Lemon Tart

I tried a new recipe today -- Whole lemon tart (meaning, use the whole lemon except for the seeds)

The recipe came from one of the food blogs I love to read, Smitten Kitchen.

To me it seemed to be the grown-up sibling of lemon bars. One of my fellow consumers agreed. This is the first time I've made a tart, and I would definitely make this one again. B.S. - I saved a piece out for you and will bring it with me tomorrow night. :-)

Éclair Cake

I was reminded last night that I promised a friend that I would post the recipe for Eclair cake. Well, it's 4:30 in the morning and I can't get back to sleep, so I decided to work on my blog. This recipe came to me from Silly Girl's grandma.

Éclair Cake

1/2 cup Butter
1 cup Water
1 cup Flour
4 Eggs
8 oz pkg. Cream Cheese (room temp)
3 cups Milk
2 sm. pkg. Vanilla pudding
1 pint Whipping Cream
Chocolate Syrup (I use Hershey's)

Preheat oven to 400F.
Melt butter in water until boiling. Add flour. Add eggs one at a time. Spread in greased 11x15 pan. Bake for 25 minutes.

Blend cream cheese; slowly add milk. Add pudding mix. Spread over cooled crust.

Whip cream and spread over pudding layer. Drizzle with chocolate syrup.

After years of making this in my 11x15" pan (like the Pampered Chef Bar pan), I discovered that Silly Girl's family uses a 9x13" pan. Feel free to try that. I've found that I prefer the thinner crust.

This one works quite well with sugar free pudding, and if you do that, the dessert is sugar free provided you leave off the chocolate syrup. There are some sugar-free chocolate syrups out there, but I've not tried any of them.

Molten Chocolate Cakes (also called "Lava Cakes")

Last night I entertained two young ladies from my neighborhood while their mother nursed a cold and their dad was out of town. They were quite excited when I suggested we might make Lava cakes for a treat, so we whipped them up and wolfed them down while we watched the Nancy Drew movie. I'd also made them on Sunday for lunch guests, who were equally pleased with them. Two home runs made me think maybe I should share the recipe here. Every time I take these somewhere, someone exclaims over the individual ramekins and wishes they had some. (One person (male) just thought the word "ramekin" was cool...)

Molten Chocolate Cakes (or Lava cakes)

4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate
1/2 cup Butter
1 cup Powdered Sugar
2 Eggs
2 Egg yolks
6 Tbsp. Flour

Preheat over to 425 F. Butter 4 (3/4 Cup [6 oz]) custard cups or ramekins. Place on baking sheet. (I just coat the ramekins with vegetable oil spray)

Microwave chocolate and butter in a bowl at 50% power until butter is melted. Stir with whisk until chocolate is completely melted. Add sugar and stir until blended. Whisk in eggs and egg yolks. Stir in flour. Divide batter between prepared custard cups.

Bake 11-13 minutes until sides are firm but centers are soft. Let stand 1 minute. Run a small knife around cakes to loosen and invert cakes on plates.

Serve immediately with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

By the way, I thought the movie was great!

Custard (or, what to do when you have lots of egg yolks)

Here is the promised custard recipe. It is intended to be used as pie filling, so it is quite firm. If you want a softer consistency, reduce the amount of cornstarch or add more milk. Just a "heads up", this one is very rich.

Chocolate Custard
5 ounces fine-quality Bittersweet (Dark) Chocolate
4 ounces Unsweetened Chocolate
1 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Cornstarch
3/4 tsp. Salt
6 large Egg Yolks
4 1/2 cups Milk
3 tablespoons unsalted Butter, cut into bits and softened
1 1/2 tsp. Vanilla

In a microwave-safe bowl or measuring cup (I prefer the 4-cup pyrex measuring cup), melt the chocolate using 50% power. Start with 2 minutes, and then check the chocolate by trying to stir it. If it is still pretty hard, go for 1 more minute (still at 50% power) and check it again. Repeat until it is soft enough to stir. There is a fine line between melting and scorching, and you don't want to cross it. Chocolate doesn't really lose its shape when melting, but it does get soft enough that when you start to stir it, the shape collapses into a melty pool of chocolate. Keep stirring until it is all melted and smooth.

In a heavy saucepan (about 3 quarts) whisk together sugar, cornstarch, salt, and egg yolks until combined well and add milk in a stream, whisking. While whisking, bring milk mixture to a boil over moderate heat. Allow to simmer (keep whisking!) until thick, about 1 minute. Force custard through a fine sieve into a bowl and whisk in melted chocolate, butter, and vanilla until smooth. Cover surface of filling with plastic wrap and cool completely (unless you like the skin on top. I do!)

To use as pie filling, pour custard into a 10-inch prepared crust and chill pie, covered, at least 6 hours or overnight. Top with whipped cream just before serving (if desired)

Variation: Coconut Custard
Omit chocolate. Toast 1 cup coconut in a dry skillet over low heat, shaking constantly. Do this before making the custard so that the coconut has time to cool before being stirred into the custard (add with vanilla)

Angel Food Cake

When I was a young baker, my mother taught me that Angel Food Cake should be make with a box mix because it was too tricky to make one from scratch. For a beginning baker, this is very true. However, for an intermediate-to-experienced baker, making one from scratch is, well, a piece of cake! Especially with this recipe:

Angel Food Cake
1 1/2 cups Sugar, divided
1 cup Cake Flour, sifted (not All-Purpose flour)
9 Egg Whites (I recommend separating the eggs when they are cold, then allowing the white to warm up to room temperature. They seem to whip up higher at room temp)
1/4 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Cream of Tartar
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
1/2 tsp. Almond Extract

Preheat oven to 325F.

Sift 1/2 cup sugar and flour twice. Beat egg whites until foamy. Add salt and cream of tartar and continue to beat until they hold soft peaks. Beat in extracts and remaining sugar until peaks become a little stiffer. Using a rubber spatula or your hand, gently fold flour mixture into eggs white mixture.

Turn batter into an ungreased tube pan (not a bundt pan). Bake 45-60 minutes until cake is firm, resilient to touch, and nicely brown. Invert cake for an hour. Remove carefully.

Cuts best with a serrated knife or pair of forks.

Best on the day it is made. Strawberry mousse makes a great filling/topping.

Chocolate Angel Food Cake Variation: Substitute 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder for 1/4 flour.

I made one of these last week as a birthday treat for a co-worker. Someone else on the team, when he found out it was an angel food cake, asked "What's all that brown stuff on the outside?" (It was the crusty bits). Turns out, he'd only ever had angel food cake that was purchased from the store already baked, which I guess doesn't have the brown crumbs on the outside. At least not on the top.

I love this homemade version, though you are left with lots of egg yolks. I usually make custard or pudding with them.

I'll post a custard recipe tomorrow!

Chocolate Chelsea Buns

After my post last week about making rolls with chocolate milk instead of regular milk, a friend emailed me a recipe she recommends for chocolate cinnamon rolls, or, as the recipe calls them, Chocolate Chelsea Buns.

I couldn't resist, so tried them out on Sunday to take as my dessert offering for Sunday dinner. They were mmm-mmm-good! Here is the recipe:

Chocolate Chelsea Buns

1 cup Milk
1/4 cup Granulated Sugar
1 1/2 tsp active dry Yeast
1 Egg
1/4 cup Butter, melted
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Vanilla
3 cups (approx) All Purpose Flour
1/2 cup unsweetened Cocoa powder, sifted

Filling:
1 cup Chocolate Chips (I used half semi-sweet, half milk choc)
1/2 cup packed Brown Sugar
1/4 cup chopped Pecans (optional)(I did some both ways and liked both)
1/2 tsp Cinnamon (I will put in a bit more next time)

Scald the milk, let it sit for a few moments, then remove the skin off the top. Allow it to cool a bit before proceeding (at this point is it too hot for the yeast)

Dissolve 1 tsp of sugar into the warm milk. Sprinkle with yeast and stir. Let stand until frothy.

Whisk in egg, butter, remaining sugar, salt and vanilla. Gradually whisk in 1 cup of the flour. With a wooden spoon, beat in the cocoa and enough of the remaining flour to make a stiff dough. Turn dough out onto floured surface and kneed about 5 minutes until smooth and elastic. (Umm...I did this all in my Bosch)

Place in greased bowl turning to grease all over. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in warm draft-free area until doubled in bulk (about an hour).

Melt chocolate chips. Mix brown sugar and cinnamon together. Punch the dough down, turn out onto lightly floured surface. Roll out to 14 x 12 inch rectangle.

Spread the melted chocolate on the dough, leaving a 1-inch border uncovered. Sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon mixture over chocolate. Starting at the long side, roll up tightly, pinching seam to seal. Cut into 16 slices. Place in a greased 9x13" pan, like you would cinnamon rolls (swirly side up). Let rise until double in bulk again.

Bake at 350 for 20 to 30 minutes until firm to the touch.

Option: If you don't want to melt the chocolate chips, spread 1/4 softened butter on dough before sprinkling with brown sugar and cinnamon mixture. Spread sugar over, then chips, then roll up.

Drizzle with a glaze icing if you like... eat them warm.

That's it!

My friend and I IM'd about these today, and tossed around some possible variations. She thinks white chocolate chips would be good. I tossed in the suggestions of a mixture of chocolate and butterscotch or chocolate and peanut butter chips. My friend also brought up the possibility of a peanut butter glaze or frosting. Last night when they were served up in Lehi, my dinner hosts tried Hersey's chocolate syrup and caramel sauce on some of them (not both on the same bun, but I suppose you could). In the end, we decided that this is a good base recipe that will be fun to play with.

If you try it, let me know! I think I might have to make these the next time I take fund-raising treats to KBYU-FM. Maybe I'll even remember to take a picture of them. :-)

Meltaways cookie recipe

The friend that shared this recipe provided the name "Utah State Meltaways", so I'm sticking with that.

Utah State Meltaways

2 lbs Butter (yes, 4 cups or 8 sticks)
1 1/3 cups Powdered Sugar
3 cups Cornstarch
4 cups Flour
Frosting
12 ounces Cream Cheese
4 cups Powdered Sugar
4 Tbsp. Vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 F. Mix all together and roll into 1-inch balls (Keep these on the smallish side. Wrap a damp towel around the bottom of a glass and use this to flatten the cookies. (Do not chill dough). Bake 10 minutes. Frost when cool.

Notes:
This is a cookie that is great by itself, but also could be quite versatile with a bit of playing. While I liked the cream cheese frosting, I kept imagining how they would taste with a frosting or glaze for orange rolls. Or, they would probably be quite good with one side dipped in chocolate. They would probably be good with crushed peppermint pressed into the tops before baking.

These cookies do not spread (or if they do, it is not very far), so you can put quite a few on one cookie sheet. I let mine cool on the sheet for a few minutes before I tried to move them.

They are quite fragile, so be careful handling them. I was glad I stayed up to frost them before going to bed, because the frosting needed awhile to set up or dry so that I could stack them. I would have been in trouble if I had waiting until morning to apply the frosting. I left them out on the counter all night, uncovered, and that did not seem to dry them out.

I made a half-recipe and got about at least 5 dozen, but probably not 6.

Baking and fund raising

This week is Classical 89's Fall fund raiser -- if you are a fan of KBYU-FM, now would be a great time to let them know by participating in this pledge drive. For my fan club, I thought I would mention that I will be "on the air" to help with the drive on Friday 12 noon- 2PM (Mountain). If you are not in this area and wish to listen in, go to www.classical89.org and click "Tune in now".

What does baking have to do with fund raising? I think this is the real reason they ask me to come and help with the pledge drive -- I usually arrive bearing treats! Today it was Ranger Cookies, a recipe I got many years ago from a college roommate, Karen (Sutton) Adams. I haven't made them in forever, and now I'm wondering why! They are light and crispy, yet soft and chewy. I know that doesn't sound possible, but I think the secret ingredient of Rice Krispies makes the difference. Here's the recipe if you would like to try them out and judge for yourself:

Ranger Cookies
1 cup Butter or Margarine
1 cup Granulated Sugar
1 cup Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
1 tsp. Vanilla
2 cups Flour
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 cup Quick Oats
1 cup Rice Krispies
1 cup Coconut

Preheat oven to 350F. Cream butter and sugars, add eggs and vanilla. Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, then add to the butter mixture. Stir in oats, cereal, and coconut. Bake for 10 minutes. Also good with mini chocolate chips. (I added 1 cup of them)

If you think you'd like me to post recipes now and then, please let me know!