Spiced Dark Chocolate Pudding
When I was in culinary school we made cardamom tea cookies which we dipped in bittersweet chocolate. I was certain it would be awful but I tried them and discovered that the pungent cardamom accented the rich dark chocolate very well. From that day forward I have been playing around with cardamom and chocolate. My latest experiment was so tasty I thought I would share it. Now, cardamom and chocolate is not for everyone. My...
Aloo Paratha
When I was taking my Breads & Rolls class last year in culinary school we made an Indian bread called Aloo Paratha. It is a wheat bread dough that is filled with a curried potato mixture, rolled flat and cooked on a hot griddle. They were, in a word, delicious! I have thought of them fondly, but had not gotten around to making them when the curry bug bit one afternoon. I had potatoes, I had Indian spices, and I had wheat...
Molten Chocolate Cakes
Many, many years ago, before I went to culinary school, I tried my first molten chocolate cake. I was perplexed as to how they were able to have a perfectly firm cake on the outside while having a molten chocolate core inside. I was sure it was done by placing some sort of frozen chocolate center into he cake before baking, or by injecting the cake with a hot center after it had come out of the oven. Now I know better. Molten...
Cookie Fest 2008
Last night I began my holiday cookie fest. I made Chocolate Chip Bars and Nigella’s Triple Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies. Mmmmm. I doubled the recipes for both and I now have five containers of cookies ready to eat/give/serve in the freezer. I will be doing Jam Thumbprints and Peanut Butter Cookies sometime this week, and this weekend I will do Ginger Snaps and Sugar Cut-out Cookies. That will bee all the cookies...
Banoffee Pie … well, sort of and other musings
11/19/08 – I served the pie from the recipe below and it was quite tasty … and runny! So, I would not fold in the whipped cream. I would just sort of smooth out the toffee and spread it with great care. But, the taste … spot on. My family, once past the initial trepadation of a new dessert with a strange name, asked for seconds. And, in one case, thirds. Yum! I registered for another semester of culinary school...
Oh, bring it on Thanksgiving!
I will admit this to you, dear cyber readers. For the last few months I have been a TOTAL baking slacker. Cooking slacker also. Really? Oh, yes. But, the impending holidays have reignited my desire to bake and fiddle around in the kitchen. Well, that and a trip to Ireland. Yes, Ireland the country. I am addicted to back bacon and smoked salmon now. I also got Nigella’s new Christmas cookbook while there. 🙂 (Did anyone...