cooking @ home

Archive for the ‘Desserts’ Category

©2008 Harry Kenney

How I came up with this dish has an odd little road to it. A couple months ago I had friends coming over for a get together and I had my cooking itineary planned, complete with an Italian dessert. No, not one of my own. I do do other people’s recipes at times too. Sometimes I make so many changes that they end up turning into something different and my own, but this was one of those times I was going to pretty much go along with the recipe I had. (At least that had been the initial plan.)

Listen up, this will teach you the value of reading something first, and all the way through and thoroughly. I was going to make this chocolate ricotta dessert (forget what, maybe was a cake, I seem to think it was going to be one of those custard things in ramekins. I had read the recipe throught and even did the two hour prep (again this was a while back, Iwrote down the recipe, but I didn’t write down this story, so bear with my fuzzy memory.)

The important thing was, I never apparently read to the bottom of the recipe. (There’s a lesson in there for both me and you!) It said now chill for six hours in the fridge. I could scream. I knew the cooking was to take an hour, the prep two hours, but now if I went ahead the stupid dessert wouldn’t be ready for six hours? Damn I was annoyed at myself. And a tad frantic. The plan was dinner was to be served in an hour and a half, and dessert needed to be ready in two. No time to run the market or the bakery. So I rushed up to my computer and started searching for “chocolate” and “ricotta” everywhere, and looking for something that would be servable in two hours. In short I found an Emeril recipe for Italian Easter Pie that met my criteria and looked delicious and set on that.

When I printed it out and took it downstairs though, I did what I hadn’t expected at the time doing … changing things around. I didn’t like this. I liked that. He had a flour pie from scratch. This I could have done as I had two premade pie crusts in the refrigerator. I didn’t like that it was a normal crust. I also didn’t like that it was two, one on bottom, then a second one making it a covered pie. I knew I also had in the cupboard a premade shortbread and another chocolate crust. Hey, nothing like chocolate in the filling and as the crust I thought.

It was after Thanksgiving and I had sweetened dried cranberries lefover. I knew from past experience this would not only go very well with the other ingredients but would give it a totally new dimension. Long story short, by the time I was done, the look and the taste were so very different from the original that this very much became my own version. As said, that was two or three months ago. I didn’t take photos of what I was doing as it wasn’t originally going to be my recipe but someone elses. I did write down my new recipe afterwards, but no photos. Ah well, it was a great pie, and I knew I would do it again and take the pics at that time. Which I just did.

Ok, so this came from a mistake I made misreading the initial recipe. And then changing around Emeril’s. Thing is, when doing my research for this recipe here, the background, it seems another mistake was made by Emeril. I wanted to see what was the deal with this Easter Pie concept. So I looked around the web and the first thing I came across was how this was supposed to be a savory, not a sweet pie, in Italy. Huh? Seems after the old conservative Catholic fasting of meat during Lent, the idea was to make a cheese and meat pie. Ok, that made sense. But still could the big E get this wrong or what? There must be sweet variations too.

More digging around and nope, couldn’t find any. So I went to see if the three most famous Italian chefs in America had versions of this and were they sweet or savory; all three, Mario Batali, Giada De Laurentiis amd Lidia Bastianich, had only savory versions of Easter Pies. Yep, other than Emeril’s there wasn’t a single sweet one to be found anywhere. Hmm. So, no idea where he got the idea from, but, that said, it doesn’t matter. I’m not calling this any kind of holiday pie, I’m just calling this what it is, which is delicious!

Whatever the case then, a big tip of the hat to Chef Lagasse for the inspiration and for “version 1.0″ of this dish. And to you folks, I think you will love this “version 2.0″ emmensly. For now, I’m leaving it with the store bought crust in the recipe but I’ll make a version 2.1 at some point and tell you how to make the pie crust from scratch at some point, til then enjoy. I am 100% once you’ve made this pie, you will make it over and over again as one of your favorites.

Harry’s Chocolate Ricotta Cheese Pie
©2008 Harry Kenney

1 premade 9-inch chocolate pie crust

1-1/2 lbs ricotta cheese, drained well
3/4 cup sugar
5 large eggs
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup shaved almonds
1/2 cup sweetened dried cranberries
1 tsp finely grated orange zest
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
pinch salt

eggwash (one egg and two tbsps water)

Preheat oven to 325°F. Lightly brush eggwash over premade pie shell and place in oven for five minutes. Remove and let cool.

In the bowl of an electric mixer (note I used my handheld for this, but you can use your big stand mixer if you wish), beat the ricotta cheese with the sugar until combined; this should take 3-4 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, approximately another 2 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix in for anoterh 2 minutes. Pour into pie shell.

Place pie on baking sheet (optional). Bake until golden brown, roughly 50 minutes. Let cool on counter for 10 minutes, then place in refrigerator (suggest atop a diviot) and allow to get firm for at minumum 60 minutes, and preferrably 90-120 minutes. Serve. Makes 6-8 slices.

©2008 Harry Kenney

Here’s the second homemade cookie recipe I promised I’d get up to the site that I did over the holidays. Applesauce cookies. Yum! And while this is a good one to eat all year round, it definitely has those fall – winter spices we’ve come to associate with the Holidays. Moms take note: with fruit, nuts and raisins in this it’s no doubt a higher than average nutritional cookie too.

There is one important baking item I want to touch on though, and I should have done this with the butter cookie recipe probably, and that is the whole discussion or school of thought about salted versus unsalted butter in baking and especially cooking recipes. Salted butter, even though most of us don’t taste the salt, is the most commonly found one at markets and convenience stores. And against popular thought, it’s the one I use.

Yes, I’m such a rebel. LMAO! Truth is I often do what’s eaisest. I usually grab the first butter I see in the market and the only butter sold at my convenience store, and that’s the common salted butter. I know, I know, all the chefs and cookbooks say use unsalted butter in baking recipes. Who’s right?

Believe it or not, I’m willing to admit I might be wrong. (Gasp!) Ok, remember I said “might”. Here’s the thing. No one who tasted my apple sauce cookies tasted salt. I also made some rugelah cookies — sorry, you will not see that recipe here any time soon. While they were tasty, something I did wrong with the recipe that I’m still figuring out, they did not come out exactly as rugelah is supposed to be, tasty as they were. When I do figure it out, I’ll put the recipe up then. As the Orson Wells wine commercial of the 70s said “no wine before it’s time”; same with my recipes.

However, of the seven people who had my butter cookies, one out of those seven tasted the salt. Interesting. Not enough to be a perfect survey or accurate barometer by any means, but it does show that some folks, especially in a more “bland” recipe (compared to this one) can taste the salt. Should one use unsalted butter then? Well here’s the opposite thing, upon researching this I’ve found discussions where people (adults and children both) who are so used to the “normal” salted butter they noticed the absense of the salt. Either they realized it was salt that was missing, or — most of them — realized something they couldn’t put their finger on was not present and didn’t like the cookies as much as those with salted butter in them.

Yeah, I know. Can’t please every palette. That’s life.

So what’s the answer? Well, I think it’s fairly obvious. If doing a simple cookie, butter cookie, sugar cookie, with a more “bland” or neutral taste it’s probably wiser to go the extra step and get the unsalted. And what about the rest? Well, I leave that up to you. (You’ll notice in my recipes I usually just say “butter”. In non-baked recipes that leaves it up to you to use margarine. In baking recipes I leave it up to you whether to make it salted or unsalted.)

As for me, I’m probably going to remain “lazy” for now and do what’s convenient — as long as no one complains or if the recipe is not so “blandish”. How much salt is in butter, you might be wondering? It varies from brand to brand, however a supposed average I’ve found repeated in my research indicates about 3/8 of a teaspoon of salt per stick, just under a half teaspoon in other words. Why is it in there in the first place? Apparently as a natural preservative.

That’s it. Class dismissed. It’s time for milk and apple sauce cookies!

Harry’s Applesauce Cookies
©2008 Harry Kenney

1-1/2 sticks butter (12 tbsps)
2-1/2 cups flour (all purpose)
1 cup, packed, brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt (unless using salted butter)
1-1/2 cups applesauce (suggest chunky, natural)
1 cup dark raisins
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground cloves
pinch, ground ginger
3/4 cup shaved almonds (you could use walnuts or other nuts)

Preheat oven to 325°F. Use parchment paper lined cookie sheets (if you don’t have that, then definitely grease them instead.)

In a mixer cream together butter and brown sugar. Add egg. Add applesauce. Add trest of the dry powedered ingredients. Add nuts and raisins at the end.

Place on parchment-lined sheets in one to two tablespoon sized drops. (See photos) Space about two inches apart from each other. Depending upon your oven it should take 10-14 minutes. Look for the slighest browning on the edge and do not hesitate to gingerly lift one cookie up with a metal spatula and check underneath. Makes about four dozen.

I said previously that I had made some cookies during the Christmas holidays but had forgotten to get them up here. Well here’s the first of two cookie recipes. This is one of those classic, basic cookies. The butter cookie.

Now there’s a variety of things you can do with butter cookie dough. This particular recipe is (mainly — you’ll see what I mean at the end) for use with a cookie press or cookie “gun”. If you’re a woman you probably say press. If you’re a guy, you probably call it a gun.

A versatile batter, you can also make butter cookies by rolling them out then using cookie cutters, forming them into logs, cutting them into slices and shaping them into balls (hint, keep reading). In the past I’ve had weird success with cookies, burning the easy ones, and making excellent complicated cookies (such as biscotti).

I can’t candidly tell you why because I’m not certain what I did wrong exactly. I can tell you that my four years of cooking experience since has either given me the experience or the intuition or the “something” that I had only one or two miscalulations this time. Which is actually good because I can warn you what to be aware of as well as share a tip or two.

My first tip is avoid the bottom rack. You see, we all think our oven is even. We’ve cooked roasts and casseroles and maybe even pies and cakes, and it seems even. Until you get to the cookie. Cookie batter is hyper-sensitive. Where you think there’s no difference between front and back, left and right, top or bottom of the oven, you will learn quickly there is.

The bottom rack will always mess up your cookies. Now, some people subscribe to the notion — and I know Alton Brown is one of them — that you do a “Chinese firedrill” (my words, not his) by at the half way point, taking the bottom cookie sheets and moving them to the top, any pointing right and front to turn left and back and that this assures heating. This one I don’t seem to be capable of mastering — hey if it works for you, awesome! Since it doesn’t for me, I’m confined to the two sheets at a time insted of four method.

Which reminds me of my one mistake this year and my big tip. Oddly the first batch in I used both racks. I also forgot to try the fire drill thing. I caught the bottom in time though, and took them out only slightly overly browned. Good enough for me not to serve to guests but I could eat them fine. The second batch on the top actually did burn. This purplexed me how the ones that came out fine the first time burned the second time. I realized the cookie sheet I had had in the bottom helped deflect the burn. So the third batch I put two sheets on the top and one large empty baking sheet on the bottom rack. Perfect cookies.

Another thing, I’ve seen a lot of recipes that say make the shapes and chill them. I’m sorry. I’m a normal person. More than that, I’m a person who not only cooks but cooks a lot. My refrigerator is in an almost constant state of being too full to keep sheet after cookie sheet inside them to chill. To make it worse, I have a side-by-side refrigerator. (Hey it’s the one I have and it works, I’m not about to spring for a new one to fit in cooking sheets.) I’m betting most of you have the exact same problem. So, chilling shapes? Nice idea in a perfect world. But that’s not my world so it’s not done by me.

Ah one more thing. After a bunch of cookies, it seemed my cookie gun got tired. In other words, it got clogged, I couldn’t unclog it without having to take it a part. I got inpatient and I had only a bit of batter left. So the last batch I spread out, put some dried cranberries on top, mushed them in, made them into balls and cooked two minutes longer than the rest for a totally different treat. (Told you if you read to the end you’d get rewarded. There, two recipes in one.)

One final thing. This isn’t my recipe. That is, I got it off the Internet from a location that had general recipes and no one’s name attached to this. Mind you, I did make a modification or two from the original and the Great Law of Cooking says I could therefore call these mine. But since this recipe is generally so basic and generic, and my modifications so small, let’s just leave it that way. So I’m leaving my copyright off this puppy.

Butterflies or butter cookies … let them be free!

Homemade Butter Cookies

1 cup and three tbsps (19 tbsps) butter
2-1/2 cups flour (all purpose)
1-1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1 tsps cream of tartar
salt, a pinch (unless using salted butter)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat to 375°F. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix wet ingredients seperately in the mixing bowl. Turn on mixer to beat or medium for a few minutes. Turn mixer to low. Slowly add dry ingredients a bit at a time. Mix a few more minutes. Take the bowl to the counter and start filling up your cooking press or gun and go to work.

This batter works nicely on ungreased cookie sheets. I suggest doing two at a time on the top rack and placing an empty cookie sheet on the bottom rack. Depending upon your oven it should take 6-9 minutes. Look for the slighest browning on the edge and do not hesitate to gingerly lift one cookie up with a metal spatula and check underneath. Makes roughly 100 cookies.

For a variation: Skip the cookie gun, instead take some dough, add some dried cranberries — sweetened ones are the best — and mix into dough and form tablespoon-sized balls or ovals. For these add two minutes cooking time but even more careful of not over-browning the bottoms.

©2008 Harry Kenney

If you enjoyed my very recent Chocolate-Raspberry Lava Cake recipe, then you are going to love this “makeover” or redeaux as well. Remember the original lava cake was made as a mistake. And this dish came about when I messed up my lava cake. So much for the saying two wrongs don’t make a right!

Think of it almost as a crunchy chocolate pudding “slash” cake. Obviously since it never leaves the dish it can’t “lava” out like the original. And as you see the cracking on top in the photo, you see why I had to call this chocolate cave-in cake.

I wanted to make something special for when my brother came over. And he has one of those intestinal things where you can’t eat little seeds. And I ran out of my original jar of raspberry jam and when I reached for the spare I had in the cupboard, turns out I’d mistakenly purchased preserves containing seeds (mistake one). That meant no raspberry sauce so I switched to orange, and instead of sauce, whipped cream.

Mistake two came when I forgot to grease my ramekins. Ooops! But wow what a delicious mistake! Plus, this recipe is even doubly fool-proof then the other one. Since you don’t have to take it out of the ramekin, even less chance to mess anything up. And yet, lip-smacking good. My bro’s girlfriend thought it was going to be as rich and dark and too sweet as a death by chocolate cake, and was surprised how it had just the right amount of sweetness but not that overpowering kind.

Btw, as always, when a recipe calls for an orange liqueur as this one, I say use Triple Sec instead of Grand Marnier because they’re the same taste, but the former costs about 10 times less while the second has a better marketing name and bigger price tag. Period.

By the way, did I mention this version has 2.5 to 3 times the amount of liquid chocolate inside?

Chocolate-Orange Cave-In Cake
©2008 Harry Kenney

6 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
6 oz butter
5-6 oz milk chocolate (or semisweet) chocolate chips
3 tbsps orange liqueur

1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 eggs
2 egg yokes
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt

Orange Whipped Cream
©2008 Harry Kenney

1 pint heavy cream
3 tbsps sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
6 tbsps orange liqueur

Note: This recipe is based on 6 oz. ramekin size.

Preheat oven to 350. Mix eggs and yokes and sugar together and cream. Over double-boiler melt bittersweet chocolate with butter. Slowly pour into beating mixture. Add flour, sugar, salt, vanilla and orange liqueur until well mixed.

With six ramekins (not greased) placed on top of baking sheet, fill the ramekins 2/3s to 3/4s of the way with cake mixture. Place about an ounce of chocolate chips (10-15 chips) into the middle of each and let sink. Pour rest of cake mixture on top. Place in oven for 22-28 minutes until see good cracking on top and firm around the sides.

Take ingredients for whipped cream and place in mixer (or use hand beater), adding orange liqueur half way through.

When cakes are done, let cool a few minutes. Top each cake with orange whipped cream and serve in ramekin with spoon. Don’t forget since you’re serving it in the cup itself, clean the cup off first before giving it to your guests. Makes six servings.

Lava cake, aka molton cake, aka volcano cake (hmm, I sense a theme here) … whatever you want to call it, it’s fun and delicious, rich though lighter than you would expect — a chocloholic’s dream. Women want it and want to run away from it at the same time (because they want it, you see.) Kids love it, so do guys. What’s not to love about a miniature chocolate cake that oozes out even more liquid chocolatey goodness when you cut in to it?

There seems to be two basic ways to make this cake. The way that’s most difficult (patterned on the original “mistake cake”) that can easily fail, and the way that guarantee’s success every time. Being one of these crazy people who actually expects things to behave the way they are supposed to be — you know, purchasing a watch with the expectation it tells time, a refrigerator that stays cold, crazy things like that — my version falls into the latter category.

Ah, but first. A quickie history lesson. Where did this delight come from? In America, at least, many agree it was chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten in 1987 when he was head chef at the Lafayette in NYC. Apparently, “he pulled a classic chocolate pain biscuit (sponge cake) from the oven too soon and it had a runny, but very delicious center” says Arthur Schwartz recounting the tale. Other’s such as chef Jacques Torres say the dish already existed in Europe.

That out of the way, I mentioned there’s two ways to make this, by that I mean there are probably hundreds of recipes but that they all fall into one of two groups. The first is similiar to that made by Vongerichten, where you have to time the cake perfectly within a 30 second window and not be several degrees higher or lower or you end up firming the center. To which I politiely laugh my head off at.

The second class is that which mine falls into wherein you need not be a chef skilled in the arts nor a nuclear scientist or have the so-called perfect oven. In short, there is a greater “mess it up” tolerance. Oh, you can still mess this up. I know this because I did it this time even. Fortunately another four minutes back in the oven cured it. (Two things: Do look at the photos at the very bottom to see the proper “doneness” to look for, and secondly, if I can still mess this up — and recover though — imagine how one could mess up the other class of recipes where there is no recovery from!) Not only that, mine is microwave reheatable. You see, this second class or style rests on simple common sense. Rather than partially bake something so the center remains liquid — ensure a liquid center.

Quick tip. Make more than you need. For one thing, you’ll love the “leftovers” the next day, for another, having one or two to “test” and make sure they’re where they should be (in terms of doneness) is a good idea if you’re serving guests. You yourself won’t mind eating up any mess over ones; they’ll taste just as yummy. And this way you can assure they will turn out. Again, with this recipe, you can just put them back in another four minutes or so if you’ve misjudged at all.

And of course, rarely one to leave a good thing alone without taking it up another, um, level … I had to add raspberry sauce. Both on top and on the inside. So it’s not just a chocolate lava flow, but it’s a raspberry chocolate lava flow. Simple to make. Easy to give away as a sorta food gift (though yes, I always want my ramekin back.) I don’t know if it’s possible to use muffin or cupcake pans, because how will you manage to get each out without it falling apart. Try to find individual throw-away muffin tins or minicake things. Really though, it’s worth it to get some ramekins if you can.

That said, this recipe is easy to reheat. And you are going to impress your family and guests immeasurably. Enjoy these outstanding little bites of pure decadence!

   Left: Not quite done. Right: Properly done.   

Chocolate-Raspberry Lava Cake
©2007 Harry Kenney

6 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
6 oz butter
2 oz semisweet chocolate chips

1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 eggs
2 egg yokes
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
confectioner’s sugar (for dusting)

Raspberry Sauce

8 tbsps raspberry seedless jam
1 tbsp lemon juice (optional)
2 tbsp southern comfort (or same amt. orange juice)

Note: This recipe is based on 6 oz. ramekin size.

Preheat oven to 350. Mix eggs and yokes and sugar together and cream. Over double-boiler melt bittersweet chocolate with butter. Slowly pour into beating mixture. Add flour, sugar, salt, and vanilla until well mixed. In sauce pan mix together ingredients for raspberry sauce.

With six ramekins, greased with butter, placed on top of baking sheet, fill the ramekins 2/3s to 3/4s of the way with cake mixture. Place 5 or 6 chocolate chips into the middle of each and sink. Pour teaspoon of raspberry sauce on top of chips, keeping to exact middle as possible. Leave a minute and let sink. Pour rest of cake mixture on top. Place in oven for 15-20 minutes until sides look firm and middle looks soft. (see photos).

When done, let cool about 3-5 minutes. Lightly go down edges with sharp thin knife, then turn over onto plate. Pat bottom gentely and let fall out upside down on to plate. Top each cake with one tablespoon of remaining raspberry sauce. Dust liberally with powdered sugar and serve hot/warm. Makes six servings.

You might recall I mentioned before that one of my earliest “dishes” I ever made was simply baking some chicken breasts in the oven and five minutes before they done pouring creamy Italian dressing over them. It was simple and delicious. Well, if that was the first-ever dish I made back in my teens. Then this one here would no doubt be my second one. And likewise is both super simple and delicious. And as you see, one that stood the test of time and that I still make today.

You’ll also see one of the key components in this is liquor. Yes, I do love my liquor — when cooking. Why? It’s an ingredient. It’s very flavorful. Remember extracts, vanilla extract and the rest also come from liquor, and they are likewise very potent tastes, that is,they pack a lot of flavor in a very small, concentrated amount.

So, you’re going to ask me what’s the children’s version of this? Or you might be wondering can you give this to children? In which case you’re probably actually asking one of the most-asked questions when it comes to cooking with alcochol: how much actually stays in the dish and how much is actually burnt off? While prevailing wisdom and tales handed down throughout the years say most of the liquor is cooked off immediately, it turns out that’s somewhere between an old wife’s tale and an urban myth.

Here then, from the USDA, are the actual facts on alcohol or liquor burn off during cooking:

Ok, so back to one of the first questions, can I give this to children? Your call. What does your family do? In Europe, and we Americans often think first of France and Italy, children drink wine and such while quite young and it’s socially-acceptable. Here in “the States” in the past generation such things have been considered a no-no. Although (and I say this with no proof, pun intended) that there’s a more calming down of late as this is not the worse thing in the world, in other words, I think it’s becoming slowy more socially-acceptable. But then in private in the home with family such things always were more accepted. The upshot (no pun this time) is it’s a family thing dependent upon house to house, family to family. So I leave it up to you.

And finally to the last question: Substitutions for liquor in this particular dish? And, as writing compresses time, it’s taken me a while to think up something. For the very reason I said, alcohol like extract packs a ton of flavor in a small amount of volume. I’m thinking you could try nectar. Hit the Spanish section of your supermarket and grab one of the fruit nectars in a can made by Goya. That would probably be the best. Juice? Juice is so watered down. If you have a can of apricots, the syrup would work better than juice (and less than nectar or liquor). All I can say is two things, if you really must, and secondly, taste it for yourself and see if it works. I’m guessing it’s passable as a children’s topping with juice, maybe Maybe a teaspoon of corn syrup and juice. It needs something not only for flavor it needs something to give it body.

Let’s go with nectar first. Juice or syrup combined with a small amount (teaspoon, maybe) of corn syrup is probably second. That said, I’ve never tried it either of those ways and since I’m not America’s Test Kitchen I probably won’t. Let me know, seriously, how either or both of those works out. And if you’ve come up with a different or better substitute.

Hot Apple Topping over Ice Cream
©2007 Harry Kenney

1 apple, peeled, sliced into thin chunks
butter
1/4 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup Apricot brandy (or peach schnapps or apple schnapps)
   (non-alcoholic substitutes: nectar, syrup or juice plus tsp corn syrup)
ice cream, preferrably vanilla

Into a small sauce pan on medium heat place in butter, let it melt and add apple slices. Turn and cook until softened. Add sugar and cinnamon. Cook a bit longer. Remove pan away from heat, add in liquor, place pan back on heat another minute or so. When apples are softened but not limp, and there’s a thin sauce, it’s done. Spoon atop ice cream and serve immediately before ice cream melts. Makes two servings.

Whew! The last three recipes were each a bit complicated and time-consuming in terms of preparation and cooking … got to do plenty of interesting cooking things though: turned a slab of beef into steaks, pounded meat thin, made a meat stuffing, created a custard in a pot, made a ganache, took a squash apart, made a puree with the food processor, oven-roasted vegetables, got to cook some chorizo…

Time then to switch things up and do something quick and a bit more whimsical. So for today, it’s pizza for kids. Yes, I know, kids like any kind of pizza; but that said, they’ll like these even more. Moreover, you don’t have to have kids, these are definitely pizzas for the kids in us all!

Before diving in, be sure to check out my previous pizza foray, where I made the more convention Pepperoni Pizza as well as a Ham and Pineapple one. There are more basic tips in that one. Think of this as a continuation. As said, last time was somewhat more traditional. This time, I went and let my inner child run wild, hmm, maybe even a tad amok. hehe

And this is one of the best things about doing pizza at home: you can create pizzas you will not find at your average around-the-corner, down-the-street pizzaria. One element I kept running up against doing this — can’t recall if I complained about this in my other recipe or not — but that was that my dough wants to basically stay round, and my baking sheets are rectangular. What happened each time then, in my personal experience, was I would end up with one large rectangular pizza and one smaller rectangular one. You see I had to go the width of the baking sheets and that would have made too doughy a pizza. Following the outline or dimensions of the sheets though made for thin, crispy crusts. While nothing wrong with that, I do personally like a bit of more medium dough. I’d also like to make a “real” round pizza too.

So, realizing I am definitely going to make more of these in the future, I went out and got a round pizza pan. I measured my oven first to ensure I could get the largest that fit, and found a 16″ would do it. Next stop at K-Mart and I grabbed one for about 10 bucks. So I’m looking forward to — if not tossing it in the air — at least letting my dough make a nice big round one. If you follow my recipes and get some ideas of my philosophy when cooking I tend to like to go zen and let my food tell me what it wants. (Asparagus tells you where to cut it; frying pans tell you when you can have your browning meat…) Since pizza dough wants to stay round,

Ok, the cheeseburger pizza is fairly explanatory. Actually, so is this particular dessert pizza too. However, just so you can get into the mood of it, let me say all you have to do is think what would each particular ingredient be for a dessert pizza as compared to a standard pizza? Mozarella cheese … then you need a sweet cheese … ricotta or perhaps a mascapone if you can get a hold of some. Ok, what replaces the pizza sauce? At first you go “huh”, and then you start getting into the swing of things and go “ah, jelly!”. Ok, pepperoni or whatever topping becomes some kind of fruit. Garlic powder? Maybe it becomes cinnamon. Basil? Maybe (or not) it becomes sprigs of mint. Maybe jimmies. Who knows? You tell me.

Play with it, think it out, give whatever comes to mind a try. Now you’re getting the idea. So let that inner kid go run wild — better yet, do it with your children — have some fun, and enjoy!

Cheeseburger Pizza
©2007 Harry Kenney

pizza dough
tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce with meat works nicely
shredded mozzarella
American cheese
ground beef
ketchup

salt
pepper
garlic powder
dried oregano
dried basil

Too many variables (plus this is supposed to be fun) to list actual amounts. Just go free-for-all.

Make dough into pizza form you want. Place sauce on dough and spread with tablespoon or larger spoon. Don’t over do it. Spread some mozzarella, light, not as much as a regular pizza. Rip slices of American cheese and place on top. In frying pan, pinch off pieces of ground meat, make small, larger than a pea, smaller than a lima bean. Pinch, roll between thumb and forefinger, place in pan and cook. Do not overcook, keep moist, this is going to cook further on the pizza remember. Add tiny bits of American cheese on top a minute before done. Place atop pizza. Add spices to taste. Squirt small streaks of ketchup here and there. 350°F for 14-16 minutes.

Peach Ricotta Dessert Pizza
©2007 Harry Kenney

pizza dough
can of peach halves
Ricotta cheese
Apricot preserves
cinnamon

Make dough into pizza form you want. Spread out ricotta cheese, then preserves, put on peach halves, dust with cinnamon. This cooks a bit faster than a traditional meat pizza. Keep and eye on it. 350°F for 10-12 minutes.

Sometimes you just want to have it all. And sometimes you can — especially when you’re cooking. And in this case, baking. How this recipe came along was simple: I had a couple of bananas, I wanted to use them to make some kind of sweet desert, preferrably something baked and I wanted it to include chocolate.

While it’s true with this basis there’s a hundred things I could choose to do, the first thing that popped to mind was maybe a banana cream pie. Graham cracker crust, chocolate pudding (some folks do vanilla), sliced bananas and whipped cream. Yummy but way too easy. No challenge in it.

Then I thought about the Boston Cream Pie, which is actually a cake, but done in a pie pan. (No I have no idea why.). I checked out some recipes. Spongy vanilla cake, custard filling, chocolate, but nope, no bananas. I then said to myself: what the heck, there’s bananas in it now.

Looking around for inspiration and to see how others did it, I found a ton of recipes that called for plain old chocolate icing, the kind you get out of a can. Even made fresh, those recipes with photographs showed one sloppy affair. Where was the kind of topping I recall when I’ve had this in a diner or a restaurant long ago? And then I found one at last. The topping was a ganache. Yes, that looked correct.

Later when I traced the original recipe as having come from the Parker House Hotel in Boston about 150 years ago, it too said the icing should be a ganache. Why all of those slopping and boring “plain icing” recipes around? No idea. But hey, if I was going to mess with a classic, it was going to be the classic version I was going to mess with.

Btw, I had to do this recipe twice. That is, the cake twice. You see, I’ve baked before, but I am not a baker. Cook, yeah. And I think one darned good one. Baker though? I’ve said it before, cooking is an art, baking is a science. While it seems the second is easier, it isn’t, it’s quite unforgiving at times if you make a mistake.

To make a long story short, for those of you (who are like me) not experienced bakers: Do not let anything “foreign” get into your egg whites or they will not turn as they should. I had some batter on my beaters and couldn’t get a soft peak after 20 minutes. I knew I did something wrong, but instead I put it in the mix and baked it. Disaster. I should have know to toss it, and start over with two new egg whites. So that’s today’s tip for you.

In the end this turned out very well. Two bananas. One went into the pastry filling. The other one got split, half in with the cake mix, the other half sliced thinly and added in between layers. You see this desert is basically three elements, none of which I’d ever “played” with before … basically it’s a sponge cake, a custard and the ganache. I’ve made cakes from scratch before but not a sponge. Puddings before but never a custard. And first time for the ganache.

Toughest part of the recipe? Cutting the thin cake layer in half. And other than to tell you to use a long serrated bread cutting knife, I have no tips to tell you how to not go awry and to make a perfect half. Just do your best and it will work out. Remember if I can do it, you can too.

Quick note: As Thanksgiving is nearing, yes, this would make a nice and different desert for your guests to enjoy!

  

Banana Boston Cream Pie
©2007 Harry Kenney

cake:

1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted, along with 1/4 tsp cornstarch
(or 1 cup plus 2 tbsps cake flour, sifted)
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 banana, mashed
1 1/2 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup cooking oil
2 egg yolks
1 tsps vanilla
2 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

filling

2 cups whole milk
1 tbsp vanilla
6 egg yolks
2/3 granulated sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 banana, mashed
plus 1 banana, sliced thin

ganache:

8 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup heavy cream, boiling

Pastry filling needs to be made first as it needs to set, then cake, then ganache icing.

Filling: In a medium saucepan heat milk and vanilla, bring to boil over medium heat. In a bowl, whisk egg yolks and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Add cornstarch and whisk vigorously until there are no longer any lumps. Whisk in a small amount (1/5) of hot milk into mix to temper the eggs. Once well mixed, take bowl mixture and pour all of it back into the saucepan with the hot milk mixture. Mix and cook over medium-high heat, whisking constantly until it is thickened and slowly boiling. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter. Let cool slightly, then place in bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, lightly pressing the plastic against the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Chill at 2-3 hours or until ready to serve. (The custard filling can be made up to 24 hours in advance. Must be refrigerated a minimum of 1 hour before using.)

Cake: About an hour after making the filling, start to make the cake. Doing it this way assures both will be ready at about the same time for assembly. In a large mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture. Add milk, oil, egg yolks, mashed banana and vanilla extract. Beat with electric mixer on low to medium speed until combined. Beat an additional three minutes on high speed and set aside. Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a small to medium mixing bowl, beat eggs whites and cream of tartar together. If you are using the same mixer, you must clean the beaters before doing this, else the whites will not set. Set mixer on medium to high speed until achieving soft peaks. Pour egg white mixtures into egg yolks mixture, folding it in. Pour the batter into a greased 9-inch pie pan. Bake 30-35 minutes or until golden and testing with a toothpick shows it is cooked inside. Place on a wire rack and cook.

When cake is cooled. Slice across to make two layers. Let cool further.

Ganache: In a medium bowl, pour the boiling cream over the chopped chocolate and stir until melted.

Assembly: Place bottom layer on plate. Atop put all of the custard filling. Atop filling place thinly sliced bananas. Place top layer on. Pour warm ganache completely over top, let some spill down the sides. Store in refrigerator at least one hour prior to cutting.

First let me direct you to my recipe on Fruit and Cream Cheese Triangles as that covered a lot of the basics found in this recipe here. In fact, this recipe is in many ways a continuation or the next step after those delicious little triangles.

Using the same amount of puff pastry dough that made the nine triangles, one sheet, I was this time able to more simply create four large turnovers. Since I’ve never really played with puff pastry dough prior to these two outings, I saw no sense in making the filling from scratch, as I was more interested in getting the pastry correct and learning from what I was doing.

Speaking of which, I found with the nine mini tarts that 350°F for 16-18 minutes worked best. No doubt because they were larger and each individual item has a lot more filling, 375°F for 22-25 minutes turned out to be the time for the apple turnovers.

With that in mind, I “copped out” and used a can of apple pie filling I had gotten from the market on a previous outing. That said, I also “upped the ante” a tad by deciding I would make frosting for the maybe the second time in a decade. So, for me, a second learning experience with the dough and basically a newer one with the simple icing.

Btw, although I do have an icing bag that comes with the variable nibs to make designs, I decided to do “the old plastic baggie trick” for you (see photograph) just to show this easily can be done without all the fancy “equipment”. That means you can do it too!

What can I tell you, this was so easy and delicious it tasted like I bought them at my local bakery shop. And there, where they cost three bucks a piece, I’m sure I spent considerably less with my ingredients, and they tasted as good — if not better — afterall I was able to eat mine 10 minutes after out of the oven.

  

Apple Turnovers
©2007 Harry Kenney

1 sheet puffed pastry
1/2 can of apple pie filling
1/4 cup of raisins
1/4 cup of golden raisins
1 tsp of lemon juice
egg wash

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Take one puffed pastry sheet, slice into four squares. Take filling above, mix and place as much as can hold into the squares, roughly three or four tablespoons. Fold one corner over to the opposite corner creating a triangle or “turnover”.

Brush egg wash along the two sides, press together, then use a fork on the edges to further press sides together and to make that nice ribbed design along the two sides. Also make two sets of steam holes in the top.

Place on cookie sheet with parchment paper on top. Greasing or flouring can work, but it will not work as well as the parchment paper will. Cook until brown about 22-25 minutes. When cooled, put on royal icing. (Recipe below)

Royal Icing

2 egg whites
2 cups confectioners sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Place all ingredients in bowl and beat on medium high for a full 10 minutes. Icing will become thick and glossy. Keep covered with damp cloth while using, removing small portions to bowl as needed. Fill a Ziplock or other plastic baggie. Move contents to corner of bag, using scissors, carefully snip a small — repeat, small — area of the corner. Gently squeeze the icing to and fro across the top of each tart to make wavy pattern.

Good news, it worked. Bad news, you’re going to have a lot of icing left to figure out what to do with. (I’d cut in half or quarter it but then how do you get 1/16th of vanilla extract?) So I suggest save in the refrigerator a few days and find something else to make and use up the icing on.

No sense delving into the difference between a trifle and a parfait as I have already done that previously when I made the Pear Parfait. Another thing, these really are pretty easy to make and can come in such a variety of combinations.

Since the last time when I did the Pear Parfait, I did go out and get an actual trifle bowl with several small desert dishes. I knew I had a big party coming up and in an effort to make it a bit easier with all the dishes I was making, I figured, correctly, a trifle would make for a low-effort but big-wow-factor ending to the meal.

Quick aside: When your having a party, you know you want to pull out all the stops. At the same time, you keep hoping or planning to make things so that you can enjoy your party yourself a bit. So making a trifle is a nice way to take some of the difficulty out of it

I did glean a tip or two from this though which, natch, I’ll share with you. First, you want to make sure things don’t “fall” as much as possible between the layers, so I definitely let the pudding set as opposed to making it and putting it right in. Next, things will fall. Whipped cream especially, both inside from the weight atop it, and even on the top of the trifle, just because that’s the nature of whipped cream. Don’t feel bad is the tip. It happens. When, as with the pudding, you can do something toward controlling it, do so. And when you can’t control it, as with the whipped cream, don’t fluster over it.

The other tip here I can offer is. Well, I made a mistake in not realizing just how big this bowl was. I had never used it before, it was new, and I hadn’t had anything like this previously, so when it came to things I badly misjudged at times. I had plenty of pound cake. I had plenty of whipped cream. I might have, had I known the pudding would fill up a single layer, in retrospect purchased a second one and been able to make another layer. Though it worked fine with the one.

It was with the berries that I had woefully under estimated. Even when I “stole” more from a second package, I basically ended up with half of what I truly needed. So what’s a cook to do? Creative “fudging”. For the middle layer, I placed the berries on the outside so folks could see them through the trifle dish, and on the inside “core” of maybe a six inch circle I added more pound cake and whipped cream to the middle.

To account for the shortage, on the top of the trifle I did the opposite, putting the rest all in the middle, and then surrounding the outside “ring” of the cake with tons of whipped cream. In short, it looked like two full layers of berries, but if you had x-ray vision, you would have seen and outer ring in the middle, and the short center on top. hehe Yes, I’m evil I guess. Naw, seriously, sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do. Now that I know, next time I’ll definitely buy double and do it right. In the recipe below I take account those two errors and give the “better” recipe.

Lemon Berry Trifle
©2007 Harry Kenney

ingredients:

2 pkgs instant lemon pudding
2 pkgs frozen mixed berries
1 spray can extra-creamy whipped cream
1 pound cake, cubed
triple sec
mint sprigs for garnish
sugar

Make the lemon pudding per directions and place in refrigerator for at least one hour to set up more firmly. Take a package of mixed berries — usually strawberries, blackberries, raspberries and blueberries — defrost. Taste; these are usually tart, but taste first. Mascerate with sugar as needed to achieve the level of sweetness desired.

Place 1/2 the pound cake cubes and place at bottom of trifle bowl. Add some triple sec on top lightly. Add half the pudding. Then half the berries. Then a third to a half of the whipped cream. Repeat. At this point you’re at the top of your trifle, and mix up as needed to decorate it. Use your imagination.

You might make this immediately before serving. Chances are you’ll make this a few hours ahead and serve it after folks have eaten the main meal, so yes, place in refrigerate and cover top lightly with plastic wrap. When you take it out, the layers will have settled downward. Don’t let fret over it. Save extra whipped cream to add to top immediately before serving. Maybe add some fresh mint sprigs for garnish. Again, your imagination. This can make anywhere from 18 to 24 servings.

For some time now I’ve been wanting to try my hand at baking. Ok, let me go back a bit. I don’t mean baking from scratch. I’m also not talking the other extreme of baking from a 100% premade box of Pillsbury or Duncan Hines or whatever. Somewhere in between.

You see, I already know from making cakes from a mix, that I’m bad at it. They taste good, but they look homemade. Ok, they look worse than homemade. Maybe it’s the frosting part that I don’t have down. I just know my cakes of the past tend to look something like that Salvador Dali painting where the watches are melted on tree limbs. When it comes to cookies from scratch things get weirder still. The easiest recipe I will botch totally. The more difficult cookie recipes come out fantastic. But I digress.

I wanted to “play” with doughs, that’s what I’ve been trying to say. Phillo, and puff, and pizza dough, and make my own raviolis (from premade sheets) and likewise my own fried dumplings or potstickers. For some reason, where I live, the supermarkets here don’t carry much of this. After going to five different markets I finally found one that carries pizza dough — as you saw in my recipe here — and another that carries puff pastry. Looks like the ravioli and wonton wrappers I’ll be making myself from scratch, and the philo dough is going to have to await my next trip into Center City Philly when I can get to a higher-scale food store.

In any event, after much searching I found frozen premade puff pastry. And, as usual — after a look at the basic directions and a couple of example recipes on the box — I proceed to totally ignore everything and went at it my own way. I always like a “get the lay of the land then walk somewhere” approach to my cooking. Especially if I’ve never done anything like it before. Let me understand the basics and a nuance or two, now dive in, get my hands into it and see what happens. If things go badly wrong, I’ll stop and do more basic research; if things go slightly wrong, that’s part of the game. And natch if things go great, that’s part of the game too — you just end up getting a high score for a newbie.

With that in mind, some jelly and some cream cheese in the fridge I went to work. In the next recipe you’ll see the progression. Meanwhile enjoy this one.

Fruit and Cream Cheese Triangles
©2007 Harry Kenney

ingredients:

One puffed pastry sheet
Strawberry preserves
Apricot preserves
Cream cheese
Egg and water for wash
Confectioners (powdered) sugar

Toss some flour on the cutting board or surface you’re using very lightly. Using a pizza cutter, slice the dough into nine squares, and then slice each square diagonally so you end up with 18 triangles.

Give two triangles a little egg wash. In one triangle place a teaspoon of preserves, atop it, a teaspoon of cream cheese. Take the second triangle, slightly pull it on all sides so it becomes wider than the first one, place atop to form the second side. Press down on the edges and with a fork crimp (notch) down all the sides. Put the fork lightly though the top of each mintart to create a hole for steam to escape from.

In an oven preheated to 350°F put the nine triangles on a cookie sheet preferably covered with parchment paper. Bake for 16-18 minutes until golden brown. Cover with confectioner’s sugar while still warm.

What is the difference between a parfait and a trifle? Well, first, this is actually a British trifle as they contain lady fingers, where as the American version, one thinks more of ice cream. Nowadays they are fairly interchangable words. That having been said though, one can still easily a web forum full of people arguing strongly as to which one it really was. Myself, I always like to go with the an alliteration when given the choice.

What is this then? It’s a multi-layered desert in a glass. Note: A trifle can be done directly in the glass, but is often done in a (you guessed it) trifle bowl, and then put into glasses. The idea as you see is two-fold. First, the repeated mention of glass is an easy clue that this is a desert to be as much relished by the eyes as it is by the tongue.

There is, I find (as I always seem to, being new to writing recipes though not to cooking) is giving accurate instructions when everything is different. This could be done in the trifle dish and then moved over to the glass. But even if done directly, not every glass container is the same. Not even remotely. Different volumes, different (internal) heights, different top widths and diameters. Sizes like Mut and Jeff, like Laurel and Hardy. Trying to figure out “exacting” directions. I’d say, near impossible. With that in mind, I’m tossing completely out the concept and going with rough and approximate guesstimates. (If you can live with that, you’re obviously a baker. Pass on to another recipe.)

Obviously since we’re using liqueur this is an “adult dessert”. But don’t fret, I’ve included the children’s version at the end.

I just quickly wanted to say what inspired me for this. Obviously I’d seen several parfait and trifle recipes recently. Then I looked around the house at my canned fruits, some peaches, apricots, pears and pineapple. Pear I though, what a wonderfully odd fruit. Compared to the others mentioned, not the first choice in a dessert as the others seem, somehow more robust in flavor.

At that point of course, now I just had to come up with something for the pears. Creme de cocoa maybe? Chocolate’s always a winner, but then I thought what it’s usually paired up with, raspberry, orange, and the rest. Again, strong flavors when compare to the pear. So I thought light, and up came Kahlua. Ok, pear and coffee, odd, but it should work. What else?

So then I began thinking of contrasting flavors but given how light this was heading, any contrasting would end up overpowering the rest of the flaovrs. Think complimentary tastes then. When I spied the bag of shaved almonds on my shelf, I was immediately sold. The flavor would lend itself naturally with the others, and yet the slight crunch would be a excellent contrast in textures. Yes, I thought, this is going to be a winner.

One thing, yes the tastes are light, but it is definitely a sweet desert. Try to avoid the natural tendency to really soak the fingers in the Kahlua. I’ve made this twice now, and the one where I had a “lighter touch” was better. In short, you can go overboard with the Kahlua quite easily.

Needlesstosay, something like this is great for getting children to have a “sundae” style desert containing no ice cream and still getting them to eat some delicious fruit.

Pear Parfait (Trifle)
©2007 Harry Kenney

ingredients:

Ladyfingers
Canned pears (though we won’t be using the syrup)
Kahlua liqueur
Whipped cream
Shaved almonds

How much of what varies too much upon shapes and sizes of dessert glass (and even more so if you’re using an actual trifle dish and then spooning it out after) — so wing it. As some sort of guide though, a dozen lady fingers and a 29 oz can of pears will serve about four. (Or, depending, maybe five, six tops.)

Roll ladyfingers on the side in a shallow plate or bowl of Khalua. You want to get the edges covered, not the insides, so you want the liquid to come up to only maybe 1/4 of the size of height of sideways ladyfinger. This means you leave a bit of crunch in the middle. Remember, not too long at all, in, roll, cover all sides, out. These are very much edible sponges.

Depending on your container, place the ladyfinger in the bottom. Smaller bowl or width, break in half. For a thinner, more vertical glass, break into three or four pieces. This is a layered dessert and it’s all going to be scrunched and destroyed with the spoon while eating, so don’t worry about this.

Add a couple shaved almonds and a small dollip of whipped cream in the middle here. Remember, small. (Also remember we’re doing this only on the bottom, and not to do this on the next layer.) Ok, next layer put in some pears. Break those in half or more with your tablespoon as needed to fit that glass.

Next layer, whipped cream. Now we do it all again the same way. Ladyfingers rolled in the Khaula, broken to fit (no dabs of whipped cream and almonds here, again, none). Top with a layer of cut pears. We should be near or at the top now, however much you’ve put in.

At the top, heavily cover with whipped cream. Take some of the Khalua remaining in the dish (pour more if needed) and put two or three tables spoons of it over and down the whipped cream. Sprinkle generously with shaved almonds. Voila.

Extra punch version: You could even go further with this by making the whipped cream yourself using heavy cream, a bit of powdered sugar, a dash of vanilla extrac, and toss in a few shots of Ameretta. More almondy and definitely more “punch”. And, as for a total 180, there’s the … Kid’s version: Substitute the Kahalua with chocolate syrup or perhaps caramel syrup. Leave or remove the almonds as you see fit. (Some kids love nuts and chocolate, some can’t stand nuts.) The almonds can certainly be replaced with anything from raisins, to minced marachino cherries, to little chunks of fresh banana. Be creative.