Posts tagged ‘special dessert’
Recipe of the Week – Frangipane Tart
(From the Dessert Collection at emealsforyou.com)
Frangipane Tart
Our youngest son stopped in from his Super Bowl assignment in Indy as a sound assistant for the Jimmy Fallon SuperBowl Show. He had Saturday free and thought the 2 hour drive was worth a meal at home. We asked him what he wanted to eat and he picked Coq au Vin, Caesar Salad and any dessert we felt like making. We don’t get to see him that often and wanted to make this a good meal opportunity, based on his “food on the run” the last two weeks.
The Coq au Vin is a great meal as it is easy, once you get it started you just let it cook for a few hours; makes the whole house smell great. To compliment the meal I made a Pecan Pie, a request from another family member, and the Frangipane Tart. The tart is impressive to look at, easy to make and even better to eat. The poached pears surrounded by ground almonds, butter and brandy. As the Barefoot Contessa would say, “how bad can that be.”
Frangipane Tart
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 8 |
| Category: | Dessert |
| Meal: | Sunday at Mom’s (Share-a-Meal Plans) |
| 1 | recipe | Tart Dough |
| 8 | Tb | butter, unsalted |
| 0.5 | cup | sugar, granulated |
| 1 | large | egg |
| 1 | cup | almonds, blanched,finely ground |
| 3 | Tb | brandy |
| 1 | Tb | flour |
| 0.5 | recipe | poached pears |
Pie dough and poached pear recipes can be found in the Misc category under Recipes. Cream butter, egg and sugar in a bowl. Add ground almonds, brandy and flour and mix until smooth. Spread mixture evenly over unbaked tart shell in a 10 inch tart pan. Refrigerate while you prepare the pears.
Cut poached pears in half lengthwise, remove core and stem. Slice into 1/8th inch slices crosswise. Arrange slices on frangipane evenly. Bake for 30 minutes at 400 degrees or until tart is lightly browned.
Brush reduced poaching liquid onto pears. Serve at room temperature.
Give this one a try the next time you want to celebrate an occasion. You might want to try the Coq au Vin and Caesar Salad from emealsforyou.com as well.
Strawberries – Year-Round
From the Dessert Category at emealsforyou.com.
Strawberry Angel Food Cakes
Ever have one of those days? Well I am working on day 2 of one of those days. I originally thought about writing about Bourbon Slushes, but then I thought you would think I was taking the easy way out. Anyway, growing up we had strawberries at the most a couple of months out of the year, usually sometime between March and May. Now the strawberries, and I am talking pretty good strawberries are available all year round. I am not sure just where they are coming from, Chile or Florida or wherever, but those pretty little fruits are plentiful and sweet.
Here is a recipe for individual strawberry short cakes, at least we called it strawberry short cake, even though it wasn’t short or crunchy but soft as an angel’s pillow.
BTW – if you want that Bourbon Slush recipe send me an email; just click on the email chef jake on the top, right corner of the blog homepage.
Angel Food Cakes
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 12 |
| Category: | Dessert |
| Meal: | Other (General) |
| 1.75 | cup | sugar, white, divided |
| 0.25 | tsp | salt, table |
| 1 | cup | flour, cake |
| 12 | large | egg, whites |
| 0.33 | cup | water |
| 1 | tsp | vanilla |
| 1.5 | tsp | cream of tartar |
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a food processor spin sugar about 2 minutes until it is superfine. Sift half of the sugar with the salt and the cake flour, setting the remaining sugar aside.
In a large bowl, use a balloon whisk to thoroughly combine egg whites, water, vanilla, and cream of tartar. After 2 minutes, switch to a hand mixer. Slowly sift the reserved sugar, beating continuously at medium speed. Once you have achieved medium peaks, sift enough of the flour mixture in to dust the top of the foam. Using a spatula fold in gently. Continue until all of the flour mixture is incorporated.
Carefully spoon mixture into an ungreased muffin tin. Bake for 25 minutes, checking for doneness with a wooden skewer. (When inserted halfway between the inner and outer wall, the skewer should come out dry).
Cool at least an hour before removing from pan.
Fill with berries or fruit.
More of these at emealsforyou.com.
Who Says Gluten Free is Boring?
From the Dessert Category at emealsforyou.com.
New York Style Cheesecake
I was mixing the ingredients for a cheesecake to serve along with my other desserts for the holidays when it dawned on me that there was no flour in the recipe. Now I have made this cheesecake for about 20 years and never given it a thought. With my current efforts to create recipes and mealplans for those who have serious difficulties planning meals without ingredients that most of us take for granted; I have become, I hope, more cognizant of their needs. A month or so ago I highlighted a recipe of the week, Flourless Chocolate Cake and got many responses from gluten intolerant readers. It didn’t dawn on me at that time that the cheesecake was also gluten-free; maybe because it doesn’t say Flourless Cheesecake.
If this cheesecake is boring, then let me be bored.
NY Style Cheesecake
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 12 |
| Category: | Dessert |
| Meal: | Holiday Dinner (Celebration Meal Plans) |
| 48 | oz | cream cheese |
| 8 | large | egg |
| 4 | large | egg, whites |
| 2 | cup | sugar, white |
| 2 | tsp | vanilla |
Have everything at room temperature. Mix together until very smooth. Pour into springform pan, place on cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Turn off oven and let cheesecake sit ( in oven) for 1 hour. This is best if made the day before and refrigerated over night.
Add any topping you wish.
This recipe serves 12; if you scale the recipe to 8 or less bake 20 minutes less.
More Gluten-free, Diabetic Healthy and Low Sodium recipes 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 – Baked Alaska
(From The Dessert Collection at emealsforyou.com)
Baked Alaska
Need a special dessert for a special occasion? Want something that will have the crowd saying WOW! Baked Alaska may just be that dessert. This was my signature dessert for a friend’s birthday party last weekend. I wanted something that would look as special as it tasted. Usually on cruises they end the last night’s dinner with the waiters walking into the dining room holding a Baked Alaska over their heads; a sparkler blazing away from the middle. The guests applaud and then dig into it as if there was no tomorrow.
My version of this is both tasty and easy. While very impressive to see breaking it down into its componets makes it a simple recipe that anyone can make and impress their friends and families. To make this even easier use your favorite chocolate cake; mine is great but will take a bit more time.
P.S. We had a sparkler failure and they just burned like a candle instead of great sparks and all; nobody noticed.
Baked Alaska
| Complexity: | Medium |
| Serves: | 10 |
| Category: | Dessert |
| Meal: | We’re Talking Chicken (Celebration Meal Plans) |
| 0.5 | recipe | Valentine Chocolate Cake Recipe |
| 1 | qt | vanilla ice cream |
| 5 | large | egg, whites |
| 2 | Tb | sugar, white |
| 1 | recipe | Hot Fudge Sauce |
Make Valentine cake (only ) in cookie sheet.
Cut cake into 3-inch rounds using cutter or thin wine glass. Place 1 dip of softened ice cream in center of cake round, spread evenly. Freeze to firm. Beat egg whites and sugar until stiff. Spread egg whites around cake and ice cream to totally cover. Place in broiler until golden, just a few minutes. Serve surrounded by hot fudge sauce.
Note: May be frozen as cake, cake with ice cream, or finished product. Broil to brown prior to serving.
Recipe of the Week – De-constructed Hazelnut Cheesecake
I made this for the dinner party last week; I wanted something special but that wasn’t hard or long-winded in its preparation. It takes a couple of easy recipes and combines… them adding some berries along the way. Apparently it was a hit as 7 out of the 9 people chose this over the baked pear with blue cheese fondant. Okay, reading that last line sounds a little uppity but really both desserts are easily made and served. The point being that something can look great, taste great and still require only as much work as making chocolate chip cookies and your guests will appreciate it more.
To prepare this dessert start by making half of the cheesecake recipe found on emealsforyou.com; just change the serving number to 6 on the sidebar. Take the cheesecake out of the oven just when the cheesecake is set but has not started to brown. Next make the hazelnut tuilles. All can be refrigerated or even frozen prior to the day you will serve them. Mix some berries in a bowl with a little sugar and set aside.
To assemble: place a dab of the cheesecake on a plate, place one hazelnut tuilles on top of the dab. Now with a melon baller or just a small spoon scoop out 3 small round balls of the cheesecake and place on the tuille, spoon a small amount of the berries over the cheesecake balls. Repeat for the next level and finish with a tuille. Spoon any berries leftover onto the plate.
Cheesecake
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 6 |
| Category: | Dessert |
| Meal: | other (General) |
| 24 | oz | cream cheese |
| 4 | large | egg |
| 2 | large | egg, whites |
| 1 | cup | sugar, white |
| 1 | tsp | vanilla |
Have everything at room temperature. Mix together until very smooth. Pour into a springform pan, place on cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Turn off oven and let cheesecake sit ( in oven) for 1 hour. This is best if made the day before and refrigerated over night.
Recipe of the Week – Pine Nut Baklava
(From The Dessert Collection at emealsforyou.com)
Pine Nut Baklava
I know this is weird for those of you who look upon cooking as a chore but every once in a while I get the urge to put together a full dinner party. This differs from most of the meals I prepare in that I make several different complete courses. My wife thinks I usually overdo it but then again she likes the food I serve so the complaints are muted.
A group of the neighbors have been getting together to let our dogs run and enjoy some wine and conversation. As we did or rather Debbie did the picnic thing for Memorial Day (see Best Ribs Ever) I thought it was time to do the full blown dinner party thing. Here is the menu for those who want to know what I will be serving along with the Baklava recipe. It may not seem like it, but I picked these recipes as they are both easy, can be made before the guests arrive and won’t destroy the budget. Here is the recipe for the Baklava which will be part of one of the desserts. Yes I did say part ; so if you are like my wife… right about now you too are thinking I may be a little over the top with this dinner.
A quick note on Meal Planning. Notice that I have the menu pretty much set, the recipes printed and the shopping list printed a full two weeks out from the event. This will allow me to find what I need and also watch for sales on the ingredients; saving money and relieving stress.
Neighborhood Saturday Night Dinner
Drinks
Martinis and Wine
Appetizers
Baked Garlic
TJ’s Special Dipping Sauce
Salad
Warmed goat cheese medallion served on Mixed Greens with French Vinaigrette
Main Course
Bistro Chicken
Sour Cream Mashed Potatoes
Haricot Vert
Bread
French Rolls
Dessert
Deconstructed Hazelnut Cheesecake
Roasted Pears with Blue Cheese Fondant and Pine Nut Baklava
Pine Nut Baklava
| Complexity: | Easy |
| Serves: | 10 |
| Category: | Dessert |
| Meal: | Other (General) |
| 2 | cup | pine nuts, toasted |
| 0.5 | cup | butter, unsalted |
| 1 | cup | honey |
| 0.25 | tsp | cinnamon. ground |
| 9 | sheets | filo |
| 1 | tsp | sugar, powdered |
| 0.5 | cup | pine nuts, toasted |
| 0.5 | cup | simple syrup |
Chop the toasted pine nuts and combine with half the butter, honey, and cinnamon in a bowl. Lay 2 pieces of the filo dough on a flat surface, melt remaining butter and brush the filo with the butter, dust with powdered sugar and 2 Tb of the nut mixture. Repeat with the remaining filo, capping with the last piece of filo. Cut the filled filo to fit an oven-proof pan. Cover and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the simple syrup in a pan and reduce by half. Pour half of this on top of filo and spread evenly. Bake for 30 -40 minutes , until lightly browned. Pour remaining simply syrup over the top and allow to cool. Cut into serving pieces.
The recipes for this meal and much more can be found at emealsforyou.com
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