The Perfect Flan

The air was warm (always the give away of a tropical vacation) and the night was getting older.  We had just finished a wonderful meal at a restaurant hut six doors down when we sauntered slowly in the restaurant and plopped down into two chairs by the front entrance. Flan is such a common Puerto Rican dessert that it can be found on any menu, so I'm not sure what our exact criteria was, but eventually we settled in at a little place with tile floors and no walls.  We sat in our chairs, waited for our coffee (which showed up after our flan) and dug into a curious looking version of a dessert we knew.  It was flan, but with air bubbles and many of them.  Flan with air bubbles? The texture of the flan was something more akin to quiche than the soft smooth custard that we knew. But this, we were assured, was how the Puerto Rican's loved their flan.  Later on in our trip we tried a smooth, soft flan, which we loved, and on our last night we got a cheese flan, which is also very popular in Puerto Rico, but we really didn't like that one.  It was more like a thick cream cheese custard.

Firstly, you need to know flan and creme caramel are the same thing. You probably don't believe me, no one has yet.  That's alright, but go and check, so you know.  Secondly I believe the Puerto Rican's might use evaporated milk in the making of their flans, which is neither bad nor good, just different.  Puerto Ricans also incorporate a lot of air into their flans, on purpose.  So where my recipe says to mix the eggs into the cream until it is just together, they would whip the snot out of it.  You can do either.  'll try not to judge.  I think this recipe holds true to it's name, it's the perfect flan.

Baking notes:
-I made exactly 2/3s of this recipe, since I only had 4 ramekin cups, not the 6 called for.  Which made this recipe a huge pain in the butt to measure out.  But it was still very simple to throw together.  Like seriously easy.
-Three steps: steep milk, make caramel, bake custard.  It's hard to screw up.
-I thought I might have overcooked these at 38 minutes, but after they chilled they came out perfectly.

The recipe for The Perfect Flan can be found on the epicurious website.

72/569

Mocha Crunch Ice Cream Cake

This time it was ice cream cake.  The day started early, like it always does (or did, anyway), in his pack I packed away a tidy special breakfast, something different then the same old oatmeal.  Blueberry muffins and glazed bacon.  That ought to get him off on the right foot.  I drove the hour and a half to have lunch with him, I gave him his gift.  There was buckets of rain and plenty of mushy I-love-you-happy-birthdays.  We had dinner later that night with friends, at a far-to-dimly-lit place not to far from us.  We had coffee and dessert at our place afterwards and like I said, this time it was ice cream cake.

I was more than happy to make this ice cream cake.  Under the directions of the recipe I used store bought ice cream, (infinitely easier than making my own, but so much more expensive!) and what a relief that was.  I can be mother of the ice cream cakes if I can use store bought ice cream!  Of course the cake was very sweet, but there was more to it.  I loved the hint of coconut in the chocolate glaze, and how fast it melted when it was at room temperature.  I loved that the crust wasn't baked, just frozen, which made things so simple.  The entire thing was delicious, crunchy and smooth, coffee and chocolate, we were totally impressed.  My only gripe (and it's a small one) is that the glaze got grainy once it froze and frustratingly I'm not sure why.  Happily my husband loved the cake, it was a happy birthday.

Baking notes:
-I made the chocolate glaze/fudge with only 1 cup of water instead of 1.5 cups.  I think this was a perfect consistency, I can't imagine how much runnier it would have been.
-I used approximately half the amount of coffee ice cream I should have (that Haagen dazs is expensive!)
-Each layer of ice cream took around 30 minutes to freeze adequately. The layer of fudge in the middle needed an extra half an hour to get semi-solid.
-I used one package of Oreos instead of the shortbread it called for.  I didn't have enough by weight of the crushed Oreos, but I thought it was just the right amount.  I used 1/3 of the crumbs for the middle layer and 2/3 for the bottom (and just a little less butter). Perfect.
-In Canada Heath bars are the same as Skor bars.  I used four.

The recipe for Mocha Crunch Ice Cream Cake can be found on the epicurious website.

71/569

Chocolate Pudding with Espresso Whipped Cream

I have a thing for pudding. I don't necessarily have a thing for dark rainy nights, but I have a solution for them.  All winter long I have been craving the comfort of puddings, just like a warm sweater you slip into, pudding caresses my belly into childlike happiness.  I spent many evenings at the supper table, with a cool bowl of pudding in my paws, a reward for eating my vegetables.  It's one of my fondest dessert memories, and the one that calls the loudest when I think of my very youngest years. Recently we've been in need for some real comfort.  Shane has been studying hard for exams, and dealing with having shingles, while I've just started a full-time night line.  These things are hard, and demand real heart helping nourishment.  Unlike this one, my childhood pudding came straight from a 5x4 inch box, the directions were straight forward: add milk.  While there are a few more steps involved with this recipe, the effort is hardly significant.  After the fourth time I found my head in the fridge and a spoonful of pudding in my hand I realized this treat is the ideal grownup version of my favourite dessert memory.

Baking notes:
-I made this dessert exactly as indicated and it was spot on.  Nothing curdled, ideally flavoured. Basically perfect.

The recipe for Chocolate Pudding with Espresso Whipped Cream can be found on the epicurious website.

70/569

Parsnip Spice Cake with Ginger Cream Cheese Frosting

So a few days ago a good friend of ours stopped by with her arms full of stuff.  She has a hobby farm where she raises chickens and tonnes of vegetables.  There were about 8 frozen chickens, one and a half dozen eggs and a pail full of dirty brown veggies she had just pulled from the garden before she drove over.  We are so blessed to have the friends we do.  In the pail were many things, but among them about 10 parsnips of varying size.  We ate a few roasted but with the surplus I decided to make a parsnip cake, which although it sounds weird, is only as strange as carrot cake!  The cake is an excellent snacking cake, it's warm with spice, fresh with ginger and toasty with walnuts.  It's not too sweet, and has a lovely light texture. I've been loving every slice. (Though I still prefer carrot cake).

Baking notes:
-I used only 10-11oz of powdered sugar in the icing and found it perfect.
-Watch the baking times very closely.  I took the cake out at only 18 minutes.

The recipe for Parsnip Spice Cake with Ginger Cream Cheese Frosting can be found on the epicurious website.

69/569

Chocolate Brownies with Peanut Butter Frosting

Yesterday was Valentine's day and while I don't wholeheartedly support such a consumeristic holiday (but aren't they all?) I do love an opportunity to remind my husband how much I love him.  February is a love month for us though, because his birthday is on the last day of the month, which is a whole other lovefest!  I wrote sweet notes and left little chocolates around the house for him in the two week leading up to V-day, so on the 14th I had to pull out a few extra stops, namely the book he'd be eyeing up recently and his favourite, fudgy brownies and peanut butter.  Together!  This recipe was absolutely perfect since it was a marriage of the two, a classic brownie with a peanut butter frosting.  He loved them, and so did everyone at my work who got half a pan of leftovers.  I thought these were especially good straight out of the fridge. Do what you like!

Baking notes:
-I thought the brownies were a tad dry even though I took them out at 18 minutes, rather than 20.  Next time I'd check them at 16.5 or 17 minutes.
-The peanut butter frosting was good, but a little boring.  Next time I would incorporate cream cheese into the frosting for a little extra interest.

The recipe for Chocolate Brownies with Peanut Butter Frosting can be found on the epicurious website.

68/569

Classic Tiramisu

There are plenty of reasons not to make tiramisu; where to find those damn ladyfingers, the fact that mascarpone costs an arm and a leg, and really, a $20 bottle of wine, that you mix with coffee?!  But there is one really great reason, it tastes amazing.  Luckily for us, this was the best tiramisu I've ever had.  It was worth every bit of work and worry, because when you eat a bite of tiramisu that tastes better than the stuff you had in Italy, you know it's over.  Shane picked out this dessert to finish off a dinner of pasta and wine, and even knowing how cost prohibitive it was, agreed to make it happen.  The ladyfingers, as it happens, were on my shelf, a box that I bought over a year ago (when I saw them in an Italian store in Vancouver and scooped them up).  Check one.  I went to the store aiming to buy mascarpone, money be damned.  But when I saw the $12 price tag my resolve fell away, I bought two cups of cream instead and went home to make my own. Check two.  Finally, I decided not to buy the Marsala wine, Shane and I don't like very sweet wines, and anyways, I knew we loved coffee liqueur with ours.  In the end I'd argue to anyone, this is the best tiramisu money can buy.

Baking notes:

-I used kahlua instead of marsala wine in the espresso mixture and frangelico in the egg yolk mixture.

-It took at least 15 minutes for the egg-frangelico mixture to reach 160 F, not 3 minutes as it states.

-I made my own mascarpone cheese, which worked wonderfully.

-The egg whites made the tiramisu so light and fluffy, I would not skip these!

The recipe for Classic Tiramisu can not be found online.

67/569

Ice Maple Cream with Berries

Being the good Canadian I am, I have a great fondness for maple syrup.  I would put it only one notch below honey on my sugar love scale (you're probably wondering how crazy I am). Yes, sugar love scale.  It's a thing, though I may have just made it up.  Maple syrup is incredibly expensive, I use it very sparingly, always with my oatmeal in the mornings and sometimes in the lattes I make, but I never skimp and buy the cheap stuff, it's just not worth it. This is how I feel about honey too, I buy local when it's available, the taste is always worth the extra dollars.  My sugar love scale looks something like this: honey, maple syrup, molasses, agave syrup and then the sugars.  (You'll never find me with things like aspartame, truvia or stevia in my cupboards!)

It is with great, indulgent pleasure that I bring you this dessert.  Now, I never thought about pairing maple syrup and summer berries, it didn't seem like the best idea.  But somehow it was! and the dessert works heavenly.  The maple cream was simple to put together and thankfully there was no ice cream maker required.  The downside to this of course, is that the cream only lasts around 24 hours before the quality starts to noticeably deteriorate, getting overly ice-y and hard.  Our batch was gone within 24 hours without any trouble!

Baking notes:
-I was short half an egg yolk, but it didn't seems to make too much of a difference.
-The recipe states that the yolk-maple syrup mixture will come to 175 F within 3 minutes or so of cooking over the double broiler, but after 20 minutes my mixture had only hit 165 F.  Finally I took it off, scraped it into a cold bowl and beat the mixture to cool down (it took about 5 minutes).  The ice cream turned out wonderfully.
-I used raspberries and strawberries that I froze from last summer, so they had broken down and were sweet and soft.

The recipe for Ice Maple Cream with Berries can be found on the epicurious website.

66/569