I was notorious in my family for being the child that could only be comforted by my mother.

Most playful family weekends, the scene went something like this:  I’d be in the backyard playing with my little sister, my dad and Scamper, the family dog on our creaky, rusted and awesomely fun swing set.  My favorite move was to swing as high as I could, count to three with my sister and jump out of the swings onto the grass.  Sounds innocent enough, but I was always getting my little girl fingers stuck in the chains of the swing as I dismounted.

I’d hit the ground and look at my dad with the silent cry face… the face kids give their parents before the completely lose it and burst into tears.  My dad would invariable come over and try to talk me out of losing it, but I was already halfway into the ugly cry by then.  It was then that no one but my mom could handle the cajoling and kissing of my finger.  I’d run into the house, screaming like a maniac and clutching my (not even bleeding) finger, looking for my mother who had found just a few moments peace to take a shower or a short nap.  I’d force myself into her lap, lift the offending, pained finger, and wait for the mom comfort to blanket me.  So good.

Come to think of it, that swing set caused as many injuries as it did smiles.

Come to think of it, jumping off the swing set is always worth the hurt finger.

Come to think of it, this pudding has much the same healing qualities as my mom’s lap.

Milk Chocolate Pudding … holy wow!  It’s super simple, brilliantly satisfying, and you can have it as is, or doll it up with lightly sweetened cream and easy homemade raspberry sauce.  Are you thinking what I’m thinking?  Mother’s Day treats?  Yea… I thought so.

Milk Chocolate Pudding

Gourmet, February 2007

Print this recipe!

2 Tablespoons sugar

2 Tablespoons cornstarch

2 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 cups whole milk

1/2 cup half and half or heavy cream

4 ounces fine-quality milk chocolate, chopped

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whisk together sugar, cornstarch, cocoa powder and a pinch of salt in a 2-quart heavy saucepan.  Gradually whisk in milk and cream.  Bring to a boil over moderately high heat, whisking constantly.  Boil, whisking for two minutes.  Mixture will be thick.  Remove from heat and whisk in chocolate pieces and vanilla extract.  Stir until melted and smooth.

Transfer pudding to four or six small dishes.  Cover the surface with wax paper, to prevent a skin from forming, and place in the fridge until cool and set, about two hours.

In the meantime, make the whipped cream and raspberry sauce.

To assemble, top the chocolate pudding with whipped cream and raspberry sauce and serve immediately.  If you would like to assemble dessert and return it to the fridge, you may want to place the raspberry sauce beneath the whipped cream so it doesn’t bleed as much.

Whipped Cream

1 cup heavy cream

2 teaspoons powdered sugar.

Whip heavy cream with an electric hand mixer, or in the bowl of a stand mixer until frothy.  Add the sugar and continue to whip until soft peaks form.  Whip the cream slightly longer if you like a stiffer hold to your whipped cream.  Place in the fridge to save for assembly.

Easy Raspberry Sauce

1/2 of a 12-ounce bag frozen raspberries, thawed

1 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoons water

Place the thawed raspberries in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a blade attachment.  Add sugar and water and mix until the raspberries form a smooth puree.  Transfer raspberry puree to a fine mesh strainer fit over a bowl.  Press the puree through the strainer, until only the raspberry seeds and a bit of pump remain the the strainer, and a beautiful raspberry sauce is all that’s in the bowl.

My favorite part of my sixth grade history text books were not the pictures.  Oooooh no… too easy.  I loved the little timelines at the end of a lesson, the kind of timeline that so neatly wrapped up the life and struggles of so many people.  Distill the entire American Civil Rights Movement into a timeline.  The progression of people and actions becomes so tidy and clear.  Aaah, thanks for the timeline.

I sometimes like to think of my life in timeline form.  I pick a theme and timeline it out in my head.  Yes, this happens.

Let’s timeline out my favorite ice cream flavors from the 1980’s to the present.  Not nearly as socially crucial as civil rights, but still somehow important.

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{ 1983- Strawberry Ice Cream is the only flavor in my world}  {1987- Whoa!  Bubble Gum in ice cream!?  Yes.  Want!}  {1990-  Rocky Road is the only way to go}     {1994-  Is it still Mint Chocolate Chip if it’s not green?  I say yes!}  {1999-  Cherry Garcia, will you marry me?}  {2005-  Going retro with Rainbow Sherbet, success!  {2009-  Enjoying the clever stylings of Brownie Bottom Coffee Ice Cream Cupcakes.  Consider them little cups of perfect fun right from the freezer.  For reals.}

Now that I can check “make an ice cream timeline” off my list of things to do today, let’s talk Ice Cream Cupcakes. Yes.  Yes!  Yes!!

I’ve made Ice Cream Cupcakes before.  They were deliciously bite-sized and made of Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream.  This time around, Ice Cream Cupcakes have grown in size and matured in flavor.  Combine chewy chocolate brownies with coffee ice cream, chocolate ganache and whipped cream.  What a fine world it is.  Summer is sneaking up on us, and here’s what we’re gonna do about it.

Brownie Bottom Ice Cream Cupcakes

You’ll need:

24 foil cupcake liners

Brownie Batter

1/2 gallon of your favorite ice cream flavor.  I chose Coffee Ice Cream

An ice cream scooper, small spoon, and warm water

A freezer

Chocolate Ganache

Whipped Cream

Here’s the Step by Step Situation:

First make the brownie batter.  Line two cupcake pans with the foil cupcake liners.  Into each cupcake liner, scoop 1 Tablespoon of brownie batter.  Bake at 350 degrees F for about 6-8 minutes until the brownie is cooked through.

Let the brownies cool in the cupcake pans to room temperature.  Once cool, place in the freezer (still in the cupcake pans) for 30 minutes.  When you place the cupcake pans in the freezer, remove the ice  cream you’re using and place in the refrigerator to soften.

When ready to assemble the cupcakes, remove the cupcake pans with foil lined brownie cups from the freezer.  Remove the ice cream from the fridge.  Run the ice cream scooper under hot water and working quickly, portion a small scoop of ice cream into each foil lined cup, while still in the cupcake pan.  The cupcake pan will help the Ice Cream Cupcake hold its shape.  You may need to rinse the scooper under hot water in between scoops for easy portioning.  Quickly smooth the scoops of ice cream with the back of a small spoon also rinsed in warm water and return the ice cream cupcakes quickly to the freezer.

Let the newly formed Ice Cream Cupcakes refreeze for 45 minutes to an hour.  In this time you can make the chocolate ganache and whipped cream.  Let the ganache come to just around room temperature, and let the whip cream rest in the fridge until serving time.

Once the cupcakes are refrozen and nice and firm, remove from the freezer and top with a teaspoon of chocolate ganache.  Smooth over the cupcake.  Return once again to the freezer.

To serve, remove the cupcakes from the freezer about 5 minutes before you’d life to serve them.  Finish with a dollop of whipped cream and serve.  Carefully peel the foil from the cupcake and enjoy… with napkins.  Yum!

Fudgy Brownie Bottoms

Bon Appetit October 1991

Print this recipe!

• 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 2 large eggs plus one egg yolk
• 1 1/8 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two cupcake pans with foil cupcake liners. Combine first 3 ingredients in small bowl. Stir butter and chocolate in a bowl set over simmering water, creating a double boiler.  Heat until melted and smooth. Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla in large bowl to blend. Stir in warm chocolate mixture, then dry ingredients.  Scoop 1 Tablespoon of batter into each foil liner. Bake until toothpick inserted into center comes out with moist crumbs attached, about 6 to 8 minutes. Cool to room temperature, then place in the freezer for 30 minutes before scooping the ice cream on top.

Chocolate Ganache

3/4 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips (I used chocolate chunks)

1/4 cup heavy cream

Put chocolate chips in a small bowl.  Bring cream to a simmer in a small heavy saucepan.  Pour cream evenly over chocolate.  Let stand for one minute to soften, then stir until smooth.  If frosting is too loose to spread, let it sit at room temperature for 10 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, frosting will continue to thicken as it stands.  Scoop by the teaspoon full onto the ice cream cupcakes.  Spread and refreeze until ready to serve.

Sweetened Whipped Cream

3/4 cup heavy cream

2 Tablespoons powdered sugar

dash of vanilla extract

Whip heavy cream for 3 minutes.  Add powdered sugar and vanilla extract and continue to whip until thick whipped cream forms.  Dollop onto Ice Cream Cupcakes just before serving.

I was trying to come up with some charming childhood anecdote to accompany these butterscotch puddings, when I came to the blunt realization that I didn’t like pudding as a child. In fact, I may have purely despised the stuff. My only exposure to pudding came in the occasional lunch time trade with a friend for her chocolate pudding cup. I seem to remember a goopy, brown, almost plastic flavored dessert. Even when I was eight I knew that there had to be a better way.

A mere twenty years later I’ve decided on the perfect pudding solution: mix together cream, brown sugar and bourbon whiskey (among a few other ingredients) and call it Butterscotch Pudding. Glorious! Top that pudding with Bourbon whipped cream and toffee and life just got that much sweeter.

If I could talk to eight year old Joy the Baker, I’d tell her not to trade her all natural fruit snacks for the chocolate pudding. There’s something much better lying ahead. I’d also tell her that she won’t have horribly frizzy hair forever, and it really is ok that precious, blonde, adorable Hayden likes Alison and not her. It really is ok.

I used a recipe from David Lebowitz for this Butterscotch Pudding. It came together beautifully! Sure, there’s a fair amount of cornstarch in the pudding, but the pudding doesn’t have that paste like, cornstarch taste. I made a double batch and filled 14 little glass jars with pudding and whipped cream. This recipe feels like the perfect Fall and Winter comfort dessert. Also… yay whiskey!

Butterscotch Pudding
4-6 servings

Adapted from Ripe For Dessert

Print this recipe!

4 tablespoons (60g) butter, salted or unsalted
1 cup (200g) packed dark brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt
3 tablespoons cornstarch
2½ (625ml) cups whole milk
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons whiskey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1. Melt the butter in a medium-sized saucepan. Add the dark brown sugar and salt, then stir until the sugar is well-moistened.   The sugar should just begin to melt.  Remove from heat.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch with about 1/4 cup (60ml) of the milk until smooth (there should be no visible pills of cornstarch), then whisk in the eggs.

3. Gradually pour the remaining milk into the melted brown sugar, (yes, off the stove flame)  whisking constantly, then whisk in the cornstarch mixture as well.

4. Return the pan to the heat and bring the mixture to a boil, whisking frequently. Once it begins to bubble, reduce the heat to a low simmer and continue to cook for one minute, whisking non-stop, until the pudding thickens to the consistency of hot fudge sauce.

5. Remove from heat and stir in the whiskey and vanilla.

6. Pour into 4-6 serving glasses or custard cups and chill thoroughly, at least four hours, before serving.

What do you do when you’re down to your last egg?  Either cry about it or make Chocolate Pudding with Almond Whipped Cream.  In my case, I did both.

I know this is only a food blog, but I’m sure you all won’t mind if I get something off my chest.  I’m sad.  I’m puffy eyed, in my pajamas all day, looking out the window at the beautiful weekend passing me by- sad.

It’s relationship trouble.  My Mom called it “matters of the heart” which kinda put a smile on my face because she made relationship drama sound so old fashioned.  Moms are good for that.

So, while I understand that this is totally out of place for my humble food blog, I hope you won’t mind me over sharing and asking for advice.  Maybe you can help.

How do you do it?  How do you keep a relationship alive and well?  Tell me your love story because I think I need to hear it.  Is it hard?  Is it perfect?  Is it completely neurotic?

I’m here asking for dime store advice.  How do you make it work?  In return, I have pudding to offer.  It’s a lovely recipe.  Now tell me what you think about love.

And on top of all the love woes, I was down to my last egg.  I could have gone to the grocery store, of course… but some things just seem impossible when you’ve got the blues.

So here’s what to do when you’re down to your last egg, and you need some chocolate comfort in a cup.  It’s perfect.

Chocolate Pudding with Almond Whipped Cream

adapted from Gourmet Magazine

Print this recipe!

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)

2 Tablespoons cornstarch

pinch of salt

2 cups whole milk

1 large egg

4 ounces good semi sweet chocolate, finely chopped

Whisk together sugar, cocoa powder, cornstarch and salt in a 2-quart heavy saucepan, then gradually whisk in the milk.  Bring to a boil, whisking constantly, and boil, whisking, until pudding is thick, 3 to 5 minutes.  Remove from heat.

Immediately beat eggs lightly in a medium heat proof bowl, then very gradually add hot pudding to the egg, whisking constantly.  Whisk in chopped chocolate until smooth.

Pour pudding into ramekins or custard cups and cover surface each with wax paper to prevent a skin from forming.  Refrigerate, covered, until cool, at least 2 hours.

Almond Whipped Cream

3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

3 Tablespoons powdered sugar

2 drops almond extract

Put heavy cream in the bowl of an electric mixer.  Mix on medium speed for about 3 minutes.  Slowly add the powdered sugar and almond extract.  Beat cream until it stiffens and turns to whipped cream.  Dollop on chocolate pudding

]]> http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/2008/07/down-to-my-last-egg/feed/ 61 http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/2008/03/brown-butter-and-cardamom-spiced-sugar-paper-with-cream-and-strawberries/ http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/2008/03/brown-butter-and-cardamom-spiced-sugar-paper-with-cream-and-strawberries/#comments Tue, 04 Mar 2008 06:31:14 +0000 joythebaker http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/archives/40

This dessert was born out of the current circumstance of my life.  Big things are changing for me in the next few months.  While it all feels good and exciting, I have to admit that big change makes me anxious.  You might think that when I get anxious, I bake.  That makes sense, right?  Well I actually clean (a lot!) when I get nervous.  I called this afternoon’s kitchen scrubbing extravaganza “spring cleaning”.  That’s how I justified my nerves.  It is almost spring, after all.

My spring cleaning, in turn, reminded me of strawberries.  I love strawberries, and impatiently await their arrival in April.    Clearly, I couldn’t wait until April.  Once my kitchen sparkled, I went out in search of strawberries, to make my spring themed day more complete.

With the strawberries I created Browned Butter Cardamom Spiced Sugar Paper.  Sugar Paper is just a fancy name for Fillo dough layered with butter and sugar and spice.  This dessert was a wonderful respite to my cleaning frenzy.  With spring comes change.  Somewhere in the cleaning and baking, I began to feel more comfortable with that.

The recipe for the Sugar Paper is super easy and open to chef interpretation.  Here’s what I did.

Brown Butter Cardamom Spiced Sugar Paper

makes 4 sugar papers

Print this recipe!

10-12 fillo dough sheets, cut in half so they measure approximately 6inches x 9 inches

1/2 stick melted butter

1/4 cup granulated sugar

scant 1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom

Place oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Melt butter in a small sauce pan over medium heat.  Once the butter is melted, keep an eye one it, swirling in the pan occasionally.  The butter will begin to brown and little brown bits will form.  When butter colors slightly and you see the brown bits, turn of flame and remove from heat.  Place in a small dish and have a pastry brush on hand.

In another small dish, combine sugar and cardamom and mix until evenly incorporated.

Remove 10-12 fillo dough sheets, cut them in half, and cover them with a moist towel immediately.  They dry out very quickly if left out in the air.  You should have 20-24 sheets.  Wrap up the remaining fillo dough with plastic wrap and place back in the fridge or freezer.

Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.  Place first one or  two sheets of fillo dough on the sprayed baking pan and brush with browned butter, from edge to edge.  Sprinkle with sugar mixture from edge to edge.  Place the next 2 sheets of fillo dough on top of the first layer and brush with butter, then sprinkle with sugar.  Continue stacking, buttering and sugaring all of the fillo pieces, two at a time, creating a stack of layered fillo dough.

Bake  at 375 degrees F for 8 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cook completely on the baking sheet.  When cook, remove from baking sheet and cut into four even pieces.

Assemble fillo pieces as desired-  I chose lightly sweetened whipped cream with sliced strawberries.  Don’t be afraid to play around!

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