Tag Archives: Dessert

Spicy Chocolate Squash Bread

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Cocoa + squash + habinero = YUM.

Cocoa + squash + habinero = YUM.

My collegiate daughter needed a recipe to use up leftover frozen kabocha squash.  She found a chocolate kabocha bread recipe, adapted it for ingredients she had on hand, and sent me the recipe.  I’m such a proud foodie mom: this is the first recipe she’s sent to me.  She had substituted yogurt for the oil, and only had cinnamon as a spice, but really liked the results.  She said that it was kind of like hot chocolate in bread form; not too sweet and not too plain.  Hot chocolate in bread form?  I’m so there.

Today has been cold and a little rainy. My shoes and socks were wet from standing in wet grass trying to coerce my 100-lb tortoise back inside his heated room before he became too cold to move.  I had some thawed pink banana squash puree leftover from making pumpkin scones for my son last weekend.  It was so squash bread time.

I had all the spices, but I changed them up a little.  I added some freshly ground nutmeg in place of some of the cinnamon.  Due to conversations with others in my exercise class about eating fresh homegrown fruit with chili pepper and other warming spices sprinkled on them (spring fantasies!) I thought I’d heat up this recipe, too.  Before Christmas I purchased some habinero powder at Old Town Spice Merchants in Temecula, and fell in love with their habinero sugar which they sprinkled over samples of dark chocolate brownies.  I added some habinero powder to this recipe and it is fantastic.

The loaf took an hour and five minutes to bake.  It was slightly crispy on the crust and dense, moist and dark on the inside.  Yet it wasn’t cloyingly heavy or too wet.  The cocoa flavor was satisfying; too often cocoa recipes taste as if the chocolate was just a coloring rather than a flavoring. This was good.  The spices were just enough and not overpowering.  The habinero powder was just right, making just a little heat in the mouth that really accented the chocolate flavor and warmed me up from the inside.  I am freezing the rest of it, just so I don’t eat any more today.  It was really wonderful, and it had vegetable in it, too!  Thanks, daughter of mine!

I’m sure you could eat this with cream cheese, marscapone cheese, or dust it with powedered sugar, but it doesn’t need anything.  Not even, apparently in my case, a fork or plate.  So much for dieting today.

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Spicy Chocolate Squash Bread
Author: 
Recipe type: Dessert
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

 

Like spicy hot chocolate in bread form.
Ingredients
  • 1½ cups all-purpose flour
  • ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
  • ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
  • ¼ teaspoon habinero powder
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1⅓ cups sugar
  • ⅓ cup vegetable oil or plain yogurt
  • 1 cup squash or pumpkin puree (or plain canned pumpkin)
  • 1 large egg

Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Grease and lightly flour an 8½ x 4½ inch loafpan.
  3. In a medium bowl, sift together all the dry ingredients.
  4. In a large bowl combine the oil, puree and egg until well combined. Beat in dry ingredients until well blended. (If using electric mixer, beat on low speed. You don’t want a lot of air in the batter).
  5. Pour batter into prepared pan.
  6. Bake 350 degrees F for 1 hour and five minutes, or until a toothpick stuck into the center comes out clean.
  7. Cool on a wire rack for fifteen minutes then cut around loaf and turn out onto a plate or wire rack.
  8. Serve warm, or any way you’d like to!
  9. (Options: serve with cream cheese, marscapone cheese, or dust with powdered sugar).

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Delicious and Fun Thai Custard-inna-Pumpkin

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Thai Custard-inna-Pumpkin

I know that you lose sleep over trying to figure out how to get more vegetables into your dessert.  Well, snuggle up for a good long snooze, because here’s a recipe to bring you peace!  I found this recipe in the Heirloom Gardener Winter 2012- 2013 edition.  The magazine is created by the people who bring you Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (organic).  A wonderful article about Thai cooking by Wendy Kiang-Spray features this intriguing recipe, and I had to try it.  You hollow out a small Thai or Kabocha squash (they are drier in texture), fill it with a coconut milk custard, steam it, and Bob’s your uncle!

Scoop out the seeds and fibers and feed them to your chickens!

I just happened to have a 2.5 lb homegrown Kabocha squash handy, so I made the recipe (adding a little cinnamon).  Not wanting to be scared alone, I brought the whole cooled squash over to my friend Lara’s house, who helping me fulfill last year’s New Years resolution by teaching me basic piano.  Being a vegetarian and a loyal friend, she was game to try it.  It came out very good.  I was impressed.  I will do this again!

Troubleshooting:  whisk the ingredients together.  I thought I’d be fancy and put them into my VitaMix on the lowest setting, but even that added a little too much air to the custard mixture.

Don’t fill all the way up. Steam the lid off to the side.

The top of the custard that I could see was yellowish, and I figured that this was due to the dark yolk in the eggs from my chickens, but I don’t know.  Once cut into, though, the custard as a lovely white.

I turned my steamer on high until it was boiling, then turned the temperature down low and the custard wasn’t done in the allotted time.  Next time I’ll keep it at a higher boil so that the steam is hotter.  I cooked it much longer (I think too long because I was doing other things) and the squash split a little as it was very soft.  I kept it in the steamer with something between the soft side and the inside of the steamer so that the squash would keep its shape as it cooled.  After it was room temperature, I put it in the refrigerator for a short time and it the squash didn’t fall apart when I removed it.

Creamy coconut custard and dry delicious squash.

Ms. Kiang-Spray states in her article that this recipe is known in Thailand as Sankaya and is a classic dessert.  With all the eggs and tasty squash, I’d call this breakfast or lunch, too!

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Thai Custard-inna-Pumpkin
Author: 
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: Thai
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 6
 

A simple, fun, lovely dessert that people will remember as they get their beta carotene.
Ingredients
  • 1 2 -3 pound dry-fleshed squash such as Kabocha or Thai pumpkin.
  • ¾ cup coconut milk
  • 5 eggs (preferably at room temperature)
  • ⅓ cup sugar
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ¼ teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions
  1. Bring two quarts of water to a boil in the bottom half of a steamer pot.
  2. Use a cup to trace a circle around the top of the pumpkin.
  3. Cut the lid off around the guideline.
  4. Hollow out the inside with a spoon, making sure to get all the fibers.
  5. In a bowl gently whisk until combined the rest of the ingredients.
  6. Place the squash into the steamer basket.
  7. Pour custard through a sieve into the pumpkin leaving an inch to the top (filling will rise).
  8. Include the squash lid next to, but not on top of, the squash.
  9. Steam covered and undisturbed for 55 minutes until a knife inserted into the custard comes out clean.
  10. Remove steamer basket from over heat and allow squash to come to room temperature.
  11. Slice into wedges (in front of admiring company!) and serve.
  12. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

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Awesome Candy Alert: Cayenne and Cashew Brittle

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Spicy brittle

I’m not big into candy; give me cake, pie or bread, or a good rice pudding instead.  However I’ve made this brittle at Christmas for years now, and it is always a big hit.  The cayenne makes a nice mild burn to counter the sweetness of the brittle.   Cayenne is good for you, too, as are cashews (no matter how creepy it is that cashews grow!), so it makes sense in some distorted way that this candy is good for you.  It is so easy, too. I have much less salt tolerance than the general American public.  If I eat out I find myself desperately thirsty for days.  The original recipe was made for high salt intake, but I have shown options on cutting it back.  You don’t need it, for the delight of the candy is in the burn with the sweet.  I also don’t like very hot (spicy) foods, but I like this.  Make some and try to share.

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Cayenne and Cashew Brittle
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Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

 

A yummy easy-to- make brittle with a slow spicy burn.
Ingredients
  • 2 cups unsalted roasted cashews, whole or pieces (you can use salted, but I don’t)
  • 10 tablespoons (1¼ sticks) butter (if using salted cashews, use unsalted butter)
  • ½ cup sugar
  • ¼ cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
  • 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • ¼ teaspoon salt (optional)

Instructions
  1. Butter a nonstick baking sheet and set aside.
  2. Combine all the ingredients in a large nonstick skillet.
  3. Stir mixture over low heat until the butter melts and the sugars dissolve.
  4. Increase heat to medium and boil.
  5. Stir constantly until mixture turns golden brown, thickens and masses together, about 5 minutes (if you cook it longer it won’t be as shiny; too little and it will be soft but still yummy).
  6. Immediately pour candy out onto the prepared baking sheet and quickly spread evenly using a spatula to help.
  7. Cool completely.
  8. Break into pieces.
  9. Makes about 1⅓ pounds

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Preserving Squash and a Terrific Pumpkin Chai Recipe!

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Beautiful patterns on the banana squash shell.

Four sugar baby pumpkins that I’d kept for myself, and three pink banana squash, were all in need of preservation.  They were not keeping well due to the warmth of our hot San Diego county Fall. During a rainy break in the weather I did something about it.  You can preserve cooked pumpkin and winter squash best by freezing it.  If you have a pressure canner you may can pureed pumpkin  or pumpkin pieces in liquid, but since I only use the water bath method that wasn’t an option.

Even sugar baby pumpkins can be difficult to cut when raw. There’s a better way!

Roasting a squash isn’t difficult at all.  In fact, you only have to wash it, put it on a tray in a 350F oven for  about an hour (longer if its a really large pumpkin), and then slice when cooled.

Roasting a whole pumpkin makes the scooping so easy!

Its easy to scrape out the seeds and then spoon out the cooked flesh out of the hardened shell.  This is what I did for the sugar baby pumpkins.  There was too much banana squash to fit whole into the oven, however, so I cut them into chunks, scooped out the seeds, covered them with aluminum foil (it helps steam them) and baked 350F for forty-five minutes.

Three banana squash is a lot of squash

I have more details here.  I also roasted the pumpkin seeds.

Then I had a lot of squash to puree!  These squash and pumpkins were dry, so I added a little water to the VitaMix and tossed in the chunks.

Pumpkin and seeds.

I pureed batches until smooth, then spooned cups full into freezer bags.  My pumpkin scone recipe calls for only half a cup, so I froze one-cup batches, as well as two-cup batches for pie.  The secret to ‘vacuum-packing’ freezer bags is to close the top of the bag around a straw and then suck all the air out.  It really works well, and is kind of fun, too.

Get a straw, suck out the air and presto: vacuum packed!

However, the best thing that happened out of all this squashing was that I had a little less than a cup of pureed roasted squash left in the VitaMix, too little to freeze and really irritating to scoop out.  It was a cold day and past lunchtime.  I had an idea and spooned in what was left of some Chai tea mix, poured in vanilla soy milk, blended it until it warmed up and sat down to drink.  Heaven!  I’m not one for pumpkin flavored things, but this was the real deal.

Pumpkin puree.

It was so good that the next day I took a cup of the pureed squash that I refrigerated, poured in 1 1/2 cups of vanilla soy milk, a touch of orange syrup left over from candying orange peel, added cinnamon and blended until it was hot.  It was thick, satisfying, a little sweet, spicy and full of beta carotene, fiber, protein and other good things.  I’m sure you can do the same thing with canned pumpkin and other liquids, such as milk, rice milk, almond milk or coconut milk.  If fact, I insist that you try it.

Hot Yum!

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Pumpkin Chai
Author: 
Recipe type: Beverage
Cuisine: American
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 2
 

Cold or hot, spiced pureed pumpkin or squash mixed with the milk of your choice is extreme comfort food that is actually terrific for you!
Ingredients
  • 1 cup cooked pumpkin or squash puree, fresh or canned.
  • 1½ – 2 cups vanilla soy milk, or milk of your choice. (Less for a thick drink).
  • ½ – ¾ teaspoon cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice or up to 1 scoop Chai tea mix.
  • Sweetener (optional); a natural syrup would do or honey.
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla (optional)

Instructions
  1. For cold pumpkin chai mix all ingredients briefly in a blender or VitaMix.
  2. Taste to adjust seasonings, thickness and sweetener, and serve.
  3. For hot pumpkin chai, heat milk and add to the rest of the ingredients in a blender and process. If you have a VitaMix, you can add all cold ingredients and then process until it is hot.

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I’m going to make some more for me right now.

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Caramel Ganache Shortbread Bars

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Just because I don’t post as often as I ought to, doesn’t mean that I’m not always preparing for posts.  I take lots of photos, look up lots of data and try lots of recipes.  Many recipes are researched, tweaked, photographed, made and turn out… icky.  For instance, the no-bake  cookies of last week that were only firm enough to cut at refrigerator temperature.  At room temperature they turned into a pan of chocolate sludge, and at freezer temperatures they were too hard to cut.  I have found, to my dismay, that many food bloggers post recipes even if they don’t turn out well, just so that they have something to post.  I’m learning to read and heed the disclaimers.

The recipe I’m about to impart to you is not a fluke.  It is, frankly, heavenly.

At a baby shower a few months ago I ate a bar cookie that was supposed to taste like a Twix candy bar.  It was very good with its layers of shortbread, caramel and chocolate.  I asked for the recipe and reproduced it at home.  The recipe called for crushed pre-made cookies (the Keebler elves had made them, apparently) topped with melted caramel candies (unwrapping all those little buggers took time), and spread with melted milk chocolate chips.  The result was tasty, but I couldn’t get over the store-bought flavor of the shortbread.  This cookie has three simple flavors that need to complement each other, and since I don’t usually eat store-bought baked goods, it took some adjustment for my palate.  However, they froze very well and defrosted quickly.

Ganache, baked shortbread and caramel mixture beginning to boil.

Then I found a better recipe.  And then I made it perfect.  It is a basic shortbread cookie crust, topped with a simple homemade caramel, then topped with chocolate ganache.  The driving impetus for this improvement was that I had leftover heavy cream in the fridge from making homemade ice cream, and needed to use it before it went bad.  The ganache topping adds a bright, lighter flavor which keeps the cookie from being cloying.  Yum.

Eat a small piece with some hot tea and be very, very happy.

 

 

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Caramel Ganache Shortbread Bars
Author: 
Recipe type: Dessert
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 16
 

Chocolate ganache atop firm homemade caramel and buttery shortbread. What else is there to say besides it is quick and easier than you may think.
Ingredients
  • For shortbread:
  • ⅔ cup butter, softened
  • ¼ cup granulated sugar
  • 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
  • For ganache:
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 8 oz. semi-sweet or milk chocolate, in small pieces
  • For caramel:
  • ½ cup unsalted butter
  • ½ cup packed light brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
  • ½ cup sweetened condensed milk

Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the ⅔ cup butter, granulated sugar and flour until crumbly.
  3. Press the sandy shortbread mixture into a 9-inch square baking pan.
  4. Bake for 20 minutes or until shortbread begins to lightly brown around edges.
  5. Meanwhile make the ganache. In a small saucepan combine heavy cream and 4 tablespoons butter.
  6. Bring mixture to a simmer.
  7. Turn off heat and add chocolate, swirling to cover all the bits.
  8. Cover pan and let sit for about 5 minutes until chocolate is melted.
  9. Stir until smooth and creamy and set aside (don’t refrigerate).
  10. In a 2-quart saucepan, combine ½ cup butter, brown sugar, corn syrup and sweetened condensed milk.
  11. Bring to a boil and continue to boil for five minutes.
  12. Remove from heat and beat quickly with a wooden spoon for about 3 minutes.
  13. Pour caramel over baked crust (warm or cold).
  14. Cool until caramel begins to firm, or chill.
  15. Pour ganache evenly over firm caramel.
  16. Cover dish with plastic wrap and chill completely in refrigerator until very firm.

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Two Sure-fire Zucchini Recipes

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Zucchini plants are like cats:  They both look harmless when small, so you think the more the merrier.  One plant is always enough, but it is hard to plant just one seed in case it doesn’t come up.  Then the sprouts are hard to thin.. what if something eats it?  Then before you know it, there are five enormous plants growing giant green clubs in the dead of night, just after you’ve checked all the plants.  Well, that’s my situation anyway.  Too many cats; too many zucchinis.  When there are enough all at one time, we’re taking them (the zucchinis, not the cats) to the Fallbrook Food Pantry along with pumpkins and tomatoes.  Until then, we’re exploring new ways to eat them.  And I refuse to sully cheesecake with zucchini! (yes, there is such a recipe!). 

My son who is studying Culinary Arts at the University of Hawaii sent me a link to smittenkitchen.com with an exceptional zucchini pancake recipe… not sweet, very light and completely tasty.  I’ll include my version.  But first I want to explain my ‘discovery’, which everyone but me probably knows about anyway. 

SAUTEED ZUCCHINI

 I had grated zucchini for bread and had some left over.  It was dinnertime and I was alone, so I experimented.  I heated a skillet with a little olive oil in it, threw in the grated, undrained zucchini, and stirred it around on medium-high heat for about five minutes.  When it was beginning to wilt and brown a little on the bottom, I sprinkled sesame oil on it lightly, and then gave it a touch of Bragg’s Amino Acids, which I use for many things.  A light soy sauce may substitute, but Bragg’s is high in nutrition, low in salt and a wonderful flavoring.  Buy it online or in health food stores.  The zucchini came out tasty and with a mouth-feel of wet wide noodles.  It was fantastic.  I’ve since made it for my daughter a couple of times, and each time we wanted more!  Imagine that!  On the plus side, it used up a medium zucchini.

  You really must give these pancakes a try. 

 

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Fabulous Zucchini Pancakes
Author: 
Recipe type: Breakfast
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 4
 

A light, flavorful, really good pancake that uses up a lot of zucchini and tastes like zucchini bread.
Ingredients
  • 2 large eggs
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons sugar (optional)
  • ¼ cup buttermilk or soured milk
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups shredded zucchini
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • ¼ teaspoon table salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ⅛ teaspoon ground or freshly grated nutmeg
  • ¼ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)
  • Oil, for coating skillet

Instructions
  1. In a large bowl whisk eggs, olive oil, sugar, buttermilk and vanilla until smooth.
  2. Stir in zucchini.
  3. In a smaller bowl, combine flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg.
  4. Stir dry ingredients into zucchini batter, mixing until just combined.
  5. Stir in chocolate chips.
  6. Heat oil or butter in a large, heavy skillet over medium heat.
  7. Scoop ¼-cup rounds of batter in pan so they do not touch.
  8. Cook until bubbles appear on the surface, about 2 to 3 minutes.
  9. Flip pancakes and cook another minute or two.
  10. Keep pancakes warm in on a tray in the oven set on low or in a toaster oven.
  11. Repeat with remaining batter.
  12. Serve warm with or without traditional pancake toppings.
  13. Pancakes freeze well.

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Lavender Cookies with Rose Water Drizzle

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This is not the everyday, lunchbox type of cookie.  This is the cookie you put a sign next to with the name on it, and listen to the oohs and ahhs and hmmms when it is sampled.  These cookies are buttery and with no added extract have a very light lavender flavor.  The rose water icing should be added sparingly; it is better even to make the icing the day before to let the rose fragrance mellow some.  You don’t want cookies that taste like hand lotion.

That said, these are fun to make, smell great, taste good, and are perfect for teatime or to bring to a ladie’s function.  Don’t forget the sign.

Most lavender recipes require dried blossom.  This recipe calls for dried leaves.  If you don’t have dried leaves, you can set a few sprigs in the sunshine on a hot day, or dry them at lowest temperature in the oven or toaster oven.  My toaster oven has a ‘dehydrate’ setting, and it did an admirable job drying some fresh sprigs.  You don’t want nasty bits of leaf in your cookie.  Use a mortar and pestle to grind up the dried leaves.  The result should be like fluff.  Yep.  It doesn’t powder, it fluffs.

Rose water can be found at International markets, some grocery stores, many liquer stores, or online.  If you can’t find it, or just don’t like the smell or taste of rose, then leave the icing unflavored, or add a drop of vanilla.

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Lavender Cookies with Rose Water Drizzle
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Recipe type: Dessert
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 4 dozen
 

An English teatime-type cookie.
Ingredients
  • ½ cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons lavender, crushed until fluffy
  • 1½ cups flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • For icing:
  • 2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
  • 5 – 6 teaspoons water
  • 6 teaspoons (or less… try it!) rose water

Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
  2. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.
  3. Add the eggs.
  4. Add lavender, flour, baking powder and salt.
  5. Drop by small teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Leave space between for spreading.
  6. Bake 10 -12 minutes, until edges begin to turn brown.
  7. Cool on racks.
  8. To prepare icing, mix the powdered sugar with water and rose water until it has a nice, non-globby drizzly consistency.
  9. Drizzle over cooled cookies.

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Passionfruit Curd

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Passionfruit curd. Yum.

Rather than post photos of the rabbits eating my vegetables,

or other Eastery things, I thought I’d put in a recipe that is rather exotic.  If you have a passionfruit vine (the ones that produce edible fruit) you may be inundated with the fruit about now.  Also the flowers were named passionflowers because of the Christian symbolism read into the shape of the flowers.  I always wondered about this, but I figured that faced with ‘heathens’ who ate this aromatic, voluptuous and kind of sexy fruit, some Christian missionaries decided to put the stamp of Christianity onto the plant rather than try to ban its consumption.  That’s just my theory, of course, but it makes sense.  Therefore a post on passionfruit for the passion of Christ on Easter.  Yep, I’m stretching it, but you’ll like the recipe.

Anyway, passionvines have abundant growth (as I mentioned in my post about building a trellis for them http://www.vegetariat.com/2012/03/questionable-carpentry/).

Gorgeous flowers.

There are many colors of flowers of both the ornamental and edulis varieties.  The flower has a tiny fruit all ready to go and awaiting some friendly bee to come rub herself all over the anthers and stamens (the missionaries are shuddering) and pollinate.

Looks like the fruit is wearing an Easter bonnet! Kind of. Okay, it doesn't.

The fruit grows as the flower fades. There is some mother-child allusion somewhere in there but you’ll have to go there yourself.

A developing passionfruit.

When the fruit is ready to fall, a good shake of the vines will make them come down.  Usually they are still smooth-skinned at this point.  You want to wait until the fruit starts to wrinkle before it is sweet, ripe and ready.  (I’ll not touch that one at all.)

The fruit falls off still smooth... wait until it wrinkles to use

Don’t eat the skin, but cut the fruit in half.  Many people like to eat the seeds as well as the pulp.  I’m not one of them, and neither is my daughter who very patiently sieved the insides of about 80 passionfruit to obtain the juice.  I like to add the juice to tangerine juice for breakfast.  We’ve also successfully made a hedonistic passionfruit ice cream that was stupendous.  This time we decided to make passionfruit curd.

Wait until they're wrinkly, then scoop out the insides.

I’ve posted already on how to make lemon curd (http://www.vegetariat.com/2011/03/when-life-gives-you-lemons-make-lemon-curd/).  (You’re wondering, what is UP with this woman and curd, anyway?).  The passionfruit curd is slightly different, but yet has that nice bite to it that doesn’t make it too sweet.  I thought this curd came out tasting a little eggy, but I believe that is because we used eggs from our own spoiled hens, which have a definate healthy flavor to them.  The eggs, not the hens (that we know of, nor will we find out).  It was all okay, though.

Scoop and strain.

We made two half-pints, and I didn’t ‘can’ them.  However you may sterilize the jars and lids, add the hot curd, and give them a 15 minute hot water bath and the curd will last for months.  I still refrigerate it, just to be on the safe side.

I found the original recipe in Nigella Lawson’s How To Be A Domestic Goddess.  She stirs some passionfruit seeds back into the curd, which looks nice (if you like the fish egg look to your food) and can certainly be done for all of you who enjoy the seeds.  I like my curd seedless.  On scones.  With mascarpone cheese.  Mmmm.

Happy Easter!

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Passionfruit Curd
Author: 
Recipe type: Spread
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

 

This wonderful spread based on Nigella Lawson’s recipe can be used to top baked goods, put in a pie shell, in a jelly roll cake, or used any way you would lemon curd, jam or jelly. It makes an exotic gift, too!
Ingredients
  • 12 passionfruit
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 large egg yolks
  • ½ cup granulated sugar (superfine if you have it)
  • 8 tablespoons unsalted (good quality) butter
  • 2 sterilized ½ pint jars

Instructions
  1. Cut the passionfruit in half and scoop out the insides into a sieve.
  2. With a spoon, strain the juice into a measuring cup. You should have about 10 tablespoons, or a scant ⅔ cup of juice. If you’d like seeds in the curd, reserve the pulp of the 12th one instead of straining it.
  3. In a bowl beat the eggs, yolks and sugar together.
  4. In a saucepan, melt the butter over low heat.
  5. Stirring continuously, add the passionfruit juice and then the sugar mixture, being careful not to cook the egg.
  6. Keep cooking and stirring until the mixture thickens, about five minutes. It should coat the back of the spoon.
  7. Take the pan off the heat. If you have reserved the pulp of that one last fruit, here is where you whisk it into the mixture.
  8. Pour the curd into the jars and seal.
  9. Store in refrigerator. Try it on scones with mascarpone cheese. Really. I mean it.
  10. Makes two half-pint jars full, about 1¾ cups.

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How Desserts Lose Calories: My Theory

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After years of careful scientific research,  I have discovered that food can lose its caloric content under certain conditions.  I’m not talking about after you eat half of it, either.  This thesis, which I firmly hold to be true, gives a little break to all of us who gain weight if we even see a drawing of a donut.  Here it is:

High calorie foods, such as cakes, cookies, ice cream, pastries, pies… you get the picture… lose caloric content when:

They are dropped on the floor.

When they are stale.

When they are given to you by someone who doesn’t want them.

When left over.

When eaten from the container.

When slightly burnt.

When overcooked (different from being burnt).

When eaten reluctantly (food guests force on you and you have to eat some to be polite).

When someone who is a bad or indifferent cook makes them.

After the cat has sniffed them.

When reduced to crumbs in a pocket/purse/backpack.

When eaten other than in their native environment (i.e., ice cream on a cold day, pie in the garden, batter-dipped cheesecake-onna-stick at the fair.  No, wait, that is its natural environment!).

When eaten onna-stick, unless they are supposed to be onna-stick, such as ice cream bars.

When eaten with an unusual complimentary food (donuts and Corona) (something about food combining, like making a whole protein).

When taken medicinally.

When washed down with a diet drink.

When eaten en masse at one sitting (like the heavenly cranberry biscotti my wonderful neighbor makes every Christmas.  They are MINE.)

When eaten with a plain green salad (they cancel each other out). (If you add sprouts to the salad, you can have seconds on the cake.)

When eaten instead of a regular meal.

Of course, this theory doesn’t work if you plan to do any of the aforementioned.  You can’t drop a cookie deliberately and then eat it (ten second rule or no) and expect calories to break off and go skidding around the floor.  This works only when you forget to set the oven timer and the brownies come out dry, but you eat them anyway.  Or if you are laying kitchen tile and someone brings donuts and someone else brings a six-pack.  So what it comes to is this: there is a reward for clumsiness and forgetfulness.  We should embrace and reward our faults.  With sugar.

I hope this theory aids you in your diet.  If you have any corroborating evidence of your own, please comment.  Someday I’ll write a paper on my findings and send it to medical journals.  Won’t they be surprised!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Streusel Gingerbread Muffins

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Gingerbread Streusel Muffins

I love gingerbread.  Take gingerbread, put some extra zing to it with freshly grated ginger, deepen the dark flavor with a tablespoon of cocoa, and sprinkle some gingery streusel on the top and wow, what a muffin!

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Streusel Gingerbread Muffins
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Recipe type: Breakfast/Dessert
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 18
 

These gingerbread muffins have an extra kick and a deeper flavor from special ingredients.
Ingredients
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1½ teaspoons baking soda
  • 1½ teaspoons ground ginger
  • 1 tablespoon unsweetened baking cocoa
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger root
  • ½ cup dark molasses
  • ½ cup granulated sugar
  • ½ cup vegetable oil
  • ½ cup boiling water
  • 2 large eggs, whisked
  • Streusel topping:
  • 1 cup granulated or brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon ground ginger
  • 2 tablespoons finely minced candied ginger
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • ½ cup (one stick) butter, softened
  • ½ cup all-purpose flour
  • 4 tablespoons butter, softened

Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 325F.
  2. Line or grease 18 muffin cups.
  3. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, ground ginger, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and cocoa powder.
  4. In a medium bowl, whisk together molasses, sugar, oil, water, eggs and grated fresh ginger.
  5. Add molasses mixture to flour mixture until well combined.
  6. Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups (an ice cream scoop really works!), each cup half full.
  7. In a medium bowl, combine the sugar, cinnamon, ground ginger and flour.
  8. Cut the butter into small bits and using a pastry blender, forks or your fingers, work the butter into the mixture until it is crumbly and there are no large chunks of butter.
  9. Stir in minced candied ginger.
  10. Sprinkle streusel on top of muffins, pressing lightly to firm it up.
  11. Bake 18 – 24 minutes, or until wooden toothpick inserted in the centers of the muffins comes out cleanly.
  12. Remove muffins from oven and cool.

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