The Food We Eat

Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies

 

 

This year, for Thanksgiving Dinner, I decided to break away from the Pumpkin Pie, Pecan Pie, Apple Pie tradition and make something different, yet stick to the Pumpkin theme. I would say, that was a very good idea. Now, it's not that I don't like pie -- I actually *love* pies. It just seems to be a huge waste on thanksgiving as most folks are so stuffed from the day's gorging that they can do no justice to a wedge (or two, or three) of pie. Me included! So I decided to go with something that is a lot more amenable to little bites and yet, delivers big flavor and satisfaction. Tall order? Let's see...

I went in search of recipes that would be fun to make, sounded tasty, and would look nice enough to be worthy of a festive meal. I absolutely love brownies, and pumpkin brownies sounded divine. Except that most recipes I came across seemed to be basic brownies with a pumpkin-y layer. Didn't sound all that wow! I quickly realized that I needed a recipe where the pumpkin-y contribution would be just as intense and decadent as its chocolate-brownie counterpart. And boy, did I ever find one? This recipe is from Cara's Cravings, and it is a definite keeper. Hey, I think this might be on the regular brownie rotation in our house.

  

Oh, lest you think we skimped on dessert on T-day, we had some pumpkin cookies and a pumpkin roulade too. And we're still going to have the pies - just not on T-day. I told you, I love a good pie!

 

 

Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies

Adapted from Cara's cravings

Brownie batter:

3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 cup granulated sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/4 tsp table salt

2 tsp ground cinnamon

Pumpkin Cheesecake batter:

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1 egg

1/3 cup sugar

3 tbsp all-purpose flour

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

1/4 tsp vanilla exract

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground cloves

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 8x8 square metal baking pan with foil. Leave an overhang, so you can use the foil as a sling to get the brownies out easily. Coat the foil lightly with butter or neutral oil.

2. Brownie batter - Beat together melted butter, sugar, and vanilla till light and creamy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. In a small bowl, whisk the dry ingredients till well incorporated. Add the dry ingredients into the wet, mixing just until incorporated. Set aside.

3. Cheesecake batter - Beat together the cream cheese, sugar, and egg. Add pumpkin puree and vanilla and mix till creamy. Mix flour and spices in a small bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and mix till creamy.

4. Spread 2/3 of chocolate brownie batter into the prepared pan. The batter is thick, so use a rubber spatula and make sure to cover the corners. Spoon the cheesecake batter on top of the brownie batter. Spread to cover evenly. Now dollop the remaining 1/3 of brownie batter on top of the cheesecake batter. Swirl the batters together using a butter knife. Do not overmix. It might not look like much at this point, but don't worry. It's all good. Don't start pondering Plan B yet :-)

5. Bake for 40 minutes, or until the center is just set. It is ok if it feels a bit underdone.

6. Cool completely on a wire rack (leave brownies in the pan) and refrigerate, at least 6 hours, or better, overnight.

7. Use sling to get the brownies out. Use a sharp serrated knife to cut brownies. A good trick is to wet the knife in hot water before each cut. This ensures a nice, clean cut and finish.

Bread and Butter Pudding

 

This is a dish so easy, my six year old could put it together. Preparation time is all of 10 minutes (max) and you can eat it a mere 25 minutes later. Sounds pretty easy, huh? It is. Now mind you, this is not a fancy dessert by a long shot. It is extremely delicious, comforting, and soothing though. R, my little one took a bite and said "Mom, this tastes like French Toast!". Well, he is correct. Poor chap didn't get any Rum on his portion :-) I still wouldn't really have this as dessert. It was a perfect evening snack for us on this cold Sunday. We had a really light lunch, so this was a welcome 4pm treat.

A good hearty artisanal bread is a prerequisite here. Given the small number of ingredients, they must all be superior. We had some whole wheat apple-raisin bread from a local bakery that needed to be used up, and that worked beautifully. You can use any hearty bread though.

Bread and Butter Pudding

Based on Greg Atkinson's recipe

Serves 4 - 6

4 cups cubed day-old hearty bread (1-inch cubes)

4 tbsp unsalted butter

3 large eggs

1/2 cup brown sugar*

3/4 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

Topping:

1/8 cup brown sugar*

1/4 cup slivered almonds

2 tsp ground cinnamon

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Melt the butter over medium heat in a small saucepan. Pour the melted butter in an 8-inch square baking dish. Pile in the bread cubes. Toss the bread to coat with butter.

2. In a medium mixing bowl, beat the eggs with the brown sugar until smooth. Whisk in the milk and vanilla. Pour the mixture over the bread, pressing the bread with the back of a spoon to encourage the soaking of the egg mixture. The bread should be barely covered.

3. Stir the sugar, cinnamon, and almonds together and sprinkle over the pudding. Bake until the pudding is set, 25 to 30 minutes.

4. Serve warm or cold. I like mine right out of the oven with a bit of Myers rum on top.

* Since I used apple-raisin bread that was sweetened already, I used this amount of sugar. If you are starting off with a non-sweetened bread, you might want to increase the sugar buy 1/4 cup in the pudding and maybe 1/8 cup in the topping. It really depends on how sweet you like it.

Gulab Jamun

 

Gulab Jamun is one of the most popular sweets (dessert) in East India. I can honestly say this -- I have yet to meet a single person who does not like this dessert. Sometimes East Indian sweets can be cloyingly sweet, and I myself don't care for many of them. But this, dear friends, is a classic, timeless, and scrumptious dish.

For those of you unfamiliar with East Indian food, think of this as donut balls (except the dough here is mostly milk solids) soaked in a simple syrup flavored with saffron and rose water (gulab literally means 'Rose'). Hooked? Read on...

Gulab Jamuns are very commonly made as part of a celebratory event, be it a birthday, a festival, or a family get-together. However, you can always find a slight variation of gulab jamuns, called Kala (black) jamuns in sweet shops at all times. I personally like Gulab jamuns more. They are lighter and more pillowy in texture. Think of it as the difference between a traditional glazed donut vs. a cake donut. Hope that helps.

In any case, I made a batch of Gulab Jamun today in honor of Diwali. R, my little boy with a ridiculously sweet tooth was so excited when I told him Mommy was making Gulab jamun today. I think he practically lived on Indian sweets while we were in India this Summer. Well, I am happy to tell you these met his seal of approval. He took one humongous mouthful and exclaimed "Mom, I knew these would be just as good as I thought". That's high praise from this little man. A on the other hand told me that they were so yummy, he wouldn't mind having a tummy ache if he ate a whole bunch. But, we're taking them over to a friends' place for a Diwali party tomorrow, so all they scored was Uno each...

 

Gulab Jamun

Makes 20

8 tbsp full-cream milk powder (I used Organic Valley)

3 tbsp all purpose flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tbsp ghee (or melted butter)

1/4 cup milk (plus a few more tablespoons as needed)

Vegetable oil for frying

Syrup:

2 cups granulated white sugar

2 cups water

A pinch of saffron threads

1 tbsp rose water

Method:

1. Whisk together the milk powder, flour, and baking soda. Rub in butter or ghee, then add enough milk to give a firm but pliable dough.

2. Pinch off small chunks of dough and roll into smooth balls, approx. 3/4 inch in diameter. Make sure to roll the balls well, you do not want cracks in the surface.

3. Heat oil until hot, but not smoking (I am guessing 350F, but I didn't measure). The goal here is to have the balls fry a bit slowly, otherwise the center remains doughy. Not good.

4. While the oil is heating, make the syrup. Add the sugar, water, and saffron, and heat till sugar is dissolved completely. Then simmer for 5 minutes longer. You want the syrup to be thin and runny. Turn off the heat.

5. Fry the dough balls in small batches (I do 6 at a time), turning often to make sure they brown evenly. Drain on paper towels to absorb excess oil.

6. Once all the balls are fried, gently lower them into the hot syrup. Let soak until they almost double in size, and turn soft and spongy. Add the rose water. Allow to cool completely and serve warm or chilled in a dessert bowl, with some syrup.

Mine are resting in the refrigerator right now, for an overnight stay. When we eat them tomorrow, I for sure will give mine a quick nuke in the microwave. I like them warm. YUM!

Plum Almond Galette

Oh! Plums! These delicious garnet-colored jewels are here and they are absolutely delicious! This is what I look forward to all year -- the arrival of stone fruit season. I love them all, but plums, cherries, and nectarines are my personal all-stars.

We were invited to one of our friends' place for dinner and I volunteered to bring dessert. Interestingly enough, I really agonized about what to bring. Matters were further complicated by the fact that whatever I made had to come together quickly, as R had reading camp in the afternoon, and we were going to have an early dinner (the hosts were catching a 6:30am flight to the East coast). Well that put  a kink in many of my first choices. I then was able to narrow the range down to something where 'fruit' would be the star. I mean, why bother with chocolate desserts now when we have all this glorious fruit bounty in front of us? There will be many a dreary, gray, cold, winter day when chocolate desserts will have their turn (and suddenly the world is a better place :-)).

Anyway, after quite some time perusing my cookbooks, reading blogs, googling, etc, I decided on something - a Plum Galette! Are you surprised? Well, I was too. You would think that after all the time I spent thinking obsessing about what to make for dessert, I'd at least pick something more complicated. Well, sorry to have let you down. Please don't go away. I promise, it was simple, but oh so delicious!

Well, my dilemma did not end there. There are a gazillion recipes for galettes, so I was actually quite at a loss as to which recipe I should pick. They all have their pros and cons. Well, suffice it to say that I finally picked a hybrid recipe. The galette crust recipe was from Cooks Illustrated (have I told you I love these guys?) and the filling recipe was borrowed from Jacques Pepin via a post on the Daily Green.

Why the hybrid recipe? I loved the idea of adding cornmeal to the galette crust (and I was not dissappointed. It provided a really nice texture and earthiness to the crust). I liked the addition of ground almonds to the filling. It really helped absorb any liquid the plums put out upon baking, and did a great job alleviating the soggy crust problem. This isn't such a big deal if you plan on serving the galette immediately after baking, but I needed it to keep for a few hours.

I hope you enjoy it!

Plum Almond Galette

CRUST

2 tbsp sour cream

2 tbsp ice water

1 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup fine stoneground cornmeal

2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

7 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

2 tbsp cream (for brushing pastry)

FILLING

3 cups plums, ripe but firm, cut into 1/4 inch slices

5 tsp sugar, plus upto 2 tsp more if needed

2 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into slivers

2 tbsp finely ground almonds

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp all purpose flour

For the Pastry:

1. Stir together the sour cream and water in a small cup and set aside in the refrigerator.

2. In a food processor, pulse together the flour, cornmeal, salt, and sugar. Scatter half of the butter pieces over the flour mixture, and pulse until the butter is the size of small peas, about 4 one-second pulses. Scatter the remaining butter over the flour mixture, and pulse till most of the butter is incorporated, and a few pea-size pieces of butter remain. While processing, add the sour cream and water mixture, and process just until the dough comes together around the blade. Please do not overprocess, or you will sacrifice flakiness of the crust.

3. Turn the dough onto a piece of plastic wrap. Flatten into a 6-inch disk, wrap well, and refrigerate at least 2 hours and up to 2 days ahead.

4. When ready to roll and bake the galette, adjust oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 400F.

5. Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Unwrap the dough between 2 large sheets of parchment papper and roll roll into a 13-inch round, still between the sheets of parchment. Slide the dough (still with parchement on each side) onto a large baking sheet and chill 20 minutes.

Assembling the galette:

1. Combine the almonds, 2 tbsp flour, and 2 tbsp sugar. Set aside.

2. Remove the rolled dough from the refrigerator. Carefully peel top sheet of parchment paper off. Sprinkle the almond mixture on the dough.

3. Pile the sliced plums in the center of the dough, leaving a 2 1/2 inch border of dough. Sprinkle 3 tsp sugar (you can use 5 tsp if your plums are underripe or sour) on top of the fruit. Dot with slivers of butter.

4. Pry the dough off the bottom layer of parchment a bit at a time and fold the edges of the dough over the fruit. Don't worry too much about making it pretty. If you gather the dough a bit at a time, you should have it pleat quite easily. Either way, fret not. It will look great once it bakes. If your dough is sticking to the parchment paper, use a thin spatula to loosen it from the paper.

5. Using a pastry brush, brush the edges of the dough with the cream and sprinke with remaining 2 tsp of sugar.

6. Bake at 400F until the crust is golden brown and crisp, and the fruit is bubbling, about 40 minutes. Place the baking sheet on a wire rack and allow the galette to cool about 10 minutes. Using a large spatula, carefully transfer the galette directly onto the wire rack to cool an additional 10 minutes. Serve the galette warm or at room temperature. Good vanilla ice-cream served alongside would be divine and a sure way to please your guests.

 

Fourth of July Flag Cake

Hope you all had a great 4th! Let me begin by saying that I have been wanting to make this cake for a *long* time. But I resisted. Why? Because I always felt it was just too cutesy, cheesy, kitchy. Don't get me wrong - I love the US of A. But let me also say that I am not one of those people who celebrate July 4th very overtly -- no red/white/blue flag-themed clothing, earrings, brooches, rings, etc for me. Also no flag or patriotic yard decorations in my house. Just not my style. That said, I do pull together a red/white/blue somewhere in my outfit. Last night it was a white and blue stone necklace, with a coral pendant. Not bad, huh?

But I finally did it yesterday! I made a Flag cake for a July 4th BBQ! It was all that I hoped it would be -- a foolproof chocolate sheet cake recipe, whipped cream frosting, and fresh berries. And it looked spectacularly cheesy. I was proud of my creation.

The BBQ was delish! We ate the better part of a cow and salmon, yummy salad, corn, mushrooms, and then shlepped over to J's work building to watch the Lake Union fireworks. Couldn't have been better. We sat on a private viewing deck with a few other work folks and got to witness some of the best fireworks in Seattle, in my humble opinion.

Well, in case you're inspired to bake this case on the next 4th, or if you are simply feeling patriotic, here is the recipe for the cake.

Chocolate Sheet Cake

From Cooks Illustrated

This is a very intense, cocoa-ey, dense chocolate cake. If you are expecting a fully, light, box-mix kinda cake, this is not it. I love it as it packs in a great chocolate flavor, and it is not too sweet.

3/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa

1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

8 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped

12 tbsp (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter

4 large eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position. Preheat oven to 325F. Grease the bottom and sides of a 13 X 9 inch baking pan.

2. Sift together the cocoa, flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.

3. Heat the chocolate and butter in a microwave-safe bowl covered with plastic wrap for 2 minutes at 50% power. Alternatively, you can use a double boiler method on the stove top. Either way, the chocolate should be completely melted, and the mixture smooth and shiny.

4. Whisk together the eggs, sugar, and vanilla in a medium bowl. Whisk in the buttermilk until smooth.

5. Whisk the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture just until combined. Whisk in the dry ingredients until the batter is smooth and glossy.

6. Pour the batter into the greased pan. Bake until firm in the center when pressed with finger and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, approx. 40 minutes.

7. Cool on a wire rack until room temperature, approx. 1 hour.

Now this is where my common-sense deserted me. I actually turned the cake out onto the wire rack. But why? This is a sheet cake, correct? Isn't it meant to stay put in the pan? Well I took the cake out anyway, and some of the cake got stuck in the pan. Not to worry -- the frosting wil cover up the blemish.

Whipped Cream Frosting

From the Cake Bible

2 cups heavy whipping cream (organic please)

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp sugar

This frosting keeps in the refrigerator for several hours without separating. The key is to thoroughly chill the mixing bowl and whisk. The freezer is ideal, but you can also chill in the refrigerator for a few hours.

Add cream, vanilla, and sugar to the chilled mixing bowl. Whisk until stiff peaks form.

Store the whipped cream in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Decorating the Cake

The picture describes it all. You could use raspberries instead of the strawberries. This is one instance where the mass produced strawberries would probably have worked better, since they are larger and more uniform in size. But I just could not buy those when we have fresh local organic strawberries available in plenty. In the taste department, it was a no-brainer. The local ones rule!

Cherry Clafoutis (Clafoutis aux Cerise)

It seems that clafoutis is all the rage this year. Or maybe it seems that way to me since it has been on my mind (I even dreamt about it). I had the same experience when I was pregnant. It suddenly seemed that there was a baby-making contest in Seattle and every second woman on the street had entered....

Anyway, I was determined to make the best clafoutis there was out there. Thus began my studying of all the clafoutis recipes I could find.. in cookbooks, online, you name it. And for something that basically consists of eggs, dairy, and flour, there seemed to be a gazillion recipes for it. I concluded that there were really two types of clafoutis recipes - one that would result in a custardy pudding-cake like product; and one that would result in something more cake-like. I am no expert in the authentic French way, but I immediately knew that I would like the custardy one better. As goes authentic, I'm not even sure there is an 'authentic' recipe for a dessert that was probably whipped together in every french farm home, using the freshest fruit around.

After reading, pondering, re-reading, obsessing (phew!) I decided I would follow the recipe from Ceres and Bacchus for Plum Clafoutis, but use cherries instead, like Deb from Smitten Kitchen did.

I have been waiting for an excuse to make this for a couple of weeks now. I was really resisting the urge to make some just for our family, because I could just see myself eating way more than someone trying to fit into skinnier jeans should (or could or would). Luckily, I didn't need to agonize for too long - the perfect opportunity presented itself when we were invited to my friend Paula's house for dinner on Saturday and she asked me to bring dessert (YAY!).

I bought some uber-juicy and delicious local Bing cherries (grown in Yakima) from the Fruit Stand down the road from us and got to work on pitting them. I wanted to keep the cherries whole, so decided to pit them the non-gadget way using a plain old drinking straw. It is super easy and fun. Simply poke the straw in gently from the top. Then poke the straw firmly from the bottom and the pit pops out leaving a nice clean exit and entry hole in the cherry. No jagged edges here.

Ok, I know. I could always go out and get myself a $12 cherry pitter. I just haven't gotten around to it. Well, I do live reasonably close to Sur La Table (has to be one of my fave Kitchen Stores), but I know better. The $12 cherry pitter purchase will send me home with a $200 tab (I know very well from lots of experience). But I don't learn, 'coz I'm sure you will soon hear all about my cherry pitter shopping experience......

Oh! And guess what. I pitted a few dozen cherries and realized I was runnning pretty short on time. I have already read a lot about how the French don't pit the cherries for Clafoutis (the pits supposedly lend a nice almond flavor). So I figured! What the heck! I'll just be French and use whole unpitted cherries for the adults and use the pitted ones to make a couple individual clafoutis' for the kids (I sure did not trust R to not choke on a pit, or worse chip his baby teeth).

Cherry Clafoutis

3 cups washed cherries, unpitted

3 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup whole milk

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 tbsp amaretto liqeuer (my addition)

Preheat the oven to 375F. Beat the sugar and eggs with a whisk till they turn lighter in color. Gradually, add the butter and whisk to combine. Add all the flour in and whisk to mix briefly. Slowly add in the milk and mix. Add in the vanilla and amaretto. The batter should be smooth, homogenous, and shiny. Take care not to overmix.

Put the cherries in a buttered glass or ceramic pie dish or cake pan (reserve 5 -10 cherrries). I used a 9 inch ceramic pie dish. Pour the batter over the fruit. Place the reserved cherries on top of the batter (looks pretty this way). Bake 30-40 minutes, until golden brown and batter is almost completely set in the middle. (Note: Since I had to make a few individual ones for the kids, I borrowed some of the batter to pour into small ramekins)

Let sit 15-20 minutes before serving. The crust will deflate a bit, but don't worry (see below for the 'right out of the oven' look and the 'deflated/rested' look). You can serve the clafoutis warm or at room temperature. Leftovers are excellent the next day (tried and true).

Serve as is, with a dusting of powdered sugar. If you must, serve with ice-cream. In my opinion, the simplicity of this dessert is what makes it amazing. Ice-cream is just over-the-top and better saved for brownies or pie. Sometimes very often less is more. Enjoy!

Oh! And please be nice and tell your guests that the cherries have pits in them. Orthodontics are expensive!

Brownies - Lean and Delicious? No way......

My trusted friend, TiVO (which is the only way I watch TV as I hate commercials) caught on to my obsession with all things food and decided to 'suggest' I watch 'America's Test Kitchen' on PBS. So, as I was browsing my TiVo menu, I saw there was an episode recorded. Now, I am a devoted fan of Christopher Kimball and his team at Cooks Illustrated and have been a subscriber to the magazine for over 5 years. I was quite excited to find this on TiVO. However the episode recorded was on Reduced-fat treats. What!! Cooks goes reduced fat? I admit I was very skeptical. I have utmost faith in the culinary abilities of this team, but I have yet to come across a low-fat brownie that tastes even half way decent. I mean, a brownie should be a decadent treat. A dry, crumbly, cakey concoction does not a brownie make.

Anyway, I decided that if any one could pull this off, the Cooks folks could. So, even though I promised hubby that I would not set foot in the kitchen on Mother's Day, I broke the rules (what do you expect?) and decided to give these brownies a go. Mind you, none of the boys really complained too loud.

Well, they smelled heavenly while baking, but then again, all brownies smell good! Even the boxed ones. So, I'm sure you're waiting with bated breath on the verdict. Well guess what - they were DELICIOUS. Intensely chocolatey, fudgy, chewy, yummm! The only thing missing was the grease. I asked my kids what they thought - I heard a few mumblings, but then again their mouths were full. Lets sum it up by what my soon-to-be 6 year old said "Mom, thank you for making normal brownies. I thought you were making lowfat ones". Awesome! Passed the kiddie and adult taste test!

I urge you to give these a try when you feel like having brownies but don't want to pack in extra fat. These are indeed very good. Now the big question is - do they freeze well (for future lunchbox treats)? Stay tuned and I'll report back.

Hope you all mamas out there had a great Mother's Day! I sure did.

Reduced-Fat Brownies

(From America's Test Kitchen on PBS)

3/4 cup All-purpose flour

1/3 cup dutch processed cocoa

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp table salt

1 large egg, yolk + white

1  large egg, white only

2 tbsp sour cream (light is fine)

2 tbsp butter, unsalted

2 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped*

1 cup cane sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp chocolate syrup

*Chocolate chips may be used, but these tend to produce a drier brownie. Given this is a light brownie, we need as much moisture as we can, so slab chocolate is highly recommended.

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare an 8-inch square pan by making a foil sling (this will greatly aid in brownie removal) and spraying lightly with non-stick spray.

2. Combine dry ingredients (first four listed above) in a dry mixing bowl. Whisk to incorporate well.

3. Add butter and chocolate to a heat-safe bowl or double boiler. Melt till no lumps remain and chocolate is smooth and satiny. Set aside to cool slightly. Add sour cream, vanilla and sugar and mix well with a rubber spatula.

4. Fold in the dry ingredients until just combined. Add 1 tbsp of chocolate syrup (this adds to the fudginess). 

5. Spread the batter uniformly in the prepared pan. The batter is very thick and you'll really need to spread the batter to cover the whole pan. Do not despair. All is well.

6. Bake 20 - 22 min till toothpick inserted comes out with a few crumbs on it. Do not overbake.

7. Resist temptation to dig in. Let the brownies cool in the pan (approx 1 hour). Take them out using the sling and cut into 16 squares. Enjoy!