Posts filed under ‘Dessert’
Christmas Baking
From the Bread Category at emealsforyou.com.
Palmiers
The whole gang is coming for Christmas this year and I thought I would solicit requests for desserts for the various celebration meals. The only problem with this theory is that I like to please everyone so we will have about 7 or so desserts by the time Christmas rolls around. I find that one recipe, say for a key lime pie, will call for 6 egg yolks. That leaves me with 6 egg whites. What to do with the egg whites? This goes on and on until I have a fridge full of baked goods and my “big” pants don’t fit anymore.
Just for the record here is what I have so far: chocolate fudge, butter cookies, hazelnut toffee, Fleur de Sel caramels, a tart shell made from the cookie dough and chocolate macaroon jam tarts. I have a cheesecake and a pecan pie left to go. This doesn’t take in to consideration the sweet rolls, sticky buns, muffins, date nut bread and palmiers set to go for breakfasts. If you think you are overwhelmed you should see my kitchen floor.
Here is the easy recipe for the palmiers; you can find the other recipes over at emealsforyou.com
Have a great holiday!
Palmiers
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 12 |
| Category: | Breads |
| Meal: | other (General) |
| 2 | cups | sugar, white |
| 1 | pinch | salt, kosher |
| 1 | package | puff pastry, frozen |
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Allow puff pastry sheets to thaw until you are just able to unfold them. Mix the salt into the sugar. On a very clean work surface spread one fourth of the sugar mixture evenly to approximate the size of the unfolded pastry sheet. Place one sheet of the pastry over the sugar and sprinkle another fourth of the sugar evenly on the top of the pastry. Roll the sugar into the pastry until the pastry is 13 inches by 13 inches and the sugar is pressed into the pastry. Gently fold one edge of the pastry halfway to the center; repeat with the other side. Fold them both again to meet in the center. Now fold the pastry in half. Cut into 3/8 inch slices, cut side up, and place on parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Repeat the procedure with the other sheet of puff pastry.
Bake for 6 to 8 minutes until golden. May be frozen and gently reheated in a warm oven to serve.
Recipe of the Week – Cookie Dough Pizza
From the Dessert Category at emealsforyou.com.
- Fruit Pizza
At least I am consistent. With snow flying all over the plus I decided it was time to make my mother’s butter cookies for the holidays. I knew I had written about them before and checked the date and sure enough 1 year and 1 day later here I was rolling out the dough. (see Cookies Past and Present – A Look Back) As stated back then the recipe makes soooo many cookies that I lose interest about halfway through. This year I decided I had had enough; with about 8 dozen made, I decided to make a tart or fruit pizza with the remainder of the dough. This involves simply rolling out the dough and then putting it in a tart pan and baking for about 15 minutes until golden. The topping is really easy and you may use any fruit you have around or even frozen. I show it here with berries but I have made it with kiwi, bananas or even peaches and blueberries.
PS – don’t try to toss this pizza dough over your head.
Fruit Pizza
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 12 |
| Category: | Dessert |
| Meal: | N/A |
| 1/2 | recipe | My Mom’s Butter Cookies |
| 8 | oz | cream cheese |
| 0.5 | cup | sugar, white |
| 1 | tsp | vanilla |
| 3 | cups | mixed fruit |
| 1 | Tb | apricot jam |
| 1 | Tb | sugar, powdered |
Prepare tart shell according to the recipe. Mix cream cheese, sugar and vanilla in a bowl until smooth; spread evenly over cooled tart shell. Arrange fruit on top of cream cheese mixture. Heat jam in microwave until spreadable. Spread jam over top of fruit. Sprinkle the powdered sugar over the top and serve.
Find the recipe for these and many more at emealsforyou.com. For the cookie dough recipe click here
Recipe of the Week – Chocolate Tart
(From the Dessert Collection at emealsforyou.com)
Chocolate Tart
Our friend from Philly is coming to town this week for a short visit. This is the same friend who was here last year for the Julia Child Weekend. (see The Julia Child Weekend -Lessons Learned) This time I hopefully will not be handicapped by a kidney stone and plan to prepare everything myself. The menu is set and posted on our official site, the frig, rumor has it if it is not on the frig it isn’t happening.
We have planned a Small Plates Party for Friday and a family dinner for Saturday night. I have my homemade breads for breakfast made and frozen and will start the grav lox today. I was searching for one more dessert for Saturday that I could also use on my dessert tray for Friday. This Chocolate Tart ( shown in miniature above) is ideal for a large tart but works very well when created in smaller tart shells.
So if you are looking for an easy, quick and satisfying dessert, whether in miniature, or in the full stick-your-face-in -the- pie variety this is a keeper.
Chocolate Tart
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 6 |
| Category: | Dessert |
| Meal: | Congrats (Celebration Meal Plans) |
| 1 | recipe | Tart Dough |
| 1 | recipe | chocolate ganache |
| 1 | cup | raspberries, fresh |
| 1 | Tb | sugar, powdered |
Preheat oven to 375 degrees; bake tarts shells in 41/2 tart pans for 8-10 minutes. Cool tart shells. Fill with chocolate ganache; arrange raspberries on top and sprinkle with powder sugar.
Chocolate Ganache
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 6 |
| Category: | Gluten Free |
| Meal: | other (General) |
| 10 | oz | chocolate, semi-sweet bits |
| 1 | cup | cream, heavy |
Heat cream until just below boil, remove from heat, and stir in chocolate until melted.
May be reheated slowly to melt.
To maintain the shine of the tarts don’t refrigerate before serving. The tart dough recipe can be found on this blog and also at emealsforyou.com.
Recipe of the Week – Fall Comfort Food
(From the Vegetable Collection at emealsforyou.com)
Pot Roast with Roasted Vegetables
Expecting a Fall weekend I planned a great Fall menu for a dinner party with the neighbors. The new fireplace was ready and there is, at least in my mind, nothing that says Fall like a good pot roast, roasted veggies and finish up with apple crisp. Usually when you say the weather didn’t cooperate your mean it was rainy or cool but this was just the opposite, 90 degrees.
I have written on the pot roast and the apple crisp a while ago. (see Recipe of the Week and Apple Crisp.). I matched these two favorites with the roasted vegetables and came up with a true Fall Classic and wonderful meal; if I do say so myself. My wife called this a one-platter meal; that was a really big platter. The best part is there is some leftover pot roast and I am really looking forward to lunch.
Roasted Vegetables
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 6 |
| Category: | Vegetables |
| Meal: | Old-fashioned Comfort (Share-a-Meal Plans) |
| 3 | large | onion, yellow ,quartered |
| 3 | lb | carrots, fresh, whole |
| 1 | head | garlic, whole head |
| 3 | Tb | mustard, dijon |
| 7 | large | potatoes |
| 1 | Tb | rosemary, dried |
| 2 | Tb | paprika, sweet |
| 0.333 | cup | oil, olive |
| 2 | Tb | garlic powder |
| 1 | tsp | salt and pepper to taste |
See all of these recipes and more at emealsforyou.com
Recipe of the Week – Fig and Hazelnut Tart
(From the Dessert Collection at emealsforyou.com)
Fig and Hazelnut Tart
The weather is getting cooler during the day and that means it is time to break out the tart recipes. This one is special as it puts two of my favorite ingredients together to make a great dessert. It comes together fairly easily. Make it for company or for family and watch the reaction when you bring it to the table. This will become one of your favorites as well.
The tart dough recipe can be found on both the blog and at emealsforyou.com
Fig and Hazelnut Tart
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 6 |
| Category: | Dessert |
| Meal: | 1st Chilly Night Diiner (Distinctive Dinners) |
| 1 | recipe | Tart Dough |
| 1 | cup | cream, heavy |
| 2 | Tb | honey |
| 1.5 | cup | figs, dried |
| 0.5 | cup | hazelnuts, toasted |
Make tart shell. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine cream and honey in a small sauce pan, heat until honey melts (2 minutes). Remove from heat and set aside. Cut dried figs into halves. Cut hazelnuts into large chop. Combine figs and hazelnuts in a bowl; add half the cream mixture. Fill baked tart shell with fig mixture. Top off with remaining cream mixture. Bake 25 minutes until golden brown.
Recipe of the Week – Sticking with an Old Favorite – Carrot Cake
(From the Dessert Collection at emealsforyou.com)
Carrot Cake
We are off again this weekend for our quarterly trip to New Jersey so this week I will be making the desserts that we will freeze and take with us. I try to mix it up and make different desserts each time but somehow I always get a request for carrot cake. So along with a chocolate cake and probably some tart shells to fill with peaches cooked in brown sugar and bourbon; I was in the kitchen this morning putting together this never-fail, always appreciated cake. Just 15 minutes shredding carrots and mixing the batter in the food processor and into the oven and I have a classic dessert that freezes and travels well. I make the cream cheese icing once I get there and I am then prepared to present a great finish to the meal even after our 9 hour drive.
They say carrots are good for the eyes but I think this one is great for your stomach.
Carrot Cake
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 12 |
| Category: | Dessert |
| Meal: | You’re Something Special (Celebration Meal Plans) |
| 1.5 | cup | oil, vegetable |
| 2 | cup | sugar, white |
| 4 | large | egg |
| 2 | cup | flour, all-purpose |
| 1.5 | tsp | baking soda |
| 1.5 | tsp | baking powder |
| 2 | tsp | cinnamon. ground |
| 1 | tsp | salt, kosher |
| 3 | whole | carrots, fresh, whole |
| 1 | cup | walnuts, chopped |
| 0.5 | cup | raisins, golden |
Cream sugar, eggs and oil.
Mix in flour, baking soda and powder, cinnamon and salt. Add grated carrots, nuts and raisins.
Bake in greased tube pan or (2) 9 inch cake pans for 40- 50 minutes at 350 degrees.
Cover with cream cheese icing. *
Cream Cheese Icing
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 12 |
| Category: | Dessert |
| Meal: | Other (General) |
| 8 | Tb | butter, unsalted |
| 1 | lb | sugar, powdered |
| 1 | Tb | vanilla |
| 8 | oz | cream cheese |
Blend together in food processor until smooth.
Find the tart recipe and more at emealsforyou.com
Recipe of the Week – Gluten Free – Flourless Chocolate Cake
(From the Gluten Free Collection at emealsforyou.com)
Flourless Chocolate Cake
As you may know we are adding new areas to our website. Besides expanding our Vegan category we have added a Gluten Free category. It seems everywhere I go someone says they are gluten intolerant. Being the huge “bread” person I am that really bothers me. Along with registered Dietitian Lisa M. Ronco, MS RD CDN, we will endeavor to develop recipes and meal plans for our readers and members of our website: emealsforyou.com, who have problems planning meals around their eating preferences.
Most of us consider gluten free foods to be bland and tasteless; not so around here. This cake is wonderful, smooth and chocolaty without a speck of flour. As with all of our recipes in the Gluten Free category this is a keeper that you will find the whole family will enjoy, even without flour.
Dessert – Flourless Chocolate Cake
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 10 |
| Category: | Gluten Free |
| Meal: | other (General) |
| 8 | Tb | butter, salted |
| 16 | oz | chocolate, semi-sweet bar |
| 9 | large | egg, separated |
| 1 | cup | sugar, white |
| 3 | Tb | cocoa |
| 10 | oz | chocolate, semi-sweet bar |
| 1 | cup | cream, heavy |
Preheat oven to 350. butter a 9” springform pan; line the bottom with buttered wax paper, dust with cocoa powder. Melt chocolate and butter together, allow to cool slightly. Separate eggs; beat yolks on medium for 1 minute, add sugar and beat until light yellow. In a separate bowl beat egg whites until just peaking. Blend cooled chocolate with egg yolks, add cocoa; fold in egg whites. Pour into pan, bake for 40-45 minutes. This is a very moist cake and an inserted knife should come out barely wet. Allow to cool for ½ hour prior too removing from pan.
Heat cream until just below boil, remove from heat, and stir in chocolate until melted.
May be reheated slowly to melt.
Pour chocolate ganache over top, leave on counter until ready to serve.
If you refrigerate this cake the ganache will lose its shine.
·Note: This is almost a souffle; it will rise and drop, if the center caves in don’t panic. Fill with berries and pretend it was on purpose. It happens to all of us.
Find more recipes like this at emealsforyou.com.
Recipe of the Week – Uncommon Results from Common Ingredients – Grapefruit Sorbet
(From the Appetizer Collection at emealsforyou.com)
Grapefruit Sorbet
I’m big on “pantry cooking.” I believe you should be able to make wonderful meals from what you have around the kitchen, whether in the pantry, frig or freezer. With just a little imagination you should be able to cobble together an easy appetizer, meal or dessert from items you have on hand. At emealsforyou.com we give you a list of what we consider essentials for stocking away.
This weekend we were running a little short on appetizers so I went to the pantry and started looking for a quick, easy appetizer to make. A can of black beans from the shelf, some fresh cherry tomatoes from the garden, some pickled pepper rings from the frig and some frozen pita bread all went together to make a very good relish and chips. Add a few spices and herbs to your taste and you will wish you had written the recipe down for future use.
Along these lines I give you the easiest recipe I can think of. Serve this grapefruit sorbet between courses at a formal dinner or have it following a salad for lunch to make it special. So the next time you are in the store pick up a can of frozen grapefruit juice to save for a “rainy” day.
Grapefruit Sorbet
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 8 |
| Category: | Appetizer |
| Meal: | J & B’s Silent Auction Dinner (Distinctive Dinners) |
| 12 | oz | grapefruit juice, frozen concentrate |
| 24 | oz | water |
Combine frozen concentrate and water and process in ice cream maker until frozen. May be made in advance. Use as a palette cleanser between courses.
Recipe of the Week – Hot Fudge Sundae
(From the Dessert Collection at emealsforyou.com)
We are having a going away party for a couple in our neighborhood group this weekend and I am responsible for the desserts. I have over 100 dessert recipes on my website (emealsforyou.com) so finding something to make wasn’t the problem, deciding what to make was. After kicking around several ideas we hit on having an old-fashioned Ice Cream Social. We will set up a dessert station with ice cream, hot fudge sauce, caramel sauce, whipped cream and of course cherries to top it all off. The perfect finish for the neighborhood party.
This hot fudge sauce is extremely easy it make and has always elicited rave reviews. Make a double batch, it lasts forever in the frig, well almost forever depending on your families addiction to chocolate.
Hot Fudge Sauce
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 8 |
| Category: | Dessert |
| Meal: | Santa Fe Feast (Share-a-Meal Plans) |
| 0.5 | cup | sugar, white |
| 0.5 | cup | corn syrup, light |
| 1 | Tb | vanilla |
| 1.5 | Tb | butter, unsalted |
| 0.25 | cup | cream, heavy |
| 0.5 | cup | cocoa |
Heat sugar, syrup, vanilla, cream and butter in a heavy sauce pan until blended. Mix in cocoa and stir.
Hint: may be kept in the refrigerator for weeks. Re-heat in microwave.
Recipe of the Week – Homemade Italian Ice
(From the Dessert Collection at emealsforyou.com)
Lemon Italian Ice
It has been a couple of crazy dessert weekends around here lately. Last weekend I made dessert for the local Memorial Day picnic; Croissant Bread Pudding and Hazelnut Cheesecake. This weekend the friend, who had the Memorial Day party, called and asked if I could help out with some desserts for her mom’s Red Hat Ladies meeting; dessert for 20 or so. No problem; I made a huge Mary’s Special Birthday Cake and a Brenda’s Favorite Lemon Tart, both travel well and both feed an army.
The thing I had forgotten was the dinner party we were having on Saturday night for our new neighbors to meet our old neighbors and our “before the old neighbors” neighbors. What to make for dessert. The new neighbor stopped by as I was icing the Red Hat Ladies chocolate cake and it became immediately obvious he was a big fan of chocolate icing. That solved part of the equation, make a Flourless Chocolate Cake, but what to make that was lighter and easier on the waistline. I baked some pears to serve with honey and blue cheese but the winner was the Lemon Italian Ice.
As I was a little busy in the kitchen I welcomed a dessert that basically requires mixing frozen lemonade with water and placing it in an ice cream freezer. This is the perfect dessert when you are looking for something different, not expensive, easy to make and always a crowd pleaser.
Give this a try on a hot summer’s night.
Lemon Italian Ice
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 6 |
| Category: | Dessert |
| Meal: | Easy Comfort (Quick Meals Planner) |
| 1 | 12 oz can | lemonade |
| 20 | oz | water |
Place frozen (but softened) lemonade in an ice cream maker, add water and turn on for about 20 minutes until fluffy and white. Serve immediately or re-freeze in a separate container until needed, Thaw sightly before serving, Scape lemon ice with a spoon and layer in a bowl or glass.
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