these when we need a dessert for company. Well, a little confession here; I make several desserts for company, I think people should have a choice if they are going to indulge; besides I enjoy making them. This usually leaves me with leftovers.

In our house each dessert has it’s own following. Each kid or friend has their particular favorite. What I do is take the leftover desserts and cut them into individual serving sizes, wrap them in plastic wrap and store them in the freezer, they are just as good thawed as when they were made. When we feel like a dessert or have company I usually have 4 or 5 different desserts, frozen, to choose from. Simply “nuke” them and serve. An added benefit is that I find that our friends’ kids don’t mind coming over for dinner when they can choose their dessert Seriously, this method actually saves me time and money as I make them when I have the time and it certainly beats stopping off at the bakery for a quick dessert for dinner.

I have attached the recipe for Croissant Bread Pudding, this really is easy to make, freezes well and is usually a hit; besides this is a favorite of my wife. On our website emealsforyou.com we have many dessert recipes that will fit the bill for this method of Meal Planning: Profiteroles, Carrot Cake, Flourless Chocolate Cake to name a few. Drop in and take a peek, try making everyone happy tonight!

Pinwheel Tart

(from the Dessert Collection at emealsforyou.com)

At first glance you have to say “wow, what a great looking dessert”. I like this tart because it is very easy and quick to make. You can make this as a summer dessert but I like it for those wintry nights as a surprise, thanks to the frozen food manager of my local grocery store.

Stealing a line from Michael Chiarello’s NapaStyle show, let me rant for 60 seconds. You go to the market and they have those great looking peaches. Your mouth starts to water and you just have to buy some, even at $1.99 per pound. You get home and Viola! mushy, tasteless nothings. Okay thanks, I feel better getting that out. The point here is I buy frozen peaches all the time. You pretty much get good quality and at least they are consistent. Before you send me the comments about fresh is always better; I buy the real thing if they look great. That’s right I buy one, go out to my car, eat it and if I now have juice on my shirt I go back and buy more.

So gather your fruit, whatever you like. Make the tart shell, what you thought I said this was quick and easy? I make my own tart shells; 30 seconds in the food processor, 30 minutes in the frig and then roll it out and bake it. So if you like, buy the tart shell already prepared. Bake the tart shell according to the recipe.

Tart Dough

Roll dough out and place in 10″ tart pan. Use a fork to poke holes in bottom to vent . Place in refrigerator for 15 minutes prior to baking.Bake in preheated 375 oven for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown.

May be frozen at this point.

Pinwheel Tart

Prepare tart shell according too recipe. Cool

Heat raspberry preserves in microwave for 1 minute until liquefied. Spread on tart shell bottom. Skin peaches, cut into 3/4 wedges, arrange along outside of tart shell in a full circle. Cut strawberries in half; arrange cut side down inside of the peaches. Finish center of tart with the blackberries. Heat apricot preserves in microwave for 1 minute, until liquefied. Brush gently on top of fruit.

Serve with powered sugar; whip cream or vanilla ice cream.

Note: You may use frozen fruit, thawed.

This tart is from the New Baby (Share a Meal Plan) meal; for more meal plans and recipes like this go to emealsforyou.com