Tag Archive for 'Dessert'

Honey yogurt panna cotta with white peach puree

Published
by
marc
on August 17, 2008
in Dessert, Fruit and Italian
. 11 Comments

Feeling a bit uninspired, I scanned some of my favourite blogs for something that could coerce me back into the kitchen. Helen’s Roasted Apricot and Lavender Panna Cottas had me salivating (surely a good sign), so I hit up the farmer’s market looking for some fresh fruit. I found some white peaches that literally lured me to their bin by their sweet smell wafting through the throngs of shoppers.

I’ve been on a bit of a health kick after my recent health issues, so I wanted to see if I could make this dessert a bit healthier without loosing the satiny creaminess that’s the hallmark of good panna cotta. Using yogurt and honey and replacing some of the cream with skim milk, I came up with a concoction that’s no-less decadent yet considerably healthier.

Panna Cotta’s are usually topped with a tart fruit sauce of some sort to offset the intense creaminess, but since the yogurt in this Panna Cotta provided the requisite tartness, I went for a sweeter fruit puree that complimented the honey wonderfully with its sweet floral aroma.

for the Panna Cotta
1/2 C cream
1/2 C skim milk
3 Tbs sugar
3 Tbs honey
1 1/2 tsp gelatin bloomed in 2 Tbs water
1tsp vanilla
1 C plain yogurt

for white peach puree
3 small white peaches peeled
1 Tbs lemon juice
honey to taste

Heat cream, milk, honey, sugar until hot but not boiling. Add the bloomed gelatin and vanilla stirring until the gelatin is completely dissolved.

Take it off the heat and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes. Add the yogurt and whisk to combine.

Pour the mixture into 4 ramekins and refrigerate for 4 hours.

For the puree, just add the peaches and lemon juice to a blender or food processor and puree. You may need to add some water if it’s too thick and honey if it’s not sweet enough.

To serve, put the ramekins in a pan of hot water for a minute then unmold them onto plates then top with the puree. If you’re serving them in a glass (above photo) just top with the puree and serve with a spoon.

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Black tea gelato with blueberry swirl

Published
by
marc
on July 14, 2008
in Dessert and Summer
. 16 Comments

It’s been a while since I’ve been to the Union Square green market and during my absence, the south side of the park has exploded with summer berries, fruits, and veggies. One of my finds was a delightfully fragrant basket of small blueberries.

Blueberries are loaded with nutrients and phytochemicals that have been associated with lowering the risk of cancer, preventing Alzheimer’s, lowering blood pressure and preventing urinary tract infections. As good as they are for you, I’ve never been a huge fan except in baked goods and pancakes, but this basket looked so tasty I decided it’s high time I give this underutilized berry a chance to be something more than a mere afterthought.

Helen over at Tartelette made some blueberry swirl ice cream the other day which looked absolutely phenomenal, thus an idea was born. Not wanting to be unoriginal and wanting to preserve some of the healthiness of the blueberries (ok… now that’s a total lie because this is by no-stretch of the imagination healthy), I decided to go with a gelato base (which uses no egg yolks and less cream). L has been drinking this blueberry tea that always smells fantastic so that’s where the tea idea came from.

This is quite possibly the best churned frozen thing I’ve ever made. It’s not quite as simple as the custard-less varieties I’ve posted about here, here, and here, but since it doesn’t use egg yolks it’s somewhat simpler while being ultra creamy and velvety smooth. The combination of the creamy tea and tart floral blueberries was what really shone and made me wonder why no-one uses teas other than matcha for ice cream? I’m thinking combo’s like Earl Grey and lemon curd, or strawberry jasmine, or even mugicha (roasted barley) fudge would be sublime.
Continue for full recipe

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Strawberry pavlova with white chocolate mousse

Published
by
marc
on July 10, 2008
in Dessert and Fruit
. 17 Comments

I’m back from a long weekend of gluttony in Montreal the details of which I’ll share in another post, but first I wanted to follow up on the promise to deliver a strawberry recipe. This is my interpretation of the most delicious dessert I’ve ever eaten. It was served for dessert as part of our seven course “gourmet menu” at Restaurant Toqué in Montreal.

Since my first visit over 5 years ago, I’ve held Chef Normand Laprise’s cuisine in the highest regard. I’ve even called Toqué my favourite restaurant of all time. Since that first visit though, I’ve had the opportunity to try many wonderful restaurants and I worried that I’d be disappointed on my return. That concern was quickly put to rest after a course or two and I walked out practically glowing. While every course struck the perfect balance between creative and delicious, the dessert was the real humdinger.

It was a bowl of fresh strawberries covered with a white chocolate foam, crumbled meringue flakes, aerated maple candy and topped with a scoop of strawberry sorbet. It was sweet, tart, creamy, fluffy, refreshing, fruity, cool and crisp all at the same time. Definitely something that would be a part of my last meal on Earth.

With this version, you get thin layers of crisp meringue with rich creamy dollops of white chocolate mousse and maple sweetened strawberries. It’s not quite the same, but it was simple enough to prepare on a weeknight and almost as tasty.
Continue for full recipe

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Strawberry rhubarb crostata with lavender crust

Published
by
marc
on May 3, 2008
in Dessert, Fruit and Spring
. 16 Comments

While strawberries and rhubarb haven’t started showing up at the green market yet, they were being prominently displayed at Wholefoods today so I went ahead and bought some. To my surprise, the strawberries where incredibly sweet and flavorful and I had to stop myself from eating all of them so I could make this crostata.

This is one of my favourite ways of preparing fruit from all seasons. It’s so simple to prepare and really allows the fruit to shine. The addition of a spice or two adds a bit of character without covering up anything. If I’m using apples I’ll add some nutmeg and cinnamon, for blackberries I might add a smidge of lemon zest. But for strawberries, I’m enamored with the the fresh floral aroma of lavender.

As I was making the dough, I accidentally added twice the water I was supposed. Rather than throw it out, I just added some baking powder, and rolled it in crystalized sugar and turned them into lavender “cookies”. I wasn’t sure what would come out of the oven, but they turned out to be somewhere between a biscuit and a cookie. I think they’d actually be quite good with some chopped up fresh strawberries and whipped cream.
Continue for full recipe

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Apple inside-out cake

Published
by
marc
on April 9, 2008
in Dessert and Fall
. 2 Comments

Apple inside out cake

Mutsu apples are one of my favorite variety. Crisp, green-skinned and juicy, they fall somewhere between a Fuji and a Granny Smith. This makes them delicious to eat and equally suited for baking.

I set out to make an apple upside-down cake, with lots of gooey appley goodness on top. It was late though and mixing a proper cake batter felt like a little more work than I was up for. Then I remembered a recipe from domestic goddess Nigella Lawson. “Easy sticky-toffee pudding” it’s called and as I pulled Nigella Bites off the bookshelf it handily fell open to page 216 and that luscious photo of butter on brown sugar melted together to make a saucey cake. For those of you that haven’t tried it, it has a thin creviced layer of cake under which is a molten pool of warm sugary goo.

Inspired, I shut the the book and set-off to make my apple inside-out cake.

1 apple peeled, cored and cut into cubes
2 Tbs calvados or good quality brandy
1 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground allspice
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/2 C dark brown sugar packed
2 Tbs butter cut into small pieces

1 C flour
1/2 C dark brown sugar packed
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 C melted butter
1 egg
1/2 C milk

1/2 C dark brown sugar packed
2 C boiling water

Heat the oven to 375 degees.

Toss together the first 7 ingredients in a 2 L baking dish making sure it’s all distributed evenly.

Put the flour, 1/2 C brown sugar and baking powder in a bowl and whisk together.

Melt the butter, whisk the egg in, then whisk the milk in. Pour this into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined (it’s okay if it’s still lumpy). Spread this over the apples.

Top with 1/2 C brown sugar and pour the boiling water on top. Put it in the oven for about 40-45 minutes. When it’s done, there will be some spongy cake on top with crevices bubbling up molten sugar.

Serve warm with a generous dollop of vanilla ice cream.

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