Gutsy Cooks

                                                                  Look Ma, I cooked!

Molten Chocolate Souffle and Lava Cakes

Molten Chocolate Souffle and Lava Cakes sounded like desserts I've often seen listed on restaurant menus but never ordered.  I really did not know what to expect.

The recipe was simple enough.  First a ganache was made with cream and chocolate.  Poured into a plastic lined egg carton was not as easy as it sounded, though.  The plastic wrap got fiddly.  Still, it worked and into the frig they went for cooling. 

The cake batter consisted of few ingredients; chocolate, cocoa powder, butter. eggs and sugar.  Folded together into a fluffy batter, it was poured into silicone cupcake molds.  Rose said to only use Baker's Joy.  Oh, joy......No grocery store in my town stocks Baker's Joy!  I finally found some at Michael's craft store but was too lazy to drive to the mall.  I opted instead for the clarified butter and flour dusting method she suggested.  

They baked fourteen minutes, as directed.  In my oven, it was a bit too long.  The house smelled incredible.  If I was staging an open house for sale, this is what I'd have baking in the oven!

After they shrank away from the sides, they easily popped out of the molds to finish cooling.

I've never heard of non-stick aluminum foil, don't own a non-stick pan but it was unnecessary.  Placed in the frig on a regular plate, they didn't stick at all.  Maybe this was not a good sign.  Maybe it was an indication they cooked too long.

I was not fond of the coating left by the butter and flour.  I should have followed my own instinct and dusted it with cocoa powder instead.  Everyone kept asking if there was paper on the bottom that should be pulled off.

I finally took a knife and scraped the "crusty" bottoms.

These are a nice little bite of chocolate but a bit too chocolaty for me, which is ironic since I'm the Queen of Dark Chocolate. Next time I'll go down to 50% chocolate for the batter and lighten the ganache with milk chocolate.  I started referring to these as Two Bite Brownies and let me tell you, everyone else loved these things.  Go figure.

Gerard's Mustard Tart

I actually managed to make my first ever tart, complete with REAL dough and not store bought.  This was a big day for me, for I am on my way to conquering dreaded pie dough phobia.  It is why I named the blog which houses my cooking adventures, Almond Cream Pie.

Let me explain.  In the oldest Betty Crocker Cookbook known to man, the one which fed me many wonderful things growing up courtesy of my mom, contains our family favorite; Almond Cream Pie.  No one has made it since, with success anyway.  We reminisce about Almond Cream Pie now and then.  I always figured if one day I could overcome dough phobia, as well as, custard cooked on the stove stirred for hours phobia, perhaps I could make this pie.  A mission was born.

If you care to see my tart ventures along with future cooking escapades, please feel free to click on over.  It's bound to be fraught with mishaps which may or may not involve smoke detectors and paramedics.  I make no promises but as one who's cooking is often referred to as blackened Cajun flavored, there's a good chance it will.  Come on down!

Orange Chiffon Tweed Cake with Milk ‘n’ Honey Sabayon Ice Cream

New ABC baking adventure! Let's make a chiffon cake. Flo Braker made it easy with her Orange Chiffon Tweed Cake with Milk 'n' Honey Sabayon.

Well, would you look at that?  This little inexpensive gizmo actually worked.  Orange peels were pulverized with sugar.

Fresh orange juice for the cake and a glass for me.  It was five a.m.

Sweet orange juice; such a treat.

The star of the show was an old hand crank beater. I always use it for whipped cream.  Today, it beat together eggs and honey.

Orange Sugar added and hand cranked again.

 Flour and grated chocolate folded into the billowing orange eggs with stiffly beaten egg whites.  The batter was then poured into an angel food cake pan and popped into the oven.  Clearly I was so overcome with excitement about finding this that I forgot to take pictures.

What is this thing lurking at the back of the stove under a garlic basket?  Well, I'll be darned!  Sugar ribbons from the Pineapple Puddings.  Maybe I could send it to Rose and Woody for analysis?  Or a crime lab?  That sugar episode made me want to learn to pull Taffy.

                              

Hand crank beater met heavy cream which was then chilled while eggs and honey were beat into a puffy concoction.

Oh, heavens, now they must be whipped further over simmering water.  Was a trip to the ER in the forecast?  More importantly, did it really triple in volume?

 

Yes it did!  Quick Jeeves, the ice water bath to stop the cooking.  Phew, no honey scrambled eggs after all. Chilling the mixture gave me a hair brained idea.  What if I froze it instead into ice cream a la David Lebovitz?

Is it done?  Is it done?  Is it done?  Finally.

The moment of truth....an Orange Chiffon Tweed Cake or an Orange Chiffon Tweed Trifle?  A cake after all.  It didn't fall out of the pan. Note to self.  Find a glass long necked bottle before it comes out of the oven.

Three hours was a long time to wait for this cake to cool.  Non-nap-taking-teething-six-month-old littlest granddaughter helped me do dishes.  I needed an extra set of arms.

And it actually came out of the pan in one piece!  Another Will It Be Trifle moment averted.  Half my angel food cake pan with the removable bottom has gone missing.  I seem to remember it being absconded and filled with rocks.  Three year olds are inventive creatures.

Three very long hours later, I mean who can stand to wait for this thing to cool?  The aroma was maddening!

 Lining the bottom of the angel food cake pan with parchmont  helped it come out in tack.

This is a fantastic and easy chiffon cake.  A little doubtful about the Milk 'n' Honey Sabayon, because I don't like honey in baked goodies, the ice cream surprised me.  It is as good as Haagen-Daz.  Both are sure to be requested many times.  Everyone loved  this delectable orange chocolate combination.

Caramelized Pineapple Pudding Cakes with Store Bought Brioche

Caramelized Pineapple Pudding Cake with caramel which turned itself into a spun sugar art exhibit

Rose's Caramelized Pineapple Pudding Cakes is an incredibly rich dessert.  Rose includes a brioche recipe for the bread pudding base.  It sounded easy enough for someone not intimidated by yeast.  That would not be me.  Luckily Whole Foods had a lovely little loaf of brioche.

The brioche was trimmed, cut into cubes and dried in the oven, filling the kitchen with an amazing aroma.

Next caramel is made to line the ramekins.  Having a pastry brush dipped in water to wipe down any sugar crystals clinging to the inside of the pan helped prevent rock candy forming.  Sugar molecules are clever things.

Mixing the Creme Anglaise was very easy, except for frantic stirring ensuring the pot didn't turn into nutmeg flavored scrambled eggs. Poured over the brioche, it was left for a bit in the frig to soak up all the nutmeg goodness.

I am a Baby Boomer which means I grew up on canned pineapples, not freshly roasted ones.  I've never roasted any fruit before so this was a first and quite fun.  I mumbled quite a bit for not buying a pineapple corer at William Sonoma.and hacked away at the unsuspecting thing.  Caramelized sugar and pineapple juice basted the pineapple in my beloved cast iron skillet.

Once the pineapple cooled, I sliced as directed, although not managing terribly thin slices.  The soaked and drained bread batter was divided among ramekins then submerged into a am I going to the ER today bain marie, and tented with foil.  Forty minutes later we had lovely little puddings.

However, the caramel didn't quite cooperate with the puds.  It stuck to the bottom of the ramekins and was rock hard.  As I pulled the pineapple and sugar out, the caramel pulled into long ribbons!  It also turned itself into spun sugar without benefit of being swung across the kitchen with a lopped off whisk.  It made me feel very creative and quite avant-garde, turning out hip and modern sugar garnish.

The loads of leftover pineapple sauce was mixed with the minuscule Creme Anglaise and spooned onto the plate.  The very delicious Julie's Organic Caramel ice cream, possibly the creamiest ice cream in existence, was scooped on top.

The consensus was mixed.  Too much sugary flavored pineapple for the grandkids and myself.  Not enough for the grown kids, husband or Gena, our horse trainer. Or Daisy, the five month old Chihuahua quality inspector who figured out how to jump onto the computer desk via the chair.

We all, however, LOVED the brioche bread pudding.  Taking leftover soaked bread cubes, I made them into caramel free versions.  I seriously see this as being requested quite often, as in "Grandma, can you make that creamy bread pudding stuff only without the pineapple?"

Chocolate Tomato Cake with Mystery Ganache and Campbell's Soup Contest

 What a coincidence! Heavenly Cake Bakers made Rose's Chocolate Tomato Cake with Mystery Ganache containing Campbell's soup and this was on Cake Wrecks.  Considering Campbell's makes 237 kinds of soups, it got me to thinking.  Which soup would I choose to put in a cake for a corporate commission?  It could only be tomato

                           .

But wait!  Campbell's Soup is having a big contest.

Rose's cake reminded me of Playmobil's toy fort. It would be fun to replicate this for a little boy's birthday.

It also brought back fond childhood.memories when my mother got wind of the latest cake fad.  Naturally, she and the other neighborhood ladies had a go at it.  We kids were aghast.  Tomatoes or no tomatoes, we couldn't let chocolate cake pass us by and to our amazement, there wasn't any tomato flavor at all.   One of my all time favorite cook books, White Trash Cooking, lists Mater Cake which is, I suppose, code for tomato-soup-in-cake-but-no one-will-suspect-a-thing.

My daughter remembered her American Girl Cookbook explained the use of tomato soup in baked goods.  Molly, the doll representing World War II era, had a recipe using tomato soup in brown bread with the explanation bakers added it for extra nutrients.  Rose's cake gives new definition to Healthy Request!

Campbell's has a manufacturing plant  in my hometown.  When the delta breeze kicks in, we can tell which soup is being stirred up.

This was without a doubt, one of the easier cakes to make in Rose's Heavenly Cakes.  The hardest part was  fending off the grandkids from wanting "just one more" Piroette cookie.   I haven't bought any in years and the price increase gave me a bit of sticker shock.

The batter is the fluffiest to date.  I weighed half into a cake pan and turned the rest into cupcakes.

The ganache was made with Ghirardelli 60% chocolate chips and Raymond's One Bowl Method.  It worked perfectly.  I could not add the tomato soup.  I rationalized, reasoned and generally chastised myself then compromised with a tablespoon.  I think Nancy B was a guardian angel.

The cupcakes were done in thirty minutes.  The cake took a long time to bake.

Frosting with the ganache and spackling the cookies to the side was a breeze.  I cut the cookies in half and got away with just one can.  Waste not want not, or in my case eat the left overs, I scattered the bits and pieces over the top.

There is absolutely no trace of tomato flavor in this cake or ganache.  It's moist and light.  The Piroettes are ultra flaky and to my surprise, doesn't compete with the texture.  So far everyone likes it.  No one guessed correctly the "mystery" ingredient.

"This is wonderful!"

Even a new generation of kids think it's a really good chocolate cake.

Apple Caramel Charlotte

Apple Caramel Charlotte from Rose's Heavenly Cakes is an amazing dessert.  Light, creamy with caramel undertones and apples to offset too much sweetness.
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Pink Pearl apples.  

                                       Apples poaching in sugar syrup with vanilla bean.

                                                  Which turned into magenta applesauce.

                   

Re-poaching Granny Smiths with Pink Pearl skin added for color.

                                          

                           What to do with leftover poaching liquid?  Any ideas ? 

                                          

Rolling the parchment from underneath the sponge cake was much easier than flipping the cake.

                                            

                               Measuring the cake into strips.

Blast!  How did this one get left behind?  It was supposed to be brushed with apricot jam and layered with the others in the freezer. 

Cooling caramel custard over ice cubes. I used agar instead of gelatin, which made for a less dense texture. 

             

Mixing together whipped cream, caramel custard and the Italian meringue.

At this point I thought about chucking the whole lot.  I had a terrible time getting the sliced cake pieces to stand upright against the side of the spring form pan. 

                                      

Since the Pink Pearl apples made gorgeous apple sauce,  I took a bit of liberty and spread it over the finished custard then sparingly arranged the apple slices.  The center rose is poached apple skin.  Painting the apple slices with arrowroot and poaching syrup was a bit of welcome fun.

This definitely is not the type of dessert we typically have in our house.  I wasn't sure if any of us would like it.  I am pleased to say it received high marks which is nice because it is going to take me a week to recover. This innocent dessert took two days to make and loads of dish washing.  I could have used a pair of nurses shoes to help with the hours of standing.  When it was finally finished and chilling in the frig, I have to admit it gave me an enormous sense of accomplishment.