lazy sunday

Okay, so for those of you who chastised me for not liking pie crust - I made another dessert, this time with crust! They're miniature lemon meringue pies made with some leftover homemade lemon curd that I had in my fridge. And they are delicious (yes, I even ate the pie crust after).

I'd like to share this fantastic lemon curd recipe from the LCBO's Food and Drink magazine. With just the right amount of lemony zing, it's the perfect starting point to some great desserts. I made little strawberry cheesecakes last week and topped them off with a generous dollop of this lemon curd. Also, I think it'd make for some pretty killer lemon squares.

Zingy Lemon Curd (from Food & Drink Magazine, Spring 2010)

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup lemon juice (about 3 lemons)
  
• 3 eggs
  
• 1 cup granulated sugar
  
• 1/4 cup (60 mL) butter, softened

Directions

1. Stir 3 eggs with 1 cup sugar in a small saucepan over low-med heat.
2. Whisk in lemon juice and softened butter.
3. Continue whisking constantly for 10-12 minutes or until mixture thickens. DO NOT let mixture boil (otherwise you'll be left with little bits of cooked egg in your curd).
4. Remove from heat and cover surface directly with plastic wrap or parchment paper - this prevents that nasty skin from developing on the top of your lemon curd!
5. Cool until slightly warm.

Lemon curd keeps well in the fridge for about a week, or can be frozen for longer.

Enjoy!

easy as pie

I've never understood the term "easy as pie". It's definitely not that easy to make (though it sure is easy to eat!). To be honest, I've only ever liked the inside filling of pies. If you ever meet a girl with pie filling on the edge of her lips and an empty crust on her plate, chances are, you've probably run into me...hello!

A cousin of mine served these caramelized apples for dessert once, and I've been desperately trying to recreate the recipe. The apples were so tender and comforting, and tasted exactly like that first bite of fresh-out-of the oven, barely-cooled-on-the-windowsill apple pie. Here's what I've come up with so far (recipe follows).

Apples! Spartan, Pink Lady & Crispin

I made two apples' worth of dessert.
These three slices were unfortunately all that was left at the time of the photo shoot!

Warm Caramelized Apples (from Foodland Ontario)

Crispin apples work well for this recipe - they're not too sweet and have a bit of spice to them. Plus, it stays firm when cooked (not mushy like some other apples). You can serve this over ice cream or on top of crepes, but I like to eat it on its own.

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp (25 mL) butter
• 1/4 cup (50 mL) brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp (2 mL) ground cardamom or cinnamon
• 4 Ontario apples, unpeeled, cored and cut into wedges

Directions

1. Melt the butter over medium heat.
2. Add brown sugar and cinnamon, reduce heat.
3. Add apples and cook, stirring gently, approx 6-8 minutes. (Apples should be tender but not mushy).
4. Serve warm.

Enjoy!

i've heard of many chocoholics...

...but I ain't ever seen no 'chocohol'. We got an epidemic, people: people who like chocolate and don't understand word endings. They're probably 'overwork-aholled'.

-Demetri Martin, Comedian

I've taken up a lover and his name is chocolate (He has yet to meet the parents. But I think they'd approve). Over the past week or so, I've been lusting over chocolate desserts. Last Thursday, I made these delicious truffle tarts with a raspberry surprise in the middle. They are quite a fantastic way to use up that old box of Fudge-Os.

Today, some friends came over to bake these heavenly molten lava cakes. Rich and satisfying, these are best served straight out of the oven. We had a few timing issues, but this is a rather forgiving recipe. Although the bottom of the cakes were a little undercooked, those ooey gooey chocolate centres made us overlook the mistake. Now if only chocolate could hide all of our mistakes...

Butter, chocolate and egg yolks - just a heart attack waiting to happen

At this point, I was tempted to eat the batter itself!

Garnishing the molten cakes with strawberries...

All ready to eat!

I just love taking glamour shots of food.

Paula Deen's Molten Lava Cake

Ingredients (makes about 6 servings)

I've converted some of the weights to fit the metric system. Darn Imperialists.

• 170 g bittersweet chocolate
  
• 50 g milk chocolate
  
• 150 mL butter
  
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups icing sugar
  
• 3 large eggs
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp flavoured liqueur (we used Grand Marnier, but I'd also like to try it with Chambord)
  

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Grease 6 ramekins.
3. Melt the chocolate and butter in the microwave in 15 second spurts, stirring occasionally.
4. Whisk in flour and sugar to chocolate mixture.
5. Stir in eggs and egg yolks, blend at low power until smooth.
6. Add in vanilla and orange liqueur.
7. Divide the batter into the ramekins and bake for 17 minutes (the original recipe calls for 14 minutes, but ours were still a little too runny. This is the step the requires the most precision, so you may have to play around with your timing to get it right.)
8. Loosen the sides of the cake with a knife, and invert ramekin onto a plate.
   
9. Garnish with strawberries, and enjoy!
   

chocolate drizzled meltaways

Browning butter

Whipping egg whites

Mixing batter

Ready to pop in the oven!

Chocolate Drizzled Meltaways
Crispy on the outside, buttery on the inside. (And, as always, my foolproof stamp of approval!)

Makes about 24 cookies

* 1/2 cup butter
* 3 large egg whites
* 1/3 cup sugar
* 3/4 cup all purpose flour
* 1 tsp vanilla extract
* chocolate, for drizzling (I used Lindt chili-infused dark chocolate... delicious!)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Celsius.
2. First, you will need to brown the butter. In a skillet, melt the butter on medium heat. After butter has melted, continue to heat the butter until the milk solids separate from the butter fat. When the milk solids begin to brown slightly, take off heat. Make sure to watch the butter carefully, otherwise it will burn!
3. In a large bowl, beat the egg whites while gradually adding in the sugar. Continue beating until mixture becomes glossy and forms peaks.
4. Add in flour, brown butter and vanilla extract into the egg white mixture. Mix until just blended.
5. Drop batter onto parchment paper lined baking sheet (in a pinch, you can use aluminium foil instead, like I did...), about 1 heaping tablespoon per cookie. You can use the back of a spoon to smooth out the batter.
6. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until edges are golden brown.
7. Let cool 5 minutes, then drizzle melted chocolate on top.
8. Chill 30 minutes, until chocolate sets.
9. Bon appetit!

Freshly baked with a dash of chocolate...

...mmm!

secrets from the recipe box I: truffle making

From top:
Dark Chocolate Orange Truffle (dark chocolate ganache with orange extract, enrobed in white chocolate); Hazelnut Chai Truffle (milk chocolate ganache with hazelnuts and chai tea, rolled in cocoa powder); Peppermint Crunch Truffle (mint chocolate ganache with crushed candy cane pieces, enrobed in dark chocolate); Sugar and Spice Truffle (milk/dark chocolate ganache with cinnamon and nutmeg, rolled in turbinado sugar);

I received the most adorable recipe box as a Christmas present this year, and I've already begun to fill it with some of my most cherished (read: foolproof) recipes. Today I thought I'd share my yearly Christmas tradition*... truffle making! I've found a lot a random truffle recipes online and in cookbooks, but this one that I've adapted from a Sobeys catalog seems to have the best consistency. Not to mention it is practically foolproof (unlike those chocolate covered cherries we tried to make last year, eh Steph?)

*this is the second time I've made truffles at Christmastime, thus officiating it as a "yearly tradition".

Foolproof Chocolate Truffles

Ingredients (makes about 18 small truffles)

• 150 grams good-quality chocolate, finely chopped
• 1/3 cup 35% whipping cream
• flavouring agents - cinnamon, nutmeg, flavoured liqueurs, peppermint extract, orange extract, the possibilities are only limited by your creativity!
• fine cocoa powder for coating
  
• optional: chocolate for coating truffles
  

Directions

1. Heat the whipping cream in a small saucepan, until bubbles just begin to break the surface.
2. Pour heated whipping cream over chopped chocolate.
3. LET SIT 5 MINUTES (this step is extremely important! Otherwise, the layers will separate and you will be left with a oily, gooey mess. I would know - this has happened to me twice...damn my impatience!)
   
4. Stir the whipping cream and chopped chocolate until mixture (called ganache) is smooth. If you are adding any flavouring agents, now would be the time to mix them in.
   
5. Refrigerate for 1.5-2 hours, or until ganache is hardened.
6. With a melon-baller, scoop out small balls of ganache and roll into a ball with your hands.
7. Roll the ganache in cocoa powder until completely covered.
8. If you would like to cover the truffle in a coat of chocolate, skip step 7. Instead, heat the chocolate in a double boiler (or in a microwave at low power, in spurts of about 30 s). With a small spoon, dip the ganache ball into the melted chocolate until completely coated. Set on wax paper and refrigerate until chocolate has hardened.