Crepe Cake with Orange Cream Recipe

10-15 10" crepes

2 1/2 c whipping cream

1/2 t vanilla

3/4 c confectioner's sugar

1 t orange zest

2 t orange juice

Beat until cream holds stiff peaks. If hot, chill before spreading. Alternate crepes and cream. If you have cream left, "frost" the outside of the cake as well. Chill at least 4 hours or overnight.

Notes:

• It will take a long time to whip the cream yourself. Be aware.
• Feel free to add more/less orange flavoring as you see fit!

Crepe Cake with Orange Cream

I think my boyfriend James must be in an orange phase, because he's asked for two orange-flavored things in a row! This week he wanted me to make a crepe cake with orange cream. If you've never heard of this, essentially it's a multi-layer cake with alternated crepes and cream. I make crepes almost every weekend for breakfast, so I don't even use a recipe anymore. However, I wanted to come up with an idea for the cream, since I couldn't find a recipe I liked. I made one myself and set to it!

As you can see, making your own whipped cream doesn't require a lot! This is essentially all you need:

whipping cream

powdered sugar

orange

vanilla

salt

Doing this is really simple: just add all the ingredients into a bowl and mix. Below you'll find a picture I took just after I added the vanilla (what? I thought it looked cool!).

OK. Next comes the part that I didn't really consider too deeply: actually whipping the cream! Folks, when you buy "whipping cream" it's the consistency of milk, and through brute strength you must get it to that light fluffy stuff we buy to put on pie. Also, because I'd always pontificated that I never would need a mixer, I got the honor of doing it by hand. And maybe if you're lucky you can enlist the help of your man! :) What you're looking for are stiff peaks; essentially you're manually putting that air in the cream, so you want it to be more solid than liquid....like the picture below!

Then I refrigerated this and got to work on the crepes. For it to be a "cake" I needed at least 10 crepes....I went for 16 (because that's how much the batter made!). Even though I can fudge the recipe, I decided to do it by the book for these. What you'll need are:

eggs

milk

salt

flour

sugar

butter, melted

PLEASE NOTE that if you use a rough-cut or whole-wheat flour, you will need more of it than the recipe states! That's because the coarser grains have more area in which to suck up moisture. Making crepes is really easy too: simply mix all the ingredients in a bowl! I usually am lazy and simply fry these up in olive oil, but for this cake I did it in butter. PLEASE NOTE that you must add a little more butter to the pan before every new crepe! Also try to make sure your boyfriend doesn't use the 10" saucepan for something else...otherwise you have to use a deep pan, which is really difficult for flipping. Pour in just under 1/3 c for 10" crepes and then immediately pick up the pan and tilt it around to spread the batter. Cook until underside is lightly browned, then flip. See picture below:

For fun I also decided to add a little cocoa powder to the second batch of crepes to make it more visually interesting, if not in taste as well! This was my end result of crepes:

Then wait for them to cool a bit...and layer with the cream! If you don't let them cool enough, the cream will begin to melt (aka revert back to liquid form). Put up to 3x as much cream, width-wise, in between each crepe. If you have enough left over, frost the outside with cream too!

This needs to chill in the fridge from 6 hours to overnight. Then cut into wedges and enjoy!

Orange Truffles Recipe

2 oranges

1/2 c heavy cream

18 oz chopped semi-sweet (dark) chocolate, divided into 8 and 10

1/4 t cloves

cocoa powder for dusting

1 T vegetable oil

Grate the rind of one of the oranges coarsely and the other rind very finely. Put the COARSE rind in a saucepan with the cream and heat on medium until small bubbles form around the edges. Remove from heat and cover for 30 minutes. Melt 8 oz of chocolate. Return the cream briefly to heat to warm it and then pour through a strainer into a bowl. Add this cream and cloves to the chocolate. Add the FINE rind to this, cover and cool to room temperature. Once cool put this ganache in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours or until firm. Dust hands with cocoa powder and roll teaspoon-sized truffles into balls onto a prepared baking sheet. Put in freezer for 2 hours or until firm enough to dip in melted chocolate. Temper the remaining 10 oz of chocolate or melt with the vegetable oil. Dip the ganache balls into the tempered chocolate using two forks and replace on baking sheet. Put back in fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Notes:

• Be very careful with the cream! You don't want to overheat and burn it.
• The amount of chocolate is just a guideline. Feel free to use more or less in total, have a huge ganache center and barely any outer layer, or have the layers of equal size. It's up to you!
• The better quality the chocolate you use, the better texture your ganache and tempered chocolate will have. A really good chocolate will produce a creamy, smooth, thick ganache and a crisp, hard outer layer.
• Feel free to use different types of chocolate besides dark.
• Feel free to add more/less orange flavoring as you see fit!

Orange Chocolate Truffles

I did it finally! I'd never made any sort of "candy" or "chocolate" before...only cakes and pies and tarts. Things I consider to be rather easy and intuitive, frankly. However, I decided I wanted to try my hand at chocolatier-ing. I found a pretty descriptive recipe of an orange chocolate truffle, and after having read it over I decided that I wanted to do some of my own changes to it. Because I'd never done it before, I thought it would be prudent to do something small at first...and then start making up my own ideas! To this recipe I simply added cloves.

I worried that I would somehow mess them up, but I was assured that I really, really did not. They're absolutely delicious! I can't wait to try my hand at making more, and more interesting ones at that. I've already got some great ideas...

Also, please excuse the pictures...my very nice camera's battery died partway through this and I had to use a camera phone.

So what is a truffle? My boyfriend thought they were those super-expensive fungi and asked if there was any in what I'd made. He's right, although still an idiot. :) Truffles are indeed the mushroomy things pigs look for in French fairy tales, and are ridiculously expensive. However, the chocolate-y treat that we know as a truffle simply means a creamy center with a harder exterior. They can be flavored with anything: fruit, champagne, peanut butter, caramel....options are endless!

Now that we know what a truffle is, let's get to work on the creamy inner filling. First off, know you'll be grating tons of orange. Here is a bowl of the thickly grated orange peel that I'll infuse my creamy center with:

Essentially you're going to make a cream base with orange in it, then cover and let it infuse for about 30 minutes! Here is the picture of me straining out the chunks of orange from the cream. If you don't have a fine strainer, a colander and spoon will work well; simply press the cream into a bowl:

In my case, this creamy center also was chocolate-y, so I had to melt some chocolate. To do this, you can either use a double boiler, melt them in the microwave, or put a bowl on top of a saucepan of water. As long as it's medium-ish heat and you're stirring and watching the chocolate, you'll be ok. Just don't let it burn! You mix the orange-cream with the chocolate, and in this case also some cloves:

Finally you're done! Chill until malleable, then form into little balls and either chill or freeze until hard. While this is going on, you'll be preparing the outer chocolate-y shell. Below is a picture of the centers:

This chocolate is supposed to be tempered, which means you actually are changing the structure to form precise crystals. This makes a glossy, snappy, stable chocolate that's easy for dipping. To do this it is a painstaking process of getting it to a certain temperature, then adding more chocolate until it cools to another temperature, then briefly reheating....ugg. If you do this all the time, you have a tempering machine. If you love this kind of thing, you do it by hand. If you're me, you artificially temper the chocolate by adding a couple tablespoons of oil. You should notice the texture is very different, very smooth and soft:

Finally, you dip your centers into this tempered chocolate (I used two spoons) and put back in the fridge/freezer until hard. To eat you remove them as needed, wait a minute or two for them to warm up, and then eat! Om nom nom:

Molasses Cookies Recipe

1/4 c molasses

1/2 c shortening/butter

3/4 c brown sugar

1 egg1 c flour

1/2 t salt

1/2 t baking soda

OPTIONAL SPICES

1/2 t ginger

1/4 t cloves

1 t cinnamon

1/4 t nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350. In one bowl mix wet ingredients. In another mix dry ingredients and add to wet until well blended. Bake 6-8 min or until edges are browned.

Notes:

• These cookies are VERY finicky when it comes to baking time. Even one minute can change the consistency. Don't fret if when you first take them out they are mashy....let cool and set a bit, then put back in if they need it. You don't want to end up burning them because you thought they weren't done yet.
• Cinnamon and ginger are two of those spices where you can use a lot and still have everything taste good. Really experiment with how much you use. Nutmeg/cloves have a very intense and distinctive flavor, so stick with small measurements or not at all.
• As always, DON'T overmix! Your batter will be the consistency of concrete and you'll emulsify everything. This will affect the texture of your resulting cookie and make them hard.

Spiced Molasses Cookies

Our neighbors gave us some fresh vegetables from their garden about a week ago (some tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and cherry tomatoes). It was up to me to make something with them, so I made a light red sauce from scratch, pasta, and created a sort of white cinnamon sauce for the cucumbers. Delicious! But...we still had the basket. So James suggested I make molasses cookies to put in the basket to give back.

If you've ever had molasses cookies, it's a really old but great recipe. I was explaining to James how if you made sweets as fatty as God intended then they'd be rich enough that you wouldn't have to eat a whole ton of them. Then I thought for a moment and added, "...except for molasses cookies."

I LOVE LOVE LOVE these things! They're chewy and dark and wonderful. You can either make them spicier or plainer, and if you're me you make them extra spicy! Also if you're me you realize you didn't buy ground cloves and you have to get out the mortar and pestle and grind them yourself. Buh.

Very easy recipe: wet ingredients, dry ingredients, mix. The batter should be fairly thick, as there is molasses in there:

If you've never made these before, they are very large and flat. You need to remember this when you put them in the oven. Make them teaspoon sized, but give them LOTS of room; or conversely you can make the balls a bit smaller.

One thing to remember with cookies like these is that because they're so flat even 1 extra minute cooking can totally change the texture! If you want them chewy, put in for less time; crunchy, more. If they don't look done, don't fret....take them out and let them set a minute. If they're done, then they'll simply be chewy (which is the way I like them). If you're not pleased, put them in 1 minute at a time and check! I'm totally serious here....2 minutes can change them from perfect consistency to hard discs. I have a combination of the two in the basket below. :) And don't worry if they are hard; they'll still be delicious!

New Ideas

Yesterday as I was mopping I realized that I would be really interested to try some new ideas for sweets and things. So far I've picked a few recipes and made a sort of amalgamation of them to create my baked good....but I think I'm good enough to begin creating my own recipes! I have a few written down, and will continue to think about this. Look forward to new posts which may be something new I've created! Also, if you have any crazy ideas of your own...let me know, and I'll try to make it!

Chocolate Cheesecake

CRUST

1 1/4 c crumbs (graham cracker, Oreo, etc)

1/4 c sugar

4 T butter (1/2 stick)

FILLING

16 oz (2 packages) cream cheese

3/4 c sugar

3 eggs

1 t vanilla

3/4 c baking cocoa

1 c choc chips, melted or not

1/3 c milk

Bake crust at 325 for 8 minutes. Mix all ingredients into a bowl and bake at 375 for 30-35 min, or until top is browned and filling has set. Run sharp knife around edges of pan. Cool and refrigerate overnight.

Notes:

• If not using a springform pan, grease the dish way more than you think. This is good because 1) there's no way anything will stick, especially in the corners, and 2) you'll get that lovely buttery crust on the edge pieces!
• Since cream cheese is usually cold when you get it, if you don't want to wait for it to come to room temperature simply put in a bowl in the microwave for 25-30 seconds. This will get it nice and mashy and very easy to mix!
• When it says "until filling is set," that means that when you shake the pan the filling appears more gelatinous rather than liquid-y.
• If layering with peanut butter cheesecake, or any other flavor, make sure to halve the recipe.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Recipe

CRUST

1 c graham cracker crumbs

1/2 t cinnamon

4 T butter, melted

1 T brown sugar

FILLING

16 oz cream cheese

2/3 c brown sugar

15 oz pumpkin puree OR 2 c pumpkin, pureed

1 t vanilla

3/4 t cinnamon

1/4 t nutmeg

3/4 ginger

2 eggs

1/4 t salt

Preheat oven to 350. Combine crust ingredients and press into springform pan OR into greased pan. Bake 5 min. Beat cream cheese until fluffy and add brown sugar, pumpkin and spices. Add eggs and beat well. Add salt and pour mixture into crust. Bake 50-60 min or until top is browned and filling has set. Run sharp knife around edges of pan. Cool and refrigerate overnight.

Notes:

• If not using a springform pan, grease the dish way more than you think. This is good because 1) there's no way anything will stick, especially in the corners, and 2) you'll get that lovely buttery crust on the edge pieces!
• Since cream cheese is usually cold when you get it, if you don't want to wait for it to come to room temperature simply put in a bowl in the microwave for 25-30 seconds. This will get it nice and mashy and very easy to mix!
• Cinnamon and ginger are two of those spices where you can use a lot and still have everything taste good. Really experiment with how much you use. Nutmeg has a very intense and distinctive flavor, so stick with small measurements or not at all.
• When it says "until filling is set," that means that when you shake the pan the filling appears more gelatinous rather than liquid-y.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Awhile ago I found this long list of non-traditional cheesecakes. They all sounded interesting and delicious, and James and I decided that over time we'd try as many as we felt like. The most interesting to us was pumpkin cheesecake or pumpkin praline cheesecake. Because I'd never made one before, I decided to omit the "praline" bit and simply make pumpkin cheesecake.

I didn't have a springform pan, so corningware had to do. This doesn't really matter unless you want to show off your cake. The springform pan has a removable edge so that the cake is just sitting on a bottom, but in this case I was more concerned with eating the cake rather than looking at it.

Fun fact: if you want your cream cheese to be nice and smooth and easily mixable, but it's still cold from the fridge, simply place in a bowl in the microwave for 25-30 seconds! It's so creamy after this that it's a lot easier to deal with.

Ok, pumpkins. Did I buy pureed pumpkin in a can? Of course not. Pie pumpkins were on sale 2/$3! How could I resist? Anyway, here are the steps for coring/pureeing pumpkin yourself! It's not hard, but the first part is time-consuming.

1) You've got to remove all that slime and seeds inside. Gross, but whatever, right? To do this get a SHARP knife and score a cut around the stem of the pumpkin. Make this wider than you think, because remember you have to get your hands all up in there. Remove the cap. Then use a giant spoon/your fingers to remove all the sticky mess that's inside, and put in a bowl. If you've got a compost, put this in; if not, place in some grocery bags and toss.

2) You've got most of the stringiness out, but there's still some left! What to do? Now you cut the pumpkin into long curved slices, like people do with melons. It doesn't matter how big these are, because you're going to boil them anyway. After these are in nice manageable chunks, use a paring knife to remove any excess slime until you have clean slices of pumpkin.

3) Now the waiting game! Boil a big pot of water (like for spaghetti) filled 3/4 of the way. Then once boiling add the pumpkin slices. If there are too many, do NOT fill up the pot anyway! You can displace the water and have it spurt onto you (ouch!) or you'll have a bunch of slices at the top of the pot that don't end up boiling. Just do two batches. Then you wait...occasionally stir the pumpkin around, and test with a fork. If they're very mashy and the fork goes right down to the skin, you're done!

4) Dump the water/pumpkin into a colander (strainer) and wait until they are cool enough to handle. Then peel off the skin. If you can't, they're not quite done yet (sorry!). Once that's done, put all the pumpkin into a giant bowl and mash! You can do this with a potato masher, a large fork, a spoon, or even your hands if you want. However, a potato masher works best.

You're done! You now have pumpkin puree. If you have more than you need, always freeze the remainder to use later!

After that the recipe is pretty simple....mix ingredients and bake! However, always keep in mind that if eggs are used, NEVER add anything that's hot to the mix! Wait until it's cool or you'll start to cook your eggs...and no one wants chunks of cooked egg in their cheesecake. Voila--you're done! Impress your friends! Also keep in mind that some people who don't like pumpkin pie may like this instead....so it's a great alternative at Thanksgiving!

Mango Pie Recipe

CRUST

1 1/4 c all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling

8 T (1 stick) butter, cold and cubed

1/2 t salt

1/2 t sugar

2-4 T ice water

FILLING

5 mangoes, sliced

1/2 t cinnamon

1/4 t nutmeg

1 egg, beaten

1 c heavy cream

1 c sugar

6 T all-purpose flour

1/8 t salt

1 1/4 t vanilla

4 T butter

1/2 c chopped walnuts

Grease a pie pan. For crust, combine flour, salt and sugar, add butter and crumble until mixture resembles coarse meal, with pea-sized pieces of butter. Add water 1 tablespoon at a time until mixture just begins to stick together. Place chunks of dough in pan and press until flat. Chill crust. Preheat oven to 450. In one bowl mix wet ingredients. In another bowl mix dry ingredients and add to wet until well blended. Add mangoes. Pour into crust and dot with butter. Sprinkle with walnuts and bake 10 min. Reduce heat to 350 and cook 55 min.

Notes:

• Cinnamon is one of those spices where you can use a lot and still have everything taste good. Really experiment with how much you use. Nutmeg has a very intense and distinctive flavor, so stick with small measurements or not at all.
• Grease the dish way more than you think. This is good because 1) there's no way anything will stick, especially in the corners, and 2) you'll get that lovely buttery crust!
• When making tart pastry, if butter is starting to melt put it in the freezer until you need more. You want it to stay as cold as possible.
• When placing tart pastry into pie pan, grab chunks and press until flat. Don't spend too much time on one part, or the heat from your fingers will start to melt the butter! You want to still see chunks of butter, as this will make the crust lovely and flaky.

Mango Pie

Yep, it happened again. We bought five mangoes at the store (what? They were 5 for $5!). However, we ate not a ONE of them. It's been about 2 weeks since we got them, and although they were in the fridge I was concerned. So I baked something! A mango pie...mmmm.

If you've never messed about with mangoes before (I hadn't), then prepare for a bit of prep work. You must "dice" up the mangoes first, which is a little involved. First, you cut the mango in half lengthwise. You score into the flesh parallel lines of about 1/2" across, then flip and go perpendicular to those lines until you have 1/2" cube cut-outs on the surface of the mango. Then take the mango half and bend it backwards so the cubes stand out from the surface. Finally, take a paring knife and slice through the bottom of the cubes along the surface of the skin, so that you have a ton of little cubed mango flesh and an empty shell.

Because mangos can be a little acidic, make sure your filling is sweet enough for you. Finally, for an added bonus put cubes of butter on the surface of the filling (if there is no top)! You've got yourself a pretty great pie that is easy to make and fun to eat...especially if you've got extra fruit about.

Sour Cream Doughnuts

Our friend came over for Labor Day Weekend (or as we called it, Labor Derp Weekend) and it was requested that I make some doughnuts from scratch with our new deep fryer. Of course, James specifically wanted sour cream doughnuts, which I had never had but was assured were the best ever.

The recipe for the doughnut itself was pretty self-explanatory, and I didn't feel like altering it. I also did not have a doughnut-shaped cutter, nor did I care about the shape, so I simply made the dough into slightly flattened disks. Essentially it's a hole-less doughnut:

I'd never made doughnuts before, so I did my research on proper frying etiquette. Not too hard: simply stand with a spoon over the doughnut as it fries and move in the oil a bit, and then remove when the outside is lightly browned. 400 degrees is just fine, as long as you stand and WATCH those sons of bitches. Also, use canola oil if you can, and make sure you have enough! I used a whole bottle of oil for this. See the finished doughnuts below:

However, this recipe did not come with a glaze, so I had to concoct that myself. I made a lemon glaze, which you should try to drizzle over the doughnuts quite soon after they're out of the fryer. That way it will melt and then harden on the surface. You then have yourself some delicious homemade doughnuts!