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Archive for the ‘Desserts’ Category

Pumpkin Custard

Posted in Comfort Food, Desserts, Entertaining at Home, Puddings and Custards, Recipes, tagged , , , , on October 19, 2012| 1 Comment »

Captain Cavedweller loves custard and I love pumpkin so the other day I decided to see what would happen if I combined the two.

Good things happened. Very good things.

This recipe comes together quickly and is so easy (and yummy).

Enjoy!

Ingredients

 

Mix pumpkin, eggs, cream, sugar and spice.

You need 1/2 inch of boiling water in a baking dish. You can pour it in or, if you are lazy like me, nuke the pan and water in the microwave.

 

Pour custard into 8-ounce cups sitting in the boiling water.

 

While the custard is baking, mix up topping. Melt butter.

Add sugar and vanilla and mix well.

 

Drizzle on top of custard that has baked about 20 minutes (or until tops are set).

 

Remove from oven when a knife inserted in the center comes out clean (about 40-50 minutes total).

Garnish with whipped cream and cinnamon! Yum!

 

Pumpkin Custard

1 can (15 ounces)  pumpkin

2 eggs

1 cup heavy cream

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1-1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

1/2 teaspoon salt

Topping

1/4 cup turbinado (raw) sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon butter, melted

Whipped cream and ground cinnamon, optional
Preheat oven to 350.

Beat eggs lightly then add in pumpkin, cream, sugar and spice.

Pour into 8-ounce custard cups set in a baking dish with 1/2 inch of boiling water. I boil the water right in the dish in the microwave, but you can also put the cups in the pan, fill them, then pour in water around them. The point is that you want the cups to be setting in 1/2 inch of boiling water while they bake.

Once the custard is in the oven, bake about 20 minutes, until the tops are set, then drizzle on topping.

To make the topping, melt butter, stir in vanilla, sugar. This gives the custard an almost brulée taste and texture.

Continue baking another 20-30 minutes until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove from oven and let cool.

Top with whipped cream dusted with cinnamon (if you so desire, which I greatly did) and devour!

She Who Must Get Over Her Pumpkin Obsession

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Pumpkin Bundt Cake with Cream Cheese Filling

Posted in Cake, Desserts, Entertaining Ideas, Recipes, tagged , , , , , on October 12, 2012| 7 Comments »

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I have been on a complete and total pumpkin kick lately. My taste buds are fairly obsessed with thoughts of pumpkin treats.

The other day I needed to make a dessert to take to a gathering and wanted to make a bundt cake (because they are so easy and always so moist and good). Looking for some recipes, I ended up taking the best of three and combining them into a cream-cheese filled pumpkin spice bundt cake. Boy, was that a tasty decision!

This cake comes together quickly and easily and is so, so yummy!

Ingredients

Mix the batter.

Spoon half into a greased bundt pan.

Mix the filling.

Spoon on top of batter in pan. Then top with the remaining batter.
Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes or until top of the cake bounces bake when you poke it with your finger.

Let cool then remove from pan and invert on a serving platter.

Look at that delicious cream cheese filling!

Are your taste buds dancing in excitement! Enjoy!

Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake

1 pkg. spice cake mix
1 sm. can pumpkin
1 sm. pkg. instant cheesecake pudding
1/2 c. oil
3 eggs
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. water

Filling

1  pkg. cream cheese, softened

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a bundt cake pan.

In a large mixing bowl combine cake mix, oil, eggs, pudding, pumpkin, water and cinnamon. Beat on low speed until ingredients are moist then on medium speed until well blended.

Pour half the batter into the bundt pan.

In a mixing bowl, combine cream cheese, egg, sugar and vanilla. Beat until smooth and creamy. Pour on top of cake batter in pan.

Top with remaining cake batter and bake about 45 minutes until top of cake bounces back to your touch and edges begin to pull away from the pan.

Let cool then invert onto a serving platter.

To serve, you can dust with powdered sugar, drizzle on a caramel sauce or add a dollop of cinnamon laced whipped cream. Or you can be a freak like me and add a drizzle of chocolate followed by whipped cream!

She Who Is Currently Obsessed with Pumpkin

 

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Chocolate Pavlova

Posted in Desserts, Entertaining Ideas, Holiday Recipes, Recipes, tagged , , , , , on September 21, 2012| 4 Comments »

A while back I was off gallivanting with two of my cousins who have a myriad of food allergies. Even more than me!

I wanted to bring a fun dessert along, but was trying to find something they both could eat.

Settling on a scrumptious-sounding meringue recipe I found on foodnetwork.com, I emailed the ingredient list to the girls and got a green-flag that they both could eat it.

Although the dessert did not transport well (could have been the way some one haphazardly tossed it in the car) it tasted really, really good. So good, I made it for my book club friends the other night, to their rave reviews.

This isn’t hard to make, just takes a little time, but will leave your guests impressed! I promise!

And for those of you who like tidbits of odd information, Pavlova is named after the Russian ballet dancer Anna Pavlova. The dessert is believed to have been created in honor of the dancer either during or after one of her tours to Australia and New Zealand in the 1920s.

Ingredients

Start by whipping egg whites until stiff peaks form.

Add sugar, a little at a time and mix until the egg whites look like smooth satin.

Add cocoa powder and vinegar, followed by the chopped chocolate.

Fold in gently with a spatula until well blended.

Spoon onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake at 300 for about an hour.

The pavlova is done when the top looks dry and crisp, but the inside is still squishy.

Cool completely in the oven, slice and serve with freshly whipped cream and berries.

Chocolate Pavlova

6 large egg whites

2 cups superfine sugar

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted

1 teaspoon balsamic or red wine vinegar

2 ounces dark chocolate, finely chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment. Trace a 9-inch round circle (use a cake pan) on the parchment then flip over so the pencil mark doesn’t touch the meringue.

Beat the egg whites with a mixer until satiny peaks form. Beat  in the sugar, a spoonful at a time, until the meringue is stiff and shiny.  Sprinkle the cocoa, vinegar and chopped chocolate over the egg whites. Gently fold everything with a rubber spatula until the cocoa is thoroughly mixed in.

Mound the meringue onto the parchment within the circle, smoothing the sides and the top with a spatula. Try to get it as even as possible. Place baking sheet in the oven then turn the temp down to 300 degrees and bake for an hour or so. When the pavlova is done, the top should look crisp and dry but the inside should give a little (be a little squishy) if you poke it.

Turn off the oven, crack the door  and let the chocolate meringue disk cool completely in the oven. When you’re ready to serve, invert onto a platter and peel off the parchment. I loaded ours up with whipped cream and fresh raspberries.

That was an excellent choice and our tastebuds rejoiced.

She Who Loves Chocolate and Raspberries

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Doughnuts

Posted in Breakfast, Desserts, Recipes, tagged , , , on September 7, 2012| Leave a Comment »

I found a recipe on Pinterest the other day for Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Since these are a particular favorite of Captain Cavedweller, I decided to give them a whirl.

Oh. My. Gracious.

While they did not taste exactly like Krispy Kreme’s, they were the best homemade raised doughnuts I’ve ever had. CC agreed as he ate his sixth one.

These weren’t hard to make, but they do take about three hours from start to finish. I tweaked the recipe just a bit, so here it is:

 

Ingredients

 

Scald milk then let cool. While it is cooling, add yeast packets to warm water in mixing bowl.

 

Mix ingredients together on low speed until blended, then high for two minutes.

Once dough is mixed, cover and let rise until double, about an hour.

 

Turn dough out on floured surface. Handle as little as possible.

 

Roll dough out about 1/2 inch thick. Again, try to handle as little as possible. I could tell the doughnuts I made from the dough that I rolled out a second time from the excess after I cut the first group. They were a little tougher. Less handling = softer doughnuts.

 

If you have a doughnut cutter, go to town cutting them out. If you don’t a glass or biscuit cutter will work.

 

If you don’t have a doughnut cutter, you’ll have to get creative in cutting out the holes in the center. A Wilton cake decorating coupler worked perfect.

 

Cover doughnuts and let raise until double (about 45 minutes).

 

When doughnuts have raised, carefully slide into hot oil. Cook until golden brown (about 30 seconds or so on each side).

 

Dip doughnuts into glaze after draining.

Let rest on rack until glaze is set and they are cool enough to eat (but still warm!).

 

Enjoy! And try not to eat as many as we did!

 

Raised Doughnuts

2 packets yeast

1/4 cup warm water

1 1/2 cups milk

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp. salt

2 eggs

1/3 cup shortening

5 cups flour

oil

Glaze

1/3 cup butter

2 cups powdered sugar

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

4-6 tbsp. hot water

Scald milk and then cool.

Dissolve yeast in warm water in a large mixing bowl. Add in milk, sugar, salt, eggs, shortening and two cups of the flour. Mix on low speed until blended, scraping the bowl frequently. Once all the ingredients are combined, mix on high speed for two minutes.

Stir in remaining flour until well blended.

Cover and let rise until double (about an hour).

On a floured surface, very gently roll out the dough until about 1/2 inch thick. Handle the dough as little as possible. Cut with a doughnut cutter (if you don’t have one, any circular object like a glass will work. I used a Wilton cake decorating coupler to cut out the centers.)

Cover and let rise until double (about 45 minutes).

Heat oil in a deep fryer or heavy-duty pan until it reaches 350 degrees.  Slide doughnuts into hot oil very carefully. Cook until golden brown. I may have had my oil entirely too hot, but it was taken about 30 seconds per side. You can watch the inside of the doughnut hole and when it starts to turn brown, flip the doughnut over.

Remove carefully from oil when brown and drain.

Dip warm doughnuts on the glaze then set on a rack to cool slightly before devouring way too many!

To make the glaze, melt butter, stir in vanilla and powdered sugar then add enough hot water, one spoon at a time to reach desired consistency. It should be fairly thin. I placed the doughnuts right in the bowl of glaze, flipped them over to coat both sides then moved to the rack to finish cooling.

Makes approximately 24.

I may never make these again since CC and I couldn’t leave them alone when they were fresh and hot. They weren’t that good the next day, so make sure you consume them all right away!

She Who Likes Doughnuts Way Too Much

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