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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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Shake and Bake

Posted in Comfort Food, Main Dish, Recipes, tagged , , , on September 14, 2012| Leave a Comment »

The other day I decided to see what would happen if I made by own “shake n bake” mixture for some pork.

Turns out it happened to be a pretty tasty idea.

It was simple to make (honestly, it didn’t take much more time than digging out the pre-packaged stuff I normally use and was way better).

Captain Cavedweller declared it “edible” which interprets to better than average and pretty darn good.

Ingredients

 

Dump your seasonings into a resealable bag and give it a good shake, then stick in your meat and coat thoroughly.

 

 

Place in a foil-lined pan and bake at 425 about 15 minutes or until done. (Baking time will vary depending on the thickness of your meat cuts).

Yum!

Shake and Bake

1/2 cup Panko Crumbs

1 tsp. pork rub

1 tbsp. all-purpose seasoning

1/2 tsp. coarse salt

3 pork chops

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Mix seasonings, crumbs and salt in a resealable bag. Shake until blended. Add in pork chops, one at a time to coat. Shake well then place on foil-lined pan. (The foil is because I’m lazy and don’t want to scrub the pan later).

Bake for 15-20 minutes until meat is cooked to temp and coating is brown.

You can also use this coating on chicken.

She Who Will Need to Make This Again Soon

 

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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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Watermelon Butterflies

Posted in Appetizers, Easy Recipes, Fast Recipes, Recipes, tagged , , , on August 31, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Today’s recipe is so simple your  preschooler could make it.

Wait, maybe they should. It would be a lot of fun for them.

 

 

Ingredients

 

Start by slicing your melon into 1/2 inch thick slices.

 

Press a sturdy cookie cutter into the melon, going all the way through.

 

Isn’t this fun?

 

 

 

 

Watermelon and Feta Butterflies

Watermelon

Feta Cheese

Balsamic Vinegar
Slice watermelon into 1/2 thick slices. Using a sturdy cookie cutter, push it through and cut out shapes. Place on a plate, sprinkle with feta cheese and drizzle with vinegar.

Eat, indulge and enjoy!

She Who Loves Watermelon… and Feta… and balsamic vinegar

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