Madhu Knits and Cooks

Recipe, knitting, and sewing project notes

Tag: Cooking — Desserts

  • Milk Street Back on Top – Modified (and Delicious) Raspberry Eton Mess

    My last post detailed my disappointment with the Milk Street Cilantro Rice recipe, which though, was really disappointment with myself for lazily modifying the recipe so much.  

    Learning from my mistakes, I made far fewer modifications to the next Milk Street recipe I tried (I can't be held to instructions!).  And I am pleased to report smashing results for the "Raspberry-Pistachio Meringue with Spiced Whipped Cream" aka updated Eton Mess.

    Eton Mess - Assembled

    The modifications I made were really quite minimal – halving the recipe to accommodate only two eaters, and using slightly less raspberries (2/3 box) because some of the berries had already spoiled.  Otherwise, the recipe was largely followed, despite the number of  required steps.

    First, prepare the sauce by cooking down some of raspberries with sugar, straining the mixture, and then adding the remaining intact berries.

    Eton Mess - Raspberries and Sugar for Sauce

    Eton Mess - Cooking Raspberry Sauce

    Eton Mess - Straining Raspberry Sauce

    Eton Mess - Strained Raspberry Sauce

    Eton Mess - Sauce with Whole Raspberries

    Then quickly toast store-bought meringues (the Milk Street editors weren't wrong – the Trader Joe's meringues are delicious!) under the broiler until lightly browned.

    Eton Mess - Toasting Meringues

    Finally, prepare the tangy whipped cream, which features sour cream and cardamon for additional flavors.

    Eton Mess - Whipped Cream Ingredients

    Eton Mess - Cream Whipped

    Then assemble with some pistachios, and serve! 

    This dessert was truly wonderful – lots of different textures, great sweetness from the meringues, tartness from the sauce and the sour cream, and interesting flavors from the cardamon.  The only thing I made modify next time is reducing the amount of sour cream because that may have added too much tang to the dish for my tastebuds, but that didn't stop me from devouring my serving (and then some).

    Eton Mess - Assembled Side View

  • Delicious and Simple Berry Cake

    One of the saddest things about being 6 months behind in my blog posts is that I now regularly torture myself when I edit pictures of beautiful summer fruits and vegetables.  This post is probably the worst to date because it involves perfectly ripe and seasonal Maine blueberries.  These blueberries were the centerpiece of a lovely Late Berry Summer Torte recipe I made from King Arthur Flour.

    Berry Torte - Baked

    This torte is definitely one of those prepare-while-the-oven-is-heating recipes, which makes it perfect for a weeknight or impromptu summer gathering.  

    You simply cream together the sugar, butter, and eggs before adding in the flour.

    Berry Torte - Butter and Sugar

    Berry Torte - Creamed Butter and Sugar

    Berry Torte - Cream Sugar and Flour

    Berry Torte - Dough Together

    Then spread the batter in the pan, top with the berries, sprinkle with a cinnamon-sugar mix, and into the oven the torte goes for 35 – 40 minutes.  I may have slightly overbaked the cake because the center was a bit hard for me to tell if it was cooked, but it was still a great result.  This will be an annual staple in my home!

    Berry Torte - Ready for the Oven

  • Blueberry Cobbler – A Chez Panisse Almost Homemade Hit!

    I have an Alice Waters cookbook on my bookshelf, but somehow I still end up using the Internet to learn about her recipes!  The latest example is my homemade recreation of the NYTimes.com published Chez Panisse Blueberry Cobbler.  

    This cobbler is a wonderful summer treat, but because you are baking the fruit with sugar, it really can be a year-round treat with out-of-season fruit.  The recipe is also simple enough that I think you can easily sub in the fruit fillings for whatever you are in the mood for. 

    Blueberry Cobbler - Served

    I made the cobbler by eyeballing the ingredients, except for the flour, heavy cream and butter used in the biscuits themselves.  This probably caused the slightly too-grainy biscuits, so I will probably next "experiment" with actually following the recipe or increasing the amount of fats (heavy cream, butter) to produce a more smooth biscuit.  

    The other edit I will probably make is to slightly increase the sugar tossed with the fresh fruit because my initial attempt was a little too tart for my taste.  That being said, the tart berries were perfectly offset by vanilla ice cream so I think more sugar is only needed if the dish will be served on its own, without ice cream or sweetened whipped cream.

    To construct this while-the-oven-heats dessert, start by tossing the fruit with sugar and placing the mixture at the bottom of a small baking dish.

    Blueberry Cobbler - Blueberries

    Blueberry Cobbler - Blueberries in Baking Dish

    Then assemble the dough, which takes just only slightly longer than the blueberry prep.  

    Blueberry Cobbler - Butter Cut

    Blueberry Cobbler - Dry Ingredients

    Blueberry Cobbler - Dough Mixed

    Then form six equal patties of the dough to place on top of the blueberries in the baking dish.

    Blueberry Cobbler - Assembled Pre-Baking

    Bake in the pre-heated oven and serve while still slightly warm – yum!

    Blueberry Cobbler - Baked

  • Peppermint Chocolate Shortbread – An Almost Complete Disaster

    Two years ago, I discovered a fantastic chocolate shortbread recipe from King Arthur Flour.   The cookies – named Chocolate Dreams – lived up to their designation as they were rich, chocolatey, and had a great flaky texture.  

    As the cookies were in the oven those years ago, I browsed the KAF comments to see what others thought of the recipe.  A few intriguing comments mentioned adding peppermint extract to the dough, which apparently provided the cookies a Thin Mint-like flavor.  

    Those comments have stayed in my head over the past few years, and I recently decided to make this recipe modification myself.  I purchased what I thought was peppermint extract and then made this simple dough.  I didn't notice anything was awry with this alteration until the cookies were baking in the oven and overwhelmed our kitchen with a consuming peppermint smell.

    Peppermint Chocolate Dreams

    I checked my tiny bottle of peppermint extract and discovered that in fact it was peppermint oil.  Two very different things my frantic internet search immediately told me.  With of course, the latter being far more powerful than the former.

    As the cookies cooled, my husband and I still decided to give them a try.  My husband said they tasted like Altoids, which seemed pretty spot on as I hesitantly ate a small cookie myself. 

    This recipe attempt wasn't a complete disaster though in the sense that when I took them to work the next day, a lot of people seemed to actually like them!  Even said they tasted just like Thin Mints.  Well, to each her own!

  • Milk Street Rye Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies – Incredibly Complex + Tasty

    Chris Kimball, how I love thee.  Milk Street recipes continue to up my at-home cooking game, with my latest attempt – the Rye Chocolate Chip Cookies – being my best to date.  

    Milk St Rye Chocolate Chip Cookies - Baked Close Up

    The cookies use a one-to-one ratio of rye-to-AP flour, with the key added approach being to toast the rye flour before assembling the cookie dough.

    Milk St Rye Chocolate Chip Cookies - Flour Cooking

    This step takes all of five minutes (to toast the flour until its a shade or two darker), and then you melt the butter into the warm skillet with the rye flour.

    Milk St Rye Chocolate Chip Cookies - Flour and Butter Melting

    Then combine the rest of the ingredients as normal for cookie dough, drop the dough on cookie sheets, and bake.  Yep, this is a standard cookie dough with just one added step.

    Milk St Rye Chocolate Chip Cookies - Mixing Dough

    Milk St Rye Chocolate Chip Cookies - Dough Mixed

    Milk St Rye Chocolate Chip Cookies - Ready for Baking

    Milk St Chocolate Chip Cookies - Second Tray Ready for Baking

    The cookie dough spread more than I would have liked during baking, resulting in a thinner cookie, but the flavor was outstanding.  The cookies featured a caramel and raisin notes, and even seemed to have an almost alcohol-like flavor in some bites (from the rye flour, I presume).   They were wonderfully complex, and my husband and a friend declared them their favorite cookies! 

    Hopefully I can figure out how to make the cookies thicker next time around, but there will definitely be a next time around.

    Milk St Rye Chocolate Chip Cookies - Baked + Cooling

  • Milk Street Chocolate Tart – Very Rich, Very French Dessert

    As a Chris Kimball fan, I recently borrowed the Milk Street New Home Cooking cookbook from the library to see if Kimball has been able to recreate the magic of Cook's Illustrated.  

    My initial report is not only has he done so, but that he also may have surpassed the genius of Cook's Illustrated (blasphemy, I know).  The Milk Street cookbook has been churning out a number of great dishes in my kitchen, which I will be posting over the coming weeks. 

    I am a true convert, and will be subscribing to Milk Street in addition to Cook's Illustrated moving forward.

    The first recipe to catch my eye?  The chocolate tart, which calls for all the basics – homemade pie dough, bittersweet chocolate, eggs, sugar, and butter.  This dense chocolate tart was almost too rich – but it was very satisfying in small portions, which makes it the perfect dessert following a large meal.  

    Milk St Choc Tart - Into Oven

    Making this tart also allowed me to try Kimball's new Foolproof Single-Crust Pie Dough, which I was curious to attempt after many a "fool-proof" Cook's Illustrated pie dough recipes.  The dough's secret weapons were sour cream and a cornstarch / water paste, which were added to the more traditional ingredients in a food processor.

    Mlik St Choc Tart - Cornstarch Gel

    Milk St Choc Tart - Pie Dough Ingredients

    Mlik St Choc Tart - Pie Dough Together

    The dough then required the requisite chilling, rolling, more chilling, and then blind baking.  So unfortunately no time shortcuts with this recipe! 

    Milk St Choc Tart - Dough Wrapped for Fridge

    Milk St Choc Tart - Pie Dough Rolled

    Milk St Choc Tart - Pie Dough in Tart Pan

    Unfortunately this is where things went a bit off the rails.  I decided to use my Cook's Illustrated-recommended Cuisinart pie weight substitute instead of traditional pie weights to go 3/4 up the pie dough.  

    Milk St Choc Tart - Blind Baking Insert

    Milk St Choc Tart - Blind Baked Dough

    Seemingly as a result, the base of the pie dough puffed up a lot, leading me to haphazardly push the cooked dough down with some cookie stamps (yes, I panicked).  The bottom of the pie dough then became far denser than I would have liked, and seemed almost uncooked even though it seemed fully baked out of the oven. 

    Did I bake it enough or was the pie weight the problem?  Only my next attempt will answer that lingering questions.  

    Ultimately though, the filling was super easy to whisk together, with no straining needed.  And miraculously, the filling all fit into the tart crust despite my concerns about the base puffiness, so all's well that ends well?

    Mlik St Choc Tart - Chocolate in Saucepan

    Milk St Choc Tart - Slice

    The other point in favor of my improvisation is that my hodgepodge chocolate usage of 4 oz. semi-sweet, 1.5 oz. bittersweet, and 0.5 unsweetened also seemed to have no effect on the flavor of this bittersweet tart. 

    The tart was wonderfully rich and dense, but again, requires one to eat only a small piece, which is fantastic!  This will be a good pairing to a heavy winter dinner party in the future.

  • Katharine Hepburn Brownies – A Great Fudgy Weeknight Dessert

    A hankering for chocolate, lots of other meal-time prep to do, and no desire to leave the apartment for extra ingredients?  Enter the Gourmet Cookbook and the oft-published Katharine Hepburn brownies recipe!

    Katharine Hepburn Brownies - Baked

    These brownies took all of five minutes to make, and resulted in that perfect shiny top that one covets in their homemade brownies. 

    I made three adjustments to the original recipe – 1) omitted the nuts, 2) melted the butter and chocolate in the microwave instead of stove-top, and 3) used a 9-inch round pan instead of a square 8-by-8 pan (I didn't really read the recipe before I began the flouring of the larger round pan!).

    Katharine Hepburn Brownies - Floured Pan

    Katharine Hepburn Brownies - Chocolate and Butter

    Katharine Hepburn Brownies - Dough in Pan

    The only slight critique I have for these brownies is that they are a bit sweet for my taste.  In the future, maybe I'll reduce the sugar by 25% or serve the brownies with something else to help cut into the sweetness? 

    But these are definitely a sweet tooth or child's dream, so might keep the recipe as is depending on the intended audience!

    Katharine Hepburn Brownies - Sliced in Pan

  • Four and Twenty Blackbirds – Egg ‘n’ Grogg Pie – the Best of Winter Flavors!

    The Four and Twenty Blackbirds pie book continues to dominate the pie-making of my apartment.  While everything continues to taste amazing, I still struggle with getting my pie crusts to hold all of the intended ingredients!  

    Egg N Grogg Pie - Cooled

    My latest pie attempt was the Egg 'n' Grogg pie, which is has cheesecake-like filling with cream cheese, heavy cream, eggs, and lots of those favorite winter flavors – nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and allspice.  

    Coupled with a gingersnap crust, it was a breeze to make (comparatively – it's still a pie, with needed pre-making and pre-baking the crust, etc.).  I think this will be a multiple-times-a-season pie when we enter Winter 2019.

    Egg N Groff Pie - Gingersnaps in Food Processor

    Egg n Grogg Pie - Gingersnaps Crushed

    Egg n Grogg Pie - Gingersnaps and Butter in Processor

    Egg N Grogg Piec - Dough Ingredients in Pan

    Unfortunately, as I indicated above, the problem was yet again the crust.  Even though I had approx. 1 cup of cookie crumbs for the recipe – what was called for – I think I needed more because it was a bit of a struggle to get the crumbs all the way up the sides.  And then of course, the crush shrunk after the pre-baking.  When I added the filling, that meant the mixture spilled over the sides (yet again).

    Egg N Grogg Pie - Ingredients for Mixing

    Egg N Grogg Pie - Filling Mixed

    Egg N Grogg Pie - Pre-Baking

    I baked the pie for approx. 46 – 47 minutes, so it still had a very soft center but it wasn't liquid. 

    The resulting flavor was delicious – light and yet filled with those winter spices.  The filling also puffed down after the initial bake, leading to a nice cooled presentation. 

    However, I still need to work on my pie crusts to avoid this frequent spilled-over filling outcome!  If you have any tips, please share in the comments!

    Egg N Grogg Pie - Right Out of Oven

  • The Joy of Cooking Chocolate Chip Drop Cookies – An Oldie but a Goodie!

    A few weeks ago, I had some eggs in the fridge that were just hanging on to life and a growing desire to bake something.  While cookies immediately came to mind, knowing what type of cookies to make was more elusive.  Oatmeal?  Sugar?  Chocolate Chip?  

    I finally narrowed down my options to chocolate chip, but then figuring out what recipe to use became a struggle as well.  I didn't want to go through the hassle of browning butter for the CI perfect chocolate chip cookies, and none of my other past recipe attempts were really captivating me.  

    And so I turned to my cookbooks.  I went from the Moosewood hand-me-downs I've received, to Alice Waters, then the free magazine compilations people have given me, and finally to the Joy of Cooking.  While flipping through that last book, I finally found something that seemed like a go – their simple chocolate-chip drop cookies.

    Joy of Cooking - Chocolate Chip Drop Cookies

    As the recipe picture indicates, the recipe is incredibly simple to construct and follows the standard mix-wet-then-dry ingredients approach.

    Joy of Cooking Chocolate Chip Cookies - Butter

    Joy of Cooking Cookies - Wet Ingredients

    Joy of Cooking Cookies - Wet and Dry Ingredients

    Joy of Cooking - Dough Combined

    This dough can definitely be made in the time that your oven warms up.  And with an approx. 10 minute baking time, these cookies are a great weeknight sweet to add to your dinner prep.

    Joy of Cooking - Cookie Dough Balls on Pan

    Joy of Cooking Cookies - Baked on Tray

    They are also a great cookie to make for a kids party or office potluck because they are thin, on the sweeter side, and perfect for easy snacking.  I'll definitely be making them again!

    Joy of Cooking - Cookies Close Up Baked

    Joy of Cooking Cookies - Close Up Baked in Container

  • Improvised Chocolate Chocolate Chip Meringues – A Great Base for Future Treats

    After I made this year's Mardi Gras King Cake, I had five leftover egg whites that I wanted to put to good use.  While I certainly could have done something healthy like a vegetable-packed egg white omelette, my mind unfortunately kept veering towards more sinful concoctions.  After a day or two of consideration (I placed the leftover whites in a covered bowl in the fridge), I decided to modify an AllRecipes approach for chocolate meringue cookies.  

    Chocolate Meringues - Baked Up Close

    The meringues get their double chocolate flavor from both cocoa powder and chocolate chips, and like most meringues, are very simple to make.

    Chocolate Meringues - Egg Whites Frothing

    I modified the recipe a bit based on the AllRecipes comments and my 5 egg whites instead of 3 called for in the original recipe.  I used approx. 1 cup of white sugar, and also just eyeballed the amount of cocoa and mini chocolate chips to what seemed reasonable. 

    Chocolate Meringues - Soft Peaks with Cocoa Powder

    Chocolate Meringues - Cocoa Power Close Up

    Chocolate Meringues - Chocolate Chips in Mix

    The latter actually worked out well, with a subtle chocolate flavor emerging from the cookies.  The former didn't work out that well as even 1 cup of sugar was far too much for this portion of egg whites.  In the future, I will probably reduce the sugar amount by at least a third.

    Chocolae Meringues - on Baking Tray

    I also initially crowded too many meringues onto my first baking sheet (they were also probably a little too large) so they were still a bit soft after 30 minutes of baking.  My second tray was more spaced out, and resulted in a more cookie-like meringue.

    All in all, this was a great base meringue approach that can be easily customized further in the future.  I can't wait to make more of these delicious treats!