Tag Archives: dessert

Homemade Twix

  

Followed this Serious Eats recipe. It was amazing. I never want to eat a “real” Twix bar again. Now just to figure out how to make Butterfingers…

The base shortbread was fantastic — no need for caramel or chocolate.

Adapted from the Serious Eats page above:

2.5 ounces (1/2 cup) steel-cut oats
7.5 ounces (1 1/2 cups) all-purpose flour (I subbed for a half cup of whole wheat, just because I want to use it up)
1.5 ounces (1/4 cup) cornstarch
3 ounces (2/3 cup) confectioner’s sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
14 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into halfinch-ish chunks

Dump all the dry ingredients into a food processor, then add the butter. Process until a dough forms. Then roll it out into cookies! Bake at 450F for ten minutes, then 300F for another 15 minutes, rotating halfway.

I made both cookies as detailed in the link above, and a tray of Twix. Half a recipe of the dough filled an 8×8 pan. I had a hard time getting an evenly thin layer of chocolate in the tray though.

Would (will) make again! Maybe just the cookies.

Brown Sugar Pavlova

I’m so behind on posting…

For today, here’s the brown sugar pavlova I made for Moogle’s sixth birthday party. Because, yes, I had a dog birthday party. Stop judging.

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Link to the original recipe later, but this is what I did: (From memory… what’s wrong with me. Why do I know this.)

8 egg whites
1c brown sugar
1c white sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 white vinegar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Whip egg whites to stiff peaks, then slowly pour in the sugars. Then mix in the other stuff.

Shape into 8in circles (two), and bake at 250F for 90 minutes, then turn the oven off and let sit in the closed oven for at least an hour (up to overnight).

Assemble with a tart filling.

This one was lemon curd on the bottom, strawberry rhubarb compote on top, then sliced peaches. The original recipe was rhubarb curd and strawberries. I think any tart curd will work, as it offsets the meringue’s sweetness.

Tres Leches!

Tres Leches

It’s strawberry season! (And cherry season, and peach season…)

So I made this wonderful tres leches cake. I didn’t have a 9×13 pan, so I used a 9inch round and an 8inch round. The cakes turned out great, but a wee less soaked than I’d like.

Only modifications:
– No sugar in the whipped cream topping
– Added a pinch of nutmeg and a teaspoon of cinnamon

Banana Chocolate Chip Bread Pudding

We had a bunch of leftover bread at work a couple weeks ago… I took it home and froze it. So when I had two almost disgustingly ripe bananas last night — bread pudding! Woo!

Preheat the oven to 350F

Custard mixture:
2 cups milk
3/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
4 eggs

Bread:
Slice (into 1/2in-ish cubes) enough bread to fill (but not heaping) a 9in pie dish
Toast briefly if your bread came out of the freezer (Since it’s probably a little soggy…)

Chocolate:
3/4 c semi sweet chocolate chips

Assembly:
Dunk all the bread in the custard, then fish pieces out to make one layer in the pie dish. Sprinkle chocolate chips. Slice the bananas and make a layer of banana (use up all the banana). Then another layer of bread (which should finish all the bread), then sprinkle the remaining chocolate chips over and bake!

Bake until set and slightly browned. Or an internal temp of ~160F.
The little pockets of custard near the surface took longer to cook for me, so most of it got to 180F before those hit a food-safe temperature.

Fruit Galette

Galette

Here is one very blown out picture of a fruit galette. This is what I get for focusing on the filling, which happens to be very dark.

1 pie crust (I’m lazy and use premade ones)
2 tsp cornstarch
~1/4 c sugar (I usually do more like 3/4ths of the 1/4c, but I’m not very precise…)
splash of vanilla
fruit (I like peaches, berries and even pears, usually approximately 1 peach/pear + 1-2c berries)

Mix up the fruit, sugar, cornstarch and vanilla. Let sit for a few minutes. I like using some sliced fruit, since those release liquid.

Roll out your crust, mound the fruit mix in the center, then fold up the crust.

Brush with a beaten egg and sprinkle with coarse sugar.

Bake at 375F until the crust looks done. Usually 35-45 minutes for me.

Chocolate Souffles

Based on this recipe with some changes due to my inability to plan ahead. Who knew souffles were so forgiving!

7 oz chocolate (semi sweet)
4 tbsp butter + more for the molds
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 egg yolks
7 egg whites
3 tbsp warm water
1/4 c (white) + 2 tbsp (brown) sugar + more for the molds

Butter and sugar the ramekins (6), keep them in the fridge (or freezer) until its baking time.

Melt the chocolate and butter together in the microwave. Whisk together the egg yolks and 2tbsp brown sugar and water. Then combine with the chocolate mixture. Add vanilla extract.

Whisk the egg whites and 1/4c white sugar until stiff peaks form. Fold in the chocolate mixture.

Bake for 18 (to 20) minutes at 400F on the bottom rack of the oven.