Category Archives: Dessert

Moroccan Rice Pudding

25 Monday Oct 2010

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What a unique, delicious rice pudding! The orange zest and pistachios add such a different flavor. Before you make this recipe, please note that it takes at least 2 hours of simmering.

Recipe adapted from The Moroccan Collection.

INGREDIENTS

  • 8 cups organic whole milk
  • 2/3 cup short-grain raw white rice (such as sushi or arborio rice)
  • 3/4 cup organic sugar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp organic orange zest
  • pistachio nuts (for garnish)

DIRECTIONS

  1. Heat milk in a heavy saucepan. Stir in the rice and bring to a boil, stirring. Lower the heat and cook very gently, stirring occasionally, until the pudding is thick, velvety and falls easily from a spoon. This may take up to 2 hours.
  2. Stir in sugar, salt, and orange zest. Garnish with pistachios. Serve warm or cold.

 

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Babka Wielkanocna (Easter Baba)

11 Tuesday May 2010

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This was my first time experimenting with a new Polish recipe from my Polish cookbook (which I purchased last winter from a small, Polish bookstore in Chicago’s Polish Town). This cake (Babka) is typically served on Easter, but it can also be served as a dessert for a light spring or summer brunch. (Note: I used a bread machine to make the dough and saved quite a bit of effort and time.) (*Indicates CSA product.)

INGREDIENTS

  • 3 organic eggs*
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp almond extract
  • 1/2 cup organic half-and-half
  • 1 tsp grated, organic lemon rind
  • 1 tbsp organic, melted butter
  • 1/4 cup golden raisins
  • 1/3 cup organic sugar
  • 2 cups organic, all-purpose, unbleached flour
  • 1 envelope/package active dry yeast
  • 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice

DIRECTIONS

  1. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, beat eggs through half-and-half by hand with a wire whisk. Stir in lemon rind, melted butter, raisins and sugar. Add mixture to the bread machine container. Lightly spoon flour on top of the mixture. Make a small indentation in the flour with a spoon, and add yeast to the indentation. Choose the dough setting on your bread machine.
  2. Grease and dust a cake bundt pan with flour. Place dough in the pan and bake at 350 F for 30-35 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven and place on a wire cooling rack. When cool (about 10-20 minutes), carefully invert cake onto a plate.
  3. To make the icing, mix confectioners sugar and lemon juice well with a wire whisk. Lightly drizzle over the cake.

Orange-Basil Simple Syrup

10 Monday May 2010

Posted by in Beverage, Dessert, Recipe

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This simple syrup works well in cocktails, but would also be delicious drizzled over pound cake, or even ice cream!

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup water
  • the peel of one orange (cut into strips, remove after cooking, and save for cocktails)
  • 5-6 fresh basil leaves, torn

Directions:

  1. Place sugar and water in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved
  2. Lower the heat and add the orange peel and basil
  3. Ensure the mixture does not boil and stir occasionally.
  4. Strain the mixture and cool completely.  Discard the basil, but save the orange peel for orange-basil cocktails.

Philadelphia Style Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

09 Sunday May 2010

Posted by in Dessert, Recipe, Vegetarian

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This is a simple, yet delicious, 4-ingredient recipe for Philadelphia-style ice cream from Ina Garten.  I served it over strawberries with some amaretto-grand marnier whipped cream on top.  Perfection!

  • 3 cups heavy cream
  • 2/3 cups sugar
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • Seeds scraped from 1 vanilla bean

Heat the milk, vanilla bean, and sugar over low heat until the sugar dissolves.  Add the vanilla extract.  Remove the vanilla bean, scrape the insides and stir the specks back in.  Cool the mixture, then chill the ice cream by placing it in a sealed container and placing it in a mixture of ice, salt, and water (or put it in an ice cream making machine.

Heat the milk, vanilla bean, and cream over low heat.

Scrape the specks and add to the mix.

Roll the ice cream through an ice bath of ice, water, and salt.

Freeze, then serve with fresh strawberries and amaretto-gran marnier whipped cream.

Organic Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

29 Monday Mar 2010

Posted by in Dessert, Recipe, Vegetarian

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Don’t be intimidated by this 2 layer, 99.9% organic cake! It is probably one of the easiest cakes to make – even my husband with is rudimentary baking skills can make this delicious dessert. And one of the best things about this recipe…it has half the fat of the typical carrot cake recipe, because it substitutes all-natural organic apple sauce for half of the canola oil. Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

Dry Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups organic cane sugar
  • 2 cups all-purpose, organic flour
  • 2 tsp organic cinnamon
  • 2 tsp organic baking powder
  • 2 tsp organic baking soda
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • 1/2 cup organic walnuts or pecans

Wet Ingredients

  • 3 cups peeled and grated organic carrots
  • 1/2 cup all-natural, organic applesauce
  • 1/2 cup organic canola oil
  • 2 free-range, organic eggs*

Cream Cheese Frosting

  • 1 tbsp organic butter, chilled
  • 1 (8 oz) package organic cream cheese (preferably Neufchatel cheese – also called 1/3 less fat cream cheese)
  • 1 lb package organic powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp grated organic lemon rind

DIRECTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using cooking spray, evenly coat 2 round, 8-inch cake pans and lightly dust with flour.
  2. Mix all dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.
  3. Mix all wet ingredients together in a separate bowl. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix well (note: batter will be very stiff).
  4. Spread the batter evenly into TWO round, 8-inch baking cake pans.
  5. Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of each cake pan comes out clean. Let cool in pans for 5-10 minutes on a wire rack. Loosen cake layers from sides of pans using a narrow spatula or plastic knife; turn out onto wire racks; and let cool completely (about 30 minutes to 1 hour).
  6. Meanwhile, prepare the frosting. Beat butter and cream cheese at high speed of a mixer in a large bowl until fluffy. Gradually add powdered sugar, vanilla and lemon rind; beat at low speed until just blended (do not overbeat, or icing may become runny). Cover and chill.
  7. To frost the cake, place 1 cake layer on a large plate. Spread about 1/3 the cream cheese icing on top of the layer; spreading carefully from the center out to just the edges of the cake layer (it is easiest to use a large knife). Top with the second cake layer and repeat, however this time use all the remaining icing and spread the icing over the sides/edges of the cake layer, making sure to evenly spread the remaining icing over the sides and top of the cake.

Sweet Potato Bread with Dried Cranberries & Walnuts

30 Saturday Jan 2010

Posted by in Breakfast, Dessert, Farmers' Market, Recipe, Vegetarian

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This recipe calls for applesauce and canola oil, creating an exceptionally moist bread. Serve with coffee and tea for a morning snack, or as a light dessert for lunch. The sweet potatoes used in this recipe are organic and come from Next Step Produce, and the free-range eggs from Waterview Foods, both purchased from the Dupont Circle Freshfarm Market.

INGREDIENTS

  • 3 1/2 cup unbleached, all-purpose flour, organic
  • 3 cups sugar, organic
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon, organic
  • 1 tsp ground nutmeg, organic
  • 1 tsp ground cloves, organic
  • 1/2 cup organic canola oil (such as Spectrum Naturals)
  • 1/2 cup all-natural, applesauce
  • 2 cups mashed sweet potato (about 3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cooked in a pressure cooker until tender and soft, and then mashed with a fork or other tool), organic
  • 4 free-range, organic eggs
  • 1 cup dried cranberries
  • 1 cup pecans, roughly chopped, organic
  • 1-2 tbsp turbinado sugar, organic

DIRECTIONS

  1. Preheat oven at 350 degrees F.
  2. Combine flour through cloves in a large bowl. Stir well and set aside.
  3. In a separate bowl, combine oil through eggs. Whisk until eggs are fully incorporated into the other ingredients.
  4. Mix wet and dry ingredients together (be careful not to over stir). Then fold in dried cranberries and pecans.
  5. Pour mixture into 2 bread pans coated with cooking spray. Bake for 30 minutes, then sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Bake for an additional 30-45 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the middle of each bread pan comes out clean.

Greek Dinner Menu

21 Monday Dec 2009

Posted by in Dessert, Dinner, Entree, Menu, Recipe, Sauce, Side, Soup

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This past Friday, before snowpocalypse 2k9, Greg and I had Kim, Rex, John and Sutton over for our monthly dinner party.  After making lamb meatballs and tzatsiki as an appetizer for our christmas cocktail the week prior, I had Greek food on the brain, and devised the following menu:

Chilled and Dilled Avgolemono Soup
Simple Greek Salad
Grilled Lamb Skewers
Tzatsiki
Orzo with Feta, Tomatoes, and Dill
Roasted Garbanzo Beans with Garlic and Swiss Chard
Semolina and Ground Almond Cake

I was able to use a lot of the items from our final CSA box that Kim and Rex picked up for us last week.  Red wine and good conversation flowed, and before we knew it, there was a few inches of snow on the ground.

Semolina and Ground Almond Cake

21 Monday Dec 2009

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Originally from The Glorious Foods of Greece, this is a different and elegant desert that I would highly recommend as a sweet end to a Greek feast.  It’s not overly sweet like Baklavah, and the texture is unique and satisfying.  I paired it with some apples from the farmer’s market and drizzled those with some of the leftover cinnamon clove simple syrup.  The recipe calls for these to be baked in a cake pan, but I decided to make individual servings and it worked out just fine!

Ingredients

  • 1 cup (2 sticks) plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
  • 4 large eggs, separated
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups coarse semolina
  • 2 scant teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 cup finely ground blanched almonds
  • 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
  • 2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 small cinnamon stick
  • 4 to 5 whole cloves, to taste
  • One 1-inch strip lemon zest
  • 2 tablespoons brandy

Preparation

1. With an electric mixer in a large bowl, whip the cup of butter until soft. Add the confectioners’ sugar a little at a time and whip until fluffy. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating after each addition. Add the vanilla and continue whipping for about 5 minutes.

2. Combine the semolina, baking powder, almonds, and lemon zest in a small bowl. Slowly add the semolina mixture to the butter and sugar, beating to combine thoroughly.

3. Preheat the oven to 375 degees. Butter a 12- by 18-inch glass baking pan. In a medium metal bowl, place the egg whites, salt, and lemon juice and whip with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Fold the meringue into the semolina mixture, working fast to combine. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake until set, 35 to 40 minutes.

4. About 15 minutes before the cake is finished baking, prepare the syrup: Combine the granulated sugar and water in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. As soon as the sugar dissolves, add the spices, zest, and brandy. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until the syrup is viscous, about 10 minutes.

5. When the samali is baked, pull it out of the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 300°F. Score it into 3-inch square pieces with a sharp paring knife. Pour the warm syrup over the hot cake and place back in the oven. Bake until the syrup is absorbed, another 5 to 7 minutes, and remove from the oven. Let cool and serve.

Makowiec (Polish Poppyseed Roll)

13 Sunday Dec 2009

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Makowiec is a special Polish baked good eaten during the holiday season, particularly on Wigilia (Christmas Eve). This recipe comes from a Polish cookbook, and was translated by my mom who immigrated to North America when she was 10 from Poland.

INGREDIENTS

  • 1/2 cup warm water
  • 2 organic, free-range eggs
  • 2 organic, free-range egg yolks
  • 1/2 cup organic, light sour cream
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup organic, lightly salted butter (cut up into small chunks)
  • 3/4 cup organic sugar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 packages active dry yeast
  • 2 (10 oz) cans or jars of poppyseed filling

DIRECTIONS

Bread Machine Directions

  1. Add water to the bread machine. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, sour cream and vanilla extract. Add to water.
  2. Then add butter through salt.
  3. Lightly spoon flour on top of the water mixture. Make a little well in the flour, and add yeast.
  4. Select the dough setting on your bread machine.
  5. Divide dough in thirds. Roll each dough into a 9-12 inch square or rectangle on a large, floured surface. Spread poppyseed filling evenly over the dough, leaving about 1/4 inch space on 3 of the sides.
  6. Starting with the 4th side (where the poppyseed filling comes closest to the edge), gently roll the dough in a jelly-roll fashion (like you would a yoga mat or sleeping bag). Seal the edges (on both sides and on the top seam).
  7. Place on greased baking sheets. Cover and let it sit for about 30 minutes (or as my mom likes to say “until you get tired waiting”).
  8. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 30 to 45 minutes. Cool.

By Hand Directions

  1. Soften yeast in warm water in a bowl.
  2. Mix flour with sugar and salt. Cut in butter with a pastry cutter, until the mixture is crumbly.
  3. Beat eggs and egg yolks, mix with yeast, then stir in flour mixture. Add sour cream and vanilla extract. Mix well.
  4. Knead dough on floured surface for 5 minutes. Divide in half. Roll each dough into a 12 inch square or rectangle on a large, floured surface. Spread poppyseed filling evenly over the dough, leaving about 1/4 inch space on 3 of the sides.
  5. Starting with the 4th side (where the poppyseed filling comes closest to the edge), gently roll the dough in a jelly-roll fashion (like you would a yoga mat or sleeping bag). Seal the edges (on both sides and on the top seam).
  6. Cover. Let rise until doubled in bulk (about 1 1/2 hours – or as my mom likes to say “until you get tired waiting”).
  7. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 30 to 45 minutes. Cool.

Kompot (Polish Fruit Stew)

13 Sunday Dec 2009

Posted by in Dessert, Recipe, Stew

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Kompot is a traditional Polish dessert made from a combination of fresh and dried fruit. The dish is typically served at room temperature or cold.

INGREDIENTS

  • 2-3 medium apples, peeled, cored and diced
  • 1 large organic orange, washed well, sliced and then quartered
  • 6 oz dried apricots, halved
  • 1/4 cup dried cherries
  • 1/4 cup golden raisins
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 4-5 whole cloves
  • 1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar

DIRECTIONS

  1. Combine all ingredients in a medium to large saucepan. Add enough water to cover the fruit.
  2. Bring to a boil, then simmer until apples are just tender.