Tag: dessert

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Recipes San Francisco

fresh strawberry milkshakes & other exciting news

First the milkshakes … we walked the dogs to the park on Saturday afternoon and after a brisk stroll on a sunny summer day, our friend-neighbor Nadr suggested strawberry milkshakes. (Side note: Can you believe that these three beasts all live on the same floor in tiny apartments and get along swimmingly?!?) Now, I’m not one to turn down a great idea like that and so we went back to my place and focused our efforts. I supplied the milk and food processor, Nadr supplied the strawberries and ice cream, Robin provided the charm (and Harry Potter audiobooks  – my new addiction).

Fresh Strawberry Milkshakes
1 pint fresh strawberries, stems removed
1 pint vanilla ice cream
2/3 cup milk

Combine strawberries, ice cream and milk in a blender or food processor. (A blender is probably a better choice, but none of us had a blender and milkshakes could not be denied so food processor it was). Give it a whirl, pour into glasses and enjoy! Tricky recipe, right? Fresh strawberries just make it!

And now for the exciting news … I am officially a published writer. It feels darn good! I wrote an article for GOOD Magazine about La Cocina and the wonderful work they do in San Francisco. You can read it and check out the photos here. I am so proud to see it “in print” and the piece has gotten a lot of social media buzz – great for La Cocina and great for me!

-Emily

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nectarine sorbet

It is officially summer and nectarines have just begun to show up at our farmer’s market. I love nectarines and was so happy to see them that I went a little crazy and bought several pounds without blinking an eye. And then I realized that I rode my bike to the market. I carefully placed my bounty in my backpack, but those tree-ripened nectarines were no match for the streets of San Francisco in pack. Sadly, they arrived home a little worse for wear. So I decided to turn those bruised (but still delicious) nectarines into sorbet.  It was a success – one that I hope to repeat again this summer.

Nectarine Sorbet
6 – 8 nectarines, chopped into 1 – 1.5 inch pieces (no need to remove the skins)
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 lemon, juiced

In a saucepan, heat the nectarines and water until the nectarines are soft and juicy, about 10 minutes. Add the sugar and turn off the heat. Stir to combine. Puree in a food processor until smooth. Add the lemon juice. Chill the mixture until cool. Freeze according to your ice cream maker’s directions. It will lighten considerably in color once it is sufficiently frozen.

I served the sorbet with fresh berries and a whole wheat shortbread cookie.

-Emily

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baking therapy: marble gugelhupf – yep, that is a cake

I bought myself a bundt pan at a thrift store when we visited Sacramento a while back and I decided to break it in with a marble cake. This recipe was adapted liberally from NPR’s The Splendid Table. The flavor is nice, but I overcooked it a bit and so, sadly, it was dry. See all those little crumbs all over the place …

Jordan was left with the terrible task of cleaning the bundt pan after I unmolded the cake. He tells me it was a real pain. Next time, I’ll just make this cake in a loaf pan. Added bonus: it’s harder to overcook things when they’re in a loaf pan. Sadly, that bundt pan might be heading back to the thrift store. You’ve got to be cut-throat when space is a premium (and when you’ve got an antiquing habit).

Marble Gugelhupf, adapted from NPR’s The Splendid Table
3 oz high-quality bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (I like Scharffen Berger)
2 cups cake flour
2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/2 cup milk
2 t vanilla
2 sticks of butter
1 cup powdered sugar
6 large eggs, separated
1/3 cup granulated sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat a pan with butter and flour.

Over a double boiler or in the microwave, melt the chocolate. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and salt. In a liquid measuring cup, mix the milk and vanilla.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter until light and fluffy. Beat in the powdered sugar. Then beat in the egg yolks one at a time.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Add the sugar and beat until stiff. Stir 1/3 of the whites into the batter to lighten it. Fold the remaining egg whites into the batter. Pour 1/3 of the batter into the chocolate and stir to combine.

Pour 1/3 of the vanilla batter into the mold. Top with the chocolate batter and then with the remaining vanilla batter. Use a knife to swirl the batters together into marbled goodness. Pretty, huh?

Bake 45 minutes – 1 hour, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

-Emily

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Recipes

panna cotta with passionfruit sauce

This was my first panna cotta. Panna cotta is the dessert that chefs on Top Chef who were adamantly “not pastry chefs” would try with disastrous results, and so I was a little gun shy. Honestly, it is an amazingly simple dessert and I’m not sure why so many people messed it up. Panna cotta has a delightful, milky flavor that is great on its own, but even better as a base for other toppings. We topped it with fresh strawberries and passionfruit sauce, but it would be great with any other berry, stone fruit, citrus, nuts. It’s basically a dessert base for all seasons! I know Alice Waters wouldn’t settle for anything less.

Panna Cotta with Passionfruit Sauce, from the Chez Panisse Cafe Cookbook

One 1/4 oz packet of unflavored gelatin
Flavorless oil, for greasing the ramekins
1-inch piece of vanilla bean, sliced and scraped
3 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
1/4 cup sugar
zest of 1/4 lemon

1/4 cup passionfruit pulp
3 T simple syrup
1/4 cup diced strawberries

Grease 8 ramekins with a flavorless oil. In a medium-sized bowl, dissolve the gelatin in 3 T water.

In a heavy saucepan over medium-low heat, heat the cream, milk, vanilla, sugar and lemon until simmering. Simmer for a minute or two. Pour into the gelatin mixture and whisk until the lumps of gelatin are fully incorporated. Strain through a fine mesh sieve into another bowl. Fill the ramekins and place them in the fridge to set up. Ideally, they will have about 4 hours to chill before serving.

To serve, top with passionfruit sauce and diced strawberries.

-Emily

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lemon cream pie with fresh strawberries

This pie is about as spring as you can get in one dessert! The fresh strawberries compliment the lemon cream perfectly and it’s not heavy, which is nice now that the weather is starting to warm up a bit. Additional bonuses: it looks gorgeous and you can assemble it all in advance!

Lemon Cream Pie with Fresh Strawberries

For the crust, from the Tartine Bakery cookbook


This recipe makes two pie crusts. You’ll only need one for this recipe, so stick the other in the freezer and defrost overnight in the refrigerator the nigh before you want to use it. 

1 1/2 t salt
2/3 cup very cold water
3 cups plus 2 T all purpose flour
1 cup plus 5 T unsalted butter very cold, cut into cubes

In a small bowl, add the salt to the water and stir to dissolve.  Put the flour in the bowl of a food processor.  Sprinkle the butter on top. Pulse briefly. Add the water. Pulse again. The dough will just begin to come together. Pour the dough onto a lightly floured counter. Divide into two balls. Press into 1 inch thick disks. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight. 

Roll out the dough until it is 1/8 inch thick. Lay into a pie or tart dish. Line with parchment and fill with pie weights, beans or rice (new discovery on the rice – works just fine). Chill the shell for another 30 minutes to get the flakiest crust. 

Heat an oven to 375 degrees. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove the weight and parchment and bake for another 5 minutes. Cool completely.

For the filling, adapted from the SF Chronicle
4 eggs
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
zest of two lemons
1/2 cup lemon juice (from about 4 lemons)
a pinch of salt
4 T butter, cut into cubes

Over a double boiler, whisk the eggs, sugar, salt, lemon zest and juice together. Continue stirring until a custard has formed. Be very diligent with this step. You can very easily end up with lemon scrambled eggs!  No good! Once the mixture has thickened, take it off the heat and whisk in the butter. Strain though a mesh sieve and chill. Ta-da! Lemon curd!

To assemble
1 pound fresh strawberries, sliced
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 T sugar

Slice the strawberries. Whip the cream with the sugar. Lighten the lemon curd with the whipped cream by first stirring in 1/3 of the whipped cream and then folding in the remaining. Carefully! I always am too hasty here and Jordan has to remind me to slow down. Pour the lemon filling into the prepared crust. Top with sliced strawberries. Refrigerate until ready to serve. 

This pie is delicious and the lemon cream would compliment any berry as each comes into season. The combination of the lemon and the strawberry is particularly satisfying because it hit a nostalgic vein in all of those eating it … Jordan, Matt, Alexa and I were eating our dessert on Sunday evening when Jordan pauses, “Does this remind anyone of some sort of ice cream novelty?” Instantly, and almost in unison, the rest of us cried, “Flintstones Push Up pops!” Yep. The pie tastes like a Push Up. Not sure how it happened, but it is absolutely going to happen again.

-Emily

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baking therapy: chocolate cake with ricotta filling

Even after making the linguini with ricotta dish earlier in the week and eating it for lunch the next day with extra ricotta, we still had quite a bit of cheese left over. With the leftovers,  I wanted to make a recipe that would respect the effort I’d put into making the cheese from scratch and not overpower its milky flavor.  Well, the King Arthur Bread Flour Company was on my side! Their weekly email featured a recipe for a chocolate cake with a ricotta filling based on a traditional Italian Easter dessert; I drew inspiration from that recipe for this cake.

Chocolate Cake with Fresh Ricotta Filling

For the cake

I used the same Ina Garten recipe that I used for Jordan’s birthday. The secret ingredient in this cake is 1 cup of fresh coffee, which intensifies the chocolate flavor and makes a very moist cake.

Butter, for greasing the pans
1 3/4 cup flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1 t kosher salt
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour two 8 inch round pans.

Sift the dry ingredients into the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Stir to combine. Combine wet ingredients in another bowl. With the mixer on low, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. Add the coffee. Pour into prepared pans and bake for 35 – 40 minutes. Cool before frosting.

For the filling
2 cups ricotta cheese
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 t vanilla

Mix the cheese, sugar and vanilla until combined. Once the cakes have cooled, spread a thick layer of cheese between the layers and serve. After serving, refrigerate any leftover cake well-wrapped in plastic wrap.

-Emily

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chocolate sandwiches

I made these chocolate sandwiches for dessert on girls’ night. They are absolutely delicious and super easy to make. Imagine a french toast-pain au chocolat hybrid. We served them with fresh strawberries because it’s spring!

Chocolate Sandwiches
1 egg
2 T milk
1/2 t vanilla
1 nice chocolate bar, broken into large pieces
2 slices challah, brioche or sandwich bread per sandwich

Whisk together the egg, milk and vanilla. Dunk the bread in the egg mixture. Make sandwiches with the bread and chocolate.  Heat a nonstick pan over medium heat. Cook the sandwiches, 5 minutes per side, until golden brown and the chocolate has melted. Serve immediately.

Like most dishes with few ingredients, the quality of the chocolate and bread really make this dessert. Use a chocolate you like to eat on its own. However, because you dunk the bread in the egg mixture, you could certainly use bread that is a few days old.

-Emily

 

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baking therapy: homemade graham crackers

Our good friend Jeff made these homemade graham crackers from Smitten Kitchen and brought them oven for us the other weekend. They were so good that Jordan and I ate the entire bag of them in a few hours. I decided to try to recreate the magic on Sunday.

Sadly, my grahams did not turn out nearly as perfect as Jeff’s. I overcooked one batch and undercooked the other. While the undercooked batch was still tasty, they lacked the satisfying graham cracker crunch we all know and love. Still, I’d recommend the recipe, because when these turn out well they blow store bought graham crackers out of the water!

Visit Deb’s recipe here and follow her advice, since I can’t yet stand behind mine.

Homemade Graham Crackers, in photos

-Emily

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strawberry lemonade sorbet

What do you do when life (aka my CSA fruit box at work) gives you lemons? Make lemon sorbet! What do you do when those lemons don’t yeild nearly enough juice to make sorbet? Steal a bag of frozen strawberries from your neighbor and make strawberry lemonade sorbet!

Strawberry Lemonade Sorbet
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 lb frozen strawberries, defrosted
zest of 4 lemons
8 lemons, juiced

Over low heat, heat sugar and water until the sugar is dissolved completely. Zest four of the lemons into a bowl. Juice the lemons into the same bowl. In a food processor, puree the strawberries until smooth. Add the strawberry puree to the lemon juice and zest. Add the simple syrup. Chill this mixture until cold.

Pour the strawberry lemonade mixture into your ice cream maker. Churn until it has a sorbet-y texture and lightens in color. Pour into a tupper and freeze until firm, or until you are ready to serve it. Garnish with mint.

I loved this sorbet! It was so summery and tart. Jordan would have preferred to cut its tartness with some vanilla ice cream, which isn’t a bad idea.

-Emily

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baking therapy: a double chocolate birthday cake

We celebrated Jordan’s birthday this past weekend. On Friday night, we went over to our friends Alexa and Matt’s house for a delightful dinner party. It was also Matt’s birthday and so we were doubly celebrating. We took turns making cocktails and ate delicious baked risotto and scallops. I brought the cake.

Jordan’s Favorite Chocolate Cake, adapted from the Barefoot Contessa

This cake is one of Jordan’s favorites. The coffee in the batter really makes the dessert. The cake is super moist and has a really delightful texture. I made it with a chocolate buttercream frosting, but I think just some whipped cream, a vanilla buttercream or even a peanut butter frosting could also be really excellent.

For the cake:

Butter, for greasing the pans
1 3/4 cup flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1 t kosher salt
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour two 8 inch round pans.

Sift the dry ingredients into the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Stir to combine. Combine wet ingredients in another bowl. With the mixer on low, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. Add the coffee. Pour into prepared pans and bake for 35 – 40 minutes. Cool before frosting.

For the chocolate buttercream:

6 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped
2 sticks butter, softened
1 egg yolk, room temperature
1 t vanilla
1 1/4 cup powered sugar
1 T instant coffee powered, dissolved in 2 T hot water (we didn’t have this and so I omitted it, but Jordan thinks it really makes the frosting – so add it if you can)

Melt the chocolate over a double boiler. Let cool to room temperature. In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolk and vanilla. Beat to combine. Turn the mixer to low and slowly add the powdered sugar. Add the chocolate and coffee. Mix until blended. Spread on cooled cake.

-Emily