100
Today is my 100th post! I know I’ve been slacking for the past few weeks, but its been (as usual) crazy busy for us. We have so many exciting things going on right now with the business that blogging has been on the back burner. I’ll be back on the blogwagon soon, as the South Florida wedding season is almost at an end.
Anyway, this Daring Baker challenge, Cheesecake Pops, was so much fun to make. It was hosted by Deborah from Taste and Tell and Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms, and you can find the recipe at either of their blogs. It really turned out fabulously… creamy dreamy cheesecake enrobed with chocolate… on a stick! It just doesn’t get any better than that! I had really only one minor issue with the recipe… the cheesecake was very soft. I followed the recipe, and actually baked it about 20-30 minutes longer than it called for. We were supposed to scoop it into balls, but it just didn’t work for me. Then I started to think about enrobing the misshapen balls with chocolate and had an awful image of poop on a stick. :P 
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Hamantaschen
When I moved to South Florida, I discovered my love of Jewish food and pastries. I grew up in north Florida (Tallahassee) where there are really no Jewish delis or restaurants. A few weeks ago, it was Purim, a Jewish holiday where a traditional treat is Hamantaschen. At one of the delis we eat at often, they had an unusually large array of Hamantaschen, from the traditional poppy seed to prunes and apricot to an untraditional cherry. I usually get the apricot but this time had a cherry one, and was quite disappointed when I found the filling was almost definitely PIE FILLING! You all know the kind. Thick transparent cherry paste with those plastic like cherries mixed in. Needless to say, I was quite disappointed.
So… I set out to make Hamantaschen. I found many many different recipes. The dough recipes were so different I immediately became confused as to what a traditional Hamantaschen cookie was made of. Some had absolutely no sugar in the dough, others had copious amounts, similar to a sugar cookie. Some had butter, others had oil. The first recipe I made was extremely delicious and buttery, but (darn it!) as flat as a pancake. Not exactly what I was looking for. Then I got my mother in law’s recipe and that held up beautifully, but it had oil, and I usually prefer butter in my cookie recipes. So after a slight adaptation, here is my mother in law’s Hamantaschen Recipe. The filling is unbelievably yummy, almost brownie like… light years better than that pre-made cherry filling! Thanks Mom for such a great recipe!
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Passion Nut?
Its time again for another Daring Baker post! This is an especially fun one, as there was quite a bit of leeway in the flavoring and decorating. So expect to see many many fancy layer cakes in the blogosphere today! The hostess this month was Morven from Food Art and Random Thoughts, and the recipe is from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking from My Home to Yours. You can find the recipe here.
When I saw the crazy amount of egg whites used in the cake and butter cream, I immediately knew I would fill the cake with some sort of curd. What better way to use up those yolks? Instead of the usual lemon, I chose to make passion fruit curd. I haven’t made curd with passion fruit before, so it was a bit of an experiment. Can we say yummy? I basically replaced the lemon juice with passion fruit puree in a basic lemon curd recipe. Easy peasy…
Egg-celent cookies
I just wasn’t feeling Eastery this year. We didn’t even have an Easter dinner… just a little homemade guacamole and Coronas while watching a movie. I know, I’m a bad wife, but we’ve been so busy with Stephan’s business, it just slipped my mind. Its definitely Wedding season in South Florida! Anyway, instead of making Easter Dinner, I woke up on Sunday morning and decided to make my favorite sugar cookies. I used the same recipe from my Halloween cookies, but ommitted the baking soda. I spent some time decorating them with pink, blue and yellow Royal Icing.
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Blueberry Galette
As usual, I had something on the verge of going bad in my fridge (blueberries) and decided to salvage them by baking something. I found this galette recipe in my Essential Baker cookbook. It’s my kind of recipe… very easy, and not labor intensive. I wish I had the time to make complicated, many step recipes, but its just not in the cards for me. To make this even easier, I made the dough the day before I baked it, and let it rest in the fridge overnight. Can’t get any easier than that!
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Rump Cake
Rum Raisin + Pound Cake = Rump Cake? Hey if Bennifer, TomKat and Brangelina are legit, then so is my rump cake! Mmmmkay!
This recipe came from The Essential Baker by Carole Bloom. Stephan’s favorite ice cream is Rum Raisin, and when I came across this recipe, I knew I would have to try it. The flavor is wonderful, but I think could have used a bit more rum and maybe a splash of vanilla. Also, I was pretty bummed when all my raisins sunk to the bottom. However, it was quite tasty, ridiculously easy and will definitely be made again one day. I served it with caramel sauce.
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Tuxedo Strawberries
In planning our Valentines day dinner, I decided to go somewhat healthy for our dessert and chose chocolate dipped strawberries. But of course, being me, I had to make them fancy with the tuxedos. I stood in my local grocery store for about 5 minutes with two boxes of strawberries. One box consisted of two pints for $4 of regular strawberries, the other was a mere (perfect) dozen ones with the stem still on. That one was $10. I was so torn… should I spend $6 more for a fraction of the strawberries simply to have the stems? The frugal side of me took over, and I bought the less expensive ones. If I had to go back, I’d say screw it and spend the other 6 dollars! The stem really does help with the dipping process. So the moral of the story is… if you’re planning on taking the time to do tuxedo strawberries, don’t cheap out… buy the fancy strawberries with the stems!
Happy New Year!
For those that are confused, today is the first day of the Chinese New Year. The Chinese New Year starts with the New Moon on the first day of the new year and ends on the full moon 15 days later. The 15th day of the new year is the Lantern Festival, which is celebrated at night with lantern displays and children carrying lanterns in a parade.
While flipping through the South Florida Sun Sentinel last week, these Yin-Yang cookies caught my eye. In Chinese philosophy, yin and yang represent the two primal cosmic forces in the universe… plus its pretty! I decided not to use recipe in the paper, but used the one from my checkerboard cookies from this past Christmas. Its actually much easier than the checkerboard cookies and takes less time. The result is really cool!
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The Crepe Queen
When I used to work at the Four Seasons Hotel, I was always on crepe duty during the lavish Sunday Brunches. I would make the crepes ahead of time in the kitchen and I had the ability to have four pans of crepes going at once. When the pans reached the perfect temperature (with, believe it or not, little portable butane stoves!) I learned to time it perfectly. I’d pour and swirl the first pan, then the second, third and fourth. By they time I finished swirling the fourth pan, the first crepe would be ready to flip. And so on and so forth. So that…. is how I landed the lofty title of “The Crepe Queen”. I felt cocky once and tried five pans… and that was disastrous! lol
Funny story… I was working the Sunday Brunch one day, with my impeccable white chef’s jacket and mile-high chef’s toque (hat) when a group of swarthy men stopped and asked if they could have some petit fours off of the dessert table. I told them no, because it was only for those participating in the brunch. According to one of the waiters, it was the Gipsy Kings. HA! How was I supposed to know? Hehe… now I know why they looked so offended because I wouldn’t let them have a chocolate covered strawberry! Sorry guys… I do like your music!
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Ooooh, What a Tart!
My second Daring Baker challenge was Lemon Meringue Pie. Jen from The Canadian Baker was the host this month, and the recipe came from Wanda’s Pie in the Sky by Wanda Beaver. I decided to do individual tartletts, as I much prefer plating desserts with tartletts than pie or tart slices.
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