Chocolate Cherry Bread Pudding

Chocolate Cherry Bread Pudding

We’re making Chocolate Cherry Bread Pudding with Chef Andrew Shotts from Garrison Confections.

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients:
5 slices day old brioche, bread cut into ½ -inch cubes
¼ cup 61% bittersweet chocolate, chopped
¼ cup unsweetened “Bakers” chocolate, chopped
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
1/3 cup + 2 tbsp sugar, plus more for ramekins
4 egg yolks
1 ea orange zest
½ vanilla bean
1 cup dried cherries
1-2 tbsps salted butter, softened, for ramekins
8-4 ounce ramekins

Method of Preparation:

Combine both chocolates in a medium bowl. Set aside.

Place the heavy cream, milk, and orange zest in a small saucepot. Scrape the vanilla bean into the cream mixture. Heat the cream mixture over moderately low heat until small bubbles appear around the rim.

In another medium bowl, whisk together the sugar into the egg yolks. Slowly pour the cream mixture into the yolk mixture while whisking vigorously. Return the mixture to the saucepot.

Cook over moderate heat with a wooden spoon until the sauce has thickened slightly, 4 to 5 minutes. Immediately strain the sauce into the bowl with the chocolate.

Allow chocolate to melt before completely mixing.

Preheat oven to 300F. Brush ramekins with softened butter
and sprinkle with sugar. Set aside.

Mix the chocolate custard completely. Fold in the brioche cubes and cherries. Set aside for 15 minutes for the bread to soak up the custard.

Fill the ramekins with the brioche custard. Set the ramekins in a roasting pan and pour enough hot water into the pan to cover half of the base of the ramekins.

Bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until puddings are puffed and set. Remove the ramekins from the water bath and let cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy warm with a dollop of sweetened whipped cream or powdered sugar.


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Valentine's Day Recipes: Two Beef Dishes from Bourbon Steak

Valentine’s Day Recipes: Two Beef Dishes from Bourbon Steak

Spicy Thai Beef Salad
Serves 2
Steak and marinade:
2 0.6-pound choice skirt steaks
½ cup soy sauce
4 teaspoons honey 
1 clove garlic, smashed 
1-inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated
6 tablespoons grapeseed oil 1 lime, zested and juiced 

Toasted cashews:
½ cup cashews

Lime Vinaigrette: 
2 cups lime juice 
1 cup fish sauce 
1 cup honey 
1 cup grapeseed oil 
½ cup chopped cilantro 
2 teaspoons red jalapeño
2 teaspoons chopped ginger

Salad: 
1 head romaine lettuce, chopped
1 green papaya (available at Whole Foods), peeled and thinly sliced into long strips
1 cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced 
1  jalapeño, thinly sliced 
1 carrot, peeled and thinly sliced into long strips
1 red onion, thinly sliced into long strips
1 mango, peeled and thinly sliced 
1 bunch cilantro leaves, picked
1 bunch mint, roughly chopped
1 bunch Thai basil or regular basil, picked and torn by hand
1 cup bean sprouts 
1 bunch scallions, sliced 

Marinate steaks: Place steaks in a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together marinade ingredients and pour over the steaks. Cover, and marinate in the fridge for 3 hours. 

When the meat has been marinating for one hour, make the dressing by mixing ingredients together in a bowl. Let sit for 2 hours. 

Toast the cashews: Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Spread cashews on a sheet tray and toast in the oven for 18 minutes or until golden brown. Remove cashews from oven and let cool.

Assemble salad: In a large mixing bowl, add all the ingredients except for the herbs, scallions, bean sprouts, and cashews. 

Cook steaks: Remove steaks from fridge and pat dry. Lightly season with salt and pepper. 

Heat large pan over high heat. Add 3 tablespoons oil and sauté steaks, turning every 3 minutes for 10 to 12 minutes, until medium rare. (A meat thermometer should read 125 degrees when inserted in the middle of the steak.) Remove steak from pan and let rest about 6 minutes.

Pass vinaigrette through a fine mesh strainer. Dress salad ingredients (except reserved herbs and cashews) and season with salt and pepper.  

Slice steak, cutting across the grain. 

Split salad between two bowls. Place steak slices on top of salad. Garnish with picked herbs, toasted cashews, and bean sprouts. Serve. 

 

Grilled Prime Rib Cap with Stuffed Yorkshire Pudding 

Serves 2

This is a mixture of classic prime rib accompaniments served with a crispy on the outside, soft on the inside Yorkshire pudding. Once baked, the puddings are split open and filled with a shallot confit, Brie, and grated horseradish. 

Red Wine Butter: 
1 bottle red wine
1 pound butter, room temperature
4 shallots, sliced

Yorkshire Pudding: (makes 8  to 12 puddings)
8 eggs 
4 cups flour 
1¼ cups skim milk 
1¼ cups whole milk 
1 tablespoon salt 
2 cups beef fat or clarified butter (Whole Foods carries both), melted

Pudding filling (recipe for one pudding): 
1 shallot 
4 teaspoons Brie
2 teaspoons horseradish, grated (optional)

Steak: 
1 1-pound steak, about 2 inches thick
2 to 4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 sprigs thyme
Salt to taste

Make the red wine butter: Mix wine and shallots in a saucepan. Cook down gently over low heat until the mixture reduces to a syrup, about 30 minutes it should coat the back of a spoon). Let cool to room temperature, then whisk until it forms a butter. Place in a container and leave at room temp if using right away. If making in advance, refrigerate.  

Prepare the puddings: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, crack 8 eggs and whisk thoroughly. Sift flour over the egg mixture slowly, so that no lumps form. Once flour is incorporated, add milk and salt and whisk until a smooth batter is formed. Set aside. 

Pour melted beef fat or clarified butter into the tins of a muffin pan or soufflé cups (2 to 4 ounces). Cook in a 425-degree oven for about 8 minutes. Remove, then carefully pour batter into muffin tins up to the halfway mark, and bake at 425 for 10 minutes. Reduce oven heat to 325 degrees and bake for an additional 10 minutes until golden brown. (Note: Once the puddings are baked, they can be held at room temperature and reheated as needed. To reheat, put in a 300-degree oven for approximately 5 minutes.) 

Prepare the pudding filling: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roast as many shallots as you have puddings, leaving the skins on, until soft, about 30 minutes. Let cool. Peel shallots, sprinkle with salt, and drizzle with olive oil. Cut open puddings and carefully place a shallot in the center of each. Add as much Brie as desired and bake in the 350-degree oven until the cheese has melted, approximately 8 minutes. Sprinkle with grated horseradish, if using. 

If red wine has been refrigerated, remove from fridge to return to room temperature. 

Cook the steak:

Season the meat on both sides with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil in a large sauté pan on high until the oil starts to smoke a little. Place the steak carefully in the pan, then turn it every 3 minutes for about 15 to 18 minutes. Before the last turn, drop butter in the pan, along with the crushed garlic clove and thyme sprigs. Baste the steak with foaming butter. 

When the steak is medium rare (the temperature of the meat thermometer should read 125 degrees), remove from pan. Rest the meat for about half the amount of the cooking time, about 7 to 9 minutes. 

When steaks are ready, brush with red wine butter, plate alongside pudding, and serve. 

 

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Fort Worth gala's desserts will put boxed chocolate to shame

chocolate

Fort Worth gala’s desserts will put boxed chocolate to shame

Love is in the air: It’s February, when Cupid takes aim at lonely hearts, causing l’amour to blossom while the air is still cool enough to encourage cuddling. And Feb. 14 brings to light secret crushes as schoolchildren, teenagers and adults dare to send Valentine’s Day messages to those they covertly admire.

Let me call you sweetheart: It’s also time for lovers to profess their mutual adoration by giving giant heart-shaped boxes of chocolate – covered cremes, cherries, caramels and nuts. Or, even better, by experiencing the finest desserts Fort Worth has to offer at the 2012 Sweethearts Dessert Fantasy on Feb. 26 at the Fort Worth Club.

This annual dessert competition and fundraiser presented by Calloway’s Nursery will benefit the Lena Pope Home. The evening features sweet concoctions from 30 area restaurants and bakers, plus coffee, wines, liqueurs and a raffle.

Co-chairwomen Laura Wallace and Kara Rariden say dessert entries for the Critic’s Award, Taster’s Award and Fantasy Cake Award will be judged on taste, texture, presentation and originality by food writer Amy Culbertson, Culinary School of Fort Worth founder Judie Byrd and chef Sharon Hage.

A pre-tasting reception with hors d’oeuvres is at 6 p.m. and the festivities begin at 7. Tickets are $40 for the tasting, $150 for patrons. 817-255-2616 or lenapopehome.org.

Love is blind: The Oscar-nominated film The Blind Side, inspired by Leigh Anne Tuohy, proves that love truly conquers all. Tuohy will speak Thursday at a luncheon fundraiser called “Protect the Blind Side: Tackle Homelessness.” The event at the Fort Worth Convention Center will benefit Union Gospel Mission of Tarrant County. Tickets are $100; 817-338-8406 or [email protected].

Let the love flow: Athena was the goddess of wisdom, not love. But you wouldn’t know it by the works of her namesakes at the Athena Society of Burleson. Since 2003, they have shared the love by donating over $322,000 to cancer programs in Johnson County.

The group will have its major fundraiser, Mardi Gras Gala 2012, on Feb. 18 at Walnut Creek Country Club in Mansfield. From 7 p.m. to midnight, revelers can enjoy casino games, a Texas hold ‘em tournament, silent and live auctions, finger foods and breakfast at 11 p.m. Tickets start at $45 and are $125 for Texas hold ‘em players. Sponsorships begin at $500. 817-295-1816 or 817-447-9849.

The Athena Society, led by Ruth Moor, is made up of Burleson-area businesswomen and helps cancer patients and their caregivers. AthenaSocietyofBurleson.org.

Find more news on the SocialEyes Fort Worth page on Facebook.

Chocolate with Bill & Sheila
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Eat dessert for breakfast, get slim

Eat dessert for breakfast, get slim

Those with a weakness for sweets can now include cookies and cake in a 600 calorie breakfast menu with some proteins and carbs to shed weight in a pleasurable way and also stay slim.

Attempting to avoid sweets entirely can create a psychological addiction to these same foods in the long-term, explains Daniela Jakubowicz, professor at Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine, who led the study.

Over the course of a 32-week-long study, participants who added dessert to their breakfast – cookies, cake, or chocolate – lost an average of 40 pounds more than a group that avoided such foods, the journal Steroids reports.

What’s more, they kept off the pounds longer. A meal in the morning provides energy for the day’s tasks, aids in brain functioning, and kick-starts the body’s metabolism, making it crucial for weight loss and maintenance, according to a Tel Aviv statement.

And breakfast is the meal that most successfully regulates ghrelin, the hormone that increases hunger, explains Jakubowicz. While the level of ghrelin rises before every meal, it is suppressed most effectively at breakfast time.

These findings were based on 193 clinically obese, non-diabetic adults, who were randomly assigned to one of two diet groups with identical caloric intake – the men consumed 1,600 calories daily and the women 1,400.

However, the first group was given a low carbohydrate diet including a small 300 calorie breakfast, and the second was given a 600 calorie breakfast high in protein and carbohydrates, always including a dessert item (i.e. chocolate).

Halfway through the study, participants in both groups had lost an average of 33 pounds per person. But in the second half of the study, results differed drastically.

The participants in the low-carb group regained an average of 22 pounds each, but participants in the group with a larger breakfast lost another 15 pounds each.

At the end of the 32 weeks, those who had consumed a 600 calorie breakfast had lost an average of 40 pounds more per person than their peers.

Jakubowicz conducted the study with Julio Wainstein and Mona Boaz from Tel Aviv and Oren Froy of Hebrew University Jerusalem.

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Cheesecake - Romantic, non-chocolate desserts for Valentine's Day

Creamy cheesecake with raspberry sauce

Cheesecake – Romantic, non-chocolate desserts for Valentine’s Day

What? Go without chocolate on Valentine’s Day? Some of you might take issue with this, but once you see these delicious, romantic, non-chocolate desserts, you’ll forget (at least for a bit) all about chocolate!

Step out of the (chocolate) box this Valentine’s Day and make a dessert for your sweetie that doesn’t include chocolate. Hard to imagine? Think again! These non-chocolate desserts are delightful and your honey will see you in a whole new light for your ingenuity!

Creamy cheesecake recipe with raspberry sauce

What’s not to love about creamy cheesecake? This is a traditional cheesecake recipe that your honey will be glad you made time for! For added romance, this cheesecake gets drizzled with fresh red raspberries. How romantic!

Serves 8

Ingredients:

  • 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3 cups sour cream
  • Mint sprigs for garnish
  • Nonstick cooking spray
  • Parchment paper

Raspberry sauce:

  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 2 cups fresh raspberries (or one package of frozen if you can’t find fresh, thawed)
  • 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar

Directions:

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Use a large mixing bowl to combine and beat the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Individually add each egg, beating well after each. Mix in the lemon juice, vanilla and salt. Beat in the sour cream until blended.
  3. Lightly coat an 8-inch springform pan with 2-1/2-inch sides, and line the bottom with parchment or waxed paper coated with the nonstick spray. Wrap the outside of the pan with a double layer of foil to keep the mix from leaking out.
  4. Pour the batter into the pan. Set the pan in a large roasting pan and surround it with one inch of very hot water.
  5. Bake for 45 minutes. Turn off the oven without opening the door and let the cake cool for one hour.
  6. Remove the cake and place on a cooling rack for about an hour. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. Unmold the cake onto a plate and garnish with the raspberry sauce and mint sprigs.

Raspberry sauce:

Add the fresh (or thawed) berries to a bowl, pierce with a fork to let the juices run out, add the lemon juice and confectioners’ sugar and mix well. Refrigerate before serving.

Pomegranate and strawberry mousse recipe

Light and fluffy, this dessert will make you feel like you’re on cloud nine with your sweetie! What makes this dessert even more romantic? It’s a low-calorie dessert — leaving you feeling less guilty about enjoying other Valentine’s Day goodies!

Serves 4

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups fresh or thawed frozen strawberries, plus extra strawberries to garnish
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 1 envelope unflavored gelatin
  • 1/2 cup pomegranate juice
  • 1 (7 ounce) container regular or 2 percent Greek yogurt

Directions:

  1. Add 1/4 cup of the pomegranate juice to a bowl along with the gelatin. Let the mixture stand for about four minutes until the gelatin softens.
  2. Meanwhile, add the strawberries and salt to a food processor and blend until smooth.
  3. In a saucepan over medium heat, add the remaining pomegranate juice and sugar. Bring to a simmer, and stir frequently until the sugar has dissolved.
  4. Reduce the heat to low and gently add the gelatin mixture. Allow the mixture to cook for just a minute; then transfer to the food processor with the strawberry purée.
  5. Blend the mixture for about 10 seconds to combine, and then pour it into dessert bowls (or martini glasses).
  6. Cover the desserts and refrigerate them for a few hours until they’re set.
  7. Serve garnished with fresh strawberry slices.

Red velvet cupcake recipe with cream cheese frosting

These red velvet cupcakes have “love” written all over them! The beautiful red color symbolizes your love for your valentine and the cream cheese frosting? Well, that’ll just send you head-over-heels!

Yields 24

Ingredients:

  • 2 eggs (room temperature)
  • 1-1/2 cups buttermilk (room temperature)
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup canola oil
  • Red food coloring
  • 2-1/2 cups flour
  • 1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
  • 1/4 cup cocoa powder
  • 3 ounce package of instant vanilla pudding mix
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
  • Cupcake liners

For frosting:

  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 (8 ounce) package reduced-fat cream cheese, softened
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3-1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

Directions:

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 (12-cup) cupcake tins with cupcake liners.
  2. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, instant vanilla pudding mix, salt and baking soda, and set aside.
  3. In a large bowl with an electric mixer (or a stand mixer with the paddle attachment), beat the eggs, buttermilk, vanilla extract, vinegar, food coloring and oil until well blended.
  4. A little at a time, add the dry ingredients to the mixture. Mix until well-combined and smooth.
  5. Pour the batter into the cupcake tins until they are about 1/2 full with batter.
  6. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean, making sure to rotate the pans halfway through the baking time. Cool completely before frosting.
  7. For the frosting, sift the confectioners’ sugar in a bowl and set it aside. Use your electric mixer on medium speed (or a stand mixer with the paddle attachment), cream together the butter, cream cheese and vanilla until well-blended.
  8. A little at a time, add the sifted confectioners’ sugar to the butter mixture. Beat until thoroughly blended.

Affogato with amaretto recipe

Leave it to the romantic Italians to concoct a heart-racing dessert! Affogato is the Italian word for “drowned,” which is how the ice cream is served… drowned in the espresso. Impress your sweetie with your Italian and your dessert-prep skills!

Yields 4

Ingredients:

  • 1 pint premium vanilla ice cream or gelato
  • 1/2 cup boiling water
  • 1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
  • 4 tablespoons amaretto liqueur
  • 6 Italian-style almond cookies, roughly crumbled for garnish

Directions:

  1. Pre-chill four dessert bowls by placing them in the freezer for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, allow the ice cream to soften slightly.
  2. Add the boiling water and espresso powder into a measuring cup and stir until powder has completely dissolved.
  3. Scoop out 1/2 cup of ice cream and add it to each of the prepared dessert bowls. Top the ice cream with one tablespoon of the liqueur and then add some of the crumbled cookies. Serve immediately.

Valentine’s Day is one of the most romantic times! Show your love for your valentine by thinking outside the chocolate box with a non-chocolate, romantic dessert recipes!

More Valentine’s Day desserts to try

Mini heart whoopie pie
Panna cotta recipes
Healthy Valentine’s treats

Dessert Recipes with Bill & Sheila

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Comfort food for the invalid or poorly

Comfort foods for the invalid or poorly

comfort food – Once upon a time, most general cookery books included chapters on “invalid cookery”, conjuring images of valetudinarians, coaxed into spooning up bowlfuls of thin gruels, arrowroot jelly and sago milk pudding. I thought of this recently when my family were beset with endless rounds of colds and bugs. Modern cookery books aren’t much help – recipes are either too rich and indulgent or focus on specific diseases, with little on general illness. So I find myself supplementing advice from mother and aunt with that from the older books – comfort food.

Colds aren’t so hard – adults are happy with toddies, soup and anything spicy, my mother-in-law keeps me supplied with Johar Joshanda which is better than any Lemsip, and the kids love fruity, honey sweetened jellies and sorbets. It’s harder to find nutritous food for stomachs upset by medication or gastroenteritis. The general advice is solid common sense. Don’t ask your patient what they want – choose easily digested food you know they like – comfort food at its best. Avoid unexpected textures – gristle, bone, lumps. Small, varied portions are best, think tempting morsels. My mother was brilliant at this and an expert at arranging a tray – I try to do the same for my family now.

The recipes in the books I looked at had changed little from the 1700s to the 1950s. There are strange omissions – potatoes (good for bland starchiness) don’t get a look in, which I find odd, as they are the first set of comfort food I want to eat when ill (crisps, chips or mash). Honey is almost always overlooked in favour of sugar. Herbs, spices and vegetables are under-used. One of the few references to curry comes from the pseudonymous Mistress Dods and contains a healthy amount of garlic, chilli, ginger and turmeric. Few specific illnesses are addressed, although Hannah Glasse bizarrely offers a sage liquor for treating thrush in children.

Many comfort food dishes don’t suit the modern palate; tripe, gruels, milk puddings (also not good fare for phlegmy colds) feature frequently, as do some very odd combinations – Agnes Jekyll recommends a lunch of toast, spread with chestnut puree, topped with slices of pheasant and garnished with gravy and warmed plums. At least this has flavour, but I find it is unpalatable as Mrs Beeton’s toast sandwich – I prefer instead Marguerite Patten’s marmite or bone marrow on toast. Incidentally, Marguerite Patten is a great believer in Vitamin B rich marmite – she also adds it to milk and soup as it helps “combat the fatigue of illness” and gives flavour to otherwise bland food. I would add that anything umami can help increase a listless appetite.

All the books acknowledge that fluids are key with any illness, so I tried a few variations. Barleywater was the surprise hit – it’s cheap and simple to make and soothing on the stomach, especially if you don’t add lemon. Whey turned out to be a good alternative when milk was too rich. Soups, jellies, custards are perfect for slipping down easily, though chicken soup – seen as a universal panacea – is trumped by the cookery writers back then by beef tea. I prefer chicken but beef tea (really beef broth) is excellent if you are self-medicating – turn it into bullshot with a good glug of vodka.

My other main success was savoury jellies. When I mention them the majority reaction is disgust. I have no idea why – they are restorative, sustaining and championed by some of my favourite chefs (Fergus Henderson’s trotter gear, Simon Hopkinson’s chicken in aspic) and a cooling alternative to soup. The children in my family had no preconceptions and loved them, especially a beef one I coloured with beetroot. My absolute favourite comfort food takes Jewish penicillin to its xenith – Fanny Cradock tells us to smash up some chicken, put it in a jar, cover with cheap brandy and simmer (a slow cooker will do it) for 24 hours before straining. As she says – it’s miraculous.

Have you ever discovered an archaic recipe which you turn to in times of illness? Have you any recipes handed down to you that you swear by?

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The proof of the pudding is that club is a sweet success

The proof of the pudding is that club is a sweet success

AN ENTREPENEURIAL mother of two from Plymstock has turned her passion for baking into an exciting new monthly social event.

Becky Frost, who set up Frosted Cupcakes early last year, is busy encouraging other local food enthusiasts to pick up their whisk and get baking.

  1. ?MAKE AND BAKE: Rear: Chrissie Dawe, Annie Evans, Becky Frost. Front: Emma Spear, Jane Martin and Kate Oliver. Pictured left: Valentine-themed puddings

    MAKE AND BAKE: Rear: Chrissie Dawe, Annie Evans, Becky Frost. Front: Emma Spear, Jane Martin and Kate Oliver. Pictured left: Valentine-themed puddings

  2. ?

She recently launched her monthly Pudding Club , an X-Factor-style baking competition, and news of its success has been gradually spreading.

She said: “The club grew out of my passion for cooking and my enthusiasm for getting people to bake their own goods, free from additives.

Pudding Club is growing each month and I’d love for more people to become involved – maybe even some men too.”

Mrs Frost was the founder of The Chocolate Queen, supplying delis and shops across the country with her sweet goods, but due to ill health she was forced to take a break.

She said: “Frosted Cupcakes and Pudding Club is like a comeback – I had to take a back seat for a while due to my health but I’m now back on my feet.”

With around ten members attending Becky’s pudding club every month, the event sees each participant make a dessert based on a chosen theme, before being judged anonymously on taste and presentation.

Members can also access online tips and recipes, as well as sharing information on supermarket special offers, via Facebook.

Anyone interested in the Frosted Cupcakes Pudding Club is asked to send an email to [email protected]

Melting chocolate puddings (makes 4)

February is the time to make the most of chocolate by serving warm individual chocolate puddings with a crusty top, soft sponge and a rich gooey chocolate centre. They can be cooked in small ramekin dishes, but slightly larger dishes, which provide enough space for the pudding to rise without tumbling down the sides, seem to work best.

YOU WILL NEED 5oz (150g) self-raising flour 2oz (50g) ground almonds 4tbspns cocoa powder 4oz (110g) dark chocolate — grated 7oz (200g) caster sugar 5fl oz (175ml milk) 2oz (50g) melted butter 1 free-range egg — beaten Pinch salt 1oz (25g) sliced almonds 5oz (150g) dark muscovado sugar 3tbspns cocoa powder 9fl oz (250ml) boiling water METHOD Turn the oven on to 180C/160F or gas mark 4.

Place the flour, ground almonds, cocoa powder, grated chocolate, salt and sugar in a large bowl and mix well together.

Mix together the melted butter, milk and egg in a separate bowl, then stir into the dry mix.

When the mixture is well stirred, divide between the dishes.

Mix the muscovado sugar and cocoa powder together and pour on the boiling water, stir well, then gently spoon this over the sponge mix.

This might look rather alarming, but worry not — during the cooking process the sauce will gradually sink into the sponge to provide the delicious sticky chocolate centre.

Toss a few sliced almonds over the top of each dish and bake for 20 minutes; then lower the oven temperature to 170C/150F or gas mark 3 for a further ten minutes.

When the top feels firm to the touch, the puddings are done and should be served immediately with fresh cream.

Dessert Recipes with Bill & Sheila
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Dessert review: Bonnie Ruth's cupcake

Jayme Campbell of Confection Confessions

Dessert review: Bonnie Ruth’s cupcake


dessert

Photo by Jayme Campbell

Coconut, Carrot, and Blueberry Cream Cheese cupcakes from Bonnie Ruth’s

Bonnie Ruth’s Café Trottoir Et Patisserie at the Shops at Starwood in Frisco and Bonnie Ruth’s Bistro Francaise Et Patisserie at Watters Creek in Allen makes me want to channel my inner French Girl. Maybe it is the accent that I always thought was so charming, perhaps it is my love of Parisian macarons or my secret desire to become a Crazy Horse Paris burlesque dancer. Oh, I know! It is the fact that I could move there, never shave my legs again and it be completely acceptable and even encouraged. Anyways, I digress.

When I visit Bonnie Ruth’s, time stands still. I can indulge in a good book and drink tea with my pinky up, sample their amazing Sunday Brunch or best of all, have my pick or some amazing dessert.

On this particular occasion, I stopped in right after lunch and the pastry case was looking kind of bare. I snagged up the last macaron, which didn’t even make it to the car, so you guys will have to wait for another time to read my reviews on the macarons. That is, if I can keep my grubby hands off the bag until I get home. I am definitely not channeling my inner French girl with my gluttonous ways.

So, macaron debacle aside, I also sampled a blueberry cream cheese cupcake, coconut cupcake, and carrot cake cupcake.

My favorite cupcake was the blueberry cream cheese cupcake. This is one of my personal favorite combinations that you have a hard time coming across in the winter months, so I was pretty thrilled. It was full of huge, plump blueberries and the frosting was a light and sweet cream cheese frosting. It reminds me of being a kid when I would add sugar to my cream cheese and slather it on my blueberry muffin, and put it in the microwave in an attempt to appease my mother by eating a muffin for breakfast instead of dessert. Right, because there was a difference there?

The coconut cupcake was light and fluffy with a heavy-handed, delicious serving of coconut buttercream on top. It was divine. It wasn’t overly sweet and the coconut left a nice crunch in the frosting. I actually ate all of the coconut frosting before digging into the cake.

Lastly, we have a carrot cake cupcake. It was your average spicy carrot cake and delicious cream cheese frosting. It was good, but there wasn’t anything about it that will keep me from picking it over that blueberry cream cheese cupcake in the future.

I have never understood how French women are so patient and take their time with everything, most importantly food. There is no way I could take one bite of the blueberry cream cheese cupcake, place my fork down for the “proper two minutes in between bites,” and reflect on said cupcake. Instead, I am busy swallowing the cupcake in one bite and reflecting on which one to order next.

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baking with Bill & Sheila
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Dessert Rose

Dessert Rose

Oh dear. It’s all about elegant dinner parties these days. Wine accompanied by cheese and crackers. Wine and food. Wine and desserts. Unfortunately it’s not as simple as simply simultaneously throwing open the bar and buffet. From the looks of it, the whole process demands an intimidating level of expertise in wine and food. And while there’s plenty of information on pairing wine with food, drinking and serving it with desserts is relatively unexplored territory in India.

I’m afraid I can’t be of much help here. My idea of cunningly blending food and alcohol involves pouring copious amounts of tequila into chocolate icing before slathering it on a cake. (Works like a charm, by the way.) However, I did manage to find you two people who can guide you through the intricacies of chocolate and chardonnay.

Meet Chef Nalin Fonseka currently pairing wine with desserts at On The Rocks, The Sheraton Park Hotel and Towers in Chennai. And the hotel’s resident sommelier Kathiravan Govindraj.

In an attempt to encourage people to experiment with wine to end a meal, instead of coffee, they have been working on a menu that brings together contemporary desserts and sweet wines from all over the world. How do you pick what works best? Follow their lead.

“Take compounds from the food, the smokiness, the level of sweetness, the fruitiness, the crunch of caramel…” says Govindraj. “How sweet is the dessert? Pair it with wine that is slightly sweeter, so they complement each other. If the dessert is rich, balance it with a rich wine.” Don’t try contrasts, even though they were de rigueur a decade ago. “If you drink a dry wine with a dessert, you’ll just blow away the taste,” says Chef Fonseka.

So his Bailey’s Irish Cream crème brulee, subtly laced with vanilla and torched on top for that essential smoky caramel, works best with a wine like the Hungarian 2005 Oremus Tokaji. “The sweetness and spice in the wine works with the creamy texture of the dessert,” says Govindraj. Other popular pairings include the 2005 Deinhard Beernauslese, a late harvest German Reisling with notes of bitter orange teamed with a walnut praline soufflé with white wine scented candied orange compote. Or the 2005 Tornech “The Bothie,” with its clean flavours and floral notes paired with flaky pastry containing wild berries and vanilla bean sauce.

Influential foodie website Serious Eats, which focuses on sharing food enthusiasm through blogs and online communities, breaks it down further in an article discussing how people are now more likely to end their meals with wine instead of tea or coffee. Their main guideline is “In general, as the colours of the dessert get darker, the wine gets darker.”

To pick the right wine, Serious Eats suggest you consider three factors. Acidity, intensity and flavour. An acidic wine will work well with a fruit dish, which has natural acidity. Imagine an old fashioned pineapple upside down pudding, for instance. An intense dessert needs an intense wine, or the drink will just get upstaged, and of course, the sweeter a dessert, the sweeter the wine.

To make intelligent matches, you must understand not just the wine, but also the dessert. Chef Fonseka gave Govindraj every recipe so he could figure out all the nuances of the dish. Then, look at tasting notes — the Internet makes that easy. Vanilla rich desserts with wines that have vanilla notes. Smoke with smoke. Berries with berries. Not so hard now, is it?

And thank goodness, one rule holds true. Champagne goes with everything.

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A simple yet elegant dessert

A simple yet elegant dessert

Something as simple as bread can be turned into an elegant dessert.

Bread pudding is a wonderful dessert, whether made from fresh bread or stale ends.

In olden times, bread pudding was a means of not wasting anything. The poor could not afford to waste even a scrap of old stale bread.

At the restaurants where I worked, bread pudding was a common “family meal” dessert. Leftover Danish and brioche from Sunday brunch and other events were turned into bread pudding and served to the staff. Big pans were filled with the bread, soaked in custard and slowly baked into a delicious pudding.

The concept of bread pudding is simple. Once you have mastered it, you can begin to make variations on the basic recipe.

Add fruits, nuts and spices or use different types of bread. Make savory bread puddings with various vegetables, meats and cheeses.

You can even change the ingredients in the custard to make the finished pudding more or less rich in taste or to change the firmness.

The versatility of bread pudding makes it something that should be in anyone’s repertoire

Basic custard — one quart of milk and eight whole eggs — will bind the bread together into a pudding when baked.

You may want to add sugar to the mixture, especially if you are using plain bread.

Three-quarters of a cup of sugar would be the most I would add, but even this may be too sweet for some, so adjust it to your liking. Bread that has its own sweetness, such as Danish, needs less added sugar (or maybe eliminate it altogether).

The custard can be adjusted as well. Any type of milk or cream can be used, from skim milk to full-fat cream. What you use will determine the fat content and richness of the pudding.

Whole eggs can be exchanged for just egg whites, eliminating the fat from the yolks.

Conversely, using whole eggs with extra egg yolks will make it richer.

Any bread works for bread pudding, from leftovers and the end slices of sandwich loaves to fresh bread bought specifically for the pudding. You can even use gluten-free bread.

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