Croissant and Apple Pudding

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

The current Cookbook Challenge theme is European. There are so many great possibilities with this one, but I've been wanting to do more recipes from a cookbook called Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafes of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague by Rick Rodgers, published in 2002. You can tell from that title that this cookbook is pretty fantastic. I considered making sachertorte (the culinary symbol of Vienna) but I would have needed to buy a springform pan and I was already running late on this challenge so I wanted to make something a bit more simple that I didn't need to buy any equipment for. So croissant and apple pudding it was!

Who doesn't love croissants? Other than people that are crazy about eating healthy, low-calorie food, that is. The cookbook says this recipe is also called Kipferlkoch, which I'm assuming means Kipferl cake, Kipferl being an Austrian precursor to the croissant.

3 cups milk, heated

6 egg yolks

1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp granulated sugar, divided

5 or 6 large croissants, torn into 1-inch pieces (10 to 12 ounces total)

2 Golden Delicious apples, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced

1/3 cup raisins

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

confectioners' sugar, for garnish

I used one of these nifty devices to peel, core, and slice the apples:

I highly recommend buying one of these if you often cook and bake with apples. They work so well.

Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat to 350F. Lightly butter an 8-inch square glass baking dish.

Make a custard by whisking the milk, yolks, and 1/2 cup of the sugar in a medium bowl to dissolve the sugar. Since the milk had to be heated anyway, I just put it and the sugar in a medium saucepan and whisked it together until the milk was warm and the sugar was dissolve, then took it off the burner to whisk in the egg yolks.

Place the croissants in another medium bowl and toss with 2 cups of the custard.

 Let stand, giving the croissants a stir every few minutes, until they have absorbed most of the custard, about 15 minutes.

Spread half of the croissants in the baking dish. Top with apples and raisins and sprinkle with the remaining sugar and the cinnamon.

Spread with the remaining croissants. Pour the remaining custard over the croissants. Place the dish on a baking dish. I'm not sure what the point is of the double baking dishes if you're not doing a water bath, but I'm sure there is one so I did it anyway.

Bake until golden brown and the center feels set when pressed gently, about 1 hour, 10 minutes. 

 Cool for 5 minutes. Dust the top with confectioners' sugar and serve warm.

Brownie Pudding Cake

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

I've been doing too many desserts and baked goods on here, but I couldn't help it this time because the Cookbook Challenge theme is Dessert. I'm a little late once again, but everyone else was too, so I don't feel too bad about it! I had this really great dessert planned, but I couldn't find a key ingredient at the supermarket, so at the last moment I had to change my idea for what to make. This brownie pudding cake was perfect because not only did it sound delicious (It's a brownie cake on top and pudding on the bottom! Of course it sounds delicious!), but every single ingredient was something that I already had on hand.

The recipe is from the 2007 edition of The Good Housekeeping Cookbook.

2 teaspoons instant-coffee powder (optional)

2 tablespoons plus 1 3/4 cups boiling water

1 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk

4 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

whipped cream or vanilla ice cream (optional)

I didn't use any instant-coffee powder when I made it, because I can't stand the taste of coffee. People sometimes say that if you add coffee/espresso powder to chocolatey recipes, it doesn't make them taste like coffee, it just gives them a more intense chocolate flavor. I don't know if this is true or not, and I don't care to find out. People that drink coffee are so desensitized to the harsh bitter flavor that they go around saying that their mochas don't taste anything like coffee and that I should try some because I'll like it. And when I try it, all I taste is coffee, and it is horrible.

Anyway, I don't know if the extra two tablespoons of water is necessary if you don't use the coffee powder, but I used it anyway and added it when it told me to just to be on the safe side.

Preheat oven to 350F.

In cup, dissolve coffee powder in 2 tablespoons boiling water, if using.

In large bowl, combine flour, 1/2 cup cocoa, granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt.

In 2-cup measuring cup, combine milk, melted butter, vanilla, and coffee mixture, if using. With wooden spoon, stir milk mixture into flour mixture until just blended.

 Pour into ungreased 8-inch square baking dish.

In small bowl, thoroughly combine brown sugar and remaining 1/4 cup cocoa; sprinkle evenly over batter. Carefully pour remaining 1 3/4 cups boiling water evenly over mixture in baking dish; do not stir. Be careful not to make my mistake and boil the water so long that some of it boils away. Just add some warm or hot water to the boiling water if you do.

Bake 30 minutes (batter will separate into cake and pudding layers). Cool in pan on wire rack 10 minutes. Serve hot with whipped cream, if you like. Makes 8 servings.

You must view this at full size to get the full effect. It looks so good.

 This turned out amazing, of course, and it was so quick and easy to make, too!

Panna Cotta

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

 This recipe is for the Cup theme for the Cookbook Challenge, which I'm actually a couple days late for, oops. "Panna cotta" is Italian for "cooked cream", which kind of sounds like it's served hot or warm, but it's actually served cold. You cook cream, milk, and sugar together and then add gelatin and let it set in the refrigerator. As my husband says, it's like cream Jell-O.

It fits into the "cup" theme because you mold it in custard cups or small ramekins, and then turn it out onto a plate and top it with fresh fruit or fruit sauce.

This is a simple vanilla-flavored panna cotta, but it can be really fun to experiment with different flavors.

The recipe is from The Joy of Cooking, the 1997 revised edition. Cookbook snobs tend to turn their nose up at this edition because it's quite different from the original, but it's actually a really amazing, comprehensive cookbook. Also, it's dear to my heart because it was my first cookbook. My mother bought it for me for Christmas in 2000. I do own the original version as well, but it's packed away in a box somewhere, so I'm not sure if panna cotta is in it or not.

2 1/4 tsp (1 envelope) unflavored gelatin

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1 cup whole milk

1/2 sugar

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise, or 1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp almond extract (optional)

fruit sauce and/or sliced fresh fruit

Lightly oil six 4- to 6-ounce cups or molds.

Pour 3 tablespoons water into a small bowl. Sprinkle unflavored gelatin over the top. Let stand for 5 minutes to soften.

Combine heavy cream, milk, vanilla bean if using, and sugar in a saucepan.

Stirring, bring to a boil over medium high heat. Remove from the heat and extract the vanilla bean. Add the gelatin and stir for 1 minute until completely dissolved. Stir in vanilla if not using the vanilla bean and almond extract.

Pour the mixture into the prepared cups and refrigerate until firmly set, about 3 hours.

Press plastic wrap directly onto the surface of each cream and refrigerate up to 3 days. Unmold onto plates and serve with fruit sauce and/or sliced fresh fruit.

To easily unmold from a custard cup, just stick a butter knife down one side and it will thwop out.

I topped these with the blueberry jam that I made for the last Cookbook Challenge, which for some reason didn't thicken very well and so it turned into more of a blueberry sauce.
I also topped some of them with diced, cooked peaches.

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.

Lemon Cloud Pie

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

  

The current CookBook Challenge theme is American. I decided to do a recipe from Pillsbury's Best of the Bake-Off Cookbook (published in 1996), because the Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest is such a classic American event. This recipe for lemon cloud pie was a prize winner in the 11th Bake-Off in 1959 and was submitted by Shirley Ordiway of Jamesville, New York. 

Before we get to the recipe, I need to complain about this:

 This happens every time I make a one-crust pie with refrigerated dough. Do I just need a pie pan with shorter sides, or am I doing something wrong? I follow the directions so carefully. And if I make a filled pie, it turns out perfect. Oh well, it's rustic, right?

Anyway....

1 refrigerated pie crust (from 15-oz. package)

FILLING:

1 cup sugar

3 tbsp cornstarch

1 cup water

1/3 cup lemon juice

2 egg yolks, slightly beaten

1/2 (8-oz.) package (4-oz.) cream cheese, cubed, softened

1 to 2 teaspoons grated lemon peel

1/2 cup whipping cream

TOPPING:

1/2 cup whipping cream, whipped (with powdered sugar to taste)

Heat oven to 450F. Prepare pie crust according to package directions for one-crust baked shell using a 9-inch pie pan. Bake at 450F for 9 to 11 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool completely.

 In medium saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch; mix well. Stir in water, lemon juice, and egg yolks.

Cook over medium heat until mixture thickens and boils, stirring constantly. Boil 1 minute.

Add cream cheese and lemon peel, stirring until cream cheese is melted and mixture is smooth. Cool to room temperature.

In large bowl, beat 1/2 cup whipping cream until soft peaks form; fold into lemon mixture. Spoon filling mixture evenly into cooled baked shell. Cover surface with plastic wrap; refrigerate 6 to 8 hours or overnight. Spoon or pipe whipped cream over filling. Garnish as desired. Store in refrigerator.

 So fancy.

When I was making the filling for this, I thought it was going to turn out as a slightly creamier lemon meringue pie without the meringue. It actually turned out creamier and fluffier than I thought it would. It was delicious, and I will definitely be making it again.