Split Level Pudding (TWD)

I'm back... after a month long haitus, I ready to get my blogging mojo on! September was an action-packed month for me, with various mini-vacations, classes and time with friends and family. Where do I begin...

- The hubs and I decided to do a series of mini-trips instead of one long vacation. The hubs attended a week long conference in Vegas at the Bellagio, so of course I had to tag along. Pool, spa, gambling, shopping, and tasty dining was on the agenda --- this girl definitely enjoys her time in Vegas, baby! We then trekked down south to San Diego to visit friends (thanks Lisa & Howie for your oustanding hospitality), then finished the road trip at the St. Regis Monarch Beach in Dana Point.

- The SIL and her boyfriend were kind enough fly in from Jersey to house and puppy sit for us, and we were fortunate to spend time together before and after the trip...thanks Mel & Tom...you guys are welcome anytime!!!

- I started a 10 week digital photography course at UCLA. The more I learn, the more I realize how much I DON'T about using my camera! My classmates are great and our instructor, George, has great passion for his art and his enthusiasm is infectious. I'm not sure that you'll see an improvement in my photos, but at least I'll know how the camera gear works!

- We capped the month with a trip up to Pismo Beach for the wedding of our dear friends, Teresa & Jim. I've been really gun-shy about sharing this... I had the priviledge of making their wedding cake and cupcakes. This was the first time I baked at this scale, and the experience was fun, exciting, and anxiety-filled! Once I get my hands on some pictures, I'll definitely share them with you.

Anyways, I'm happy to get back in the rhythm of blogging...

This weeks Tuesdays With Dorie recipe, Split Level Pudding, was a perfect way to ease back into my baking routine. Simple and comforting, this recipe consists of a chocolate ganache base topped with a rich vanilla pudding. To be just a little decadent, I used vanilla bean paste instead of extract. I love seeing those beautiful vanilla specks in the pudding:

Dorie's recipe calls for the use of a food processor. Although it can get messy tranferring the mixture back and forth from the saucepan to the processor, you are rewarded with a pudding that has a wonderfully silky smooth texture. This technique was previously used with her chocolate pudding recipe, and I was blown away by the results.

Once you dig into the silky smooth vanilla pudding, you get a wonderful chocolate surprise:

The base is a soft chocolate ganache, and I ended up using a delicious Baileys chocolate ganache leftover from the wedding cake/cupcakes.

You can find the complete recipe at Garrett's blog, Flavor of Vanilla. Also make sure to visit the TWD blogroll to see more delicious versions of this pudding.

Four-Star Chocolate Bread Pudding (TWD)

This week's Tuesdays With Dorie recipe, Four Star Bread Pudding, is one of the more un-photogenic desserts that I've made (I hesitate to tell you what I think this really looks like). Still, don't judge a book by it's cover, as this dessert tastes WAY better than it looks.

This recipe takes the traditional bread pudding and elevates the richness (and deliciousness) with the addition of bittersweet chocolate to the rich custard mix.

I downsized and made 1/3 of the recipe recipe, which yielded enough for 3 individual ramekins. I used Trader Joe's Cinnamon Swirl Bread (if you haven't tried this, it is AMAZING for french toast or plain ole cinnamon toast) and tossed in a small handful of dried tart cherries. Going with the cherry theme, I added 1 tbsp of kirsch to the custard mixture. Cherries and chocolate - you can't go wrong with that combination.

With the individual ramekins, it only required 20 minutes in the oven in a hot water bath for the custard to set. Once the individual puddings are allowed to rest and cool slightly, I poured creme anglaise on top and let the creamy goodness seep into the still warm pudding. At this point, I'm at the caloric point of no return with all of the cream, eggs and sugar, so a little more fat from the creme anglaise won't hurt, would it?

If you're seriously jonesin' for chocolate, this dessert should satisfy that craving. I thought the pudding had a better consistency when eaten warm (at room temp, the pudding had a funky rubbery texture). My favorite part of the dessert was the dried cherries, as the tartness helped to balance out the richness of the dessert.

Thanks to Lauren of Upper East Side Chronicle for selecting this ultimate comfort food. For the recipe, please visit Lauren's blog or you can find it at Leite's Culinaria. To feast your eyes on more bread puddings, make sure to check out the TWD blogroll.

Arborio Rice Pudding - Chocolate & Chai (TWD)

Rice pudding is on the menu for this week’s Tuesdays With Dorie. I was looking forward to making this recipe, selected by Isabelle of Les gourmandises d’Isa. Rice pudding is the epitome of comfort food, and for me it is best eaten when curled up on the couch with my favorite blanket and catching up on TIVO (Top Chef, House, Grey’s Anatomy marathon, anyone?).

The recipe itself is pretty simple and straightforward. I noted a couple of major differences between this recipe and others that I’ve tried: (1) parboiling the rice first and (2) no eggs. I decided to follow the recipe as written too see how things would turn out. For flavor, I added a cinnamon stick (broken in two) to the mixture.

Dorie Greenspan personally reached out to the TWD group to highlight a correction on the recipe, which is to cook the pudding for 45-55 minutes (not the 30 minutes noted in the book). Even after cooking over a low heat for one hour, the pudding mixture barely thickened (could I have parboiled for too long, stripping the starch out of the rice?).

After taking the pudding off the stove, I divided the pudding into two containers and flavored one with 2 oz bittersweet chocolate (it melted into the still hot pudding beautifully) and the other with vanilla extract and chai spices (cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, ginger).

The chocolate version thickened nicely overnight. I couldn’t say the same for the chai version as it was still watery and soupy (blech!). I ended up reheating that portion, tempered in one egg and cooked it for a few minutes, allowing the mixture to thicken. After re-cooling and refrigerating, I finally got the thick, creamy texture that I was looking for.

Taste-wise, I thought that both versions were quite delicious. I was particularly really happy with the chocolate version, as for whatever reason chocolate in rice pudding didn’t really excite me.

I liked the simplicity of this recipe (and would make a mental note to temper in two eggs for the full recipe), but I don’t think this will trump my go-to rice pudding recipe. For the recipe, please check out Isabelle’s charming site. To see rice pudding by the hundreds, check out the TWD blogroll.

Creme Brulee (TWD)

I don't know of a single soul who doesn't swoon over creme brulee, do you? I was really happy that Mari of Mevrouw Cupcake selected this FABULOUS dessert for this week's Tuesdays With Dorie. To elaborate further, let me say that I was happy...my DH was really over-the-moon happy about this week's selection. You see, creme brulee is one of his all time favorite desserts, and he made sure that I didn't slack off this week.

For those of you who are debating the purchase of a kitchen torch, I would absolutely recommend it. I purchased this torch apparatus and canned butane at Surfas a couple years ago (cost of the torch attachment ~$20, butane ~$3). Honestly, I've never regretted this purchase, as I've definitely put this tool to good use. The torch attachment easily screws on the butane can, and this apparatus delivers a pretty powerful flame:

Anyways, I digress...back to the creme brulee. The literal translation of this is "burnt cream", and creme brulee is essentially a flavored custard topped with a hard caramel.

You can infuse a variety of flavors to the custard (vanilla, chocolate, coffee, chai ---just to name a few). Vanilla is my favorite flavor for this dessert. I prefer using vanilla beans in recipes that call for its flavor to come center stage, so I made one adjustment to the ingredients, omitting the vanilla extract and instead adding the beans and scraped pods of two vanilla beans to the heated cream. I covered the pot and let the cream and vanilla steep for 1 hour before continuing with the recipe.

Dorie Greenspan's technique is a bit different that what I'm used to doing in the following ways:

- baking at a low temperature (200F) for a longer time period (~ 1 hour). I bake at a temperature of 300F and a baking period of 20-25 minutes.
- no water bath --- you place the ramekins straight on a baking sheet. I typically use a water bath or place a well soaked towel underneath the ramekins before they go in the oven.

I was definitely interested in trying Dorie's technique, so I followed her approach. I found that this technique resulted with a really silky smooth and surprisingly light custard. I did find that my custards took longer to set (1 hr 15 min), but I used larger ramekins (only used 4 ramekins) which may be the explanation.

Overall, I was really pleased with the results! Although this requires a longer baking time, I'm definitely going to adopt this technique going forward...Thank you Dorie!!!

The perfect accompaniment to creme brulee - assorted berries (blackberries and raspberries pictured here):

My favorite part of eating creme brulee is the first spoonful --- cracking into the burnt sugar crust, giving way to a rich creamy custard:

The combination of crunchy and creamy is heavenly! Here, you can see the vanilla beans distributed throughout the custard:

What a gratifying recipe selection this week...Thank you Mari! If you'd like the recipe, you can find it at Mari's lovely site. To see how all my fellow TWD bakers fared check out the blogroll.

Chocolate Pudding (TWD)

As a little kid, I remembered how excited I got when I discovered a snack-pak chocolate pudding in my lunch. That little can (I think I just dated myself) was worth it's weight in gold on the playground, and I could trade that for almost anything in the other kids' lunch bags...most of the time, I kept it for myself and savored every bite (okay, I didn't know any better back then)!

I chuckle about these memories, with chocolate pudding as this week's Tuesday's With Dorie recipe. Selected by Melissa of It's Melissa's Kitchen, this simple and delicious dessert is often overshadowed by other "fancy" desserts. Until just a couple of years ago, I never knew how easy and delicious homemade pudding can be, and far superior to the packaged instant stuff.

The ingredient list for this recipe is short and simple, and you definitely want to use the best cocoa you can find (I used Scharffen Berger), as that flavor will be center stage in this dessert. Unique to this recipe is the technique. A food processor is used twice, first to temper the eggs with the hot milk and then at the end to whip the pudding once it is cooked. Dorie Greenspan states that this technique will give the pudding a smooth velvety texture...let's see if it does make a difference...

Once refrigerated and set, I topped the pudding with vanilla whipped cream and broken bits of a Flake Chocolate Bar. If you haven't had a Flake before, you must run out and try one...the sweet milk chocolate literally melts in your mouth as you eat these!!! I am digressing... Let's go ahead and dig in...
OMG...this pudding was light yet creamy, and it delivered a deep rich chocolate flavor!!! It definitely delivered on both counts of taste and texture. A very dangerous dessert indeed!

My only minor gripe about this recipe is the use of the food processor, as it requires one more thing to clean up. Also the transferring the mixture back and forth from the saucepan and processor could pose a messy proposition. Still, the results are worth the effort.

This luscious pudding was served with a couple of shortbread cookies. Click here if you are interested in reading about these delish cookies.
This recipe, and more importantly the technique is a keeper!! Dorie Greenspan has written about her pudding on her blog, and the link to the recipe is here. To see how the rest of the Tuesday's With Dorie gang fared with this dessert, check out the blogroll.