rhubarb tart with strawberry whipped cream

My cousin Angie was in town visiting over the weekend, and the day she arrived I picked her up from the airport and immediately whisked her off to the Chez Panisse Cafe for lunch.  Everything was delicious.  And my favorite part, of course, was dessert.  We shared a rhubarb tart with strawberry ice cream, and it was such a perfect combination.  I often see rhubarb-strawberry combinations in pie form, but I've never thought of having those same flavors in separate components served together.

Later on in the weekend, I decided to attempt a rhubarb tart, inspired by the one we'd had at Chez Panisse.  I made my favorite all-butter pie crust recipe (which is just flour, salt, sugar, butter, and ice water), and pressed it into a 9-inch tart pan with removable bottom.  Then I sliced my rhubarb stalks into skinny batons, and tossed them with flour, sugar, and a pinch of salt.  Finally I arranged them nicely on top of my prepared tart dough, and baked it at 350 F for a little over an hour.

I loved the way it looked when it came out of the oven ... the pattern from the rhubarb, the beautiful pink color, and the look of the crust dotted with sanding sugar that I had sprinkled on before baking ... and it smelled great too!

I had wanted to make strawberry ice cream to go with it also, but forgot to put my ice cream freezer bowl in the freezer that day, so it wouldn't have been cold enough in time to make ice cream in time.  Angie had the brilliant idea to make a strawberry whipped cream to go with it instead, which turned out to be a delicious compliment to the tart.  And it was so simple - after whipping the heavy cream with a bit of confectioner's sugar, I added pureed strawberries to taste, and whipped it until just combined.

When I served a slice of the cooled tart with a scoop of the strawberry whipped cream, we decided that the tart alone was a bit too tart, but with the strawberry whipped cream it was perfect!

tiramisu ice cream

My friend Hsing recently made tiramisu ice cream, and when I tasted it I knew that I wanted to make it too!  Not long after that, I had the perfect opportunity - my cousin Angie was coming to visit and I know that she loves boozy desserts, so I decided to make it for her.

The source was, once again, David Lebovitz's book "The Perfect Scoop".  The ice cream base included Kahlua and rum, as well as mascarpone cream to create a creamy richness.  I also made a mocha ripple (made by simmering espresso, cocoa powder, vanilla, sugar, and corn syrup), which was layered into the ice cream after it was done churning.

The resulting combination of flavors was delicious!  Although I would have loved more coffee flavor, so next time I'll try adding some espresso to the ice cream base as well.

hydrangea cupcakes - lemon cupcakes with lemon cream cheese frosting

When I saw this post on I Am Baker's hydrangea cake, I immediately wanted to make it, except in cupcake form!  With Mother's Day coming up, as well as Teacher Appreciation Week at Matthew's preschool (I had signed up to make a dessert for the luncheon), it was the perfect opportunity to make them.

I went to my Martha Stewart "Cupcakes" book for a lemon cupcake recipe.  The recipe calls for lemon zest as well as lemon juice, for lots of lemony flavor.  The cupcakes turned out super fragrant, moist, and soft.

For the frosting, I made a basic cream cheese frosting and also added some lemon zest and a tiny bit of lemon juice.  Once the cupcakes were cool, I piped the lemon cream cheese frosting on the cupcakes in my signature basketweave design.

Then made a batch of buttercream frosting (which I divided in thirds and then colored  pink, lavendar, and purple) to pipe on as flowers.  I thought they turned out pretty cute, but not as impressive as a cake.  So maybe one of these days I'll try making the cake too!

Hope everyone had a great Mother's Day!

pistachio ice cream

One of my favorite ice cream flavors is pistachio.  It reminds me of my teenage summers spent in Palos Verdes with my cousins Angie and Raymond, when we used to go down to the local Thrifty's and get a double-scoop cone for like 35 cents.  Those were the days.

I found myself craving pistachio ice cream one day, and though I wanted to try David Lebovitz's recipe for pistachio gelato, I didn't have any pistachio cream, and had no idea where to buy it.  So I had to settle for another recipe which I found on Epicurious, which instead uses pistachios that have been ground up in the food processor.

The ground pistachios are used to make a hot pistachio-milk-egg custard, which is then strained and then chilled in the refrigerator before churning.  Then I added a handful of coarsely chopped pistachios during the last five minutes of churning.

It turned out to be a very delicious pistachio ice cream, creamy and full of pistachio flavor.  And it brought me right back to those long summer days with my cousins.

coffee chiffon charlotte with homemade lady fingers

I've been dying to make a charlotte cake for some time now, especially after being fueled by pictures like this and this.  And this one too.  So when my birthday recently arrived, I decided to make my own cake (is it weird to make your own birthday cake?).

Of course I had to make my own ladyfingers from scratch.  My first batch looked horrible though (I won't be posting pictures of them or including a link to that recipe) - the batter was way too thin and the ladyfingers came out very flat and rectangle-shaped.  (Luckily, my kids loved them - they ate most of those and they didn't go to waste!)  So I made a second batch using a different recipe, which came out much better.

I love anything and everything coffee-flavored, so I decided to fill my charlotte with alternating layers of coffee chiffon cake and espresso mousse.  (I used the same recipe that I used for coffee chiffon cake and coffee chiffon mini cupcakes).

After lining the perimeter of a cake ring with my homemade ladyfingers, I sliced my coffee chiffon cake in half horizontally, and used half of the cake as the bottom layer to my charlotte.  Then I topped it with a layer of espresso mousse (which was just heavy whipping cream, whipped with confectioner's sugar, espresso powder, and gelatin which had been bloomed).  Next came the other half of the sliced cake, and then another layer of the mousse.

After dusting the top with cocoa powder, I decorated the cake with fresh raspberries.  Then I let it chill in the fridge for a few hours before unmolding it and adding the finishing touch - a nice red ribbon tied around the outside.

For some reason, I didn't like the look of the wide satin ribbon - it seemd to overpower the look of the cake.  So I changed it to thinner gauzy ribbon instead.

The resulting cake was light and airy.  It had just the perfect amount of coffee flavor.  And I actually ended up with three birthday cakes that day!  My best friend Sue made me a decadent and moist chocolate cake (thank you, Sue!), and my Mom bought me a mocha cake from an Asian bakery (thanks Mom!).  I guess it's no secret that I love cake!!!

fresh blackberry frozen yogurt

My mom brought over a ton of fresh blackberries one weekend.  She told me that they were on sale - "buy two get one free", or something like that.  So she bought me a whole case.  It was literally more berries than I've ever had in my kitchen at once.  Normally I would freeze those suckers until I could put them to good use (pie, anyone?), but our freezer was already too full.  So, once again I checked my copy of David Lebovitz's "The Perfect Scoop" and found a great recipe for blackberry frozen yogurt!  Perfect!

I pureed the blackberries with a little bit of sugar, and then added the yogurt and blended them together.  After a quick strain to remove all those pesky blackberry seeds, my mixture was ready to be churned!

Then I served it right out of the freezer bowl.  It was refreshing, tart, and earthy.  My son loved it.  My baby daughter loved it.  My only regret was that the leftovers froze rock hard overnight in the freezer, so it required a bit of defrosting before I could serve it again the next day.  I think next time I'll freeze the leftovers as popsicles instead.  Perfect for the summer!

rum raisin ice cream

My husband loves rum raisin ice cream.  So when I saw a recipe for it while flipping through my David Lebovitz's ice cream book, I decided to make it for him.

The recipe starts by infusing rum with orange zest and raisins.  I let this mixture soak for a day, and then made the ice cream custard the next day.  Before churning, I drained the raisins, and then added the raisin-infused rum to the custard.  Then I churned the ice cream, and added the drained raisins during the last five minutes of churning.

The ice cream itself didn't end up having much of the rum flavor.  It almost tasted like vanilla ice cream - however, there definitely was a kick from the rum-soaked raisins!  Maybe next time I need to use a darker rum?  (I used a gold Puerto Rican rum).  I might also try adding the raisin-infused rum to the ice cream base earlier, and let that mixture sit in the fridge overnight before churning.  Stay tuned!

easter cupcakes - brown sugar pound cakes with browned butter cream cheese frosting

There are a couple things that led me to this combination of flavors for my easter cupcakes.  First, I've been drooling over various pictures of easter egg nests (see here and here), which made me to want to make cupcakes decorated with mini nests.  And second, I recently scarfed down a whole box of Samoas Girl Scout Cookies (it may or may not have been all by myself), and it reminded me how much I love the combination of coconut, chocolate, and caramel.  This led me to make these brown sugar cupcakes with browned butter cream cheese frosting (the caramel flavor component), decorated with chocolate-coconut easter egg nests.

The day before making the cupcakes, I assembled my coconut-chocolate nests.  I toasted some shredded coconut, then mixed it with melted chocolate.  I pressed the mixture into a mini cupcake pan, and pressed in my Cadbury chocolate eggs while the coconut-chocolate mixture was still warm.  Then I put the pan into the fridge so that I could easily pop the nests out after they had hardened.

The next day, I made the same brown sugar cupcakes as I did for my Thanksgiving cupcakes, but instead of topping it with the Bailey's frosting (somehow Bailey's and Easter just didn't seem to go together), I decided to pair it with the browned butter cream cheese frosting that I made for my Halloween cupcakes.

The cupcakes turned out moist and fluffy, with a slight caramely brown sugar flavor.  And it went perfectly with the browned butter cream cheese frosting.

I even had leftover batter, so I made a few mini cupcakes too.  Perfectly bite-sized for the kiddos!

Happy Easter!

madeleines

My cousin Angie gave me her old madeleine pan a few years ago when she was spring cleaning (thanks Angie!!!), and since then I've used it quite often.  The batter is pretty easy to whip up on short notice, and they only take 10-12 minutes to bake!  The only tedious part is having to wipe clean and re-butter/flour the pan for the second batch (since my pan only holds a dozen, and the recipe makes two dozen!).  

I use a recipe from my Barefoot Contessa cookbook for coconut madeleines, but I just omit the coconut (although one of these days I'll have to try it with the coconut).  The batter can get thick, so I use a mini-ice cream scoop to fill the shells.

The madeleines end up tasting like mini buttery pound cakes - perfect with your morning coffee, or as an afternoon snack with tea!

orange creamsicle ice cream

My mom has been bringing bags and bags full of oranges to our house every weekend, much more than we can finish.  I was trying to think  of what I could make with all these oranges, possibly some kind of sherbet or sorbet?  A quick glance at my David Lebovitz ice cream book led me to what I was looking for .... orange creamsicle ice cream!

The recipe calls for grated orange zest in addition to freshly squeezed orange juice - perfect for using up lots of oranges!  And with the recent warm weather, orange creamsicles in ice cream form sounded perfect.

After blending up the orange zest with sugar, and then adding yogurt and heavy cream, it was ready to be churned.  The resulting ice cream was fresh, creamy, and perfectly orangey.  If you've ever had Orange Julius, that's what it reminded me of.  I'll definitely be making this one again!