Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Christmas Desserts
So, Christmas is over and we're basking in the afterglow. Mixed it up a bit this year and didn't do any pies. Instead tried a couple new items I was curious about. Jessie got me creme-brulee cups for Christmas and so when I decided to make that for one Christmas dinner I got to open a present early. Score! I was excited.
I started with this recipe for Lemon Creme Brulee but used it as more of a jumping off point. If you choose to follow my footsteps (and they're worth following!). zest the heck out of two lemons. That left me with in the neighborhood of 3.5 tablespoons of zest. Dump that in instead of the 2 Tbsp mentioned in that recipe. I also did a bit more lemon juice (and added one more egg to counteract the extra acid in all that lemon juice and zest), and grated probably in the neighborhood of 1.5 tablespoons of ginger.
The result was tasty. Tart with a bit of bite from the ginger. There was disappointingly little creme brulee in each cup but totally worth it.
Then for proper Christmas dinner I riffed on this flourless chocolate cake. I used chambord (a rasberry liqueur) instead of the coffee liqueur and also dropped in 1/2 cup of finely chopped dried cranberries. The cake part turned out pretty well but to really put if over the top I also put a dark chocolate ganache which was like 10 oz heavy whipping cream 11.5 oz dark chocolate chips. You heat the cream over low to medium low heat until it begins to have steam come rise off the liquid. That's a good time to drop the temperature or turn it off and then dump in the chocolate chips. You should be able to whisk them in and they will nicely melt. Some people will tell you to boil the cream. You don't need all that heat to melt the chocolate though and the lower the temperature of the cream then the shorter your waiting time on the ganache cooling to the point of being spread and stickable on the cake. One tasteful rendition:
So, flourless chocolate cake with chocolate ganache is good but to really put it over the top I made up a cranberry dessert sauce. It was pretty similar to this one from the chocolate torte made at Thanksgiving and Emily's nominee for best chocolate dessert of all time. If you try it at home you really need to make the sauce. The chocolatey goodness can be overwhelming without the cranberry sauce to balance it out. But together, super. Emily says not as good as the chocolate torte from Thanksgiving but still pretty decent.
I started with this recipe for Lemon Creme Brulee but used it as more of a jumping off point. If you choose to follow my footsteps (and they're worth following!). zest the heck out of two lemons. That left me with in the neighborhood of 3.5 tablespoons of zest. Dump that in instead of the 2 Tbsp mentioned in that recipe. I also did a bit more lemon juice (and added one more egg to counteract the extra acid in all that lemon juice and zest), and grated probably in the neighborhood of 1.5 tablespoons of ginger.
The result was tasty. Tart with a bit of bite from the ginger. There was disappointingly little creme brulee in each cup but totally worth it.
Then for proper Christmas dinner I riffed on this flourless chocolate cake. I used chambord (a rasberry liqueur) instead of the coffee liqueur and also dropped in 1/2 cup of finely chopped dried cranberries. The cake part turned out pretty well but to really put if over the top I also put a dark chocolate ganache which was like 10 oz heavy whipping cream 11.5 oz dark chocolate chips. You heat the cream over low to medium low heat until it begins to have steam come rise off the liquid. That's a good time to drop the temperature or turn it off and then dump in the chocolate chips. You should be able to whisk them in and they will nicely melt. Some people will tell you to boil the cream. You don't need all that heat to melt the chocolate though and the lower the temperature of the cream then the shorter your waiting time on the ganache cooling to the point of being spread and stickable on the cake. One tasteful rendition:
So, flourless chocolate cake with chocolate ganache is good but to really put it over the top I made up a cranberry dessert sauce. It was pretty similar to this one from the chocolate torte made at Thanksgiving and Emily's nominee for best chocolate dessert of all time. If you try it at home you really need to make the sauce. The chocolatey goodness can be overwhelming without the cranberry sauce to balance it out. But together, super. Emily says not as good as the chocolate torte from Thanksgiving but still pretty decent.
