Bailey's Pots de Crème

It's the dessert you've all been waiting for. It is the most creamily decadent chocolate dessert to ever grace your taste buds, and it is mind-numbingly easy. You make it in a blender for goodness' sake. I first heard of this type of dessert over at Pioneer Woman, and have made it dozens of times with success each time. I make it often enough that I have memorized the recipe. It's that good. If we have last-minute guests coming over, I throw this in the blender, pop it in the fridge for a couple of hours and voilà, a dessert worthy of the fanciest tables in the fanciest restaurants in, like, Paris or something. I've adapted Pioneer Woman's recipe a bit, substituted hot chocolate for the hot coffee and settled on Bailey's as my liqueur of choice. Honey whiskey is a flavour well worth trying though. 

Bailey's Pots de Crème

Ingredients:

Makes 4 generous portions, and doubles easily if you have a crowd coming over.

3/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 eggs

1/2 tbsp Bailey's liqueur

pinch of salt

1/2 cup boiling water

1 heaping tbsp hot chocolate powder

Directions: 

Start your kettle boiling to have the water ready for a few minutes from now. Throw the chocolate chips, eggs, Bailey's and salt into the blender and blend well. 

Blend it real well. 

Mix together the hot chocolate powder with the just-boiled water. You want it to be really hot! When the mixture in the blender is as smooth as it will go, while it's still blending take the little round thing out of the top of the blender and slowly pour in the super hot chocolate.

The mixture will emulsify, slightly cooking the egg and giving the chocolate an amazingly smooth texture much like ganache. It's essentially chocolate mousse without the whipped cream. Delicious

Pour individual portions in ramekins or any other dish of your choice (check out Pioneer Woman, linked above, she had some good ideas). Sometimes I just pour it into a big dish for scooping or dipping things into. Refrigerate for at least 3-4 hours until firm, then serve with whipped cream.

My husband wanted me to take this picture and give it this caption - "This is what your bowl will look like 8 seconds after take your first bite."

For an even more decadent dessert (because that's what we all want) take those mini cream puffs from Costco and top with the chocolate stuff and whipped cream if you like. I think this may just be my favourite dessert of all time. I kid you not.

Oh good Lord. This honestly tastes like Heaven. Easiest make-ahead dessert you will ever make, and everyone will ask you for the recipe. :)

Chocolate Loveberries

 *Disclaimer* I know the picture looks like a messy bowl of chocolate covered mystery-lumps, but trust me. It's worth it. 

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My husband and I have been doing our annual liver-cleanse diet of no sugar, no processed food, no refined white products (flour, pasta...), no red meat, no alcohol, no recreational drugs (that one was really difficult.. j/k :) ... we feel great when we do it, we have lots of energy and sleep better, and it resets many of our eating habits. It is also a lot of work and I have to skip many of our meal short cuts like pasta and frozen pizza, make meal plans and think ahead - which is harder than it sounds! The really difficult part is no dessert because we both love sweets. And I love to make/bake sweets! I managed to find a couple recipes that satisfied our sweet craving while staying within our diet parameters. My secret weapon: maple syrup. Delicious unrefined sweetness, and you just need a little bit!  Honey works too, but I love me some maple. I came up with this recipe one night when we were craving ice cream. It's just a simple recipe of chocolate whipped cream folded with frozen berries. The berries freeze the cream and the berries thaw just enough to make the flavour really pop. Jamie came up with the name because he knew I made it out of love for a man who loves his chocolate (and was temporarily deprived of it...). We love it with blueberries and raspberries, but I'm sure it would be delish with chopped strawberries, blackberries, maybe even frozen peaches! Feel free to try any combination thereof.

Ingredients: (makes two portions)
Chocolate whipped cream
1/3 cup whipping cream
2 tsp of maple syrup
1 heaping tsp cocoa powder

1 1/2 cup frozen fruit, divided in two bowls.

Directions: 
Whip the cream with cocoa and maple syrup. I just do it by hand with a whisk, it takes just a couple minutes and you get a great wrist workout. The great whisk wrist workout I call it.

Portion out the frozen berries into two bowls. You can let them thaw a little if you like a softer, 

less frozen bite. 

                                   Top with 1/2 of the chocolate cream in each bowl. 

Fold it all together, let it sit a few minutes to get that nice frozen texture, and enjoy!

Lime ginger crème brulée

We are a part of a supper club which consists of 4 couples and meets every couple months, and the theme for the last one was "Taste of the Orient". I was in charge of dessert and really wanted to make crème brulée, so this version adds a twist to the classic crème by adding the Asian flavour combo of lime and ginger. The flavours were subtle and the dessert was delicious.

Crème brulée is my favourite dessert. It's a creamy, deceptively light little custard that has a satisfying sweet crunch of the burnt sugar done either with a small blowtorch or under the broiler.  The name "crème brulée" is actually a misnomer... we should probably call them "sucres brulée".  I guess it doesn't have the same ring to it... This dessert has gotten a bit of a reputation for being difficult, temperamental shall we say, the diva of desserts.  Cooking custard can be tricky since you have to cook the egg mixture just so, often carefully stirring over a double-boiler until just the right texture which is vaguely described as "coating a spoon".  What does that really mean? Coat a spoon. Anything coats a spoon.  I love this recipe because I don't have to stir and watch and stir some more and try to judge whether the darn cream stuff is coating my spoon only to discover that I basically have a pot of sweet 'n' creamy scrambled eggs, which is what happens if you don't cook it right. This recipe heats the cream, combines the rest of the ingredients and finishes the cooking in the oven in a "bain-marie", or a water bath. Not sure where that name came from, but it means to place your container in water while it cooks, which makes it cook gently and evenly, perfect for diva custard! 

Makes 8 servings

Ingredients:

2 cups heavy cream

6 egg yolks 

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup white sugar

Zest from 1 1/2 limes

Juice from 1 lime (squeeze the other half into a glass of water!)

1 tbsp grated ginger

1/2 cup brown/white sugar mix

If you want to go classic, simply omit the lime and ginger.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and put the kettle on to boil. It's not for tea, just wait and see...

Grate the ginger and lime zest.  

Pour the cream into a medium sized pot and add the vanilla.  Whisk zest and ginger into the cream mixture. Place on medium-high heat until just boiling. When bubbles are forming at the edges, turn off the heat and take the pot off the element. Let sit for 5 min or so to let the flavours meld. 

Meanwhile, whisk together egg yolks and sugar in a bowl.  

Tempering:  This is where it gets fun, but its really the only tricky part. Two things are happening in this step: The first is that you are straining the zest and ginger out of the cream, and the second is that you are tempering the egg so that it doesn't turn to scrambled egg cream.  Which is what will happen if you just dump hot cream into the egg mixture. Do not do this. Capiche?

You may need an extra pair of hands so borrow a friend or relative or rig up something that means you can do it yourself. You basically need to slowly pour some of the hot cream mixture through a strainer into the egg yolk mixture, all while whisking. As, you can see in the photo I clearly got some help since I don't have three hands... Pour in a few tablespoons' worth, whisking well, then pour the rest in slowly while whisking furiously.   

Set 8 ramekins on a deep-set cookie sheet.  Once the mixture is well whisked, pour into individual ramekins, about 2/3 of the way full.

Here is where the boiling water comes in. (No, its not to make crème brulée soup. Gross. Why would you think that?)  Place the pan in the oven and pour the boiling water into the pan until it reaches about halfway up the ramekins. Bake for 20-30 minutes.

They are done when it looks cooked but the middles jiggle slightly when you wiggle the ramekin.  Like how I worked jiggle and wiggle into the same sentence?
Chill in the fridge for a few hours before you are ready to eat. A few minutes before dessert, combine the brown and white sugar in a small bowl. Top each ramekin with a layer of sugars (sorry there is no picture, there were impatient supper-clubers waiting!) and pop under the broiler for 2-3 minutes. When the tops look melted and slightly burnt, remove from under the heat.  Tip: you may need to rotate the pan to burn evenly. Other tip: PUT THE TIMER ON or else you will forget them and they will burn - and not the good kind! You will literally have burnt creams. Not that I'm speaking from experience or anything...

Allow to cool for a couple minutes so your guests don't burn themselves.

Like Amélie, I take great satisfaction in gently cracking the sugar crust with a spoon before scooping up the cream with just enough burnt sugar... mmm I think I have to go make some of this right now.

Enjoy!

Jenni's Brownies

I was trying to come up with a name for these brownies but I couldn't find the right adjective to describe them.  Delectable, delicious, amazing, heavenly, divine... mere words just seem to fall short of the glorious chocolatey fudgey goodness that are these brownies.  So I went with the name on the index card with the recipe written on it that I got from my sister-in-law Jenni, which I think she got off the Hershey's website. She makes these brownies all the time. That's why I love her.  Well I guess there are other reasons too... but these brownies take the cake. (hihi)

This recipe is simple and is the closest thing to no-fail brownies that I have found.  I like my brownies chewy, a little fudgey with just a touch of cakey.  You don't make friends with dry brownies.  I make them in a pot and they make a big 9x13 pan of dangerous deliciousness that lurks in my kitchen and calls my name... which is why I try to give away as many as I can.

Also, as a side note, beware of trying to make these healthy.  If you want healthy go eat salad.

Jenni's Brownies

Ingredients:

1 cup butter (or margarine)

2 cups white sugar

1/2 cup cocoa

4 eggs

2/3 cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups chocolate chips

Directions: 
First, preheat oven to 350­° and grease a 9x13 pan.
Melt the butter (margarine if you must) in a large saucepan on medium heat. 

As soon as the butter is melted turn the heat off.  If you leave it on it melts the sugar and changes the whole texture of the brownies. Learned that one from experience...

Add in the sugar. Be sure to get it all over the spoon like that. It's a key step. (jk)

Next mix in the cocoa. 

Add in the eggs and mix well. It would probably be good to mix them in one at a time, but what can you do... no time to spare when making brownies!

Dump the flour, baking soda and salt in the pot and gently mix ON TOP of the mixture.

Here is my secret trick to dirtying only one dish.  Except for the pan, which honestly is a beast to clean after all the delicious brownies have been eaten. It is definitely worth it.

Add in the vanilla and chocolate chips and mix quickly. The chocolate chips will start to melt a bit, which just adds another dimension to the chocolatey-ness of the whole thing. 

Pour into your buttered 9x13 pan. This picture makes me drool. 

Pop in the oven for about 35 minutes, until the brownies start to pull away from the pan.

Let cool on a rack before cutting into pieces as big or as small as you like. 

If you want, nuke for 10 seconds before enjoying with a glass of milk. 

Chocolate love at first sight. 

Chocolate zucchini cupcakes

I realized I need to amp up the sweets on this blog - it's been all meals and gardening lately!  Here is the first in a series of desserts: Chocolate Zucchini cupcakes!  It's a cake recipe that I decided to make into cupcakes and it worked quite well.  I've used this recipe many times from a lovely blog I read, Chocolate & Zucchini (which is aptly named).  This is a delicious, moist cake which manages to hide 2 cups of zucchini among its chocolatey crumbs.  If you're trying to get your kids (or spouse) to eat more veggies, this is a great way to sneak it in!

Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 scant cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter or olive oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp instant coffee
3 large eggs
2 cups grated, unpeeled zucchini
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Grease a muffin tin and a half (this recipe made 18 cupcakes), and preheat oven to 350°.

Cream the butter and sugar together. 

Add eggs, coffee and vanilla

Mix well - one egg at a time if you can remember :)

In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients.

 Dump 2/3 of the dry ingredients in the butter/sugar/egg mixture.  Place your grated zucchini in with the other 1/3 of the dry ingredients.

Mix up both bowls, coating and declumping the zucchini well. 

Now, the moment you've all been waiting for, stir it all together until just blended.

Now, I forgot to take a picture of the batter in the muffin tin before it went in the oven.  Fill the muffin tins just to the rim and pop in the oven for 20-25 minutes.

Baby interlude...

While they were cooking I went to take a picture of my beautiful sleeping baby's toes.

Back to the cupcakes! When a toothpick comes out clean, take out the cupcakes and let cool for 10 minutes, then pop onto a cooling rack. 

Top with your favourite chocolate icing - mine is this Nutella Buttercream.  I got it off Pinterest, and here is the oh-so-simple recipe:

Nutella Buttercream Frosting

1/2 C butter, room temperature
1 C Nutella
1 C powdered sugar, sifted

1-2 T milk

Just blend with a hand-mixer and spread it on nice and thick.

Don't think about the calories in the frosting... you're eating a cupcake with vegetables in it!!

Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches

I woke up last Saturday morning and thought to myself - "I want to make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies". Then I thought - "Then I want to put ice cream between two cookies!" Brilliant. I have had an ice cream sandwich almost every day since. Blame it on the pregnancy, but I think I just really like oatmeal chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches.

First I made these cookies from my Company's Coming Cookie recipe book. Don't try to reduce the fat or sugar content, these are great cookies as they are. And let's face it, we're making cookies into ice cream sandwiches - eat healthy the rest of the day then allow yourself to indulge in one of these beauties.

Oatmeal Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

- 1 cup butter or margarine

- 2 cups brown sugar

- 2 eggs

- 1 tsp vanilla

- 2 cups flour

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 1 /2 tsp baking soda

- 2 cups rolled oats

- 2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:

Cream butter and sugar together. Mix in the eggs and vanilla. Dump the dry ingredients on top and mix them together before folding them into the wet ingredients (this is my dish-saving trick). Drop in spoonfuls on a lightly greased baking sheet and smooth them into discs for an evenly shaped cookie. Bake for 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees.

Allow them to cool completely before making them into ice cream sandwiches.

Once the cookies are cool, hold a cookie upside down and scoop about two spoonfuls of ice cream onto the inside of a cookie. Use your favourite type of ice cream - I have tried peanut butter fudge crunch, raspberry cheesecake and vanilla and they were all good. Gently smooth it into a 1/2 inch layer and press another cookie on top. Make them one at a time for individual desserts, or make a bunch and keep in the freezer. Voilà!