Tres Leches Cake

"Tres leches" is Spanish for "three milks", and tres leches cake is a Mexican cake that is soaked in three kinds of milk/cream: evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and heavy cream (although some recipes replace the heavy cream with whole milk). If the idea of a slightly soggy cake sounds disgusting to you, just think about the times you've had cake and ice cream together, and how good the cake is when the ice cream melts into it. Tres leches cake is quite similar, except that it's even more moist.

It was very difficult for me to find a recipe for this. I own dozens of cookbooks, but most of them don't have very many Mexican recipes in them. I have one cookbook that is entirely Mexican recipes, but tres leches cake was not included. So I had to search through cookbooks at libraries to find the perfect recipe. I finally found what I was looking for in Fresh Mexico by Marcela Valladolid.

This recipe says to use a 10-inch cake pan with 2-inch sides, and I only have 9-inch cake pans with 1.5-inch sides, so I had some batter left over. Even with leaving out a lot of the batter, the cake expanded more than I thought it would and spilled over a little bit, so I would suggest placing the cake pan on a baking sheet. I would do this even if I had the correct size pan just to be on the safe side.

I also didn't own any platters that had 1-inch high sides, so I just squeezed the cake into a 9x13 baking dish, which worked wonderfully.

Unsalted butter, for the pan

 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for the pan

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

4 large eggs, separated

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup milk

One 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk

One 12-oz. can evaporated milk

1 cup heavy cream

1 tbsp orange liqueur, such as Grand Marnier (I replaced this with about 1/2 tsp orange extract)

Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter and flour a 10-inch cake pan with 2-inch-high sides, and then line the bottom with parchment paper. Butter the paper.

Mix the flour, baking powder, and cinnamon in a medium bowl.

Using an electric mixer, whip the egg whites until frothy. With the mixer running, gradually add the sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. (I could NOT get this to stiffen, even after completely starting over, probably due to so much sugar being added. I decided to not worry about it, especially since it would collapse anyway after adding the other ingredients.)

Beat in the egg yolks, one at a time, blending well after each addition. Add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the whole milk in two additions.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool slightly in the pan; then invert it onto a platter with 1-inch-high sides.

Pierce the top of the warm cake all over with a thick skewer.

Mix the sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, heavy cream, and orange liqueur (or orange extract), and pour over the cake.

 

Cover and refrigerate until cold, about 3 hours, or overnight.

Serve as is or top with whipped cream and/or fruit, if desired.

 

If you have never tried tres leches cake before, prepare to fall in love.

Dark Chocolate Soufflé

http://community.jeroxie.com/groups/cookbook-challenge/

This fortnight's Cookbook Challenge theme is Eggs. I wanted to make an egg-based dessert and I wanted to try a dish that I had never attempted before, so I went with a soufflé. This recipe is from Hershey's Chocolate Lovers Cookbook, published in 1993. It says to use a 6-cup soufflé dish, which of course I didn't have. I went many places trying to find one, with no luck. In one store I did find some for $10 and I wasn't even sure if they were big enough. So I decided that I would just make individual soufflés and use coffee mugs instead of soufflé dishes or ramekins. And they worked very well!

1 tbsp sugar

1/2 cup dutch cocoa (or European-Style)

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened

1 cup milk

1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar, divided

1 tsp vanilla

4 eggs, separated

Heat oven to 350F. Butter 6-cup soufflé dish (or mugs); coat with 1 tablespoon sugar. In medium bowl, combine cocoa and flour. Add butter; blend well. Set aside. In medium saucepan, heat milk until very hot. Reduce heat; add cocoa mixture, beating with wire whisk until smooth and thick.

Remove from heat; stir in 1/2 cup sugar and vanilla. Cool slightly. Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Cool to room temperature.

In large mixer bowl, beat egg whites until foamy; gradually add remaining 2 tablespoons sugar and continue beating until stiff.

Stir small amount beaten whites into chocolate mixture; fold chocolate mixture into remaining whites.

 

Carefully pour into prepared dish. Bake 40 to 45 minutes until puffed (or if making individual soufflés, bake 20 to 25 minutes). 

They start to deflate very quickly!

 

The cookbook suggests serving with vanilla ice cream, but I thought they went perfectly with whipped cream.

Garden Bunnies

 http://community.jeroxie.com/groups/cookbook-challenge/

 I'm a couple days late, so the just past Cookbook Challenge theme was Celebration. I chose this recipe for Garden Bunnies from my Better Homes & Gardens Classic Recipes cookbook as a celebration of Spring. They can also be used to celebrate Easter, obviously.

I made the mistake of using a rather old envelope of yeast, so my Garden Bunnies didn't rise very well and turned out a little dense. They tasted very good, though, and were easier to make than I thought they would be!

5 1/2 to 6 cups all-purpose flour

1 pkg. active dry yeast

2 1/4 cups milk or buttermilk

1/4 cup mixed snipped fresh herbs such as sage, rosemary, parsley, and thyme; or 3 to 4 tsp. dried herbs, crushed

2 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp butter

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 recipe Sugar-Sage Topping or Rosemary-Cheese Topping (below)

1 egg white

1 tbsp water

Note: Rosemary and sage are strong-flavored herbs. If using them alone, add only 2 tablespoons fresh or 2 teaspoons dried.

Sugar-Sage Topping: In a small bowl stir together 1/3 cup fine sanding sugar or granulated sugar and 1 tablespoon finely snipped fresh sage.

Rosemary-Cheese Topping: In a small bowl stir together 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese and 1 tablespoon fine snipped fresh rosemary.

1. In a large mixing bowl combine 2 1/2 cups of the flour and the yeast; set aside. In a medium saucepan heat and stir milk, herbs, sugar, butter, and salt just until warm (120F to 130F) and butter almost melts.

Add milk mixture to flour mixture. Beat with an electric mixer on low to medium speed for 30 seconds, scraping sides of bowl constantly. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes.

Using a wooden spoon, stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can.

2. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in enough of the remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic (6 to 8 minutes). Shape into a ball. Place in a lightly greased bowl; turn once to grease surface.

 Cover; let rise in a warm place until double (45 to 60 minutes).

3. Punch dough down; turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide in half; cover and let rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, lightly grease a baking sheet; set aside.

4. To form bunnies, roll a portion of dough into an 8-inch circle. With a sharp knife, cut into 6 wedges.

 

 From 4 wedges, snip a small amount of dough to make tails for bunnies. Gently shape the 4 wedges into ovals by pulling edges under and pinching together. Place ovals, pinched side down, on prepared baking sheet. Flatten slightly to 4 inches long.

 

 5. Form snipped pieces of dough into tails; press onto one end of dough ovals. To make heads and ears, divide the remaining 2 wedges in half, making 4 small wedges total. Shape each wedge into a teardrop shape, about 4 inches long. With kitchen shears, cut into the pointed end of each, making cuts about 2 1/2 inches long. Lay each set of ears on top of an oval shape, near end opposite tail. If necessary, brush with water to help dough stick together. Gently give the ears a half twist so the cut edge is facing up.

6. Repeat rolling and shaping with the other portion of dough.

 

Cover and let rise in a warm place until nearly double in size (about 30 minutes).

7. Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare Sugar-Sage Topping or Rosemary-Cheese Topping; set toppings aside. In a small bowl beat together egg white and water. Brush bunnies with egg mixture. Sprinkle (or rub) with topping. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until done, covering with foil the last half of baking to prevent overbrowning. Serve warm. Makes 8 bunnies.