Salted Caramel Banana Panna Cotta with Chocolate "Crust" (and a Lemon Meringue Pie Tragedy)

Caramel Banana Panna Cotta

Salted Caramel Banana Panna Cotta 

adapted from David Leibovitz's "Perfect Panna Cotta"

Ingredients:

• 3 T cold water
• 1 pkg. Knox gelatin
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 ripe banana, pureed/mashed very well (I used a small potato ricer)
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup 2 % milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2-3 tsp dark rum (optional)
• 5 chocolate cookie wafers, crushed*

Directions:

1. In a medium sized bowl, sprinkle gelatin over cold water and let sit sit for 5-10 min.
2. In a heavy saucepan, gently swirl together 1/3 cup water and sugar.  Bring to boil over medium-high heat without stirring
3. When mixture turns a deep amber color, remove from heat and quickly whisk in 1 cup heavy cream.  
4. Return to medium-high heat and, whisking constantly to dissolve any remaining bits of caramel, bring cream and caramel mixture just to boil.
5. Immediately remove from heat to stir in milk, banana and salt.  
6. This time, heat until very hot, but do not boil.  
7. Carefully pour hot liquid over gelatin mixture and stir until gelatin is completely dissolved.  
8. Stir in vanilla and rum.  
9. Divide evenly into 4 small serving dishes (custard cups, wine goblets, pretty jars, etc.).  
10. Chill until firm, about 4 hours or up to 24 hours. 
11. Just before serving, top with ground cookies or cake crumbs

*NOTE:

I happened to have leftover dark chocolate cake (just the bits that I'd cut off when leveling and torting the cake) in my freezer. I whirled it in the food processor to grind it up and it worked beautifully.  So don't throw away (READ: waste) all of the extra bits of cake when you cut them off to make layer cakes!  Put them in a ziploc and throw them in a freezer for cooking inspiration on another day!

And now, for a sad story...

I also made a Meyer lemon meringue tart this weekend, after a friend gifted me with a large bag of amazingly fragrant and juicy Meyer lemons from a relative's tree.  

The tart was beautiful.  

The crust was a golden and crisp pate sucree. 

The filling was perfectly creamy with just the right balance of creamy and sweet. 

The meringue was gloriously golden brown. 

I had just pulled it out of the oven and set it on top of the counter to cool. 

And then I leaned over to wipe a few crumbs off of the floor.

And then...

well...

tragedy struck. 

Moral of the story: Don't clean your floors until after dessert has been served.  

(P.S. Much like our hideous counters, the floors in our very old house were "redone" by former owners who had an aversion to grout sealant. )

Serendipity on a Tuesday

Happy eggs. 

I was disappointed that the yolk broke, until I looked again.  Such a cheery way to start the morning!

"All you need is love..."

"Love is all you need."  Of course, some tasty little Valentine cookies never hurt, too, right?  These cookies are buttery sweet and delicious (just like my babies).  No matter where you get your sweetest love, I hope your Valentine's Day is filled with it.  <3

Sweet Love & Cookies

(NOTE: This recipe comes from a dear high school friend, who makes them every Valentine's Day for her husband, who adores both her and her cookies!)

Ingredients:

• 3/4 c. butter
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 t. vanilla
• 2 1/2 c. flour
• 1 t. baking powder
• 1 t. salt

Directions:

Cream shortening and sugar.  Add eggs  and vanilla.  Mix dry ingredients together and blend in slowly with butter mixture.  Let chill at least one hour before rolling out. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until just the weensiest, tiniest bit golden on the edges. Ice with poured fondant,* a simple buttercream or royal icing.  

Consistency of finished dough should be similar to play dough.  At this point it's a little tempting to play with it like, well, play dough, but try to resist the temptation. :)

Split the dough into two pieces before chillling. This way one can stay cold in the refrigerator while you roll and cut out the other.

*I used King Arthur's recipe for poured fondant.  It was FANTASTIC. It poured well and tasted much better than other poured fondant recipes I've used in the past.  After mixing the ingredients together, keep warm in a bowl set over gently simmering water and stir often.  This will help the consistency stay smooth while you work.  

Fondant covered cookies

Royal icing...not so tasty but darn pretty. 

And now for a few more sweet treats...

Hummingbird Cake, filled with mascarpone cream and iced with white chocolate Swiss Meringue buttercream. 

Hummingbird Cake, filled with mascarpone cream and iced with white chocolate Swiss Meringue buttercream. 

Chocolate Birthday Cake...Redux

The prettiest part of a not-so-pretty birthday cake for my buddy, Liz.  

My littlest one had taken one of his signature catnaps and needed to be cuddled most of the afternoon.  Baby in one hand + piping bag in the other = CakeWreck. 

Three layer chocolate birthday cake filled with mocha ganache and iced with browned buttercream. 

Do you see that moist, tender crumb?  TYVM, EGGS. 

    So, remember this cake?  Well, as tasty and easy as it was, I wasn't 100% satisfied with it. The crust on the cake leaned a little too far towards tough, which is never a good quality in a cake.  Check out the photo of the unfrosted cake...do you see how the sides look almost matte?  I was missing the lovely, shiny, slightly crisp edge of a well made butter cake.

     The thing is, I've been really reluctant to make any major changes or add special ingredients like sour cream or buttermilk (both of which can make a cake more moist and tender).  The beauty of this cake is in it's simplicity and ease of preparation.  I love that it can be made with only what most people have on hand.  Still, as a cake perfectionist, I couldn't help but change just a couple of things that I hoped would make at least a little difference:

1. I beat a couple of eggs and mixed them in with the oil and cooled cocoa/water mixture
2. When adding the eggs, the overall amount of liquid in the batter was increased by about 1/2 cup (which is the approximate volume of two eggs), so I just reduced the water to 2 1/2 cups.  

These two changes, as simple as they were, made a major difference in the texture and flavor of the cake without taking away what I love most about it.
  
While the original cake had merit in that it was:
(A) Easy, (B) Quick, (C) Tasty, (D) Sturdy and (E) Made from ingredients you can find in your pantry;

Version 2.0 has merit in that it is the following:
 (A) Easy, (B) Quick, (C) even MORE delicious, (D) Sturdy and (E) refer to C.

Easy Chocolate Layer Cake*

Makes 3 8in. layers or 36 cupcakes

*Note: I filled this cake with a very simple mocha ganache and iced it with browned buttercream (in robin's egg blue).  I didn't use recipes for either but would be happy to write one down and post it if anyone's interested.  Leave me a comment if you'd like some help with a recipe for one or the other!

Ingredients:

• 4 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 3 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 3/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 1/2 cups hot water
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 3 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/c cups chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Grease 3-8in. round cake pans.  Line the bottoms with greased parchment.  Dust pans and parchment with flour, tapping out excess.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together hot water and cocoa powder.  Let sit for 10 minutes to allow the cocoa to bloom and the mixture to cool slightly.  
4. Whisk in oil, eggs and vanilla extract.
5. In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.
6. Mix wet ingredients into dry, stirring until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
7. Divide evenly between 3 prepared cake pans.  Bake at 350 degrees F for about 30 min or until tops spring back when pressed lightly and toothpick inserted in center of cakes comes out clean. Do not overbake. 
8. Immediately run a knife around the edges of each pan and let cool in pans for 15 min.  Remove from pans and transfer to wire racks to cool completely. 
9. When completely cooled, ice with your favorite buttercream. 

And now, some gratuitous pictures of my babies and our life over the past week:

Very simple, Pantry Chocolate Layer Cake

A tiny (4 in.) owl chocolate birthday cake, iced with strawberry buttercream.

Strawberry buttercream = regular American buttercream flavored with strained strawberry puree 

The wee-est little chocolate cake with the top lopped off.  

Just before torted (i.e. sliced) it into two layers and filled and frosted it with strawberry buttercream. 

    This is my new go-to chocolate cake recipe.  It is a delicious, chocolatey, quick and easy way to get a big (READ: 3 layers!) chocolate cake fix.  I used it to bake 18 standard cupcakes, 48 minis and still had plenty leftover to make a tiny, 4 in. two layer cake.  The flavor is fantastic and rich, yet simple.   This isn't Jaques Torres' chocolate cake.  It's a friendly, happy, kid's-birthday-party kind of a chocolate cake.  I love it.  

(Sidenote: If you use a non-dairy frosting, made with shortening or "buttery spread" (recommended: Earth Balance) instead of butter, this can be a wonderful celebration cake for your vegan friends!)

If you're just starting to bake layer cakes, this is a fantastic "gateway" cake. 

1) The texture is light and spongy but still sturdy enough to be easily torted.  You can stick with three layers but for more of a showstopper effect, each layer can be split very easily into two, for a super tall 6-layer cake. 

2) There is zero creaming involved.  In fact, you don't even really need a mixer.  

3) Even better, you only really NEED to use ONE bowl.  

4) With a full cup of cocoa in the batter, it packs a nice chocolately punch without having to mess with melting chocolate.  

5) You don't have to wait for ingredients to reach room temperature.  Every ingredient in this recipe can come straight out of your pantry.  (sidenote: does the word "pantry" make anyone else giggle?)

   All this cake really needs to make you happy is a couple of bowls, a spoonula, some cake pans, an oven and a delicious buttercream (or perhaps, a ganache?).  It's the perfect cake to make when, like me, you are short on time, counterspace and available hands.  

Easy Chocolate Layer Cake

Makes 3-8in. layers or 36 cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 4 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 3 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 3/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3 cups hot water
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 3 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/c cups chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Grease 3-8in. round cake pans.  Line the bottoms with greased parchment.  Dust pans and parchment with flour, tapping out excess.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together hot water and cocoa powder.  Let sit for 5 minutes to cool slightly.  
4. Whisk in oil and vanilla extract.
5. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Add sugar and whisk together.
6. Mix wet ingredients into dry, stirring until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
7. Divide evenly between 3 prepared cake pans.  Bake at 350 degrees F for about 30 min or until tops spring back when pressed lightly and toothpick inserted in center of cakes comes out clean. Do not overbake. 
8. Immediately run a knife around the edges of each pan and let cool in pans for 15 min.  Remove from pans and transfer to wire racks to cool completely. 
9. When completely cooled, ice with your favorite buttercream. 

Whole-Wheat Apple Carrot Muffins (or bread)

    If you've spent any time here, you might have noticed I have a thing for baked goods.  More specifically, I. love. cake.  In fact, cake in almost any form, whether it be sky-high layers, cutesy cupcakes or diminutive petit fours, is, hands down, my favorite food.  Unfortunately there are times when it's not a good idea to have your cake and eat it too, so to speak.  For example, it's usually a good idea to include foods other than cake for, say, breakfast, lunch and dinner (okay, so that would be most of the time).  Since I teach group fitness classes regularly, I realize the need to be fueled with a wide variety of nutrients beyond butter, sugar and flour in order to function well and feel good.   Also, I would like to someday fit back into my pre-pregnancy pants and let's just say that right now, THINGS ARE NOT LOOKING GOOD.  

    Well, thank goodness for healthy muffins and quick bread.  They are quick and easy to whip up, can be filled with all sorts of healthy add-ins, don't require frosting and can be eaten at almost any time of day!  Most importantly, they are somewhat reminiscent of CAKE!  These muffins in particular, are actually a little reminiscent of carrot cake and would be even more so if topped with some fluffy cream cheese.  In other words, they are a lovely, delicious and actually quite healthy way to start your morning or fuel up your afternoon without resorting to buttercream.  

Whole-Wheat Apple Carrot Muffins

Makes 18 standard-sized muffins or one large loaf of bread. 

Note: Since we can't eat 18 muffins in one day, I like to store them in a freezer-safe airtight container, in the freezer.  This helps the muffins stay fresh longer and keeps them ready for quick breakfasts whenever we need them. Thaw/warm one or two at a time in the microwave for about 30 seconds at 50% power.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups white whole-wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• dash of nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar 
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 cup cereal flakes (I used Flax Plus Multi bran flakes but any bran flake would work)
• 3/4 cup finely chopped apple
• 3/4 cup shredded carrot
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans 
• 3 T turbinado sugar 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Line 18 muffin cups with muffin liners
3. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, spices, salt and sugar in a medium bowl.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together buttermilk, eggs, oil and vanilla until creamy.
5. Stir in cereal.  
6. Gently stir dry ingredients into wet with a rubber spatula until the batter is just combined.
7. Fold in fruit and pecans.
8. Divide evenly into muffin cups (they will be pretty full), sprinkle tops with a little turbinado sugar.
9. Bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes for muffins, 50-60 min for bread or when tops spring back when lightly pressed.

Source: moi.

Beef Stew with Cognac and Roasted Vegetables (and a quick browning tutorial)

"Waiter, there's a tree in my stew."

As it turns out, my extremely limited food photography skillz made it difficult for me to capture an appealing picture of beef stew.  But rosemary is pretty!  And also one of the ingredients!

See the bit of beef on the right?  It's brown, but not BROWNED. The piece on the left is going to give your stew much more flavor.  You want all of your stew meat to look like this before adding the onions, carrots and garlic and deglazing the pan.  

Carrots and garlic...add after sweating the onions and about 1 min before deglazing the pan.

Organic beef stock base

A cast of characters...er, herbs. 

Homemade whole-wheat bread from the book, Healthy Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

If you like making your own bread, you must check out this book!  You basically just stir the ingredients together in a big bowl, let it rise for a bit, then throw the whole batch into the fridge until you're ready to shape and bake.  The method is as easy as using a bread machine but the bread is so. much. yummier. 

Check out the blog for more info!  

NOTE A:  This isn't much of a recipe b/c quite honestly, I threw it together late one afternoon based on what sounded tasty to me.  But I suspect most of you reading this don't follow recipes that closely anyway, so hopefully the bare bones will give you enough info to work with.  Feel free to comment if you have any questions!
NOTE B: This was a two-day process and TOTALLY worth it.  I cooked most of the stew on a Monday afternoon, let it cool a bit and then threw it in the refrigerator overnight.  The next evening all I had to do was roast off the potatoes and mushrooms, warm up the stew and stir it all together with a little fresh rosemary before serving.  Like most soups/stews, the flavors were so much more intense after giving it a chance to hang out for 24 hours.  

Beef Stew with Cognac and Roasted Vegetables

4 servings

Ingredients for stew:

• 1 lb. beef stew meat, cut into bite-sized pieces 
• 2 T flour 
• 1/2 tsp salt 
• 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper 
• 1 T olive oil 
• 1 T unsalted butter 
• 1 medium onion, chopped 
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 medium carrots 
• 3-4 cups beef stock 
• 1/2-3/4 cup dry red wine 
• 1/4 cup cognac  
• 1 tsp dried rosemary 
• 1 tsp dried parsley 
• 1 bay leaf 
• 1/4 tsp gr. mustard 
• fresh rosemary (2-3 T) 

Roasted Veggies:

• 1 large russet potato, cleaned and diced (I prefer to keep the skin on!)
• 1 1/2 cups cremini mushrooms, cleaned, stems removed 
• 1 T balsamic vinegar 
• olive oil, salt, pepper  

Directions:

1. Toss the beef with the flour, salt and pepper

2. Heat dutch oven or heavy stockpot over med-high heat until HOT.

3. Coat the pan with the oil and butter then add beef, in one layer, making sure each piece has at least one side touching the pan.

4. Let sit and get nicely browned (see photo) on at least one side before using tongs to turn each piece.

5. When all beef is mostly browned, move to the sides of the pan and toss onion into the center of the pan, stirring lightly.  Add more oil if necessary.

6. When onions are translucent, stir in carrots and garlic.  Stir and cook for about 1 min. or until garlic is fragrant.

7. Deglaze the pan with the wine and cognac, scraping up browned bits from the bottom of the pan.  

8. Stir in stock, dried rosemary, dried parsley, the bay leaf and ground mustard. 

9. Bring to a boil.

10. Reduce heat to low, cover and let simmer for about 3 hours, stirring when necessary. 

11.  Turn off heat, cool slightly and refrigerate overnight.

Before serving
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Toss potatoes with oil, salt and pepper.  Roast for about 45-60 min or until browned. 
3. Toss mushrooms with oil, salt, pepper and balsamic.  Roast for about 20 min.  (Do this just before serving.)
4. Heat stew on low until warmed through.  Check for seasonings and add more salt/pepper if necessary.  5. Stir in roasted potatoes, mushrooms and fresh rosemary.
6.  Serve in deep bowls with fat pieces of crusty bread with butter.  Preferably on a cold, winter day.