Desserts

Viking Apple Cake

sophia — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:08:07 -0500

This cake is pretty light. We use yogurt instead of butter, and give the cake body with lots of apples. The batter starts out looking like more apples than batter, but then as it bakes the apples shrink and the cake forms beautifully. This is a delicious pairing of apples, cardamom, and buckwheat. It is quick and easy to put together for dessert.

1 cup yogurt
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp orange blossom water
1 cup all purpose flour
½ cup buckwheat flour
1 tsp ground cardamom
pinch of cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
3 cups apples, peeled and diced
½ cups almonds, ground
Garnish: Crème Fraîche

Whisk together the yogurt and the sugar in a bowl. Add the eggs and orange blossom water and whisk.
Sift together the flours, cardamom, cinnamon, and baking powder in a separate bowl.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and stir.
Stir in the apples and ground almonds and pour into a 10” spring-form cake tin.
Bake at 350ºF for 45-50 minutes.

Garnish with a spoonful of fresh crème fraîche.

Cardamom Apple Cake

sophia — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 10:42:11 -0500

Watch as we make a delicious Swedish-inspired Viking Apple Cake. This cake has no butter, but gets its body from yogurt. We enhance the flavor with buckwheat and cardamom, which although are two very strong flavors, they work together beautifully. The apples make this a great Winter cake to make for cozy evenings by the fire.

Chocolate Pomegranate Yogurt Cake

emma — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:48:15 -0500

Chocolate is one of the many foods that the world gained from the discovery of America. It was sacred to the pre-Colombian peoples, and is worshipped around the world to this day. So many cultures use chocolate as a way of celebration, and this cake is just that. We combined nutty tahini and sour pomegranate molasses to achieve a complex and moist, yet simple-to-make chocolate cake. The garnish makes it look extra festive, so be sure to include the cream, pistachios, and pomegranate seeds.

Oregano Muhallebi with Dried Fruits

emma — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 11:28:24 -0500

Muhallebi is a traditional Turkish milk pudding. It is characterized by the fact that rice flour is used to thicken it. It is garnished with rose water and nuts. For our version, we infuse the milk with fresh oregano, which gives it a mysterious and captivating flavor, which we compliment with dried cherries and raisins. In the summer, top it with fresh gooseberries or blueberries.

3 cups whole milk, divided
1 handful fresh oregano sprigs
1/3 cup rice flour (white or brown)
½ cup sugar
Pinch of salt
2 tablespoons golden raisins
2 tablespoons dried cherries
sprinkle of sugar and water
Garnish: fresh oregano sprigs

Heat 2 cups of the milk up in a pot, along with the fresh oregano sprigs. To get more flavor from the herbs, you want to bruise them using a mortar and pestle, or with a wooden spoon against the side of the pot. Heat on medium high heat until steam rises from the surface, and turn the heat off. Let the flavors infuse for 20 -30 minutes.
In a bowl, mix together the rice flour with the remaining cup of milk and whisk to form a paste.
Remove the herbs from the pot of milk, and add in the sugar and pinch of salt. Bring the milk to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
Add the flour paste and whisk until smooth. Bring the pot to a boil again and simmer until the liquid is thick.
Ladle the pudding into individual cups and then let sit until they reach room temperature. Refrigerate until cool.

You can serve the mühallebi with whatever fruit is in season. During colder months, dried fruits simmered in liquor are very nice. Cover the raisins and dried cherries with rum and some sugar and simmer lightly on low heat until the alcohol is greatly reduced.
Warning! Be careful because the alcohol can ignite with the heat. Spoon the fruits on top of the dishes and pour over a little syrup.

Serves 4.

A Truffle Mishap

sophia — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 08:04:07 -0500

Boy, do I feel stupid. I guess my New York mentality got the best of me today. I wanted to eat at this restaurant in the Piazza Navona, because I read that they specialized in truffle ice cream. That was a bad literal translation that I should have been more aware of. Or maybe I was just in denial. Tartufo is a very common dessert in Italy. It is made of chocolate ice cream layered over a filling of either vanilla ice cream, real chocolate, or candied cherry to form a little rounded mound. The outside is covered in powdered chocolate. It is called “tartufo”, because it resembles truffles, those special delicacies found on logs. Even though I have eaten the dessert tartufo many times in my life, I trucked myself over to the piazza for what I thought would be truffle flavored ice cream. It’s the season, right? Boy did I feel dumb. The waiter proudly set in front of me their specialty of the house- tartufo. A little dome of dark chocolate ice cream with a candied cherry filling covered with roughly chopped chocolate. Ah yes, a 9 Euro treat not nearly resembling the truffle- flavored ice cream that I had hoped to find. I guess in Italy I should only look for truffles on pasta dishes, and not in my desserts.

Even Presidents Love Ice Cream!

sophia — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:20:21 -0500

What is the best way to celebrate the Election? Why, with a bowl of vanilla ice cream of course! Thomas Jefferson is said to have recorded the first recipe for ice cream in The United States; a dessert he learned to love while living in France. Simple and elegant, vanilla ice cream's popularity has lasted since the Declaration of Independence!

Pepita and Anise Sandwich Cookies for The Day of the Dead

sophia — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:33:29 -0400

If you cannot find Pan de Muerto, the traditional Mexican bread eaten on the 1st and 2nd of November, then you can make these little cookies. We made them with orange blossom water and anise seeds, the same seasonings used for the Pan de Muerto. Be sure to drink our Dark and Spicy Mexican Hot Chocolate with these!

Cookie:
¾ cup organic cane sugar
1 egg yolk
1 cup butter
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp. anise seeds
pinch of cinnamon
splash of orange blossom or rose water

Filling:
1 ½ cups pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
¼ cup milk, heated
3 T agave nectar

For the Cookies:
Cream butter and sugar together in a bowl. Beat in the egg yolk and splash of orange blossom water.
Sift together the flour and spices, and add to the sugar/butter mixture.
Use your hands to bring the dough together. Form 1-inch balls and place on a baking tray.
Bake at 350°F for 10-15 minutes. When the cookies are done, carefully transfer them to a wire rack to cool.

For the Filling:
Make the filling by grinding the pepitas in a food processor until they break down and turn into a smooth paste, about 10 minutes. You will have to stop the machine every now and again to scrape down the sides.
Whisk the warm milk and agave nectar into the pumpkin seed butter.

Spread a dollop of filling onto the flat side of one cookie and then sandwich between another. Repeat.
Makes 12 cookies.

Oyster Shells with Saffron Cream- "Herat is the Pearl of Khorasan"

sophia — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 20:43:27 -0400

This dessert requires some time and effort. You will need 6 scallop shells, which you can buy at an arts and crafts store, and some aluminum foil. The saffron pastry cream with poppy seeds could also be used as a tart filling or for eclairs. It is subtle, yet rich at the same time.

For the Saffron Pastry Cream:
2 cups half and half, divided
Pinch of saffron
1/3 cup sugar
4 egg yolks
2 cardamom pods, crushed and seeds removed
1 T flour (2 tablespoons if you prefer not to use cornstarch)
1 T cornstarch
½ tsp poppy seeds

For the Raisins:
6 raisins
¼ cup sherry

For the Shells:
1 recipe of Spelt Honey Dough (recipe follows)

Heat up ½ cup of the half and half on a low flame with the pinch of saffron. Once it comes to a bare simmer, remove from the heat and set aside to infuse while you keep working.
Heat up the remaining half and half with the cardamom on a medium high flame, but don’t let it come to a boil.
Whisk together the sugar and egg yolks until pale yellow in color. Add the flour and cornstarch to the yolk/sugar mixture and whisk well to combine. Pour a drop of the hot half and half into the egg yolks to temper them, and then gradually pour everything back into the saucepan.
Bring the liquid to a boil, whisking constantly to prevent lumps from forming, and cook for 2-3 minutes until thick. Whisk in the infused saffron liquid and pour into a bowl set over another bowl filled with ice water. Stir in the poppy seeds.
Cover the mixture directly with a piece of plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator until completely cold and set.

Heat up the sherry in a small saucepan and poach the raisins until they are plump. Remove from heat.

Pipe the pastry cream into the prepared shells and place a plump raisin near the base, as if it were a pearl in the oyster.

Spelt Honey Dough:
6 scallop shells
aluminum foil
butter
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup spelt flour
½ teaspoon of salt
1 cup butter, cut up into small dice
2 T honey + 5-6 T water

Sift together the salt and flours in a bowl.
Add the butter and cut it into the flour using a pastry cutter or your fingers. You are done when the butter is fully integrated into the flour, and you have a crumbly flour without any chunks of butter.
Make a well with the flour mixture and pour the honey and water into the center. Bring the flour into the well and mix just until the dough comes together. Do not overwork the dough. Wrap up in parchment or plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, cut some aluminum foil into squares large enough to wrap the scallop shells. Wrap the shells with the foil, smoothing it over the ridges nicely. Butter the shells generously.
Roll out the dough to be ¼” thick. Roll onto the pin and place a shell underneath the dough. Roll the dough over the shell, and cut around it. Gently mold the dough over the shells. Use the video for more detailed instructions. Repeat for the remaining 5 shells.
Optional: Brush each shell with an egg wash made of 1 egg with a drop of cream.
Bake the shells for 15 minutes at 375°F or until cooked all the way through.

Oyster Shells with Saffron Cream- "Herat is the Pearl of Khorasan"

sophia — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 19:45:00 -0400

These pastries are not traditional Afghan food, but are purely symbolic. We make Spelt-Honey pastry shells, and then fill them with a saffron pastry cream with poppy seeds. We finish the shells off with sherry-soaked raisins (our pearls!). Raisins have been cultivated in Herat using the same methods for more than 500 years. The region hosts more than 120 varieties of these precious jewels, and people like Naser Jami, coordinator of the Presidium of the Abjosh Raisin of Herat, are currently working to promote their quality in the world markets. We hope that you try and make our desserts and celebrate the bounty of Herat!

Crustless Italian Ricotta Cheesecake

sophia — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 09:50:13 -0400

This is a delicious recipe for Italian Ricotta Cheesecake from Autumn Stoscheck of Eve's Cidery. The day we ate this, they had picked at least 2 pecks of plump blackberries from their friend's orchard. Be creative with the topping, but use what is fresh and in season.

1 lb ricotta cheese
1 lb cream cheese
1 ½ cups sugar
4 eggs
5 tablespoons flour
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
2 tablespoons lemon juice
½ cup melted butter, cooled
2 cups sour cream

Preheat oven to 325ºF.
In a food processor combine the ricotta, cream cheese, and sugar. Add eggs, flour, lemon juice, and vanilla.
Fold in the butter and sour cream
Pour into a buttered spring-form cake pan.
Bake for 1 hour. Turn off oven and leave untouched for another hour.
Top with some fresh fruit in season!
Serves 8.