Birthday Recipes

I wanted to do some cooking while we were at Sea Ranch.  I like to cook but cooking dinner from the fridge after work with limited time and energy is different than planning a recipe, having an open-ended time frame and nothing else to do!

We made a batch of macaroni and cheese from The Mac + Cheese Cookbook that Rem got for Christmas and it was good but I didn’t make the best choice in the cheeses I bought.  The cheese I picked out was pretty mild and the overall dish was rich and creamy but fairly bland.  But good, as my dad used to say!  We’ll try it another time with different cheese and maybe some other tweaks.

This Sunset magazine was in the magazine bin and when I saw the recipe for Dutch Baby, that was my choice for my birthday breakfast.  It is baked in the oven and should puff up rather dramatically, but our smaller version didn’t get that puffy.  It was very good and I’ll try it again in a different baking vessel, perhaps a round pie plate.  I didn’t add sugar to the batter but I suggest you do if you try it and I’ll add it when I make it again.  I looked at several other recipes and some had sugar in the batter.  I’ve added it to the ingredient list.

Dutch Baby

Adapted from Sunset Magazine

Note: This is for a 2-3 qt. baking dish, ours was 2 quart – Sunset suggests a shallow, oven-proof pan, no more than 3 inches tall – see recipe link for a larger version.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter

3 eggs

3/4 cup milk

3/4 flour

2 tablespoons sugar

Toppings:

Powdered sugar, lemon wedges, honey, and fruit as desired.

Directions:

Pull out oven rack(s) so only lowest rack remains. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Put butter in 2 to 3 quart baking dish (see note, above) and set in oven to melt.

While butter is melting, mix batter.  Put eggs in a blender or food processor and whirl on high speed for 1 minute.

With motor running, slowly add first the milk.  Then, still slowly, add the flour and the sugar.

Continue to process for 30 seconds. (If you don’t have a blender or food processor, you can mix the batter in a bowl, beating eggs until blended and frothy; gradually beating in the milk, flour and sugar.)

Remove the baking dish from the oven, the butter should be melted by now, pour in the batter and return pan to oven.

Bake until puffy and well browned, about 20 to 25 minutes.

Dust pancake with powdered sugar.  Cut into wedges and serve with lemon wedges, more powdered sugar, fruit such as blueberries and a drizzle of honey.

I expect to try this dish again and will post if I create a more puffy pancake.  It really was a delicious treat with a side of apple sausage and some beautiful blueberries on top.

For dinner I concocted something that was good but a little quirky and not really quite what I had in mind.  I don’t have a recipe because I was throwing it together. Rem had enjoyed ravioli for our anniversary dinner and I thought we could make giant ravioli using won ton wrappers or skins, like my niece Miriam used when she was on The Sam Livecast cooking contest.

The filling was a combination of pork sausage (I would have picked plain ground pork if the grocery store carried it), minced fresh ginger, finely chopped cilantro, green onion and arugula and some soy sauce.  It ended up being fairly salty (we had a little leftover filling and I made some small meatballs that we cooked up and ate), but with the pasta, it wasn’t too much.

Each ravioli was made with two won ton skins and sealed with egg white.  We made them in the afternoon and lay them out on baking sheets covered in foil sprayed with non-stick spray. I put them in the refrigerator until we were ready to cook them.

For the sauce (this is really where I got off base), I sauteed some diced vegetables (onion, carrot, celery and fennel) until they were nice and caramelized, then added some red wine and cooked it until it was reduced by about half.  I strained out the vegetables and wasn’t really delighted by the resulting sauce.  I ended up adding some brown sugar and some soy sauce and made it into a terriyaki-type sauce.  It was pretty tasty but didn’t work that well with the pasta of the ravioli/won tons.

I also roasted butternut squash, carrots, onion and fennel and Rem sauteed kale.  We boiled salted water to cook the giant ravioli about 5 or 6 at a time, each took about 5 minutes to cook, maybe a little less.  I drizzled the sauce over the won ton and the roast vegetables, and added a spoonful of the diced veggies I’d strained out of the sauce to the kale.  Green onions garnished the won ton.

I had some leftover won ton for my lunch.  A few splashes of soy sauce and toasted sesame oil were delicious and exactly the right sauce for the dish.  I’ll look up more recipes using reduced wine sauces and see if I can come up with a better combo for future kitchen adventures

The biggest success of the day was dessert.  I thought about different things I might make: chocolate souffle and chocolate lava cake were two ideas that came to mind.  But for the two of us in super-relaxed Sea Ranch mode, I wanted something more simple.

Back to the Sunset Magazine 25 Best-Ever Recipes article. This one looked pretty wonderful: Coffee Sundaes with Salted Peanut Butter Caramel.  I love coffee ice cream and I don’t have it very often.  When we have ice cream at home we almost always get vanilla because we both like it.  But for my birthday I decided I wanted coffee ice cream!

The recipe in the printed magazine had a side-bar recipe for caramel sauce.  The online recipe has you start with purchased caramel sauce.  But I did a little searching on the Sunset Magazine site and found the caramel sauce that is the starting point for the Salted Peanut Butter Caramel.  They call it DIY Caramel Sauce.

Since I came home, I’ve looked at quite a few other caramel sauce recipes online and there are many to read. In fact, I’ve made another caramel sauce that is different than the one I used for this sundae and it is also wonderful.  But it makes a thicker sauce and since our end result includes peanut butter, it is better to start with a thinner sauce.

That said, when I make it again, I think I will try it with a little less heavy cream because it was a pretty thin sauce. Thin but good. This is the recipe, from Sunset Magazine.  You may want to try it with 3/4 of a cup whipping cream.

DIY Caramel Sauce

Ingredients:

2/3 cup sugar

3 tablespoons butter

1 cup whipping cream

Directions:

Put sugar and butter in a heavy saucepan and cook over high heat, stirring until is has an amber hue, 2 to 4 minutes.

Slowly stir in whipping cream.  It will bubble up.  Cook, stirring until it boils.

My mixture was somewhat separated and I noticed some of the caramelized sugar and butter mixture wasn’t emulsifying with the cream to form a cohesive sauce, but was in hard lumps.  I was able to get most of the lumps out with cooking and stirring, pressing lumps with the back of a wooden spoon.  I ended up pouring the sauce through a fine mesh strainer to remove a few lumps that didn’t seem like they were going to come out.

Keep leftover sauce in the refrigerator. (If you are anything like me, you won’t have leftovers for long).

Let the caramel sauce cool,  and then go on to transform it into the luscious sundae topping.  Actually, let me be very clear: it is luscious and sundae-worthy as is.  But if you like peanut butter, you will probably want to go all the way with this recipe.

Coffee Sundae with Peanut Butter Caramel Sauce

Adapted from Sunset Magazine

Note: The original recipe is called “Salted Peanut Butter Caramel;” I tasted the sauce before adding salt and didn’t think it would benefit from a teaspoon of salt.  However, if I’d been at home, I would have sprinkled on a few flakes of Maldon or other sea salt over the sundae (before the whipped cream).

Ingredients:

2/3 cup caramel sauce (homemade from recipe, above, or good-quality store bought)

1/3 cup chunky old-fashioned peanut butter

1 pint coffee ice cream

1 cup sweetened whipped cream

1/4 cup salted, roasted peanuts

Optional: A pinch of Maldon or other sea salt

Directions:

Heat caramel sauce in a small saucepan over medium heat until sauce is warm but not boiling.

Stir in peanut butter until incorporated.

Scoop 1/2 cup of ice cream into each bowl.

Top with 1/4 quarter cup peanut butter caramel sauce, a sprinkling of sea salt flakes (if desired), 1/4 cup whipped cream,  and 1 tbsp. peanuts.

This combination of flavors and textures had me scraping the bottom of the bowl.  I had a second (smaller) sundae the next day after lunch.  We were heading home and the coffee ice cream wasn’t coming with us.  Before the end of Birthday Month, I’ll buy another pint and make another batch of Peanut Butter Caramel Sauce.

Thanks for your visit.

Ideas for Valentine’s Projects: Revisiting Previous Posts

I know some of you have been reading my blog from the earliest posts (and I am so pleased and tickled that you do).  But other readers have only started reading more recently, so may have missed these older posts with great projects for Valentine’s Day.  Click on the highlighted links to go to the specific posts.  Even if you saw them when I first posted them, they’re worth another visit.

The Alphabet Valentine  isn’t too sugary or flowery. You will need a set of alphabet rubber stamps.

The Doodle Heart Background would make a wonderful Valentine.  Write a sweet love note for your Valentine and surround it with doodled hearts.

Chocolate is always a winner and a  Brownie In A Mug  (or two) would be a nice Valentine treat to share.

The Paper-Strip-Heart Valentine is beautiful and much easier than it looks.

You could make a beautiful card using the Vegetable Printed Paper technique.

A small Embossed Tin would be a lovely way to present a small gift or a love note.  Or both.

If you want a more elaborate Valentine, the Tri-Shutter-Card is it. You can embellish this design as much as you want.

Honey-Vanilla Ice Cream with Caramel Sauce is a decadent and delicious combination and a sweet treat for your honey on Valentine’s Day.

If you want to make a bunch of Valentine’s, the Masterboard Valentine Tag is a good way to go.

To finish up how about another chocolate recipe?  Chocolate is dear to my heart and these Mocha Guinness Cupcakes are a wonderful balance of rich, earthy chocolate/beer cake, filled with luscious semi-sweet chocolate ganache and topped with mocha buttercream. Delicious!

I am creating more Valentine’s projects for this year: stay tuned!

Thanks for the visit.

Day 30 (at last!): Honey Vanilla Ice Cream with Caramel Sauce

It’s over.  It’s all gone. Hallelujah!  Am I talking about 30 Days of Creativity or the amazing honey vanilla ice cream with decadent, dark, buttery caramel sauce?  Since I still have more ice cream and sauce to enjoy tomorrow I’ll tell you, it isn’t that.  I have to admit that I’m glad to be at the end of the 30 Days project.

But let’s talk about my project for today, my final creative offering for the month.  When I assisted with a cooking class, the teacher, Tom Hudgens taught us to start with dessert because he said no matter what might go wrong with dinner, if you have a great dessert, that’s what you’re guests will remember.  You want to be sure and get dessert made before you worry about the rest of the meal. Likewise, I wanted to have a sweet finish to what has ultimately been a sweet experience.

That seemed like a pretty straightforward idea but this has been one of my most frustrating projects!  One of those that seemed to go wrong at every turn. My original idea was to make a really good vanilla ice cream, a really good caramel sauce and swirl the sauce into the ice cream. I also wanted a crunchy add-in and considered pretzels, peanuts, and toasted almonds before deciding on crushed waffle cone bits. That is how this has become a “Do as I say, not as I do” post.   Don’t stir crushed waffle cones into your nice ice cream.  They just become soggy bits and do nothing to improve the pairing.  And please disregard the bits in the pictures.  I love my readers, but it’s Day 30 and I don’t have the time (or energy) to whip up another batch of ice cream.

Luckily I started on the caramel sauce last night because the first batch seized up and had to be thrown away.  I’m sorry, I didn’t capture any photos of it but you’ll have to take my word that it was a mess. When you get to the point that the sugar is melted and caramelized, you don’t have time to look for the measuring cup.  It will continue to cook and can quickly go from done to burned.

I read a few more caramel recipes and notes about making caramel and this morning I tried again.  YAY!  It worked and boy, is it good.  I mean this is why we go to Jazzercise!  So we can enjoy the occasional dish of homemade honey vanilla ice cream drizzled with caramel sauce.

But Rem some people don’t like caramel sauce, finding it too dark and bitter.  We agree to disagree on this because I think it tastes wonderful, especially with this ice cream – the two seem to become greater together than they are individually. Anyway, back to Rem.  If he doesn’t like caramel sauce that means more for me!  All is not lost if you are not a fan of caramel.  Just make the honey vanilla ice cream (which is pretty incredible by itself) and have it on a cone.

Or in a dish.  Both are good. But remember, don’t stir in any crushed waffle cones.  Best to eat the cones as they were designed to be eaten: not crushed into the ice cream but with ice cream in them.

This is a custard-style ice cream with egg yolks in it.  Many ice creams have more heavy cream in them but this is icy yet the cornstarch keeps it creamy, letting the honey-vanilla flavors shine.

Honey Vanilla Ice Cream

Adapted from The Commonsense Kitchen Cookbook by Tom Hudgens

Ingredients:

1/3 cup sugar

1 Tbsp. cornstarch

3 1/4 cups half and half

2 Tbsp honey

pinch salt

1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped out

4 egg yolks

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Mix sugar and cornstarch together in medium sized heavy saucepan until there are no lumps. Pour in half and half, and add the honey, salt and the seeds and pod of the split vanilla bean. Slowly bring to a simmer over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until foamy on top and steaming.

Whisk the egg yolks in a small bowl.  Very slowly whisk in about 1 cup of the hot half and half mixture, then slowly whisk this mixture back into the saucepan of hot half and half.  Cook for 1 to 2 minutes more over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until steaming hot and slightly thickened.

Remove from the heat and let cool, continue to stir frequently for about 5 minutes.  Remove vanilla bean pod and discard.  Let cool to room temperature.  Stir in the vanilla extract and chill thoroughly, preferably overnight.  Freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturers instructions.  Serve immediately, while still soft and creamy or pack the ice cream into a container, put in the freezer, and let it freeze hard.

My first try at caramel sauce ended in disaster.  In the version I tried both cream and butter were added with the cream going in first.  Well, the volume of cold  heavy cream going into the super hot pan of molten, melted sugar ended up causing the whole thing to seize and stay separate instead of blending into the decadent dessert I imagined.

When I compared several caramel sauce recipes one thing I noticed was most added the butter first and then the cream, and one also suggested warming the cream before melting the sugar.  This should prevent the problem I had with my first batch.  The other important tip is to have everything ready to go when you reach to point to add them, so you want your butter and cream measured and ready.

I didn’t read anything about making a larger batch but I doubled the following recipe and found I was having a problem with sugar crystals that I ended up having to strain out of the sauce.  I think it was from having too-large a batch.  It is possible that the heat was uneven or the pot not thick enough.  But in the end I got the results I was looking for: a flavor akin to the caramelized sugar that tops Creme Brulee.  Delicious.

Caramel Sauce

Adapted from Elise at Simply Recipes

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

5 Tbsp butter

1/2 C heavy whipping cream

Heat sugar on moderately high heat in a large saucepan.  As the sugar begins to melt, stir vigorously with a whisk or wooden spoon.  As soon as the sugar comes to a boil, stop stirring.  Swirl the pan a bit from this point on.

As soon as the sugar crystals have melted and turned a dark amber color, add the butter to the pan and whisk until the butter has melted.
One the butter has melted, remove the pan from the heat.  Slowly add the cream to the pan and whisk to incorporate.  Adding the sugar and the cream will cause foaming in the panWhisk until caramel sauce is smooth.  (if necessary, pour sauce through a fine mesh sieve to remove any lumps of sugar).  Let cool in the pan for a few minutesThis will keep nicely in a jar in the refrigerator.  I saw a note that said it would keep for a month.  Not at my house!

The 30 Days of Creativity have come to an end.  I was in great company with so many other creative people.  I loved and continue to enjoy looking through the wonderful photos on Pinterest.  I’m delighted with all the great comments and support I’ve received and also with my growing list of subscribers.

I will certainly continue to be creative and share that here.  But not every day.  And not tomorrow.  I will be having a giveaway of some of my 30 Days creations, so watch for that and thanks for stopping by.