TFF: Coconut Bread with Sweet Pineapple Butter
In Tyler Florence’s book Real Kitchen, in the section on side dishes he makes a comment that chefs know a lot of people order entrees based just on what side dish comes with it. I’ll agree with that but I also take it one step further because a lot of times in restaurants I’ll order dinner just based on sauce or condiment alone. Something with a raspberry reduction or maybe a chipotle mayonnaise? I’m there! Something in a lemon ginger cream sauce? Ohhh, baby! I don’t even care if the stuff comes on top of something I don’t really like.
So the same thing happened when I saw this Coconut Bread with Sweet Pineapple Butter. All I saw was “Sweet Pineapple Butter” and I knew I was making it. I’m not a big coconut fan, but it didn’t matter.
This is an easy bread to throw together. All the basics plus coconut milk, toasted shredded coconut, lemon zest, brown sugar and vanilla. The pineapple butter is just pineapple and butter mixed together. A little dusting of confectioners sugar and it’s done. Easy, and seriously good.
I halved the recipe and baked in two mini loaf pans, they only took about a half hour to be done. The coconut flavor was nice, the bread was moist but that pineapple butter is really where it’s at. I was slathering the stuff on thick thinking “I really shouldn’t be doing this….” but I kept doing it anyway. 
You can go here here to see the recipe. Coconut Bread with Sweet Pineapple Butter is my seventh post for Tyler Florence Fridays, a group with the freedom to make any recipe of Tyler’s that they choose and then share their experiences every Friday.
Caramel Crunch Bars
Caramel Crunch Bars were chosen by Whitney of What’s left on the table? for the February 24th, 2009 edition of Tuesdays with Dorie. A thin caramel flavored cookie base is topped with chocolate and Heath toffee bits. If you want (which of course, I did), you can add a little vanilla ice cream in between two layers and turn these into a delicious ice cream sandwich.
I halved the recipe and used an 8×8 pan. For the toffee bits I just chopped up two Heath bars and removed most of the outside chocolate layer. I had to skip out on the espresso powder but added a bit of strong coffee to the batter instead. For the chocolate I used milk chocolate since that’s what I had on hand. I’m thinking I over baked them just a tad but the taste didn’t suffer at all.
In my opinion, these were the best as ice cream sandwiches straight from the freezer. They were crispy and crunchy which doesn’t go well with the dental work I had done two weeks ago that I’m still in pain from. But I kept coming back to these for taste testing (they are addicting!) all the while wincing from the pain. :)
Thanks to Whitney for a great choice. Head on over to What’s left on the table? to see the recipe. Next week, Lyb of And then I do the dishes has selected Chocolate Armagnac Cake – The Cake That Got Me Fired. Can’t wait for this one!
TFF: Raspberry Soufflé
I had never been that interested in making a soufflé. I guess I’ve always equated it with stress from lingering memories of my Mom attempting soufflé when I was growing up. It was such a big deal to “stay away from the oven and be quiet!” like any sort of noise above the decibel level of a whisper would find it’s way into the oven and punch the soufflé’s lights out. From what I can remember, most of my Mom’s attempts started with a lot worry and ended with an “awww, shit!”. Not my kind of thing.
Lately though, I’ve gotten to the point where I’m beginning to naturally branch outside of my normal baking zone. Things that didn’t appeal to me before are suddenly standing out to me in different ways. I crave stuff I didn’t even think I liked and I find I give second chances to things I’ve tried in the past and wasn’t crazy about. So when I had some leftover raspberries to use, I got to looking around and stumbled on this Raspberry Soufflé. My first instinct was to pass it over, and I did do just that… but then I came back to it for a second look.
Soufflés are pretty interesting actually, I’ll share what I’ve learned. The word soufflé translates from French to basically meaning “puffed up” in English. There’s only two main components: Egg white foam that expands to give height and a base (like a sauce, puree, etc) that provides all of the flavor. The traditional baking dish is a small round dish like a ramekin. The ramekin is buttered and prepped with a dry ingredient (sugar in this case) to give the soufflé something to “climb up” on it’s rise to the top. Pretty cool.
Even though this was my first experience, I didn’t seem to have any problems with this recipe. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that my soufflés had browned and risen nicely. But that didn’t last too long, once out of the oven I had to photograph them fast as I could visibly see them deflating with each picture that I took. This is, of course, a serve and eat immediately type of dessert. Fine by me!
The raspberry flavor was pronounced, overall the dish wasn’t too sweet and I liked how the top of the soufflé was a totally different texture and color than the inside. The top was like the crust of a cake while the inside was purplish and gooey, but airy at the same time. I’m glad I ventured into this kind of baking territory and want to try another one again soon, maybe savory next time.
On another note… I’m curious, how many of you do this with your eggs?
Do you take your eggs from all over the place in the carton when you’re baking like I do? Or do you take them out in some kind of order?
Tyler Florence’s Raspberry Soufflé
Show: Food 911 Episode: Fallen Souffle in Topanga CA
4/5 stars from foodnetwork reviews
Cook Time: 40 min Level: Intermediate Yield: 4 servings
1 tablespoon unsalted butter plus more for greasing
3/4 cup granulated sugar plus more for dusting molds
1 pint pureed raspberries
4 eggs, separated
Pinch cream of tartar
Powdered sugar, for dusting
Directions Here!
Raspberry Soufflés are my sixth post for Tyler Florence Fridays, a group with the freedom to make any recipe of Tyler’s that they choose and then share their experiences every Friday.
Tuesdays with Dorie: Devil’s Food White Out Cake
Finally… “The Cover Cake” (or if you want to get all technical with names, the Devil’s Food White Out) has been chosen. Anyway, what we have here is a chocolate devil’s food cake covered with a white meringue/marshmallowy type frosting. Extra cake crumbs are reserved and pressed on the top and sides. Very casual.
You know the times when you totally screw up a major part of a recipe but you end up not really caring because the final result is so delicious? Yeah, that was this week for me.
I’ve mentioned before that I’m totally disorganized in my kitchen. It’s always been a huge fight between me and the boyfriend because stuff has a way of falling out whenever he opens up doors. Never when I do it. Yesterday he had a 6 cup muffin pan and 6 tart pans fall on his feet when he opened the pantry. He wasn’t amused. I’m aware that it is totally ridiculous that I have every drawer, cabinet and closet stuffed with stuff. Sometimes I think I have something that I don’t actually own. Sometimes I own stuff that I never knew I had.
I cut the recipe in half and baked in two 4 inch springform pans. Things are fine at this point… I have nicely domed chocolate cakes to work with. Normally layer cakes give me anxiety because I always mess them up. For one brief moment I think things are actually going to work out this time.
But then…
I get to the frosting. I would say you really need a candy thermometer in order to make the frosting since you need the sugar syrup to reach 242 degrees. It would just be the easiest route. I knew I had one somewhere… at least I was pretty sure. Of course I searched everywhere and couldn’t find it. I decided to go ahead and make the frosting without the thermometer thinking I would intuitively know when 242 degrees came around. Yeah right, I wasn’t even close.
My frosting turned out way too thin and couldn’t withstand the weight of the cake crumbs on the tops and sides. See exhibit A:
This took a lot of smooshing upwards to achieve.
The frosting also totally disappeared between the layers. I expected this would happen and wasn’t surprised when I cut into the cake.
See Exhibit B:
I didn’t care one bit though, those were just outward appearance issues that really weren’t all that bad anyway. It totally didn’t stop me from eating this cake. And eating it. And eating it. The boyfriend opened up the fridge and said “Um, I guess you liked this…” when he saw a half eaten cake in there. I did make half the recipe and made sure I got on the treadmill for a while later that day to try to make up for it. I liked the fact that it wasn’t too overly sweet and the cake was really moist. I also liked the little chunks of chocolate that broke up the texture a little bit. This cake is deserving of the cover spot on Baking: From my home to yours.
I’m going to try this one again someday soon because, guess what, I found my candy thermometer stuffed in a junk drawer when I was looking for something else.
Thanks to Stephanie of Confessions of a City Eater for choosing the Devil’s Food White Out Cake for the February 17th, 2009 edition of Tuesdays with Dorie. Stop by here to check out about 400 more of these cakes. See you next week for Caramel Crunch Bars chosen by Whitney of What’s left on the table?.
TFF: Truffle Tarts and Raspberries
My blog name has always driven a lot of traffic to my site from people searching for “something sweet to say”. I see variations of that search all the time in my stats, with a surge recently since Valentine’s Day is right upon us.
So sometimes I like to think about what I could offer up in terms of advice.
It’s hard to come up with stuff but I did come up with one thing sweet to say… how about “I made you something!”.
Like these Truffle Tarts with Raspberries.
That’s pretty sweet. You can’t go wrong with that in my opinion. 
An Oreo cookie crust houses a bittersweet chocolate filling with a raspberry hidden inside and more served on top for garnish. It’s small, it’s rich, it’s chocolate, it’s raspberry… it’s seriously good.
Whether or not you love or hate Valentine’s Day, I hope you have a good one. This year, the boyfriend and I have decided to forgo our usual expensive dinner out at our favorite local restaurant and stay home and cook for each other instead. We also decided no cards, candy, flowers or gifts. We’ve had a lot of unexpected expenses come up recently from a sick cat’s huge vet bill to car repairs to an HD Tivo deal we couldn’t pass up to my $500 trip to the dentist Tuesday. We decided not to add more to the debt pile trying to show “I love you”. Just saying it is sweet enough.
Happy Birthday Katie and Sharon! I love both of you Valentine’s babies so much!
Tyler Florence’s Truffle Tarts with Raspberries
Show: How To Boil Water Episode: How Sweet It Is
Rated 4 out of 5 stars from 33 Foodnetwork.com reviews
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups fine chocolate wafer crumbs (from Oreo cookies or chocolate wafers)
6 tablespoons melted butter
1 recipe Dark Chocolate Truffles, recipe follows, whipped but not shaped into balls
6 fresh raspberries, plus extra for serving
Dark Chocolate Truffles:
1/2 cup heavy cream
8 ounces good-quality (70 percent) bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Click here for directions
Truffle Tarts with Raspberries are my fifth post for Tyler Florence Fridays, a group with the freedom to make any recipe of Tyler’s that they choose and then share their experiences every Friday.
Floating Islands… My 50th TWD!
Floating Islands are a classic European dessert consisting of puffs of meringue floating on a “sea” of crème anglaise. They are my new favorite dessert right now. Sooo good.
The meringues were nice and fluffy but, honestly, were the component of this recipe I liked the least. The Crème anglaise (a vanilla flavored custard) was to die for, it was by far my favorite part. My second favorite was the caramel strands for the texture and flavor they added. To me, the taste was similar to crème brûlée. You can’t ever go wrong there in my opinion.
This was one of the most fun weeks of all of the Tuesdays with Dorie I’ve done. It was a new challenge for me working and shaping meringues and while frustrating a bit at first, it got easier as I went along.
This dessert is definitely one that impresses. My boyfriend’s reaction was “wow!” when I showed him the finished product and we both loved the end result. The prep times are not that bad so this wouldn’t be out of reach for a nice dinner party with friends or a romantic meal with your significant other. The crème anglaise can even be made up to 3 days in advance.
Thanks to Shari from Whisk: a food blog for selecting Floating Islands for the February 10th, 2009 edition of Tuesdays with Dorie. The recipe can be found here at Shari’s blog or in Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From my home to yours on pages 401-402. Next week, it’s the Devil’s Food White Out Cake as chosen by Stephanie of Confessions of a City Eater.
Floating Islands marks my 50th completed Tuesdays with Dorie selection. It’s funny to think back to my first week with the group when I was wondering if I could even keep up with it for two weeks in a row! I haven’t missed a week since I started, it’s such a part of my routine that I don’t even think much about it. Here’s to another 50 recipes from Baking: From my home to yours! See you next Tuesday!
TFF: Semifreddo Cookies and Cream with Salted Caramel… and my 100th post!
Semifreddo in Italian means “half cold” and the term is reserved for any dessert that is chilled or partially frozen.
Semifreddo to me means “freakin’ good”.
In this case, cream and powdered sugar are whipped to soft peaks, pomegranate molasses is folded in and ramekins housing layers of cream and ginger snap cookies are frozen for about an hour. Top it off with Salted Caramel and oooh, mama!
I just mentioned pomegranate molasses, a traditional ingredient used in Middle Eastern cooking and one that I wasn’t familiar with yet. It seems it’s really gaining popularity since it adds something special to a wide variety of dishes. Don’t fear, if you don’t think you’ll be able to find it in your local store you can always make your own at home. It’s easy and inexpensive, it only takes pomegranate juice, sugar and lemon. Go here to check out an article with ingredients and instructions on how to do it yourself.
Now, this recipe wasn’t 100% fool proof as I had some minor problems. I’ve never made a semifreddo before and I’m definitely a fool, so it’s probably all my fault since I don’t know any better yet. Problem #1: The pomegranate molasses hardened immediately when folding into the whipped cream. Problem #2: I had problems with unmolding from the ramekin. Problem #3: I had unmolded two times to find the semifreddo was not set in the middle. Problem #4: The caramel hardened pretty fast also. Problem #5: My semifreddo looked a cold mess from all the molding and unmolding I did. The top cookie layer was wrecked. I added some more ginger snap pieces after the fact which made too much of a texture difference from the already softened cookies. Problem #6: I ate way too many ginger snap cookies out of the bag while waiting for this to be done.
And here is what I’d do to fix these problems next time: Possibly whip the cream into firmer peaks. Cook down the pomegranate juice to a much thinner consistency. Maybe add a few more cookies to the bottom layer. Let it in the freezer a little longer and not be so impatient so the unmolding would go easier. Get some willpower and learn how to say no to cookies.
This semifreddo was absolutely phenomenal though. It was light, but rich at the same time. The cream was flavored nicely and the pomegranate molasses added a unique, sweet taste. The original ginger snap cookies were moist and were a nice backdrop to the other components. And the salted caramel sauce… delicious. This would be a total winner if I could work out the kinks of this first attempt. It looked beautiful and the taste was right on… but my execution could have been a tad better.
Tyler Flrence’s Semifreddo Cookies and Cream with Salted Caramel
Show: Tyler’s Ultimate Episode: Ultimate Lasagna
Rated 4 out of 5 stars from 11 Food Network reviews
Ingredients
4 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
15 gingersnap cookies
Salted caramel sauce:
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 stick butter
2 teaspoons kosher salt
Click Here For Directions!
This is my fourth post for Tyler Florence Fridays, a group with the freedom to make any recipe of Tyler’s that they choose and then share their experiences every Friday.
On an exciting note, this represents my 100th post! It’s been entertaining to look back over some of my entries. I honestly don’t remember writing some of them. Thanks to all of you who commented, supported, commiserated and encouraged me along the way, I’ve truly appreciated all of the great feedback. Here’s to another 100 posts!
World Peace Cookies
Sometimes you’ll come across a recipe that everyone raves about. Like these World Peace Cookies, people just seem to go nuts about them. I was interested to see what all the fuss was about.
These slice-and-bake cookies have a chocolate dough with chunks of chocolate mixed throughout. Fleur de sel (a hand harvested sea salt), provides a salty contrast. This is one grown up little cookie.
The dough is mixed as little as possible and then is rolled up into a log and chilled (and can be frozen too) for at least three hours. It’s then sliced into 1/2 inch rounds and baked. The dough is crumbly and while I was slicing, my dough broke into little bits but it was easy to smoosh it back together to resemble circular cookies.
If you like chocolate, you really can’t go wrong with these. They were dark and chocolately with a great sandy texture. And the Fleur de Sel really added to the overall flavor. I thought these were better on day two. The saltiness really came through a lot more. I really hope Dorie Greenspan writes an all cookie book one day. Her cookie recipes are just so good.
Short post… I’m sick, tired and have had more computer, camera and memory card issues in the last 24 hours than I even want to think about right now. Plus Fringe is on tv. World Peace Cookies were chosen by Jessica from cookbookhabit for the February 3rd, 2009 edition of Tuesdays with Dorie. For the full recipe, visit Jessica’s blog.
Next week, Shari of Whisk: A food blog has selected Floating Islands. I can’t wait to try this one.
