Double Chocolate Cherry Clafouti

Ontario cherries are in!  Yay!  Now what to do with them!  I need a dessert for dinner tonight since my Compliance lady friends Joanne and Shannon are coming over, so I thought I would combine my love of cherries with the wonder that is chocolate and come up with a Double-Chocolate Cherry Clafouti.  The batter in this clafouti is quite similar to the ones I made with strawberry and rhubarb in June, the only difference really being the fruit and its preparation method, and the addition of wondrous chocolate.  The addition of the cocoa powder did change the consistency of the end product a bit - it was less custardy in the centre - but it was still wonderful and a total keeper for cherry season!

In my previous post about clafoutis, I mentioned that traditionally the French leave the cherries unpitted in the batter to add an almond flavour to the batter, but I just can`t do that.  I don`t really see how you can enjoy your dessert biting into a cherry pit every few seconds.  So I got a cherry pitter and removed my pitts.  Let me say, this task is the pitts!  HaHA! But the result is worth it.  

Double Chocolate Cherry Clafouti

1/2 cup chocolate chunks or semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 cups fresh cherries, pitted

1/3 cup brandy (optional)

2 tablespoons butter

3 eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup homo milk

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

Pit cherries and place in a medium sized bowl, reserving about 1/2 a cup in a separate smaller bowl.  Add brandy to small bowl of cherries and allow to macerate for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350º.  Sift together the flour, cocoa, sugar and salt.  In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, milk and vanilla.

Using 1 tablespoon butter, generously butter the inside of a 10" pie plate - a deep dish plate works best. Gently combine the batter ingredients until smooth. You can do this by hand, using a stand mixer or in your food processor.  The batter will resemble a thin pancake batter.

Pour a thin layer of batter (about 1/4") on the bottom of the pie plate or round baking dish. Set in the oven until the thin layer has cooked about 5 minutes.

Arrange the cherries and chocolate in the bottom of the baking dish.  Pour the batter over the cherries and chocolate and bake for about 45 minutes, until the clafouti is puffed and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool for at least 15 minutes before serving warm or at room temperature.

Serve with whipped cream, spiked with a little brandy and your reserved macerated boozy cherries.  For mine, I put them in an non-stick pan, added the remaining tablespoon butter, and let it cook for a few minutes.

It was all I could do to hold myself back from setting it aflame but I managed to control myself.  Might get to Cherries Jubilee this season at this rate!

Strawberry-Rhubarb Clafouti

Last weeks's visit to the St. Lawrence Market yielded some lovely golden beets, wild arugula and rhubarb.

I've decided to turn the rhubarb into a dessert called a Clafouti to take to my friend Val's today for our brunch.  A Clafouti is a fruit dish covered in a batter. The dish is baked and the batter puffs up during the process. Often it is served warm topped with whipped cream or ice cream, or simply served plain.

Traditionally, Clafoutis are made with cherries only and French peasants used to leave pits in the cherries  for extra flavour.  Not sure I would like to dig into my dessert only to be greeted by cherry pits!

If you apply the Clafouti recipe to any other fruit, technically you are making a Flognarde.  But I am going to call this Strawberr-Rhubarb Clafouti since it sounds much more appetizing than calling it a Flognard!

As you can see from my photo, this is not a particularly elegant dish but as long as it tastes good that is the main thing! I probably could have used about 10 minutes less in the oven, so I have adjusted the recipe to reflect that.

Strawberry Rhubarb Clafouti

Fruit Filing:

3 cups rhubarb, diced  (about 3 stalks)
1 cup strawberries, hulled and diced
1 1/2 tablespoons orange zest
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon  vanilla
pinch of salt
pinch of nutmeg

Combine all ingredients in a medium-sized pot or deep pan and cook on low heat until the strawberries and rhubarb are tender and sauce has thickened, about 10 minutes. Set aside.

Batter

3 eggs
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon butter

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and ensure your oven rack is in the middle of the oven.

Generously butter the inside of a 10" pie plate - a deep dish plate works best. Gently combine the batter ingredients until smooth. You can do this by hand, using a stand mixer or in your food processor.  The batter will resemble a thin pancake batter.

Pour a thin layer of batter (about 1/4") on the bottom of the pie plate. Set in the oven until the thin layer has cooked about 5 minutes.

Remove from the heat and spread the rhubarb mixture over the set layer of batter.



Pour the rest of the batter over top, and place in the oven and bake until browned and crust has risen, about 50 minutes or until a wooden toothpick or skewer inserted into the center  comes out clean.

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or, as we are with a dollop of greek yogurt sweetened with honey.

Banana Whoopie Pies with Chocolate Chips

Today is a holiday in Canada - so happy birthday Queen Victoria you old doll and thanks for getting us the day off.  Unfortunately, the beautiful sunny weather that blessed us on Saturday has turned back to the blech that we've been experiencing most of this Spring.  We even had hail for about 3 minutes last night around midnight.

Justin and I have been itching to make Whoopie Pies for sometime now but the opportunity just didn't present itself until this morning.  I purchased a Whoopie Pie pan (kind of a muffin top pan if you know what I mean) and a book on making Whoopies a while back, as I like to read about food sometimes as much as I like making it.  So this morning we hung out in the kitchen for a bit using the Kitchen Aid before his friends come back from the cottage and he abandons Mom for them, Xbox and Annoying Orange on Youtube.

Looking around the kitchen to see what ingredients we had on hand, I noticed four rather sad looking bananas.  You know what I mean ...not unhappy bananas... just soft with lots of brown spots.  Basically the kind of banana I wouldn't eat, but with which I would bake; hence Banana Whoopie Pies.  And since we have some chocolate sprinkles and chocolate chips in the cupboards, they will make an appearance also.

The following recipe is adapted from Whoopie Pies by Sarah Billingsly and Amy Treadwell.  It is pretty simple and really more like a banana muffin mix than a cake.  I also used half multigrain flour to give the cake a bit of crunch and texture.  Taste was very nice but I think it would have benefited from another banana.

Next time, I guess...

Banana Whoopie Pies with Chocolate Chips

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup multigrain baking flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons grapeseed or vegetable oil
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
3 very ripe bananas (try 4 next time)

Position rack in the centre of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees.  Spray pan with cooking spray or use a paper towel to grease each pie form.

Sift together both flours, baking soda and salt onto a sheet of parchment or waxed paper.

In the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle, beat together butter, oil, sugar and vanilla until light and creamy, about 3 minutes.  Add the eggs and beat to combine.  Then add the bananas, and continue to combine.

With the paddle running on low (speed 2) slowly add in the flour mixture from the parchment paper ( you would pick up both sides and use it like a feeder).  Beat until well combined, being sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl several times.  Do not overbeat - you just want to combine all the ingredients for a few minutes.

Spoon banana batter into Whoopie pie moulds, being sure not to over-fill or you will have muffin tops (like I got....sigh).  Fill to about 2/3 of the mould's capacity.

Bake in oven for about 17-20 minutes and cakes spring to the touch and are slightly brown on top. Remove cakes from the oven and allow to cool in the cake pan for at least 5 minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool completely.

Classic Cream Cheese Filling

4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature (we used reduced fat)
4 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
3 cups icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the cream cheese and butter on medium speed (speed 4ish).  Add the sugar and beat on low (speed 2) until combined.  Add the vanilla and increase the speed back to medium.  Beat until creamy, smooth and fluffy about 4 minutes.

To assemble:

Chocolate Chips (about 1/2 cup)
1 banana, peeled and chopped
Chocolate Sprinkles (optional)

Pipe or spread icing on the flat inside half of one Whoopie pie.  Add a few slices of banana and sprinkle with chocolate chips.  Top with other Whoopie pie half and press lightly together.  Roll in chocolate sprinkles if desired.

If the icing seems a bit soft, refrigerate for half an hour before enjoying.

Cook's Note:  The pies turned out delicious and they were quickly consumed by a band of roaming children who arrived starving at our door.  However, next time, I think I am going to try to make them without the pie pan and in a "mini" size so they are only a few bites. 

Cereal-Milk Panna Cotta with Cornflake Crunch

In my search for a truly unique and interesting dessert I came across a recipe in my current cookbook obsession Momofuku by David Chang and Peter Meehan. Christina Tosi is their Head Pastry Chef and the creative genius behind such Momofuku desserts as Crack Pie, the Composte Cookie, and Cereal-Milk Panna Cotta.

Apparently Tosi wouldn`t drink milk as a child unless it was soaked in Corn Flakes or Frosted Flakes, a childhood memory which is the origin of the Cereal-Milk phenomenon at Momofuku and its sister store Momofuku Milkbar, and the Panna Cotta at Ko, their other restaurant.

And this is really, really, freaking good.  The topping is like crack!  It says `optional` in the recipe, but I cannot see how there is any option but to make it!!!  I can`t believe how such humble (and weird) ingredients come together to make the most interesting and delicious dessert!  And it truly reminds me of the left-over milk in the bottom of a cereal bowl after you eat all the crunchy goodness - in the best way possible.

This is a bit of a long post so I am including more photos than normal just to prove that this recipe, though it takes time, is not that hard

Cereal-Milk Panna Cotta with Cornflake Crunch

NY Times Recipe Published: February 17, 2009
Time: 1 hour, plus 45 minutes steeping and 2 hours refrigeration
Serves 8

FOR THE PANNA COTTA:

6 cups Kellogg’s Corn Flakes
3 cups whole milk
2 cups heavy cream
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon powdered gelatin (about 1 1/2 packages)

FOR THE TOPPING (OPTIONAL):

3/4 cup Kellogg’s Corn Flakes
3 tablespoons nonfat milk powder
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted.


Directions for Panna Cotta:

To make panna cotta, heat oven to 300 degrees.

Spread cereal on a baking sheet and bake until toasty, about 12 minutes.

While still warm, transfer to large bowl or container and add milk and cream. Stir to combine and let steep 45 minutes.

(Dessert will get too starchy if it steeps longer.)

Strain into a microwave-safe bowl or a saucepan, pressing to extract liquid. (Discard soggy cereal or eat it.)

Just don`t taste it at this stage or the true flavour of the dessert won`t come through!

Add salt and brown sugar, and heat just until milk is hot enough to dissolve sugar, watching carefully. Stir gently to dissolve sugar.

Ladle 1/4 cup milk mixture into a small bowl and mix in gelatin. Set aside 5 minutes, then whisk soaked gelatin back into remaining milk mixture.

Ok...you can taste it now...yum!

Divide mixture among 8 ramekins or silicone molds. Refrigerate until set, about 2 hours. If using ramekins, cover and reserve until ready to serve. If using molds, freeze 1 hour and pop out onto wax paper (not parchment), then refrigerate until ready to serve.

Directions for Topping:

Heat oven to 275 degrees.

Put 3/4 cup cereal in a large bowl and crush lightly with your hands. In a small bowl, stir together milk powder, sugar and salt.

Sprinkle mixture over crushed flakes and add melted butter.  Toss to coat cereal evenly.

Spread on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (or a nonstick baking mat) and bake 20 minutes, or until deep golden brown.

Remove from pan and set aside to cool.

Serve immediately or store in an airtight container up to 1 week.


To serve:

When ready, serve cold panna cottas in ramekins or turn out onto plates. Sprinkle with corn flake topping.


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

This recipe has got me wondering....if something made of Cornflakes soaked in milk and cream can taste so good, what would it be like if I tried it with other cereals from my childhood. What commercials stand out the most for me.....

`Can`t get enough of that Sugar Crisp`with that bear in a turtleneck driving around getting into trouble, or that bird Sonny who is `Cuck-oo for Cocoa Puffs!`. Tony the Tiger and Frosted Flakes were order of the day at my house. And I always wanted Frankenberry or Lucky Charms but my Mom wouldn`t let me. Waaaahhhhh!

Well now I am the Mom, so maybe I`ll mess around a bit with those next!

Lemon Meringue Martinis

Those of you who read my blog regularly know that I am not much of a baker.  Now I CAN bake. As I've said before, I've taken advanced pastry arts at Culinary School (probably 10 yrs ago now though) so I can bake.  I generally choose not to. As such, the most difficult part of a dinner party menu for me is the dessert.

There is a restaurant in Toronto called Four Bistro, and everything they serve is under 600 calories and they have the cutest little desserts in shot glasses.  You can order 1, 2, 3 6 glasses...whatever you like.  So that is the idea I started with for my dessert, except I was told by my wise friend Anthony that a shot was far too small so I better go for a martini.  So I did!

This dessert may seem a bit fussy and full of steps but it is actually really easy to make, requires relatively few ingredients and is great for those who do not want to spend time baking cakes or making a pastry dough.  The first layer in the glass is a graham cracker crumble, which is topped by a tart lemon curd, which is then capped by a toasted meringue.  Now it has been absolutely YEARS since I made a meringue but it came out perfectly.  It is much easier than I thought.

The only technique that might be a bit foreign is using a double boiler or "bain marie".  This cooking technique is used when you want to cook a delicate item - that usually includes eggs - and need to ensure it doesn't burn or the eggs don't scramble.  In the lemon curd recipe, we cook the lemon curd in a mixing bowl over a pot of boiling water, so the mixture cooks without direct heat being applied.  Traditionally, bakers often use this technique to melt chocolate so they can ensure that it doesn't scorch.  (I have found a microwave on low power works just as well and only uses one bowl!)

This recipe will make enough for 6 generous martinis or 8 slightly smaller ones.  I have used 4 oz. sized martini glasses.  The components should be made in this order for best results:

Graham Cracker Crumble
1/2 package graham cracker cookies
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup melted butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Pulse graham crackers in a food processor until fine and no large pieces remain.  Add in sugar and process again.  A bit at at time, pour the melted butter into the graham cracker sugar mix and pulse quickly to incorporate butter.  The mixture should hold together if you pinch it with your fingers.

Spread graham cracker mixture on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper.  Bake for approximately 10 minutes in preheated oven, stirring every few minutes.  The graham crackers will dry slightly.  When ready, remove from oven and let cool.  Use right away or store in an airtight container until needed.

Lemon Curd
4 large lemons (or 6 small ones), at room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
5 large eggs
4 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
zest of 2 lemons

Zest and juice the lemons, being sure to strain out the seeds.

Cook's Note:  You should end up with about 2/3 cup of lemon juice.  If your lemons do not render that much juice, then just top it up with a bit of good quality lemon juice concentrate (ssshhhh....).  Also, I like my lemon curd quite tart, so you can add another 1/4 cup of sugar if you want it sweeter.

Place strained lemon juice and sugar in a stainless steel mixing bowl.  Bring a small pot of simmering water to the boil.  The pot should contain about 2" water.  Place the mixing bowl over the simmering water to create a double boiler.  Whisk the sugar and lemon juice together until sugar dissolves and the gritty feeling in the bowl is gone.

Remove the lemon juice-sugar mixture from heat.  Crack eggs into a bowl and whisk.  Slowly add eggs a 1/4 cup at a time into lemon juice mixture, whisking constantly until it thickens, about 8-10 minutes.  Do not leave the curd unattended during this time, otherwise you will be serving lemon scrambled eggs.

Once the mixture thickens, remove from heat and pour through a fine strainer to remove any lumps.  Return curd to the pot and add whisk in the butter one piece at a time.  Once butter is incorporated, whisk in the lemon zest and let cool slightly.  The curd will continue to thicken as it cools.  While cooling, cover the curd with plastic wrap, being sure to place the plastic wrap right on the surface of the curd to ensure that a skin does not form.

Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Meringues

1/4 teaspoon salt
6 egg whites
1/2 cup granulated sugar

Place egg whites in the bowl of your stand mixer and beat until soft peaks form.  Add sugar a bit at a time until all incorporated.  Add salt.  Whip on high speed of your mixter until egg whites are stiff but not dry, approximately 5 minutes.

Cook`s Note:  The terms you will read in recipes involving beating egg whites are foamy, soft peak and stiff peak.  Your egg whites are foamy when they have turned white, have thickened slightly and a lot of bubbles appear.  Continuing to beat the egg whites on high will next bring them to soft peak where you can scoop them, and soft peaks that fall.  Stiff peak is next and the egg whites are shiny and peaks will hold.

This video is actually a bit cheesy but it is a pretty good demonstration of what foamy, soft peak and stiff peak egg whites look like.  Check it out if you need a reminder.

Beating egg whites until foamy, soft peaked or stiff

To assemble martinis:

Place a layer of graham crumble crumbs in the bottom of a 4 oz martini glass, about 3 tablespoons. Top with 3-4 tablespoons of lemon curd.  Top with egg whites.  Using a pastry blow torch, caramelize the exteriors of the merinuge until peaks are slightly browned.

Enjoy!