New Passover Dessert: Chocolate Idiot Cake

The thing about Passover desserts is, when you find one that works, you really want to stick with it.  So many Passover dessert recipes are really terrible and you don't know until you bite into it, so when I find a good one, I tend to make it every year.

However, at the last minute this year, I decided I wanted something chocolate to go with our usual berry crisp.  I thought the best course of action would be to find a flourless chocolate cake that was not Passover in any way, and make it  for the seder.

After a short google, I found this flourless chocolate cake from David Lebovitz.  Since I trust the man with all ice cream, I figure he probably also knows cake.  And, since this cake is called Chocolate Idiot Cake, I figured the chances of screwing it up are small.  

This cake was very, very easy to make.  It is just chocolate, butter (margarine in my case), sugar and eggs and then you put it in a water bath.  The cake comes out creamy and very, very rich (and pretty flat, but that is par for the course).  A small slice does the trick and is a delicious chocolate end to the seder (and if you are having a vegetarian seder, I highly recommend a dollop of whipped cream).  You can find the recipe here.

Berries for Baby!

Hi from California! What is Sarah doing in California? Well, the Baking Sisters have some very exciting news - Rebecca had a baby boy last week! He was a month early but the little dude just couldn't wait to see the world and all the sweet things it has to offer. Today, in what my brother-in-law refers to as "catered surgery," he had his bris, or circumcision, which inducts him into the covenant of the Jewish people. Not much fun for the little guy, or really for anyone who doesn't want to watch an old Jew take a scalpel to an eight-day-old's genitals. But you gotta do what you gotta do, and now he is healing nicely. Plus, he got a name! His English name is Leo Evan, and his Hebrew name is Leor Chaim. And he is super-cute! 

Since a bris is a Jewish event, of course there has to be a lot of eating. And since this is California, said eating should involve fruit (especially since Adam doesn't like chocolate)! And since this is the Baking Sisters, that fruit should be in pie form! Newly minted big brother Simon and I went through Rebecca's cookbooks and picked out some recipes with enticing-looking pictures, and we settled on a berry pie from David Lebovitz's Ready for Dessert. Yesterday Simon and his relatives went to the Culver City Farmers' Market, and we bought the most delicious berries imaginable. It seemed almost a waste to put them in a pie, but into a pie they would go. 

And they definitely paid off! The pie went so fast, and it was not even runny, which is often a peril with fruit pies. It was so simple to throw together, plus it not too sweet, which was good for a 9 a.m. event. You can put in whatever kind of fruit you fancy (I substituted one cup of raspberries for blackberries, though that was mostly because these were the best blackberries I've ever eaten and I wanted to eat them raw.) The fruit was bright and amazingly flavorful; I really think it made a big difference! 


Mixed Berry Pie
from Ready for Dessert by David Lebovitz (pg. 80)


Pie dough (recipe can be found here)


2 cups hulled and sliced strawberries
2 cups blueberries
2 cups blackberries
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons tapioca flour or cornstarch 
1 tablespoon lemon juice or kirsch


1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon whole milk or cream
1 tablespoon coarse crystal or granulated sugar


Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.


Lightly flour a work surface and roll out one disk of dough into a 14-inch circle. Drape it into a 9-inch pie plate. Trim away the excess dough, leaving a slight overhang. 


In a large bowl, gently mix the berries with the 1/2 cup of sugar, tapioca flour or cornstarch, and lemon juice or kirsch. Transfer the berry mixture to the dough-lined plate and distribute in an even layer.


Roll out the second dough disk into a 14-inch circle. Moisten the exposed edges of the dough in the pie plate with water, then drape the second dough circle over the top. Working all the way around the pie, tuck the upper edges under the lower dough edges and crimp to seal.


In a small bowl, whisk together the egg yolk and milk or cream. Brush the top crust generously with the egg wash and sprinkle with the 1 tablespoon of sugar. Pierce the top crust with a paring knife in six places.


Bake until the top crust is browned and the filling juices are thick and bubbling, 50 to 60 minutes. If the crust is browning too quickly, loosely drap a sheet of aluminum foil over the top during baking.


Let the pie cool for about 1 hour before serving.

Adventures with the Ice Cream Maker: Each Peach (Pear) Plum

Summer is here!  That means more time for baking and lots and lots and lots of delicious fruit at the farmer's market.  Here in LA, there is a farmer's market everywhere you turn.  We love going to Culver City, La Cienega, Beverly Hills (because our cucumber lady is there) and Mar Vista, but if you are an LA person and there are other markets you like, let me know!

There is one particular stand at the Culver City market that has a huge variety of amazing stone fruit.  They have all the standards, but also lots of interesting things, like donut peaches, red velvet apricots, pluots, and other deliciousness.

This plum ice cream came about because my husband thought he had purchased red velvet apricots for apricot ice cream.  After going back and forth and a lot of tasting, we decided they were plums, but that did not stop me from making ice cream out of them.  I used David Lebovitz's recipe for plum ice cream and the only thing I should have done was taste it before freezing it because it was so so tart.  It verged on being too tart and I should have added more sugar, but we have enjoyed eating it (although we haven't served it to guests).

After plum ice cream, I decided to make peach sorbet.  Haagen Daaz peach sorbet is one of my favorite things and this sorbet tasted exactly like that.  Sometimes when I make sorbet, it is too icy, but this one was smooth and almost creamy, even though there is no dairy in it.  Another David Lebovitz gem that is sure to make a re-appearance in our house.  You can find the recipe here.

I hope you enjoy these refreshing summer treat.  Don't forget -- when you see delicious fruit at your local market, sorbet or ice cream is always a great way to go.

A Holiday Triple-Header From The Baking Sisters' Dad!

Ah, Thanksgiving: a weekend of gratitude, family, shopping (for some), football (for others), and food – too much food – for all. In addition to the traditional Thanksgiving dinner (at my sister- and brother-in-law’s home in Connecticut), our family has two long-standing rituals that involve food. The first began more than 30 years ago, before any of the Baking Sisters were born. Because we live near the start of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade route, we used to take friends’ children to see the parade. After standing in the cold for several hours, we would return home to hot cocoa and chocolate chip cookies (we still use the recipe on the package of Toll House chips). This tradition continued during the many years when we stood on the parade route with the Baking Sisters. Now that they are grown, we watch the parade on television, but we still bring out the cocoa and cookies when Santa gets to Herald Square. Next year, we hope to restore the full tradition and take our grandson to see the parade live and in person! The other tradition goes back only 15 years or so. We attend the Big Apple Circus with close friends and then return home, build a fire in the fireplace (it was 60 degrees this year, but we have to make S’mores), eat plenty of wonderful food and go through several bottles of wine. So it was a busy weekend for the Baking Sister’s dad. I started with my traditional Vermont Pumpkin Pie, based on a recipe I clipped from the New York Times many years ago which I adapted to make the pie non-dairy. Beaten egg whites give the pie a light texture, while maple syrup adds New England-style sweetness that seems to be the essence of Thanksgiving. For the post-circus feast, I made Apricot Tarragon Cocktail Cookies, which go wonderfully with cheese and wine. I saw the recipe in Rebecca’s Food & Wine magazine when I visited California in October, and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the recipe was contributed by Dorie Greenspan. Here is a link to the recipe. I went all-out for dessert. I always have canned pumpkin left over when I make the pumpkin pies, so I looked for a pumpkin ice cream recipe to use it up. I found a great one on David Lebovitz’s blog. As he suggests, I included rum and chopped pecans. And since it didn’t seem right to serve just ice cream, I also made Moosehead Gingerbread from Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Desserts. According to the book, the recipe came from an old-time fishing guide in Maine. In any event, the gingerbread and the ice cream were a great combination.

Adventures with the Ice Cream Maker: Pear Caramel Ice Cream

I know I should be posting something more Thanksgiving-like, such as pumpkin pie (but we all know I hate pumpkin) or something to do with turkey.  However, once thing I have noticed over the last few years of living in California is that Thanksgiving can kind of sneak up on you, since the weather doesn't really change.  That is why I think it is ok to post this ice cream --  it has lots of good fall flavors, but it is appropriate for a place where it is going to be 70 degrees on Thanksgiving day.

This is Pear Caramel Ice Cream from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop.  Once again, David knocks it out of the park with this flavor combination.  You might think it would be too sweet, but the caramel cooks long enough to get a strong, complex and not to sweet flavor.  When you eat this ice cream, you can really taste both the pear and the caramel and they hit you at slightly different times, making the flavor of this ice cream really interesting and the color of the ice cream a gorgeous pale color.  This would be a fine thing to eat on Thanksgiving weekend (although not after turkey if you are kosher -- maybe a midnight snack?).  Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.

Here is the recipe:

Pear-Caramel Ice Cream

• 3 medium-sized ripe pears, peeled and cored
• 3/4 c. + 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1/8 teaspooon coarse salt
• a few drops of fresh lemon juice

1. Dice the pears into 1/4-inch pieces.
2. Spread the sugar in a large, heavy saucepan. Cook over medium heat, carefully watching and stirring occasionally with a heatproof spatula until melted. 
3. When the sugar is a deep amber, stir in the pears. The caramel will seize, that's ok. Continue cooking and stirring occasionally (again with a heat-proof spatula – caramel will burn heck out of you) for ten minutes. The sugar will have dissolved.
4. Remove from the ehhat and stir in 1/2 cup of the cream, then mix in the rest of the cream, salt, and lemon juice.
5. Cool to room temp, puree until smooth, press through a strainer.
6. Chill according to your ice-cream maker manufacturer's instructions. 

Adventures with the Ice Cream Maker: Our Favorite Late-Summer Ice Cream

We’re coming to the end of summer, and it’s very sad. The days are getting shorter, the nights are getting cooler, and soon all the delicious summer produce that floods the farmers’ markets between June and September will be gone. But fear not, there’s still some time to make this tastiest of ice creams: peach sour cream. We’re serious; if you only make one more ice cream this season, make it this one. It's so easy - it doesn't involve egg yolks or custards or anything of the sort, you pretty much just cut, stew and blend. Daddy and I both agree that it’s the best ice cream we’ve ever had. How good is it? I dipped in a spoon to take a taste while it was churning, and after I tried it, I literally exclaimed aloud, “Oh my God, this is good,” even though there was no one else around. It’s so good that I practically had to drag Daddy to Grom, which has the best gelato in the city (in our opinion), because he just wanted to stay home and eat the peach sour cream ice cream. You shouldn’t even be reading this. Go, make a batch right now. That’s what Daddy and I are doing tonight.

Peach Ice Cream from The Perfect Scoop

Yield: 1 quart

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ pounds [600 grams] ripe peaches [about four large peaches]
• ½ cup water
• a quarter cups sugar
• ½ cup sour cream
• 1 cup heavy cream
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
• A few drops freshly squeezed lemon juice

Preparation:

Peel the peaches, slice them in half, and remove the pits. Cut the peaches into chunks and cook them with water in a nonreactive saucepan over medium heat, covered, stirring once or twice, until soft and cooked through, about 10 minutes.

Remove from heat, stir in the sugar, then cool to room temperature.

Purée the cooked peaches and any liquid in a blender or food processor with the sour cream, heavy cream, vanilla, and lemon juice until almost smooth but slightly chunky.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator and freeze in your ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions.

Trying a New Chocolate Chip Cookie

Sometimes it is fun to bake fancy things (cakes in the shape of Churches, Sarah?), but sometimes the fun comes in baking something simple and quick, that you know will be tasty, like a chocolate chip cookie.  Yes, there are many bad chocolate chip cookies out there, but most of the ones you bake yourself will be good no matter what.

These chocolate chip cookies come from David Lebovitz (you know him as our ice cream guru) in his newest book, Ready for Dessert.  Unlike most chocolate chip cookies that I have baked, these are slice and bake cookies, not drop cookies.  You form the dough into a log, let it rest in the fridge for 24 hours and then slice and bake.  I actually sliced the dough and then froze the slices, which worked really well, since this recipe made a lot of cookies and there are just two of us in the house right now.

I enjoyed this recipe, although I thought the dough needed more salt, so I will add that next time.  I used a combination of chocolate chips and chopped chocolate, since that is what I had in the house, and I omitted the nuts, since you know how we feel about nuts in baked goods.  It is really important to use good chocolate in these (chocolate that you like) because there is a lot of chocolate in here.  Overall, I enjoyed these cookies.  They are not my favorite, but I think with the addition of more salt, they could be a contender.

The recipe is after the jump.

Adventures with the Ice Cream Maker: Chocolate Raspberry Ice Cream

It's spring in Providence! What does that mean? It means that we get occasional sunny days to break up the monotony of the rain. It means that the day I made this, it was gorgeous out until a massive thundercrack was heard, sending all the students out on the Main Green scurrying inside as a dark cloud rolled in from the west. Then it poured for about an hour, then cleared up, then poured again, then the rain turned into hail (although all of this business was emanating from one cloud - beyond it, you could still see the sunny sky, and it was still 65 degrees), then back into rain, then it cleared up again and all was fresh and lovely until that evening, when it drizzled. So yeah, spring in Providence. Time for ice cream!

This was the easiest ice cream I have ever made, bar none. I'm not wild about the chocolate/raspberry combination but I had a bunch of frozen raspberries left from my Thesis Cake and I wanted to use them up. Nevertheless, overall, I was quite pleased. The ice cream was very creamy and satisfying, with a good balance between the chocolate and raspberry flavors; I suppose this is one of those recipes where the quality of the cocoa powder you use makes all the difference. I also added chocolate chunks because, you know, that's how I do. If you are looking for a quick, easy, yummy ice cream that doesn't require a lot of ingredients or fuss, this is a great choice.

Chocolate-Raspberry Ice Cream

From The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

Ingredients

1 1/2 Cup (375 ml) Heavy Cream
5 Tbsp (40 g) Unsweetened Dutch-process Cocoa Powder
2/3 Cup (130 g) Sugar
2 Cups (240 g) Raspberries, fresh or frozen

Method

Whisk together the cream, cocoa powder, and sugar in a large saucepan. Heat the mixture, whisking frequently, until it comes to a full, rolling boil (it will start to foam up). Remove from the heat and add the raspberries. Cover and let stand for 10 minutes.

Puree the mixture in a food processor or blender. If you wish, press the mixture through a mesh strainer to remove the seeds.

Allow the mixture to chill thoroughly, then freeze it in an ice cream maker.

Coffee Ice Cream with Brooke

My friend Brooke is awesome.  Really, really, really awesome.  You see, she and her daughter came all the way here, to Texas, to visit us.  Really.  On an airplane (actually two), here to Texas.  That is why she is awesome.  If anyone else would like to earn awesome status, you know what to do.

As a reward for Brooke's awesomeness, we had to have yummy treats and what is yummier than coffee ice cream?  Especially coffee ice cream that you make yourself.  And then eat it, with Thin Mints and whipped cream.  Mmmmm!!!!!

If you like coffee ice cream, this ice cream is excellent.  It had a strong coffee flavor (although that might have been because we allowed the beans to steep in the milk for longer than the recommended hour because we were putting the kids to bed).  It was really delicious.  We also at it with chocolate chip cookies and it was still good then.  We made it with decaf beans, so we would not be up all night.

Here is the recipe, from David Lebovitz:

Ingredients:
1½ cups whole milk
¾ cup sugar
1½ cups whole coffee beans
Pinch of salt
1½ cups heavy cream, divided
5 large egg yolks
¼ tsp. vanilla extract
¼ tsp. finely ground coffee or espresso powder

Directions: 
Combine the milk, sugar, coffee beans, salt and ½ cup of the heavy cream in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat.  Once the mixture is warm and just begins to bubble, remove from the heat and let steep at room temperature for 1 hour.  

After steeping, return the saucepan with the coffee mixture to the burner over medium heat.  Pour the remaining 1 cup heavy cream into a large bowl and set a mesh strainer over the top.  In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks until smooth.  Once the coffee mixture has become warm again, slowly pour the mixture into the bowl with the egg yolks, whisking constantly to temper the eggs.  Return the egg-coffee bean mixture to the saucepan over medium high heat. 

Cook the mixture, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula or spoon (about 170-175° F.)  Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the cream.  Press on the coffee beans in the strainer to extract as much of the coffee flavor as possible, then discard the beans (I used a heavy-bottomed drinking glass to do this.)  Mix in the vanilla and ground coffee or espresso powder.  Chill the batter over an ice bath, or in the refrigerator.  Chill thoroughly in the refrigerator and then freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.