Coconut Panna Cotta & Key Lime Gelee

This month’s Daring Bakers consisted of two recipes that I had never made before. In fact, these recipes had never dawned on me before. I’m not a huge fan of chilled desserts. I like my desserts warm from the oven, topped with ice cream. You will rarely find puddings, gelatins or flans in my fridge. Two factors of this particular challenge seemed serendipitous. First, I’ve been working with a lot of gelatin in the past few weeks. I had just stocked up on Knox gelatin before our February challenge arrived. Second, I actually had panna cotta, for the first time in my life, on January 28th.

Boyfriend and I were in New York City four weeks ago apartment hunting. After a long and fruitless day of looking at either mediocre apartments or overpriced ones, we headed to the Meatpacking district for dinner. It was the beginning of restaurant week and we decided to try Ajna Bar on Little 12th Street. The most recent snowfall had made crossing intersections (in cute shoes nonetheless) very, very difficult. Also, if you are familiar with this particular section of Manhattan, you know the streets are cobbled. Cobbled streets, covered in several inches of slush, are a cute shoe-wearing girls nightmare. Boyfriend also refused to carry me across the street. Bad boyfriend.

We made it to Anja bar and were greeted with a burst of warm air and dark corridor. Once we were seated we had to take a minute to absorb all of the things going on around us. The restaurant is huge, with an equally large wait staff. There are huge columns, carved into dragons, candles galore and what I’m pretty sure was an aquarium filled with jellyfish. All the crazy décor aside, the meal was actually pretty delicious. (I’d highly recommend their shrimp curry.) The perfect ending to the meal was their Thai tea panna cotta. Smooth and creamy panna cotta buried beneath a layer of cool whipped cream and chocolate crunch.  Perfect.

For my panna cotta, I decided to go a little more south, and less east, for my influence. Key lime is one of my favorite flavors and with this being the season of citrus I was able to get some good ones! Just don’t skimp on the fat in this panna cotta recipe. If you go with lite coconut milk you will likely wind up with a panna cotta that won’t set. Give this a try and enjoy a little summer on a plate.

The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestlé Florentine Cookies.  Since Giadas recipe called for honey, and I hate honey, I went in another direction.  The florentine cookies weren't anything to write home about, so I omitted the recipe.  You can find it on the Nestle website.

Orange Chiffon Cupcakes & Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

Can you believe that it’s been one-hundred posts already! I feel like we’ve been through so much together. Since I’m 100, does this mean that Willard Scott is going to mention me in his Smucker’s 100? Maybe make some terribly inappropriate comment about me?

I thought that we should celebrate with some cupcakes. I know some people have been on the lookout for some savory posts; that will have to wait until after the party! Savory posts later this week, after I’m all sugared up.

Every time I ask my lab mates what I should make, I get the same suggestions. There are always requests for cheesecake, chocolate and cupcakes. One lab mate even went and bought me some cupcake liners, because he really likes cupcakes. I realized that I haven’t made cupcakes in months, so I made some to celebrate this momentous occasion.

No matter what anyone says about cupcakes being “so last year,” I’m still a HUGE cupcake fan. Every time boyfriend and I go to New York, we head to different bakeries and get cupcakes. Well, we get cupcakes, then I eat them. Boyfriend isn’t much of a dessert fan. I have more cookbooks for cupcakes than anything else. Cupcakes are just that perfect single serving of dessert. They are just the right size to have two, without feeling guilty about it. Macarons might be hot right now, but they will never replace my beloved cupcakes. Especially not these cupcakes, they were delicious.

Chocolate and Peanut butter Mousse Entremet

Welcome to a special Thursday in the kitchen! Why am I posting today? Because today is Daring Bakers reveal day! I have to say, when I originally read the challenge for this month, I was concerned. When I looked up ‘entremets’ on google, I found some pretty daunting looking pastries. Go ahead, Google entremets. You’ll find gorgeous looking French pastries with intricate designs and tempting fillings. Would I be able to complete this challenge successfully? Yes, I would.

Delicious layers, mmmm.  Read on, control your drooling.

The January 2011 Daring Bakers’ Challenge was hosted by Astheroshe of the blog Accro. She chose to challenge everyone to make a Biscuit Joconde Imprime to wrap around an entremets dessert.

My life has been a little crazy over the past month and I had to spread out preparation of this dessert. It took me an entire week, a few hours here and there, to complete this challenge. I can say that I am completely satisfied with my final result. Sure, there are imperfections, but I am amazed what can be done with the right directions. You too can perform like a pastry chef, without all that training.

The first step is to bake to Biscuit Joconde Imprime. When you say it, you must do it with a really bad French accent, it will make your day. Haw, haw, haw (French laughing). The imprime is where you can get fancy and creative. I decided I would get ready for Valentine’s Day and piped pink hearts into my imprime. (Check out some of the other amazing creations in the Daring Kitchen) You’ll see my step-by-step process of creating the shell of the entremets. Now you’re seeing where those fancy patterns come from, right? It’s so simple!

The next step is to get even more creative. What do you want to put in it? I had a massive number of ideas floating around in my head. A key lime mousse with a dark chocolate glaze, an entremets filled with ice cream and topped with meringue, a blackberry cream topped with lemon whip. Oh boy, the possibilities are endless! I decided to go with a personal favorite, Chocolate and peanut butter. Delicious. My entremets is filled with a solid chocolate mousse and topped with a lighter peanut butter mousse and finished with a bittersweet chocolate hat. From the mousse that I’ve licked from the bowls, spatulas and my hands, this is one amazing dessert. I don’t want to share… So here are the directions to make your own!

Raspberry Three Layer Jell-O

Three ingredients?  Perfect

Sounds like a good chunk of my friends out there are buried under feet and feet of snow! The funny thing is, here in Buffalo we have barely gotten a dusting! So, if you are trying to figure out what to do with 24 inches of snow, I’ll tell you what to do! Just leave it there; it will go away at some point! If that isn’t an option, then you should throw on an extra layer of clothes and head outside. That two feet of snow is just calling for you to make an army of snowmen!

Thanks for the help mom!

Today I present to you one of my favorite holiday desserts. The dessert that we brought to every holiday dinner we attended. When we asked what to bring to thanksgiving or Christmas dinner it was an easy answer, “You’re going to bring the Jell-O, right?” I’m in no way a food snob, and I’m happy to make Jell-O my fancy holiday dessert. All you need to do is dress it up with a little fruit and some colored sprinkles!

I should warn you, this is a messy dessert! Have a bleaching solution ready for your countertop, when you inevitably spill some of the mixture. I have to claim responsibility for spilling some on my aunts white carpet. What can I say, I was little and uncoordinated. I suggest serving it in bowls, rather than dishing it out onto a plate. Especially a paper plate with low edges!

I'm a kid, all over again! 

A heads up!  Starting January 1st, I'll be spending the entire month providing you with healthy (and tasty) recipes.  I thought, why not start the year off right?  Along with the healthy recipes I'll be posting helpful hints, common diet mistakes and tricky food lies.  Until then, let's eat sugar!  Two more cookie recipes this week will finish up out 2010!

Salted Caramel and Chocolate Crostata

Here it is, my third and final crostata. I had so much fun with this particular Daring Bakers’ challenge! And I think that this is the best one yet. I even had a slice for breakfast! There is something about eating a decadent chocolate tart at eight o’clock in the morning. Really fuels you up for the rest of the day!

Looking at the recipe for this dessert you would expect to be in the kitchen for quite some time. In fact, I had this crostata on the plate in two hours. From flour to delicious in the time it takes to watch a movie! Don’t be scared of this recipe. The words caramel and ganache tend to do that to people. I know I was a little concerned when this idea came to my mind. I have never made caramel before. I have never made ganache before. Plus, I would have to blind bake the crust. All together this makes for one fancy-sounding dessert.

I decided to stop being such a pansy about my recipes. We’ve discussed this before, I’m a chemist. I handle chemicals on a daily basis that have the ability to spontaneously light on fire, burn through my $200 jeans or cause damage to my DNA. Making caramel should be a breeze, right? In fact, it was. And you will love it.


Look at that caramel ooze!

 Don’t worry about how fancy it sounds, you can handle it. I know, I had to talk myself into trying this, but you can do it too. Just be sure to read through the recipe before you start. Gather up your courage, put on your big-boy pants and get ready to do some chemistry. Some delicious, delicious chemistry.

Blackberry Crostata

I really enjoyed this months Daring Baker's Challenge.  So much so that I decided to make it the theme for this week.  I've also been really busy, and crostatas are super easy to make!  For todays installment of the crostata, I decided to bring back summer.  How am I going to do this you ask? 

I'm going to pull out some of my freezer jam.  Blackberry-lemon jam that I canned and put in the freezer back at the peak of blackberry season.  The weather around here is starting to turn cold and I needed a little warming up.  The best part about making summertime jam is enjoying it in these darks days of the fall and winter.  After tasting this crostata, a friend remarked on how bright it was.  A strange, yet appropriate, description of this dessert.

If you didn't preserve any berries this summer don't worry.  Store-bought jam will still fill this crostata perfectly.  I only made minor modifications to the first pasta frolla recipe, omitting the lemon zest.  The blackberry-lemon jam was lemony enough and didn't need back-up in the crust.  If you use plain blackberry jam then you should definitely include the tsp of lemon zest, you'll get a great tang.

So no recipe for today, just refer yourself back to the Pasta Frolla and the Blackberry-lemon jam!  Instead of a lattice top I decided to decorate with cut-out stars, because it was fun!  This one only took 30 minutes in the oven until it was golden.  You can see how it pulled away from the pan, this is what you want.  Eat up and don't forget to vote for your favorite holiday cookie!

White Chocolate Pastry Cream Crostata

I’m back on the coast! Who knew that not baking or cooking for five days could be so hard? Luckily I have come back with some delicious recipes for you! First we’ll get started with this months Daring Baker’s challenge! I actually tried a couple variations of the challenge, so get set for a week of crostatas!

What is a crostata you ask? Why it is an Italian dessert with a sweet pastry crust, filled with any number of fantastic mixtures. The crust is a pasta frolla, made from flour, sugar, butter and eggs. So simple the dough can be made in five minutes and you can have a crostata an hour later! A little information about our Daring Bakers challenger…

The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of Briciole. She chose to challenge the Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating well.

The first crostata that I will tantalize your taste buds with is a traditional crust with a dash of lemon zest, filled with a white chocolate pastry cream. I have to say, of the three that I made, it was my favorite. Although they were all pretty amazing. This would make a perfect dessert for the holidays, so get yourself some white chocolate and get ready to be Italian.

Thanksgiving 2010 - Cranberry Bars

Okay everyone, it’s time to get ready for Thanksgiving! Even if you don’t enjoy our tradition of football and food, I think you will enjoy my week of dishes. In honor of my other job, being a fitness instructor, I have decided to offer some healthier options. Monday thru Friday, enjoy a twist on the usual tradition. I’m not really a tradition kinda girl anyways. Last year I celebrated Christmas with two dogs and three cats after spending dinner with friends. The past two thanksgivings I have enjoyed a casino buffet and take-out pizza. I think the only holiday that deserves major pomp and circumstance is my birthday! No, really, Halloween. And maybe the 4th of July. I do like fireworks!

Let’s get started with the end. Dessert is the easiest to prep ahead of time. Enjoy the bounty of the fall season by incorporating cranberries into dessert. Add some pop with white chocolate and you’ve got one sweet finale to dinner. If you have the time, why not whip up some homemade ice cream to go with these treats?

But don’t be fooled by the decadent look of these cranberry bars. They are made with a mix of whole wheat and all-purpose flour. The fresh cranberries (or frozen if you need!) are packed with vitamins. The walnuts add some healthy fats and these bars come in at around 150 calories a piece. Enjoy without guilt, just have someone there to hold you back from eating the whole pan-full!

Mint Brownies

Is it Christmas yet? I’m pretty sure that it was July about a week ago and all of a sudden Halloween has gone by! And what did I do on Halloween? Perhaps I went to some crazy costume party. Or maybe I enjoyed an evening of pumpkin carving with friends. No, that’s all lies. I spent my Halloween on a train. A five hour train ride getting home from Washington, D.C. The only Halloween festivities that I saw Sunday night were the crazy people in Newark train station. I must mention that I was not out amongst the lunatics, I watched from my little train window as they reveled.

This time of year is rife with holidays, which means that the time seems to pass all that much quicker. No sooner is one holiday upon us that we are looking forward to the next. I like to go buy Halloween candy (for me to eat, not give out to cute kids), but I am confronted with chocolate Santa’s and peppermint nougats. We spend thanksgiving reading the ads for the next day’s black Friday sales. Christmas is spent deciding what you are taking back tomorrow (those pants are totally going back).

So in the spirit of enjoying every moment, I am going to spend the next several days celebrating me! Did you know that it’s my birthday next week? I will be entering into my final year as a twenty-something. So let’s spend the week celebrating with sweets! I’ll throw in something healthy every few days, but I want to celebrate with sugar! And today we start with mint and chocolate, mmm. Happy Birthday me.

White Chocolate Cheesecake

There are some days that just aren’t going to work out. When you walk out of your house in the morning to discover it’s colder than you planned for. Shiver, shiver all the way to work… Or when your work project decides that it is going to fail and disappoint you. Grumble, grumble at your desk… Or when you find yourself wishing doom and destruction on your coworkers, just to spread the misery around. This has turned out to be one of those days.

If you were to happen upon me today, depending on the time, you would have found a sad person, a crazy person or even a vengeful person. The crazy person period of time lasted longer than my coworkers appreciated, I’m sure of it. But sometimes you just go off the deep end and you need to take a lap or two before you climb back out.

Luckily things seemed to turn themselves around toward the end of the day. My boss was understanding and we devised a new plan of attack. My coworkers decided not to commit me and waited out my cuckoo crazy hours. And I got a package from UPS! (Doesn’t that always cheer you up?) And on top of all that, I got to come home to this cheesecake.

When I read this recipe I knew I was in trouble. Cheesecake is rich to begin with, so adding a half pound of white chocolate would only make it decadent. Delicious. Very, very heavy! This cheesecake has to weigh at least 5 pounds once completed! I don’t even want to do the calorie count, I just know that I have to run the stairs of my building before AND after I have a slice. I brought half of the cake to work to get it out of my house! Luckily it freezes well, so now I have half a cheesecake (in lovely personal-size slices) in my freezer. No, you can’t come over.

Peach and Blueberry Buckle

We are coming to those last precious days of summer. August is winding down and fall is right around the corner. As a kid, I always loved this time of year. As we have previously discussed, I’m a bit of a nerd. By the last week of August I was ready to go back to school. I loved getting my school supply shopping list in the mail. I would beg and plead my mom to go to the store and pick everything up right now!

We would go to Vix (in the days before Target in western New York) and I would look thru the aisles at all the new school supplies. Even though I already had two sets of colored pencils, they simply would not do. It was a new year, I needed new pencils! Same goes for folders and pens, binders and erasers. A new year meant a new beginning.

I was always a fairly simple shopper though. I was never one to get bright cartooned folders or Trapper Keepers (c’mon, you remember). I wanted plain colored binders and a matching folder to go along with it. I had that kind of OCD. The organizational OCD. I would write my name on all my new supplies and lay them out, ready for school to start.

In these last few days of August, there is something else to revel in. Stone fruits are at their best right now. I’m talking peaches, nectarines, plums. Those fruits that, when eaten by hand, make an enormous mess of everything in a five foot radius. I find myself in the grocery store or at the farmers market, fondling and smelling the peaches. Keep your peaches away from me, I just might accost them.

When I find some good ones I have a hard time deciding what to do with them. Do I eat them fresh? Do I slice them up and put them over breakfast? How about simmered on the stovetop with cinnamon and nutmeg and eaten warm with ice cream? No, today we make a buckle. There are so many different types of fruit cobbles that I have a slim understanding of how they differ from each other. I think it easiest to define each, as I make them. So for today…

Fruit Buckle – A single layer of cake, generally with berries added to the batter, topped with streusel. Also known as a crumble.

Now that you know what you are baking, head out to the store (or the farmers market) and get yourself some peaches. And some blueberries. There, now we’re ready to bake.