After reading through the amazing Flavor Bible, I knew I wanted to use cardamom with my plums. I think it worked out quite well. I’m not sure if this is truly a clafouti (which is a traditional French dessert made with cherries) but it’s certainly derivative enough to use the name. The plums I used were just super market variety black plums.

The recipe:

Preheat the oven to 375˚
Butter a 9 inch round cake pan with 2 inch sides and dust it with sugar.

Then add to a blender :
3 eggs
1 1/4 cups half and half
1/3 cup sugar + about a tablespoon for dusting the pan.
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
zest of one orange
2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt

Set the blended ingredients aside while you cut the plums into a size approximating a cherry—a half inch cube. Toss them with the sugar.

6 plums or about 4 cups chunked
1 tablespoon natural (Turbinado) sugar

Put the plums into the cake pan in an even layer. Pour the egg mixture over it.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes until it is puffed and the custard is set.

Serve warm or at room temperature, dusted with confectioners sugar.

Enjoy!

Italian plums at the market:

I agreed to participate in this cooking challenge two days before leaving for Italy. I got my book and the next day, headed to the airport for two weeks in my favorite place on earth. While visiting several produce markets, I kept thinking, PLUMS! When I returned, I decided to try a cheesecake with an Italian twist topped with plums and a ginger crust.

For the Crust:

1 1/4 c. gingersnap crumbs
1/4 c. BROWN SUGAR
5 T. unsalted butter, melted

Mix crumbs and brown sugar. Stir in melted butter, and blend thoroughly with a fork. Press into the bottom of a 9" springform pan and bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Let cool.

Filling:

2 7-8 oz. containers mascarpone
12 oz. cream cheese
3/4 c. SUGAR
3 eggs
1 t. VANILLA
1 t. LEMON JUICE

Beat mascarpone and cream cheese (room temp) until smooth. Add sugar and beat well. Add eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition. Add vanilla and lemon juice. Pour into cooled crust. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325 and bake another 25 minutes. Turn off oven, and leave cheesecake in the oven for 30 more minutes. Cool on rack, cover and refrigerate until ready for the plum topping.

Topping:

6 large red plums (cut in half, then pitted and sliced)
3/4 c. ORANGE JUICE
1/2 c. red currant jelly
1/4 c. BROWN SUGAR
3 slices of fresh ginger

Whisk together orange juice, jelly, brown sugar and ginger in a skillet. Stir over medium heat until sugar and jelly have melted. Increase heat slightly and add sliced plums. When mixture comes to a boil, reduce heat to medium low, cover and cook for 3 minutes. Remove plums with a slotted spoon. Increase heat again and bring liquid to a boil for 6-7 minutes, until reduced by half. Cover and chill plums and glaze until ready to assemble.

Arrange cooled plums on top of cheesecake.

Brush with glaze, slice and serve. Melt glaze to spreadable consistency in microwave for 30 seconds if necessary.

First a word about myself. I am not a fancy cook. I am a busy working lady, with a husband who likes to eat. His family owned the 'WhistleStop Cafe' for many years; so he is used to some good cooking. I have spent all my life traveling, and that adventure shows in my cooking. I was thrilled to be a part of the Pomodori e Vino... and now to be a part of Flavors!

This is my first post of the next 52 weeks ~ our ingredient this week is Plum. According to the Flavor Bible, plums are sweet and astringent. Flavors that are recommended will be capitalized in my recipe.

Keeping it true to me, the Southern cook that I am ~ I've come up with a recipe that is simple and yummy. Y'all will be wanting to try this quick dessert!

Plum Tart
1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed
1/2 cup sliced ALMONDS
2 tablespoons SUGAR
2 cups thinly sliced Plums
1/4 cup ORANGE marmalade
1 tsp CINNAMON
1 Tbs crystalized GINGER
Preheat oven to 350° On a lightly floured work surface, roll out puff pastry to a 12-by-16-inch rectangle. In the center of the pastry spread the orange marmalade, minced ginger, and sprinkle with cinnamon. Slice the plums and arrange on the top. On the outer 1-inch, sprinkle with almonds. Bake until light golden, about 20 to 25 minutes.
Serve with a scoop of ICE CREAM and a drizzle of SOUTHERN COMFORT (if desired)

Y'all enjoy~
Sandi

Something I look forward to when the fall apple season rolls around is the brief appearance of a gourmet caramel apple from a local candy company. Merb’s Bionic Apples are legend in St. Louis. Tens of thousands are produced, purchased, and consumed in what seems like the blink of an eye.

A few years ago, during Bionic Apple season, our SlowTrav cooking group was focusing on homemade ice cream. One of the designated flavors was cinnamon. I decided to cut the tops off a couple of Bionic Apples, hollow them out, and use them as edible ice cream bowls.

Now, here we are, in caramel apple season again, with apples as FLAVORS’ ingredient of the week. It really isn’t creating a new recipe to just put cinnamon ice cream in a Bionic Apple. So I’ve decided to change up the ice cream, put the caramel and nuts on the inside of the hollowed out apple and call it my Inside-Out Caramel Apple with Fried Apple Ice Cream.

For the Ice Cream Base:

Use your favorite traditional *CINNAMON Ice Cream recipe to make your base. I used page 38 in David Lebovitz’s book “The Perfect Scoop” . I followed his recipe exactly, then put the mix in the refrigerator while I fried my apples.

For the Fried Apples:

2 - Medium to large Granny Smith Apples
1 - Medium to large Honey Crisp Apple
2 - Tbs. BUTTER, UNSALTED
½ c – SUGAR
½ c – water
Juice of 1 small LEMON

1- Peel, core and chop apples into small pieces
2- Melt butter in skillet
3- Fry apples to a golden brown in butter
4- Add sugar, lemon juice, and water to pan. Cover and cook until mushy, stirring often.
5- Remove from pan, puree with stick blender & press thru a mesh sieve.
6- Put in fridge to chill completely along with ice cream base.

When you are ready to make the ice cream, following the directions for your ice cream freezer, pour cinnamon base into turning freezer bowl and add fried apple puree.

Transfer frozen ice cream to your storage container, lay some plastic wrap directly on top, snap on the lid and put in the coldest part of your freezer to harden.

For the Apple Bowls:

1- Choose large, heavy, smooth skinned honey crisp apples.
2- Cut about ½ inch of the stem end off the top.
3- Carefully scoop out the center, leaving a rim and bottom of about 3/8 inch.
4- Rub the inside of the scooped out apple lightly with lemon juice then line it with a coating of CARAMEL dip.
5- Pave the caramel with a single layer of chopped WALNUTS (use pecans if you prefer). The picture above is deceiving, in that it looks like the apple is filled with the nuts, but it is only a single layer.

At this point, you can cover your apples with plastic wrap and store in refrigerator until you are ready to serve dessert.

To Assemble:

1- Remove ice cream from freezer and prepped apples from fridge.
2- Place a couple of scoops of your Fried Apple Ice cream into your apple bowl
3- Drizzle with additional caramel and top with more chopped walnuts.
4- Serve immediately.

I'm scoring this one a HOME RUN, I think the combination of Granny Smith and Honey Crisp apples gives my Fried Apple version of David's Cinnamon Ice Cream is wonderfully complexity.

I love ginger and when I saw it was in an “affinity” group, in the Flavor Bible, with apples and hazelnuts I knew just what I wanted to make.

Recipe: serves 10-12

For the apples:

3 pounds (about 6 medium) Granny Smith apples
3 pounds Macintosh apples
All peeled, cored and cut into about 1 inch chunks.

Zest of 1 LEMON
3 tablespoons fresh LEMON JUICE
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1 1/2 teaspoons CINNAMON
1/4 cup chopped candied ginger

Put the apples into a large bowl.

Mix the zest and the grated ginger into the lemon juice and pour over the apples. Combine the spices and sugar and mix them, thoroughly, all into the apples. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 425° while you make the topping.

For the topping:

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup light BROWN SUGAR
2 tablespoons WHITE SUGAR
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
11 tablespoons UNSLATED BUTTER cut into 1 tablespoon chunks
1/2 cup chopped candied ginger
1 cup hazelnuts (it’s OK to leave the skins on)

I used the food processor but you could easily do this by hand.

Pulse the dry ingredients, a few times, in the food processor, to mix thoroughly.

Add the butter and pulse about 6 more times until the butter is in pea size pieces.

Add hazelnuts and pulse about 6 more times until the hazelnuts are roughly chopped.
Mix in the candied ginger with 2 more pulses.

Put the apples into the bottom of a 4 quart baking dish. (I used a pyrex 10 x 14 one)

Spread the topping evenly over the apples.

Bake for about 50 minutes or until the topping is brown and the apples are bubbling beneath.

Serve warm or a room temperature.

And yes, of course it would be wonderful with a little freshly whipped cream!

I love apples. I love apple desserts more! Anyone who knows me knows that if there's an apple dessert on the menu, I'm ordering it, over chocolate, over lemon, over anything. So my first thought was to make an apple bread pudding, using challah (a sweet, egg bread) that I was making for Rosh Hashanah. I should have stuck with my first thought.

Instead, I decided to really push my limits and make an apple souffle. After all, I've never seen one, ever, in a restaurant or anywhere (maybe there's a reason). I like souffles. They're actually pretty easy to do on Weight Watchers (not a lot of fat in a souffle) and I've successfully made both Gran Marnier Souffles and chocolate souffles (sorry no picture/entry for those). How hard/bad could it be?

First I checked our bible, Flavors to see what goes with apples.

• Cinnamon (of course), comes in with caps, bold, and an asterisk - check
• Creme Anglaise, a standard good go along - check
• Rum, bold and caps - check
• honey, bold, lower case (hmm, maybe I'll use that instead of sugar as it will be in honor of Rosh Hashanah when we eat apples and honey for a sweet new year) - check.

Ingredients

Okay - I think I've hit all the requirements. On to the recipes.

Here I must confess (yes, remember I warned you about my confessions, I did look at some other souffle recipes (especially pumpkin) to get ideas on how to incorporate apple into the souffle, also ideas for ratios and oven temperature as well as ideas for my creme anglaise - especially this (after all this wasn't the main recipe, really just an additional ingredient).

I based my Creme upon this one from Cooking Light. My changes, I used skim milk instead of 1% and I added some rum liquor. With a serving size of 2T, it's 1 point per serving. And though I used fat free milk instead of 1% I thought it thick and flavorful enough.

Creme Anglaise

• 1 3/4 cup fat free milk
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 vanilla bean
• 4 egg yolks (actually works well, because between this and the souffle below, you use 6 eggs total)
• 2t good rum or rum liquor

Put the milk, scrapings from the split vanilla bean and the bean into a sauce pan. Heat over medium flame for about five or six minutes - don't boil just cook it until those tiny bubbles start to form along the edges. Remove the bean.

In another bowl blend egg yolks and sugar. Gradually add the milk to the bowl, whisking the entire time (for those of you familiar with the Sunday Slow Scoopers will recognize this as the same process used to make custard based ice creams. Return the mixture to the pan and rewarm it, stirring constantly, until it coats the back of a wooden spoon (i.e., if you pull the spoon out of the custard, run a finger across its back and the trail your finger made stays, it's done). Pour the mixture through a strainer into a bowl set in an ice bath (probably should do this ahead of time). Stir in the rum. Let it cool and you can store it for three days in the fridge.

Now for the souffle, this is what I came up with.

Apple Pie Souffle

• 6 apples, I used a combination because it's what I had on hand - 3 granny smith, 2 gala, and a honeycrisp
• 1t ground cinnamon
• 3T honey
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 2T water
• 2 egg yolks
• 3T Good dark rum or rum liquor
• 1/2C evaporated skim milk
• 6 egg whites
• 1/4 t cream of tartar
• 1T sugar
• 2t sugar

I took the first five ingredients (coring the apples, slicing them but not peeling) and put them into a pot until the apples cooked down and were soft. I then put them through a food mill (finest holes), to remove the skin and puree. Here was a bit of my first disappointment. I had hoped the honey flavor would be a bit stronger (ironically, at first, I thought it was too strong and would overpower but in the end I couldn't really taste it).

Apples, Before and After

While the puree cooled, I prepared my souffle dishes. I had six, 7 ounce ramekins that I coated with cooking spray and sprinkled with the 2t of sugar. I actually had left over souffle mix at the end so probably could have done 8 ramekins (but this is the problem with making your own recipe, you will have to do it over and over again to get the portions/ingredients/cooking time correct and unfortunately (or fortunately) that's just not happening here.

Once the apple puree cooled, I added the egg yolks, dark rum (I confess, I actually used a rum liquor here), and the evaporated milk to the puree.

Next, I beat my egg whites until foamy, then I added the cream of tartar and the 1T of sugar and beat again until stiff peaks formed (that means when you take your beater out, it will leave a little curly q).

Now I folded in my egg whites (starting with a third first, then once that was incorporating adding the rest), into the apple puree. You don't want to mix too much as you don't want to deflate the egg whites. Then spoon the mixture into the prepared ramekins.

Souffle batter in ramekins

Now here was the tough part - baking. It was a hot day and I didn't want to turn on my big oven so I did them in my convection (which you have to preset baking times and also has a hot spot in the back left corner). I was also concerned that I had enough whites to lift the heavier puree. Anyway, I started by cooking two at 400 for 12 minutes.

You can see it rose but not as much as I would have liked.

First Attempt

But inside, it wasn't cooked through.

First Attempt - Failed

This went on a few times, next at 400 for 15 minutes, then 375 for 17 minutes, finally 375 for 20 minutes.

Final Attempt - Just About Sucess

You can see it's still a tad moist in the center but okay and notice the browning on the one side of the top (remember that hot spot?). Again, it didn't rise as much as I had hoped. Still, I went with it, poured my Creme Anglaise on top and tasted.

In the end, here's my "issue" with this souffle. The flavors were spot on but it was a consistency feel in my mouth. You see, the pureed apples gave the souffle a bit of that grainy, apple-sauce like consistency which I didn't expect. I'll try again but next time, I may use an apple schnapps as my flavor provider for the souffle (similar to those Grand Marnier souffles) or find a better tool for pureeing my apples, to give them a finer quality.

And for those keeping track, at 7 (or 8) servings we are at 4 Weight Watcher points plus, and an additional ppv for two tablespoons of the Creme Anglaise.

Last summer we visited a small village on the shore of Lake Peipsi along the border between southeastern Estonia and Russia. The town, Varnja, is home to “The Russian Old Believers”. They split from the Russian Orthodox Church in the mid-1600s and settled in this small area of Estonia. It was here that we tasted wonderful onion buns, rhubarb pastries and a candy treat made of carrots. The young lady who served it to us, said it was Russian. It was cloyingly sweet but deliciously carroty. I enjoyed it but couldn’t eat more than one piece.

Who knew, that experience would give me my inspiration for this weeks use of carrots?

In trying to replicate the general texture and appearance of that piece of carrot candy, this is what I came up with:

1-lb carrots peeled and finely shredded
1-lb granulated white sugar
Juice from 1 lemon
1 teaspoon Ground ginger
2 cup chopped nuts of your choice

In a heavy bottomed sauce pan over medium-high heat, mix shredded carrots, sugar, lemon juice, and ginger. Once sugar has completely melted, turn heat to medium-low and continue cooking, stirring very frequently. Continue until volume has reduced by at least half.

Remove from heat and cool only long enough to be able to roll mixture in plastic wrap without melting the wrap.

You'll be repeating the following process four times, so you need to work fast to keep the carrot mixture from cooling down too much.

Lay out a piece of plastic wrap on a flat cold surface. Spread ¼ of the carrot mixture evenly covering an area of about 8” x 10”. Sprinkle with the surface with ¼ of your chopped nuts. Starting with an 8” edge, lift the plastic wrap and carefully make a narrow fold to begin your roll. Using the plastic wrap, continue rolling the mixture. As you roll, peel back the plastic wrap so that it doesn’t get caught in the roll.

When the log is completed, moisten your fingers and press down the final edge to blend it into the roll. The wrap the completed log in plastic wrap and put in refrigerator to chill.

When you are ready to serve, remove a log from the fridge and slice in ¼” pieces. For smooth slicing, try using a sharp narrow boning knife. Heat the knife under hot running water, or pass it over a flame on your range.

I’m going to have to rate this as a GOOD. I don’t like the excessive sugar any more than I did when I tasted the originals in Varnja. But I love the strong carrot taste. If I were to make any changes at all, it would be to use fresh grated ginger and increase the amount by at least double, if not triple. Its flavor was totally overpowered by the carrot.

Y'all can see that the flavor for the week is Carrots. While we acknowledge that carrots are a vegetable . . . in the south we love to turn them in to a sweet. (as with most things)

I am glad to see that the flavor profile includes butter, sugar, maple syrup and pecans. Marshmallows are not on that list ~ but that is clearly an oversight. They have also included tarragon, thyme, onions and celery. I am excited to see what everyone else has done with their carrots.
I have decided to stay true to my Southern cooking roots ~ and making a carrot cake ~ using the Flavor Bible as my guide. We have served more than a slice of two of Carrot Cake at the WhistleStop Cafe. I have listed all the recommended flavors are all in Caps.
Carrot Cake
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 cups SUGAR
1 teaspoon SALT
1 Tbs baking soda
1 Tbs CINNAMON
1 1/2 cups OLIVE OIL
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 Tbs VANILLA extract
1 1/2 cups shelled PECANS, chopped)
1 cups sweetened, shredded coconut
2 cups of finely grated CARROTS
1 cup of drained crushed pineapple
1/2 white RAISINS
Frosting
8 oz CREAM CHEESE
6 Tbsp unsalted BUTTER
2 1/2 cups of confectioners' SUGAR
1 teaspoon VANILLA extract
2 Tbsp LEMON juice

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour two 9 inch cake pans.
Sift dry ingredients into a bowl. In a large mixing bowl, combine oil, eggs, and vanilla. Beat well. Add dry ingredients until smooth. Fold in chopped pecans, coconut, carrots and pineapple.
Pour the lumpy batter into pans. Bake for 45 minutes Until done. Cool on a cake rack.
To make the frosting, cream together the cream cheese and butter in a mixing bowl. Slowly sift in the confectioners sugar and beat until mixture is free of lumps. Stir in vanilla and lemon juice.
Once cakes have cooled, frost with Cream Cheese frosting.
Using shaved carrots, put into ice water, decorate with carrot swirls. This cake is chock full of carrots ~ that has to make you feel good about a slice!
Y'all enjoy~
Sandi

My regular shortbread is always a hit hit at the holidays, so I decided to try some with dried cranberries.

1 pound butter, softened
3 c. flour
1 c. Rice flour (found in Asian section of market)
1 c. sugar
1 t. vanilla
7 oz. dried cranberries
4 oz. white chocolate chips or white baking pieces or white "Candy Melts"

Beat butter in bowl of electric mixture. Add sugar, and beat until fluffy. Mix regular flour with rice flour, and add, half at a time. Add vanilla and beat. Stir in dried cranberries.

Press dough evenly into a jelly roll pan. Using a fork, make "lines" across top, going both directions. Prick dough with fork, every 2 inches.

Bake at 325 for 20 minutes, or until edges start to get slightly golden.

Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then cut into squares while pan is still warm. Cool completely, then drizzle with melted white chocolate.

A great afternoon snack with a glass of prosecco and cranberry juice!

Um, well, let's just say if you like Cosmos, you'll love this! 'Nuff said.

Ingredients

• 4C water
• 1.5C SUGAR (okay, it was a bit sweet, I might drop that to 1.25 sugar but my daughter liked it as is and thought it tart still)
• 2C fresh cranberries
• zest of 1 orange
• 1/2t cinnamon (I debated cinnamon or ginger but decided on the cinnamon)
• 2T Grand Marnier

Directions

Bring water, sugar, cranberries, zest and cinnamon to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes or until all the cranberries pop (you know, they actually remind me of popcorn popping). Pour through a sieve into a 1 quart container. Put in the fridge to chill (I chilled mine overnight).

Pour chilled cranberry concoction into an ice cream maker and process until frozen (mine took 20 - 30 minutes). Put into another 1qt (you might actually get a tad more than a qt), container and stick into the freezer overnight.

Voila! You know, for a fancy Thanksgiving dinner, this would make a pretty decent intermezzo.

Oh, and for my weight watcher peeps, 1/4C is 2 points plus.

What shall I do with pears that hasn’t already been done? How about poaching them, not in wine, but in pear brandy?

Now that my mind has gone there, I might as well make them as decadent as possible. I recently rediscovered a bottle of pear brandy in the back of my pantry. It was a forgotton experiment from two years ago when I thought I'd try soaking black walnuts in it. Now is as good a time as any to see how it turned out. And since WALNUTS are in caps on the complimentary ingredients list from the Flavor Bible, why not make everything I use caps? How about serving those poached pears filled with a CHOCOLATE MASCARPONE mousse? How about garnishing it with shaved chocolate, brandy soaked walnuts, and a drizzle of pear brandy reduction? This recipe serves eight.

For the mousse:

½ cup SUGAR
1/3 cup sifted unsweetened COCOA
Pinch salt
3 Tbs. pear brandy (but first you need to filter out the sediment and reserve the WALNUTS)
8 ounces MASCARPONE

In a large bowl, combine sugar, cocoa and salt with brandy. Stir until smooth and add to softened mascarpone. Beat with hand mixer at medium speed until completely smooth and a little fluffy. Chill for at least 3 hours or overnight. Whip again with fork before using.

For the poached pears:

4 ripe yet very firm Bartlett pears
3 cups water
1/3 cup HONEY
1/3 cup SUGAR
1 cup pear/WALNUT brandy
1/2 cup brandy soaked WALNUTS

Peel pears and cut in half lengthwise. Scoop out a little of the center to create a shallow bowl the same general shape of the pear.

Add the water, honey, & sugar to a 4-quart pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Stir until sugar and honey are dissolved, then add brandy and brandy soaked walnuts.

Slip the pears into the liquid and turn the heat down to a simmer. Cover and cook for at least 20-30 minutes, or until the pears are barely tender, but not mushy.

Transfer the pears and the poaching liquid to a smaller container that has been immersed in an ice bath for quick chilling. Gently stir to help bring the temperature down more quickly. When cool, cover and refrigerate overnight.

Next morning, remove pears from the poaching liquid with a slotted spoon, put in a covered container and back into the fridge. Transfer the poaching liquid including the walnuts to a sauce pan. Bring to a slow rolling boil and continue boiling until liquid has reduced to 1/4 the original volume. Add another 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup honey. Continue to boil until volume has reduced again, this time by 1/2. You should be left with about 1 cup of light syrup. Chill completely.

While your poaching liquid is bubbling away, put another 1/2 cup of the brandy soaked walnuts in a dry saute pan and toast over low flame until they loose the moisture and become crunchy. Cool completely.

To assemble:

Dust dessert plate with grated chocolate. I used a 67% single-estate Madagascar chocolate from one of my favorite chocolatiers - http://www.patric-chocolate.com/ . If you haven’t tasted Alan McClur’s micro-batch chocolates, do yourself a favor and order some. You’ll be amazed.

Place a pear half in the middle of the plate and fill with a heaping tablespoon of mousse.
Drizzle with syrup and sprinkle with toasted walnuts. Enjoy. I'm calling it a home run.

For a dinner party, I think there would be a considerable wow factor - far beyond the actual work you put into it. If I owned a restaurant, this could be my signature dessert. All of the prep work can be done even two-three days ahead. Then it is just a quick assembly.

I'm not a huge fan of pears. It's a texture thing. But my husband is addicted so I am slowly developing a taste for them. This week provided me a nice opportunity to expand my appreciation for them. I used Bartlett and Bosc in combination. Both of them were mostly ripe with a nice perfume while I was preparing them.

Full disclosure--I also made a spiced mascarpone topping but it was not perfect so I am not posting the recipe. If you want to try it yourself, I just beat up some softened mascarpone with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and a splash of cream. Where I went wrong was adding too much cinnamon so, back to the drawing board with this one.

The pears were fabulous, though. The orange zest and liquor, suggested, of course, by the Flavor Bible, really complimented them.

Sautéed Pears

5 ripe pears (I used 3 Barlett and 2 Bosc) peeled, cored and chopped into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 cup orange liquor like Drambuie or Gran Marnier
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup sugar
grated zest of 1 orange
1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg

Put 2 tablespoons of the butter into a 12” skillet over medium heat. When the butter begins to brown, add the pears and cook until softened and starting to brown, about 3 minutes.
Add the sugar, nutmeg, liquor and orange zest. Cook about 1 minute more until the liquid is slightly reduced.
Add the last tablespoon of butter, swirling the pan to emulsify the sauce.

Put the pears into 4 small bowls, top with good vanilla ice cream.

Juicy, ripe pears are just luscious, so I decided to make an Italian style pear torta. I added caramel sauce and some sea salt to the top for a different twist, and served it with home made caramel ice cream. This cake comes together in just a few minutes, and is a delicious fall dessert. I got rave reviews when I brought it to my Book Club lunch.

Pear Torta

1 cup flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 heaping teaspoon baking powder
1 t. almond extract
3 Bosc pears

Preheat convection oven to 325. Cut pears in half, then peel and core them and set them aside. Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl. Beat well with a whisk. Pour batter into a 9" sprayed springform pan. Slice pear halves horizontally, starting a 1/2 an inch from the top, and fan out slices slightly. Press pear halves into batter.

Bake for 50-60 minutes, until batter is cooked and golden. Let cool completely. Your kitchen will smell heavenly!

When cool, drizzle caramel sauce, the a sprinkling of coarse sea salt on top.

The cake is great all by itself...

or AMAZING with some caramel ice cream!

I had grand visions on this dish. First I was thinking some sort of pear galette, then I thought something savory, maybe with blue cheese... In the end though, I went with something simple (sorry holiday hectics is getting to me), and nothing is simpler than another sorbet!

I knew I wanted something with pear and almond so had Chris pick up some almond paste at the market but never having worked with almond paste, it occurred to me (without opening the container) that it might give the sorbet a ... chalky ... pebbly consistency that I didn't want, so I decided to use Amaretto instead (hey who doesn't like booze in their dessert?).

Next I wondered about what liquid to use. It was a toss up between water or the one cup of apple cider I had left in the refrigerator. I opted for the cider but now I wish I had done the water (or maybe some white grape juice) because Sammi (that's my daughter. Have I mentioned her?) and I both think that the apple flavor may have overpowered the pear flavor a tad.

Last decision, when and how much amaretto to use? I decided to put it in with the pears during cooking, thinking maybe, the alcohol would cook off and leave me with just that almond flavor. Unfortunately, the alcohol did cook off and with it a lot of that lovely almond flavor. So I added another two tablespoons before I put it in the ice cream maker. The recipe below reflects the actual two tablespoons you will need (rather than the four I used).

Oh, and one more note on the sugar, I used half a cup. I think next time I'll use only a third a cup (if I use a juice as the liquid) because it was just a tad too sweet for me.

Other than that, I'll definitely make this again!

Ingredients

• 5 small to medium pears (about 2 lbs), peeled and chopped
• 1/2C SUGAR (I will use less next time)
• 1C apple juice/cider
• 2T amaretto (I'm counting this as almond in the list baby)
• large pinch of ground CINNAMON

Directions

• Put all the ingredients except 2T amaretto into a pot. Bring to a boil and cook until pears are tender.
• Puree the ingredients until smooth in a food processor or blender and chill 8 hours or overnight.
• Mix the 2T amaretto into the puree.
• Put into the ice cream maker according to manufacturer's directions.
• Freeze.

Ta dah!

Sorry for the image quality. Must remember to not take pictures using my iPhone after beer dinners

For my Weight Watcher peeps, apologies, I forgot to weigh the final product before we ate it. I'm going with 2 points plus per small scoop (i.e., don't pack it in there).

This week our featured ingredient is chestnuts. I've eaten chestnuts a few times, but I never enjoyed them very much. I thought the texture was rather mealy. I liked the flavor, so I figured that I just never had really good ones since most people seem to love them.

Chestnuts are hard to find here in Anchorage. I didn't want to have to mail order any, then I remembered that a few years ago on a visit to Tuscany, I brought back a couple of jars of chestnuts in syrup. I think I ate the first jar on top of ice cream, and for whatever reason never opened the second jar. I won't tell you how many years past expiration they were, because you'd think I was crazy to eat them. But internet searches led me to discover that sweet jams and fruits rarely go bad. They just might deteriorate in quality. So I tasted one, and it was delicious. No funny taste, and I ate the first one about 8 hours ago and I'm not sick yet.

The next decision was what to make. I decided to make apples one of my complimentary ingredients. I was trying to think about what I could make when something got me to thinking about those old-fashioned applesauce snack cakes. You know, the one where you mix everything together right in the pan you're going to be baking it in.

So since baking is somewhat of an art, I had to have a basic recipe to adapt from. A google search turned up a recipe from TreeTop. I skipped the allspice called for in the recipe, and instead used cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. I also skipped the lemon juice and used rum instead. And then most apple snack cakes have raisins. I don't remember whether this original recipe did or not, but I decided to instead use the drained, chopped chestnuts.

The cake turned out really good! Much better than I expected. I would by no means consider this a snack cake now. The rich spices and chestnuts and rum definitely elevate it above that. It would be perfect for any dinner party, plain with just a dusting of powdered sugar on top, or with a little lightly sweetened whipped cream.

If you don't happen to have any chestnuts in syrup that you brought back from Italy on hand, you could always just use raisins (I would prefer golden raisins) or any other dried fruit.

Apple Spice Cake with Chestnuts

1 1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves
grating of nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon rum
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
2/3 cup apple juice
1/2 cup drained, chopped chestnuts in syrup

In an ungreased 8 or 9" square pan (I used a 10" round pan), combine flour, brown sugar, spices, and soda. Mix well with fork or whisk. Sprinkle with the chestnuts. In a separate bowl or large mixing cup, combine apple sauce, vanilla, rum, oil, egg, and apple juice. Mix thoroughly with fork or whisk. Add liquid ingredients to flour mixture in pan, and mix until all ingredients are combined. Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 - 60 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. (The original recipe called for baking for 40 minutes. I had to back mine for 60 minutes or even a little longer to get it cooked in the center.)

Many of these ingredients were on the list in the Flavor Bible:
BUTTER, ORANGE, NUTMEG, CINNAMON, pecans, bourbon, ginger, raisins and vanilla.
We loved the results!

Sweet Potato Bread Pudding

Preheat oven to 350°
Butter an 8 X 11 inch glass casserole

1/2 loaf of challa bread cut into 1-inch cubes
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup raisins
2 1/2 cups half and half
4 eggs
2 cups sweet potato puree* (from about 3 large sweet potatoes)
Grated zest of 1 orange
3/4 + 2 tablespoons cup light brown sugar
3 tablespoons bourbon
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Butter for greasing the pan

Put the bread, pecans and raisins into a large bowl and set aside.

In a medium bowl beat the eggs lightly and then add the rest of the ingredients, using just the 3/4 cup of the sugar. Use a whisk to combine them well.

Pour the custard into the bread and mix gently.
Pour into the greased casserole.
Sprinkle the additional 2 tablespoons of sugar over the top.

Bake at 350° for about an hour—until the top is beginning to brown and the custard is totally set.

I like this best when it’s still warm but not hot.

*Make the puree by boiling large chunks of sweet potatoes in the skin. When soft enough for a fork to go in easily, drain them. When they’re cool enough to handle, remove the skins and puree the potatoes in a food processor. (I actually made way too much so we had sweet potatoes for dinner, too.)

It was January 8th - a lazy Sunday. I'd decided to come up with my banana recipe. I didn't know what I was going to do, only that whatever it was had to come out of my pantry and fridge, because I didn't intend to leave the house all day. I heard on a morning news program that it would have been Elvis Presley's 77th birthday. Immediately peanut butter and banana sandwiches pop into my head. But, hey, Elvis already created that recipe, didn't he?

What kind of spin could I put on peanut butter and bananas that would be unique?

Substitute hazelnut spread for peanut butter, of course. And since hazelnut spread is the "peanut butter" of Italy, why not pizzelle instead of bread? Best of all, I had all the ingredients on hand. I used the recipe for traditional pizzelle, adjusting to accomodate the flavor ingredients I wanted to use.

For the pizzelle ---

3 eggs at room temperature
3/4 cup SUGAR
1/2 cup melted and then cooled butter
1/2 T RUM
6 T pureed overripe bananas
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 cup finely ground hazelnut flour
2 tsp. baking powder

In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs and sugar. Mix in the cooled butter, rum, and banana puree. Add the hazelnut flour and sift in the flour and baking power. The batter should be stiff enough to be dropped by spoon.

Drop heaping spoonfuls of dough on the heated pizzelle baker. It will take a bit of practice to know just where on the grid to drop the dough. A little to the back of center will compensate for the forward pressure of the lid as you put it down.

Because you want to make sure you fill the form completely, you will use more dough than you need for each pizzella. Don't worry, the extra makes a nice crunchy snack. (Or do what I do, break it into pieces and freeze it in a plastic bag to be used as a topping for icecream.)

With the lid down, it will take about 30-40 seconds to bake the pizzelle. Use a spatula to remove them from the baker to paper towels. While they're still hot, cut out the circles with a small sharp knife. Set aside to cool. Make sure you keep them flat.

For the filling ---

3 T hazelnut spread
2 T banana puree
1 T RUM
1/3 cup powdered SUGAR

Mix all of the filling ingredients together. Add more powdered sugar if it isn't stiff enough to spread without running. Spread the filling on the top of one pizzella and add another pizzella to make a sandwich. Set the sandwiches aside while you melt the dipping chocolate.

For the coating --

Melted semi-sweet CHOCOLATE
Crushed dried banana chips
Crushed hazelnuts

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Dip each pizzelle sandwich into the chocolate. Spread the chocolate over both sides to coat completely. BUT, leave a small area uncovered. This both serves as a place to hold the sandwich without getting chocolate on your fingers, and it allows you to see the beautiful pizzelle underneath.

Immediately dip one side of the sandwich in the crushed hazelnuts. Then turn it over and dip the other side in the crushed banana chips. Set on waxed paper or parchment to harden.

Store in an airtight container to keep them from softening up. They also freeze very well.

I have to say that these were delicious. Everyone I tested them on loved them. I bet even Elvis would have approved. Now I'm wondering what other types of pizzelle sandwiches I can dream up.

I had the idea for this recipe in 2004. It was fun to get it out again, brush it off and update it a bit.

From the Flavor Bible I used: almonds, butter, COCONUT, nutmeg, RUM, SUGAR and vanilla.

1/2 loaf challa bread cut into 1 inch cubes

2 eggs + 1 yolk
2 cups half and half
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 Tablespoons dark rum
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt

2 very ripe bananas, sliced
1/3 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup slivered almonds
2 Tablespoons turbinado sugar
2 teaspoons butter

Set oven to 350°
Cut up the bread and put it into a large bowl.
Whisk the eggs in a separate bowl. Add the half & half, sugar, vanilla, nutmeg and salt. Whisk until blended. Add to the bread cubes with the bananas and coconut. Mix it all together. Turn into an 8 inch spring form pan. Sprinkle the top with the almonds and turbinado sugar and dot with the butter.
Bake at 350 about 45 minutes.
Let cool to room temperature and remove the ring.
(Option here would be to drizzle with melted chocolate)
Serve with freshly whipped cream.
You can see in this photo that I almost over whipped the cream.

I’ve been on a Nutella kick lately, so for this week’s ingredient, I decided to combine bananas with this chocolate-hazelnut spread. Bananas work with peanut butter, so why not?

I am somewhat of a purist when it comes to bananas. I like bananas, but I like them “straight”. I will eat a banana, or put a banana in a bowl of cereal, but I am not fond of banana flavored foods, such as banana cake or bread.

It’s a BUSY week! I have been cooking and baking up a storm for a big event, and getting ready to go out of town, so I used a “shortcut”, or what I call a “cheater step” in my recipe. It still turned out great!

Cake:

1 box yellow cake mix
3/4 c. Nutella
2 t. hazelnut extract (or Frangelico liquore)

Bake the cake in two round cake pans according to package directions. Cool.

Nutella Buttercream Frosting:

4 T. unsalted butter, softened
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 c. powdered sugar
1/3 c. Nutella

Beat butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add Nutella and beat until blended. Add powdered sugar and beat until fluffy.

Assembly:

Cut the cakes into individual round “cakelettes”, using a 3” round biscuit cutter, or a knife around an inverted glass. (I got 8 cakelettes, and froze them in pairs in ziplock bags for whenever I need a quick dessert for guests.)

Cut each cakelette in half horizontally. Spread bottom half with Nutella Buttercream.
Place top of cakelette on top of frosting. Slice bananas, and arrange on top. Melt a little Nutella for 40 seconds in the microwave, and pour over bananas like sauce.
I had one bite of Brad's. AMAZING

Y'all have heard of Bananas Foster. . . the great southern treat. I am going to improve on a tradition by using the flavor suggestions in The Flavor Bible. If such a thing is even possible. The flavors that are recommended with bananas have been capitalized.
First, I am using Sailor Jerry's spiced rum ~ pick this up the next time you see it on the shelf. It has a unique spicy flavor with hints of vanilla. The name comes from Sailor Jerry ~ who is apparently a famous Tatoo artist. Every label has a replica of one of Jerry's tatoos.
Sailor Jerry.
Not our Flavors' Jerry.

Sailor Jerry's Spiced Bananas
1 stick BUTTER
2 bananas, not quite ripe
1/3 cup BROWN SUGAR
4 Tbs spiced RUM (recommended Sailor Jerry's Rum)
2 Tbs COFFEE
1/4 tsp ground NUTMEG
1/2 tsp CINNAMON
VANILLA ICE CREAM
In a medium saute pan melt butter. Slice the firm bananas in half and half again. Add bananas, cut side down and cook until lightly colored. Remove the bananas and set aside.
In the same pan, over low heat, add sugar, rum and coffee. Let simmer for 2 minutes (if you are brave... tilt the pan to side to ignite the rum). Add cinnamon and nutmeg. Simmer until the sauce is thickened.
Add bananas back into pan and ladle sauce over bananas to coat. When serving, spoon sauce evenly over a generous scoop of ice cream and bananas.
The addition of just a bit of coffee, nutmeg and cinnamon only add to the spice of Sailor Jerry. This is a quick dessert that never fails to impress.
Y'all enjoy~
Sandi

The ingredient this week is Pineapple. I love fresh pineapple, and it's one of my favorite things to eat whenever we visit Hawaii. It's a little more challenging finding good pineapples here in Alaska, but they can be found, albeit not as sweet as what we normally get in Hawaii.

I decided to share a recipe that I've made before. It was a recipe that I developed for a Daring Bakers Challenge three years ago. Our challenge was to take a basic cheesecake recipe, and add our own twist to it. I came up with this wondeful Pina Colada Cheesecake. If you're a fan of cheesecakes, pineapple and coconut, splurge on this. You will not be sorry.

PINA COLADA CHEESECAKECrust:
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
½ cup shredded coconut, toasted
1 stick butter, melted
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix together the crust ingredients and press into bottom and up sides of aa 8 or 9” springform pan. (Wrap heavy duty foil around bottom of pan, 2 layers, so the water bath doesn’t seep into the crust.) Set in the refrigerator while you make the filling.

Filling:
3 8oz packages cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup coconut milk(I used the thickest part from a can of coconut milk)
½ teaspoon lemon zest
1 vanilla bean
½ teaspoon coconut extract(can omit if you don’t want a stronger coconut flavor)
3 tablespoons dark rum

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.

Combine the cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer). Cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Be sure to scrape down the bowl between each egg. Add coconut milk, seeds scraped from the vanilla bean, lemon zest, coconut extract and rum. Blend until smooth and creamy, but do not overbeat.

Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place the pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan.

Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done. This can be hard to judge, but you’re looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don’t want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won’t crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from the oven and carefully lift out of the water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and refrigerator until overnight.

Topping:
1 cup finely chopped fresh pineapple
¼ cup sugar
1/3 cup water
4 teaspoons cornstarch
1/8 cup rum
½ cup toasted coconut
½ cup toasted macadamia nuts or pecans, chopped

Place pineapple in a small saucepan. Stir the cornstarch and sugar together and add to the pineapple. Heat to boiling. Cook and stir until clear and thick, about 2 minutes. Take off heat and cool. Add the rum and stir until combined.

When topping is cool, spread over top of cheesecake and sprinkle the toasted coconut and chopped nuts on top.

Make Ahead: (This makes two loaves, and freezes well)

Passionfruit Pound Cake

3 c. flour
1 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1 c. buttermilk
3 T. passionfruit syrup
1 lb. butter, softened
2 c. sugar
4 eggs

Preheat oven to 350. Spray TWO 9” loaf pans with cooking spray.Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Combine buttermilk and passionfruit syrup in a small bowl.

Beat butter in mixer. Add sugar and beat until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time. Add dry ingredients, 1/3 at a time, alternating with buttermilk mixture, 1/3 at a time. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 1 hour-1 hour 15 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes, ten poke loaves all over with a wooden skewer. Brush loaves with additional passionfruit syrup.

Passionfruit Ice Cream:

2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup milk
1 cup sugar
5 large egg yolks
1 1/2 cups passion fruit juice, divided

Combine the heavy cream, milk, sugar and 1/2 cup of the passion fruit juice in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat and cook, stirring until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is warm.

Place the yolks in a small bowl and, while whisking constantly, add about 1/4 cup of the cream mixture to the eggs and stir until smooth.  Gradually add the yolk mixture to the saucepan, again whisking constantly.   

Cook, stirring often, until the mixture coats a wooden spoon.  Place the remaining passion fruit juice in a large bowl and pour the custard mixture through a fine sieve into the passion fruit juice.  Let cool to room temperature and then cover and chill in the refrigerator overnight. 

Freeze in an ice cream machine according to the manufacturer’s instructions. 

Grilled Pineapple

Melt 2 T. butter with 2 T. honey and a pinch of salt. Brush slices of fresh pineapple with butter-honey mixture. Grill on BBQ for about 45 seconds per side.

Assembly:

Begin with a slice of pound cake.

Add a slice of grilled pineapple.

Top with Passionfruit ice cream, and enjoy! The flavors work very well together. It's ALMOST like being in Hawaii!

This week's flavour is pineapple. I wanted to do soemthing savoury since I love the sweetness of pineapple pairesd with something that will knock your socks off. Unfortunately most of the flavour pairings lended themselves to a sweet preparation.

In the end I decided to grill it. First I marinated this pineapple in a sweet, spicy marinade and then grilled it. The grilling caramelized the natural sugars in the pineapple and brought out a wonderful, intense flavour. Once it was nicely browned I took the spears off fo the grill and sliced them into bite-sized pieces. These were mixed in with some of the remaining marinade and served over vanilla ice cream.

The result was delicious. Heck, it was amazing! I could not believe how wonderful pineapple was on the grill. In fact, we liked it so much that we ate it three nights in a row - unheard of for us.

Grilled Sweet and Spicy Pineapple
1 ripe pineapple, peeled, cored, and cut into spears
1/2 cup low-fat coconut milk
1/2 cup dark rum
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp chinese 5-spice powder
1/4 tsp ancho chili powder

Mix the marinade ingredients in a glass dish. Add the pineapple and turn to coat.

Marinate for 1 hour.

Heat a grill to high.

Remove the pineapple spears from the marinade and place directly on the grill.

Grill until nicely browned.

Remove the grilled pineapple from the BBQ. Slice into bite-sized pieces.

Mix with remaining marinade.

Serve pineapple pieces over ice cream. Drizzle with the liquid.

We were in the dead of winter and the whole clan was coming over to celebrate my brother-in-law's birthday. Because one of our nieces hates chocolate with a passion, I decided to create this excessive homage to the lemon. Nothing brightens a cold winter day like lemon, right?

1 lemon thinly sliced into 12-14 slices
1 cup simple syrup made from 1/2 cup water and 1 cup SUGAR
1- teas. vanilla
2- boxes lemon cake mix.
2 1/2- cups very strong lemonade (I used frozen concentrate without diluting)
Zest of three large lemons
1- 12 oz jar lemon curd
1/2 cup - Limoncello
2- containers pre-prepared creamy lemon icing

In a skillet, bring the simple syrup to a boil and add vanilla. Add lemon slices and boil until rinds become translucent. Remove from pan directly to a cooling rack to drain and become semi-hard.

Follow the directions for the cake mixes, substituting lemonade for water, and adding the zest of two lemons.

Bake in four 9" cake pans lined with parchment. The pans can be round or square or, in this case some of each. Cool completely.

Melt the lemon curd in a small sauce pan with the limoncello. Bring to a slow boil and boil for about 6-8 minutes. Stir constantly. Set aside to cool slightly.

When curd and limoncello reduction is still slightly warm, arrange first cake layer on a plate and use a chopstick to poke about a dozen scattered holes.

Pour 1/4 of the curd mixture over top of layer and spread around. Frost top of layer with about 1/4 of one of the containers of frosting.

Arrange second layer on top and repeat the hole poking, lemon curd, and frosting process.

Then the third layer, and finally the 4th.

Use the second container of icing to cover the sides and top of the cake. Sprinkle the zest of your third lemon over the top. Decorate with the candied lemon slices.

Cover and refrigerate overnight or at least two hours. Serve ice cold with a scoop of lemon sorbet.

Be prepared to pucker up!

This post is dedicated to my dear friend and professore Italiano, Massimo Castelozzi.

You can tell that I love bread pudding since this is my third variation. I actually think this is the best one yet!

Lemon Bread Pudding—serves 8

1/2 loaf challa bread cut into cubes
4 eggs plus one yolk
4 cups half & half
3/4 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons Limoncello
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 Teaspoon Kosher salt
Zest of one lemon
3/4 cup dried cranberries
2 Tablespoons butter, melted, plus some for greasing the pan

Cinnamon Sugar
2 Tablespoons “Turbinado” sugar
1 Teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 325°
Mix the dried cranberries, limoncello and lemon zest in a small bowl and set aside. It’s important to do this first to soften the cranberries a bit.

Mix together the cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl and set aside.

Mix the eggs, half & half , sugar and vanilla in a large bowl. Add the bread cubes—let is sit for about 15 minutes.

Add the cranberries with the zest and limoncello. Mix gently ut thoroughly.

Put the mixture into a well greased 9 X 13-inch baking dish.
Drizzle on the melted butter and sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar.

Bake bout 45 minutes. It should be nicely browned and totally set but a little jiggle in the center is OK. Let cool somewhat but serve it warmer than room temperature ,if possible.

This pie combines three main ingredients: a girl Scout Cookie crust, homemade lemon curd and buttermilk ice cream, and lemon curd on top! Garnish with whipped cream if you like. It is a delicious spring dessert, and not too sweet.

Lemon Cookie Crust:

One box Girl Scout "Lemonades" Cookies, crushed
1/4 c. melted butter

Combine cookie crumbs and melted butter and press into a 9" pie plate. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes.

Lemon Curd: (This is a single recipe and enough to make the ice cream, but DOUBLE it to have enough for lemon curd on TOP of the pie.)

5 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
4 lemons, zested and juiced
1 stick butter, cut into pats and chilled

Add enough water to a medium saucepan to come about 1-inch up the side. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Meanwhile, combine egg yolks and sugar in a medium size metal bowl and whisk until smooth, about 1 minute. Measure citrus juice and if needed, add enough cold water to reach 1/3 cup. Add juice and zest to egg mixture and whisk smooth. Once water reaches a simmer, reduce heat to low and place bowl on top of saucepan. (Bowl should be large enough to fit on top of saucepan without touching the water.) Whisk until thickened, approximately 8 minutes, or until mixture is light yellow and coats the back of a spoon. Remove promptly from heat and stir in butter a piece at a time, allowing each addition to melt before adding the next. Remove to a clean container and cover by laying a layer of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the curd. Refrigerate for up to 2 weeks in a clean glass jar.

Lemon Curd-Buttermilk Ice Cream

Take one HALF of a double batch of lemon curd (about 2 cups) and whisk with 2 cups of cold buttermilk. Pour into ice cream maker and follow manufacturer's directions

Fill pie shell with ice cream and freeze.

When ready to serve, slice pie and top with lemon curd. Garnish with Whipped Cream.

I wasn't even thinking about this week's ingredient while on my weekly excursion at Global Foods. I was just wondering up and down the aisles dropping items in the cart as the caught my eye.
One of those items was a box of Cafe Du Monde Beignet Mix. Yum, I hadn't had beignets in years. Actually, not since the last time I enjoyed them at Cafe Du Monde. The box went into the cart.
Fast forward a couple of weeks and there I was, standing in front of my open pantry trying to decide what direction I wanted to go for coffee/espresso week. My eyes landed on the unused box of beignet mix. Beignets and coffee. Made for each other. Beignets made with coffee? Why not?
Checking the complimentary flavors list, I discover that espresso flavored beignets would easily fit the rules.

Ingredients list:
1/2 box (2 c) - Cafe Du Monde Beignet Mix
7 oz - espresso (cooled to room temp)
1/2 c - mascarpone
1/2 c - lemon curd
2 T - limoncello (can be omitted if you don't want the alcohol)
1/4 teas. - VANILLA
vegetable oil
powdered SUGAR

In a bowl combine beignet mix and espresso. Stir with a spoon until blended.
Roll dough to 1/8" thickness on a floured surface, using flour liberally on dough. Cut into 2 1/4" squares. Makes about 2 dozen.

Fry in oil at 370 degrees. Normally you would do this in a skillet with only an inch or two of oil, turning constantly until they reached a light golden brown. However, since the espresso colors the dough a dark brown, I had to come up with a different way to gauge doneness. So, I used a deep fryer which allowed the beignets to pop to the surface, puff up, and float.

Move to paper towels to drain and cool just enough to be handled.
Mix mascarpone, lemon curd, limoncello, and vanilla until creamy. Transfer to a pastry bag fitted with an injector attachment.
Gently force injector tip through the edge of each beignet just far enough to break into the hollow center. Inject about two teaspoons cream in each beignet.

Dust beignets with powdered sugar and serve immediately.

These were absolutely delicious. Delicate texture you expect from beignets but with the kick of coffee and lemon. Do you think I should contact the folks at Cafe Du Monde and suggest they try this version? Or would that be heresy?

This week our Flavors ingredient is coffee/espresso. I love espresso and drink a double latte every day. I had several ideas in mind, but most of them contained a lot of cream, butter, and other fattening things. I decided to make a cookie that really isn't so bad for you - meringues.

I took a basic meringue recipe, added powdered espresso powder and cocoa nibs. The cocoa nibs taste almost like an interesting nut. If you don't have cocoa nibs, you could use very finely chopped chocolate. (If you don't chop it finely enough, you won't be able to pipe it through a pastry tip.)

I really enjoyed these. There's a nice hit of coffee flavor, and the chocolate on top sends them over the edge. They were very quick to make, and last about 3 days. And when I figured out the calories, they're only about 14 calories each!!!

Espresso Cocoa Nib Meringues Makes about 80 meringues

4 large egg whites, room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons espresso powder
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
2 ounces cocoa nibs
1-2 ounces semisweet chocolate

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Beat the egg whites and sugar in a mixer with a whip attachment until soft peaks form. Add the espresso powder and vanilla bean paste and continue whipping just until stiff and glossy. Fold in the cocoa nibs.
3. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a large plain or star tip with the meringue mixture. Pipe bite-sized "kisses" onto 2 cookie sheets that are lined with parchment paper or silpats.
4. Bake the meringues until they are light golden brown, about 30 minutes. Test for doneness by removing one from oven, cooling 1 minute, then tasting. You want it to be dry and crisp all the way through. Let cool on pans.
5. While cooling, melt 1-2 ounces of finely chopped semisweet chocolate. When melted, take a fork and drizzle chocolate over meringues. Let chocolate harden, about 1 hour.

This week's recipe was really fun! I began with a bombe pan (like a muffin tin with 6 perfectly half round indentations), and oiled each sup with vegetable oil. Next, I "painted them" with two layers of melted chocolate melts, and chilled them until hard (30 min).

Pour a little caramel topping into each cup, and freeze.

Fill cups with coffee ice cream. I filled three with Starbucks Caramel Macchiato, and three with Mocha Frappuccino. Put in freezer until ready to serve.

I was a little worried about how to get them out of the pan. Out on the counter for about 2 minutes, with a slight twist, they popped right out! Brad had his on a round brownie.

I had mine on a plate! The caramel inside was a nice treat with the coffee ice cream.

Of course you could make these with any flavors inside, and any color candy melts. It is a lovely, EASY, do-ahead impressive dessert for guests! I will definitely do this again!

You may think of popsicles as a treat for children. . . they can be but don't give up on them now that you can vote. Lately I have been experimenting with 'adult' popsicles . . . meaning iced treats laced with booze.

When it came to coffee week I decided an iced treat would be the way to go. This recipe combines coffee, cream, chocolate, and vanilla.

Oh yes, I can't forget the booze - I used both Kaluha and a delicious Latte Creama made with grappa that I bought to years ago in Venice. You have to be careful when adding alcohol to anything that you wish to freeze - too much and it will never freeze properly . . . too little and you'll be described as being a puritan.

I think I got the mix just right.

These were amazing - the coffee/chocolate layer tasted a bit like an adult fudgesicle and the cream layer tasted like more! LOL

Mocha Latte Popsicles

2 cups strong coffee
2/3 cup sweetened, condensed milk
1/4 cup Kaluha
1 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder

Whisk together. pour into popsicle molds. Freeze.

Cream layer:

1/3 cup whipping cream
1 tablespoon sweetened, condensed milk
2 tablespoons Latte Creama (you can substitute any white coffee cream based liqueur or a white chocolate cream based liqueur)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Pour over frozen layer. Insert popsicle sticks. Freeze.

Run under hot water to unmold.